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[Image] Nathaniel Garro says "bring it on"...
Over the winter I participated in Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  This "virtual" event pits figure painters and gaming types from all over against their own piles of unpainted lead, plastic and metal.  To add extra flavour, the participants will often pursue side duels, a race-within-a-race to see who can complete the most work related to a given scale, period, setting or theme - you name it.  These side-duels add to the fun and give extra motivation.  Since I'm so keen on the 30k setting, I've had a 30k side duel for two years running - whoever paints the most 30k stuff wins, with the winner receiving a painted figure from the other(s).  Last year I lost to JaimeM, and so sent him a staff officer from the Sons of Horus to keep an eye on the Word Bearers he had completed during that edition of the Challenge.

This year I was more prepared, and was lucky to come out on top of the 30k duel, which also drew a larger crowd.  Not only was JamieM back, but we were joined by Iannick and AlexS.  I spent the whole fall of 2016 prepping figures to paint during the Challenge, so I was pretty motivated, but Alex is a prodigious painter, so I kind of thought he might just come along one week having painted a whole company of Marines...

[Image] Big sword, big gun, big armour...Garro is ready for anything Lucky for me Alex's attention was drawn elsewhere to other periods.  He finished in sixth ranking (out of 97 painters) with over 2,500 points worth of stuff painted (you can find the rules for points etc if you are curious over at Curt's blog for the Challenge, but suffice to say 2,500 is a LOT of painting). But the 30k bug never quite grabbed him.  He did use the Challenge to paint up his prize figure, however - Nathaniel Garro, former Captain of the Death Guard who remained loyal to the Emperor even as his Primarch and Legion joined with Horus. He seized the frigate Eisenstien an raised the alarm about Horus' betrayal freak training accident at Isstvan III.

[Image] No more XIV Legion markings...Garro instead sports the marks of the Knights Errant
Garro would go on to join the shadowy "Knights Errant", a group of elite Space Marine Legionnaires and assorted high-level operatives reporting to the Emperor's own eminence gris, Malcador the Sigilite.  While Rogal Dorn led the high-level military response to the Horus Heresy, Garro and the other Knights Errant seemed to be tasked with "doing what needed to be done", using Malcador's unparalled access to old records, rare technology, otherwise forbidden lore and knowledge, the Knights Errant carried out a "shadow war" or sorts against Horus and those who followed him.

[Image] The posing on the figure is very dramatic, and Alex has done a wonderful job with the painting This model is form Forge World, and portrays Garro as a hero of the Knights Errant, standing on top of the corpse of a defeated Word Bearer daemon-marine.  Steadfast, stubborn, equipped with fancy armour and good at killing things, Garro is a powerful hero for the loyalist side, as he wages a one-man war to avenge the betrayal by his own Legion and Primarch.  Alex has done a wonderful job on the painting, with lots of metallic colours underscoring Garro's steel will to fight to the end for the Emperor. He also did some wonderful subtle shading on Garro's head and face...steely, but warm, so there is still a human (or, heavily upgraded human) inside the fancy armour.

Thanks very much Alex for this wonderful figure! He looks great on the shelf, an inspiring presence for the loyalist forces, and I look forward to figuring out some narrative-style games to use him in with our group here in Winnipeg!