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Oh boy, seems like I managed to open several cans of worms here, huh? Oh well, I enjoy nothing as much as a good discussion -- or several discussions at the same time, for that matter. But all in good order:


1. On blogging

I'd like to respond in detail to the excellent points raised by some of you, but I don't want to overcrowd this thread for those looking for new content. Tell you what, I'll just put my ramblings in spoiler tags, so those of you just here for the pretty pictures can just zip past this




2. Regarding the converted Centurions:

@ Bruticus: I do realise that, at the end of the day, whether you like these models or not will always depend on how you feel about the Centurions as a kit -- even more so since I didn't exactly endeavour to radically change the basic setup. You may have to wait until people like GuitaRasmus tackle these in order to be able to enjoy the kit


3. Regarding the Word Bearers

Thanks for the kind words about that touched up Coryphaeus, guys!

@ Biohazard: Yes, I guess I might have some cool ideas for possible Word Bearers conversions, and nowadays I would probably even have the bitzbox to pull it off. The problem is, however, that this would only lead to me producing more stuff I'll never get around to painting, so I think I'll stick to my World Eaters for now That said, the Piercing Gaze Chapter is still written into their background (Belzas Azalon was the Dark Apostle who introduced my own Lord Captain Lorimar to chaos worship during a campaign in the Eastern Fringe), so if I ever feel the need to return to them, there's an easy way to add them to my existing army. And the Coryphaeus may actually be the next entry for my "Ruinous Powers" series of models

Tell you what, though, just for the heck of it, I'll show you the model that would have become the leader of my Word Bearers, since he was the first real Chaos Space Marine character I converted that I was ever truly happy with. I give you Dark Apostle Belzas Azalon of the Piercing Gaze Chapter:



Built in early 2011, he's admittedly a pretty straightforward kitbash. I always thought a Word Bearer should be wearing all kinds of scripture and arcane knickknacks, so I tried to reflect that in the model. The stylised daemon head on the pauldron was supposed to be a more ornate version of the Word Bearers' legion badge -- it may be a bit much, though...




4. In other news...

Thanks to fellow forumite Kuyash'Slaa (who seems to be a pretty great guy, in spite of being a follower of the thrice-damned Slaanesh ), I managed to obtain one of the last mid-90s metal World Eaters still missing from my collection. Yay! Here it is, with several layers of old paint stripped away:



I've also finally started to read ADB's Betrayer today, and whoo boy! That's one delicious pile of lore and background ideas for a fan of both the World Eaters and Word Bearers

Loving the recent work! so inspiring!
I love your Coryphuas, he seems to give off an air of power to him.

'Betrayer' is such a good book! I won't spoil anything.
The Shadow Crusade does give some decent background and army ideas though...

I'm of the same mind, that's why I'm going to be paying homage to your Ruinous Powers series with a few of my own. I'd love to one day have a unique army for all the gods (I'm really not a fan of Tzeentch but why have 3 out of 4?) but in reality more than half of my World Eaters are still unpainted so I need to curb my dreams for now.

Really like the Dark Apostle, there are a few really good ideas on there and I reckon with the experience you have now you can really make that guy stand out. I like the daemon head on the pauldron but think it should sit a little more flush.

Also Emperor be damned now I've seen this I want to build some Word Bearers as well.

Thanks a lot, guys!

@ Chaos Emperor: Absolutely agreed! Betrayer, which I completed in a single day - yeah, I was that hooked - is a great resource for every World Eaters aficionado, but also a good story in its own right! I even liked the Ultramarines, in those few scenes where they don't get beaten up horribly

@ Biohazard: I am extremely honoured by your picking up my "Ruinous Powers" idea, buddy. Although your models will probably give mine a run for their money soon

Regarding the desire to build Word Bearers, well: At the very least, the two legions did have quite extensive campaigns together, so there should be enough chances for adding a squad to your army, if you so desire Maybe Deimos' company is still accompanied by an ancient Word Bearers Priest, serving as a Dark Apostle to the company and whispering dark secrets and vile poison into the Lord Captain's ear?

Looking forward to the four chaos powers project!

I am also itching to do an assortment of the four powers as well. So far have only done Slaanesh (technically) but I think using Daemons rather than marines is the best way. All four powers have cool modelling/painting possibilities.

 Meade wrote:
Looking forward to the four chaos powers project!

