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Hi All,

To be brief; I'd love a Chaos Defiler in my army... but the model makes me throw up in my own mouth. Does anybody have any suggestions for a better looking (less patched together piece of crap) alternative? Take money out of the equation for now, are there any common kit-bash conversions for them or anything?

Cheers!

Depends on what it is that you don't like about the model. But I have see Soul Grinders and multiple Forgeworld models (Plague Hulks, Blood Slaughters, even Brass Scorpions) used as Defilers. There are a few DIY kits on how to make your own Brass Scorpion too out on the interwebs.

could throw two dreadnots together wiht a rion and hope for the best...... idk though cuz i rly like the defiler my self. maybe use the defiler legs with something else as the top? like a walking vindictor.

yeh a vindicator with legs and a daft face one the front with the cannon coming out of it seems cool

How on earth can you do a vindicator with legs? As in the Vindicator tank?!

I saw a pic of a brass scorpion based aroudn a vindicaotr. it looked way bulkier than a normal defielr and looked so much meaner!

I woudl look at Forgeworld models or the Soulgrinder.

I have somewhere in my collection a Defiler torso mounted on a Leman Russ Chassis in place of the turret.

I made a pair of large wrecking balls for the Dred Combat weapons.

Was a massive model that rarely ever survived a battle, but dang it looked kool. I took it to GT 2002 finals and it got a lot of pictures taken of it.

Just for reference........


Soulgrinder





Forge World Blood Slaughterer





Forge World Blood Impaler





Forge World Blight Drone (coudl work i suppose)





Forge World Nurgle Plague Hulk






Teh Forge world Brass Scorpion woudl be too big to proxy for a Defiler i think. Also a lot more pricey as well. I never thought of the Blight Drone before but witha little imagination and maybe some sort fo arms or claws added it could work nicely.




EDIT: Found a size comparison pic for the blood slughterer...

1. Corrupted Wraithlord sporting a really big shotgun?

2. Dreadnought torso and arms on top of a tank body. Alternatively a manga type torso and arms on top of a tank body.

I absolutely love the Soulgrinder model, I may just have to buy one of those and do some greenstuff work to attach the relevant weapons to it.

Does anyone know what comes in the Soulgrinder box? Any sprues that may be useful as extras or just what you see in the picture?

The soulgrinder could be great for representing a defiler with an additional close combat weapon. Not sure if you want to model the battlecannon on it or leave it as is.

You get the Defiler kit minus the turret sprue. You do get a lot of armoru plaste with it which si nice, as well asa choice of 2 "sword" hands. one hand has the sowrd, the other is a giant organic looking pincer.

The souldgrinder model would definately work. but, as stated above, you wuodl need to find a work-around for the battlecannon.

Hmm, I suppose a battlecannon turret would be pretty easy to fashion from spares... it's just a cylinder, after all, but I don't know whether to whack it on the front of the robotic legs, or have a humourous shoulder-mounted bazooka-type design. Something to think about!

Tantras wrote:I absolutely love the Soulgrinder model, I may just have to buy one of those and do some greenstuff work to attach the relevant weapons to it.

Does anyone know what comes in the Soulgrinder box? Any sprues that may be useful as extras or just what you see in the picture?

Soulgrinder has about everything but the central turrent. Frankly if you like the soulgrinder its a perfect stand in for the defiler with no changes. It has a similar weapons loadout-CC arm, dakka dakka arm, main gun (its mouth).

soul grinder figure lives in san fran if you know what i mean, i propper dislike it. would look wild orange though

I feel your pain - I think the Defiler model is absolutely pants.

(Plus, I love getting to say "pants" about something and mean it in a British way!)

Once you find something, you'll be doing the world a service!

Alpharius wrote:I feel your pain - I think the Defiler model is absolutely pants.

(Plus, I love getting to say "pants" about something and mean it in a British way!)

Once you find something, you'll be doing the world a service!

Pants it is! It's also bollocks, arse and gak, if you were looking for some more Englishisms

The Defiler is certainly all that... and more!

Or would that be less?

@ the OP:

We can spout reccomendations all day, but you never actually said what you don't like about it. It makes it a lot easier to find a solution when you know what the actual problem is, as opposed to just griping about the fact that it's ugly.

Dronze wrote:@ the OP:

We can spout reccomendations all day, but you never actually said what you don't like about it. It makes it a lot easier to find a solution when you know what the actual problem is, as opposed to just griping about the fact that it's ugly.

This is true, and with that in mind:

I don't like the disjointed and ramshackle feel of the model over all.
I think the head sticking out of the top looks ridiculous.
I don't like the flail-type arm.
I don't think the 'legs' and the rest of the model seem to suit each other very well.

Maybe it's just me, but I still like my CSM to still look relatively smart/regimented. I don't see why turning evil means they lose their sense of style! Massive daemons are exempt from looking smart on the grounds that they generally look awesome (Soul Grinder).

