As you know, we have been working on the XIIth Legion War Hounds for a long time - since 2013 at least - and it's time for an update. I've tweaked the colour scheme to make a Version 3, plus added some new pictures to the Project Blog: War Hounds section of the site.
Developing a look and feel for the War Hounds has been a labour of love, making them an actual Legion rather than a less spiky version of the World Eaters. Giving them their own identity and look, with markings that echo the Great Crusade and love for the Emperor. The War Hounds were proud Terrans, or from newly inducted worlds brought back into the fold of the Imperium. They deserve their own place away from the shame of the World Eaters, the bloody savagery of Angron and the treason of His sons. 

It's amazing how even after all these years the Sunday Preview still holds so much power on Warhammer Community - so much expectation and restrained excitement, only to be royally shat on when you scroll down to the very bottom to read this:
"Unfortunately, these pre-orders will be slightly delayed in Australia and New Zealand – you’ll be able to pre-order your Norse teams from the 23rd of April"
So while the rest of the world gets Norse Blood Bowl (which frankly does not entice personally), those of us down here who pay a premium on releases, get three books... three books. Surely the premium we pay is to make sure we get these things airfreighted and on time, otherwise what actually are we paying for? Here's an idea: dispatch them a week early - Hell, dispatch them a month early! It's frankly just poor service and especially while fans in this part of the world are STILL waiting for the Tyranid release. Surely Games Workshop don't receive and dispatch goods on the same week. Surely it's sitting in a warehouse waiting for it's release window. Got delayed at sea? Well fly some out, OR still put it on pre-order but tell us it's going to be a while longer. That's okay, we will wait, just give us the opportunity to feel included!

With that out of the way late shave a look at what some of us get this week, then we'll move onto what others will get...
Anyone who saw the original covers for the Bequin series will have to admit they are some of the best covers GW have produced in a very long time. Well on pre-order his week is the Special Edition version of Pariah – Bequin, Book 1, and it's another triumph! Also on pre-order this week is the hardback version of the Sigismund: The Eternal Crusader novel, which I have been told has an appearance by some of the War Hounds Legion! Very cool. And we also have the paperback of Traitor Rock.

Now, for those in other parts of the world it's a pretty cool week for you - because the Norse have invaded Blood Bowl. with the Norsca Rampagers, Norse Team Card Pack, Norse Team Dice and double-sided Norse Pitch and Dugouts heading your way. There's also Spike! Issue 14 with all the tips, tricks and tactics to field the beer-fueled Norse.
Forge World have also come the party with the Yhetee and their champion Skrorg Snowpelt, plus some Norse star players, Thorsson Stoutmead and  Ivar Eriksson.  

It's been a while since a War Hounds update, mainly because I wasn't very happy with the quality of the photos. So I jumped on Amazon and found some small cheap lights  and thought I'd give them a go. This catch up shoot is as much a catch up as it is an experiment with light temperature.
On the left is the War Hounds Destroyer, which I think has the temperature pretty right, unfortunately the rest don't quite achieve the same result - will keep experimenting - but it doesn't help I'm also using a phone camera, one suspects! It's also a very small set up and trying a black background instead of white or something else has taken it's time to try to work out. 
I'll leave the longer write up to the Project: War Hounds page, but here we have the ones I remember having not shown you.

What's better than a 10-man Heavy Support squad wielding Volkite Culverins?
A 10-man Heavy Support squad wielding mastercrafted Volkite Culverin!!
Meet the Legion Consul Armistos, a backrow leader and heavy hitter who can do just that to your Heavy Support squads. This miniature was a bit of a modelling challenge - not only a senior character with a big gun but the first attempt at working out what mastercrafted weapons would look like.
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More on the War Hounds Legion Consul Armistos on the Project: War Hounds page 

Although the updates have been few and far between, there has actually been a lot of movement on the War Hounds Legion force. It may just be one or two minis a week, but slowly it's getting bigger all the time with new units forming and a more cohesive look to the markings and feel of the army. Today I was very happy to finish the Tactical Support squad, with their super-fluffy Volkite weaponry. This unit spans a bit of time - actually having the very first War Hound I ever painted amongst its ranks.

For more pics and detailed write up, go to the Project: War Hounds section

Man these Thallax are a pain in the butt to make!! If they weren't so damn fiddly, we'd definitely have more. The latest addition is the quasi-leader so I decided to go with a more human pose. These are entirely sentient machines after all - robots with thinking, feeling human brains - who will kill you!

