RPC – Yeomen Vigilant
Third place, which will be getting the 10-man Tactical Squad:
Submitted by David:
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Name: |
Yeomen Vigilant |
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Founding chapter: |
Imperial Fists |
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Founding: |
2nd Founding |
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Chapter Master: |
Ezekiel Toredor |
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Homeworld: |
Selentine |
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Fortress-Monastery: |
Selentine |
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Main colours: |
Red, Tan, Black |
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Specialty: |
Counter Attack |
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Battle Cry: |
"To this, the First Death!" |
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Estimated strength: |
6 companies, diminished first company ( dim 1st, 2nd, 4th,7th, 8th, 9th ) |
The Yeoman Vigilant Chapter is a second founding chapter of the Imperial Fists. Their homeworld, Selentine, is on the Eastern fringe. Their Fortress Monastery is in a desert garden, and is called Dark Eden. Those that come out of Dark Eden are outwardly straightforward, but always seem to have a hint of thought just out of reach.
Organization:
Yeoman initiates are chosen almost at random from an outside observer. The recruiters call it "Pruning the garden of humanity." Because of an overactive Catalepsen Node, all of the Chapter have recurring vivid dreams. These dreams shape the Chapter's decisions, and movements on a whole. Whenever a Yeoman suffers déjà vu when looking at a recruit, that recruit is accepted even if he does not pass trial. Each of these recruits, while taking longer to train, will be able to vivid dream almost immediately. Recruits are instructed by full initiates, often those with leadership value that have yet to make squad sergeant.
Chaplains make up the true leadership of the Yeoman Vigilant, as they are the interpreters of dreams and the guides of the Chapter. They, like in other Chapters, guide the spiritual heart, but they also guide the individual spirits of their wards. Chaplains guide scout sergeants, asking them to pay close attention to the dreams of the squad, making them become meticulous in their attention to detail both before and after their impants. Once the scouts become full-fledged Yeomen, they go directly to the chaplains of their company when their sergeant is unable to discern the meaning of the most recent vivid dream anomaly.
Librarians in the Yeoman Vigilant Chapter are kept apart from their battle brothers as soon as they are discovered, as a psyker a librarian can be known to influence the dreams of other battle brothers. The Chaplains of the company will make sure to separate the known psyker as soon as they can, so that the dreams of the company will not be influenced by a single yeoman.
Those that excel in leadership quickly go from Tactical sergeant to Veteran sergeant, and then into the Brotherhood (who have access to Terminator armour). Those in the Brotherhood can continue to lead their previous squad, or work as a brotherhood squad.
Before battle, any Yeoman may lead the litany of battle, if they feel so called. If that is well received, the chaplains will bestow litanies and prayer books on the chosen yeoman, and will fight with him in battle. If they find him lacking, they have him continue his studies. If he's found worthy, they bestow upon him black armour, and he will begin to be tutored directly by a senior chaplain for battle.
Colors:
The Yeoman Vigilant Chapter's colors are red, tan, and black, each significant to a battle-brother's life and training. As the chaplains teach, when a scout is chosen, he knows of the material plane, as the embodiment of reality; signified by tan, or sand coloring. And as the acolyte reaches scout level, he is bestowed blood red armour; for embodiment of self, knowledge of the body. When a scout is confirmed as a full battle-brother, he will receive black shoulderpads, showing that he has begun to learn the embodiment of death. As a brother fights more and more, he will be bestowed black armour plates, until he's accepted into the brotherhood, who wear all black, or the Chaplains, who wear black except for their white skull mask, noting the embodiment of the spirit.
The Marine pictured is a full battle-brother with at least twenty full scale missions completed.
Tactics:
The Yeoman Vigilant Chapter adheres to the codex astartes as a book of guidelines, and will adapt their tactics as they see fit guided by their dreams. More often than not, they will be in the right place at the right time for a counter charge, or show up to foil an enemy spearhead, with direction of the Chaplains, and they would be considered lucky if it did not continue to happen over and over again. Moderation in battle is something the chaplains teach early on, so the Yeoman do not have large numbers of either assault marines or devastators, they rely instead on the tactical marines.
Notable Members:
Chaplain Father Matthias is the oldest Space marine in the Yeoman Vigilant, who fought on Terra as an Imperial Fist before the Second Founding. His upper armour is white, noting his understanding of the embodiment of the spirit. He does not often lead as he is venerable for even a space marine, his skin feeling more like stone than leather. He is not one to be crossed, and the source of wisdom for the entire chapter. When he leads, it is because he's dreamt of the battle, and will override the chapter master's decisions. He is noted as a prophet, and will call a council of chaplains for study and scrutiny of certain details of the Chapter's dreams.
