In order tp produce something every once in a while that I can use in my “regular” 40k army, I got some more work in on my squad of traitorous Space Wolves: My first test model came out well enough, but I realised that I would maybe have to pay more attention to make these models look suitably chaotic and not just like members of the 13th company who had been forced to use pieces of CSM armour to repair their gear. So my next batch of Blood Wolves maintained a better balance between SW and CSM parts, and I even reworked some of my first test models. Now it was time to actually paint them!

I decided to finish the initial three test models I had built first, which will give you a nice “before/after” comparison later in this post

So here are the new painted models:

This guy is actually my favourite so far, since that Raptor helmet just looks quite menacing for some reason, but not so overtly chaotic that you can put your finger on what it is right away. The model was painted in the same colours as the first test model, and the fur areas gave me a nice chance to introduce an additional colour to the model. I also added one of my simple OSL effects to the model’s plasma pistol.

And the last remaining test model:

This guy actually shows some skin, so I used the same recipe for pale skin that had already worked rather nicely on both my Traitor Guard and the Joras Turnpelt model. This model was in a pretty rough condition due to the bitz I used in its construction being in a verry sorry state to begin with, so I had to be careful during painting, paying attention not to slather yet another thick coat of paint on top. That said, I think I managed to salvage the model well enough!

So here’s a comparison shot for you:

This is what the models looked like before painting:

Still not easy to look at, am I right?

And here they are as they are looking now:

Quite a transformation, don’t you think? Especially if you consider the rather sorry state some of those bitz were in! As you can see, I did some slight changes to the models, adding a trophy here or swapping a head or shoulder pad there, but all in all, they still look reasonably similar to the initial builds. The new colours are much nicer, though…

So, just for fun, I also took another picture of the models alongside some chaos hounds I painted quite a while ago:

These are a great fit for both my World Eaters and their Blood Wolves allies, and if I ever add daemonic allies to the force, I believe these hounds will be used as “counts as” Bloodletters. The image of a huge pack of hounds being used by Khorne’s Eternal Hunt to run down their prey really appeals to me!

And, of course, a picture of all the Blood Wolves I have managed to paint so far:

Both the models and paint recipe took some time to come together, but I am reasonably pleased now. While these are looking quite distinct from my World Eaters, that had been the plan all along. And I think they are doing a good job of channelling the sinister, feral side of the Space Wolves.

So, what do you think? Am I onto something here? Let me know in the comments! And, ss always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

After my first game of Blood Bowl, I felt the need to reward myself with a new model for my team. And since I had wanted to do something with GW’s plastic Savage Orc Waaaghboss anyway, this was a very nice excuse to add another player to the Orkheim Ultraz.

I’ve worked with quite a few of the WFB plastic characters by now, and they are usually really excellent, easy to put together and highly detailed and dynamic. Using them for conversions takes a little thinking, however, since the parts fit together in a very specific way. Still, it’s usually possible to bend them to your will, if you’re a little careful with the cutting.

In this case, The objective was to build an orcish star player for the Orkheim Ultraz. It really was a modelling and painting project, first and foremost, with very little rules consideration in place, yet I suppose the model could be used as Varag Ghoulchewa.

Anyway, I assembled the model, basically only changing the arms: the huge axe normally wielded by the model went into my bitzbox, while the forearms were replaced with Black Orc gauntlets. This was done both to give the model a suitable pose for a Blood Bowl player and to make this guy look like he could pull some really nasty punches with those armoured fists of his. And while I wanted to keep the “almost naked” savage orc look, I also added some 40k Ork armour plates here and there to give the model at least a suggestion of armour (and better tie it in with the rest of the team).

This is what the model looked like before painting:

After taking these photos, I realised that I would have to shorten the model’s left arm by a notch, so that’s what I did: This guy may be an Orc, but that arm did look too long even for a race of malproportioned green monsters.

In hindsight, I might have done something more involved with the model’s arms, of course, changing the pose into something different, but to be honest, I didn’t want to have to do lots and lots of sculpting, so I went for a rather simple solution.

Actually, the most involved part of the conversion was to cut the rock the model is jumping off of from the surrounding WFB base to be able to use it on a round base. I added the usual mix of glue, modelling sand and cork around it to blend it in and create some texture on the base.

Anyway, when it came to painting this guy, I stuck to my tried and true Orkheim Ultraz formula. Of course, the fact that the model has so much skin on display meant that Brian’s fantastic recipe for orc skin could truly shine once again. And I also added some yellow Gorkamorka decals on the armour plates.

Painting this guy was a blast, and so, a relatively short while later, the model was completed:

As you can see, I also added a generous helping of static grass again, to emulate the football pitch look.

All in all, I think the Waaaghboss makes a nice star player for the Orkheim Ultraz. And with his distinct look and imposing frame, he makes for a stunning centrepiece:

As always, let me know what you think! And, of course, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Today’s update brings a character that came out of a recent INQ28 building spree (more on that soon). In this particular case, however, what’s even more interesting than the model itself is how its  background came together thanks to the input from other hobbyists.

But first things first: Everything started when I received a Skaven Packmaster model from the Island of Blood boxed set. The model came as a “bonus”, so to speak, when I picked up the Rat Ogres from that set from ebay. It did not take me long to decide that the model would become some kind of mutant somewhere along the way, but beyond that initial idea, I didn’t really come up with anything more for quite a while, and the model sat in my bitzbox, unused. I had also given away the model’s huge and ornate warpstone staff, and the rest of the sculpt is really not all that spectacular, to be honest.

My interest in the piece was revitalised, however, while looking at some of the brilliant and sinister kitbashes of fellow hobbyists PDH, Jeff Vader and Ammi. Inspired by their work, I started messing around with the Packmaster model and a cultist head:

I really liked the mysterious and sinister aspect the mask added to the model. I did not yet know what type of character I wanted this guy to be, though: Just a twist from some underhive or other? A Heretek’s twisted lab assistant? At least the model came together fairly quickly now: I added a vestigial Talos/Cronos arm from my Legion project, and for some reason I decided to use a supremely creepy crypt ghoul hand, caressing a skull…

Now when I posted the WIP pictures on Dakka, fellow forumite Dreadclaw69 had this to say regarding a possible background for the model:

Maybe we finally have the answer to the question “Where do servo-skulls come from?” His back story could be;
As a favour to the Inquisitor the Ad-Mech have dispatched this servant of theirs to collect worthy skulls to become servo skulls for his Ad-Mech master the Inquisitor. This individual was captured from a feral world the Ad-Mech were turning into a Forge World, which had a culture of head hunting and collecting the skulls of their enemies. Those indigenous people who were suitable for the purposes of the Ad-Mech became servitors, Skittarri etc. This one was singled out by the Tech Priests. Those skulls deemed unsuitable he keeps for himself, but to what end is unknown.

I loved this idea right away, but it became even more brilliant due to the fact that DexterKong and I had just been having a conversation about one of Inquisitor Antrecht’s recurring enemies, one Inquisitor Fiegmund. My rough background idea for Inquisitor Fiegmund is that he has been horribly injured during a run in with Antrecht’s daemonhost, and I wanted the model to still be showing the scars of that confrontation. I was also looking for a way to have Fiegmund be disabled in some way (blind, for example) due to his injuries. Dexter suggested having him rely on a number of servo-skulls to replace the senses he had lost, and suddenly all the pieces fell into place: The gas masked twist would become a member of Fiegmund’s retinue, tasked with the construction of his servo-skulls. And thus, the Skull Collector was born!

I tried to incorporate this background into the model’s paintjob. A generous helping of Tamiya Clear Red was all it took. Here’s the finished model:

I wanted the model to look like it had just finished “cleaning” a skull by carving off all the flesh. Hence the blood (and the bones strewn across the floor).

I remember being immensely inspired when seeing JRN’s “Servo Skull Collector” some time ago, and after just considering duplicating that idea, I am rather happy I managed to come up with my own take on the whole “Skull Collector” concept in the end. In all fairness, though, this model really only managed into into its own because Dreadclaw69 and Dexter added their brilliant background ideas! And the finished character exactly matches the gothic and sinister atmosphere I will be going for with Inquisitor Fiegmund’s retinue. Here’s a rough sketch of the character’s background so far:

The Skull Collector

Ever since being horribly maimed in a fight against Inquisitor Antrecht’s Daemonhost Zalambur, Inquisitor Fiegmund has been heavily dependent on a coterie of servo-skulls. He now employs the services of a small, masked mutant that was originally found by an Adeptus Mechanicus team doing reconstruction work on the derelict hives of the purged world St. Berthold, preparing the cities for resettlement. The mutant would have been executed under normal circumstances, yet he demonstrated an uncanny talent of constructing extremely advanced and effective servo-skulls for some reason, and it is this capacity in which he now serves the Inquisitor. He also seems to be obsessed with the shapes and intricacies of the human cranium, collecting all the skulls he can for his work. And while he uses some of them to build more auxiliary contraptions for Fiegmund, he is allowed to keep some of his bounty, though no one can say to what purpose…

I am actually really happy with the way the character came together! Thanks again to my fellow hobbyists for their suggestions!
As a matter of fact, another small hobby revelation happened, once I posted the model on Dakka. Fellow forumite Two Spartan had this to say:

That gas mask mutant is fantastic, so creepy. Maybe its because his robotic arm looks kind of insectoid, but I think this little guy is the scariest thing I’ve seen you make. Just imagining him focusing on the skull scraping rapidly at it with that claw, turning it round, scraping some more, examining it to see if there’s any meat still left. Then it pauses and lifts its masked head in your direction and drops the skull.

I initially wanted to reply that this guy would never ever drop a skull, seeing how he is absolutely fascinated with them as objets d’art. But then I started asking myself what would have to happen to actually make him drop a skull. Cue Fridge Horror…

In any case, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Today, let’s take another look at my desk, where a rather eclectic collection of INQ28 characters is currently being built. Apart from the usual mix of fanatics, mutants and Inquisitorial operatives, it is my very great pleasure to actually be able to add some female characters to my various retinues. But all in good time! Let us take a look at all the different retinues in characters:

1.) Inquisitor Gotthardt’s retinue

Even though only the good Inquisitor himself has been painted so far, Gotthardt’s retinue is pretty far along from a composition standpoint: With Rogue Trader Iskander Gagarin, former Guard officer Esteban Revas as well as a Drill Abbot and retired Arbites Judge (which will both need some additional background), the warband already comprised an interesting collection of archetypes and narrative hooks. But then, inspiration struck yet again and made me build two more members for the warband:

Trooper Koltz

First up, looking at Cpt. Esteban Revas’ military background and upbringing, I thought it would be interesting for him to have a retainer of his own: One Trooper Salvador “Sal” Koltz, sworn to serve the Revas family because his life was saved by Esteban’s late father. I imagine Koltz as both a experienced veteran and a sly and deceptively clever person, always hiding his smarts behind a veneer of lower class joviality. Here’s a WIP shot of the model:

In addition to being Revas’ personal retainer, Koltz also serves as his master’s “packing mule”, so I gave him all kinds of baggage to lug around — I imagine him to be carrying all kinds of stuff, ranging from sensible military grade equipment to Revas’ personal smoking utensils, shoeshine, etc.

It was actually a delicate balance to maintain, since adding any more stuff would have made the model look over-encumbered and silly. Anyway, I am quite pleased with Koltz. The only thing I might change is to exchange his head with one from the WFB Empire free company. Apart from that, though, he really looks the part!

Elisha Gorgo

Finding decent bitz to build female characters is always a bit of a challenge, and especially so with GW’s range. The female models available are few and far between, and those that actually exist usually sport a very distinct look (Wood Elves, High Elves,…). So it was by a brilliant stroke of luck that I managed to pick up the three female vampires from the Vampire Counts Coven Throne during an ebay auction. Granted, these ladies also have a pretty special look, but not only does it match the strange and eclectic design of the 40k universe rather well, but I also think these models are among the best female models ever released by GW — unfortunately, the normal way of picking them up is to buy a kit that comes at 50 Euros a pop…

Anyway, thanks to the lucky coincidence outlined above, I found myself in the possession of the three models (along with some more very nice bitz from the same kit). So I immediately started to build the first female member for Inquisitor Gotthardt’s retinue: Elisha Gorgo…

…or, actually, Countess Elisha Haxta di Colasante Mordina Gorgo. My rough background idea for her is that she is the daughter of a powerful Imperial noble. She started displaying psychic powers at a very young age. Normally, that would have meant a dreary and possibly short life aboard one of the Blackships, although her influential father pulled all kinds of strings in order to keep her “affliction” a secret. Due to her powers, she has been sequestered away from other people for most of her life and grew up very shy and demure as a consequence. Her secret was only uncovered when Inquisitor Gotthardt visited her homeworld as part of an investigation. And for some reason (which will need to be pretty good, I suppose), he chose to make her a member of his retinue.

While the warband can definitely use a psyker from a rules perspective, I mainly think that she could serve to introduce some interesting character dynamics into the retinue: Esteban Revas is feeling immensely protective of her for several reasons: They both come from a noble background. They both lost their standing and home. And there’s also the fact that she reminds him of Archduchess Cyrine, the young ruler of his homeworld. I could also see the Rogue Trader Iskander Gagarin constantly trying to woo her. In any case, she could be interesting from a narrative point of view.

The model itself is a relatively easy kitbash, using my favourite upper body from the Coven Throne kit and combining it with some High Elf archer legs. I also replaced both hands with hands from the Dreamforge Games Eisenkern Stormtroopers (yes, really!), because the original hands were far too claw-like — befitting an ancient vampiress, but certainly not an Imperial debutante…

Anyway, the hands from the Stormtrooper kit (which is fantastic, by the way — I’ll absolutely need to do a detailed writeup on it, one of these days) were a perfect fit. All in all, I am really happy with how Elisha turned out, and I think she makes for a stunning addition to Inquisitor Gotthardt’s retinue!

With the addition of these two characters, I believe we can call Gotthardt’s warband completed from a conceptional standpoint. Here are all the models together:

So all that remains now is for the characters to be painted (and receive their respective backgrounds).

2.) Inquisitor Fiegmund’s retinue

Where Gotthardt is fundamentally a rational and levelheaded Inquisitor, especially for a member of the Ordo Hereticus, the maimed Inquisitor Fiegmund is a man possessed and driven over the edge by his hatred for heretics in general and Inquisitor Antrecht in particular. His fragile mental state carries over to his warband, which comprises all kinds of highly dubious and sinister individuals: the Skull Collector, for one. There are also men who revel in the ability to vent their religious zeal and desire for violence while serving the Inquisitor, among them…

Practicals Pask and Gretsch

I begun work on these guys fairly recently, so they’ll still need some smoothing out. Pask and Gretsch are religious nutjobs who would be dead or behind bars if it weren’t for Fiegmund’s intervention: Pask is a former guardsmen whose religious zeal set him at odds with his fellow soldiers. Gretsch is just a madman and killer, selected by Fiegmund for his unquestioning loyalty and religious fervour. Both are pretty easy conversions of Dark Vengeance cultist models. But I think that, even at this early stage, both models already exude an air of gothic menace that’s a great match for Inquisitor Fiegmund’s retinue…

Death Cultist

This bonnie lass is basically a Dark Eldar Wych, transformed into a Death Cultist through the addition of a couple of bitz. The head is a Dark Vengeance cultist head, and while it may seem slightly clunky, I imagine the mask hides some horrible bionic augmentations, so it still works. I also added a flintlock pistol and tilt plate for a more gothic, medieval feel — maybe the Fleur de Lys icon on her shoulderpad even hints towards her cult having served as a recruitment center for the Adepta Sororitas at one point?

Anyway, I am rather happy with the model: She almost manages to convey a certain Blanchian vibe, and what more could I ask?

3.) Inquisitor Alvar’s retinue

In addition to Gotthardt’s and Fiegmund’s warbands, there is also an Ordo Xenos warband to consider. First up, I put some more work into the conversion of my first Xenos Inquisitor, now named…

Inquisitor Titus Alvar

The body of the Dark Vengeance cultist champ I had used as a base for the conversion was treated with GS to mask his heretical origins. I also replaced the original sword with a Dark Elf sabre: While it’s not too on-the-nose Eldar-ish, it still reads as a possible Xenos artifact. And I got my hands on one of my favourite heads ever (from the Empire Celestial Hurricanum kit), courtesy of my fellow hobbyist Gerner (cheers, mate!).

The addition of the head really transforms the model into a character, if you ask me:

Expect a look at the finished model soon!

