Children of Carrion - Lord Ephialtes, The Thrice Curse

+++ Thought for the day: Be strong in your ignorance. +++

To fight your enemy, you must first know your enemy. That is basic truth, and the purpose of the Inquisition.

Ever since my first sighting of the forces of the Children of Carrion, and my subsequent hunt for them across the Segmentums Pacificus and Tempestus, I have endeavored to learn all I can about my foe. Naturally, their leadership was the first choice.

And yet… I find myself stymied. This is not an admission of failing, but an admission of fact.

To explain; the leader of the warband has been identified and is known to me. He is known as Ephialtes, the Thrice-Cursed, the Carrion King, the Lord of Corpses and the Father. He is enigmatic; in the fashion of the followers of Nurgle, he is shown to have amassed a large following of those afflicted by the pestilence of the Chaos deity of plague. He openly refers to them as his ‘children’ for those who are, or were, human, mutants and abhumans included. To other fallen Astartes, he lauds them as ‘brothers’. In the dead warzones of Argollis, he was sighted to be present at every major breakthrough attempt by Militarum forces against the warband (although it be right to call them a ‘legion’ now, given their size), loudly extolling his followers to fight on in ‘Father Nurgle’s name’, and also, for him. Not him as a leader of men would, or an officer directing loyal troops, but like a father giving praise and support to a child.

But in combat, even wearing what can only be called a decrepit suit of ancient Cataphractii Tactical Dreadnought armour, the Traitor Astartes identified as Ephialtes is akin to a Leman Russ. He’s slow, loud and ungainly in his approach, especially when accompanied by his retinue of fell Terminators, but once engaged in combat, using his large Plaguereaper-class scythe (See appendix: Weapons and Wargear of Warband ident. Children of Carrion), he is a monster, to use no small a term. Plasteel, adamantium, ceramite, flak armour. He will cut through all. The last pict recording I was privy to showed him felling a trio of Primaris Reivers from the Blood Angels Adeptus Astartes chapter alone. The Astartes gave a good accounting of themselves, as I said so in the missive I sent to their respective chapter command, but they were but wheat before the reaper’s scythe.

But, while his wargear marks him as one of the Traitors that laud themselves as ‘Veterans of the Long War’… I feel that may not be the case. Through my own study and several proxies acting on my behalf studying restricted archives on Holy Terra on the subject, I cannot find any Legionnaire of the Death Guard legion that used the name ‘Ephialtes’, either Terran-born or born of Barbarus. Several names come close, but due to the fragmentary nature of the information from the Heresy, it is hard to verify whether any of those names are in fact connected to the warlord calling himself Ephialtes. Which raises several questions: is this a legionnaire from the days of the Heresy who affected a name change to destroy an old connection of the Imperium, or is this traitor from a Renegade chapter and became lord? Does the name belong to another warlord and is simply passed from successor to successor?

I don’t feel that I will know until the traitor is brought to heel.

In any case: I judge the Traitor Astartes identified as Ephialtes be judged as ‘PRIMARIS LEVEL THREAT - VERMILION’. Use extreme caution when engaging.

-----

Lo and behold! He is finally done!

TWO YEARS! TWO fucking years this guy has been sitting on my shelf in various stages of painting and now he’s finally done. And he looks glorious!

I really do like the Lord of Contagion model, since to me, it really encapsulates the ‘decaying knight’ aesthetic the Death Guard have about them. Like this guy could have easily been something noble and inspiring to see back in his heyday, but now, all he brings is fear, disease and death.

I mainly used a washes over drybrushed layers for the armour (Steel Legion Drab base, then Flayed One Flesh drycoat, wash with Biel-Tan Green). The bronze and metal bits were regular paint jobs, although I did use Vallejo Mecha Light Rust Wash to rust up the Leadbelcher bits, and the censors were done with a Deepkin Flesh (I think?) basecoat, then a wash of Biel-Tran Green, and I went over that with Hexwraith Flame technical paint. The cloak was Rakarth Flesh base, then a wash of Agrax Earthshade and a layer of Ulthuan Grey.

The helmet is an ode to the first battle I used him in against a force of Blood Angels. He did kill three Primaris Reivers by himself, but I don’t have any Primaris Reiver helmets, so I had to go with a regular Primaris Marine head instead.

