I just did an update on my blog about this project, so I decided to share it with the dakka crowd as well!

This is the start of a Slannesh Chaos army for WHFB that I have had kicking around in my head for a while.

The first units that I am working on are Chaos Hounds, and Cultists of Slannesh (counts as marauders). The viking look never really worked for me, and it doesn't fit my vision for followers of Slannesh, so I decided to go a different direction with these guys. I used the Empire Flagellants as a base for these models, some greenstuff and some head swaps round them out.



Slannesh cultist unit WIP









The flail cords are made from steel wire twisted with a power drill. I wanted to have more dynamic poses for these weapons than I felt the models originally came with.



This model will become the unit champion. Hand weapon and shield will be his equipment to help him stand out from the guys with flails.



This is the unit's musician. I forgot to cut out an area in his mask for his mouth to show, I will have to do that so the notion that he has a war-horn isn't too weird.

Next steps... Heads on the flails, cord positioning, greenstuff gap-filling, flash trimming, some further details here and there.

they look good. what are you using for those chunks on the bases?

Creepy as hell man keep up the good work. Good to see someone who understands what horror is Wondering what is under the mask is by far better then seeing what it is.

These masks look sweet.

I wish to see more

Thanks for the comments! More to come over the next week.

@ Necros: http://xenite.wordpress.com/modeling-painting-and-hobby-articles/making-scenic-bases-for-miniatures/ This is an article that I have up on my site about making these bases. Its super easy, and there are a lot of ways you can branch out creatively with it. For example, my Hordes models are standing on the broken floor of a ruined temple that has sigils and such carved into it. I may do that for some of my larger based critters, and characters.

I am part of the old school chaos, from the 'slaves to darkness - lost and the damned' days where chaos was super icky. I hope to capture that vibe with this army.

Great idea, using the Flagellants as cultists. Even better work on the GS on their heads. I love how that looks. Now if only Chaos Marines were able to have cultists again... *sigh*

Those cultists look great! I too think the Flagellant models make better marauders than the current marauder figs. What are you going to do for horseman?

Here is the latest work on my Slanneshi army. I was out of town over the weekend, so this progress is somewhat minor. Discovering how I was going to handle the flail heads was a huge step forward however.





Check out my site for more details.


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I'm not sure what I am doing for the horsemen. I am not tied to the idea that they are the same group of people as these guys, only riding horses. I may tie them in to this theme, or make them look more like junior knights.

Fantastic idea, I really like it!

There's a real movement in these models, I like them and it's great to see a personal touch like this. I agree they are better suited to Slaanesh.

Thanks for the comments guys. I will be posting more this week on this project. I have 10 more cultists that are just about done, then I will wrap the unit up, and move onto a chaos spawn conversion that I have underway.

I personally believe that just about any army in Warhammer really lends itself to conversion, creativity, and personalization. This being said, none of them are quite as good for this as Chaos. This has been an extremely fun project.

really cool conversions on it. great idea with the flagellents and even better with the wire. May have to borrow(cough steal) your make style you did as it is down right awsome. Reminds me heavily of horror flicks of old. Anyways keep it up and hope to see more

Looking great so far. Those masks are really supurb. I am going to have to steal some for my Lost and the Damned

Go crazy, and steal away! I am digging the wire too. I think that I am going to use it on other elements of the army as well.

I love the real dynamic of each model, like they are charging into the fray.

And yeah, the masks are amazing, really Slaanesh-ey.

For the horsemen, why not make centaur-like marauders?

This would also free up the hands for more flails....

excellent stuff. I like the looks of them. I like the idea of the weapons, the masks are way cool.

And if you need ideas on centaur like marauders send me a PM, I've made tons of centaurs out of existing GW parts.

I've done simillar things on the bases. I also use a large broken piece of slate and a piece of broken granite that I press into the clay to give a rock pattern. I've moved away from polymer clays and use Apoxie Sculp instead, like it much better.

I demand a greenstuff stitches tutorial! Pretty please .

PsychosisPC wrote:I've done simillar things on the bases. I also use a large broken piece of slate and a piece of broken granite that I press into the clay to give a rock pattern. I've moved away from polymer clays and use Apoxie Sculp instead, like it much better.

I am a fan of the appoxie sculpt as well. I have been using the polymer clay because of the way it breaks, but pressing detail into Apoxie is an interesting idea that I haven't tried!


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Symbio Joe wrote:I demand a greenstuff stitches tutorial! Pretty please .

I am away from my work area at the moment, but here is a quick description that I whipped together.



I use a home-brew sculpting tool that you can see in this article (scroll down a little), for this example. The slices can also be done with a sharp hobby knife

There are two techniques to use for stitches. The poke and the cut. Poke makes a little hole in the Green Stuff, and a cut, makes a shallow slice.

