While I am itching to paint some of the models I have recently converted, the high temperatures all around have rendered painting all but impossible for the last week or so. Fortunately enough, the temperature has dropped a bit, and it looks like I can finally get to work at the weekend. Huzza!

Until then, let me show you some odds and ends, as well as some ongoing conversion projects for my World Eaters. While I have had to content myself mainly with some kitbashing for the last few days, I still have some new models to show for it

1. A new toy for the Undying

First up, a small project I somehow forgot to show you earlier. You may remember one of my Chaos Dreadnoughts/Helbrutes, Khoron the Undying, with all his various toys. Alas, the poor chap was still missing a Multimelta to round out his equipment choices. So I finally sat down to solve that problem and cobbled together a suitable weapon from a Venerable Dreadnought’s arm, a Sisters of Battle Multimelta and a Khorne icon:

Since I didn’t have any more armour plates to cover up the loyalist engravings on the arm, the icon was cut to size and blended in with a little GS to make the arm look suitably chaotic. The Multimelta may just be a tad too small, but I still rather like the overall result:

This means I am only short a rocket launcher arm before I’ll own a full set of equipment options for my Helbrutes, and I already have an idea…

2. The Sons of Cron

The second thing I want to show you today are some more models for my Chosen, the Sons of Cron. I already posted my attempt at converting some of the Dark Vengeance Chosen for my World Eaters some time ago, and the fact that these models are so amazingly detailed meant that I had to touch up some of the Chosen I had already built from “regular” CSM and berzerker parts:

The guy on the right is a good example for that. Some Raptor parts and additional trophies were added to him to bring his look more in line with that of the ultra-detailed Dark Vengeance model on the left.

These two guys were also touched up, with the Chosen on the left receiving a new right arm, shield and some trophies, while a highly detailed set of Khornate “bunny ears” (from the WFB Skullcrushers) and a severed head were added to the gentlemen on the right. A recurring visual motif for my Chosen is that they are channelling both the legion’s gladiatorial origins as well as the 4th assault company’s role as a hunting party, so there are several visual cues to both ideas (the bare arms, the slightly gladiatorial equipment and the amount of trophies, for one). I am really pretty happy with these guys, because they now hold up quite a bit better when seen next to the Dark Vengeance Chosen.

And finally, a possible champion (or even Chaos Lord), converted from on of the bolter wielding Chosen from Dark Vengeance. You already know this guy:

When Dark Vengeance was originally released, I feared that it would bepretty much impossible to make my Chosen fit the look of the highly detailed pieces from the box. And while they may not be a perfect approximation of the Dark Vengeance models’ level of detail, I am stil rather happy with how the squad has turned out so far. They look rather nice together, I think:

As a matter of fact, there are even more where these came from. So I guess I will have to do a more detailed post on the Sons of Cron at some point…

3. The Teeth of Khorne

Another ongoing project of mine is the construction of a squad of Khornate Havocs. There used to be a time where not every member of the World Eaters was described as a raving lunatic completely addicted to combat at close quarters. There were also the “Teeth of Khorne”, the legion’s dedicated long range support troops. And since the 4th assault company tries its best to function as an at least slightly varied force, it was clear to me that building a dedicated squad of World Eaters wielding big guns could be a fun conversion project.

I took quite a bit of inspiration from the legendary Wayde Pryce’s Khorne Havocs when conceptualising these models. And since these are a fun experiment for now, first and foremost, I am trying to build them mainly from leftovers. Here’s my first test model with a kitbashed Autocannon:

I originally wanted to go for the usual, double-barrelled look for the weapon, but I liked the gatling look slightly better in the end, and I love the idea of these guys relentlessly advancing, their weapons spewing a relentless hail of fire. The model is nowhere near finished, of course, but I think I may be on to something here…

Here’s the Havoc with a buddy, using the (rather clunky) metal Autocannon arms from the Havoc conversion set:

Like I said, I am mainly building these guys for fun right now, so let’s see where this is going. One thing became clear to me, though: Introducing the “Teeth of Khorne” as yet another arm of the 4th assault company also offers me the chance to build yet another Huntmaster as Master of the Teeth. Yay!

4. The Wall of Brass

I picked up a used Aegis Defense Line from cousin Andy quite a while ago, and seeing how these fortifications can become rather useful in the game, I began to convert the parts to make them fit the overall look of my army. So far, I have been mostly experimenting with a couple of bitz and have built some “proof of concept” pieces, yet I believe I may be on the right track:

Some of the armour plates from the chaos vehicle kits are a perfect fit for the Aegis Defense Line. All the aquilas will have to be shaved off (which is quite a bit of work) or covered with bitz, though. The Hydra Flak Cannon was in a pretty sorry state when I got the kit, so I mainly contented myself with cleaning it up and adding a spiky bit here and there (as well as a brass icon of Khorne at the base of the weapon).

For the rest of the pieces, I have begun to add some details and trophies:

Well, I think we can all agree that this thing “NEEDS MOAR SKULLZ!”

I also experimented with adding a Space Marine torso, impaled on the front of the wall.

Getting the fortification completely sorted out will be quite a bit more work, but it’s a fun little kitbashing project that can keep me occupied when other activities are not an option.

So, while the weather has prevented me from tackling some of the bigger painting projects, I have been far from idle, as you can see. And with the temperatures returning to normal now, expect to see some rather interesting pieces soon-ish.

Until then, let me know what you think! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

This month brings a new release for the World of Warhammer Fantasy Battles in the form of new Lizardmen models. And even though my WFB days are well behind me, I’ll still happily take a look at the new models, talk about what I like and don’t like and scrutinise any conversion potential this release might have – maybe even for the world of 40k. So, once, let us take a closer look at the new release.

Before we do that, though, it’s time for me to come clean. So let me start with two confessions:

One, I used to be a huge Dinosaur nut for most of my childhood and even quite a ways into my teens. I was very proud of being able to identify and name a huge number of prehistoric lizards big and small in what was an endless stream of garbled (and probably mostly incorrectly pronounced) Greek and Latin. So Lizardmen should be right up my alley, right?

Yes, well. That’s actually confession number two: I’ve always felt the denizens of Lustria to be a rather awkward fit for the world of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. Allow me to elaborate:

Regarding most of the WFB armies, their basic design ideas can be summed up in a single sentence for me: The Empire is “Hieronymus Bosch meets Monty Python’s Quest for the Holy Grail“. Bretonnia is “Medieval France plus Arthurian Legend plus the ugliest sides of feudalism, all rolled into one and turned up to eleven”. Warriors of Chaos are “spiky vikings who worship evil gods (and sometimes have tentacles)”, and so on. I think you get the idea…

Lizardmen, then, would be “Fantasy dinosaurs who are also aztec wizards”. And I think we can all agree that this already sounds fairly funky and not all that easy to pull off. The other problem for me is that these guys…well, they’re lizards. And it’s really not that easy to imbue lizards with lots of character. I can imagine most of WFB’s factions off the battlefields: I can imagine the bustling, clockpunk hellholes that are the cities of the Empire. I can imagine the fierce tribal culture of the northern chaos wastes. It’s easy to get an idea of the grim, and probably darkly humurous, interactions of the greenskins.

All of this is much harder for the Lizardmen. They are the servants of the Ancients, yes. But that’s the problem right there: They are tools. They were bred for their tasks. The different breeds are well designed and thought out, make no mistake. But they don’t really offer much by way of character — at least that’s my take. Your mileage may vary, of course.

Oh, and don’t get me started on all those punny names…

At the very least, though, a well-painted Lizardmen army will make quite an impression on the table: Its vibrant colours and mix of lizards and dinosaurs big and small does have a certain je ne sais quoi. So what about the new models then?

Carnosaur / Troglodon / Kroq-Gar on Grymloq

The biggest new kit gives us a huge, reptilian predator that can be assembled in several ways. The first option is to build a Saurus Oldblood riding a Carnosaur, as pictured above. While the Carnosaur’s last incarnation looked a bit too much like an 80s/90s action figure, if you ask me, the new design is really great: Instead of looking like a slightly hokey Tyrannosaur with longer arms, the creature now takes design cues from more evolved, sleek and deadly carnivores like the Allosaur. The sickle claws even make it seem like there’s more than a little Deinonychus in there somewhere…
Meanwhile, the shortened jaws seem almost mammalian, making the Carnosaur look even more dangerous.

The fact that the pose is very dynamic and that the model looks like its anatomy would actually work in real life, helps of course. I also really love that black/white/orange paintjob, by the way!

So the mount is a succes. But what about the rider? In fact, the standard Oldblood head included in the kit is a real favourite of mine: That guy looks like he really means business!

The second possible way of assembling this kit is to build the special character Kroq-Gar (…) on his ride Grymloq (oh boy!). All the necessary parts are included, which is really a brilliant idea that I would like to see far more often (and in 40k as well as WFB)! The resulting model looks like this:

While the Carnosaur remains mostly unchanged, the rider gets a spiffy artifact gauntlet. While this weapon was already present in the charcter’s last incarnation, I really like the rather more statuesque redesign of the weapon: It looks like it really wasn’t necessarily designed to be worn by a Saurus in the first place, which I think is a nice touch, especially with regard to the Lizardmen’s backstory.

The other huge option is to build a Troglodon, an eerie, troglodytic lizard ridden by a skink:

This version of the model throws even more real-life influences into the mix, with the head recalling that of a Baryonyx or a crocodile, if I am not mistaken, and some Spinosaur thrown in as well for good measure. While the change mainly amounts to a headswap (and a tail swap, to boot), the result is quite stunning: The model looks quite distinctive, even more so if painted in the pale, slightly translucent skin tones befitting a cave dweller.

The skink rider, meanwhile, is nothing to write home about — but that’s probably a matter of personal taste: I always tend to think skinks are a little bland, and they don’t really register as characters for me (even though they seem to be far stronger individuals than the rather dense Sauri, in the background at least).

Lastly, this kit offers you an additional Saurus Oldblood on foot under certain conditions,…

…but for some reason, this guy feels like a bit of an afterhought — nothing that canot be fixed with a couple of bitz, though.

All in all, I think this kit is great! Sure, at 65 Euros, it isn’t exactly a steal, but seeing all the extra bitz and options you get out of it, I still consider it a good amount of bang for the buck!

Bastiladon

This big boy is a dead ringer for the good old Styracosaur. A very nice design, if you ask me, and a great and distinctive addition to the Lizardmen’s huge warbeasts.

The kit comes with two different weapons arrays for the Bastiladon’s back: The first one, called the Solar Engine, is pretty much what you would expect from an Aztec inspired precursor culture like the lizardmen. The fact that the crystals are solid plastic is slightly disappointing, but there would really have been no easy way around it, so I’ll let it slide. As it stands, this will be an interesting task for accomplished painters (not unlike the whole Lizardmen catalogue, as  a matter of fact).

The fact that the activation panel on the back of the engine has room for five fingers, but the skink only has four, is a nice touch. It may not really be a poignant embodiment of the Lizardmen’s tragic history, as suggested by the PR-speak in WD, but it’s a neat idea!

There’s also the option of building a Troglodon that carries the Arc of Sotek…

…and it’s a little silly, really. Whoever would think of a warmachine like this? The Ancients? Some skink shamans high on Mezkal? However, it’s so silly that it almost works in a zany, Indiana Jones-esque way. Moving on…

Terradon / Ripperdactyl Riders

The old Terradon models were pretty awkward in many ways, so it’s great to see GW chose to address this. And with a multi-kit, no less! For the Terradons, I love the choice of making them look similar to a Pteranodon, not only differentiating them from the other option in the kit, but channelling what has to be one of my favourite dinosaurs ever. My one gripe with the terradons themselves is that their toes, holding the Drop Rocks are so short as to look almost nonexistent, making it look as though the rocks were bolted directly to the creature’s legs. Apart from that, though, I love the design, and even the skink riders with their dynamic poses and more athletic builds are really nice!  Oh, and in case you were wondering, those little guys attack by hurling “fireleeches” at the enemy:

Because why the hell not? I believe this might actually be due to a translation error in the Ancient’s great plan: The passage in question said something about “hurling balls of flame”, but there was a crack in the tablet or a translation error by some inexperienced skink scribe or something to that effect, and now the poor guys are stuck with hurling burning leeches. Or GW’s design studio just wanted to test the boundaries of what they could get away with. Your choice!

The other kind of unit to be built from the kit is a flock of Ripperdactyl riders:

The piranha-styled underbite on the Ripperdactyls makes them look like really angry, evil birds. I am not 100% sold on this design element, to tell you the truth, but seeing how the kit is all plastic, it should be reasonably easy to get rid of if you wanted to:

And finally, the kit lets you build the special character Tiktaq’to (I swear I am not making this up!), which is a nice additional option, once again!

While I can sympathise with the notion of giving special skink characters huge and ostentatious looking golden ceremonial masks, this has the slightly problematic effect of making them look even more devoid of personality, in my opinion. That sickle blade is looking wicked, though!

And let me just point out that the paintjob on the model is really stellar:

Just check out those wings! Marvelous work!

Tetto’eko

While it’s a refreshing idea to give us a skink priest on a throne instead of yet another Slann, I am not sold on this design. It may have something to do with my general apathy when it comes to skinks, but I suspect the actual problem lies somewhere between the slightly awkward pose (the cross-legged pose really isn’t working out — just check out that right foot), the staff looking completely unlike anything in the Lizardmen army (or, indeed, GW’s entire catalogue) or the slightly hokey feathers adorning the throne. It’s certainly easy enough what they were trying to do here, though, with Tetto’eko supposed to look like an ancient, wizened member of his race, but I actually think that an enterprising Lizarmen player could kitbash/scratchbuild a  suitable model without having to spend 40 Euros on the Finecast version…

This may be purely a matter of personal taste, but Tetto’eko is probably the weakest part of the release for me.

Gor-Rok

I love the idea of fielding what basically amounts to a giant, scarred albino crocodile that JUST WILL NOT DIE. Gor-Rok seems far more imposing than his regular Saurus kin, both due to his huge frame and to the heavy scarring all over his body. I am not perfectly sure about the position of the left arm, and the teeth/horns on that shield do look a little silly, but both elements should be easy enough to change. The question remains, as usual, why this had to be a Finecast model in the first place. In my opinion, Finecast should really be reserved for the remastered older models and for new releases that are really only possible in that particular material. Apart from that, though, I like this big guy!

Skink Priest

As per the usual routine, one of the new characters also gets a  plastic release. Again, this guy is a skink, so don’t expect any hymns of praise from me My problem with the model is that it’s facing some stiff competition from several of the brilliant WFB plastic characters, and this little guy really doesn’t hold up all that well, in my opinion. The model’s position on the remains of a ruin are a nice touch, but there are quite a few much more impressive models in the catalogue. Still, having access to a plastic skink priest is certainly a nice asset for Lizardmen players, so I won’t let my mixed feelings about skinks as characters stand in the way of that.

Conversion potential

Now, all these reptilian additions to the Lizardmen catalogue are certainly great news for the army. But what about the new kits’ conversion potential for other hobby projects? Continuing a trend started by the High Elves and continued by the Tau and Eldar, the Lizardmen are yet another faction with a very unique, somewhat eclectic look. That makes it slightly challenging to just use them in other armies. That said, using elements from the army (and the new kits) to individualise an Empire, Bretonnia, Dwarf or Greenskin army to show how it is currently on a tour exploring (and likely plundering) Lustria could be a pretty cool idea.

When it comes to the world of 40k, the new Lizardmen kits could be used to great effect on highly cutomised Eldar Exodite armies or even particularly colourful regiments of the Imperial Guard. For instance, fellow hobbyist wonkobaggins recently posted a really cool counts as Catachan Sentinel built by using a Tyrannosaur model — something similar could be done using the new Carnosaur! And since quite a few people are already using Cold Ones for their Rough Riders, why not go the whole way and add some Terradons/Ripperdactyls as well?

The Bastiladon could make a nice, smaller Squiggoth-variant for an Orc army, or a similar beast of burden in a Kroot-themed army, with a little conversion work, And the Troglodon head looks sufficiently eerie and otherwordly to be an interesting head choice for a (Tzeentchian) Daemon Prince, Greater Daemon or daemon engine. Several of the new beasts could also be used as enslaved creatures in a heavily converted, beastmaster-themed Dark Eldar army to represent the beasts captured and used in gladiatorial spectacles by the lanistas of Commoragh…

Finally, I could also see some of the kits used involved  in some serious kitbashing with a pile of Tyranid parts, but to be perfectly honest, that could almost be seen as doing a disservice to the beautiful new kits.

When it comes to the wonderful world of INQ28, some parts from the new kits could be used to build members of minor xenos races. like bounty hunters and mercenaries travelling the galaxy in search of employers. Jeff Vader’s excellent Glarrg the Brontoglorrg (well done indeed on the name, mate!) would be a sterling example of this.

So, what to make of it all? Will this release bring me back to WFB or my erstwhile passion for Dinosaurs? No, probably neither. In fact, I may probably completely pass on the new kits. That said, I am prepared to call this a really strong offering! Most of the designs are great, especially the bigger kits. I also love the amount of options present in some of the models, and the opportunities to build special characters from plastic kits, and this is clearly something I would love to see more of. Just imagine a Chaos Lord plastic kit containing the parts to build Abaddon (or a custom general for one of the four chaos gods). Or a Dark Eldar vehicle kit containg the parts to build Asdrubael Vect (like the old model, just all in plastic). Or a Greater Daemon kit allowing us to build characters like Skarbrand or M’Kachen. The options are endless, and one can always dream…

In any case, Lizardmen players receive some standout pieces for their army, and the designs are top notch! And while the prices are, once again, nothing to scoff at, I am tempted to forgive that when looking at the amount of options and customisability in most of these kits.

