Wednesday 20 February 2013

The Prophet and The Doctor

As those who have been following my progress will undoubtedly know, this post will detail the last two members of First Claw. As mentioned in all posts before, this post will quite possible contain *SPOILERS* for Aaron Dembski-Bowden's fantastic Night Lords trilogy, so read on at your peril.

The latest member of First Claw and the only one not a son of Nostromo, however Variel I feel can be considered a true Night Lord, for several reasons, mainly he has a nasty habit of flaying his victims, which lets be honest is a pretty fucked up thing to do... Variel is formerly an Apothecary of the Red Corsairs, the renegade Space Marines led by the infamous Huron Blackheart. He severs his allegiance to Blackheart during Blood Reaver and joins Talos and the rest of First Claw when they betray the Corsairs in an attempt to reclaim the Echo of Damnation, the sister ship to the Covenant of Blood. 


The Doctor will see you now...
Say hello to Variel, complete with Narthecium and Reductor. Variel, like all the others still has a load of work to be done on him, the shoulder pad you can see in the photo will be covered in flayed skin, in the shape of an unfortunate victims face (hopefully) while the other shoulder pad needs a 'shattered' red corsairs symbol (yikes!). 

Rear View

So that is the Flayer, as you can see his left leg his made of bionics, after a little incident with a genestealer during The Core, as such this bastard was made using the Forge World Commander sprue, and what a lovely pair of legs he has too...

and now for the star of the show, Soul Hunter:

Talos Valcoran
Talos Valcoran, Soul Hunter, Prophet of the VII Legion, armed with his trademark weapons, Aurum, a relic of the Blood Angels which he stole and claimed for his own, and Malcharion the War-Sage's bolter. 

Soul Hunter
A sideways view, to show of his fancy sword, do I have the balls to paint that up using Non Metal Metallics? Urggggh!

Malcharion's Heir
And his combi-bolter, the Space Marine helmet will be painted in Blood Angel colours... (It would be rude not too...) 

The Prophet
The back of Talos, complete with trophies. Those keen eyed amongst you will have spotted that the second helm is in fact a Chaos Marine Helmet, this shall be painted up in Night Lords colours, and is to represent Ruven, a reminder to all what happens when you cross the Soul Hunter... 

First Claw
First Claw in their entirety...

Ave Dominus Nox!
Cannot wait to finish these guys now... 

From Left to Right:
Variel, Xarl, Uzas, Talos, Cryion and Mercutian
There is just a little bit more work to do on all of these guys before I start with the painting, and it mainly involves green stuff, as well as adding in Bolters, Bolt Pistols and a Gladus for each member... you know, it's not like I have spent hours on this project already...

Anyway, I'll do another post shortly, of other stuff I have built when I have gotten sidetracked...

Until then... 

Caio!

Wednesday 6 February 2013

Fire Support

Once again, be warned, this post will probably contain *SPOILERS* for Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Night Lords series, ergo, if you have not read these novels yet and are planning on doing so... just look at the pretty pictures.

So as you probably know (wishful thinking? Pah!), my last post dealt with Xarl and Uzas, the close-combat elements of First Claw and as such it is only fitting that this post shall concentrate on the what could be considered the fire support element, Cryion and Mercutian.

Cryion, one of the original members of First Claw and considered to be Talos' second in command, was the figure who I have had the most trouble with thus far. This stems from the fact that, while he is a great character, with plenty of screen time, he is a fairly ambiguous character in my eyes. He is your typical local not-so-friendly traitor marine. He isn't like Uzas or Xarl of have very distinctive features to their armour, as such he is the model that I am least found of, but oh well...

Brother Cryion
Here he can be seen, in all his glory, the hope is to possibly sculpt the Night Lords symbol on his forehead (yikes!) and yeah...

I AM IRON MAN!
Showing off his trendy bionic arm, all the kids want one these days, oh and the 'Stabby bit' on the end of his boltgun for... stabbing people. I really (like really, really) wanted to equip Cryion with a Meltagun or maybe even a Plasma Gun, to make First Claw a little more competitive for the GW event, but it feels... wrong.

Anyway, while Cryion is a relatively uneventful model, Mercutain, on the other hand, I am very pleased with.

Say hello to my little friend!
Mercutian is a staunchly loyal member of First Claw, and wields their Heavy Bolter to provide some much needed fire support. Originally of 7th Claw, we met Mercutian towards the end of Soul Hunter when he and Adhemar joined First Claw (I was sorely gutted that Adhemar bought it, fighting Raguel the Sufferer).

Mr Big Guns
Yeah, that's right, Mercutian's Heavy Bolter has be drilled out (as is only right!) I can almost imagine him blasting some loyalist scumbags apart as we speak. I still have a little of work to do (as always), he obviously needs another shoulder pad, however I haven't made my mind up yet as to which one would be best. He also in the artwork by Shane Cook has a little shield on his chest armour, which I am very keen to incorporate. However, the biggest thing is the fancy decoration around the mouth of his heavy bolter, this needs to be incorporated and some point, and I'm looking forward to that even less than Uzas's cloak of skin!

And for another group photo:

4 Done, 2 to go...

So what is next for First Claw?

Firstly there is work to be done on Uzas with his flesh cloak and on Mercutian with his Heavy Bolter, I feel I should add some trophies to Cryion because he looks a little bland. apart from that it is just a case of making sure that all members of First Claw are fully WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) to make sure I don't drop points in the tournament.  Not sure where I am going to be able to add the Bolt Pistols and Swords and Grenades, I'm sure I'll figure something out.

Obviously, the biggest gap is that two members of First Claw are missing. I am pleased to say that Talos and Variel are both semi-assembled, but I am waiting for parts to be delivered. Unfortunately this is going to take some time as Variel's Backpack and Narthecium are being delivered from Australia (hopefully they'll turn up within a fortnight) While Talos is going to have his 3rd sword delivered as I was dissatisfied with the ones from the Sanguinary Guard and the Death Company, and as such have had to purchase:

Silly Blood Angel! 

Anyway until next time!