Ezmen Vyke: The Dagger of Horus

 
Before his recruitment, Ezmen Vyke was a native of Cthonia, a ferocious and nearly-feral ganger eking out an existence of constant warfare in the ruined remnants of the shattered hive cities. Charismatic and ferocious, he excelled at the XVIth Legion's favored style of warfare: the sudden and brutal application of overwhelming force against an opponent, preferably before they even knew they were fighting. To him, war was a matter of identifying the strength and leadership of the enemy, isolating it and then obliterating it. Throughout the Great Crusade, he fought as a member of the elite Justaerian, striking the first, and often last, blow of every campaign. He worshipped Horus and was unflinchingly loyal in every action. When the Heresy began, there was no consideration in his mind on where his allegiance lay. He had always been a tool of war. His purpose was to fight, destroy and win, at the direction of Horus. He never gave a thought to peace, or civilization, or humantiy or any greater purpose beyond the next conflict, and after that, the next campaign. To him, the legions were weapons and the purpose of a weapon is to destroy whomever its weilder directs it toward. He is a weapon and Horus weilds him well. 

This was a simple conversion of the Calth terminator captain. It is not my favorite model and so I put off painting it for a few years. After looking at it, I realized the head was the main thing I didn't care for. I just don't like the look of a guy in super heavy armor with the most vulnerable part of his body totally exposed for no reason, not to mention his view being blocked by his own shoulder. But in order to swap the bare head for a helmet, I also had to cut away the gorget, which was not too bad and I think I smoothed it down enough that you cannot really tell. I felt the MKIII helmet really matched the style of the Cataphractii armor and adding a top knot helps to make it fit a bit more with the Justaerian. The only other change was that I broke the cable to his chain fist and could not get it to glue straight so I made a new one out of guitar wire. It does not line up perfectly but it isn't too noticeable. 

Look at that ugly head...

I had so much fun painting this guy. After doing quite a few batches of infantry lately, it was really nice to sit down with just a single character model to paint. I felt like I could really take my time and enjoy the steps, after the assembly line grind of painting 19 nearly-identical Steel Legion troopers. And the black and red color scheme is one of my all-time favorites, going all the way back to starting my ork army decades ago. Black and red is simply one of the most powerful and bold color combinations (along with white and red, which I also love). Not to mention, a black model feels 25% done immediately after priming it so you get a nice psychological boost. For the cloak, I kept it a more muted grey/green, rather than the richer green of my armor. I did not want it to clash with the red, black and gold of the armor. And I don't think a fabric cape would need to be the same exact shade as painted metal armor.

This guy was so much fun, I might need to put some Justaerian terminators higher on my priority list!