Summer Painting - 30k Iron Hands - Medusan Immortals

Some Medusan Immortals for the 10th Legion - loyalist troops for 30k gaming.

The deep summer has arrived in Canada! When July and August roll around, my wife and I try and spend as much time as we can at our cabin in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario. We have a little place on the eastern side of Whitefish Bay of Lake Superior, and it is probably my favourite place in the world. It's a great place to relax, visit with family, and do cabin-type-things like swimming, kayaking, riding ATVs and other stuff.  But it's also a great place to paint! I don't paint as much during the summer, as the outdoors take precedence, but I do try to bring a nice stash of stuff with me to make progress on.  This summer I thought I would try to get some more 28mm 30k stuff painted.

Bionic arm visible for the trooper on the right...meanwhile the fellow on the left is going action-movie-style...one arm with the bolt gun, shield down...

And I have made some progress! Here is a 10-man squad of "Medusan Immortals" from the 10th Legion, the Iron Hands. Yes...some loyalists! 

A lot of character and detail on these fantastic sculpts...I loved painting them.

The Medusan Immortals are troops who have, in some way, failed the Iron Hands (I assume this failure somehow occurred in battle, but maybe they just brought Ferrus Manus cappucino when he had wanted a latte).  These disgraced warriors join the ranks of the Medusan Immortals, and as part of these units, embrace the toughest battle assignments, hoping to win back their honour and place in the Legion.

For the sergeant I swapped in an officer's head from a Mark III power armour suit.

The Medusan Immortals are kitted out as breaching marines.  The sculpts are excellent, with a lot of character.  They have embossed shoulder plates, and really snazzy embossed boarding shields. The figures also show a lot of bionics - there are many replacement legs and arms, and several of the helmets have cable connections pointing to some bionic replacement bits on the warriors' heads.

The level of bionic replacement is consistent with the background of the 10th Legion - supposedly noted for their near-mechanicum-level familiarity and favour of technology.  It could also be meant to show the "failure" that led the Legionnaire to join the ranks of the Immortals in the first place involved heavy battle damage...sounds like a rough gig!

Flamer-armed legionnaire ready to support his fellow Immortals.

The figures also have lots of spare ammo clips and grenades attached - overall, they are a menacing sort of forlorn hope.  I really liked these figures, and I'm glad I have another 10 to paint. 

Graviton gun can be seen on the trooper in the middle...

This first squad is equipped with bolt guns, and supported by a flamer and the whacky graviton gun. They will give a tough fight on the table (doomed, of course, because they are loyalists, after all), and will join the small force I started painting during Curt's most recent painting challenge once I get back to Winnipeg.

Summer Reading
 

The Siege of Terra begins with "The Solar War" by John French...

I've also got some summer reading going too.  The Horus Heresy novel series is finally, after what seems like about 378 books,  moving to the story at last to the Siege of Terra. I picked up a copy of "The Solar War", the first book touching on the siege, written by John French (author of the amazing "Praetorian of Dorn").  It was...OK...a solid 'C+'.  YMMV.  There are many cool parts to the book - I love the description of Terra and the situation in the Solar System during the heresy. But there are also too many Primarchs and their assorted silliness. And while I hope I don't give anything away, the big plot twist is not at all a surprise if you have read "Prospero Burns"...it was easy to see coming.

But hey - we all have different things we like, so I still encourage you to check out the novel.  It will help inspire 30k and 40k painting if nothing else!

I do sort of wonder why GW doesn't have any other Siege of Terra stuff out to accompany this book though...nothing special from Forgeworld, or another Horus Heresy box game...like, the Siege of Terra is THE penultimate moment of the Horus Heresy...that should be a bigger deal.  GW is strangely siloed, it seems...why would you have a box game for the stupid Ultramarines, but no game for the actual Seige of Terra?

Hey, wait, there is something new coming for Adeptus Titanicus! Oh, wait...just more Knights... 

But GW has released something else kind big this summer...

New Edition of Apocalypse
 

Some new rules from GW to contemplate...

Some other summer reading - GW has issued another set of "Apocalypse" rules for 40k. I'll say more about this in a separate post but...while the price is, of course, appalling, these rules look really, really cool...yes, that's right...I think they have something potentially awesome here for us...

Thanks for visiting - I hope everyone is having a great summer, wherever you are!

A sunset at the cabin...have a great summer, everyone!