It also becomes clear, browsing through the new issue of WD, that these kits deserve to be painted with the utmost care: Some of the ‘Eavy Metal paintjobs on these are truly outstanding, and making your own Lizardmen army look as vibrant and characterful is certainly quite a challenge, even for accomplished painters.

So what do you think? Do you like the new models, or do they leave you cold(-blodded, hur hur)? And do they remind you of a childhood spent gazing at extinct lizards as well? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Oh, and just for the records: I still think dinosaurs are pretty cool!

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

“Aye, Nove Shendak cost me half of my body. But in the end, those injuries were what let me keep all of my wits, and for that I will always remember that blasted hellscape with a certain …fondness.”

Huntmaster Deracin

If you’ve been following this blog for a while (or have at least taken a peek at the Dramatis Personae tab for my World Eaters), you’ll realise that I try to come with characters rather than mere playing pieces. Hence my addiction to building Chaos Lords, I suppose: Instead of building one model with magnetisable arms for maximum flexibility, I’ll just as likely build one separate model for each equipment choice, doing my best to transform each of them into a character in his own right. After all, some of these guys have been around for about ten millennia — they deserve a little characterisation, don’t you think?

By the same token, ideas for characters will often spring from something I see online or from a piece of fluff I come up with: For instance, long before the option to use a Warpsmith was introduced by the sixth edition Codex, I had the idea of a techmarine for the 4th assault company, who would construct and maintain much of the company’s wargear and who was likely also the driving force behind most of the warmachines and daemon engines deployed by Khorne’s Eternal Hunt. And while there was no obvious way to field such a character back then (except as a regular chaos lord), I was sure that building a model to represent him would turn out to be a challenging and rewarding hobby endeavour somewhere along the way. So the character started to appear in the background I wrote for the army, mentioned in conversations between characters or actually making an appearance himself. And that was the birth of Huntmaster Deracin, Keeper of the Forge.

I kept toying around with several ideas about how best to represent Deracin on the table: I considered converting a loyal Techmarine, but while I love the model’s design, I didn’t really want to go through the trouble of cutting apart a metal model. Then I planned to base the character on the model for Huron Blackheart, since Huron’s extensive bionic implants seemed to be a nice fit for a techmarine. But none of these ideas ever quite got off the ground.

Then the new codex arrived, and with it not only an army list entry for an “evil tech,arine”, but also a dedicated Finecast Warpsmith model.

Again, I made several attempts at building a model to represent Deracin, yet in the end the results always fell short of what I had envisioned. I also considered just using the Finecast model, do a headswap and call it a day, but that didn’t feel like a true solution either: I wasn’t really sure how straight I could possibly hope to get that axe handle on a Finecast model, for one. And it also seemed like a bit of a cheap cop out, in any case.

My attempts at kitbashing didn’t really work out either, because they usually ended up looking too much like a regular Chaos Space Marine. I realised that the servo harness the model would need to wear would always look funny and overwhelming on a standard sized model. So I would need to build a rather imposing body as well as kitbash a servo-harness and then pay extra attention in order to make the overall effect work out — quite a challenge!

But all setbacks notwithstanding, I decided that I absolutely wanted to kitbash a model representing Deracin that would

• look suitably like a World Eater,
• look suitably like a Techmarine/Warpsmith,
• would be all plastic.

The breakthrough came when I started messing around with some parts from my bitzbox, among them a body from the Skullcrusher kit. I realised that the torso was quite a bit bigger than that of a Chaos Space Marine, so it could probably work for my plan. I only needed a pair of legs to go with it, but they couldn’t be Terminator legs, since Warpsmiths wear “regular” power armour. Then I recalled the WFB plastic Chaos Lord I had already used on my custom Dark Apostle, and I suspected I might be able to put the legs from that kit to good use…

I also gathered all the cables and tech-y bitz I would need to kitbash a servo-harness for Deracin. Quite a daunting task, really, but after seeing that I had some Necron limbs in my bitzbox, I just went for it.

So with the basic parts for the conversion decided and acquired, I built a very early mockup of the body:

As you can see, this particular combination of legs and torso already made sure that Deracin would be quite an imposing fellow (the WIP Terminator on the right is another one of my ongoing conversion projects, and was only included for scale). I also tried a head with extensive bionic implants from the GK Terminators, and really liked the result. And some wayward armour plate (probably from the Dark Elf dragon kit, although I am not perfectly sure) was used as some kind of codpiece, both to emulate the heavily armoured look of the Warpsmith model and to make the legs look more different from those of my Dark Apostle.

The next step was to add the arms. I already knew I wanted to have Deracin hold a huge axe or wrench in one hand, both as his primary CC weapon as well as a sign of office. Instead of cocking a puny bolt pistol in the other hand, though, I though Deracin should be holding something that cemented his function as a mechanic of war. By lucky coincidence, I still had a right hand holding a rather impressive looking auspex. Deracin’s arms were built by using arms from the Chaos Knight and Skullcrusher kits:

I realised that the main challenge on this project would be to make sure that the different parts of the body and the additional appendages from the servo-harness wouldn’t get into each other’s way, so I started to experiment with the servo harness at this point. Looking at the bitz available to me, it became clear that the servo-arms would end up looking more like those of a loyal techmarine and less like the Warpsmith’s mechadendrites. I chose Necron limbs for the basic construction, and a GK Interceptor backpack was picked both for the nicely sculpted reactor on its back, but also for the rods emerging from it: These would be used as points of attachment for the different servo-arms. Here’s a look at a very early mockup of the harness:

The weapon was spliced together from the Chaos Terminator Lord’s staff, an old, OOP plastic chaos halberd and some additional bitz. Some teeth from a chainsword were carefully shaved off and glued to the axe, making the weapon look like an especially ostentatious chainaxe — this guy is a World Eater, after all! I also added a gargoyle head from the chaos vehicle sprue to make it look like the weapon could perhaps also be used as a tool. Here’s a mockup of the finished weapon:

As you can see, this first incarnation of the staff still had a rather huge mace head added on top. I rather liked the effect, but an artist I respect very much told me that this feature actually drew attention away from the model’s face. This was a problem, of course, so it was with a heavy heart that I got rid of this visual element.

It took quite a while to get the model’s pose right, by the way, especially since nothing was permanently attached at this point: For most of the construction phase, the model was basically held together with lots of modelling putty and goodwill…

The best moment was when I had finally worked out a solution for all the different elements, so I could start to carefully glue certain parts together. The torso and lower body were already glued together at this point, while the servo-harness was painstakingly assembled arm by arm and piece by piece.

i knew that I would need a flamer and meltagun, since they are part of the warpsmith’s profile. For the other two servo-arms, I chose some suitably brutal looking implements. After many, many revisions, the servo-harness was finished. Take a look:

The flamer (bottom right) came from the new Raptor kit, while the meltagun (top left) is actually a combi-melta from the command tank sprue. I simply liked the chaos decorations and dangling ammunition so much that I chose to use the piece, even if it wasn’t strictly WYSIWYG. For the remaining arms, I went with a sentinel chainsaw and a vicious looking claw (constructed from one of the Heldrake’s “chicken feet”). The arms themselves were constructed from Necron arms and legs, combined with additional cabling and a few bitz from different sources. This might actually have been the most fiddly conversion job ever, and it was made even more nerve-wracking due to my enormous lack of patience

The one part of my original plan I had to abandon was to add some “smokestacks”, like the ones on the stock Warpsmith model, to the back of the harness. This would have been a cool detail, but the backpack was already busy enough as it was, and to tell you the truth, there actually wasn’t any space I could have comfortably put them.

So I called the servo-harness completed at this point and dryfitted the model with it:

I was already reasonably pleased with the outcome. But then fellow hobbyist Igandris over at Dakka pointed out that Deracin’s chainmail-armoured backside was a little distracting, and he was right with that
So I used an earlier idea in order to fix that particular problem and added some dandgling chains to the backpack as some kind of cape. This was also a nice way to put a World Eaters spin on the cables ususally dangling from a Techmarine’s/Warpsmith’s backpack, due to the importance of chains in the XIIth legion’s inconography.

So after lots and lots of fiddling with small plastic parts, the model was finally completed. Here’s a look at the finished conversion:

I was really happy with the model so far, although the prospect of having to paint Deracin at some point made me just a little afraid. I decided the best course of action was to face my fears and get him painted as soon as possible (because the alternative would probably have been to never work up the courage to begin painting in the first place). So the model was carefully taken apart, and the different sub-assemblies were carefully cleaned to get rid of all the modelling putty and any grime that may have built up. Here’s a picture of the different parts of the model, laid out to dry and awaiting undercoating:

I also built a base for Deracin at this point. And I finally undercoated all the parts of the model with GW Chaos Black spraypaint. There was no stopping now…

So, in the next update, look forward to getting a look at the finished model! Until then, let me know what you think in the comments section. And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

I’ll be on the road for most of the day tomorrow, so this week’s update goes up a little early: Last time, we took a look at my attempts at converting a suitable model for Huntmaster Deracin, the 4th assault company’s Warpsmith. With the rather complex conversion sorted out, it was now time to paint the model. I’ll happily admit that the task seemed rather daunting: It is a rather huge model, for one. And there was also the fact that I really don’t enjoy painting the backpack on regular Chaos Space Marines — so what was I to do with Deracin’s extremely complex servo-harness?

At the very least, keeping the model in several sub-assemblies turned out to be a very good decision. That way, I could work on one part of the model after another, assembling the model piece by piece, whenever a sub-assembly was completed. Naturally, I started with the head and body.

During all of this, I stuck with my tried and true recipe for painting World Eaters. Here’s the body with the base colours and the first pass of washes in place:

As you can see, the armour still looked rather raspberry-ish, but a thin coat of Blood Red quickly changed that. Here’s the body pretty much finished and already stuck to the completed base:

The arms were next, and I tackled each of them in turn. Due to the fact that I had not yet permanently attached them to the rest of the model, it was easy enough to pick out even the fine detail (like the display of the auspex in Deracin’s right hand). The shoulder pads were also painted separately to ensure that everything would fit together before adding any glue. When both the arms and shoulder pads were done, everything was assembled and the (unpainted) backpack was dryfitted to the rest of the model to make sure it all worked out. When that was taken care of, the arms and shoulder pads could finally be glued to the body:

Fortunately enough, everything fit together rather well, so the assembly only took some minimal tweaking.

And then came the servo-harness…

Due to the complexity of this element, it was practically a model of its own. It was painted in one, frantic session, and I used quite a lot of black wash to make the metal parts look suitably used and well-oiled. Here’s the mostly finished backpack:

As you can see, I basically stuck to using red, silver and bronze as the three main colours here as well. The one departure from the usual recipe was that I added some light blue effects to the reactor on the back of the harness, and on the energy conduits leading to the different arms. As a matter of fact, that little detail was one of the reasons I had chosen the GK backpack in the first place.

With both the model and servo-harness almost completely painted, I took a deep breath and finally attached the harness to the model’s back. This took some doing, and the funny thing is that the backpack is attached to the model’s shoulderpads rather than to its actual back. It took some fumbling and frantic repositioning for everything to not only work out but stay in place.

In the end, everything worked out, though! Some final detail work was added at this stage: A fine accent of Mithril Silver was added to the metal parts. The flamer’s and meltagun’s muzzles were painted with a mix of Army Painter Strong Tone Ink and Vallejo Smoke Ink, to make them look dark and soot-stained.  And I tidied up the last rough edges.

And with that, Huntmaster Deracin was complete. Take a look:

As you can see, I chose a spot of turquoise for the axe’s casing. That colour appears as a spot colour across my whole army, so I used it here for some visual continuity.

The view from the back nicely shows the light blue reactor core, and the power conduits leading away from it.

I am really, really happy with how Deracin turned out! He may have been just about the most involved kitbashed character I have completed so far, but the paintjob really turned out as well as I had hoped. I also like that he is quite bulky, similar to the “official” Warpsmith model — I think his imposing frame rather nicely represents the 2+ armour save granted to Warpsmiths due to their “Fleshmetal”. Let me also take this opportunity to point out that the model is almost ridiculously WYSIWYG, at least when you compare it to my usual standard: The only liberties I took with the model were using a combi-melta, chosen for its cool look, and a chainaxe instead of a power axe. Apart from that, though, the model is a very faithful representation of the Warpsmith ruleset.

Deracin is also very tall. Here’s a scale shot with both a regular World Eater and a Terminator Lord:

And here is Deracin, next to my converted Dark Apostle:

Even though both models use the same legs, I still think I managed to make them look remarkably different!

All in all, Deracin really looks like a World Eater. But he is also clearly an engineer and Warpsmith to his company:

So, did I do this just to build a semi-useful selection from the HQ section of the codex? Of course not! While it’s nice to have the option of fielding a Warpsmith now, and while I get a bit of a kick out of already having built several custom models for selections from the book, this was really all about creating a character. So who is this Huntmaster Deracin? Let’s get to know him a bit better, shall we?

Huntmaster Deracin, Keeper of the Forge

During the time of the Great Crusade, when the XIIth Astartes Legion was still known as the War Hounds, brother Deracin was a brilliant and ferocious warrior who could be found at the forefront of every battle. This zeal cost him dearly when he sustained horrific injuries during the Nove Shendak campaign, requiring extensive augmentic reconstruction work to be saved. Worse still than the lost limbs was the heavy nerve damage Deracin incurred, damage that necessiated complex cranial implants to keep him combat-worthy. A lesser man might have been interred into the sarcophagus of a dreadnought due to such injuries, but Deracin trained relentlessly to overcome his injuries and push the artificial parts of his body to the limit, trying to prove to his brethren that his “reconstruction” hadn’t dulled his edge one bit.

All of this should be for naught, however, once the legion had been reunited with its Primarch and renamed the “World Eaters”: Angron ordered his Apothecaries and Techmarines to outfit the whole legion with the Butcher’s Nails, implants patterned after those he had received as a gladiator on the world of Nyceria.

The nails implanted into the Primarch’s skull were artifacts from the Dark Age of Technology, and the Techmarines’ dabbling in archaeotech was far from an exact science, producing all kinds of unforeseen incidents. As a consequence, the implants Deracin had received earlier to mend his injuries interfered with the nails, preventing him from utilising his full potential on the battlefield. For Angron, a legionnaire that couldn’t unlock the nails’ full power could only be considered a failure. So Deracin found himself relegated to the rear guard in more and more battles, sidelined and tasked with petty battle logistics and mundane assignments, and growing ever more frustrated.

It was Lord Captain Lorimar who discovered that, deprived of a chance to prove himself in battle, Deracin had begun to apply himself to the maintenance of the legions’ wargear and weaponry, demonstrating a brilliant grasp of technology and an intuitive understanding of even the most complex mechanisms. So Lorimar requested Deracin for his company and let him be trained as a Techmarine. And it was then that brother Deracin found his true calling:

He may have been a brilliant fighter, but as a Techmarine, Deracin became a marvel. His brilliant, analytical mind allowed him to construct mechanisms on par with the most advanced work of the Mechanicus. His work earned him the envy of numerous Techmarines from different companies and, indeed, other Legiones Astartes. In time, even Angron himself began to display a sort of grudging respect for the son he had despised. And through fateful irony, the implants that prevented Deracin from tapping into the Butcher’s Nails’ full potential actually kept his brilliant mind intact, even as the rest of the legion descended into frenzy and insanity.

Ever since the Horus Heresy, during the millennia of the Long War, Deracin’s knowledge has grown far beyond the petty boundaries of Imperial orthodoxy: He has learned to forge flesh and steel, and to imbue his creations with the raw powers of the warp through the incantations and pacts of daemoncraft. The towering daemon engines deployed by the 4th assault company are a chilling testament to his skill. The Great Forge aboard the company’s capital ship never sleeps, and Deracin is its undisputed master. And during his long life, he has retained two features nearly unheard of among the members of the XIIth legion: A surgically analytical mind as well as a wry sense of humour.

On the battlefield, Deracin is a giant even among Astartes: His augmented frame towers above even his tallest brethren. Encased in a baroque suit of artificer armour of his own design and equipped with all kinds of arcane weapons and warp-infused tools, the Keeper of the Forge is every bit the warrior he was during the days of the Great Crusade.

So, what do you think? Was I successful in my attempt to build a worthy warpsmith? I would love to hear your feedback in the comments section!

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

Work on my World Eaters continues, as I am feeling rather inspired at the moment, and I know myself well enough to make the most of that particular spell of inspiration while it lasts

So let me show you yet more servants of the Blood God, among them long standing members of the 4th assault company as well as some more recent editions.

We’ll start with what you might call a long running project of mine: The very last squad of models I built before abandoning the hobby for a while during the mid-2000s was a squad of kitbashed possessed Chaos Space Marines. Back then, there where no stock models to represent Possessed, so I made my own, using a box of berzerkers, some parts from the old chaos mutations sprue and some Ork bitz. And, as a matter of fact, not only where the resulting models some of the first models I painted after getting back into the hobby, but they were also the absolute first models to appear on this blog, right after I started it.

I use them as The Lost Brethren, those members of the 4th assault company too far gone and too mutated to be used as anything more than a Kamikaze unit.

Anyway, almost three years ago, the one new model I built for the squad was an icon bearer – both to bring the squad up to eight members and because every squad in my army always gets an icon bearer model, regardless of the rules and any possible uses in the game. Anyway, after several years, I finally got around to painting the icon bearer:

This guy probably isn’t much to write home about, since he was built in late 2010, when my bitzbox was still far smaller than it is today. He shares his squadmates’ muscular arms (I actually used an Orc spear arm for the icon). Still, after almost a decade, not only did the squad finally receive its icon bearer, it also finally numbers eight members. Yay!

Having finished this model makes me rather happy, because I can now consider this particular squad finished — and after such a long time to boot!

