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I'm back with more pictures! Let's take a look at the second half of tactical squad Givrillian:

First off, there's this dude you've already seen unpainted. He has a mace for a fist and spikes grew all over his arm, even bursting through his pauldron:











Next, we have this guy, whose left hand turned into a maw:











Then, there's this kinda 'tacticool' dude with a knife, but without any obvious mutations:









The squad's flamer specialist:











And finally, here's "Sergeant Givrillian" himself. I think I already mentioned that in the books, he was described as having a mutation that causes some additional eyes to grow from an old scar on his jaw. I'm not sure he's supposed to have the powerfist, as it is not explicitly mentioned in the books, but I found some hints online and liked the idea, so I rolled with it. Here's what he looks like with some paint on him:









A closeup shot of the sculpted detail on his face and chest.



As always, it's time for a final group shot:



So that’s it for now! I hope you liked Squad Givrillian, and I’m curious to read your impressions. Thanks a lot for checking this out! Stay tuned for more Soul Drinkers stuff in the future! Until next time!













Automatically Appended Next Post:

 gobert wrote:
Man, those are sweet! Love the smattering of Mk5 heresy armour and of course the mutations. The bolts on Red Skulls head are really cool. I’ve also been tempted by a thunderhawk, but the cost is eye watering. The Stormraven is still a big ship, bigger than a Land Raider I reckon so still a cool centre piece

Not sure why but I can’t find you on insta, even copying the @feistyrips doesn’t seem to work

Hey gobert! Thanks for replying! Haha we almost posted at the exact same time
Since my last post, I went through with it and actually ordered a Stormraven online and it's on its way to me right now.... I have poor impulse control

Regarding my insta page: I'm very sorry, I gave you the wrong one I think. I changed my username, it is now grimdark_nostalgic. Soooo sorry about this, forgot I changed it Thanks for pointing it out, I'll change it in the previous post as well!

Anyways, thanks for your kind words, very glad you like my Soul Drinkers and I would love to see you over on insta then!

Jaw eyes, creepy! Are those supposed to be loyal marines but just liking the whole daemon pact thingy? Look rad, not sure what the inquisition thinks about

Damn, that's so cool. Love the additional eyes.

Very nice FeistyRips.

Cheers,

CB

muette wrote:Jaw eyes, creepy! Are those supposed to be loyal marines but just liking the whole daemon pact thingy? Look rad, not sure what the inquisition thinks about

Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:Damn, that's so cool. Love the additional eyes.

Captain Brown wrote:Very nice FeistyRips.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks for your comments muette, Maréchal des Logis Walter and Captain Brown! Regarding your question muette: The Soul Drinkers are a chapter created by Black Library author Ben Counter, and their story is told over a series of novels that I highly recommend reading if you enjoy 40k fiction. Here's a super quick summary I'll put in spoilers in case you decide on getting the books:
And yeah, the Inquisition is not too happy about it

Thank you all for checking this stuff out! If you are interested and have an instagram account, head over there to see some new Soul Drinkers I am currently in the process of uploading. I'm called grimdark_nostalgic on insta.

This is great! Subscribed

BarryScott wrote:
This is great! Subscribed

Hey BarryScott, great to have you on board! So happy to hear you like the Soul Drinkers!


If any of you have been following my instagram updates, you know I have been working on my Soul Drinkers while posting some updates on the next squad. Therefore, I want to make sure to keep all of you here on Dakka updated as well, so today I will show off some pictures of the next squad.
Since the last post I finished some stuff and bought some new stuff, so now my to-do-list looks like this:


As you can tell, I finished the Chaplain Iktinos model for the Chapter's command squad. Don't worry, I'll post pictures here as soon as I get around to taking some quality pics with my lightbox.
Additionally, I also bought a model for Librarian Tyrendian, a selection of scouts for Eumenes' squad, as well as a Stormraven Gunship. The flyer is already assembled, with some parts magnetized, and I even started painting it. It may however take me a little while longer to finish painting this bigger model. In the meantime, however, let's take a look at the first half of Assault Squad Graevus:

First off, here's a Marine with another pincer claw mutation, who also opted for a chainsword for maximum close combat killyness:









As you can see, I added some blood and gore to my assault Marines to emphasize the visceral, brutal combat doctrine of the Soul Drinkers. The splatter was created with a toothbrush, dipped in GW's "Blood for the Blood God"



Next up, a guy without obvious mutations, but with a lot of gore splattered on his chainsword:









Sorry for the dust particles on some parts of the minis. I had them out on my table for a rather long time and unfortunately, some of the particles are almost impossible to get rid of despite vigorous brushing.



