Some readers may recall that amongst my various hobby plans I’m trying to reclaim my favourite models from my old chaos space marine army and recreate them using the new kits released this year. Thus those of you familiar with the deepest recesses of this blog’s archives (you poor souls!) may recognise this chap from his previous incarnation.
For those who need a reminder however here’s version 1.0 – now broken up to provide the bits needed to complete his rebirth.
Whilst I was working on him I convinced myself (against all logic) that it would be just as easy to paint two models as one – it’s all the same colour scheme right? With a second model already assembled and sitting close at hand it was easy enough to hitch him up to the enthusiasm I’d already built up and power through him as well.
All this is very good and worthy of me and I was feeling suitably pleased with myself when, halfway through painting them, Azazel announced his latest monthly challenge “Squaddie September“. The goal of the challenge is to paint squads of models (this being a fairly rough number – with a suggested minimum of three models – check out Azazel’s original post for a full explanation, especially if you’re thinking of joining in yourself). Although I’m not a gamer by any means I am aware that a squad of chaos space marines need between 5 and 20 miniatures – one of whom has to be an aspiring champion. Why not use this opportunity, I found myself thinking, to paint up a champion as well? Somehow the will of the dark gods carried the day and rather than seeing all three stall as a result I built up a feedback loop of enthusiasm that saw them all over the finish line.
With these three done I’ll allow myself a small pat on the back (the dark gods being generally in favour of hubris amongst their champions after all). However once again thanks are owed to Azazel for running his challenges, I’m not sure when I would have got around to tackling all three of these otherwise so I really can’t recommend them enough as a way of getting things done.
What’s more, with three new recruits added the squad is starting to look more like a millennia old warband of hardened killers – how could I say no when they demanded a group shot?
For now I think that’s scratched the itch for power-armoured chaos but the eye of the warp never closes so I’ll undoubtedly be drawn back to the worship of the thirsting gods soon enough.
September 12th, 2019 at 8:03 am
Nicely done sir!
September 12th, 2019 at 8:04 am
Cheers dude!
September 12th, 2019 at 10:03 am
Painting chaos power armour is an addiction, I’m convinced of it 😉 looking fantastic, I love the champ. That power fist looks menacing
September 12th, 2019 at 8:10 pm
Cheers! Yeah, I completely agree – more addictive than heroin and probably more expensive too 😀
The fist was one of those bits that I spotted on the sprue and thought “I’ve got to use that” – it just looks so aggressive, gives him a proper “come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough” look.
September 13th, 2019 at 10:11 am
I do wish heroin and models weren’t so expensive 😂
It’s an ace weapon, it looks like he’s crushing an Imperial helmet in his palm 👍 very cool
September 12th, 2019 at 3:30 pm
Looking good! That tentacle has always been one of my fave bits from the old Mutation Sprue, and it works perfectly with that head.
September 12th, 2019 at 8:12 pm
Cheers! Yeah, I thought the tentacle and the head matched up nicely – especially pleasing given that they were released years apart. I’ve still got all the bits from that old mutation sprue, my aim is to use them all with the new models sooner or later.
September 12th, 2019 at 8:39 pm
Great stuff mate and I’m with Alex in so much as I love that tentacle. Impressive group shot too.
September 14th, 2019 at 8:50 pm
Thank you 🙂 Things like the tentacle really help to bring home that these really aren’t human any more. In the past I think I may have overdone the mutation on my chaos marines so this time I’m trying to tone it down a little, but there still needs to be enough to get across the point that these are very twisted individuals indeed. Plus making mutants is just good fun! 😀
September 12th, 2019 at 9:27 pm
Great work, really like the helmet you used for the champ.
September 14th, 2019 at 8:57 pm
Cheers! I’ve been trying to remember which kit I got it from, one of the fantasy/AoS chaos warriors but I can’t for the life of me work out which one now. Must be getting old…
September 14th, 2019 at 9:37 pm
I though it must be a AoS one but was not sure which pack. Well which ever one it came from it makes a really good CSM head.
September 15th, 2019 at 6:39 am
Sleeping on it reveals the answer – it was the chaos lord on the manticore. 🙂
September 15th, 2019 at 7:01 am
That makes sense why it so good for a leader, and I bet that it feels better that you finally remembered!
September 15th, 2019 at 9:05 am
Oh yeah, that was going to be bugging me otherwise!
September 12th, 2019 at 10:48 pm
Those are great. Really like the aspiring champion.
Glad that the monthly challlenges motivate you like they do me.
Cheers,
Pete.
September 15th, 2019 at 6:18 am
Thank you! I’m very pleased with the aspiring champion, I wanted to make a special effort with him and I think it paid off.
Definitely find the monthly challenges very inspiring. Perhaps not to paint per se, I’d do that anyway, but when I spot something that can tie in with the challenge it gets bumped up the list and things get finished that would otherwise be left to linger.
September 15th, 2019 at 9:35 am
They deserve a BIG pat on the back mate. You’re on fire lately!! Love the Champ
September 16th, 2019 at 5:48 am
Cheers man 🙂 Just trying to clear the backlog a bit (ha! like that’ll ever happen!). I’m really pleased with the champion actually, he looks like a right mean bastard!
September 17th, 2019 at 10:18 am
Haha definitely a mean bastard
September 29th, 2019 at 3:35 pm
I do so like the off cream colour you do on your Chaos Marines. They look past their sell by date! 😉
October 1st, 2019 at 8:46 pm
Thank you very much! That’s absolutely what I had in mind, I wanted their armour to look bleached, curdled and drained of colour. My initial idea was that, whatever chapter or legion a space marine originated from, once they joined the warband all the colour and heraldry faded from their armour. I wanted the colours to emphasise, without being too obviously disgusting, that here we have something which has gone bad both literally and figuratively.
September 30th, 2019 at 8:46 pm
Oh yeah, I like these three – the Champion especially looks the business. I always love a good powerfist!
October 2nd, 2019 at 9:29 pm
Thanks again, and yeah, full agreement on the powerfists – especially that one in particular. It was very much a case of saying “I really want to use this bit, now how do I build a model to go with it”. 😀