And here’s the Xenos warband so far: Inquisitor Alvar, accompanied by his trusted IG veteran and Kroot pathfinder:

I also used some more female parts from the Coven Throne kits to start and assemble another member for Alvar’s retinue, a Sun Cultist:

Sun Cultist

I had had this idea for quite a while, but then I was inspired anew by Bruticus’ fantastic sun cultist character. I knew that I would really have to get my ass in gear to produce a model that would hold up to his fantastic conversion. Here’s my first inital mockup of the cultist:

The legs and arms are from the Dark Eldar Wyches, while the torso once again came from one of the Coven Throne vampires. The mask was painstakingly spliced together from a Sanguinary Guard helmet and a Wych head — I even had to touch the head up after already considering it finished, since some of the guys over at the Ammobunker pointed out to me that the facial proportions were a little off. And they were right, damn them!

Anyway, here’s the finished head:

I won’t go into too much detail about the process of getting this sorted out. Suffice to say you wouldn’t believe how fiddly a conversion it was…

The next step will be to figure out which arms and weapons to use on her. Either a more classical look…

…or a cultist axe picking up the sun motif?

In any case, I’ll take my time with this model. It would be horrible to hurry her along (and thereby messing up the conversion) after having spent such a long time on that masked face…

4.) Other Inquisitorial agents, mutants and shady characters

To wind this up, let me show you some additional models and mockups for various characters. I am usually doing several of these at once, which relaxes me. There’s little background in place for most of the following models, and most of them are very WIP — you have been warned…

Sanctioned Psyker

Again, a relatively simple kitbash. I tried to approximate the look of the sanctioned psyker models released by GW some time ago, only somewhat less unhinged. This guy looks like a military man and a professional to me, but there’s little background beyond that…

Mutant Bounty Hunter

I also started painting the twist Bounty Hunter I posted some time ago. Some details are still missing, but the model is mostly complete at this point:

Looks like one mean mother, doesn’t he?

I also salvaged an old Gorkamorka Orc by making him into yet another mutant which I’ll be calling “Old Vicehand” for now…

And, finally, I bought the remains of a Necromunda starter box from ebay a while ago. And while the models were all there, they were mostly in a truly abysmal condition. I started rebuilding one of the Orlock gangers with a couple of new parts, and will probably make him into a Mad Max-like NPC ganger:

Certainly not fantastic yet, but he’ll be getting there in the end.

So yeah, as you can see, INQ28 always allows for many different and interesting characters from all walks of life to be worked on at the same time. I, for one, find this extremely relaxing and, indeed, stimulating from a creative point of view!

So, any suggestions for any of those characters? I’d love to hear any C&C you might have in the comments section! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

I already mentioned in my latest Desktop Roundup post that I had continued working on my model for Inquisitor Alvar, of the Ordo Xenos. And after spending quite some time to make this model look just the way I wanted it, I can finally show you the finished model today.

But before I do that, let’s take a look at the model’s evolution:
Everything started with my desire to convert the trenchcoat wearing cultist champion from Dark Vengeance into an Inquisitor — as a matter of fact, my original plan was to build a second version of Inquisitor Antrecht.

So that’s what I tried to do when Biohazard was kind enough to let me have his DV cultist champ. But it didn’t work as well as I had anticipated, so my plan B was to transform the model into an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, seeing how this was the one major Ordo I had not yet built a member of.

This was the original mockup for the model:

The most involved part of the conversion was to replace the cultist’s bare arms with uniformed arms from several Cadian kits, and it quickly became obvious that some GS work would be necessary at the seams. What’s more, the cultist’s bare and branded chest needed to be covered as well. While working on the model, I had the idea for an Inquisitor who was also a bit of a snappy dresser. That’s why I went for a “tie” when building the early version above. I also added a dwarven pistol that, while a bit on the big side, really looks like a reliable piece of equipment (especially when dealing with those vile Xenos…).

Alas, the different parts didn’t yet gel as well as I had hoped. Several people suggested using a different head and replacing the sword, and there was very little love for the tie I had used. I tried several heads as well as a different type of tie, and the model changed to this:

But that didn’t feel right, either: I didn’t necessarily want yet another venerable old-timer!

The turning point came when I received a fantastic head from the Celestial Hurricanum kit courtesy of my fellow hobbyist Gerner, and when DexterKong convinced me that I should give the original tie another chance. That’s when Inquisitor Alvar finally begun to take shape in earnest:

The new arms were blended into the rest of the torso using GS. Inspired by Bruticus’ Inquisitor Tsengir, I also replaced the sword with a Dark Elf sabre, resulting in a weapon  with a rather subtle Xenos look. And I started to build up a waistcoat on the character’s torso using GS.

When the time came to paint the model, I went back to my original idea of the Inquisitor being a bit of a fashion victim and socialite. Because of that, I went for a less shadowy and secretive look, instead opting for some bold colour choices:

Alvar’s coat was painted in a rich, dark red, with dark grey lining. I realise that the reverse colour scheme would have been the more obvious choice for an Inquisitor, but I am actually rather pleased with this particluar choice. His clothes under the coat were painted in various shades of dark grey to make them look subtly expensive (and prevent the model from ending up looking too busy), and I used bronze as a colour to pick out some details.

DexterKong pointed out that the googles and bronze details gave the Inquisitor a certain steampunkish vibe, and I took that on board when building a base for the model:

The base was constructed by combining a piece of plasticard (cut from an old telephone card), a gear (from a very old alarm clock), a bit of brass grating (from the 40k basing set) and some cork chaff. I also covered the plastic card in plastic glue and kept picking at it to give it a slightly pocked, warped surface texture.

Then the whole base was spraypainted, first with GW Chaos Black, then with brown paint from the DIY superstore:

And then it was painted using my usual recipe for rusty metal: Stipple on rust with a lighter shade of brown, wash with GW Agrax Earthshade, add more rust, then add GW Boltgun metal to create the areas where the original metal is showing through. Here’s the finished base:

Inquisitor Alvar was then glued to the base, and I added some final touches to the model: Some areas were tidied up, the hem of his coat and his boots were lightly drybrushed with GW Graveyard Earth to show where grime and dirt had begun to collect, and I also added a simple gem effect to his tie. And with that, the model was finished:

Here are a couple of detail shots of the model on its base:

And a look at Alvar’s “lantern jaw of justice”:

All in all, I am fairly happy with how the model turned out: I like the aristocratic quality about him, yet his equipment and the googles on his brow show that, as a member of the Ordo Xenos, he also is an accomplished fighter and possibly quite a bit of a scientist as well. All in all, the main point of critique leveraged against the earlier iterations of the character was that he didn’t look all that much like an Inquisitor. I think the finished model puts that problem to rest: At least, he very much seems like an Inquisitor to me

The last thing to do was to write a short background vignette for the character, outlining the ideas and concepts that had led to the model’s creation:

Inquisitor Titus Alvar, of the Ordo Xenos

House Alvar has been one of the more influential noble houses for centuries. As a scion of the house, Titus Alvar grew up in luxury and power, the intricacies of the Imperial courts with their waxing and waning support for one house or another a game he quickly mastered. Maybe the search for new and more immediate thrills was what made him enter that perilous region of space known as “The Veil of Impurity” time and time again, and tales of his exploration of ancient ruins, of treasures discovered and adventures survived, made him the talk of the courts he had left behind. As a matter of fact, one of his expeditions into the treacherous cluster of stars resulted in a standoff with Inquisitrix Cimbria Carscallen. Under normal circumstances, someone running afoul of the Ordo Xenos would have been executed without second thought, yet Carscallen must have seen something in Alvar that made her reconsider. And so, Titus Alvar, noble, adventurer, became an Interrogator in the Emperor’s Holy Ordos of the Inquisition and, in time, an Inquisitor in his own right.

Though the years of doing the Emperor’s work may have somewhat mellowed his once flamboyant lifestyle, Titus Alvar very much remains a socialite and a political animal. His standing as a member of an influential noble house makes him a common guest at social functions all over the sector, and the tales of his exploits have led some of his peers to suspect that he is a glory hound, first and foremost.

In truth, Titus Alvar is, above all else, a pragmatist: The trappings of nobility are as much of a useful tool to him as the artifacts he has recovered on countless expeditions or the retainers, some of them quite exotic, that comprise his warband. Meanwhile, some of Alvar’s colleagues have grown suspicious of the Inquisitor’s continued expeditions to the Veil of Impurity and some of the alliances he may have forged there…

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

I recently played my second game of Blood Bowl, giving both the Orkheim Ultraz and myself some much needed practice. My opponent was my colleague Annie with her brilliant Lustria team (more on that in a minute), and in contrast to her husband Mike, she certainly didn’t pull her punches this time around.

Which was really all for the best, since I really need to learn this game the hard way. That said, she was still nice enough to point out some of my more imbecilic tactical decisions before it was too late, talking me through the different game moves and explaining what did and didn’t make sense.

One of my Blitzers swinging a right hook at a Saurian — doubtlessly in frustration…

All of this didn’t stop me from getting thoroughly annihilated on the pitch, however: The Orkheim Ultraz spent most of the game knocked onto their asses. Not all of this was due to my dubious tactics, however, I just seemed to have a knack for rolling ones for the entire duration of the game: often several of them in a row, in fact…

A rare moment of triumph: One of my field players has managed to catch the ball. His buddies are preparing to shield him from the oncoming lizards. Shortly after this picture was taken, things got rather ugly…

The game ended with my team failing to score a single touchdown, while Annie’s lizards had managed to score two. If I hadn’t been so slow during the game, I might have lost even harder.

My utter annihilation aside, it feels like I am – slowly – coming to grips with the game. While there’s quite a lot that does not yet come naturally to me, I believe I am beginning to understand some of the underlying mechanics and getting an idea of what to do and when to do it. If this all sounds extremely cautiously optimistic to you, bear with me: I am not a rules guy, and it takes ages for me to learn the intricacies of basically every tabletop game (except maybe for HeroQuest — I think I have that down by now ).

Anyway, I’ll need more practice, of course, but I may be starting to understand what I am actually doing during the game, which is a pretty good development, all things considered.

A typical scene from the game: Almost my entire team lying around on the pitch, groaning in pain…

So, instead of putting you through more of my lamentations and tactical ineptitude, I thought it would be nice to spend the second half of this post to show you more of Annie’s Lustria models, originally conceived as the Raakmoor Venom Vipers. The team is full of great little ideas and beautifully painted, so you’re in for a treat.

And since you already got a look at the regular players in my last post, I’ll be focusing on the supporting characters this time around, since they are really something to behold. Because Annie has this habbit of spending at least as much money and work on her support staff as on the team proper. It’s madness, to be sure, but it’s a good kind of madness, if you ask me

Disclaimer: Just to be perfectly clear on this: None of the following models were built or painted by me, and huge thanks must go to Annie for allowing me to post them here!

So, with that out of the way, let’s take a closer look:

First up, the trainer of the team:

I already showed you this guy previously, without his floating chair. But now, finally in his true seat of power, the model is even cooler. For some reason, the bloated, froglike Slann immediately seems like a great trainer or manager.

And you can almost imagine the skink at his side whispering recommendations in his ear, evaluating certain players and the like. The model has lots of detail and different textures, and I think Annie has really managed to do it justice with her paintjob:

And that dapper little cap, done in GS and painted in the team’s colours as well as featuring its initials, still has to be my favourite part! A great addition that instantly transforms an otherwise unconverted model into a suitable piece for Blood Bowl:

Then there are the cheerleaders:

A very clever little conversion, involving some stock chamaeleon skinks and a bunch of pipe cleaners. I also love how Annie managed to paint the beady little eyes, complete with pupils, no less!

Now, what happens when the Raakmoor fans have to accompany the Vipers on an away match? Not to worry, because they have their very own fan bus to take them wherever they need to go:

Using that huge metal model just for the heck of it is totally nuts, of course. But you just cannot ignore the brilliance of the idea: The fans commandeering a huge dinosaur to take them to each game of their team. Plus the model is, once again, very nicely painted! Check out the flags with the team logo! Brilliant!

And finally, possibly my favourite of the bunch:

Whenever one of the Lizards get beaten to a cold-blooded pulp, no need to fear, because the team has a flying medic on standby at all times.
Now the idea in itself is already fantastic: Just imagine that terradon swooping in every time one of the players gets hurt. But the little details are what really takes the cake here: The terradon has a flashing blue light modeled on its head, and the skink has a flag and a bag of medical supplies. Brilliant!

All of these were made from stock Lizardmen models and a whole lot of creativity! And all of this showcases both Annie’s creativity and prowess at painting stuff, but also something I think is great about Blood Bowl in general: You only strictly need a dozen models to play the game, but there are all kinds of occasions for additional models to accompany your team. And there’s so much potential for adding humourous little tidbits to your collection of models: Have an idea for a funny mini-diorama? Heck, you may as well throw it in: Chances are, you’ll actually be able to use the model in some capacity, if only as some kind of cool turn marker.

So with that, my exploits in the wonderful world of fantasy football continue. Thanks again to Annie for letting me show these models! And, as always, thanks to you for reading and stay tuned for more!

Another month, another GW release, and this one has been eagerly anticipated, to say the least:

The Eldar are, without a doubt, one of Warhammer 40k’s most iconic factions. And while “Elves IN SPACE!” may sound like a horrible concept in theory, Jes Goodwin’s incredible designs – conceived as early as during the late 80s and early 90s – are so utterly fantastic that not only did they help to sell what might otherwise been a very bad idea, but they also still haven’t lost any of their coolness, even more than two decades later — whatever they are paying the man at GW, it cannot ever possibly be enough!

So it’s no wonder that the Eldar are both an integral part of 40k lore and a faction beloved by many. And an update for them has been a long time coming.

Let me start by saying that the Eldar Codex continues the latest trend of fantastic cover artwork (pretty closely mirroring the design of the new plastic Farseer, by the way). And the special edition cover sleeve, once again, seems very elegant and well designed — and, strangely enough, just as faux-japanese as the S.E. Tau Codex.

When it comes to the models, in my review of last month’s High Elves release, I talked about GW’s more and more formulaic approach to recent army updates. To quote myself on the matter:

One combi-kit for a huge creature, check. One slightly hokey vehicle kit, check. One combi-kit that’ll give you two kinds of infantry, check. One plastic character and two Finecast characters, check.

Now, here we are, one month later, with a new release, and look what we’ve got: one huge creature, one vehicle kit, one combi-kit for two kinds of infantry, one plastic character and two Finecast characters. At first glance, this doesn’t bode too well for the originality of the release. But is it that simple? In order to find out, let’s take a closer look at the new models and the conversion potential.

Wraithknight

Well, this tall boy is certainly this month’s wraithbone elephant in the room. And let’s not beat around the bush here: That thing is a titan, period. A small titan, perhaps, but a titan nonetheless. With the Wraithknight standing noticeably taller than even the recently released Tau Riptide – a fact that’s even played up in GW’s marketing speak – we are looking at a very classic case of “mine is bigger!” here, and I am not sure I really like that prospect…

Before I elaborate, let’s focus on the model, though:

The Wraithknight seems rather easy to customise, regarding both the weapons loadout and its pose. Personally speaking, and without any knowledge of the rules, I think the sword and shield combo looks much cooler. Plus, as with the Riptide, it will be very interesting to see the poses some of the more adventurous hobbyists will get out of this kit. The lower legs seem quite a bit too long at first glance – maybe the designers were just trying buff the model’s heigth that way – but the overall slightly alien look makes sure the proportions still work rather well.

The one part of the model I was initially not sold on was the helmet, since I would have preferred a design closer to that of the FW Eldar titans, i.e. a stylised guardian head, but seeing how the Wraithknight is really more of a wraithbone construct than a regular walker, I guess it makes sense that it would look like a taller version of the other constructs:

And the pictures in WD show that the head can look very interesting when the faceplate isn’t painted like some kind of viewing window, but rather in the same colour as the rest of the head — that’s just a matter of personal taste, though…

I also noticed that GW seems to have settled on yet another iteration of their box designs. I’ve lost count of the different variants over time (photos, then artwork, then different artwork, then photos again, then photos painstakingly photoshopped to look like impressions from real, grimdark battlefields,…), but the new one seems much more elegant and minimalistic:

Is this a way of positioning GW models even more as luxury goods? Regarding the Wraithknight which comes at 90,00 Euros a pop, that certainly seems like a possibility…

My main gripe with the model actually has nothing to do with the design, but rather with its size: Are we witnessing a whole different sort of scale creep here? Will players be “required” to add one or several titan-sized models to even their regular 40k armies in the future? Now I do of course realise that huge kits like this may be just what many hobbyists were waiting for, but since I’ve always been drawn to models at infantry-size first and foremost, the prospect of bigger and bigger models – in regular 40k – seems a little disconcerting to me.

