It’s been a chore just trying to find time to paint recently. Work has just taken an uptick and I’m finding I have little spare time. However, when these droughts occur, I like to use the small moments of calm (i.e. lunch), sat at my desk, to create at least something hobby related.
With my Imperial Guard Platoon now primed in Mechanicus Standard Grey, I wanted to start thinking about how to make it as Rogue Trader as I can. I think most of us who grab the old plastic Imperial Guard, have the same colour scheme in mind. We all hark back to the amazing image by John Blanche, ‘The Scouring of Ralgor VII‘, that was used as the box cover art for these particular miniatures.
I’m no different in this regard. This piece of art epitomizes what the Imperial Guard is for me. The massed ranks, the colour schemes and of course...the banners!!
So...I’m at my desk. It’s lunch and I have some time to kill. Ideally I’d rather paint, but my lunches have a tendency to get cut short. So I need to do something more...digital. Banner time!!
I'm using the above image as reference. I’m aware that loads of people go for the obvious banners from this. The main one being the banner depicting Saint Ollanius Pius. But I want to avoid this particular cliché. I’m being cliched enough with everything else after all! Instead, I’m looking at the other banners. The pendants on the weapons and the long triangular banners.
These longer banners never get a look in. So I’m going to be making some of them.
Same goes with the weapon kill pennants. I remember these being in the photos when the Imperial Guard were introduced in White Dwarf 109. So it’ll be good to bring these back too.
Finally, I’ll recreate this. Minus Ollanius Pius though. I love the halving of the flag into yellow and red and the black triangular tassels. Ill keep the basics, but I have something else in mind for my lot.
Trazior Hive
So you may not have heard of the Necromundan hive city known as Trazior. However, if like me you’re growing long in the tooth and have read the old Warhammer novel ’Space Marine’. You’ll recognise Trazior as the initial location and home of the three main protagonists.
Ive had a thing for the Trazior Hive ever since. The online fan wikis tell us this about the hive...
...Trazior means "Three Sisters" in the local Necromundian dialect - Trazior itself, along with Oberon Spire and Titania Spire.
The three huge spires can be seen from a long ways off by and travelers coming across the wastes from the south. Trazior is located on the edge of the Great Equatorial Waste and is the southernmost "frontier" hive of the great Palatine Cluster.
Many important merchant clans (houses) are based in this hive and it is the main trading depot for convoys going to or arriving from the southern hive clusters.
An attempted census of Trazior Hive four thousand years ago revealed an estimated population of a billion in the upper habitation levels alone – no further attempt has been made to count Necromunda’s population in Trazior or any other of the several thousand hives on the planet.
Sounds like just the place to raise one of the biggest regiments for the Imperial Guard doesn’t it?
From this seed of an idea, I created the 3rd Necromundan Regiment, more commonly known amongst the troops as, The Trazion Talons. The three spires being an obvious analogy for three great, razor sharp talons, reaching for the stars.
With this narrative for my Imperial Guard in my head, and the
reference from John Blanches amazing art, I set to making some appropriate banners.
First thing...a logo for the 3rd Regiment. Talons being the slang name only, I wanted a graphical device that the upper echelons of the spire and Necromundan society would approve of. So there won’t be any claws or talons on this banner. I’ll probably use something like the old Hillman classic car logo scrawled onto vehicles, to show the troops have their own ideas.
I looked at several references and came across a logo used in Barcelona for the Sagrada FamÃlia. Now obviously this building has four spires, but it has the right
amount of ‘class’ that I’m after to represent a spire full of wealthy merchants! So with a little jiggery-pokery I should be able to convert it into what I want. Plus I’ll add skulls. It’s 40k so skulls are a must.
After a few minutes I’d changed the Sagrada FamÃlia into Trazior Spire. Here’s the finished thing.
I’m quite pleased with how this has turned out. Ok, the skull is low res, but once I reduce this to a banner at 28mm, you wont even notice. This is the joy of miniature scales! Next step is to add it to a banner and pennant.
Banner first. I want this to really represent the pride of Necromunda. The majesty, the wealth and also relate to the banner in the original illustration.
Things I like about the banner in the original... the diagonal colour split, the laurels, the scroll work. I want to keep all that.
In about 10 minutes I had knocked this up. I think it stays true to the spirit of the original whilst also being something new and original.
Next up the red kill pennants. I had a think about this and decided that I don't want my lot to have kill pennants. They'll obviously kill so many Orks and Eldar that these would have to be waaay too long! :) But actually, I do want these to be something a little more interesting, but still related to that original design.
I've always loved the idea of the purity seals on Astartes armour. I love the idea of carrying a blessing or prayer for protection into battle. So taking this idea, I thought...why shouldn't the Guard have this same tradition?
With this in mind I concocted blessing used by my Trazior Talons. Here it is:
The Most high emperor protect us
The Lord Governor protect us
For Necromundia we march
For Trazior we fight
The sons of the triple spires
We will not falter
Simple, yet I think it sounds 40k zealot enough for a Guard force to repeat before entering the fray. Now it just needed to sound like High Gothic, which is a harder proposition. The easiest way to fix that is to just convert it into Latin...
Maxime princeps imperator defendat
Dominus praesidem defendat
Quia Necromundia nos martii
Pro Trazior nos pugnare
Filii triplici spiers
Nos non kalium
Aah you can just hear the Tech priests and scribes and the massed ranks intoning this before boarding and disembarking into battle. Sorted!
Ok, now to add to a Pennant. Like the original I want it to be red. A minute or two later and...
...Ok its tiny and you wont be able to read it when its printed...but I'll know what it says! Plus I'll probably print a bigger version for tanks, which should be readable.
And there you have it. Proof that the hobby doesn't have to stop when you have no time to paint or if you're stuck at a desk with 30 minutes to kill!
Of course, its fun to do this. But by god, I need to paint soon! Haha!