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You seem to be on a roll, Skalk

But seriously, I'm glad you like this thread as well! Keep your eyes open, there'll be more shortly!

Just an idea... how about Karakar the undying. cool conversions by the way, i love this thread (it's actually what keeps me coming online )
keep up the amazing work!!!

Awesome models, they look fantastic good job! Brilliant painting too, my World Eaters look rubbish in comparison.

Thanks, guys!

@ Chaos Emperor: Thanks for the cool name suggestion! Noted

@ edbradders: Don't be too hard on yourself, mate. I'm not a particularly good painter myself.

Right in time for the weekend, there is also an update concerning my World Eaters. I already posted my Chaos Lord with jump pack, Lord Charun, on this thread. Today, we'll take a look at his subordinates, the 4th assault company’s corps of jump infantry, known as “Harriers” in my fluff and “Raptors” in the Codex.

You know what? I really love Raptors! While some argue that they have been nerfed in the current Codex and while no one can really know what they will work like in the new book, they are one of my favourite units for several reasons.

The first reason is a tactical one: If you – like me – are playing a fairly conservative World Eaters army, a lot of your gameplan consists of getting squads of Berzerkers across the table as fast as possible without being shot to pieces first. Even if your squads are fully equipped with dedicated Rhinos (which they should be), this usually makes for a grueling advance throug enemy fire. And then there’s the whole disembarking affair once the squad has reached its destination. Raptors, on the other hand, add a lot of mobility and an element of unpredictability to your strategy: With a squad of Raptors or two, you can suddenly outflank your enemy. Or you could pick off his vehicles. Or take guerilla shots at his tarpit units. Or you could just rush into close combat faster than you could with your Berzerkers.

Raptors are also quite flexible: Take two Meltaguns in the squad to use them as tank hunters. Use two flamers to turn them into fairly competent infantry killers. If you add an icon of Khorne, they’ll even do an okay job in the following combat. I usually try to run at least one squad of Raptors at all times, just for the added mobility and tactical options. Even at their worst, they’re still a big distraction: Your enemy will often target them not because they’re especially dangerous to him but because they might become so later on. That in turn will draw away fire from your Berzerker squads, improving their chances of reaching the enemy lines in one piece.

The other reason for liking Raptors is an aesthetic one: They fit very well with the feeling of an army focusing on assault. They make even more sense in a World Eaters army from a fluff standpoint. They also offer great conversion options, and that has always been good enough for me!

So when I built my Raptors, it was clear that I would not be using the GW ones. Why I like their design well enough, I wanted my own Raptors to look like members of the World Eaters. I also didn’t want to miss the opportunity of creating interesting models myself.

My Raptors were built by mixing parts from the Berzerker and Chaos Space Marine kits. For their jump packs, I chose Maxmini’s standard jump packs. Back when I built those models, those were hands down my favourite choice. Meanwhile, Maxmini themselves have released two more variants that are more detailed, and Forgeworld has also taken up releasing Pre-Heresy jump packs, but back then, the ones by Maxmini were really the best way to go. I still like them a lot too, even though they’re less detailed than the newer releases. I especially like the turbine look they have going on, especially since it closely mimics GW’s Pre-Heresy World Eaters art.

I also tried to make them more interesting by raising them higher on their bases, so even the models with more static poses would look different enough from regular Berzerkers. The effect was achieved by adding all kinds of leftover pieces from different vehicle sprues, especially leftover Rhino doors.

But enough talk! Here’s what I ended up with:



I wanted this guy to be very dynamic and I used his base to support that effect. The downside is that it is quite hard to take a photo of him that gives you a good idea of the model, but oh well… Here’s a couple of extra shots:





Next up, one of my special weapons guys. As you can see, this model uses a flamer. I quite like the relatively sleek silhouette of the model in contrast to his bulky jump pack. The helmet was spliced together from that of a Khorne Berzerker and a regular CSM helmet, by the way.





The next guy has a more static pose, but I still like him. The base gives him a little extra dynamism, in my opinion.







And here’s the squad’s Icon Bearer. All my squads have Icon Bearers, regardless of whether they can actually get an icon or not. It’s just something that I have kept from my Warhammer Fantasy days, as I think that it really adds flavour to the army. I also try never to use an icon design twice across my army.



By the way, here’s something I found out by pure chance: By clipping off the small chain from the chainaxe’s handle, the weapon now looks far heaviery, since the focus is on the axe head instead of the grip. It’s just a small thing, but I think it works rather nicely.