Who doesn't love Thallax? Apart from the poor sods you have to build these incredibly fiddly bloody models of course. The Thallax look amazing - the super soldiers of the Mechanicus, these are how the Space Marines would have been in they were human-augmented robots and not robot-augmented humans. During the Great Crusade and through the Horus Heresy, the Mechanicum would task out these powerful sentient robots to the Adeptus Astartes Legions, so surely the XIIth Legion War Hounds would have had some, right? They certainly used Praevians, and Praevians need robots!

The new Angron: Slave of Nuceria, the latest in the Primarchs series of books from Black Library has been released in Limited Edition form and although I haven't read it all yet, having read the Forward, there is a small quote from Gheer - final Legion Master of the XIIth Legion War Hounds.
This builds on the stark differences between the War Hounds and their soon-to-be-progeny the World Eaters, as shown in Betrayer by Aaron Dembski-Bowden and After Desh'ea by Matthew Farrer.
Where the War Hounds were conquerors, the World Eaters are slaughterers.   

For some extremely odd reason I have been thinking about some of the Specialist units for the War Hounds Legion. Not really sure why - I mean I have enough infantry still to paint, but this entered my mind. Maybe it's because I want the Specialist units to have slightly different markings and I want to explore that. Already the Scimitar pilot has the markings, so why not expand it a bit - thus this Destroyer guy. Now firstly, I'm not convinced the War Hounds would have used Destroyers, in fact they seem like the type of Legion that would shun them, but you never know.

I knew right away that I didn't want the ruined armour, but I did want to have some effect on their armour from the specialist weapons - no paint chips, but something. Considering the War Hounds were a very chivalrous if violent Legion, their armour would be clean at least! Here I opted for some Brown washes in the recesses and around bolts to show there had been some wear. The helmet is an Iron Warriors one and I really like the design but it may not fit the Legion. Here you could argue that he looks like a Chaplain, but the thought was the unit would be themed around the idea of death - skulls etc!
Now the Specialist markings I mean are the shoulder pads - notice the blue bars on the side of the markings. This is on both shoulders and will differentiate them from normal units. Possibly the best Bronze shoulder trims I've ever done BTW! Happy with those. There's a bit of neatening up to do on some of the paint, but overall he's done.
Ss the Specialist units start to take shape. I doubt I will do anther Destroyer - it was more a fun test.

I haven't done many Terminators for the XIIth Legion War Hounds. Having spent so long formulating the markings for the MKII and MKIII armour, having to work out the Cataphractii pattern hasn't had much priority - but when I had a flash of inspiration the other day at work I had to get it out. Using the Praetor body, and Cataphractii Power Claw, and Goliath head and then adding extra armour to the hips via Goliath Shoulders pads, this guy fits the War Hounds look. The new shoulder pads are from MasterCrafted Miniatures, who we have bought quite a bit off - especially their excellent spikey shoulders, perfect for War Hounds!

This is the first time using two spiked shoulders, so I had to move the markings to the chest, which had the detail trimmed off. The Iron Halo on the top of the carapace is from a Stormcast and adds some height and rank to this important part of the army. Obviously the dedication to Volkite continues across the army and the colour scheme is basically an amped up version of the current Termies I have in the force.
This many metallics on one mini is unusual, but I think the balance is basically right.

It's been a while since a hobby update, but I've been slowly working away on a few things. A new job and life get in the way, but I've added a new character to the War Hounds Legion and started work on an idea for a Stormcast Chamber - not entirely sure why...

I'm not entirely sure if this new War Hound is going to be part of the Command Squad or maybe a Captain to go with the Assault units, but this combination came to me early one morning. The torso you may recognise as being Space Wolf, but a few different colours and look - they're hounds!! There's actually been a fair bit of conversion work in this guy. His face needs a bit more work, but overall he's pretty close.
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The Stormcast is from a Chamber I'm calling the Ebony Dawn right now. Really it was s test mini for an idea and also a chance to try pint chipping on painted armour. It['s not perfect but the effect does work. The face, again needs some love. Notice the Chaos Knight pauldrons to replace those ugly Stormcast ones!

If you're making an early Horus Heresy or Great Crusade army, then Combi-Volkite is a very fluffy weapon, especially for Veterans or Characters. Forge World have only made one so far and it's on the limited edition Praetor from Warhammer Fest in 2016. It's a pretty ugly model and kind of a big outlay when you'll be needing a few if you want to arm your entire squad. That being said, we think we have a solution! The Combi-Volkite (left) can be kitbashed, almost exactly, with a few of the current range pieces and about 30 minutes of your time. 
The Combi-Volkite is very fluffy for the XIIth Legion War Hounds as they are a Great Crusade Legion. For them their Veterans would more likely than not to have these in their arsenal.
Now on with the simple (and a bit blurry) build...

I grabbed a few cheap things off eBay to test if this would work - a Forge World Volkite Charger, a normal current range Bolter and the Combi-Bolter piece from the Space Marine Devastator kit.