Come to think of it, I think it’s actually time to replace to earlier, fuzzy earlier photos of the squad with some new images. Take a look:

And, of course, the unit’s champ, Huntmaster Kharduun (actually the model that brought me back to my World Eaters, and the first conversion I did in ages, back in 2010):

Granted, these are older paintjobs and maybe not 100% representative of my painting standard today, but I still like the models and think they look pretty good together as a squad:

The one thing left to do is to touch up the bases at some point. Oh well, I guess I’ll eventually get around to it sometime during the next ten years…

I also managed to pick up an older Chaos Lord in Terminator armour from fellow hobbyist Carnak:

The model was originally released alongside the Cities of Death supplement and the Medusa V summer campaign, if I recall correctly. As a matter of fact, it was even used to represent Abaddon’s right hand man, Chaos Sorcerer Ygethmor the Deceiver, during a WD battle report — a rather dubious (and downright lazy) choice, if you ask me: This guy is no sorcerer, he’s a warrior! A true veteran of the Long War!

In fact, that’s precisely the reason why this is one of my favourite GW chaos models ever! I love how massive and imposing the model looks and how it manages to exude an air of quiet menace. My favourite parts of the model have to be the tabard (an element I would like to see used far more often on Chaos Terminators) and the dangling skull trophies, making this guy an excellent servant of Khorne as well!

Another great thing about the model is that it comes with several weapon options, featuring one long range weapon and CC option for each hand:

From left to right: a power sword, a weapon probably supposed to be a Kai Bolter (from the 3.5 edition book’s wargear section), a power claw and a combi-melta. All of the options look great, although I suppose I’ll go with the combination of sword and claw you can see above — from a visual standpoint, it’s just the coolest option by far, in my opinion!

The model’s only shortcoming is that it seems just a little short when compared to the (more recent) plastic Terminators. But the problem is nowhere as egregious as with Abaddon the Despoiler, and this guy still clearly reads as a Terminator, even if seen next to some of the newer models.

As a matter of fact, I’ve been wanting to add this model to my force for quite some time, and being able to pick it up for a song was quite a nice coincidence. I guess that this guy will remain largely unconverted, too — I just like the stock model that much!

And finally…oh, wait, we’re just receiving an important transmission: It seems like one of our enterprising pict-drones has made it to the bowels of the 4th assault company’s great forge. Here’s the final image it managed to transmit before being destroyed:

Now what on earth could this be. Any ideas?

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

Let me use today’s post for a spell of pointless rambling. Bear with me though, there might be something worthwile hidden along the way

Anyway, last week I bought a huge pile of Ogre Kingdoms bitz from fellow hobbyist Kar Tharog. When I got home from work yesterday, the parcel had arrived, and so I spent most of the evening with my very individual kind of R&R: sorting a huge pile of bitz into many smaller piles

While doing that, I realised that buying “surprise piles” of bitz may be one of the most delicious hobby activities for me, but more on that in a minute. You may ask yourself why I went for Ogre bitz in the first place.

While I am very unlikely to start an Ogre Kingdoms army (or any WFB army, for that matter) anytime soon, I have had my eyes on bitz from the various Ogre Kingdoms kits for quite a while now. Visually speaking, the Ogres are heavily based on a culture of hunters, for one. That means that the kits usually come with lots of trophies like skulls, hides, etc. — a perfect fit for Khorne’s Eternal Hunt.

Then there’s the fact that the recurring symbol of the Great Maw is fairly similar to the World Eaters’ legion badge: For instance, I am already using a certain Ogre Kingdoms gut plate as a legion symbol for my army. The newer bitz continue this trend, featuring stylised jaws and maws — once again, perfect for my World Eaters.

And even beyond the scope of my main army, Ogre Kingdoms models have a darkly funny and eclectic bend, which may not help with my World Eaters, but is sure to yield some really cool and interesting bitz.

So that was basically my reasoning behind this purchase, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed when I opened the parcel yesterday. Here’s a look at what I got out of the deal:

This is what I would call the really interesting part of the bitz haul: All the “regular” Ogre bull parts (heads, arms, weapons, accessories) have already been neatly sorted away. They will come in handy, too, but they are certainly not the meat of the purchase. So what you see above is the part that really sealed the deal for me, because I would have had to pick up some really expensive (and ultimately useless) kits in order to get my hands on some of this stuff.

So let me point out a couple of highlights. First up, I was thrilled to find an entire Stonehorn head among the bitz:

I had originally planned to simply use the skull-like “faceplate” as decoration on one of the army’s vehicles, a daemon engine or something similar. Yet that head is so brilliantly angry and detailed that I will probably hold on to it for a while yet: Maybe it could be used on a kitbashed Greater Daemon or something similar? One can always dream…

As a matter of fact, there was a complete Thundertusk head as well — two bitz I would never have gotten hold of normally.

I also got some really nice Mournfang cavalry weapons:

I imagine these will be really useful if I ever decide to add some more Forsaken to the existing three models. Note how the blades also seem to be emulating the great maw motif (and, once again, the World Eaters’ symbol).

I was also fortunate enough to receive this brilliant head:

Normally a part of a dead Imperial soldier kept as a “snack” by the Ogres, the head is just perfect for a twisted servant of the dark gods, don’t you think? Expect this part to make an appearance in my small Traitor Guard detachment (or my INQ28 collection) at some point…

I have already started playing around with some of the bitz. Here’s an early prototype: A World Eaters Terminator using a particularly cool Ogre gut plate as a pauldron:

So, did I post this just to gloat? No way! What I really want to talk about is that this kind of purchase is usually one of the high points of the hobby for me. Strange, huh?

I guess it’s the fact that there’s a certain thrill of the hunt, if you will: Taking a look at the – often fuzzy – photos online. Deciding if you’ll get enough useful bitz out of the deal, then ultimately taking the plunge. Waiting impatiently for the parcel to arrive, the immediately tearing it open and sifting through the contents and thinking of new conversions — sometimes coming up with ideas you would never have considered when buying your bitz the “conventional” way. Don’t get me wrong: Methodically hunting for a certain bit via ebay or one of the bitz sites can be pretty gratifiying as well. But “buying in bulk” like this just feels great every now and then!

Granted, it’s something we usually cannot indulge in too often: You have to be lucky to find a pile of bitz that warrants the purchase. You have to balance “wild card” purchases like this against more sensible additions to your army. But for a fanatical kitbasher like myself, digging through a huge pile of plastic crack and dreaming up some new conversions is really as good as it gets!

Oh, and by the way, I wasn’t disappointed on the “darkly funny and eclectic” front either: There where lots of grisly (but rather funny) trophies, some Ogre snacks (like steaks and plucked chickens) and lots and lots of very strange stuff — I am very confident that most of this will be useful in the end, though: If not for my World Eaters, then in one of my other hobby projects. The Orkheim Ultraz and my planned Mordheim Orc warband can always use some more silliness

So yeah, taking a plunge and getting a huge pile of random bitz like this was really fun! What about you? Do you agree, or do you prefer your purchase of new bitz to me more restrained and, shall we say, surgical in nature? I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

In any case, have a great weekend! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

So, time to revisit that mysterious model from the fuzzy teaser shot, I think. Some of you may already have recognised the model in question, and to tell you the truth, ever since I built my converted Dreadknight / counts as Decimator (inspired by Chris’ fantastic conversion over at A Host of Word Bearers), I’ve been itching to get this big boy painted. While painting the model seemed like a rather daunting task at first, painting my various Chaos Dreadnoughts has taught me that models at a slightly bigger scale can be real fun to paint, if only because the actual painting can be less fiddly due to the increased size.

In any case, there was really only one way to find out…

So, how did it go? Just to remind you, here’s where we left off last time:

Before breaking out the paints, I used the last possible opportunity to add some final bitz: A chaos smoke launcher was cut in half, with both halves added to the cowling behind the model’s head. A chain with dangling skulls was also added to the reactor on the model’s back.

The next step was to break down the model into the different sub assemblies and get everything undercoated in chaos black. Thankfully, this was pretty fast work. Here’s most of the model undercoated and tacked together (again):

I then started painting the different sub assemblies, starting with the legs. Fortunately enough, my predicition proved correct: Painting the model turned out to be quite a lot of fun!

While larger models take much more paint to be completed, you can also cover much more ground and work with larger brushes, without having to worry about all the small nooks and crannies — at least at first…

So a short while later, the legs were basically finished:

At this point, I really liked where this was going and I was basically hooked. So I pressed on, painting the torso next…

As you can see, the amount of cables and metal doodads on the torso front meant that I could use a healthy dose of washes to make the metal look suitably dark and oily. I was also happy to finally see the head painted (but we’ll take a closer look at that in a minute). The last parts for the torso to be painted were the armour plates for the model’s chest. I quickly finished these, then tacked together what I had so far:

I am actually pretty pleased with the WIP model so far. The paintjob already does a fairly good job of blending together the different parts used in the conversion.

On a related note, I realise that the use of a head from an 80s’ toy was a point of contention for some. So my hope was that the paintjob would go a ways towards making it look like an actual part of the model. Take a look:

While I am pretty sure that this particular choice of head will never make everybody happy, I am pretty pleased with the result: I don’t think it looks that much like an action figure any more. As you can see, I also added a simple blending effect on the models visor, trying to ride the cylon motif for all that it’s worth

A brass etched symbol of Khorne (kindly sponsored by PDH — cheers, mate!) was added to the armour plate on the model’s shoulders:

You may say that it looks like it’s the wrong way around: a result of the plate originally being positioned slightly differently. In any case, it fits much better this way around anyway, so there is little to be done.

Again, I am really pretty happy with the model so far, even though it’s not yet complete: The next step, obviously, is to paint the model’s arms. And, of course, a suitably impressive base will have to be designed and painted at some point. Expect the next update pretty soon, though, because I am rather stoked for finishing this model.

Until then, feel free to let me know what you think in the comments! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Right, I promised you that you wouldn’t have to wait long for the next update on my Dreadknight/Decimator conversion, so here goes. Let me begin by admitting that I’m a little disappointed by the lack of reactions to the painted model so far: That really doesn’t bode well for the publich opinion on this guy, I suppose. Let’s just hope people are holding back all their constructive feedback for the finished model…

Anyway, back to the matter at hand! Here’s where we left off last time:

Time to get this bad boy some arms, right? Unfortunately, I didn’t take any PIP photos of the arms, as I painted them in one, frantic session, eager to finally see the model completely assembled and painted! Once again, the arms were detailed enough to almost be counted as models in their own right, yet the slightly bigger size made painting them a fairly pleasant affair.

I also made a list of all the little details that I had yet to paint and used the time it took for the paint on the arms to dry to get all the fiddly detail and additional accents out of the way.

When all the different sub-assemblies had been completed, the time had come to carefully glue everything together. While maybe I should have gone out to pick up some really strong superglue before putting everything together, I really couldn’t wait until the next day when I had finished all the components at about ten in the evening. So I used a couple of items to stabilise the position of the arms, while the model was resting on my keyboard, no less – yes, talk about patience and professionalism… 

But after leaving the model to dry overnight, everything was stable enough, and the model itself was finally completed.

So now it’s finally time to take a look at the assembled model. Meet the Wargrinder, ladies and gentlemen:

Quite a beast, don’t you think? The arms do a pretty good job of making it look even less than a stock Dreadknight and more like a daemon engine. And as you can see, some final detail was added during the assembly process: Two Ogre gut plates were once again used to represent the World Eaters’ legion badge. And two semi-circular trophy racks from the chaos vehicle sprue provide some additional chaos flair while also bulking out the model’s silhouette some more.

Let’s take a look at a couple of details:

Like I said before, I realise that the head probably isn’t for anybody. But I am rather happy with the way it turned out: The model looks like an emotionless, relentless killing machine, and that’s exactly the look I wanted to achieve. And even if you don’t like the head, it should really be easy to find a suitable replacement, in case somebody is planning a similar conversion.

I also used one of my beloved, simple OSL effects on the weapon arm’s plasma coils:

The huge coils are really an open invitation to painters to go for an effect like that, and even though I kept it all rather simple, the finished arm makes for a nice eyecatcher.

Another look at the model’s back: The exhaust pipes were given a pass of Vallejo Smoke Ink to make them look even more dark and grimy. I am also very much in love with that brass etched symbol of Khorne sponsored by PDH!

To tell you the truth, all in all, I probably couldn’t be any happier with the model: The different head (while clearly a case of love it or hate it) makes it different enough from Chris’ conversion so as not to seem like a retread of the same idea. And the paintjob really ties together the different parts, making them look like they were meant to be used in that way. Painting this guy also was a real blast!

I am still not 100% done, though: The base still needs to be built and painted — and it goes without saying that a model as imposing as this deserves a suitably impressive base to go with it. Fortunately, I already have an idea, although it may take some time for me to get around to actually completing it.

Until then, I would love to hear your opinion on the model, so feel free to drop me a line or two in the comments section! And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

If you haven’t been living under a rock for the last fee weeks, the relentless barrage of Space Marine related rumourmongering cannot have escaped your notice. And now, the cat is finally out of the bag: The new Space Marines are here in the kind of ‘no holds barred’ release that I would have loved to see for chaos as well. But let’s not get bitter here: The Space Marines are undoubtedly GW’s most recognisable property as well as a cornerstone of both the 40k universe and, one would imagine, GW’s business. So it’s no surprise that they should give it their all this time around.

With the new models now upon us, it is once again time here at Eternal Hunt to take a closer look at the release, point out the good and the bad and, of course, think about all the delicious conversion opportunities that arise from this release. Let’s go:

The book itself once again features the kind of cover artwork introduced by the last releases. Unfortunately, the art itself isn’t quite as awesome this time around, if you ask me. But that’s not really a problem, because if you’re fast enough, you can order yourself a special edition in almost any colour of the rainbow:

Seriously, though, offering separate covers for some of the more influential first and second founding chapters is certainly a nice touch and a bit of fanservice! Plus it may actually make the Black Templars players around the world a little less grumpy. I mean, yeah, they folded your army back into the Marine Codex, sure, but at least they’re throwing you a bone. I, for one, am still holding out for those rumoured supplements detailing the mono-god traitor legions.
Funnily enough, of all the different variants, the Ultramarines art appeals most to me for some reason, and I am certainly not a huge Ultramarines aficionado. In any case, the price for these editions is just silly, so I think I’ll pass…

It goes without saying that the contents of the book will be passionately discussed for the weeks and months to come: Already, cries of outrage can be heard all over the hobby scene, since it seems like Marines do it all — and better. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how all of this plays out eventually. In any case, we’re not here to talk about the rules, so let’s take a look at the models already:

Space Marine Centurions

Ah, yes: The elephant in the room. The kit everyone already loves to hate. Let me start by saying that having to wedge completely new Space Marine units into an already meticulously defined lore and game system cannot be an enviable task for a designer. Last time around, they took the safe route with the Sternguard and Protector Guard  – basically regular (Assault) Marines in blinged out armour – then they got a little more gutsy with the Stormtalon, and we all know how that went. So this time, the Space Marines get what basically amounts to loyalist Obliterators.

I’ll be honest with you: At first, I was less than impressed with the models. In fact, I was prepared to cry blue murder, along with the best of them. But then something funny happened: The more I saw of these guys, the better I liked them. Oh, make no mistake, the sculpts are not without their problems (the legs still look too clunky for me and will probably take a lot of getting used to, for instance). But for some reason, I find these guys rather fascinating.

Now I don’t have any idea yet how these were retconned into the existing fluff: I guess they’ll either pretend that these existed all along, or have them be based on a rediscovered STC design. But for one crazy moment there, I thought to myself: I get it. The Astartes have seen what the Tau can do with their crazy combat suits and are now saying: We want a part of that.

I have no idea whether that’s actually where the design came from (probably not), but if seen from that perspective, the models suddenly make a lot of sense: They really look like Tau suits reverse engineered by way of the clunky Imperial technology.

I also like them not so much for what they are but for the conversion potential: As somehow who has always disliked the rather unwholesome looking Obliterator models, I cannot help feeling that the Centurions could finally be a perfect way of converting some truly awesome Obliterators for my army. But more on that later…

The one thing I really dislike about the models is the look of the CC option that comes with the kit:

Those siege drills really don’t work for me. Maybe it’s because they look too much like something you would find at the dentist’s. Maybe it’s the fact that these guys seem to fill a slot that didn’t need any filling in the first place. In any case, the artillery option makes more sense and looks better, in my opinion.

Let me just point out a couple of small details that occured to me:

One, Dave Thomas, the designer of the kit, pointed out in WD that the Marine piloting the suit has his arms crossed over his chest. While that sounds like an enormously uncomfortable position to hold for an entire battle, I really like how the Centurions’ dedicated unit badge reflects that small bit of lore.

I am also fascinated with the helmets, halfway between a regular power armoured helm and that of a Terminator. Oh, and it seems like that helmet crest (seen on the right) is an optional bit. Very nice! I also think the bare heads that come with the kit (and that do look slightly silly on the heavily armoured models) could work great for World Eaters with their extremely angry expressions, shouting mouths and head implants that would make for fairly convincing Butcher’s Nails.

I also like the fact that the back of the leg is really similar to the legs of a Dreadknight:

A very nice bit of visual consistency there!

So, all in all, I started out hating these, but now I am beginning to grow rather fond of them. A sign of my rampant fanboyism, perhaps? Maybe. But even though these guys may not be for everyone, at least the designer wasn’t afraid to try something new, and I can always appreciate that!

In closing, let me get one small nerd gripe off my chest: Centurion was an actual commander rank during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, right? Now why would they call a completely unrelated combat suit by the same name 10,000 years later? Couldn’t they have come up with a different name? Couldn’t they have been called Colossus, for crying out loud? Yeah, I know, I need to get a life…

Space Marine Tactical Squad

Well, this one was possibly overdue: Even though the old tactical sprue had been slightly touched up for one of the last Codex releases, the tactical Marines were pretty much the oldest kit still in existence, having originally been introduced at the start of 3rd edition. So now they finally get a true update. And, well, what did you expect? These guys still look like Space Marines, that much is for sure.

