Contextualising My Praetorians (and a Big Gun Emplacement)

Well, it has been quite a break between solid painting posts. This blogging drought ends here! Starting this month I will attempt a feat that I have never achieved ever in my last 4 years of blogging... I will blog weekly painting posts. {gasp} I'm know right, a very dangerous deed! I don't know how long it will last but there will be no retreating! 

In this post I painted up my Earthshaker Cannon, but what this post is really about is the symbols and icons that I have added to my Praetorian force. Lately, I have been putting large emphases on making sure that my armies have a strong identity. For my golden Necrons this has been through the elaborate city terrain that represents their crown world. Praetorians by themselves have a strong theme but I wanted to introduce a few icons to the army to cement their character and identity across the force.

One of my favourite Forge World campaign books is IA 12 ‘The Fall of Orpheus’. The background section is superb and I am a big fan on the new campaign army lists. The Necron Dark Harvest list is the basis of my golden Necron force allowing me lots of flayed ones, while the DKoK Assault Bridge heavily influenced my home brewed Cavalry Codex. [edit: I know the new Necron codex is out today but I have no idea how my force will adapt just yet]. It seems fitting then that I should set my heroic Necron v Praetorian war in the Orpheus sector. It may be part of the final Orpheus Salvation campaign or possibly one of the earlier campaigns in the history of the Orpheus sector. Passably at the conclusion of the Orphean War of Faith? Either way, the Praetorian campaign will be an off shoot of the main force which are fighting over a Necron Crown World tomb city. Did they stumble across it by chance? Were they sent there on a special mission? I haven’t decided yet. But I do know that whatever happened there was significant enough to be completely removed from all Imperial records (save maybe a lone document sealed away deep in an inquisitional vault somewhere).

 

Of course none of that really matters, the point is that I decided to paint the Orpheus Sector Campaign badge on to my Praetorians units to signify what they are doing and where they are in the galaxy. I was not entirely sure that it was something that was within my skill level. After all, it is pretty complicated. One Saturday morning I rallied my courage, picked up an Earthshaker (giving me a nice big flat area) and gave it a crack.

I lightly panted it first in white, then went over the top in black and finally filled in the centre with a dark grey. The Orpheus temple in the centre is not perfectly cantered but all in all I called it a success. The next thing that I wanted to give my Praetorians was a nice looking Praetorian Army badge. I really liked the red lion that identifies the Praetorians on the art by the ‘40k Campaign’ group.  Colonel Winterborne has done some fantastic free hand painting on his Praetorians too. Inspired by this I thought I’d give a big red lion a try next.

(here is some of the art from 'Warhammer 40k Campaigns')

I started lightly in white.

The red was a little dark in places so I went over it again in white (err, pink) to get a nice bright red.

With the red lion done I thought I’d better push on and finish off the rest of the Earthshaker too! 

Pulling out my transfer sheets I tossed on an eagle.

Black and white kill marking was a must.

Stuff up the first one. I was using "Micro Set" and I was not prepared for how much it softened the transfer. 

Take two. Got it this time!

I added the gun number on the left and suddenly it started to look a bit crowed on the shield... 

So I took the eagle off again.

Gotta have some barrel text! "contritio a praetorianis" should translate to "destruction guard" or "destruction by the Praetorian". I was aiming for the latter.

And "Praetoria CXXII" for the 122nd regiment.

Next I gave it all a heavy weathering with Forge World powders and sealed it with a wash.

There is still a bit to go on this but it is mostly there. First up will be a dull coat spray, then some equipment and shells on the base and finally some crew. A few days later I wasn't 100% happy with the lion. Not enough to wipe the whole thing and start again mind you! Still I wanted to get the lion looking right for the next project. To practice I grabbed a little plastic tent and attempted another red lion.

First time the legs were wrong.

But I got it eventually.

I was much happier with the new proportions of the lion and so I decided this would be my 'template' for the next time I paint it. Immediately after this I pulled out a whole bunch of Praetorian things and started painting red lions on them. I'll show you a few of those next week.

Until then, 
Tally ho.