The Emperor’s Angels – Part 11

As well as getting two more space marines painted for my nascent force I’ve also been kitbashing away, getting some more of the Emperor’s finest built. First up here’s the Captain who’ll be leading the army (at least until I get around to making a suitably imposing Chapter Master). At the moment I’m still working on a name and suitably pugnacious background for him, and indeed for the chapter as a whole. I’ve got a few ideas sloshing around in my head however and I’m planning to write them out soon as they’ll feed into the development of the army as it grows.

I’ve also tried to add a bit of gothic flair to the company ancient. The warrior given the honour of carrying the battle standard should be dressed to impress both the brave warriors of the Imperium and the craven scum they face and the base model is just a little bit plain for my taste.

Even though I doubt I’ll have many war engines in the army (beyond a Dreadnought or two of course because as every sane person knows Dreadnought are amazing) I knew from the get-go that I’d have to include a tech-marine. To me this is one of the most iconic units in 40k and the chance to include one was one of the things that attracted me to the space marines in the first place.

As it stands these are all still WIPs so as ever I’m all ears for feedback if there’s any improvements you think are called for before they go under the brush.

Dreadnaughts I Have Known

I painted my first dreadnaught at some indeterminate point in the past, although exactly when is hard to tie down now. Assault on Black Reach had been released and the Orks had drawn me into 40k’s grim darkness at last but I was still unfamiliar with the universe and its protagonists. Having picked up the Black Reach boxset purely for the greenskins within I found myself with a bundle of space marines as well – and almost no interest in painting them. Only a grudging sense of duty got me through the tactical squad, although I admit I tackled the terminators with rather more enthusiasm. The only thing that really grabbed me however was the dreadnaught.

He’s been tweaked and improved once or twice over the years but even those improvements still look rather old and somewhat lacking in comparison to my modern standard. Still I was hooked, on dreadnaughts if not on space marines. Thus when a friend of mine was clearing out his cupboards and gave me his copy of Assault on Black Reach and the Chaos Space Marines codex I knew straight away that the next dreadnaught I painted would be something much darker, angrier and spikier than before. It was also at this point that I was discovering the joy of converting models and, although there remained much for me to learn, I was well on my way to becoming the kitbashing, greenstuffing heretic I am today.

Next up was an Ork deff dread – completed mere days before Games Workshop announced the release of the current plastic model. Sadly he was never the best of creations, leaning rather too heavily on Orky qualities of ‘cobble it together and hope for the best’ and now resides in the bottom of the bits box waiting for redemption and reconstruction.

With Dark Vengeance the chaos dreadnaught was reborn as the helbrute; the angry, spikey box of before replaced instead by the fleshy, unnaturally-organic beast of today.

Of course painting one of them wasn’t enough for me, especially after the release of the putrid blightkings made it possible to create a bloated, Nurgly hulk.

Nor was that the end of my dreadnaught obsession. Last October feedyournerd ran the Dreadtober event which aimed to encourage as many people as possible to paint a dreadnaught (or similar sized model) in the month of October. Seeing the brilliant work that others were producing provided the spur I needed to crack on and bring this Khornate monster into being.

At the time I asserted (rather boldly) that if this event happened again I’d be sure to join in. One year on and it’s time to live up to that claim as DreadTober returns. This time responsibility for the event lies with Broken Paintbrush so I’d recommend getting across there to take a look at what’s planned. I’ll be taking on this unfortunate-looking former Crimson Fists dreadnaught. His loyalist masters may have abandoned him to ebay but I feel sure that, with Nurgley and Khornate dreadnaughts already in the bag, he’ll do very well indeed in the subtle embrace of Slaanesh.

Naturally these events work best when lots of people join in so I encourage (nay – implore!) you to dig your own battered and abandoned dreadnaught projects out of the bitsbox, or take them down from the shelf of shame, and get to work on them. This is their moment!

Pure Hatred – Part 2

As promised here we have the second new Khornate terminator. With this one I wanted a more restrained pose that emphasised the bulk and power that I associate with old-school terminators which could act as a blank canvas to play with. I’ve also wanted to make use of a pair of wrathmonger legs ever since I discovered they fit neatly onto a terminator body, and the rest of the pose flowed naturally from this stance. As ever I’m happy to hear some feedback so let me know what you think in the comment’s box.

.Of course, with two new units added to the squad it can only be group-shot o’clock. If you want to find out more about the others in the squad you can look here, here, here and here.

