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You sick and twisted man.... that thing is brilliant

Thanks a lot, guys!

I’ve been building and painting Chaos models for close to two decades now, and as far as I remember, I have never ever done a Tzeentch model. Is it because, as an ardent follower of Khorne, I despise the duplicitious and craven servants of the Lord of Change? Or is it the fact that the sheer amount of mutation and physical corruption among Tzeentch’s servants is putting me off? Or maybe I am just to dense for the intricacies of great Tzeentch’s schemes? Whatever may be the reason that I have never worked on a servant of Tzeentch, it is an oversight I intend to rectify. This time on “The Ruinous Powers”: Duplicity.

Thinking about what model I wanted to build to represent a champion of Tzeentch, I came across three possible archetypes: The soulless automata of the Rubric Marines, the favoured champion, twisted and mutated beyond measure and the mysterious and sinister sorcerer, embittered veteran of the fall of Prospero, unknowable in his designs and schemes, just as his lord. It is rather hard to imbue a Rubric Marine with any sense of character, and I dislike over-the-top mutations, so the choice really was a no brainer for me.

I wanted to build a model that clearly was a Chaos Space Marine, but still had a very distinct silhouette. And I also wanted to add all kinds of visual cues to the mystic exploits of the champion, symbolising his eternal pursuit of knowledge and magickal prowess. With those main considerations in mind, I built the model. Here it is:





I used the lower half and forearms of a WFB Sorcerer Lord to give the model a silhouette distinctly different from a regular Marine, while the torso and upper arms are regular (Chaos) Space Marine parts. The sorcerer’s left arm provided me with a great looking staff, while the right hand looked like the model was bout to cast its vile magicks. The WFB parts also made the model significantly taller and leaner, enforcing the look of a character whose mental faculties are far more important than his physical prowess.

To clearly show the champion’s affiliation, I used the “Tzeentchian” head and shoulder pad from the regular CSM kit as well as a pretty old metal shoulder pad bearing the Thousand Son’s legion badge that had mysteriously survived in the depths of my bitzbox.

And finally, I added all kinds of trinkets and artifacts to the model: Pouches, books and other doodads, indispensable in its arcane rituals, and a holstered pistol, as the most basic concession to physical warfare.

For the model’s paintjob, I wanted to deviate from my usual routine (rather dark and gritty) and use slightly more luxurious and vibrant tones. I went for the Thousand Son’s typical colours of blue and gold, with dark red chosen as a contrast colour. Here’s the model after I laid down the base colours and liberally washed pretty much everything with GW Devlan Mud to tie the different colours together:





After that, it was really just a question of careful highlighting. I wanted to make it look like the sorcerer was just about to unleash his powers, so I tried to paint a glowing effect on his “third eye”, the eyes of his staff, the runes in the spellbook and the Tzeentch symbol on his shoulder pad. Check it out:



Here’s a detail shot of the shoulder pad, so you can see the lighting effect (and the reeeally oldskool Thousand Sons legion badge on his right shoulder):





1993 in the house, yo! ;-)

Anyway, the glowing parts really bring the model to life in my opinion. I decided to replicate the glowing effect on the base as well. Here’s the completed base:



I added a magic rock and a couple of cut-up Wood Elf Dryad twigs to the base to show some strange roots. It looks pretty ambiguous and is quite a nice fit for the mysterious nature of the model. Like I said, a glowing effect was added to the spirals carved into the stone.

And with that, the servant of Tzeentch was complete. Take a look at the finished model:













And another detail shot of the base:



I think the finished model really looks the part. And you really wonder what’s behind the helmet, don’t you? Maybe it’s best not to find out…

Anyway, with the modelling and painting out of the way, all that was left was to write a few lines of text. And with that, the champion of Tzeentch was brought to life:



Magister Suresh Asp, of the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion

On and on they come, the fools.
According to their leaders’ plans.
Oblivious to the hidden patterns:
Schemes within schemes, great Tzeentch’s design,
In which they all are naught but pawns

He laughs, except for when he wakes
From dreams of falling silver spires,
The taste of ashes in his mouth.
(No man can know their master’s plan)

And all is dust


That’s 50% done ;-) Tomorrow, you’ll see where the other half of that Sorcerer Lord went…

Until then, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

 KrautScientist wrote:

I think you captured the Tzeentch feel quite well, and I am also glad you went for the sorcerer and not one of the other options you listed Two little bits of CC: the hem of his robe and the cloth hanging from his belt are literally begging for some ruinous runes (maybe in red)! The other thing would be that the items on his belt are quite cool, but currently lack any pop due to the current paint scheme. What about some more interesting color choices?

