It is an Age of Darkness.
The Galaxy is aflame.
Brother turns on Brother.
This is M.31.
*****
Fire rained from the heavens, covering the Himalazian mountain tops with debris and causing the soldiers stationed on the line to duck and curse the foul traitors again and again.
Amongst the orbital drop and general detritus raised, there were bright white spots falling in the wake of the twelfth legion stormbird passing low on a gunnery run.
A series of rippling missile strikes exploded upon the parapets of the trenchline and amongst the buildings around the gatepost.
The another series of heavier impacts occured and two hab blocks away from the missile strike collapsed under impact, the rockcrete folding in upon itself and raising another cloud of grey dust nearby.
The loyalist command in the area couldn't explain the impacts, so the fourty-five men of 'A platoon, Merican 7th' were sent on a reconnaissance patrol, as an enemy landing so close would need to be dealt with and forced back from the salient, lest the traitors gain a foothold close to the outer trench.
There was still no movement from the ruins as the first squads approached and the men fanned out to explore working in groups of five men, they sifted through the area looking for anything which could have been dropped by the enemy.
A shout went up, and disbelieving the infantry gathered around as they stared at what appeared to be a dead Astartes Terminator.
The giant was laid in a crater, obviously a deployment mistake as the enemy surely wouldn't waste a resource like this. The runes carved onto the armour, as well as the corrupted decorations caused some men to pale, or vomit with fear. Several spontaneously started bleeding from their noses and the smells of sulphur and blood were strong, a ripple of fear was felt amongst the men.
"Can you hear whispering?"
"What's that smell?"
"Did that hand just move? I thought it was dead?"
One of the engineers accompanying the men realised what had happened and began to demand a retreat.
"Sir, we need to fall back now! Look at the chains, the scorch marks on the armour, this wasn't a teleportation mistake, this Astartes was dropped from orbit to land here"
"Don't be ridiculous, nothing could survive that impact"
With a rising electrical whine, the eyeslits of the terminator plate started to glow a deep red, and without warning the roar of chain weapons erupted causing panic amongst the gathered mortal troops.
"Open fire" the officer screamed and bright blue lasfire scorched the remaining white armour as the terminator began to rise, chains and skulls rattling from ceramite plate as it did. A grenade exploded at the monsters feet, if it felt anything it didn't slow the inevitable rise of this terrifying beast.
The vox became a distorted growl, but a rythmic chant could just be made out amongst the noise as the loyalists panicked and tried to flee.
From amongst the ruins, another four of the Astartes charged in, Chainblades already screaming, armoured bulk crushing unfortunates in their way to a bloody paste as they passed.
Limbs and heads were separated in welters of gore and bodies were hacked in two.
The Astartes whom the loyalists had been gathered around snatched up the officer with one hand and held him aloft, several feet from the floor. Hopelessly he tried to fight the vice like grip until he shook as the chainfist attached to the Astartes other wrist scythed through his waist and then up through his torso covering the terminator in crimson blood.
Looking more like butchers in a slaughterhouse then noble warriors, the Astartes loped off in a ground eating sprint, the rythmic growl-chant emitted from all five distorted vox grills.
"BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!"
*****
Welcome to the third installment of the World Eaters Legion build for Horus Heresy.
This time we turn our attention from the command cadre and look towards the forlorn souls of the elites, those who have lost themselves completely to the Butcher's Nails...the Red Butcher's!
Knowing I was building the World Eaters I wanted to include at least one of the unique legion units for the army, and it was honestly a toss-up between the Gladiatorial Ravagers or the Red Butcher's.
Having a love for Cataphacti pattern Terminator armour, the Butcher's won out this time and plans were laid to build a unit of five of them.
Turning back to the Collected Visions books, this was the only World Eaters terminator artwork I could find, not quite what I was looking for:
After a perusal of the Forge World website* I decided to launch ahead with the conversion anyway and built up the bodies along with some minor conversion work.
Weapon loadout wise, given that they are a melee unit first and foremost I decided to work exclusively with salvaged Chainaxe's from wrecked Berzerkers and the Chainfist's which come with the Cataphractii kit.
Whilst not 100% accurate to the unit listing, I think most opponents will understand what unit they are and what they are armed with, officially paired power axes in the rules.
The "Bunny Ears", a staple Khornate icon were culled from the same wrecked Berzerkers that the axes came from and were clipped to varying lengths to give each member a bit of a different profile.
Likewise the shoulder plates were 3D printed offerings, I was slightly disappointed when they turned up given how thick they were, but once in place they looked the part and added to the heavy armour look of the terminator plate.
The last thing was to add some broken chains, culled from the Wrathmongers kit and some skulls, because KHORNE NEEDS SKULLS**.
Once painted the unit looks like this:
A bit of a departure from the blue and white of the legion***, but suited given the nature of the Red Butchers, and Kharn (along with a few other pieces I plan, will tie them across the force nicely.
Looking at the models then, the Devoured (the unit leader), is a standard example of the description I gave above:
The length of skulls hanging down his back hides some damage which was caused when salvaging these miniatures from an eBay lot:
Finally the two most converted members of the unit. Both advancing, and the guy on the left of the photo sprinting...in Terminator plate!
The lower legs are separate on these kits anyway, so it was a minor conversion to scrape and file away at the joint to re-angle the leg, then it was just a case of making sure the other details flowed with the movement of the model:
Bases follow the standard urban base scheme I'm using across the army.
*****
The army tally now looks as follows:
HQ:
Kharn the Bloody.
Elites:
Dreadnaught Talon.
Apothecarion Detachment.
Troops:
Tactical Squad.
Despoiler Squad.
Breacher Siege Squad.
Fast Attack:
Heavy Support:
Leviathan Dreadnaught.
Missile Heavy Support Squad.
Bodyguard:
*****
You may be wondering why Kharn is crossed out, well, I was moving something in the display case the other day and knocked him out.
A four foot fall to the floor caused his axe to snap off at his hand and disappear into the warp.
Another spare plastic axe and hand was sourced and pinned to the wrist after I clipped off his original hand.
I've gotten it undercoated and will get him finished again soon:
* Always dangerous doing that.
* SkULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE.
*** I know the red is meant to be dried blood, and I've had suggestions about adding gore and blood effects to them.
I won't and I have my own personal reasons for not doing so.
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