Nakara 'The Bloodless'

'Even though our father has left us, we shall continue to spill blood for his cause, for without terror and fear, we are nothing. Those who have betrayed us will learn to what it means to be hunted, by the lords of the night.' 

                      - Nakara 'The Bloodless'

                           (Captain 13th Company, VIII Legion)

Today's post shall focus upon the leader of my Night Lords Warband, Nakara 'The Bloodless.' Still in his WIP stage, however, I felt it's time you met the monster himself, but first, a little background...

While it would be at a later date that Nakara ‘The Bloodless’ would earn his title, it could be argued that his rise to captaincy was perhaps even more distinguishable. When the previous Captain, Reverentia, fell in combat against the Eldar in the later years of the Great Crusade, Nakara rose to prominence. With no clear replacement, a series of murder duels broke out within the 13^th Company.

Despite being the newest and least experienced sergeant, Nakara took up his Power Axe and with grim determination slew eight of his brother-sergeants. His Primarch, Konrad Curze, was so impressed with his natural skill, he bestowed him a great honour, the legion relic ‘Gustastus Consternatio’ literally meaning, ‘taste fear’ an intricately crafted lightening claw, once used by the Primarch’s own hand.

Who doesn't like a power armoured mass-murderer?

As I'm sure you have realised by now, Nakara is going using Huron Blackhearts rules, for the simple reason he is, IMHO, one of the best Special Characters in the latest codex... however, as all you need to do is type in Huron Blackheart Tactics and get a whole host of articles on how to use this character, I shall not be going into how to use him here...

In the years since the Heresy, Nakara’s talents and power have flourished, after beheading their captain in M37, Nakara gave the 47^th Company a simple choice, join the 13^th or die. As his reputation has grown, so has his warband, contingents of Night Lords pledging allegiance to him, many believe he might have the power to reunite the 8^th Legion and avenge their father. 

and what about the Hamadyra and his Heavy Flamer?

WIP Heavy Flamer

Here is a shot of the Heavy Flamer in the process of being built, a simple conversion, combining Lugft Huron's Heavy Flamer and a normal flamer from the chaos marine box, I still need to add the fuel cannister, which will probably be a scratch build, but we'll see, the Hamadrya on the otherhand shall not be represented by Nakara, and here's why:

Nakara has always made it clear within his Company, his feelings and stance upon worship and becoming a thrall to the Chaos Gods. It is by his command that The Forsaken have been condemned to a Sinner's Death for their worship of Khorne, as he believes they have betrayed their Primarchs teachings. However, many centuries have passed since the Heresy and the years in the warp have wrought their changes upon all of Curze's Sons. Nakara is no different, in recent years latent psychic powers that he was never aware of possessing have come to the fore. There are some concerns from his Lieutenants that Nakara himself has become a thrall of the Lord of Change...

That is all for now, but be sure to come back tomorrow evening for an update on these guys:

We Have Come For You All!

 

We Have Come For You All...

As our title today may suggest (and the fact that the last post exclusively featured Orks) today's post will solely be about the Traitor Astartes of the VIII Legion, The Night Lords. A legion devoid of honour, of murderers and thieves, the Night Lords thrive on terror, using it as a weapon and feeding on the power it gives them over their enemies. These heretics hail under the banner of Nakara the Bloodless, originally Captain of the 13th Company, and have spent the last 10,000 years waging an unholy crusade against the forces of the False Emperor. (You're going to have to wait for details on Nakara... sorry).

The Forsaken

The Astartes that came to be known as The Forsaken were originally 3^rd Claw of 13^th Company.  These battle brothers were always addicted to the thrill of close-combat, even during the dark days of the heresy. For many years Nakara encouraged this, using 3^rd Claw to spearhead assaults. They could always be found where the fighting was thickest and before long had eschewed all other weaponry in favour of chainswords and chainaxes.  A growing problem, their kills often numbered as many off the battlefield as on, however Nakara continued to turn a blind eye, despite 3^rd Claw clearly being in the thrall of the Blood God.

Murderers that even the VIII Legion cannot condone

However, things came to ahead with the amalgamation of the 47^th Company. 3^rd Claw went on a bloody hunt, over the course of two days butchered their way through nearly 20 Astartes and countless serfs and slaves. Nakara was forced to act, condemning the entirety of 3^rd Claw to a Sinners Death and isolating them in the bowels of the ship, only calling upon them when battle calls.

Blood for the Blood God!

