It looks fairly Brutal and might look quite good on a World Eater.
Given that your army are Hunters, the idea of using some beasts teeth in a weapon would fit
looking forward to seeing what you come out with though
Again, thanks for the comments and ideas, people! It's through your suggestions that this project has taken on a life of its own instead of being just an idle distraction between bigger projects!
Regarding the Cestus, I have already started collecting suitable bitz to represent the gauntlets: Some Ogre Kingdoms fists might work, although minus the actual fists (far too large, even for a servant of chaos). Black Orc gauntlets seem like a feasible alternative, as do Lightning Claws. And, like I said earlier, there are those spiffy gauntlets from the WFB plastic Chaos Lord -- I think I'll give those a try! I also really love the idea posted by Chaos Emperor, though: Those tusks strapped to the gauntlet look absolutely killer! Ah well: decisions, decisions
For now, let's look at the finished stuff and the next WIP models in line: I have to say that your comments also made me take another look at the classical sources. I had always seen ancient Roman gladiator types as a vague inspiration, of course. But I hadn’t delved too deeply into historical sources, fearing that the results would be too Roman and not World Eater-ly enough. I think I have that problem under control, though
In any case, some of the models I will show you today (and those that are yet to come) will be patterned after classical gladiators, while others will be less historically recognisable, but just as gladiatorial, I hope. Anyway, let’s take a look at where the squad is headed at the moment:
First up, a better look at the Secutor I already showed you:
Transforming the historical design into something fitting the overall look and feel of my World Eaters did take some doing, but the model has really become a favourite of mine, to tell you the truth: I think this guy has a rather brooding, sinister presence, due to his pose as well his “faceless” helmet.
Then there's this guy:
I built this model quite some time ago. Like all of the gladiators so far, it was kitbashed from a mix of Khorne berzerker, (Chaos) Space Marine, Beastman and Chaos Marauder parts. Those bitz allowed me to achieve the partially armoured and slightly feral look I wanted. In this case, the model received a chain glaive, a fitting weapon for a follower of Khorne (even though the more recent fluff seems to have transformed it into a traditional weapon of the VIII legion).
Anyway, here's the finished model:
Once again, the model is wearing a tatoo reminiscent of Angron’s own warpaint:
I am calling this kind of gladiator a “Glaivex” for the chain glaive he wields. There wasn’t any similar gladiator in ancient Rome because glaives and halberds were apparently invented much later, but since it’s a weapon I definitely wanted to incorporate, I had to improvise. I still think he rather looks the part though:
So here are the two recent additions to the squad:
As an added benefit, two additional models mean that the squad is now playable as well! It also looks fairly nice, if I do say so myself
So what do we have so far? From left to right: A Secutor,Dimachaerus (wielding two swords), Vorl Dustwalker with his huge war axe, another Dimachaerus (sword and axe, this time) and the Glaivex. I am really happy with these, and yet I am already hard at work on the next additions for the squad. Some are even halfway presentable, no less:
You already know the Retiarius, built to serve as a playfellow for the Secutor:
Again, getting this guy’s pose right took a bit of work, but I really couldn’t be any happier with the result! The model is basically finished at this point, and definitely next on the paint station!
But there’s more: Here’s a (slightly more WIP) model not patterned after a classical gladiator. I am calling this guy a “Carnifex”, after the latin word for executioner — rather than a huge alien-dinosaur, people
Please ignore the blue grenades: a rather dubious colour choice taken by the previous owner…
Anyway, even though this guy will need some more sorting out, I think he already reads as a gladiator.
Here are the two next squad members together:
And, like I said earlier, there are some more gladiator types that might warrant further exploration: The Cestus, the Bestiarius,... The sky's the limit here
Another important thing to note is that the gladiator theme is something that gets repeated throughout the army, even beyond this particular squad. The two visual leitmotifs for my World Eaters are that they are hunters (adorning themselves with trophies and pelts of their prey as well as acessories like war horns, skinning knives etc.) and that they are gladiators, wielding weapons and equipment that sometimes seem slightly gladiatorial. Brother Hokar would be an example of that:
Or, indeed, Lord Captain Lorimar himself:
For now, though, thinking about new models to add to my gladiator squad and getting them built and painted serves two objectives: It allows me to finish models that I am really happy with, and it gets me in the mood for building (and painting!) more World Eaters, and that’s always a good thing, right?
In closing, let me say that this project wouldn’t have become so much fun without the constant feedback from you guys! So thanks to all those who have helped shape these models, and please keep those comments coming!
As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
Been a while since I commented in here buddy and I'm liking the look of the Gladiator squad.
Couple of tiny nitpicks. The Retiarius is looking great however have you tried turning his head slightly to his right? It's te same idea as your Raptor a while back. I think it will help with te flow of the model charging.
And the Carnifex has some awesome elements in there. I do think the legs are a little static though. But if you built the base up slightly and had his left leg sitting a little higher and turn his head to the left then replace the dagger with a severed head as suggested above I really like the helmet choice though. He looks brutal. If you did try the suggestions above you could try lowering the axe a little as well? All in I know you're gonna knock these guys out the park but just wanted to throw a few suggestions your way.
Thanks a lot, guys! Once again, your feedback has been amazingly helpful!
@ Nevie: Cheers, mate!
@ Legio Ultra: A severed head might in fact be a very good alternative -- why didn't I think of that? Am I losing my edge? Anyway, I might just give that a try!
@ Freytag93: Thanks a lot!
@ Biohazard: Great to see you back here, buddy! And as always, you're saving my neck with your suggestions!
Regarding the Retiarius, I did in fact try several positions for the head, and this was the one that ended up working best for me. However, when it comes to the Carnifex, you're right on the mark: I just tried making the alterations you suggested, and BAM:
Much better, if you ask me! Awesome! I've also taken the time to clean up the conversion and glue everything, save for the left arm, together. I haven't yet managed to get around to try and add a severed head, as per Legio Ultra's suggestion, but I think the model's already much improved. Thanks for the killer ideas!
@ Llamahead: Well, funny you should say that... First off, there are some pretty big mutants for these guys to play with, namely the Forsaken, their devolved former brothers:
I think these look pretty awesome together, and you get the feeling that the gladiators themselves might end up as hulking, mutated beasts at some point, lest they're not careful...
As for actual beasts, good thing the Bestiarius is the next conversion I am working on. Now, after giving it a bit of thought, I am going to re-activate an earlier idea for this guy: A rather long time ago, I built a bigger base with three slots. My idea was that a Huntmaster and his two chaos hounds could be slotted into the base to make up some kind of mini-diorama. Seeing how this perfectly fits my idea for the Bestiarius, I think I'll just give that base to him! Here's a couple of WIP shots:
First up, an early mockup of the Bestiarius himself. Nothing's glued together yet:
The one thing I have already decided is that he will be grasping the chain leashes of two chaos hounds in his right fist:
The whole diorama will look like this:
Of course there will be the chains running between the gladiator's fist and the chaos hounds: I expect that effect will be rather tricky to achieve But the end result should give me a mini-diorama that should look nice enough, with each of the three models still playable as separate models, should the need arise. In fact, if I ever get around to painting more chaos hounds, the Bestiarius would make a perfect "squad leader" for them.
On a related note, maybe you can help me out once again: The head currently used on the WIP model comes from the WFB Chaos Chariot, but I am not perfectly sure I'll keep it. I am currently looking at several heads from my bitzbox as possible choices for the Bestiarius, and maybe you lot can help me narrow it down:
I. One of my favourite WoC heads, and it certainly looks suitably brutal and feral for the Bestiarius.
II. A Skullcrusher head (minus the "bunny ears") that has both the Khornate look and the hoplite feel typical of some gladiator types.
III. A pretty cool Chaos Marauder head -- my fear with this is that the model might end up looking too much like a WFB Marauder, though...
IV. A CSM rebreather head -- could be used for a more futuristic look.
V. Another option would be to make the Bestiarius look more feral, just like the beasts he leads into battle. This could be achieved by using either this SW head...
VI. ...or the truly bestial Khornate head from the chariot kit. While I love the snarling face, though, the head and neck seem a bit too large to comfortably fit the body.
Anyway, what do you think? I'd be glad to hear any ideas you might have!
The Carnifex is looking miles better mate. Great stuff
As for the Beastiarius it has to be 1 or 2. As for the chains I picked up some of the chains from the Chariot kit for my Jugger lord. They're a great scale and with being plastic easy enough to form the shape you want. I really like the scenic base so far
Gale Force 9 makes sweet chains that scale perfectly. They're pretty cheap and I think you get several feet of them. I use them on my CSMs and they're pretty easy to work with. Getting them to hang a particular way or "bounce," for lack of a better term is a bit tricky though.
This squad keeps getting better and better !!!
As for the heads, am i the only one who thinks that no.4 looks like a muzzled madman (Hannibal Lecter style) and this gives it just the bestial look for the Bestiarius??
Maybe you could drill a pin into the ends of the reigns, with a corresponding magnet hidden in the collars of the hounds.
the pin would provide enough magnetisation to stick while all three are on the display base...
then if you made the Bestiarius' hand/forearm holding the reigns removable and magnetised, you could make a weapon- holding hand for him... That way you could "Release the hounds!" during gameplay, and the Bestiarius could then also get in on the action...
These World Eater gladiators are just fantastic!
O, head 2 for sure... And maybe he could have a lash, driving the beasties onward!
I'd go with "VI", he looks in tune with his charges. Like a beast himself or on the verge of becoming one. Great stuff by the way, always enjoy reading your updates.
Do wonder whether a whip would work better as the armament. Something to heard his charges along if you want to avoid the mildly Slaaneshi vibe an Ork shock prod would also work well.
Just browsed a bit and I found out a rather nice set of chains for the Bestiarius (unfortunately the'yre already sold out on the particular site ). They come from the WFB Chaos Warshrine if you already have it then why not try them out??
I'm posting a link for the picture http://www.bitsandkits.co.uk/chaos-war-shrine-chains-p-9185.html Also I think you should either lower the Bestiarius' weapon so it (almost) touches the ground or bring it a little to the back so that he seems he is actually using a large amount of strenght to keep his hounds on the leash
Thanks for the many comments, everyone! This keeps me really motivated right now
Regarding the question of chains, I do have those chariot chains Biohazard suggested (bought the whole chariot kit a while ago, mostly to cannibalise it for bitz), plus some spiky chains from the Skullcrusher kit and some other "chain-y" bitz and bobs, so I think I am all set. However, the longer I work on the model, ther more I begin to explore a slightly different option:
I am not afraid of the whole thing with the chains turning out to be too fiddly, because I am pretty confident that I could make it work. However, my main problem is that the Bestiarius himself would only ever look really cool while being placed in the mini diorama with the hounds: As soon as the models are separated (during games, for example), he'll always end up looking slightly silly due to holding two huge lenghts of chain without anything on the end of them.
Then there's the idea of adding a whip, like some of you suggested: I really love that idea, because he would need something to sic the hounds on his enemies and whip them into a frenzy, literally, but I also think he needs a chain weapon a) to 40k-i-fy him a bit more and b) make him read as a World Eater. So I exchanged the clunky berzerker arm for a more sinister looking sword from the Raptor kit and used a whip instead of the gauntlet holding the chains. What do you think?
Personally speaking, I believe I am happier with him now: He looks more balanced, if that makes any sense. Also, if you place him on the bigger base, he looks like he just gave the hounds a good whipping
Still not 100% decided on the head, btw: It's probably a race between I and II at this point, though. While I love the bestial face, the problem is that it would need a serious shaving down in order to actually work with the body, and there's a pretty big risk of ruining it in the process -- I think I might rather use it on a bigger model somewhere along the way?!
@ Kandle: I fear a three-tailed whip (I'll just refer to it as the "drama-whip" in the future) would probably look too much over the top and draw away too much attention from the rest of the model. Plus I don't have the required bit, so there's that too
Alright, some more food for thought: I added a couple of accessories and messed around with the head:
Standard WoC head:
Head with horns and crest:
Horns clipped off, crest remains:
Without horns and crest (seems almost Slaaneshi, if you ask me):
Which of these do you think is the best fit for a model that's a World Eater, gladiator and Chaos Space Marine at the same time? Your feedback's very welcome!
He does look amazing with all the changes you made !!!! Now for the head try flipping the horns so that they point upwards and, if the crest still fits in there without looking silly, keep it (though the hoplite crest, even if it is awesome is more of a loyalist feature). Looking forward to see what you'll come up with
Definitely keep the horns and crest! Maybe make the whip a dual-tailed one or from chains itself? I think it might add a little more "omf" to the silhouette of the model whilst also keeping it thematically sound. A chain whip may be a bit fineky but it could look more khornate? Just my two cents.
@ Markillius08: The answer to that question is pretty simple: It would look even more Slaaneshi I made a little mockup for you, though, in order to satisfy your curiosity
@ the shrouded lord: Will head over to that thread in order to comment in a minute, mate
@ Anvildude: Ah, you definitely caught me red handed there, mate: I'll willingly admit that I can freely choose to ignore public votings, seeing how these are my models and all Seriously, though: Even in those cases where I seemingly ignore feedback or go against the suggestions you guys make, the process of getting your feedback still helps me enormously when trying to nail down the right look for a certain model, so I hope you won't be too disappointed. In this particular case, the Skullcrusher kit just didn't give off the sense of that slightly feral sense of brutality that I wanted for the model, so I ultimately discarded it as an option -- that doesn't mean it won't be used on another (gladiator?) model, though.
@ PDH: I'm glad to hear it, mate
Regarding the many suggestions RE: the head and whip, here's my thought process at the moment:
When it comes to the whip, like I said earlier, I don't want it to be too flashy, hence no double- or triple-tipped whip, no chain whip and no spiky whip. Plus there's the fact that I had that whip from the Chaos chariot conveniently lying around: waste not, want not, and all that
As for the head, after doing quite a bit of experimentation, I actually realised that the option I was most happy with was ...the unaltered, original head. Fellow hobbyist KBA over at B&C actually managed to sum up my feelings perfectly, so let me just quote him here:
#1, Kraut, and here's why: the rounded top of the helmet sans crest creates the perfect juxtaposition that makes his brutal chainsword that much more brutal. For me, the crest clashes with weapon being on the same horizontal eye line. Keep the horns for that Khorne touch and you've got one hell of a mini! Well done!
The longer I was messing around with that crest, I realised that, while being perfect visual shorthand for Roman or Greek helmets, it just messed up the silhouette in this particular case. And while I really like the helmet without both the horns and crest, I stand by my earlier assessment that the model ends up looking like a follower of Slaanesh with that head -- it's a delicate balance, to be sure, but there you have it.
The original head, meanwhile, seems to perfectly complement the rest of the composition, as pointed out by KBA. Take a look:
So yeah, I'll keep it. Sorry to those who would have favoured a different approach!
As you can see, I also swapped in a possessed CSM shoulder pad, both to add to the slightly feral look of the Bestiarius, and to make him read more as an actual Astartes.
Here are more pictures of the model. I think I'll call this guy basically finished at this point:
And with his trusty pets:
All in all, I am really happy about this model finally coming together like this! It's been quite a journey from this
to this:
But it's still been a blast, thanks to your great feedback on the model! I realise that this may actually be the one best part of the hobby for me: Tweaking a single model until it just feels right.
Anyway, thanks again, guys! And let me know what you think!
I'm really liking the model (along with the rest of this thread). one suggestion though, if you were to angle the head back slightly so that he is looking where his beasts are going rather than looking at the ground around them.
What the whip needs is the final paint job you envision it with.
All the monochromatic grey plastic is why it keeps looking under done I think.
On the head: are those horn straight vertical, or are the tips angled forward from the base of the horn? I like the way moving the tips of down pointed horns forward can make a head look subtly more aggressive.
Thanks for the kind words, guys! Like I've said before, this squad comes together so well because I keep getting all of this awesome feedback from you, so the achievement is yours as well as mine
@ Crystal Geyser: The short version would be that I think the model and kit look amazing, even though I am not a huge fan of the mutated look. In this case, though, they really nailed it, and even managed to include all the weapon options for once! However, seeing how I already have two painted and one unpainted (DV) Dread/Helbrute, the question will be whether I can manage to sit on my hands this time around -- the next months will be expensive in any case, given the brilliant leaked IG pics and the dim prospect of more chaos...
@ tarar2d2: Cheers, mate! Maybe I'll have to experiment with the position of the head a little more
@ Kandle: The horns are indeed ever so slightly angled forward -- one of the factors that made me choose this head, because I perfectly agree with you regarding the subtle effect this creates.
@ Legio Ultra: Thanks, mate! Much appreciated!
So, while work on the gladiators continues, let me show you something that provides a bit of colour contrast in between all the red and bronze: Parallel to working on the gladiator squad, I’ve also been painting some more followers of Nurgle. And this time around, we are talking about some models that have been in my collection for quite some time!
Since we last saw my growing squad of Plague Marines, I’ve added two more models. And even though I have precious little love left for metal models at this point, the Dave Andrews Plague Marines from the late 90s still range among my favourite chaos models for a number of reasons:
First, they are quite iconic: With their gas masks and “Pickelhauben”, they have a decided WW1 Trencher feel — quite fitting for warriors who fight surrounded by virulent gases and noxious fumes (albeit in a slightly inverted way: One could almost imagine that the Plague Marines are actually wearing their protective gear in order to keep the fresh air out). Their helmet design also nicely combines historical sources with the “mono-horn” typical of Nurgle.
Then there’s the fact that the detail on these guys is very nice: The damage to their armour seems believable and not overstated. All of them are modelled with a trusty plague knife at their side. And there are delicious visual cues, such as desiccated heads (serving as plague grenades), small Nurgle icons worn on chains, leaking (and poorly patched up) pipes or all kinds of vile pocks and fungal growth marking the armour.
All these qualities notwithstanding, I am a little ashamed to say that the metal Plague Marines I own have mostly been mouldering away, pun intended, in my bitzbox, ever since I purchased them sometime during the late 90s/early 2000s.
