Nice take on the IW

Cheers for the feedback, guys!

Lest Khorne grow displeased with me, here is something World Eaters related for a change

It's been ages since I last posted a proper army showcase for my entire World Eaters army. so it was time to troop them all out and take some new pictures — quite a task at this point, because the army has grown so big that it has become rather unwieldy for photo sessions

But I persevered, and here are the results: The entirety of Khorne’s Eternal Hunt as of May 2015:



That's quite a bit of red, eh?

Seriously, though: It’s possibly not the biggest army out there (everything in the picture above adds up to about 4,000 points), or the best-painted one. But it’s easily one of my biggest hobby achievements so far, and the project I always keep returning to. And I do feel pretty proud when seeing them neatly arrayed like that — or at least, as neatly arrayed as is possible with a horde of bloodthirsty maniacs…



The lineup pictured above also includes some twelve or so Khorne berzerkers that were painted way back when, during the late 90s. The paintjobs are really showing their age by now, but I just couldn’t bring myself to exclude them from the picture (and the extra bodies also come in handy during games, of course).

On the other hand, when I look back at the development of the army over the last year or so, there have been some fairly recent additions that I am especially happy with, so let’s take a closer look at those:

First up, here are all the models added to the army since the last “official” army shocase back in 2014:



Not a huge mass of models, certainly, but some of my favourite pieces have been the work of the last one or two years, such as my supreme Chaos Lord, Lord Captain Lorimar, who is now finally leading the force from the front, as it should be:



I also have a very soft spot for the ancients of the company: I really like building and painting Dreadnoughts, so there are four of them all in all: Brother Marax the Fallen, Brother Damokk the Breacher, Brother Khorlen the Lost and Brother Khoron the Undying, Keeper of Trophies:



I rather love Dreadnoughts, so making each of these into a true character in their own right has been a fun challenge. They now form the Barbershop Helquartet of DOOM!, obviously (overpowered dataslate pending)

And while we are on the subject of heavy hitters, there's also Huntmaster Deracin with his menagerie of daemon engines:



So, anything else? For one, it feels I should give more attention to these guys, my Blood Wolves, because I really like the look of this small group:



This is just a fairly minor detail, but I like how all the leftover champions and stragglers almost form their own – pretty cool – squad by now. Take a look:



For an extremely lazy painter like yours truly, that is quite a nice little extra benefit

So yeah, so much for my updated army showcase. Don’t worry, there’ll be more madmen in red and brass in the future. But for now, I am very pleased with this army’s development over the last few years!

As always, let me know what you think!

Wow! I really love this!

Beautiful groupshot, an army to be very proud of - and yes, a delicious amount of red

I think that Doomwall (right?) termi may still be my single favorite out of the lot, as much as I like your helldrake, all them gladiator 'zerkers, and of course Kharne 2.0

- Salvage

Nice to see them all together, and how well they work along despite all the different conversions. Agreeing with Boss Salvage regarding the Termi, but topless Abbadon is a serious competitor imho.

Cheers, guys! And don't worry, I am rather in love with the Doomwall as well

So, anyway, another small update today:

First up, I have been experimenting with the GW Mephiston Red spraypaint this week, in an attempt tofind a good way for painting the red parts of my Chaos Knight. It's very obvious to me that I'll need a way to speedily basecoat the red armour plates of the model, and after my thoroughly pleasant experiences with the new Leadbelcher spray, I thought I'd give the Mephiston Red spray a try.

Here's a test model, undercoated with Chaos Black and then basecoated with the Mephiston Red spray:



Initially, I was rather pleasantly surprised by by the vibrant red I ended up with! And all over a black undercoat, no less. Unfortunately, though, my careful optimism was quickly replaced with disappointment. Here's the model I undercoated with the spray with the base colours blocked in:



Looks alright at first glance, doesn't it? The problem is that the red has a very rough finish. I guess this should be expected of a colour that was probably designed as an undercoat, but it's far more noticeable here than with the other GW sprays I have used so far. Plus it also seems like the colours I painted on top of the red are really easy to rub off! Now that's a bit of a dealbreaker right there, isn't it? I am not sure whether I did something wrong and thereby produced the effect. What I do know is that the silver has started to rub off the bolt pistol, for instance, several times -- merely due to normal handling!

Anyway, I added the washes and a thin layer of Blood Red, and here's what the model looks like right now:



The hue of red certainly looks pretty close to my usual recipe, although the fact remains that the texture of the red areas is very rough and very dull, something not even covering them with additional layers of paint seems to change. And the colours are still fairly easy to rub off (you can see it on the base rim, for instance). I'll still need to do some further experiments, but for now it seems pretty unlikely that I'll use the spray on my Knight, thereby potentially ruining a 100+ Euros model. After my very positive experiences with the Leadbelcher spray, this is a pretty big disappointment, to be honest...

In order to feel more productive, I built yet another Iron Warrior:







Seeing how my IW killteam is built around what I consider the big Iron Warrior archetypes, there were two ideas I wanted to use on this model: The first is the Marine's CC weapon, which represents an Iron Warriors entrenching tool. The other was the use of a bionic leg, and I do realise that some may see this as a bit of a divisive feature, because I went for a - fairly thin - Skitarii leg. However, this was a rather conscious choice, because I wanted to go for a slightly peg-legged look: Seeing how the entire armour will be silver, a leg painted in silver wouldn't stand out too much, which is why I went for the Skitarii part.

Oh, and one final thing: I was finally able to pick up my Kastelan kit yesterday. Yay! Originally, I was going to leave you with this teaser here...



...but I have actually managed to get a bit more work in, and here's a WIP of my first Kastelan conversion:



Here's how the model compares to a Dreadnought, by the way:



Anyway, as always, let me know what you think!

Very cool and I especially like that hammer.

Nice update.
About the spray, could humidity be a problem with that red? It does look like it has matte finish maybe even grainy. Does it look in real life like that?
Iron warrior looks fine but I have to admit I dont "feel" that leg. It looks like its leaning too much on it but torso doesnt follow the motion. Maybe some repositioning could fix that.
I didnt realised that those robots are so much bigger then dreadnoughts (you didnt add nothing to their height didnt you?), also that skull and hammer where are they from?

Great conversion!

So those goofy robots may have a use afterall!

Really beautiful work here. Great painting indeed ...

SWEET!!!

That robot looks great, very dynamic and threatening!!
I'm not entirely sold on the IW however, and I'm not sure if it's the leg, the big shoulder-shield or both of them... Tough I absolutely love that pickaxe (where is it from?)
@dubovac I don't know about that skull but the hammer was probably made from the SW dreadnought's axe haft with the Bloodthirster's meteor hammer's head

Legio Ultra, that weapon is from the Stormvermin kit. I need to get to tinkering with mine again, started converting them into traitor IG veterans (or I may donate them to GR here!).

Cheers for the feedback, guys!

@ dubovac: Hmm, while the weather was dry enough, maybe I didn't wait long enough for the black undercoat to dry before spraying the red on top? That's an interesting thought -- I'll have to try that next time! Oh, and I didn't change anything about the Kastelan's height -- although it may be ever so slightly taller than the standard Kastelan, due to the running pose.

As for the head and weapon on the Kastelan, the hammer is the meteor hammer from the Bloodthirster kit added to the haft of the Nemesis Dreadknight's hammer. The head came from the WFB Tomb Kings Sphinx.


So, another update regarding the Kastelan conversion: It remains WIP, of course, but I think I have figured out the basic setup for the model now. Take a look:







Lots and lots of detail left to add, but I am pretty happy with the basic build.

EDIT: Aw, man, I just can't stop working on this guy right now









As always, let me know what you think!

A really awesome conversion so far, lots more personality than the standard figure. The only thing that sticks out to me is the right leg, it looks a little static. It seems like it would be a bit of job to alter but, with that said, I might lift the heel off the ground a little. It doesn't look like that would be that easy to do and would require a good few pins to keep it strong and sturdy though. Loving the model so far - unfortunately!! Now I'll have to add the new kit and the Bloodthirster to my wish list...

Actually, with the momentum of the model, I'd set the heel further in, myself. Or lift the toe. At that point in a stride, you're generally just coming down on the heel, especially when your leg is straightened with a locked knee like that. Of course, if you brought the other leg forward more, so that its knee was in front of the knee of the 'standing' leg, then it would be in the proper position for a flat foot.

Cheers, guys!

To be honest, I am actually pretty happy with having achieved a fairly believable running/walking position on my first try. especially since I had to basically figure it out on my own. Which is why it'll probably stay that way -- sorry

So here's a slightly updated version of the model: In keeping some sound advice courtesy of Bruticus, I've extended the mid-section a bit (via a ball of modeling putty, at least for now). I've also carefully bent the breastplate around the Kastelan torso piece, so it fits more snugly:









As always, let me know what you think!

That's just awesome I love it!

Impressive and real embodiment of sheer terror.
I can almost imagine poor fools fighting for a corpse god trembling in fear while this monstrosity charges at them with unholy sounds and dedications bursting from him.

For future reference, I'd suggest you look up and save a couple of 'walk cycle' or 'run cycle' images- they're used in teaching basic animation, and are based on early kinesthetic research into the motions of a human stride.

That is a great conversion !

I'd love to try a Nurgle version of it now ! Damn

That is looking great so far. Bravo on the entire army, btw, I especially like the juggernaut's head on the dreadnought.

What he reminds me of is a huge Chaos Android, which I suppose fits considering! A truly brilliant conversion it has to be said and it always impresses me how you can up with something so unique whilst using all Citadel parts. Epic stuff!

That Kastelan is absolutely badass!

I think one with big scythe-like claws would look supermean too.
- just wishful thinking, cause I know you can pull that of.

Thanks for the positive feedback, guys!

Changes to the Kastelan conversion are happening in increments now, rather than in huge leaps, which I think is an indication for the model approaching completion. That said, there are some smaller changes I would like to share with you. For instance, I think the new armour plates on the upper leg are an improvement over the stock ones:





And a question for all of you: Does the left arm look better in that pose (as though the model were pointing at an opponent or getting ready to unleash a torrent of flame from the integrated weapon), or do you prefer the previous pose?

As always, let me know what you think!

They are both good poses. The old one I think put more focus on the giant hammer. The new one draws more attention to the pointing hand. Of the two, I like the old one better.

But your work is incredible either way.

The extra armour certainly works and as for the pose, I think either works fine, although the newer one does give the model a sense of imminence, where the original pose makes me think he is heading for an opponent much further away; I do kinda like the way the head is looking into the distance though in the original.

I honestly like the newer one; may as well use the flamer 'til you get in range to smack a bitch! XD

I agree that the poses imply different distances to the enemy; the old pose has the enemy father away and he's sort of looking onward equal to the plane, putting focus on his chest and hammer, but the new pose has him pointing to an enemy close enough that their is a distinct height difference between the mech and his (unfortunate) target.

Both look cool, and I'm excited to see what you do for the second one! Are these guys gonna be World Eaters or Iron Warriors?

Well for me its the old one. As others before me said it is matter of perspective, with the old one eye is going to be drawn to the chest piece and impressive hammer and new one has perspective shifted to the arm and left part of the model (including lifted leg-while grounded one gives more impression of heavy object).
I hope I managed to express myself since English is not my native.

Definitely the newer pose, the first one looked like it nearly tripped on a rock a second before the picture was taken.

New one looks more natural to me as well. I still think you ought to bring the knee of the off-the-ground leg forwards a little, though.

Supporting the new pose as well. Though i should start by saying that you are giving us another amazing conversion
But perhaps you should consider aligning the eyes with the hand to get a more convncing look

Hey man you've inspired e to start doing some conversions of my own! btw, i found some sweet fantasy khorne models if your interested on the gw web store


[url]http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Skullreapers

[url]http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Skullcrushers-of-Khorne

[url]http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Wrathmongers

you could make some great conversions with these man!

Hey everyone, I've been pretty busy with various RL issues, so I didn't get that much done on the hobby side of things. That said, I wanted to share my cleaned up conversion on the Kastelan. I think this is pretty much what the finished model will look like, give or take a bit or two









As you can see, I used some GS to fill in the various recesses on the head. I also used GS to extend the middle section a bit, in order to make the model slightly less tubby. The arms have also been ever so slightly extended (when compared to the stock Kaselan arms), mostly by attaching the hands in a slightly different positions. And finally, I've made a simple press mold of the Bloodthirster's hoofprint and tried to duplicate the Khornate rune on the Kastelan's left sole:



This detail will still require a bit of cleanup, but I think it works, all things considered.

As always, let me know what you think!

Looks sweet man kutw

really like the detail underneath the foot its a nice touch. hae you thought about maybe doing some cabling coming from the back of the skull into the armor i think it would look cool.

I think it's fantastic! Keep going, KrautScientist!

Your Khornate Kastellan looks incredible! Just awesome.

Hello? Anyone? I wonder if Kraut is working on something big...

That robot is awesome. There's something vaguely transformers -esque about it.

Great work on the chaos robot mate. The Kastelan looks fairly weird head-wise, but you managed to turn it around quite well!

Well done !

What's cooking kraut! It's been a while

Cheers, guys!

I haven't been up to any huge secret project, unfortunately. Most of my recent hobby time has been spent on various kitbashes for my INQ28 collection, with a particular tendency towards building a slightly eclectic Mechanicus warband.

