Demiurg Hearthguard & crewers

Back to Warhammer 40,000 this weekend - well, my long running 'Inquisimunda' project anyway.  I've finished painting my three Demiurg Hearthguard in exo-armour, plus I repainted the visors of the previously all-gunmetal helmets on the crewers.  I've gone with a slightly grubby industrial but futuristic appearance.  My vision of the Demiurg is as no-nonsense, practical species (in contrast to the ostentatiousness of many other W40K races/factions...) Initially I like the all-gunmetal helmets as they looked different to anything else in 40K, having no obvious transparent visor or lenses (I assumed it would be advanced metal that was transparent through one side only, or had micro-lenses producing a view inside the helmet.  Anyway, after deciding to paint the slit visors of the Hearthguards' exo-armour with a gold effect, I decided to make the crewers that I had painted previously match them - I think this works nicely at suggesting 'spacesuits' better.

Ever since Squats (essentially 'space dwarves') were subtly reintroduced to the Warhammer 40K canon in the Battlefleet Gothic 'Armada' expansion as the Demiurg (nomadic astral miners, resource-gatherers, & tech-traders), I've wondered what their ground forces might look like.  Armada describes the Demiurg's fighter craft as being repurposed mining vehicles & droids, & my friend Dom & I have discussed how they would probably make extensive use of droids if pushed into direct combat.  There are quite a few 'space dwarf' figures available on the market nowadays to fill the Squat-shaped gap from the old-school days of W40K; but my favourite has to be the incredible Grymn range from Hasslefree Miniatures, which is where all these figures are sourced from.


Demiurg ships in BfG are quite powerful, & are basically mobile refineries & manufactories, but not that large in mass; & I imagine even with fewer decks, a large proportion of their systems are automated or controlled by droids.  With no religious other other hinderances to technological development, I see the Demiurg as ahead of the Imperium in this regard - also because the Tau are described as having acquired ion cannon technology from the Demiurg, & their trademark weapon in BfG is the cutting beam, usually used for rendering down large asteroids, & which is empowered by collected matter from spatial gas clouds.  For this reason I'm thinking of saying these figures are armed with 'ion beamers' instead of bolters, for a bit more flavour.  These would fire sustained cutting beams that could do a little damage to a couple enemies, or a concentrated attack on a single foe.  One of the Hearthguard has a power fist, one has a chainfist, & the other has lightning claws & a grav-pack (counts as a jump pack).  These Hearthguard are the personal guard of the Guildmaster of the Brotherhood, who I'll probably round off this little force with a character figure for.

Next up, the much-larger Demiurg wardroids that I'm working on..