That turned out to be a good thing, though, because my recent foray into the wonderful world of corrosion and decay made sure that I could finally do justice to these models — in my small way, at least.
I left these completely unconverted, both because I hate cutting apart metal models, but also because I think the models are pretty much perfect as is. My only concession to modern design was to outfit them with some new arms and bolters, instead of the old plastic versions from the 90s (clown hands, anyone?).
So, without any further ado, here are the finished models:
The first model seemed to be built for a very classic pose, so I just added two arms holding a bolter. I really like the model’s subtly implacable look! Painting-wise, the Plague Marine was given the same treatment as the rest of my Plague Marines, with lots of rust and corrosion (and a fair amount of Nurgle’s Rot leaking out of the armour joints and vents).
The second model seems to have been designed with a more open pose in mind, so I obliged by arming it with a chainsword/bolter combo. Here’s the finished model:
And what do you know, when I had almost given up hope, a nice and subtle crackle effect began to develop on the right shoulder pad, courtesy of all the Agrellan Earth I used in the paint for the armour:
I also really like the pocks, dappled all over the model’s left greave. Such a fun little detail:
All in all, these guys were a blast to paint. Plus they have really managed to age ridiculously well: They perfectly embody all that a Plague Marine should be, in my opinion, with their only shortcoming being that they are slightly on the small side when stood next to more recent models, but that could well be explained in-universe as their bodies slowly collapsing from rot. The best thing about them is how they are quite sinister without being overly twisted or mutated. In fact, part of the body horror for these guys comes from wandering what’s beneath the armour (instead of being able to see it outright). It seems like Forgeworld’s recently released Death Guard conversion kits are, in no small part, an attempt to create uncorrupted Pre-Heresy versions of these models’ design. The later metal model from the 2000s seem a little lacklustre, by comparison — I wish I had bought more of those older models while I still had the chance, because they are all great!
So, where does that leave us in regard to the overall squad? Let’s take a look:
I am really quite pleased with these guys, even though I have little to no plan to use them in Khorne’s Eternal Hunt. There’s still the 90s metal icon bearer – now stripped of his former paintjob – left to paint. And then? Maybe I’ll just spin these guys off into a small Nurglite killteam? After all, I already have a suitably decayed Terminator Lord to lead them:
I have half a mind to throw in a decayed Traitor Guard soldier or two. And a plague zombie. And maybe some hulking mutant creature? Shoot, there I go again…
For now, though, painting these guys has proven to be a lot of fun. And I love the fact that I have finally managed to finish some models that have been part of my collection for ages. Go me!
Anyway, let me know what you think! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
Loving the Nurgle. They're absolutely disgusting (in the best of ways). Watching your blog had gotten me to kick my butt into gear and finish painting my own CSM warband. Almost finished my slaneesh marines. And turning to my Tzeentch dedicated ones.
Nice painting on those Plague Marines, you nailed the rust and slime effecs!!! The terminator lord is a little bit dry in comparison, though still a very nice model both conversion and paiting-wise (maybe add some Rot on him?? )
Beware of the flu this time though
@ Nevie: Thanks, mate! I am always happy to motivate other hobbyists in my small way. Don't just focus on Slaanesh and Tzeentch, though: Khorne's where it's at for the cool cats
@ Legio Ultra: Yes, that Terminator could use some minor touch ups to bring it more in line with the Plague Marines -- a spot of Nurgle's Rot here and there might be a good way to start! And no flu for me this time, thank you Still have the antibodies from last time, I suppose...
So while I am building up the motivation to paint a gladiator or two, I amused myself by engaging in some kitbashing. Here are the assorted results of the last few evenings:
First up, a test model for a Nurglite traitor soldier, in case I ever decide to go through with the Nurgle Killteam idea: I just used some stuff from my bitzbox to come up with a fairly easy conversion:
I have already started painting the model, although it's not much to look at (yet?):
It does work rather well when placed next to one of the Plague Marines, though:
Definitely not a priority project at the moment, so I can happily mess around with it whenever I feel like it
Then there's something I've been thinking about for a while: I've repeatedly been tossing around ideas for a squad of World Eaters Havocs (to represent the classic "Teeth of Khorne" and add some versatile firepower to my army). I found myself thinking about the squad members just armed with a regular bolter (and used as ablative wounds): I wanted to make them slightly more interesting, and when I sifted through my bitzbox in search of inspiration, I found myself looking at some WFB chaos warrior shields: What if I built the ablative wounds guys to resemble breacher marines, only post-heresy?
Anyway, I messed around a bit, and here's what I came up with:
Just a very early WIP, nothing's glued together yet, but for some reason, I really like this guy -- maybe this approach warrants some further exploration? In any case, I'll hold off on this until it's clear whether we are getting the rumoured new Havoc kit anytime soon or not. But it's an interesting experiment nevertheless, don't you think?
Oh, and I also did a very early mockup for the Cestus gladiator:
Again, we are very early in the process, so be gentle Also, the head's just a placeholder for now. But even though using the Warp Talon claws seems like the easy way out, I think they are a pretty nice fit for the lsightly feral look of the gladiators. What do you think?
Anyway, your feedback's always welcome! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
Wow. I don't own chaos chaos, I am starting an army using the chaos codex, (pretty much a chapter of space marines derived from Luna wolf geneseed with chaos spawn) and this an absolutely fan-fething-tastic!
If I may, would an experienced master mind like you give me some ideas of how to convert/scratch build some spawn? I've already got one in the making.
Edit: forgot to say, those new guys look awesome!
Also, if you checked it out, what did you tink of my gladiator?
when it come to chaos spawn, I guess the main question is what you want to achieve: Do you want your spawn to look like crazy, mutated flesh-things? Then go with the stock kit! Want to have them look like devolved Astartes (like mine)? The Vargheist/Crypt Horror kit would be great for that! Mutated Ogryns? Use WFB Ogres (or wait for the new IG Ogryn kit that's supposedly just around the corner) and make the models look suitably hideous by adding mutations and/or crude augmetic implants. There are also all kinds of possible beasts and huge creatures you could use as spawn: Fenris wolves, the blood beast from the WFB chaos chariot,... It really comes down to what you want your spawn to look like -- and my main suggestion would be to make them fit the overall look and feel of your army rather than treat them as just an afterthought.
As for your gladiator, I left a pretty detailed comment in your thread, you know...
when it come to chaos spawn, I guess the main question is what you want to achieve: Do you want your spawn to look like crazy, mutated flesh-things? Then go with the stock kit! Want to have them look like devolved Astartes (like mine)? The Vargheist/Crypt Horror kit would be great for that! Mutated Ogryns? Use WFB Ogres (or wait for the new IG Ogryn kit that's supposedly just around the corner) and make the models look suitably hideous by adding mutations and/or crude augmetic implants. There are also all kinds of possible beasts and huge creatures you could use as spawn: Fenris wolves, the blood beast from the WFB chaos chariot,... It really comes down to what you want your spawn to look like -- and my main suggestion would be to make them fit the overall look and feel of your army rather than treat them as just an afterthought.
As for your gladiator, I left a pretty detailed comment in your thread, you know...
HOLLY CRUD YOU DID!
MY DERP IS PALPABLE!
*sits in a corner weeping and feeling stupid*
thanks for the advice in regards to what with the spawn, I'm thinking of having them all look kind of like their bodies have mutated to a canine structure, back-bent legs, rather big teeth, but at the same time keep the flesh look of the base model, and also have some armour "hanging" off of some of them.
As for the spawn, if that is your intended look, I do have a couple of suggestions. I'll put them in spoiler tags, though, so as not to derail this thread too much
Spoiler:
Personally speaking, I'd use Vargheists as the base models, because their lite yet muscular frames seem to be a perfect fit for the look you're going for. I'd use the heads from chaos hounds or fenris wolves (although the former will be cheaper to get hold of and better fit the chaos look), or indeed the old WFB wolf heads, if you can still find them, on the bodies, then re-sculpt the backs to blend in the heads with the bodies. Then maybe sculpt some fur on top, or patches of fur over the body? When it comes to armour plates hanging off them, you can either use some Terminator shoulder pads, or you can go for Minotaur arms: they are slightly hairy, come with armour modelled on, and their bulk makes the resulting models look even more disproportionate -- check out my own spawn to see what I mean. Or you could always use the FW skin wolves, of course, if you have the money...
Nice minis, great job man! And its is so nice to Cestus coming to life!!!!!!!!!!!! I also like the breacher, (though i can't see him as a Havoc for some reason) he definitely is a nice start to a new project
Cheers, mate! I'm really not quite sure about that Breacher myself, to be honest. All I know is that I am really fond of the mockup for some reason -- and I am quite pleased with myself for being, to my knowledge, one of the first person to actually come up with this use for WoC shields
As for the Cestus, I did tidy up the conversion a little, plus I tried a different head. While the placeholder head works quite well, it is virtually identical to the one I used on the Bestiarius, and I would rather have a unique head for each model in the squad. So what do you think of this:
Sorry buddy I honestly prefer the 1st head. Have you thought if maybe adding the horns to the Crushers head and using that on the Bestiarius? I feel the way you had the Cestus was perfect.
Nice head alternative, i think that (though i feel that crests should be an Imperial Space Marine's decoration) the crest actually suits this helmet very well. Now it falls to you to decide wich one of them will get each head.
I have mixed feelings on the head. The crest makes him look more arrogant and flamboyant, whereas sans-crest is much more cruel and lethal-loking. So, depending on which attitude you're going for, the crest affects it in a big way.
I like the current crested head. It's a more complicated setup, one that's decorated, but I think that fits with the sort of prideful character who would chose punching as his primary attack in the 40K universe.
Seeing how the Bestiarius was already PIP at this point, I really needed to use a different head on the Cestus, since I want each model in the squad to have a unique face or helmet.
Crystal Geyser wrote: I have mixed feelings on the head. The crest makes him look more arrogant and flamboyant, whereas sans-crest is much more cruel and lethal-loking. So, depending on which attitude you're going for, the crest affects it in a big way.
I think that's basically the perfect way to put it! Lethal and cruel would be excellent for a follower of Khorne. Flamboyant and arrogant would be perfect for somebody choosing nothing but a pair of clawed gauntlets to face his enemies on the battlefields of the 41st millennium
I think I'll just let it rest for a while, in order to make up my mind. I can promise you a more substantial update very soon, though
Kraut, I just have to say that time and time again i find myself visiting your blog and marveling over all of the new conversions and paint jobs you so diligently work on. Your miniatures are fantastic and because of that, i often visit to see what new thing you have come up with, or to see which great idea i can use next . Keep up the good work! (blood for the blood god!)
Thanks, wolfmerc, that's very nice of you to say! I aim to please
Which is why you get that promised update today: I've been busy painting, and here are the results:
First up, the finished Retiarius:
Seeing the photos up close now, there may be one or two areas that could do with a slight touch up, but I am generally happy with the model: There’s a very nice sense of movement, which, I think, really fits this particular gladiator’s fighting style.
Here he is together with his “opposite”, the Secutor:
The next model I painted was the Bestiarius:
Again, I might go back and add some last highlights, but I think you already get a pretty good impression from these pictures. Here he is, complete with his hounds:
I am pretty happy with both the new model and the ensemble. And choosing the whip instead of the chains means the gladiator is far more flexible (and could be used for different beasts as well…).
I do of course realise that he doesn’t have any rules per se, but this was mainly a fun project, and I am quite pleased with the result!
Here are the two newly painted models together:
I actually managed to paint both of these in one day, with is almost spectacularly productive when compared to my usual standard…
So, as you can see, the gladiator squad is coming along rather nicely. As of today, there are seven painted models in the squad. Here they are, assembled for a family portrait:
That leaves me with the Carnifex and Cestus to paint. And after that? I’m not sure, actually: My original plan was to stop at eight, but these guys are serious fun to come up with, so don’t be surprised if I decide to add yet another model or two…
For now, though, I am pretty happy with how the squad is coming along. And all mostly thanks some really kick ass suggestions by fellow hobbyists. Thanks a lot, people!
It goes without saying that I’d be interested to hear any comments you might have! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
All I can say is wow. All of your models are painted to such a good standard and the way you portray the world eaters makes me regret starting a black legion army.
Yes paint!!! I really like your paint jobs man, don't know why you are so modest about them (though i hoped for a glow effect on the halberd ) And have you tried the severed head on the Carnifex yet?? In any case looking forward to see him and the Cestus with colour
@ M138: That is very kind of you to say! And don't worry: I'm sure it's possible to make a BL army suitably cool as well. And if not, well, there's always the option of creating a small detachment of allied World Eaters, you know
@ Legio Ultra: Cheers, mate! This isn't (false) modesty or anything, I really don't consider myself that much of a painter. I do know how to create easy painting recipes and fairly workable colour schemes, though, so that usually works for me. But my World Eaters usually look far better together than they do on their own. Oh, and I did actually consider some kind of glow on that halberd, but I didn't want the model's equipment to look too fancy compared to the other guys'. May have to give that some thought, though. Hmmm...
I did try adding a severed head to the Carnifex, btw, but it ended up looking far less cool than I had imagined: The left arm is just a bit restrictive in how it's constructed, plus I only had the same old severed head from the ork boy kit that I've been using a bazillion times or so... May actually stick with the dagger, it's really managed to grow on me.
A small update today, but one that was a lot of work to put together After longingly looking at pictures of the new Helbrute kit this week, I surprised myself by not running out to buy the kit, but rather grabbing that unpainted DV Helbrute I still had sitting on my desk and finally starting to paint that instead -- and it's about time, too, seeing how it's been quite a while since the release...
Anyway, even though I am normally not a huge fan of the mutated, fleshy look, both the new Helbrute and the model from the DV box are amazing pieces. As I can attest to now, the DV one is certainly not a lot of fun to paint, though.
It took what felt like ages, but now it seems the model is slowly starting to come together. Take a look:
Still quite a lot of work to do on this guy: He's missing virtually all the metallic highlights and lots and lots of small details, but I think he's finally getting there. I'd say the model's about 60-70% done at this point, and the final third of the way will hopefully move it from okay-ish to pretty cool, at the very least.
The one thing I am already fairly happy with is the face, though:
As you can see, I left the model mostly unconverted (which feels particularly lazy after seeing Biohazard's outstanding new Helbrute conversion ), but I really like the model a lot as is. I just got rid of the stubby melta arm -- the one truly bad piece of design on an otherwise beautiful piece, if you ask me.
Thanks a lot, guys! This is the kind of model you can work on for hours and hours without ever getting finished...
Painted some of the details and added the (rather subtle) metallic highlights:
I also created a little "special effect" on the model's back:
Changes are now coming in small inrements rather than in leaps and bounds, which may just be a sign that the model's slowly getting finished, I guess? Still some more work to do, but I think I may be getting there.
Let me know what you think!
EDIT: Aaaand he has a base:
The model's not yet finished, of course, but I figured handling this huge lump of plastic would be easier if I mounted it to a base. Plus all the areas that are hard to reach now are done anyway
Here he is with his colleagues:
That leaves me just one Helbrute short of that most elusive and devastating of formations: The Barbershop Helquartet of Dooom!
Brute is looking great and seems to be coming along nicely. Will the blue eyes get any form of pupil? Are you planning tho leave them just glowing blue? I'm surprised he sizes up so evenly with the other dreads/brutes. I didn't realize he was scaled so evenly. The hellbrute always appeared larger in pics. They look great in the group shot.
Cheers, Moltar! Yeah; I really have to imagine these guys breaking into song at any inopportune moment now, thanks to my own, stupid imagination
The eyes are done: I like the glowing effect, plus it's an element that appears here and there in my army, so it makes for some added visual consistency. And you're quite right about the scale: I was pleasantly surprised by that as well! What's more, not only is this guy perfectly in scale with more standard Dreads, but seeing them next to each other also instantly makes you realise how similar the model is to them, structurally: You can really imagine how he has evolved from the more mechanic shell into what he is now -- that's clever design for you
After spending all weekend painting the Helbrute, I needed something to scratch my converter's itch, so I sat down and began work on a World Eaters gladiator wielding a meteor hammer. Here are the results so far:
I also cut my thumb working on him. Again. Oh well, Blood for the Blood God, and all that, I guess...
Very nice one, this gladiator rocks (reminds me of the Spartacus series )!!!
Spoiler:
But now that I think of it wouldn't the mace be a good weapon for your MKI Terminator lord conversion (unless you already have come up with a weapon for him)
@ Legio Ultra: It probably would have been, but in this case, I only had the leftover mace head. So if I decide to use that weapon for any termie lord, I'll rather pick up an undamaged weapon arm to work from. So using the leftover bit on the meteor hammer wasn't really that much of a loss
I've tidied up the conversion a bit, and some guys pointed out that the head was maybe looking a bit too bulky. I did want to keep a rebreather head, in any case, because I think it nicely adds to the model's brutality, and then MasterBuilder came up with the perfect suggestion over at B&C. So here's the updated hammerman:
So, all in all, that leaves me with these three gentlemen to paint:
As always, let me know what you think
EDIT: Turns out I couldn't quite leave the hammerguy alone, though: I found myself thinking about a comment made by Midian / ElDiablo over at B&C: He suggested that a longer end of chain dangling from his left fist possibly might look even cooler: I secretly agreed, so I made one more addition. As a bonus effect, the model is now wielding an actual meteor hammer (or at least a reasonable approximation of that weapon):
Smashy Smashy. Really brutal. For some reason your comment about Helbrute Barber Shop has Bohemian Rhapsody running through my head. Cool. So you think you can stop me and leave me to dieeee.......
@ Legio Ultra: Someone on one of the German forums actually suggested a bigger display base for this gladiator, complete with a fallen opponent whose face has been bashed in...
@ Llamahead: Stop it! The idea of this guys breaking into song during battles already cracks me up enough as it is
I added some final touches to the Helbrute model you saw in my last update, but the changes are nearly invisible at this point, which is always a sure sign of the model being finished. Here are some photos of the completed model:
And, once again, with the rest of the "boyband":
Actually, just imagine these guys doing the Michael Jackson "Thriller" dance routine -- or Smooth Criminal...