However, I have actually started on my very first conversion using a model from the Age of Sigmar starter box (the freebie Liberator from WD doesn't count), and while the resulting model probably won't be used for INQ28, I thought you lot might still be interested:

I actually chose the Khorgorath for my first venture into the box, which is strange because it's possibly the model from the kit I like least. Anyway, I wanted to make some changes to the stock model, and here's my slightly touched-up version:



I definitely wanted to get rid of those "bone snakes" emerging from the creature's forearm and shoulder, so I cut off one of them and converted the other so it looked like the model's other shoulder. My main alteration to the model was the head, although it doesn't really photograph all that well, unfortunately:



The model's original head was carefully cut apart, and the lower jaw was glued to the Khorgorath's neck (as intended). I then added a partially hollowed out ogre helmet on top, in order to give the model a slightly less abstract head (I also think the mask is a pretty good fit for some kind of Khornate arena beast). The skull and horns-combo in the shape of Khorne's rune was then added to the helmet as some kind of ornament:





As always, let me know what you think!

I like it - but I really like the base model as well so I'm a bit biased. Think you'll 40k it up? With, say, Hellbrute, Defiler, Forgefiend or Centurion parts?

Looks more ready to become a spawn or a small DP.

The head and bone accessories are the worst things about the model, it could easily be much better if those details changed, the head is looking good, now just conver up those silly emergent skulls.

Cheers for the feedback, guys!

I don't think I'll add any particular 40k touches to this guy, to be honest: I have enough Helbrutes as it is, and I am seeing the Khorgorath as some kind of daemonic arena beast used by Khorne's Eternal Hunt. I have also made my piece regarding all those skulls emerging from the model's body: They are just an inextricable part of the overall model, so getting rid of them would be too much work to be worth it, really (the model's shoulders are nothing but skulls, actually).

In other news, I may have screwed myself over big time regarding my Chaos Knight: I undercoated the model yesterday, painting everyhting but the armour plates with Chaos Black and the new Leadbelcher spraypaint. It ended up looking like this...







...which seems serviceable enough at first glance. Here's the kicker, though: Due to an unforeseen (and inexplicable) undercoating mishap, the whole model ended up with a very gritty, almost sandpapery texture (you can just about make out the effect in some of the pictures). The only part of the model that escaped this problem was Baron Harrowthorne himself (undercoated five minutes prior, using exactly the same spray can):



My first impression was that I had managed to ruin a 100+ Euros model, and one I have spent many hours converting, at that. But I won't give up that easily -- I remain committed to trying to rescue the model.

The colour and texture aren't all that bad: The silver has a pretty nice gunmetal look going on now, and while it may not have been planned, I think I can work with it. The real problem is that whatever happened during undercoating has messed up the way the undercoat reacts to other paints: I have added a liberal black wash to the entire model, but the basic trick of using a dark wash to add shadows doesn't work nearly as well over this freaky undercoat.

Anyway, here's the model as it looked earlier today: The whole model has been washed black and I have started to pick out the bronze and red parts on the Knight's "skeleton":



A closer look at the head reveals the effect I described above:



At least the undercoat will take different paints well enough, although the silver doesn't look as good as I would like:



And, like I said, it takes *a lot* of wash to suitably darken the undercoat: Compare the main body with the chaotic heat outlets (yet unwashed) in this picture:



At first I was really in panic, but the model has at least started to come together a bit since I've blocked out the first details in red and bronze:



Right now, I remain cautiously optimistic that the model can yet be salvaged -- especially since the armour plates won't have the same problem, so the gritty texture may not be all that noticeable once the Knight is completely assembled. But I won't make any promises at this point: I am doing my best, but this has turned into quite the monkey wrench...





I'll keep you posted!

It looks pretty good to me, but if it continues to be a problem you can use a paint thinner (I recommend Dettol) to strip the paint off and bring it back down to the plastic. It's very good as it doesn't ruin the plastic itself - I've left models in it for months with no effect.Just leave it to soak overnight, then go at it with a toothbrush and the paint will just peel off. Whichever brand of thinner you use, I advise testing it with a scrap model or piece first to make sure it's safe, as some brands might melt the plastic (although I doubt it). Hope that helps!

Hmm not good on the spray front there, I've had the same issue before and put it down to a sudden change in humidity. A little bit of damp can cause a lot of issues with how paint dries, seems more of a problem with non black primers.

Best way to handle that would be to soak the model in something like Simple Green or Purple Power; long enough (and putting it in sunlight to warm it and speed up the reaction) and you should eb able to wash off the vast majority of it under a sink faucet, maybe need a little scrubbing with a toothbrush.

Also, try a cheap black spraypaint for a basecoat, somehting that won't fuzz up in humidity.

I think the reason it isn't washing properly is because of the texture- on smooth paint, the wash can slide right off so it pools specifically in the crevasses- but on here, the wash just sticks everywhere, meaning that you both get paint on the surfaces you're not trying to wash, and that paint which would otherwise be in the gaps, isn't.

Like you said, though, it's not actually that bad looking. Something I would suggest, though, is to take some very, very fine sandpaper (like, 3000 grit) to some of the joint surfaces and the bits you're gonna do in bronze. This should smooth the surface of the paint out without taking it off (at least not too much), and give you different textures on those parts, which should be smoother.

Thanks a lot for the "condolences" and sound advice, everyone! What's really frustrating about this mishap is how a model that was undercoated literally at the exact same time didn't suffer any of the problems. Oh well...

Stripping the model is basically out of the question for me at this point, because I know myself well enough to know that I probably won't be touching a (possible imperfectly) stripped version of that Knight for ages. Besides, many of the products mentioned by fellow hobbyists here and on B&C aren't as readily available in Germany, so I would need to experiment -- definitely not a good idea

I feel that my best chance is to try and make the effect work to my advantage -- it does work pretty well in some places, making the metallic parts look like the heavily worn chassis of a machine that has been in service for a long time. The stupid thing is that it looks kinda goofy in other places, especially on the ams:



But when all is said and done, I think I may still be able to salvage this model, especially since so much of it will end up all covered up in armour plates, after all. I've been working on picking out the detail in red and bronze over the weekend, and I have also applied a very light brown wash I made, in an attempt to add some depth to the metal. It doesn't show up all that well in the photos, but it works fairly well. So here's the model as it stands right now:











I don't know guys, maybe I am merely deluding myself, but it feels like the model is maybe starting to come together after all...? As always, let me know what you think!

well, that fuzz may work to your advantage in weathering...

Cheers, mate! You may have a point there: The thing about this "accidental" basecoat that's really growing on me is how it actually makes many areas look like actual metal -- the kind you'd expect to see on a heavy duty machine like this. Looking at some areas of the Knight, I actually feel reminded of real life metal machine parts, which is pretty cool -- almost makes it worth the extra work, after all

Fortunately enough, the judicious use of washes and drybrushing is slowly starting to add more depth to the problematic areas. Here's an update for you:





First of all, I needed a little quick fun, so I actually finished the head:



This gave me the motivation I needed to carry on with the rather thankless task of giving the metal some depth -- but like I said, it's slowly starting to work:



The legs are the farthest along, currently: I've added a healthy dose of Typhus Corrosion to create built up grime:





Plus I've also taken quite some time to make the leg pistons look fairly realistic:





Both elements were heavily inspired by JeffTibbett's fantastic Knight thread -- I may lack Jeff's patience, attention to detail and dedication, but some of his ideas were fortunately easy enough to adapt to my own, rather slapdash painting style

The engine compartment is also starting to look as oily and grimy as it should:



Tell you what, I am actually starting to feel rather happy with this guy, after all!



As always, let me know what you think!

You might consider putting a gloss clear coat over areas you want to use washes on. It would smooth out the fuzzies and allow the wash to flow better. You can always bring it down to matte again later.

Ooh, that's a good idea! Maybe even see if you can get some clear nail polish from the Missus. (paint sticks to nail polish, right?) And a non-polish clearcoat would probably look great on the 'shiny' bits of the joints and pistons- the places where they're gonna be rubbing a lot- because that's where there'd be a slight sheen of oil/grease, thin enough to be transparent.

Also, don't limit yourself chromatically to your 'base' pallette- for instance, I feel like the accordian joints at the waist would look rather nice in a worn black, and hoses might be all kinds of colors- blue for coolant lines, yellow for electrical conduits, stuff like that- it'd add a little splash of color to different parts of the model, while being small enough that it wouldn't interfere with the overall scheme.



But man, those mold lines!

Cheers for the suggestions, guys! Food for thought, certainly.

A quick word about the mold lines: Some of those are virtually impossible to get rid of, due to the way the model is assembled. The good news, however, is that all of the moldlines you see in the above pictures will end up underneath armour plating anyway, so I didn't really beat myself up about it

Brutal that it ended up the way it did. I had that happen to three bikers I was doing up for a sub army. Everytime I look at them now it irks me, I should have dipped them and started again.

The Knight is looking better and better, and I can hardly see the issues at a distance (only when you do a zoomed in shot does it really show)

Here's another update for you. It's slightly frustrating that all of the photos are looking so similar, when the model in front of me looks so much better than it did yesterday -- but the camera just eats up some of the more subtle touches. I guess it cannot be helped.

I've finished the bronze areas (adding some subtle verdigris in some places, while I was at it) and cleaned up the red. Save for a few details (that will probably still take me a couple of hours to sort out, but yeah...), the Knight's "skeleton" is approaching completion:















I think I am pretty happy with the look of the metal as it is right now -- it finally feels like I have managed to turn this ship around for good! And to think I briefly considered putting the model in a box and never think about it again...

A couple of detail shots:

The engine compartment, now with a bit of verdigris:



The various weathering effects really work together rather nicely now (I tried not to go overboard with the verdigris effect, because I didn't want the model to look to "colourful" because of it:









And finally, what may be my favourite detail at the moment: I painted the small vials on the sword arm so they looked like liquid was sloshing around inside them -- something I borrowed from JeffTibbetts once again -- it makes sense that those vials would contain some liquid lubricating the chain of the big sword or something like that:



And a closeup:



Not GD level painting, certainly, but I am stupidly happy about having managed to pull this off

So yeah, as always, let me know what you think!

The Knight does look very good, I'm happy that your original fears didn't come true
I also love the quantity of close-up pictures, they really allow us to se lots of details that might have gone unnoticed at first
I really am looking forward to see him completed and I hope he comes off just as you expected him

I don't think you should be thinking of the skeleton as 'nearing completion' just yet.

This is something I see a lot of people who are used to doing armies of small models do- they spend a week or so, or a couple days, on painting- base coat, secondary colors, pick out some details, then declare themselves done- when this isn't one of a dozen similar $5 models, but the centerpiece of the army.

This guy is big, he's expensive, he's complex. There's only one of him, and probably will only be one of him ever. There's no reason to say 'Done' on it until you're honestly convinced that you cannot make it look any better with your own painting abilities- and looking at the awesome details you put in the liquid jars, I know that the vast majority of this skeleton isn't yet 'finished' to the best of your ability.

For instance- when in the world have you ever, ever seen silver pipes or tubes on a piece of heavy machinery? If you're not going to be painting them colors to show a little more life in the model, at least paint them black so that they stand out as a different material from the steel beams they're attached to.

Same with the engine- I have a hard time believing that the Mechanicus builds their engines all out of the exact same material, and that it all weathers exactly the same- do something similar to what you did with the pistons to show the way heat interacts with the different pipes and cylinders of the engine- paint some of them brass or gold as though they're used for more corrosive liquids, and others so they look like black plastic or white ceramic. Pick the bolts out in a different color to show that they're not just studs cast onto a solid piece of metal.

Pick out the connectors on the ends of the hoses in brass, the little decorative ridges in red enamel. Use more than just 3 colors and some washes on here- put some yellow on the little wires coming out of the engines and on the vents inside the front cowl. Make the cuffs on the pistons and rotary joins in bronze or brass as well.

There's so many details on a model this big, and after you've blocked in the big colors, it's the details that make the different between 'just another Knight Titan' and "KrautScientist's Knight Titan of the Eternal Hunt".

@ Legio Ultra: Cheers, mate!

@ Anvildude: While some of those suggestions are very good and while I can appreciate the sentiment: In all fairness, I think I've already gone beyond the bare minimum requirements on this model more than you are giving me credit for. And there's one factor that is important to consider as well, and that is my patience: I tend to tire of painting rather quickly -- it sucks, but there you have it. Each of my paintjobs, therefore, always has to be a compromise between what I can pull off from a technical standpoint and how long I can spent on a model before it just becomes a chore. Because I don't want this to turn into another job, you know

So when all is said and done, I will be spending a couple of hours more on the skeleton, adding some touches here and there, but it might still fall short of the ideal you - rightfully - describe. Because in the end, I want the model to be awesome, no question about it, but I also want to finish it before it drives me crazy, and there's still about half of this big boy left -- and that's not even counting the pilot.

So, small update: I got a bit tired of all the weathering, so I painted the pilot. Here's the - mostly finished - Baron Augustus Melchia Harrowthorne:









As always, let me know what you think!

Aaand another update: I really did take Anvildude's feedback to heart, after all, and really gave it my all during this latest round of details. Check it out:



"Pray to your false Emperor with all your heart. He may yet save you."

