[Archive] The Bronze Brotherhood, the Twiceforged, the Battleborn

Archive [Archive] Off-Topic Showcase
1

Thommy H:

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Sigmar’s assault on the Chaos hordes that rampage across the Mortal Realms is fought on many fronts: Stormhosts in their scores fall from the skies upon bolts of lightning in every Realm, delivering furious vengeance to the enemies of Order. The fighting is most fierce in Aqshy, the Realm of Fire, where the armies of Khorne hold sway. One of those Stormhosts hurled into the fray by the God-King was known as the Bronze Brotherhood; like all Stormcast Eternals they were brave, bold and filled with righteous wrath.

However, whether by some quirk of their construction, divine machination or simple chance, they were sent awry, materialising far from their intended destination. They found themselves out of formation in the scorching expanse of the Bloodsand Wastes where the mightiest Champions of Khorne battled for the favour of their bellowing master. Here, two mighty Khornate legions faced one another across a patch of bare desert, already littered with skulls and the detritus of battle. At the unexpected arrival of the Stormcast Eternals in their midst, the Chaos horde put aside their own quarrel and united against the common foe.

Caught in a maelstrom of enemies, the Bronze Brotherhood had no choice but to fight a desperate breakout against impossible odds. The Bloodsand Wastes were saturated with yet more blood as the Stormcast Eternals formed a ring of sigmarite, rallying even as they were cut down in their hundreds by frothing mad men. In the carnage, the Lord-Commander of the Stormhost was torn limb from limb by a rampaging Slaughterbrute, and leadership of the surviving Eternals fell to Lord-Celestant Darius Thunderpeal. Seeing disaster looming, the Lord-Celestant curbed the fighting instincts of his warriors and formed them into an unstoppable wedge which bludgeoned its way free of the scrum. Knowing that triumph against such odds was impossible, the battered survivors of the Bronze Brotherhood fled into the desert to count the cost of their disastrous arrival. In all, fully two-thirds of their number had fallen, and many of the Warrior Chambers were scattered or so depleted that they could no longer function as units.

Far from allies and still hounded by foes, the Bronze Brotherhood would have been justified in giving in to despair. Many of them silently cursed their ill-fortune and wondered if the God-King had deserted them. Darius Thunderpeal was one of those who pondered long in the following days and nights on the fate of his soldiers and for a time he considered leading them back into the teeth of their pursuers to sell their lives slaughtering as many Chaos-worshippers as possible before they met their end. It was the Lord-Relictor Mortus Shadowfane who came to him unbidden and helped guide him through this spiritual crisis.

The God-King Sigmar, Shadowfane said, was a just lord but also a ruthless commander, capable of great cruelty when it served the ends of Order. Their arrival in such a hostile situation was not without purpose: just as they had been forged from mortal warriors by the celestial magic of the God-King, so too had their trial in the midst of the Blood God’s servants been a kind of forging. From the red-hot crucible of this accursed desert, he continued, they would emerge stronger than ever before - stronger even than their brethren who even now fought to free the Mortal Realms. And if god was cruel, they must be all the crueller. No longer were they merely the Bronze Brotherhood: now they were the Twiceforged, the Battleborn. They would not die in a futile gesture of defiance, but earn renown and redemption in the wars for which they had been created. Isolated from their fellow Stormhosts, alone in a strange and dangerous land, the journey of the Bronze Brotherhood would become the stuff of legend, should any of them survive to tell it…













Bought the starter set and had a bash at this first unit. They were supposed to look a little more battle-damaged, but I went so heavy on washes that the verdigris that served a base coat for their armour doesn’t really show up. Still, I’m pretty happy with how they turned out and the models are a lot of fun. Plus I really like the fluff, I’ve decided. They’re Space Marines - I mean, they really, really are - but without the fascist baggage. Basically, all the stuff that makes Space Marines cool and heroic is still there, but they’re not the jackbooted thugs of an evil galactic empire that grinds humanity up in the gears of its bureaucracy and technology. I can get on board with that.