“No. No! Not the sarcophagus… Khorne damn you, you disloyal curs, just kill me! JUST KILL ME!” - Khalos the Ravager, last words prior to Helbrute internment
Anyway, I am pretty happy with the model, to be honest. However, there’s the problem of tieing him into my army’s background:
You see, I try to come up with a background for any squad or bigger model I use, and a Helbrute/Dreadnought is certainly big and impressive enough to warrant his own name and story, right? Well, therein lies the problem:
One of the defining factors of Khorne’s Eternal Hunt is that its members cling to their martial honour, in spite of suffering from the bite of the Butcher’s Nails and the steady degradation of their sanity over time. For them, apart from periods when they are “lost to the nails” during battle, the thought of permanently devolving into mindless beasts is the ultimate horror. And in order to slow down the inevitable decline of the company, those physically or psychologically corrupted beyond redemption are organised into separate suicide squads, to die in a last blaze of glory before their corruption spreads to their brethren.
Roughly the same goes for the company’s Ancients, of course: So the last two Dreadnoughts I built for my army exemplify opposite ends of this spectrum, with Khoron the Undying remaining mostly sane, in spite of his millennia of internment in an ironform (with the danger of finally succumbing still always present), while Marax the Fallen was already forever lost to the nails prior to being transformed, so for him the internment was an eternal punishment, and his function is to act as a reminder to his brothers what their fate will be if they permanently give in to madness and anger.
So far, so good, right? But now I have this third Dreadnought/Helbrute that is visibly mutated and corrupted and seems just as angry as Marax, if not moreso. So where does he come in? How do I explain him as a character? And what will be his name?
I agree that this is not really a huge problem, and I will certainly present the model proudly alongside all the others, even without any background or justification. But as someone for whom the background of an army is an inseparable part of the whole project, this does bug me — so in case you have any suggestions, I’d be happy to hear them!
Oh, and there is another thing I want to share with you today:
The most terrible fate (at least from a hobby perspective) recently befell fellow hobbyist Legatho: A fallen tree crashed into his garden shed during a hailstorm, where most of his various hobby materials were stored, and almost all of his models were lost in the deluge (check out his Ammobunker thread for the whole story, complete with cringe-inducing photos). Seeing the results of that catastrophe made me realise that I wanted to help, and so, a couple of other guys and me each sent Legatho some bitz in order to help him rebuild his bitzbox.
And then the most awesome thing happened: I had also included a converted World Eater in the package, a model that, for one reason or another, I had never bothered to paint: I just thought it might be a nice personal touch to send along something World Eater-ly, along with the other stuff.
Well, it turned out that this was the first model Legatho chose to paint following his personal hobby Armageddon. Take a look:
He also made some fitting additions to the model, like the Ogre gut plate and some additional skulls and chains. And I particularly like the spears on the base, since they closely echo the basing motif I used for my own model for Lord Captain Lorimar.
The best thing, though, is that Legatho included a small plaque on the base as a further shout out:
That one really made me smile! All in all, I really couldn’t be any happier with the outcome: I think Legatho really managed to do the model justice with his paintjob, plus it was great to be able to help out a fellow hobbyist! And I really love the thought that a “goodwill ambassador” from Khorne’s Eternal Hunt now resides in France. Way to go, brother-slaughterer
The best thing, however, is that Legatho seems very motivated to keep building and painting models, and I think that’s really admirable! I am not sure my own hobby mojo would have recovered from a hit like that, but there you have it! Anyway, helping out felt good anyway, but as you can see, I also got an awesome hobby moment out of it as well!
So yeah, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
Could there be a middle ground between them wracked by torment and mutation due to a duel with a champion of Tzeentch and cursed with spawndom unless he was entombed into a Hellbrute. The mutations wracked him but the champion was saved sane but brutalised.
Koralon distinguished himself early as a fine Huntsman, and a master of combat on the Hot Dust. The skulls he harvested were plentiful indeed, and his strength and martial prowess were always on the ascendant. Eventually however he attracted the attention of Khorne too often and started to receive gifts of mutation. Once these had become too obvious he joined The Lost, volunteering for the placement before his commanders chose for him. Somehow he survived his first three engagements in a suicidal role, and despite increased mutation kept - barely - a hold on his sanity. During a battle with cultists and daemonkin on Torday VI the squad of Lost he was attached to stormed an enemy-held complex which was believed to contain a warp-gate supplying reinforcements, and appeared to be succesful in bringing down the gate - once they had entered no-one was seen to leave the complex throughout the battle. The fighting in the area raged for a further two days before the Hunt was concluded.
During a search of the complex Koralon's body was discovered atop a huge mound of corpses, or so it seemed. Despite the loss of both his lower legs, an arm, and multiple other wounds there was still life in his body, and he was heard to murmur 'the hunt never ends..'. This was taken as a portent and his remains - badly damaged but having lost all the mutated parts - was interred into a sacrophagus. It was many battles later that the first signs of physical corruption began to manifest in the dreadnaught's form, but again Koralon kept from devolving into a howling beast. Gradually his war carapace has been gifted with further mutations by Khorne, and so far he has retained some form of sanity, and continues the hunt as Koralon the Lost, ever eager to take suicidal risks in order to harvest more skulls.....
Monkeytroll's got something similar to what I was thinking. There's Khoron, who's (relatively) sane and unmutated- then there's Marax. who's insane and relatively un-mutated.
This guy could be, like, completely sane, yet cursed with mutation after mutation and too gifted in combat to die in battle, even in suicide missions- the rage is him channeling his anger at Khorne's continuing 'gifts' while worshiping his god all the more.
Monkeytroll is on to something there, maybe he has a hint of conflict with pleasing Khorne over his life of suffering? Food for thought.
And Holy cow, i headed over to Legatho's thread, that's terrible. It's a bit inspiring to see him rebound so quickly, jumping back into the hobby after all that he's lost. I have only been in 40k for a few years and haven't had much time to amass a collection like he has, but man, that really sucks. I wish I could help.
Thanks a lot for the excellent feedback, people! You've really provided lots of great ideas for the Helbrute's background, and together with another great suggestion by DexterKong (over at ToS), I had everything I needed to come up with a suitable piece of fluff channelling the elements I liked the most. Many thanks, especially to monkeytroll, Llamahead and Dexter! Here goes:
Khorlen the Lost
Ever since the Skalathrax campaign, the warriors of Khorne's Eternal Hunt have been trying to keep the inevitable descent into madness that has claimed most of their legion at bay, instead clinging to their fierce martial pride. However, Lord Captain Lorimar's retreat from Skalathrax earned him no small number of opponents amid the ranks of his own legion. One such enemy, Karakar the Exalted, considered Lorimar and his company cravens and hypocrites, unworthy of Khorne's blessings and ignorant of the true nature of chaos: Karakar was furious about the Eternal Hunt looking down upon daemonhood and the gifts of the Warp, and he vowed he would educate the fourth assault company about the true meaning of chaos.
In late M39, Karakar and his warband fell upon the Fourth in a series of rapid assaults. During the initial phase of the fight, Huntmaster Khorlen, then a senior officer of the company, and his retinue were captured on the daemon world of Skabrea. Lorimar himself led an attack into the heart of the enemy stronghold, in order to rescue his battle brother and put Karakar to the sword.
When they reached the innermost sanctum of the fortress, the warriors of the fourth discovered a chilling scene: Karakar had wanted to punish the Eternal Hunt for their selfish pride, and for clinging to their long-obsolete past, so he had undertaken a sinister ritual to call the forces of the warp into the vessel provided by Huntmaster Khorlen's body. He had paid dearly, however, as Khorlen - his body twisted and wracked with the raw powers of chaos - had broken his chains and slain everyone present in the ritual chamber. There his brothers found him, crippled and bloodied, his form twisted beyond reason, but yet imbued with a sinister resilience through the powers of the warp. And against all odds, Khorlen remained completely sane, and aware of the horrible changes that had been wrought upon him.
Lorimar and his warriors were at a loss: Had Khorlen's mind been shattered by the ritual, it would have been easy enough to put him out of his misery. But their brother was still sane, and begged them to allow him to continue fighting. So a compromise was reached: Khorlen's twisted remains were interred into a dreanought ironform, in an attempt to keep him combat worthy.
But the ritual had been so powerful that even the internment did not protect Khorlen against the forces of the warp: His ironform began to change and mutate, turning Khorlen into a hulking beast of steel and fleshmetal. Yet at the heart of the hellish contraption, the proud spirit of Huntmaster Khorlen still remained, untainted and unbroken.
Khorlen spends most of his days hidden deep within the great forge aboard the Aeternus Venator, his condition closely monitored by Huntmaster Deracin. Only in times of battle is he released to walk among his brothers once more, seeking a worthy death in battle as long as he is still himself...
I have something special to show you today: Since my blog , Eternal Hunt, recently hit 200,000 views, there was the question of how to celebrate that. And what better way to celebrate than to get a nice present for myself, as a reward for all the hard work, right? Relax, though: There’ll be something interesting for you as well. So what is this about?
Some of you may remember when I posted about fellow hobbyist AgnostosTheos building 30k versions of two of my World Eaters characters a while back. This was pretty cool, because his World Eaters army is easily one of my favourite Heresy-era representations of my chosen legion.
Now imagine my dismay when AT recently announced that he would be selling his amazing collection of World Eaters — what terrible news! I, for one, would have loved to see further additions to this force, and maybe even some more 30k versions of characters from Khorne’s Eternal Hunt.
However, and I almost feel guilty for admitting it, this also provided me with the chance as well as the obligation to purchase the 30k versions that already existed.
Now I normally have pretty strict rules when it comes to buying painted models or commissioning people: I don’t usually do it, period.
I have various reasons for this: I don’t want to let other people do the work that actually constitutes a sizeable part of the hobby for me, reluctant as I sometimes am to take up a paintbrush. I also have the creeping suspicion that once I start to commission people like the Spiky Rat Pack, for instance, to build and paint some of their amazing models for me, I’ll never stop until all my money’s gone.
And there’s also the fact that it’s really an all or nothing choice: Either you only buy single pieces and end up with them looking markedly different from the rest of your army, or you commission an entire army, pay through your teeth and actually have no hobby activities left to do yourself — apart from the playing, admittedly, but that has never been the greatest draw for me.
So, to make a long story short: While I usually lack any impulse control when it comes to buying little plastic men, I have so far managed not to buy fully painted ones, at least.
I made an exception this time, however, because the thought of somebody else owing AT’s Heresy-era versions of “my” characters was pretty much unbearable to me. And due to the fact that I have zero interest in assembling a 30k World Eaters force, it seemed a safe enough endeavour to buy a couple of AgnostosTheos’s models without running the risk of becoming addicted to yet another army. So I made him an offer that he could have – but didn’t – refuse and purchased four models, all in all, along with some supremely useful resin bitz and an almost complete sheet of World Eaters decals. While the latter two will become very useful for my work on Khorne’s Eternal Hunt, it goes without saying that the painted models were definitely the stars of the show. Here are three of them:
From left to right, we have a model representing Marax the Fallen in the days before his internment into a Dreadnought, a World Eaters officer based on the WFB plastic Chaos Lord, and Khoron the Undying, once again before being interred into an ironform. Let’s take a closer look:
First up, Marax the Fallen, in both his 30k and 40k incarnations:
The twin lightning claws on both models make for a pretty clear recurring element, and the blood spatters all over 30k Marax’s armour and face show that this warrior was dangerously unhinged, even before becoming a dreadnought.
Then there’s Khoron the Undying in both versions:
Although blood spattered, Khoron seems less feral and uncontrollable than his brother. His patrician features are also a nice and subtle way of representing his function as a figure of respect among the warriors of the 4th assault company. In the 41st millenium, this face has forever been replaced with the brazen skull mask of a dreadnought, however.
Actually having these guys in my hands to display them alongside each other is a really awesome feeling, you know
And then there’s the unnamed World Eaters officer: While the model wasn’t based on any of my characters, the fact that it uses the same base model as my own Dark Apostle makes it fun to imagine that it might represent a younger Huntmaster Stian Gul:
Plus the model was actually a steal, so what choice did I have? My favourite part has got to be the way AT used etched brass parts to add World Eaters iconograpgy to the medieval looking armour.
There is actually one more model I purchased from AgnostosTheos, although one I am not prepared to show you just yet. It will also need some final touches to complete it. As a little teaser, let me just show you the weapons I intend to use for this mysterious warrior:
Maybe that should give some of you a clue as to the character this model will represent…
All in all, purchasing these models was a really great way to add some texture to my force! I really couldn’t be any happier with these guys:
While we’re on the subject, though, be sure to check out AgnostosTheos’s WIP thread and Flickr gallery: Though the various models may have found new homes, they remain one of the coolest 30k World Eaters armies, and those links allow you to check them out in their entirety — highly recommended!
As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
Hrm, absolutely nothing to say? That is kinda disappointing...
Anyway, a smaller kitbashing related update today: I am currently messing around with the Tempestus Scions (an amazing kit, btw), and thought I would share some initial impressions. This may be semi-off topic considering this thread mainly deals with my World Eaters, but since there's a fair bit of chaos related kitbashing involved, I hope you won't mind
My current plan is to turn four of the models into the beginnings of a squad of elite soldiers for my detachment of Traitor Guard, Urash's Marauders, although I will probably use one model and some of the amazing Tempestor Prime bitz to buy an Inquisitor/Imperial Noble/senior IG officer/whatever...
Anyway, taking inspiration from Jeff Vader's recent experimentation with different head swaps on the Tempestus Scions was a huge inspiration, and so I did something similar, collecting various heads from my bitzbox and trying them on my first Scion test model, in order to see how they would change the overall look and feel of the model. Now don't get me wrong, the whopping seventeen heads that come with the kit are just as amazing as the rest of the bitz. But I still wanted to see how a mere head swap might turn one of the models into very different characters.
I sorted my findings into several different categories. Each picture links to a big, very zoomable version in the gallery, btw:
I. Inquisitorial Types
Possibly the most relevant part of the experiment for this forum. Here are the various heads I tried:
I wanted to explore several options for creating shadowy and/or hi-tech-y Stormtroopers. My first experiment was to use a leftover head from Inquisitor Coteaz I still had lying around, and not only was it a great fit, but the resulting model is quite similar to the Sergeant of the Kasrkin models, don't you think? I am seriously considering using that head for my Scion-based Inquisitor.
I also tried two robed DA heads, and while Marine heads tend to be a bit clunky when used on non-marine bodies, these might actually work (although it would be necessary to shave down the neck portion, which I didn't do for my experiments). I also like the faceless SpecOps look of the fourth head (a Valkyrie pilot head, I guess? Just bought it via ebay some time ago).
II. Medieval Types
There's quite a bit of overlap with the Inquisitorial types on these, although I wanted to see how to make the Scions look even more archaic and medieval. I used several Bretonnian heads for that. Here are the results:
I actually really like the Brodie-helmet like look on the left two models! These might look great for a fire-and-brimstone Hereticus retinue (or in a particularly medieval IG regiment). The helmets do interfere with the antenna and sensor array on the shoulders, however, so some cutting might be in oder if you want to take this route. The knight helmet was mainly a joke, as was the shaved down berzerker helmet on the right (just the thing if you're going for the old "Boba Fett" look, though).
III. IG Veterans
I think that using various heads from the IG, WFB Empire or even Space Marine catalogues could be a great options of making the Scions look less like freshly-pressed parade ground soldiers and more like hard-boiled veterans from some of the more colourful regiments of the Astra Militarum:
I particularly like the one with the SW scout head on the far right
IV. and V. Traitors and Renegades
Ahhh, now we're talking: I tried various chaotic heads in order to make the Scion model look like a Traitor Guard soldier: The decorative trim on their body armour makes them equally viable for chaos, if you ask me. I did already shave off some of the beautiful IG iconography, too. Anyway, here's my first set of traitors:
As you can see, slightly shaved down WFB chaos warrior helmets will work, as will heads from the plastic cultists.
I tried even more heads, though:
I really liked one of Jeff Vader's experiments, where he used a head from the WFB Marauder Horsemen, and indeed, those heads work brilliantly on the Scion bodies: They are instantly recognisable as chaotic, but they still seem orderly enough so as not to damage the elite soldier look. My absolute favourite has to be the head from the Dark Vengeance cultist champ, though: While it may look slightly goofy on virtually any other model, here it instantly transforms a Scion into a warrior of the Blood Pact - BAM!
Anyway, hope these experiments might be helpful to some of you!
As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
Hey I wAs going to post but it was 1 am and I was sleepy...
Looking great but I must demand that you return to the clutching darkness of chaos, lest inquisitorial light give you holy sun burn. .
Very nice aquisition of these 30k versions of the World Eaters (kind of a shame the army was scattered though...). Do i suspect a 30k Lorimar conversion is en route?? as for the sions I think the chaotic heads are the best fit...particulary the hornless Warrior of Chaos Helmet (and although it was a joke, i reather like the Boba Fett head as well )
More kitbashing today: Interestingly enough, the first mostly finished model to come out of my purchase of the Tempestus Scions wasn't even a Tempestus Scion: I used the voxcaster bitz from the new kit to salvage a FW Vraksian Militia torso I had seriously gutted for another conversion, and thanks to the new bitz, I was able to build a traitor soldier with voxcaster:
Even though he uses Chaos Marauder legs and a FW torso, he should still work well enough as a squad member for my chaos elites. He looks good enough next to my test model, at least:
As it happens, I have some Vraksian torsos lying around (courtesy of fellow hobbyist PDH) and I think I will use more Marauder legs and a couple of bitz from the Scion kit to transform them into further models for the elite squad:
Again, they should work well enough from a scale perspective:
The slight variation in armour will make for a suitably ragtag looking squad, yet I believe these guys will still read as elite soldiers and look badass enough for the job
I do like the juxtoposition of the higher-tech vox-piece and wrist-mounted datascreen contrasting off the simpler Renegade Militia torso and Marauder legs.
