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This thread will contain my various dabblings with the Word Bearers. At the moment it is a army of zealots based on the Imperial Guard list, but there might be marines later.

First a repost of the pictures in my Project Preview over in my Astronomican blog.























Models used to test the scheme. On the left is a Anchorite (Storm Trooper), and on the right is a Eremite (Infantry). It is a quick scheme, and looks pretty good. I do not want to have a more complex painting method, due to me hating painting quite a bit. I find it boring, time consuming and laborious. Though I will put more work into the leader models.

These look really cool, nice use of Blood Angel bits too. Where did the head for the Eremite come from?

Have you seen the Alt Universe Word Bearers in the Dornian Heresy downloads from Bolter & Chainsword? It's a very good read and gives an interesting alternative

I have read it already, but I do not see how it has anything to do with this project at all.

And the head? It is from Reaper Miniatures. I buy lots of their minis to harvest their heads.

EDIT: https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/elf/sku-up/03415


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I have been highlighting the armour and it looks MILES better. So I will highlight the entire model and post updates some time after the weekend.

Added highlights. I also roughed up the Eremite's face. She looked far too clean for someone at war. It also allowed me to work with the dodgy sculpt when it came to the wound. The sculpt had one eye slightly off and a nostril bigger than the other, so I used this to my advantage and made it look like she had received a nasty face injury.

Very nice work I like the whole human attachment to the wordbearers. Its very cool stuff can't wait to see more.

I agree, she looked too clean... but now it looks like she has some major road rash. I think she would look really nice mostly clean, so her flesh glows a bit surrounded by the muted colors of the clothing. Just plash some mud on her cheek, and maybe a little dab on her forehead.

I like the grim-dark paint scheme you're going with, and the conversions are great. As bleak as they look, having bare skin seems like it would be rarer the case, and should shine a bit because of it.

I am looking forward to more great work!

p.s. WHere did the plastic robed legs on some of the infantry come from? They look great. I'm thinking LOTR wraiths?

I'll be adding some blues and browns onto the face wound later on. Make it look more like bruising. I will have mostly uninjured faces in her squad, which I will be working on to get to painting. I wanted to have at least one face injury in the squad, and it makes sense to go for a face that is a slightly dodgy sculpt.


The infantry bodies are Warriors of the Dead.

Finished Eremite Fry Face.




And pics I took for my DA account, but I decided to throw up here too. They show the red armour better then the previous pictures. Not by much, but what the heck, might as well chuck them up anyways.

The Eremite is plain genius, never seen a female trooper portrayed so convincing (though I hate what you did to her face)!

The Eremite is plain genius, never seen a female trooper portrayed so convincing (though I hate what you did to her face)!

i like your gs techniques. good cloth!

wow this thread is really cool! Big-up. I like the fry face.

love the models. where did those hooded heads come from? and the warrior of the dead bodies, you just zipped off the head and switched the weapons? that seems like some awesome work there!


i really cant wait to see moree!

I cut the heads off and replaced them with a variety of West Wind German gasmask heads and heads from many kits and models across a few ranges. The hoods are then added with green stuff. The arms are Cadian, with the lasgun converted using dwarf handguns.

Wow That burising very nice looks loike she got drug behind a horse.

I like the new work on her face, but I still think it looks like some serious scarification. Like she sleeps with a hand flamer under her pillow. ;P

I was drooling at your other conversions and I just wanted to say they are awesome again... what, I meant "looking" I was looking at the other conversions...

Great work, I can't wait to see more.

I have some parts coming to me. The most major components of the orders is the test models for two units.

The first test model will be for the Veterans. In the army they are actually called Novitiates ironically. The idea is that they are Anchorites in training, and upon their acceptance into the order, they receive the armoured suit. I am going to have them based on the Beastmen Bestigors. For the legs I will put to use the dozens of Cadian legs I have laying around. The head will likely be marauder heads. I am going to be playing around with Dwarf Thunderer crossbows for making shotguns, which ought to be fun.

The second test model will be for my ogryns. They will probably be added to help kick the army to 1000pts when my current goal of 750 is reached. Now, on the army's homeworld there are many mountain based fortresses, monasteries and cities due to most of the land being unlivable for reasons I will explain when I go further into the fluff. So I decided that instead of Space-Ogres I would have Space-Trolls. The army in general has two primary themes. Norsemen as represented by the large Northern folk (Anchorites, Novitiates, etc) and Medieval Christians as represented by the more civilised Southern folk (Eremites, Padres (A Priest that lead an Eremite Conclave (Infantry Platoon), Patriarchs/Matriarchs (A Priest that leads an Army), etc). This addition would be an extreme of the Nordic side of the coin.

