Custodes Project 2018

So, The Euphemism (I must get him back into blogging) and I will be living in the same city for a few years now. As one of my goals for this year is to get more games in, I suggested to him the prospect of us attempting some doubles tournaments to which he readily agreed! Many years ago we did a local store WHFB doubles tournament (my Tomb Kings and his Skaven against mostly Chaos opponents if I remember correctly) and we lost hideously but had a good time doing it. This time round we are going to try 40k, a game I haven't played in about three years and basically need to relearn! For a new edition and a new attempt at doubles glory, I have decided to start a new army: the Adeptus Custodes who will be fighting alongside The Euphemism's own growing Custodes force.

As I mentioned in my hobby goals for the year, I plan on getting myself a box of Custodes every time I finish a project. My first few boxes will be geared towards a 1000 points doubles list, then afterwards I hope to build up to a 1500 point force of pure Custodes supplemented by roughly 500 points of complementary misc. Imperium stuff: e.g. Sisters of Silence, Eisenhorn, etc. I don't intend this to be ultra-competitive (after all, double Custodes isn't exactly a tournament-winning formula) but I hope to have a decent variety of things that I can have fun with. My list will be roughly as follows:

- Shield-Captain  x1 (weapon yet to be determined)

- Guards x3 with Guardian Spears

- Guards x3 with Sword and Shield

- Allarus x3 with Axes

- Vertus Praetors x3 with Hurricane Bolters

I'm hoping to make this army out of four boxes of stuff plus some various bits bought off of eBay as I'd like to convert every miniature in this army, even if it is only by a little. From a modelling perspective I'd really like to flesh out some of the more niche roles the Custodes perform for the Emperor. After all, besides being peerless warriors the Custodes are described as being diplomats, philosophers, artisans, assassins, etc. and I'd like to try and represent that on the tabletop with some little characterful conversions.

I have not read this book but I have been inspired by the cover art

Painting-wise I plan on largely following the default Custodes colour scheme but using more black than red as I feel that even though they are venturing out into the galaxy again, the Custodes should still wear the black robes of mourning as a signifier of the changes they have undergone since the internment of the Emperor upon the Golden Throne. Indeed, I hope to make each of these 13 miniatures appear as a grim avatar of death, the will of the half-dead Master of Mankind made manifest. I'll largely be following the Warhammer TV painting tutorial for Custodes that Duncan did, as well as tutorials he did for fur cloaks and pale flesh.

My hobby habits in a nutshell

This should be a fun little adventure and I hope to document it here on the blog as I assemble my forces and begin getting to grips with the new edition of 40k. Though I have many other outstanding projects, I just can't resist the shiny new miniatures and have allowed myself this one excess this year. As Custodes are a very elite force this should hopefully be a rather small at self-contained project at least, and when it is over with I hope to begin saving up for plastic Sisters of Battle that (Emperor willing) shall arrive next year...