@ the shrouded lord: To tell you the truth, I have no idea where that knife originally came from: I received it as part of a bitz drop from fellow hobbyist gaire. It seems to be a shaved down loyalist knife (or a spear tip) though, glued to a Space Marine scout's combat knife arm.
@ Miss Dee: The idea of that voxcaster traitor making prank calls during battle really cracks me up: I imagine nothing will mess with your battle logistics like someone calling in the middle of an offensive demanding to speak to Commissar I.P. Freely...
For those of you who might be thinking of using the scions as a base for (Dark) AdMech Skitarii conversions, the following pictures might be helpful as well:
You can combine the scion torsos with flagellant legs:
For the real Skitarii log, you would probably need to replace the bare feet with something suitably tech-y and bulky (Necron feet, perhaps?). And you'd need to either add a cowl sculpted from GS or use the AdMech-styled cultist head.
As an alternative for making Skitarii (or, indeed, trenchcoat scions), you could use the legs from that very cultist:
In this case, the legs might be a bit on the thin side, though...
@ Miss Dee: Be sure to check out migusla's counts as GK/IG force to see an extremely awesome way of building an AL operative cell using guard models!
On a related note, I think the scions would be brilliant as IW cultists (or allies in an IW army): I can't imagine the Iron Warriors using ragtag cultists and misfits, but rather highly efficient soldiers appearing as emotionless and faceless killers (think the Kerberos Brigade in Jin-Roh).
LPoking good.
Kraut, I'm planning on ordering in some chaos puppies and a crap-tonne of greenstuff and I'm planning on making some were-wolf chaos spawn.
Also planning an uber-spawn / Daemon prince.
@ the shrouded lord: Sounds cool! Regarding the wolf-spawn, you should definitely check out CVinton's Thunderwolves , which should be great as an inspiration for just the type of conversion you have in mind. I'd personally recommend using Vargheists/Crypt Horros as base models, btw, because they have just the sinewy, lean predator look that you need As for the über-spawn/DP, maybe my own Manticore/Maulerfiend DP can serve as some manner of inspiration?
Peter, I agree that the flagellant legs would need a bit of work to actually match the torsos. In any case, I was just messing around with a couple of bitz in order to explore some of the possibilities of the kit. The trenchcoat idea is pretty interesting, though, because you end up with something only one step removed from one of my favourite pieces of IG artwork by none other than the great Jes Goodwin.
One last idea for you, at least for today: I just had to try and combine one of the masked Scion heads with the helmet of a Bretonnian Man-at-arms, creating something resembling a futuristic Brodie helmet/gas mask combo:
The resulting model basically looks like a more detailed, more baroque GW version of one of my beloved Warzone 2nd edition starter minis:
Might be a useful idea for IG as well as Inquisitorial Stormtroopers or Traitor Guard, though...
The trenchcoat legs work a treat, and I love the look of that brettonian helm combined with the facemask. Not de-sprued my scions yet, but will be having close look at them tonight or tomorrow
@ Yellowbeard: Yes, I just spliced together a scion helmet with that of a Bretonnian Man-at-arms, as you described. Took a bit of cutting, but worked out quite alright (if maybe not as downright awesome as I would have hoped) .
That is a genius kitbash KS. I think somewhere between the Genswickian Scion, the flagellant legs and the cultist legs is the perfect Imperial Guard model
I love the Brettonian head with the scions - the WW1 look is excellent. With a suitably dirty paint job, they're going to look great with your World Eaters.
@ Archmagos_Amadeus: Hmm, seeing how flattery will get you everywhere with me, I am almost tempted to undertake some more experimentation in pursuit of the perfect conversion you speak of
@ PDH: Coming from you, Peter, that's really quite a compliment. Plus I'm sure I have stolen so many ideas from you over time that it's nice to be able to repay the favour for once
@ wonkobaggins: Yes, it's really a pretty good update of the Warzone Trencher look, isn't it? I'll probably eventually be using it for an Inquisitorial stormtrooper or two, though: My Traitor Guard elites will be slightly more "conventionally" chaotic and use a colour scheme resembling the rest of my Traitor Guard:
For the elites, though, I am thinking dark grey fatigues (like the rest of the force), but mostly red armour plates and definitely piering blue eye lenses, where applicable.
Those traitor guard need to be purged! With cookies! And cream?
That blog you linked me to is great, and has earned a spot in my bookmarks.
Realy great (hardly surprising) guard you have there, how do you reckon normal guard would react seeing that?
probably run. Or yell "for khorne!" and stab the guy next to them.
That Brettonian/Scion head combo is so cool! Now I may have to get both bretonnian and scion bits. The trenchcoat cultist leg combo also works nicely. You're right, it really is getting close to that Jes Goodwin ash wastes Guardsmen (why they never turned that directly into a kit is a mystery).
Wow, that new head conversion is absolutely perfect. I would love to see a full squad or 2 of those guys across from me on the table. As for the lenses, I would recommend trying out purple. I think it would work really well with the dark cloth and the red plates.
I actually think that the "hatted" stormtrooper would look right at home alongside your traitor guard, even if its not chaotic in the convectional sense.
Work on the scions continues on several fronts: For one, I have drawn together several of my earlier ideas and recombined them into a very early mockup for a soldier with a distinct WWI trencher vibe:
The conversion will need quite a bit of tidying up, of course: I believe I'll be getting rid of the sensor array on the model's shoulders in order to be able to pose the head more freely. He'll also be getting a rifle rather than a sword and pistol, because I think holding a rifle would really work well with the running pose and give him the look of an experienced soldier advancing under fire. I am currently looking at doing something similar to Adam Wier's beautifully simple rifle conversion, since the one thing I really want to get rid of are those power cables (the one, element I hate about the kit, if only for how fiddly it can get). Apart from that, I imagine he'll be getting some more kit, a backpack etc.
I am pretty interested in finishing this conversion, though, and have slightly adapted my plans RE: the scions: While I will still be building four scions as traitor elites, I'll hold off on creating an Inquisitor for now and rather sort out that trencher conversion: He could probably he could be an Inquisitorial Stormtrooper, which would make him viable for INQ28.
Anyway, expect to see more of this guy fairly soon!
Focusing on this guy as my fifth scion model also frees up the second set of fairly static legs for now (since it would be needed to build a model using the storm coat, as far as I am aware), which is a nice side effect, because having that pair of legs at my disposal will allow me to build a suitably impressive officer for my traitor elites. I am pretty sure that one will use the Blood Pact like DV cultist head.
Meanwhile, the first test model for my traitor elites is more or less finished:
I'll admit that it's a very straightforward kitbash, but I still like it very much: There's just something about those Marauder Horsemen heads that really works, don't you think?
Here he is with a second WIP model that still lacks the chaos-y extra bitz:
As always, let me know what you think!
@ the shrouded lord: Aww, sorry mate, but I have to admit I am not a big fan of skull bases: The only kind of troops these really work for, in my opinion, are daemonworld armies. And even then, skullbases usually look like someone actually consciously designed them for a model to stand on instead of just the slice of real ground the model happens to be standing on atm. I prefer the second version, because it adds more realism to a model. I also have some very far-reaching thoughts regarding the plausibilities of placing lots and lots of skulls and bones on a base, but I won't get into that in more detail now, for all our sakes
Looking good. As an admirer of the WW1 trench troops, in particular the ANZACS, I very like the first guy. Did you order/buy one kit or two?
Yeah I just thought the skull base looked funny. So, what can we expect to see next? More experimenting with the scion kit?
P.s: the scion kit actuely kind looks like most chaos, what with the massive trim and that.
Indeed, more experimentation with the scion kit: I may only have bought one box for now, but I am not done with these by a long shot
I just had to put in some more work on that Trencher model:
Still missing some details, but I think it's getting there Oh, and what self-respecting trencher would head out into the warzone without his entrenching tool, right? So the choice of backpack was basically a no-brainer...
I also added some leftover armour plates to my traitor with voxcaster to bulk out his somewhat skinny legs a bit
Trench-fighting dude is a great example the multitude of scion kit conversions going around!
The cultist legs make him dynamic, and giving him the rifle, that beautiful helmet and the entrenching tool have really given him character - you can 'see' his story.
A sufficiently 'battle-damaged' paint job should really enhance him.
The las might be too long, but have you tried bayonet?
Either that or he needs a trench-knife situated on his armour somewhere - maybe the cool-looking quick-draw carry, knife hilt down on the left shoulder, or a boot knife?
Very nice, very nice this trencher is a feast for the eyes, maybe you could make a full unit of them and use them as elites/specialists in your traitor guard force....though he might need a few grenades (stikkbombs would suit the look rather nicely i think )
@ Lamby: As a matter of fact, I tried adding a bayonet, but while it fits the las-barrel well enough, it throws off the model's entire composition, making the rifle look far too long and cumbersome. I'll be giving him a trench knife by way of the daggers that come with the Tempestus Scions.
@ Legio Ultra: The elites for my Traitor Guard will be more classically chaos, similar to the Blood Pact or similar warbands. The trencher will be used in INQ28, I believe. There's also the fact that coming up with a whole squad of these would be pretty complicated, due to the same cultist legs needed over and over.
@ M138: Cheers, mate!
@ Yellowbeard: By all means, steal whatever ideas you can use! The legs are indeed from a plastic DV cultist (the one with the AdMech style head).
So, once again, I am really happy with the Tempestus Scions and the conversion and kitbashing options they provide, and my experimentation continues. But my love for the kit notwithstanding, let me discuss yet another source for possible Stormtroopers. As you will see, this is clearly not a case of favouring one kit (or manufacturer) over the other, but rather an attempt at outlining several, partly interlocking approaches for building just the Stormtroopers and elite soldiers you need:
Quite some time ago, I participated in a Kickstarter to make some of Mark Mondragon’s designs available in glorious plastic. The kits coming out of this Kickstarter, namely the different plastic Titans and the Eisenkern Stormtroopers, were one of my favourite hobby releases in 2013, as some may recall. And it’s the latter of the two I would like to talk about:
The Eisenkern Stromtroopers provide an alternate set of models for your Imperial Guard. Granted, these are not GW models, so you won’t be able to use them in any GW events or GW stores, but the models are still definitely nice enough to showcase them here! As a matter of fact, I was already feeling bad for not making the time to talk about them in more detail earlier, but now it turns out that the opportunity to discuss them back to back with the new Tempestus Scions is just the perfect way of taking a closer look at the kit. So let’s look at both kits, shall we:
On their own, the Eisenkern Stormtroopers provide a kit for making very cool looking elite soldiers with a very distinct WWII vibe. Incidentally, the background of the Eisenkern faction basically has them as “Germans IN SPACE!” (and the name certainly is a dead giveaway…). My personal reason for supporting their creation in plastic was that they really reminded me of the Wolf Brigade in Jin-Roh, but those designs were of course based on historical German uniforms again, so it’s a bit of a circular argument.
Anyway, the kit comes with so many options for customisation that it’s almost ridiculous, and these options are further multiplied if you decide to purchase an additional set of conversion and equipment bitz, giving you lots and lots of different weapons, heads, hands and various gear. Therefore, the humble test model pictured above is really just the tip of the iceberg.
Here’s a scale comparison with the Tempestus Scions:
As you can see, both models are more or less of the same height: The Eisenkern Stormtrooper is ever so slightly taller, yet less bulky than the Tempestus Scion. From a structural perspective, there are quite a few parallels, though, ranging from the body armour and rebreather helmets to the power plant-like section on the model’s back.
The overall look is still ever so slightly different, though: Where the Tempestus Scions are full-out baroque and grimdark, the Eisenkern models are more hi-tech, albeit with a clear retro element.
But let’s look at some more scale pictures, this time with a “regular” IG model, a cultist and an Astartes as additional parts of the comparison:
As you can see, both Stormtrooper models nicely fit into the gap between “regular” humans and Astartes: While both are basically just as tall as a regular Marine, the added bulkiness still nicely separates the Astartes from the unaugmented models.
One obvious problem with the Eisenkern models lies in the slightly more realistic (and less “heroic”) proportions when compared to GW kits. While this certainly isn’t a shortcoming per se, it can become a bit of a problem when trying to combine the Eisenkern models with GW bitz.
For instance, where the Tempestus Scion bodies will happily accept even Marine heads with a bit of cutting, even fairly slender heads like the wolf scout head pictured below will look slightly too clunky on an Eisenkern Trooper:
That said, some heads work better than others: I have collected some cases where the GW heads worked reasonably well below:
In any case, the important thing to keep in mind here is that these parts certainly weren’t designed to be mixed, so the fact that it still works out in some cases should be treated more like a bonus — but more on that in a minute.
The main problem from a design perspective is that the Eisenkern Stormtroopers are far less useful for “classic” chaos than the Tempestus Scions, because the smooth lines are not nearly baroque and archaic enough for your average traitor guard, whereas the extra decoration on the Scions makes them very chaos-y right out of the box. The common Eisenkern Stormtrooper fares less well when combined with chaos bitz.
But, again, this is obviously not really a fault of the kit itself: It wasn’t even designed to allow for shenanigans like that.
The big surprise, then, is that the Eisenkern Stormtroopers work amazingly well with the Tempestus Scion heads:
The beret heads from the Scions are perfect for Eisenkern officers — and actually much better than the somewhat generic bare heads that come with the Eisenkern kit (one of the few failings of an otherwise brilliant kit, I might add).
The same goes for the helmeted Scion heads:
And finally, the beret head with gas mask, one of the coolest heads in the kit anyway, is pretty much the perfect officer head for an Eisenkern Stormtrooper. Take a look:
Quite a nice reward for the adventurous kitbasher, don’t you think? Plus this information might be interesting both for those who are contemplating a purchase of the Eisenkern Stormtroopers as well as those who already own the kit and want to tie it in with their IG army: Just get some Tempestus Scion heads, and you’re golden
Another interesting fact: Female Eisenkern models will eventually be available, filling a gap GW’s catalogue has mostly refused to address so far: Here’s a regular Eisenkern trooper next to Kickstarter exclusive model Ada:
So which one should you choose?
I’ll be honest with you, I couldn’t even tell you which kit is the better one, because a) both are awesome and b) which is better for you depends on what you are looking for: Both kits are great and, in their respective ways, provide great value for the money. The best possible approach would be to ask yourself what kind of Stormtrooper you are looking for and make your decision from there (or, of course, to just buy a box of each):
Do you want your Stormtroopers visually in line with the eclectic, sometimes outlandish and anachronistic 40k universe? Do you love the little medieval and renaissance touches and are looking for colourful models that channel this particular part of the setting? Then the Tempestus Scions are your thing.
Do you want slightly more futuristic, tactical looking troopers without too many baroque design elements but a noticeable retro feel and tons and tons of options (you can actually use the accessory sprue to build models conversing in SWAT-like sign language, for crying out loud!)? Great, the Eisenkern Stormtroopers are the kit for you.
But even if you come down on either side of this argument, the other kit would still be an awesome purchase. And, owning both kits, I am perfecly sure that I am going to have lots of fun with both types of models.
In the end, it’s really all about being aware of all the options, and that’s what this post is about too: Describing more options for you. In any case, you way want to check out the Dreamforge Games website — chances are, you’ll find something to like there. At the same time, I cannot recomment the Tempestus Scions enough: They are an amazing kit and quite reasonably priced for GW’s standards.
Anyway, so much for the latest Stormtrooper conversion related shenanigans: Expect to see more from the Trencher model and traitor elites really soon! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
I don't love the storm troopers, they just look far too skinny for my likings.
My first warhound is due in 2-3 weeks so I should be able to finnaly start working on that soon, when I do I'll PM you a link?
I know I am no where near the brilliance of your modelling but I can try...no I can't...
@ the shrouded lord: Yeah, whatever you want to share, feel free to PM me a link. I'd never touch a model the scope of a Warhound, btw, so that's at least one area where you are far, far ahead of me
@ M138: I know what you mean. Have you checked out the new heavy Eisenkern troopers coming out, though? Compared to those, the stormtroopers look like mere wip models
@ Llamahead: It's true that the Eisenkern models provide an unbelievable amount of value for the money, with the caveat of looking more "generic" than the scions. The scions are amazing value as well, simply for the amount of bitz you get, but the kit will only give you five models (although you'll have enough leftover stuff to accessorise quite a few more, as we'll be seeing in a minute... ).
So, another rather sizeable update today: Let's take a look at the (mostly) completed models so far, shall we. Before we do that, though...
1. By request...
...some people suggested I show them a couple of additional headswaps, and how could I refuse? I’ll be keeping this short and to the point, though
First up, in case you wondered what the scion heads looked like on bog standard Cadians:
They are actually a perfect fit: You need to shave down the neck portion, though — which I failed to do for the above pictures, hence the slightly hokey proportions. But from a scale perspective, I think you’ll agree that it should work. And while I was at it, I also tried an Eisenkern Stormtrooper head on a Cadian body…
…and it instantly created that wonderful Jin-Roh look. Even more cutting involved in this case, though, because the neck portion on those Eisenkern heads is huge.
Oh, and while we’re at it, here’s the Eisenkern head on a regular Tempestus Scion, for the sake of completeness:
This may actually be one of my favourite combinations so far! Unfortunately, the fact that the Eisenkern heads only come as part of the larger kit and that you only get just enough heads, this kind of conversion is hardly economical. But if you should find yourself in the possession of some leftover Eisenkern heads, it’s definitely a very interesting option!
2. Straight from the trenches…
I applied the finishing touches to my trencher model. So here it is, ready for painting:
Additional bitz are a backpack with an entrenching tool (a bit of a no brainer, really) and a trench knife (one of the daggers from the Tempestus Scions). Like I said earlier, my experiments in creating a bayonet for the rifle fell flat: While it was easy enough to attach a blade to the rifle, the barrel ended up looking way too long, thereby throwing off the model’s whole composition. However, I believe that the dagger, worn to be quickly available during combat, works well enough as a replacement.