So, today I did two things: I took some better pictures out in the daylight, and I tackled pretty much all of the areas on the Knight's "skeleton" I was really afraid of Things I learned today include:

painting monitors
painting flames (courtesy of a super-useful tutorial by Tale of Painters)
using a glaze made from Mephiston Red to create an effect resembling glowing coals

Not bad for one day, eh?

So, here are the pictures. First up, the entire model so far:











As you can see, I finally tackled those flames which was...surprisingly fun, actually!

And a couple of detail shots:



You're probably really fed up with the model's head, but I still like it

Some of the weathering may be more obvious now, with the better lighting:



Another look at those vials:



And let's also take another look at the Knight's interior and its pilot:









Here's a view from above, showing the entire kitbashed interior again:



And as it happens, after taking the photos, I just had to finally finish the displays inside the cockpit. The task turned out to be just as fiddly as I had expected, but I am really rather happy with the result:











As always, let me know what you think!

Really love baron Harrowthorne. He looks just as stern as I expect from a khornate knight pilot.

Cheers, Zywus! That was exactly the look I was going for -- I'm glad that it seems to have worked!

Sorry to hear your baby had a bit of a misshap, but it looks like you've overcome the issues, and powered onwards regardless.

Titan is looking fab, I especially love the Captain. Looks very resolute and grim. And its nice to see a commander of a chaos titan who's not a writhing pile on tentacles!

Hi there - this is one of the only blogs I follow, as your stuff is so consistently interesting, and I am also a conversion junkie. You've got a lot to inspire other converters, which I intend as only the highest praise

I wanted to point out my new updates to my thread of majorly converted/kitbashed Khornate CSM vets/World Eaters.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/637061.page

take a peek if you like. I'd love to hear any feedback you might have, since you're also doing Khorne stuff, and basically the best Khorne stuff I've seen on Dakka.

Keep up the good work! (plastic) Skulls for the (imaginary) skull god!

-C6

Now thats a rigth and proper knigth! Well done sir

Thanks a lot, guys!

Here are some new photos of the finished "Skeleton":



















As always, let me know what you think!

Brilliant stuff could currently do with more red but I take it that'll be added with the main plates!

Cheers, mate! Your wish is my command: Here's another status update

It's more than 30 degrees Celsius outside, so there's no way I'm heading out there to take proper photos, but here's the Knight with its leg armour in varying stages of completion, all the same:



And here's a first look at the PIP belly plate:



On a related note, there's something I would really love your feedback on: I want to add a decal to the Knight that represents the Machine's honorary membership in the Legio Audax ("The Ember Wolves"), the Titan Legion that fought alongside the World Eaters during the Heresy. So I was looking at a suitably wolf-y decal in order to represent that affiliation: At first I wanted to use one of the War Hounds decals, but those definitely show a dog, not a wolf. So which of the following do you think would work best for the intended effect (As for placement, I'm thinking one of the kneecaps)?



As always, let me know what you think!

Far right one, definitely.

 Kepora wrote:
Far right one, definitely.

While I like the look of that one the best, it says “Space Wolves” to me a little too strongly. Not sure if a change in color would be enough to shake that. I’d go with the middle one.

For Ember Wolves I'd go with the middle one, the forelimb claw. Given it's design I think you could work in an ember/fire effect on it that would be cool.

Well there's always the Fire Wolf symbol:



Or this from the Space Wolf game, seems much more aggressive and Chaotic although you'd have to fill in the missing details; the flame effects from the Fire Wolf perhaps.

I think the middle one, myself. I agree with Nevelon about the far-right being too Space-Wolves-ey, even if it's also the most wolfy in general.

The first is too generic, as the wolf-paw-print has been co-opted as a generic 'Beast' symbol in popular culture.

And like Prestor Jon said, the fur would allow for a pretty interesting fire effect, if you wanted to go that route.

The ones gogsnik posted are awesome.

You could go for the War Hounds symbol... just saying. Since after all, they became the World Eaters.

 Nevelon wrote:
While I like the look of that one the best, it says “Space Wolves” to me a little too strongly. Not sure if a change in color would be enough to shake that. I’d go with the middle one.

That's my feelings too. Perhaps a wolf's face head on, but with flames in the background. A wolf's face head on is not typical for Space Wolves, and would help tie it in to the Legio


Some of the bottom left ones are not commonly seen on Space Wolves

The Knight looks great with the armor plates on, and it's great to see he's nearing completion (can't wait to see the breastplate on though )
As for the decals, I would say the central one is the best for what you want since both the leg looks wolf-ey enough and the fur could be made to look like flames. Otherwise the middle wolf face on the third row of Dreadclaw's suggestion should look good as well.

The speckled/mottled effect actually looks cool, like aged metal. Even better with your weathering and the plates on.

Cheers, guys! Thanks for the excellent feedback regarding the decals! While I do like the middle one too, it has to be said that the one on the left could work as a play on the World Eaters' tradition of marking exceptional service with a bloody handprint.

Some brilliant additional suggestions, though! The Flame wolf seems like a no brainer, although it only seems to be available in red and yellow (which looks slightly hokey).

@ Dreadclaw69: Those are possibly the best suggestions of them all -- are they even decals, though? Or do they only appear in a Codex as artwork? If they are actualy decals and somebody has any of them left, especially the more hirsute looking wolf heads dead centre and in the bottom row, please give me a holler!

I can never quite get over the transformation, when the Armour final goes on one of these things.
As for the paint job, I think you've so far manged to turn what could of been a disaster, in to a really nice looking piece, very well done .

Thanks, man! That is very nice of you to say -- and yes, the transformation is rather uncanny, isn't it?

So, all the excellent feedback re: the Legio Audax symbol provided here and over at The Bolter & Chainsword has led me to the following conclusions (for now):

1. The decal depicting that hirsute front-on wolf's head from the FW sheet would be great, but alas it seems to big for the intended position -- so it's out of the race

2. The left one from my original selection would be a nice callback to the World Eaters' practice of using bloody handprints as a sign of exemplary service, but it's too easy to mistake it for a cat's. So it's out as well.

3. The wolf head from the old Dreadnought sheet is indeed lovely, but the laurel wreath makes it look slightly too loyalist -- plus the only way to obtain it via the German ebay site right now would set be back a whopping 15 Euros -- no way I'm paying that much cash for a 20 year-old decal sheet!

4. So when all is said and done, I think I'll be using the middle decal from my original selection, albeit with a slight tweak: If I turn it around, maybe I can make the top look like a flame, which would make it look more "Ember Wolfy"

Meanwhile, I am getting there one armour plate at a time







As always.let me know what you think!

Wow does he look good, great job!!! That breastplate is the , really imposing with all the blue glowing eyes. I love the way this knight is going, well done
Now we just have to wait for the helmet

 KrautScientist wrote:
@ Dreadclaw69: Those are possibly the best suggestions of them all -- are they even decals, though? Or do they only appear in a Codex as artwork? If they are actualy decals and somebody has any of them left, especially the more hirsute looking wolf heads dead centre and in the bottom row, please give me a holler!

I think they are decals, but likely from around 2nd Edition. You could print your own with the right paper and ink

Those chest eyes really make the model pop with style!

If you want to put bloody handprints on it, you can. They don’t need to be painted on all official like. Just a few slapped on by the troops nearby.

Cheers, guys!

@ Nevelon: Oh, there will be bloody handprints, have no fear! In fact, I even made a custom GS "stamp" for that very reason (it appears somewhere earlier in this thread). What I meant was that the Legio Audax symbol could also resemble that tradition, but when all is said and done, I think the plan I have now (using the wolf claw decal turned around and with the top turned into a flame) might work better.

Kraut Scientist, have you seen that Forge World have just brought out a Chaos Knight?

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuff/CHAOS_KNIGHT.html

Yours is better though, I reckon!

@ corpuschain: Oh yes, I am quite aware of the Forgeworld Chaos Knight! To be honest, though, I am almost a little underwhelmed by the model. Sure, it clearly reads as a Chaos Knight. But doesn’t the design seem like they phoned it in a bit, at least compared with Forgeworld’s regular output? It seems very generically chaotic to me, especially with the warped armour and teeth around the head. And some touches are pretty close to my own version, as it happens: Just take a look at the chaos star on the back of the cannon, the spikes on the chainsword and the reactor section…

It seems like a nice enough basic template for a Chaos Knight, but I think it needs some additional touches to truly shine -- and if I need to convert it anyway, why not go for a full plastic conversion? Or for a Kytan Daemon Engine -- that thing is far more interesting, if you ask me! So, when all is said and done, it’s a nice enough kit, surely, but I am actually rather relieved that it’s not that much more awesome than my own conversion — at least that’s how I feel about it. This means I can happily finish my own model without feeling like I missed out on an even cooler version


So here's another small update: I've been working on the Knight's belly and groin armour which is probably one of my favourite parts of the conversion:





The teeth will need some additional highlighting, but I am already pretty pleased with how this area recalls the World Eaters legion badge!

I am currently working on the Knight's pauldrons, btw.

As always, let me know what you think!

Loving the belly armour!

Thanks, mate!


I realise that this incremental style of updating might not be totally spectacular, but I've never tackled a model of this size and complexity before, so bear with me, alright? So here's what I've managed to do this weekend:







The pauldrons actually took a fair bit of work to come together. And while they are not quite finished yet, they are definitely getting there.

Left pauldron with icon of Khorne and various totems and trophies:



Right pauldron with legion badge, legion number and company number:



And finally, the mostly finished facemask:



As always, let me know what you think!

Awesome work. Are you going to do one with the Forgeworld kit now ?

Well, first of all, I am going to finish this one, thank you very much

Like I said above, the FW conversion kit doesn't really speak to me -- I might do a Kytan Daemon Engine at some point in the indeterminate future, but don't hold your breath

Love the last picture with the eyes peeping out from behind the mask. It gives the engine such a creepy and almost intelligent look. Great work mate

I would pay literally tens of dollars for one of these! But in all seriousness, far better than the FW version. And doing it yourself adds a level of pride to it. I love all your work. Now I just need to hit that lottery and offer you an obsene amount of money for them......

Cheers for the positive feedback, guys! Here's another small update from my personal Knight Manufactorum:













The top carapace is still very WIP in those pictures, with only the base colours blocked in. But you can still get an idea about how the finished model will look. I do realise that the monochromatic colour scheme I've chosen might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's certainly the look I wanted for the model -- if I had been in charge back then, the early 90s "Red Period" at GW would never have ended

As always, let me know what you think!

I definitely agree with you on the 'red period'! The Knight is looking excellent. It fits with your army very well, or at least it will when it's done. Are you doing anything more with the eyes? I think if the eyes popped like the glowing bits on the chestplate, it would really look like there's something malevolent pulsating inside.

I love how the chaos knight is coming out. Keep up the good work

Cheers, guys!

@ corpuschain: The eyes are actually still pretty noticeable, if seen from the right angle. And in any case, I am really rather happy with them not being too obvious: The bright blue eyes look excellent on a bare Knight head, but with the facemask added on top, there is a very real danger of the googly eyes behind it overwhelming the face and making it look comical -- so I don't even want to make them more noticeable than they are right now.


Nothing too spectacular today, just some pictures to prove that I've finally managed to paint the detail on top of the carapace:





Please excuse the crappy lighting, but it was pretty late when I finished this part

It's so cool to see the knight almost finished! Good job mate! and those blue glowing eyes are absolutely beautiful!!

Cheers, mate!

In case anyone was wondering, btw: That model in the corner is the "Chibi-Knight", a roughly epic-scale version of my Chaos Knight which I am pretty certain has been featured on this thread before, although I have updated it with an additional bit or two since then:



It's been a terrible week so far, so not much progress and some only slightly better pictures of the model:







I did have a bit of fun finishing the interior of the top hatch, though:



As always, let me know what you think!

Great stuff. The metal on top of the metal the chaos star and spikes needs some contrast to set it apart from the trim. Maybe Steel or Bone?

Hey everyone,

even though life has been less than optimal lately, I felt the urgent need to do something creative -- probably to get some distraction from the overall situation, so I made this:







As you will have guessed, that's the base for my Chaos Knight right there: After spending quite some time thinking about what I wanted to put on the base, I realised that there are few things more emblematic of the crumbling Imperium of Man than a toppled and destroyed Astartes statue -- plus the piece from the Honoured Imperium kit was a pretty nice fit scale-wise!

Here's the - still unfinished (!) - Knight, provisionally placed on top of it:













Even though there's still quite a bit of detail work left to do (I'd place the entire model at about two thirds done, roughly speaking), the pictures should still give you a reasonably good idea about what the finished piece will look like.



As always, let me know what you think!

Nice base, very fitting.

For being just a WIP, that knight is still head and shoulders above what a lot of people (myself included) consider their best work.

Hang in there and keep doing the awesome! BftBG!


Now if you’ll excuse me, I think the Chaplain wants a word...

Beautiful. I like how the base is evocative without taking away from the model standing on it. I really like the pose of the knight, too. It's a great "come at me bro" pose.

Cheers, guys! I really appreciate the kind words!

Nice work , the base really finishes it off.

