Hi everyone, we thought it was time to show off our latest joint project – loyalist daemons. Now we know this is a controversial topic but stick with us, we think we have a pretty good justification…
Back in early February Tom and I attended part 3 of the Sundering of Fortis II event put on by our friends Curtis and Grant. This was a doubles event and each pair could bring a free centurion model worth up to 150pts. Tom and I spent a while thinking what consul we could bring as we wanted to do something that stood out. We eventually settled on one of the new centurion types from book 8: the Esoterist.
For those of you who aren’t familiar, the Esoterist is a psyker who specialises in demonology (both banishing and summoning daemons). They fit right in with the traitor legions but it’s a bit trickier for loyalists.
Having settled on an Esoterist we then needed to come up with fluff for him and how to justify loyalist daemons. During the Horus Heresy daemons were more creatures of raw emotion than the settled looks that we know from 40k. Really anything can be a daemon so long as it is on the right base size!
Our idea came partly from the scene in Master of Mankind where the ghosts of marines (and Ferrus Manus) come to the loyalists’ aid. We thought it would be cool to have our Esoterist as a Iron Hand faced with the betrayal and death at Isstvan V unleashed his suppressed psychic abilities and brought forth daemons. These daemons, taking cues from the strong emotions in the esoterist, appeared in the form of the dead of the loyalist legions seeking vengeance for their betrayal.
We wanted to convert lesser daemons, brutes and a greater daemon to cover the various powers in malefic daemonology. The lesser daemons and the brutes were really easy to convert; we just built marines normally and then applied lots of battle damage.
Bullet holes are super easy to do, all you need is a drill bit and a hobby knife. Simply drill a small hole and then use the knife to expand the hole and make it look less regular. You can do multiple bullet holes next to each other to look like the marine was hit by someone rapid firing.
The greater daemon was a harder choice, as we wanted the model to have enough height and bulk that it could realistically be a greater daemon. We also didn’t want it to just be a monster after all it was supposed to be loyalist! Tom then had the cool idea of having a bunch of models on the base, rather than just one big model. This could then represent the spirit of the Great Crusade; everyone working together and mankind victorious over the Xenos. We bought some Custodes and Sisters of Silence models cheaply and then added some militia and solar guys leftover from our other projects.
Painting wise it was super quick. The models were sprayed with Grey Seer and then washed with Hexwraith Flame and Nighthaunt Gloom, allowing them to mix randomly across the models. This gave them an ethereal look rather than being solid creatures.
When it came to basing we thought it would be cool to have half of the base blackened and cracked to represent the corrupting effect of the ghosts. They might be fighting for the loyalists but they are still daemons after all!
Overall the project was a fun one for us and we feel we managed to create a unique themed force. It can be used as an allied detachment in its own right, but most of the time will just be used for some fluffy summoning.
What do you all think? Did we pull off loyalist daemons?
Jamie and Tom
Mutant Snake Eyes 