Keep up the great work!
Rawson

Love the old school fish on the right shoulder pad. I agree to some degree with Rawson about the ruinous runes. Namely on that central beige tabard. Some small script on the pages of that book would be dope too. Either way, he's looking pretty boss and definitely got the Tzeentch feel to him.

Thanks guys,

I was afraid that any runes I would try to do would end up looking rather goofy, but I definitely see your point

There I was, yesterday, pondering how I had never created a follower of Tzeentch in all my hobby life. And what do you know, today I realise I’ve never done a follower of Slaanesh either.

This particular blunder is quite a bit easier to explain however: First of all, Khorne abhors Slaanesh, so there’s the most basic explanation for you. But it’s also the fact that I could never seem to find an angle about the Slaanesh followers that interested me. All the sexual innuendo (severely pared back in the last decade or so, probably to make the hobby more family friendly) some hobbyists keep making such a fuss about seemed rather trite — but that’s just me: I like my wargaming served without any cheesecake, thank you very much ;-)

I also wasn’t all that fond of the horribly loud and clashing pastel colours. But as the legion came to be more and more defined and their pursuit of perfection twisted into hedonism and relentless pursuit of new experiences, I started to get a handle on the Emperor’s Children.

It still took a long time until I finally built my first Slaaneshi model. When I planned the conversion, I once again started to reflect on the different archetypes that were available to me: The classic Noise Marine, fixated on visual and aural stimuli, wielding clunky sonic weaponry and armour painted in hues that will would make you bleed from your ears. The, well, Alien Sex Fiend of ambiguous gender, clad in studded leather and sporting either more or less breasts than would be anatomically sound. Those two concepts did not seem all that compelling to me. I rather chose to explore the third possible avenue, namely the Emperor’s Childrens’ pursuit of perfection, the original vice that led to their fall. My idea was to build an accomplished warrior, elegant and refined, and so twisted as to appear almost daemonic.

Luckily, I still had a rather eclectic collection of leftover parts. So I got to work and ended up with this:







The model is mainly a combination of the leftover half of the WFB Sorcerer Lord I used to built the champion of Tzeentch, combined with a pair of backwards-jointed legs ending in hooves that came from the plastic Possessed kit.

I added an arm from the regular Chaos Space Marines and another from the WFB Chaos Marauders. I also used a wing from the Sanguinary Guard kit to represent a stylised version of the Emperor’s Children legion badge on the champion’s shoulder. And I thought that for an elegant and distinguished warrior such as this, a half cape across the shoulder was quite appropriate.

As for the weapons, I chose a Plasma pistol (if only because it gave me an excuse to add a small OSL effect) and a wickedly shaped sword (originally a Dark Eldar weapon). Using the WFB sorcerer’s horned heas as well as his torso was a bit of a spontaneous idea, but I think it works.

Even though the post-Heresy Emperors’ Children are usually portrayed wearing armour of pink and black (or, like I said, a combination of all kinds of eye-watering pastel hues, but let’s not go there…), I decided on a different colour scheme: Even though this guy was a twisted monster, I wanted to make him look almost regal, so I chose a deep, luxurious purple for his armour and added gold trim.