 KrautScientist wrote:

Even though there's still quite a bit of detail work left to do (I'd place the entire model at about two thirds done, roughly speaking), the pictures should still give you a reasonably good idea about what the finished piece will look like.

This is an UNFINISHED PIECE?

 KrautScientist wrote:

As always, let me know what you think!

You give us your problems, we give you our minis. To do some 'Unfinished business'.


P.S. I love the base.

Again, thanks a lot, guys!

And to be fair, while I still consider the Knight unfinished at this point, don't expect anything too radical, alright? Most of the work left will consist of fairly minor detail and cleanup work -- stuff that might not even be all that noticeable from a distance but will hopefully make the model even cooler when seen up close.

Just like today's small update: I finished the banner dangling between the Knight’s legs, using some decals to create a suitable design. The front received a World Eaters legion badge in red:





As simple as this design looks, it was a veritable nightmare to get right! I started with a decal from the FW World Eaters decal sheet, but it needed lots of decal softener and several coats of varnish to finally conform to the banner’s surface. And even then, what had been a rich, ox-blood red on the decal sheet turned into a prety off-putting shade of pink against the dark background, so I ended up painting over the decal several times, coloring in the legion badge, so to speak, with my brush.

Fortunately enough, the rear was far less of a hassle — in fact, designing some of the battle honours won by the Knight during its long years of service was actually quite a bit of fun! Take a look:



The bottom of the banner will be slightly drybrushed (along with the Knight's toes), in order to make it look like dust from the battlefield has settled on those areas. It'll be a difficult balance to get right, but that's just one more tiny detail that I'll need to keep track of

So, here’s the Knight as it stands right now:









As always, let me know what you think!

Nice to see this finished. Nice work.

Hey Kraut, not sure if I've posted here before, but I just want to say that I love the blog! I've been lurking around for a fair while, and some of the conversions here are absolutely AMAZING! You never fail to make me reconsider my army choice, and I love what you've done with the knight more than anything you've done so far. One question though, is the tilting shield on the right shoulder intentionally left off, or is it simply not finished yet?

Cheers, guys!

 Rygnan wrote:
One question though, is the tilting shield on the right shoulder intentionally left off, or is it simply not finished yet?

A very valid question! I think this should answer it rather succinctly:





As always, let me know what you think!

Looking good. Really like the torso plate and the glowing eyes. Dam it, now the first thing I do when I get up and running again, is buy an Imperial Knight. That's really going to go down well with the wife.

Love it! What you did on the shield design-wise was exactly what I was imagining you would do as well

Sorry to hear about your situation mate...

Hope the latest work on your Knight proved to be sufficient distraction !

well, for me, it was at least

Cheers for the feedback, guys! Here's what'll probably be the last update for this week -- you're probably sick of the sight of this model anyway







So, what did I do?

I finally took the time to paint the last details on the top carapace, for instance. Mainly the Space Marine helmet and Necron head. I thought it would be a nice little shout out to paint the Astartes helmet as belonging to my INQ28 DIY chapter, the Golden Legion. Oh, and I also added some decals where appropriate:



The legs also received some more attention: I apply a very subtle drybrush on the feet, using a mix of the grey I used for the base and some Typhus Corrosion (cheers for the suggestion, MadSkoll!). It's not very noticeable, but it does make the feet look slightly more dull and dirty, creating a nice sense of interaction with the base:



I also added some decals to the kneecaps, as you can see. The one on the left knee is a decal I like very much from the ancient Khorne berzerker decal sheet. As for the right knee, I did change my original plan around a bit when it comes to the symbol showing the Knight's affilition with the Legio Audax: I combined a cog symbol (to symbolise a Titan legion) and the wolf paw print (because it seemed so appropriate, given the fact that the World Eaters use bloody handprints as a sign of honour). Anyway, it's such a small think, but it really hints at a bigger backstory for the machine.

As always, let me know what you think!

Not a single comment? Huh, so you really are fed up with this model, right?

Be that as it may, I do have another update regarding the Knight this weekend. What can I say, I simply cannot keep my hands off the model right now, and I know better than to second-guess my rare bouts of inspiration

So today I tackled those bloody handprints on the Knight's shin armour. Just to remind you, the idea was that the warriors of the 4th assault company press their bloody hands to the Knight's armour as some kind of oath of moment and good luck charm.

Anyway, I even made a new "stamp" for the occasion, using some latex to make a cast from the press molded hand I had created earlier:



I quickly learned a couple of things, though: One, in spite of the flexibility of the stamp, actually creating some believable handprints on the shin armour's curved surface turned out to be quite a bit of an ordeal. Two, there was actually even less room than I had anticipated. Three, while I had planned to add many, many handprints, I realised that the limited space resulted in a very real danger of all the handprints just mushing together into a solid wall of glossy red. So In the end, it was all about suggesting the intended effect without going overboard -- and I actually ended up painting most of the handprints by brush. Oh well...

Here's the armour after the application of the handprints:





I might revisit this area at a later date, in order to add some final touchups, but I am pretty pleased with the effect as it stands.

So here's another round of pictures for you -- the final round for this weekend, scout's honour!













And, because we haven't seen the old chap in a while, a closer look at the Baron inside his cockpit:







All that remains is a lot of minor cleanup work, but I'll be leaving that for the coming week. Until then, let me know what you think!

Wow. Fantastic as always. Been following the blog a long time youre one of the guys whose work got me back into building models. Keep up the awesomeness.

Love the hand prints, mate. They really add some character to the model. Could we get a picture of the knight standing with some PA marines? It would be nice to get a sense of scale for the model.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love, love, LOVE this knight! Perfectly fits the World Eaters theme to me, and fits with the hunters in the rest of the army. The bloody handprints look absolutely perfect, and bring the knight and the Eaters together in a way that only that can, if you get what I mean.

The pilot is outstanding. Gona have to look back to see how you went about building the chair in. Want to do a similar thing myself. Good idea with the hand prints, maybe if you had more time you could have made a curved stamp. Are you gona hand print all vehicles?

Cheers for the positive feedback, guys!

@ Freytag93: I'll be doing some detail shots of the Knight soon, among them some scale comparison pictures, I expect. Just watch this space

@ tipios: While the bloody handprints would certainly be a nice fit for any World Eaters vehicle, I think I'll keep it limited to the Knight. Because, in this case, it's really a part of his backstory, and extending the effect to other models in the army would lessen that narrative touch, if you know what I mean.

Love all the little details. They add a lot of character to an already unique model. And I’m not tired of seeing pics of it (although I do also enjoy your other work). If I ever get tired of looking at work like this, someone take me out back and shoot me; I’m already dead inside.

Keep it up, amazing work here.

Interesting idea with the hand stamp, bummer it didn't work as well as intended. I think the hand done final effect looks solid though.

Cheers, guys!


So, the last round of pictures basically showed the finished model, as there was only some minor cleanup work to do after that. So today, let me provide you with another round of pictures that will mainly show you some detail views of the Knight.

Before that, here's a look at the whole model again. I give you Gilgamesh, the Warrior King, the Twice-Consecrated, Son of the Ember Queen, the 4th assault company’s very own Knight Titan:





It probably won’t surprise you that I am just immensely happy with this model right now: It has been quite a journey, but in the end I ended up accomplishing pretty much all that I had set out to do with this model, and all without cutting any corners, which is no small feat for me Oh, and the fact that the start to painting the model was rather bumpy and almost made me abandon the piece in frustration makes this success all the sweeter now!

So let’s take a closer look at some of the detail, because that’s really the fun part with a model of this size: To add stuff that may not be immediately noticeable but that hints at the machine’s backstory and long years of service. Again, most of you will already be familiar with most of these details, but please bear with me here — I am just really proud of the model right now:

The Knight proudly displays the heraldry of the XII Legion Astartes, be it on the heraldic plate…



(I did clean up the legion badge a bit. It's subtle, but I think the design works better for it)

...…or on its right shoulder pad:



In the latter case, the legion badge is supplemented by the Legion and company number, respectively. The other shoulder pad, meanwhile, shows a massive brazen icon of the Blood God, chained into place in the gladiatorial style of the legion and decorated in many smaller totems and icons:



On to the next area I would like to showcase: While you have already seen the look at the pilot through the top hatch, it bears mentioning that I have left the entire top carapace detachable, so let us take a closer look, shall we?



The carapace can be taken of with a bit of fiddling and will also reliably snap back into place, so it seemed like a no brainer not to glue it in. So we can get a better look at the cockpit. Like so:



And here’s a view from the top, showing both the cockpit and engine compartment:



And a side view, showing the construction below it all:



In this picture you can also make out the piece of sprue I have used to keep the joint at the waist flexible. And here’s a look at the monitor banks showing vital battlefield information to the Baron:



All of this has been kitbashed from different vehicle bitz and some plasticard, but I think I’ve managed to combine it into a rather cohesive whole. What’s more, the design even resembles Forgeworld’s “official” Knight interiors released for the Cerastus Knight variants — no small feat when you consider that those versions weren’t even available yet when I started converting my own Knight.

In addition to the top carapace, the shoulder pads and arms have also been left detachable, so the entire Knight can be disassembled fairly thoroughly. Take a look:



Since all of the parts lock into place fairly reliably without glue, there was really no point to attaching them permanently. Plus the weapons can be properly aligned and turned towards the enemy during games. Oh, and I am also free to maybe build an alternate pair of weapon arms for the Knight one of these days…



Before I started working on the Knight, the biggest conversion I had ever tackled was my Wargrinder, a custom Dreadknight conversion. And while I am still very proud of this model, it does look almost puny when placed next to its bigger brother. Take a look:



Quite a difference, eh? Speaking of which, the picture also shows that the red used on my Knight noticeably differs from the red used on the rest of my World Eaters. While I would have loved the colours to be the same, I ultimately had to make this decision because my World Eaters colour scheme relies on the – now OOP – GW Blood Red, and my reserves of this colour would never have sufficed to paint a model of this size to a standard I was happy with. In the end, I chose to make the Knight the best it could possibly be — at the price of a bit of visual coherency. But when all is said and done, I think it’s a difference I can easily live with: The model still looks like it belongs with the rest of the army, and a Knight Titan is really different enough from an Astartes vehicle or daemon engine to warrant a bit of visual divergence.

Oh, and while we are on the subject of scale comparisons, here’s a picture showing a power armoured World Eater, a Terminator, a Dreadnought, the Wargrinder and the Chaos Knight, just to put the scale in perspective:



All in all, this has been an absolutely fantastic project for me, because it has really taught me so much, both about big models, but also about giving a model the time it deserves in order to really make it shine. What’s more, this Chaos Knight really turned into a bit of a community project somewhere along the way, as the feedback I received here and on forums like Dakka, The B&C or The Ammobunker really provided immensely helpful advice and helped me to stay focused whenever there was a danger of slacking off

If I have to name on source of inspirations above all others, it would have to be JeffTibbett’s brilliant Freeblade, the “Queen Bee”, though: Jeff’s work really taught me a new way of looking at a Knight and how to do justice to one of this ancient, hallowed warmachines. So thanks a lot to all those who provided valuable feedback and cheers to you, Jeff!

So, anything else? Well, speaking of the amount of history behind Knights, we cannot possibly wind up this post without taking a look at the history of this particular machine and its pilot, can we? So here’s what I’ve come up with for the two:



Baron Augustus Melchiah Harrowthorne

Knight Baron Harrowthorne was the leader of the honourable Covenant of Paladins, an alliance of knight households formed to defend a forgeworld in the eastern fringe. While several of the other powerful houses were forever planning and plotting to engineer their own rise to power, Harrowthorne’s honour and purity cemented his position as the Covenant’s leader, and his ancestral fortress, the Harrowspyke, remained the seat of government of his knight world.

When the world came under heavy attack from an Ork invasion, an expeditionary fleet made up of elements of the XIIth and XVIIth Legion Astartes arrived in the nick of time, supporting the Covenant of Paladins and routing the xenos attack force. With the world saved, Baron Harrowthorne felt honour-bound to not only pledge allegiance to the Imperium of Man, but also to join the expeditionary fleet himself as a representative of the Covenant, in order to pay back the debt of honour he owed the Legiones Astartes.

Harrowthorne fought alongside the XIIth legion during the latter Great Crusade and was still attached to the World Eaters when the Horus Heresy broke out. The events at Isstvan made him realise that the Warmaster’s forces were now considered heretics and traitors by the rest of the Imperium. To distance himself from them would have been the most prudent course of action, and possibly the only way of preventing his own knight world from being purged by the loyalists. But Harrowthorne still felt indebted to the legion that had saved him.

Harrowthorne came up with the only compromise that would keep both his knight world and his own honour intact: He stepped down from his position as head of his household and leader of the Covenant of Paladins. He would remain with the the Astartes of the XIIth legion, to whom he still felt indebted. He also sent word to his sons to fight him and bring him to justice, should he ever return to his homeworld, for he was to be considered a traitor.

As prudent and honourable as this course of action had been, it did not work out: Word was sent by astropath that Harrowthorne’s whole household had been wiped out by the rivaling nobles. The Harrowspyke had been razed to the ground, and Harrowthorne’s two sons had been shot dead in sight of the smouldering ruins, without even a chance to prove their honour in a knightly duel.