Ezekiel Toredor is the current Chapter Master for the Yeoman Vigilant Chapter, a recent addition after the previous chapter master, Argus Ulsus, led the spearhead assault against the Tyranid hiveship and ordered the battle barge entangled with it to self-destruct, lopping off the head of the Tyranid advance, and giving Imperial forces long enough to send reinforcements from navy shipyards in adjacent systems. Ezekiel is a competent leader who, while young for a Chapter Master, has charisma not seen in a Space Marine captain in quite some time. Whenever he meets an outside force commander, they cannot help but like him. This has helped when showing up seemingly randomly in the galaxy, to fight off a force that they did not even detect. He often wears brotherhood Terminator armour and wields a massive power mace.
Notable Campaigns:
Ork Invasion of Terminus Prima: 1st, 4th, and 8th companies deployed, Terminus Prima Held, Ork Waaagh continues to the galactic south.
Assault on Dark Eden: The Purged launch a lightning assault onto the fortress monastery, Chaplain Father Matthias and those under his command held the gates for twelve hours before reinforcements from nearby battle cruisers lifted the tide, 3rd company, 5th company completely lost.
Defense of Gratis Minor: 2nd company lands in system randomly a full week before tyranid hive ships appear in system. Tyranid fleet repelled, lost Cruisers "Dark Sword" and "Solomon's Redemption." Battle barge "Edenborn" badly damaged.
Crushing of Zarathian resistance: The campaign was only classified as a campaign after investigation. Not so much a series of battles, but a one-sided slaughter, tactical squads waded through ill-equipped, ill-trained resistance fighters, the inquisition later found the ritual site and plans for unleashing a daemon horde that was stopped by the 4th company. The 4th company after questioned was ignorant of any of the plans laid in Zarathia.
And the WIP (already primed and basecoated!):

Reverse Painting Contest!
Hey, remember me? Life has been crazy, and while I've had the chance to paint, I haven't really had the motivation to post. I have, however, been brewing up an idea in my brain stem! It's Christmas, and I'd like to give something away. I found a Battleforce for $90 and tossed the winnings from my last tournament at it, so in reality, it's wound up costing me $50. And in the spirit of giving, I'm going to run a contest and give it away!
Contest Details
What you have to do: Create a Space Marine chapter! And when I say "create," I mean from the ground up. Name, Colors and Herladry are the absolute minimum requirements, but this contest isn't going to be judged on looks alone - you need to flesh out the character of the chapter. If you want a good example of what I'm looking for, take a look at the Lexicanum entries on Doom Eagles, Mantis Warriors and Red Scorpions.
Note that this has to be an original work. Do not submit fluff for your version of the Ultramarines' 5th Company.
You don't need to provide every last detail about your chapter, but a good range of information is advisable. You'll also need to provide an image of a marine from your chapter - I highly recommend the Bolter & Chainsword Space Marine Painter.
If you've previously created a chapter and you think it's already pretty good, that's cool! Feel free to submit it.
So what's likely to win? I can't really say until I start seeing entries, but I'm looking for something that really carves itself out as original while still remaining true to the 40k/Space Marine essence.
PRIZES!
So I said this was a "reverse painting contest," right? Well, here's how the prizes work: Once I've chosen the winning entries, I will assemble and paint the stuff out of the Battle Force box in the colors and heraldry of the winners!
1st Place: Magnetized Rhino*
2nd Place: 10-man Tactical Squad
3rd Place: 5-man Assault Squad and 5-man Scout Squad
Just to be clear:
The prizes will come fully assembled and painted in the colors and heraldry of the winner of that prize!
And believe you me, I will be dipping deep into my bitz boxes to round these out. It's not going to be just the stuff I find in the Battleforce box. I've already grabbed a bunch of stuff to make everything look great.
I will keep as true to your created fluff as possible in regards to assembling and painting, but the customization will be all mine. Also, please let me know which Codex I should work from: Space Marines, Blood Angels, Space Wolves, Black Templars or Dark Angels. It shouldn't really matter, but you never know what crazy ideas I might get.
* When I say magnetized, I mean ready to turn into a Razorback/Whirlwind/Predator if you've got the bitz, and containing almost every option. It'll have a removable Storm Bolter and Hunter/Killer missile with option turret hatches, removable doors, etc.
Particulars
The contest runs from right now until December 31st, 2011.
Entries must be emailed to me, and must contain separate images of your marine and chapter symbol. Text should be in any format readable by Microsoft Word 2007 (copied into the body of your email is fine).
When you email me your entry, leave a post here letting me know, just in case my spam filter eats it.
If you've happened upon my site because of this contest, please join me on Google Friend Connect (right there on the left-hand side under Tags).
I will be judging the entries myself, and all of them will be posted on this site around one per day after I get done with the judging, runners-up first, then 3rd, 2nd, and 1st place winner. I will then begin posting WIP shots of the prizes. I will make every effort to ship them to their respective winners on or before February 29th, 2012.
One entry per person, please!
Good luck! If you've got questions, ask them below and I will answer for everyone to see.
