When I first showed you this model of a chaos demagogue a few weeks ago several readers pointed out something that should have been obvious to me – but of course hadn’t been.
As you can see he’s holding a couple of decapitated heads and so the question was asked – how did he chop off those heads when he doesn’t have a knife? Did he use his teeth? Twist them off with his bare hands? Find them lying around somewhere and borrow them to pose with?
Obviously I needed to provide him with a blade but what to use? I had a plan to use a long bladed axe until KrautScientist suggested a hammer as a way of capturing the chaotic revolutionary vibe (in a style similar to the “Workers rising up with hammer in hand Soviet propaganda!”). Suddenly my brain kicked into gear. A hammer isn’t the best tool to use when chopping off heads but even those like me – who’s knowledge of modern European history has been somewhat muddied by playing too much Command and Conquer as a youth – knows that where there’s a hammer a sickle can’t be far away.
I was tempted to put a hammer in his hand (and I am still a little) but I actually rather like his lack of obvious weapons and didn’t want to over-egg a model which uses simplicity as its core virtue. Needless to say of course, that if you agree or disagree I’d be interested to get your feedback.
Anyway, whilst I was working on the demagogue I decided to go back to this traitor guardsman who I was less than satisfied with when I first showed him. Particularly I thought the rust on his weapon – something of a signature element of mine – looked pretty shoddy. So I gave him a little trip back to the painting table for an update.
As usual if you have thoughts it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Get them off your chest in the box below – I won’t tell a soul!
April 7th, 2016 at 9:33 am
The sickle is a brilliant touch and elevates the crazy git making him even more menacing!
April 8th, 2016 at 9:25 am
My thoughts exactly – cheers 🙂
April 7th, 2016 at 9:54 am
You are a painting machine! Loving the grit of these characters.
April 8th, 2016 at 9:24 am
Cheers man – not as much of a machine as I’d like to be if I’m honest – I’ve always got more ideas than there’s time to make! 🙂
April 8th, 2016 at 9:27 am
True, very true. I just bought a whole lot of new kits to start yet another project. I shall be treading the path of chaos myself 😈
April 8th, 2016 at 11:03 am
Looking forward to seeing that – we can always use more heretics if we’re to claw the Emperor from his throne! 🙂
April 8th, 2016 at 11:23 am
All praise the Lord of Decay!!
April 7th, 2016 at 11:11 am
Love the sickle but I think it’s Hammer Time. I like that the blood on the sickle looks fresh whereas the blood on the decapitated heads looks more scabbed. This says to me that these particular heads are more of a trophy than those he just, very recently, removed. Hmm I wonder why these particular heads are of such high value to him? The second fellow was great the first time round. Even though I think he is great the second time round I actually preferred the first version of the rusted weapon. To me it looked a little more natural. Fantastic work as always and I am really enjoying the steady flow of posts from you lately. Please don’t STOP… Hammer Time!
April 8th, 2016 at 9:34 am
Yeah – I wanted to keep the feeling that the sickle is in pretty regular use as a weapon not just for ritual purposes like chopping off those heads. The heads always looked aged to me so that’s how I painted them. I wondered if they might be particularly fearsome enemies, former commanders that he slew to claim his rank or old friends who tried to halt his fall to chaos.
As for the second guy I prefer the photos I got the first time (the light was a bit shit this time) but the rust on the gun was really annoying me – it had to go! :-p
April 8th, 2016 at 12:39 pm
Hehe I like the “old friends” theory. Many a friend of mine have shared a similar fate.
April 8th, 2016 at 9:26 pm
I’ll try to stay on your good side then 😉
April 7th, 2016 at 2:44 pm
Personally I’m all for the hammer — but then I was the one who suggested it in the first place, so it probably won’t surprise you all that much, eh? 😉
April 8th, 2016 at 10:39 am
The trouble is I still haven’t found a hammer I like. I also don’t want to weigh him down with too many weapons, but I haven’t given up – I still hold every hammer I find next to him and wonder if it would fit 🙂
April 7th, 2016 at 6:18 pm
I think the sickle is a great touch. What bits did you use as the base for the demagogue?
April 8th, 2016 at 10:44 am
Cheers. The base model is the driver from the Chaos Chariot from Warhammer. The head is from a skullreaper and the arm is from a blood reaver from the AoS boxset. Had to use a bit of greenstuff to make the arm fit but otherwise it was ridiculously straightforward to put together.
February 24th, 2018 at 5:39 am
Cool model! There is the sickle from? 🙂
February 24th, 2018 at 8:07 am
Thanks 🙂 The sickle is from the vampire counts corpse cart, it’s the ‘hand’ of one of the zombies.