Price and size notwithstanding, I like the design. The model will certainly be a centre piece for any Eldar army — so much so, in fact, that the rest of the force will probably have to struggle to keep up…

Hemlock Wraithfighter / Crimson Hunter

Well, this kit is a bit of a conundrum for me, because I feel entirely differently about it when I see model from different perspectives. Allow me to explain:
The first look I got at this particular kit was this picture:

And to be honest, I instantly hated it! It looks like one of those G.I.Joe fighter jets I loved so much in my childhood, yet managed to outgrow (fortunately, I might add). The colour doesn’t really help either. And those additional wing/fin things just seem goofy.

But then, there’s also this:

The Hemlock Wraithfighter, the other fighter variant that can be assembled from the same kit. And I have to say quite like it! I was initially put off by the slightly “drooping” lines of the model, but seeing how the Eldar do not assemble their vehicles so much as “grow” them from semi-organic wraithbone, it seems plausible that the flyer’s lines would be more organic than those of the Dark Eldar Razorwing (which is conventionally built from anorganic materials).

And while some of the design reminds me of a present day fighter jet, there’s still enough to make it look like an Eldar vehicle – all those small visual cues that manage to tie it in with the rest of the army.

The fact that the paintjob on this is truly gorgeous also helps, of course. I’ve always felt that everything lo0ks better in Saim-Hann colours, but in this case, the patterns and lines on the model do a great job of breaking up the huge empty space, making it look less like a toy and more like an elegant warmachine.

I also really love the fact that they managed to get one of the guys from Daft Punk to pilot the thing:

Seriously, though: That head is great! Note to myself: Based on this head, check options for two Daft Punk-based character conversions for use in INQ28

So let’s take another look at the other variant, the Crimson Hunter:

At second glance, and without that dopey star background, it’s really not so bad. But it’s not as good as the Hemlock either. Much of what I don’t like about the model may be based on the paintjob, to be honest, so I may just have to reserve final judgment until I’ve seen a slightly different colour scheme on this. But I am not keen on those fins behind the cockpit and would likely leave them off if I ever were to build the model.

And one thing I find really disappointing, especially since the Hemlock got its own (brilliant) pilot head option, is the fact that the Crimson Hunter’s helmet looks just like that of a regular Guardian. Granted, the actual aspect armour in this case is probably the fighter jet itself, but it would have been cool to get a more stylised mask, adding some visual distinction to the aspect. After all, the helmets have been the element that viusally defines the aspect warriors for a long time.

As it stand, this guy just looks like an Eldar Guardian in purple armour, doesn’t he?

Wraithguard / Wraithblades

An already existing unit choice, these are now finally available in plastic. The new version doesn’t fundamentally change the design, which is quite alright – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and all that. It’s also cool to have these as a plastic kit now, especially since a special HQ selection seems to transform them into troops.

To be honest though, I find it rather hard to get too excited about the models, apart from a general appreciation of the fact that they are now available in plastic. Sure, there are lots of well-considered details to individualise the five models, but it’s really a design we are already very familiar with.

The other option for the kit is a bit more interesting at least, allowing us to assemble the models as the more CC focused Wraithblades:

According to GW’s description in WD, these ghostly warriors are so furious that their very wraithbone frame vibrates with their anger — only there’s very little anger evident in their poses. That probably cannot be helped, seeing how the same bodies and legs have to be used both for the shooty and the killy variants of the unit, but to make these guys look truly like the (angry) CC specialists they are supposed to be, one would have to do quite a bit of work regarding their poses — which, in all fairness, should be easy enough, seeing how they are plastic models.

While I like shape of the axes, I think I prefer the option of arming them with twin swords, if only because it’s possible to achieve great – if static – poses like this:

This guy really seems like an ancient, dignified ghost swordsman, doesn’t he? In my opinion, it’s swords all the way for these guys!

In addition to the squad and vehicle kits, there are also three new characters for Eldar players. Let’s take a closer look:

Plastic Farseer

This model was already leaked a couple of weeks ago, stirring up quite a buzz on the net. It seemed reasonably certain in advance that the Eldar would receive their own plastic clamshell character as well, and it was certainly a good decision to use the ever versatile Farseer for this. The model was designed by none other than Jes Goodwin himself, which is a bit of a no brainer really, because it was possibly the only way of having this new Farseer hold up to Jes’ older models — it’s truly baffling how those old Seer models of his are still just as great as they were ten or, in some cases, almost twenty years ago.

This new model is really dynamic and three dimensional, with a great pose and lots of nifty details. Just check out the hand:

Some people online voiced an immense dislike for the farseer’s neck — go figure! But since this is a plastic release, there’s nothing stopping you from changing that! I would have liked a helmet without that strange pharao beard that has been creeping into Farseer designs for a couple of years, for instance, but again, it should really be easy enough to get rid of that element. All in all, this a really good entry into the 40k plastic character library, and I can easily see myself picking up one of these — if only for the conversion possibilities (more on that later!).

Spiritseer

This guy is obviously the choice for people who want to use lots and lots of wraithbone constructs in their army, and the model’s designer Martin Fores did a really nice job of including a number of shout outs to those ghostly warriors, especially the featureless faceplate (which I love!). The satanic horns pose for psykers is getting a little long in the tooth, if you ask me, but I’ll let it slide this time, because it’s a lovely model all in all. My only gripe is, once again, that this had to be a Finecast release in the first place: It should have been very easy to release this guy as a plastic character as well (or, indeed, make one clamshell with different head and staff options for either a Farseer or Spiritseer — wouldn’t that have been neat?). It seems like they’re doing some of these models in Finecast just because it’s in the business rules somewhere, and that seems slightly dopey — just sayin’…

Illic Nightspear

Ah, well, here’s the best part of this particular release for me: Illic is a beautiful model with a brilliant pose, and I can easily see people picking him up just to paint him for their display cases — he makes for a stunning display piece, on par with the brilliant model for Lelith Hesperax. In this case, I can even forgive the model being Finecast, since the character’s elegance and the stunning amount of detail probably make good use of the medium. I also really like how the piece of ancient ruin is incorporated into his pose. A true winner, this one. My one gripe is that I am not really all that fond of the hair, but since that’s strictly a matter of personal taste, I won’t hold it against the model. The fact that the designer, Edgar Ramos, was also responsible for last months rather unimpressive plastic Loremaster of Hoeth is a bit of a conundrum, however. Why release something like that when Illic shows Mr. Ramos is capable of infinitely better work?

Jetbike Autarch upgrade kit

Having this available as an upgrade pack is a nice bit of service. Let’s just hope that the parts will still be useable once the new jetbikes are released *wink*wink*, *nudge*)…

Dire Avengers

Oh, and GW also repackaged the (old) Dire Avenger models into a smaller squad of five — seems like a bit of a dick move, to be honest. Or is there any non-economic reason for this?

What’s missing?

With a release as strongly anticipated as the Eldar, it goes without saying that wishlisting abounded prior to the release: The fans would have loved twenty new kits at the very least, and, in all fairness, anticipation like that cannot possibly be fully satisfied by any release. Still, some things seem to be conspicuously absent from the release: What about the rumoured new jetbikes? WIP sculpts of these have been floating around on the net for years, and the new release would have been a good chance for updating them and bringing them more in line with the look of the DE jetbikes. Plus a jetbike / Shining Spears combi-kit would also have made a great itam for the combi-kit slot. Even more painful is the absence of any plastic aspect warriors, since at least some of these should lend themselves to a combi-kit rather beautifully. I don’t doubt that both of these units will be released in time, and GW’s strategy is to make sure all units in the codex are available in model form before doing any huge redesigns. But still, jetbikes and new aspects were the things fans were probably most eager to see, so it’s still a bit of a shame…

Conversion potential

Like the Tau, the Eldar have a very distinct and iconic look, which makes them instantly recognisable but also renders their different kits rather hard to use as “conversion fodder” in the classical sense. So most parts of this release will be useful for Eldar, Dark Eldar or Eldar Corsair armies, above all else. The models themselves should allow for quite a bit of customisation and reposing, so it will be interesting to witness what hobbyists all over the world come up with.

Illic Nightspear not only makes for a stunning display piece, but could also realistically be used as a lone Eldar operative during games of INQ28 — he looks the part.

The most interesting conversion options stem from the plastic Farseer, if you ask me. Let’s take a look at the sprue to illustrate what I mean:

Seeing how the model’s head, forearms and chest are all separate pieces, the Farseer should not only be really easy to customise for your Eldar army, he should also make for a pretty useful base model for all kinds of INQ28-related conversions. I could easily see him transformed into an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, with a bit of work! And the fact that the model is plastic makes it even more useful. Looks like I’ll be getting one of these sooner rather than later…

All in all, the Eldar release was so highly anticipated, and people were hoping for so many different things to come out of this release that GW’s designers were facing a bit of an insolvable problem. That said, the lack of new jetbikes and plastic aspect warriors does seem a little disappointing. However the actual new models are very well designed and make great visual additions to the Eldar catalogue.

Like almost no other 40k army, the Eldar are fantastic proof of how far a brilliant initial design will carry an army, informing each and every model and unit. The new additions play to the strengths of the Eldars’ overall design, and, small gripes notwithstanding, will fit right in on the table. My only bigger concern is the new kind of scale creep I already mentioned: Will we see an even bigger Tyranid bio construct or Imperial walker, once Apocalypse hits? Will these huge models make up more and more of the game? And will those who, like me, are rather drawn to normal, infantry-sized models, have an option to resist playing with what are basically action figures, at least from a scale perspective? Let’s wait and see…

In any case, Eldar players have received some beautiful new toys. And while last month’s High Elves seemed a little half-baked to me, the new Eldar models are quite a bit nicer. And even though I don’t plan on starting an Eldar army any time soon, I simply love looking at well painted Eldar armies and appreciating their models for what they are: Some of the best designed and most gorgeous pieces in GW’s entire catalogue.

So how did you like this new release? Any favourites? Any gripes? Any conversion ideas? Share your opinion in the comments section!
And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

I may usually be a thoroughly lazy person with the attention span of a chimpanzee on fire, but every now and then, even I can enjoy a good hobby challenge that forces me to step out of my comfort zone and try something new. Contributing a model to the secret Yggdrassillium project certainly was such a challenge, and being a part of it has been such an awesome experience that I was eager to throw myself, headfirst, into the next project like that. So what is this about?

Tomorrow will see this year’s Inqvitational, a narrative event for Inquisitor played at the 28mm scale, taking place at Warhammer World, once again thanks to the tireless work of Commissar Molotov and a number of other hobbyists. And while it was my very great honour to be invited to attend, it became clear rather quickly that I wouldn’t be able to make it to the UK for the event due to work-related reasons. Still, the INQ28 community has enriched my hobby life to the point where I felt the need to contribute something – anything – to the event. So when Molotov and PDH held a call for NPC models to be built for the event, I happily volunteered.

The title of this year’s Inqvitational is “The Sins of the Master”, and the event will see a coalition of several puritan members of the Dalthus sector’s Inquisition, led by Inquisitor Tybalt, join forces to bring to justice one Inquisitor Zuul, who is not only a senior member of the Dalthan Ordo Malleus, but also an outspoken Xanthite (and thus considered a dangerous heretic by somes). It goes without saying that a cell of more radical minded Inquisitors will likely be trying to foil Tybalt’s plans.

Inquisitor Zuul had already appeared in last year’s Inqvitational as a candidate for the succession of the Helios Cabal. Back then, Molotov chose this piece of artwork – originally published on page 7 of the original Inquisitor rulebook – to give Zuul a face:

I volunteered to build a model to represent Zuul on the table, so this picture would be my basic template for the model. Iwas actually pretty glad about that, to tell you the truth: In my opinion, not only is this piece of artwork truly brilliant and evocative, but it’s also a perfect match for the character: The Inquisitor in the artwork looks  imposing, noble and composed, to be sure, but one of the defining characteristics of the character for me is that he also looks like a damned man. It’s in the eyes, I believe: Those are eyes that have seen to much and gone to far. I think this image was a great choice for a Xanthite character to begin with, since it embodies the fate of the outspoken Xanthite: Being convinced that one’s beliefs are true, that the forces of Chaos may indeed be used against themselves, but at the same time having to resist the urge to give in to the ruinous powers and possibly having to face your eventual damnation. The artwork perfectly captures this and shows a character that seems noble, but also ever so slightly unhinged. This was a quality I definitely wanted to keep in my rendition of Zuul!

Since I am (and will always remain) a kitbasher at heart, the first step – obviously – was to find a suitable base model After giving it some thought, doing quite a bit of research (and ruling out the purchase of some prohibitively expensive Forgeworld characters) , I decided to use the WFB Empire Witchhunter as a base for Zuul. Now this model had also been used several times in the past by other INQ aficionados — and to great effect, at that (like Riseofthemagi’s brilliant Inquisitor Helsmarck conversion, and Keravin’s Navigator, to name just two noteworthy examples), so making sure my model would looked different enough would be an important part of the task as well.

So my next step was to decide which parts of the artwork I wanted (and would be able) to keep and which detail I wanted to lose. The most important choice was which head to use, and I soon settled on a head from the WFB Empire flagellant kit. Here’s the base model with only the new head added:

I have to say that I really like those flagellant heads: They are great sculpts, for one, and even some of the less extreme ones, like the one above, have a certain haggard, tortured quality that works very well for an Inquisitor (incidentally, one of the other heads from the kit was used on my Inquisitor Gotthardt model). Molotov pointed out to me that the beard was looking more unkempt than the goatee in the artwork, but in the end I decided to keep it that way for several reasons: There was a very real chance of ruining the head by shaving off too much of the detail, for one.  Plus I thought a beard like that would be a nice way of having Zuul look slightly frayed around the edges. Since I would have to lose the enormously expressive eyes from the artwork (I could never paint eyes like that on a model, to be honest. I’m sure Kari of the Spiky Rat Pack could, but that’s beside the point). The beard, however, would give the character back some of that slightly haunted quality: It certainly does not look so unruly as to appear totally unkempt, and I also wouldn’t paint it to look dirty or patchy during the paintjob.

Afterwards, the converting began in earnest: The pistol held by the original model was shaved off, as was the entire left arm. Once again, I was pleasantly surprised at how precisely I was able to get rid of certain parts of the model: Finecast may certainly have its shortcomings, but it’s a great medium to convert!

I had originally planned to emulate the pose from the artwork, with the character holding his cane/staff ahead of him in both hands, maybe even leaning on it. In fact, the right hand’s position would have lend itself beautifully to such an attempt, but it turned out that I would have had to do a lot of work to several other areas of the body for the pose to work, since the position of his legs and cloak make it pretty hard to fit a hand holding a cane there without it looking really awkward.

So I added a new hand holding a cane in a more open pose. Here’s the early mockup I did at this stage:

The hand holding the cane came from the Bretonnian Men at Arms, while the sword on the model’s back (from the plastic Chaos Sorcerer Lord) was chosen for its slightly ambiguous look: It could be a daemon weapon, but it’s definitely not screaming chaos at the top of its lungs — I guess Inquisitor Tybalt will find out the truth, one way or another…

I also started getting rid of the flared trouser leg, since this element is very typical of the WFB Empire look, and I didn’t want Zuul to look like a dressed up peacock.

Now replacing that lump of yellow putty with an actual new left arm was quite a bit of work. I had it all done once and then realised, while looking at the photos I had taken of the model, that the arm was too long. So I had to rip it all off and start over

With the basic construction of the arm finally out of the way, I used more GS and liquid GS to blend in the new additions and to repair the model’s coat where the left hand had originally been. While I was at it, I also added a skull to the cane to give a small visual clue that Zuul is not just a kindly old man with a walking stick

Here’s the finished conversion right before undercoating:

As you can see, I added some cabling to the back of Zuul’s head, to resemble the bionics seen in the artwork. And while I already liked the pose of Zuul’s right hand well enough, PDH suggested having Zuul hold his Inquisitorial rosette on a cord. Making that happen was a little tricky, but in the end, it worked out pretty well — and it was only later that I realised the =][= symbol dangling from Zuul’s hand in the original artwork!

The cane really does look more like a staff now, although I think it works. And for some reason, while building it, I thought of Fabius Bile’s cane that’s really some kind of DE-like agoniser — maybe the staff is more than just a walking implement?

I also constructed a custom base for the model, using parts of an old phone card, some brass parts from the 40k basing kit, a vent I had shaved off the back of a Dark Vengeance cultist, and some cork.

Here’s a closer look at the base before painting:

When painting the model, my initial idea was to go for a black coat with red inner lining, although that somehow seemed just a tad too clichéd to me. After giving it some thought, I decided to reverse the recipe: Zuul would be sporting a dark red coat with dark grey lining. The fact that his main rival, Inquisitor Tybalt, has a dark green coat, definitely also played a role when it came to that particular decision…

As a matter of fact, my recently completed model for Inquisitor Alvar was a bit of “test run” to see whether the colour recipe I had in mind for Zuul would work.

