A Tyrant’s Legion – An Astral Claws Army | Scorpius GLC's World of Wargaming

Ok, the cat is out of the bag………..I have fallen off the wagon……….I am doing 40k again!

My brother and a few of the guys and gals from Portal Wargaming laid down the challenge, had I still got it in me to build, paint and play Games Workshop, build, paint and play a mass model not skirmish game?

So not one to back down I decided I would work on a new Warhammer 40,000 project. So I wanted power armour but I wanted to prove I could still paint more than a skirmish style force so scoured through my Imperial Armour books for a project……one stuck out………. Astral Claws, more specifically a Tyrant’s Legion!!! This is a variant army list included in the Imperial Armour Vol.9 Book – The Badab War Part 1. It is a combined arms of guard and marines, not their full lists but for an example I have to have a 20 man sqd of guardsmen as a base for the list and can have better trained guardsmen (storm troopers) and marines! The marines use the guard as a meat shield and get +1 to their cover saves if the shot goes through a guard squad!!!!!

This will be a slow grow poject and I had decided that it was an Imperial Armour list and as such would need to include some Forge World models/parts in the army……..I love the Forge World Resin Stuff!!! The first step would be a 500pts nearly all Auxilia Guard force, followed by a 750pts force, 1000pts and finally a 1500pts army. As per my usual rules I want each stage to be fully painted before I start playing games with it!!!

Now as I write this, Games Workshop have just released a teaser video telling us that Warhammer 40,000 6th Edition is to be released on the 23/06/12 so my best laid plans might just need rethinking. I mean we could be looking at an increase in average game size, the force organisation chart being replaced with percentages, who knows what else!!!

I for one am actually excited and want to get my army painted so I can play games as the new edition is released!!!!

So what have I done so far????

I have built and painted 2 HQ Choices, the first is an Astral Claws Centurion, I converted this model out of parts from the Dark Angels Sprue, Space Marine Command Sprue, Devastator boxed set & the Black Templars Character High Marshal Helbracht. This model isn’t actually in my 500pts list by I wanted to test paint a model before committing to the army choice!!

The second is a Auxilia Guard Command Sqd and is made from a Titan Princep and 4 Rogue Trader era Guardsmen!!!

I have built and painted a troops choice, this one is a compulsory choice in the list and is an Auxilia Guard squad.

I have just placed an order with Forge World which contains some Astral Claws Shoulder Pads, Astral Claws Transfer sheet and a Leman Russ Exterminator turret, when this arrives I will be able to finish assembly of my second Troops Choice – a Space Marine Cohort Squad. So while I wait patiently for my order I set about painting a couple of things that aren’t in my initial lists but will allow for variation as time goes on. The first of these pieces is an Heavy Support Choice in the form of a Vindicator, this pic is a WIP shot as the finished model will be weathered around the bottom with the dust of the plains but can’t be done until the transfers are applied!!