Techmarine Kovács

During the early days of the compliance of Konos III, Techmarine Kovács (as chief artificer in this role) directly oversaw the vast logistical operation of ensuring the entire Astartes operation was fully resourced, along with the support of both other Legion Techmarines and a sizeable human administrative staff.

During the initial stages of the invasion, his input was responsible for pinpointing the administrative centres of several of the more prominent states of Konos and thereby directing the 13th Legion spearheads. Despite the camouflaging of these command and control hubs in bunkers hidden in remote places deep underground, through observing data flow and information traffic using auspexes from orbit, Kovács was able to advise Commander Leonid so that within hours the entire worlds chain of command was paralysed.

Kovács was also responsible for the addition of heavy promethium units to the Land Raider chassis in an effort to compromise the unique forms

of guerilla warfare employed by Konos III's insurgents.

Responding to the increasingly damaging effects of these attacks on supply lines and storage depots, the Techmarine advised the introduction of Bastions and other defensive installations. Built to a standard STC pattern, these served in a role both as 'firebases' where materials critical to the continued success of the compliance could be stored, and also where small units of Astartes could be stationed, ready to respond quickly to guerilla attacks.

Techmarine Kovács is pictured here equipped as he was during the initial compliance of Konos III. He carries a full servo-harness and a chain-glaive, modified from the standard power weapon to his own specifications, as well as a modified boltgun. It was rumoured that he laboured for 3 full weeks without stopping during the early stages of the invasion, earning him the moniker 'the servitor' by the human administrative staff who accompanied him (and who lacked his super-human constitution).

At last, an actual update with some content! I have had this model for some time, and I have to say he was a joy to paint (for the second time, he has now moved on from his previous incarnation as an Iron Father!) I added what looks to be a World Eater hand/gauntlet on his base. Rather than using the remains of enemies on this force, I thought it would be an interesting twist to add remains of fallen allies, representing the significant casualty rate of the marines involved in the initial conflict and in keeping with the original concepts of how I imagine the Astartes to operate.

Rules

Techmarine Kovács uses the standard rules for a Blood Angels techmarine, his chain-glaive counting as a power weapon.

New Berserker unit concept

On with the first hobby-related post in some time! :)

Sadly I still haven't been able to get hold of the new BA codex. There is just the one hobby store in Korea, it's possibly the only shop in the entire country that doesn't do mail order, and it's a 5 hour drive from where I live.

Anyway, now I've got the excuse out of the way as to why I still haven't read a codex that everyone else has since moved on from, the real reason for this post. One of the interesting facts I've picked up on while reading about changes to the BA with the latest codex, is the greater versatility when choosing Death Company weapon loadouts, beyond the 'one size fits all' of the previous book. As I use the Death Company rules to represent Berserkers, this is obviously great news!

One of the more interesting changes is the ability for DC to carry a boltgun along with the 'relentless' rule which allows them to fire and still charge. Following on from this, I stumbled across this piece of art from the HH card game, called a 'rampager squad'. I love the styling and the level of aggression that the artist has managed to put into the marine. Although they were a Sons of Horus unit, I could easily imagine a similar style existing within the World Eaters; perhaps long term veterans, used when a breach was needed in the enemy line, massively aggressive but experienced fighters.

I love the idea of these guys jumping out of their transport, weapons blazing into a crowd of enemies, and then charging in to crumple them in close combat!

Couple this with the new mk3 armour that FW has released (again, I love the aggressive posing of these models, and the helmet is somewhat similar):

Although I think these are great models in their own right, I think they could benefit from some customisation (to try and fit the theme of the card art), and to make them appear more like veterans (although I am concious of overdoing it in a force that is rather minimalistic in style for the most part).

A chap called Dave (Wolf Lord Mjol from the Great Crusade forum) has put together a quite excellent pre-heresy Space Wolves force. See here.

One of the standout aspects of his army (which I was fortunate enough to play against, see the 'battle reports' section) was his use of cloaks on the marines. They are made from the rear part of a chaos warrior body, adapted to fit a marine torso.