Ah, regarding my own "The Ruinois Powers" project, there's no need to wait: The champions of the four great powers are here for you to check out (or can be found earlier in this thread. The part that I haven't yet managed to get around to is building one legionnaire for each of the original traitor legions, although the Coryphaeus I posted now may be a next step in that direction

Also keep your eyes peeled for Biohazard's "Four Powers" project that he has announced recently!

You must have a lot on still got the Night Lord .

That Apostle is a very impressive conversion. I really think the daemon's head mounted on his shoulder looks pretty badass, as does the use of the Chaos Knights daemon sword. That kit is pretty much the best place to go for daemon weapons and helmet alternatives.

@ Miss Dee: Yeah, I feel really bad about that. Sorry! Will try to get my act together sometime this week -- I am just hopeless atm

@ Imposter101: Cheers, mate! The Chaos Knights certainly have great value for the money, although there'll always be lots of leftover horses


A small update today, I managed to tackle the last missing thing I wanted to add to my Behemoths: the clawed feet. Take a look:



In the end, I just used claws from Warp Talon feet. It took some doing, but I really think it works now

The next step will probably be getting the first guy painted, because I really want to see a finished model at this point

As always, let me know what you think!

The tallons on the feet are cool. Next time you do rapters add some to the feet.

Love the claw feet. Damn good

Centurion based Obliterators for the win/Blood God!?!

They are some awesome conversion work, as ever with you! I actually think they are what Obliterators should be like. Although yours are obviously pretty Khorny, so Nurgle et al would get upset. But swap the head and a couple other bits and they would work for any Chaos God/chapter. Very nice work.

The clawed feet are perfect

Clawed feet are good Maybe they word on the hands in someway as well?

The keyboard put the model into perspective for me. Wow that's big. Wide. Lots of guns.

Thanks for the kind words, people! I really appreciate it!

@ Miss Dee: I fear I may have locked myself out of adding talons to my Raptors when I built the first squad entirely without them (since the Raptor kit wasn't available back then). Then again, the talons are a nice way of differentiating Warp Talons from Raptors.

@ rodgers37: You are right, it would be possible to build similar Obliterators for the other chaos gods (and legions) just by changing some of the bitz. Centurion based Oblitz would be great for Iron Warriors, for instance. And Nurgle's always easy: just add rot and decay. Doing Nurgle well, though: that's the true challenge

@ Nashbashem: I did consider adding some claws to the hands, but frankly I rather like the crude look of the hands: The fact that the fingers aren't even defined beyond the thumb and index finder really communicates the fact that these guys won't be brought in for the more delicate tasks, don't you think?

@ The World XEater, Crystal Geyser & Skalk Bloodaxe: Cheers, guys!


While the added claws on the feet were mainly an attempt to make the models look less loyalist, seeing how those talons made the feet look better proportioned as well for some reason really was a nice surprise! So it goes without saying that I picked up that element for the rest of the squad as well.

Here are the two models you already know, complete with clawed feet and all:



These are pretty much 100% finished at this point, and I hope I'll get around to painting one of them soon.

But I also couldn't help myself and had to start working on the third model. Have some WIP impressions:



I might add some more detail (and swap the loincloth for something different, so they all have a unique appearance), but you get the idea. Meade, buddy, I hope you're happy now: He does have the chest mounted Plasma pistols you suggested



As always, let me know what you think!

nice conversion

Plasmaguns "sprouting" from the torso weapons look ace !!

Did you try & assemble the other end of the rifles coming out of the suit's back ? If so, it looks more "realistic" than, say, a Typhoon Missile Launcher that just takes as much room than a bunch of grenades...

Great job on the trio, they'll look awesome !

The bear 'claws' look impressive. I think they'd be even cooler if they were mounted of the fingers of the centurions power fists too. The Bloodletter head is a nice touch, but I'm not a fan of the unicorn head piece.

Thanks, guys!

@ Yggdrasil: You're right: That would add some much needed plausibility to those chest mounted weapons Unfortunately, though, the cables that connect the torso and the arms attach at that very point, so no added realism, sorry

@ Imposter101: Like I said in my last post, I rather like the clunky look of the fingers. I might yet add a spike or two, though. Hmmm....

Anyway, less than 24 hours later, here we are with the model's arms mostly sorted out:





On the left arm is a stock Lascannon from the Centurion kit (that will need some chaotic decoration, of course). The right one wields a Plasma cannon (converted from the Dark Vengeance Plasma Gunner's weapon and a couple of bitz). This was the one instance where I needed to build my own cabling instead of relying on the stock parts that came with the Centurions, and it was more work than it had any right to be I also had to improvise a bit, which is why the cables turn into a horrible, spiky Talos spine somewhere along the way



As always, let me know what you think!