And finally, my second flamer guy. I tried to make him look a little less static than the other one: Just because you’re wielding a flamer doesn’t mean you don’t get to use a chainsword, you know





And finally, here’s a little family portrait of the squad so far.



Take note that this is not the whole squad, though: All in all, there’s seven more models where these came from: Two regular Raptors who usually serve as ablative wounds, two champs (one with a Powerfist, one with twin Lightning claws), two guys with Meltaguns and another Icon Bearer. I will usually run these guys in one squad of eight (what else?) as either tank hunters or infantry killers or in two squads of six, with both serving one of either role respectively. Unfortunately, that means that I still have quite a bit of painting ahead of me until I can call these guys finished…

So, what do you think?

P.S. I am still accepting naming suggestions for my Dread, of course

LOVE the flamer/chainsword guy. Great job on the helmet conversion as well. Its a small change that makes a big difference imho. Really like the simplistic icon as well. Is that from the WHFB Marauders?

These guys are great! I agree with Bio; the flamer-chainsword guys is ecellent. You've given me some good ideas for basing my own assault troops. Thanks!

The Assaults look wonderful! However, the mere fact that they are not decked out in gold and purple gives me cause for concern. We all know that six is the prime number!

Love the icon, I fully agree with what you say regarding the duplication [or not] of icons throughout a squad. Flavour and fluff adds so much to an army and can really make the most bland units pop out with a bang. Great work in this thread, I've been watching it for a very long time and always love the updates.

Thanks a lot guys! Glad you like the models!

@ Biohazard: I was actually pleasantly surprised that I was able to pull off that helemt conversion so easily. Normally, stuff like that always turns into a nightmare for me since I can't seem to manage any straight cuts when splicing together different helmets. The Icon is from the Chaos Marauder Horseman, IIRC. A fantastic kit that gives you lots of bang for the buck. The only downside is that it also gives you horses and rider bodies which aren't all that useful if you're not actually going for Horsemen

@ Yellowbeard: Mate, take all the ideas you can carry from this thread! Especially about the basing, since cutting apart one or two Rhino doors can really go quite a long way

@Eirikr: It goes without saying that the only way that gold and purple will be present in this army is in the form of lopped off heads and pieces of armour trampled into the mud on the bases. We're not in a Price music video, after all Seriously, though: Thanks for the kind words. And yes, it's often the simplest things that can add identity to an army. You obviously don't need to be the world's greatest converter or painter to profit from a few little tricks

Good stuff. Now do ones like this.

Hah, that's exactly what I meant: I'm honestly no good at pulling of stuff like that, Biohazard. Everything ends up all crooked and awkward. Then I try to fix it with GS, but it all ends up looking even more horriblle...you get the picture.
For the moment, I guess I'll stick to cutting off and reattaching bunny ears

Seriously buddy, that conversion is a lot more simple than it might look. Just follow the lines of the helmet and use a really sharp blade. If you do go crooked thats what files are for

Hmm, you make it sound so simple. You would probably be amazed at my ability of botching simple things like that

Tell you what. I have a couple of helms midway through production Ill send them in your next care package so you can see them before they are glued and get an idea of how to do it.

I cant believe im totally trying to bully you into converting more lol. YOU WILL DESTROY YOUR MINIS!!

Don't worry, buddy! It's not like I need to be bullied into converting. Right now, I'm cutting up my next Inquisitor model in between posts.

...

...maybe I need help

Khornites; always bullying.

Slaanesh awaits! Unimaginable pleasures and endless torment nice things await you!

EDIT:

While my army's a fairly standard World Eaters force on the tabletop, this slight readjustment in their background gives me the opportunity to portray them as slightly more interesting in the fluff. The whole "crazed madmen" thing really doesn't sit too well with me - I think the World Eaters were much cooler when they were also portrayed as honourable, if somewhat arrogant, warriors. One of the coolest bits of fluff ever (in the 2nd edition Codex Ultramarines, IIRC) had an Ultramarines officer (might have been Calgar himself) earn a salute from a World Eaters champion for his prowess in battle. What an awesome idea ;-)

