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Whoa, dude, these are amazing! I did a individually converted Chaos army myself but it didn't come close to these levels of awesome, and your fluff is wonderful! What have you got planned next?! I think some traitor guard or cultists would be great if you did them as gangers that haven't got their armour yet. Keep the awesome flowing, man!

LostSoulCasey'sLaw - Thanks mate, I wasn't planning on doing cultists to be honest I want a more elitist army where you can only get in if you have the armour. I really like your nids by the way.

Sorry for the long time with no updates but I can promise you all I have finished Varlack.....unfortunately my girlfriend has taken my camera. However I do now have a week whilst shes away to work on something else. The options are

1) 5 man Tactical squad (alll will be converted not sure how)
2) 2nd Dreadnought
3) Rhino

So which would you like me to work on next?

Really amazing stuff.

I get what you mean about the cultists, i prefer the elite route over horde too.
Looking forward to seeing pictures and i'd suggest the 5 man Tactical squad for your next project although another Dread in a sweet action pose would be my second choice.

Awesome work and love the backstory keep it up!!!

Shredsmore - Thanks I'm glad you like them

Lostsoul - I will definately go the elite route just to avoid painting hordes! Im a slow painter. My other army is Eldar so they are elite as well. I might do the tacticals but I want to convert them so maybe I will try to make obliterators instead with the models,

Fury - I'll keep working at my slow ass pace dont worry but Im worried Im going to run out of models.

That is n amazing army. I love how each marine is individually converted. Keep up the amazing work!

Great army overall and great use of zombie parts.

Haha, don't worry dude, i'm the slowest muthafrakka in town! Obliterators would be sweet, crank them out at whatever pace works for you, WIP pictures would be cool though!

recycledgenius - Thanks for the praise it makes it easier to keep painting in this heat over here its getting hard to motivate myself.

Pie_vendor - The Zombie kit is amazing, if I ever collect a Warhammer army it will be undead.

Lost Soul - I will try to do WIP pics in future.

Ok after a long wait there will finally be some updates. Here are the first pics of my new Dreadnought. He's going to have his head left visible so that its clear there is a man inside the machine. As you can see he's also found an unfortunate friend who will be getting squeezed. Not got much more done but there will be pics of Varlack tomorrow finished at last! And I'm also working on some fluff for him as well.

Looking good. Hes going to fit into the theme very well!

This is going to look great when its done!

Cheers guys I'm looking forward to getting started on this one.

Finally finished Varlack Creed, scourge of the galaxy. The famed and illusive leader of the Collectors. I will add more fluff soon but for now here are the pics. Painting this model has been hard work. The finecast mis casts make painting frustrating at times when the surface isn't smooth. Also I didn't have a good enough idea of what colour scheme I wanted when I started. Im fairly happy with how the colours have turned out but maybe there is too much red? What do you think? Im not happy with pretty much the entire right arm. The staff end was made using the avatar hand and hands from the zombie kit. There will be a back story for it but I think it might be too big? Im limitted for parts but I might try to change it at some point. Im not sure whether to have the trophy rack on top so I've taken some photos without what do you think? I might add some free hand on the armour covering his stomach. Do you think the marine on the base detracts from the model too much? Im worried it adds too much red. The cloak of chains was made simply using a cheap necklace from ebay.

Overall Im happy to get it finished. We've all had the model that we've looked forward to painting but then it takes longer and longer because you want it to be perfect and the little details become annoying to the point you just want it finished. If I end up re-doing Varlack I might have techmarine servator arms fanning out behind Varlack in the shape of angels wings. I would have also liked to make him look more of a scientist using vials from the DE range. Anyway enough from me heres the model what do you think?

Looking good, mate!
I'd say, if the red marine bothers you, pepaint him.....I dont know in wich color, though.....I personally think he looks fine.
And definetly keep the trophy pole on his back!

I think it looks great, dude! I wouldn't change anything about the model but if you ever decide to remake him you'll know what you want to do differently.

that guy looks amazing!

Oh my god, that is amazing.

Mr Merlin - Cheers mate your comments are appreciated as ever. I read about the Eldar teaching you a lesson on your blog. mwwhhaaaaa. I need to keep him red to tie in with the marine on the dreadnought base. I forgot to add the transfer to his shoulder pad so that will be getting added.

Lostsoul - Thanks mate, yeah next time I know where I went wrong but now I see the pics he's growing on my so I will prob leave him at least for now.

Rogue wolves- Thanks alot I wasn't sure but the feedback is good to hear!