Newest guys looking awesome mate, really like the addition of the Bloodletters head and the chaos warrior instruments bit. Can't wait to see one painted. In itching to put paint on mine as well but I'm still struggling to decide on a head. Also which kit are the plasma pistols from? I tried using the Berzerker ones but the details on the side has to be removed as they're too thick for the weapon mounts.

Cheers, buddy! Those are bog standard Marine Plasma pistols, chosen for their sleek profile. Still had to do some minor filing to get them to fit into the slots, but nothing big.

As soon as my camera's got some batteries again, I'll send you some pictures of the leftover Raptor heads I could send you. Plus some more rambling on the matter of World Eaters lords in general and Malek Deimos in particular

Coolest stuff i've seen in ages.

That Plasma-cannon with the daemon head is fantastic.

Haha plasma nipples! He's looking awesome, definitely improved from the first two in the way it all comes together... the talons on the feet make it more anthropomorphic and he's spikey without being OTT spikey. The bloodletter skull frames the helmet well and the plasma cannon looks cool.

Love the plasma cannon and plasma nipples

Paint?

Paint!

Thanks for the kind words, people!

@ Crystal Geyser & Master Azalle: Whoa, guys, I appreciate your enthusiasm and all, but with hobby time being insanely short at the moment, I fear you'll have to be patient for a bit longer yet. I want to see those Behemoths painted as much as you do, make no mistake. But I'll need a bit of time and motivation for that.

On a slightly more positive note, there'll be a more substantial update really soon, dealing with a long time conversion project of mine...

Right I promised you an update, and here we go. No colour, unfortunately, just more converting and kitbashing for now

With very little time on my hands at the moment, I unfortunately lack the patience (and motivation) to crack out the paints and finally finish some of the stuff I have built, while my painting backlog is getting bigger and bigger. That is the bad news.

The good news is that, even while being completely swamped in work at the moment, my urge to create something hobby related remains as strong as ever, so what little hobby time I have at the moment is almost entirely given to converting and kitbashing, those most delicious of hobby activities — at least in my opinion

But what do I have to show for it? Well, today I would like to talk about a pretty long running project of mine that started out as merely wanting to do something productive with some leftover bitz and then quickly spiralled out of control, as will occasionally happen with my hobby endeavours. So what is this about?

Everything started over a year ago, when my cousin Andy gave me a WFB Chaos Lord on Manticore for my birthday. Now it shouldn’t surprise anybody that I quickly found a use for the fantastic Chaos Lord bitz that came with the kit: Some were used to create a wretched Chaos Sorcerer (to be used as a traitorous Primaris Psyker for my Traitor Guard), some others went into the creation of a Khorne Lord on Juggernaut that I have yet to show you.

But when all was said and done, there was still a whole Manticore left, and I didn’t really have any good ideas for that guy: He was simply too fantasy to be seamlessly absorbed into one of my 40k projects. The one idea that seemed to have some merit, then, was to try and use him for building something daemonic.

You see, my Khornate army is fairly short on daemons. And there’s a reason for that, of course: The image I have of my army doesn’t gel all that well with the stock daemon models: The warriors of the 4th assault company are doing their damnedest to keep functioning as a coherent fighting force, so it’s hard to picture hordes of daemons prancing around among them. If I were to use any daemons, they would have to fit the look and feel of my World Eaters, and the most obvious way of achieving that would be to make them fit the underlying metaphor of Khorne’s Eternal Hunt. So instead of regular Bloodletters, I might use packs of (slightly) daemonic hounds, hunting ahead of the legionaries. And instead of a standard Greater Daemon or Daemon Prince, I might use a huge daemonic beast an Avatar of the Hunt, if you will — hence my original idea to use the Manticore in that capacity.

However, my plan to build a four-legged monstrosity – not unlike a titanic Flesh Hound of Khorne – didn’t quite get off the ground: I would simply have needed too much sculpting to make that work, something far beyond my abilities (and my patience). So back into the box the Manticore went.

But then I came into the possession of some leftover Maulerfiend bitz, and my creativity was rekindled: What about using those to turn the Manticore into a hulking, biomechanic monster?

Here’s my first attempt at building such a beast:



As you can see, the combination of the Manticore body and the legs and arms from a Maulerfiend led to a hulking, almost apelike silhouette. While the model seemed malproportioned and brutish, I rather liked the look, though. It also got me thinking what this model would actually represent in my army, beyond simply being a way of using some leftover bitz.