I went for very pale skin to contrast the armour and to give an almost marble-like quality to the champion’s flesh. As usual, the application of washes and accents nicely rounded out the paintjob. When it came to the point were I needed to decide what backpack to use, I surprised myself by going for yet another backpack from the Possessed kit, which you’ll see below, along with the finished model:









Regarding the base, I originally wanted to add something pointing to either a defeated servant of Khorne or a loyal Marine. But then I thought about who would have even more reason to hate and fear the Emperor’s Children, and the Dark Eldar came to mind: Surely, the Dark kin would be an object of contempt for the servants of Slaanesh, fearful hypocrites, who hadn’t dared to follow the path of hedonism to its logical conclusion. So I went for a defeated Kabalite warrior, trodden into the mud by the Chaos Marines’ hooves, and built what is maybe my favourite of all the bases I have done to date. Take a look:





I realise that I may have gone a bit overboard with this guy, but after the initial complications in marrying all the seemingly disparate parts, he was just so much fun to build and paint. And should I ever decide to build an Emperor’s Children force (unlikely as that may be), he can definitely serve as their leader: He looks the part!



Captain Gades Elphenor, of the Emperor’s Children Traitor Legion

A dance of death
A line of crimson
The sweet caress of pain
What does it matter
Who lives, who dies?
When all is rapture
And pleasure alike
Show me more!



Three down, one to go. You know what’s next…

Whoa, double post accident

Bloody Awsome !!!!!

 KrautScientist wrote:
I was afraid that any runes I would try to do would end up looking rather goofy, but I definitely see your point

Just use some of the official chaos runes, and you can't go wrong.

Even if someone thinks they look goofy at the end, you can just blame the dark tongue for having goofy looking runes

 KrautScientist wrote:
I realise that I may have gone a bit overboard with this guy, but after the initial complications in marrying all the seemingly disparate parts, he was just so much fun to build and paint. And should I ever decide to build an Emperor’s Children force (unlikely as that may be), he can definitely serve as their leader: He looks the part!

Great dynamics, I especially love the cape! I wasn't sold by the description (quest for perfection while totally mutated or whatnot), but you've pulled it off fantastically! Great theatrical base also

Bits of CC if you're interested: I'd like to see a bit of blending on his horns. Right now they are just the (beautifully executed) skin tone, and I think it'd have more pop if they faded to black. I'm not really a fan of the backpack you've chosen: wild, blatant mutations seem a bit off topic for this build (of course not counting the horned freak head, and reverse jointed knees ) I think the loincloth and the plasma pistol need a bit more detail (cables on the pistol, different color choice for the loincloth)

Great work overall!

 KrautScientist wrote:
Three down, one to go. You know what’s next…

Saving the best for last?

Keep up the great work!
Rawson

Again, thanks a lot, everyone!

@ Rawson: Thanks for the well-considered C&C, mate!

Concerning the runes, I didn't actually worry about their design but rather about how well I would be able to paint them on. I am not all that good at doing freehand designs, and there's nothing worse than clunkily painted-on scripture, if you ask me

Concerning the Slaanesh champion: I left the horns like that on purpose -- if only because I wasn't sure I could convincingly pull off the blending As for the plasma weapon, I am a fan of sidearms painted mainly in silver. I think differently coloured cables would only draw attention away from the more interesting parts of the model.

Oh, and to tell you the truth, I wasn't all that sold on that backpack myself for a while, but in the end, I think it works: This guy's quest for perfection was obviously directed at becoming a deadly and flawless swordsman, so he would welcome any "gift" that makes him even more deadly


Alright, people, time for the fourth Ruinous Power, right?

You have seen three champions so far, but there is one more. This time on “The Ruinous Powers”: Wrath

Wrath is very much Khorne’s domain, of course. And you would think that building a suitable model would be the easiest thing in the world, right? Me being a Khorne player and all…

Well, quite the opposite, actually: This champion was easily the most difficult of the four. Maybe it’s because I have already blown all of my good ideas building my own World Eaters, maybe it’s precisely because I didn’t want to repeat myself too much. But coming up with a gameplan for this guy took me quite a while.

Looking and suitable archetpyes, Khorne is fairly straightforward: It was very clear that Khorne’s champion would have to be a specialist at close quarters combat. A gladiator of sorts would have been a good idea, …only I’ve already done that.

