One of the
most interesting aspects of the Black Legion is that they aren't just
a corporate rebrand of the Sons Of Horus. Rather, whilst a lot of
them originated in the Sons Of Horus, they're recruited from all nine
traitor legions and a few other places besides. Aaron Demski-Bowden
in his two Black Legion novels includes in his dramatis personae
notes on which world the cast members were “born of”. Since their
origins inform a lot of their personality and how they interact with
other characters this is a useful list to have around.
It also
means that Black Legionnaires can be more than just bog standard
Chaos Space Marines (because I hate the bog standard Chaos Marine
models).
I had an
idea a few weeks aho to build some Chaos Marines using Betrayal At
Calth Marines and Raptor heads. My idea was that being on the bottom
of the ladder favour of the Gods-wise they wouldn't be that changed.
Also because they'd be armed with bolters and so nothing I did to
their bodies would be that visible. As you can see, it worked... sort
of.
They look
good but, probably because I used Raptors, they don't look as
“generic” as I'd hoped. Instead, what I clearly have is a unit of
Night Lords or, to put it another way, Black Legion born of Nostramo.
So, not the replicable conversion I was hoping for but one that gives
me a distinctive, characterful little unit.
So I started
tinkering. I had a plastic Chaos Lord left over from Terminator Lord
Cadre box I got to make some Forge World Plague Terminators and a set
of MkIII Space Marines picked up cheap on eBay. The Chaos Lord ended
up hybridised with some Chaos Terminator parts (I don't like any of the
actual Lord heads) and a MkIII thunder hammer to make my General for
missions too unimportant for Abaddon to deal with:
I rather
like how the thunder hammer looks, even though I did have to try and
get the two hands as far apart as possible so people wouldn't notice
the different sizes. I am currently resisting naming him after Donald
Trump. Anyway, he's born of Olympia because I rather like the idea of
Abaddon noticing the ability of an Iron Warrior since that was the
whole motivation for their fall (and because Perturabo is actually
really, really bad at noticing the abilities of those serving in his
legion because irony).
Finally, I
traded for some spare Skullcrusher heads and turned the MkIII Marines
into a unit originating in the World Eaters legion. I gave them a
long range load out because a) I don't have enough close combat
weapons for a whole MkIII squad and I'm not paying Forge World prices
for parts that will be distorted beyond use and b) it occurs to me
that an Iron Warrior would prize self-control so this squad would
have to be not frothingly insane to keep their place in his warband.
He's getting
recognition, it might have lightened him up but he's not going to any
less of a controlling, micro-managing bastard. He's an Iron Warrior,
after all.
