On the Table: Legio Custodes

So its been a while since i worked on this project, so today i thought it was time to revisit it!

I've assembled another 2 Custodians today. You'll also notice the scenic bases that i got from Scibors as well; Ancient Ruins is what i think they're called!

I painted one of the bases up as well, as the first Custodian is currently baseless! When i selected these bases i was thinking about the war in the Webway that the Custodians were fighting during the Heresy. The Horus Heresy artbooks are packed full of great images illustrating this, and theres a few in there of ancient Eldar cities. This was the basis of my choice, and its been painted accordingly.

I've used very mute, wrathbone-like colours here, and just washed it in Gryphonne Sepia to make it look a little aged. I didnt want to go mad on the base and then distract from the model itself, so i kept it simple. Here it is with the first Custodian on it:

As i was working i was trying to decide what i was trying to achieve with these models (display, gaming, etc) Initially i wrote a list based on the vanilla Marine codex, which was fine, but now theres a Grey Knights codex coming I'm thinking about using that! It does, of course, all depend on whats in it! The thinking was that the Legio Custodes are the Emperors finest, the best-of the best-of the best, and them some! Only they can be entrusted with the protection of the Emperor. With all this in mind, a Vanilla Marine list doesn't really do them justice does it? Also i didn't want to be building and converting squad upon squad of these guys to try and make a list that works. A codex based on an Elite strike force would suit the Custodes much better i think - and cut down on lengthy modeling and painting time by needing fewer models!

Then i started thinking about the thing that got me into a Custodes army in the first place - a Legio Custodes Thunderhawk! Yeah, that'll be pretty impressive! I'm not sure why i thought of this, even before id thought about the Custodians themselves, but it really got the ball rolling on this project. With this in mind i decided that i wanted my whole force to be transported in the Thunderhawk, and it has a transport capacity of 30 models. This gives me a nice guide for the number of models I'm going to do. 30's still a lot but I'll use it as an absolute limit. Its going to be the ultimate reward for getting all the infantry done for this army! It'll only come out for Apoc games of course, but the image of a golden Thunderhawk packed with shiny Custodians swooping onto the field is great! But that's a long way off yet.....

The GunGrave