Over the last week work has continued on my nascent regiment of Imperial Guardsmen for the Thorn Moons Invitational. This event has been put together by the talented hobbyists at Iron Sleet and, according to a recent announcement, now includes a hundred regiments, making for a spectacle truly on par with the scale of warfare described in the 40k background.
Of the five models I showed off last week I’m happy enough with three of them to start painting. This chap however still needed a little greenstuff to help blend his gasmask into the rest of his hood.
Then there was his squad-mate who’s been charged with carrying the skeleton of a glorious Imperial martyr into battle. Here’s how he looked this time last week.
I was already keen to do a little more work on him – specifically to remove his incongruously cheery grin – but all the feedback I received encouraged me to also install a gothic rig to support and articulate the dead hero on his back.
All in all I’m pleased with these two now, by my eye they’re ready to join the others for a coat of paint but, as always, any last minute feedback is more than welcome.
Convert or Die 
November 3rd, 2017 at 8:03 am
The “puppetmaster” device makes that dead hero much better looking. Still implausable, but in a much more plausable way – which in turn is very 40k.
November 3rd, 2017 at 11:24 am
Absolutely. My first idea was just to have an articulated skeleton carried into battle but the idea of him jerkily moving to the commands of some mechanicum engine was just too macabre not to go for and of course it sits nicely with the Imperium’s culture of overdoing everything.
November 3rd, 2017 at 9:48 am
Yeah, much better mate – bonkers, but cool 🙂
November 3rd, 2017 at 11:25 am
The Imperium in a nutshell then! 🙂
November 3rd, 2017 at 12:48 pm
What made you come up with the idea? I have never played the tabletop or read rulebooks, but i read the novels here and there. Has it ever happened in any novel, or is it part of the new codex, concidering new armies?
November 3rd, 2017 at 2:18 pm
I’ve only played the game a couple of times myself and that was several editions ago now. I’ve read a lot of the books though but really where the inspiration for this – and a lot of my stuff – came from is the art. The Imperium seems to be a culture that’s obsessed with being grand and gothic. It’s almost as if appearing to be in command is all that’s helping humanity through the darkness. Space marines wear mechanical halos and mechanical angel wings. It’s all very impractical but it looks good.
Add to that the Imperium’s obsession with death. Lives are thrown away constantly in these huge, apocalyptic wars that are happening everywhere, whilst most people work in these terrible factory hives, again slaving away in awful conditions. Just like at various points in history if everyone has known (probably several) people who’ve died then the whole culture starts to become death obsessed (see Victorian Britain for an example). Likewise the Imperium really wallows in all the death, there are skulls on literally everything.
There’s a quote often appears in the 40k rulebooks, something along the lines of “the martyr’s gave is the foundation stone of the Imperium” and I was thinking about that and it occurred to me that articulating the bones of a fallen hero and lugging him into battle is exactly the kind of thing the Imperium would do. What better way of inspiring the men than showing them that even in death this man won’t back down?
Of course it’s not very practical, imagine trying to march, shoot and fight, to try to aim or to run for cover in a bombed out building, all whilst someone else’s skeleton jerks and shifts on your back. But then that’s the Imperium, it is impractical!
November 3rd, 2017 at 2:40 pm
Still looks badass! Thank you for sharing
November 3rd, 2017 at 3:18 pm
Cheers 🙂
November 7th, 2017 at 11:00 am
A superb reply mate. You need to write a book.
November 3rd, 2017 at 10:50 pm
Very cool concept mate. The right side of imperial crazy.
November 4th, 2017 at 9:52 am
Cheers 🙂
November 5th, 2017 at 12:13 am
The puppet master is outstanding. Great work!!!
November 5th, 2017 at 10:59 am
Thank you very much 😀
November 7th, 2017 at 7:50 am
That’s how every imperial should go to battle with their fallen comrades! Excellent one!
November 7th, 2017 at 6:43 pm
Thanks! I did wonder about how amazing a whole army like this would look. The fallen martyrs of some failed crusade gathered up, cleaned and articulated, and mounted on the shoulders of the next wave sent to retake the world. Far beyond my time and budget though, would make for a cool Armies on Parade entry or passage in a Black Library novel (any authors out there who steal this idea – please think of me briefly as you sink into a bath full of money and strippers at the top of the New York Times Bestsellers list).
November 7th, 2017 at 11:01 am
I love the rig. What did you use for the cables? Looks like mini barbed wire. Really cool
November 7th, 2017 at 6:31 pm
Believe it or not it’s normal thread, the same stuff I use to sew on a button. Never tried doing anything like this with it before but it seems to have worked. The nice thing is I can thread it and tie it off exactly as a rope would. Then I put a dab of super glue on it to strengthen it and make it a bit more durable. Don’t think it would survive well on a piece used in a lot of games etc but for a display model it should be ok – we shall see…
November 7th, 2017 at 9:59 pm
Excellent! I’ll have to try it. I did something similar with a noose I made for a terrain piece but it was thick string. Do you ever make terrain? I can’t recall ever seeing any?
November 7th, 2017 at 11:53 pm
No, you’re quite correct – even though I wax lyrical about terrain and pour over other people’s work I don’t actually have any of my own. Partly I think it’s because building and painting terrain is a little intimidating, most models are relatively small in comparison. Partly it’s been a lack of space combined with moving around quite a lot. Partly it’s just because my ambitions always outgrow my skills and budget.
Excuses made however I’ve still got three dream boards that I tell myself I’ll make some day. An Imperial city, complete with grand processional, bomb-struck cathedral, fortress wall, hive-sump and orbital platform. The Warhammer underway, with dwarf statues, yawning chasms, skaven warrens and mushroom forests. And of course one set entirely in the realm of chaos, with all the laws of physics torn up. Told you my ambitions always outgrew my time/energy/budget/space!