Baneofmorgoth - Haha cheers the internet is my only source of feedback here in Nam so appreciate all the comments

If anyone wants any tutorials or close ups of anything in my army feel free to ask. I will try to update on my dread as I make and paint it to show my process a little more.

Here is some fluff to expand the back story for Varlack providing more details on his motivations and eventual air. I am keen for him not to be the typical Chaos Lord who wants to kill everything and rule an army of slave as per usual I would rather he was a character with shades of grey rather than just black or white. Anyway read if your interested skip if your not. sorry its quite long but its basically setting up the Chapter. Not sure where Im going with it but my friend is collecting nids so might link in at some point.

Xethius struggled to raise his head. He could feel his arms and legs were firmly secured and his armour had been removed. A Space Marine Apothecary for over fifty years he felt naked with out it’s cremate plates encompassing him like a second skin. His recollections of the events leading up to his incarceration remained hazy and the back of his neck was excruciatingly painful. Slowly his enhanced sensory organs began to stabilise his perceptions and he could make out his surroundings. He was in some kind of holding cell stripped of all equipment and lit only by a bright halogen bulb that cast a sterilising light over the whole room preventing any kind of subterfuge.

Xethius attempted to correlate his situation with the disjointed images he remembered from his mission. They had been attached to a squad of Terminators tasked with clearing a known inter stellar craft which had gone silent in the previous months and was considered extreme risk due to it passing through areas of space known to harbour Genestealer cult cells. They were to provide support only in the event the Terminators were forced to retreat to the transport ship. Upon docking with the stricken vessel it had quickly become apparent that there was something drastically wrong as scanners could only detect life in the depths of the vessel and nothing near the navigation bridge. The Commander had ordered the five man Terminator squad deployed with orders to secure the vessel and locate any survivors. After that the images became one nightmarish blur. Slashing talons, a fighting retreat; followed by hordes of savage beasts surging from vents and intersecting corridors. A fleeting glance through a viewing portal revealed the unimaginable. Their carrier ship was spinning in space unanchored and displaying alarming levels of battle damage with vapour trails of vital oxygen purging into space. They were trapped. Memories of hearing the rapid concussive sound of bolters being fired at close range from behind the xenos. Who could it be? Was it fellow marines from within the ship? Then the dawning realisation as his brothers too began to fall to the relentless barrage of bullets. These were not the emperors.