Harrowthorne was beside himself with grief and self-hatred, when Lord Captain Lorimar of the 4th assault company approached him: Lorimar proposed to accompany the Knight Baron to his homeworld, where he would have his revenge. His debt of honour, Lorimar argued, went both ways, and the World Eaters would not forget Harrowthorne’s brave service at their side.

The Covenant of Paladins may have been a formidable force, but it was all but powerless against the wrath of an entire assault company of World Eaters: The 4th fell onto the world like a pack of wolves falls upon its prey. With Harrowthorne leading the assault, all the noble houses that had engineered his downfall were wiped out. The leader of the conspiracy was shot in the head with a mere service pistol on the plains surrounding his smouldering keep, denied the courtly respect that he himself had denied Harrowthorne’s sons.

Afterwards, Harrowthorne felt nothing but a great emptiness. But Lorimar approached the Knight Baron and offered him a chance at revenge even beyond his own homeworld: Once again, the Baron and the World Eaters would be united by a common goal: Terra must burn!



Gilgamesh, the Warrior King, the Twice-Consecrated, Son of the Ember Queen

Harrowthorne’s ancient Knight Titan has become a sight to be feared on battlefields across the galaxy. Its baroque form towers over the ranks of World Eaters marching to war alongside it, and seems like an avatar of the Blood God given form, clad in monstrous, barbed plate of arterial red and darkened brass. No traces of House Harrowthorne’s original heraldry remain on Gilgamesh’s body, as the Knight has been repainted and re-consecrated to mirror the post-heresy heraldry of the XII Legion Astartes – proof of the Baron’s honorary membership in the legion.

Trophies and totems cover the machine’s form, and battle honours from its ten millennia of service alongside the World Eaters are still displayed proudly on banners and armour plates: the details of bloody campaigns on Jubal, Badlanding, Armatura and countless other worlds. The badge of the Legio Audax, commemorating the day when Gilgamesh was named “Son of the Ember Queen” by the Legio’s Princeps Ultima. And, of course, the bloody handprints adorning the Knight’s shin armour, placed there before every battle by the legionaries of the 4th, both as an oath of moment and a good luck charm.

Gilgamesh’s metallic form houses a particularly vicious and spiteful machine spirit, driven to anguish over the fall of House Harrowthorne just like its master. In communion, man and machine now turn their cold fury towards the enemies of the 4th assault company, and few can stand before the wrath of the Warrior King and live to tell the tale…


So, when all is said and done, I hope you like this detailed view at my Chaos Knight. I’ll be honest: I cannot take my eyes off the model right now, as I really consider it one of my biggest hobby achievements so far. Getting to the point where I actually have the skillset necessary to tackle a model like this and end up with a result I am happy with has been quite a journey indeed!

So anyway, I’d love to hear any feedback you might have on Gilgamesh and the Baron — and, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

I must say krautscientist, beautiful work. The background for both man and machine is perfect for the model. Can't wait for what you do next.

All 5 models are fantastic. Can't wait to get my hand on an Imperial Knight. Great back story too. Love the side cut out view of the Knight. Have you magnetized the sides? And final picture of the knight is epic!!

 KrautScientist wrote:
Oh, and while we are on the subject of scale comparisons, here’s a picture showing a power armoured World Eater, a Terminator, a Dreadnought, the Wargrinder and the Chaos Knight, just to put the scale in perspective:

*a single black tear wells up then runs down his helm's faceplate, tracing its way through millennia of gore and grime*

Beautiful work KS, you never cease to impress

- Salvage

Absolutely ridiculous. Taking a really boring model and making it into that monstrosity of awesomeness is truly inspiring. Keep them coming please! Really impressive.

After such a fuzzy start, seeing him in all his glory is truly breath taking

It's always nice to see a long term project get finished to such a high standard, Awesome work .

Pardon me while I go pick my jaw up off the floor

Holy moly. That Knight is a wonderful piece of the work. The pilot is so characterful.

D

Absolute inspiration there KS. Wonderful work as ever.

Thanks so much for the kind words, everyone! As you might have guessed, this has been a rather massive undertaking, and it's great to see that people like the finished model and the background I have come up with to accompany it!

@ tipios: The torso was glued together as usual, but I've left one of the side panels unglued, so I can still access the interior of the torso whenever I need to. There's no need for magnetising, either: The panel will reliably snap into place (although it does take a bit of fiddling to pry it loose and get it back into position again), and the top carapace plate locks everything in place.

Glad to see the big guy done at last! Looks fantastic - my favorite part is still the chest armor. Awesome bits-work.

Brilliant stuff. Inspires me to break out the Titans again.

Again, thanks a lot, guys!

Kraut, as good as your models are (which are really really good), I have to say what blows me away the most is your ability to write compelling backgrounds for all your models. You add so much to each model by giving it a reason to be in your army: its not just a model but a member of the company. The knight is just a great example of this. Keep working and keep writing, mate

EDIT: Also, I like the statue on the base. To me, the face echos the face of the baron (probably cause of the shared scar), giving a contrast to his fallen honor.

Thanks, mate! I suppose this is very much a result of my dabbling in INQ28: I tend to see models as characters first, playing pieces second. Maybe the fact that I do so little actual playing also has something to do with it

But seriously, I think that imagining models as characters and trying to tie them into the backstory of your army is one of the best parts of the hobby, and I am doing it for all of my projects these days -- there just seems to be a bigger way of narrative (and visual) coherence that way.

As for your observation regarding the base: That's brilliant! The effect was completely coincidental, but you are absolutely right, of course: You've got to love it when people notice stuff about your models that you didn't even (consciously) put there in the first place!


In other news, I felt I still have to tie up some loose ends regarding my Chaos Knight.

The first of those loose ends was to paint the alternate weapon option: I've left the gun barrels exchangeable, so all I needed to do was to get some paint on the Thermal Cannon muzzle in order to make my Knight useable as either a Paladin or Errant:







To be fair, though, it's a fairly lazy version of this particular conversion, because it doesn't extend to the tanks on the side of the weapons and is limited to the actual barrel of the gun:



While I did want to have the extra option, I far prefer the long-barrelled gun from a visual standpoint, and it's also very much a visual part of my Chaos Knight, so I went the easy route for once. I did some minor conversion work, however, in order to bring the look of the thermal cannon in line with the warlike, spiky look of the rest of the model:



As always, let me know what you think!

Looks great. The one (minor) thing that I noticed was the amount of weathering. The hook hanging under the barrel seems a bit to shiny. The top plate on the end is also in a spot that should see a lot of heat stress, and it looks to be in pretty good shape.

It is just great to see your Knight finished KS, and to such a high standard that is. Now since I'm a little late to the party, let me just say that (appart from being totally awesome) I like two qualities of the model very much:
first, the new red (wich imho seems a bit better than the old one at least as seen on your pictures) and
second the fact that so many parts are detachable both making the knight more versatile to further options and givng us (those who don't already own one) such a good insight into the possibilities of the kit.
Great job mate

Must say that looks totally amazing, I think you have just the right amount of spikes so its not over the top.

Looking forward to the Ember Queen now

 GiraffeX wrote:
Must say that looks totally amazing, I think you have just the right amount of spikes so its not over the top.

Looking forward to the Ember Queen now

Did someone say ember?

Thanks a lot for the kind words, guys!

@ Nevelon: You raise an excellent point, and I'll admit the area was a bit of a compromise: I did want that armour plate to resemble the other amour plates fairly closesly, which is why I've kept it cleaner than it should be. Your observation has made me add some weathering to the front half of the plate, though, in order to show some wear and tear and make it look more blackened. The hook dangling from the weapon will probably stay that way, though: The point where it's attached was weathered along with the rest of the weapon muzzle, but I thought the hook itself was probably far enough away from the nuzzle to remain unaffected by at least some of the heat...?

@ Legio Ultra: Cheers, I really appreciate it! I wouldn't want the rest of my World Eaters in the same red, though: It works wonderfully for the Knight, but I prefer the slightly rustier, more sinister tone for the infantry models -- it just suits their character better, if you ask me. As for the detachable parts, I think it's really a big advantage of the kit that the arms, shoulder pads and top carapace can be locked into place fairly reliably without a drop of glue!

@ GiraffeX & Kepora: Just to clarify, the Ember Queen wasn't invented by me but is rather a named "character" from the HH novel Betrayer: She's the lead titan of the Legio Audax, a Titan Legio coposed entirely of Warhound Titans that fought alongside the World Eaters during the Heresy. Now, the bad news is that I have zero ambition to tackle a Warhound Titan at any point in the foreseeable future -- sorry The good news, on the other hand, is that fellow World Eater extraordinaire poom has got you covered.

Thanks for the link I ended up reading all of the blog, very cool stuff there.

It all looks so beautiful. Your dramatic backgrounds are great too.

It's amazing bro.

I think I've said it before but that Knight is great. Good work as always, KS!

Cheers, guys!

So here's a small teaser for you all:



No what could this be...?

I'm intrigued by the feet...

D

from the angle, at first glance it looked like the guy was a bit on the excited side of things o.O

+1 to Januine and shame on you KS, i thought this thread was SFW
Let's hope Chibi-Gilgamesh turn out as awesome as the big one

Whoa, whoa, there: You cannot possibly blame me for your own naughty imagination

And heeeeere's Chibi-Knight! Bwood for the Bwood God!









So, let’s take a closer look at the Chibi-Knight all by itself (I’ve arranged the pictures just like those of the bigger version of Gilgamesh in the earlier post, by the way, in case you want a side by side comparison















All in all, I think it’s a fairly close fit. However, I did have to make some small allowances due to the differences in scale: The legs and feet are a bit different, for one, although they were still quite a bit of work: As you can see, I used a pair of Raptor legs as the base, but then I cut off the feet and tried to make something as close as possible to the original Knight’s feet.

I also made some concessions when building the torso: The carapace doesn’t quite look like the original, but it’s still close enough to be recognisable, I believe — as I have learned from the great Ron Saikowski, the most important part of a conversion like this is to get enough parts right that the elements that aren’t quite perfect will still work in the context of the whole model. So let’s take a closer look at the parts that did up looking rather close to the bigger version of the model:

One thing I am really happy with is the smaller version of the daemonic breastplate — it was really fortunate that the warshrine of chaos kit basically contained two very similar daemonic faces at wildly different scales



Oh, and I definitely had to replicate the heraldic plate with the World Eaters legion badge on it, of course, (even if working with those FW decals almost drove me up the wall yet again

I also tried to closely recreate the designs on the pauldrons: The right one still has a World Eaters legion badge (albeit of a slightly different design), as well as a hint of the legion and company markings underneath:



While the right was done using some bitz for a pretty close recreation of the bigger version:



There is another World Eaters symbol on the leg banner, thanks to one of the really tiny decals from FW’s World Eaters decal sheet:



And I even managed to squeeze in a smaller version of the battle honours on the rear side of the banner as well:



One element that is slightly different from the original model is the base: It still features fallen Space Marine statuary, but instead of a crumbled statue, I decided to use the one legitimate Epic 40k model actually in my possession (kindly provided, once again, by Drone21c) and paint it up as a heavily verdigrised statue:



I rather like this element, and it provides a hint as to the model’s actual scale. Plus when it came to building the bigger Knight’s base, this little statue was the most important influence that actually inspired me to use the Space Marine statue from the Honoured Imperium kit in the first place! So yeah, that’s the little guy. I am really rather stupidly happy with the model, to tell you the truth, even if there’s not even a real use for it

As always, let me know what you think!

Little guy looks cool.

Have you thought about making a HP tracker board for the knight? You could use the chibi guy as a marker to note how my wounds you have remaining. While something that can be done with just a die set on the base, it would give him a job to do and look cool.

Chaos Terminator with Reaper Autocannon. Or even better embrace the 6mm the Daemon Engines of Khorne await!

Chibi knight is awesome. Like a squaky little brother who comes crying to his big brother when the neighbourhood imperials give him a powerarmour wedgie and stuff him in a promethium bin.....or something
Great job KS

That chibi-knight is adorable.

Could make for a cool Chaos Lord counts-as!

Cheers for the positive feedback, everyone! Glad to hear you seem to like Chibi-Gilgamesh as much as I do!

As for a possible use for he model: The aesthete in me bristles at the thought of using him as a Terminator or Obliterator, even though the scale might work: It would seem a little goofy, I fear. But I suppose using him as an objective marker or something of the like would be fair game. Or maybe I will get my redesigned Adeptus Titanicus from GW one of these days...? One can always dream

From GW baahhh! The Net Epic projects hosted on Tactical Command holds the key for your desires!