Here’s the model with all the base colours blocked in and the first pass of washes in place:

The model was still thoroughly lacking contrast at this point, of course. So I accentuated Zuul’s coat with red to make it pop a little more. However, I paid attention that it didn’t become too bright and flashy. Here’s the model with some additional accents and details:

I also spent quite a bit of time on his face, trying to make it look as “alive” as I possibly could. The base was painted using my regular recipe for rusty metal. When it came to his staff and the sword scabbard on his back, I was a bit unsure on how to progress. PDH encouraged me to try a rather striking greenish turquoise, with an added coat of gloss varnish. And while the result may have ended up slightly more green than I am strictly comfortable with, that was a part of what this project was about: trying new things and stepping outside of my comfort zone…

Anyway, after quite a few painting sessions and some final touchups, the model was finished. I give you Inquisitor Zuul:

All in all, some parts of the model may be slightly rougher around the edges than I would have liked, but in the end, I had to get the model out the door before the deadline expired. And I think I really managed to get across that Zuul is an ancient and experienced Inquisitor who doesn’t hide his convictions or fear any confrontation with his puritan colleagues. PDH remarked that Zuul had “such a weight of years to him”, and I am really happy about that, since it’s one of the things I was trying to achieve with the model!

Here are a couple of additional detail shots:

Zuul’s face:

The model’s base:

And, once again, the face (which I am actually really happy with!):

And, just for fun, some pictures with two other models that were pretty important for the creation of Zuul:

First up, Zuul with Inquisitor Alvar, who, as I already mentioned, served as a “colour test” of sorts:

While the general colours used may be similar, however, the models still ended up looking quite different: Alvar is younger and more idealistic, and certainly a snappier dresser, while Zuul has a certain feeling of regality and gravitas about him.

And here’s Zuul with my own Inquisitor Antrecht, himself an outspoken radical. I wanted to give Zuul a slightly superior patrician vibe, just the same as Antrecht.

Come to think of it, these two could probably be pretty good friends

By the way, this is possibly my favourite angle of Zuul:

So yeah, I certainly hope the model’s good enough to pass for Zuul during the Inqvitational! While it may not be perfect, I must say I am at least reasonably pleased with how it turned out. Plus building a model to resemble a piece of artwork was a completely new and refreshing challenge! Which actually begs the question: Does the model for Zuul resemble the artwork it was based on at all? Here’s a composite with the artwork and model side by side:

As you can see, I changed a number of things, some of them by sheer necessity (like the pose): The Katana-like sword in the artwork was replaced by a more western looking sword.  The facial features in the artwork are noticeably sharper, yet that cannot be helped: Trying to change the face itself would surely have ended in disaster. On the other hand, there are also a number of parallels that were strangely coincidental, like the dangling inquisitorial rosette, the (purity) seal on Zuul’s right lapel, the very similar coat or the fact that the armour the model is wearing on its torso could be seen as the same kind of augmetic pipes and doodads seen in the artwork.

Anyway, the model was packed up and sent to PDH, where, after some hair-raising delays caused by my very good friends at the German postal service, it managed to arrive just in time for the Inqvitational. Phew

Huge thanks must go to both Commissar Molotov and PDH for their input and suggestions which have been invaluable during the creation of the model (and, indeed, for allowing me to tackle a rather important supporting character for the Inqvitational)! And thanks to the INQ28 crowd over at the Ammobunker as well for their continued feedback!

Alas, Inquisitor Zuul’s story might end up being a rather short one: There’s a very real chance he won’t survive the run-in with his puritan colleagues this Saturday. In any case, building the model to both resemble the original artwork and express Zuul’s character through the conversion and paintjob have been a great experience. And as for Zuul’s final fate, I’ll keep you posted, of course!

Until then, let me know what you think about the model in the comments section! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

It’s been quite a while since I last posted about building terrain, but since the weather has picked up considerably in the meantime, it is now time once more to go outside, hit the tool shed or garage and build some wargaming terrain!

The funny thing is that I am pretty spoiled when it comes to terrain nowadays: There’s some exquisite terrain over at the FLGS, and stuff like Neil101′s stellar Arrke board, most of the stuff used during this years Inqvitational or Chelnov’s unbelievable Sisyphus Complex have taught me that my own meagre efforts at building terrain are already outdated by a pretty huge margin. I am also pretty convinced that I could do better nowadays, but some of my early recipes should still have some merit, especially to those of you who have been putting off building their own terrain for one reason or another.

I already discussed quite a while ago how easy it is to make some reasonably convincing ruined buildings out of foamcore. Buildings like those will also allow you to fill up quite a huge gaming table. But you probably don’t want your entire terrain collection to consist of simple, bombed out hab blocks, do you? Well, here’s the good news: Building bigger and more sophisticated structures can be almost as easy. This two-part post will take a closer look at that!

Everything started with my desire to build a larger building that was to serve as some kind of centrepiece on the table: I wanted something decidedly bigger than one of my ruined hab blocks, but maybe not quite as gigantic as a cathedral. So I decided to try my hand at a temple-like building housing a monument to some glorious achievement or other of the Imperium of Man.

The great thing about this project was that the building’s basic construction was still very much a rectangular box with four walls meeting at a 90 degrees angle. Still, the building ended up looking pretty imposing nonetheless. Take a look:

The most impressive part of the building is its façade, but this part was actually pretty easy to get right: I just drew a suitably impressive design on a piece of 3mm strong foamcore, then cut out all the arches and recesses with an exacto knife. Pieces of the same thin foamcore were then used to add projections to the wall and give it some depth. And I also added an inscription using alphabet noodles.

Here’s a view that shows the rest of the building:

The side walls are a very easy construction, with just a number of archways cut out of the foamcore I used. And a thicker kind of foamcore was used as a base for the whole building. The whole construction was very easy to put together, using PVA glue.

The dome you can see on the roof of the building was a readymade styrofoam shape I bought for a song at the DIY superstore. I placed it to be exactly above the monument inside the temple, a mockup of which you can see here:

In order to make the building look suitably damaged from artillery fire and the ravages of war, I cut sections out of the side walls and dome. Pieces of the dome were then glued onto the floor of the building, to make it look like they had fallen when the dome was partly destroyed.

The most fiddly part of the basic construction was the floor: I cut a lot of identical square shapes from the cardboard of a cereal box and used them as stone tiles to make up the temple’s floor. Glueing them down took a while:

As you can see, I drew some lines around the damaged wall sections to mark the areas where the floor had been damaged as well. On these areas, I didn’t use any of the floor tiles or at least made sure they looked damaged enough.

I also made sure the roof would be removable, in order to facilitate access to the building’s interior. This was achieved by adding a very simple foamcore construction underneath the roof that was stable enough to carry the roof when it was placed on top.

Here’s the interior with the floor tiles in place. The empty area in the middle marks the spot where the removable monument is supposed to go:

You can also see a part of the construction holding the roof in place at the bottom of the picture.

And here’s the same space with the monument’s basic construction in place:

So the next step was to get the whole building undercoated — definitely the hardest part of the whole exercise! I prepared a suitable undercoat by mixing black and white acrylic paint, some PVA glue and some fine bird sand (to add some texture to the paint and make the building look less like it’s made of foamcore). This kind of paint is really easy to mix and very cheap too. It also works as a sealant, making sure the foamcore’s foam interior doesn’t melt away, once you start using spray paint at a later point.

I won’t lie to you: Getting a building this size undercoated takes some doing (and a pretty large brush). And, please, don’t go using your expensive Citadel brushes for this, you hear!

Here’s the building, partly undercoated:

Oh, and another important thing: Make sure to mix enough paint, because there’s nothing worse than having to make some more just for the last corner of the model — I am speaking from experience here…

Anyway, this is what the building looked like after undercoating:

As you can see, I didn’t paint the areas with the inscription or the empty spot for the monument. This was due to a number of reasons, actually:
I was afraid to damage the inscription with the brush, for one, plus you don’t want any grains of bird sand on those letters: They will have to look like metal later on, so any residue from the texture paint would destroy the illusion. The empty space was left unpainted because the monument should be easy to place, and that wouldn’t work with the floor all roughened up and uneven from the texture paint.

So the final step was to use black spray paint to touch up the unpainted areas as well as any places where the white foamcore was still showing through. This only took a couple of minutes. Afterwards, the whole building was nice and black:

And with that, the basic construction was completed. In the next installment, we’ll look at the additional details, the construction of the monument itself and the rest of the paintjob.

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

As you may have realised by now, Totally Worth It as a series is as much about forgotten or unjustly maligned gems of tabletop wargaming as it is about the formative moments in my personal hobby life. So today I would like to address what may have been the defining purchase of my younger hobby years. Today on Totally Worth It: The 40k second edition Codex Chaos.

Phew, where to start?

I already told you about my first contact with Warhammer 40k, and how it was completely unlike every other Sci-Fi setting I had ever heard about. Much of that would possibly still hold true for somebody getting into the hobby today, but there may be a number of differences, chief among them the way to get hold of the 40k background:

Back in the mid to late 90s, the Internet didn’t exist — or rather,  it didn’t exist for me. Neither did repositories of 40k background like Lexicanum, or hobbyists discussing in detail the background of their particular army on boards like Throne of Skulls or Dakka. So if you wanted to learn the background of the 40k universe, GW’s own publications were pretty much the only way to go. And since each of those books came at a sizeable price, even back then, you can probably imagine that getting access to all of it at once was pretty much out of the question. So while it didn’t take me all that long to discover that Chaos Space Marines were one of the factions that most fascinated me, my first approach to them happened via a number of small individual glimpses:

I remember seeing a picture of the model for Kharn the Betrayer and thinking: “I wonder what that guy’s story is!” I remember reading my buddy Phil’s 2nd edition Codex Ultramarines (in english, no less) and stumbling upon that scene where Marneus Calgar’s prowess in battle earns him a salute from a World Eaters champion and being fascinated by that idea, even then. I remember discovering that there were such things as Plague Marines, the Thousand Sons, or Abaddon the Despoiler, but I knew the models long before I discovered their background or their significance in the lore. As a matter of fact, I would sometimes ask some of my buddies who had bought the models what those guys’ background was, and they’d shrug because they didn’t know.

So it was clear to me that I would need to find out the hard way: I needed to read up on these guys. So when the 3rd edition of Warhammer 40k was released, the Codex Chaos Space Marines was the second 40k book I ever purchased (soon after Codex Dark Eldar). And actually, the best way to start describing how momentous the sedond edition Codex Chaos was for my hobby life is to first talk about the 3rd edition Codex:

Back then, GW was following a policy of stripping down their Codices as much as they could for a while, making them as short and bare bones as they could be. That way, their reasoning went, they would be able to produce more of them in a shorter amount of time. They where right in this, but unfortunately, the books were worse for it.

To wit: I had hoped the CSM Codex to be a great introduction to an army I was fascinated with, but it barely gave me a taste: Sure, it contained basic informations about the Great Crusade, the Horus Heresy and the fall of the traitor Legions, and I lapped it all up eagerly. But it didn’t even begin to tap into the respective traitor legions’ rich lore. Even then, before all the HH novels, you just knew there had to be lots and lots of (potential) backstory to these guys: On a very basic level, they were just evil Space Marines, sure. But it went beyond that: They had rebelled. They had lost. They were 10,000 years old. What tragedy! What narrative potential!

Unfortunately, the 3rd edition Codex barely gave one short column of text for each of the original traitor legions. And – I kid you not – they even forgot the Word Beareres altogether! And what artwork there was was so small as to be pretty much insignificant.

Now a minimalist approach like that might have worked for the Dark Eldar (at least at first), seeing how they were a brand new faction with very little backstory in the setting. But for the Chaos Space Marines, it was a horrible idea: All the depth and tragedy fell by the wayside in favour of a very stripped down rulebook. The one thing about the Codex that has really managed to age rather gracefully (apart from the impressive cover artwork by Wayne England) is the ‘Eavy Metal section, featuring lots and lots of creative and interesting conversions:

As a matter of fact, this may also be the only section of the book that actually hints at what a compelling faction chaos can really be, showcasing one of the greatest aspects of the army: its versatility and the potential for customisation and conversion. The rest of the book seems more like an Excel spreadsheet, though. And a general fondness for old wargaming publications notwithstanding, I feel that it’s probably the weakest CSM Codex ever.

But back then, it was all I had to work with, so it had to be enough. I was immediately drawn to the World Eaters, since I have been a worshipper of Khorne ever since my WFB days, and there was a new plastic kit just coming out for the Khorne Berzerkers back then — how time flies: Almost twenty years later, and that same plastic kit is still available — in fact, I bought my last one some time last year…

Anyway, I kept plugging away on my own for a couple of years, and then, one day, discovered a copy of the second edition Codex Chaos at a comic book store. A quick glance made it clear that this was the book I had been pining for: Just skimming across the background for the traitor legions gave me more ideas and inspiration than the whole 3rd edition Codex. So I picked up the book in a heartbeat (and for a pretty penny, at that), hurried home and spent the next few days tugging into the background for my favourite 40k army. And with that, we finally arrive at our main subject, after a rather wordy introduction.

After the meagre 3rd edition Codex, nothing could have prepared me for the 2nd edition book. In fact, it still remains my favourite chaos army book ever. And even for somebody getting into the hobby today, it would still be an ideal place to get information on the traitor legions.

The book’s background section is simply fantastic: Each traitor legion gets about half a page of background, but the fluff is concise, well written and cuts straight to the heart of each legion. And even though the following years have seen the HH series flesh out more and more of the backstory, changing around some things while completely dropping others, very little of the background presented in the 2nd edition Codex has been completely invalidated by the newer material. It’s all there: The Word Bearers as the original traitor legion. The sundering of the World Eaters at Skalathrax. The Thousand Sons’ descent into mutation and madness, as well astheir subsequent death and rebirth at the hands or Ahriman. The duplicity of the Alpha Legion. It just goes on and on…

Sure, subsequent iterations of the fluff have added layers of complexity: The Word Bearers are a far bigger (and even more sinister) influence in the more recent material. The Alpha Legion’s allegiance has become far more ambiguous. But reading through the material in the codex still gives you a compelling and completely viable rundown of the traitor legions. And all the backstory and narrative potential isn’t merely being obliquely hinted at.

Of course it helps that the book is lavishly illustrated, featuring brilliant artwork by such luminaries as Mark Gibbons, Wayne England and, of course, John Blanche himself. Did you know JB actually did some World Eaters artwork at one point?

From haunting, Blanchian daemonworlds and Mark Gibbon’s quintessential Khorne berzerker art to Wayne England’s brilliantly evocative legion badges, the book is overflowing with cool artwork. Some of it may seem slightly goofy today, but it’s a great collection, with influences from the RT era still clearly evident, while the newer pieces would work flawlessly in a modern codex. In fact, one of John Blanche’s most iconic spreads was subsequently republished both in WD and the fourth edition codex:

Two pages full of crazy conversion and customisation ideas. And even though none of the bitz mentioned may be available any longer, this spread instantly tells you what building and painting a CSM army is about: It’s about giving it your all to make sure your legionaries actually look like the 10,000 year veterans they are! It’s about tweaking each model and going the extra mile, to end up with an army that is truly special and unique!

The ‘Eavy Metal section of the book shows all the available CSM models from the time and has a nice showcase for most of the traitor legions. As a matter of fact, the two page spread showing the World Eaters models available back then has more background for the legion than the 3rd edition book’s entire background section:

And, of course, there’s also advice on how to customise and convert your chaos models. This nicely complements John Blanche’s ideas, and I am still rather fond of some of the conversions shown in the 2nd edition Codex, even though miniature design has come quite a long way since then.

It’s also worth mentioning that there are no more conversions in today’s codices, which I think is a crying shame!

The book continues with an in-depth look at the most notorious champions of chaos, introducing characters like Abaddon the Despoiler, Kharn the Betrayer, Ahriman of the Thousand Sons and Fabius Bile. And it has to be said that some of the artwork featured in that section not only managed to blow me away back then, but is just as impressive today. Check out this piece of artwork depicting Fabius Bile.

Best version of the character ever, if you ask me!

And there’s more: A huge wargear section, not only featuring the rules for the different items but also containing interesting tidbits about the state of technology at the time of the Great Crusade (sadly, this – along with the rules section – is one of the parts of the book that have been invalidated by the newer fluff and material). A section about traitor chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, featuring the notorious Red Corsairs and – for the first time – their Lord, Huron Blackheart. There’s also a chunk of background about the Fallen Angels and Cypher. The book just goes on and on and lets you discover a thousand different and cool details about the servants of chaos.

