We were the Clawhand’s Own – sons to him as the first of the Mighty were to the Prymarchs of old. We are in the wilderness now. When our lord fell we fell with him, and fell again. Most of my brothers died when the Bitterblade broke beneath Kell’s hand, our pride was ground to dust beneath his heel. Now we are no more than slaves, made mean by suffering, stripped of glory. We are bound to the service of a lord despised by us, and by the Gods; a lord who shamed us. Some doubt we shall ever regain the grandeur of old or take our place amongst the choirs of the ascended.
We are now but a ragged few, yet my brothers still trust in me and I swear before all the gods that come the hour we shall rise!
—–
Although life is pretty busy at the moment I’ve found the time to finish off the leader for my new squad of Chaos Marines; Squad Valaghast. These are the former servants of Kordel Bitterblade, chosen from his elite when he was Master of Purges amongst the Hawkmoth Space Marines. When he and Kell turned from the Throne-world they followed their master into the darkness. As he began his rise to power as the chaos lord Kordel Clawhand they formed his murderous elite, yet having shared in their master’s glory during his reign they must also share his shame in defeat. The journey has not been kind to them yet they have not lost sight of a future in which they regain their old glory. Kell knows this, and recognises also their hatred and contempt for him. Rather than have them slain or banished he aims to harness their gloryseeking ways – for he knows that there is nothing they will not do to return to power.
April 20th, 2016 at 8:45 am
I love the pose on this guy, I’m not normally a fan of pointers, but this dude rocks! I also like that all the open areas of armour get show your scheme off to great effect – lovely 🙂
April 21st, 2016 at 6:06 am
I get your point(!) but if someone’s not pointing, how do you know who’s in charge? All joking aside it is a bit of a cliché but I reckon it happens for a reason and the odd one here and there doesn’t hurt. Plus I l wanted to use that powerfist and it’s very much of its era now, so converting out the pointing finger would be too much faff. Glad you like him 🙂
April 21st, 2016 at 6:43 am
Ah, very true – nothing like a good old point to show ’em who’s boss 😉 I think my general dislike stems from converting special weapon troops for my IG… the left ‘supporting’ hand was always difficult, so I ended up with an over abundance of pointers… same issue with my Techno-barbarians, but for different reasons… It suits this guy very well though, and that’s the important thing, and yeah, that power fist is cooool 🙂
April 20th, 2016 at 9:16 am
Another brilliant model mate. The yellow threw me at first because your colour scheme, for these guys at least, is generally quite muted. I like the PoP of colour though. He has the look and the feel of a determined leader. Love the fluff to man. I still think you should write for the Black Library.
April 21st, 2016 at 6:13 am
Cheers! For the yellow I went back to the colourwheel and threw it out the window. By not balancing the yellow with a spot of blue somewhere else I really draw attention to it, making the other colours look slightly unnatural as the eye tries to find something to balance it. At least, that’s the aim.
As for writing for Black Library – or anyone else for that matter – I’d love to write more but finding the time to sit and write a whole book is a job in itself and nowadays I just don’t have the time to commit. I do miss it though, so someday – if I’m lucky – perhaps you’ll see my name in print 🙂
April 21st, 2016 at 7:52 am
Just chip away at it. It could be your masterpiece. I’ve been slowly writing a thriller trilogy for my sisters for years.
April 20th, 2016 at 1:33 pm
Love the background! And the colours look really good.
April 21st, 2016 at 6:39 am
Cheers! I wanted something to connect him to the rest of my collection and the network of power struggles going on further up the chain of command. I also wanted to ensure that these characters were important in themselves, they may be lower ranked than the Terminators and Chosen but they still have their part to play.
April 20th, 2016 at 8:07 pm
That rancid effect on his armour is superb, really effective. I do like a good pointer in the army too! Also, kudos on the names you’ve used for your squad and characters- very chilling.
April 22nd, 2016 at 2:39 pm
Cheers! I really struggled to get any pictures of this one that showed him off properly, glad I persevered though. As for the names I reckon that naming the characters and units in a collection really adds to one’s immersion in an army (plus idly thinking up names for units and working out how they fit into the grand scheme of the army as a whole is a great way of whiling away hours that I should be spending concentrating on other things 😉 )
April 22nd, 2016 at 5:33 pm
Completely agree- have done this a few times myself! It does add to immersion and is great for personalising an army too- once again your names are superb, as is the model!