Warhammer 40,000: The Iconoclasts

When I accompanied you to the holy place called Bethel, there to join you in celebrating the Collect, after the use of the Church, I came to a villa called Anablatha and, as I was passing, saw a lamp burning there. Asking what place it was, and learning it to be a church, I went in to pray, and found there a curtain hanging on the doors of the said church, dyed and embroidered. It bore an image either of Christ or of one of the saints; I do not rightly remember whose the image was. Seeing this, and being loth that an image of a man should be hung up in Christ's church contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures, I tore it asunder and advised the custodians of the place to use it as a winding sheet for some poor person.

- From Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, in Cyprus, to John, Bishop of Jerusalem

My 40k Chaos Space Marines represent the Iconoclast Host, a loose collection of Chaos Marine warbands sworn to Lorgar and the Word Bearers Legion. Based on the demon shrine world of Techke Baranos, the Iconoclasts haunt the Acheron sector. They've subverted the hive world of Kirov and attracted the support of various renegades, including Chaos Squats and even Knights; they participated in the Ignatian Rebellion, and who knows what else they've been getting up to since.

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The latest thing my Iconoclasts did was get wiped out by Grey Knights. So obviously I've demanded a rematch, which we've set for 1 000 points, and have been thinking hard about how to counter their mobility and psychic dominance.

A good place to start would seem to be to bring an HQ that can do some psykering and counter-psykering. My first thought was a Sorcerer, but to be honest, the Dark Hereticus discipline just isn't great. I have fond memories of my Sorcerer using Warptime to launch my Berzerkers into a blob of Imperial Guard conscripts, which would solve both of my problems at one stroke - if 9th edition hadn't nerfed Warptime by prohibiting charges after it. The Grey Knights had no such limitations! Frankly, most of the other powers aren't great, either.

My original idea was actually for an army of exactly 500 points featuring a Sorcerer, but then I looked at the Master of Possession. You get Masters of Possession in Gladius, and while they have their uses, I tend to find both other hero choices more useful. The Malefic discipline is just so much better than the Sorcerer's, though, and they have both an anti-psyker aura and staff. Clearly this is who I need.

Hilariously, the GW model is totally unavailable. It came in several bigger boxes, but now can't be bought anywhere. Not that I particularly liked it anyway, so I hardly mind having to build my own. But it just never ceases to amaze me how often GW just refuses to take our money. (The model was re-released shortly after I finished mine)

My starting point is this Legion of the Damned marine I bought on eBay.

As I learned earlier, the old Legion marines aren't actually that badly out of scale, they're just a little short in the leg. I extended my guy's upper legs and torso, which made them almost as tall as one of the new Legionnaires.

The copper wire is actually firm enough to hold the different parts in place until the gaps are filled with green stuff. The lower legs do end up looking a bit stubby, but I don't think that'll be very noticable on the tabletop.

The next step was to add arms and a backpack from the Exalted Sorcerers kit, and an old CSM icon.

I'm actually really happy with how this looks! Final additions are a Greater Good skull and Bad Squiddo mushroom on the base, and some Anvil parchments for a Word Bearers touch.

And then some paint.

After painting, I added a few sprinkles of green flock and a tuft of Gamers Grass Wild Flowers. I was inspired by Aekold Helbrass and his Breath of Life, and wanted a little extra Chaos in my Chaos.

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That's not all we can do on the psychic front, either. The Chaos Marines in Kill Team got an option to have a squad-level psyker, and 9th edition brought that over to 40k. So if I take a unit of Legionaries, which is just a fancy name for Chaos Space Marines, I can make one of them into a psyker by paying 20 points for a Balefire tome. This seems to me to be a very Word Bearers thing to do.

She has a Statuesque Miniatures Bionic Roider head, some Wargame Exclusive books and some Anvil parchments. Another Kill Team weapon option I went for was the heavy chainaxe. I quite like the way the Scab Maulers in Darktide look, so I tried to do something a little similar here.

As none of the wargear options other than the Balefire tome actually cost anything (for now!), there's really no reason to not give the Aspiring Champion a daemon blade. The sword in question is a Kromlech vibro katana, and the Champion is also decorated with a Wargame Exclusive Imperial book, and has a Statuesque head.

When I was painting my Horus Heresy Word Bearers, I came up with the idea of having a sort of apprentice chaplain in each squad called a deacon. Here's a 40k one.

And here's the whole squad.

I also made a chaincannon guy, because hey, why not.

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So that should give me at least some tools to counter the Grey Knights' relentless space wizard fuckery. The other need I identified was for speed, and with the help of a convenient French bits store and some stuff left over from my Deathwatch Vanguard Veterans, I intend to address it. Here are some Warp Talons.

The Champion has a Statuesque Roider head, and Warp Talon claws.