Certainly one of the greatest things about the book is its sizeable appendix, though, providing you with rules for chaos cultists and traitorous planetary defense forces. And it even gives you rules for daemon world armies, eternally waging war in the Eye of Terror. This effectively allows you to use parts (or indeed the entirety) of your WFB chaos army in 40k games to represent the twisted armies of the Eye — a nice callback to the blending of WFB and RT that occured in the “Realm of Chaos” books of yore.  The section also gives you information about the great four’s original daemon princes, along with corresponding rules.

In fact, this section is a perfect representation of what’s so great about the book in the first place: You get the feeling that Jervis Johnson and Andy Chambers just decided to throw in every cool idea they had, and to make as comprehensive a book about the ruinous powers as they could. Some of the rules may be experimental and unbalanced (in fact, the authors even specifically point this out with regard to the appendix). Some ideas may seem goofy nowadays (and, in all fairness, they were probably just as goofy back then). But the book is clearly a work of love, and that fact shows through on every page. Even the very last page of the book is used by the authors to impart yet more ideas for narrative games involving the forces of chaos. You cannot help but violently fall in love with a design philosophy like that!

So, where does that leave us in regard to the versions of the CSM Codex that came afterwards? As you may have gathered, the less said about the 3rd edition Codex, the better. The fabled “3,5 Codex” still stands tall as a fan favourite, because it allowed players to play each chaos legion with its own custom rules and wargear — however, this came at the price of making chaos armies somewhat unwieldy and frankly impenetrable for non-chaos players. The oft-maligned fourth edition codex, derisively called “Gav Dex” by some, went for a far more streamlined solution, alienating quite a few players along the way. Personally speaking, I rather liked the codex for its flexibility, and I think much of the criticism leveled at its authors is actually rather unfair (you can read my thoughts on the matter here, in case you are interested).

And the sixth edition codex? I like the book: It has great production values, and the rules set seems robust enough while retaining the flexibility of the last edition’s codex. But the legion specific background is back to one short column per legion, and that’s certainly not an improvement.

In all fairness, giving chaos players a book they are actually happy with may be an unsolvable task: A Codex to make every chaos player happy would probably have to be 500 pages long, feature full rules for each and every legion (and, as a consequence, probably cost 250 Euros). So I think Phil Kelly’s effort was probably the best possible compromise. The situation today is also far different from that in the mid-90s: With places like Lexicanum and the 40kWiki and publications like the BL novels available, you have all the background you might need at your fingertips at all times. There’s also a huge online community of hobbyists to discuss the background and fluff with. So today’s codices may actually no longer be requird to be the be-all and end-all when it comes to describing the background.

Still, the 2nd edition Codex Chaos still stands as possibly my favourite chaos army book ever. It delivers a fantastic amount of bang for the buck and is still just as good an introduction to the traitor legions now as it was back then. And even though the rules are no longer viable, the book is still a great puchase, just for the background section and the crazy amount of ideas on display! So if you’re a chaos player, and should find yourself in any position to pick this up, go for it: It’s still totally worth it!

So yeah, that was my rather wordy – and probably completely inadequate – love letter to one of my favourite GW publications ever, I guess. Provided you didn’t fall asleep in the first place, should you have anything to add regarding the book, or any feedback to this review, I’d be happy to hear from you in the comments section!

And, in any case, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

So what about that monument temple made from foamcore I talked about last week? Let’s find out!

Here’s where we left off last time: The basic assembly is complete and the building has been undercoated in black:

While everything was drying, I decided to work a bit on the actual monument that was to go inside the temple. For ease of assembly and added flexibility, I wanted the monument to be removable. Here’s the early construction I did for the monument:

As you can see, it consists of a column that sits in a small basin (later to be filled with water). The basic construction was, once again, done using foamcore. A cardboard loo roll would have worked as well to make up a column, but I wanted a different look this time, so I went for a rectangular faomcore construction instead. Two square WFB base was used for the abacus atop the column. That way, I could be sure it would be easy enough to attach the actual statue to the column later.

The statue itself consists of bitz from the Cadian Command Squad. I decided that I wanted the monument to have been erected in honour of the brave Imperial Guard, so I built a guard standard bearer in parade uniform for the monument — a very straigthforward affair. The model was kept separate from the rest of the monument for now.

Afterwards, the column and basin were undercoated, using the same texture paint I had used for the rest of the building. Here’s the monument after undercoating:

I then used cheap grey spraypaint (picked up at the DIY superstore) to make the monument look like it was actually made of stone. Take care not to apply too much colour during this step, because some of the darker undercoat showing through in places will actually make the piece look more believable.

Then I thought about how to best represent muddy water in the shallow basin at the bottom of the column. Since this was only a one-off project, I didn’t want to spend money on a huge bottle of water effect, so I had to develop a plan B. In the end, feeling slightly adventurous, I mixed PVA glue with a bit of water that I had in turn couloured using a mix of brown and green hues (mainly GW Gretchin Green, GW Scorched Brown, and some GW Rakarth Flesh). The resulting mix was then poured into the basin — if you’re trying something similar, make sure the basin’s actually waterproof and the stuff doesn’t come out at the seams! The mix also has to be thick enough, so use quite a lot of glue! The water’s mainly there to add the colour and to make everything slightly more fluid.

Here’s the monument after that step: As you can see, the water ended up suitably brackish and dirty — just as planned. I also added some plastic plants that I spraypainted brown to make them look dried and withered.

The monument was then set aside to allow for the “water” to dry. This took about 24 hours for this relatively shallow basin, so resist poking it to see whether is has managed to set yet! I actually couldn’t wait and made a (very small) indetation into the surface that way. Trust me: You need to be patient for this!

In the end, the “water” ended up looking nicely brackish and with a glossy surface, making it look reasonably realistic. I would have loved the mix to retain some of the glue’s usual transparence, but alas, it was not to be. Still, definitely better than getting some expensive water effect for a simple one shot!

I then painted the actual statue, which was really very easy: The model was undercoated with GW Chaos Black spray, then basecoated with a 60/40 mix of GW Chaos Black and Vallejo Halcon Turquoise. Then I drybrushed the model with a 50/50 mix of GW Skull White and Halcon Turquoise. The raised detail on the regimental flag lent itself especially well to this technique.

Here’s the result:

As you can see, the statue’s surface looks like heavily oxidised metal, just like you might see on a real-life statues you might see in your vincinity. All in all, I was very pleased with the effect. The statue was glued to the column using superglue. And with that, the monument was finished.

Here it is, placed in its eventual spot in the yet unfinished building:

While I had worked on the statue, the rest of the building had had ample time to dry. So the next step was to add slightly thinned down PVA glue to the nooks and crannies of the building. Then a mix of sand and smaller stones was added on top to represent rubble:

You can really add lots and lots of the stuff for added realism, plus segments of fallen walls and ceilings. Personally, I tend to go for a less realistic result simply because it’s pretty hard to add multiple layers of rubble and make sure they stay in place. And too much rubble and uneven surface texture can also mean it will be hard to actually place your models in the building during games.

Anyway, a second coat of thinned-down glue was added on top to seal the rubble. Then the rubble areas were sprayed once again with black.

After everything was dry, the building was sprayed with the same grey paint I had used on the monument. Again, go for a slightly uneven approach to create plausible shades and a more realistic looking surface.

Almost done now:

I also painted the inscription, using one of my regular GW brushes. The letters were undercoated in chaos black, then painted with Vallejo Tinny Tin, then washed with GW Agrax Earthshade. Then I added some light accents, using GW Dwarf Bronze.  And finally, I added a thinned-down mix of Vallejo Halcon Turquoise and GW Skull White on top to represent verdigris:

And with that, the building was basically finished. Here’s a view from the side:

I used the grey spraypaint to add some additional accents where necessary. This only took a couple of minutes, though. Here’s the finished monument temple:

And some additional detail shots of the statue:

Looking back now, there’s quite a bit that could still be added: It might look cool to drybrush the tiled floor with white to pick out the contours. Posters and propaganda proclamations could be added to the building, as well as blood splatters, additional damage etc. I am still free to do all of this, however, as the finished build should be easy enough to modify.

Anyway, as you can see, building and painting this monument temple was almost as easy as constructing one of the easier ruined buildings. The scope of the project may be different, sure, but in the end, the techniques are the same. If anything, a larger buildings will give you far more options for adding details and little setpieces- Just make sure you don’t add so much stuff that the terrain piece no longer works during games

To wind up this post, here are some impressions of Inquisitor Antrecht’s warband moving through the ruin, to give you an idea of the scale:

In any case, I hope I was succesful in showing you how easy it can be to come up with a centre piece for your gaming table. All C&C are welcome, of course: Just let me know what you think in the comments section!

And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

With the Inqvitational 2013 now behind us, it’s time to check on Inquisitor Zuul: What fate may have befallen him? Did his puritan enemies manage to take him out? Or was he able to elude his pursuers? Was he murdered by Tybalt and his cronies? Or did he make the puritans rue the day they tried to apprehend him? Here’s an update, with lots of great pictures, very kindly provided by Marco Skoll:

Our stage opens to a clandestine meeting between Zuul and his fellow radical Inquisitor Haxtus amidst the buildings of a derelict industrial outpost, in the middle of a tropical swamp. The Inquisitors had come here to talk in private and to discuss their next actions, with their respective retinues fanning out around them to defend them against any possible interlopers:

As an aside, I was delighted to find out that Zuul had been given an impromptu retinue made up of some of Jeff Vader’s truly stellar INQ28 models, namely his fantastic Chrono-gladiator and the female assassin known as the “Red Lady”. And Kari’s marvelous Stryderre, probably my favourite model from the recent Secret Yggdrassillium project, also returned for a stint in Zuul’s warband — I couldn’t have been any happier with the composition of his warband! The models also look really great together, coincidentally:

Anyway, back to the matter at hand: While Haxtus and Zuul were discussing how best to proceed, the puritans were drawing near: Inquisitor Tybalt wanted to apprehend Zuul, and he had his colleagues Cordatus, Trask and Virasson on his side. In a rather unfortunate turn for the puritans, Trask couldn’t resist announcing their presence via his loudspeaker, pompous fool that he is

So two of the radicals’ retainers broke off from the meeting to intercept the puritans:

Zuul and Haxtus realised that it was time for their getaway, so they began their escape, escorted by their remaining agents:

You’ve got to love how Haxtus seems to be exchanging dark secrets with Zuul in the picture above…

Meanwhile, the pursuers were still locked in combat:

Check out PDH’s beautiful (if foolish) Inquisitor Trask above!

But the hunt was far from over: Inquisitor Virasson was hot on the fugitives’ heels:

Shots rang through the wilderness, and one agent after the other dropped. And suddenly, Inquisitor Cordatus’ agents tried to intercept the radicals’ escape:

In the end, even Inquisitor Haxtus had to stay behind in an attempt to stall the pursuers, urging Zuul on to seek refuge under the canopy of trees and get away:

Shortly afterwards, Haxtus too was felled by the puritans’ onslaught. So Zuul did indeed have no other choice but to continue his escape alone:

But the hounds were closing in from all directions: It may have been a close call, but in the end, the puritans caught up with Zuul on the banks of a dark jungle morass. With Virasson drawing a bead on him and Inquisitor Cordatus as well as Tybalt’s interrogator Serren advncing through the trees, Zuul was at the end of his rope. The venerable Inquisitor surrendered to his enemies:

“Very well, gentlemen, Shall we be going?”

The day ended with Zuul and Haxtus captured, their fate uncertain…

I love how these pictures concisely tell the story of Zuul’s capture, giving us a pretty good idea of the events during the game. The fact that both the terrain and the miniatures used in the game were simply gorgeous also helps, of course. I really love the picture of Zuul surrendering, by the way, with Virasson seemingly daring him to give him an excuse for opening fire (“Go ahead: Make my day!”). Zuul, however, may be forced to surrender, but he is obviously far from defeated.  He remains unbent and unbroken, at least for now. It’s in his pose…

All in all, this year’s Inqvitational seems to have provided a plethora of new narrative developments and options for the Dalthus sector, with the arrest of Zuul just one slice of the day’s broader narrative. Once again, everyone involved worked tirelessly to make the event as good as it could possibly be, while also strengthening the INQ28 scene at large. I think events like this are proof that Inquisitor played at the 28mm scale has really managed to come into its own; that it’s not about the ability to simply plunk down 28mm Space Marines of Ork Boyz on the table, but about telling stories and creating compelling characters — an objective shared by all INQ aficionados, beyond any notions of miniature scale.

So what lies in store for Zuul? An undignified end in the dungeons of an Inquisitorial stronghold? A roleplayed trial before the Dalthan Conclave, channelling all the cool trial scenes ever (if you ask me, that would be so freaking awesome)? Or will his radical colleagues devise a plan to free their figurehead?

Whatever happens next, I’ll gladly admit I am pretty pleased that the old rascal has managed to survive the day. Granted, I may not have spent years and years fleshing out the character’s background, but building the model and trying to imbue it with some measure of character has made me grow quite fond of it and, by extension, Inquisitor Zuul. Go Xanthites!

Huge thanks must go once again to Commissar Molotov and PDH, for making it all happen! And of course, to all the hobbyists attending the event and enriching it with their brilliant models and respective narratives. And of course, to Marco for letting me use his great pictures! I wish I could have been there — although Zuul was probably a pretty good replacement for me, I guess. As for his eventual fate, I’ll definitely keep you posted!

In the meantime, if you want to learn more about the events during the Inqvitational, check out the Aftermath thread over at the Ammobunker.

And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Just a short public service announcement today: Work has been hell on wheels for the last weeks, and although I’ve been telling myself that it would somehow get less stressful “next week” for six weeks straight now, it somehow never does Through all of this, I have somehow managed to publish two posts per week like some relentless machine. But as is the case with machinery, there comes a time when something’s gotta give.

So bear with me folks, while I am recharging my batteries: I may be dropping the second post from the weekly schedule for while. Don’t fret, it’s probably nothing permanent. I just need some space to breathe. And I would rather lose the odd post every now and then than produce terrible content or begin spouting self-referential nonsense about how hard it is to come up with new stuff to post

So yeah, keep calm and carry on! There’ll be something new to look at soon, and I imagine we’ll get back to the regular schedule before long!

In any case, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

This summer marks the 25th anniversary of the first Realm of Chaos book, Slaves to Darkness. A truly seminal publication, outlining in detail the concept of chaos in the worlds of WFB and 40k (or, back then, Rogue Trader) in general and describing the followers of Khorne and Slaanesh in particular. Many hobbyists have fond memories of this momentous tome, and rightly so: Slaves to Darkness and its companion piece, The Lost and the Damned, put down the groundwork for the concept of chaos in Games Workshop’s intellectual properties and certainly launched a thousand chaos warbands.

Now, let’s start with a confession: I have never owned the genuine article. Not yet, at least. Shameful, I know, but by the time I got into the hobby in earnest, the rules set on which Realm of Chaos was based was already well on its way out, and the books were never even released in Germany in the first place.

Still, I will endeavour to do my small part in the celebration of this particular anniversary, both because I acknowledge the importance of the book in question and I have been drawn to chaos for all of my hobby life — more about that in a minute.

In honour of this anniversary, many hobbyists are posting great content about old and new hobby endeavours: Orrlyg (of RealmofChaos80s) and a gang of likeminded “Oldhammer” aficionados are planning a re-enactment of those glorious 3rd edition WFB battles of yore, keeping it truly oldskool with retro models, paintjobs and scenery. PDH, Neil101, Tears of Envy, Fulgrim and John Blanche are also marshalling their retro chaos forces, yet they are employing all the new and beautiful plastic parts at their disposal (their project is chronicled over at this Dakka thread: Go check it out!). Both groups are united in their attempt at celebrating both the release of a fantastic sourcebook and the glory of chaos in general

As for myself, I would like to take the middle road here, taking you on a trip down memory lane. And it WILL be a suitably retro trip, have no fear!

You see, I have always been a fan of chaos, as long as I’ve been in this hobby. From the chaos models that came with HeroQuest – some Warriors of Chaos, the Gargoyle (actually a stone effigy of a Bloodthirster of Khorne, though I didn’t know that at the time) and the Chaos Sorceror (arguably the coolest model in the box, and, invariably, the first to be lost…) – to the old WFB metal models, I was a fan.

