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Brutal.

Thanks a lot for the kind words, guys!

A small update for today: I have come up with a small background piece for my latest Contemptor. Nothing spectacular, but it'll let you know who he is:



Kelok Raud
"The Hunter"
Contemptor, XII Legion Astartes

Long before his interment into a hallowed Ironform, or even before his transformation into an Astartes, Kelok Raud was already a consummate hunter, slaying the monstrous rad-beasts that stalked the West-Yropan flatlands. After his induction into the XII Legion, this predilection for hunting fearsome game saw Raud gravitate towards the role of a heavy assault specialist, and many were the beasts and tech-horrors he brought down during the Great Crusade, before finally falling under the claws of a towering xenos beast.

Before the last spark of life left his shattered body, however, the Techmarines of the 4th assault company interred him into a Contemptor ironform, as his prowess in battle had long made him eligible for a service beyond death.

Bestriding the battlefield clad in layered Adamantium of ancient Mechanicus ingenuity, Kelok Raud now hunts as a true avatar of war. His breastplate proudly proclaims his motto „Venatio Supra Omnia – the Hunt above all else“ in High Gothic lettering, and where he used to hunt mutant beasts with spear and lance, he is now armed with a Dreadnought-sized version of that most vicious of World Eaters weapons, the monstrous Ursus Claw harpoon.



I also took some new pictures of my entire 30k World Eaters collection so far:





So yeah, certainly not an army yet -- but we may be getting there, one model at a time

I like to think the Ultra doesn't actually know the dread is there at all. He just stepped into some quicksand and is trying to get out.

They are some beautiful Dreadnoughts, great work!

Excellent modelling and painting aside, it's the little fluff snippets about who the Legionary was before they were recruited that makes it for me

Previously I've been pretty uninterested in 30k (a universe filled with Marines...stunning), but the characterisation of each of them as humans before (and largely after thanks to lack of heavy indoctrination) brings a ton of interest I never had before

Cool 30k stuff what is next on the 30k plate?

Simply amazing.

Amazing unified force!

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

My contentment about how the latest Contemptor turned out has made me focus on my 30k World Eaters for a bit again: It felt like it would be a good idea to actualy focus on my tactical veteran squad again, at least until something shiny goes and distracts me



I also built a new member for the squad, or rather: a replacement member:



You see, while the squad is a veteran squad, the guy on the right seemed a bit too flashy in hindsight, too much like a Triarii or a Rampager. So I forced myself to actually build a fairly vanilla bolter Marine -- although I tried my darnedest to make him as menacing as I could. I do think I've managed to succeed with that





This guy also seemed like the perfect occasion for using that proof of concept Sarum pattern helmet I built and painted before tackling my own interpretation of 30k Khârn.

Oh, I also spliced together a "hand-less" boltgun to make sure the guy bearing the vexillum was fully equipped -- I occassionally enjoy ridiculous detail stuff like this:





So maybe, just maybe, I'll be working on these guys next:



As always, let me know what you think!

Loving the poses on these guys, they scream World Eaters to me!

Thanks a lot, Knightley!

So here's another small update for you: I am certainly not walking back my plans regarding my 30k World Eaters, but there was a model that has sat undercoated but unloved on my painting desk since before Christmas, so it got bumped up to the front of the queue:



As for the World Eaters, here's a little something I don't believe I've mentioned before: After being reasonably successful with that freehand lettering on my new Contemptor, I just had to return to his brother and give him a similar treatment:



It's a little harder to make out, but this time around, the scrollwork says "Adhuc Vivit" -- "Still alive". Seems suitably concise for a World Eater, and also rather fitting for a warrior whose name is "Vaako the Immortal", right?

Oh, and I also took another picture of the whole small collection, in better lighting, because I felt like it:



Sorry for the repetition! As always, let me know what you think!

Great family shot!

Just so you know... That Plague Marine is looking a little... "Sunny Side Up". I'd suggest, if you can, blending from a bright yellow in the center of those spots, down to, maybe, a bruised purple or green at the edges, while leaving the flesh as-is.