To tell you the truth, I am stupidly happy with this guy, since he is both suitably grimdark and reminiscent of actual trenchers as well as those Warzone minis I keep going on about. I hope to be able to paint him sooner rather than later — a suitable base, complete with duckboards and a muddy surface, has already been built.
Once again, let me show you some possible, different heads for the model, in case you’re going for a different, maybe even more medieval feel:
While the head I used on the model was spliced together from a Bretonnian helmet and a Tempestus Scion head, the heads from the Bretonnian Men-at-arms can also be used on their own:
I actually think those work just as well, and would basically be ideal if you were after building, say, a Genswick IG force.
I also tried the head with mask and beret from the scion kit…
…and it looks just as awesome as it did when used on the Eisenkern Stormtrooper I posted earlier. I have a sneaking suspicion that this head will always look awesome, no matter the model you use it on.
And finally, another really cool option would be to use an Eisenkern head:
3. Meanwhile, back ar the Archenemy camp…
During all those head swaps, though, let’s not forget the intended use for my first batch of Tempestus Scions: I want to turn them into a squad of elite soldiers for Urash’s Marauders. So, any progress on that? You bet!
For instance, after finishing my first test model (to be found further up in this thread), I have begun working on a second traitor and have also made a first mockup of the squad’s champion (or should that be Damogaur?):
In this case, the scion chainsword was replaced with a suitably chaotic sabre from the Dark Vengeance cultist champion. The head with the grotesk came from the same model. And while a laspistol may not be the most exciting equipment for a squadleader, I chose the arm for its pose, at least for now. One of the two small shortcomings of the Tempestus Scions, in my opinion, are the sometimes freakishly long arms, so choosing a combination that looks right takes some doing (on a semi-related note, those cables connecting the rifles and backpacks are the other element I don’t like: Getting all those parts lined up just so without gluing the model together outright is very fiddly business…).
Anyway, this guy isn’t finished yet, but I think the model will already give you a pretty good idea of where this is going. Here are the three WIP models for the squad together:
That’s not all, however: Since the scion kit contains so many bitz, there are enough leftovers to use on different models as well. As I told you in my previous post, I will be using some of these bitz to build some more traitor elites, mostly based on some Vraksian Renegade Militia torsos.
You already know the voxcaster guy:
And I also found out that the rifle arms work fairly well on those Vraksian torsos:
By combining these bitz, the model looks a bit like a missing link between a Tempestus Scion and one of my regular traitors, which could signify the encroaching influence of chaos, I suppose?
A third model uses the plasma gunner arms from the scions for now. Here are the three traitors together:
I also built another champion/squadleader model that I am really happy with. Take a look:
The torso came from the Vraksian Enforcers, while the legs are from a WFB chaos charioteer: Both bits were leftovers of earlier conversions, so it was really nice to finally put them to good use! The arms are from the Tempestus Scions, although the weapons and hands were replaced (with a Space Marine Scout pistol and chaos warrior sword, respectively). The head came from a Dark Vengeance plastic cultist. And I also added some additional pouches and gear:
This model takes quite a bit of inspiration from PDH’s traitor soldiers which range among my favourite renegade models. I am really happy with how this model has turned out, because it really fits my idea of Traitor Guard to a t!
And here are all the “Vraksian bases” traitors so far: Keep in mind that these were all basically made from leftovers from my bitzbox:
What I especially like about these models is that they could arguably be used alongside the scion-based traitors in one large squad – granted, there’s a bit of variation, but that’s chaos for you – but they could also be the beginnings of a second squad of traitor elites.
So yeah, after all the headswapping businesss, I hope I’ve managed to convince you that some actual models will be coming out of this in the end! I would love to hear your feedback on any of these!
As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
You, Biohazard and the chap who got into White Dwarf with his astounding Iron Warriors army are the 3 people i follow most on the internet for inspiration in my chaos projects!! I Especially love your L&TD! Keep em coming!
Automatically Appended Next Post: I have a L&TD Nurglite army underway with some heavily converted tanks, and for my veteran guardsmen i plan to use Stormvermin bodies with plague priest heads, and the plague priest snouts with be cut and and replaced with piping and cylinders to look like gasmasks, I've done some so far. Hopefully this little rant will keep me sane for the next few weeks
Your conversion project sounds interesting! Maybe you should take a look at the feral heads from Pig Iron Industries: They should be a pretty great fit for the Stormvermin bodies, and the resulting models would look less like outright rat people and more ambiguous -- and disturbing.
Your conversion project sounds interesting! Maybe you should take a look at the feral heads from Pig Iron Industries: They should be a pretty great fit for the Stormvermin bodies, and the resulting models would look less like outright rat people and more ambiguous -- and disturbing.
I was looking at those heads the other day, although i avoid metal like the plague, hopefully these heads will be better to work with Furthermore i'm going to give them oxygen tanks to make them look far less ratty and like nurglite weirdos in robes and chainmail apparatus!
I'm watching you're thread very closely..
Awesome builds on those not-scions. You continuously have the best mix of fantasy and 40k bits. So will they run as allied traitor guard or a group of cultists? You've probably said so earlier and I missed it in my absence.
What do you think ? (its for a private terran house army)
The 4th begin from left is too egyptian like but maybe with green stuff i could delete eyes gaps.
@ Moltar: Well, while technically, aynthing smaller and less bulky than an Astartes could be used as a cultist, I think these guys actually look slightly too organised and well equipped for that, so I guess they will be used as Stormtroopers in my allied Traitor Guard. There's a look at the rest of my Traitor Guard further up in this thread or here, in case you're interested.
@ Eloniel: I think that recipe does have some promise: You may want to get rid of some of the decoration on the scions, like maybe shaving off the armour trim to fit the sleeker look of the Puppets War helmets, but I'd personally leave that off until you've checked that everything goes together well. But I think it could really look cool!
So, as luck would have it, an order I had placed with a bitz seller on ebay was delievered today, on the last day of my Easter vacation, and I couldn't help messing around with the bitz: This guy pretty much came together just like that, easy as pie:
I have to give credit where credit is due, though: The idea for replacing the blade on that Deathwing axe was nicked from AMaximus , and the brilliant use of Warp Talon toes on Chaos Termninator gauntlets was suggested by fellow hobbyist Lucutus. Oh, and the model above will probably be named Raas the Butcher, as a shout out to Augustus B'Raass, who was nice enough to feature a namesake of mine in the fluff for his spectacular Night Lords contemptor.
Very nice work on those traitor guards, i especially like the squad leaders, as well as the guy with the plasma gun.....though the star of the show imho is the new terminator...I had been wondering when you you would use the Red Butchers ad i can say it was worth the wait. Keep it up!!!
@ Eloniel: I think that recipe does have some promise: You may want to get rid of some of the decoration on the scions, like maybe shaving off the armour trim to fit the sleeker look of the Puppets War helmets, but I'd personally leave that off until you've checked that everything goes together well. But I think it could really look cool!
You mean shaving off these part (in red) :
Spoiler:
Because it seem like a real hard task with lot of green stuff job and i don't think i have the skill to make it and it would be easier to go with an other kit if i want something ungothic/much sleek.
@ Legio Ultra: I actually only got myself two Red Butchers for now, strictly for experimentation purposes While I love the armour design, some of the poses seem very awkward, especially if you use the stock arms. Let's hope I'll be able to do better with my little test conversion
@ Eloniel: Actually, I was thinking more of the shoulder pads, since I agree that getting rid of the trim on the torsos might be too much hassle to be worth it. In any case, why not just get a box of scions - they are definitely worth the purchase either way - and five of the heads and get going? I am pretty confident things will start falling into place once you get some firsthand experience with the kit -- at least, that's how it was for me!
Yes i will do that, i ordered the heads (that are sold by 10), Before all that stuff i have some studies contest for integrade an engeneering school so this stuff must wait until june or july... :(
I will keep you informed. =)
Rass the Butcher looks great but maybe a little static?
what are the red butchers models like to put together?
it looks like one big cast, which would be annoying.
also can the heads be changed easily?
Currently painting the Red Butcher conversion, so expect an update soon-ish
@ Thunder Fury 2575: Since there are very few good bitz shops in Germany, I usually pick up more specific stuff from a couple of German ebay-sellers that happen to have an interesting selection of both GW and FW bitz. This is usually a fairly expensive option, however, so I try to only make use of it if there's something I really need (or when a really rare bit happens to be on offer). I also try to do bitz swaps with other hobbyist, which usually makes for fairly interesting acquisitions.
@ Chaos Emperor: As you suspect, the whole Red Butcher body is one piece, with only the arms being separate bitz. While that obviously makes them fairly easy to put together, it also severely limits their flexibility. Getting rid of their heads should be possible with a bit of shaving - as poom has done on some of his Red Butchers , but the operation seems needlessly complicated, especially since there used to be perfect prototypes with absolutely amazing bare heads at GD. Why FW didn't release them like that is an absolute mystery to me...
Alright, everyone, time to show you the finished Red Butcher!
It was clear that I would be painting the model to fit the rest of my World Eaters, of course. But as a matter of fact, I have never seen the Red Butcher models painted in post heresy colours so far, and the official Forgeworld paintjob is, well, atrocious...
Anyway, while painting this guy, I subjected myself to the challenge of trying to finish the model in 3 hours, as part of a small, friendly challenge between several like-minded hobbyists. So I tried to be fast.
Here’s the model at shortly before the two hour mark…
…and, a while later, after precisely three hours:
Not bad, but clearly not finished either. Just to give you an idea, Jeff Vader managed to completely paint an absolutely amazing Plague Bearer in the same amount of time. Nuts!
But while I had sort of failed the three hours challenge, the work I had managed to accomplish during those hours went a long way towards getting the model painted, so it was all good. I ended up putting in another hour or two, and here is the finished model. I give you Raas the Butcher:
As you can see, some of the additional touches really sell the model, at least in my opinion: The planet at the centre of the stylised legion badge on the model’s helmet was picked up in turquoise for that additional bit of pop. And I even added some blood to the halberd’s blade, because the Butcher really seems like that kinda guy:
A similarly bloodspattered Space Marine helmet and a skull were added as decoration to the model’s base:
Painting a whole Forgeworld model for the first time certainly has certainly been an interesting experience as well, although it made me realise that not only do I dislike converting resin models, but I am also not all that fond of painting them: The Forgeworld resin provides all those tiny nooks and crannies on the model that I remember (with dread!) from my past experiences with metal models, and all that scrubbing and soaking beforehand, in order to get rid of the mold release agent covering the model head to toe, also isn’t that much fun. So while I can see myself painting the odd FW model every now and then, assembling an entire army of models made from this material seems like a bit of a nightmare to me, to be honest…
Oh, and one more thing: While I am rather pleased with the finished model, it does look slightly puny when stood next to one of my plastic models in Terminator armour. Justs sayin’…
I’m happy enough with the result, though: One down, one to go! I suppose the second Red Butcher I purchased will end up looking more or less like this:
I might just replace the right arm with an arm holding an axe or sword, though. Hmmm….
On a semi-related note, I realised that some of the Red Butchers’ design elements, especially the torso and helmet, are quite reminiscent of that old metal Terminator Lord I picked up used a while ago:
The resemblance is really quite uncanny, don’t you think? So maybe these guys will end up hanging out together in the end? In any case, it’s especially delicious to find visual consistency where you hadn’t even expected it, so yeah…
Oh, one more thing, by the way: My finished test model, Raas the Butcher, was named for fellow hobbyist Augustus B’Raass. This is a small thank you to him, both for providing lots of inspiration with his kick-ass Night Lords army (seriously, what is it whith all the amazing NL armies lately?) and for indulging me when I instigated a rather egg-headed (but nevertheless pretty fascinating, at least to me) discussion on his thread lately.
Thanks for taking it all in stride, mate!
Anyway, here’s the model’s background:
Raas the Butcher
The warrior known as Raas the Butcher is one of the 4th assault company’s oldest veterans and serves in Lord Captain Lorimar’s personal guard, known as Lorimar’s Fist. Even among this band of ruthless killers, his thirst for blood excels, and his penchant for tearing his opponents limb from limb is well known and feared by those who have to stand against him: Watching Raas charging the enemy with surprising speed, a blood curdling howl on his lips, is terrifying to behold, and usually the last sight his victims are afforded before his mighty war halberd effortlessly shears through their armour and flesh. His bloodlust is so great that he spends most battles completely lost to the nails, as much of a danger to his friends as to his enemies. Chains decorate his ancient suit of modified Cataphractii armour as if to bind him, but it is clear that the Lord Captain’s abyssal growl is the only thing that will bring this wild hound to heel…
As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
Very nice work, I really like that love you gave to the little details. Cant wait to see the second one though i feel his pose is a little like a cartoonish run. What if you switched the angle on the arms, turn the left arm down and give his right hand a forward pointing weapon??
Looking forward to waht you will come up with!!
The butchers are going to look great! I personally don't like resin much either, never had a forgeworld model myself, but i know what you mean. Looking forward to the painted terminators.
On the note of headswaps with the Eisenkern, I used some of the female apocalypse survivor heads from wargames factory. The eisenkern bodies actually work fairly well as women in power armour, being more slender than the average GW miniature. I'm using them to put together a 'sensibly armoured' sisters of battle army at the moment.
Like I said, the arms on the second Red Butcher are yet WIP, so things might yet change. I really fancy giving him a sword/thunder hammer/axe for his right hand atm...
However, it'll be some time until we next see this guy: I'm already fluttering along to the next possible conversion project. That is the bad news. The good news is that I more or less used painitng the Red Butcher as a test run for a bigger update. Sit tight and watch this space for the next update
@ Squigsquasher: Yeah, he's one of the models I have always wanted to own, so I was lucky to get a good deal on him a while back. To make things even more tantalising for those who want the model, it's still listed on GW's page, albeit as "no longer available".
Alright, I promised you a bigger update, and here it is: Those of you who have been following this thread for a while may recall my ongoing work on a couple of World Eaters riding massive juggernauts of Khorne. Even though there are currently no rules for such a formation, every self-respecting follower of Khorne should have some juggernaut riders in his army, period.
Anyway, my first test model on the way to a whole squad was actually built and painted quite a long time ago:
I am still reasonably happy with this guy, especially since the WFB Skullcrushers of Khorne had not yet been released back then, so building the rider actually took some doing (erm, and the “borrowing” of an idea from Sprugly’s amazing thread here ).
Speaking of the Skullcrushers, the release of that kit did of course make my whole life a lot easier, and I snatched it up for the bitz alone. But the kit also gave me the opportunity to build three more juggernaut riders, my Brazen Hunters:
These were actually named for fellow hobbyists who had greatly inspired me with their respective chaos projects. And I imagine the squad will be a sight to see, once I finally work up the motivation to get them painted (fingers crossed ).
But during all this time, I did not yet have a suitable Chaos Lord on juggernaut, even though such a model is the one highly viable way of currently using a Chaos Space Marine on a juggernaut to begin with! However, I am basically addicted to building Chaos Lords, and it was entirely clear for me that this guy would need to be really impressive.
It may surprise you to learn that I have been quietly pottering away on a suitable Chaos Lord for a rather long time now. In fact, a first test version was built as early as 2011:
But while I look back on that first effort with some fondness, the model really wasn’t as cool as I wanted it to be. So the rider was ditched, I kept the juggernaut and waited for a suitable rider model to go on top.
I finally found a solution to my problem when my cousin Andy gave me a Chaos Lord on Manticore as a birthday gift in 2012. I have gone on record stating that the kit is basically worth it for the rider bitz alone, and you even get two riders (and the Manticore can have its uses as well…).
Anyway, while one of the Manticore riders was turned into a rogue Primaris Psyker for my Traitor Guard, it was always clear to me that the other one would end up as the lord riding that leftover juggernaut — but the project still stalled for some reason.
Until the recent 14th Painting/Converting Contest over at Throne of Skulls provided the perfect occasion for me to finally clean up my act and finish the model. So I sat down and combined rider and jugger. Here’s a look at the WIP version of the model:
Granted, this conversion might have been quite a bit more exciting before the release of the WFB Skullcrushers, but I think it still holds up. The Manticore kit comes with some absolutely brilliant bitz, among them the heavily scarred head I used for the rider. The chain cloak is another personal favourite of mine, since not only does it look badass on any Chaos Lord, but chains feature rather prominently in the World Eaters’ legion aesthetics, so what better place to use this wonderful bit.
In order to suitably “40k-i-fy” the fantasy model, I added a plasma pistol (if only to give me an excuse for paining some light blue plasma coils every once in a while ), some grenades on the model’s belt and a backpack from the Dark Vengeance Chosen. The juggernaut was also subtly converted in order to make it look a little more impressive: The main additions were two Marauder shields on the hind legs and two tusks (made from a set of horns from the Chaos Knight horses). The latter idea was borrowed from an excellent diorama created by Keith Robertson and Kornel Kozak and published in an issue of WD:
When it actually came to painting the model, I had to be really disciplined for once, since I had let the deadline for the ToS contest approach without lifting a finger, lazy bum that I am — maybe this was a subconscious attempt at forcing myself to perform well under pressure?
Anyway, I actually painted rider and jugger back to back over a matter of three days, which was quite a drag, but also didn’t give me any time to dawdle or lose interest. I started with the rider, because I instinctively realised that he would be far more fun to paint. Here’s the finished rider (looking like the victim or a particularly nasty groin hernia without his steed):
The funny leg pose notwithstanding, painting this guy really was a blast! I basically used my usual recipe for World Eaters, but this model gave me the opportunity to combine two of my favourite effects on the same model: glowing plasma coils and a turquoise daemon weapon. As a matter of fact, I added another light blue area to the model’s backpack, making it look like some kind of reactor core:
Painting the juggernaut was mainly an exercise in patience and perseverance, because the model is pretty big and has quite a few nooks and crannies (and I had, of course, been idiotic enough to glue together all the different parts, save the head, before painting). I went for the same, dark turquoise I used on my last juggernaut, both because it makes for a nice contrast against the red of the rider’s armour, but also because it provides an added bit of visual consistency for my army: my daemon weapons or daemonic steeds all use variants of the same turquoise.