Then we have this guy, who suffered mutations to his head and arm in particular. Apart from the unnaturally grey skin, this Marine grew large, curved horns, some of wich even burst out of his hand forming claws:











Next up, another guy who's pretty standard:







And finally another mutated Marine. His arm has been turned into a flamethrowing hose, capable of unleashing torrents of searing warpfire upon the enemy:











Now, let's take a look at the whole group together:



And that's it! I hope you enjoyed this little update and you will keep checking in here every so often for some new stuff. I'm planning to also show of all the unpainted stuff I have collected and assembled so far and get some input on that. There's a lot of characters in the novels, and I really want to do them justice, so if you are familiar with the lore, your input will be highly appreciated. I'm looking forward to your comments and feedback as always. Until next time

the witchfire is really good, makes the model pop and alive

Wow! Awesome stuff feisty! Loving the mutations and the mk5, you’ve even got me building a mk5ish marine. . Of the no obvious mutation variety… such a cool force and the variety is great.

Agree with the blue flames, looks fantastic! Great minis overall.

Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:the witchfire is really good, makes the model pop and alive

gobert wrote:Wow! Awesome stuff feisty! Loving the mutations and the mk5, you’ve even got me building a mk5ish marine. . Of the no obvious mutation variety… such a cool force and the variety is great.

muette wrote:Agree with the blue flames, looks fantastic! Great minis overall.

Thanks for all your comments! Glad you like the Marines so far, and I'm also particularly happy to hear I inspired you to make a Mk5 yourself gobert! Would love to see some pics when he's done
At the moment, I'm working on finishing the fourth squad of Soul Drinkers, while also getting my Stormraven evenly basecoated. Furthermore, I'm working on painting up Apothecary Pallas, another character from the novels that will be added to my army's command squad.

Looking forward to sharing more pictures with you, so stay tuned

Hello again! I realized recently that I actually never posted the second half of Squad Graevus here. Let me fix that right away!

Here’s the first Assault Marine:







#

The second Marine features a heavily mutated right arm that doubles as a CCW:









Next up, we have the squad’s plasmagunner:









The fourth Marine is just another regular guy:









And finally, let’s take a look at the leader of the Squad: "Sergeant Graevus"! I put a lot of effort into converting this important character from the novels, making sure to use the right bits to match his description in the books and represent the image of him I have in my head. To be honest, I’m very proud of how he turned out, and I’m happy to have a faithful mini representation of this awesome character in my collection now.













And here’s the combat squad set up together:



I really like how they turned out, and I’m looking forward to adding more to my collection. Speaking of which: While I may have been a bit lazy with posting updates, it doesn’t mean I was slacking off completely. I actually got quite some stuff painted since the last update. I hit a painting speed bump when working on squad Tellos (pics to follow) because I was unhappy with some of the paintjobs and couldn’t figure out what bothered me or how to fix it. Then, I got distracted by other projects (mostly my Heavy Gear stuff) and my Soul Drinkers were unfortunately on the backburner. But recently, I got back into it and was able to finish Squad Tellos and some more characters.



With all that said, here’s my updated To-Do list for my Soul Drinkers collection:



Alright, that’s all I have to share for today. I’ll go set up my lightbox now and take some pictures of the finished stuff, and while I’m at it, I guess I’ll also take some pics of the unpainted conversions I have been working on. I hope you enjoyed this long overdue update and keep checking in here occasionally for some new stuff. I'm looking forward to your comments and feedback as always. Until next time

Great work on graevus, his massive arm and power axe are great. I’ll have to see if I have any pics of the MkV chap I built using some stick on 1mm half round beads (needed to remove the glue bits but they worked well with a dab of polycement).

