(008) Black Library - Classic Paperbacks back in print.

I love reading Warhammer 40,000 fiction from Black Library. I read a lot of novels featuring Space Marines, the ‘Horus Heresy’ series and currently Dan Abnett’s ‘Gaunt’s Ghosts’ series. I got a copy of Sandy Mitchell’s ‘The Greater Good’ for my birthday this year and really enjoyed it. The problem was that it’s the ninth in a series and although I wanted to read the preceding novels they were all out of print.

 

Luckily I stayed up late last Wednesday night watching a movie. I happened to check my e-mail before I went to bed and there was a Black Library newsletter advertising a limited re-release of some classic paperbacks. Included in this limited release were the omnibuses ‘Hero of the Imperium’ and ‘Defender of the Imperium’, which between them cover the first six novels in Sandy Mitchell’s ‘Ciaphas Cain’ series.

 

 

 

Since I was up anyway and my wallet was on my desk I ordered them both. I’m glad I did when I checked the Black Library website on Friday morning barely more than 24 hours later, they had already sold out!

 

My copies arrived today.

 

 

 

 

 

Current Size of the Unpainted Legion: 248 models.

 

 

Currently Reading: ‘The Guns of Tanith’ by Dan Abnett.

(007) The Unity Marines: Chapter Organisation & Origins (Part II)

My original origin story for my Space Marine chapter, the Unity Marines, was extremely derivative of the backstory of the Dark Angels Space Marine chapter/legion. Although this was unintentional, I was unhappy with it. In recent years I have been brainstorming a new, and I hope original and unique backstory for the Unity Marines. This is the first time I have tried to extract it from the jumbled mess of half-formed ideas in my head, so it may not be flawless (or lucid) but I will probably refine it over time.

 

 

Inquisitor Helenica of the Ordo Xenos has only recently been promoted to the rank of Inquisitor. She has been sent to the Byridian Sector to work with the famed Inquisitor Pilate of the Ordo Malleus. Inquisitor Pilate is hundreds of years old and has inveigled himself into every aspect of Byridian Sector government, he has friends and allies everywhere, and those friends and allies have eyes and ears everywhere.

 

There are rumours, whispers in the dark places, that Orks have been collecting tainted artefacts of Chaos and even fighting alongside daemonic entities. The Ordo Xenos and Ordo Malleus are to work together to investigate and counter this threat.

 

Inquisitor Helenica discovers that Inquisitor Pilate has been corrupted by the ruinous powers. The Orks are working for him and gathering artefacts of Chaos for his personal collection. Perhaps to begin with, he thought that he could use their dark power to fight against Chaos, but now he has fallen deep within the thrall of the Chaos Gods.

 

There is no one she can turn to for help. She does not know how far the corruption has spread, and she has no evidence, she cannot move against him openly. Inquisitor Pilate knows that she has discovered his secret, but he does not know what evidence she has or who she has told. Until he knows how far his secrets have leaked he cannot move against her openly either.

 

Inquisitor Helenica formulates a crazy and desperate long-term plan to save the Byridian Sector from Chaos and to stop Inquisitor Pilate once and for all. She must found her own Space Marine chapter. Only then will she have the power to stop Pilate’s dark schemes, no matter the odds stacked against her.

 

She begins by travelling far and wide chasing rumours and legends of Space Marines exiled from their chapters. Exiled for breaking the strict tenets of the Codex Astartes and the rules of their chapters, but still loyal to the Emperor and to the Imperium. I got this idea from Graham McNeill’s excellent Ultramarines series of novels.

 

She finds six exiled Space Marines scattered across the sector and convinces them to band together, to regain their honour and to aid her battle against Chaos. She names them the Unity Marines, for they are all from different chapters, come together, unified in their desire to serve and protect the Imperium and its citizens.

 

 

 

Her first objective completed, her second step is to legitimise her chapter. She sends a group of her most loyal acolytes to Terra on a mission to infiltrate the Administratum. There they insert false backdated records of the founding of the Unity Marines, legitimising their existence.

 

Meanwhile she sends her band of loyal Space Marines on a mission to raid an Adeptus Mechanicus transport to requisition, or steal, the armour, weapons and equipment that they need.

 

Inquisitor Helenica now needs to expand her fledgling chapter. She seeks out a Magos Biologis exiled from his forge world for conducting forbidden experiments on Adeptus Astartes corpses. She finds him and his secret laboratory and convinces him to help her make more, new Space Marines.