I made a Deacon for the Warp Talons as well, and he has a Kromlech Cranium Pattern head, and Wargame Exclusive book as well as some Anvil parchments.

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With the points I had left, I decided to give my Chaos Dreadnought another chance. If it just blows up again, I'll know to bring something else next time. That still left me with something like 20 points, so I decided it was now time for my first Chaos Spawn.

The body is a Minotaur, the tentacles and head are from my Beast of Nurgle, and the rest are random daemon and Tyranid bits I had. I think the overall impression is fairly, well, spawn-y.

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So, here's the Word Bearers half of my 1000 point army:

HQ - Master of Possession - 105 points

Troops - Legionaries (6) - 108 pts

 + Balefire Tome (20) = 128 points [233]

Fast Attack - Warp Talons (5) - 140 points [373]

Elites - Helbrute - 105 points [478]

Fast Attack - Chaos Spawn - 25 points [503]

**

It was painting Horus Heresy that made me realize I actually really like the dark red I've picked for my Word Bearers, and I'm happy to bring it over to 40k. I mean yes, if I ever field a big Chaos Marine army, it's going to look like a whole bunch of different armies all rolled into one, but if it's a problem that Chaos looks, well, chaotic...

Our rematch will hopefully happen soon!

Warhammer 40,000: Let's Build Munitorum Containers

I've been on a terrain-building kick lately, and now it's time to continue it with some containers.

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A while ago, I found some money on the street. Literally, there was a wad of banknotes. I turned it in to the proper authorities, but when no-one showed up to claim it, the amount was deposited into my account. It wasn't a huge sum, but since it was almost literally a windfall, I decided to spend it on something stupid that I couldn't possibly justify buying otherwise. Because I'd been looking at Kill Team terrain at the time, that stupid thing ended up being this Munitorum Munitions Hub box.

This is just a wonderful, huge box of terrain, with ten armored containers, piles of crates and barrels, and even cranes and vehicles. My second full-time job ever was at the Helsinki harbor, specifically at the now-vanished container terminal in the Western Harbor, and I suppose as a legacy of that, I kind of have a thing for containers? So I sort of really wanted this terrain box, but I could never have justified spending this much money. But it came down to either this box or the Armada Super Star Destroyer, and I'm pretty sure this will spark more joy.

Then, of course, the pandemic happened, and we never did get to play any Kill Team, or, indeed, anything else that couldn't be done over email, so terrain dropped pretty far down my list of priorities, and the munitions hub gathered dust on a high shelf.

Now that we're playing 40k again, though, it's time to get started. Here's my first new piece of terrain: a container.

Bearing the livery of an obscure trading house, this container was an absolutely lovely model to assemble. Each sprue in the box has one container as well as several crates and barrels, and it's been a joy to tinker with them. On that note, here's another container.

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For my first slightly bigger project, I'm going to stick some containers together. But first, I want to build an interior for one of them. Any Imperial settlement is going to have innumerable places for people to hide away, either for a little nap during their work shift, or as a whole illicit residence of their own. So I made this little bedroll out of green stuff:

Here's the whole thing painted, with a Fallout crate and some boxes from the container sprue added.

I then seem to have entirely neglected to take any pictures of the rest of the build! Anyway, now it's done:

I know grimdark is very much the thing, but I've found I have a certain nostalgia for the bright corporate colors of the 1980's, and wanted to bring some of that into my 40k as well. The top container follows my Epic terrain theme. Next, I gave my containers a cardboard base.

Then I glued on some sand, painted and varnished it, and it was time for the next components.

Meanwhile, a whole bunch of Necromunda terrain got released, including the lovely Underhive Market set. The large market stall was simply perfect for what I had in mind, so I built one and painted it orange.

I also have some Fallout workbenches from Mōdiphiüs, and I thought the armorer's workbench would look cute here.

I glued in the workbench and one of the Munitorum crates, and added sand.

And then it's time for the market stall.

Obviously I couldn't resist adding a Nuka-Cola machine and a crate or two, and then it was just a question of more PVA glue and sand until the whole thing was done!

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This was a fun little project. I'm very happy I got the Munitorum box, and I've barely gotten started: there's still all kinds of stuff in there...

Epic: Let's Build some Adeptus Titanicus terrain

The Panau Tourist Office has denied reports that massacres, chaos and factional fighting have affected the tourism industry this year. Tourist deaths this month reached 750, but ministers played down the figures, saying that the sinking of the cruiseliner "Happy Days" distorted the figures. An average mortality rate of 50 tourists a month is quite acceptable in this day and age, our glorious leader confirmed.

 - Radio Panau

One of the things that made me get into Adeptus Titanicus was the idea of building Epic-scale terrain. I admit that this may seem backwards to some people, but I really like building terrain. I was very disappointed when my 15mm collecting plans fell through, mostly because I was looking forward to building a miniature service station!