Seriously though, instead of just adding some inconsequential decoration, the designers seem to have gone for some serious re-engineering this time around, making sure the tactical sprue – certainly the bread and butter of every Marine army – now boasts lots and lots of options.

For Marine players, the most important ones will possibly be the weapons options, complete with new grav weapons, although the improvements don’t stop there: For one, it seems like some of the models now boast a somewhat more upright pose due to their legs. This is a very welcome change, since the notoriously crouched legs really get old once you have built about a hundred Astartes models.

We also get a bigger variety of parts from armour marks, among them some Mk IV legs and a full suit of Mk VI Corvus armour:

For someone like me, who has been experimenting with kitbashing older armour strictly from GW plastic parts for my Legio Custodes project, this is  a very welcome addition indeed! And call me a little weird, but my favourite parts in any Marine kits are usually the bare heads:

I love building my (traitor) Marines bareheaded, because (while it makes no sense from a combat perspective) it’s a great way of adding individuality and character to the models. And the new heads certainly don’t disappoint: The one on the left with the slightly gladiatorial mohawk would be great for eather a World Eater or a Custodes model, while the rebreather mask is awesome (and would work like a charm on a champion of Nurgle, if you ask me…).

With the old tactical Marines slowly beginning to show their age, It’s also interesting to note how the new kit seems to be all sharp lines and crisp detail:

This is especially evident on the new Corvus helmet that now seems to have some murch sharper lines as well (almost making it look a little duck-like…):

Anyway, having a new version of this kit probably was a sheer necessity, and GW did a nice job of  making it as comprehensive as possible. At 35 Euros for ten Marines, this is also possibly the best bang for the buck out of all the new kits, although the new Marines are still more expensive than their older incarnation. On the other hand, they do come with lots and lots of options. With the new design, these can finally hold their ground against kits like the Space Wolves or Blood Angles Death Company again. Nice job, GW!

Space Marine Sternguard:

Wow, this kit is certainly one of the stars of the show for me! While nice, the old Sternguard models always seemed a little conventional to me. But the new kit not only provides a way of building plastic Sternguard, but should also be a great kit for simply adding a little oomph to your commanders and squad leaders and basically for building badass-looking models.

Once again, the kits comes with lots and lots of options. And once again, it’s the heads that I am drawn to first:

The head on the left has to be one of my favourite Astartes heads ever: It looks just as grizzled and noble as befits an honoured warrior of the Legiones Astartes. That makes it a perfect fit for chaptermaster, a Legio Custodes character or even an Inquisitor. The head on the right is not quite as awesome, but it also gets the grizzled veteran look right, at least.

It seems that providing lots and lots of modelling and equipment options was once again the order of the day. And while Space Marine players will be happy with the many equipment options (especially the combi-weapons, I imagine), it’s bitz like this that make me stupidly happy:

When it comes to the models themselves, the greatest things about them are the highly ostentatious pieces of armour as well as the added bulk when compared to normal Marines:

You instantly know that these guys are bad news. Also, that power fist is looking fantastic…

All in all, I expect this kit to sell like hotcakes: Not only does it offer the option to build plastic Sternguard, but it looks like the new go to kit when it comes to making awesome character kitbashes. Definitely one of the high points of the release for me, and possibly one of the kits I might purchase myself.

Space Marine Protector Guard

You can’t have one without the other, so we get a Protector Guard kit along with the Sternguard. And while it’s great to get yet another unit type in glorious plastic, I somehow think these are less impressive than the Sternguard. Maybe it’s the fact that they look like a similarly impressive unit could be built by simply using some additional bitz on a regular squad of assault marines? Maybe it’s a problem with the picture, though, because the alternate squad of Raven Guard built and painted by the GW studio looks awesome:

I especially love the sergeant’s helmet!

Still, while the last incarnation of both unit types had the Protector Guard looking much cooler, the roles are reversed this time: The Protector Guard looks nice enough, but I feel the Sternguard takes the cake. However, I suppose this kit will be similarly succesful, since the amount of bitz makes it a useful purchase.

Hunter/Stalker

There’s also a new vehicle combi-kit, albeit one based on the trusty old Rhino. The kit may be assembled as one of two tank variants, the Hunter or the Stalker. The design is nice enough and some of the visual touches (like the stabilisers) are nice, but you’ll probably forgive me for being unable to get excited over yet another Rhino variant.

In all fairness, though, the Space Marines have received a couple of rather more interesting vehicle kits out of turn in the past, so it’s really not that much of a problem that this release doesn’t bring us a spectacular new vehcile kit. Moving on.

Characters

The Space Marines also get some new characters, and the most interesting thing to note is that they’re all plastic models. Are we seeing a change of strategy regarding Finecast? In any case, let’s take a closer look at the new models:

Space Marine Commander

This guy certainly looks the part! But is it just me, or does he look like a slightly rejigged version of the Commander from the Assault on Black Reach boxed set? Here’s a comparison photo for you:

Nope, definitely not my imagination: They seem to have used the same base model and then slightly redesigned it. Which, in all fairness, doesn’t have to be a bad thing: I have always liked the Black Reach Commander, and some of the added detail is really cool.  The fact that you get a crested helmet with the kit also means that you can build a plastic version of Captain Sicarius on par with (if not better than) the slightly malproportioned FC version.

The kit also gives you a different head option…

…which is standard, slightly constipated looking Marine fare. Still, it’s good to have the option!

A look at the sprue reveals that not only should the model be easy enough to customise even further, but some of the bitz (like the heads and backpack) can easily be used on different models as well. I like that!

The model is nice enough on its own, and I think it can be made to really shine with a bit of work. Here’s the catch, though: Seeing how this is basically a Black Reach Captain 2.0, the price point of 25 Euros seems particularly egregious in this case. If I wanted to build a new Marine commander similar to this one, I’d simply get a cheap Black Reach mini online and kitbash it into something on par with the new model. And there’s always the multipart Space Marine Commander as a cheaper option (although that one is slightly hampered by the fact that it is based on pretty standard Marine physiology and posing). Anyway, considering the price, there are lots of alternative options that will give you an equally impressive model.

Space Marine Chaplain

Seeing how this is the first vanilla Marine chaplain available in plastic (the Dark Vengeance S.E. chaplain obviously doesn’t count), this is a nice addition to the Space Marine catalogue. However, the chaplain is only available as part of the Reclusiam Command Squad:

While this makes lots of sense from a business perspective, using the new model to give the older kits in the set a bit of a leg up, it also seems like a bit of a dick move on GW’s part.

However, their website has this to say on the matter:

This includes a new plastic Chaplain, armed with a crozius arcanum and bolt pistol, which is currently only available with this box set.

That sounds like a separate release somewhere along the line isn’t totally out of the question, at least. So in case you don’t need that additional command squad and Razorback, I’d probably hold my breath for now, if I were you.

The model itself is pretty nice, but not really all that spectacular. The skull mask even looks silly in a slightly Skeletor-esque way, if you ask me. Fortunately, the kit also comes with an alternate head option that is much cooler (and seems like a shout out to a great 2nd edition metal chaplain):

But a chaplain always looks more like a chaplain with a deathmask. Just sayin’…

A look at the sprue shows that it should once again be easy enough to use the different parts of the model for different projects as well.

Again, considering the price, this is another model where it’s quite possible to kitbash something similarly impressive with existing bitz. But I appreciate the option of fielding yet another HQ option in plastic, even if it’s far too expensive

Space Marine Librarian:

Now we’re talking! This guy is certainly the best of the new characters, and maybe even my favourite part of the entire release. It’s great that Space Marine players now basically have plastic versions for all of their generic HQs, but even beyond that, this guy really shines. I especially love the fact that they have moved beyond the smooth shaven look for the Librarian’s face:

His bearded face has an almost Merlinesque quality to it, and is a great fit for an experienced psyker. The head would also look great on a GK character or an Inquisitor! And in any case, the model is basically worth it for the creepy little cherub alone! One of the best bitz in GW’s entire catalogue!

The sprue picture also reveals that the Librarian should lend himself rather nicely to conversions:

As you can see, it should be easy enough to swap in different legs or arms, which is brilliant. And both the head and cherub are separate pieces! Awesome!

From among the three plastic characters, this is the one I am almost guaranteed to purchase at some point. Sure, the price is just as high as that of the Commander, but the model is by far the most exciting and unique sculpt out of the three plastic characters. Defintely one of my favourite Space Marine models, hands down.

Conversion potential:

Right off the bat, I’ll happily admit that I may be slightly biased this month: With two of my hobby projects (my World Eaters and my Legio Custodes army) partly or mostly based on Marine parts, it goes without saying that the new stuff from this release would be easier to put to good use than, say, a Lizarman or Tau model.

That said, flexibility is one of the greatest strength of GW’s marine based kits: The fact that most bitz can be merrily mixed and matched makes kitbashing (traitor) Astartes models both one of the easiest as well as one of the most satisfying hobby activities for me. It goes without saying that the new kits bring lots and lots of interesting bitz to use for all kinds of conversion projects. Indeed, Marine players will probably have a field day with these, kitbashing and splicing bitz into their existing forces with gusto.

For me personally, I am really interested in some of the bare heads. This seems a silly detail, to be sure, but those faces should be great for adding some character to my armies, and some of the heads would work perfectly for both my World Eaters and Custodes.

The most interesting infantry kit would be the Sternguard, since the partly robed bodies seem perfect to build Custodes Praetorians or veterans of the Legio in older marks of power armour. For the other kits, I will probably try to stick to ebay, bitz sites and bitz swaps for getting my hands on some of the interesting parts.

Regarding the characters, I think I’ll pass on the commander and chaplain: The former is so similar to my already painted Black Reach Captain that I don’t see any room for yet another version of the model. And the latter, apart from being part of a pretty expensive boxed set for now, isn’t all that fantastic — I’d rather kitbash my own model if I ever had to. The Librarian, however, is truly awesome, and I will certainly get one at some point. I expect he will end up as some kind of Inquisitor, though, since neither my World Eaters nor my Custodes seem like ideal employers for a psyker.

And then there’s the one kit that really has me thrilled. The one kit everybody seems to hate: the Centurions. I know they are goofy. I know it will be a lot of work. But I have half a mind to use these as a base for converting some Obliterators for my World Eaters. Already, ideas are beginning to form in the back of my head. And what is there to lose: They probably won’t end up looking as horrible as the existing models, right?

Anything else?

Actually, yes. It may feel like beating a dead horse, but I can’t wind up this review without talking about the price of some of these kits. I realise that GW’s pricing is a highly controversial subject, and I certainly won’t go into economics here. That said, a certain divide is evident with this release’s pricing:

The tactical Marines come at 35 Euros a pop. While that’s more expensive than the older tactical squad, the new kit looks sharper and features lots and lots of bitz. So in the context of GW’s overall catalogue, paying 35 Euros for a highly customisable infantry squad of ten doesn’t really seem so bad.

The Sternguard and Protector Guard are quite a bit more expensive, coming at 40 and 35 Euros for five models, respectively. Once again, I am inclined to let it slide, because the amount of (really useful) leftover bitz you’ll end up with even after completing the squad manages to sugarcoat that particular bitter pill for me.

The Centurions are a problem, though: 62 Euros for a squad of three? Whoa, that is a pretty penny! Sure, these guys may be big, but given the fact that the sculpt doesn’t seem to be all that popular, GW had better hope this works out for them (it probably will, though: I bet these will be super effective on the table, making them an auto-include). Still, even though I am interested in using these for a conversion project, the price tag is giving me pause.

The biggest problem for me, though, are the characters: For WFB, the plastic characters are usually a great – and fairly affordable – purchase. For some reason, however, 40k plastic characters are much more expensive than their WFB counterparts right off the bat. And 25 Euros for a standard size, single pose plastic model does seem pretty egregious — all the more so if it’s simply a touched up starter box model (the original of which can be had for a song on ebay). It’s true, in my opinion, that GW still produce the best 28mm plastic models available, but they also charge us rather outrageous prices for the benefit of using these delicious pieces of plastic, and it’ll be interesting to see how long this will realistically continue. Regarding the Space Marine characters, I’d advise you to check if kitbashing isn’t the more sensible option – apart from that Librarian, of course: That guy is wicked.

In closing…

All in all, this is certainly a rather strong release, but what did you expect? Space Marines continue to be GW’s most successful product, as evidenced by their site crashing under the onslaught auf pre-orders. The release provides Marine players all over the world with some fantastic new toys, and seeing all that beautiful plastic crack turn up in all kinds of different army and conversion projects will be a lot of fun. You’ll have to pay rather handsomely for the benefit of getting to play with the new stuff, though, so even the most diehard Space Marine fans should carefully consider which of the new kits are essential purchases. So, long story short: some fantastic models. Some not so fantastic prices. Business as usual in the 41st millennium.

So, what do you think of the new release? Are you itching for some Astartes goodness? Or are you foaming at the mouth when looking at  the price tags? Or both? And do you love or hate the Centurions? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section!

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

One more look at the Wargrinder, like I promised. I hope I’m not boring you yet! That said, it is a fairly involved project that I am also rather proud of, so I hope you’ll forgive me for featuring it prominently whenever I can…

Anyway, the last thing needed to complete the model was a suitable base. And the fact that the standard Dreadknight base is rather large also meant that I couldn’t exactly phone it in . So I sat down and thought about what I actually wanted the base to accomplish from a visual perspective:

• I wanted the base to fit the look of my army’s overall basing scheme, obviously. So it was clear that I would use the same rock/rubble look.
• I wanted the base to look interesting enough to do the model justice, but not so impressive as to draw away attention from it.
• it would be really cool if the base could feature a fallen enemy of the Wargrinder.

So with these ideas in mind, I started to mess around with a couple of ideas. I obviously used the usual recipe of big and small pieces of cork plus some modelling sand and slate to represent the rocky ground and debris. Yet what about the fallen enemy? Covering the base in skulls would certainly have seemed slightly goofy, since the Wargrinder doesn’t have any obvious way of harvesting skulls in the traditional sense, due to its enormous size. So it had to be a bigger enemy, preferredly one with a certain reputation when it came to ferocity in combat.

Fortunately enough, I still had the torso front of a Death Company Dreadnought lying around from way back when I converted my first Chaos Dreadnought from a Furioso kit. I had always wanted to use that nicely detailed piece, and now was the time! So I added the remains of a defeated Blood Angels Dread to the base:

I didn’t have a whole Dreadnought to spare, of course, so I wanpushed into the earth under theted its remains to look half buried, probably flattened and  trampled underfoot. In order to achieve this effect, I covered the middle of the base in a mix of wood glue, modelling sand and cork chaff. After the material had been evenly distributed, I added the torso front on top. I also built the remains of a torn off arm from a Dreadnought fist and a hydraulic strut from the Dreadknight. Then I added more sand and cork on top to blend everything together. And if you take a closer look, you can see some actual cables, representing the torn cabling emerging from the Dreadnought’s destroyed torso. And you may even spot the areas where I used a pen to sketch the outlines of the Wargrinder’s feet in order to make sure everything would fit together in the end.

When everything was nice and dry, the base was spraypainted with Chaos Black. As per my usual routine, the next step was to block in the base colours. Then everything was washed with brown wash. Then I went back in to do the accents and detail work. I tried to replicate the “official” Death Company paint scheme fairly closely (finding out once again the loyal Marines really aren’t for me when it comes to painting). Afterwards, I used a mix of washes, drybrushing and weathering effects to create scratches, chipped paint and battle damage on the fallen Dread. Here’s the finished base:

I am reasonably pleased with the result: The fallen machine clearly reads as a Death Company Dread, and it adds a nice visual flourish to the base without the thread of overpowering the actual model. So the last step was to actually glue the Wargrinder to the base, and it was with slightly shaky hands that I completed this last task.

After enough drying time has elapsed, let’s take a look at the completely finished model. I give you the Wargrinder on its new base:

Granted, it’s just a relatively small detail when compared to the rest of the model, but it does really make the Wargrinder look complete. I also think it’s a nice bit of irony that a Death Company Dreadnought, itself well known for its ferocity in combat, has been reduced to a mere base decoration here

Here are some additional detail shots:

The Wargrinder towering over its fallen foe.

By the way, PDH found the perfect excuse for the icon of Khorne on the model’s back being the wrong way around: “It’s for when Khorne’s looking down on him.” — yes, that’s a brilliant explanation, and much better than admitting that I didn’t pay enough attention, so let’s just go with that!

All in all, I am really happy to have completed this model! It’s been some work alright, although I feel the result is well worth it:

Incidentally, after posting the model, it turned out that the choice of head remains a point of critcism for some. Now I do of course realise that it’s a fairly eclectic choice, and it will never please everybody. That said, at least there was some method to my madness. Fellow hobbyist TJWyrm over on B&C really put it more succinctly in his comment than I ever could have:

For me, the head really helps trace a lineage back to the Legion Maniple robots, one that was dragged with your guys into the warp, and is still serving millenia later.

While I didn’t have it all worked out like that from the start, my plan for the model was that the Wargrinder is neither a dreadnought-like sarcophagus for the remains of an Astartes, nor a daemon’s spirit given metallic form. Rather, it is actually supposed to be an enhanced and somewhat redesigned Legio Cybernetica robot (as a matter of fact, even though I only disvovered this after the fact, it does bear some structural similarities to the Lambda Zeta-01 Combat Class Robot): Maybe it has been serving the 4th assault company ever since the Heresy, and Warpsmith Deracin just made some additions and alterations to the machine. Maybe it has been constructed by Deracin himself, using the remains of Mechanicus warmachines and the dark secrets of his craft. In any case, the machine isn’t a frenzied daemon, but rather an emotionless, uncaring killing machine. And I think the head I chose is a better representation of that than any frenzied daemon face. That said, it’s certainly purely a matter of taste, and I acknowledge that not everyone will like my choice. I am certainly not making excuses, just trying to explain my reasoning on this. For those who really cannot stomach the head, I’ll happily point you towards Chris’ Dreadknight conversion once again. It uses a Necrosphinx head and looks awesome!

