The Beard Bunker

I started a new army this year, and it's definitely not a Chaos army. How could it be? They don't worship Chaos. Sure, they use Chaos, but so do some radical Inquisitors. They're not an Imperial army either; their ancestors besieged Terra beneath Perturabo's banner, before they scorned him and went off to found their own pocket empire. Ten thousand years later, their descendants know very little of the wider galaxy. The history of Horus' rebellion has long blurred into vague myths. They have endured through industry, discipline, and a proud martial tradition. Millennia of war against the encircling Orks has forged a society capable of withstanding constant strife. In today's post I'll introduce this new force, explaining the choices I've made so far, how they're painted, and broad plans for the future.

Greetings, fellow fans of evil teleport-capable slabs of excessive violence. I bring to you our preferred vehicle for such things... an upsettingly large amount of Word Bearers Terminators: Nothing like a freshly defiled church to whet the appetite for a bit of the ol' ultraviolence Yep! As is often my wont, I decided not to do things by halves, no mucking around with a compact, bijou support unit of termies, ohhhhh no. Big ol' brick of 10. As party favours go, that and a pair of Obliterators really make a spicy deep strike offering. They had their maiden run this weekend having been finished at pretty much the 11th hour and were a distressingly destructive presence all round. The dark gods are thoroughly delighted with my offering. First squad, the up close and personal one, very fond of flames I should caution you all, I ought to come with a warning label that reads "will wax rhapsodic about terminators with little provocation". I've always loved them, even whe...

They come with chainaxe, they come with bolters, they come with faith and with their neverborn allies, and now, the biggest assholes in all the galaxy [citation needed] come with far too many spaceships. Yep! It's time that the Word Bearers took to the stars. Being the narrative obsessives that we are, the Beard Bunker crew really, really like a lot of the "auxilliary" games to 40k. We like being able to play out all the story aspects, defending planets, establishing air superiority (if only Chaos had made it to Aeronautica Imperialis before it's demise, if only...), all that stuff we love. Were I a betting man, I'd put money on the most beloved auxilliary game being Battlefleet Gothic. The late lamented game of spaceship combat. Fortunately for us, even in these days of long gone miniatures, the rise of 3d printing and some seriously talented digital sculptors (in this case, the excellent ItalianMoose) give us the chance to continue playing this essential narra...

Greetings fellow pals of the Primordial Annihilator! It's been a hot minute since any of the glorious sons of Lorgar have graced the august pixels of this digital journal. I'd kinda fallen off the Chaos wagon a bit; painting four thousand points of the nutcases will do that. But having finished the first phase of the Kessarine I was getting the urge to evil again... and what better evil than giant metal dinosaurs filled with the animating spirit of daemonkind? Since minute one of collecting Word Bearers I knew that I wanted absolute stacks of daemonstuff in the army. After all, we're not even "Chaos is a tool for use" types, we're "Chaos is our bestest friend" types. With a Venomcrawler and sort of a Defiler under my belt it was time to tackle some of the bigger beasts. I knew I wanted one of each of the Maulerfiend and Forgefiend so took the perhaps rash decision to paint 'em as a pair. I'm honestly impressed by how different they've...

Welcome, fellow traveller on the tides of fate, we are looking today at some Rubric Marines dedicated to that trickiest of gods Tzeentch... but just a little bit twisted... I've said before in this august journal of nerdy knowings that I intend to have one of each of what I call the "God Squads" in the army. I've so far got Noise Marines and Plague Marines sorted, and they're pretty easy to fit into the "Mystery Cults" vibe that I had going. The Berserkers I was waiting on for the new kit and I'm glad I did. That leaves just the Rubric Marines of Tzeentch. Huh. How the hell was I going to make them work in the army? The tl;dr of Rubric Marines is that they were all created by Ahriman and are all Thousand Sons. They're literally just animated suits of armour filled with the dusty remains of the former occupant. So I needed something that would mimic the same vibe, but with a Word Bearers twist. Finally, the answer came to me: Necromancy. Yep, a...

Greetings fellow devotees of the Plague Father, even as I become more immune to our bloated lord's latest and most irritating creation I nonetheless serve him. By painting some of his most devoted servants, the Plague Marines of the corrupted Astartes. These are powerfully hard to photograph well... Yes, the latest "God Squad" of the Graven Star chapter of Word Bearers are complete and ready to share their special presents with you all! First, lets have a little natter about the Plague Marines kit and what I did with it. Once I realised how I was going to incorporate the various elite squads into the army I knew I wanted to use the Plague Marine kit to represent the Grandfather's chosen. Trouble is, the Plague Marines are... how can I put this politely... a little cartoony in places? Having a good hard stare at the sprue pictures I figured I could "dial them back down to 11" and make it so that they looked like they fitted in with the more restrained normal ...

Throw horns Chaos fans! It's time for the second best* battlefield band in the 41st millenium. They come, heralded by the screaming of infernal chords, the Noise Marines of Slaanesh! Yep! I wanted some "god squads" among my pantheistic Word Bearers. More about that later. For now, lets talk about the models. These are the Forgeworld Kakaphoni from the Heresy line. They've been a bit modified with chaos backpacks and the occasional shoulder pad but essentially "as sold". I just love the look of their sonic blasters much more than the old metal upgrade set. That having been said... you'll notice a metal blastmaster (unnacountably absent from the Forgeworld set) among the weapons. Mercifully it fits very nicely on to the new marines and makes a lovely companion to the sonic blaster design. I knew I wanted to use the disturbing doom siren head and backpack on the champion (makes up a nice Slaaneshi six see) and was perusing the wargear options and saw that ...