All That’s Left Is Blood – Part 11

Millennia ago the warriors of Squad Kadrax followed the Lord of Claws out of the ashes of Skalathrax and away from the ruins of the World Eaters legion. Down the long centuries since they have sought for nothing but to heap skulls at Khorne’s throne. The first Lord of Claws has long since wasted into spawndom, blubber-mad and mewling its blind spite, and the man who claimed his throne is a more subtle master – though no less savage for all that. The Kadraxi care not; like their bloody god they seek only battle.

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This will be the last Khorne update for a little while. Word on the street is a Black Crusade is coming, and when it arrives I want to be ready for it. Before I am however I want to clear a few other projects from my painting desk, most importantly the unruly mob of Orks who’ve been waiting in the corner for quite some time. Before it’s their turn though there’s still on more addition required to join my berserkers – a champion to lead the third squad.

Of course that mace is much too big to wield one handed and just waving it around like a maniac will only end up with him injuring himself – probably before he gets the chance to harm his comrades and certainly before he gets anywhere near the enemy. This time however the rule of cool wins out!

Here’s a group shot of Squad Kadrax so far (click it to see a bigger image). In time I’ll be adding three more members to get the numbers up to eight but for now the squad is complete.  And here’s the three champions of my berserker squads together. Standing next to his brothers the new boy  looks like a right short-arse – mostly because I didn’t want to give him any horns or trophy banners that would stick up and foul that flailing chain.And, because I forgot to do this in the last post, here’s the three icon bearers enjoying their own little group shot.But wait – there’s more. I may be planning to tackle some different projects for now but that doesn’t mean I’m abandoning the Blood God long term. As soon as I saw the huge Khornate sigil carried by the Bloodsecrator in the Age of Sigmar starter set I knew I wanted to use it somewhere in my collection. Trouble is it’s just too big for any normal warrior, even a space marine, to carry. Time to call in an abhuman and build myself a second Ogren berserker.As I’m sure you know by now, comments and feedback are extremely welcome so if you have an opinion you’re burning to share get it in the comment’s box. Until then – Blood for the Blood God and all that!

Smash Your Enemies

What is one to do when one finds oneself in a situation that even a berserk, Khorne-worshipping space marine cannot fix? Why throw an Ogren berserker at it instead of course! Cashing in on my current Khorne-fever I decided to extract this angry young man from the shelf of shame where he had been lingering in dusty ignominy since I first assembled him way back in March last year.

I should probably be more modest but – damn, I’m proud of that blood stained effect!

One thing that does concern me is the aquila brand on his shoulder. On the model it’s not particularly noticeable now (or so I believed) and I’d thought a quick bit of filing had as good as obliterated it. However the photographs have shown it as being rather obvious and now I’ve seen it I can’t unsee it. I suspect in the near future he’ll have a quick trip back to the painting desk for a touch up – I think I’ll try to turn it into a faded tattoo, perhaps with a scar through it, but any alternative suggestions are very welcome.The Siege of Vrax books described Ogren Berserkers as being ‘created’ from Ogren slaves through lobotomy and the installation of drug injectors which deliver a cocktail of combat stimulators immediately prior to the poor creature being unleashed in the general direction of the enemy. For my Ogren however I decided to take a rather different path. His higher brain functions (such as they are – he is an Ogren after all) remain unimpaired. Personally I think he just likes smashing things.

Ogrens are noted for their loyalty, particularly to their friends rather than to some obscure and distant concept like the Imperium. Should the humans that feed and house it turn to the worship of the ruinous powers so the Ogren will too. Indeed the small minds of these abhumans, it is often noted, are ‘easily filled with faith’ and given their disinterest in over-thinking things I have no doubt that they can be quite easily convinced to kill for Khorne rather than the Emperor, if that’s what their friends think is best.

Blood For Blood

Right, there’s a lot of Khorne to look at this week so let’s get stuck in shall we?

First of all we have this chap, the third new model I’ve added to Sapir Redwolf’s Skullrippers, a little squad of Khornate terminators I’ve been showing off over the last few weeks.
The oath scroll proved to be a bit of an issue. I may be going out on a limb here but I don’t see the warriors of Khorne taking too much time writing out oaths of moment, so at first my inclination was to cut it off. However I quickly realised that it was going to be pretty tricky to do so without needing to do quite a lot of carefully shaving down and rebuilding of that part of the leg. In the end I left it but set myself the challenge of painting a tiny symbol of Khorne onto it. Perhaps the mark has been ascribed by a Dark Apostle or a particularly bold cultist as a ward or sign of good luck upon a chosen champion?
Other than that painting him was fairly straightforward and flicking him with ‘blood for the blood god’ paint from an old toothbrush was great fun as always!

Kharl the Blunt.
Working on the Skullrippers also put me in mind of Kharl the Blunt. Back in the long distant past (1988 I believe, when I was 4 and as yet uncorrupted by the nefarious touch of Chaos) Kharl appeared in the book Slaves to Darkness where he was described as ‘a Troll of some renown and little brain, who often stands perplexed, unable to choose between beating his opponents senseless with a gnarled club or roasting them with his fiery breath’.
Kharl fought alongside a mob of Chaos loving humans and dwarves as a member of a warband named the Skullrippers, a name I shameless ripped off when I came to naming my own Khornate terminators. Sadly there’s no room for a troll in the far-future (in spite of their durability they don’t seem to have survived into the 41st Millennium – something I must get around to fixing someday with a few conversions) but it did get me thinking about making an Ogren Berserker. Probably nothing would have happened but I was spurred on (or led astray?) by Alex from the Dauntless 215th Praetorians who said something like ‘go for it’. (As an aside his steampunk twist on the 41st millennium is well worth checking out – his tripod in particular remains a favourite of mine). Anyway, with that my last shreds of self-control evaporated and I put together this hulking, angry gentleman.

I have to say, making him was excellent fun, the Ogrens kit is amazing for building Ogren Berserkers and I’m already thinking of ways I could build some more.

Dark Apostle of Khorne

Just a minor update to show the latest progress on my Dark Apostle of Khorne (currently minus his backpack – removed to make painting/modelling easier).

After trying him out with various tabards I plumped for this one. Although not my first, or even my second, choice it looked best in practice and adds a nicely feral element to him so I’m happy.

Skarr Bloodwrath

Lastly I want to talk about Skarr Bloodwrath, a man who’s name – conveniently – is also his job – the latest Warhammer character to be released as part of the End Time’s series. In many ways Skarr is for the Skullreapers/Wrathmongers released last week what Gutrot Spume is for the Putrid Blightkings – a single figure character based on an accompanying set of infantry. In both cases however I’m left wondering if it might not have been better to make them an upgrade within the existing kit as, for example, Nork Deddog is in the Ogren kit.

To be honest though, although I quite like Gutrot Spume at first glance Skarr did less for me; the anime style giant weapons are not to my taste, the flying chains are rather over the top and the bare head looks like a cartoon character overwhelmed by the potency of some jalapenos.

At first then I was planning to let this one pass me by, at least until I’d seen the conversions that the clever people of the internet came up with. However a look at the sprue started to change my mind. I’m still not sold on the model overall but I reckon there’s a wealth of conversion opportunities in there, so much so that I might even buy one (in spite of the hefty price tag).