Some of that stuff can be corrected with small adjustments to the regular model. You don’t have to put the head on the top, for example, or use the flail arm. The legs and the main body match a lot better if you paint the armor plates on each in a matching color scheme. That said, it sounds like using a Soulgrinder and converting it with a Defiler’s weapons may be your easiest and best course of action, if you like its looks.

Maybe I'm just insane, but I absolutely love the stock Defiler model.

It's so baroque, and bizarre. Perhaps you have a more conventional sensibility though.. (not an insult).

Maybe my favorite one will offer inspiration?

There are ways to build the Scorpion Defiler without having to kitbash two whole boxes. I've seen variations that can be done much smaller and effectively use one full kit + two extra legs.

I use this thing as my Defiler.



Mostly built from Defiler parts and no one's had an objection yet, although one person did argue about true line of sight part way through the game (he essentially wanted it to be normal defiler high when I was shooting but how tall the model is now when he was).

It's a fairly standard conversion too, as there are quite a few of them wandering around.

Hmmmm, both are quite interesting! I quite the 'solid' look of the scorpion build, plus there's a lot of neat, flat surface to decorate with glyphs etc etc.

As for the second one, whilst I appreciate the ingenuity, it's a little lanky-looking for me, y'know? I prefer the squat, bulky feel. Much like the loyalist dreadnoughts.

It's interestin to see what people have done though. I'll probably be using mine in tournament play at some point, too. With that in mind, it's probably for the best that I try and stick to roughly similar dimensions as the damnable stock model.

I'm using a couple of these (still very WIP and the weapons are not correct as I was messing around) to be my defilers:

Wow, that's pretty cool. Make sure to post more of your progress, I like it!

@SliverMK@ that looks like the Mad Cat from Mech Assualt

@OP, I agree that the Defiler is an ugly model, I think you best bet is a soul grinder with some shoulder mounted weapon

The defiler could look good if it was a bit less boxyand more like the scorpion so I reckon that you should get a defiler and some bits from ebay and kitbash until it looks good!

Tantras wrote:
This is true, and with that in mind:

I don't like the disjointed and ramshackle feel of the model over all.
I think the head sticking out of the top looks ridiculous.
I don't like the flail-type arm.
I don't think the 'legs' and the rest of the model seem to suit each other very well.

Maybe it's just me, but I still like my CSM to still look relatively smart/regimented. I don't see why turning evil means they lose their sense of style! Massive daemons are exempt from looking smart on the grounds that they generally look awesome (Soul Grinder).

I don't have a picture, but I had all the same issues.

1. Take the torso and spin it backwards (optional, but it fit better this way and nobody will know). Cut the hip joint off the box top and trim until it fits pretty smooth to the torso. Mount the box top back down. More sleek.
2. Put one of the chain hatch things down, nobody needs that head anyway. They do make cool voodoo masks for other 28mm models.
3. Ditch the flail things. A little drilling and mounting and I put the claw arms up there.
4. I think I chopped the two unused leg mounts off. With the claws moved up the model looks a lot more balanced and dynamic.

Also I cut the tips off the legs just a little for a dug in look. A little basing/flock/gravel around each foot makes look like it weighs more than tissue paper.

Humblesteve wrote:

Tantras wrote:
This is true, and with that in mind:

I don't like the disjointed and ramshackle feel of the model over all.
I think the head sticking out of the top looks ridiculous.
I don't like the flail-type arm.
I don't think the 'legs' and the rest of the model seem to suit each other very well.

Maybe it's just me, but I still like my CSM to still look relatively smart/regimented. I don't see why turning evil means they lose their sense of style! Massive daemons are exempt from looking smart on the grounds that they generally look awesome (Soul Grinder).

I don't have a picture, but I had all the same issues.

1. Take the torso and spin it backwards (optional, but it fit better this way and nobody will know). Cut the hip joint off the box top and trim until it fits pretty smooth to the torso. Mount the box top back down. More sleek.
2. Put one of the chain hatch things down, nobody needs that head anyway. They do make cool voodoo masks for other 28mm models.
3. Ditch the flail things. A little drilling and mounting and I put the claw arms up there.
4. I think I chopped the two unused leg mounts off. With the claws moved up the model looks a lot more balanced and dynamic.

Also I cut the tips off the legs just a little for a dug in look. A little basing/flock/gravel around each foot makes look like it weighs more than tissue paper.

Hmm... that does sound really interesting. You've got no way to get a picture? I'd love to see before I commit to buying the kit I swore I'd never buy, hahah!

My CSM army (pictures to come soon) is actually mish-mashed CSM boxed sets and loyalist marine heads. In fact my raptor squad is all loyalist, but with the addition of grafted on demonic wings.

Maybe the stock kit with the modifications mentioned here, but a loyalist Dread torso would fit my theme... hmm...