2

Grimstonefire:

they're not the jackbooted thugs of an evil galactic empire that grinds humanity up in the gears of its bureaucracy and technology. I can get on board with that.

Thommy H
I can see why you collect Word Bearers. ;)

I would agree with the verdigree, it's not really obvious at all. But otherwise nice painting even though I'm not a fan of the sculpts.
3

Skink:

The painting is ok. If I were you I would add some extreme higlights of Auric armor on the gold areas, and maybe some bright green on the shields. Don’t get me wrong, you painted those minis good, but after seeing your Destroyer, Bull Centaurs, and Immortals I know what you can do!

4

Thommy H:

The pics are quite dark - the green highlights are actually pretty bright! I’ll get some more representative pics as the project continues, and probably tweak the method too.

5

Thommy H:

Mortus Shadowfane

The creation of the Stormcast Eternals is violent and fraught with peril: each warrior of Sigmar is blasted apart in body, mind and soul and the effect on the mortal man who provides the raw material for the process is both profound and unpredictable. For some Eternals, their previous life is relatively easy to recollect, for all that it is lost forever to them. For others, their mortal identities are remembered only as shadowy fragments, confused and blurry. For a small minority, the effect is even more pronounced, and they retain virtually no memory of who they once were save a few shadowy, dreamlike images. Mortus Shadowfane, Lord-Relictor of the Bronze Brotherhood, is one such.

When he sleeps, images come to him, but their meaning is unclear and he dares not share the details with any of his brethren, for one emotion suffuses all these nightmares: shame, as if from the worst imaginable dishonour. This is what Shadowfane sees: a land, cloaked in acres of dark, brooding forest studded with beast-haunted mountains and, scattered through this wild country, towns and great walled cities, like points of light in the darkness. The land is divided - he sees a crown shattered into three parts - and blood flows from a thousand thousand cuts across its length and breadth. Then, the light of the God-King in the sky, falling like a vengeful hammer upon a city, leaving ash and ruin in its wake. Shadowfane walks amongst the chaos and the horror, and he sees the darkness of the human spirit and the fires of cruel retribution. He set those fires. He sees women burning, robed in white, calling out to the God-King for salvation, then screaming in pain and terror as the flames consume them. And he watches this, with a grim smile of satisfaction on his face.

Whatever he did in his former life, Shadowfane knows it was enough to damn him for eternity. His punishment was not annihilation, but countless aeons as a formless whisper in the gloom, a shadowy remnant of the man he once was until, for some reason, he was saved by the God-King and reforged anew. In Shadowfane’s heart burns an overwhelming zeal to kindle the light of Sigmar and to spread the holy word of his master. His faith is as strong as steel and as hard as diamond. But, a dark part of his mind ponders, what if this is part of his punishment? What if it merely amuses the God-King to take one whose soul is so thoroughly stained and remake it into his own instrument? For Mortus Shadowfane, his consecration as a Stormcast Eternal may be his last chance at redemption, or it may be part of some cosmic joke. In either case, his only choice is to serve, and to dream his dark and evil dreams.







I also took some more pictures of my Liberator unit, but I’m not sure it’s much better - the highlights look really washed out in these ones, and their armour isn’t quite so ‘pure’ gold in real life. Obviously it’s one of those paintjobs that causes problems!



The gang so far:



In the latest White Dwarf there’s all sorts of nonsense about the markings Stormhosts wear and their organisational structure and blah blah blah. We get it, they’re Space Marines. I’m not going to do any of that because I don’t think it fits with their aesthetic particularly, but the backstory I’m developing kind of explains why they’re not hung up on insignia and units.

6

AGPO:

Nice work Thommy! I’d been debating whether to do some OSL around the eyes and weapons of my stormcasts and I think you’ve sold me on it! One question on the background, since Stormcasts don’t ‘die’ as such, what’s going to happen when the Twiceforged are reunited with the rest of the Bronze Brotherhood?

7

Xander:

Nice job. :slight_smile: I’m liking the bronze.