Firstborn marines? Crisp paintjobs? All painted in the best colour known to man? Why are my pants moist all of a sudden?

Can't believe I only found out about this now, absolutely sweet blog dude.

Excellent conversions and painting

gobert wrote:Great work on graevus, his massive arm and power axe are great. I’ll have to see if I have any pics of the MkV chap I built using some stick on 1mm half round beads (needed to remove the glue bits but they worked well with a dab of polycement).

Thanks gobert! And I'd love to see your conversion, too. Sounds like a lot of effort to add all the individual rivets yourself, though! I remember doing that once, for my Ultramarines chaplain, and it was a heck of a lot of work!

bullisariuscowl wrote:Firstborn marines? Crisp paintjobs? All painted in the best colour known to man? Why are my pants moist all of a sudden?

Can't believe I only found out about this now, absolutely sweet blog dude.

Thanks for the kind words, bullisarius! Glad you like them

Cap'n Facebeard wrote:Excellent conversions and painting

Thanks a lot, Cap'n!

Excellent conversions going on here, and excellent work on the shoulder pads as well. I am not a fan of my own freehand and it is nice to see it done on such a tricky (read curved) surface!

Hello again!

 blockade23 wrote:
Excellent conversions going on here, and excellent work on the shoulder pads as well. I am not a fan of my own freehand and it is nice to see it done on such a tricky (read curved) surface!

Thank you very much blockade23! Glad you like the conversions and chapter symbols. For the regular dudes, I decided to simplify them as much as possible to get at least somewhat consistent results. I could put in a more effort and make them look nicer, and you will get to see some of that on the special characters, but honestly I decided to cut some corners for the rank and file to get them done.



Today I’m back with some more pictures! You have Tek to thank for it because he motivated me to finally get some stuff uploaded again.
I need to apologise as I am really bad with keeping an upload schedule, even though several miniatures are already done and I have taken and edited all the pictures of them. I would like to be more consistent with this, but I’m constantly project hopping between various other things sitting on my desk, and unfortunately that hampers my ability to just get things done. I hope you will bear with me despite this and stay tuned for further updates on the Soul Drinkers!
Anyways, enough rambling, let’s get to the good stuff. Today I want to share with you the first half of Assault Squad Tellos, something I’ve been looking forward to showing you here as Tellos is probably my favourite character in all of the novels (more from a modeling point of view I guess, but still). Although the Sergeant himself will only be in the second half I’ll show off next time, I hope you still enjoy!
Here’s Assault Marine number one, mostly a regular guy. This squad features some pretty heavy blood and gore, as a nod to the dark path Tellos and his following are going down during the second and third novels:








Next, we have a mutated Marine with a pincer claw to dismember his foes. Squad Tellos features a more severe mutations and greater number of them than the other squads, to symbolise the more unhinged nature of his warband.









Next up is another Marine with no obvious mutations, but instead he has a bionic arm:









Marine number 4, the squad’s plasma gunner, also comes equipped with a slightly different armour, featuring a larger protective Mk.VIII gorget and a Mk.V studded helmet:









The final Marine is another mutant, exhibiting jaundiced skin, horns and a sinewy tentacle that replaces one of his arms:









Now, let’s take a look at the first Combat Squad together:



And that’s all for today! Hope you enjoyed and will stayed tuned for the next update, which should not be too far down the line this time! Thanks for looking, and until next time

My, oh my! It's great to see you return to this blog, those are some more SUPERB conversions, I love the bionic arm dude and Mr. horn-forehead. Good to have you back!

 FeistyRips wrote:
Hello again!

Today I’m back with some more pictures! You have Tek to thank for it because he motivated me to finally get some stuff uploaded again.
I need to apologise as I am really bad with keeping an upload schedule, even though several miniatures are already done and I have taken and edited all the pictures of them. I would like to be more consistent with this, but I’m constantly project hopping between various other things sitting on my desk, and unfortunately that hampers my ability to just get things done. I hope you will bear with me despite this and stay tuned for further updates on the Soul Drinkers!

