Legion of the Damned

Hey chaps, I have yet another new project starting!


For some time, I've had a cupboard filled with bits boxes, and a lot of those bits are the leftovers of my long ago Space Marine armies.

So I started looking at what I can do with all those pieces.

Then earlier this year I ran the 40k side of the Pompey Pillage, and saw a Legion of the Damned army being used, and fell in love. Not like my Dark Eldar love, but a slight lust anyway.
So I started seeing how many marine bodies I could put together, and a plan was formed.

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By NO stretch of the imagination is this a decent army list I've planned out, but at 1800pts I can get two detachment in and a decent number of Legion.

It comes down to two more or less identical detachments. Each has one 10 man squad with an Animus Malorum, and three 5 man squads. Squads all have nice weapons, heavy weapons, and a Sergeant with Power Weapon or Power Fist. Combi-Weapons also a must.

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Early models follow:




So, at first, its a base of basic Marine bodies.
These are quite rough of course, not perfectly cleaned, but that at this stage is intentional.
You can see here some of the special and heavy weapon guys, and the 8 sergeants.
I've started doing a few of the flamy ghost effects which will be a core part of the army (I plan to paint as ghosts).

Thats a great idea; The Legion of the Damned have great fluff, and though you can get figures, they are not cheap.

A great way to use boring old marines too.

My bits box has yielded glorious results.

I have discovered enough torsos and legs for the entire army. Arms are questionable, as are weapons, but for now we have good progress.

More progress has in fact occoured, and resulted in these:



So here were have the eight squad sergeants.
Top left is one of the two with the Animus Malorum, then we have three Power Weapons, followed by three Power Fists, and then the third Animus Malorum.
Each Sergeant has a Combi-Weapon of some kind, a mix of Plasma and Melta weaponry.
You can see here an advancement on the previous images, in that I've atarted more work on sculpting the fire effect. I think from these you can see how the fire is starting to shape up - at this stage of course these are just the large licks of flame. Several smaller licks will be added to finish out the effects once the larger licks are complete.



Here we have most of the special weapons Marines.
Three Flamers and a Plasmagun at the top (with an OLD Ork Plasmagun because it was all I had), followed by two Multi-Meltas, two Heavy Flamers, and then three Heavy Bolters.
As with the Boltgun parts of the Sergeant Combi-Weapons, all barrels have been drilled out where appropriate.
I've had to use what heavy weapons I had available, which is why the three Heavy Bolters are so varied, and why the two Multi-Meltas are from Land Speeders, and the Heavy Flamers from Sentinels.
There's some fire work started here, but the main issue that came out was a lot of the Marine arms I still have lying around are broken or imperfect, so these imperfections will be covered with the sculpted fire effect.
I've decided to leave shoulder pads off completely, both for streamlining (the area being covered with flames instead) and to save on finding enough pads.

One of the sergeants reasonably complete from a modelling perspective, so I've done the first bits of painting and thought I'd throw it up.
It gives a very good idea of how the rest of the army will turn out.

Ghostly!

Looks good. Very good!

MMmm, they certainly would not look like normal marines but I would go with the traditional bones on black armour wreathed in red flames....that way everyone will know who they are!

I have a few metal LotD shoulderpads...would you like them?

I love the legion since they first popped up forever and a day ago. Back when space marine was one army lol. Anyway I always like the idea of using a spinal column down the center of a land speeder. Also using a chrome silver with a chrome red and a little dry brush orange at the ends of the Armour pieces makes a great "on fire" look

Thanks for the comments guys.

@Tengu, thanks for the offer, but I'm happy as is. I'm going over the shoulders with the flames anyway, so I'm not actually using shoulder pads!

I've finally got some updates.

First of all, the original guy all done:



I went simple for the bases. I've decided to go with the slightly larger base to cover myself in case there is a change (and if not, oh well), and again been quite lazy on the basing itself. I've pretty much stuck the base to textured floor tiles and then cut around them for the right shape.
Eh. It works for me.

I've got two more of the unit Sergeants done too:



So on the left we have a Combi-Melta/Power Fist combo, and on the right a Combi-Plasma/Animus Malorum set.

I'm liking the look more now that more of them are finished up and standing next to each other, so I'll try to power through with a few more soon. There's a bit of a slog to work through doing all the flame effects bit by bit, so its slow going.

@barenone I wish I could go that sort of route! But I'm sticking to a proper LotD Detachment, so I don;t have the option!

These looks superb squid!

I wish I had as much converting and modelling talent as you have in your little finger! The flames are really very very good.

I will have to get myself across to pompey and hope to see them in the flesh perhaps!