So fucking glad this model is finally finished. Now I just have to do the other 200+ models…

The Children of Carrion

++ INQUISITORIAL REPORT: GAMMA TC-239 ACCESSED ++

++ MAGENTA LEVEL ACCESS RECOGNIZED ++

++ CAUTION: REPORTS OF PRIMARIS LEVEL THREAT CONTAINED WITHIN. PROCEED WITH CAUTION. PYSKERS ARE ADVISED TO RECITE THE RITE OF PROTECTION BEFORE ACCESSING MAIN LOGS ++

++ ACCESS GRANTED ++

++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: A SMALL MIND IS A TIDY MIND ++

Greetings fellow member of the Ordo Hereticus or Ordo Malleus. Or even the Ordo Xenos. The information I present is not one I believe should be kept solely to one order, for the threat it could pose is one with too much potential to become something far more malignant if left unchecked.

This is the report of Inquisitor Theodore Cabello, of the Ordo Hereticus, and my investigation into the forces of one of the many myriad foes of the Imperium of Man. I talk of a warband of the Heretic Astartes that I encountered at the border of the Segmentum Pacificus and the Segmentum Tempestus in 456.M39. Several Inquisitors will be familiar with the Fall of Pontefex Secundus, I am sure, for the loss of a world devoted to the worship of the God Emperor is not something that can go amiss, even if it is our mission to keep such information away from the ignorant masses. I feel, however, that the information about the atrocity’s perpetrators must not be kept solely to myself and those I consider to be close allies.

The threat I talk of is not some mere band of Renegade Astartes; piratical raiders acting on their own whims. This attack shows a coordinated strategy, between many elements of a greater host, led by a leader capable of such planning. Having visited the site and seen the devastation wrought upon the planet, and having gathered what evidence I could before the sub-sector was subjected to exterminatus and quarantine, I can estimate the force that attacked the planet stood at Legion strength, containing a mix of Heretic Astartes, renegade elements of the Astra Militarum and, I hate to even suggest this, but also a Lance of an, as yet, unknown Knightly House.

The destruction I found was total: not a living being was left alive. No human or animal was spared. Nine billion souls, lost. Monuments of the Ecclesiarchy were defaced and destroyed wholesale, from the smallest shrine to the mightiest cathedral. The very earth was tainted and befouled by the foul energy of Chaos, specifically, of the Chaos deity that is known as ‘Nurgle’. While there was no evidence of daemonic manifestation on the planet itself, I have no doubt that such unholy rituals took place.

Through meticulous research through the archives and investigation of the surrounding sub-sectors and systems around Pontefex Secundus, I have found a pattern begin to emerge: minor and frontier worlds were subjected to piratical raids, to capture slaves, or attacked to silence Imperial waystations and posts, before capital worlds in important sub-sectors had the same level of destruction wrought upon them as on Pontefex Secundus in campaigns of rapid dominance and wholesale destruction.

Through my research, and the research of my fellow Inquisitors and Astra Militarum analysts, I have finally placed a name to the force that laid low an Imperial world.

The Children of Carrion.

-------

So, yes, I've been very much away from this blog (I don't really seem to have any serious followers, but still), and I've got fairly good reason for that. Work and life has been getting in the way, both in a major and minor way.

But I've managed to find some time to actually do some work on my Chaos Space Marine army; the Nurgle dedicated Children of Carrion.

More work will follow. Decided that doing some sort of backstory, or in this case an Inquisitorial report, would be a good way to condense things down.

The Children of Carrion and Chaos Mutants

So, like many people across the world, I bought the Dark Imperium boxed set. Admittedly, it was a spur of the moment thing when I preordered it, and I really only bought it for the Primaris Marines (since I was mainly toying with doing a Raptors Space Marine army, which I still plan to do) and I was just going to paint the Death Guard models in the most basic colours, or perhaps even sell them. I had no idea what to do with them really.

But then I looked at them, and they. Were. Gorgeous! In a rotting, decayed and disgusting way, but still. Needless to say... I got hooked. Hard. What started as a force of the 31 models from the Dark Imperium boxset has now expanded to encapsulate just over 100 models.
It's horrifying.

If my life was bit less lacklustre because of work screwing me over by not giving me a good amount of hours during the week which would give me enough money to buy more stuff as well as enough time off to paint said models, I'd probably be more along the line with how my army stands. But I digress.