I’ve referred a few people here to your trooper with the chain and the chainswords as an example of how the Berzerkers set might be feeling a bit long in the tooth but it’s parts mix really well with other sets.

Nice work on the Contemptwins

Cheers for the feedback, people!

@ Luvvo: Thanks!

@ Anvildude: Yeah, I see what you mean. I might give your suggestion a go -- it sounds like a pretty good way of making the effect work a bit better! Cheers for that!

@ lindsay40k: Cheers, Lindsay! I couldn't agree any more - if used in moderation, those bitz can still pull their weight! I actually wish I had more of them left


So, while we are on the subject of 30k World Eaters, allow me to share my test model for an eventual jump pack assault squad:





Thanks to a bitz swap with Isengrim, I was able to get my hands on some of the old Raptor jump packs, and I think they're just perfect for a little death from the sky. I'll happily admit that this may not be my most spectacular conversion, but it was a test piece to see how well those Mk. III parts could be made into an assault Marine, to figure out what would and wouldn't work with the backpack and stuff like that. Plus I am actively forcing myself to keep the 30k World Eaters slightly more restrained vs. their 40k counterparts: These are models that will come to life through their paintjob (as has been the case with the Contemptors as well). This also means that I didn't want to go completely over the top with the first rank and file guy, so yeah

Here are two additional views to better show off the position of the legs and the way the backpack connects to the rest of the model:





I wanted the Marine to look as though he were just touching down after a jump.

The jump pack worked really well: Lot's of space for shoulder pads, and it even perfectly slotted into that small nub on the back of the torso, even though the old Raptor backpacks certainly weren't designed with the current plastic models in mind.

Now I realise that some people think that Mk. III armour shouldn't be used with jump packs -- supposedly because there was a passage in one of FW's books that the armour mark was to heavy for jump pack use?! However, I remember a fairly recent discussion over at the Bolter & Chainsword where Aaron Dembski-Bowden himself stated that Mk. III and jump packs were a cool (and entirely fluffy) combination, and if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me There are also some haphazard cases of that kind of equipment appearing in some of the BL novels, for what it's worth.

As always, let me know what you think!

I think they look fine.

Mk III really struck me as a brutal face-first mark of armor suitable for assault or other close in roles. Looks very appropriate with a JP. My experience with the plastic Mk III stuff was that a little twist of the leg was enough to give them a more dynamic pose. And I’m sure someone with your skills would be able to work magic with them.

He looks fantastic, and I see no problems with Mk III jump marines, and honestly weight means nothing in a setting as big as 40k, each planet will have different gravities after all.
Only thing I might say is perhaps try changing the bolt pistol arm to a more outstretched one, he looks a little restrained for a World Eater.

I agree the arm looks a little funny, but other wise looks like a champ

The concept work but I think the pose look rather stiff.

Exchange at least one of the arms for a outstretched/straight one and I believe the pose would work much better.

Cheers for the feedback, everyone! I get what you are saying about maybe trying a more outstretched arm -- fixing that particular problem was aout of reach, at least for a while, because - believe it or not - while working on my latest 30k World Eaters, I realised that I was mostly out of CSM and berzerker arms and chain weapons -- weird, isn't it? With my bitzbox having grown for years, the one component that you would expect to be at the heart of every chaos collector's bitzbox had grown scarce. I really wanted some more CSM and berzerker parts, however -- they may not have aged all that gracefully, but use them to make 30k traitor legionaries a bit more visceral, and they become great again!

Even so, I didn't really want to pick up a boxed set, as it seems as though that's just sending the wrong message to GW at this point: I do want those CSM and berzerker kits to receive an update, after all So I went for an ebay joblot and bought one that had a huge pile of the bitz I needed (arms with swords, bolt pistols and chainaxes, mostly), but also featured some interesting additions: Intrigued by the photos, I clicked "Buy It Now" and spent an enjoyable hour yesterday sorting through the huge pile of bitz -- seriously, I love buying job lots. The surprise alone is usually worth the price of admittance

So on the one hand, I now have all the (old) CSM and berzerker parts I am ever going to need, I think. Beyond that, however, there were also some pretty cool surprise bitz in that package. Here's a selection:

First up, some of the - very bird of prey-themed - helmets from the first incarnation of the Raptors.



