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The best Dark Angel is a armless one......

 Miss Dee wrote:
The best Dark Angel is a armless one......

totally agree Miss Dee

Really like the objective markers, the Axe is my fav very simple but looks really cool.

Thanks, people!

I only painted the Marine as a Dark Angel since the colour scheme was pretty simple, but it's a rather nice fit considering the DA are part of the new starter box, don't you think?

Speaking of which...



Look what the cat brought in!

Even though I've been into 40k for over 15 years now, this is actually my first starter box ever (the remains of the 2nd edition box sold to me ages ago by my buddy Phil don't count ). And what a first box this is! The amount of detail in most of the sculpts is really astonishing! You have to see it to believe it.

Naturally, I couldn't keep my fingers off the models for long, so I sat down and painted my first test pieces right away. I went for the chaos cultists. These are the guys that ended up on my desk:



I tried to paint them in colours close to the colour scheme of my regular Traitor Guard, so they would blend in. While I may yet have to tweak the recipe here and there, the first models came out reasonably well. Take a look:







Admittedly, this first guy is the model I am least pleased with, since he lacks a little pop. He may need some more work.

The second one was more of a success, though:









This guy is easily one of my favourite models in the box! He's just so twisted and disgusting -- just what you'd expect from some underhive scum following the ruinous powers
I love all the scars and crude augmentics. His back is also something to behold:



It was really fun to make him look as distressed as possible



And finally, the third one:









This is the one where the application of my Traitor Guard colour scheme works best, in my opinion. I would love to add some crude chaos iconography in white to his hood, but there's so much tiny detail on there that it's rather hard to do without obscuring anything. Painting those eyes was quite hard!

And finally, all three of them together:



I really love the fact that GW went for a "disgruntled workers" look above all else. All the cutlists we have seen up to now were either Traitor Guard or wearing KKK style robes. I like how these new cultists have subtle signs of both, but yet sport a very own look: that of rebelling regular citizens still in their working clothes . If you've read the Gaunt's Ghosts books, these guys should really click with you!

Finally, here's a scale shot with one of my regular Traitor soldiers:



These guys were a joy to work with, although I would advise everyone working on these to paint the arms carrying the weapons separately (or at least not attach them permanently before painting). You'll have a much easier job that way!

From a conversion standpoint, it should be reasonably simple to do a couple of weapon swaps here and there -- at least on the cultists wielding CC weapons. The guys with autoguns should be a little harder to convert.

One last thing that I really hadn't expected from the box was that they went and added a number of small "trophies" to add to the bases: spent shell casings, skulls -- those were part of the AOBR box too. But this time you're getting a traitor's severed head and a Chaos Marine's helmet, trampled into the ground, as well. Those should be excellent little parts for conversions!

Anyway, that's my first look at the models. More on this as it develops

Those cultists look epic :p very cool indeed

The cultist look great, I can't believe how fast you got them painted! Top quality too!

Excellent stuff.

D

Badass Kraut! You really paint fast and well Dood! I can't believe I've missed your thread! I'll be catching up!

Once again you astound me at your speed with the brush blends well with the rest love that red hood just makes him stand out so well.

Great job with the skin tone again

Thanks a lot, guys! I am actually itching to get the next batch of these guys painted...

FAREAK!

 Baiyuan wrote:
FAREAK!

Come again?

I think he means freak, said enthusiastically

Lovely work pal, looking forward to seeing your take on the helbrute!

Fabby werk

The cultists look really good -- both the models and the paintjobs.

I particularly like the bare chested guy. Your paint job really brings out the scarring. Well done.

Love the cultist models... they look great in your sheme!

 kitch102 wrote:
I think he means freak, said enthusiastically

That!

Thanks a lot, guys! Today, I have the next update for you:

After spending a very enjoyable weekend sifting through the contents of the Dark Vengeance box, I have begun to lay out my plans regarding all the different models. I'll be talking about the chaos side of things in this thread. If you want to learn my plans for the Dark Angels, head over to my Custodes thread

Alright, so what's the plan?

Cultists

I already showed you the first three cultists I painted, and I decided that they needed some friends. So I set out to paint the next three. Instead of painting the same designs over again, I chose three different cultist — the duplicates will have to come later…

Again, my objective was to have these fit in with my other Traitor Guard models, so I stuck to the established colour scheme. I like to imagine that I was a tiny bit more succesful in painting these guys to fit my traitors this time:





I really love the gasmask on this guy! I even thought about a “Psycho Mantis” conversion while painting him. I also like the crude weapons some of these guys are wielding – like they had to improvise weapons from their regular tools or bits of machinery.

