Formerly of the XIIth Legiones Astartes, Endryd Haar and his command were presumed lost when Angron threw his lot in with Horus at Isstvan III. Returning from their campaigns to find the Imperium beset by civil war, he would cast from himself all traces of the World Eaters heraldry and honours and swear a death oath to end Horus' rebellion by tearing down the arch-traitor with his own hands, ending the war and atoning for the XIIth Legion's crimes at the same time.
The key elements such as the scarred face, pteruges, fist and ornate pistol as well as the characteristic exposed power cables of mkV power armour and the distinctive mkVI backpack are all there, though in this iteration there are obviously some differences, but I was fairly pleased with him.
Imprisoned on the orders of Rogal Dorn along with many of the members of the Crusader Host whose loyalty was also in doubt within the dreaded Khangba Marwu, Haar would eventually escape though in doing so would taint his hands with the blood of those loyal to the Imperium. To him though, such collateral damage was a necessary price to pay if he were to succeed in fulfilling his oath.
Striking out into the galaxy, he would recruit a band of like-minded warriors all of whom had cast of their former allegiances and together they would bleed the forces of the Warmaster with daring raids against numerous outposts and enclaves, stripping them of weapons and war materiel and turning them against their foes.
As the Riven Hound wound his way towards his destiny and an eventual grudging alignment with the aims and wishes of the Regent of the Imperium, tantalising hints as to his origins within the Emperor's geneworks would be illuminated along with clues as to the relationship he may have had with the warriors of the Legio Cataegis, suggesting that he may have been one of the very first generation of Astartes pre-dating even the formation of the legion branded all as one.
Haar's life would ultimately end where it had begun, for he would fall defending the Saturnine Wall on Terra, though it would take First Captain Abaddon no less than seven mortal blows to bring Haar down and he would very nearly lose his own life while doing so.
Not only did I enjoy reading about Haar and the Blackshields at large, but as something of an outcast myself, I found myself identifying strongly enough with the character to the point that I wanted to create a miniature of him. So, in 2018 armed with a pile of resin bits and inspired by some fantastic work by other hobbyists I produced my first iteration of Endryd Haar:
Based upon the body of Forge World's Kharn the Betrayer miniature, with arms taken from the mkIII power weapons set, an archaeotech pistol and head taken from Imperial Fist upgrade kits and a backpack from the mkV power armour kit, the miniature wasn't intended to be a full recreation of Haar as he's appeared in Neil Roberts' amazing artwork, but rather to capture the key elements enough as to be recognisable as the character in model form.
In January 2020, after assembling quite a few of 'true scaled' Blackshields based upon Primaris Intercessors models, inspired by Edd Ralph's phenomenal Blood Angels (which, incidentally were featured in White Dwarf recently), I decided to have another go at creating Haar in a similar style:
As with the first version, the intent was not to build a perfect recreation of the character, but to capture the key aspects of his appearance and wargear. The donor body this time came from the Limited Edition Lieutenant Calcius which was released as part of the Warhammer 40,000: Conquest magazine collection with the addition of the signature exposed power cabling to the plastron. This took considerable cutting and sanding to achieve along with a little greenstuff to finish off.
Endryd's master-crafted powerfist was taken from the Imperial Fists Primaris upgrade sprue while the pteruges came from an Ultramarines upgrade sprue and the archaeotech pistol was assembled from a Necromunda Goliath stub cannon, a Skitarri arc pistol and some plasticard.
The mkVI backpack and scarred head were taken from the same kits as the initial iteration as I was pleased with how well they worked the first time around, while the pauldrons are plastic mkIII ones to fit with the aesthetics of the rest of the miniatures I'd built in this fashion.
Fast forward to January 2022 and I spotted a post from Lil Legend Studio on Instagram showing an amazing rendition of a phenomenal sculpt of Haar by @bolterjungend/fummelfinger and I knew I had to have one. A quick chat with Myles later and an 8k print was on order and winging its way to me through the warp.
Following clean up and assembly, I have to say I'm even more impressed by the sculpt than I was from the photos I'd seen of it. Where I had sought distill Haar into a handful of defining characteristics, the sculpt perfectly captures not only the key aspects of the character but also with Bolterjungend's trademark style also brings to life the sheer bulk of a fully armoured first-generation Astartes.
Looking at the three miniatures side by side, while I'm still proud of the two sketches of Haar I've created over the last few years, I'm really pleased I picked up a print of Bolterjungend's sculpt as I think it not only showcases his considerable sculpting talents but it's also about as close as we'll ever get to a definitive version of the character in miniature form.
Comparing the Bolterjungend sculpt with a neophyte of the Marines Saturnine in scout armour and one of the new Cadian command squad shows just how well proportioned Haar is, especially as he's described as being considerably bigger in stature than the average later generation Astartes. From the Cadian's perspective, it's easy to appreciate just how terrifying it would be to see something thundering towards you faster than it seems like it should be and therefore just how much of an impact transhuman dread could have upon mortal warriors on the battlefields of the nightmare far future of the Age of Darkness.
I don't paint a lot of 30k miniatures these days, but it's still a setting I find enthralling and Haar arrived on my hobby desk just as I was starting to read (the absolutely brilliant so far) volume I of The End and the Death, so there's a possibility he may get a lick of paint in the near future and I'll be sure to share some photos of him if and when that happens.
In the meantime though, as always thanks for reading and happy hobbying.
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