My idea is to use something similar to this (although a generic animal fur rather than specifically a wolf one), and add some chainmail interlaced through it - something similar to the card art, and also to tie it to the other units in my force.

I also want to use different shoulder pads to the FW ones, to make them look a little beefier.

I'm not to sure about a involving a character, although perhaps a 'unit veteran' (some grizzled old sergeant, who has refused promotion in order to stay with his unit, but nevertheless has the power of a captain rank soldier). If anyone has read the book and has comments on what character (special or otherwise) might be appropriate I would love to hear it! :)

When will these guys get started? I have absolutely no idea, but I'm keen to give them a try as soon as I get the opportunity!

.. Still on tour..

So now 6 months since my last post, I thought it would be wise to write something here to let people interested in the blog know that I am still alive!

I'm just over halfway through my contract working abroad. Sadly, my work schedule has meant that I have had less than no time to add anything, other than making the odd passing comment on other peoples blogs that I have been following!

Still, even without access to any modelling, there will hopefully be a couple of new additions to aid or at least interest followers of the Emperor's mighty twelfth Legion in the near future. This will include:

- Using the new Codex: Blood Angels to represent World Eaters (after a preliminary read, I'm convinced this codex was made with Pre-Heresy World Eater players in mind!)

- A new short fiction featuring the 12th Legion.

So all the best to those of you who read my blog. In the meantime, I would like to direct your attention (for those who are not yet aware) to the finest Crusade-era focused forum on the Internet, and a place where myself and many other heresy enthusiasts regularly post!

Click on the picture below to be taken to thegreatcrusade.co.uk

World Eaters of the 591st Expedition, the first 2000 Pts!

This is a shot of my army as it stands, closer to 2500pts at the moment, but I'm hoping with the release of the new Blood Angels codex nearer to the 2000 mark! (Please click the photos for the full view)

There are also a few odds and ends thrown in, of individuals not yet formed into squads.

Here are another assault squad I've been working on, they're built to look like some of the squads from Collected Visions. They are marked as being recent recruits to the legion with their mark 4 armour, with the Power Sword wielded by the Sergeant being another indication.

Once again I intend to wait for the new Blood Angel codex before finishing off the squad and no doubt include a couple of special weapons and a Rhino.

Honour Guard WIP

This marine is going to serve as part of an Honour Guard for a forthcoming Captain model, specifically Commander of the Fleet Borya (part of the background I have been writing for my World Eaters as I build up the army.) As such I wanted him to be in a ceremonial form of armour, rather than something which will necessarily be used in front-line combat.. The marine would most likely be a veteran to be given the honour of acting as an Honour Guard, and would take this role in meetings with other Legions, components of the Great Crusade, or maybe even when meeting lost offshoots of humanity as part of 'diplomatic meetings'! The purity-seal esque scrolls stuck to his chest are a reference to one of the Horus Heresy book series, which mentioned scrolled 'oaths of the moment' fluttering from the chest plate of a World Eater captain.

The model itself is a mix of different conversion ideas. The biggest contribution was the blog My Wargame, which has excellent tutorials for all the various earlier marks of armour, and one I can't recommend highly enough for anyone wanting to make their Pre-Heresy armour as accurate as possible!

I did toy with the idea of using a complete Mk1 armour, but this as this is not completely enclosed and so opted instead for one which mixes mk1 and mk2. The polearm/chainaxe is a mix of Bretonnian Halberd and Forgeworld Chainaxe, the bolter and backpack were made using just standard components using the tutorials from My Wargame. The shoulder pads are an excellent new release from Chapterhouse Studios, and the helmet is part of the 'Steam Knights' range from Maxmini. The chest piece is a filed down mk4 torso from the Forgeworld Red Scorpion upgrade pack. Finally, I added chainmail with greenstuff to tie the model in with the rest of my forces and to give it more of a 'World Eater' feel!

Eventually I hope to have a squad of 5 marines, armed and armoured in a similar manner, and most likely using this model to represent Commander of the Fleet Borya (with a few bells and whistles added, and the sword changed to a chainaxe of course!).