1. Poke several holes. Two holes per stitch.
2. Make two cuts, one on each edge of the pokes, joining the two poke-holes
3. Create a cut for the seam between the stiches.
4. Tidy up any weirdness, and don't be afraid to press out, and redo any stitches you don't like.

If you have any questions, let me know!

Here are some shots of the latest work on this project...

That last spawn reminds me of a model we are working on over at Troll Forged Miniatures. Look through this thread. Which reminds me, you might wanna check out the forum. We're working on becoming a little sculptors collective, people can submit their minis to have them cast and sold, but we also exchange tutorials/tips/comments on sculpting. You might like it!

Do you mind if I put the stitches tutorial up there?

Keep up the good work dude!

Thanks all! I am glad that you like the latest. The warriors should be up next, once I get the Spawn sculpting finished.

I am looking forward to see some of these Warriors.
The spawn looks like he is ready for rape and that is awesome.

Here are some shots of the Chaos Spawn I have been working on. Let me know if you have any comments/criticism!

xenite wrote:Here are some shots of the Chaos Spawn I have been working on. Let me know if you have any comments/criticism!

That's some disgusting tentacle stuff. Congratulations.

Thats one great looking spawn, way better than the basic GW one.

Here is an update. Marauder Horsemen, Giant, and a Sorcerer

awesome giant, i now need to do something like that to mine

Nice! I've always thought the WHFB giant kit looked a little too cartoony for my taste.
You've made him look genuinely dangerous.

cool lookin guys
not often do you see slaanesh themed fantasy armies

Wow- that giant rework is simply gorgeou... er, hideous. But very well executed indeed! Can't wait to see this whole force take shape.

So creepy. The freaky masks are great. Your GS-fu is strong. Could you give us some idea as to how you get your final GS finish so smooth?

- Blackbone

LOVING THIS STILL!!!!!!

Thanks guys!

Blackbone wrote:Your GS-fu is strong. Could you give us some idea as to how you get your final GS finish so smooth?

The trick is mostly in getting a good handle on how GS likes to work. That just takes working with it for a while to gain experience. Tools that will help a lot too are lubrication... some people use water, some people use KY (believe it or not, the stuff is great as its water based), I tend to use Vaseline. It is fantastic for keeping your sculpting tools from sticking, but usually leaves a film on the GS surface that should be cleaned up before paint will stick to it. If you are making something that is going to a caster, Vaseline can weaken the bond between two pieces of GS, so you should clean it off in that case too. With any of this stuff, a little goes a very long way! The other thing that I recommend checking out is a thing called a color (sometimes clay...) shaper. Here is a link to what I am talking about. These things are pricey, but are pretty great for finishing a surface.

These are chillingly beautiful.

wow these all look great when i first saw the flails i was sceptical,(with the two bits of wire) but they were obviously very early wip and look gorgeous now the green-fu on display here is epic, the giants "arm weapons" are very interesting can we get a few more / close up pictures of those arms?? thanks


*official doom rider seal of approval*

I will be cracking on some more details for the arms, so I will try to give them a close up. They were made from a 3:1 mix of Apoxie Sculpt, and Greenstuff. After I shaped them into slightly bent cones, I tapped little spots into them with a Dremel grinder to give them some texture. The idea is that the surface will be like bashed up, tarnished metal.

The next step on that model is to get the various armored plates that I want to put on the model done. That part is going to be a major way in which the giant will be tied into the rest of the army. This means I need to settle the armor detail style, which I want to be pretty ornate. I think that will fit Slannesh nicely.

Thanks for the comments all! I will post more soon!

Latest updates done over the weekend...

Slanneshi Chaos Giant:





Slannshi Chaos Warrior Work In Progress:

Holy gak! The armour plates on that giant are amazing!

Er, seconded!

That thing is amazing!

And then thirded.

Exquisite craftsmanship, and wonderful character in the (giant) figure. And in the warrior, for that matter. First rate stuff.

My god that giant.........its just mind numbingly awesome

The only thing I can think to say is: subscribed...

I truly love that warrior monk!

OH MY GOD! (which is slaanesh) THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!
love the giant and... EVERYTHING! this is really cool stuff you have

Cheers

LFF666

Thanks for the comments! My big issue now is to find the time to keep up the momentum. There are a million things competing for my time this month... blah.

I have several more chaos warriors like this one in the works. The one thing about doing so much extensive GS work on them, I can really rock out the poses. The giant has a pile of work left to do. His legs need some clean-up, and some patching still.