 

However he does not have the facilities or the equipment necessary to make a new Space Marine. But his research has led him to believe that there may be a piece of ancient technology hidden deep within a space hulk called ‘The Tomb of Knowledge’ that will help.

 

Helenica sends her six Space Marines into ‘The Tomb of Knowledge’ to recover the ancient technology the Magos Biologis requires. They encounter a Tyranid infestation and one of their number is killed. But the others are able to recover and escape with the archeotech, which turns out to be a partial STC (Standard Template Construct) from the Age of Technology which contains advanced medical knowledge and machine schematics.

 

The Magos Biologis is able to construct the machines recorded in the STC in his new laboratory on board Helenica’s star ship. He believes that with the machines he has constructed and the knowledge that he has gained from the STC, he will be able to produce new Space Marines, even from older volunteers than is otherwise possible, albeit with possible side effects.

 

But he does not have any of the necessary genetic raw material, the gene-seed.

 

Helenica sends her Space Marines on a distasteful mission. They travel far and wide to the sites of recent battles and harvest gene-seed from fallen Space Marines of numerous chapters, before their own chapters could recover their dead.

 

Now they have everything they need to expand their Chapter. Helenica presents them with a gift a Strike Cruiser, crewed and loaded with equipment, freshly requisitioned from the Mechanicus and painted in their new livery. This will serve as their Chapter headquarters and armoury. She sends them on their way to grow their numbers and to function as an autonomous Space Marine Chapter until they are strong enough to assist her in her coming confrontation with Inquisitor Pilate.

 

Now, many years later they have grown into a full and established, although slightly under-strength and under-equipped, Space Marine Chapter.

 

Unfortunately Inquisitor Pilate has not sat idly by, ignorant of Inquisitor Helenica’s activities. Enlisting the aid of Fabius Bile, Pilate’s forces mounted a raid on the Unity Marines strike cruiser and stole genetic samples, samples which Fabius Bile has used to grow an army of corrupt clones, thus providing Pilate with his own chapter of Chaos Space Marines, ‘The Harbingers of Discord’.

 

 

This is a really brief overview of my current ideas for the origins of my Space Marine Chapter, ‘The Unity Marines’ and my Chaos Space Marine war band ‘The Harbingers of Discord’. I will probably flesh them out in more detail in the future and I would like to try my hand at writing some fiction featuring them at some point.

 

Any feedback you can give me would be much appreciated, particularly if you can point out any continuity errors, logic problems or mistakes in the Warhammer 40,000 setting and lore that I have made. I hope that this second iteration is more original and unique, but if I have unwittingly recycled something I’ve read somewhere else please let me know that too!

 

 

Current Size of the Unpainted Legion: 248 models.

 

Currently Reading: ‘The Guns of Tanith’ by Dan Abnett.

 

 

 

(006) The Unity Marines: Chapter Organisation & Origins (Part I)

One of my favourite aspects of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 Universe is the massive scope that exists for creating your own unique armies, characters and places and fleshing them out with backstories. In fact in recent years ‘Forging the Narrative’ has seemingly become Games Workshop’s guiding philosophy, and I couldn’t be happier.

 

I started my Space Marine army during my first year at University, way back in 2002. I had been collecting and playing with a hodgepodge of models since I was about twelve. My aim in beginning a new Space Marine army was to collect a strictly rules-legal force, to paint it in a unified colour scheme and to create its backstory myself.

 

Thus was founded ‘The Unity Marines’. I’ve only settled on this name comfortably in the last handful of years. Before that I toyed with other names like ‘The Lightning Legion’ or ‘The Storm Marines’. Their chapter badge is a black lightning bolt on a white circle. Primarily because that symbol is numerous enough on the Space Marine transfer sheets to kit out an entire army.

 

 

 

In Warhammer 40,000 the lightning bolt symbol was closely associated with the Emperor of Mankind during the Unification Wars, hence the name ‘Unity Marines’, being derived from the lightning bolt symbol.

 

Over the years I have considered writing up the origin story of my chapter. I’ve always wanted to tie it to the origin of my Chaos Space Marine war band ‘The Harbingers of Discord’ in some way.

 

Originally my idea was that they began as a single Space Marine chapter, which divided in a civil war or schism. One half remaining loyal to the Imperium and the other falling to Chaos. They were called to a great battle akin to the defence of Terra at the end of the Horus Heresy. But civil war broke out.