For all intents and purposes, this is identical to the Forge World Limited Edition version. The fit of the pieces is trial and error but they will go together, so be careful not to lose any bitz and keep the glue off the surfaces.
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​I've been asked if removing/ replacing the magazine/ strap from the Combi-Bolter is necessary, and for the bitz to fit together, yes it is, BUT you can just as easily just cut the strap off and use that same magazine.

... and there you have it - fluffy Combi-Volkites for your Veterans!
What do you think? It's pretty straight forward and adds a lot of 'choom' to your army for just a few $

As part of the ongoing War Hounds Legion Project, we have at times turned to any of the Black Library books to try and get more information on the XIIth Legion War Hounds. The War Hounds Legion were the progenitors to the World Eaters before Angron was found and took his place as the Primarch. He renamed and reshaped the Legion, so a true image of how the War Hounds were has been lost to time - however there are some tantalizing clues through the novels. Yes there can be some contradiction, but if we take it on face value then we can at least work out how they were their own distinct Legion rather than simply World Eaters in blue armour with The Nails in their heads. 
​So the other night, I sat down and combed through Betrayer by Aaron Dembski-Bowden page by page to get an idea of his take on them from the characters themselves. Betrayer has quite a few references, especially from the former Legion Master Lhorke who is now a Contemptor Dreadnought.

After the Jump - annotated observations on passages from ​Betrayer by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

It's been a bit of a busy hobby time of late with projects and ideas floating in and out of our heads, so we thought it was about time to share them.

As you may know, we're Beastmen fans here, and the Tzeentch Beastmen, the Tzaangor, have been a bit of a challenge getting the look and feel right. Then the other day I hit on the thought of putting wings on these birdy-Beastmen, and by the Gods it worked! Although the colour combination may be a little off, pretty happy with the look of the Blood Angels wings - they're not too big and seem to suit the angular nature of the head and weapons. Bit of Green Stuff and the wings and you're set!!

The ongoing War Hounds Legion project, although at times sometimes on the back burner, never stops - this time with quite a bit of progress on the once-fledgling Breachers unit. With the help of some Forge World Death Guard torsos and Mechanicum heads, we were finally able to get the look we'd been after; heavy infantry! For more pictures and information on the changes to the markings and direction of the Breachers, head over to the War Hounds Project Blog. 

In the vain hope that Games Workshop may actually give us some new Seraphon./ Lizardmen troops, we decided to try a test scheme on this  ​Saurus Eternity Warden because frankly he's the best looking of their current models - even if he is Finecast.. The figure itself is a pain the arse to make; the moulding is all over the place, there's a lot of trimming and the pieces really don't fit that well together. Apart from all that, the paint job was a bit of an experiment with the scales having quite a bit of attention and going for a white body with tiny black tattoos, feet and face. Not entirely sure this is a strong scheme , but it's a start! The other colour is a jade green which was a contract to the orange of the scales.

If you've every listened to the Eye of Horus Podcast, you will have heard them mention NPCs for games. Well this guy is my Non Playable Character. He seems to be a scribe or maybe a guy stealing secret documents. Not entirely sold on the robe, so may work on that. He's a combination of Battle Wizard, and Mechanicum parts which work in surprisingly well... with the help of a hobby knife!

Finally, the weeks before Malign Portents were around the Undead. Having been a huge fan of skeletons in Ray Harryhausen movies, it seemed time - and the new Citadel Skulls made fixing the awful GW ones the old skeletons a breeze. Just a bit of a nip and tuck and they fit right on PERFECTLY! Really happy with these and their layered rather than drybrushed finish. The layering was a bit of a pain, but the result is so much better. Speaking of pain - the Mortarch kit is so so painful! STRUGGLING!

Having had recent inspiration to continue with the XIIth Legion War Hounds, I've decided to finish the Breachers/ Heavy Infantry squad. Frankly I find them pretty hard to pose behind that big shield, so trying to find interesting poses has been a challenge - his guy, however, came up a treat! As with a few of the others, I used the Death Guard torsos to make them look bulkier and the addition of the Mechanicus head seems to work nicely too. The War Hounds icon on the shield is from Pop Goes The Monkey.on Shapeways. Notice the Umbra Patter Bolter as well - a little salute back to Rogue Trader era Space Marines

few weeks ago we shared the beginning of our then-unnamed War Hounds Legion Praetor.
Instead of rushing it, I decided to take a bit of time, try some new things with techniques and also so the first real scenic base for my War Hounds.
As mentioned previously, the look of the War Hounds has been evolving from the one drawing in the Horus Heresy Book 1, and now being bale to do an officer, I think this scheme and the way they would do markings are now fully evolved in my mind.
There's been a lot of conversion on this model, but it ties in, so it's  hard to see - the cape at the back covered up the largest conversion - the Stormcast shin armour. Below is a breakdown of the mini, done in the three sub-assemblies.