So, with the Knight project all wrapped up, it probably won't come as a shock to you that I've happily jumped onboard the Betrayal at Calth hype train

Seriously, though: I haven't been interested in starting a Heresy era army for the longest time for a number of reasons (the price of the Forgeworld kit as well as the fact that it's all resin being among the chief concerns), but the quality of the stuff in the new box has really made me eat my earlier words. So while I cannot promise you that a proper army will be at the end of this, I have engaged in some preliminary kitbashing in order to explore the 4th assault company in its younger, slightly more innocent incarnation

First up, I started on the Contemptor right away, as it was one of the main reasons for me to purchase the box in the first place. However, I knew I needed to make some changes to the somewhat bland stock model: The pose needed to become slightly more interesting, and I really didn’t like the very bland stock head. Oh, and I wanted the model to be recognisable as a World Eater, of course — I hope his doesn’t come as a huge shock to you guys

So here’s my own Contemptor after the first couple of touchups:







My initial idea was to tweak the pose with some careful cuts. So I cut the model apart at the waist, in order to allow for more articulation. That wasn't quite enough to get rid of the rather pidgeon-toed stance, though, so I also cut the right leg from the pelvis area and glued it back on at a slightly different angle. It’s a fairly subtle tweak, to be sure, but I think it makes for a far less awkward pose. As for the general idea of reposing the legs, it’s easy enough to separate the legs from the pelvis, and this allows for some essential conversion options, allowing you to get rid of that pidgeon-toed stance. Everything that involves making the legs bend at the knee, however, seems very complicated and hardly worth the trouble: I suppose it might be possible, but you’ll lose either the upper legs or the kneedpads (or both). One possible way would be to carefully cut out the lower legs and use (40k) Dreadnought legs to rebuild the upper legs — they are virtually indistinguishable.

I also added two elements for a suitably World Eater-ly look: an ogre gut plate doubling as the legion badge as well as a skull and chain ensemble from the Age of Sigmar Bloodsecrator model. The head is slightly smaller than a standard Contemptor head, admittedly, but it does make the model resemble the official FW World Eaters Contemptor quite a bit, if you ask me.



I’ll still be adding some touches to the model before painting, although I’ll try not to go overboard with the detailing, as some of those smooth surfaces will provide a great occasion to use the more interesting, larger decals from the FW decal sheet. Because I really want to paint this guy in the Heresy-era World Eaters colours after all. I was torn between 30k and 40k for a while there, but decided to make the Contemptor a 30k model because I basically already own a counts-as Contemptor for 40k:



Remember the guy on the right? In case anyone was wondering, the above picture shows that converted Kastelan robots will actually work rather nicely as stand-in Contemptors, at least from a scale perspective! So I guess I’ll be using the conversion made earlier this year as a Contemptor in games of 40k, while the actual Contemptor joins my eventual 30k project.

I also built a first test model from the tactical Marine sprues that come in the box. Since there's a huge focus on bolter-wielding Marines, building a proper World Eater took some doing, but here's my first result:





Would love to hear your feedback on these models!

Yeah, large blob squads of bolter marines are pretty common in 30k, so makes sense to be a focus. Contemptor came out great, I'll be looking to utilize that on mine.

Dread looks promising. Looking forward to see your take on the pre-heresy color scheme. It's a great canvas for some bloodsplattering.

What helmet did you use for the contemptor head? Is it a regular MK II helmet? I though one of those would look much smaller for a dread but it's not very noticable that it's smaller than the regular one.

Cheers, guys!

@ Zywus: The Contemptor actually uses one of the Cataphractii helmets from the Betrayal at Calth box -- it is smaller than a regular Contemptor head, but it looks fairly similar to FW's official WE Contemptor, so I guess it's an alright option.

Here's another update for you: I've been making some 30k versions of characters from my 40k army. Recognise these guys?











As always, let me know what you think!

Nice.

The contemptor looks great as do the apothecary and techmarine. Are the legs on the techmarine from the sigma dudes?

EDC

Love that twohanded chain axe, that goes right into my mental folder of future conversion ideas. Keeping that spiked box thing from the hammer gives it a better feel of balance than just adding a chain ax to a hammer shaft.

The apothecary's armor is a bit modern for a 30k model. Though perhaps I'm nitpcking here?

You could modify his shoulderpad by cutting and sanding off the rim and give him a pair if MK IV legs instead of the MK IV.

They both look great, amazing job mate!!! I love how you used the same head 40k Deracin has for 30k Deracin, very nice. Though his axe seems to be in its younger ages Contemptor looks great too as does the tactical marine with the dog collar When can we expect to see some converted Cataphractii join the ranks of your army?
Looking forward to see more of your work

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

@ evildrcheese: The legs are actually from the WFB Chaos Chariot, although using Stormcast Eternals legs seems so obvious, now that you've mentioned it...

@ Zywus: Hmm, I always find it difficult to decide whether we should equate the Heresy setting with more modern or less modern armour, seeing how even the most recent armour marks seem to have been developed during the latter days of the Heresy, and it's been all downhill from there. In addition, GW/FW themselves seem to be flip-flopping about whether or not Heresy armour should have a less modern look to it... Anyway, I wanted a nonstandard looking suit of armour for Deracin, in order to show his technical prowess when it comes to tinkering with his own equipment, so that's why I chose those particular parts.

 Legio Ultra wrote:
When can we expect to see some converted Cataphractii join the ranks of your army?

Funny you should ask that...

Here’s my first, very early Cataphractii test:



I really think the Age of Sigmar Bloodsecrator head is perfect for a World Eater! On a related note, it’s really easy to convert the Cataphractii gorgets so they will accept different heads: Just shave away some plastic, and you are no longer limited to the “half-heads” that come with the stock kit.

I am still very much figuring out the most effective way to build my Cataphractii — while very cool, the stock models are even more vanilla than the Mk IV tactical Marines, in a way, and also quite a bit more restrictive in their posing than 40k Terminators, so the main challenge will be to have them look suitably aggressive and World Eater-ly without being over the top. So here’s another attempt:





The good ol’ “bellowing at the sky in rage” pose is a true classic, of course, but maybe the “I’m coming at you bro” approach works even better?

One element I am also experimenting with is the use of topknots on the Cataphractii, as they were a huge part of the original Cataphractii artwork of yore — in fact, one of the first Cataphractii to be drawn by John Blanche, no less, was even a World Eater. I rather regret that particular element being mostly lost somewhere along the way. For me, those topknots were cool precisely because they seemed so at odds with the tank-like look of the armour, adding some much needed barbarism to it.

So, anyway, here’s a comparison shot of my Cataphractii and a (converted) Chaos Lord with twin LC:



And maybe, just maybe, some leftover parts from the Cataphractii sprue will provide me with the weapon to finally finish that one Red Butcher turned 40k Chaos Lord?



As always, let me know what you think!

@ Zywus: Hmm, I always find it difficult to decide whether we should equate the Heresy setting with more modern or less modern armour, seeing how even the most recent armour marks seem to have been developed during the latter days of the Heresy, and it's been all downhill from there. In addition, GW/FW themselves seem to be flip-flopping about whether or not Heresy armour should have a less modern look to it... Anyway, I wanted a nonstandard looking suit of armour for Deracin, in order to show his technical prowess when it comes to tinkering with his own equipment, so that's why I chose those particular parts.

Fluffwise I'd say it's pretty well established that most marines were clad in either MK II,II or IV at the outbreak of the heresy. MK VI had been developed but was not yet in wide circulation. MK VII wasn't developed until some time after the Heresy I think. While there is stagnation of the Imperial technology whatever suits is still manufactured will generally be of the latest mark, so VII or VIII and so while older marks still exist, they get increasingly rare as the stockpiles are not refilled.

That said, since there were a lot of tinkering with the suits due to battlefield repairs etc and since there seems to have been a less dogmatic relation towards innovation it's of course not unreasonable for some 'homemade' armor modifications to use design cues later found in more modern armours.


Really like that bloodsecrator head. I got inspired enough to get one of those models myself second hand for cheap; just for the head. (At least we can say there's one good thing that come out of AoS now )

Glad to see you playing with this set.

So here's another 30k-related update for you guys to look at:

First up, while messing around with the plastic Cataphractii, I discovered something that might come in handy for those of you trying to adapt the models to the look of a specific legion. Now this certainly isn't rocket science, and I am probably not even the first person to come up with this, but with a very small amount of cutting, it's actually possible to make your Cataphractii resemble, for instance, Justaerin...



...or Deathshroud:



Just sayin'

I've also started painting my first 30k test model:







I'll say this much: It has been a learning experience so far But even if not everything may have worke out as planned, I am reasonably happy with the model so far, and I learned some useful stuff. Some work is still required until I'll call this guy finished, but I'd love to hear your feedback so far!

The test model is looking great, the conversion/bit swaps really make the model seem like a World Eater and the scheme is bang on.

Great discovery with the Terminators too, I may have to give that a go as the heads on the Cataphractii are my least favourite bit.

Thanks, mate! Cheers, guys! Seems like I am on the right track, then

So, anyway, today I can show you the finished 30k test model. I added a bit more weathering (inspired by kizzdougs' brilliant recent models) and a couple of finishing touches, and here's the completed model:



"I will never forget the day the legion ships came to my world. The whispered benedictions, forbidden even then, that accompanied them.
And those of us who aspired to a place among their ranks: Noble Hergan. Soulful Krizti. Brave Sharlen.
How they laughed at me, the baseborn butcher's boy.

And when those of the legion came to walk among us, clad in armour of white and blue, they were glorious and terrible, and we caught a first glimpse of the consequences our choice might have.

They passed over noble Hergan and soulful Krizti, and killed brave Sharlen when he dared to talk back to them, then laughed over his broken body in voices that were deep and cruel.
And they chose me, the baseborn butcher's boy.

Because for all its perceived flaws, the twelfth had learned even back then what others would only find out later
(and many too late):
That the Emperor's Crusade had little need of thinkers and poets, philosophers or noblemen.
It needed butchers."

Legionary Shadrak, Eigar Veteran Tactical squad, 4th assault company, XII Legion Astartes









All in all, I am really rather happy with my first effort. Not everything may have gone 100% according to plan, but the finished model clearly has the look I wanted. It was also nice to be able to use those red World Eaters decals the way originally intended by Forgeworld (although the decals’ uneven performance remains a minor concern).

Oh, here’s a closer look at the right shoulder pad, by the way:



In the end, the tactical markings from the Betrayal at Calth decal sheet turned out to be far easier to apply to the shoulder pad than the ones from the World Eaters decal sheet. I added a small WE legion badge on top, in order to denote veteran status.

So, all in all, here’s what I have learned while painting the model:

1. White an be just as unenjoyable to paint as red — out of the frying pan and into the fire, I guess

2. That said, I will try a different recipe for my white next time around: The model was painted over a black (and silver) basecoat, because that recipe had worked so well on my AdMech models, with different colours blocked in later. It didn’t work so well with white. And the approach was rather backwards to begin with, so I’ll consider actually using a white undercoat on my nect 30k World Eater.

3. Lahmian Medium turned into an indispensable tool when it came to shading the armour: I mixed it with a bit of black and brown wash for a shade that was just heavy enough, but not so heavy as to ruin the white.

4. I tried sponge weathering for the first time, and while there’s quite a bit of room for improvement, it’s a really fun and rather effective technique.

5. I still have to get used to the new Space Marine bases, as they seem freakishly big to me. Every model seems like a Terminator now, simply by virtue of a bigger base I think I really like the effect for a Killteam or warband but would find it a bit distracting on an entire army…

So much for my first 30k World Eater. It’s been fun! As always, let me know what you think!

30k World Eaters look fantastic, and you've certainly done them justice. Consider me subbed!

The rusty shoulder pad, along with the spike collar around the top of the chestplate is fantastic. Well done as always

One other thing to consider the Eternal Hunt is definitely a place I can imagine World Eaters who have given into Khorne but still keep their original colours possibly as an attempt to retain their discipline.

Thanks a lot, guys!

@ Llamahead: This is definitely a 30k legionary, though. While the 4th may differ from the rest of the legion a bit, they are still World Eaters pledged to Khorne. So their 40k colours are red and bronze

Great work with your 30K World Eater

Cheers, mate!

So here's another small update: Just because I've finally dipped my toes into the Heresy, that doesn't mean I've completely forgotten about the World Eaters' later incarnation. So I'll just leave this here for now:



Still a bit of work left to be done, but the model is far enough along to show. As always, let me know what you think!

Nobody? Oh well...

So here's another quick look at how the model's coming along:





As always, let me know what you think!

Both 30k and 40k guys look great.

Thanks, mate!

So without any further ado, heeeere's Lheor:

Lheorvine Ukris, “Firefist”
XII Legion warrior, born of Nuvir’s Landing. Leader of the Fifteen Fangs warband, and commander of the warship Jaws of the White Hound



“When Lheor’s boarding party arrived, they entered without ceremony or order. A pack of warriors among soldiers, walking without formation. Helms crested with stylised crowns wrought in the War God’s symbol regarded the chamber. Their brass-edged battle plate was the colour of blood on iron, showing the resealed cracks of endless repair and mismatched scavenging.
None of them made any pretense of sweeping the area with their bolters. Most didn’t even carry standard bolters; they held chainaxes in their hands, chained to their wrists, or carried massive rotor cannons slung over their shoulders (…)
Their leader carried a heavy bolter with the practiced grace of one born to the burden. This, he tossed in the gravity-less air to one of his underlings, and gestured for his men to remain by the southward entrance.
Before the war, he had been Centurion Lheorvine Ukris of the XII Legion’s 50th Heavy Support Company. I hadn’t known him then. Our association came in the years of dwelling within the Empire of the Eye.”