Those don't photograph very well, but if you know the old models, you should recognise them. I have never owned any of these, and there were at least two of each design, which is pretty nice!

Then there are some really cool 2nd edition CC weapons. I especially love the fact that I now own several massive retro CSM powerfists with those awesome clawed fingers:



Another really cool surprise was this guy, actually one of the first Chaos Terminators ever released by GW:



The model dates back to 1989! And while it may be a bit lumpy in places, and also a bit short, the level of detail is pretty amazing. Since the poor guy is about as tall as a modern day Marine in standard power armour (!), I doubt he can become a regular member of any of my armies -- but he should make for a fantastic objective marker, for instance. There were also tons of CC weapons from the old 2nd edition metal Chaos Terminators. Quite a trip down memory lane, as those models were always far too expensive for me to afford, back when I was a lad

My new abundance of CSM weapon arms allowed me to go back to my assault Marine test model and make the guy look a bit more...proactive:



Oh, and I also finished a conversion I had been planning for a while now: In my headcannon, my 30k World Eaters are being accompanied (and have been subtly introduced to the ruinous powers) by the Word Bearers' Chapter of the Piercing Gaze. The Chapter's eventual Dark Apostle, Belzas Azalon, has been on my mind for ages, back from when I originally wanted to start a Word Bearers army, some time in 2010. I even converted a model for him:



And while that project has yet to come to fruition, I really liked the idea to include a younger version of Azalon in my 30k collection: Here he is, as a Word Bearers chaplain who has just started to openly embrace the Primordial Truth during the days of the Heresy:







As always, let me know what you think!

On your conception for the Dark Apostle, if you keep the banners, make sure they're being blown the same way that the flames on the staff are.

On the 30K one... I wonder if a basic Marine backpack with a couple added chaos symbols wouldn't be more appropriate. The rest of the model is very much an "Imperial who's taken to chaos worship" model, rather than someone who's actually been warped by the powers, yet. He's got icons slung around, yes, but the rest of his armour hasn't been Chaosified, so it seems odd that his backpack would be.

Love the use of Cassius there. WRT the backpack - perhaps one of the ‘modern’ CSM backpacks might look good on him? They’re not actually mutated at all, their design is for stabilisation in low gravity combat. Put him next to some Gal Vorbak and it’d look fresh off the production line!

Yes! that Raptor is looking much more menecing now. Looking forward to more. The Apostle is also pretty cool, though I agree with the above backpack issue.

Cheers for the feedback, everyone! As for the backpack, however, the one I used was actually carefully chosen after quite a bit of deliberation: It's one of the Chosen backpacks that isn't really mutated -- or at least it's easy enough to paint the mutations as ornamentation. I felt the model needed a bit of extra oomph, and that backpack provided it better than a standard CSM or Marine backpack.

As for the "wind direction" on the 40k Dark Apostle: Good point! The crozius top was added later, and the conversion itself is pretty old at this point, so I might have to tweak that aspect a bit, eventually.

Very nice models!

I don't know if this is important to you, but I noticed that on Belzas Azalon, the smoke/flames billow to our right, while the banner billows to our left.

There's very little better than a proselytising Chaplain really nice work!

After hours of scrolling through this entire blog, I am happy to say I have finished it (so far!). And I must say WELL DONE SIR. I am amazed at the amount of incredible conversions you have pulled off over the years. It has been very fun to scroll through and see your skills evolve and I must say you are extremely talented.

My favourite conversions must be the 4 angrons, they are the coolest! Ah, how much I would pay for a Daemon primarch angron......

Thank you and I hope to see this blog continue.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh and I must add:
I would love to see some khornate custodes. I feel like their models and fluff are perfect to defile with some chaos trickery!

