Proto-Astartes Legionary 2

"He was looking down the barrel of a bolt pistol. It looked like a Phobos-pattern, the oldest pattern of all, and the weapon was a genuine antique. Cared for, it was nevertheless worn and burnished by use. It had a patina of age that was impossible to fake. And no one mass-built them with a gold-wired grip and side-sights any more. It was being aimed at him by a figure in plate armour. Legiones Astartes plate, and the figure wearing it was Legiones Astartes big and Astartes bred. But the armour was colourless and unmarked, not even the bare grey of the Knights Errant. It was pale, a sheened silver finish like a lead ingot...

...John had  noticed something. A small stamp strip, like a hallmark, etched into the legionary's uncoloured plate just below the breastline. LE 2. What did that denote?"

Saturnine, Abnett. D, fl. m1-m2

Towards the end of last week, I'd just finished working on some Old World miniatures (more on them soon) when for some reason, I had an overwhelming desire to build and paint one of my favourite characters from the Siege of Terra novels. Introduced in Saturnine, Leetu is not dissimilar to one of my other favourite characters in the Age of Darkness Endryd Haar. Not only do they both stand apart from the brotherhood and camaraderie of the Astartes of the Legiones, but Leetu also offers a window into the machinations of the Master of Mankind at the very dawn of the Imperium helping to convey His power and ambition along with his hubris and ruthlessness. 

Leetu is a proto-Astartes, one of the few that were 'handcrafted' rather than mass-produced like the Legionaries who would help the Emperor conquer Terra and embark upon the Great Crusade. One of my favourite conceits of the Horus Heresy and by extension Warhammer 40,000 is that humanity's 'hope' rests upon beings who are no longer human, they are so much more and yet at the same time so very much less. In fact, lets be honest, they're pretty monstrous, but then they need to be if they're to have a chance of defeating the monsters that dwell among the stars.

To the Emperor, the Astartes are no more than tools for furthering his plans in the same way that the Legio Cataegis were. Tools to be used and ultimately discarded, the Astartes (and by extension the Cataegis) were not reclaiming the stars for themselves. There were undoubtedly some Legiones who made efforts to prepare for what was planned to come after, such as the Blood Angels and Ultramarines, but realistically, what need would a pacified galaxy have for giant killing machines? 

Serious thoughts to be having about a hobby involving toy soldiers I know, so let me try and get back on track. What I particularly like about Leetu is that due to his origins, he is an outlier among the Astartes who retains elements of his humanity (he likes to draw, producing tarot card style illustrations of his companions on the journey to the Imperial Palace on Terra) and as I've probably mentioned before, I like and identify with outliers and outcasts, as I can see elements of myself in them. 

Leetu is first introduced in Saturnine (in the passages I quoted above) but in building the miniature, I drew on a couple of other sources of inspiration as well. The first is of course the LE2 Imperial Space Marine from 1986 and the 'glow up' it received in 2016 both of which have several key defining characteristics to their armour - the beaked helm, the patterned couters and poleyns, the trio of armoured cables across the chest, the unique pauldrons.

The second was an article about power armour in a  White Dwarf article published in late 2022 which mentioned a 'lost' pattern of armour known as 'Imperial' which is a call back to the Limited Edition 2 Imperial Space Marine miniature that was produced by Games Workshop in 1986. This reference was picked back up in the 2022 Age of Darkness rulebook, with 'Imperial Pattern' power armour being manufactured at some point between the mkII 'Crusade' suits and its' modification into mkIII 'Iron' armour. 

It had occured to me when they were previewed that the 'Techmarine crew' of the rapier weapons platforms featured many of the same characteristics of Imperial pattern armour so it was to that kit which I used extensively to assemble Leetu, adding a helmet from the mkVI assault squad kit, phobos bolt pistol from the melee weapons set, pouches from the Legionary veteran tactical squad and Space Marine Intercessors kits and the combat knife from the 2016 Imperial Space Marine as a final touch. I deliberately didn't use a studded pauldron for my rendition of Leetu as I prefer the more 'strange' look of the ones from the rapier crew, I think it helps make his suit more unique. 

For his base, I was initially a bit stuck - I didn't want to do just another a textured 'desert' base, I wanted something a bit special and after a rummage through my bits boxes, I found the bases from the 2020 Valerian and Aleya Black Library Celebration minis. Being Talons of the Emperor, their bases are fancy stonework of the kind one might find in the Imperial Palace and that seemed perfect for Leetu. To cover up some of the gaps in the detail where Aleya would normally be glued into place, I used a little bit of texture paste which I figure is ash or debris from the conflict tearing across the Palace as Leetu and his companions try to make their way towards the throne room. 

When it came to painting, I turned back to the description of Leetu's armour from Saturnine: pale, a sheened silver finish like a lead ingot so after some time spent looking at reference pictures of pewter and lead ingots on the internet and some more time looking through the Eavy Archive for colour recipes that might work, I ultimately settled on a basecoat of Leadbelcher that was shaded with a 50/50 mix of Nuln Oil and Gloss Varnish before being highlighted with Stormhost Silver - quick, easy and exactly what I was looking for. 

His base was painted separately, but once I'd finished both and glued Leetu into place, I mixed a wash of the same sandy brown I'd used for the dirt on the base and painted it around his feet and lower legs to help tie them both together more. There was one last detail I needed to include though, Leetu's name. I spent a while looking through my decal drawer to find characters that would be the right size and ultimately ended up taking the 'L', 'E' and '2' from the copyright text on a sheet of Adeptus Titanicus Questoris Knights decals! It was a bit fiddly and there may have been one or two bits of colourful of language exclaimed while getting them all lined up, but I think it was well worth the faff to be able to include such a critical detail of the character. 

Well, that's another random painting project itch scratched! As always, thanks for reading and until next time, happy hobbying.