This next guy may have a different head and different weapons, but apart from that, he is actually identical to the guy above – albeit “flipped horizontally”. The only difference aside from the head and weapons is the added knife on the guy with the gas mask — I don’t think it’s too noticeable, though. After all, these are starter miniatures!





I tried adding some crude chaos heraldry on his scarf. A recurring element in my Traitor Guard. I went even further with this on this next guy:









Again, I love the mask. Reminds me of Kroenen in the first Hellboy film

And here’s all three of them together:



Seeing these side by side makes it even more obvious that the cultists on the left and right are basically the same design, but again: Let’s not forget that these are starter miniatures. I already mentioned that I am actually pretty happy with the look GW chose for the cultists!

And here’s all of my painted cultists so far:



These are pretty quick to paint, so it probably won’t be too long before I’ll have ten or even twenty of them finished. I’ll mainly be these for 40k, so all of them will be painted in the colours of my Traitor Guard. That said, they’ll make useful cameos in games of INQ28 (or even Necromunda).
I will be doing a number of smaller adjustments to some of the “duplicates” (weapon swaps and the like) for some more variety. I’ll also add an icon or two, following my belief that every chaos squad needs an icon. Apart from that, though, I’ll be using these pretty much out of the box.


Chaos Lord and Chosen

Hmmm, these guys are a tougher nut to crack: My gut instinct tells me to just leave them for later. Granted, some of them could be easily inducted into my World Eaters, but maybe I’ll just hang on to them for a later project: a small Chaos Killteam for Special Operations Killzone, or some “counts as”-Characters for my Traitor Guard (I recently saw a World Eater used as Colonel Straken — what a cool idea!). The guy with the twin Lightning claws may be an exception, since I am simply too much in love with the sculpt, but apart from that, I guess these guys will keep for a while.


Hellbrute

Definitely the star of the show for me, I am pretty psyched to start working on this bad boy. As a matter of fact, I already managed to paint what’s probably my favourite part of the model:





This was actually pretty hard to take a decent photo of, and that should tell you something about the size: So much fine detail, and very easy to obscure… I didn’t do a job worthy of the ‘Eavy Metal team, but I am still rather pleased with myself.

I also really love the anguished and tortured face peering from out of the Hellbrute’s bulk, so I had to start with it. Apart from that, I am currently dryfitting the parts and looking long and hard at the stuff in my bitzbox to decide which changes to make to the original model.

I’m a little torn, since I really love the Hellbrute as it is, and I don’t want to do conversions on this guys just for conversions’ sake. Yet I feel compelled to make some minor changes… Let me talk you through some of my early ideas — any feedback on this would be much appreciated!

First of all, this idea came up while I was messing around with some stuff from my bitzbox:







I actually have very little inclination to use the Minotaur head, but I still wanted to show you this mockup, because I think if somebody wanted to change the look of their Hellbrute or didn’t like the existing head, this could be an avenue worth exploring…

This one’s based on a similar idea. I just couldn’t help it…









I’ll have to be honest with you: I just love adding Juggernaut heads to Dreadnoughts!
I also think that this could really work. Hmmm, I’ll have to think about it…

Let’s talk about a couple of other changes I am considering:





I am actually pretty sure that I’ll be adding an Ogre Kingdoms gut plate to the model’s fist, as an approximation of the World Eaters’ legion badge. The part is a pretty nice fit and covers the more generic “Eye of Horus” symbol beneath. I also really liked the effect of the legion badge on my first Dread.

Then there’s the Multimelta:



I quite like the fact that they gave the model a Multimelta, seeing how this is one of the last weapons missing from my little Dreadnought Menagerie. But I am not completely sold on those stubby barrels. I could replace them with daemon heads from the chaos vehicle sprue (like TemplarCrusade01 did to great effect in this interesting video) or replace them with a Lasgun’s longer barrels…I’m not sure. Any thoughts?

And finally, those horn-tentacle things may have to go:



I appreciate what they were trying to do with this, but as it stands, they only serve to obscure the model’s silhouette. I haven’t decided on this, though. I’ll need to consider it for a while…

Even after playing around with a couple of different options, I couldn’t forget that Juggernaut head. If I were to attach it at a more interesting angle. like so…





…and add a neck made from cables and a spine, I think it would look really cool. Then again, I love the Hellbrute’s original face and wouldn’t want to permanently obscure it by a conversion… This really is a problem! Maybe I can do the Juggernaut head as an optional, removable addition to the model? Let me know what you think!