Hell yeah! So glad to see you back on this blog! No need to apologise for being busy. If you're moving between projects, you're still making progress. No need for shaming yourself here. Absolutely loving the updates. Your purple is so clean and the conversions are so neat. Love to see it.

I'm really curious to see Tellos. Is he going to be the bare-chested, slighty gelatinous bezerker Tellos of later books or the earlier iteration? No need to tell us yet, I'm just excited to find out!

Love that crab claw, looks proper nasty! I think I used that tentacle arm on a Poxwalker recently. That old chaos marine kit has some cool bits for sure

bullisariuscowl wrote:My, oh my! It's great to see you return to this blog, those are some more SUPERB conversions, I love the bionic arm dude and Mr. horn-forehead. Good to have you back!

Thanks bullisarius for your encouragement! Super stoked that you like the conversions!

Tek wrote:

Hell yeah! So glad to see you back on this blog! No need to apologise for being busy. If you're moving between projects, you're still making progress. No need for shaming yourself here. Absolutely loving the updates. Your purple is so clean and the conversions are so neat. Love to see it.

I'm really curious to see Tellos. Is he going to be the bare-chested, slighty gelatinous bezerker Tellos of later books or the earlier iteration? No need to tell us yet, I'm just excited to find out!

Thank you very much Tek! So glad to have you on board for this and super happy to hear there are still some fellow Soul Drinkers fans out there! I am prone to do frequent project-hopping because I easily get bored, but this army is something that’s really dear to my heart as the SD novels are essentially what got me into the hobby all those years ago. So I’ll definitely have to finish them at some point!

Regarding your questions about Tellos, scroll down to find out

gobert wrote:Love that crab claw, looks proper nasty! I think I used that tentacle arm on a Poxwalker recently. That old chaos marine kit has some cool bits for sure

Yeah, I really like working with those bits, they’re a lot of fun and can add quite a bit of motion to some otherwise static sculpts. Also, using them on loyalist Marines makes them stand out even more IMO. Thanks a lot for your comment and continued support gobert!



I apologize for the long wait between the updates. I must admit I got distracted by other hobbies a bit and totally forgot I had to finish posting Assault Squad Tellos! I noticed that meanwhile, some of you have already taken a peek in my gallery and found the pre-uploaded pictures of the second half of the squad and given them some upvotes, which I a m very grateful for!
Well, let me make up for my absence with some nice pictures! Today, we will take a look at the second half of Asault Squad Tellos, with lots of weird and crazy mutations and of course, the blood crazed, mutated Sergeant himself. Let’s go!

First up, we have this guy with a huge, mutated arm:



No, this is not another version of Sergeant Graevus. He just happens to have a very similar mutation, alright? Of course, this combat squad is also covered in blood splatters, probably even more so than the other ones I’ve showed off before. I really wanted to emphasize that vicious, deranged and bloodthirsty look on the minis. The goal was to reflect what happens when you take a squad of superhuman Astartes from a chapter that specializes in close combat, then give them some sinister mutations, then excommunicate them from the Imperium, then expose them to near endless slaughter and sending them on a dark path which eventually leads to the worship of the chaos god Khorne.







Next up, we have this guy in a chrging pose, this time with no visible mutations:









This time around, I also added some Soul Chalice symbols to some of the Marines, such as on this Brother’s poleyn/knee guard:



With the next Marine, we’re starting to go into crazier territory. The mutated legs came from the old box of Chaos Possessed, as did his left-hand pincer claw:











Nice and gory huh? Well if you liked that, you might also like the next one:



This member of the squad is even more out there. I imagine this Marine creature barely retains any of his humanity and is basically sent to battle to allow him an honourable death rather than having to be put down in the Apothecarion. The parts for this one are a backpack with claws from the old Chaos Possessed, and a mutated head which I believe came from the same set. The atrophied claws I sculpted myself to match the big clawed blades of the backpack. Taking a look at the awesome backpack, I drew most of my inspiration for this mutated monstrosity from the Necromorphs of the Dead Space franchise.



This is certainly one of my personal favourites in the squad. He just looks so deranged and vicious, exactly what Tello’s squad of ruthless killers is supposed to look like.