For the list of what I currently have (as of February 26th), I have:
[Models from Dark Imperium will be marked as DI]
Lord of Contagion w/Plaguereaper [DI]
Malignant Plaguecaster [DI]
Noxious Blightbringer [DI]
Foetid Bloat-drone [DI]
Lord on Contagion w/Manreaper (Lord Felthius)
Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour
Aspiring Champion
Foul Blightspawn
Biologus Putrifier 
Tallyman of Nurgle
5 Chaos Possessed 
8 Blightlord Terminators
27 Plague Marines total (mix of DI, regular kit and Easy to Build kit)
20 Chaos Space Marines
26 Poxwalkers (mix of DI and Easy to Build kit)
13 Chaos Cultists
Myphitic Blight Hauler
1 Chaos Spawn
1 Beast of Nurgle
5 Chaos Mutants

Ugh... I'm not going to be stopping anytime soon with this. I'm already working on a unit of Chaos Chosen made with the left over bits from the kits used, and that unit of Chaos Mutants is going to need expanding in a massive direction.
Still! No-one else to blame but myself. 

So let's get cracking with this.
First, I want to show off my Chaos Mutants. Lorewise, my Chaos army, which I realised I should have given the name which is The Children of Carrion, is made up of several segments, ranging from Long War Veterans of the Death Guard at the top to the lowest dregs being made up of mutants, beastmen and Spawn. And here I'll show some of the mutants!

First up is the 'leader' of the group. Since I imagined that in a mutant rabble, then they would most likely follow a 'might makes right' mentality. So their leader is a large, imposing beastman armed with a chainaxe and a plasma pistol. 
The torso and head are obviously from a GW Beastman (a Gor specifically) while the arms and holster are from Victoria Miniatures Broolian Beast Guard Officer sprue, with some extras added from some left over Guard bits. The arms are a bit skinny compared to the torso, but it does look better in person, I swear. I just need to do some greenstuffing to cover up the shoulder joints.

Next up is mutant #2. Made using a GW Flagellant as the base (since I just like the look of it) with a pistol arm from Victoria Miniatures Bare Close Combat Arms Male and a clawed tentacle from the Maxmini Mutation Set. This guy is kind of the more bogstandard concept of a Chaos Mutant I feel. (Boy I wish GW hadn't discontinued their Chaos Mutation sprue. Man I should have brought that when I had a chance)

Just a little size comparison between the two models. The beastman is definitely an imposing figure.

Mutant #3. Again, practically the same fair as before, but with a switch between the arm holding the pistol and more of claw mutation than just a tentacle. I like how this guy looks just that bit much wilder than the last guy. It's definitely the beard.

Mutant #4. Went with the fly head from the Maxmini Mutation Set this time, while the arms and lasgun are from the Victoria Miniatures Penal Guard 5 man squad. I like the look of the lasgun and arms since it says two things: that this guy was recently released from Imperial detention and and was given probably THE SHODDIEST rifle that exists in the armory. Perfect for Chaos Mutants.

Mutant #5. Bits wise, this guy had more going for him, since he was made up from a leftover Cadian Shock Troop torso with the Aquila scraped off, a head from the Genestealer Cult Upgrade kit, and arms and legs from the Victoria Miniatures Penal Guard kit. The model I feel kind of tells a small story, since he's wearing a scrappy penal outfit and still has his chains on shows that he's been recently freed from Imperial detention, given the same shoddy lasrifle as the mutant above, then has killed an Imperial trooper and looted his flak armor for his own protection. The arms and legs are a little bit skinny compared to the Cadian kit, but I feel that it make him seem undernourished/underfed, which kind of fits with the narrative I feel.

And now a group-shot. Ready to bring death and destruction to the Imperium, for the Dark Gods!

Stay tuned for more pics of this work in progress army.

Frostgrave Chaos Cultist

Now, I know that I'm not alone in the wide world of wargaming to think when the Frostgrave Cultists were released that they'd make brilliant Chaos Cultists.

I bought one of the single frames from North Star a little while back for a Game of Thrones project I'm working on (that will appear later on, trust me), but I only used two of the bodies, so that left me with three left over bodies, and I also had a box of Cadian Shock Troops lying around too, so I put two and two together.