I love this and it immediately makes me like your army and presentation even more. There's something not quite right about the Chaos legions we have now, GW seem intent on making the remaining followers of legions a mixture of berserk madmen, perverted sexfiends, rotting hulks of flesh or nothing at all - of course, this is with a hefty splattering of skulls and spikes! Any Chaos warband//legion remnants that abhors this and goes down a more sensible and pragmatic route is to be applauded. Whilst I do not deny the fact that Chaos may very well push certain men and units to their absolute limits in beastial forms, I do not think it should be so simple as to say "All Khorne-worshipping units are madmen hell-bent on destruction, bloodshed and frothing spit". It's amateurish and smacks of simplifying gak up. Your reminisce is an excellent example of how things really should be for Chaos. Sure, they'll rip your face off if given the chance [especially for Khornites!] but that doesn't mean that the Marines are devoid of all emotion beyond the core characteristics of their patron God. The salute between an Ultramarine and the most martial of all traitor legions [and pre-heresy loyalist legions] is fething awesome - there's still respect on the battlefield, no matter how visceral and brutal things are about to get. Good show, chap, for bringing this out in your Khorne troops! It would be nice to one day perhaps see a diorama from you between World Eater and Ultramarine? Go on, you know you want to now.

Back in your hole Nancy boy!

Biohazard wrote:Back in your hole Nancy boy!

@Eiríkr: Thanks mate! If you're interested in my army's fluff, you may want to take a look at this:

http://www.throneofskulls.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2348

It's my fluff thread on Throne of Skulls and it shows how I chose to readjust my army's fluff to turn them into a bit more like actual characters instead of something straight out of a comic book.
Come to think about it, it seems a little counterintuitive to invite a Slaneeshi to a Khorne-themed board... But while you're there, you might still turn into an actual warrior

Concerning the diorama idea, there's already this, of course:



More on this earlier in this thread

I love the guys with the jump paks, the first flamer guy is awesome, well done mate!

have you made a model for Lorimar yet? i would love to see him. would also love to see more of your characters, as i love converting and writing fluff, myself (in fact i have more HQ's in my chaos force than i can put on the battle field. counts at 6 at the moment, all converted and with fluf).
i love looking at other people characters and reading fluff, especially when their as good as yours.
i have also been wanting to write a 40k story for some time now and would love to feature an appaerance form lorimar, bardulf, charun and Diemos (from Biohazards world eaters) they look and sound so good!!!!

Carry on the amazing work!!!

Thanks a lot, guys!

@ Chaos Emperor: I am a little ashamed to say that as of yet, I am simply using the unconverted (and yet unpainted) FW Lord Zhufor model to represent Lorimar on the battlefield. I like that model so much that I didn't really feel like I could improve on it. Then again, I'll probably have to build an even better version of him sooner or later, lest he ends up the only unconverted model in my army

I definitely hear what you're saying about building more HQ's than you can actually field. I must have accumulated ten or more converted Chaos Lords already, and I am currently in the early stages of building yet another one...
If you like my fluff, you may be in for a treat, because I am currently preparing for the next game in our campaign and I am also writing a piece of fluff to go with the battle. It will feature Charun, Bardolf and Lorimar (as well as one or two other officers of the 4th assautl company) and shed a bit more light on their characters. I'll post it here and on my blog pretty soon, I guess.

To have one or several of my characters featured in another person's fluff would be a great honour, of course! I guess Biohazard would agree as well. To tell you the truth, I have already begun to think about how Lorimar and Deimos would get along - after all, they've probably known each other for thousands of years. Then again, Lorimar is probably a little peculiar about the other officers of the World Eaters. For instance, he would probably despise Kharn and those who follow him for proving instrumental in the sundering of the legion and its downfall into barbarism..

Anyway, I would be honoured and thrilled to read anything you come up with! To make things a little easier for you, here are two quotes and a short piece of fluff featuring Lorimar to show you what kind of guy he is. Like I said, there'll be more as soon as the next campaign battle comes up! (Presumably, some time next week):


„Tell the galaxy about us what you must. We care not. But tell them this as well: We still have our honour.”

"You fools! Your gods have blinded you with visions of glory and power, of a golden future that awaits you in their service. But our lord has shown us more than you could ever imagine. There are no empires awaiting you. In the endless cold between the stars, there is only the hunter and his prey. And those who were once the former and are now the latter. All that remains is the hunt, for only the hunt is eternal."


both attributed to Lorimar of the World Eaters’ 4th assault company


***

The battle was over. The red haze of anger had dispersed, once again leaving nothing but a dull emptiness.
Lorimar gazed across the barren wasteland that had been the stage for the last fight. He felt that a very similar wasteland lay hidden within himself.
Andrakhas was dead. Lorimar himself had slain the warlock and bagged the prey. He could still see Andrakhas’ body in the distance, burning in a multi-coloured fire.