The bases look a bit empty though (and Mars like?).

8

Thommy H:

Yeah, the bases are a bit of an experiment. As you correctly imply, they’re done with martian ironearth which I bought to do the base of this model from Hasslefree. Thought I’d try it out a few times first! I’ll try to add a bit more interest to the next batch - the Prosecutors (the guys with the wings) have a lot of blank space to fill, so I’ll need to do something.

AGPO: I dunno! The background for the whole setting is still really vague, which is great because there are big blank spaces to play in, but I don’t think that’s by design - GW is going to be filling in those holes as they go along, which will potentially invalidate stuff players have written. Or maybe I’m not giving them enough credit and having an open setting is intentional. That’s how it works with 40K after all - the galaxy is a vast empty canvas. The Mortal Realms could be the same. So I’ll see how it goes, I guess. I have no plan at this stage.

9

Parish:

From the group shot your unit is actually really nice !

I am not much a huge fan of the sigmarines but they look pretty cool and dynamic !

From afar the bases look nice, as if they were fighting in an “arizona like” area.

Keep up the good work :slight_smile:

10

Thommy H:

The Lightbringers

During the Age of Chaos, many cataclysmic battles were fought across the Mortal Realms and nowhere save the Realm of Azyr was free of the clamour of war and the agony of grief. In Hysh, the Realm of Light, mighty armies clashed on deserts of pearlescent sand and blood was spilled across the smooth floors of white marble fortresses. Everywhere the forces of Chaos �?" spearheaded by servants and daemons of Tzeentch drawn to the magical resonances playing across the fractal landscapes �?" marred the perfection of the realm, sowing death and destruction wherever they went. One of the last bastions of resistance was the Kingdom of An-Nur, set high in the Prism Mountains, where refracted light and magical auroras combined to turn the sky into a vast swirling palette of colour. As the daemons, attacking in overwhelming numbers, gradually overran An-Nur, its ruling council put a last desperate plan into action. They evacuated the surviving population, sending them through the Crystal Caves and into the Valleys of Spectra where ancient wards might protect them for years to come. But in order for this plan to work, the daemonic hordes would need to be kept at bay for a time, and there would be no coming back from such a mission.

The noblest warriors of An-Nur were the Rainbow Knights, arrayed in heraldry of all colours and borne into battle upon white-winged pegasi. It was this elite cadre that volunteered to sacrifice themselves for their people, and as the armies of Chaos spilled over An-Nur’s gleaming walls and into the streets, the Rainbow Knights plummeted from the skies to wreak bloody revenge. It was a battle they were never supposed to win, and yet so supreme was the skill and courage of the Rainbow Knights that they inflicted a heavy toll on the daemons and cultists of the Great Deceiver, hurling back assault after assault. Finally, after days of fighting, and with the common folk now safely away, the Knights were driven back to the steps of the great domed Council Chamber at the heart of the city. The sky had turned deep red, the colour of blood, as the hordes descended on the few battered stalwarts that remaining standing. All hope was gone as a chittering tide of fangs and claws swept across marble steps and, one by one, the Rainbow Knights were pulled down. But before the killing blows could be struck, thunder pealed and a flash of lightning scorched across the Radiant Plaza. Cursed weapons clattered harmlessly against the empty steps as the surviving Rainbow Knights and their steeds vanished into thin air.

It was the God-King Sigmar who had snatched the Rainbow Knights from death’s door, bringing them to the Realm of Heavens where they might be reforged into Stormcast Eternals. Man and pegasus both had willingly given their lives to save An-Nur’s people, but each was wounded unto death by their valiant last stand. In the long and painful forging, it was necessary for Sigmar to blend human and beast so that a whole warrior might emerge. The Rainbow Knights were always closer than siblings to their mounts, and they were of sufficiently unified mind and purpose that both were enhanced and enriched by their mystical merging. From the shattered remains of the brave defenders of Ar-Nur were forged a host of Stormcast Eternal Prosecutors, the winged harbingers of the God-King’s wrath. Leading them was he who had once been Brother Azraq and his pegasus Brighthoof, now reborn as Icarus Swiftwing, and they took the epithet The Lightbringers, in memory of the lives they had left behind and their lost kingdom. Now they seek revenge against the forces of Chaos, soaring on wings of living lightning and hurling glowing hammers snatched from the storm itself.





















