When it comes to popular units available to all the Legions, Breacher Siege Squads are the standout winner – There’s something about the combination of guns and shields that appeals to the baroque-gothic nature of the setting, and makes them one of the iconic units of Warhammer 30,000.
Much like the Reconnaissance Squad I previously showcased, I always knew that I would want a full, 20-strong complement of Breachers in my Dusk Raiders force. I think the obvious parallels between the Legiones Astartes and their historical antecedents, the Roman Legions of antiquity, plus the Rogue Trader colour scheme I’d chosen to go with for my forces, firmly fixed in my mind the idea of a classic shield wall of red and gold.
I also knew that I wanted to establish some kind of narrative link between my Blackshields project, the Contritum, and my Dusk Raiders force. Unfortunately, as readers of the Horus Heresy series will be aware, Ullis Temeter and Huron-Fal perish together at Istvaan III, victims of the purge initiated by the traitor Primarchs, so I knew that it would have to be a little more subtle.
Now, back when I initiated my Blackshield’s project, I commissioned Fallout Hobbies to create several sheets of custom decals based on the iconic playing pieces from Chess, however, given that I was only renovating a small number of 80’s metal and plastic marines at the time, I was left with a significant number of unused decals. Fast-forward to my Breachers, and I realised that they would provide the ideal iconography for the shields, and that I could use them in much the same way to create an ad-hoc rank system. This also means that I now have a link between the two forces – Plot twist; Sergeant Tullus of the Bloodshield Breachers is the so-called “Dogged Son”, one of the founding members of the Contritum…
In terms of actual construction, there’s very little conversion work to speak of (using the FW Command Upgrades again, and having four armed with Volkite Chargers), but some thought did go into the selection of other parts – Sergeants in my Dusk Raiders all utilise the FW MKIII torso with the shield and skull motif, whilst other notable ranks or specialists use the ‘thunderbolts and pip’ torso. The exception in the Bloodshield Breachers will be the ‘Rooks’ who have small, red shield decals on their chests (courtesy of an old Bretonnian decal sheet), as they’ll be slightly lower rank than the two ‘Knights’ who will have the ‘thunderbols and pip’ torso (all four Breachers will be Volkite-carriers). I also have about four Iron Hands torsos leftover from another project which I’ll be discussing soon, so my other ‘Bishop’, the Breacher carrying the Breaching Charge(s), will have obvious evidence of the danger of his profession.
Five down, fifteen to go…