Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

A trio of Heretics I converted and painted, aiming to do the best I could with the rather dated CSM kit, and to get a tad closer to the imagery and feel of Chaos beyond Spiky Marines.


Arkon, The Storied Lord of Saggittar VII, The Once-Broken
"Heretics? They dare brand us the Heretics, while they waste their prayed on an enthroned corpse? For milennia we have kept our truer faith, and my Brothers, have we not been rewarded?"








Caligula, The Scourge
"Flee, if you will, from my Brothers. It matters little; there is nowhere I cannot find you, no bastion that can protect you. I bring the holiest of fire, and it burns all. Come, now, let me illuminate you!"







Hektaion, The Butcher, The Eightfold Blade
"How little you know of pain. How little your mortal life can tolerate. Age upon age I have suffered, as my weaker Brothers succumbed. Lifetime after lifetime, I have burned among the embers of a thousand worlds. And now, now I am nothing but agony made flesh. Feel my pain, mortal, and scream!







The Word Bearers, Veterans of the Long War
There is no end to this war. There is no peace, and there is no good night for us. We may only fight on, and burn on, and at the end, die knowing we are the Faithful!"






Any thoughts, comments, feedback or questions more than welcome! Thanks for reading!

That's just about the perfect red for Word Bearers, almost a deep maroon. Each one is really distinct and characterful. Freehand on Arkon's banner is excellent. Job's a good 'un.

If I were to offer any critique it's that Arkon's skin tone looks far too healthy for someone who has been knocking around the Eye of Terror for millennia! The helmet on Caligula's base also looks kind of unfinished paint-wise and I feel it could have done with being drilled out where the head would go or cover that area in gore so it looks like a decapitation.

Love the bloody hand prints in the cloth. Really atmospheric, great work.

Thanks guys!

 sockwithaticket wrote:

If I were to offer any critique it's that Arkon's skin tone looks far too healthy for someone who has been knocking around the Eye of Terror for millennia! The helmet on Caligula's base also looks kind of unfinished paint-wise and I feel it could have done with being drilled out where the head would go or cover that area in gore so it looks like a decapitation.

Thanks for the feedback! The helmet is certainly on the list for revisiting, it was added as something of a afterthought and didn't get the attention it should have.

The face is actually like that deliberately, for two reasons. First is the fact I wanted practice on painting faces to a higher standard than I have in the past, so wanted to keep a fairly 'normal' tone to it so the method was transferable to other faces, and second, I wanted him to look almost noble/proud/perfect, to emphasise the power and gravitas of the Astartes, traitor or otherwise. I was going for an impression of superiority, but also something recognisably 'better' than human and almost inspiring (until you look down and see the bloodstains/flayed skins ect )

Fair enough. In that case, mission accomplished.

They are amazing! I love how each are distinct people. they are also very characterfull, well done!

Could you elaborate on how you did that red? Looks awesome!

Thanks again!

The red is layered from about 3:1 Mechrite Red to Regal Blue to about 5:1 of the same. The HB guy then got an Agrax/Typhus Corrosion wash for extra grime, the Lord got an extra highlight to make him stand out, and the blades guy got BFTBG splattered all over the place. All the chipping was done by sponging on Runefang Steel.

These are wonderful!

Very bleak and gothic feel. Perfect fit.

Every time I look at your pictures it makes me realize how bad I am at taking them even with my new set up lol, great job man I am pretty sure you will win the competition!

Excellent work. The bloody handprint is a nice touch and looks swell.

D

I wonderful representation of my favourite CSM legion. You hit their tone perfectly and there's no question that these are the true faithful of the Ruinous powers.

I'm very glad to have seen these and I very much hope you make up some more to accompany them.

Ustrello wrote:Every time I look at your pictures it makes me realize how bad I am at taking them even with my new set up lol, great job man I am pretty sure you will win the competition!

Do you use natural light for your pics? I take mine outside or in the conservatory rather than under a lamp, and it makes a world of difference. Next time you have a bright but overcast day, see if you can take a few shots in natural light.

I doubt I'll even come close to winning, there are some entries there that blow these chaps out of the water! but on that note, any thoughts on which ones I should enter? I was thinking just the Lord, but do they gain anything as a group?

Inevitable_Faith wrote:I wonderful representation of my favourite CSM legion. You hit their tone perfectly and there's no question that these are the true faithful of the Ruinous powers.

I'm very glad to have seen these and I very much hope you make up some more to accompany them.

Some more are on the way, converted from DV Chosen. I'd like to do a full army in this scheme as it's very fun to paint, but the CSM kit itself is far from brilliant. Plastic CSM in the style of the Raptors/Chosen would make an instant heretic of me, though!


Thanks everyone!

 Paradigm wrote:

Ustrello wrote:Every time I look at your pictures it makes me realize how bad I am at taking them even with my new set up lol, great job man I am pretty sure you will win the competition!

Do you use natural light for your pics? I take mine outside or in the conservatory rather than under a lamp, and it makes a world of difference. Next time you have a bright but overcast day, see if you can take a few shots in natural light.

