They came from the trenches

[Cammerz]

I have begun work on a new project, putting aside the clean reds, whites and golds of the Carmine Blades and descending into the mud.

When Games Workshop first revealed the Heavy Intercessors my first thought was of them as First World War tanks, slowly grinding across the No-Man's Land of the Somme. From there I developed a colour scheme and a few army lists, steadily increasing in points value from a simple 500pt Combat Patrol up to an unfeasible 5000pt mess that will never see the light of day.

From here I began to construct the lore of this custom Chapter, a successor to the Salamanders (for rules reasons as much as fluff), These marines would be amongst the first new Primaris Marines to be gifted to their parent (as-of-yet unnamed Salamander's successor) chapter from Guilliman's Grey Shields. While it was rare, some chapters of Firstborn really disliked these new boys and they were immediately thrown into the middle of an endless global conflict, two sides completely entrenched, the fighting taking place underground in tunnels beneath the surface more than out in the sun. They were positioned at the front, between the loyalist Imperial defenders and the oncoming traitorous forces (possibly Nurgle-worshipping cultists, that sounds fitting). They were to be the anvil whilst their Firstborn brothers would form the hammer, to smash apart the heretics in a pincer action. But the hammer never came, the chapter above decided the war was unwinnable and, while the traitor forces were otherwise occupied, they launched a devastating salvo of orbital ordnance at the planet before leaving, assuming the work was done. But it was not done, the opposing armies had dug in so deep that even a Battlebarge barrage couldn't reach them all. Those who survived were the heaviest-armoured, the Gravis-equipped living tanks who now hold the line for their friendly neighbourhood subterranean Guardsmen. They were abandoned by their chapter, so deep beneath the surface, they formed their own. The Outcast Anvils.

Going from this, I decided that maybe they changed their colours using all they had to hand, Munitorum-issue paint that the Guard would use for their tanks. Supplies would be limited so they'll be weathered, grimy and another synonym that I haven't thought up right now. I also wanted to include some Firstborn Dreadnoughts so we'll assume that they were left down there as well, it would have been too difficult to recover them without tipping off the Primaris.



So now we get onto the models. I currently have everything I need to construct a 500pt list but so far I have only finished one, and this one isn't actually a Space Marine. Presenting my as-of-yet unnamed Inquisitor of the Ordo Malleus, up to her ankles in AK-Interactive's Wet Ground diorama texture.





Mostly constructed from plastic Death Korps of Krieg and various assorted components from Space Marine sprues. Her head is a Forge World Stormcast Eternals piece and her backpack is from the original metal Kasrkin.

Stay tuned for more...

[Narric]

Cool new project, and interesting Lore :3

[Cammerz]

And now for my Inquisitor's first big friend, the Captain of my Outcast Anvils.

On the tabletop he will be given the Forge Master Warlord Trait and the relic, The Salamander's Mantle. Toughness 7 and -1 to enemy wound rolls means that you'd need a Banesword's Quake Cannon to wound him on any less than a 4+

The model is almost entirely the new Gravis Captain, with only the additions of the scaly loincloth that I ordered from Spellcrow (one of nine so I plan to give them to all of the Marines) and the hand emerging from the mud which was a spare component I had left lying around after giving my Eldar Corsair Felarch a power sword.






The chapter icon started off very simplistic, I thought that a downfacing triangle would work as a stylised anvil. I messed around with a small rectangle as a base for the anvil but it never really worked. Some friends suggested that it needed a little something else and I eventually settled on half of an iron halo transfer. The triangle itself is the top part of a tactical squad icon (Battleline to the new kids) from the Tome Keepers transfer sheet that came in a couple of issues of White Dwarf, the icons will appear in their entirety on the right shoulder pads of my upcoming line infantry.

The cloak took some thought as I'm not at all experienced with greenstuff besides filling in small gaps so I decided to try some Agrellan Earth texture paint on some spare Stormcast Eternals and the effect seemed to work. I tried it a little thicker on the Gravis Captain's cloak and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

Coming next will be the Heavy Intercessors. Watch this space...

[Cammerz]

And here they are, the line infantry of the Outcast Anvils. As there are so few of them I have been painting each model individually rather than in a batch. It may have taken longer but I have preferred it and it probably kept my motivation up. It certainly helps that each model isn't that time consuming as, unlike the Carmine Blades, I'm not layering every individual armour panel.





As they come in the Heavy Intercessor box with the only addition of the Spellcrow loincloths.

While painting this unit I began to consider the squad and company markings of the Outcast Anvils. I want to stick quite closely to the Codex Astartes for this one but instead of the trims of the shoulder pads being in the company colour, I have opted to show it with the battlefield icon instead (tactical arrow for Battleline, assault symbol for Close Support, devastator for Fire Support, skull for Command). By having black symbols with white squad numbers (both from the Tome Keepers transfer sheets that came with a couple of White Dwarfs), I have marked these out as the 5th company. In addition, I have decided that the sergeants will be marked out my having the company colour instead of the usual drab green for their helmets.

As they're designed as if purging heretics alongside an Inquisitor and, presumably, the local Imperial Guard, I decided to go all out on relics and purity seals. Not a single model will be without both in this army, although the next model will almost be a Relic in its own right, stay tuned.

[Cammerz]

Well that didn't take too long;

Presenting my Ironclad Dreadnought:






As the toughest of all Dreadnoughts I decided that the Ironclad fitted best with the Outcast Anvils. Whilst the background for the chapter mostly revolves around the Firstborn banishing the Primaris to a world of total war, such an policy is likely to have its detractors and this is as good a way as any to make them disappear too.

I intend to put him on the table with the weapon loadout from the first image but I figured I might as well paint both as you don't need to glue any of the arms in place. I also magnetised the waist for limited posability but the bond isn't very strong so after their first outing on the battlefield tomorrow I might just decide to pick a pose and glue the sarcophagus to the waist.

The hunter-killer missile array is constructed from the magna-grapple from a Blood Angels Furioso Dreadnought with the warheads of the actual Ironclad's HKs sliced off and attached to the component.


And so, my first 500pts of Outcast Anvils are complete, here's a group photo to celebrate...

[Narric]

Continued excellent work, Cammerz!

[Cammerz]

Update time:

There isn't currently a datasheet for a Chaplain in Gravis Armoutr but I wasn't going to let that deter me. They do have a datasheet for a Chaplain in Terminator Armour and they're roughly the same build so fluff-wise he's in one suit of armour and crunch-wise he's in another.

I had a trio of push-fit Aggressors lying around (the other two will eventually join a fresh box of three to create a unit of five, gotta have those flame weapons) and the Sergeant seemed sufficiently laden with relics to be my base model. I swapped his arms out for some Dark Angels Terminator arms with Heavy Intercessor shoulder pads (it turns out that Gravis marines and Terminators have the same size shoulders) and removed the ammo drums on the Aggressor backpack in favour of basic exhaust vents that I took from a standard Intercessor backpack. The head is from a Primaris Reiver and the bannerpole is either from the Mk III or Mk IV Horus Heresy marines.

Enjoy;