Lorimar and his warriors had advanced through the Thousand Sons’ hail of fire. The Rubric Marines' firepower had been superior, but in the end, it had not been able to save them from the wrath of Khorne’s servants. Lorimar gazed at the helmet he was holding in his massive, armoured gauntlet. Whatever may have been left inside the suits of armour had escaped with a dry rustling when Andrakhas died. Lorimar stared into the empty eyesockets as if they might provide an answer. Ghostly automata, slaves, damned to an eternal cycle of war and death. Was there a reason for this? He did not know. Neither did he know who had been the winner of today’s battle after all. The prey had been run down. That was all that mattered.

One last moment, then Lorimar closed his armoured fist and ground the helmet to a fine powder, trickling through his fingers. “All is dust”, Lorimar growled, “all is dust indeed.”

Beautiful stuff, gotta love the work, and nice work on all the models

These are amazing. The poses give them a lot of life, and the paint jobs are superb!

Thanks a lot, guys!

Alright, everyone: Once again, the weekend is fast approaching, so let's have another update. For the purists of you, it might be a problem that the models I'd like to showcase today are not strictly World Eaters, although I use them as allies, so I hope it's okay if I post them here instead of creating yet another thread. Here goes:

One thing I realised only after getting back into the hobby in 2010 is how awesome the idea of “The Lost and the Damned” actually was. Granted, when Codex Eye of Terror was released, the whole idea of an army made up of traitors and mutants was probably mostly GW’s attempt at getting people to buy a half baked mutant kit, hastily thrown together from Zombie, Catachan and Ork boy sprues. But then, the Blood Pact happened. And Forgeworld released their gorgeous Renegade Militia. And so when I got back into cutting up little toy soldiers, it wasn’t long before I thought about building at least a small Traitor Guard/LNTD force.

Now the easiest way of going about this would doubtlessly have been to just buy some Cadians, the FW Renegade milita conversion kit and be done with it. But while I love the FW kit and think it’s among the greatest stuff they have ever released, that would have seemed like a bit of a cop-out to me. So, with the ambition of converting those models myself but with no good idea in sight, I put the project on the backburner for a while…

…until a visit to the FLGS saw me buying a box of Cadians and old Chaos Marauders on impulse. And when I got home, I started kitbashing them into my version of Traitor Guard soldiers. Not a very original recipe, admittedly. But then, it was down to me and my bitzbox — just the way I like it.

I took inspiration from a couple of sources, although my main points of reference were the Vraksian Renegade Militia and Dave Taylor’s fantastic Blood Pact models. In case you haven't seen those yet, I heartily recommend you take a look here:

http://davetaylorminiatures.blogspot.de/2009/09/archenemys-command-squads.html

I was even tempted to start a Blood Pact force myself for a while, but then decided on a more “undivided” look in order to be more flexible. I wanted the models to be usable with the old LNTD list, but also with the current IG book as well as FW’s Vraksian Renegade Militia rules. So I started off by building a Platoon Command Squad for my traitors. Here it is:



From left to right, we have a medic, company standard bearer, commander, veteran with special weapon and a traitor with voxcaster. I also built a psyker, while I was at it.



The models are fairly simple kitbashes, using parts from the Cadian shock troopers, the WFB Chaos Marauders, Marauder Horsemen, WFB Warriors of Chaos and WFB Empire flagellants. I wanted my traitors to have an unkempt, feral look to them, but to be at least partly identifiable as former Imperial Guard (or at least PDF). Take note that there is very little fluff in place at this point. Basically the only thing I have decided as of yet is that these guys will be known as “Urash’s Marauders”.

Let’s take a look at the different models in the command squad:





Company Standard Bearer:

This guy was strongly influenced by the standard bearer from Dave Taylor’s Blood Pact. He uses mostly Cadian parts with a couple of armour plates and bits to give him the suitable Chaos look. His head is possibly the greatest head from the Empire flagellant kit. His standard was originally a WFB Ogre standard.

The colour scheme for these models took me quite a while to figure out. I knew from the start that I didn’t want to make them look too comic-book-evil by using lots of red and black. Instead I went for pale skin, a dark grey uniform (unchanged from their loyalist days) and a couple of red and bronze accents to show their new allegiance.

I am not very good at freehands, so I was elated that Dave Taylor did a very nice tutorial on how to paint a stylised chaos icon. It's here:

http://davetaylorminiatures.blogspot.de/2010/01/mark-of-dark-gods-bonus-post.html

I used it to paint the standard. I liked the result well enough, so I decided that I would use the motif all over the army to tie them together visually.