Xethius was roused from his revere by the sound of the solid lock being forced open on the door to his cell. Two hulking Marines in jet black power armour walked into the room. One slapped him casually across the face with his armoured hand causing his vision to blur once more.
“You will be speaking with Creed. Any attempt to resist or escape will lead to amputations.” Warned the marine who had struck him with appalling casualness.
The other moved to his side and unfastened his hands. The pain as the blood rushed along his arms reactivating his nerve cells was excruciating. His arms were roughly seized on either side and he was escorted from the cell. Xethius was led through the interior of some kind of interstellar vessel until he was dragged into what appeared to be a laboratory. In front of him was a man dissecting one of his battle brothers. Initially he appeared to have not even registered his arrival he was so engrossed in his work. But then he spoke and Xethius was filled with a primal instinct to listen and focus all his will on the owner of the voice as if his life depended on it,
“Do you know why you are alive whilst your brothers are all dead?” Asked the man.
“No I do not.” Xethius replied.
“Because you are a man of science. You have been trained as an apothecary, therefore you understand science and will therefore understand what I will tell you and more importantly understand the implications.”
Xethius remained silent. His thoughts were racing as he recalled rumours and reports regarding a figure shrouded in mystery and legend.
“People say that I am a monster. This is fine if you wish to scare children but if you wish to discuss the future fate of humanity then I will not be viewed as a monster I will be viewed as the saviour,” The man still worked on the dissection and hadn’t even turned to address him.
“You’re Varlack Creed. Your actions have hardly been beneficial to humans.” Stated Xethius.
“Well done; I see my reputation is growing at a satisfactory rate as I had planned. My actions now are irrelevant. The history books are written by the victor and will be forgotten as so many other tragedies in this vast galaxy. What I seek to do is take humanity to the next level of our evolution. Ideally this would have occurred naturally but as the Imperium is well aware, time is running out.” A tone of mockery entered his voice as he spoke the word Imperium “Mankind is beset by enemies from all sides, the unstoppable Tyranids from the outer rim, the foul Orks, Eldar which raid our planets with impunity, the Tau who claim peace but if history has taught us anything its that religion cannot be reasoned with and the Chaos within us tainting all who it touches with false promises. Who is there to lead us in this time of need?” asked Varlack.
“The Emperor will guide us as he always has, with him at our side we cannot fail.”
At the sound of the Emperors name Varlack spun around a scalpel clutched in his hand and an expression of rage on his face.
“The Emperor! He lies in his golden throne whilst mankind is reduced to a fighting withdrawal across its entire empire. He has disserted us in our time of need! For a darker age a darker saviour is needed. A man who is willing to do what is necessary to preserve the genes of men.” With alarming speed Varlack regained his composure and continued “The Emperor gave me the idea, if he could construct a gene seed which created the Space Marines and allowed them the strength and fortitude to create the empire then a new gene seed was required to save it. Only the emperor didn’t go far enough. He used only human DNA. I will use anything and there in lies my power. A visionary for the new era.”
“Your insane. Mixing human and xenos DNA is heresy! I would expect nothing more from someone who has sold his soul to Chaos.” Spat Xethius.
“Chaos? I serve no gods.” Varlack was once more calm, “Those Legions who prostrate themselves before primal gods and lose themselves to their base instinsts disgust me. Mankind must save itself. Look to your left if you don’t believe me.”
Xethius looked to his left and saw a huge staff. It appeared to be circulating some kind of liquid around its mechanical parts. His gaze travelled to the end where there were four severed human hands. They surrounded a larger hand banded in the black and yellow colours of the Collectors. The hands were all attached via a tube which was pumping a red fluid into them. It was then that one of the hands twitched causing Xethius to flinch.
“The tubes are a form of cardiopulmonary machine?” gasped Xethius.
“Yes.” replied Varlack. “The hands each came from an acolyte of the four greater gods of Chaos who came to my ship seeking to convert me to the ways of their masters. I listened patiently to each of their proposals as any educated man would do. Each was found lacking and as a result became part of my Staff of Hands. The applicant for Khorne offered me endless battles in order to spill blood for his god. A man who seeks only to kill is no more than an animal, have we evolved a mind and reasoning only to abandon it? I think not. Slanesh offered me the joys of the flesh. One need only look at the perverted Eldar to see what lies down that road. Nurgle offered me the chance to live forever and rule an empire of the diseased and disfigured. Tzench the cleverest and most manipulative of the gods offered me what he thought I desired and was the one which most tempted me. However his obsession with the powers of the Psyker and the warp were his undoing. I will not tolerate the taint of the warp to distort and destroy the future I am building.
So they all in turn became part of my staff and as result I can call upon the aid of any of the gods without sacrificing anything of myself. I have outsmarted the gods themselves; a situation they find most vexing and I’m sure has earned me their enmity for eternity.”
Varlack had remained standing and held Xethius’s gaze through out the duration of his speech. It was only when he finished speaking that Xethius realised he had been riveted to every word he said. This was a dangerous man with a gift for words and the intelligence to achieve his ambitions.

“Now let us return to the reason for you being alive. I desire access to all the Space Marine Primarch genenomes. It will speed up my research and allow me to concentrate on the second stage of my hypothesis.” Stated Varlack.
“The lords of Terra will never agree to that.”
“Believe me I can continue to take them from living Marines I have already collected the samples from over sixteen Chapters including four Chaos Legions. By providing the samples you prevent more of your brothers being taken. Allowing me to focus on the true enemies of Mankind.” reasoned Varlack.
“What will you do with them?” Xethius asked.
“I will create the strongest and purest human DNA code which will be able to incorporate the benefits from xenos DNA without becoming tainted by it. Allowing the resulting offspring to be human …but evolved.” Revealed Varlack with a gleam in his eye.
“Madness! It would never work. You are delusional and insane.” Shouted Xethius.
“On the contrary I am the only one of all the billions of souls in our empire who has envisioned the solution to our survival in these dark time and has the ability to implicate it. Come and see for yourself.” Varlack gestured for Xethius to approach the operating table.
On trembling legs he approached, the table. From his previous position it had looked like his brother had been alone on the table now it was revealed otherwise. Xethius’s stomach contracted involuntarily as his mind registered what he was seeing. Next to Brother Fointus was a clinically dissected Genestealer, some of its internal organs had been removed and transplanted into Brother Fointus. What made his blood run cold however was that some of the organs were beating, Fointus was still alive!
Xethius lunged for Varlack attempting to end this abomination once and for all but his arms grasped air and with two perfectly timed blows to his knee and back Xethius slammed down onto the metal grating. Marines rushed into the room and hauled him to his feet. Varlack stood facing him, once again calm and composed.
“Take him and deliver him to our contacts within the Imperium.” Ordered Varlack before pausing in thought, “However he doesn’t need his hands to deliver the demands, remove them. I may need them for my staff.”
Xethius let out a howl of anguish. He had been willing to sacrifice his body for the Emperor but now he would lose even his soul. The last thing he saw as he was dragged kicking and screaming from the room was Varlacks eyes shining with mirth before he pulled up his surgical mask and turned back to his work.