So yeah, that’s the finished model in all its glory. But what will I ever use it for?
To be perfectly honest, I mainly started this project due to the prospect of being able to convert and paint an awesome model. Still, there are a number of possible in-game uses for the Wargrinder, of course: The most obvious choice would be to use it as a Decimator. The size of the model is similar, and using it in that capacity would be a great way of having access to a Decimator without having to get the “official” model, The small problem here is the WYSIWYG rule: The base is quite a bit bigger than the Decimator’s standard base — and I simply refused to glue the Wargrinder to a smaller base, because that could have looked rather ridiculous. Still, while I didn’t try to model for advantage, the fact remains that the bigger base may make things ever so slightly easier for me The other problem is the model’s weapon: I just used the leftover Forgefiend weapon because I liked the look of it, but it doesn’t really represent either equipment choice available to a Decimator all that well. Still, with a little goodwill on my opponent’s part, the Wargrinder would certainly make for a pretty cool counts as Decimator.

It could also be used as a counts as Forgefiend, Maulerfiend or even Defiler, come to think of it. Sure, each of these options will once again require an understanding opponent, but the bottom line remains the same: Even though my main objective was to build and paint a badass-looking model, the Wargrinder could very well come in handy on the table as well!

So, before I wind up this post, it’s good tradition here on Eternal Hunt to present some fluff to go with the new model. So here’s all you need to know about the Wargrinder:

Wargrinder pattern Blood Knight

The warmachine designated Wargrinder by the legionaries of the 4th assault company is certainly a terrifying testament to Huntmaster Deracin’s dark genius. Bigger even than the fearsome Contemptor, the Wargrinder usually towers over the battlefield, a metallic embodiment of murderous intent.

Based on the ancient and hallowed warmachines of the Legio Cybernetica that fought alongside the XIIth Astartes Legion during the Great Crusade and subsequent Horus Heresy, the Wargrinder has evolved into something altogether different: While there are still enough hints as to its origin, the machine’s armoured bulk now resembles nothing so much as the form of a traitor Astartes, its baroque armour plating and daemonic weapons a clear indicator of its allegiance. and its fluid, almost organic, movements terrifying to behold.

While the Wargrinder is infused with the energies of the warp, it remains a machine: In eerie contrast to the frenzied and bloodthirsty traitor Astartes fighting alongside it,  the daemon engine’s relentless advance betrays the precision of an automaton: A Wargrinder never tires, never retreats, until its task is done. But where an organic follower of Khorne would leave himself be consumed by his instinct and his rage, it remains emotionless and calculating, its behavioral protocols ensuring its murderous efficiency.

In the armies of Khorne’s Eternal Hunt, Wargrinders fill a combat role similar to that of the accursed Decimator daemon engine. Equippable both for short and long range combat, a Wargrinder is a highly versatile warmachine. It is also a terror weapon, frightening to behold to those standing against the 4th. And a chilling reminder that even the most sophisticated machines ever devised by mankind may be turned against the servants of the false Emperor…

So there you have it: I hope this little series about building and painting the Wargrinder has been interesting to pursue! As always, feel free to let me know what you think in the comments! I’d love to hear from you!

And, of course, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

I am on vacation to the seaside this week, grabbing some much needed fresh air. So I guess it’s time for a rather contemplative post today. So while I am spending some time doing nothing, let’s check on some hobby proejcts of mine: As you may recall, I built some models that I sent abroad in pursuit of various hobby-related business. So where are they now?

1.) Legion

Ah, who could forget my favourite, insane Mechanicus monstrosity? After his first outing aboard the Myth Shippe in April, Legion could last be glimpsed on a tray brought along to 2013′s Inqvitational by John Blanche. There he lingered, towards the back, glad to be in the company of some really phenomenal models both by JB himself as well as some other talented artists:

Image kindly provided by Marco Skoll

Seeing that a model I made has found its way into a collection like that really makes me proud!

I also have a hunch we may not have seen the last of our favourite Tech Wraith, but we’ll have to see about that…

2.) Inquisitor Zuul

After being captured by his puritan pursuers during this year’s Inqvitational, Inquisitor Zuul was unexpectedly observed causing some mischief among the denizens of the Arrke:

Image kindly provided by PDH

I swear Zuul didn’t have anything to do with that car on the right crashing like that. Oh dear, let’s just hope Inquisitor Tybalt doesn’t find out…

I gave Zuul to PDH as a birthday present, both as a thank you for involving me in all kinds of kick ass international hobby projects, and because having to send Zuul back and forth between Germany and Britain for games would have been a bit of a drag. It goes without saying that I am rather happy that Peter’s getting some mileage out of the old rascal until Zuul is finally taken out for good by his puritan enemies. Let’s keep our fingers crossed, though, because I, for one, have grown rather attached to the old boy…

Image kindly provided by PDH

3.) Elias Cobb

And last but definitely not least, Elias Cobb’s identical twin has successfully made his way to his namesake (who, it bears repeating, is really not a mutant sniper, but rather a gentleman and a scholar) in the north of the USA. There he has found both a new home and a place of honour:

Image kindly provided by Elias Cobb

The real Elias kindly sent me the photo above. I am really glad that the model has reached its destination intact, although the twins now have to rely on the power of social media to see each other. How sad:

It’s cool, Elias: You guys can skype, or something…

Anyway, where am I going with this?

Being a bit of a pack rat, I’ll readily admit that I am not especially good at letting things go — least of all things I painstakingly converted and painted myself. But in these three cases, seeing that the models I sent abroad are still around and keep popping up here and there really makes me happy.

Each of those was a labour of love, of course, but building them to eventually give them away was very much a part of the joy: There is a certain satisfaction in the knowledge that these models have found new homes in another country, and that their stories will continue, even if I am no longer the one in charge.

In a way, this hobby is really all about sharing, isn’t it? I cannot count the number of ideas I have borrowed from other talented hobbyists, and I certainly hope that I have, in turn, managed to give some inspiration back to others. And being able to contribute a model to a fantastic narrative event or the collection of one of the biggest hobby legends really is a great feeling! I can’t help remembering my early years in the hobby: Without the internet or an actual hobby scene, the hobby felt like a really isolated activity, with every hobbyist an island, so to speak. GW’s own materials were really all the available input there was, and fruitlessly trying to emulate ‘Eavy Metal paintjobs was a very special kind of self-deprecation. I could never have imagined then that something like this would be in the cards for my hobby life!

Today, there’s a brilliant scene of creative and inspiring hobbyists around, and it’s possible to get in touch with them via the magic of the Interwebz: You can exchange ideas, swap bitz, plan events or even send away models you’ve build and painted, then see them take on a life of their own. And this is great and really makes me happy, in a small and self-centered way…

So yeah, before I get all sappy on you, like an 80s’ Filmation cartoon, let’s wind this up: I am happy that these models are still around, and that they are in good hands. Cheers Peter, John and Elias! Take good care of those little guys for me!

And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more! Normal service will resume next week

Even after my seaside vacation, my current enthusiasm for working on my World Eaters remains. While that may be bad news for all those of you who frequent my blog for one of my other projects, don’t fret: I am very likely to resume work on the INQ28 and Custodes stuff before long! I just want to make the most of the motivation for working on my main army while it lasts. So let me show you the things I am currently working on, most of them squarely falling into the category of heavy fire support…

1. Just for fun…

The first thing I did after finishing my – rather involved – Wargrinder conversion was to kitbash another humble gladiator for my growing squad of gladiatorial World Eaters. Working on a humble 28mm footsoldier was a great way to relax, and so I was quickly able to get this guy built. Take a look:

I believe I have mentioned before how I wanted to try and feature different kinds of gladiatorial weapons across the squad, so the newest recruit is wielding the ever-stylish chain glaive. Not a big project, to be sure, but a nice way to unwind after a more involved piece…

2. The Forge never sleeps….

Next up is a Forgefiend. I picked up the kit way back when I started working on my Heldrake conversion and never really managed to move beyond the basic construction. So I sat down to assemble and undercoat the model right after returning from my holiday — must have had something to do with renewed energies and all that…

While I realise that many people don’t like the Forgefiend design, dubbing the model “Dinobot” (or even worse), I have to admit that I am really rather fond of the kit: It adds a visual flourish to the CSM army that other forces don’t have. And for a World Eaters force, the fact that the fiend looks a lot like a larger Juggernaut of Khorne (the model was even inspired by the juggernaut, according to Jes Goodwin) helps, of course.

So I almost feel a little guilty admitting that I left the stock model virtually unaltered — I know, a shocking turn of events

Here’s a look at the model so far:

Due to the fact that almost every model in my army has been converted in some way, leaving the Forgefiend as it was almost felt a little lazy. However, I didn’t really want to convert for the sake of conversion, and I didn’t feel I had any huge changes to make to the model. Using the Maulerfiend arms and the Forgefiend cannons at the same time (with the cannons mounted on the model’s back, as has been done my multiple hobbyists) would have been a pretty cool idea, but in the end I decided against it. That way, I had more leftover bitz to play around with — one of the Forgefiend cannons was already used on my Wargrinder, as you might recall, and you can expect to see those Maulerfiend arms pretty soon, as well.

Anyway, my main addition to the model, apart from some decorative skulls on the shoulder armour, was the tail of an Ogre Kingdoms Stonehorn: I really love the horrible, bony growth at the tip of the tail, and I also thought having a longer tail really improved the model’s overall silhouette:

Oh, and I also added a juggernaut’s collar to the Forgefiend’s neck, representing the archetypal Collar of Khorne:

All in all, I am rather happy with the model, a slight lingering guilt over not doing a super-involved conversion notwithstanding… I guess that this will be the next bigger model to be painted, once I manage to summon up the motivation for it.

3. The Behemoths

And finally, what is probably my most ambitious project at the moment: The Behemoths. So what is this about?

It’s no secret that Obliterators are a rather valuable part of the Chaos Space Marine army list. At the same time, I also have this strange urge to own an appropriate version of all (or at least most) of the unit selections in the Codex for my army. So far, this has made me convert a custom Dark Apostle and Warpsmith for the HQ slot, come up with some renegade Space Wolves to serve as “regular” CSM, and so on.

The one selection I could not find a suitable approach for were the Obliterators: I really dislike the current models for these guys, for one. And the mutated, fleshy look really didn’t fit the concept of my army (where mutation is kept to a minimum, due both to my aesthetic preferences and background reasons). I also didn’t want to go the easy route of simply getting some stock Obliterators, painting them in the colours of a different legion or warband, and using them as “allies”, because that seemed like a rather cheap cop out to me.

So I waited and collected pictures of Obliterator conversions I liked and quietly prayed for inspiration to hit. And I swore to myself that I wouldn’t use Obliterators until I had found a way of representing them on the table in a way that felt true to both my taste and the overarching concept of my army. I didn’t find such an option for the best part of two years.

But then, the new Space Marines were released, and as I mentioned in my recent review, the longer I looked at the new Centurions, the more I felt that these could be my ticket to finally building the Obliterators that I wanted: not mutated and unsightly giants, but hulking and baroque combat suits, a holdover from the more civilised days of the 12th Astartes Legion. So I started throwing around some ideas, and I ended up with this small background sketch:

Even in an army as focused on combat at close quarters as the World Eaters‘ 4th assault company, there are those who hunt by different means. These brothers of the company are called the Behemoths, and they are an enigma to even their brethren.

During the Great Crusade, the armies of the Legiones Astartes were faced with an ever increasing number of deadly adversaries. Often enough, wars were only to be won by attrition, and the head-on assaults led by the death seeking Primarch Angron were threatening to bleed the 12th Astartes legion dry before long. While Angron seemed oblivious or even indifferent towards such concerns, there were those among his officers who sought a more balanced kind of warfare, at least until the bite of their Butcher’s Nails consumed the remnants of their sanity.

It is said that, during this time, First Apothecary Fabrikus himself experimented on a number of battle brothers, trying to adapt their cranial implants to a different kind of fight. These warriors were outfitted with heavy combat suits, almost on par with the fabled Dreadnoughts. Their suits were equipped with a plethora of heavy weapons, and where the regular World Eaters would throw themselves at the enemy with wild abandon, the so-called Behemoth squads would hang back and lay down a barrage of heavy fire. For Fabrikus had changed the battle brothers’ minds yet again, hardwiring their implants to their weapons systems. The members of the Behemoth squads started to find grim joy in killing, just like the rest of their legion, but the greatest joy for them was to pick out enemies from afar, tearing through flesh and steel alike with bursts of laser fire and plasma, and seeing a red marker turning green in their targeting recticles.

The Behemoths remained and experimental unit that only saw limited use during the Crusade and subsequent Heresy: The weapons systems they were outfitted with proved too difficult to maintain during the arduous campaigns, and Angron would always favour a more hands-on approach. Yet some of the Behemoths endured, most of them among the warriors of Khorne’s Eternal Hunt.

There, these frightening giants still fill the role of heavy fire support, yet the long centuries and millennia have wrought havoc upon their minds: Growing ever more divorced from their humanity, Behemoths are more machine than man, gripped by a tranquil fury where their regular brethren are openly angry. They can only perceive life through their targeting systems, and each situation becomes an equation that can only be solved by heavy fire. They tend to see living beings as either targets or inconsequential elements, even referring to their battle brothers as “fleshkin”.

When away from the battlefield, the Behemoths are normally content to spent time in deep, deathlike sleep. They dream of worlds burning and planets shattering under a barrage of heavy fire, while the other members of the company take relief in the knowledge that their troubled brethren are not at large. Even in an army of frenzied killers, the Behemoths are perhaps the most inhuman of all, since for them life and death are the only variables at any given time, and death is always the preferable outcome…

So it was decided: I would build a squad of counts as Obliterators, and I would use the Centurion kit for it. I won’t lie to you, there was also the fact that I had the somewhat silly ambition to build something cool from the kit everybody loves to hate

So, ironically enough, the most-reviled kit of the release was actually a day one purchase for me.

It has to be said, though, that I am at the very early planning stages of this project, and am currently just messing around in order to discover what I could do with the kit. Nevertheless, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at the kit as I go along — maybe it’ll be helpful for you too! So consider this a mini-review/early WIP kind of affair — seems like you’ll be getting quite a bit of mileage out of this one post, dear readers…

Anyway, after picking up the kit, this is what I ended up with:

Let’s not talk about the decal sheet, obviously, because it’s standard fare. The instruction booklet is a rather hefty tome, however, on account of the kit being rather complex. Each of the three sprues that come with the kit is packed with bits, containing all the possible equipment options as well as a unique pose and individual (loyalist) decoration for each of the models:

The thing to note here is that assembling a Centurion with any given kind of equipment will invariably give you lots of leftover weapon bitz: You get three sets of long range weapons (lascannons, heavy bolters and a grav cannon) and one set of CC weapons (siege drills that come with optional flamers or meltaguns) for each model, so there will be a lot of leftovers.

As an interesting aside, I also discovered that the Centurions’ bases (slightly bigger than a Terminator base in diameter) are a perfect fit for those resin parts that come with the 40k basing kit:

So it obviously wasn’t some kind of production slip up after all…

Why GW would make these resin parts fit a type of base that virtually never gets used across the whole catalogue instead of the much more prolific terminator base is clearly beyond me. Still, mystery solved!

Deciding how my Obliterators will be armed will take some time, I believe: I will probably go for mixed weapons, representing their ability to use different weapons each turn. The lascannons can be used out of the box. Beyond that, I guess I’ll convert the heavy bolters to look like autocannons / assault cannons. Plus I’ll swap in a flamer or plasma cannon here and there. For now, let’s focus on some of the bitz that come with the kit, because these could come in handy even if you’re not trying to build Centurions in the first place!

The kit comes with seven heads: four of them with helmets, three bare. The helmet crest that you can see on the sergeant in the official photos is a seperate, optional part (which is pretty cool). I played around with the heads a bit and took some photos to show you how they look on regular Marine models:

First up, the helmeted head variant on a regular (Chaos) Space Marine body: Although it seems a little clunky, it clearly works. With its look halfway between a terminator and regular power armour helmet, this could be an interesting option for Iron Warriors or Iron Hands. Or a suitable headdress for a Techmarine/Warpsmith? Unfortunately, the heads don’t fit into a terminator body’s head cavity, so you won’t be able to use them on your terminators without some serious cutting.

Even more interesting are the bare heads, since those are scaled to perfectly fit the existing Marine models. Take a look:

I chose the one with the open mouth and mohawk, since I thought it was a pretty good fit for a World Eater. These have pretty nice facial expressions, and while I think they do look rather silly when combined with the hulking Centurion bodies, they should be really useful for your other infantry models.

They also look really good on Terminators:

Another thing you can see in the picture above is that the Centurions’ shoulder pads are great if you want to add that special Pre-Heresy/artificer armour look to your Terminators, since they make for rather convincing terminator pauldrons as well:

So there’s really nothing stopping you from replacing those shoulder pads with something different on the Centurions and using the originals on your army commander or something similar.

And finally, the flamers and meltaguns that come with the kit are just about the right size to be used on regular infantry, if you want to be thrifty:

Granted, the meltagun might need some work to fit perfectly. But if you ask me, the slightly shorter muzzle on the flamer makes it look more special ops like, if that makes any sense.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg, really. So whether or not you like the Centurions, the kit will give you lots of extra stuff. Even if you use it to build a squad of three Centurions, there will be quite a few leftovers, which is always a plus in my book.