The idea I came up with was that this monster would be used whenever a champion gets transformed into a Daemon Prince by a roll on the Chaos Boon Table. Now you might say that a) that seems to be a pretty specific and limited use for a model of this size and b) this monster doesn’t really fit the established look of a DP, right? Hear me out on this:

You see, A Daemon Prince doesn’t really fit the background of my army for several reasons: Lord Captain Lorimar is the supreme commander of the 4th, for one, so there wouldn’t possibly be any DP with more authority than him, least of all serving under him. What’s more, I feel the ascension to daemonhood wouldn’t necessarily be seen as a boon by the warriors of the 4th: The legionaries have done their best so far to keep mutation and madness at bay, rather electing to remain “human”, for lack of a better word. For them, being elevated to daemonhood would not be an ultimate price to be craved, but rather a horror not so far removed from the curse of spawndom. And with its hulking body, the WIP model seemed to reflect that: Where a “normal” Daemon Prince is a sinister, darkly angelic figure, and an embodiment of chaotic power and boundless ambition, I wanted my DP to look like this huge, malproportioned monster that is part ape, part hound and part Astartes. I imagine that, upon ascending, all the rage and fever for the hunt that a member of the 4th assault company has been bottling up for so long will overflow and turn him into a huge hunting beast, mindless and terrible.

So the next step in the conversion was bascially to make this guy look like he could actually have evolved out of an Astartes. And, of course, to add all kinds of bitz to make him look suitably imposing and monstrous:











As you can see in the pictures above, I added the warped remains of a CSM backpack and the shoulder pads from the regular Daemon Prince kit to hint at this guy’s Astartes origins. And the tail from the Manticore kit made the DP’s silhouette more interesting and ambiguous: The pose and proportions may seem pretty much like those of a gorilla, but the head and tail point more toward a hound or entirely daemonic creature.

I also started to use some GS to blend together the seemingly disparate parts:





You might have noticed that the model was still lacking some feet at this point. That was to become quite an issue, as fellow hobbyist Ben kindly sent me two sets of Maulerfiend hooves for this conversion, only for them to both be lost by those geniuses at the German postal service. Nuts!



Understandably enough, Ben didn’t have a third set of those hooves to spare, and with that setback, the conversion ground to a hold for a couple of months until another fellow German, Sagal, was kind enough to let me have some hooves from the WFB giant. That finally gave me the motivation I needed to work on the model some more. Here’s the model as it looks right now:





As you can see, I also changed the pose of the left arm to achieve a slightly different look: With both arms held in front of its body, too much of the model seemed to be obscured. The new hooves also gave the Deamon Prince a more upright pose than I had originally planned, and that particular element might need some more work.

At the same time, more GS and Liquid GS were used to make the transitions between the different parts of the body more organic and plausible. And I also emulated Dave Taylor’s really clever idea of adding metallic sockets to the creature’s body, using GS. I did this in order to represent the ports that used to connect the former Astartes’s black carapace to his power armour (For all those interested, Dave succinctly explains how to create this effect here ).





The finished model will probably be gripping some crushed masonry (or maybe an equally crushed loyalist Astartes) in its right fist. And it goes without saying that I will have to design a suitably impressive base as well. Maybe I’ll use the base to make the model lean forwards a bit more, making it look like it was preparing to barrel forward on all fours, as suggested by DexterKong — as a matter of fact, the longer I keep working on this guy, the more questions arise. But even though some parts of the model still need to be sorted out, I rather like the overall effect. It is an eclectic creature, to be sure, but eclectic and malproportioned was what I was going for in the first place

While this project seems to come a bit out of the left field, I have really been working on this guy on and off for about a year now, and it seems like he’s finally nearing completion. Much has happened in the meantime, and TJ Atwell’s fantastic “Bull God” , using a slightly similar premise, almost made me ashamed to show you this silly little conversion of mine. But then, I think that, with a bit more work, this could really become yet another model to define the specific look and feel of my army, and I like that a lot!

And in gaming terms, I imagine the model could even be used as a reasonably convincing GD or Maulerfiend: Maybe that spiky tail could even count as lasher tendrils…?


Anyway, I realise that this model might be a bit of an acquired taste. But working on it has taught me a lot, and actually using these bitz for something is certainly preferable to keeping them in my cupboard of shame forever, right?

That said, I’d be happy to hear any thoughts and ideas you might have! Let me know what you think!

And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!