I doubt I'll even come close to winning, there are some entries there that blow these chaps out of the water! but on that note, any thoughts on which ones I should enter? I was thinking just the Lord, but do they gain anything as a group?

Inevitable_Faith wrote:I wonderful representation of my favourite CSM legion. You hit their tone perfectly and there's no question that these are the true faithful of the Ruinous powers.

I'm very glad to have seen these and I very much hope you make up some more to accompany them.

Some more are on the way, converted from DV Chosen. I'd like to do a full army in this scheme as it's very fun to paint, but the CSM kit itself is far from brilliant. Plastic CSM in the style of the Raptors/Chosen would make an instant heretic of me, though!


Thanks everyone!

I use the Foldio, basically a portable white box with led light strips (two of them) to take pictures. But I will have to try and take the pictures today then since it is fairly bright but overcast.

Otherwise I feel that you should enter the lord since you only have four pictures to take and you can get more detail in on him with four instead of lets say two.

More Heresy!



Elias, Apostle of Aurelian, Bearer of the Blessed Word
"Hear the blessed word of Lorgar and rejoice, for Chaos is come again! Turn your eyes from the False Light of the Corpse-God and face the Great Void! Repent! Submit! Be blessed!"







The Meat
"What is Chaos but a ravening beast? Let it feast on lesser flesh, drink of weaker minds than ours! Let the multitudes come forth and be consumed!" Lorgar Aurelian to Elias Drem'lokh at the Razing of Cathartia









The Blessed Host of Arkon

The force is loking great! for that apostle is that the helm that DV model normally carries in his arm? Did you just GS a back plate onto it to complete it?

Para, those CSM are what SM, noble or traitor should be.

Have you ever considered 30k? You'd do it justice. I /love/ the concept of Marines facing morality questions. Partially knight, partially demi-god, partial soldier. Makes for good stuff.

These are all looking really good, Paradigm. Please, show moar pics. Moar damnit

Inevitable_Faith wrote:The force is loking great! for that apostle is that the helm that DV model normally carries in his arm? Did you just GS a back plate onto it to complete it?

Yep, I cut off the head at a slight angle, took the helmet/arm piece and cut away the arm/hand, then added some GS to fill the gap at the back of the head. The new arm is just a SM bolter arm cut just above the elbow.

Stormwall wrote:Para, those CSM are what SM, noble or traitor should be.

Have you ever considered 30k? You'd do it justice. I /love/ the concept of Marines facing morality questions. Partially knight, partially demi-god, partial soldier. Makes for good stuff.

A full HH army is one of my very-long-term hobby dreams. I've dabbled, using Anvil Industry 'Exo Lords' (you can see the results here), and if the rumours of plastic HH armour from GW pan out, you can bet your boots they'll get some reinforcements and opposition (I'm thinking Sons of Horus, for a good ol' Siege of Terra smackdown!)

AkhilleusK42 wrote:These are all looking really good, Paradigm. Please, show moar pics. Moar damnit

More will follow... Soon... Soooon!

I am appeased... for now.

Ermahgerd

Elias looks amazing!

As promised, more emerge:


Ularen, The Jagged
"Will he not join us in prayer, my lord? Such apathy is tantamount to heresy!"
"Peacd, Elias. Behold him on the field of battle, and there you shall see eloquence enough, and the exultation our Gods deserve."
Arkon to Elias, on the eve of The Siege of Proximata.







The Meat
"This is a long game, this game of ours, and the pawns go first..." the Council of Elias Drem'lokh

As usual, simply amazing dude. I would love to see this army across the field from me, win or lose it'd be an honour simply to share a table with this force. Well done sir, keep it up!

Also really digging the use of blood on the models, it's not too much as to seem cartoony but not so little that it seems inconsequential, a great balance. Are you using Blood for the blood god for it all or some mix?

Would love to pit my Dark Angels against those! Nice work!

Me too AOV. That is splendid. I think Para is a heretic now. It is a bad thing when the chaplain converts.

Thanks guys!

@Inevitable Faith: yep, just good old BFTBG! Bought a pot the week it came out and never looked back! Occasionally I'll mix in a little red or dark brown if want lighter or darker blood, but on these guys it's just applied from the pot over the base colour.

@Stormwall: panic not! My desk is currently swarming with Inquisitors, Arbites, Assassins and PDF, no risk of heresy here!


I'd love to build an army for 40k like this and get them on the table, but sadly I don't see it happening until we get a new CSM kit. As it is, these guys are ample for Kill Team, ITEN and Inq28, and at some point I may expand them to Allied Detachment size.

I still have a Sorcerer, a couple more Chosen and possibly a Helbrute to add, so stay tuned!

Looking forward to seeing more dude! And I agree BFTBG is an amazing... paint? technical? thing? Whatever it is I love it. I don't know if this will mix with your stuff at all but fine grain basing sand mixed with some BFTBG to get some really nasty chunkier bits looks great. Don't remember where I got the idea from but I showed a friend how to do it and she used it on her DE reaver bikes blades and it looked great.

Hmm, might try that! Thanks for the tip!

These look great: tons of character and grimdark atmosphere.

Good to see someone looking to forge the narrative in this way thru their models.