These were quite fun. When I paint an army, I usually have a couple of “rules” I’ll obey, consciously or not. For my Dark Angels for example, only veterans have robes, and weapon casings are black rather than red. My Sisters of Battle don’t have any red on them at all. Little things like that. For my Stormcast Eternals, I’ve decided that anything described in the background as being made of lightning, or generating lightning or whatever, will glow blue-white. So far the most obvious implementation of this has been the hammers, but the Prosecutors have wings of lightning, and actually their weapons don’t just crackle with energy �?" they’re literally made of lightning! They throw them and then forge new ones from thin air as they charge. So they needed to glow, haft and all. That meant a lot of OSL for these guys, which I’m not completely convinced has worked, but they don’t look too bad. The only problem with it is that there’s a lot going on with them. I put work into their armour, with a verdigris base coat again which was very obvious on Icarus, the Prosecutor Prime, but it’s now a bit lost in all the OSL. The Retributors, up next, should hopefully give me a chance to focus more on the bronze.

The bases of these guys also went a bit odd. On one of them, the cracked effect came out looking really cool, but it has a tendency to flake off! I might need to redo it at some point. I layered the martian ironearth on quite thick, which I thought was supposed to make it crack less, but maybe I need to do a bit more research on how to use it properly�?�

The army so far:

11

Timothy Archer:

Love the light effect , it’s really cool.

12

JMR:

Good stuff, Thommy. It’s nice to see you experimenting with a different paint style. It’s also amusing that I’m working on a force with similar bases and similar OSL, blue, glowy bits.

The bases of these guys also went a bit odd. On one of them, the cracked effect came out looking really cool, but it has a tendency to flake off! I might need to redo it at some point. I layered the martian ironearth on quite thick, which I thought was supposed to make it crack less, but maybe I need to do a bit more research on how to use it properly�?�

Thommy H
I haven’t worked with the GW stuff, but the crackle paint I used sticks much better if I give the base a coat of gloss varnish first. Worth a try?

13

AGPO:

OSL works nicely at this distance anyway. Good looking force you’ve got coming together!

14

Timothy Archer:

Nice painting indeed. My mate bought recently a pack from the starter set. And I can’t explain why but I think they are some how magical. Those minis are ridiculously big , not many details but they are hypnotic. Once you have them in hand it is difficult to don’t love them even if everything seems wrong compared to what we were used to look at

15

Thommy H:

The path that the Bronze Brotherhood must take across the burning realm of Aqshy is one fraught with peril. Beyond the Blood Desert lie the twisting redstone columns known as the Pillars of Forging, whose already monumental scale is enhanced by the warping air of the desert which makes them appear to soar infinitely into the burnished skies. Terrible dangers lurk in the labyrinthine passages between the massive columns; benighted creatures of Chaos driven mad by their confinement within paths that appear to shift with the movement of the unyielding sun. Blood-greedy minotaurs barrel through narrow corridors of burning stone, baying for warm flesh, while screeching harpies swoop down from their bone-strewn eyries.

Through this hellscape march the Twiceforged, weathering all of these horrors. In this fractured realm, the beasts are not united, but divided into a thousand tribes and packs. Under the stern leadership of Darius Thunderpeal, the Stormcast Eternals triumph over each foe that assails them amongst the Pillars of Forging, though not without cost. Many fall, but with each desperate battle, the survivors grow stronger and bolder. Mortus Shadowfane counsels caution, though each day that passes means that more of their comrades taste defeat on distant battlefields. Shadowfane communes late into the freezing nights, peering into the entrails of the slain to discern the shifting currents of the underworlds. A dark power has risen in Aqshy, one that seems strangely familiar to him, as if from a half-forgotten dream. Could it be some entity he encountered in his former life? An ancient foe, somehow brought back, as he has been?