All That’s Left Is Blood – Part 6

The Bloodcleave: a band of ferocious killers, dedicated to the service of the Blood God and drawn to Kell’s ranks as he began to sack the fortress worlds of the southern Kadatheron sector. To Kell himself they have little loyalty however, and their disgust at the presence of the servants of other gods amongst his ranks has earned them the enmity of many of their erstwhile allies. Nonetheless they know that Kell’s wars serve Khorne, though the Chaos Lord may not admit it himself, and in doing so draws His gaze upon those who stand at his side. Thus they feign loyalty until the day comes to spill the blood of Kell himself, offering up his skull in a final orgy of sacrifice.

—

The second eight Berserkers are unleashed! Khorne be praised! Like the Bloodbeasts I wanted an icon of wrath to round out the squad and the weird head of the Khorgorath gave me the inspiration I was looking for.

Of course, I’m sure you all realise what this means. With eight models painted and the squad complete it can only be group-shot o’clock.

As usual comments and feedback are very welcome and scions of the Blood God should fear not – more Khornate killers are on their way soon!

All That’s Left Is Blood – Part 5

If the blood god’s warriors are to be brought to battle a champion must be found to lead them – one who can seek out the skulls of the worthy before his warriors turn on each other…

The champion of my second squad of Khorne berserkers stands ready to join his savage brethren.

All That’s Left Is Blood – Part 4

Fear not gentle readers! I have neither died, fallen into the Warp or been reduced to a gibbering Spawn – although I will admit to having lost momentum a little with my horde of Berserkers over the last week or so, mostly because real life has been gobbling up the time that I might otherwise have been painting. In an effort to get back on track I decided to finish off the last member of my first squad of Khorne Berserkers. You may recall that I had recently decided to split my growing horde of blood-mad warriors into two separate squads of eight men each.  Squad Kadrax – the second squad -– are already well underway but before I go any further with them there’s one last model needed to round out the first squad.

Like all frustrated Warhammer fans I know that no squad is complete without a banner and to my mind there are few things as evocative of the impractically pseudo-medieval quality of 40k than warriors rallying to a flag or an icon of the gods. With that in mind I rounded out the squad with an Icon of Wrath to remind my berserkers that they battle in Khorne’s name and for His glory.

And there we have it – the Blood Beasts are complete at last and, if all goes according to plan, a second squad is soon to follow. Until then here’s a couple of group shots to keep you going.

All That’s Left Is Blood – Part 1

I’ve had a pack of angry, Khorne-worshipping berserkers sitting on my desk for a while now, just waiting for a little love and a coat of paint to come their way. Frankly I’m getting a little sick of the sight of them, so I’ve decided to get them all painted up if it kills me (which – if the rest are as much of a slog as this one was – they just might).Comments for the comments box, slaughter-mates? (And feedback for his throne of course…)

Realm of Plagues – Part 5

And after a slight hiatus a forth pestilent Terminator lumbers forth from Nurgle’s garden!

Unlike the others I wanted to tone down the guts and go for a more restrained horror, whilst still making it clear that this is a servant of the plague god.

I also wanted to try some new things on the base (rather than just using more green gunk. Much and all as I love green gunk…)

And here he is with his foul battle brothers. Just got a bargain on some ‘pre-loved’ Black Reach terminators so don’t expect this to be the last we see of this filthy squad. In the meantime your thoughts are as welcome as ever.

Realm of Plagues – Part 4

Following the completion of the champion for my squad of Nurgle worshipping terminators I decided to strike whilst the iron was hot and get the squad’s icon bearer finished off as well. You may recall that last time we saw him he looked like this:At the time I felt that he was rather waspish in the waist – all fine and well for Slaanesh’s image-conscious lovers but hardly acceptable for Nurgle, whose followers are rotund and jolly to a man. Before he saw any paint I needed to build up the belly, and give him some appropriately horrible guts into the bargain. All of that brings him to this; finished at last.

Here’s the whole squad (so far) together.Excitingly the squad’s fourth member is now almost finished so I’m going to crack on and see if I can get him done too. As before – watch this space!

Realm of Plagues – Part 3

Cast your collective minds back to November last year and you’ll recall this happy looking gentleman; the champion for my squad of Nurgle terminators based on the Putrid Blightkings. He’s been progressing slowly ever since but a few days ago I decided to crack on and actually get him finished. Here’s how he looked last time we saw him:

And here he is now:

And side by side with his sole (current) squadmate:

I have high hopes that I’ll get the icon bearer finished soon as well, and have even started putting together a fourth member of the squad. Watch this space!