Painting this guy in such a relatively short timespan was quite a bit of work. Fortunately, when I was already on my last leg, my copy of Warhammer:Vision arrived and seeing my model for Legion in Blanchitsu helped me release some hidden reserve of power
So, without further ado, here’s the finished model. I give you Lord Valkar, the Scarred One:
The one problem with the model, from a construction perspective, is that the chains of Valkar’s cloak seem curiously gravity-defying. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could have done to change that, short of cutting apart the entire cloak — and I was too much of a chicken for that Let us just presume that Valkar’s a) gallopping so fast that even the heavy chains are streaming in the wind or b) some kind of sorcerous power is keeping them afloat?! Yeah, sorcerous power, that makes sense! Let’s totally go with that!
Anyway, let me share a couple of detail shots with you:
I am actually really happy with the model’s face, even though I just used my usual, minimalistic approach. The scars actually play into this guy’s background — but more about that in a minute.
So yeah, that’s my finished Chaos Lord on juggernaut of Khorne, at long last. Only what, three years from inception to finished model? That’s really slow, even for my sloppy standards. But well worth it, of course
Seriously, though: I really am pretty pleased, both with the model and with the fact that I finally managed to complete this particular task. Whatever his chances might be in the ToS contest, I am already super happy at having added another bigger model like this to my collection.
And, of course, a tried and true tradition here on Eternal Hunt, let’s get to know the latest model better: Who is this guy? What are his dreams and ambitions? Allow me to share the background I came up with for the model:
Huntmaster Valkar, the Scarred One, Lord of Chains and Master of the Brazen Hunters
In the latter days of the Great Crusade, Brother Valkar was fighting as a line officer in the 12th legion’s assault formations, and it was during the pacification of a cluster of feudal worlds in the eastern fringe that he incurred a wound that would change his life forever: A maddened cultist attacked him with a weapon wreathed in sorcerous flame, taking Valkar’s right eye and leaving him with a hideous, eight-pronged scar over the right side of his face. To make matters worse, the damaged eye socket wouldn’t take any augmetic replacement for some reason unfathomable even to the Legion’s Apothecaries, leaving Valkar permanently one-eyed. In any other Astartes Legion, that would have surely relegated him to the place of an Auxiliarii or a diplomat – a bleak prospect for one who had been bred for war. But Angron’s legion had little use for diplomats, and even crippled officers could hold a command as long as they knew how to hold their own in the fighting pits. So Valkar learned to balance the consequences of his disability and returned to battle, seemingly as effective as before.
However, it seemed his scars ran deeper still, as Valkar started hearing voices: Harsh whispers now spurred him onward in battle, inciting him to ever growing acts of bloodshed, bellowing excitedly at every kill, and howling in frustration at each denied killing stroke. Valkar feared he might be growing insane, but in a legion wracked with the influence of the Butcher’s Nails, sanity was not exactly a priority.
For Valkar’s seeming descent into madness only mirrored that of his legion: The World Eaters became ever more brutal and uncontrollable, finally siding with the Warmaster Horus and becoming one of his most effective terror weapons. And Brother Valkar was always there, swept along with the tide.
The last time he heard the mysterious voices was when the drop pods of the XII legion rained down on the blasted hellscape Istvaan III had become: When the doors of his Dreadclaw hissed open and Valkar began charging at his erstwhile brothers and their fellow loyalists with a blood curdling roar on his lips, the voices broke into triumphant laughter one last time – and then fell silent. The pact had been sealed.
Over the following centuries and millennia, Valkar has become a mighty champion of Khorne. He was one of the first officers in the World Eaters’ 4th assault company to be granted a daemonic steed by the powers of the warp, and riding this beast wrought from brass and hellfire, he became nigh invincible. He has gathered similarly gifted brethren around him, forming an elite cadre of mounted legionaries called the Brazen Hunters.
And once again, there are voices: Whispers in the shadows that Valkar the Scarred One could one day challenge the Lord Captain himself for the command of the company.
As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
Thats a very well done model and a background to boot, how you get those good details on the face is beyond me. I tried my hand at the first web exclusive captain a few days ago, and that eye gave me the most trouble.
Great job there !! I really like um......wait, everything about this guy I am still curious however as to how he got the title "Lord of Chains" (I mean apart from the huge chain cloack he wears). And one little observation: I believe the lance tips from the Skullcrushers might have been even better for his weapon. But still great job!!
@ wolfmerc: Picking out the details on the face really isn't all that hard, you know: I just use a fine detail brush, using very little paint and applying it to the most prominent areas of the face (nose, cheek bones, brow,...). You need a little brush control for that, but as long as you don't try to do too much in one go, you should be fine. I absolutely hate painting eyes, btw, which is why servants of Khorne (with their milky white eyes) are great for me
@ flibjibchaoscookie: Erm, okay?! Is that good or bad, though?
@ Chaos Emperor: Whoa, easy there buddy: Lorimar hasn't been the Master of the Hunt for nearly ten millennia because he's just a pretty face: The last guy to openly oppose him ended cleaved in half and interred into a Dreadnought Sarcophagus Anyway, thanks for the kind words!
@ Legio Ultra: Well, to be honest, the epithet "Lord of Chains" was a bit of a no-brainer, given the cloak My background thought was that he might be the one to lead the Forsaken (i.e. the Chaos Spawn) into battle from time to time, which would give the title a secondary meaning?! Maybe I'll have to think about that some more. Regarding the lance, while the "Khornate" lances from the Skullcrushers are pretty cool in their own right, the weapons are held at a much less interesting angle, plus they are all held in right hands only, so they weren't realls such a good option for this model after all.
@ Moltar: Hah, red juggers are so five minutes ago
Haha, ok about the title, though leading the Forsaken into battle might actually be a nice way to explain this . As for the lances I actually only meant to swap the tips, not the whole lance, cause you are damn right both about the fact they're in th wrong hand, and that they are too static. Oh and btw where does the lance you used actually come from??
@ Yggdrasil: Hmm, I don't know, mate: Everyone's entitled to their opinion. What I can tell you is that I certainly spent a lot of time painting this guy, and didn't cut any corners, so make of that what you will.
@ Legio Ultra: Ah, well, maybe I was a little too afraid of the lance tip ending up misaligned with the rest of the lance there The lance I used is also from the Chaos Lord on Manticore kit, btw, as is almost the whole rider model (except for the backpack, the plasma pistol and the mark of Khorne on his chest).
Automatically Appended Next Post: Just a small update: When I picked up my brand new Dark Vengeance boxed set, back when 6th edition hit, I realised the nose of the Chosen champ had been flattened a bit by the sprue of stuff lying above it in the box. So I have wanted to "repair" the model for a long time now. So during an idle hour yesterday, I carefully cut off the head and replaced it with one from the FW Space Marine Praetor. I also replaced the maul with a sword, while I was at it. Tale a look:
Both the head and maul were kept intact as much as possible during the cutting, and both will be used on further conversions. As it happens, the head was used on a INQ28 Navigator kitbash today
Wow. Your stuff always impresses me Kraut.
The scarred man and Raas both look phenomenal, especially the greenish-blue Juggernaut.
The chosen champ is also shaping up really nicely, but his pose looks a little off- a little too ceremonial and inspiring. if you rotated the sword at the wrist (through ~90 degrees, pointing forwards), he would look like he'd just done a powerful outward slash, rather than exhorting his fellow marines to victory. He does look good though- I reckon he'll be an excellent piece regardless of sword position.
Interesting chosen champ, i prefer the new head though it looks quite calm (butchering thousands of people just doesn't seem to affect him..... ). I agree with 4oursword about the sword position as a slashing move better suits the dynamism of your later conversions. I have one question: do you think it would be actually possible to actually make this guy wear his helmet or is it too much trouble to cut it from the hand?
well, it turns out I can't get any more chaos warhounds (I only have one) and I wasted it's head on a failed attempt. sigh. well, im going to try and find a cheap crypt-thingy to use, and a fenrision head should look nice.
Wow I like what you did putting the Praeors head on you DV model and with the raised arm, its almost like he's about to swing it forward in an "Unleash hell" kind of way.
That Praetors head though, its as if he's giving you that 1000 yard stare, like you are below him and he will squish you like a bug. I'd hate for him to be staring like that at me...
KrautScientist wrote: @ Yggdrasil: Hmm, I don't know, mate: Everyone's entitled to their opinion. What I can tell you is that I certainly spent a lot of time painting this guy, and didn't cut any corners, so make of that what you will.
Sorry mate, I didn't want to be rude or anything, just that the picture (probably) doesn't do the paintjob justice ! Your models are always inspiring & epic, that one just seemed a bit *less* awesome than the previous ones !
Keep it up though, don't you worry about my opinion
Regarding the Chosen champ, I see where you are coming from regarding the pose. However, what you don't know (yet) is that he is wearing a backpack with a Bolter chained to it This will be the Huntmaster in command of the company's Havocs (Teeth of Khorne, in the old fluff), so I think the pose does work after all (imagine him giving commands to his shooting brethren, like the "Unleash Hell!" command dantay_xv mentioned.
I am also really glad the effect I intended when choosing the head seems to have worked: He looks utterly disillusioned and frighteningly intense at the same time, doesn't he?
@ Legio Ultra: Getting rid of the hand on the helmet would be really easy, and there are several instances where people have used it as a helmet (on this model or another). You'll just need a sharp knife and take a deep breath beforehand The biggest challenge actually isn't to get rid of the hand, but rather to turn the mostly hollow faceplate (because that's what it actually is) into an actual head: Either you add some GS to round out the shape of the head, or you selectively shave off the Champ's face in order to then put the horned mask over it -- both approaches should work.
@ Yggdrasil: Oh, don't worry: I didn't take it the wrong way at all! I just wanted to point out that the model was painted at the usual speed (or lack thereof) and in my usual recipe. So either the photos aren't that good, or the photos of all the models up until now were too good, not showing the rough areas in the paintjob
Well thanks for the help, all I need now is to get to doing it (or actually first getting the DV set ). And since I am a quite persistent thorn in people's sides, now you do have a great maul for your MKI converted terminator (unless you plan to use it for something ever more awesome). Cant wait to see what you'll come up with next
Awesome work! I just signed up today as a new user in this web, but I've been following this post for a long time. I can't (and I won't) tell you what I like of each model you've done, because in that case this post reply wouldn't probably never end So I'll simply congratulate you for your meravelous models, as I said they're awesome
Agree 100% on the Scion with Eisenkern headswap, that's how I'm doing mine up. I like the Eisenkern guys but they feel... weird to me. The additional bulk on the legs of the Scions feels more right somehow, so I have a couple boxes that will get pillaged for heads.
Alright, guys: Time for another update! I've got two things to show you today:
First up, a rather small kitbash that nevertheless makes me rather happy: Thanks to the generosity of fellow hobbyist PDH, I finally managed to get my hands on a Dreadnought rocket launcher, so I could start to convert the last Dreadnought/Helbrute weapon still missing from my collection, transforming it into a suitably chaotic weapon:
Certainly nothing mind blowing, but rather a nice and simple bit of kitbashing that eased me back into the regular flow of things — still, having an entire set of fully exchangeable weapons for my Chaos Helbrutes will feel enormously pleasing once it has finally been accomplished
But the rocket launcher is not really the star of the show today. That role falls to the second model I would like to show you. So, what is this about?
You may remember that my attempt at coming up with some Obliterators that didn’t look like Chaos Terminators covered in meat wastes turned into a rather protracted conversion project. I ended up with three custom Obliterators that I was reasonably happy with. These:
Some of you may already have been wondering why I hadn’t yet managed to get these painted. The reason, apart from my egregious lack of painting discipline, is that fate intervened and I discovered a recipe for building Obliterators that I liked even better:
Thamier’s wonderful Balefire Legion has been a constant source of inspiration. But what really blew me away more than anything else was his approach to sculpting and kitbashing his own, completely customised Obliterators (whose creation you can witness starting here )!
Maybe the best part about these is that while they are perfectly in line with the look and feel of GW’s other chaos models (almost moreso than the official Obliterators, in fact), they forego the fleshy, mutated look in favour of something more mechanical and imposing.
I was really blown away by the sheer awesomness of these models, but alas I could only gaze at them from afar and hope that one day I might be able to come up with something just as cool.
Well, that day may have come, because – while Thamier only made these awesome bitz for use in his own army – I was actually lucky enough to get my hands on some of them as part of a bitz swap between the two of us. This is a really exciting opportunity, of course, so it goes without saying that I immediately started assembling my very own “Thamier pattern” Obliterator.
Now Thamier had warned me in advance that the castings weren’t of the best quality, and that the parts would require some work. And indeed, there was quite a bit of flash to be scraped off. But all in all, the parts really cleaned up rather nicely. Here’s a look at the cleaned and prepared parts for the Obliterator:
As you can see, a full set consists of a torso (in two halves, in fact), a pelvis, two thighs, two (rather massive) lower legs and two feet. The parts were cast from Thamier’s original master model, as far as I am aware, and considering the pieces have been entirely sculpted from scratch, the amount of detail is rather nice. Of course these are not as crisp and cutting edge as a factory-made GW kit, but I am in fact even more impressed with the sculpting that went into these after having made some first hand experiences with the parts: Not only do they take all the right design cues from GW’s own chaos models, but they also come with amazing little touches like the profile on the Obliterator’s armoured boot:
That is true dedication, ladies and gentlemen
Like I said, scraping off the flash wasn’t a big problem, and even a bit of rough texture or damage here and there actually work towards the effect that these guys are ancient veterans of the Long War, so no problem there.
Here’s my first mockup of the whole model:
As you can see, the model is really rather massive, which makes it clear that this guy is not just any standard chaos Terminator. And while the overall shape and construction may recall Tactical Dreadnought Armour, there are several visual shout outs to the new Helbrute design, like the armour panels to the side of the head, the slightly more elaborate armour trim and, of course, the pelvis area that looks very similar to that of the Helbrute.
I used a Warp Talon head as a placeholder, which should show you that the sculpted torso will accept pretty much any (Chaos) Space Marine or Chaos Warrior head without a hitch. The comparison should also give you a rather good idea of the model’s rather impressive size and bulk!
Working from there, I had to get a bit creative, because – unlike Thamier – I cannot sculpt for toffee. So where Thamier sculpted his own upper arms and shoulder pads, I defaulted back to my usual approach and solution to any hobby problem — glorious kitbashing!
In this case, though, the task of actually finding suitable arms that scaled correctly with the rest of the body almost drove me crazy: While natural looking proportions are not exactly a priority for a hulking monster like this, many arm setups that seemed promising ended up looking too short and undermining the sense of threat given off by the model.
In the end, the solution was found in the most unlikely of places: I was messing around with the magma cutter bitz from the fiend kit when I realised that these could actually work as arms for the Obliterator! So I combined them with some Chaos Terminator fists and a couple of leftover Centurion weapons (it’s a good thing you get LOTS of leftover weapons with the Centurion kit), and my Obliterator really took shape. Take a look:
As you can plainly see, I took a lot of inspiration from one of Thamier’s own models when it came to the pose, but then I thought it looked really awesome and wanted to replicate some of that coolness
For the shoulder pads, I chose Centurion pads, as you can see. I also added some Ogre armour plates to the hips to bulk out the model’s middle a bit. As an added benefit, these will also create some visual consistency if I ever want to use this big guy alongside my converted Centurions, as they are using the same armour plates for decoration.
I still needed to bulk out the upper arms, since they were looking a little scrawny. Plus the clean and loyalist shoulder pads needed some chaotic love as well. So I added another round of bitz, and here’s where the model stands at the moment:
While some additional cleanup along with a spiky bit here and there may be required, I am really rather happy with this guy! I think the design works really well as a less-mutated but really impressive and utterly chaotic Obliterator! And I am also reasonably pleased with the solution I came up with for the arms!
One thing I need to point out again is that this guy is absolutely MASSIVE, with much more bulk than a regular Terminator. In fact, like I said, he’s the perfect missing link between Terminators and Helbrutes, not only in design but also in height and bulk.
Provided the temperature outside stays agreeable enough, I hope to be able to paint his guy rather soon. Afterwards, I’ll have to consider which way to go with my overall strategy for the Obliterators: Will this veritable beast be used as a “unit champion” of sorts, leading the other, Centurion-based Obliterators into battle? Or will I become so addicted to the Thamier-pattern that any other kind of Obliterator just seems like a cheap travesty to me?
For now, I’ll just try to build the biggest, baddest Obliterator imaginable. Thanks so much to Thamier for letting me have some of those bitz to mess around with! And if any of you have any suggestions or criticism about this guy, let me know!
And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
I thin I just pooped. That is AMAZING!
So kraut, I just ordered 36 inches of greenstuff off eBay. And, with my birthday in a few weeks, I plan on ordering bitz for the first chaos spawn (I would have got them earlier but I got caught up buying skyrim legendary addition),
Anywho, I just wanted to thank you for being such an awesome inspiration!
Wow that guy's a beast!!! Great job man he looks truly threatening. Though it seems to me he might need some bulking up around the waist. Cant wait to see more from you!!!
Currently the chaos bits on the centurions look hastily slapped on. Hopefully painting will make it look better. Everything else looks absolutely awesome.
@ Legio Ultra: Hmm, those Ogre armour plates were originally supposed to take care of that, but maybe it's not enough...?
@ YourIntestines: Hmm, at the very least, building those Centurion conversions took quite some time and deliberation on my part, so while the chaos parts may have been slapped on, they were indeed slapped on slowly instead of hastily
Anyway, another update regarding my Thamier pattern Obliterator: Added another round of spiky bitz yesterday, worked a bit on the right foot in order to make it look more natural and plugged all remaining holes and crevices with GS. Here's the model, pretty much ready for a last bubble bath and then some paint
I also realised that the model needed something to clearly show its allegiance to Khorne, but regular bunny ears were right out due to a lack of space around the collar. So I improvised, using an icon of Khorne instead. I also tried yet another head, although I might actually like this one the best so far: It just has a subtly feral quality that I think really fits the bill.