So I tried to build a World Eater that would fit in with the other models of Khorne’s Eternal Hunt, but would also look suitably impressive to hold up to the other three guys. The funniest part is that this model uses very few actual Khorne themed parts…but let’s take a look at the WIP first:









I experimented with lots of different weapons (I even considered a spear at some point, just to try something different from the usual stereotypes), but in the end I realised that chainweapons were really madatory here. So I went the full mile and gave the champion both a chainaxe and sword. The Mk IV torso (originally from the Black Templars sprue) and Space Wolf legs were a nice combination, making the model look suitably massive and slightly feral. I also added a bare arm to represent the World Eaters’ gladiatorial heritage.

Maybe the most important decision was which head to use. I refrained from using a bare head (as I am usually wont to do) or a helmet sporting Khornate “Bunny Ears” but went for the head of a FW Renegade Militia Enforcer. The stylised skull helmet adds a very sinister quality to the model, in my opinion. I also added an ornate pauldron (from the WFB Chaos Knights) and dangling skulls to ride the skull motif for all it was worth.





As expected, the model looked rather horrible after I had painted on the base colours. Fortunately, this was easily remedied by my usual routine of washing and highlighting. I stuck to my tried and true World Eaters’ recipe very closely, only straying from the beaten path in one instance: I chose to paint the model’s eyes a light blue rather than the usual green, since it simply made for a more striking contrast. Here’s the finished model, take a look:



I added some blood on the chainaxe’s teeth and on the base below.





As you can see, the light blue colour really adds some pop to the model’s eyes.







I normally really don’t like to use the older Chaos backpacks: Generally speaking, they can be a chore to paint due to the fact that some of the detail keeps disappearing once it hits one of the packs edges. However, I still had a dedicated Khorne Berzerker backpack courtesy of Biohazard. It featured much crisper detail than the later iterations of this design, and it even had a little icon of Khorne — what’s not to like? It also helped in giving the model a pretty interesting silhouette.

And, as usual, let’s finish our little tour with a detail shot of the base:



Well, if you expected a creative outburst here, I am sorry to disappoint you. But then, this guy is a World Eater, so it’s no wonder I would use a couple of skulls on his base… I rather like the skull on the right (a Dark Eldar trophy): It looks like it’s just about to be crushed by the World Eaters’ heavy boot.

And with that, the fourth of my dark champions was completed. All that remained were some words to go with the model:



Huntmaster Targon Kel, of the World Eaters Traitor Legion

While the battle lasts, that’s all there is.
That, and their lord’s unending thirst.
But off the battlefield, he thinks
Of them; The Carrion Emperor’s dogs
His soul’s ablaze with hatred then
He will not be a slave, a dog.
But a hunter of men
And a taker of skulls

Blood for the Blood God!
And skulls for his throne!



Four dark gods, four champions. We’ll wind up this series tomorrow, when we look at all of these sinister warriors together. Until then, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

I admire your work-flow! You just keep 'em coming, one great miniature after the other...
The berserker has a great pose and the head works absolutely perfect, much better than all the other skull shaped helmets out there.
The sorcerer is cool, but the head is a tiny bit to big for my liking.
The slaneeshy swordsman is awesome, nice harmonic assembly of bitz.
Don't dig the nurgle marine though.

@rawson do you have a gigger sized version of that picture?

you have outdone yourself again krautscientist! they all look great!! i really wish i was as good as you at converting!!!

KrautScientist wrote:@ Rawson: Thanks for the well-considered C&C, mate!

My pleasure!

KrautScientist wrote:Maybe the most important decision was which head to use. I refrained from using a bare head (as I am usually wont to do) or a helmet sporting Khornate “Bunny Ears” but went for the head of a FW Renegade Militia Enforcer. The stylised skull helmet adds a very sinister quality to the model, in my opinion.

I was anticipating bunny ears, but I love your choice! I agree it adds something sinister to him (and wasn't something you'd done a million times before )

Chaos Emperor wrote:@rawson do you have a gigger sized version of that picture?

Sorry, mate. Grabbed that one from the net

like the khorne guy but..... I would have liked to see the skull helmet to be painted like a skull. it would give a nice contrast. besides I would like to think he picked up the skull of a defeated enemy.