So one day, during the mid-90s, I came across this box in a toy store in my hometown, of all places:

Don’t ask me why I held on to those cardboard sleeves – I’m just a pack rat like that…

Today, a whole regiment being released in one box does not seem like such a big deal, but back then, this was actually the first of the new plastic regiment boxes ever to be released by GW: Where older plastic kits would use the same sculpt over and over (except for a metal command group that had to be purchased seperately), this one allowed for limitless customisation. So without having any use for these (beyond a fuzzy prospect of being able to use them in [Advanced] HeroQuest) and without even knowing a single WFB rule, I purchased the kit in a heartbeat, hurried home and started working. To my young mind, the prospect of owning a complete regiment of badass guys in spiky armour was very much its own reward!

Without going into too much detail, the rest of that year was very busy with hobby activity: It saw me receiving a copy of the WFB boxed set (Bretonnia vs. Lizardmen, not what you’d call an ideal pairing…) and frantically working on my very first tabletop army ever. Here’s a look at the results of that work:

My very first chaos army,or actually: my first tabletop army, period. I still have a huge fondness for these guys, even though the sculpts are dated and most of the paintjobs are of a rather dubious quality at best. So in honour of Slaves to the Darkness‘ 25th anniversary, let me walk you through my first foray into the chaos wastes step by step. Some of it won’t be pretty, I fear, but I guess that this is only to be suspected when dealing with the dark gods…

Warriors of Chaos

Like I said, a regiment of regular warriors of chaos was the first thing to be finished. Here it is:

For some reason I never even got around to basing these guys. Oh well…
Apart from that, what can I say? I certainly went crazy with the different metal paints. And what is really interesting, for this regiment as well as for the rest of the army, is that both in assembling and painting the models, I tried to emulate the official photos on the box as closely as I could. Let me give you an example: Here’s the champion, musician and standard bearer from the back of the box:

And here’s the front rank of my own regiment:

Looking back now, I am amazed at how much I seem to have been afraid to break away from the colour schemes and assembly instructions set by GW back then. What’s more, I didn’t actually paint all the models in the unit in the same colour scheme, oh no: I happily experimented. Here’s the second rank of models from the same regiment:

Again, some of these are pretty close duplicates of models that appeared on the box. Compare the guy on the left with this:

Funny and sad at the same time, isn’t it?

Another thing I really struggled with in those days was painting “chaotic” faces. The bareheaded musician originally had a very pink face, until I touched it up later on:

Still not great, but that was really quite a challenge for me in those days!

All in all, these guys certainly aren’t fantastic by any stretch of the imagination. But they were my first regiment ever, and I feel very nostalgic about them. I have repeatedly considered cannibalising this regiment for bitz (especially the standard), but I always held back due to my fondness for them. And I am still rather happy with that small hand painted banner I added to the standard bearer (on a related note, I stopped counting how many times I had to reattach his metal arm because it had broken off — as a matter of fact, it even broke off once during this recent photo session…):

Retro Warriors of Chaos

Now these are probably the oldest plastic models in my first WoC army: A box of old plastic WoC given to me as a present by my buddy Phil. Though these come from a time where getting a plastic regiment meant getting the same model over and over again, with only a metal command group added to break up the monotony, I still love them for the simple fact that they look like bigger, meaner versions of the chaos warriors that came with HeroQuest. In any case, it made a lot of sense to draft them into my growing chaos army. So that’s what I did:

Since I didn’t have any command models for this squad, I had to get creative for the first time: The unit’s champion was created by painting him golden and adding a spike to his helmet — a rather lame conversion, admittedly, but these guys don’t exactly lend themselves to easy conversion. The one thing I am still quite proud of after all these years is the converted standard bearer: I drilled a hole into the model’s left hand, using toothpicks, a length of string and and some skulls to construct the banner pole. The banner itself was a freehand done by me in Citadel Paints on paper. Check it out:

Not true art, to be sure. And maybe it looks a tad too much like an undead banner, with the skull blotting out the Khorne rune, but I still rather like the design — and it was completely my own.

Once again, the models were painted to emulate the paintjobs on the official box, although I don’t have a photo to prove it

Chaos Knights

Shortly after releasing the plastic WoC regiment, GW also offered a box of chaos knights based on the same basic sculpt: These use the same bodies, helmets and arms, but come with additional metal legs, weapon arms and bitz to make a unit of five knights. The knights themselves ended up looking like this:

The horses are standard GW fare from those days. However, the kit came with dedicated metal heads to make the horses look more chaotic. As you can see, I was getting a little more ambitious with my basing, adding moss and small rocks in addition to the horrible green flock of those days.

And here’s the whole regiment:

The paintjob is, once again, an attempt at faithfully recreating the “official” version. The banner, however, is just lazy, even for my standard back then…

The unit featured another bareheaded musician, so I got to take another shot at painting a face warped an discoloured by chaos:

A bit heavy on the eyeliner, perhaps…

Back when I painted these, it felt like I was actually managing to make them look 100% like the box art. In hindsight, I was deceiving myself a bit there, but these guys taught me the challenges of painting and assembling cavalry (twice as much stuff to paint before the model’s done, plus they are even more difficult to line up in a regiment).

Warriors of Chaos with Halberds

And yet another kit based on the same sculpt. Like the Chaos Knights, this box came as a plastic/metal hybrid kit, with a set of metal halberd arms included to allow for a different equipment loadout. Later revisions would roll the regular hand weapons and halberds into one kit, with everything made of plastic, but that time was still a ways off (funnily enough, today’s WoC have actually returned to the optional weapons done in a separate medium – Finecast, in this instance — talk about retro…). Anyway, of course I had to buy this one as well!

Anyway, this regiment is the fourth and final unit in the army, The red and bronze paintjob seems like a taste of the World Eaters that were to come later in my hobby life. Alas, it’s once again nothing more than a retread of the ‘Eavy Metal paintjob:

Again, I even duplicated the model’s poses and combinations of bitz. It’s hard to believe how scared I must have been to break away from the pretty pictures on the front of the box back then…

All of that notwithstanding, this regiment is probably the one that has best managed to hold up. Red and bronze never goes out of fashion for a servant of the dark gods, after all. And by this time, I was actually beginning to find my feet regarding assembly, painting and basing.

Since most of the models were based on the same basic sculpt, the regiments in the army still seem pretty homogenous, even though each one’s a different colour. Back then, though, that was actually an intended effect as often as not. You see, Chaos armies back then were based on the concept of champions and their respective retinues. If you wanted to build an army, you created a warlord and were then allowed to spend the same amount of points on his followers. Then you moved on to the next warlord, and so on. So each Chaos army was centered around two or three champions leading their very own retinue into battle, with one of them the supreme general of the force.

So, it won’t surprise you to learn that I also built and painted some warlords for my army:

Lord Algeroth the Black

Yes, I realise the name for this guy was actually nicked from Warzone’s very own Khorne-expy. Apart from that, though, this model was my first army general ever, so I really gave it my all. And since GW kits weren’t as easy to obtain back then as they are now, I had to plan this one out in theory. Then, one summer day, I braved the sweltering heat, travelled an hour to the next bigger city by train to reach the only available FLGS in my vincinity and was lucky enough to find the two kits I needed: a Juggernaut of Khorne (complete with a World Eaters rider I gave away, in my idiocy…) and a champion of chaos on a chaos steed. The rider received a new mount, I painted the resulting model, and that was the birth of Algeroth the Black, Exalted Champion of Khorne:

Granted, building this model was as easy as taking a rider from one kit and plunking him down on a different steed. But back then, I didn’t realise that I could ever possible achieve anything more ingenious than this…

Once again, the paintjob may seem a little slapdash in hindsight, but back then, this was pretty much the pinnacle of my abilities. To be honest, I still like the blending on the horns. I remember writing into the character’s background that he had managed to defeat a Bloodletter champion, wearing the daemon’s skull for a helmet as proof of his power.

Anyway, you possibly won’t believe how proud I was of this model…
He is also a huge chunk of metal and actually quite heavy: I bet you could cause serious injury to someone by throwing this model in their face…

Baal, the Red Duke

Based on the concept of army composition outlined above, Algeroth really needed a right hand man. And I still had that chaos steed lying around. And I had always really liked the Red Duke, an Vampire Counts model from an old campaign setting. So when I had the chance of snatching it up one day at the FLGS, I did and used it to build my chaos army’s second in command:

Once again, building the model was basically achieved by combining the rider with a different steed (I still have the original skeleton horse in my bitzbox to this day!). I also added a plastic shield from the WoC sprue, and that was it. I even kept fairly closely to the “official” paintjob for the character (AGAIN!), but in all fairness, I believe the Duke makes for a fairly convincing chaos lord: Granted, he does not fit the “huge, burly northmen” look established in later years, but back then, the official fluff had many disinfranchised nobles, criminals and glory hounds from the Empire and Bretonnia escape to the northern wastes, so it was rather plausible that this character had originated in one of the more civilised regions of the Warhammer world.

Anyway, I still like the sculpt of the Duke a lot, especially that wickedly shaped sword of his!

I actually remember painting that horse before going to school, at six in the morning. Yes, I was that hooked on getting this army finished!

Again, the bare face was giving me a bit of trouble:

Back then, I was really happy with how this had turned out. Today, though: not so much

Chaos Sorcerer

As an adamant worshipper of Khorne, I have never had much use for magic users and psykers in most of my armies. Still, one of my buddies gave me a set of two old metal chaos sorcerers as a birthday gift, back in the day, and I liked one of them so much that painted it the same day I received it:

Neither the paintjob nor the sculpt have aged all that gracefully, to be honest. And what’s more, due to my army being singularly devoted to Khorne, this poor fellow never even got a name. Neither did he see any action on the battlefield. Oh well…

The two models also came with a pair of classic familiars (quite a bit of bang for the buck, actually). Here’s one of them:

This little guy always reminded me of the Gargoyle race in the Ultima series of computer games, so he was painted accordingly.

Here he is, together with his master:

Khardaos Lorimar

And finally, the last WFB chaos general I ever built and painted — or rather, started to build and paint. Some of you may recognise his last name The first name was put together from the dark language table at the back of the sixth edition WoC army book. It’s supposed to mean “Daemon of Wrath”, which, in all fairness, is probably a pretty good name for a champion of the blood god!

Anyway, the model was heavily based on a chaos champion named Haargroth who appeared as a custom champion of Khorne in the sixth edition WoC army book. He uses the body of an old Bloodletter champion, Orc arms and an axe spliced together from two WoC plastic halberds. The head came from an old Slaanesh sorcerer, of all things. I also added some Space Marine shoulder pads and some spikes. The red was actually achieved by using the old GW Red Ink, which was pretty great for achieving a glistening, bloody look. I was pretty saddened when my last pot dried up…

This model, along with an accompanying regiment, should have marked the next expansion for my Chaos army for the sixth edition of WFB. Alas, it was not to be: The army was last used for a friendly game during the mid 2000s (My buddy Frankie pounded me into the ground with his Dark Elves, and I deserved losing for being far too hesitant and cowardly in the way I used my army), and after that, the whole hobby just fell by the wayside for a couple of years. As a matter of fact, even before then, I had begun to feel more interested in 40k, but even that was suspended until I got back into the hobby in late 2010.

So yeah, that is my first army ever.

Over the years, I’ve felt the urge to nick some rare metal piece from this army now and again, destroying one of the old models in the process. In the end, though, I have always resisted the urge: It may not be pretty. It may be thoroughly unoriginal. But it is also the first tabletop army I have ever managed to complete (insofar as a tabletop army can ever be truly complete…), and I could never cannibalise it for bitz.

Right, I hope you found this at least somewhat interesting. And hopefully my vintage paintjobs didn’t offend you too much. There’s actually more where this came from, but that will have to wait until the next post. Until then, feel free to let me know what you think or share any chaos-related stories of your own. I’d love to hear from you in the comments section!

Here’s to chaos! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Well, we are not done yet with the nostalgia trip, in case you were wondering! After covering my very first chaos army in my last post, today I would like to talk about yet another chaos project from the halcyon days of my youth that should nicely complement the old models I already showed you. So, once again in honour of Slaves to Darkness’ 25th anniversary, here we go:

My chaos army was already quite a ways into its development when GW started publishing the early rules for Mordheim in WD, starting in (German) WD 31. Necromunda had been released about six months earlier, and so adding a more skirmish based variety of WFB to GW’s catalogue seemed like the next logical step. I’m usually not a big fan of the “everything used to be better”-kind of debates, but having an actual ruleset for a game in development published in WD was definitely one of the really great things about those times!

Anyway, the Mordheim rules did not only bring a skirmish system set in the WFB universe, but also one of the most interesting – and, if you ask me, most underused – settings yet developed by GW: The damned city of Mordheim, a medieval nightmare where demented warbands of treasure hunters, daemon worshippers (and worse) fight over the ruins of a once bustling city, trying to amass more and more warpstone in the process. Visually, it was really a Bosch painting come alive, if you will. How could I not have been thrilled by it all?

One of the next issues of WD brought lists and rules for a selection of different warbands, featuring lots and lots of conversions from GW’s own team (since there were no “official” models yet. And, of course, I was immediately hooked! So I set out to build a cult of the Possessed, chaos worshippers brought into the open during Mordheim’s fall.

I wanted my warband to represent a cult of Khorne, trawling the city streets for worthy sacrifices to the blood god. Granted, I did not really think this through all that well: Followers of Khorne are definitely not fans of skulking around in robes and performing hidden rituals to undermine society. They are too on the nose for that. But even back then, Khorne was my favourite, and so Khorne it was

The first thing I needed were some suitable models to represent my cultists, and with much of today’s useful plastic boxes nowhere in sight, I had to fall back on some of GW’s metal models from the time. Fortunately enough, I found what I was looking for in German WD 32, in the form of Paul Muller’s metal chaos cultists:

While these are very different in concept from the more recent Dark Vengeance cultists – the former look much more like members of an organised cult of fanatics, while the latter seem like disgruntled workers and adepts driven to heresy – I still love these models very much: In fact, they are really underappreciated classics for me, and it’s a shame that they only seem to have been on offer for a pretty short window of opportunity.

Anyway, my FLGS carried some of them at least, so I got one blister (with three models — those were the days! ) and used them for my cult magister and his closest servants:

Of course, looking back today, I could kick myself for cutting off all those beautiful autopistols, since these guys would be great for 40k or INQ28. Back then, though, I had only just begun to find my feet as a converter, so transforming 40k models into characters for a WFB spinoff game seemed like a wild and edgy thing to do

First up, the cult magister, Albrecht von Nuln:

As befits a follower of Khorne, his sidearm was replaced with a huge axe (from an Orc acessory sprue, if I recall correctly). My bitzbox was much smaller in those days, and I pretty much had to make ends meet.

This was also the first test model I painted, so he set the standard for the rest of the warband: Sickly, greenish skin (Oh Rotting Flesh, how I loved thee…), dark red robes spattered with the blood of the cult’s victims, plus different shades of metal, bronze and bone.

Next up, Brother Grimoriah, one of his henchmen, again with an Orc axe:

Looking back now, I shudder at how crudely the weapon was attached to the model’s hand, but those were different times — at least for me. As you can see, I also added some chaotic tattoes to the cultist’s skin: Certainly nothing to write home about, but I was mightily proud about that particular detail back then! I also added nicks and scratches to the models’ weapons, seeing how these guys were really into fighting and killing, so I wanted their weapons to have a worn, much-used look.

And finally, probably my favourite model of the bunch, Brother Maleachi

I really love this guy’s composition! An old WoC plastic shield was added to his left arm, and to tell you the truth, I still rather like the way I painted the blood-stained shield:

You really immediately get what this guy is about

In addition to the cult brethren, I also built two bowmen, based on Chaos Archers from Battle Masters. Alas, only one those remains; the other one was demolished when I needed the head for something different. Anyway, here’s Initiate Vaxillus:

A very easy conversion, to tell you the truth: The head of a plastic warrior of chaos was added, and the right arm was replaced with that of a Gorkamorka Orc. The right hand originally gripped a wicked looking dagger (actually the tip of a chaos knight’s lance), but that particular detail was lost somewhere along the way. I also added an Orc shield to the model’s back:

This model may not look like much nowadays, but back then, I considered this a fairly involved conversion. Silly me

Anyway, I also built two Possessed, Ezeekiel and Duriel. Both of them are once again based on Battle Masters Chaos Archers, with varying degrees of mutation added on top. Take a look:

The first guy simply received a pair of reeeally old Tyranid Warrior arms, sponsored by my buddy Phil. I wanted him to look like the additional pair of arms were erupting from his torso and served as his main weapon.

The second Possessed was a far more involved conversion, using the same base model and yet more old Tyranid bitz (among them a leftover head from an old metal Hive Tyrant):

I wanted the model to look like the daemonic possession had really started to manifest in earnest, the warped, daemonic part of the body almost erupting out of the poor Possessed’s torso. Modelling putty was used to build up the transition between regular body and twisted, daemonic flesh.

