Talons of the Emperah: Custodes Tribune Ixion Hale

This guy was lying around unpainted for some time. Next week some friends and I are going to play another big game and therefore I needed a Shield Captain. Well, it might be a huge career setback for Ixion Hale but this way I had a reason to paint this wonderful model. I hope you like it and he does a good job on the gaming table. 

Talons of the Emperah: Legio Custodes Coronus Grav-Carrier

Finally, this flying brick is ready for battle. I would lie if I say it was fun to paint and there are some areas I have to go back to. This depends mainly on its performance on the battlefield...

Talons of the Emperah - Ever more Custodes...

Besides the Vexilus Praetor, I painted some more Custodes Miniatures over the last two weeks. Just some Custodian Guard dudes of whose one can never have enough.

Last week I had a game with my golden guys and they were definitely lacking some kind of transportation. So, Santa brought me this early Christmas present...

And here are some impressions of the mentioned game:

Talons of the Emperah - Custodes Shield Captain on Jetbike

This is my Custodes Shield Captain on a Jetbike. Yes, no Dawneagle Jetbike, but an Agamatus Jetbike from Forgeworld. Those are a little bit larger than a Dawneagle Jetbike and this way the Captain is easily distinguishable from the rest of my army. Nothing special, but something I had on my todo list. :D

Talons of the Emperah - Adeptus Custodes Allarus Custodians (Conversion)

Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of GW's Allarus terminator models and so I came up with the idea to build my own version. The conversions are based on the Forgeworld Custodes Terminators, then the axes of the Stormcast Eternal of AoS and Guardian Spears the normal Custodes for the castellan axes. For the Balistus grenade launcher, I took the wrist bolt pistols of the Blood Angels Sanguinary Guard. Hope you like them.

Talons of the Emperah - Vexilus Praetor

I returned to my Custodes again, because there will be a big battle with my friends at the end of the year in which I want to field them. To be honest, I struggled with painting the gold and getting it right in the past. It tuned out to be too dark and bronze-ish. Moreover, painting four, five layers of different metallic colours took much time. That's why I tried something new. Using a spray can gold colour from a DIY-store, Casanadora Yellow Shade and Agrax Earthshade Wash delivered good results. Adding some details lead to this:

I am very satisfied with it and it took such little time and effort. What do you think?

Talons of the Emperah - Vertus Praetors finished!

It took me a while to paint them, but I could finish my Custodes Vertus Praetors on their slightly customized jetbikes eventually. The bikes are really nice and I am looking forward to use them on the battlefield. Nevertheless, three of them are enough and I cannot imagine to paint more of them in the future...

Talons of the Emperah - Vertus Praetors WIP

I got my hands on a box of Vertus Praetors for my little "Talons of the Emperah" army. The models are pretty cool for the most part, but somehow I didn't like the forward fins. Therefore I built my models slightly different to make them look more like Sammael's jetbike. What do you think?

The models are bigger than I imagined and have details everywhere. A real pain to paint... :D

Blood for the Blood God! - Sadly.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to lead a part of my Custodes against Captain_Valerius' Chaos army into battle. Captain_Valerius had the first move and immediately stormed forward. Hello, first turn charge!

It even went so far that at the beginning of my second turn I was about to throw in the towel. But I kept going and it became a very exciting game eventually. It lasted six moves and I even almost won.

My list contained units of the Custodes, the Astra Miliarum and Roboute Guilliman (aka "the Emperor"). However, this mix was not optimal and the units did not work well together (besides Guilliman's reroll bubble). One reason more to quickly paint more Custodes. : D

Thanks to Captain_Valerius for the nice and exciting evening!

Here are a few game impressions:

 At last a size comparison picture of some of the newer walkers:

 

The Emperor of Mankind (Roboute Guilliman Conversion)

May I introduce you to the Emperor of Mankind!

I was finally able to finish this guy. Based on my first version from December, I added a few things and changed some others. This was my first major attempt to model something on a miniature (for example the hair, the coat or chain links) and honestly, I'm a little proud of it.

"The Emperor" will be my Commander in Chief for my Custodes and other stuff, using the ruleset of Roboute Guilliman.

Just for comparision my conversion and the original miniature from GW:

Adeptus Custodes: Telemon Dreadnought

The Telemon Dreadnought for the Adeptus Custodes is a fantastic model from Forgeworld. I couldn't resist and had to have one for myself. I still hope it gets rules for 40k soon.

 

Talons of the Emperah: Roboute Guilliman aka Emperor Conversion

I am not the first and will not be the last, who transforms the miniature of Roboute Guilliman to the Emperor of Mankind. I used several artworks of the emperor and other conversions (like this one here) as a source of inspiration. My version still needs some final touches, but the main work is done.

The cloak was the hardest part and I needed three attempts to get it right. 

I am quite satisfied with the look and I am sure, that the paint job will enhance the overall impression. What do you think of it so far?

Edit (10th December): Newer photos added.

Talons of the Emperah and Friends in Action

Last Saturday evening, my Talons of the Emperah had the opportunity to fight against Funky Bibers Tyranids. Since I could build a 2000 army with the Talons alone, they took some friends with them.

We played a standard kill point match because it was my second game in the eighth edition, therefore we wanted to keep it simple. However, I did not expect any great chances versus as Funky Biber's army, when he placed five times more miniatures on the table than I did.  

I had the first turn and managed to decimate the Tyranids quite well from afar. The Tyranids, however, seemed to be relatively unimpressed as they stormed forward. Close combats erupted everywhere, quite early in the game. My troops, however, were able to stand their ground. 

At the end of my fifth turn, only three Termagaunts and one Harpy were left. In contrast, the Talons "only" lost the Custodes Guard, the Sisters of Silence and a Contemptor Dreadnought. My MVP was clearly the Contemptor with the Multi-Melta, who shrug incredibly much damage off and also dealt much damage to the Tyranids.

Overall, I am positively surprised by the Talons and I am curious how they will do in the next games.