As for my own “Behemoth” squad, like I said, I am in the very early planning stages. It quickly became obvious that the Centurions are a rather complex kit, and I will need to take some sound decisions about what to glue together before painting, so I will take my time with this project. For now, I have tacked together one Centurion body and begun experimenting with a couple of bitz. This is all really WIP, and nothing is finalised. So if you think the model looks rather silly, rest assured that I’ll be doing my best to change that

Anyway, here goes:

So far, I have only shaved some loyalist engravings off the right leg armour and replaced them with an icon of Khorne. Apart from that, the body’s still as stock as can be (as evidenced by the sprawling Aquila on the chest plate). As for the conversion, I am considering replacing the armour plates on the upper legs with ogre gutplates or Chaos Marauder shields for a more chaotic look (and a visual connection to the rest of my army).

Apart from that, my one main experiment for now was to use several chaotic heads on the body:

As I said, nothing spectacular so far — although it’s nice to know that some of the heads look quite alright (I really like the WoC skull helmet). All in all, I’ll probably be using the regular Centurion heads with added bunny ears, though.

Anyway, I am still in the very early stages of this particular project, although I can promise you I’ll give it my all to make these guys look as cool as I have envisioned them.

So yeah, those are the next World Eaters projects I am working on! I’ll keep you updated about their progress, of course! And I would love to hear your opinion, so you’re very welcome to share any thoughts you might have in the comments section!

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

Only a short update this week, since I am still completely snowed under with work. What little hobby time I have goes towards working on my counts as Obliterators though, and I would like to show you what my test model looks like right now.

When we last saw the model, I was still playing around with bitz and trying to settle on a look. Here’s where we left off last time:

The next step was to work out an actual build for the model, to get the overall shape to work before then adding the kind of detail that will make my Behemoth test model look suitably heretical and baroque.

So far, work has been going on at a pretty slow pace: partly because I am up to my ears in work, partly because I don’t want to mess up this concept by hurrying it along.

Regarding the head, I decided to use one of the standard heads from the kit with some added bunny ears for the Khornate touch. I think those heads are a pretty good fit because they look emotionless and somewhat brutal, which really lends itself well to what I imagine the Behemoths to be like.

I also carefully shaved off the Imperial imagery from the chest plate – which made me feel a little guilty, to be honest, because it’s so beautifully detailed. I also realised the ogre gut plate was simply too big to go on the model’s torso, so I ended up using a Chaos Marauder shield instead. This is what I was left with:

In order to fill the empty space on the chest plate with something suitably Khornate, I then built a bandolier of skulls strapped across the chest — you can never really go wrong with skulls on a World Eater, after all:

I do realise that the leg armour still poses a problem, although I am already hard at work finding a solution for that. Since I don’t see myself trying something fancy, such as adding GS trim to the armour, the solution will probably depend on a bitz influx. In any case, like I said, my main objective is to sort out the overall build of the model and make it all work out, then go back and add detail, accessories etc. So the next step was to figure out how to build the arms:

As you can see, I tried to turn the heavy bolter into an autocannon by adding a new barrel. It still needs some more work, but I quite like the overall effect. I also played around with some pieces of armour to use as alternate pauldrons — the jugger headpiece is just a placeholder, though, since I really don’t have enough of those to just use them on any model I like. I also made my first bad decision, trying to replace the left hand with a chainfist from a Chaos Terminator. That would have added a suitably chaotic element with very little work. The problem, though, was that the Terminator fists are a good deal shorter than those of the Centurions. While not immediately obvious when looking at the parts, once you add a chainfist to the model, you realise that the arm ends up looking far too short, rendering the model’s already slightly funny proportions even more off-kilter. The one exception I can see is the slightly bigger chainfist from the Chaos Lord in terminator armour. Since I wanted to keep that particular piece of a possible use on the squadleader, though, I carefully re-attached the Centurion’s fist I had cut off earlier — we live and learn…

The next big step will be to sort out the leg armour. I am currently experimenting with some armour plates cut from Ogre fists:

I rather like the look so far, although it will need some more work. All in all, getting the Centurions to look suitably chaotic for my army is quite a challenge. I knew what I was getting myself into, though. And the good news is that fellow hobbyist and World Eaters player Biohazard has now entered the fray as well. So I guess that between the two of us, we will manage to come up with an awesome Centurion conversion sooner or later. On a related note, Dave Taylor has figured out a pretty nifty alternate way of mounting the Centurion weapons and significantly change the models’ silhouette! Check it out here .

So yeah, that’s the current status of my test model. It’s still a fairly early version of the model, of course. Nevertheless, feel free to let me know what you think! Getting some additional perspectives on this will be a huge help. And let’s hope that I’ll soon be able to produce some more substantial content for this blog — I, for one, am keeping my fingers crossed.

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

Another month, another new release: This time, it’s the Dark Elves’ turn: The army reveives a complete design overhaul that rivals the redesign of their dark future counterpart, the Dark Eldar. So, once again, let’s take a look at this month’s release in order to figure out the good and the bad and to come up with some conversion ideas.

You might be surprised to learn that I have always had a huge soft spot for the Dark Elves: Back in my WFB days (during the 90s), a box of metal Cold One Knights may actually have been the first GW models I ever purchased, and  I even bought the 4th edition army book and had some grand notion of building a Dark Elf army. Alas, the price of assembling such a force proved to be far too steep for my pocket money as a lad: Most models were also only available in metal. So, apart from a squad of Cold One Knights that I bought and painted piecemeal, and a small unit of plastic Dark Elf warriors, my plans of an army of Druchii never quite got off the ground: Instead, I turned to chaos, my one true tabletop love (and, coincidentally, the army with the most plastic kits available back then). But I still marveled at the background of the Dark Elves. But what did I find so interesting about them?

The Dark Elves are truly an evil race, no surprises there. But where chaos as a faction is evil in an archetypal, almost incomprehensible way, the Dark Elves have this strong leitmotif of fallen glory. Champions of chaos only follow their own ambition and the twisted reasons of their dark gods, but the Dark Elves believe that it is their birthright to rule, a birthright denied them by their High Elf kin. It’s great fun to imagine the courts of Naggaroth, rife with perverted beauty and intrigue, a society turning on itself in the desperate struggle to maintain their power and majesty. And it’s also very interesting to have a force that looks every bit as elegant and disciplined as a High Elf army, only with a more spiky and sinister design and some seriously disturbing, even monstrous additions.

So, how does this translate to the new release? Those familiar with the 4th edition army book will immediately notice that the new models were very much inspired by the Dark Elf designs of the early to mid 90s: They look less like Dark Eldar with medieval equipment and more like sinister reflections of High Elves. I think the overall visual direction for these models is a fantastic blend of nostalgia and modern design trappings. But before I get ahead of myself, let’s take a look at the different kits:

Cauldron of Blood/Bloodwrack Shrine

Let’s begin with a huge kit, and arguably the visually most impressive addition to the Dark Eldar catalogue: The Cauldron of Blood shares quite a few design cues with the Vampire Counts Coven Throne, if you ask me, so if you didn’t like that one, it seems you’re pretty much out of luck. If, like me, you found the Coven Throne to be a fantastically over the top, beautifully eclectic piece, chancec are you’ll find a lot to like about this model as well!

Of course, you could always argue that there’s a slightly silly concept at the heart of it all, with the basic frame of the cauldron making it look like the Witch Elves are bringing along their own set of stairs for their special show act. But even a cynic interpretation like that would be strangely fitting for the Dark Elves for whom evil and style always go hand in hand, don’t you think?

My favourite part of the model has got to be the imposing and immensely spiky statue of Khaine towering above the cauldron. This statue turns the model into a great centre piece for any Dark Elf army, plus it should make for a brilliantly sinister (plastic!!!) Avatar of Khaine for all you (Dark) Eldar players out there. Some work on the pose would probably be required, but that’s half the fun, isn’t it?

Whether you intend to use the statue as a standalone model in your 40k force or in its original function, though, it’s a brilliant element.

I also quite like both the actual cauldron and the statue bearing it on its back:

The kit comes with several Witch Elves, all of them in suitably theatrical poses:

The Death Hag would also make a great character model (both for WFB and for 40k…):

And finally, the model for Crone Hellebron is another high point. This bonny lass really exemplifies what Dark Elves have always been about for me: spiky bitz, theatrical poses and extremely huge hair:

I do of course realise that this may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but I love the design. Again, used on her own, she could make a great character for a Dark Elf army, a great Dracon for Dark Eldar Kabal or even a Slaaneshi cult leader for INQ28.

In addition to all of this, there’s also the option of assembling the kit as a Bloodwrack Shrine, which gets rid of the Khaine statue and replaces it with a mirror, used to keep a particularly pissed off Bloodwrack Medusa in check:

Some may feel that the inclusion of a Medusa comes a bit out of the left field, but strange, serpent-bodied creatures have been a part of Dark Elf iconograpgy at least since the 4th edition army book, so it all works out.

While the basic construction remains the same between both variants, some of the additional bitz are really cool. Granted, that mirror will be a hell of a chore to paint if you want to pull of a convincing effect and don’t work for the ‘Eavy Metal team

But from the beautifully decorated back of the mirror to the alternate face masks for the witch elves, there’s a lot of variety if you assemble the kit this way. The ornaments on the back of the mirror are also an excellent example of the Dark Elves sinister but stylish culture.

The star of the show should be the Bloodwrack Medusa, of course, so let’s take a closer look at her:

I love the pose! And this girl should be a real looker on the table, both if you use it as part of the shrine or as a standalone model. My favourite part has to be the clawed gauntlet:

The face is a bit of a letdown, though: I would have loved the snake hair to billow around the face more, for one, and that facial expression makes her look like a dumbstruck idiot. I know GW can pull of much better female faces (as is evident with several models in this very release), so this one is a bit of a bummer. On a more positive notice, for all those who have been lamenting the decrease in bare breasts over the last years: Seems like you at least get one uncovered boob out of this kit. Yay!

One last though: Wouldn’t the Bloodwrack Medusa be an interesting option for a plastic Fulgrim conversion? Just sayin’…

War Hydra/Kharybdiss

Okay, I’ll be honest with you: The War Hydra is the absolute low point of this release for me: The pose seems slightly awkward (what on earth is happening with those hind legs?) and the heads are just plain terrible. It boggles the mind how GW’s designers have gone through three different versions of this creature without ever coming up with a cool looking model. And seeing the awesome monsters Trish Camden is designing for Forgeworld, it’s hard to come to grips with the silliness of this model.

In all fairness, one of the different paintjobs showcased in this month’s WD has the model look slightly less horrible, but there’s really no way of seeing beyond those silly snake heads… Anyway, I just want to put you through anymore of my ranting: The Hydra is my least favourite model coming from this month’s release, period.

That being said, the kit has another option, however: It can also be used to build the sea-dwelling Kharybdiss:

Let’s just ignore the fact that the whole sea-dwelling thing doesn’t seem to make too much sense, given the fact that this monster will only ever be used on land in Dark Elf armies. And, to get this out of the way as well:  I may not be huge on classical education, but that particular spelling of Charybdis made me die a little inside. Plus did you guys do realise that the original Charybdis wasn’t a monster but a whirlpool, right? Scylla’s the one you want for the monster, people.

That aside, the Kharybdiss variant of assembling the kit does, strangely enough, solve much of what seems wrong about the hydra: The different heads make the creature look completely alien. And since you’re hard pressed to tell what this thing is supposed to be in the first place, the pose doesn’t really matter that much. Strange, I know, but for the, those heads make the model much better, precisely because they are so strange. The one thing I’m not keen on is that growth on the tip of the tail, but that should be easy enough to replace.

So, for me at least, the Kharybdiss is the definite way to go with this kit. It’s just strange enough to work, while the hydra is just silly.

Oh, and let’s not forget the beastmasters: On the one hand, both models are sporting what may be my least favourite elven hairstyle. Still, it’s nice that they got their own, distinct look, with clothes made from tanned monster hide and all.

A final thought: Maybe those Hydra heads could at least be used as Alpha Legion ornaments? I don’t know…

Dreadspears/Darkshards/Bleakswords

Phew, they really know how to motivate the Naggaroth citizens to join the Dark Elf armed forces with those unit names alone, don’t they?
Anyway, these will bascially be the main troops for any Dark Elf army, so it’s clear that this is a pretty important kit.

And GW has really managed to deliver with these: From a visual standpoint, the models  are a definite callback to the older metal warriors, and for me at least, they are everything you could ask of Dark Elf soldiers: They are clearly identifiable as evil, pointy gitz, yet they retain the discipline and sinister elegance that defines the elves.

The one problem I have with these is that, from a converter’s point of view, you lose a lot of flexibility with this kit: All the bodies and heads are single piece, with only the hands and some doodads left as separate bitz. That means they don’t exactly lend themselves all that well to expansive conversions.

In all fairness, though, players will probably need a lot of these guys, so flexibility in posing them is really less important than ease of assembly (and the ability to rank them up without a hitch). And it’s great that they have all the equipment options in the box this time around, giving you three possible regiment types:

And while I certainly don’t hate the older plastic warriors – they were pretty cool for their time – it’s good that the new warriors’ proportions are now finally in tune with the Black Ark Corsairs and Cold One Knights (although those hands still seem to be a bit on the big side, if you ask me…).

One small thing that bugs me, though: Why is it that helmetless Dark Elves always have to default back to one of two pretty horrible hairstyles?

However, all in all, these are just what you would ask of your most important troop choice. Good job all around, GW!

Witch Elves/Sisters of Slaughter

While the Dreadspears were the obligatory part, these girls are the freestyle performance, so to speak. And they are definitely the stars of the show for me for a number of reasons, but we’ll be getting to that in a minute.

First of all , these are also very much a callback to the 90s’ metal Witch Elves — the colour of the hair in the official ‘Eavy Metal paintjobs couldn’t be any more telling… The fact that these are plastic now means we get some much cooler poses, and these ladies really excel at dynamism!

And to address the elephant in the room: Yes, these models are clearly on the more stripperific side, but GW at least clearly resisted the temptation of making them too busty.  And in contrast with some of the recent High Elves (yes, I am looking at you, Sisters of Avelorn!), at least these gals really look feminine enough to actually pass for females!

The alternate option for the kit is to assemble some Sisters of Slaughter, and this is where things really gets interesting:

With their sinister facemasks and whips made from hair, these models are quite different from the Witch Elves while using the same bodies and poses. They would also make for excellent Wyches, Death Cultists or, indeed, Slaaneshi cultists, if you ask me. Or you could even kitbash them with some Daemonettes for very interesting results…

The one little thing I really don’t like about the kit is the awkward pose of the musician:

Seems like she has to coordinate some rather complex actions there…

Apart from this one small gripe, this is clearly my favourite part of this release, and as soon as I had seen this kit, I was pretty sure that I would pick up one just for the heck of it.

And then I saw the price tag.

Wow. Just wow. 45 Euros for ten of those? No matter how many bitz you get, that is a bit of a ripoff. Sure, I can see how one of the big kits would cost that much. But ten – rather small – infantry models? I don’t want to keep ranting about GW’s prices, believe me, but it’s really a shame they took what is probably the most interesting kit of this whole release and priced it like that. I mean, that’s almost a hundred Euros for a decent sized regiment of these girls. And even for a huge plastic crack enthusiast such as myself, that seems a bit much…

Shadowblade

And finally, the one new character so far — and the model’s plastic — yay! The standout parts of the model are the highly dynamic pose and the impressive cape flowing behind it. This last part is very obviously GD painter bait, if you ask me…
What’s really cool is that the way Shadowblade is posed on his base means that you’ll be able to almost pose him above his designated target — only a fun little detail, of course, but I still like it. My main gripe with the model is that it seems little devoid of personality, although I guess that is pretty much the whole point of the exercise in this case.

Let me also say that Dark Eldar players could be looking at a pretty cool base model for a counts as Kheradruakh here…

Conversion potential

Another thing this release excels at is the amount of conversion potential it brings:

First up, most of the new stuff will prove immensely useful to Dark Eldar players, obviously. The Death Hag or Crone Hellebron would make for awesome female Dark Eldar commanders. The Witch Elves are brilliant alternate Wyches. And the Sisters of Slaughter would be a very interesting and equally sinister way of representing Wyches in a Haemonculi Coven themed army. But all of this seems pretty obvious.

An even more interesting option would be to use parts from the Dreadspears and/or Witch Elves to build more sinister Eldar Guardians, either for use in an Ulthwé army, or in a mixed force of allied Eldar an Dark Eldar. And, like I said earlier, that Khaine statue would make for a fantastic, if sinister, Avatar.

All in all, for fans of the pointy eared armies, the options for creative kitbashing are really endless here.

But worshippers of chaos should also find a lot to like about this release: Many of the models would look great in a WFB or 40k army dedicated to Slaanesh: From the serpentine Bloodwrack Medusa to the daemon masked Sisters of Slaughter, there are all kinds of options (with the one for alternate cultists maybe the most interesting, if also most expensive one).

And finally, INQ28 aficionados should also take a close look at this release: They’ll find ample material for several varieties of cultists and some of the best female GW models to date — always a challenge for every fan of Inquisitor played at the 28mm scale!

As you will have gleaned from my enthusiasm for the models so far, I think that this is a very strong release with only very minor design slipups. My main point of contention isn’t even the horrible War Hydra model, but rather the pricing on the Witch Elves — it doesn’t even seem to fit the rest of the model range at all. Apart from that, though, it’s plain to see that the GW designers have poured lots of attention into this complete redesign.

So, the final question remains: Is this a redesign on par with the fabled 2010 relaunch of the Dark Eldar? It seems official now that the new Dark Elves will be released in two waves, and with leaked pictures of the next slew of kits already making their rounds all over the internet, I think it’s fair to say that, yes, this is a redesign every bit as involved as that of the Dark Eldar. I, for one, am very much looking forward to next month already! Will I begin a Dark Elf army now? No, I do have that much impulse control at least. But my dark and forbidden love for the Druchii will fester, and who can say what will happen?