And here’s a closer look at his lovely face:



And with that, we’ve arrived at the final miniature: Former Sergeant “Tellos” of the Soul Drinkers:



Before the events of the books, Tellos used to lead his own squad of Assault Marines into battle. However, he was severely wounded, losing both his hands in battle. This injury, along with his inability to contribute in the chapters combat engagements, caused him to become more and more irrational. He went so far as to jam old, sharpened fan blades into the stumps of his arms to be able to fight again. Chapter Master Sarpedon was forced to remove Tellos from command of a regular squad, but the former Sergeant still retains a loyal following of ferocious Battle Brothers who accompany him into battle and are inspired by his imposing presence and unparalleled bloodlust. While Sarpedon is aware of the mental instability and uncontrollability of the deranged Tellos, he tolerates this cult of personality within his chapter, so long as the group gets the job done and still defers to him as commander in chief.



In case you were wondering: I made this model of Tellos using the body of a metal Necropolis Ghast mini from Reaper Miniatures as the base for the conversion. The chainblades which replace his lost hands were sourced from the old box of Khorne Berzerkers. The head is a modified head from some Primaris box, IIRC.



Tellos is described as being extremely pale to the point of having translucent skin which reveals the gelatinous, bloated flesh underneath. While he is certainly an imposing sight and an absolute beast in close combat, he also features a very distinct mutation which makes him even more powerful. The mutation of his flesh has caused him to gain extremely quick regenerative capabilities, allowing even severe wounds to heal almost instantly. This makes him virtually unkillable by almost any means and only serves to further boost his incredible combat prowess.



Tellos is absolutely one of my favourite characters in the books. He is just so unique, crazy and over the top that I can’t help but love him That’s why making this mini was a very important hobby milestone, and I’m super happy with how he turned out.


To be honest with you, I already made another version of this character years ago. It is also pretty cool, and I will probably also show it off here eventually, even if it isn’t as good as the newer one. Oh, and I am also in the process of creating a third version of Tellos which is even more insane! Yep, I definitely like this character too much!
Oh well, if you are interested, stay tuned as I will most likely post all three of them here eventually.

Alright, time for the final group shot:



And that's all the pictures I have for today! With that done, let’s take another look at the To-Do list for my Soul Drinkers collection:



I’m not too sure if I’ll actually be doing the Scout squad still. While it would be cool, I only have some used models off of ebay that are already assembled and might be difficult to convert. I’d also need to get some different, more characterful heads for the Scouts, as the old faces were pretty bad. I’ll also have to check how thick the first paint layer is, and whether stripping them will be necessary. Guess we’ll have to see, but there’s still enough other stuff to do to keep me busy quite a while.

Oh, if you like character models, definitely keep your eyes peeled, as from now on all the rank and file is done and we’ll be moving on to the more exciting stuff in the next update. Also, I’ll have to get to work on that Stormraven! So much to do, so little time!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the update and will keep checking in here occasionally for some new stuff. I'm looking forward to your comments and feedback as always. Until next time

Spectacular conversions & painting.

Getting better and better!

Awwww yes! My pale, gelatinous boy! Love the conversion work, you've captured Tellos perfectly.

An update on any of your blogs is a good day, indeed.

Friggin sweet work on squad Tellos! The clawed backpack lad is hands down my favourite mini there. His little claws are sweet, and I get why he doesn’t use them much given the massive ones nearby . Looking forward to some more characters and some vehicles

Not only are these all fantastic conversions - simple and effective - but they are also all beautifully painted. I really like the guy with the extra eyes in his face. Also, I am delighted to see first born assault marines without junp packs on. I used to play Dark Angels with no-jump pack assault marines to save on points (so I could jam as much infantry into my lists as possible). I feel like too many players don't know that's an option.

Your whole army has a unifying look about them, too. And I love that it isn't just "mutations". The bonded studs, the mutations, the blood spatter. Heck, even the basing materials you've used tie them all together. Also, regarding your bases, I love the detail and theme you've added to them. It's not just rocks and grass. It looks like consistent battlefield debris. It's irregular and interesting without taking attention away from the purple soldier running through it.

Overall I am really impressed with this army and am happy to see it coming together. I can't wait to see what else you make!