Looking at these pics again, its funny how a nice close up photo shows you the problems with your own work!! The chaos warrior's faceplate looks sharp to me in real life, but in this picture it seems really inconsistent, and soft. I think I also need to diffuse my photo lights some when I shoot. That would help a lot I bet.

i saw this modell some time ago and thought of your army, maybe it could make a nice chaos lord?

Yeah I really dig that model. The helmet was a bit of an inspiration to me. I may well pick it up for the army.

I started the next set of chaos warriors last night. Built up their armatures, and underpinning for their legs. I think that I am going to build some armor on their legs for the occasions when I want them to be visible. I still need to settle on a blade design for their hand weapons.

if you want slaanesh-like blades then i suggest slim, beautiful blades, with similar ornate design you have on the armourplates
How big have you planned the army so far?

Cheers

LFF666

A+++ stuff Xen, I'll definitely be following the progress here. Just last night I was thinking about making some tizz marauders from flaggies w/ face-masks, so your example is both extra helpful and also kinda unfortunate as you've totally killed the concept

Love the continued mask theme, everything is really awesome so far. Groovy bases too.

- Salvage

I have a couple ideas on how to make their swords. One is like a really long Kukri knife, and the other is sort of like a stylized cleaver kind of thing. In either case I think I will put some ornamentation on there to fit with the armor design.

Thanks for the comments!

Holy crap! An update!

Adepticon inspired me to get back on this project (not that it was abandoned).



Exalted Hero on a Steed of Slannesh



Chariot WIP.



Sorcerer of Tzeentch. The wings essentially represent the disc mount. I should make another base for him... Are discs mounted on 50mm x 50mm?

Holy crap those last few guys own. Are those beastmen torsos?

Also I got to say that the tyranid tail does work really well. I doubt I would have wanted to buy six of them for my own conversion, but it turned out pretty nice.

Here's what I did:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/90/220234.page#1295538
and PIP:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/120/220234.page#1477425

Thanks Graypaint. I like your demonette-slug-ogre conversions. They are very chaotic!

I think someone suggested using the trygon tail for mine as well. It really solves the bloated look mine have. Like I said, it was a cost measure mostly.
I really like the face masks you have going. It reminds me of the Confrontation Alchemists, which I really dig.

The crescent pattern on the mask of the first warrior from the latest batch is really simple and looks intricate. I might try replicating something like that.

Did you just use a medicine blister do so those sorts of patterns and the ones on your giant's armor.

Excellent work. One of the things I really hate about some of GW's ranges is the boring generic models. The chaos warriors are a prime example of this, the same models simply painted different colours to represent different gods. These models, on the other hand, are really characterful and different, they really capture the feel of Slannesh.

Giant+GS= Epic Win
Warriors+Beastmen+GS= Epic Win

So yeah, my "mathmatical equasions" say it all.

I've got some more chaos warriors coming along that I would love to hear some opinions on. I will try to get them posted by the end of the weekend. Thanks for the comments all!!

It's all coming along really well, I'm envious of your greenstuffing skills.

My favourite so far.

xenite wrote:


Exalted Hero on a Steed of Slannesh

However... My personal feeling with this model, is that due to the width of the hips area and the additional clawed arms there, that he needs beefing up about the shoulders, with armour or wings or back banners at diagonals or something. He looks 'top lite' atm.

I was going to put a back-banner trophy-rack thing on him, but I am on the fence about it at the moment. I will have to get him onto a base and see how he looks in a unit. He will get some added armor for sure.

Gorgeous sculpting!
Also, the belt spikes are looking rather phallic which is great for slaanesh

Awesome greenstuff - are those plates on the giant sculpted or pressed?

Nice nice nice!

Really love the ornate designs on the armor
do you have some weapons we could have a look at?

Someone asked me recently if they were going to have a hard time ranking up thanks to the 'belt buckles', and I said it was ok, they are into that sort of thing.

Some of the armor plates on the giant are pressed. Press-molds are tricky, very handy, but tricky. The studded bits on the warriors are press-molds as well.

I am working out a design for the weapons. That is the next big step for these guys. It will be a challenge because whatever I come up with needs to fit the character of the minis, and be easily replicated to work with 35+ models.

The models are awesome! It's alot better than all the dark BDSM meets Warhammer thing GW has going on. The chaos spawn are sickenly beautiful. But the best model was the chaos rider with snake torso.

Epic win man, looks completely awesome!

If you put a back banner on the hero, why not put the banner poles through his back flesh?
Like a huge piercing!

All in all, it's freakin' beautiful. 'Cept the spawn. He's gribbly

Can't wait to see more, subscribed!