Company Commander “Lord Urash”

I wanted this guy to look pretty imposing, so I used a daemonic looking sword from the Chaos Marauders and a Terminator’s power fist on him. The latter one also shows how Urash’s marauders tend to steal everything they can use off the bodies of their fallen enemies. I also added small horns to him to show how the powers of Chaos have already started to corrupt him physically. To imply that his sword may be of daemonic origin, I added an OSL effect to the runes on the blade.





Traitor with Plasmagun

I like this guy a lot! I think is has to be the helmet. Or the pose. Anyway, his Plasmagun was spliced together from a regular Bolter and a Khorne Berzerker Plasma pistol. While I am fairly reluctant to actually use Plasma weapons on the table due to their tendency to blow up in your own face, I always relish the occasion to add a little visual “pop” to a model by painting a small OSL effect on its Plasma weapon.



Traitor with Voxcaster

With the rest of the models looking fairly primitive and feral, I thought it would make sense for the guy with the Voxcaster to carry some kind of war drum. That way, he would use his Voxcaster not only to relay orders, but also to drive the Marauders forwards with the beats of his drum.

While the sculpt of the Chaos Marauders is a bit on the old side, the kit is still worth it simply because of the amount of stuff you get: There are lots and lots of weapon options, and multiple sets of the bitz used for the command squad. With just one box of Chaos Marauders, I was able to not only built a lot of traitors, but also use the additional bitz to give icons to the different squads. And I still had quite a lot of leftovers for my World Eaters too!









Traitor Medic

I really went to town on this guy! I thought about how the forces of Chaos might influence a medic, and I decided to build a character with a suitably demented look. In my imagination, he may be fairly good at patching up the wounded, but his fascination with the human body has also led tim to start collecting body parts he considers to be “interesting specimens” from the dead and the dying. That’s why I gave him a couple of grisly trophies as well as a stained butcher’s apron. I also added a gagged head from the flagellant kit — maybe he is as dangerous to his own as to the enemy, so the Marauders have decided to gag him, lest they get bitten.









Traitor Veteran/Bodyguard

I wanted this guy to look like a true barbarian. In the half baked idea I have of my traitors’ fluff, they were originally a regiment of the Imperial Guard that was reinforced with a lot of recruits from a primitive world in order to compensate heavy losses. Then, the traditions and beliefs of the new recruits began to slowly overwhelm the other soldiers’ loyalty. So I wanted to have some models that almost looked like Cadians, while others would show their primitive origins more clearly. And this guy definitely fits the latter category. Not much else to say, except that I am quite fond of him for some reason.







Psyker

What self-respecting force of traitors would be complete without a psyker? The model itself is a standard Empire flagellant, although I attached a couple of chains that are floating, held aloft by his psychic powers. To enforce the supernatural look even further, I added some jagged rocks to his base. They look like they just erupted out of the ground due to some witchery. They were carved from leftover sprue, by the way.

Originally, I wanted to give him glowing eyes, but unfortunately many of the flagellant heads have no eyes (or at least no eyeballs) to begin with. So I went for blood running down his cheeks instead – the power of the Warp probably caused his eyes to burst in their sockets…

And with that, my command squad was complete! I also built two squads of traitors and bought a set of four Ogre Kingdoms Ironguts to convert some traitorous Ogryns. I may also add some kind of vehicle to my Traitor Guard at some point, although I am not sure if I want to expand them into a force of their own. Until now, they have seen action as allies to my World Eaters during our campaign. But if the new Chaos Codex actually has an option for cultists and/or traitors, these guys could indeed prove to be very useful!

Anyway, I’ll show you the rest of my traitors some other time. Until then, why not let me know what you think of my command squad?

Nice work. The models are great; very creative, especially the medic, very creepy. Great painting, too.

they all look amazing, but the best is probablly the bodyguard, as he looks so tribal and savage!!!!
great painting!! looking foward to see what you do for this.

Bloody great work as usual! Again, you're influencing me the wrong way - I've considered buying some renegades to work alongside my EC. You've done yours a great service, suitably Khorne without the usual excess we are all accustomed to!

These are great! The skin tone you have is amazing!

Very nice, so many great models, and painted exceptionally well too!!

Whoa, thanks a lot guys! I am very happy about the positive feedback

One thing about the skin tone: It's really easy to achieve: Just paint the skin with Dheneb Stone (the new Rakarth flesh should be reasonably similar), wash heavily with Ogryn Flesh - done! It's as quick as it is easy, and I am quite happy with the results.