Sizewise, the Cultist bodies are close enough in scale to the Cadian bodies, although the body I chose is a bit lower because of his posing. The arms fit up nicely to create a nice dynamic pose for him. The body is plain enough that you can really paint the clothing as belonging to nearly any sort of environment/group/whatever you can think of, and I do like the capirote since it will always have that unknowable vibe to it. If I had planned it better in advance (or had more money earlier in the year), I would have ordered some of the heads from tabletop-art.de with the gasmasks. Hindsight, eh?

If I do any more, I'll either use the arms from the Genestealer cultists kits, or the arms and guns from the Renegade Militia Weapons kit, or the arms and guns from Victoria Miniatures or Mad Robot Miniatures to create a seriously disparate force.

My only real critique, and it's mainly because of my own folly, is that I could only attach the ammo pouches and grenade to the model instead of them and the other accouterments I had in mind.

1938: A Very British Civil War BA-6

So I finally got around to buying some of the books for Solway Crafts absolutely brilliantly and wonderfully barmy tabletop wargame, 1938: A Very British Civil War.
Now, in my haste to become one of the many people who have this game, I may have not really been paying that much attention to what I bought from North Star Figures since I bought the Concise (which it really is) Source Book and A Guide to Tanks and Military Vehicles. I thought the first one was the rulebook.
BUT enough about my mistakes.

A good week or so ago, I purchased possibly my... fifth? No, sixth purchase ever of a Warlord Games product, the Soviet-built BA-6 armoured car.


Now, when I first saw anything to do with 1938:AVBCW, one of my main thoughts was; "Okay, so the single largest imperial and political faction in the world in the 1930s is having a civil war, during a period when one country is gearing up for a war and another is also preparing to go to war too. There is no way in hell that either country would not try and use this to their advantage."

And I was right. Since in A Guide to Tanks and Military Vehicles, we see examples of armoured fighting vehicles from Nazi Germany (the Panzer I and the NbFZ or Neubaufahrzeug "New Construction Vehicle") and Fascist Italy (the Lancia armoured car and the Fiat tankette) being used by the British Union of Fascist and examples of armoured fighting vehicles from Soviet Russia (the T-26 and the T-28 being the examples used) for the socialist forces. This example is reinforced by the inclusion of the fact from the source book which says that the Soviets did send advisers, crews and equipment to aid the socialist forces. Which settled it for me: I would paint the BA-6 for use with the armed wing of the socialist forces in Britain during the conflict, the People's Assault Column.

I had ideas for originally starting with the BUF, but buying the BA-6 kind of clinched it for me.

As you can see, the model is resin and metal. The resin is pretty good quality, although some bits on the turret needing filing down and it turns out those bits on the sides of the rear part of the chassis that I thought were simply flash turned out to be actually a part of the vehicle, as it shows in the very first picture above. Whoops. And the holes for the guns in the turret and in the drivers compartment needed to be drilled in before I put them in, along with the holes for the headlights, which was a pain simply because of where they were.
The metal was a bit... hit and miss. The guns in the turret fitted all right apart from a minor bit of filing for the gun in the hull. The wheels were all right, but the axles for the front and the rod for the two wheels at the middle had a habit of simply falling off so I had to be careful with those. And the steps in to the drivers compartment really did not want to stay in, especially the one on the right hand side! In the end, I just had to get rid of that one all together, which you will see at the end of the post.

 Next up is the painting. After undercoating the model with a Chaos Black spray, I basecoated it with the Army Painter primer spray, Angel Green, since from what I've seen in photos, that's pretty damn close to the simple green used for Soviet military vehicles.

Next began the drybrushing. I used a liberal drybrush of Castellan Green. Technically, the primer wasn't official Citadel paint, so I think that I can get away with using the basecoat paint over the primer/basecoat.

Now I'm not 100% sure whether this is because the picture is darker or whether it's because of the wash I applied, but at this stage of the model, I applied a wash of Agrax Earthshade, probably the best thing created by Games Workshop for painting.

May have skipped taking a photo of the step after the application of the wash, but I used a drybrush of Loren Green to get the colour up a bit. After that, I started painting on the more detailed parts, mainly painting on the initials of the People's Assault Column and the Red Star. The star is... it's not good. I really should have used the decals I got with the T-34/85 I got a few months ago (photos of that will be coming up), but right now I'm sticking with it. I am pleased with the PAC initials on the turret though. The details were painted in Khorne Red first before going over them with Wazdakka Red.

