Khorne's Eternal Hunt - KrautScientist's chaotic WIP thread: Fine-tuning Eightbound...

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the feedback, guys! I am rather happy with the Helbrute myself, to be honest ;) And yes, I imagine there'll be a bit more damage, some rot holes -- stuff like that ;)

 

@ El Duderino: Dude, thanks for bringing that to my attention! I must admit I was equal parts amused by the - mostly incorrect - guessing of parts (Adeptus Titanicus plastic titans? I wish I actually had any of those!) and slightly miffed that those guys would keep trying to guess the parts when detailed WIP discussions are very much available on my blog and various threads -- oh well, that's the internet for you ;)

 

So what's new? First the bad news: I did not manage to complete my vow for the August Arena event, and I have nothing but my own laziness - and maybe a bit too much time spent on Sonic Mania - to blame. That being said, I still consider my participation in the event a very good thing, as I built a Nurglite biker Lord that I am really proud of and that I wouldn't even have considered creating without BubblesMcBub prompting me on the issue. In fact, when the time came to decide whether to barrel through the paintjob or fail the challenge, yet turn the model into something really cool at a later point, the decision wasn't really all that hard. Oh, plus I did my best to help Bubbles build his awesome Dinosaur-riding Iron Warriors Lord, and I hope my feedback was valuable. Anyway, I don't have any huge regrets, in spite of failing to make the deadline.

 

At the same time, my hobby mojo did indeed rear its head elsewhere, and made me return to a project that has somehow failed to come together for quite some time now:

 

Back when the first plastic AdMech kits were released, the Kastelan Robots were one of my first purchases. One of them was turned into a counts-as Contemptor for my 40k World Eaters, as you might remember:

 

 

The other one was was saved for future use, although my idea of what to do with the model actually went through several revisions: The original plan was to turn him into a Colossus-pattern robot for my small Iron Warriors project, but that plan never really quite got off the ground, and it finally went under for good when Forgeworld ended up producing actual models to represent the Iron Circle.

Later I realised it would be cool to turn the model into some kind of patched up, ancient servitor/former war machine as another colourful addition to my Pit Slave/Underhive project, The Road Crew:

 

 

But while I really liked that idea, it never really materialised either, apart from some early kitbashing. But then two things happened. One, I got my hands on one of the old Forgeworld World Eaters Dreadnoughts, courtesy of my buddy Augustus b’Raass, and the head of the machine just turned out to be perfect for this project. Two, I saw what fellow hobbyist WarbossKurgan did with his rather beat-up Kastelans, and that provided the inspiration I needed to wade back into the fray. So here’s what I have now:

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, I have gone for a really ragtag appearance so far, with many tacked on armour plates and strange bits and bobs that suggest all kinds of field repairs — only fitting for the underhive, really. The rounded, 50s retro-futuristic SciFi look is still there, but it’s covered by layers and layers of later additions or replacements: In fact, I really love the idea of making the machine’s origins even more ambiguous: Is it a refurbished heavy duty servitor? An AdMech construct or an ancient warmachine? Or could it be even older…?

 

There were also several pieces of inspiration for the model: There’s quite a bit of Mad Max and Fallout going on there, but probably the biggest influence was the ABC Warrior Robot, possibly the best thing about the old Judge Dredd film:

 

 

And while we are on the subject of influences, using part of a barrel as one of the model’s shoulder pads is actually a bit of a shout out to one of the protagonists of The Road to Jove, Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s and David Sondered’s graphic novel project.

 

This also ties into something else I was actually pushing for: A general look of asymmetry: the pauldrons are one example of this, but there are also the arms: The gun arm is massive and beefy, the other one is strangely skeletal, probably due to having been replaced or repaired at some point.

 

Anyway, after getting nowhere with this model for ages, I am actually pretty happy with the progress I have made. Painting the model should be rather enjoyable. I think I’ll be going for a mix of darkened, oily metal and the Road Crew’s trademark, heavily weathered yellow armour I also want to pick a collection of decals that may or may not hint at the machine’s past — in any case, it should make the model even more interesting! And it’ll make for a cool addition to the project:

 

 

As always, let me know what you think! :)

[Atia]

That robot is just awesome buddy!

[Commissar K.]

Fantastic work again!

[BubblesMcBub]

 

So what's new? First the bad news: I did not manage to complete my vow for the August Arena event, and I have nothing but my own laziness - and maybe a bit too much time spent on Sonic Mania - to blame. That being said, I still consider my participation in the event a very good thing, as I built a Nurglite biker Lord that I am really proud of and that I wouldn't even have considered creating without BubblesMcBub prompting me on the issue. In fact, when the time came to decide whether to barrel through the paintjob or fail the challenge, yet turn the model into something really cool at a later point, the decision wasn't really all that hard. Oh, plus I did my best to help Bubbles build his awesome Dinosaur-riding Iron Warriors Lord, and I hope my feedback was valuable. Anyway, I don't have any huge regrets, in spite of failing to make the deadline.

Dude i was in way over my head with the lizard to even have the model ready for painting before me right now is all thank to you man! (well i am a bit ashamed to have my model compaired to yours haha your biker is so cool!)