The Praetor itself was a read amalgam of bitz - Imperial Fists torso (for that Great Crusade look), Raven Guard claws, Red Scorpion and Iron Warriors should pads, Stormcast shin armour, plastic MKIII legs, Space Wolf pelt and Veteran head. After a lot of trial and error, and a few cut thumbs, the look was complete. I wanted him to have a close combat look to carry forward the War Hounds Legion fluff, but at the same time be regal and really stand out from the rest of the troops. Although he is primarily the standard War Hounds blue and there's actually no more white on him than the normal War Hounds, he needed to be different - so I decided on red to set him apart. His groin armour was four layers of blending to get the right shade, and adding the fur pelt was something I'd wanted for the War Hounds for ages - it is in their fluff after all!
The mix of metallics was a bit of trial and error, but seems to be about right. His shoulder pad heraldry is unusual for a War Hound, but for a Praetor it needed to be. Was going to go reversed colours with the rampant hound, but decided that was too much red. The Red Scorpions studded shoulder really makes it I think - it's unique. The Stormcast shins were a test really, having used the front, but cut the backs off the add the plastic MKIII calves and then adding new studs to make it more dynamic. The face is from a Veteran, and is washed and then blended, while the scars got their own wash and highlight.

The backpack was a bit of a challenge - I knew it needed height, but it also needed to look regal without being a gold mess or a crown. Luckily I am an incessant bitz buyer, so had lots to play with. The backpack is a fiddly conversion using the Limited Edition Space Marine Captain backpack, with the funnels, pipes and fan from a plastic MKIII backpack. It's fiddly, but fits surprisingly well and the Iron Halo is perfect for the fluff. The cape is from the Custodes, painfully cut and bent into shape and then padded out with Green Stuff to get the shape right. The colours are standard War Hounds and don't deviate from the rules I've set for which bits are white and which bits are blue  dependent on rank and role. There's lots of little details, but the decision to do it white was really to make it look less like an Ultramarine, which would generally go for red. The gold was layered on and the decals placed to make his Legion affiliation not-so-subtle.

Although the Stormcast shins gave him a tiny height advantage. he needed more and this Age of $igmar scenic base seemed the way to go. All the beses of my War Hounds are running on the theme of planetfall. They have just hit the planet, maybe taken out some advanced parties and are moving in on the cities of this world - a world needing to be brought back under the rule of the Emperor of Mankind. This civilisation will have some Mayan influences, so the little triangles on this base were perfect. The metallic arch is a metallic not on any of the War Hounds, so is truly unique, and the helmet is a conversion from a Dark Elves Executioner with a Chaos Marine top knot. I added plastic card to put flag stones on the ground, and rocks and shrubs (Gamer Grass BTW) to tie in with the other War Hounds bases. Overall I am very happy with this simple base and his pose, although not designed for the base, does seem to suit it.

And assembled, here he is - Praetor Farrar Kerris. The name comes from Matthew Farrar, the author of the first War Hounds story and as far as I can tell, then guy who actually named them.
The colours on the Praetor are very simple - bronze for rank, silver studs to make him stand out from the rest of his troops - even veterans - the dirty white, blue with the subtle highlight and two tones of red; the crimson red for the War Hounds bits and a brighter red for the purity seals. The orange of the enemy helmet and markings on the base are to contrast with the blue which give it an alien feel.
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Overall this was an experiment that I think adds to the army, which - despite being critical of my work - I'm really proud of actually. Now... maybe I need to flesh out what the enemy look like!?

As we've mentioned before, coming up with the look for the War Hounds was a long process, and that was just the troops and vehicles, but when it comes to officers - that's a whole other story!
There's already a start to the Command Squad with one guy with a big Celtic/ Norse inspired war horn, and a non-command officer in the Praevian with his robot, but building the big cheese for the War Hounds Legion was going to be interesting!
People make some amazing officers with such cool conversions mixing bits from all over the universe, so this challenge was much anticipated and a nice change after really being unable to do much hobby due to illness.
For a more indepth look - head over to the War Hounds page

Getting a whole squad done one miniature at a time is a long process, but when you're done it's exciting.
Today I finally finished my Veteran Tactical Squad for the War Hounds Legion and having been the first squad I started it's good to have them now being able to sit proudly next to their completed Tactical Squad brothers. Having finally worked out markings and how to inject a bit of character really helped bring each one of these guys to life - and not just have a whole lot of "gun pigs". 

More images and write up HERE