S_P

Space_Potato wrote:
If you put a back banner on the hero, why not put the banner poles through his back flesh?
Like a huge piercing!

Hmmm... I kind of like this idea.

Hero update (with dakka-inspired backbanner!)



Chaos warriors...

Huzzah! Pierce-pole!

They look sweet, keep up the awesome work!

S_P

Awesome conversions mate, really something to be proud of. Subscribed.

Nice.

Some recommendations re the hero.
1. top the banners with the dark elf banner top bits or some daemonette heads to be painted gold, they need topping off.
2. the left shoulder needs balancing up with a larger shoulderpad or perhaps have the left arm with a large shield?

Looking good.

Cant wait for paint!

Waw!
I'm speechless...

I think i just had my first eyegasm...... wow

That's awesome, Xenite. Must have missed this update over at IWHB. Hopefully I'll get a chance to see these in person at one of the WI or IL tourneys.

@ MeanGreenStomper - You make some good points. All of the warriors, and this hero are getting Apis, Greek hoplight style shields... modified some.

@ PsychosisPC - Are you going to Rampage? That is the event I am hussling for at the moment!

@ everybody else - Thanks for the good feedback!

xenite wrote:@ PsychosisPC - Are you going to Rampage? That is the event I am hussling for at the moment!

Unfortunately, I won't be making it down there. I don't think any of the La Crosse guys will be getting down there either.

PsychosisPC wrote:
Unfortunately, I won't be making it down there. I don't think any of the La Crosse guys will be getting down there either.

Thats a shame. I am just starting to get into the local tournament scene. Do you make it to many?

I will have to do another post soon. Ive made a lot of progress, but I just haven't found much time to take more pics!

I make it to some of the major Wisconsin tourneys and Adepticon. Next one that I plan to attend will be annual Bugman's Octoberfest tourney in La Crosse, and I may go to the Northstar Tourney in the Twin Cities.

I'll wait impatiently for more pics.

Here are some shots of updated models...


Chaos Warriors


Chaos Chariot


Chaos Chariot


Chaos Lord on Manticore


Knight


Knight Unit

Excellent work, please furnish us with details about the chariot spawn and the manticore

Yes. Everything you've done is beautiful, but the beasts are particularly striking. And the pattern and symmetry you've got going on in the masks, helms and blades is really striking. Great work, looking forward to seeing paint on these.

ZOMG! I love your chariots and the creatures that pull 'em.

They really are very Legion of Everblight, xenite

Oh man. Truly awesome stuff there. I especially love the chariots and manticore. Very inspiring.

I see you must have enjoyed grinding and shaving all of that detail of the knights.

Yeah. Eyegasm.

Truly awesome models, my favorite so far has to be either the giant, or the manticore

I must say, if you're half as good of a painter as you are as a sculptor/modeler this army is going to win you a lot of awards.

MeanGreenStompa wrote:Excellent work, please furnish us with details about the chariot spawn and the manticore

Sure thing. The chariots are tomb-king chariots that were cut in half, and widened to make room for the crew. Tons of GS and plasticard was applied for details. There are a few random shots here. I really wish that I had taken more WIP shots of the chariots, but between having a dead battery, and a tight deadline, it didn't happen. The critters pulling the chariots are mostly GS, but the torso, and arms are from the Tyranid Ravenor kit. The arms were modified a lot, in one case with demonette claws, and the other with creepy spikes not unlike the giant.

The Manticore is based off of the excellent Reaper Brass Bull model. The wings are from some kind of demon, that Reaper also makes. I added a head, feet, and tail made from GS putty. I still need to make a saddle, and add some detail to the head armor. I am terrible at sculpting teeth, but with the practice from these models, I hope to get better!

Thanks for the great comments everybody!

ghosty wrote:Yeah. Eyegasm.

Very appropriate for slaanesh.

Superb gs work! The lord and giant are phenomenal, its nice to see a converted slaanesh force with a better theme than the usual "lets give everyone boobs" deal.

The creature pulling your second chariot is bloody brilliant, very impressed.

Regarding the knights... The plastic chaos knights have two problems in my opinion. The horse poses are very similar to one another compared to models like the blood knights, who's steeds have very dynamic poses. The other issue that I have with the kit is the spazzy amount of detail that the models have. This muddies their composition, and once you take about 60% of the spikes and skulls away, the ones that remain have a lot more impact. Once you address these two things, the plastic chaos knights are actually very cool. I really wish that lances were a better choice for them in game terms, they would look fantastic on the unit.

I've added a bunch of new detail to the knights, and I really can't wait to get them painted! On that note, I've begun to get some models together to paint, as testers, for the army. My main concern is getting the skin-tone right. I'll be sure to share these with you all once they get underway.