And finally, both of them together:

Granted, the models may be a trainwrecks by today’s standards, but back then, they seemed so sinister and twisted to me, since I had never attempted anything like this before.

So here are all of the cult members together:

Where my WoC army basically consisted of me trying to approximate the official GW studio pieces as closely as I could, this warband shows I was getting more ambitious and adventurous. So since these guys may actually have aged less gracefully than my regular chaos army, they nevertheless mark an important, maybe even crucial, step in my personal hobby “career”: I was actually trying to explore what chaos meant to me, beyond any tabletop rules and army lists.

As for the rest of my Mordheim-related activities, I also had an Empire Witchhunter warband, based on a Necromunda Redemptionist gang, for these guys to face off against — although I’ll be damned if I know where I put most of the models…

Both warbands didn’t actually see that much action: I only remember a single test game – against my dad, if I remember correctly – using the preliminary Mordheim rules from WD. But that’s beside the point: The Mordheim stuff published in WD got my creative juices flowing in a new and exciting ways, and was partly responsible for me becoming the avid kitbasher and fluffbunny I am today.

One last conundrum for you to figure out: If this game was set in a town, why on earth did I base these guys using green flock? Because that’s the way it was done back then, that’s why

And with that, our little trip down memory lane is concluded. I hope it’s been enjoyable for you to witness the humble beginnings of my descent into chaos. Rest assured that the next models I’ll post on this blog will be more …recent ones.

Oh, and happy birthday, Chaos! It has been brilliant so far!

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

Today it’s time to check up on the progress of one of my conversion projects from earlier this year: It has been about six months since I posted my first test model for a squad of chaos spawn for my World Eaters. You may remember that I didn’t want my chaos spawn to look like the usual, creepy crawly monsters, but rather recongnisably like former Astartes. That was the birth of “The Forsaken”, those brothers of the World Eaters 4th assault company whose madness and physical corruption have led to their devolution into little more than raging beasts. The models were built using Vargheist/Crypt Horror bodies and Minotaur arms, with lots and lots of GS in between to add the necessary muscle mass to the models’ torsos.

Back when I first talked about the squad, I had already painted a first test model:

Since these guys are former World Eaters legionaries, it makes a lot of sense that they should share the same colour recipe as my regular World Eaters, so the same colours were used while painting them. However, when compared to the rest of the army, they almost  use an “inverted” colour scheme in that most of the model is defined by the greyish, pale skin, with small pieces of red and bronze armour for contrast.

Anyway, I had two more models left to go, and I decided it was finally time to finish up this squad. Let’s take a look:

Building these was initally a bit of a challenge, since I tried to play it too safe after the first model: The other two bodies that come with the Crypt Horror/Vargheist kit are far more static than the first, and I didn’t really have an idea how to deal with that. So the squad wasn’t really going anywhere until I received feedback from several fellow hobbyists over on Dakka. Maybe the best suggestion came from my buddy Biohazard, who suggested that one of the models should look as if it were taking a moment in the heat of battle to bellow in rage at its next opponent. So that’s the look I tried to achieve with the second model in the squad:

As you can see, quite a bit of GS was added to build up a set of suitably well-muscled shoulders for the model. While I was at it, I also added some Butcher’s Nails implants to the model’s head and a Triumph Rope scar to its chest and abdomen, to make it clear that this creature was once a noble member of the XIIth Astartes Legion.

So here’s the painted model, recently finished:

The horrible, open back of the model (where I imagine the combined effects of the physiological changes necessary for becoming an Astartes and the raw forces of chaos have literally begun to tear the wretched creature’s body apart) was painted using Tamiya Clear Red to make it look like a sickening, glistening mess of raw meat. I seriously considered painting the spine in metal for a while, but in the end, decided against it.

Here’s a detail shot of that particular area:

All in all, I couldn’t possibly be any more pleased with the model’s pose: This guy is looking really angry, and he perfectly embodies what the Forsaken are all about:

I can almost picture the scene and hear the roar in the back of my head

The third model in the squad has a more crouched position, almost like a huge ape. Here’s the conversion before undercoating:

Once again, new shoulder muscles, a Triumph Rope and some Butcher’s Nails were added. Since I was running out of suitable Crypt Horror parts at this point, the model received a Vargheist’s hirsute back, giving it an even more beastly, feral look. I also added a crude weapon fist from the WFB Ogre bulls, since I thought the weapon was a nice callback to the World Eaters’ gladiatorial traditions.

Seeing how the model had such an apelike, crouched position, I thought it would be interesting to pose it above the remains of its latest opponent/meal, so I built and painted a fitting base:

The basic construction uses the usual mix of cork, modelling sand and small pieces of slate. Between the rock outcrops where I eventually wanted to place the model, I added some bones to represent the remains of whatever unlucky creature(s) last had a run in with the Forsaken. A generous helping of Tamiya Clear Red was added to communicate the fact that this meeting had not taken place on amicable terms…

And here’s the finished model that went on top of the base:

This guy’s pose took ages to get right, and even then, it remained the least exciting among the members of the squad. But seeing the model now, I feel rather pleased with the result: The Forsaken looks like it’s crouched atop a rock after its latest fight/meal, turning around to face its next foe.

Even though I am usually rather hesitant when it comes to adding blood effects – since it’s very easy to go over the top with the blood – in this case, I even smeared some Clear Red on the lower half of the Forsaken’s face: Maybe this guy has indeed recently eaten (*shudder*)…

And with that, my initial squad of three chaos spawn was finished! I am really happy that I managed to come up with a couple of conversions that fit the overall look and feel of my army. Plus these guys are far less “creepy crawly” than the usual chaos spawn models. Instead of ending up as quivering mountains of flesh, the Forsaken have evolved into the perfect hunters, as befits their master Khorne…

I also like the fact that I have managed to come up with some fairly unique models. While the Vargheist kit is not all that flexible (and the Crypt Horrors look fairly bare bones out of the box), it offers a fantastic base for conversions, if you’re willing to experiment. It’s strange that we don’t see more conversions involving these guys…

So, what do you think about the models? I’d be happy to hear from you in the comments section! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

This month doesn’t bring a simple Codex or mere army book release, but rather an expansion for the whole of 40k: Apocalypse returns with a hefty tome as well as some rather imposing kits. As has become a treasured tradition here on Eternal Hunt, let’s take a look at the new release and talk about the new models and think about their possible uses for all kinds of hobby projects as well as their conversion potential.

While I will be focusing on the various models and kits in this post without giving any more consideration to the rulebook, let me just point out that the fact that a Khornate daemon engine prominently features on the expansion’s cover certainly warrants a double thumbs up from me

Another thing that you can say about this release is that it does a nice job in breaking up the well-established and rather formulaic pattern set by the last few releases. This is a welcome change, in my opinion, although it has more to do with the different nature of Apocalypse as an expansion to the whole game. Nevertheless, a little variety never hurt anyone.

Anyway, Apocalypse is all about size, of course: The expansion is designed to allow (if not incite) players to use their whole collection of models and/or assemble enormous armies, far beyond the scope of regular 40k, throwing everything but the kitchen sink at their fellow hobbyists. It also exclusively gives players the opportunity of using all kinds of special formations and enormous models, ranging from scores of infantry models to tank squadrons or superheavies. So it should not come as a big surprise that the models released along with the expansion focus on this aspect.

Khorne Lord of Skulls

People on the forums may think the Necron model is the most spectacular thing to come out of this release, but you will hopefully excuse my fanboyism when I say that this is the real star of the show for me, for fairly obvious reasons.

I’ll be honest with you: This model initially seemed like a dream come true for me! When I saw the first leaked pictures, my lower jaw could actually be heard hitting the tabletop. Since then, lots and lots of derision have been heaped upon the “Skulldozer”, but I’ll go on record stating that I simply love the model’s design, period. Sure, it’s corny. Sure, it’s unrealistic. But come on, people: Since when do we expect realism in 40k? In fact, the cry for realism is one of the biggest non-arguments ever, in my opinion. Plausibility, sure: It’s great if models look even slightly plausible, as in: grounded in the setting. But what we have here is a daemonic fusion of flesh and bone, steel and brass, brought to quasi-life by the powers of the warp. It serves as an engine of destruction as well as a living icon of the Blood God — that’s surely plausible enough for me!

If anything, I have to applaud Dale Stringer, designer of the piece, for finding the perfect middle ground between the old and the new: The Lord of Skulls nicely picks up a lot of design cues of the older epic 40,000 Khornate daemon engines, while also looking very much at home next to the more recent 40k chaos kits.

Are there too many skulls? I’ll let you be the judge of that:

Personally, I think that you can never really have too many skulls on a Khornate model, but that’s just me. And we can certainly all agree that some of the detail on this model is simply nuts. For me, it’s a tossup between the cannon with the skull face (that has yet more skulls in it…) or the choice of two alternate heads, complete with exchangeable Khornate “bunny ears”:

For me as a World Eaters player, the model not only counts as pure fan service, but is also a kit that I would love to own.

Here’s the thing, though: This model is simply too damn big! A scale shot provided by GW in the latest issue of WD shows how the Lord of Skulls is almost twice the heigth of a Defiler (itself quite a beast already, from a size perspective). And here’s where my excitement for the model turns bittersweet: The size puts it out of scale with all other kits in the chaos catalogue: It can really only ever realistically be used in Apocalypse.

Granted, that was probably the whole point of the exercise. But for me, that’s a bit of a tragedy: If the model were half its size, I’d buy it in a heartbeat. Heck, I’d probably get two of the things, to be honest: I love the design to bits, and at half the size, it would be an essential purchase in so many ways:

I would make a fantastic replacement defiler out of the box. Or the upper and lower halves of the kit could be separated and made into both a Khornate knight titan and a more interesting World Eaters Land Raider — as a matter of fact, I’ve been waiting for ages for a possibility of making a LR more interesting and rewarding to build: Check out the undercarriage: It would be the perfect vehicle for Lord Captain Lorimar and his retinue of Terminators. Even the treads have icons of Khorne (whereas chaos players have had to use the regular LR threads, complete with Aquila, for ages). Parts of it might even be useable for other Daemon Engines, Helbrute conversions, custom pieces of terrain or what have you.

But as it stands, the model is simply unusable by virtue of its size. Sure, this is supposed to be an exclusive Apocalypse war machine with no use in regular 40k. But I am simply not interested in playing at the scale of Apocalypse, period. So what I am left with here is a kit that I would love to own, yet that I won’t be able to use for anything, by the look of it. I don’t know what to say. Something like that ha never really happened to me before…

Lastly, there’s the price of course: 125 Euros for a single mode, no matter the size, is a pretty penny. We’re no longer approaching FW territory here, we’re well within its borders. And I am not sure I’m happy about that…

Necron Tesseract Vault

The other huge kit of the release gives Necron players a new toy. The Tesseract Vault even offers you the added benefit of being able to assemble it in two different configurations. You can either use the model in a closed configuration as an Obelisk, a bigger Necron monolith variant. This option has a look fitting perfectly within the established Necron aesthetic, while looking somewhere between a Borg Cube and an alien mothership from some Sci-Fi flick like Independence day:

The other option is to use the kit to build the Tesseract Vault, with a captured and tortured C’Tan visible at the center of the consrtuct:

I was a little disappointed at the handling of the C’Tan in the new Necron background, so it’s really nice to see a new C’Tan shard make an appearance, even if it appears to be just a fairly “generic” creature. I also like the look of the star god’s prison being torn apart by the creature’s power while also being repaired by countless little automata at the same time: GW’s designers really managed to pull this off perfectly, and the myriad of small canoptek scarabs are a really nice touch:

What makes me really envious of Necron players is the fact that, where the Lord of Skulls is infuriatingly useless to those of us not interested in Apocalypse, the Tesseract Vault seems like a no-brainer purchase to all Necron Players: Even if you have no intention of ever playing Apocalypse, this kit simply gives you so much Necron-y stuff that you can build lots of brilliant things for your regular 40k army: There’s the vault itself that could work as a bigger monolith as well as a fantastic piece of terrain for your Necron-themed table. The insectile Canoptek-contraption above the C’Tan could easily be used as an alternate Tomb Spider or some similar horror. All those cables and tech bitz are a converter’s and terrain builder’s dream come true. And of course, there’s this guy:

Whether you want to make him into a C’Tan shard, a daemon prince or what have you, this guy has all the makings of a centre piece model. Incidentally, in case any fellow videogame nerds are reading this: Doesn’t this model remind you of the early sketches for possible boss monsters published in the Bioshock artbook “Breaking the Mould”, down to the colour used on the model? The resemblance is rather uncanny…

Oh, and to those playing Inquisitor at the 54mm scale: I guess you’ll never get a better plastic daemonhost than this, people…

So, while this model doesn’t feel as much like a standout piece as the Lord of Skulls to me, it has the immense advantage of being rather useful for hobby activities beyond (or should that be beneath) the scope of Apocalypse.

Space Marine Masters of the Chapter

While the other models in this release rather fit the bill of large kit, the new Masters of the Chapter have the large ham angle perfectly covered. I really liked the first couple of company masters, and now there are even more of them. Let’s take a closer look:

The Lord Executioner

Yeah, names to run away from really fast, and all that…

Seriously, though, this may be my favourite of the new models. He looks huge and imposing – and possibly almost too ostentatious. Still, if you like your Marine commanders blinged-out to the max, you’ll find a lot to like about this model and its fellows. The longer I look at the model, the more it seems to me that the shaft of the axe should be a little longer, but that’s just a small nitpick.

My favourite detail about this guy has to be his face:

It would make for a great World Eaters officer. Or the whole model could be used as a base for a pretty effective Constantin Valdor conversion. Just sayin’…

Master of the Marches

Wait, the Astartes have a guy whose sole responsibility is the deployment of the force? At only 1,000 Marines per chapter? Talk about bloated management…

Anyway, the model once again looks the part of company master! I like how GW are channelling older armour variants for their marine special characters and would love to see more of this with the plastic kits. One can always dream…

I also think that cherub should be a very interesting bit for INQ28 aficionados:

Master of the Rites

This one is probably the weakest of the bunch for me: While the cape draped over the model’s left arm is a nice touch, he just doesn’t look as cool as the other models. And what is it with that huge, floating loudspeaker thing, though? I can certainly appreciate the gothic touches, but if he needed something beyond the communications arrays built into every single Marine’s helmet, maybe a choir servitor would have been an even cooler (and more gothic) option? The good thing is that this guy should be rather easy to convert via a hand swap, if you want him in a more combat-centred role.

Master of Relics

While the overall model is pretty great, I am not sure I am fond of all the clutter, especially the servo-skull and backpack. Sure, this guy is important and equipped with all kinds of snazzy doodads, but I suspect the model might be much cooler with a less cluttered silhouette. In fact, maybe this guy could even make a good base for an Alpharius/Omegon conversion or a “regular” Alpha legionnaire, since he already has that special ops look about him…

Based on his facial expression, he also looks like a really fun guy to be around:

Once again, the obvious problem with these is the price point: Each of the models comes at a whooping 21 Euros, whereas the older Masters of the Chapter can still be had in a box of four for merely 26 Euros. Sure, the new models may be even more imposing and detailed (which does in fact lead to a bit of a continuity problem, seeing how the less detailed models are now representing the first four companies of the chapter…), but considering the price and the fact that the older models are really nice, I know which one I’d choose. And let’s not even get into the fact that kitbashing some unique Masters of the Chapter from all the available bitz would be a really fascinating project for the diligent hobbyist…
The release also brings some brand new terrain that can be combined with the already available (and prohibitively expensive) Wall of Martyrs. So let’s take a closer look at the new terrain pieces:

Vengeance Weapons Battery

Seeing how weapon emplacements have even begun to creep into regular 40k, I can imagine this kit to become very useful both in Apocalypse and in regular games. The design is nice and gothic, and I can’t help but feel that it even looks slightly chaotic as it is — which is great news for a chaos player like myself, of course.

Firestorm Redoubt

Quite a bit larger than the weapons battery, this kit features a rather large bunker and additional huge weapons. Once again, I really like the design, but then I’m a sucker for all those gothic knick knacks and skulls of everything.

Aquila Strongpoint

And finally, where would we be without a piece of terrain using a stylised Imperial aquila with a huge gun? And it seems like the bird is really excited to see us., too..

Like the other two pieces, this one continues the trend of gothic and highly ostentatious design, and all three of the pieces should gel perfectly with the Wall of Martyrs, the Fortress of Redemption or even GW’s cityfight ruins. This is indeed a far cry from the spraypainted cardboard buildings of my youth!