Corbulo WIP
Not done with the painting, but he's shaping up nicely. The chalice and blood drop on his knee are Green Stuff.

Click to enlarge
Draigo and Librarian
One of my local 40k friends dropped some GK stuff in my lap to paint up, and here's two of those pieces. They're almost finished - both need a bit of touch-up.
Librarian:
The hand is magnetized to allow for a Storm Bolter. I wish I still had some GK Storm Bolter arms left over to really complete the model, but alas, they were all used. I tried to go for some glow from his eyes and around his hood.
Draigo:
Got a bit specific with the freehand. The red border was actually done with a brush! I used one of the GK Terminator heads instead of the two included because I thought it looked better.
Salamanders Tactical Squads
I didn't really have any good pictures of my three Tactical squads. I've also re-painted all of the bare heads to be darker African-toned skin instead of the jet black. There's precedent in the fluff for both of them, so I decided to go with a more natural look rather than the bulky space-drow feel.
Not a lot of variation on the theme. Squads 2 and 3 carry a flamer and multi-melta, and the Sergeants are equipped with combi-melta and power fist. Squad six has a meltagun and missile launcher. I actually do have a few options built but not completely painted - meltaguns for all squads, as well as a plasma cannon and lascannon.
Red’s Corps comp update
Almost finished and starting to look good. Commander Aran has a few days of growth. In the the grim darkness of the far future, sometimes you go for days without a shave.
But I'm not just working on one model for this competition...
Since my rules for Commander Aran allow you to take a jump pack command squad, I figured I should probably include that.
Company Champion, Brother-Sergeant Laertes.
Brother-Sergeant Polis.
Brother-Sergeant Tressos, Company Standard Bearer.
Brother Saulebrei, Company Apothecary.
And finally, Brother Rutheki, who has been selected for service in Commander Aran's command squad as a prelude to promotion to Brother-Sergeant. If he survives.
Salamanders Chapter Master Tu’Shan
Here's the awesome conversion I was talking about for my counts-as Lysander:
I'm making his storm shield out of plasticard and green stuff. Looks like he stripped the hide off of a salamander, and it'll match his cloak.
The base and cloak are from a Chaos Terminator Lord, the arms and thunder hammer are from the Grey Knights Terminator sprue, and the rest is the sergeant from the Space Marine Terminators box. I filled in the elbow plate with green stuff and added a few other details here and there - the chapter symbol on his shoulder pad, and some flame effects here and there.
I've had this idea for a while, and I've actually had the cloak painted up for a month or so. I had to hold it over the stove to soften it up in order to get it to fit with the pose. Right now he's primed and got the first layer of green on.
Sebastos Aran – WIP
We've got Vanguard Sergeant Culln's body and Jump Pack, pauldrons from one of Loth's honour guard, a set of Grey Knight arms with sword and storm bolter, and a Blood Angel head. By their powers combined, they are Commander Sebastos Aran, 8th Company Captain! He's basecoated with Citadel Chaos Black spray, then hit with a 2:1 mix of Vallejo Model Air grey primer and black, followed up with a 3:2 highlight and then a 4:1 highlight. Washes should start to give him a lot more life.
One of these days I'm going to figure out how to get the entire model in focus. Until then, I'll just be all artsy. I think I'm going to rebase him - this base is low to begin with, and he seems a bit too low to the ground.
Grey Knights Rhino/Razorback
Not quite finished, but it's Miniature Monday!
Yep, Forgeworld on the front, top and back! The back hatch it glued in place because the two that I got (for this and the Stormraven) were almost as flexible as rubber. They retain their shape well, but moving them caused them to flex a great deal, so I just glue the door shut. The interior is nicely painted and visible from the top hatch, so I'll have shots of that later.
The best part about the Grey Knights Rhino chassis was not having to worry about sponsons! Side doors used the spare book bits from one of my two Blood Angels Stormravens.
The heraldry on the front sides was my first experiment with a lot of masking tape and an airbrush. I'm rather pleased with the results. I only had to do a little cleanup around the edges, but otherwise, it made working with red and white far less rage-inducing than normal.
Grey Knights Stormraven
Here's the wildly magnetized Grey Knights Stormraven I've been working furiously on:
I spent a lot of time on the cockpit. The pilot might look like he's sitting a bit odd, but that's due to the fact that he's neither glued in place nor his arms yet. Almost there.
Check this part out:
I took off the hideous ramscoop and flattened it out with plasticard. You can also see the start of my freehand Inquisition logo back there as well. And no, those wings aren't going to get glued on...
They're magnetized for easy transport! Also, the servitor turret will pop off to allow weapon interchange, and will also come off for transport.
And now the fun:
That's not glued on, either.
The chin turret is magnetized for all three options! Believe me, that was a chore. I'll post more complete pics of it later. For now, it's almost done!
