Oh man, that is a great piece of fluff!It is very well written and I love where this is going. I'll definetly be here for the next part!

Btw, will Varlack only be using Tyranid DNA or is he going to use other xenox races as well?

Cheers mate wasn't as sure about it as the others it's kind of lacking in action but needed to explain motives. As for the DNA he'll use anything that works. Prob Nids ofr adaptability as they will provide the key to absorbing other DNA so he's starting there so he can learn how to absorb DNA. The Eldar will be useful for longevity, Orks for survivability, Tau for well maybe not Tau! Necron tech could be salvaged.
The reason he is slaughtering civilians is to entice the Space Marines to intervene allowing him to gain armour and DNA. Any ideas or input from anyone is appreciated. Definitely going to be buying the new Decimator Deamon Engine from forgeworld. Hope they deliver to Vietnam!

This is terrific work, and I love your fluff.

I have a suggestion for you... and it's just a suggestion so take it for what it's worth. Rather than painting the chains directly on the chapter symbols, could you get small chains (which are available) and model them across the shoulder pad containing the symbol. It'd me more obvious, impacting and I think more menacing as the chapter symbol would then literally be "bound in chains".

Just a thought. Please keep up the wonderful work.

I would suggest Kroot as the basis of adaptability / easier incorperation of genetic traits. It's similar to the 'nid material without that pesky risk of domination by the hive mind.

^^Orks are also very adaptable....

Another thought: when Imperial citizens are slaughtered, doesn't the Imperium just send regular guard?

Loving the fluff, loving the models, loving the paint scheme, I'm just loving the Collectors in general!

Subscribed..... and inspired to start my Traitor armies

Gitzspiltter - Yeah thats a great idea I had already considered it myself but couldn't find chains small enough, Its quite difficult to paint the chains on the chapter symbols realistically. Plus I need more diverse chapter symbols as I only have the basic so might have to start free handing them.

Ovion - I don't really know alot about the Tau or Kroot as I was away from the hobby whilst they were released so I will read up on it. The main reason for the nids is that my friend is starting to collect them so we wanted to be able to ally with some kind of fluff behind it. Also the nid DNA must be the most adaptable in the universe at absorbing the best traits from other species so it seems a logical place to start. The hive mind would be a problem though! Thanks for the ideas keep them coming.

MrMerlin - Yeah Orks would be very useful but Varlack values intelligence so I think he would look down on Orks as primitive. they will be collected at some point! About the imperial guard, yeah they would be sent but I figure that due to the disturbing nature of his massacres and a proven record of decimating imperial guard regiments that The Collectors now have a reputation and the Imperium is so keen to capture them that Marines are sent as soon as possible. Hence Varlack being pleased his reputation is growing. It was a point I had to find a way around as I made the first model before the fluff! haha. Thanks as ever mate.

InquisitorRoeth - Glad you like them they were made to look good rather than play well so Im always happy to get positive feedback. Starting is surprisingly easy just a battleforce and zombie kit! I used to be good guys only but the dark side has finally claimed me. Although I will deviate back to my Eldar when they eventually get re-released!

Look on the internet for 40-link per inch chain. I know I've gotten it from both Asian and US suppliers. It's not expensive and in 40k scale it's a nice, fine chain. If you want something with a heavier look... 30 or 32 links per inch is probably more fitting (but might be too much for your shoulder pads).

Model rairloading supply companies are great sources. Here's a link to one 40 link per inch supplier... A-Line chain.

I think the Kroot idea was spot on as well, but Nids could work too.

As for explaining the Kroot, I was going to get all long winded and explain, but why bother when...



Courtesy of Wobbly Model Syndrome.

I love your Collectors, from the color scheme to the fluff, they're a great looking army.


(Sorry that's huge!)

Gitzsplitta - Thanks for those links mate I will definitely look into it, to be honest here in Vietnam they have everything somewhere I just need to track it down!! If not next time Im home Ill get on it.

Chemical Cutthroat - The cartoon perfectly demonstrates the phrase a picture tells a thousand words. I had no idea the kroot worked like this. The Kroot are now prime targets for harvesting, poor bastards. Plus it adds a cannibal element to the army.....hmm the possibilities....thanks again for the great input really appreciated, I will have to download codex Tau.

Those are some creepy, but very well built and painted models. Excellent work.