And here are the finished photos. I plan to buy some period relevant terrain and also some militia models for the PAC so I can take some proper photos of the BA-6 and infantry support in action. But all in due time.
To get the weathered look, I applied a light drybrush on areas at the front and around the edges of Leadbelcher, while using a fine detail brush to apply relatively thick patches of Leadbelcher to areas that I think would most likely have been nicked by terrain and enemy small-arms fire, before applying small patches of Runefang Silver to those areas to make them pop a bit. The mud splatter was achieved by drybrushing, quite heavily, the lower portion of the model with Mournfang Brown. Mud is mud.

And so the model is finished! All in all, I pretty damn pleased with model. It helped me work out how to paint a military vehicles in a single uniform colour, which is something I thought I'd struggle with, while also helping me get out of the sci-fi/40k hole I'm slightly digging myself in to.
While this isn't the first historical model I've ever bought (and I have a good number of them still left unfinished), it is the first one I've completed fully to a standard I feel comfortable showing off to people.

Progress is made.

Work has been kicking my ass, and my creativity's ass. I have made some small progress though, like buying the Dark Imperium boxed set (pictures of that will come) and also a new light box for photography. Still getting the hang of it, but I think I'll get there.

So anyway, onto the models!

All right, first things first. I've been working on the the crew for the first heavy bolter team in my Morphean Highlanders army. So we've got the assistant gunner below, made from a mix of GW Cadian bits, Forge World's Cadian Respirator upgrade kit and Victoria Lamb's upgrade kits, both some of her old metal and newer resin bits. The idea I had behind the posing was for him to be rushing back from the resupply truck/half-track with a fresh box of bolter shells for the main gunner.
He's recently been undercoated and so needs to be painted.

Next up is probably my most extensively converted model to date, the commander of the First Platoon for my Highlanders 101st Regiment of Foot. Again, made from a mix of GW Cadian bits, both the standard infantry box and the command kit, and Victoria Lamb bits too. The sword though is made from one of the Executioner Greatswords from the Sisters of Silence kit which I bought online from bitzbox.co.uk.
I was originally a little bit worried since, obviously, the Sisters of Silence are female and generally, women have smaller hands than men, so the fear that the hand wouldn't sync up with the arm was there. And I was proven right too. It was far too small. So I had to basically cut off the hand, then the grip and the sword while also cutting off the hand off one of the banners and then do a bit of filing and shallow drilling to get it all right, but overall, I'm pleased with it.

Then next we have a Ministorum Priest, one of the old ones which I bought from my 'local' (it's about 20 miles away from where I live). I am a little annoyed that these guys have been swapped from the Guard army list to the Adeptus Ministorum list in 8th Edition, but beggars can't be choosers. Plus, I've still wanted to paint one and I've never been able to find the actual one that I want, but still. The plan for this guy is to paint him up like a priest/vicar that followed the Scots Covenanters during The Wars of the Three Kingdoms, so basically just plain black all round, but also adding a little bit more stereotypical Scots flair with him (ginger hair and blue facial tattoos).

Then my last model, my scratch built Recon Salamander. Now, it's nowhere near the same as the actual Salamander model, especially since the official model had sloped armoured around the crew compartment, but in all honesty... I like my version. It kind of brings to mind the Universal Carrier from WW2.
Still currently adding some bits to the outer hull, like the fuel drum at the back along with the pannier full of jerry cans on the other side. I do need to buy the Astra Militarum Tank Accessories kit to cover the tank treads at the front since having just one track guard is just... daft. The crew is currently at a mix of being built and being painted, but I'm quite happy with the result so far.

Morphean Highlander #1

And I have finally finished him. After having him sat unbasecoated for nearly three years and unpainted for one year, lo and behold, here is one of my Morphean Highlanders.

Built with a mix of Victoria Lamb bits (kilt legs, bayonet sheath, which you can't see because of the shadow from the lasgun, and the lasgun barrel), vanilla GW Cadian Shock Troop bits, a few Space Marine Scout biker bits, Forge World's Cadian Respirator kits and Anvil Industries weapon sights.