Look forward to seeing how this pans out boss.

Dragontree wrote:

I will have to get myself across to pompey and hope to see them in the flesh perhaps!

I can certainly find a way to make you welcome! (arthough this army only has THREE completed models, and won't be on a table or in a viewable position for a LONG time).

Compared to my other stuff, this is a REALLY slow build....

anyway, finally got some more to add.
Two more Sergeants and the first heavy weapons Legionaire.

New additions!

First of all, a Heavy QWeapojns trooper, Sergeant and classic era Plasmagun wielder!



Adding on to that two more of thre heavy Bolter troopers and another Sergeant:



And lastly a Multimelta trooper and another Sergeant with Power Fist:




All in all, a good batch to add, more than doubling the current count.

More troopers in the works of course, and hopefully I'll be able to add some basic level Boltgun wielding Legionnaires soon.

I want those. -throws money at you-

Two Heavy Flamers and a Bolter Trooper:



And three Flamers:

They look good.

This is what makes me believe in humanity

I started work on one of the central pieces of the army.

Thematically, I didn't want the army to simply being the ghost chapter who appear and kill. I wanted a central figure for them to come to the aid of, and the best option for this was an Inquisitor.

An early version of the army list actually featured an Assassin, but I quickly chnged my mind and decided on the image of a lone Inquisitor standing against an enemy horde, suddenly finding the spectral forces of the lost Astartes charging alongside side like Aragorn and the Army of the Dead.

So I finally started working on the Inquisitor, in his Terminator Armour.
The model is actually based on one of the older plastic Termiantors cut up and reposed (which fits considering the best of the army are bits-box salvage too). The legs have been reposed, and the torso stripped down. You can see here the back have been completely flipped both to add bulk and to position the vents at the top where I just think they look better. It also gives more room for head in a style better resembling the Grey Knights. I've added a Power Armour torso just to get some variation on the chest plate emblem.
There's some green stuff work still to do to finish off the torso, but I'll also soon be starting the arms, which will feature a large, lovely Daemonhammer and a Psycannon.

And here is his hammer.

The head is a bit large, but I'm happy with it being oversized.

Inquisitor coming together, nearly done.

Here you can see the full body with hammer arm. The hammer really does look a little big....
Some green stuff smoothing still to finish on the body, then I'll add the second arm, seen here with its Psycannon.
Definitely think I'll add some more Inquisition paraphenalia, something to really add to his look.

The force finally has its central figure, the lone heroic Inquisitor standing against the tide of Chaos. Alone against an army, the spectral chapter will always come to his aid.



And here he is alongside the members of the Legion I've finished so far.



The army list has this guy as an Inquisitoral Detachment of his own, alongside two Legion of the Damned Detachment - each one ten man squad and three five man squads, all tooled up with heavy weapons, special weapons and well armed Sergeants, and each of the two Legion Detachments containing an Animus Malorum. The Inquisitor himself will be a Malleus Inquisitor, wielding the Tome of Vethric (random special rule depending on your opponent).

I have 15 more Legionnaires built and ready for painting, so this army is actually speeding towards completion!
After that, I have five more bodies built and ready (these waiting on a Multimelta and four Meltaguns to be found somewhere), and then I only need ten more standard Legionnaires, and these are on their way......



I can not wait to get these guy onto a table........

This is amazing. One of the best plogs on this site for me.

More stuff!

Two standard Troopers and the FINAL Heavy Weapon Legionairre! The final Multimelta joins the army!



And two more bolter Legionnaires and a Meltagun.



14 more are on the table mid-paint, meaning to finish off the entire 1800pts I just need to go out and pick up ten more Marine bodies.
To eBay!

Looks great.

"Ah screw it" I said, and continued painting.

Three Legionnaires:



Three more, including one Meltagun:



And three more:



Three more, plus another Meltagun:



And two more, making thirty:




Ten more needed, including one more Meltagun (weapon and body acquired already, just got to get legs, arms, and nine more guys).

Looking great Squidmaster - I really dig the monochrome paint job, and you picked an excellent colour. Very spectral.

Ia ia fhar n'gathlan p'glui Cthu-- sorry. I get a bit of an Elder Thing vibe from them, too

On the bases, though, I can't help but feel the white detracts from the models a bit, especially since the models themselves are quite light. Would you consider a darker base, potentially with some OSL to sell the ghost look? Personally I'd be tempted to try the classic sand painted dark grey with a couple of larger rocks, with green OSL highlights converging on the centre... if you happen to have an airbrush you could probably knock out a batch job for the whole army in a couple of afternoons!