Here comes the cavalry!

A Trench based army isn't complete without a good solid corps of cavalry! I converted these out of bretonnian cavalry but I didn't want them to look as baroque as those models do, so I chopped the lances off and used the billhooks from the men-at-arms kit to make them look more like light cavalry. The headswap was almost mandatory too, and I think the rebreathers look pretty cool too, they were pretty straightforward as well: just plasticard rod, an Imperial Guard grenade launcher bag and a bit of drilling. I would like to come back to these and do the other side as well, but at the moment I don't have enough of the bags.

These pictures don't really show it very well but I'm pretty happy with the converted flamer I put together for one of the cavalrymen. The long Imperial Guard infantry flamer looked too unwieldy to use on horseback so I cut it down and attached it to a sword arm at an angle I reckon works pretty well; it is then connected to the backpack using plasticard rod.

Thanks for reading, I hope to show an Aquila Lander conversion pretty soon.

Proof of Concept Ishtari Squad WIP

I've put together and painted in a basic way this squad to make sure the paint scheme and the conversions work, in my opinion they do! Not all of the details are on yet, I still need to do squad markings, small details and more facial detail but I'm pretty happy with the way the conversion looks; it's a pretty common Bretonnian Man-at-Arms with Cadian arms.

These guys are my Ishtari Trenchers and I think they look pretty good for what they are meant to be. I'm pretty chuffed with the palette and I'm looking forward to making a whole platoon of these guys!

This is my first attempt at decent basing using a kit I got from ebay a long time ago, I think I've pulled it off but I'm not entirely sure it looks that "trenchy".

Elements of the 31st Line Regiment take up positions.

Photos coming up today of either some WIP cavalry or a sentinel I've been working on.

I'm back, this time for good! (I hope)

I'm back! Let's do this!

In the past I have been really terrible with keeping up with projects like this one, I'm the same with forums: I'll do stuff on it for a while and then drift away again. Recently I've rediscovered my love for 40k and I've come back into the fold and hopefully I can stick to it this time! I'm still really hopeful for what I can do with this project and I hope I can combine models and fluff to a satisfying degree! I am aiming for at least one post a week and hopefully quite a few more; I'm moving into a new flat on Saturday and hopefully this will give me the kick in the arse I need to really get stuff moving again.

I'm going to post a few pictures of what I have painted and converted so far today and hopefully also flesh out some of the fluff involved in this campaign this week.

I really hope this blog can grow and flourish, and hopefully gain a few followers along the way if I can keep my posts regular!

Chapter Unapproved: Ishtari Trencher Legions

Homeworld: The Ishtari Trencher Legions hail from not one world but several, an oddity traceable all the way to the first founding of the legions. The Ishtari System is comprised of thirteen worlds, all of them at some point or another have been agri worlds during their time under the Imperium of Man although now only a handful are still fertile. The primary recruiting world are Ishtari IV, Ishtari V, Inner Artemhelt and Swann's Hope; although recruiting is done from all worlds that support life in one way or another. All homeworlds of the Ishtari Trenchers are fortress worlds and have been for millenia: each line of mud soaked trench having been dug and redug by hapless recruits countless times. These countless lines of trenches surround a number of military bases and starports, which in turn form formidable bastions in the center of a fortified hell.

Founding: After the tumultuous years of the Horus Heresy the Ishtari system was on the brink of annihilation. The formerly lush and verdant agri worlds towards the system’s core were devastated and ruined by war: where there once were technologically kept bio-gardens there were now horizons of mud, blood and rockcrete. The entire inner rim had been turned into a maze of trenches, bunkers and redoubts, with all semblance of agriculture buried beneath the toxic mud. It was in these stricken worlds that the newly appointed High Lords of Terra saw an opportunity: almost the entire population of the Ishtari Inner Rim were involved in the fighting in some way or another, it was seen as only the next logical step to induct huge swathes of them into a force for the newly baptised Imperial Guard. At the founding fields on Ishtari Prime -a world relatively unscathed by the conflict- Lord Commander Kardredt accepted the salute of over 750,000 men and women of the newly formed Ishtari Trencher Legions.

Recruitment Process: Recruits into the Ishtari Trencher legions have known their involvement in the Emperor's great work since they were able to comprehend it: at birth every other child is inducted into the Legions and is seperated from their family, being taken to giant schola-barracks where the recruits are taught the basics of literacy and numerical skills before being thrown into combat training aged 12. The men of the Ishtari Armies are heavily indoctrinated into the Imperial Creed and having spent 6 years training with their brothers and sisters at arms the fresh Legions are shipped out to warzones across the imperium, ready to fight and to die in the name of the Emperor.