Since their sentence, 3^rd Claw have only deteriorated further, now they openly worship the god which they hid for so long. In their quarters, the walls are stained red, unholy symbols scratched into every surface, polished piles of skulls collected during every battle, collect in their shrine room. Even now, despite their open worship, they deny that they are in the thrall of their god, their armour as such, remains midnight blue, save for their hands, every member of The Forsaken has repainted his gauntlets a deep red, a sinners red, as is the custom in their legion, to serve until Nakara decides they are no longer required.

Skulls for the Skull Thone!

In games terms the Forsaken are used on the battlefield as Khorne Bezerkers (no suprises there) and were created using parts from the CSM Box, Raptor Box, Khorne Bezerkers and the mandatory Night Lords Shoulder Pads. Their sergeant, pictured below has Huron Blackhearts Axe and his tabard covered with greenstuff (this shall when the time comes, be painted up as flesh). Obviously he is not completed, he still needs his second weapon which will in time be a Power Lance, but I have not yet figured out what I want to use for that conversion.

This guy is clearly having a bad day...

Their Rhino pictured below, will be getting a Dirge Caster and a complete re-spray as its current paint job is from the time of the 3.5 Edition of the Chaos Dex, and is in need of a bit of TLC...

Who doesn't like driving around with a half dead Blood Angel strapped to the front of your Rhino?

As well as the Forsaken, I have been working on the Bike Squad, an absolute steal in the latest Codex and a unit traditionally associated with Night Lords, always a plus... Unfortunately these Night Lords need even more work done to them than the Bezerker Squad, however they will eventually be equipped with two Plasma Guns (which I am also going to change to being mounted on the bikes themselves as it makes more sense). 

A new meaning to the Sons of Anarchy

An added close up of the unit thus far, the ones that are actually worth showing at this time that is...

Not what you would want to meet at the race track...

And lastly a preview of what will become known as the unit the condemned, however there is only currently one of these as they are from Forge World and i'm putting off ordering them as of yet...

Nothing says Fear like a giant bloody werewolf!

Heavy Firepower

Okay, so the Poll has come and gone, and I would like to thank everybody who took the time to vote, and even more so those who left comments. The voting was pretty unanimous that the Ork Boy with the bow should be a stand in for a Tankbusta, which I am pleased about as this was they way I was leaning towards anyway.

Right from the moment that I started this Snakebite Klan, I had a concept set out for a couple of units of Tankbustas, which I was very keen to pursue. Being that this Snakebite Klan originates in a particularly inhospitable desert (naturally inspired by playing copious amounts of Borderlands) these Orks undergo regular assaults by a number of 'nasties'. As such many of the Orks within the tribe have developed a love for hunting and tracking what they call the 'Big Game'.

As with all Orks, the bigger and uglier their prey, the better. Big Game Huntas are their own special concoction of brave and stupid, many will leave the tribe in the search for that big game that will bring them much wealth and respect from their piers. Naturally, many never return. For those that do however, the urge to capture more creatures is so strong that they will sell their prize creatures to fund their next 'exhibishun'

As it stands, I only have six, of which only four are ready to be painted, the others have a slight case of missing an arm... this will eventually be extended to twenty, but something called Real Life keeps getting in the way (Boo Hiss!)

A new take on the Ork Tankbusta...

The six Tankbustas are above, you can see the front two are finished and they are unleashing arrows strapped with Mortars Shells, courtesy of you friendly local Imperial Guard. The two with spears will be fielded as Tankhammas their spears were taken from the Boar Chariot and were very frustrating to put together.

Got a Bug Problem? These boyz will sort it out for you...

A close up of three of the Huntas, yes I'm well aware the last one needs an arm to fire that bow... These Orks are made from a combination of Lootas, Boar Boyz, the Runtherd, Savage Orcs, Boar Boyz, Boyz Mob and obviously the Mortars from the Imperial Guard Heavy Weapon team...

While, I haven't managed to finish this unit, the Weirdboy has begun construction. Possibly one of my most frustrating units yet, I could not figure out how I was going to build a Weirdboy (The Finecast model was completely OUT of the question, as were the Shamans from fantasy). This is infact the second incarnation as I was even less happy with the first build.

Bring the Noize!

His head comes from the Savage Orc Warboss, and was one of the most frustating parts of this model as firstly it does not directly fit to the body... and secondly I dropped the stupid thing and spent the next twenty odd minutes looking for it... (really need to tidy up my modelling station)

Every good Weirdboy has a favourite severed head

The other problem with this guy is that he comes unarmed, I mean he doesn't even have a wargear section listed in the codex... At the end of the day who needs a Slugga or a Choppa when you can just fry their brain with the help of Gork (or is that Mork) but that leaves the question what to do with his bloody hands?

He still has a lot of work to go before I am happy with him, but hey it's a start right?

The Lifta Wagon

I Couldn't think of a better picture to start this post!

So after much hard work, the Lifta Wagon is 95% complete, since it's last post I have cracked on and painted up the rest of the crew, the Tyres (I lied, they didn't need pumping up) exhaust pipes, rust, and lots of work has gone into painting the Lifta Arm and Weapon itself... (to name just a few.)

Such a Beast that one spotter was just not enough!

A real pleasure to paint, I estimate that a good 15+ hours have been put into this, which is probably more than I have ever spent on a single model... 

The Mekboy

I love the crooked grin, the look of glee as he pulls that lever down and ruins someones day... I will also get round to fixing that arm... 

Tyres...

And Tracks

As you can see above, there is a decent amount of rust setting in, just a light drybrushing with some brown paint (Vermin Brown I believe) was used to create this effect, and It has to be said I'm really pleased with how its come out, to me, I feel its just the right amount. 

And a few more further out shots, for the whole picture...

The Real Thing!

Cannot wait to drop this beast on the battlefield

The Other Side?

So what's next for the Bad Moons, a very good question indeed, I may have already started on their next Wagon, this one however wont be nearly as fancy, used to escort a mob of Ork Boyz around... That's not to say it isn't a massive conversion though... Here's what I've got so far...

The Chasis ready to be added to

The very, very basics...

There is, obviously a hell of a lot of work to go into this model before I even think about adding any colour to it, my main problem I feel is how will I get the vehicle to have that Battle Wagon feel to it... I would want to confuse/piss off my opponent.

A Little Question

Okay so, just a small post today...

For my Snakebites I've hit a bit of a snag, which I would like you (yes you!) to help me with. I've knocked up a rough test model for you to have a look at and then I would like you to take two seconds to post your opinion, if it is not too much trouble...

Old Skool!

This boy don't like that gun nonsense

Should my bow armed snakebites be?

Standard Shoota Boyz, nice a boring right? but let's be honest here, bows aren't exactly the most 'special' of weapons

or...

In keeping with the snakebite theme, my Tankbustas are going to be modeled up as Big Game Hunters, responsible for hunting down all the Boars and Squiggoths and whatever else they may find in their native lands...

could I use this Boy to represent a Rokkit Launcha armed Tankbusta, the theory being they need to weaken the creature before capturing/killing it?

As you should be able to see there is a poll on the side of my blog, please select your view for me and feel free to leave a comment :)

Merci!

What could be more fun than dropping your enemies tanks on his troops?

So here I am with another update...

As mentioned last week my local Game Workshop has a painting competition for a vehicle/monster this month and what more inspiration did I need to paint up my Lifta Wagon... I have to say, this one has been great fun to paint up so far... Taking the bull by the horns as it were I've dived straight in with painting yellow (certainly a challenge)

The Basics

So here she is, with pretty much the hull done... I'm so glad I'm doing orks and they are allowed to look dirty, as making sure the yellow was pristine would just be such a pain in the arse. What we have above is I would estimate about between five and ten hours of painting, and is as it stands a long way off from being completed. 

A Closer Look?

As you can see, the basics are done and I have now applied a wash of both Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade to the entire Battlewagon (Not the lifta arm yet) which I feel has given the Wagon a nice dirty look to it... typically Orky...

The tyres are currently being pumped up...

I love the contrast of the yellow and black, it was really fun to sit down and paint each individual section, and figure out as I went along which would be yellow and which would be black

It wouldn't be right not to show the Bad Moon symbol

As it stands there is a lot of work that still needs to be done, and plenty of weathering to boot too!

Am I brave to Paint on some black flames?

As you can probably see there is still a lot of work to be undertaken for this to be complete...

Lifta Arm WIP

The Lifta Arm is coming along nicely, you have to love Forge World and the amount of detail they put into their models, very impressive...

Hey Come Back!

Lots of work to still do on the back too... I also have painted up the Grot Rigger for this beast...

Here you can see him tinkering away, he was really easy to paint up a real pleasure actually... now there's just the rest of the crew to be completed, but all in good time... I still have at least two weeks to continue work on this beauty, oh and I may have ordered some parts for the second Battlewagon too... If I can pull it off, it'll be an awesome conversion...


Anyway

until next time

Caio!

Black & Yellow

just a quick update...

Seen as I'm on my induction course for my new job and don't get to do any modelling/painting I thought I would post a quick photo from before I left... taken from an iPhone, the quality isn't great but something is better than nothing right?

It's like a big metallic bumble bee!

Very much looking forward to putting some more work into this when I get back... in fact it almost reminds me off...

I'm seem to have an Obsession with Black and Yellow...

I also should really stop taking photos on my bed...

Ciao!