*blows dust off this thread*

Hey everyone, time for another update over here as well. While most of my recent hobby output has been focused on INQ28, here's a proof that I haven't abandoned the runious powers

During a recent trip to Berlin, I was able to visit a huge local FLGS (or rather, a "BLGS", as it were), probably the biggest hobby-related store in Germany. There I found the AdMech half of Forgebane for a pretty good price -- and who am I kidding, I simply wanted those Armigers. The fact that the Adeptus Mechanicus has one of the coolest model lines in 40k helped, of course

Anyway, I started with what felt like the most interesting thing about the Armigers, that is how to add a cockpit to them. Yeah, a bit weird, I know, but I had such fun building a cockpit for my original Imperial Knight, Gilgamesh,...



...that I just had to make a similar attempt for the Armigers. So here's what I have to show for my efforts:





Lack of space was even more of a problem this time around, and yet I managed to get it all wedged in there. In all fairness, however, I was basically standing on the shoulders of giants here, taking lots of cues from Biohazard's recent cockpit builds. Unlike him, I didn't have access to complete sentinel cockpits, though, so I had to cobble something together with the bits and bobs I had at hand.

From a structural perspective, the Armiger cockpit basically mirrors my build for the bigger Knight's cockpit, albeit in a slightly stripped down fashion. Here's a side view, showing you the basic setup, warts and all:



Admittedly, it all looks pretty messy, but once both side walls are in place, all the rough bits of the conversion actually get covered up rather nicely



So with the cockpit mostly finished, I only needed to build the rest of the model, right? So earlier today, I finished the basic assembly, which also included the decision on which head to use and what to do with the weapons. Here's what I have so far:







It turns out those Bloodthirster vambraces (used here as leg armour) are basically a perfect fit and also provide some instant Khornification The mini-banner between the legs will provide some space for a bit of personal heraldry and battle history, which I think is a nice touch for a machine that has probably been serving the ruinours powers for a couple of centuries, at the very least.

I've also tried to mock up a pose that I like, and I think I'll be going with the one you see above, as it shows off both weapons to best effect. Regarding the sword, I wanted to make it look a bit more vicious and chaos-y, so I added a spiky bit that also has the added benefit of making the sword look less stubby Since the chainblade is completely uncovered, I had to come up with a solution that seems at least slightly plausible from a mechanical standpoint

For the gun arm, I tried grafting on the Forgefiend plasma, and it retains all the functionality of a stock Armiger arm, that is it can be turned around freely:



The weapon is surprisingly close in proportion to the Armiger's stock gun, if a little clunkier -- I do think the pose helps mitigate the added mass, though.

Apart from that, you might be able to tell from the pictures that I am closing in on the kind of look I want for the armour. It's tempting to go overboard with decoration, but when all is said and done, this is just a Man at Arms for Gilgamesh and his pilot, the Baron Harrowthorne, so I'll need to stop adding detail before the model ends up looking more ostentatious than the bigger Knight.

As always, let me know what you think!

Great job on him Seeing it with a pilot gives a really good sense of the proportions of the machine. Look forward to seeing him painted.

Finally, a Chaos Armiger! And from KrautScientist, too!

The Bloodthirster shins are an excellent match and I'm totally jealous of your seemingly limitless supply of Forgefiend pun cannons. You're right that it looks big on him, but I think it looks big in an imposing sort of way rather than just being too big. Maybe it's the Slaughterer head, but the cannon's empty socket things just make me think of the Forge World Daemon Engine "mess of cables" aesthetic, even though it probably wouldn't work on just the one arm.

For some reason, reading the bit about him being a Man At Arms and looking at his side photo just made me of a mounted standard-bearer. I'll have to come up with some excuse for that on my own Chaos Armigers, when I finally figure out what I want to do with them (and then actually bother to do it).

I wouldn't worry about too much decoration. He looks good right now, but if you want to go totally crazy on him, you absolutely should. Or maybe the next one's pilot could be extremely arrogant despite only being pilot of a mini-Knight. Either way, I'm sure you could come up with a suitable explanation for whatever amount of decoration you decide on. I think it's important not to let your previous work limit you, although in this case I really don't think it's possible for him to be more impressive than Gilgamesh anyway.