Wow that is a really awesome looking model, the only thing I would say is that left arm...
The right arm with the Lascannon looks great because it looks like he could move his forearm around, probably because of the weapon mount on his elbow holding the gun a little away from his arm.
The left llooks like he has lost all mobility, as without the weapon mount it is grafted on and his hand will always be palm facing upwards.
Besides that minor minor thing, an awesome looking obliterator and much better than the GW models!
The shoulder plates could have the same trims as the rest of the armor and no ogre plates. But of course we know you don't sculpt. Maybe you can try some helbrute shoulders.
Could do something with the wrists- right now, it's pretty clear that it's a kitbash- one part just sorta put on another. It's mostly the pistons on the arms not having anywhere to 'go', but also the scale- the hands are much bigger than the ends of the arms, so there's a little ledge there.
You might get a better look if you just covered the forearms with GS and smoothed it out, or possibly added cables around it- The smooth arm could also have cabling added.
I actually think that might improve the model as well- increasing the idea of "Chaotic mess of machinery" that you seem to want to be going for instead of "Chaotic mass of flesh" that normal Obliterators are.
@ the shrouded lord: The problem is that Terminator heads are just too iconic: I even tried the helmeted head from Lord Zhufor, and while it looked nice enough, it instantly made the model look like an attempt at a true scale Terminator. So I'll just stick with that last Raptor head for now, I believe.
@ dantay_xv: Hmm, while the effect you describe certainly wasn't planned, it almost feels like I should embrace this rather than try to avert it: After all, it's a pretty cool thought that the suit did change over the millennia, slightly mutating and being added to by the the company's Warpsmith: I mean, what would this huge guy need his left hand for anyway?
@ livanbard: Trying Helbrute shoulders would probably have worked well enough, but even I won't pick up a whole kit just for a couple of shoulder pads
@ Anvildude: See my reply to dantay_xv above: Maybe the "unplanned" look would actually fit the background for this guy rather nicely -- but then I am also just too lazy to change anything big now
Anyway, while the big guy is taking a small break on my painting table (I have actually begun painting a model! Go me! ), I have something new to show you: Working on that Helbrute rocket launcher also gave me the motivation to try something I had been thinking about for quite a while: Building an Ursus Claw for my Chaos Helbrute(s).
For those not in the know, an Ursus Claw is a weapons system typical of the World Eaters Legion: It is effectively a harpoon that can be fired at an opponent (preferredly a retreating one), in order to impale him, possibly already creating critical damage, and then reel him back in for the finale. The World Eaters used this weapon system both on their flagship, the Conqueror and on the allied Titans of the Legio Audax, so I thought arming a World Eaters Dreadnought with one of those systems probably wasn’t all that unrealistic. More on the Ursus Claw here, in case you are interested.
Now when I started planning this conversion, I looked around for inspiration and found an image from a conversion by fellow hobbyist sheep, nestled away deep within my inspiration folder (check out his amazing Khornate models on his blog. :
The picture actually provided a perfect starting point for my conversion: The psy-weapon CC arm from the Furioso Dreadnought kit. And since Marax the Fallen had been converted from that very kit, I still happened to have the arm in my bitzbox.
The second piece of inspiration came from Forgeworld’s Blood Slaughterer Impaler, because that model is, for all intents and purposes, armed with an Ursus Claw as well. The weapon gave me a pretty good idea for building the chain winch that makes for the truly nasty part of the weapon, allowing the harpoon to be reeled back in.
So with those two ideas in my head and a couple of bitz on my table, I got to work.
And here’s my own WIPUrsus Claw, already provisionally mounted on my model for Marax the Fallen:
As you can see, the arm is pretty much the stock bit, whereas the harpoon mechanism is a combination of the two sources cited above. I fortunately had a perfect chain winch bit from some Ogre Kingdoms kit in my bitzbox, and it was ideal for this conversion. The chain came from another Ogre kit. The housing for the winch is a shaved down part of a Predator Lascannon turret weapon. And, to make things suitably chaotic and to tie in the weapon with the look and feel of my army, the housing was decorated using two Chaos Marauder shields.
Here’s the weapon arm on its own:
One thing I kept going back and forth on is the actual harpoon, because I wasn’t sure whether it needed to be more ostentatious and/or claw like, like the one on the Blood Slaughterer. In the end, though, I decided that a more clawlike appearance would mean that it would be harder to actually recognise the weapon as a harpoon constructed to be launched at the enemy, so I stuck with the simpler design — what do you think?
Anyway, once this Ursus Claw and the kitbashed rocket launcher arm are painted, I will have a pretty exhaustive collection of Dreadnought/Helbrute weapons — as a matter of fact, I built this last arm mostly for fun anyway, rather than for added tactical flexibility. Still, I think it’ a fairly cool option for featuring an element from the World Eaters’ recent fluff in my army!
That Ursus claw is sweet, I was wondering, could you use it like a magna-grapple from the BA codex?? Sounds perfect for the Ursus claw, you hit something with it and winch it in for an assault!!
@ dantay_xv: Exactly! In fact, I can almost picture an enemy Dread impaled by the claw and slowly being pulled towards the World Eaters Dread, while the latter's cannon keeps dishing out punishment
@ YourIntestines: The placement of the Ursus Claw arm isn't finished, of course, so there's still time to figure out an ideal pose. That said, the bulk and size of the weapon does somewhat hamper the poseability, so I'll have to come up with something that works and looks cool enough at the same time
Oh, and just so you believe me when I say that I am actually painting the Obliterator right now:
The arms are still missing, and there's quite a bit of cleanup work left to do, but you get the idea
The Obliterator looks freakin' amazing. Can't wait to see the arms added. One thing I would say is that a World Eaters icon (maybe a transfer?) in the centre of the chest would add to it.
As for the Ursus Claw, it looks cool but the pose is a bit iffy. Not just the way you've put it on (which as you mentioned is non-final)- I think the arm needs angling a bit out to the side. I'd say you should cut the arm off from the shoulder module, shave away the bit where it connected until it forms a gradient, and then reattach it such that it's not completely parallel to the body/shoulder module. That aside though it looks great.
Regarding the Ursus Claw, a very similar discussion happened over at the Bolter and Chainsword, so let me just quote myself here for a bit:
I agonised over how best to build the harpoon mechanism for ages, and it would almost have prevented me from building the weapon in the first place. The fact that I have very little knowlege of basic mechanics didn't exactly help, of course In that way, finding the Blood Slaughterer Impaler was kind of liberating, because it gave me the idea where to place the chain winch. But then, the connection between the chain and harpoon is hidden within the weapon's housing on the Impaler, and I knew I definitely wanted to include a visible chain, so I had to come up with something slightly different...
Anyway, what I am trying to say here is that in the end I just said "Screw it!" and started converting. The result may not hold up when seen from a mechanical standpoint, but I think it's just believable enough with a bit of goodwill That said, it was still a bit of work, making sure the lenght of chain fit together with the chain winch and harpoon ...not something I really want to repeat, to be honest
Fellow hobbyist Teetengee also pointed out that,
"Without support crew, I would think that Kraut's method is the only viable one, I don't think any men are going to help poor old [insert dreadnought name here] reload his arm when the nails be hummin'."
So yeah, make of that what you will. It all basically came down to my own laziness and lack of interest in actual laws of physics, though, I'll gladly admit that
I also have another update regarding the Obliterator:
And here's another update:
Still missing the shoulder pads, base and quite a bit of fine tuning, but I believe we are getting there!
I actually considered adding a Khorne icon or World Eaters decal on his chest for quite a while there, but I feared it would just make him look like someone in a superhero suit (an effect further emphasised by his somewhat "Liefeld-esque" anatomy), so I ultimately decided against it.
I think he needs the icon. Currently, he looks a bit spindly - like a juvenile oblit that hasn't grown into his arms and legs yet. I'm sure the shoulder pads will change that, but a chest icon and some sort of loin cloth would go a long way to making him look all grown up.
Slowly getting there Here's the model with all the bitz assembled:
Now for the missing detail work I'll also be thinking about whether or not to add anything to the chest and pelvis areas -- for now, I'll focus on finishing the main paintjob, though.
Obit looks very cool, but agree that it needs something in the pelvis area - loincloth or chainmail or hanging skulls or something
That ursus claw is pretty cool, and I came to the same conclusion about the chain placement - at first I felt you should have attached it towards the front of the claw, but then realised that having the chain run through the barrel meant he could reload un-aided.
Nice mini you got there, love the look, it's like he's shooting out "Come at me (battle-)bro!!!" or something of the sort. And I agree he needs something like a loin cloth, to make him stand out as a squad leader.
*Sigh* I sometimes hate you guys so much, you know?
Seriously, though, I did cave in regarding the loincloth issue. A normal loincloth or tabard was out, though, because I did want to keep at least parts of the pelvis area visible, not as a strange kind of fixation on Obliterator junk, mind you, but rather because the fact that the pelvis is designed to strongly resemble that of the new Helbrute is a really cool touch.
Anyway, in the end, I went for a classic: dangling bones forming a trophy. Hope you like this:
As you can see, changes are only happening in increments at this point, although this will be a standout model in my army, so I think it's quite alright if I take my time with it
Wow, I seriously need to get off my ass and finish a few HQs.
That model, my friend, is amazing. It's so beautiful. Also, speaking of obliterator's crotches, did you know that they produce their own ammunition?
So yeah, I spent yesterday evening adding the last painting touches and completing the model's base, and I am now officially calling this guy done. Take a look:
And finally, let me show you a closer look at the model’s back, both for the brilliantly gruesome spine emerging from the Obliterator’s armour and for the additions I made there:
It felt like the rathe huge, empty area to the left and right of the spine needed some additional detailing, so I added two chains from the WFB Chaos Chariot kit, making them look like they were being used in order to hold the Obliterator’s armour plates in place.
All in all, I am really extremely happy with this model! I think the custom and standard GW parts are blended together much better than I had anticipated, without looking hastily slapped together. The model is also rather massive and not quite as covered in random fleshy bitz as the stock GW models.
I really couldn’t be any happier with this guy, to tell you the truth, and I am really extremely thankful to thamier for providing the awesome custom Obliterator bitz that went into the model’s creation! And thanks as well to all those who provided helpful suggestions and criticism during the model’s completion! In fact, my only fear is that I will now be unable to return to any non-thamier-pattern Obliterator models or conversions…
Oh, and of course I also produced a suitable little background vignette for the model. Take a look:
Hadrak Firebringer
He appeared in a flash of light, immense even in his crouched position. With the noise of grinding metal, he rose to his full height, the hoarfrost of void teleportation trickling off his armour.
The battlefield lay ahead of him as an endless grey expanse. One by one, his brothers appeared. He could feel their spirits through mind link, feel their hunger. The sizzle of the nails, surgically changed in nature, yet not in intensity, a constant buzz that would soon grow into an all-consuming fire.
Before him, countless red target markers flared into life and gave him purpose. The hunt began.
Advance!
His command remained unspoken, issued only via mind link, yet the hulking shapes of his brothers began to move as one. They advanced across the grey plain, slow but relentless, sending a hail of fire towards the enemy lines. He was dimly aware of figures running past them: the fleshkin. But they were unimportant, insubstantial almost. More a nuisance than anything, making the task of calculating trajectories and fire corridors more difficult than it needed to be.
A blast from his Lascannon caught an enemy tank, making the vehicle explode in an enormous fire ball. First blood to them. The nails rewarded him with a wash of adrenaline, and beyond that, he could feel the dark joy of his brothers, shared through the bond that connected them.
The enemy returned fire, but the pinpricks merely burned new scorch marks into his ancient, pitted armour. He and his brothers shared a moment of derisive amusement. Then they returned fire, and watched another score of target markers flicker out of existence. The nails drove them onwards, promising a reward that never came. But it did not matter. All that mattered was fire and heat and destruction and death.
It was over too soon. It always was.
A figure appeared before him, laughably small to his eyes. Yet he could make out the red and bronze armour. The badge of the XIIth legion. His legion. The figure addressed him, looking up at him through a snarling Sarum pattern helmet:
“I salute you hunter! You have hunted well, but your work here is done. Deactivate your weapons and await extraction.”
A targeting marker appeared over the legionary, flaring from green to red and back to green. One impulse, one tiny movement was all it would take to give the nails their due. He could feel his brothers’ anticipation and the nails knifing into the meat of his mind. Red and green. Red and green.
“I repeat. Deactivate your weapons.”
With a mind impulse, he powered down his weapons and disengaged the targeting lock. The nails pulsed hot in his mind, punishing his hesitation with a white hot lance of pain. And beyond that, he could also feel something from his brothers – disappointment? Disapproval? He focused on the fleshkin before him, seeing the legionary as if for the first time. It seemed as if the he allowed himself to relax now. Was that relief?
“Compliance”, he growled at last.
As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
I am so glad I came back to this thread! I love your models, characters and fluff, gives everything a personal touch a pinch of character. My favourite has to be your new Oblit
Haha, I'll just take the rapt attention as a compliment, I suppose Anyway, if you want to know what I've been up to, you may check out the latest update in my INQ28 thread . Oh, and I've also taken a look back at my very first 40k army, in case anyone's interested
But for the impatient and the faint of heart, here's a sneak peek at my next bigger project:
Hehe, I should have known you guys were smart enough to figure it out quickly
Deunstephe is quite right: I have finally begun working on my own Chaos Knight. I realise that I am rather late to this particular party, especially since I purchased the kit back when it was released, but that gave me the opportunity to collect lots and lots of inspiration for building my own chaos knight -- I'll highlight some of the most important sources of inspiration in a more detailed post on the matter at some point. The most important influences were definitely Jeff Tibbet's amazingly detailed thread, skrundle's mutated Daemon Knight and InsanePsychopath's Chaos Knight.
So yeah, that sour looking guy is indeed the pilot for my chaos knight, Knight Captain Harrowthorne, to be exact. In fact, you'd be amazed by how detailed his backstory is -- it was what made me purchase this kit in the first place, to be honest, and after seeing so many hobbyists building pilots for their knights, I knew there was not easy way out of this for me
Now the obvious thing to do would have been to build a completely mutated pilot fused to its machine, right? But in keeping with the rest of my CSM force, I decided that Baron Harrowthorne would remain surprisingly untainted in body (if not in spirit). He joined the XIIth legion during the days of the Heresy, as a way of repaying a debt of honour -- a choice transforming him into a traitor and forever dishonouring his family once the Heresy broke out (being damned by your own sense of honour is a bit of a running theme for my World Eaters, in case you hadn't noticed)
Anyway, here's a closer look at the Baron:
I wanted to achieve the look of a career soldier, complete with an immaculate uniform. The scion shoulder pads add a bit of a baroque/medieval vibe, though.
And here's a - very early - mockup of how the Baron will be positioned inside the cockpit:
Regarding the rest of the Knight, there's really not that much to see at the moment, although I can assure you I have most of this planned out:
So yeah, I guess you can expect to see more of this model pretty soon -- although I have to give you a fair warning in advance: I'll only ever realistically build one of these, so I will surely take my sweet time with this
This had better be more than stock with spikey bits. I know you have it in you to create something absolutely stunning, though, so I'm confident I'll like it. Think you could pop down links to your inspirations? That mutated knight sounds interesting, particularly.
Looking forward to seeing this develop. I really like the throne you've built. I've yet to buy a Knight, though I have been gathering inspiration for the day I do pick one up so you can be sure I'll be watching this thread closely.
Cheers, Anvildude! While "stock with spiky bitz" is a pretty fair description of my basic recipe, I hope the end result will still be suitably awesome. You can probably look at my Dreadknight conversion for a reasonable idea as to the general look and feel I am going for:
Spoiler:
As for my main inspirations, InsanePsychopath's Knights can be found here , Jeff Tibbet's highly inspirational thread is here , and skrundle's amazing Daemon Knight may be found here , along with the rest of his fantastic conversions.
EDIT: @ Biohazard: Cheers, buddy! Looks like you ninja'ed me there Don't forget you still have the Gorehound...
Man a Knight!!! This is going to be very interesting. Is ot just me or the man on the throne looks a bit disgusted....by life, by himself, or maybe by his unworthy foes Two questions:
1. Will the cockpit be opening and if yes, how?
2. Where did you find the shoulder spikes and the big fires on the knight (is it the WFB Chaos Shrine?)?
@ Legio Ultra: I am really glad that you picked up on the disgusted look on the Baron's face, because that's really what I was going for: Indeed he is disgusted, both with himself and with his enemies. Not to delve into his backstory too deeply, but Knight Captain Harrowthorne damned himself by an utterly honourable choice, losing everything but his honour in the process. Ever since, the only thing that matters to him is to see the Imperium burn. Plus I have this picture in the back of my head of Harrowthorne laying waste to an entire Imperial army, and then the last thing his opponents see is a transmission of his gaunt, utterly emotionless face when he tells them, in a deadly calm voice: "Pray to your false Emperor. Perhaps he may yet save you." before cutting contact and obliterating them.
As for your questions: I'll keep the upper carapace plate removable, which is really as easy as not glueing it to the body: It still snaps shut with a satisfying click, held in place by a number of connection points. I think I'll also leave the top hatch loose, although, since I have zero experience with magnetising, I'll probably just use a bit of putty to seal it in place when it has to stay shut.
Oh, and those spikes do indeed come from the warshrine kit (or the "Chaos Knight armour plate and accessory kit", as I have begun to call it ).
@ Biohazard: Cheers, buddy! Like I said elsewhere, your latest additions to the Gorehound are very promising!
So, another look at the current state of affairs. After spending quite a bit of time with the Imperial Knight kit, here are my two most important observations:
1. The kit itself is extremely well planned and explained, making it go together remarkably easily, especially for such a monster of a model
2. However, due to both the various modifications I am planning and the planned way of painting this thing, working on the model is getting more and more frustrating, because I just cannot glue the bigger sub-assemblies together just yet, and a model of this size is nearly impossible to temporarily tack together with modeling putty. I will prevail, though
Here's a look at my latest additions to the kit (please ignore the unfinished and unarmoured legs):
As you can see, the top of the carapace will likely see several trophy racks, which makes for a silhouette that is instantly recognisable as chaotic. At the same time, going for several smaller trophy poles like this seems more practical than adding that enormous chaos icon from the warshrine, as several people have done.