 

As for the robot he is really cool! i just can't see him fiting in with the crew without the colour(EDIT: but trust me i photosoped some colours on him and he fits) he is def what i would want an awesome scrappy robot to look like. I think i will "borrow this conversion for a sweet IW comtemptor dreadnought!

 

Keep up the good work!

[marine7312000]

I really love what you're doing with the Castellan. What are your thoughts on the new Necromunda models?

[Sagentus]

Kraut you never cease to amaze me with your conversions and kit bashes. Great to see you got your mojo back. Look forward to seeing how this comes on

[The Traitor]

It had been a while since I commented in here, but that robot is awesome, love what you did with him! He does look battered and old, and quite different to the original Kastelan. Also the little details, such as the cables underneath the chestplate that you can see in where it is broken, give him a nice touch, great work Kraut!

[TRIBUN]

Yeah, more post apocalypse steroid driven mad max gladiators and their grim robots!!!

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the kind words, guys! :) I am really happy with that robot, and I'm glad you hear you feel the same ;)

 

@ marine7312000: Most of all, I am pretty excited that GW is giving Necromunda another go in the first place, because it presents a setting so different from standard 40k and hews closer to the whole Dan Abnett style of "The Imperium seen at street level" -- or below that, actually ;) As for the models, I am cautiously optimistic, especially if they should decide to really make them multipart. Plus the Goliaths seem like they would work *really* well for World Eaters as well, so that's a twofer. From what I've seen from the Escher models so far, they are maybe not quite as great as the old Jes Goodwin sculpts -- but then I am a huge fan of those.

 

Let me say one thing, though: I really hope they expand the scope of the game beyond the  - somewhat pedestrian - starter gangs. I would personally have loved something with a bit more influence from the more Blanchian "Confrontation" era. But we'll see...

 

In the meantime, I have finally managed to finish my Be'lakor model, giving it a base inspired by a recipe Augustus b'Raass used on his Bloodthirsters: I built up a small mound for Be'lakor to stand on with Milliput, pressing some small stones into the putty when it was still soft. Then the whole thing was covered in a generous layer of Vallejo's Sandy Earth Paste (I cannot recommend that stuff enough, by the way!), and then I selectively added some patches of my usual basing mix of tiny pieces of slate, cork chaff and modeling sand. So here's what the base looked like before painting:

 

 

 

Of course the really important thing was to make sure again and again that the model would sit flush atop the base, so I checked and double-checked that by carefully putting Be'lakor on there in between all the different detailing steps:

 

 

As you can see, I decided to give Be'lakor a relatively big base, in spite of the model's relatively small size. I made this choice both for gaming reasons (at least in theory...) and because I thought a larger base would make for a better canvas for the excellent sculpt, giving it the space it needed.

 

So I quickly painted the base last weekend, and so I finally ended up with a finished model. Take a look:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am pretty happy with the outcome: Not only does the model look really cool in red, if you ask me, but Be'lakor also definitely works as a Khornate Daemon Prince: He basically looks like a massive modern Bloodletter anyway:

 

 

So while I can now use him as Be'lakor, I feel tempted to give him a new name and backstory: In fact, I have this half-formed concept in the back of my head about a daemonic legion created both to support and haunt the World Eaters' 4th assault company: As I've said many times, Lorimar and his followers remain wary of the daemonic, as they fear giving in to the blessings of the pantheon too much will turn them into the same raving madmen as the rest of their legion. But what if Khorne keeps wanting to tempt - and punish - them and has created a daemonic legion for that exact purpose: One daemon born for every broken promise and forsaken oath, a constant reminder of the company's inevitable doom...? Wouldn't you agree that my new "Khornate Be'lakor" would be the perfect leader for such a Brazen Legion?

 

In any case, he fits in well enough with the small daemonic posse I already have...

 

 

As always, let me know what you think! :)

 

[hushrong]

Woweee I missed a lot! First off the work don't to the plague marines is fantastic! I especially like the blight launcher you put together.

 

I also really want a helbrute like yours. That beast just oozes terror.

 

Belakor also looks sweet! That's a great paint job you gave him.

[KrautScientist]

Cheers, mate! :)

[ElDuderino]

Great work on be'lakor! It such a cool model, looks sweet in red too, I like the how the chaos star on his chests blends into the skin. And the lore tidbit about khorne giving the hunt a demon legion just to mess with them seems suitably ironic, maybe tzeentch had a part in that;)

 

Minor suggestion, the claws on his wings might be painted black to tie it in with the other horns.

[Eldrick Shadowblade]

I think the demon legion is a cool new story. Here's a suggested twist: maybe the price for failure (ie dying in combat) is that Lorimar's soldiers souls are twisted into a demonic version of their former self... it adds to his power while also slowly dragging them into insanity? Something along those lines.

[Atia]

Kraut'lakor looks awesome buddy 

[Aasfresser]

That base is great and a nice evolution of your standard bases. You should keep that style!

belakor looks great, too. Esp with his buddies.

[Augustus b'Raass]

Re: the robot: Amazing work!

Be'Lakor is looking fine in your Khornate colours.... :D

[KBA]

Great fluff bit about the demons. That model looks superb in red.