Aaron Dembski-Bowden, “The Talon of Horus”















So yeah, that’s my version of Lheorvine Ukris. You may have noticed that I swapped in a different right pauldron (kindly donated by Augustus b’Raass, by the way), as I really liked the even more archaic look. Oh, and I added a kill mark decal on the back of the heavy bolter, since there is a throwaway line in Abaddon:Chosen of Chaos, mentioning how Lheor has taken to scratching kill marks on his armour in later years, so I thought this might be a nice shout out to that habit

Oh, and before I forget, Lheor is really rather massive, by the way! Here’s a comparison picture with my recent 30k Legionary:



As always, let me know what you think!

I'm not feeling the red gloves. Seems weird to have no armor on his arms but on his hands.

I basically included the bare arms as a nod to this piece of "official" artwork that served as one of the main inspirations for the conversion:



However, I also included armoured gauntlets for a reason that will make sense to anyone who has read the novel

Firefist is looking great.

I love the termies you've mocked up so far.

EDC

Cheers, mate!

Dig it, red gloves and all. Great work on one of my favorite characters

- Salvage

Cheers, mate! And since I am in a productive mood, have another 30k World Eater:

While working over a white basecoat is every bit as dreadful as I remembered from about fifteen years ago, it does make things quite a bit easier in the end. This time around, I also really felt like I knew what I was doing, so I guess my recipe must be pretty sound after all.

Anyway, without further ado:



"To the prim and proper XIIIth or the bleeding heart XVIIIth, the thought of Astartes killing Astartes is anathema.
But we have been doing this for decades, night after night, in the cages and on the hot dust.
The only difference is that there is no longer any need to hold back."

Legionary Sarn, Eigar Veteran Tactical squad, 4th assault company, XII Legion Astartes









It was clear that blood would have to enter the picture at some point, so I chose this model as a test piece for that as well, trying to create an effect that would subtly enhance the model without overpowering it.

The slightly tweaked recipe made for quicker work and allowed me to have a bit of fun, like adding another decal to the right shoulder pad:



Or including the pauldron of a fallen Armaturan Evocatus on the model's base...



And here are both test models together. As you can see, they are very similar in appearance:



As always, let me know what you think!

Fantastic work! I'm probably going to be starting a small World Eaters army myself after new years. What blue did you use on those shoulder pads?

I'm curious as to your method for the blood splatter. Did you just apply some of GW's Blood for the Blood God with a sponge? It looks good, I ask because I might like to use it sometime.

Really nice. You've captured their essence perfectly.

EDC

Excellent.

Thanks for the kind words, guys!

@ l0k1: The blue is Vallejo's Magic Blue with a drop of black mixed in. Originally, this was merely intended as a stop gap solution, as I didn't have a suitable blue on hand, but I rather like the effect now.

@ ZergSmasher: The colour used for the blood is Tamiya Clear Red (although I suppose BftBG will perform similar results). I actually use a tootbrush to get some organic and random looking patterns for the blood, then only make the slightest touchups with a brush here and there.


In other news, here's another finished World Eater:



"You think we take our opponents' skulls to mock them, Evocatus? Hah, quite the opposite!
Even in death, your eyes will be allowed to glimpse the battlefield once more -- what greater honour could be bestowed upon a true warrior?"

Legionary Molax of the Triarii, XII Legion Astartes. Seconded to 4th assault company following the Battle of Armatura.







With this model, I wanted to experiment with a more gladiatorial look, which I believe turned out pretty convincing. I also spliced in some actual Khorne Berzerker parts to create the kind of "mongrel" plate that should have been a pretty regular occurence in the XII legion, considering its rather heads-on approach to warfare and the amount of losses taken during the outbreak of the Heresy and the subsequent Shadow War.

And here are all three test models I have painted so far:



As always, let me know what you think!

Looks good, man! Where'd that head that he's holding come from, if I may ask?

Thanks!

The head is from the WFB warshrine of chaos kit.

Lheor looks great, and I'm quite impressed at how well the trio of 30k World Eaters came out. As always, your ability to kitbash is second to none.

Not painting the reinforcing studs another color? The white on white of the fist one didn’t stand out, but the blue shoulder pad looks off to me. It might just be that I’m used to white studs on my Ultramarine’s blue shoulders.

It’s hard to say it looks unfinished, considering the quality and the weathering/etc. on them, but that’s what my eye tells me. But then again, at the level you paint at, I’ll trust you more then my own lying eyes.

Love them, Just what I would expect World Eaters to look like

As always your work is impressive... Most impressive
Good job mate looking forward to seeing more!

Again, thanks a lot, guys!

@ Nevelon: I see what you mean about the studs, yet I chose to not paint them in a contrasting colour for a number of reasons:
The inital reason was a practical one: I just didn't want to make a mess of it, and picking out those studs is precisely the kind of stuff I am awfully bad at. But once I started thinking about it all, it also made less and less sense to have them in metallic colours: I mean, are they applied after the entire armour has been painted in legion colours? That seems pretty idiotic, right? So let's suppose they are applied at the building stage and then get the same base colour as the respective armour plate, would a legion artisan go back and paint them silver again? That makes even less sense. Anyway, the longer I thought about it, the more I was assured that it's pretty acceptable to leave them like that -- even if my mind probably merely supplied the arguments to support a choice made from laziness

Your reasoning actually makes more sense than having them a contrasting colour in so many ways (yes, I've spent time thinking about the same question in the past myself). I've still always painted them a different colour myself - purely based on old RT-era habits rather than logic. Though I guess at the time they weren't explained as reinforcement studs and were simply a design choice of the day.

Though having them painted a different colour makes as much sense as the shoulder pad trim being a different colour - for the exact same reasons when not applied to a "yellow is 1st company" style chapter. Or the backpack intakes being a different colour to the rest of the backpack (though I guess on either you could quite reasonably argue they're fitted last).

You're quite right, of course, but then my main reason was really a practical one - I didn't want to mess up the shoulder pad with my sloppy painting. So I merely asked myself: Can I get away with that and have a semi-convincing in-universe explication for it? Of course it's totally cool to paint the studs (or the trim) in a contrasting colour!

A small update for today: Here are the two 30k models I am currently working on:





The model on the right further explores the Triarii archetype, while the guy on the left is a pretty standard plasma gunner. However, there will be bitz and elements appearing all of the members of the team that will serve to create a common visual heritage of sorts, so even if individual models will look like antipodes of a rather large spectrum, the team will hopefully end up looking fairly coherent. And there's always the option of spinning off the Triarii into their own squad somewhere along the way.

In this particular case, the main challenge was to make the guy with the plasma gun look suitably massive and menacing and not like "that boring model with the gun". I think I was fairly successful with that, though.

And there's also another model that I am fairly excited about. This guy:





The model was originally built as an officer for my 40k World Eaters, but it seems as though he might make an even better officer for my small 30k project, even if he's a bit more openly Khornate than the other guys so far -- personally, I think that all bets were really off for the World Eaters after Armatura and Nuceria, so I imagine some Khornate elements will have begun to sneak into the legion by then -- after all, they were definitely present shortly after the Heresy, according to Khârn: Eater of Worlds.

As always, let me know what you think!

He looks great, what's the head off?

Thanks! It's from one of the Space Wolves kits -- presumably the Terminators? I cannot be sure, as I bought the head separately.

 KrautScientist wrote:
Thanks! It's from one of the Space Wolves kits -- presumably the Terminators? I cannot be sure, as I bought the head separately.

Hmm. Did you modify it at all? I thought it was a SW one but I didn't spot it on the bitz website I use(they have images of stuff even if it's out of stock).

The head is entirely unaltered. And I just checked on the GW website: It's from the Wolfguard Terminators, like I said. It can be seen when taking a closer look at the sprue pictures.

Hope this helps!

Here's a little something I made today, using one of the Bloodwarriors from the Age of Sigmar starter box:







Back when the game was released, I immediately knew I needed those Khornate models in my life However, my original plan was to merely slap some pistols and backpacks on them and call it a day. But after seeing how well they work with Dark Vengeance Chosen bitz, I tried something a little more involved.

As always, let me know what you think!

Hey,

I've been lurking around here for quite some time and i'm really impressed by the quantity of details on your models. What's really impressive is that they are still easy to read.

I really like your AoS khorne marine just the belly junction that seems a little odd. Could you add some tubing maybe ?

I think you did well chosing to add more marinesque parts on it, especially the legs that really add to the silhouette.

I think a proper marine helmet would be better - but maybe cut that crest off and try grafting it onto said marine helmet?

I really hope GW are paying attention to what yourself, and others, have been doing with these Chaos kits when applying them to CSM.

That Blood Warrior/Berserker looks fantastic.

How about a khornified sigmarine? That would be fething epic!

He looks great, both very dynamic and natural in his proportions, great job!! Can't wait to see more of his kind join your Eternal Hunt's ranks
But just out of curiosity, how many DV Chosen do you even have

I love the character model with the shield, just the way he's holding the shield gives him such a distinctive look and character.

EDC

Excellent work. I really like the 30k guys, the 30k champion looks the part, and the Berserker is also fantastic. I think it works well with the AoS helm and don't think it needs stomach cabling either. Not having any makes it feel like a throwback to the earlier marks of armour.

Cheers for the feedback, guys!

The joint between the legs and torso isn't as awkward as it may look in the pictures: The belly is covered by an armour plate, and I've managed to keep that part 99% intact, so it should work rather well without any further additions. That said, I'll probably add some stomach cabling when I make a conversion using the champ from the AoS box, in order to replace that somewhat silly gaping maw replacing his stomach

As for the helmet, that's probably my favourite part about the whole model, so there's no way I am going to replace that! I think the visible mouth and chin really add to the model's character, even if they might not be all that practical on an Astartes.

Regarding my stache of Dark Vengeance Chosen, it has to be said that it's only due to a very generous donation from Commissar Molotov that I get to cut up so many of them Oh, and I did purchase and additional set myself at some point, so there's that too.

Hello KrautScientist! Man I gotta say, I love your conversion work! I love how you can take parts and turn them into whatever your minds eye can conceive! I unfortunately lack that ability and I dont have near the bits to work with that I imagine you have access to. I only started this hobby about 8 to 9 months ago and have been on a pretty low limited budget so its slow going. LOL. I have something that you may want to try on one of your next works though. I recently discovered that the AoS model, The Mighty lord of Khorne, the one with the Hell Hound like thing on a leash. If you take him apart and cut just below his chest the model can be brought further down leaving only his legs giving a good base to start a conversion on. Im currently trying to make him into a nice HQ figure for 40K using some bits that I have purchased. He's going to be part of my Alabama Crimson Tide Colored theme Army as a Character model. If you have done any work on this model please let me know as I would love to see your take on him

stellar work, as always.

Not to parrot everyone else's responses, but your stuff looks fantastic, as always.

Hey everyone,

so it has been a while, as I have mostly been focusing my attention on various INQ28 models lately, but I do have some World Eaters releated news to share with you today: And what do you know, I do have some new World Eaters to share with you, after all: An idle hour yesterday turned into a rather successful kitbashing session that saw me returning to the Betrayal at Calth plastic Cataphractii. Now these guys have had me stumped for the longest time, because while they are pretty much perfect plastic renditions of FW's Cataphractii design, they are also very uniform and vanilla (and they do have some slightly dodgy proportions, btw -- am I the only one thinking that those arms are too short...?). I wanted to turn them into World Eaters, however, so they needed to become slightly more interesting, slightly more gladiatorial and menacing, while their possible allegiance to Khorne during the latter stages of the Heresy needed to be at least somewhat abiguous without straying into 40k levels of Khornate decoration. Now the breakthrough came when I discovered that some leftover bitz from the Age of Sigmar starter box Bloodreavers could be used to add some oomph to the Cataphractii. Take a look:







Now you already know this guy, as he was my first test Cataphractii model. However, I have changed the pose back to its earlier version, as the "screaming at the heavens in rage" pose was just closer to the kind of character I wanted -- sorry [] Since we last saw him, though, I've added a Bloodreaver dagger and a stylised daemon face belt buckle to him, and I think those elements provide just the right amount of flavour to seel him as a World Eater -- the heavily scarred Bloodsecrator head helps as well, of course.

You will also have noticed the horsehair topknot on his armour -- I just wanted to include this particular element, since it's such an iconic piece of the Cataphractii design for me. It appeared in lots of older illustrations, among them John Blanche's very first Cataphractii sketch showing, as it happens, a World Eater:



Now for my second model, I wanted to take some inspiration from this very sketch. The topknot was an auto-include, and I also wanted the pointy fingers on the power fist. As for the head, I experimented with a shaved down GK head for a while, until I found an option that I liked far better, even though it doesn't resemble the artwork:







I am really happy with this guy, as he just has the lumbering, menacing look that I think is just right for a World Eater in Cataphractii armour. Once again, some doodads from the Bloodreavers were used to make the model a bit more interesting, but the real breakthrough was the use of a Bloodreaver helmet (minus the horns) -- I think it just works perfectly for the character, wouldn't you agree? In fact, I am so happy with the helmet that I will probably used Bloodreaver helmets on the remaining models of the squad as well!

Anyway, as always, let me know what you think!

Great work, as always! I can't decide which of the two Cataphractii I like the most at the moment, although shouting-to-the-heavens-guy does get bonus points for sheer awesomeness

By the way, is that little chaos icon thingie on the second one's thigh from the Blood Reaver kit?

Awesome as always Kraut and a source of inspiration.

It's the minuit details you add to these that set them apart. I noticed the dagger and hair thing right away, but the belt buckle wasn't too over the top, and adds just a bit of character.

