Zone Secundus: The Church of the Red Athenæum - Heavy Weapons Specialist

Army of Two

Last month we had the opportunity to talk to K0rdhal about his community event/setting Zone Secundus, which expands the lore on the radioactive waste of Hive Secundus, on the planet of Necromunda. Rather than creating an entirely new concept for a gang, we decided to use it to develop the Church of the Red Athenæum, a fanatical Imperial Cult we designed for Iron Sleet’s Pilgrym event back in 2016. Our first model for the new warband was a gunfigher with a score of autopistols. We wanted to create a second church member, this one a heavy weapons specialist, also using a model from the Scions of Flame Warcry warbands.

In an effort to become more in tune with the Emperor and his suffering, this Church member had his left hand and foot amputated.

The model’s mask was modified to resemble a makeshift gas mask.

For this second model, I used the other Fireborn model contained in the Scions of the Flame warband, an imposing figure standing tall with an intimidating mask. Like the other model, I trimmed away all of the dragon scales and chainmail, and used green stuff to replace these details with fabric. His bellyplate was also removed in favor of a series of belts. His facemask was modified into a makeshift gas mask to help him percist in the ruins of Hive Secundus. To fit with the Church’s beliefs, he had his left hand and foot amputated. His foot was replaced with a crude prosthetic. The boot on his remaining foot was trimmed down to roughly half the size of the original (I always wonder why GW chooses to make the feet on their models so large...) and resculpted it to look more like a standard work boot.  

His heavy stubber was converted to look like a BAR. A piece of foil from the top of a wine bottle was used to fashion a sling for the rifle.

Games Workshop continues to struggle being consistent with scale, with this Warcry model being the size of a Primaris Space Marine.

For the model’s weapon, I used a cast of a rifle I built for my Thorn Moons Imperial Guard regiment, which was fashioned to look similar to a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR). I used greenstuff to add some details like a barrel band and created a sling using foil from a wine bottle. What had been a fairly large rifle on the Thorn Moon Imperial Guard looks less substantial on this giant of a man. 

Although not as heavily muscled, this heavy weapons specialist looks like they could go up against this ork nob and come out on top.

Let us know what you think of this new member of the Church of the Red Athenæum and if there are any other things you want to see in future members. 

- Adam