So much for my take on the new models, but what do you think? Do you like the new designs as much as I do? Are you already contemplating all kinds of crazy conversions? Or do you feel completely differently about this release? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

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

Even while I was spending time salivating over the new Dark Elves, work on my Centurion conversions continued unabated, of course. Since I last showed you my “Behemoth” test model last week, I undertook a continuous process of trial and error to figure out the best basic template for turning a Centurion into a counts as Obliterator for Khorne’s Eternal Hunt.

Just to remind you, here’s where we left off last time:

The ogre armour plates on the upper legs were a winner, so they stayed. But most of all, the time had come to build an actual left arm for the model. Since I wanted to represent the Obliterators’ ability of using different weapons each turn, I decided to give each of my Behemoths two main weapons. In this case, I chose a Multimelta to complement the Autocannon on the right arm. I also tried a number of additional bitz on the model in order to settle on a final look:

The multimelta was built by adding some melta barrels to one of the siege drill weapons from the kit. I also added a flamer in the intended spot, although that ended up looking slightly over the top… As you can see, I also experimented with some additional bitz: The marauder shield was replaced with a chain tabard, and a blade/horn from the Mournfang Cavalry was added to the model’s helmet — while I liked the look that resulted from that, the blade did seem a little clunky, though.

Here’s a comparison shot with one of my Terminators to show you how massive the Behemoth will be:

Some feedback over on Dakka and ToS helped me to further refine my recipe: Biohazard suggesed adding an additional armour plate on top of the chain tabard (which I did), and I also replaced the huge blade on the nose with a smaller horn:

I also added a trophy rack, which I am not really sure about: On the one hand, it makes the model look even more clunky, but on the other hand, if ever there was a squad of ponderous, clunky giants, it’s going to be this one, right?

In any case, and give or take a few bitz, I am fairly confident that I have managed to find the basic template for my Behemoths. Ladies and Gentlemen:

The Behemoth pattern heavy fire support suit

Even in an army as focused on combat at close quarters as the World Eaters‘ 4th assault company, there are those who hunt by different means. Those brothers of the company are called the Behemoths, and they are an enigma to even their brethren.

During the Great Crusade, the armies of the Legiones Astartes were faced with an ever increasing number of deadly adversaries. Often enough, wars were only to be won by attrition, and the head-on assaults led by the death seeking Primarch Angron were threatening to bleed the 12th Astartes legion dry before long. While Angron seemed oblivious or even indifferent towards such concerns, there were those among his officers who sought a more balanced kind of warfare, at least until the bite of their Butcher’s Nails consumed the remnants of their sanity.

It is said that, during this time, First Apothecary Fabrikus himself experimented on a number of battle brothers, trying to adapt their cranial implants to a different kind of fight. These warriors were outfitted with heavy combat suits, almost on par with the fabled Dreadnoughts. Their suits were equipped with a plethora of heavy weapons, and where the regular World Eaters would throw themselves at the enemy with wild abandon, the so-called Behemoth squads would hang back and lay down a barrage of heavy fire. For Fabrikus had changed the battle brothers’ minds yet again, hardwiring their implants to their weapons systems. The members of the Behemoth squads started to find grim joy in killing, just like the rest of their legion, but the greatest joy for them was to pick out enemies from afar, tearing through flesh and steel alike with bursts of laser fire and plasma, and seeing a red marker turning green in their targeting recticles.

The Behemoths remained a highly experimental unit that only saw limited use during the Crusade and subsequent Heresy: The weapons systems they were outfitted with proved too difficult to maintain during the arduous campaigns, and Angron would always favour a more hands-on approach. Only few of the valuable suits have endured over the millennia, and only those warbands of the XIIth Astartes legion who still count a Warpsmith or Dark Mechanicus ally among their numbers can hope to make any kind of use of this hallowed equipment. For most members of the World Eaters, the kind of warfare exemplified by the Behemoth squads remains forever beyond their reach, replaced by frenzy and costly head-on assaults. Yet within the ranks of the 4th assault company, some of the Behemoths have endured, and in Khorne’s Eternal Hunt, have become hunters in their own right.

These frightening giants still fill the role of heavy fire support, yet the long centuries and millennia have wrought havoc upon their minds: Growing ever more divorced from their humanity, Behemoths are more machine than man, gripped by a tranquil fury where their regular brethren are frenzied. They can only perceive life through their targeting systems, and each situation becomes an equation that can only be solved by heavy fire. They tend to see living beings as either targets or inconsequential elements, even referring to their battle brothers as “fleshkin”.

When away from the battlefield, the Behemoths are normally content to spent time in deep, deathlike sleep. They dream of worlds burning and planets shattering under a barrage of heavy fire, while the other members of the company take relief in the knowledge that their troubled brethren are not at large. Even in an army of frenzied killers, the Behemoths are perhaps the most inhuman of all, since for them life and death are the only variables at any given time, and death is always the preferable outcome…

 
So yeah, this will be my basic approach for the rest of the squad and the vibe I am going for. Here’s the basically finished test model for you:

After looking at Biohazard’s awesome Centurion conversion, my own model was extended slightly more at the waist, and I think the visible waist improves the overall proportions. I believe I won’t try to cram any more weapons onto the model, going with two main weapons for each member of the squad. Some chains and spikes may yet be added, and I’ll maybe rethink the use of the Marauder shield on the right hand: Another option would be to use some of the very cool Ogre fists that come with the Mournfang Cavalry:

Once again, the imagery of the Great Maw makes for very convincing World Eaters symbols, don’t you think? I only have very few of these, unfortunately, so I can only use them very sparingly.

I am also considering leaving off the hydraulic struts on the sides of the legs, because I really don’t like their look. The ones on back of the feet are great, though, because they look so similar to the Dreadknight (or, in my case, Wargrinder) legs. Oh, and on a related note, you should also check out Candleshoes’ “Contemptor Centurion” over at The Bolter and Chainsword: also a very awesome project, although it’s not the look I need for my own models.

In any case, I am looking forward to beginning work on the next model. The next Behemoth will be armed with an assault cannon and a heavy flamer, methinks. Or a Plasma cannnon? I’ll keep you posted

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

I am still working on my Centurion-based Obliterators — in all fairness, I did warn you beforehand that this would likely turn out to be a rather extensive project

The good news is that, after having figured out a basic recipe for turning the stock Centurions into suitable Obliterators, the second model went together quite a bit faster than the first: I already roughly knew beforehand which elements I was going to use to make the model look more chaotic, so assembling the legs and torso was reasonably easy work this time:

As you can see, I kept several of the elements that had worked on the test model, using the tried and tested bunny ears as well as the additional horn on the forehead. I also used some more armour plates cut from Ogre fists for a more archaic look, although I positioned them slightly differently this time around. The bandolier of skulls was replaced with a beastman trophy skull, and instead of a chain tabard I used a loincloth (again from the Chaos Lord in Terminator armour, though). Since this mode had a more dynamic pose, I tried to match the loincloth to the forwards movement of the legs.

I also stole Biohazard’s very cool idea for chest mounted flamers, even though it’s not all that easy to make out in the photograph above.

Here’s a photo of the model’s early build together with my first Behemoth:

Once again, the next step was to add the arms and weapons. My original plan was to arm the model with a Lascannon on the left and a heavy flamer on the right arm. A suitable lascannon came with the Centurion parts, so I was at liberty to spend more time kitbashing a custom heavy flamer from a siege drill housing and a Terminator heavy flamer:

This also made me realise that the siege drill housings can basically be turned into any weapon you desire by just adding some new barrels and some additional bits. At the very least, my flamer above (complete with added meltagun on top) turned out reasonably convincing, don’t you think?

Unfortunately, though, when added to the actual model, it ended up looking far too cumbersome, even for the impressive frame of a Centurion/Behemoth. We live and learn…

So a change of plans was in order: The Lascannon originally intended for the left arm was moved to the right instead, and the left arm received a converted assault cannon (built by combining a Centurion heavy bolter anda gun barrel from a Heldrake’s weapon, no less).

Here’s the model with both arms:

As a matter of fact, I am tempted to call the changed weapons a lucky coincidence, since the assault cannon really works rather well with the pose of the left arm. As you can see, I also added some more bitz (and the beastman skull received another horn; the mono-horn look was far too Slaaneshi for my taste). So while the model may still be a little rough around the edges, I am prepared to call the basic setup a success.

I also experimented with yet another Ogre fist from the Mournfang Cavalry kit:

I really like the result so far!

While I was at it, I also took another photo of the first test model:

With two of the conversions now mostly finished, I think these will make for rather convincing Obliterators: At the very least, they’ll be a much better match for the rest of my army than the fleshy, bloated stock models! And they do look pretty badass together!

Putting quite a bit of time into working with the Centurion kit has also had the nice side effect of discovering the great conversions done by other people! Though the Centurions don’t seem to be all that popular at the moment, people like Dave Taylor, migsula, Biohazard or candleshoes are really putting the kit through its moves! I did a more detailed writeup about the cool conversions I have discovered so far over on Dark Future Gaming, and you are very welcome to check it out, in case you are interested!

And of course, I am always interested in hearing your opinion, so let me know what you think of this newest WIP model!

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

After spending so much time on my converted Centurions/counts as Obliterators, I wanted to build something smaller and less involved for a change. So today’s post will deal with a model I completed just for fun and on the side. But why is that even interesting?

Well, you see, for this small gaiden project, I returned to an abandoned army project of mine: When I returned to the hobby in late 2010 after a longer hiatus, my original plan had been to use the (then) brand new Dark Eldar models to build some kick ass additions to the Dark Eldar army I built during the 90s. But then I found out that kitbashing Chaos Space Marines was simply more fun (at least for me). So I returned to the clutches of chaos and endeavoured to build a Word Bearers army, the Piercing Gaze Chapter. I had a fairly complete background in place, and so I began the project in the same way I always begin my projects: By building lots and lots of characters.

In this case, I built several Dark Apostles, because I really loved the idea of daemonic preachers leading a force of superhumans into battle. Among the several models I built during this time was also my model for Dark Apostle Gemnon, built, in fact, on Christmas Eve 2010:

One of the first models I built after my hobby hiatus, Gemnon was created by combining some leftover bitz from my first Khorne Berzerkers with some old WFB chaos parts and stuff from the brand new box of Chaos Space Marines cousin Andy had just given me as a christmas present back then. I didn’t even have a suitable head in my bitzbox to represent a Dark Apostle, so I went with a Tzeentchian head, which doesn’t really send the right message, visually. Still, I rather liked the model.

My Word Bearers army, however, didn’t quite get off the ground: Looking back now I can see that this was both due to a lack of suitable bitz (never start a Word Bearers project without lots and lots of books and purity seals) and a lack of vision: I thought the Word Bearers were cool, but I didn’t have an overarching theme in mind for the army, which proved to be my undoing in the end. So, long story short, I ended up playing around with my old World Eaters model which instantly reawakened my love for the followers of the Blood God. And what had originally been planned as a mere sub-faction in my Word Bearers project quickly took over, becoming my main army and the entity you might know as Khorne’s Eternal Hunt. And so on, and so forth — you know the rest…

Dark Apostle Gemnon and his buddies kept mouldering away in my cupboard of shame, and at some point there was even a small accident that broke the model apart at the hip. So he ended up spending his days in a miserable little pile of bitz on my desk.

But even while I am certainly not about to start a Word Bearers army, whenever my gaze returned to that pile of bitz, I felt that I owed this little guy another chance. So when I was looking for a small project to serve as a distraction between building all those lumbering Behemoths, I felt that Gemnon would have his day in the limelight. So I gathered a handful of bitz and got to work.

The Tzeentchian head needed to go, obviously, and I also wanted to reflect the fact that some pretty cool bitz have been released since I built the original model, so I needed to update the model a bit. And finally, I decided that, instead of yet another Dark Apostle, I would rebuild Gemnon as a Coryphaeus, a military commander of the Word Bearers Legion that serves as the Dark Apostle’s right hand man.

So after a bit of work, Gemnon was reborn as Coryphaeus of the Piercing Gaze Chapter:

It only took some additional bitz, really: The bare head from the WFB Warriors of Chaos is one of my favourite sculpts anyway, and it’s certainly perfect for a Word Bearer, bellowing dark catechisms at the top of his voice during battle. I also thought the power sword from the new Raptor kit made a pretty awesome weapon for a war captain, and while I was at it, I also replaced the original left hand and weapon for a plasma pistol from the same kit.

The (Night Goblin) emblem on the chest represents the symbol of the Piercing Gaze chapter, by the way, and would have been a recurring visual motif in my Word Bearers force.

Oh, and the ridiculously over the top backpack is a very conscious callback to the brilliant Wayne England artwork of yore: He would always portray his Chaos Space Marines with extremely ornate backpacks, so I wanted to approximate that look:

All in all, building this model was a fun little project, and it also put my guilty feelings regarding this character to rest. And who knows, maybe the Piercing Gaze Chapter under his Dark Apostle Belzas Azalon will yet make a triumphant return? It’s definitely not a priority at the moment, though.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my rambling! And let me know what you think in the comments section!

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

And now, as they say on Monty Python’s Flying Circus, for something completely different…

Today I’d like to talk about Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s novel Betrayer, which I finally managed to read this last weekend. Seeing how I am a really big fan of the World Eaters, you could certainly say that I took my sweet time for getting around to reading the book, right? Well, there’s a reason for that — several reasons in fact. Allow me to elaborate:

For starters, I have to admit that I am not perfectly sure how to feel about the whole Horus Heresy business. And by that I don’t mean the actual (fictional) event, but the business part: It’s easy to see how the HH franchise has turned into a huge business opportunity for GW and its subsidiaries Black Library and Forgeworld: On the modelling and gaming side of the hobby, FW’s release of Horus Heresy themed models and rules has been a dream come true for countless hobbyists. And the accompanying series of tie-in fiction seems to have opened up the 40k (or rather, 30k) universe to a readership beyond the diehard fans, at least if the sales based awards heaped upon the series are to be believed.

Now everyone’s allowed to have their profit, of course, but you may agree with me when I say that the prospects of huge amounts of money to be made are never the best thing to boost narrative integrity: There are countless instances in literature, film and videogames where the monetary success of a franchise served to replace any semblance of telling a great story with what us mere mortals refer to milking the cow (well, I refer to it as that, anyway).  Therefore, I am reasonably sure that I am not going to burst your bubble when I state that a series of tie-in fiction might not be the perfect place to look for literary greatness. But even then, there’s actually decent storytelling and there is money grabbing. I also harbour the subtle fear that there might come a day when every single hour of every single day of the Horus Heresy is firmly documented within its own novel — just like each and every creature in the Mos Eisley cantina now has a rather detailed CV available in the Star Wars Expanded Universe (go ahead, do some research — I dare you!)

And, in all fairness, my first foray into the literary side of the Heresy (the short story collection “Tales of Heresy”) didn’t leave me exactly optimistic, since I found some of the stories to be pretty horrible, some merely tolerable (among them a Dan Abnett story, which was really a disappointment for me) and only two truly good: Graham McNeill’s haunting “The Last Church” and Matthew Farrer’s seminal “After Desh’ea” — the first story to ever make the World Eaters’ Primarch Angron actually read as an interesting character.

So it was with some trepidation that I approached the first real BL book to flesh out my favourite legion: I have gone on record stating that the prospect of new material for “my” legion always fills me with equal amounts of anticipation and dread: While I love to get more input on the World Eaters, the rather hamhanded current background for them leaves me wishing as often as not that GW would just leave them alone. So when I learned that Aaron Dembski-Bowden would be writing the novel, I wasn’t exactly sure how to feel about it: On the one hand, I would have perferred Mathew Farrer, the one guy so far who seemed to have understood the legion’s narrative potential, to get another shot at writing these guys. On the other hand, ADB’s credentials and the quotes he posted on his (higly recommended) blog made me cautiously optimistic. But I was still feeling a little scared — does that make sense? In all fairness, I also didn’t want to read the digital version, since I am a printed on paper kind of guy. Anyway, hence the delay.

Betrayer tells a surprisingly momentous tale (interesting for a series that often seems content to over-embroider minor plot points to the point of ridiculousness) that ends with what may truly be called a bang. Without spoiling the plot for you, let’s just say that the end of the model does have enormous ramifications for the future of the XIIth Astartes Legion. Before that, though, the World Eaters get lots and lots of opportunities of rampaging across Imperial worlds, among them the Ultramarines’ war world of Armatura and Nuceria, the Primarch Angron’s own homeworld.

For a book dealing with a legion that is mostly about frenzy and senseless butchery, the plot is also uncannily character and dialogue driven. It’s all for the best, though, because in my opinion, ADB is just very good at writing Space Marine characters: He manages to combine their supernatural powers and majesty with a believable amount of humanity and of course just the right blend of gravitas and theatrics. The interactions between the different Primarchs are just as good, with the fabled demigods truly feeling like a race apart but remaining relatable nevertheless. The Word Bearers’ primarch Lorgar stands out as a inscrutable character, sincere and utterly manipulative at the same time, impossible as that may seem.

The book’s greatest feat, however, is how it treats Angron. You should think that a guy who is “always angry all the time” and whose name is, for crying out loud, ANGRON would not exactly turn out to be a narrative goldmine, but Matthew Farrer already disproved that notion in “After Desh’ea”. I had hoped that ABD would take the look and feel of that story and run with it, and indeed he did: His Angron is a tragic, damned figure, scarred in body and soul and utterly beyond redemption. So far, nothing new.

But ABD’s characterisation truly excels at making Angron believable and, dare I say it, sympathetic in his background and his pain, while also making it clear that the Primarch is monstrous. It’s a very delicate balance to maintain, but it works: You cannot help feeling sorry for the broken Primarch, but you could also never really like him. He has the best possible reasons to be this way, but he is also irredeemable.