Beyond the Pillars of Forging can be found an endless plain of shattered ground, littered with the bones of forgotten monsters. Dark wings soar high on scorching winds and, somewhere, a red-armoured warrior sits astride a snorting deamon-steed, his gaze penetrating further than any mortal sight. He sees the Bronze Brotherhood as they approach the lands he claims as his own. His gauntleted hands tighten on his reins. He has lived three lives, this lord of carnage, met death twice and had life breathed back into him both times by the Blood God himself. He raises a glowing axe and the legion of darkness that have followed him through the ending of a world howl their fury to the skies. The Destroyer Cult has returned.

The Starhammers

First amongst the Bronze Brotherhood, the Retributors of the Starhammers are unequalled in their lust for vengeance against Chaos. In their mortal lives they were three blacksmith brothers whose craft was renowned across the Realm of Chamon. It was said they could capture the light of the stars themselves and bind it into blade and breastplate. Their creations girded the greatest warriors of their age, but it was not enough to stop the followers of the Dark Gods when their kingdom fell. Now reborn as immortal champions of Sigmar, their wield their Lightning Hammers with the same skill they once demonstrated at the forge, though now their power is turned to destruction rather than creation.









Sons of the Forge

Many heroes were made amongst the Pillars of the Forge, amongst them the Liberators known as the Sons of the Forge. Together, they held back the stampeding Brayherd of Scar Canyon, smote apart the corrupted Sylvaneth of Foetid Gulch and hounded the Vulture-Kin from the passes of Fyrepeak. Their wrath is as unquenchable as the desert heat.









The Bronze Brotherhood �?" 06-09-15



Nearly done now! Just the Lord-Celestant to go, and then a special centrepiece that I’m looking forward to showing off once it’s complete. There’s a rare conversion in these figures �?" the way the starter set models are designed isn’t really conducive to swapping parts, but because I managed to lose part of my original Retributor Prime (his left arm came detached from the sprue while the box was sealed along with a few other small pieces, but somehow it went missing between me checking the sprues and coming to build him) I ordered a new one from eBay. I could only get a complete model, so I had a spare one going. Since Liberators can take a great weapon for every five models, I thought it would be a good opportunity to do something a bit different. The conversion isn’t fantastic, but I think it looks okay.

16

Timothy Archer:

really great looking , the “ice” effect is crazy effective visually now that your army is bigger . cant wait to see more , and more conversions .

17

Thommy H:

It’s glowing power, not ice!

18

Timothy Archer:

sorry if that was absolutely not my first though . i still think it is looking like ice , from the screen of my computer

and i just ask the first human being next to me , and he answered : " ice "

maybe that is the picture , or the photo

or maybe it just looks like ice

anyway i just think it is beautifull

19

Thommy H:

Haha, it’s fine. I was only joking. Thank you anyway - as long as it looks good, I don’t mind what you think it is!

20

Admiral:

Pretty nice colour scheme and glow effect. Will read through background maybe tomorrow, but I wanted to drop this little idea at your feet: How about writing a rules set or army booklet for Stormcast Eternals to be used in WHFB, ranked up units and all; whether in 8th edition, 9th Age or whatever happens to be around for you to favour.

Whether one like Age of Sigmar or not (models are good and I can appreciate the background for what it is and see the charm, even though the old Warhammer world is vastly more in my taste - no clue as to rules yet), one neat thing about WHFB was always its inclusiveness to all things fantasy. Having an angelic host pop up in legendary misty battles to save the embattled heroes (kind of like the angel of Mons WWI story) wouldn’t be such an enormous background strain if someone fancied using a Sigmarine force in old Warhammer and not proxying it, or simply wished to play WHFB in the AoS setting.

Just dropping the idea here, since we all know you’d be well qualified for the task, should it happen to be an appealing one. :wink: