Epic: Let's Paint a Word Bearers Host

"I would sacrifice the entire Host in order to fulfil the will of the Dark Council, if such was needed."

"And the warrior-brothers of the Legion will lay their lives down if that is what is required of them."

 - Anthony Reynolds, Word Bearers: The Omnibus

I'm hoping to get a chance to play Legions Imperialis soon! So all I need now is to expand the Word Bearers from the starter set into a proper army.

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To do this, I have an Astartes Battle Group boxed set. It includes models like these Tarantula sentry guns.

And these Rapier platforms, both laser destroyers and quad launchers. The latter are still the only kind of space marine artillery we get. I've painted everything with more or less my Word Bearers standard scheme: Burnt Red basecoat, Dark Red drybrush, details as required.

The Battle Group also includes the fast attack box, which means Land Speeders:

And Scimitar jetbikes.

Two detachments, in fact.

And some Javelins:

And all this means I can now assemble my third formation: a Sky-hunter Phalanx.

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There are also Leviathan dreadnoughts.

I already painted all my little space marine tanks, so I also went and bought some Land Raiders.

A friend gave me a box of Spartans for my birthday, so I painted two of them for my Word Bearers.

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Finally, the infantry box in the Battle Group means I can now build full detachments of the support troops, starting with the Terminators:

Followed by plasma gunners:

Missile launcher support marines:

And assault marines:

Not to mention my second demi-company, the 1st (Air Assault) Demi-Company of the 4th Company, II Battalion, Morbid Fane Chapter.

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So that's a whole pile of Word Bearers!

I'm very happy I've got all this painted up, and delighted that the summer preview told us we're getting heavy armor and artillery. Having painted two companies of tactical marines, though, I have to say I really hope we could get more infantry!

Painting 8mm has been a lot of fun. I won't pretend I'm achieving anything beyond tabletop quality, if even that, but I like the end result and enjoy the process, especially with the vehicles. I hope I get a chance to play soon!