Now that I have Titanicus, though, I have a great excuse to build some even tinier terrain pieces. I thoroughly enjoyed my first ever game: the Battle of Bitter Tower was fought over improvised terrain, and as it turned out, all of the terrain we deployed ended up being tactically or symbolically significant. Below, in the foreground you can see Del Monte Tower, which my Princeps Seniores spent several turns hiding behind.

I feel like a good starting point would be to make a proper version of Del Monte Tower; namely, a honking big fuel silo. Earlier, I invested in this lovely little Titanicus terrain kit:

It has all kinds of super adorable little bits and bobs, and I've added a selection of the fuel pipes to a cocoa tin to make what I maintain looks very much like a big as heck fuel tank. My flatmate cut me a circle of sturdy cardboard to serve as a base.

Here's the pipe, and because it's physically impossible to extract the correct amount of green stuff for anything, an entirely superfluous crater.

Then it's just a simple matter of covering the cardboard base with PVA glue and Noch Z-scale ballast.

And we're ready to do some spray-painting.

Then it's a simple matter of painting the whole thing in Vallejo Light Gray, with some select bits in Gunmetal, and applying the Panau Oil colors of red and white. I've played too much Just Cause 2 to be able to paint a giant fuel silo any other way.

Then it's time to paint the base in Iraqi Sand and we're done!

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Now that I'm building fuel infrastructure and I've been playing around with the Manufactorum Imperialis kit, the next thing I'm making is definitely a tank farm. I remember bombing them in Microprose's F-117A Stealth Fighter when I was very young, and I can't really think of many things more Panau than huge, explosive fuel tanks.

I tried to place the tanks so that Knights could move around them, but Titans would find it difficult. They're glued onto a piece of MDF board.

I then covered the whole thing in Noch ballast, which I'm really starting to like.

After a whole bunch of Iraqi Sand paint, we have ourselves a terrain piece.

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The thing with the Manufactorum Imperialis kit is, though, that while it contains lots of cute little things, most of the terrain you can make out of it is just too tiny for Titanicus purposes. So I'm setting it aside for the moment; I do have some ideas for what to do with the rest of it. So now we're going to do some proper scratchbuilding.

Since I had earlier decided to go with Vallejo Iraqi Sand as my base color, and I've now embarked on this Panau terrain project, I think it's time to draw the appropriate conclusions and say that our battles are taking place on the Imperial desert world of Lautan Lama.

One of the most succesful pieces of improvised terrain we used in our first game was my copy of the Black Book of Communism, i.e. Communism Peak.

I feel like the most appropriate way to translate this into a Panauan desert would be to make a mesa about the same size. Also, Sunny Mesa is my favorite landmark in Alpha Centauri. I'm calling it Dataran Tinggi Komunis. As luck would have it, we had a long piece of Ikea cardboard lying around that was almost the exact width of my Black Book.

Three layers of it made a stack almost exacly the height of the book: in other words, the perfect base structure for Dataran Tinggi Komunis.

I need the edges to sort of flare out from the top of the plateau, so I'm mounting this whole thing on a base cut out of 2mm thick cardboard.

I tried making one of the short edges out of Milliput, and while I think I may have applied it unnecessarily thickly, I think it worked out all right.

That exhausted my previous supply of Milliput, and the only kind my hobby store had was terracotta, so that was what I made the other three sides out of. It's superior to regular Milliput in that it doesn't look like marzipan, so you don't have to resist the temptation to eat it.

While I was working on Communism Plateau, I also made some destroyed Titan markers. I stuck one of the extra Warhound carapaces and half a head on a properly sized base, and made a crater on another one out of Milliput.

I'm quite pleased with the end result!

Once the edges of Dataran Tinggi Komunis were filled in, it was a fairly simple matter of plugging any remaining gaps with filler and gluing ballast to the top and the base.

I used the leftover Milliput to make a Reaver-sized crater.

After spraypainting, the plateau looked more or less like a fucked up cream cake.

I then applied some Vallejo Snow texture to the sides with an old, coarse paintbrush, with up and down strokes to create a pattern and hide the cracks between the bits of Milliput. I'm really happy with the result!

I painted the vertical bits Tan Earth and the flat surfaces Iraqi Sand, and gave some of the more textured bits of the walls a drybrush of the same.

I'm very happy!

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Finally, to store my Titanicus paraphrenalia neatly and securely, I of course turned to Feldherr.

I simply love their raster foam; it's perfect for holding Titan weapons and even the little plastic doodads for the command terminals. I now have a Feldherr Minus bag that keeps all my extra weapons safe, and there's still plenty of room for more.

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So, here we are: I've built some proper terrain to replace the books and cans and whatnot we used the first time around. I can't wait to see it in action!