Wow Kraut. You have me stunned on these two models! I really love the EC lord. That is an awesome job and your ability to get the overall feel of the animosity of Khorne!

Wow, this thread is really inspiring! I'd be completely awestruck if I could play against your army. Keep up the brilliant work I say, and don't forget posting updates.

Thanks for all the comments, guys! Looks like I managed to strike a nerve, eh?

@ Baiyuan: Thanks a lot, mate! To be honest, it's not my workflow that's admirable but rather my posting schedule I've had these guys ready for some time.
That said, I did complete all four of them over the space of one week or so, since they were a lot of fun to build and paint. I wish I'd always be that fast

I see your point about the "tzeentchian" head, although I wanted a visual shortcut that instantly told you the model's affiliation. I think the head's a rather nice fit for that. The Nurgle marine was the first of the bunch that I built, so he may be rather "restrained" compared to the others. Maybe that's the reason you like him less?

@ Rawson: I actually did consider bunny ears, since I normally really like them, but I wanted to go for something quite different this time, and the enforcer heads are just too cool -- they should have released those as part of the WE upgrade kit, if you ask me!

@ fatty: I actually thought about painting the skull helmet in bone colour for a while, but decided against it: First of all, it's very clear when you look at the sulpt that this is not actually a real skull but a helmet shaped like one. I also didn't want to make the head too similar in tone to the bare arm. And painting it in a lighter colour could have lead to all kinds of problems (what about the mouth cavity, for example?). Anyway, in the end, I went for bronze/brass since it seemed the more solid choice to me...

@ Chaos Emperor: Lest I forget, it was actually your thread that gave me this idea in the first place. So credit where credit is due: Thanks a lot, buddy!


So, time to wrap this up, don't you think?

Here we are, with the last installment of my mini-series, “The Ruinous Powers” – or is it? Before we answer that question, though, let’s take a look back at our four champions of chaos. We’ve seen each of them in turn. Now let’s look at all of them together:



I like how each of them ended up with a very distinct silhouette and an equally individual palette of colours!

So what’s in store for our four warriors and – in turn – for us chaos players? I, for one, can hardly wait to dive headfirst into the new codex. I’ll be on vacation next week, so that leaves me some time to think about my next chaos-related projects. So you may imagine me sitting on the harsh but beautiful seashore of northern Germany, gazing out to sea with burning worlds and the glory of the dark gods on my mind ;-)

Before this gets too sinister, let me say that I am equally thrilled at the prospect of building my next chaos models and finally playing my first real game of the sixth edition, with an army built according to the brand new codex. And I simply cannot wait to see what all my fellow chaos worshippers will do to the old and new models in the coming weeks and months!

And as for our four brave champions above: Building and painting these guys was so much fun that I am actually tempted to expand this series: Why not build and paint one model for each of the traitor legions? That leaves me with five models to go: one Word Bearer, Night Lord, Iron Warrior, Black Legionnaire and Alpha Legionnaire. Heck, why not throw in a Red Corsair to round things out? I am already collecting bits. This should be fun…



The eye is open
The stars aligned
The dark gods stir
And their host marches forth
Death to the false Emperor!
Let the galaxy burn!


And with that, I wish you a great weekend! C&C always welcome!

^ Seeing them all together is a really impressive sight. Each conversion is magnificently executed and the paint job is also to a high standard, you've just earned yourself an exalt sir.

D

They are looking very nice and represent their chapters well.

Man, the Emperor's Children marine is a treat! Love the artsy feel of him. I might take some inspiration from hm if and when I get back to work my own small group of Emperor's Children.

Thanks a lot, guys!

@ izeColt: Mate, you've inspired me so much that I am glad to be able to return the favour

Alright, people: After a very nice week spent at the seaside, here's something new to look at while I am browsing through the new Chaos Codex (small SPOILER: It's freaking awesome!):

When we last laid eyes upon my traitor Basilisk, I had managed to complete the conversion and undercoat the whole model with GW Chaos Black.