I need a deamon head for mine ...

This is a great looking army. Every unit looks amazing.
I look forward to seeing that hellbrute painted.
Well done!

I would leave the Juggernaut head off. Marax already has a Juggernaut head, I think more than one in the army wouldn't work.

A spine on the back and top would be awesome though.

the minotaur head just looks awesome.
what do you think of the commissar like renegade? i have to wait until i get my renegades

I really love the gasmask on this guy! I even thought about a “Psycho Mantis” conversion while painting him. I also like the crude weapons some of these guys are wielding – like they had to improvise weapons from their regular tools or bits of machinery.

Again, I love the mask. Reminds me of Kroenen in the first Hellboy film

you should so try both of them!!!!!
i love both those characters!!!

Great painting as usual!!

Thanks a lot, people!

@ Squigsquasher: Like I said, even if I use the jugger head, it'll be as an optional part, so the basic model will remain as it is. There actually is a HUGE spine on the back of the model!

@ fatty: I think adding a model that looks like a traitorous commissar was a stroke of genius on GW's part! I really like the model (and will paint it to be used as an "evil" Lord Commissar in my Traitor Guard). The only thing I am considering is to exchange the head for something more in line with a commissar: A sinister face with a cap and gasmask for example. I like the Blood Pact-like Grotesque on the model's face, but perhaps it would have been better used on a different model...

Not sold on the head swap idea on the dread personally, it's a shame to cover the tortured face, but of the two the Juggernaut head at a proper angle looks the best, but as I said I prefer the original.

Adding the shield on the arm for the world eater symbol is a touch of genius though, at least do that.

From what I've seen of the model the back would benefit from some kind of conversion, as it does look a bit plain, the idea about a spine or even just some addition armour jutting out of the flesh might make it seem more agonised and angry.

Cultist look great btw, keep it up.

D

You could add some spikes, trophy racks and a banner to his back and shoulders. An old trick but a good one. You could also put a big long claw or chainblade at the tip of each finger.

One thing I would say is the back looks a little flat. Some plates, Khorne icons, daemonic faces, skulls or even tentacles could help with that.

Maybe some Chaos Spawn parts might be uselful?

Chaos Assault on Bikes ????

@ Miss Dee: As a matter of fact, I do have a small bike squad, since it came with a chaos army set I bought last year. I really like bikes, and would like to add some more to the squad, but I'm putting that off until I know whether there'll be new bike models along with the next codex.

Generally speaking, I won't buy any more models for my World Eaters until the new book hits. I have enough unpainted stuff lying around anyway, and the starter box has given me lots of nice new toys to play with. But one day, I'll probably add some more bikes to my army, seeing how they are a rather nice fit with my World Eaters' theme as a big hunting party.

KrautScientist wrote:


Seeing these side by side makes it even more obvious that the cultists on the left and right are basically the same design, but again: Let’s not forget that these are starter miniatures. I already mentioned that I am actually pretty happy with the look GW chose for the cultists!

A simple conversion will make a lot of difference, I think. Just give one of them a wrist twist: with the CC weapon lowered a tad, I don't think it will be so apparent they are copycats.

Keep up the great work!
Rawson

Thanks, Rawson!

Hobby time has been pretty scarce for the last week or so, but the weekend finally offered me a window of opportunity to tackle a conversion I had been thinking about for some time:

With the first Dark Vengeance cultists painted, I turned my attention to one of their leaders: the guy with the commissar's coat. While I like both the coat and the Bloodpact-inspired half-mask, combining both of these elements on one model seemed like too much of a good thing to me. I also wasn't all that keen on the arm holding the shotgun: In my opinion, it messes up the composition of the model. So I got to work, and here's what I ended up with:









A rather simple conversion, as you can see. I wanted to further emphasise the look of a traitorous commissar, so I replaced the head with a fitting, sinister looking head from an old Warzone mini. I also replaced the left arm, opting for a Plasma pistol for no other reason than the fact that I like to paint small OSL effects on plasma coils
The rest of the model is unchanged.

I wanted the paintjob to tie the model together with the rest of my traitors, but I wanted it to also be recognisable as a commissar, so I resistet the temptation of painting the cap and coat red.

All in all, I am pretty happy with this guy. He can be used as a cultist champion, but he also makes a rather nice "Lord Commissar" for my Traitor Guard

Let me know what you think! C&C very welcome!

Mate, words cannot describe how awesome he looks! The head fits perfectly and the paint job is topnotch! Excellent work. Now get on with the Helbrute.

Awesome. Really amazing.