 

After lengthy and bitter fighting on their home world the Chaos aligned marines escaped, only to find themselves too late to fight alongside their dark brethren, the battle being already over in the Imperials’ favour. They were then cursed by the Chaos Gods for failing to lend their aid to the battle.

 

The surviving Imperial aligned half of the chapter rallied and gave chase, only to be lost in the warp, emerging many years later to find themselves declared ‘Excommunicate Traitoris’. Hunted by the Imperium, hounded by other loyalist forces, they sought to clear their name and to fight for the Emperor.

I liked this origin story, until I realised how closely it resembles the backstory of the Dark Angels!

 

 

 

 

Current Size of the Unpainted Legion: 248 models.

 

 

Currently Reading: ‘The Guns of Tanith’ by Dan Abnett.

 

 

(005) Hobby Progress. Project 001: Imperial Knights (Part III)

I’ve been pretty good at putting in at least an hour a night of hobby work this week, although I don’t have a lot to show for it. I have finished the plastrons and codpieces of my two new Imperial Knights and made progress on their legs and bases. I’ve also spray undercoated a lot of the other sub-assemblies ready to begin painting.

 

 

 

I thought I’d pad out this entry with a few notes on how I have painted the pieces I’ve finished so far. I am painting my Knight Crusader blue to match my Space Marine Chapter, ‘The Unity Marines’. I chose the paint scheme of dark blue and gold because I liked the colour combination and I thought they would look unique. At the time Ultramarines were light blue with yellow trim. Boy does my chapter look a whole lot less unique now!

 

I achieve my particular shade of blue by base-coating with ‘Ultramarines Blue’ and coating that with a generous layer of ‘Blue Ink’. You can imagine my horror, when after a hiatus from the hobby, I returned to discover that Games Workshop had discontinued ‘Blue Ink’.

 

I found an online supplier who still had some stock and bought all four pots that he had left. I have since, thanks to the detective work of my friend Andy, found a company called ‘Coat d’arms’ who make a product called ‘135 Ink Wash – Blue’, which is functionally identical to the old Games Workshop ‘Blue Ink’.

 

As a side note, I recently ran out of the old Games Workshop ‘Ultramarines Blue’ paint and switched to the equivalent in the new Citadel Base range ‘Macragge Blue’. The colour is a close enough match, but I’ve found that none of the new paints, including the base range, cover as well as the old ones did. I have never before had to apply paint so thickly or in multiple coats to achieve a solid finish.

 

I then apply edge highlights of ‘Enchanted Blue’ and even finer highlights of ‘Ice Blue’ (I still have a lot of old paint to use up!).

 

I am painting my Knight Errant red, primarily because I am slightly bored of painting things blue. But also because I was inspired by the recent Adeptus Mechanicus releases. I can then use my Mechanicus aligned Knight as the basis for a future Mechanicus army or as an ally for my Space Marines or Chaos Space Marines (as Dark Mechanicus for the latter).

 

The red I am using is similar to the red I use for my Chaos Space Marine war-band ‘The Harbingers of Discord’. Although I have only finished painting less than a handful of models for my Chaos army, so I don’t really have a completely finalised colour scheme down yet.

 

I have painted the red armour on my knight with a basecoat of ‘Khorne Red’ over a ‘Chaos Black’ spray undercoat. I then apply a wash of ‘Agrax Earthshade’. Once that is dry I paint a coat of ‘Mephiston Red’ over the top, leaving gaps around the edges. I then apply a few edge highlights with ‘Troll Slayer Orange’.

 

The legs and mechanical parts are a lot simpler to paint. I just basecoat them with ‘Leadbelcher’ and pick out a few details with ‘Brazen Brass’. I then drown the parts in a wash of ‘Nuln Oil’ and highlight them with ‘Mithril Silver’ when they’re dry. They’re not finished yet though, the next step is to pick out the rivets with ‘Agrax Earthshade’.

 

 

 

Their bases are nearly finished though, I just need to do some touch-up work on the Knight Crusader’s base. I ran out of static grass and bought some more, but didn’t realise it came in different colours and I bought the wrong one! I picked up some more today so I can add a few patches tomorrow to tie it in to the Knight Errant’s base and the bases of my loyalist Space Marines.

 

Current Size of the Unpainted Legion: 248 models.

 

Currently Reading: ‘The Guns of Tanith’ by Dan Abnett.