A similar high point, then, is the relationship between the Primarch and his gene-sons: There has been a discussion over at Throne of Skulls whether or not the World Eaters hate their Primarch, and I would argue that the truth of the matter, at least according to Betrayer, is far more ingenious and believable than that: It’s clear that the World Eaters are very aware that the Butcher’s Nails implants that they let themselves be outfitted with in order to feel true kinship with their Primarch have irrevocably damaged the legion: Kharn and several other characters show feelings of resentment and melancholia at the realisation that their legion can never be as inspirational or cultured as most of the other legions due to the bite of the nails. And who would be to blame for that other than Angron, right?

Yet at the same time, it’s obvious that the World Eaters take fierce pride in their brotherhood and martial honour. They have eagerly cobbled together their own warrior culture from the snippets of lore brought back by Angron and those traditions from their legionaries’ myriad homeworlds, and while they clearly acknowledge that it’s not a shining example of human endeavour, it’s the only kind of culture they have, so they cling to it fiercely. And this culture does of course encompasses Angron and his past at Nuceria.

Then there’s the fact that they do, in fact, feel pity for Angron — a notion that would probably send the Primarch flying into a rage, ironically enough. They share his feeling that he never had a chance to begin with, and what little glory was his to claim was taken away during the battle of Desh’ea.

And finally, even though Angron’s condition is perpetually deteriorating, there are moments of brotherhood and kinship between him an his sons: The book describes how he shares in his sons’ rituals and battles, how he drinks and laughs with them like few other Primarchs do, even though there is a gulf of conflicting emotions between them.

So what we have here is this hugely complex (and beautifully written) mix of resentment, love, hatred, disappointment and what have you. I think this is as true to life as fiction dealing with transhuman supersoldiers can possibly be, precisely because it echoes real life: You might feel resentment or embarrassment or even hatred for one of your close relatives, but they will always remain your family, and there’s no escaping that fact.

Below this main storyline, I also loved how ADB managed to partly flesh out the fleet and Titan legions — actually my least favourite parts of the whole background so far: By creating interesting and noble characters (like the Conqueror’s flag-captain Serrin or the Legio Audax personnel) and by injecting both organisations with a healthy dose of WWI air warfare chivalry (with officers complimenting their opponents on shrewd maneuvres and elegant tactics), he succeeds at actually giving the non-Astartes characters a voice of their own, without their parts of the novel ever feeling boring or unnecessary.

And for all those who are understandably sceptical of GW’s focus on Space Marines, feeling they are all just reskins of the same basic design template, it should be interesting to see how the author manages to give a different feel to the Legiones Astartes: From the fierce brotherhood (and battlefield frenzy) of the World Eaters to the priestly nobility (and insane zeal) of the Word Bearers, you get the impression that the Legiones Astartes are very different from each other indeed, if only written well. Even the Ultramarines, serving mainly to be beaten up very badly, get a few moments in the spotlight, and we are afforded glimpses at their warrior culture that make them look more interesting than they have any right to be (their battlefield commanders issuing orders in High Gothic is a great little touch).

In fact, ADB’s writing of characters always seems to be at its best where it deals with duality: Lorgar’s inscrutable motives, Angron’s position between a tragic hero and a monster, the legions’ duality or even the surprising depth of minor characters.

And, beyond all that, the book is of course a goldmine for little bitz and pieces of lore, from the World Eaters’ battle traditions and gladiatorial bouts to their affected bastard language of Nagrakali: These guys may fall to frenzy and bloodlust when on the battlefield, but for what may the first time ever, you can actually imagine them off the battlefield as well — no mean feat!

So, are there any negatives?

For one, this is, after all, only one book in a series. This means that most of the plot will only make sense to you if you do at least have an idea of the overarching narrative: If you’ve never heard about the Word Bearers’ machinations, about what happened on Calth or about the Thousand Sons’ being torn apart by the Space Wolves, you’ll be left scratching your head more than once. And even if you have a relatively good grasp of the bigger events, some references and allusions might still go over your head. That’s not really the author’s fault, though — if anything, I feel dread at the prospect of now having to read other HH novels written by less talented people…

Nevertheless, if you are simply looking for a great SciFi novel to pass the time, this might not be it: Too much stuff will be lost on you, and there are probably enough self-contained storylines of similar quality that are easier to get into. And it goes without saying that the book will prove utterly impenetrable to those without any knowledge of the attached GW universe.
If, however, you have a general idea of the overarching HH storyline – not necessarily from reading other HH novels, but from a mix of reading the different (Chaos) Space Marine codizes over the years and doing a bit of scrounging around for background at places like the Lexicanum or the Warhammer 40k Wiki – you’re good to go: That was my preparation going into this novel, and I belive it was enough.

For every World Eaters player, Betrayer is, of course, a must buy, for the amount of background lore alone. But there’s a great story beyond all that, and the book is truly great as tie-in fiction, and still very good on its own terms: I, for one, will probably pick up more of ABD’s novels (I am told his Night Lords stuff is the shitz) and look forward to his Black Legion series — or maybe some more World Eaters stuff?

But what does it all mean for Khorne’s Eternal Hunt? I’ll be honest with you: I did of course fear that parts (or most) of my own fluff would be ivalidated by this novel. But not only does ABD himself address the fact that several versions of events exist in the background (in a surprisingly clever throwaway scene), but he also succeeds at creating a canvas for your own fluff rather than enforcing his own view of things (as some authors have been known to do…). So while small readjustments to my own background may be in order, I relish the chance to make the 4th assault company even more interesting and colourful. In fact, there might be a separate post in that somewhere

What about you, though: Have you read the book? How do you feel about it? And was this review helpful to you? Please feel free to share whatever thoughts you might have in the comments section!

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

P.S. Oh yeah, before I forget; In case you didn’t gather as much from my rambling above, this book is also totally worth it.

Another week, and I am still happily slicing and shaving my way through the Centurion kit in an attempt to build a squad of three counts as Obliterators for my World Eaters. I do of course realise that you have been seeing quite a bit of this particular endeavour, but in all fairness, it has been a rather complex conversion project to pull off.

So, today I will show you a look at both the updated models you already know as well as the third and final member of my “Behemoths”

First up, I have finally managed to find a solution for the last thing I wanted to add to my Behemoth models: the clawed feet. After having experimented with numerous options to add some claws to the Centurion feet without having the whole thing end up looking ridiculous, I tried using the claws from Warp Talon feet. And while this element was mainly an attempt to make the models look less loyalist and more brutal, seeing how those talons make the feet look better proportioned as well for some reason really was a nice surprise! So it goes without saying that I picked up that element for the rest of the squad as well.

Here are the two models you already know, complete with clawed feet and all:

These are pretty much 100% finished at this point, and I hope I’ll get around to painting one of them soon.

But, like I already said above, I couldn’t help myself and had to start working on the third model. Here are some WIP impressions:

The body came together fairly easily: The Centurions are a rather complex kit, but after putting together two or three of them, you basically know the drill — hence the title of this post! Once again, I added some additional armour plates and some sinister detail in order to make the model look like a member of the traitor legions.

I also added some chest-mounted plasma pistols at the suggestion of fellow hobbyist meade over at Dakka:

“Plasma nipples”, he called them. Some people…

The next step was to sort out the arms, and I once again tried to use two different weapons in order to represent the Behemoth’s versatile armament:

A stock lascannon from the Centurion kit ended up on the left arm — and might have to be decorated with some suitably chaotic bitz. The right arm wields a Plasma cannon (converted from the Dark Vengeance Plasma gunner’s weapon and a couple of bitz).

Since the weapon couldn’t be made to use the same points of attachment as the stock Centurion weapons, I had to improvise slightly. This was also the one instance where I needed to build my own cabling instead of relying on the stock parts that came with the Centurions, and it was more work than it had any right to be. This is also why the cables turn into a horrible, spiky Talos spine somewhere along the way:

All in all, though, I am really rather happy with how these conversions have turned out: At long last, I have a squad of Obliterators that actually fits the overall theme of my army. That said, I really don’t see myself getting another box of these: The kit is great and building these models has been an interesting experience, but the Centurions as a kit are just slightly too complex for wanting to build lots and lots of them.

The next step, obviously, will be to paint up a first test model for the squad. I also really want to see one of these guys painted at last, so let’s hope I’ll be able to give you an update on the progress soon. Until then, you’re always welcome share any feedback or criticism you might have!

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

Here we are, one month later, with something we haven’t seen in a while: a second release wave for an army! Seems like GW weren’t messing around when they announced they wanted to reinvent the entire Dark Elves’ line of models.

This month’s release brings another slew of combi-kits and a new plastic character. So let’s take it all in stride and, most of all, let’s take a closer look! Here goes:

Dark Riders/Doomfire Warlocks

This – quite moderately priced – kit is truly brimming with options, starting with the fact that you get two unit types out of it. The first of these are the Dark Riders, outriders quickly zooming ahead of the army and causing all kinds of mischief for the enemy. GW’s designers actually underlined their function as a fast and highly mobile selection by having them posed astride their mounts like jockeys at a horse race, which is a pretty nice touch if you ask me.

Overall, I really like the design of these riders as cloaked, shadowy soldiers. And the different bitz you get with the kit let you build fairly different versions of the same models:

My favourite detail has to be that you get three different sets of heads and are free to either have each of your riders follow the same style or happily mix and match. While the helmetless heads suffer from some rather eclectic hairstyles, I really like the heads with helmets and cowls:

The helmets are, once again, a callback to classic Dark Elf design sensibilities, while the cowls may be my favourite option. Great job!

All in all, this is a rock solid representation of the Dark Riders, and it’s quite nice to finally have them available in plastic. I do have one small gripe about the kit, but we’ll be getting to that in a minute.

The other option is to assemble the kit as Doomfire Warlocks…

…and, in all honesty, they should have gone the whole hog here and called these guys Doomfire Warlocks of DOOOM! Just kidding

These guys are male sorcerers damned to a horrible fate by the Witch King: Their souls are forfeit to Slaanesh, should they not find suitable sacrifices to keep the Dark Prince at bay. And once again, the very different nature of the models compared to the Dark Riders clearly comes across, even though they are using the same base models.

Where the latter are shadowy, cowled and cloaked figures, the Doomfire Warlocks very much look like the damned souls that they are: With bare upper bodies and their hair streaming behind them, these have an eerie, spectral quality.

For some reason, the faces on these models are highly reminiscent of Chris Fitzpatrick’s work on the older Dark Elf models, which seems like a bit of an odd choice when most of the release is obviously hell-bent on doing away with this look altogether…

I do like the slightly twisted faces, though, since they make the models look unlike everything else in the army. My one problem with these is that the hair does look a little hokey — and really not all that much like hair to begin with. But this may have been intentional in the first place.

The horses are now far more twisted and demonic looking than before, ostensibly to make them look like the sinister influence of both the Dark Elves’ black magic and Naggaroth itself have influenced their bloodline:

The twisted, lipless heads are quite scary! And while the new look might fit the darker nature of the Dark Elves when compared to their goodie two shoes brethren, herein lies my main gripe with the kit:

Take a look at the horse in the picture above. Now I might be wrong about this, but doesn’t it seem like those legs are far too spindly and sticklike to actually look realistic? And slightly too long as well? Now it is important to notice that we here at Eternal Hunt are certainly not sticklers when it comes to realism, but in this case, the model seems to lack anatomical plausibility, which is a very different problem.

This actually goes for both variants of the kit, since they are using the same horses. Granted, this will probably not be too much of an issue when the regiment is properly lined up, but it is my main point of contention with the kit.

Scourgerunner Chariot / Cold-One Chariot

In an interesting subversion of expectations, the Dark Elf chariot design is quite different from that of the High Elves: With a mono-wheel and the general design supposed to resemble nothing so much as the prow of a ship, the chariot carves out a very distinct design for itself.

My one problem with this decision is that, even though I acknowledge the intended effect, the chariot doesn’t look like it could actually go all that fast:

The chariot itself comes in two possible flavours: The Scourgerunner Chariot is being piloted by a Beastmaster crew, and the design of the models really makes them look the part, with the Beastmasters wearing the hides of wild beasts and resembling the handlers that come with the Hydra kit:

The High Beastmaster is easily identifiable by his ostentatious cloak and and the facial scars that probably come with the territory in his line of work:

This guy is probably my favourite part about the kit, and I could easily imagine him being used as a special character or even a Dark Eldar Archon with an adventurous streak…

The other option is to use the kit to build a Cold-One Chariot:

Now Cold Ones win absolute best everything all the time in my book, simply by virtue of being a more badass version of the already awesome, real-life Velociraptor or Deinonychus. I have always loved the Cold Ones, and their latest incarnation is simply brilliant, so it stands to reason that this chariot would be pretty cool as well, right? Unfortunately, though, beyond the awesome reptilian members of the crew, the warriors steering the chariot are pretty standard fare. And even more of those topknots. Yeesh…

All in all, it’s really a nice enough kit though. I have to admit that I am not perfectly sold on the mono-wheel look, but that’s just me. As with any chariot (combi-)kit, the fact that it comes with many cool bitz should make it useful even beyond its original function.

Executioners/Black Guard

Now here’s a high point about this release! Some of the Dark Elves’ most elite units are finally available as a plastic kit. Even better, you can build both unit types using this combi-kit!

Looking at the Black Guard first, it’s plain to see that these are, once again, a very nice callback to the 4th edition models, although some design cues of the last edition clearly remain. The design actually takes cues from the best elements of both versions, with the Black Guard looking heavily armoured and suitably pointy and spiky. Like more badass versions of last month’s Dark Elf warriors, these have all the discipline and elegance that you would expect from an elven regiment, yet also clearly come agross as evil and sinister — mission accomplished, I guess!

I really love the sinister look created by the helmets, although the champion head is certainly a matter of personal preference:

What is it with all of those topknots? Is there something innately evil about that kind of hairstyle?

Anyway, the Black Guard are looking excellent, period!

Since this is also a combi-kit, it’s possible to build a regiment of Black Guard or Executioners:

While using the same bodies, the Executioners get different weapons, different heads and, in a nice touch of variety, are holding their swords in both hands. The skull masks show a nice, elven take on the recurring WFB motif of skulls (and also double as a stylised symbol of Khaine).

It goes without saying that the kit also comes with some brilliantly morbid details, such as a severed High-Elf head:

My favourite part about the kit has got to be how nothing more than a change of heads and weapons is needed to thoroughly change the silhouette of the same base model:

Definitely one of my favourite kits from the new Dark Elf catalogue!

Black Ark Fleetmaster

And here’s my other favourite: Yet another plastic character (which is always great), and one that truly embodies some archetypal qualities of the Dark Elves: The Fleetmaster looks vicious and arrogant. The trophies of bone and skin and his spiky leg prosthesis give him a slightly feral quality, yet there’s also a sinister kind of elegance. Granted, the hair may be a bit over the top, but there’s nothing stopping you from changing it according to your preferences.

I also love the fact that the naval commanders of the Dark Elves haven’t been explored too thoroughly so far – one special character notwithstanding – so the Fleetmaster gives us an interesting glimpse at this side of Dark Elf culture.

Converting the model will need some thought, as with all the single pose plastic characters, yet I am confident that this model would make a great base for all kinds of Dark Elf, Dark Eldar or even Eldar commanders.

Conversion options

Possibly the most interesting part for me about this whole release: What can the enterprising hobbyist use all these new toys for? And what could be done to transform them into something else?

As with last month’s release, these kits will probably be most useful from a conversion perspective to Eldar and Dark Eldar players: The Black Guard and Executioners could be transformed into very menacing looking Trueborn for a Dark Eldar force (or pretty sinister Guardians for an allied Eldar detachment). The Executioners‘ skull masks would doubtlessly look great on Harlequins and/or Wyches. And if you can find a way of kitbashing Reaper Launchers, those Executioners themselve could become brilliant Dark Reapers, in my opinion.

The Dark Rider/Doomfire Warlock kit could also be used in interesting ways: What about transforming those Dark Riders into slightly sinister Exodites? Their cowled heads could also be really useful for basically any pointy-eared army in both 40k and WFB. And those Doomfire Warlock bodies would be pretty cool as daemonhosts. Or they could be used as a way of kitbashing plastic Mandraks — just sayin’…

The chariot mostly seems interesting for its crew members: Those beastmasters would make great beastmasters (DUH!) in a Dark Eldar army, while the High Beastmaster would be an excellent base for an Archon or special character conversion. Some of the chariot bitz could also be used to decorate Dark Eldar vehicles (or to make Eldar tanks and jetbikes look suitably sinister in an allied detachment…).

And then, there’s the Fleetmaster: With the Dark Eldar styling themselves pirate kinds and sinister freebooters, he would make for a fantastic Archon to lead a pirate force. Or a corsair-styled Eldar army. Or you could use him as a counts as Duke Sliscus — he exudes just the right blend of menace and decadence for that role…

While this month’s part of the Dark Elf release seems slightly less exciting to me than last month’s kits, it’s still an impressive release. Last month, I asked myself whether this redesign was on par with the reinvention of the Dark Eldar in 2010. With two months’ worth of beautiful models now in our hands, I have to say that the completely revamped he Dark Elves are now one of the most stunning armies in WFB from a visual standpoint. If I were to return to WFB (not likely…), they would probably be one of my preferred army choices.

But even beyond the confines of WFB, the new kits should provide converters and kitbashers with some very interesting material. And I, for one, am very much looking forward to seeing all the brilliant Dark Eldar conversions that will come out of this release! Why is it that GW always seem to reserve their best work for evil, pointy elves, I wonder?

On a mostly unrelated note, isn’t it weird how much we’ve grown accustomed to a new army coming out every month? This release gives us a bunch of awesome new toys to play with, yet I cannot help feeling an – admittedly very faint – feeling of disappointment that this is “merely” a second wave of an army that was already released. So while so many hobbyists like to criticise GW for just about everything, the breakneck speed of quality releases is really astounding, and it’s almost shocking to see how quickly we have adapted to it…

But what do you think? Are you happy with the new Dark Elves? Have you already started an army of them, just to get your hands on these beautiful kits? Or do you think that they could have been even better? I’d be happy to hear your thoughts in the comments section!

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