[rednekkboss]

One of the problems I have looking at your thread is you always make me think of some kind of conversion I'd love to do. That robot.  Oh, that robot.  I'd been thinking about some dark mechanicus for my" traitor guard that doesn't use the traitor guard list"  Great work....as always!

 

Always loved that Belakor model. Looks great. And I like the fluff idea for the army.

[Khornestar]

Very cool, and fun fluff. Clearly Bel'akhorne is the perfect name. :P

[KrautScientist]

Thanks a lot for all the kind words, guys! I really appreciate it! :)

 

@ ElDuderino: I actually thought about painting those horns in dark grey, but unless the other horns and claws on the model, they lack a clear "border", for lack of a better word, which makes it look as though they were actually covered in skin or at least some kind of skin-like membrane. Which is why I decided to keep them red in the end. I would also argue that having them in red actually better underlines the actual shape of the wings.

 

 

So I haven't managed to be all that productive on the hobby front in the last two weeks or so: The best I could manage were some smaller kitbashes:

 

I've been messing around with some Primaris Marines, mostly in the attempt to create some true scale Astartes for my INQ28 collection -- so this basically doesn't have anything to do with my chaos armies, but I hope you'll bear with me nonetheless ;)

 

You already know my true scale Iron Hands Marine:

 

 

Somebody on a German forum helpfully pointed out that his chapter icon should actually be on the left shoulder pad, with clan company markings going on the right pauldron. Ultimately, I decided to "promote" him to a Deathwatch member, so the left shoulder pad was replaced with one showing Deathwatch iconography, while the right one still shows the Iron Hands chapter icon. Having him as a Deathwatch Marine makes more sense anyway, and allows me to create a couple of buddies from differen chapters for him ;)

 

In fact, I've already built another Deathwatch Marine, because I really wanted to build a very classic Marine model, 80s dressman hairdo and all, inspired by the second edition Marines and the original 54mm Artemis:

 

 

 

 

The more modern, rounded Primaris armour really lends itself rather well to Deathwatch Marines, if you ask me. And I am probably not the first person to tell you this, but the Primaris Marines are basically perfect fodder for quickly creating true scale Astartes. Funnily enough, however, my first ever true scale conversion actually towers over the new models:

 

 

However, my conversion of the Golden Legion's chapter master (shown on the right) works really well when seen next to one of the Primaris models, despite being based on a completely different stock model: The Lord Commander is quite a bit bulkier, but that should be expected of a Chapter's supreme commander, wouldn't you agree? ;)

 

In other news, I realise I still owe fellow BubblesMcBub some models as a way of thanking him for letting me have all those Death Guard models from the Dark Imperium box, so I started building the first model for him: Bubbles wanted an officer for his Iron Warriors, and he told me he would like to see a Khornate Iron warrior. No problem, right? The one complication was that Bubbles' Iron Warriors have a much cleaner, 30k-inspired look than the very baroque CSM I usually build, so I tried to dial back my usual style a bit.

 

So my task was to...

• come up with a suitably imposing officer/champion
• incorporating some classically Khornate attributes
• at the same time, I still wanted him to clearly read as an Iron Warrior, so he needed to look suitably no-nonsense and slightly techy as well.
• keeping the model clean enough to work with the rest of Bubbles' army.

So without much further ado, here's what I have so far:

 

 

 

 

 

 

As always, let me know what you think! :)

[Nomus Sardauk]

Oh man, that Khornate Iron Warrior looks siiiiick! I always thought the Iron Fourth would be a fertile recruitment ground for Khorne given that the majority of the IVth are described as being possessed of a bitter mindset and cold fury that could easily blossom into berzerkerdom, plus Zerkers would likely be excellent for pushing a breach or turning Zone Mortalis environments into slaughterhouses.

I love the mix of parts, especially the Head (I haven't seen a helm that angry since the original Khârn model), the axe-arm with the bare skin and the retro-looking barrels you added to the Combi-Bolter, I can't wait to see him painted. :)

[Commissar Molotov]

Always a pleasure to see you posting. Your second Deathwatcher is very cool indeed. 

[Augustus b'Raass]

Hey buddy! Lovely trescale conversion indeed!

I really like where BubblesMcGub's khornate dude is going - although I do have a gripe: the beltfeed of his storm bolter conveys that his arm is moving from left to right, but his entire body is conveying that same arm's movement from right to left.... Which doesn't work. The only way I can see that beltfeed moving that way is if his legs are posed alternately: left leg forward, right leg back, instead of what it is now. Does that make sense? 

[Aasfresser]

That guy looks suitably brutal and Iron-Warrior-y! Bubbles will have a blast painting him. But unfortunately Augustus is right on the beltfeed, maybe just leave the legs as they are, because that would be a hell of a lot of work to change that and simply leave the beltfeed hanging down. That would solve the problem.

[Sagentus]

Great to see you back Kraut! Really liking the primarus converssions, they look great and will work well as Deathwatch personel.

 

The iron worrior/khornate char is something else, you hit the nail on the head there. You know he is iron warriors and the blood god is raging in him. Look forward to seeing it finished and painted :)