So there was no way around it: I had to start painting this thing. The largest paintbrush available to me (not a tank brush, mind!) in hand, I sat down and got to work:

Following a recipe I had found by sheer chance while browsing through old issues of WD, the tracks were basecoated in dark bronze (Vallejo Tinny Tin in this case, although you can rest assured that this wasn’t the colour used in GW’s original recipe…) and then drybrushed with GW Boltgun Metal. The result is rather nice in my opinion, and it’s definitely a very quick way of painting tracks without any washes involved!

I then used exactly the same base colours I use on my traitor soldiers: The tank’s chassis was painted with GW Adeptus Battlegrey, and I added GW Mechrite Red on the front third of the chassis. All metal parts were painted with GW Boltgun Metal. The skulls were basecoated with GW Dheneb Stone. Here’s what the model looked like at this point:





Before applying any washes or detailing whatsoever, I added a couple of decals. Doing this at this particular point was key, since it meant that I would be able to “age” and “weather” the decals along with the rest of the tank, making them look far more realistic:



A couple of heretic runes went on the right flank of the tank, while the fuel tank got a nice little warning sign.



I also added some kill marks on the tank’s other flank. Looking back on it now, five seems a little measly, doesn’t it?

All the decals were treated with Vallejo Decal Medium, then Vallejo Decal Fix, and finally varnished with Vallejo Matte Varnish. It worked like a charm, making the decals look like they were really part of the tank.

While everything was drying, I began work on the tank commander, laying down base colours virtually identical to the rest of the tank.



I then used a mixture of washing and highlighting to further define the model. Of course I took extra care when working on the face. After the tank commander had been completed, he was glued into the hatch:



The head, in case you were wondering, was made by RSJake and can be bought in his webstore . It was, once again, kindly sponsored by Biohazard, and I thought it was just the perfect choice for a traitorous tank commander (going by the head, I highly recommend RSJake’s stuff: the detail and sculpt are both very nice!).

Anyway, with the tank commander completed, I more or less repeated the process on the rest of the tank: Wash everything liberally with GW Agrax Earthshade, then add Red Gore to the red parts of the chassis. Of course I also painted on some chaos iconography. I wanted it to look like it had been crudely dabbed on by the traitors. And so, after a short while, the tank’s main chassis was finished:









As you can see above, I also added small OSL effects to the chaos icon and sensor array at the front. Nothing too fancy, I just wanted to make those areas pop a little.

The next part I had been looking forward to: I basecoated the large blast shield protecting the loading plattform in the back. I had added a stylised daemon face from a WFB terrain kit which I painted and highlighted in bronze colours. The shield itself was painted GW Mechrite Red and then layered with GW Red Gore, just like the other red parts of the model.

The blast shield pretty much became a “blank canvas” at this point, awaiting further decoration. Take a look:



We’ll get to that in a minute. First, let’s talk about the rest of the model, though: The main cannon and loading platform were very easy to finish: I just painted them silver and then added weathering by washing with GW Nuln Oil or stippling on patches of rust.

I glued all the sub-assemblies together at this point. This is what the model looked like:











I was already pretty pleased with the tank, although there were some things still missing: I wanted to add some smaller patches of rust and neglect all over the tank’s surface, but I had waited until the model was completely assembled, lest the effect turn out uneven.

The loading platform in the back of the tank was also woefully empty:







So the next stage would be to add the final missing details and to convert and paint the models loading the tank’s main cannon.

Next time: final details.

Until then, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Looks mighty impressive.

What models are you going to use for the rest of your guard?

Thanks, mate!

For the other Traitors, I started with a kitbash of Cadian and Chaos Marauder parts, but I will probably end up incorporating all kinds of different chaos models into the mix. For examples, check further up in this thread or take a look at the Traitor-related posts on my blog.

Cool.

Have you ever considered using Catachan parts? You could paint their skin corrupted and grey or something with black Chaos star tatoos.

The thought did occasionally cross my mind, especially when thinking about converting beastmen, but to tell you the truth, the sculpt is just to old and hideous at this point: All the bare torsos and arms are looking way too cartoony and awful to be interesting. The exceptions would be the weapons teams and - way more recent - command squad. But I'll probably rather wait for new Catachan models before actually using them.

The tank is looking great buddy. I think you need to get some extra shells or something for the rear platform. Good job on the osl as well.

