Imperial Guard Penal Legion
In
this post I will be painting four penal legion troopers; as well, I will be
providing short backstories for these miniatures. My inspiration for these miniatures came from
an Imperial Guard army on display at the Games Workshop store in Burnaby, BC, where
a squad of penal troopers (Catachan Jungle Fighters with orange combat fatigues)
was included in the army.
Catachan Jungle Fighters sprue
Catachan
sprue: The miniatures I am using for the penal legion troops are
from the Catachan Jungle Fighters sprue.
This is an older sprue, designed back in 1999; nearly twenty years ago. The Catachan Jungle Fighters set contains two
identical sprues (the sprues are cut in half to fit in the box) with enough
components to build a 10-man squad. The Catachan
sprue contains the following bits:
5
legs
5
bodies
7
heads
4
sets of arms (used to carry a lasgun or flamer)
A
right arm holding a lasgun
A
right arm carrying a lasgun
A
right arm holding a laspistol
A
left arm holding a machete
2
left arms holding a knife
A
left arm holding a grenade
4
lasguns
1
flamer
A
vox-caster
3
sheathed combat knives and canteens
3
grenades and ammo pouches
Primed Miniatures
Death
and Redemption: I am
currently reading Gav Thorpe’s 13th
Legion: A Last Chancers Novel; one of the themes in this book is death and redemption. In the book, Colonel Schaeffer has a clerk
show Lieutenant Kage a scroll titled ‘Absolvus
Imperius Felonium Omna’, which translates into ‘The Emperor absolves all
your sins’. Schaeffer explains that the
men of the 13th Penal Legion will receive absolution for their
crimes upon their death in the Penal Legion.
Absolution will clear the men of their crimes; have their names recorded
in the Imperial annuals as dying for the Emperor; have their orphaned children
cared for by the Schola Progranium.
Death
and redemption are common themes in fiction and in real life; for the convicted
criminals of the 13th Penal Legion, they are given one last chance to
find redemption. They could die as criminals
or die as soldiers of the Emperor. As
Colonel Schaeffer explains to Kage, “everyone dies”. Its not whether one lives or dies; it is how
one dies. Are you executed by a firing
squad, or do you die on the field of battle, sacrificing your life for the
Emperor?
Painting Stage 1
Painting Stage 2
Painting Stage 3
Painting Stage 4
Hacker: While
Hacker never served in the military prior to being sent to the Penal Legion, he
was a proficient killer and harden fighter upon arriving to the Penal Legion. Kicked out of his home by his parents in his
early teenage years, Hacker was forced to the live on the ‘streets’ where he
earned a grim reputation as a thief, murderer and lowlife. A combination of poor choices and bad luck
landed Hacker in prison; the Prison Warden, dealing with an overcrowded prison
population, reassigned Hacker to serve the rest of his sentence in the Penal
Legion. There, Hacker earned his cherish nickname by ‘hacking’ an ork apart in
hand-to-hand combat with a machete. The
ork’s hide and bones were so tough that the machete’s blade was damaged beyond
repair.
Hacker, Torch, Preacher and Bulldog
Hacker, Torch, Preacher and Bulldog
Torch: A
serial arsonist and fearless sociopath, Torch’s love for setting things on fire
landed him in the Penal Legion. Torch
worships fire as a living entity and has named every flamer issued to him. In the heat of battle, Torch has a sadistic
smile on his face as he sets heretics, mutants and aliens ablaze.
Preacher: A
self-righteous religious zealot, Preacher was convicted of a string of murders;
in his defense, Preacher claimed that he was purging the unclean. Preacher believes it is the Emperor’s Divine Will that he was sent to the
Penal Legion. “I have been chosen by the
Emperor”, Preacher explains, “to cleanse the world of filth and vermin. His divine
will is why I am here in the Penal Legion, so I could serve as his vessel to purge the unholy.”
Bulldog:
Suffering from dissociative identity disorder, Bulldog is dominated by two
personalities: the brilliant narcissist Kyle and the quiet introvert David. In a jealous fit of rage, Kyle brutally
murdered his ex-girlfriend and her lover. On the day of his trial, Bulldog’s personality
of David pleaded with the judge that he was innocent; that Kyle committed the
murders. Not believing Bulldog’s story,
the judge sentenced Bulldog to the Penal Legion.
Preacher and Torch
Colonel Schaeffer, Hacker and Preacher
Bulldog and Torch
Colonel Schaeffer and Hacker
Hacker and Big Dog
Preacher, Torch and Heinrich Von Schreiber
Torch and Comrade Yang
Preacher, Torch and Professor Ito
Heinrich Von Schreiber, Preacher and Torch
Hacker and Bulldog
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