Speaking of the warshrine, many people have used it to great effect on their chaos knight conversions, although I've only ever seen the huge, stylised daemon face used either on top of the upper carapace or, in one notable instance, as a decoration for the knight's shoulder pad. I knew from the start that I wanted to use it as a breastplate, and today I realised that, if I combine it with the lower half of a standard from the Ogre Kingdom's Ironbreakers, both bits seem to be forming a complete daemon face, if seen from the right angle:
I am seriously happy with that incidental idea at the moment
Oh, and one more thing: I know that the skull face plate seems like a bit of a no brainer for a Khornate Knight, but the longer I think about it, the more it feels like the slightly more sinister of the two knightly faceplates might actually be a better choice for a disillusioned fallen hero of the Imperium like Baron Harrowthorne...
I like how it looks as you have it, but if its still blutacked on then what about removing the head piece entirely and doing battle damage there and having that maw part be the demonic controlling entity that took over after the pilot was destroyed? You could also have the pilot compartment blown out to show that the pilot succumb to the chaos gods and the energy exploded out from him. He later merged with the knight becoming truly one with the machine.
Just a suggestion, didn't get to read everything as I'm cooking breakfast for the kiddos and trying to catch up with my lurkings.
@ Theophony: That would be a beautiful idea if this Knight didn't have a pilot any longer. But in this case, the machine's pilot is really what set this project in motion (and a model for him is also posted further up in this thread), so no daemonic possession, sorry
Alright, I took my chances and took another couple of pictures that should give you a better idea of what the Knight's main body will look like all armoured up. Lots of details are still missing, of course, and I also had to work really fast because, once tacked together, the model stays that way for about 30 seconds before starting to tear itself apart under the combined influence of gravity and the hateful, spiteful machine ghost that doubtlessly already sleeps withing the god machine
I love it, don't get me wrong, but why would this misguided soul adorn his Knight with skulls and flayed skin? If he's fighting for Khorne because honour compels him to, does that necessarily mean he takes enjoyment in his grizzly duties? I understand that it's important to tie him in visually with your army, but it's not gelling, at least in my mind with the character. Maybe if you elaborate on his backstory, I'll understand better.
Cheers, ghosty! I see where you're coming from, and, of course, the very simple reason for making the knight look like that is the need to tie it in with the rest of the army visually, as you have correctly pointed out. But I do think the look also makes sense from a background perspective. Let me give you guys the short version:
- Harrowthorne sided with the World Eaters during the Heresy because he felt he owed them a debt of honour for the liberation of his world. That honourable decision, however, cost him dearly as he became a traitor, to his own world as well as to the Imperium at large. His rivals back at home took this chance to wipe out his entire house and its ancestral holdings.
- Harrowthorne returned to his world to seek revenge (and presumably his own death). The World Eaters accompanied him and made sure he got the revenge, at least. Afterwards, his world lay in ruins and everything that was important to him had been destroyed -- except for his honour. However, he seethed with fury at an Imperium that held a thing like personal honour in so little regard, so he kept following the 4th assault company, fighting with them during the siege of Terra, his only wish to see the world burn.
- the 4th assault company made him into a honourable member of the XIIth legion, to give him a new home and band of brothers, so to speak. It goes without saying that he would share his new "family's" aesthetic preferences at least to some degree. There is also the fact that the 4th are a hunting party, first and foremost, with its members decorating their armour and wargear in the trophies they have earned.
- and, last but not least, Harrowthorne's Knight is very much a terror weapon, of course, so he would decorate it in a way that strikes terror in the hearts of Imperial Citizens. They all deserve to die for following the Throne of Lies, in his opinion, and the more terror he can create on the battlefield, the better for him.
Anyway, that's the gist of it. I will probably do a more detailed writeup at some point
Interesting. So the grisly trophies are less of the "WROAAARGG!!" *rips spine out and wraps it around neck like feather boa* variety and more of the 'snaps on the rubber gloves and apron and sets about disecting and ritually flaying the corpses of slain enemies before methodically running them through on the spikes that allow for the most disturbing aesthetic' variety. Cold-blooded, rational-minded horror more than random violence?
Also, and again, it doesn't fit in with your legion's ideas, it would be kinda neat to see that daemon face GS'd into the torso more smoothly, so it's more like, say, a Gunman or this guy. Even if it ends up being more mechanical connections, I think that would look better than a setup where it's just artistic armour plates strapped on to the pre-existing structures.
Very nice job mate, looking good already . Though I think I'll have to Back YourIntestines up on the lower jaw of the breastplate being too low. And maybe, but that's just my opinion, he should have slighlty bigger horns/tusks on his faceplate. Oh and may I ask if you could try to give this one the Lord of Skulls axe. I've been picturing such a Knight since they came out and I think you could pull it off (please )
Either way can't wait to see the rest of it
So much win! Love your use of the war shrine pieces, particularly the knight's breastplate. I also like the use of ogre gut plates (at least that's what I think they are...) on his knee joints.
Again, thanks for the positive feedback, everyone! That surely motivates me to keep my focus on this rather huge project
@ dantay_xv: Ah, that would be the wonderful Lotara Sarrin you're referring to, right? The idea with the handprint would certainly be extremely fluffy, but I fear it might just end up looking goofy on the actual model. Good call though!
@ Anvildude: Yeah, Harrowthorne's definitely not a berserker: His is a terrible, cold fury...
@ YourIntestines: The position of the jaw is in fact almost perfect -- it's actually the torso's wonky aligment that creates the effect you describe, and I'll only be able to fix it when I finally permanently attach the torso. Until then, you'll have to take my word for it Oh, and yes, those chaos knight shields perfectly fit onto the shin armour without a hitch, perfectly covering up the part of the armour that doesn't look chaotic
@ Legio Ultra: Cheers, mate. I might try a different set of tusks yet. As for the weapons, sorry, but now chainaxe for this guy: I'll definitely stay with standard Knight weapons here, because they are just so iconic to me.
@ rodgers37: Cheers, man! Don't forget to provide a link, once you have something to show!
That is looking fantastic, even without the leg Armour on, as i quite like the bare mechanical leg look.
I love the use of extra bits on this as well, especially that demon chest plate,
It makes the Knight instantly stand out as chaos as soon as you see it .
@ Yggdrasil: Like I said earlier, the actual background for the pilot was what made me start this whole project in the first place -- is that weird? Anyway, since the background was so instrumental in this case, I am especially pleased that you like it
So, I did some tweaking on the Chaos Knight conversion so far, making sure some of the parts fit together better. The main issue was the position of the thigh armour: The fiend armour plates I used for that fit the Knight legs beautifully...right up to the point were you add the leg pistons and attach the legs to the pelvis, which seriously messed with their arrangement. So I buckled up and shaved off quite a bit of the armour plates. They now fit much better, I think:
As you can see, I also cut off the lower part of the "crotch plate", because I wanted the slightly chaotic decoration on the banner to be visible.
I also started assembling the Knight's chainsword arm. While this may be disappointing to some of you, I'll definitely stick with the standard weaponry that comes with the kit because the combination of a cannon of some sort and a huge chainsword is such an iconic part of Knight Titans for me. That said, both arms will of course get decorations to make them look more chaotic. Oh, and let me also add that the construction of those arms is extremely clever, making them very poseable and easily attachable to the model without a drop of glue!
Anyway, here's the Knight as it stands right now:
Fellow hobbiyts JeffTibbetts suggested I reverse the direction of the tusks on the faceplate, in order to make them mirror the look of the tusks on the pelvis armour. I tried that right away and rather like the result -- what do you think?
The other thing I did was to tidy up the conversion work on the model for Baron Harrowthorne: He now has a left arm (and I also attached a small console on his left armrest in order to actually give his hand something to do). Take a look:
The next huge task will be to actually construct the cockpit for the Knight's interior and somehow fit the Baron in tere, if only temporarily. I am currently waiting for a bitz delivery before I can finally tackle that part.
Seeing the way that the torso mouth is facing makes me think that a 'waterfall of skulls' sort of effect might be cool to have there. Skulls or blood or whatever, just falling out of the mouth- not necessarily a torrent, but some. It would help show movement, if that's what you want, as well.
I'd suggest a Tomb Kings skeleton warriors box for the skulls. There's tons of them in each box.
Like I said over on the B&C he looks loads better now the plates fit the legs better buddy. I like the more understated tusks on the faceplate, they'll be a lot more noticeable once they're painted. This is gonna be a fantastic centrepiece when you're done mate.
Don't worry about the axe, it's only my personal fantasy to see it used on something other than a Lord of Skulls The Knight however looks great, the leg plates now seem to fit perfectly. I'm still inclined to suggest bigger horns/tusks (bigger is always better imho). I also see a bit of a callenging pose like he's saying :" Who's nesxt!!??" One way to emphasize on this, if that's what you are going for would be to lift the left foot so that the Knight steps on something like a rock or a destroyed enemy tank or whatever you see fit.
Cant wait to see the rest of it!! Keep it up
Work on the Knight continues in small but important steps. Here's what I managed to achieve yesterday:
The most noticeable addition is the use of etched brass: A small Khorne rune for the face plate, a World Eaters legion badge for the heraldic tilting plate and a bigger Khornate symbol for the hatch leading to the cockpit:
You may also have noticed that, after going back and forth about this several times, I returned to the downwards pointed tusks on the faceplate -- they simply look more balanced that way. I also tried different tusks and horns in several configurations - among them two different pairs of horns from that huge WFB Beastman monster - but bigger horns only ended up looking silly. I am really rather content with the tusks as they are now, because they are big enough to be noticeable but not so big as to be distracting or ridiculous.
Oh, and I also worked on the left shoulder pad. Here's what it looks like now:
While I always liked the Knight model per se, it's now actually starting to feel like this could be a pretty awesome centrepiece model, as Biohazard pointed out. Wish me luck!
Ah well, no worries. The other idea I had, but again might not work would be bloody hand prints on the lower limbs and small totems or skulls at the feet of the knoight like offerings or devotions
As the 4th company go to war they walk by Harrowthornes Knight & touch a blooded hand to its armour in the hope of receiving Khornes blessing for a good hunt etc before going to battle.
Harrow thorne despises the men of the 4th Company for such acts of brutish superstition, but by their simple acts, his pride has been rekindled by regaining a small measure of the power he lost when honouring his debts to Angron and his World Eaters.
Like the ord of War that the Baron is he, strides forth amongst his "charges" and reaps terror and discord on the weak and pitiful worshiipers of the Corpse God.
However the aloof-ness of the Baron, plus the veneration which some of his men heap upon the Knight is beginning to grate on the Huntsmasters nerves and some speculate that there will come a time when the 4th are called upon to go big game hunting before the Baron's hubris becomes a threat to the Huntsmasters rule.
dantay_xv wrote: Ah well, no worries. The other idea I had, but again might not work would be bloody hand prints on the lower limbs and small totems or skulls at the feet of the knoight like offerings or devotions
As the 4th company go to war they walk by Harrowthornes Knight & touch a blooded hand to its armour in the hope of receiving Khornes blessing for a good hunt etc before going to battle.
I just love that idea dantay_xv ! I might have to steal that sometime
dantay_xv wrote: Ah well, no worries. The other idea I had, but again might not work would be bloody hand prints on the lower limbs and small totems or skulls at the feet of the knoight like offerings or devotions
As the 4th company go to war they walk by Harrowthornes Knight & touch a blooded hand to its armour in the hope of receiving Khornes blessing for a good hunt etc before going to battle.
Harrow thorne despises the men of the 4th Company for such acts of brutish superstition, but by their simple acts, his pride has been rekindled by regaining a small measure of the power he lost when honouring his debts to Angron and his World Eaters.
Like the ord of War that the Baron is he, strides forth amongst his "charges" and reaps terror and discord on the weak and pitiful worshiipers of the Corpse God.
However the aloof-ness of the Baron, plus the veneration which some of his men heap upon the Knight is beginning to grate on the Huntsmasters nerves and some speculate that there will come a time when the 4th are called upon to go big game hunting before the Baron's hubris becomes a threat to the Huntsmasters rule.
Mate, that is an absolutely fantastic idea, and something that would perfectly fit my World Eaters! I may have to do one or two small adjustments in order to make the fluff fit my idea of Harrowthorne (there is no actual hubris to him, for instance, at least not when dealing with the legionaries of the 4th), but consider this adopted into the "official" lore of Khorne's Eternal Hunt -- thank you so much!
So, after a particularly grueling day at work (Mondays will do that to you), I treated myself to nothing short of the most fiddly piece of conversion work on my Chaos Knight so far: The actual cockpit.
Thanks to a bitz donation from fellow hobbyist Belphoebe that arrived earlier today, I was finally able to tackle this part of the model. And while it felt like I was getting nowhere for several hours, I am now really happy with the result. Let us take a closer look and peel back the layers of the onion, so to speak:
Here's the Knight's torso right now:
Now let's remove the top hatch:
Why look, it's Baron Harrowthorne!
As you can see, the Baron is perfectly visible through the open hatch -- just as planned!
Now let's remove that carapace plate:
In front: Harrowthorne in his completely scratchbuilt cockpit. And in the back: The Knight's engine block.
Now let me tell you one thing: The hollow interior of the Knight may seem huge at first glance, but if you're endeavouring to add both a pilot and engine, you'll find yourself running out of room very quickly! Figuring out where to put what was probably one of the most difficult things about this conversion!
Another look from the front:
As you can see, Harrowthorne fits in rather nicely -- although it is a slightly tight fit
Now let's take at all the warts under the hood:
The cockpit itself was mainly constructed from Land Raider parts: The floor is a shaved down Land Raider turret hatch, while the view screens came from one of the inside panels from the same kit. The cockpit's back wall was made from plasticard, and a couple of additional bitz were used to blend in the seams of the conversion.
The engine block is a cut down Land Raider engine. As you can see, the engine compartment is mostly hollow, except for a lonely support strut made from leftover sprue...
This all looks so nice and tidy now (at least for my usual, sloppy standard, but figuring out a configuration that worked almost drove me up the wall!
Here's a look from a different perspective:
I've left the Baron himself removable for now, both in order to have an easier time painting him and to be able to take him out and glance lovingly at the model, every now and then Here's the cockpit without him:
A piece of sprue was glued to the floor to help position the Baron. Etched brass grating from the 40k basing set was used to detail the cockpit's floor.
Now this part of the model was really a pain in the behind to get right, but having finished this also fills me with a real sense of achievement. I'll gladly admit that I am standing on the shoulders of giants here, though: I'd never have been able to build this without taking inspiration from projects like Nicorex' Black Templar Knight , Spamus's wonderful Knight cockpit and Jeromgb's cockpit (which I just lifted wholesale for my own version.
So yeah, any and all C&C welcome! Let me know what you think!
Wow, I am glad you like it, and change away, these are your babies, so to speak...
The Landraider engine idea is inspired, and the cockpit with the Baron looks ace!
How many hullpoints does it have? Do you plan to make hull point markers on the base or will you remove sections of the hull until it gets destroyed? (IF it ever gets destroyed).
For example hatch is 1 carapace is 2 engine is 3 and last hull point gone you removed Harrowthorne, and leave the rest as a standing monument to the knights demise?
What a luxurious residence for a member of the noblility!!!! You really did a great job there Kraut, this interior is stunning and it's a very nice way to hide its hollowness!!! This Knight will look terriffic when he's done, that's for sure!!
to dantay_xv as well for the great lore concept
Thanks a lot for the positive feedback, guys! I have to admit I am rather stupidly happy with the latest additions to the model at the moment...
@ dantay_xv: To tell you the truth, I haven't even thought much about any rules-related business for this model yet. The foremost thing is to make this the coolest, most involved Chaos Knight conversion I can pull off. Rules be damned
Sorry nevie, I would say he is tied with GuitaRasmus.... but yeah kraut, you are the reason I just bought a knight myself... I hope to do it half as good as yours and I'll be thrilled!!!
Cave Johnson wrote: Sorry nevie, I would say he is tied with GuitaRasmus....
Whoa, being tied with GuitaRasmus is the already the greatest achievement imaginable, as a matter of fact. I cannot really imagine anyone being better at converting than him, so I'll gladly share the first place in this instance
Seriously, though: Only a rather small upate today, but I'd very much like your input on a couple of things:
First up, I realised that the standard from the Ogre Mournfang Cavalry would actually make a pretty sweet carapace-mounted banner for the Knight:
I am not sure I like it well enough to make it a permanent part of the model, but maybe as an optional bit that can be stuck on when I feel like it? That hole in the centre of the carapace certainly looks like it was intended for something like this...
I have also started planning out the right shoulder pad: While the left one already sports a huge icon of Khorne, I want to use a World Eaters decal on the right one:
Of course this means that whatever I add to the pad at this point must not interfere with the position of the decal, which complicates things a bit. For now, I have tacked some spikes in place:
I said it on your blog, ill say it again here, I just love Baron Harrowthorne. So cold and forbidding. I think that over detailing may become an issue soon, if you keep adding stuff it may lose its coherency, but so far, its perfect.
Isnt the arrow in the middle of the shoulder going to get in the way of the decal?
I see you are on a good road. Backbanner looks nice as do the spikes and everything. Not sure about the decal idea though...i thnk maybe you should put something else like a huge skull or a daemon face...maybe the one from the WFB slaughterbrute if you have it..
Anyway looking forward to see the rest!!
Anyway, I might just give that a try!
But do think Llama's on to something with the idea of a goading weapon rather than the sword.
). They come from the WFB Chaos Warshrine if you already have it then why not try them out??
!!!! Now for the head try flipping the horns so that they point upwards and, if the crest still fits in there without looking silly, keep it (though the hoplite crest, even if it is awesome is more of a loyalist feature). Looking forward to see what you'll come up with 
