For Isstvan III, I am collecting a Loyalist Emperor’s Children army led by Saul Tarvitz. Saul has been my favorite character from the early Heresy. I have always been drawn to the tragic hero that is willing to sacrifice everything to do what is right. I started building a similar army back around 2014, but with mostly 40K models and a rattle can purple. This time I wanted to do something more in-depth, and it coincided with the release of the official model.
For 30K, I usually take a look at the army rules to get an idea of what kind of army I want to build. With a legion army, I usually build around a specific Rite of War I find interesting. Most of the legion-specific models are amazing, so I often try to work them into the army. If I don’t want to use the specific units, I still may use the models as I have for my Terminators in this particular army. I am more into building and painting models than I am playing, but I like the idea that I might have a competitive army.
My color scheme is a metallic purple. I am using Eidolon Purple over silver with a bit of Golden High Flow transparent purple with Scale 75 Inktense Violet in the shaded areas. This creates a much cooler purple to contrast with the warmer Eidolon. I am using the Maru Skara RoW to embody Saul Tarvitz’s besieged force conducting one of their many flawless counterattacks on Isstvan III. I see the army evolving slowly. I have had trouble staying focused on one project, so I keep deliberately (and not so deliberately) rotating projects to maintain my motivation.
The initial goal is 1500 points of a playable Centurion or Centurion-plus force.
Eventually, I would love to have a playable 2500-3000 point army. This army is one of my slowest to paint, but the models are amongst my favorite once they are complete.
In January, I painted a Tactical Squad (filled out from what was originally a stock Vet Tac Squad), a Rhino, a Contemptor, a Command Squad, and an HQ that started years ago as my second Tarvitz kitbash built around the Eidolon model. In this list, I will probably run it as a Champion, which is a compulsory choice for my RoW. I started a bunch of other stuff before I lost steam. In March, I finished a Terminator Squad (using Phoenix Terminator bodies) and an Assault Squad. This filled my standard Force Org and brought me to about 1250 points.
Coming into the New Year, my budget was pretty out of control. I have since given myself a 50 Euro weekly limit, so we will see how that goes. I have several armies I am jumping around between, so something I have in mind for one project might end up getting sucked into another. If I am shopping for something, I will look for deals on eBay and bits sites and explore third-party options. I try to find the cheapest way to build something while balancing it in a way that will still look good. In the end, there are just some things I feel like I need to get from Forge World.
I retired from the U.S. Army last year, and my number one responsibility now is working on my Masters. That leaves me quite a bit of time to paint on most days. I set the goal at the beginning of the pandemic to really push my painting to the next level. I think I have done that.
I put quite a bit of time into developing a paint scheme. I usually look for something I like that I can copy and then adapt to my own needs. I have a paint log in a binder that I keep notes and reference pages. This allows me to return to projects later and maintain a uniform paint scheme. One of the cool modeling things I have done with this army is a squad of the new Skyseeker Jetbikes converted from the Custodian Guard bikes. I am not the first person to do this, but I did a similar conversion for my Dark Angels last year, and they look sharp. I just need to finish painting them…
I have not played any games. I live in Germany, so we have been under some of the tightest restrictions. I have found a group that I plan to fall in with once it becomes possible. To be honest, although I have been building Heresy armies since 2014ish, I have never played a game of Heresy. However, I have played 40K going back to 6th ed, so the gameplay isn’t completely foreign.
Next, I want to finish up my Tarvitz model and the Skyseeker Jetbikes. That should get me to right around 1500 points. After that? I don’t really know. I eventually want to do my version of Ancient Rylanor, but I need to fit that into my budget first.