Product Review: Raven's Flight

Last week I was fortunate enough to get hold of the latest Horus Heresy series audio-book offering, Raven's Flight. I have to be honest and say an audio-book isn't the kind of thing I'd normally go for, but I had a GW gift voucher left over from Christmas and thought 'what the hell'. Now I'm glad I did!

First things first, this audio book is an essential purchase for anyone who is a fan of the series. The story itself focuses on the plight of the Raven Guard after the Dropsite Massacre at Istvaan, but more importantly for the purposes of this blog also gives some details about the World Eaters Legion (more on that in a moment). As far as the 'audio book' format itself is concerned, I'm pleased to say that my fears of cheesy background music and dodgy accents were entirely misplaced: the story is narrated with poignancy and gravitas by Toby Longworth (a veteran BBC radio narrator), who paces the story perfectly and allows the listener to lose themselves in the story. Gav Thorpe's script was obviously written with the audio format in mind as it stays away from overly descriptive hyperbole which might otherwise have bogged the story down. Its also interesting to hear the voices of the Astartes as something other than their usual well-educated form, with the Raven Guard marines having more in common with Ray Winstone or Bob Hoskins than the noble and clearly-enunciated marines of Dawn of War. I thought this was a great little touch, a call back to the original conception of Marines as highly trained murderers, and for whom any kind of education would be restricted to ways to inflict violence. Perhaps not all of them were fortunate enough to have been raised on Ultramar?

Regarding the contents of the story itself, I have no wish to spoil the story for any potential listeners, suffice to say that it adds a great deal to our knowledge of the Heresy. For one, it illuminates us on the thinking of a Primarch, something which has been done only sparingly in the series so far. There is also a great deal of information on the Iron Warriors (the main adversaries of the Raven Guard within the story) and also a few comments about the World Eaters. Interestingly, there were rumours at one point that the latter were set to be the main 'bad guys' of the story (indeed, they are the sole mention of a traitor legion within the provided blurb), so its hard not to be a little disappointed that they don't feature more. But, on reflection I think certain points of the story work much better with the Iron Warriors as the protagonists. There is also an extremely relevant comment about why the World Eaters decided to throw their loyalty to the Emperor into the dustbin..

The story is not without its faults, but in my opinion there is nothing which acts to obstruct the enjoyment of a very fine story and worthy component of the Horus Heresy series. If you haven't done so already, go out and buy it!

Collecting Heads in 6mm

Just a small update! I was lucky enough to get my hands on a bulk load of Epic scale plastic vehicles at a very reasonable price from Ebay; Over 30 tanks (a combination of Rhinos and Land Raiders) for less than the price of a blister pack from Games Workshop! For anyone thinking of branching out into Epic, I can't recommend Ebay highly enough, as there seems to be lots of the stock from the old boxsets still out there.

So, here are the first few I have painted up, as well as some Land Speeders which are still pretty much a WIP. The Legion icon on the Rhinos and Landraiders is just a very small transfer!

Missing in Action

First of all I feel that an apology is in order, simply because of the amount of time involved since my last post! Here is the situation: I am planning on moving abroad within the next couple of weeks, and will be gone for most likely a year or more. Sadly, the place I am travelling to work (South Korea) has not been overly blessed by the presence of Games Workshop, and so it looks like my ability to add to this forum is going to be severely restricted. This will especially be the case during the first few months while I settle in.

However, over the past few months I have been not been entirely idle, and I will make an effort to post some of the work I have completed on the blog over the next few weeks. In the meantime, during my time away I shall endeavour to keep updating the blog with anything I feel might be of use to World Eater collectors; So, product reviews and comments on new Black Library material will become the focus of the blog.

In the meantime of course I will try my best to answer any World Eater related queries or ideas which people might have, and will look forward to the opportunity to swell the ranks of the 12th Legion once more!

I would like to take this change to thank everyone who has taken time to contribute to the blog, and of course some of the guys from The Great Crusade forum and the B&C who have helped to increase my enjoyment of the hobby ten-fold over the last few years.