Now, I realise that these are fairly huge pieces of terrain. Plus all of these are certainly expertly designed and look great. They will also, without a doubt, prove rather effective both in Apocalypse and in games of regular 40k. There’s one thing , though, and again, it’s the price point: I really respect the work that must have gone into these, and they will look brilliant on gaming tables around the world. I also immensely dislike all the GW-bashing around the net. All of that notwithstanding, though, the pricing on these terrain pieces just seems out of touch: At between 40 and 90 Euros apiece, the pricing on these models is just off the charts: There’s no way I am blowing hundreds of Euros on terrain when the armies themselves are so expensive already. Sure, it’s fantastic that all this brilliant terrain is available to us. Sure, there has never been so much cool stuff to use for your own terrain conversions. And it’s certainly bad form to hate on GW for giving us more options.

But still: I’ve never been one to shy away from paying a pretty penny to sustain my addiction to cutting up little plastic men, but this is just a bit much. It’s clearly obvious that this release caters to the hardcore fans, above all else: To those who will buy Forgeworld Titans, just because. To those who can afford to spend entire weekends wrapped up in the logistics of a huge Apocalypse battle. Maybe to those who will rent convention centers to play out the battle for a whole planet on the floor of the main conference room. All of this is fascinating to see, and it’s great that the option is there, but for me personally, Apocalypse is simply moving one step too far away from what I find fascinating about wargaming in the first place: the attention to each single soldier in my army.

So, what to make of it all?
It’s a tough call, really. Even more so since I am obviously slightly biased against Apocalypse in the first place. From a visual standpoint, I cannot fault GW’s designers: The release contains lots of cool stuff and, based on its visual merits alone, would have to be called one of my favourite releases for some time. I can easily salivate over all the cool models for hours.

But both the size and the attached price tags render most of this release clearly beyond my reach. To wit, there’s an offer for this terrain set over on the GW-page:

And it comes at almost 1,500 Euros a pop. That’s insane! You could buy a car for that money! A rather crappy car that doesn’t have too much life left in it, to be sure. But the point still stands: This kind of game – even more than regular 40k or WFB – seems to be for those for whom disposable income is simply not an issue. And the rest of us do not seem to be invited to the party.

It would be easy, of course, to wax poetical on the injustice of capitalism, of the sheer evil of corporate entities, among them GW. I won’t do that. I’ll just say, in closing, that looking at the huge kits from this release makes me giddy and excited, and I dream of all the crazy conversions I could make with this stuff. But then I think of the game attached to all of it, and I take a look at the price tag, and I feel that I am standing at a fork in the road. And I guess I’ll pass. For now. So, cheers, GW: See you next month, when you’ll hopefully release someting I can afford again.

So yeah, so much for my thoughts about this particular release. What’s your take on things? Are you delighted by the models? Excited at the prospect of running huge Apocalypse games? Or just as hesitant as I am? Am I maybe just bitter that I don’t get to play with the big boys? Let me know what you think in the comments section!

And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

I usually keep a small pile of bitz at the ready on my desktop at all times, in case of sudden spells of inspiration. One of the models that resulted from such a moment is the gladiatorial World Eater I posted quite a while ago:

Without a doubt, Angron’s gladiatorial origins and the legion’s attempt at channelling its Primarch’s traditions are among the more interesting bits of World Eaters lore. So after building the first model, I realised it would only be a matter of time before I would revisit this particular concept. So when inspiration struck again recently, I decided to build and paint a new playfellow for the lonely gladiator.

The catalyst for this decision were some of the Beastman weapons I had aqcuired with an old box of Gors and Ungors. I realised that not only do some of those weapons make for brilliant gladiatorial wargear, but the Gors’ muscular arms also nicely fit CSM and Chaos Marauder proportions alike.

So, a short while later, this WIP model was standing before me:

The basic construction was very similar to the older model: A pair of CSM legs was combined with a Marauder torso. the left arm came from a regular CSM, while the right one came from the aforementioned Beastman Gors. Both swords are also Beastman weapons.

The head was angled downwards, to make it look as though the gladiator were staring down his next opponent. I do realise that the old berserker head is a case of love it or hate it for some, although I can be firmly placed within the former camp: While the fangs may be a little corny, the face really looks like that of a veteran of the Long War. Plus the cabling on the back of the head is still one of the best possible representations of Butcher’s Nails across GW’s entire catalogue, if you ask me.

All that remained was to add some bitz and bobs: The loincloth is a slightly cut down part from the Chaos Lord in Terminator armour. I added some Space Marine grenades at the model’s hips to make it look more 40k and to slightly bulk out the silhouette. The skull shoulderpads came from the Chaos Marauders. And a shaved down orcish armour plate was added to the model’s back to make it look like it was intended to protect the gladiator’s neck.

Granted, the pose is fairly static, and also quite similar to the other model. However, not only am I a true fan of the “present your weapons” sort of pose, but I also think it works really well with the swords. It’s also a great fit for a gladiator, if you ask me.

So I quickly painted this guy. You simply won’t believe how much more fun Chaos Space Marines are to paint when you have a pretext for ditching those cumbersome backpacks

Anyway, here’s the painted model:

As you can see, I stuck to my regular recipe fairly closely, save for one important difference: A red, warpaint-like tattoo was added to the gladiator’s forehead, harking back to Angron’s own facial markings:

A brilliant idea that was “borrowed” from fellow World Eater Szczur22′s thread over on ToS. I think I’ll add variations of this to all the coming models in the squad.

Here are the two gladiators together:

And here they are, together with the Forsaken I completed earlier. I took this photo for no other reason than the fact that those guys look great together

It’s fun little projects like these that will keep you interested in an army, even if you haven’t got the time (or motivation) to finish a tank or a whole squad. Sure, this guy didn’t bring me much closer to finishing the next 500 (or even 50) points for my army, but he offered me the opportunity to add some character to the force and to explore the background lore of my chosen legion — and as far as worthy hobby endeavours go, that has always been good enough for me! I also think there may be more models where those two came from — maybe each of them wielding a different set of gladiatorial weapons? And some of those models will also have to be quite dynamic, come to think of it…

Anyway, let me know what you think! And look forward to seeing more World Eaters-related stuff. Just sayin’…

And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Today marks a pretty special occasion for me, because my blog has managed to garner its first 100,000 views. Which is rather amazing, seeing how I basically kicked off this small endeavour about one and a half years ago to show you my own, meagre hobby efforts. Back then, I was of course hoping that I would be able to attract some attention to my hobby projects, but never could I have foreseen so many visitors, readers and comments. So thanks a lot to all the people who have shown an interest so far! Getting some kind of feedback is a great motivational factor, even if it’s only seeing that people click on the site, download the odd image or what have you. It’s been a great experience so far, and I promise I’ll try to keep the content coming. Who knows, some of it may even be interesting

So, what better way to celebrate the occasion than to show you some new pictures of where my World Eaters army currently stands? After all, this army was one of my main reasons for starting this blog!

Even though I may have been rather lazy since showing you the last family portrait some time ago, the army still fills me with pride. Take a look:

I only really painted some 15 new models since the last set of photos was taken, but at least some of them were pretty huge. The army also ends up looking rather imposing lined up like that, if I do say so myself!

The biggest addition to the army since we last saw it was of course the Hellrazor, my converted Heldrake:

But I also managed to paint some more lords (a lasting addiction of mine) and fellows in terminator armour. These three gentlemen can already make up a small Termicide unit, if push comes to shove:

And there’s an equally large collection of Chaos Lords in power armour, of course. Among them my converted Dark Apostle (shown on the left):

Then there’s a small collection of champions and models I painted just for fun (among them the starts of a dedicated gladiator squad). While several of those concepts may be spun off into an own squad, all of these “stragglers” together can almost make up another berzerker squad:

And finally, there’s the beginnings of Joras Turnpelt’s small detachment of traitorous Space Wolves, to be used as regular CSM, if the battle plan so requires:

But let’s not just look at already finished stuff! Blogging is all about new content after all, and seeing these guys neatly lined up like that actually gave me a pretty huge appetite for adding more stuff to my World Eaters — but where to start?

I recently discovered Chris’ fantastic kitbashed Decimator over at A Host of Word Bearers and was simply blown away by the model! Using a Dreadknight as the base model for his conversion, Chris managed to truly transform it into an excellent daemon engine for the dark gods. And it took all my strengths to resist picking up a Dreadknight right away to emulate his conversion.

…

Unfortunately, my resolve lasted all of 24 hours, then I hurried to the FLGS and made my move. And I spent the last weekend in a bit of a building spree, trying to convert my own, corrupted Dreadknight/Decimator.

At the beginning, I stuck closely to Chris’ recipe, only replacing a small bit here and there. After a relatively short while, this was what I ended up with:

As you can see, the basic construction is very similar. I was lucky enough to discover that the armour plates from the Maulerfiend’s forearms were a perfect fit for the Dreadknight legs. And as Chris’ conversion amply demonstrated, the  arms from the Forgefiend and Heldrake kits, respectively, make for great improvised Decimator weapons. Luckily enough, I still had both lying around, so the body was finished rather quickly.

Here’s where the problems started, though, since I lacked virtually all the parts used by Chris to make up the head and shoulders of his model. And I didn’t consider the chances of getting my hands on a warsphinx skull head to be all that great. So I realised I would have to improvise and started kitbashing:

My first idea was to use the skull from one of the 40k dice holders. I thought it would look reasonably close to that warsphinx head:

But once I had tried it, I really wasn’t too happy with the result: It just didn’t look as cool as I had hoped.

My next approach was to default back to every Khorne player’s bread and butter choice: A juggernaut head.

But while this would have worked rather nicely, it presented a whole new problem: I had already used a juggernaut head when building Marax the Fallen, and I didn’t really want to replicate a motif I had already used once…

And then I had an idea: I suddenly remembered that head I had originally wanted to use for my second Dreadnought:

Back then, I ultimately had to discard the head because it was simply too big for a dreadnought body. But for obvious reasons, that wouldn’t be a problem this time around! So I made a mockup:

And in a strange way, it worked. I really like the blunt, brutal look of the head! With its cyclopean eyeslit, it really looks like an inhuman killing machine. And while I am normally not a big fan of using old toy parts on 40k models, I felt I could make an exeception here. After all, isn’t this a nice callback to a youth misspent on a different kind of plastic crack?

Anyway, I continued working from there, building up the shoulders with a couple of bitz and bobs. I also started experimenting with a slightly more exciting pose.

I then posted the WIP shots on a couple of forums to confirm whether I was on to something here, and the reactions were largely positive, so I persevered. One criticism, however, turned out to be valid: Some guys over at GW-Fanworld pointed out that the toy head seemed to be far less detailed than the surrounding area. So I used a couple of additional bitz to address this problem:

It might not be perfect, but I am confident I can make it work during the painting stage. In an unexpected twist, I also decided against using the usual Khornate “bunny ears”, because I really liked the head’s blunt silhouette and didn’t want to clutter it with too many different elements.

I kept adding some additional bitz here and there, and a short while later, the model’s construction was basically finished. Take a look:

A few additional chains, skull trophies and chaos icons notwithstanding, I believe the model is close to finished. I have also resisted the urge to glue everything together right off the bat, so the model is currently kept in several larger sub-assemblies (and held together with several gobs of modelling putty and a huge amount of faith). It will probably be far easier to paint that way!

All in all, I am really pleased with this big boy at the moment! Though the original inspiration is still clearly visible, the different head and shoulders keep the model from becoming a mere retread of somebody else’s conversion. And I am also really looking forward to seeing this guy painted. I suspect/hope that painting the model will be slightly similar to painting a bigger dreadnought. I hope I am right in this, because painting my two dreads has been an absolute blast!

As soon as I get my hands on a fresh can of Chaos Black, expect this guy to hit the painting table! Until then, if you have any C&C on him, I’d love to hear it!

So yeah, as you can see, Khorne’s Eternal Hunt is still going strong! A huge thank you must go to Chris for providing the totally awesome inspiration for this conversion! And, of course, thanks to your for looking and stay tuned for more!

Here’s to the next 100,000!

So, with Khorne’s Eternal Hunt getting all kinds of love lately, some of you may be wondering whatever happened to my Legio Custodes army. And I am, in fact, painfully aware that I have been quite neglectful when it comes to those guys. However, the project’s far from abandoned! As a matter of fact, not only am I still working on the army, but I also have something new to show you today:

First up, you may remember the first two painted models for a squad of jump infantry I posted quite a while ago:

Well, the squad obviously has more members, so these are probably the next Custodes models to be painted for the army:

I couldn’t bear throwing away the beautiful GK flamer, so I used him on this member of the squad: A little flamer action never hurt anyone, after all. On second thought, hurting someone is very much the whole point in this case

Then there’s the standard bearer for the squad:

I used a leftover part from the WFB Empire Knights, which makes an excellent standard for the squad. You’ll notice that the rest of the model also looks fairly ostentatious, as befits a member of the Legio Custodes:

And finally, the squad leader:

Using mostly Sanguinary Guard parts, this grizzled veteran looks like the hero he is. I added a CSM Plasma pistol as well as a company champion’s power sword to make the model’s equipment look especially ancient and well-crafted.

A Venerable Dreadnought’s shinguard was used as the squad leader’s left pauldron:

The engravings are unfortunately the wrong way around, but there was really no easy way to fix this. I still like the overall effect, though.

While these models had been built for quite a while already, I have now cleaned and assembled their jump packs, so they are very much next in line for painting.

I also built some more models for Squad Asklepian, a unit of Custodians wearing older marks of Astartes power armour. My goal was to have every armour pattern from Mk 1 to Mk 6 on display in the squad, while some additional models with suitably old and/or ostentatious looking armour were also drafted into the unit.

So here’s the model in Mk I “Thunder amour” I already showed you a while back:

I am still really pleased with the model, if I do say so myself.

Then there’s the Dark Angels Plasma gunner from the Dark Vengeance boxed set: Since his helmet looked deliciously vintage, I gave him some new arms a while back and added him to Squad Asklepian. Since you last saw the model, I added some additional detail to it:

A small lion figurine was added to the custodian’s chest, thereby creating a winged lion ornament. I also added the bottom of a purity seal, used almost like a loincloth in this case. As you can see, the model will end up as the squad’s standard bearer.

While some of the older armour variants were reasonably easy to approximate, the Mk II “Crusade” pattern had me stumped for quite a while: I’ll be honest with you, I even considered just getting a couple of Mk II bitz off ebay and be done with it. But then, I really wanted to kitbash these out of GW plastic parts. In the end, I did manage to build a model that at least looks reasonably close, though. Take a look:

First of all, I just used the clunkiest bitz I could find for a more heavily armoured and less mobile look. The weapons (taken from the Khorne Berzerker sprue) also look suitably clunky and pre-heresy. The most important part of the conversion is the head, though: It originally came from the WFB Skullcrushers: I had shaved off the Khornate bunny ears to use them on another model, and coincidentally realised that the helmet could work as a Mk. II with a little bit of work. So the eyeslits were carefully converted to a single, cyclopean slit, and the “ears” from a regular Marine helmet were added to the sides.

It may not be a totally accurate representation of the armour design, but I am still pretty happy with it. At least it manages to look pretty archaic, and this whole project was really never about perfect accuracy anyway, but rather about the joy of converting and kitbashing.

Lastly, I still had a Marine wielding a rocket launcher from the “Assault on Black Reach” boxed set knocking around, and seeing how his helmet had a nice, archaic look, I wanted to use him for squad Asklepian. However, turning his 40k rocket launcher into a 30k one proved to be quite a headscratcher. So the model mouldered in my bitzbox for a long time. I was almost tempted to just get one of FW’s rocket launcher arms, but once again, only using plastic GW parts was part of the self-imposed restrictions for this project, so I had to find another way.

And then, only recently, it hit me: I knew which GW plastic parts to use to make that weapon look like an older design. Here’s the finished model:

One of the good old Space Crusade weapons really helped me out here! Granted, it’s far from perfect, but I think it’s a pretty reasonable approximation of the “official” FW stuff, given the rules I had set for myself. As a matter of fact, I am very much in love with this clever (at least for my standard) little conversion at the moment!

Of course I also added a topknot and an additional wing ornament to tie the model in with the rest of the squad.

So here are all four models together, ready to be painted:

This brings the number of models in Squad Asklepian up to nine and means I only need to do a model in Mk IV “Maximus Armour” to complete the collection — fortunately, I already have all the plastic bitz I need for that last Custodian in the squad.

So, as you can see, the work on my Legio Custodes project continues! And I still want to get at least most of the army painted before Forgeworld release their own take on the Emperor’s bodyguard. Because once the “official” models are available, I am pretty sure no one will cast another glance at my own meagre efforts

Anyway, any and all C&C are always welcome! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!