The head looks fantastic on the Commander, it's almost like it was made for traitor guard Having used the other similar heads on my Star Phantom scouts I can also attest to the quality of RSJakes work. Very little flash clean up and very nicely detailed.

Speaking of the heads on my scouts have you maybe thought about a more organised veteran type unit? Kinda like the Karskin(sp?) Those heads would look pretty good on some tooled up Traitor Vets. Just sayin.....

Thanks again for letting me have the head, buddy! It was really a godsend for this project!

As for a veteran unit, I recently participated in the Dreamforge Games Kickstarter and will receive twenty Eisenkern Stormtroopers soon-ish. I am thinking about making them my veteran unit. I love the faceless "Jin-Roh"-vibe the models have got going on!

I hope he has his super ear plugs fitted.

 Miss Dee wrote:
I hope he has his super ear plugs fitted.

Haha, that made me crack up!

He's a servant of chaos, mind you. Ears are for loyalist dogs

Not a problem on the head, I knew you'd be able to put it to good use.

As for earplugs! The only people who like to listen to stuff are the whoresons of Fulgrim! Pink wearing pansies! You don't need ears to blow stuff up in the name of the Blood God.

Right, time to wrap up the tank, don't you think?

Let’s have a look at the finishing touches and then, in turn, at the finished model.

The first thing I had to do was build and paint a loading crew for the Basilisk’s rear platform. I thought about howto make these guys look suitably heretical and came up with the idea of combining a pretty standard human model with a hulking mutant carrying the shell to be loaded into the Basilisk’s main cannon.

The first guy was quite easily built. Take a look:



He was made from what I believe are mainly Catachan parts. I gave him a pair of kneeling legs, making him look like he was ready to begin loading the cannon. I also angled his head so he would look at his companion and give him orders.

And while we are on the topic, here’s the secon crew member:









As you can see, I defaulted back to my tried and true recipe of combining an Ork boy body with a totally different head – from the WFB Zombie kit in this case. The head makes the model look twisted and a bit dim-witted, which was exactly the look I was gunning for. I also added a few bitz to further obscure the model’s orky heritage.

The tank shell held by the model is an actual shell, by the way. I even added a small decal depicting a sigil of chaos, although a part of it unfortunately rubbed off when I placed the shell into the model’s hands.

Anyway, here’s the two models interacting with each other:



I also took the opportunity to add one more detail: a flag that had been collecting dust in my bitzbox for ages. Originally a standard for some old WFB Skeletons, I dug it up and added it to the tank as a small visual flourish.

Here’s a detail shot:





The flag itself was painted to look like it had been stitched together from human skin. The face came from an old plastic Chaos Warrior and was added by me. I used Tamiya Clear Red to dab on chaos insignia. I think this flag really gets across the point that these guys are in it for the evulz.

And that was pretty much it. The last thing I did was to use slightly thinned down Vermin Brown to add patches of rust to the tank’s hull. It turned out that some of the rough spots on the chassis were really quite a boon, since they underlined the look of neglect and rust. I also used Mithril Silver to paint on a couple of paint chips and scratches here and there. Like with all weathering, it was important to know when to stop: I wanted my tank to look decidedly used, but also like it was still in reasonable working order.

And with that, my first tank ever was complete: Let’s have a big picture extravaganza to celebrate the occasion!



















That’s the Basilisk from all sides. I think my Traitor Guard colour scheme worked rather nicely, if I do say so myself.

Here’s a couple of detail shots showing some of my favourite parts:

First up, the sides of the vehicle, complete with “aged” decals:





Like I’ve said before, I should definitely have added more kill marks

Here’s then the front of the tank and tank commander….



…and, once again, the guys in the back:







Maybe I’ll be revisiting the back platform at some point, to add some additional ammunition.

And last but not least, let me wind up this post by showing you what may be my favourite detail: The little map I painted for the tank commander:



All in all, this project was a blast: Not only did I have lots of fun painting the tank, it may also have helped me to overcome my fear of painting tanks altogether — we’ll see once I decide to tackle the Rhinos, I guess.

As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!