Combat Doctrine: The forces of the Ishtari Trencher Legions are as their name suggests, primarily siege troops. The regiments of the Ishtari will wait for months or even years for adjoining regiments of artillery to pound enemy positions into submission before mounting a huge infantry attack supported by infantry tanks and mounted troops. Ishtari commanders at company level favour all out infantry attacks across the entire front directly into the teeth of the enemy guns, supported by indirect fire from mortars and heavier artillery. Ishtari generals also put particular emphasis on fortification and counter fortification in both attack and defense, with besieging troops often creating a ring of fortifications around enemy positions, even going so far as building huge bunker complexes and fortresses to suffocate besieging troops: forcing the defenders to go onto the offensive.

Organisation: Squads of the Legions are 10 strong as per imperial standard, led by a Trench Warden, the second lowest rank above trooper: the Trench Warden has few powers above ordering his squad. At platoon level the men are led by a Sector Warden, who has the power to order small scale raids and small fortification building in his sector of the line. Company level commanders are Line Wardens, granted powers to order larger raids, approve sapping works and to request artillery from rear echelons. At regiment level nobility is in charge and are given the title of Warden Primaris. These men are rarely seen at the front and are usually found hundreds of miles away from danger. These men have supreme executive power and can approve and deny all actions of the men under them. Command structures are rigorously and brutally upheld, disobedience and miscommunication are punishable by death; it is also necessary for units to get appropriate approval from commanders above them and personal initiative is heavily discouraged.

Combat Dress: Ishtari Legions are clothed in dark red longcoats of no standardized design, the nature of the warfare Ishtari troops engage in means it matters little what the individual trooper looks like: after the first day of combat the trooper is either covered in mud or dead. The troops also make limited use of armour, wearing brass coated plasteel helmets commonly favoured by siege troops for their wide brim, which provides excellent protection against fire from above. The shoulderpads are of a similar construction, with a band of usually drab colour used to denote regiment, with the number of the guardsman’s company written in the middle.

Not a massive post...

But I was messing about in Universe Sandbox and I drew up a little tiny map of the Solar System we'll be fighting in! Hoorah!

Introductions are in order!

Hello everyone! Recently depression has hit me back pretty hard and in response to this I thought I'd start a narrative led 40k army in an attempt to give me back some sort of drive and motivation.

This is an Imperial crusade force charged with taking back the embattled Ishtari system which has suffered an incursion of Chaos; overrunning a dozen worlds leaving the Imperium only a single besieged agriworld in the outlying edge of the sector. The siege has lasted four years before a collection of Imperial forces have been assigned a crusade to take back this vital sector, and on the last day of the fourth year of the siege planetfall is achieved and the fight for Ishtari has truly begun.

I wanted the crusade force to represent what I envisioned an Imperial Crusade to be: a rag-tag collection of fighting men from a variety of diferent worlds fighting together loosely under one flag. To achieve this, I knew I'd have to have a multitude of worlds from which my crusade forces were recruited: I wanted my army to look impressive and unified on the tabletop whilst looking like they'd been cobbled together by a general staff swamped in information. To this end, I present to you the first unit I've cooked up:

Crusade General and Petitioners (Command Squad) 117pts

Command Squad (50pts)
-Crusade Commander Lord Shultz (Company Commander with bolt pistol and Power Fist) +17
-Crusade Staffer Leon (Veteran with Company Standard)
+15
-Major Khunart of the 14th Ishtari Trenchers (Veteran)
+0
-Leiutenant Ortil of the 6th Karlonian Armoured (Veteran with Vox)
+5
-Chem-Lord Vorshtov of the 33rd Voltok Irregulars (Veteran with Medi-pack)
+30

From this you can see the (at least) three different forces I hope to unite under the banner of the Ishtari crusade! I've put a lot of thought into the Ishtari Trencher Legion in particular when dreaming up this scheme, so I think they'll be the first models I put together/provide information on. I think I'm a little infatuated by the Tanith "Lost Homeworld" tale, but I want to avoid the hopelessness and sadness of that particular story: to that end the Ishtari Trencher Legions are the hundreds of thousands of men levied from the system to fight elsewhere drafted into the fight for their homelands.I want this force to make up the bodies of the force, and I'll be making at least one Infantry platoon of them with accompanying heavy weapons (probably mortars).

After the Ishtari Trencher Legions (yeah I like the sound of that name), it seems like my ideas get a little bit vague. I definitely want to include a group of fanatics from some sort of Cathedral planet (do they exist in canon?) with some really obscure kit, I imagine a few squads of religious zealots maybe counting as penal troops supported by maybe a manticore decked out in religious and gothic finery. The Karlonian Armoured and Voltok Irregulars exist in name only, if anyone has any thoughts/opinions I'd love to hear them!