The posing on the two terminators is great, and the idea for the horsehair is nice, but the bits themselves are obviously much more dated than the cataphracti armour itself (ironically). Any chance you could get a more modern horse tail? (Elyrian reavers maybe?)

Very clean, I like it. You should totally do the one thats in the painting! A grey knight helmet would probably work.

Great Cataphractii!
Well: great job as always

Cheers for the feedback and encouragement, guys!

@ Ezra Tyrius: You mean that little handcuff-like thing, right? It's from the Bloodstoker model that comes in the AooS starter box, although several Bloodreaver models (and even some of the Blood Knights) share this element, and the little handcuffs are easy enough to remove in most cases.

@ Crystal-Maze: I realise that those horse tails are pretty old, but I did try several different setups, and in the end, I rather like the stylised look of them. Most of the tails from elven horses of any kind end up looking a bit too busy and delicate for the bulky Cataphractii, at least for World Eaters.

@ LeCacty: I actually already had a shaved-down GK head in place on one of the Terminators, and while it did work well enough (and it also resembled the JB art), the Bloodreaver head just ended up adding so much more character to the model, so I went with that.

Speaking of which, I have another Cataphractii Terminator to share with you today. The longer I am working with this kit, the more I realise that quite a bit of work is needed to get some slightly more interesting poses out of the models, but the result certainly warrants a bit of extra work. Take a look:





In addition to tweaking the pose, the main change to the stock part was to make the chainfist look a bit more vicious and brutal, something that was achieved by splicing in the blade of a CSM chainsword:



Oh, and while the head was originally just a test, the look is really growing on me.


So here's the gang so far:



As always, let me know what you think!

Wow, very good stuff as usual (I feel like I say that a lot on thse P&M blogs, you're all so good!), and I especially like how dynamic you've got them, despite them being quite static.

Can't wait for the paintjob.

Fair enough mate, was just a thought

Great job on the Termi Kraut, think its my favourite of the 3 so far cant wait for the next two.

The termies look awesome! Your work's inspired me quite a bit, because otherwise my models would have been pretty generic. Cheers!

Great Cataphractii modifications. The horse hair topknot looks great. Where did you find them? Or did you sculpt them?

The helmeted head is my fav of the bunch so far.

EDC

Thanks a lot, guys!

@ evildrcheese: Those topknots are actually horse tails from GW's (pretty old) plastic Empire Knights (although I suppose those tails were basically used with all generic plastic horses back then). They have a very stylised look, but I think it's a rather good fit for the Cataphractii armour. I experimented with several different tails, and most ended up looking too busy.

Oh, and here's another early WIP for you guys: Although it wasn't planned, I couldn't wait myself and started to make that Cataphractii Praetor look slightly less awkward. Take a look:



The base model is pretty cool in principle, but it's also severly hampered by the somewhat rigid (and slightly uncomfortable looking) pose, so that was the part I really needed to change. I also knew that it wouldn't do for a World Eater to focus so much on a shooting weapon, so I changed the model's entire orientation. The most important part was to cut off the right leg above the knee and slightly rotate it inwards. Such a small thing, really, but it makes the finished pose far less awkward (and the damage is neatly camouflaged by the Praetor's cape). I'm not sure yet whether I want this to be an incarnation of Lord Captain Lorimar or an original character, but I've mocked him up using Lorimar's head for now.

As always, let me know what you think!

That chainsword is absolutely gorgeous!

I like it. Will you be adding some skulls and 'bling' a highranking World Eater would be most remiss without the skulls of his enemies adorning his armour.

EDC

excellent stuff. chainsword really does work so much better and improves the stance to the storm bolter he comes with. nice work KS

Yeah, good stuff. Definitely betting on you putting more stuff on him though. He doesn't look nearly angry enough!

I really like the pose looks like he's blocking an attack with the fist and counter attacking with the sword. Cant wait to see what Khroney bit's you add to him!

Cheers, guys! I've been playing around with the Praetor a bit more, mostly adding some minor details to make him look more like a World Eater. This has proven to be rather challenging, however, seeing how the model's armour is already very detailed. I reckon that the I've added the maximum of possible bitz to him without fully overcluttering the model. Take a look:



As you can see, I have also tried to give him a slightly more ornate version of the topknot the other Cataphractii have -- although now I am afraid he looks too much like Abaddon (ironically enough, given my earlier comments).







The head may need some fine-tuning, but then it's actually using the exact same point of attachment used by the model's original head -- Recessing it into the cowling too much would lead to very little of the face being visible above the high gorget piece, so that is a rather difficult balance to maintain.



I am still undecided about the chainfist: I like it well enough on its own, but seeing how both the other 30k Lorimar and the 40k version have the sword and chain combo (and this model would probably be the missing link between the other two), a change of equipment may be unavoidable. I think I'll at least mock up an axe arm -- although I don't have the parts for it right now.

Anyway, let me know what you think!

You've done a great job adding even more character to the model without going over the top. One of my favourite things about your models has always been that you can make them ornate and characterful without going over the top and making them look unpractical.

One thing I would perhaps suggest is maybe shave a bit off the neck. It looks a bit high up to me like he might struggle to move his head up and down.

I thunk that he looks great as it. For the difference in the weapons you could explain that as part of his fall to Chaos (discovering a Deamon weapon/gift for loyal service/gift for vanquishing a Loyalist Champion/etc.).

Thanks, guys!

@ Dreadclaw69: I agree that the change of weapons normally wouldn't be a problem, but there's the fact that I already have two versions of the character with similar weapons, so that would make this model the odd one out. Of course it's possible that an Astartes officer would go through different loadouts, but if you want the models to read as the same character, you have to have some recurring elements.

And so I couldn't really stop tinkering with him. Here's a (very early) mockup of an alternate left arm that would make him look more like Lorimar:





While this version certainly requires a bit more cleanup, it feels like there's something there. Plus it gives me a really nice sense of progression between the three versions of Lorimar. Take a look:



The version on the left would be him as a younger officer, say a Secutor-Sergeant, during the latter stages of the Great Crusade. The new model is him as the new commander of the 4th assault company, having won his Captaincy in the fighting pits. I like how his weapons get less Imperial as he goes (although I will probably remove the eye from his axe in the second incarnation, to make it look slightly less chaotic). Finally, the right model is him in the 40k setting, now in fully Khornate regalia

In addition to the new arm, I have also moved the head to a slightly more plausible position and added a chain to the skulls fastened to his breastplate.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your feedback!

They are amazing, the paintjob is simply perfect

For the praetor i would go for the chainfist, the chainsword and the chainfist togheter gives better the idea of a bloody massacre imo (chainsaw massacre ), but if you want to keep the background, the axe is the best choice

I don' t want to ruin the blog but i want to share with you my praetor, maybe it will gives you some inspiration

I'm loving the transition between old and new, the only part that I'm not sure on is the chainsword, the first and current incarnations both have edged cutting weapons and I feel it might look even better if this version did as well. But I do like the way he becomes more ornate and chaotic with each version.

Oooh... What if you made it an AXEFIST!

Anvildude wrote:
Oooh... What if you made it an AXEFIST!

How would that even work

I am going to Google-search that. I anticipate a lot of Dwarves.


...Huh. Not as much as I thought.

Well, one way would be something like Axe-Hand Morgan, another would be like Badaxtra, with little axe fingers.

I was thinking, though, more like the classic Chaos chainfist (chainsaw blades set up parallel to the back of the hand, projecting from the knuckles, as opposed to Weapon XI-style like the one shown) but instead of chainsword blades, they'd be axe blades. Chainaxe blades, maybe even.

Cheers for the feedback, guys!

 WarbossDakka wrote:

Anvildude wrote:
Oooh... What if you made it an AXEFIST!

How would that even work

Hmm, you might want to get that idea patented, though, because it sounds just like the kind of weapon GW would add to their next round of Age of Sigmar models, Khornate or otherwise

@ piratepizzadog: Thanks for sharing your own Praetor -- I don't mind at all, of course. Looks cool -- you've been using Slaughterpriest parts for the conversion, right?

@ cheiflibrarian: I see the transition between weapons as a bit of a narrative point, to be honest: He started out wielding weaponry that was very Imperial looking, with aquila motifs appearing on both his sword and axe. After the Heresy broke out, he discarded those weapons, of course, and maybe the acquisition of a huge eviscerator chainsword nicely mirrors the kind of blood frenzy the XII legion devolved due during the Heresy? And then, after the Heresy, he acquired the daemonsword he still wields today, the Sword of the Hunt.

Anyway, here's a picture of the entire bloodthirsty gang of Cataphractii I have so far:



As always, let me know what you think!

Looking sick. Cant wait for the paint.

Yes, i used the slaughter priest for the praetor conversion, and a lot of bitz from the wrathmongers/skullreapers for the rest of the army, to give them a more gladiatorial/demonic look

if you were not gonna use him as lorimar i would suggest giving hime a bionic eye i think it would look cool

Lorimar is looking amazing, but I have a small suggestion. I think you should turn his head to face the opposite direction to his current facing as it will add a bit of variation to the different variants of Lorimar. It will also make him (possibly) fit in better with the other terminators as his topknot doesn't flow the same way as the others (i.e. his goes to his left, whilst the others go straight back. With the change in direction of his head, it will appear that he's looking into the wind like the majority of the other terminators are, rather than away from it).
I had a quick go on photoshop to give you an idea of what I mean.


Bar that, I love the progression you have achieved with each mini. They truly tell a story from just looks alone.

Cheers for the feedback, guys! I really appreciate it!

@ tarar2d2: Thanks for the suggestion -- you certainly make a good case! However, I chose the position of the head to both create an element fo similarity with the 40k version and to make the model as different from the stock Cataphractii Praetor as possible. It's a fairly easy trick, admittedly, but I think it does a pretty good job of distancing from all those conversions that have the model facing to the right

Oh, and there's actually something new to share with you:

First of all, I did some more cleanup work on Lorimar. Some very minor final touches notwithstanding, the conversion is now finished:





I'll still have to make the axe look just a tad less chaotic (by filling in the chips on the blade and by dialing back that chaotic eye a bit), and I will be adding some of those leather straps from a second Cataphractii Prateor I have ordered to close the gap on his left arm.

In the meantime, I have started converting the Cataphractii Sergeant. I thought it would be cool if one model of the squad were to sport the classic "bunny ears" (or "Caedere Remissum"), and the sergeant was the obvious candidate. I also gave him a slightly daemonic looking pauldron as a test, although I think it works fairly well. Oh, and I recycled the leftover combi-bolter/melta from the Praetor for this model:





And here's the entire merry band of lovable rogues once again:



As always, let me know what you think!

I believe the pose of the bunny eared dude would be much improved by twisting his head in either direction.

Awesome work blinging up the Praetor to make him more World Eater-y.

EDC

Cheers, guys!

@ Zywus: I see where you're coming from and I realise that the head should be turned towards the combi-weapon even more, but I have already shaved quite a bit of plastic from that Bloodreaver helmet in order to make it fit, and I am actually slightly afraid of ruining it for good…

So anyway, here's another Cataphractii-related update:

First up, another teeny tiny update on the new Cataphractii incarnation of Lord Captain Lorimar for today: Changes to the model happen in increasingly small increments, which is always indisputable proof of the conversion rapidly approaching completion

I have yet to make the planned additions to the axe, but as I have received the extra prator model I ordered earlier this week, I was able to shave off the additional leather straps I needed and add them to Lorimar. Take a look:







I think this solution is ultimately far more elegant than having to rely on my - sub-par - GS skills

And here's a look at the model's back. Careful observers will spot the stylised Khornate rune adorning the crossguard of Lorimar's sword (I put it there to replace a wolf skull):



And finally, the heavy weapons guy for the Cataphractii squad. This was arguably the hardest model to get right, mostly on account of the somewhat dopey looking leg pose. I also considered arming this guy with a Reaper autocannon for a while, but eventually went for the heavy flamer included with the kit due to, you know, that whole “Kill! Maim! Burn!” thing…

So here’s the model:







The legs remain slightly awkward, but I tweaked the pose until I could live with it. Beyond that, it was mainly a question of adding some gladiatorial touches, such as the marauder shield on the flamer. I also chose a – pretty old – rebreather head, both because a flamer guy needs a rebreather and because I really like the head’s scarred look — it doesn’t photograph to well, unfortunately, due to the older plastic.

And since I am always up for a little fun, Anvildude even gets the axefist he craved so much



So here's the fully converted Cataphractii squad:



I am actually really happy with these guys, by and large: They are still recognisable as Cataphractii and Legiones Astartes warriors. They are brutal and vicious enough to read as World Eaters. Some subtle, Khornate influences are already in evidence, although they do not overpower the models. These guys are hopefully going to look great in white and blue! And they have the classic topknots — what’s not to like?

Oh, and here's another look at the squad with the Praetor:



As always, let me know what you think!

Awesome builds!

Axefist!

I actually like the sergeant's head position - he looks like he's walking towards his next victim while nonchalantly blasting a lesser target. A good mix of threatening and badass. Can't wait to see them painted!

Cheers, guys!

@ Anvildude: I hope you're happy now, mate!

EDIT: Woohoo, 1,500 posts -- seems like I just earned myself a juggernaut