Now when researching this, two pictures stood out for inspiration.




Now I won’t be making them as friendly as that, but the idea will be large characters, covered in animal furs, with long hair, long arms and big ears and noses. I’d also throw in lots of shiny trinkets, and armour similar to the Anchorites and Novitiates to blend them into the army at large. I am currently planning to base them off the river troll that was just released. The heads and legs would require quite a bit of work, but you can only have so many Ogryn in a army, so it is work I am prepared to commit.

On another note; any ideas for names for the Trolls? I mean, just calling them trolls would be lazy.

This is proper 40k modelling. Very nice.

I'd probably like to see slightly more colour variation to do justice to some of the details you put on there, even if it was just some brassy/coppery metallics in a few select areas.

For the trolls, John Bauer is awesome, so you're mining a solid vein there. First name that pops into my head is Shamblers.

I have been thinking a lot about the name, but I have decided that going with a name that is too different would break the connection with the fact that at the end of the day they are Trolls. So I have decided that the name should be a modified version of the word 'Troll', like Ogryn is a modified version of the word 'Ogre'. I have been toying with getting a name out of it, but it is tricky to get anything that sounds right.

Trollop.
Ok, maybe not.

Trollyn

I was given the suggestion 'Trolite'. I might make it Trollite. Looks similar to Trollkin, which sounds neat too.

yeah that matches with the rest of your army. good choice

What a superb idea for a force. Add to that the fact that your conversions are unique and most definately look the part, your on to a winner!

Tzarinchilla wrote:, your on to a winner!

epic win!

I would love to see this completed... a list of bits wuld go a long way to helping me understand each mini...

This is my absolute favorite traitor guard army I have ever seen. I find what you are doing to be incredibly inspired. The character you give to each model is truly genius.

Please post more pics of your progress. Please don't abandon this project!

I would love to know what kind of work you had to do to get the Chaos Chosen to work as storm troopers. Could we get some new angles on the WIP pics? I'd love to know how you got them to hold the meltaguns so smoothly.

p.s. I know your thread is a little old now, but I just wanted to say that I'm dieing to see more!

I am still doing the army, but I work pretty slow. I am also doing lots of painting experiments behind the scenes. I want to paint the army up good, and have been left disappointed by the results of my first test models (sans Fry Face's Fry Face). I am currently getting grips with blending, painted battle damage and skin/face work.

Here is a few stuff I have been working on though.

Hermit Knight and Novitiates



Instead of trolls I decided to have crusading ogryns. They live out in the wilderness in clans and only go to war when they receive a sign from the Warp. The Chaos Gods are only happy to oblige, normally gifting a clan leader with an additional appendage or turning a wild beast into a spawn. Not the most extraordinary of acts, perhaps, but normally enough to inspire the simple minded brutes. Ogryns on crusade can travel and fight alongside the armies of Lorgar for days, months or even years.

Novitiates count as Veterans in the army list, but in the army fluff they are really the step before Anchorite, representing fresh recruits from the barbaric tribes that dwell in the icy north. After a period of time, surviving Novitiates will be promoted to Anchorite through a ceremony that involves many vows and the forging of a brand new suit of plate armour. The last piece will be the creation of the Anchorite's mask, which is a representation of the face of a Space Marine, so that they may honour holy Lorgar's greatest servants.

They will have skulls, beards and trinkets to show that they are, tradition wise, closer to the tribes they originate from.


Padre and Militia



The Padre got a better body from one of the Lord of the Ring ringwraith characters. The other model is a militia. Unlike the eremites, militia are not monks and spend all of their time guarding the churches and temples and training for warfare. This means they make more reliable soldiers then the eremites. For this reason they are used as retinues for the human Word Bearer religious leaders.


Bloodletter



I will be testing my painting skills on some daemons before I start doing more zealots.



And the arms on the Anchorites are converted using plastic space marine arms. I chop them up, pin them together with the metal chosen forearm, and sling them on.

Very nice work Ttrygon. Excellent modeling and though simple, your painting scheme really works well.

that last post you sent was awesome. the fluff with each unit really works out well. I like where this is going! cant wait to see more!