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

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Berserker is well-painted.

Very cool, the blue eye lenses really pop.

I agree.

[Evil Eye]

Nice! Your conversions always bring a smile to my face, they're creative yet subtle in all the right ways and that World Eater is no exception.

 

I'll definitely agree that the sudden change in scale is a bit unfortunate, and I'm quite glad I have very few "vanilla" CSMs in progress (and also glad the Kakophoni are roughly the same size as nuCSM). Though with the Tactical Marine kit being AFAIK in no danger of being replaced any time soon (it's still fairly modern) and Chaos being what it is, I can somewhat justify mixed scaling amongst my army.

 

Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the new kits!

[Graymane]

Love your work as usual.

Never ceases to amaze me the amount of character you get in your models.

Always good, always inspiring. :)

 

Cheers,

 

GM.

[Urauloth]

Damn. The BW torso on the new CSM legs looks perfect, this berserker's a real brute.

[KrautScientist]

Again, thanks for the kind words, everyone! :)

 

@ Evil Eye: Oh, don't misunderstand me, ultimately I would say the new scale is for the best -- it finally gives the Chaos Space Marines the stature they deserve, because unlike their loyalist counterparts, they have skipped one or two round of scale creep. By the same token, however, the change is so significant that it presents a couple of challenges to chaos players now, but those can definitely be overcome. In fact, I do have some more observations on how the scales compare that I'll be sharing with you all shorty.

 

For now, however, allow me to share my first finished test World Eater using the new CSM parts, now fully based and with his backpack in place:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts! :)

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the World Eater.

[Augustus b'Raass]

Dude. Well done! He looks great. I never noticed you'd used a CSM torso to go with the back part of the Bloodwarrior torso front bit.

[hushrong]

Your test World Eater is excellent! The blue eye lenses really catch my attention amidst the red and brass armor. Which makes me focus on that sweet helm you converted up.

 

Also, I love how you’ve painted the brass trim. It looks fantastic, especially looking at his Khornate shoulder.

Edited May 12, 2019 by hushrong

[Eldrick Shadowblade]

Very nice! I love the new World Eater and the chest is inspired! Did you try to use the plastic raptor weapons from the old set yet?

[KrautScientist]

Thanks a lot for the feedback, guys! :)

 

@ Auggs: In fact. that particular conversion would be even easier with those CSM torso pieces that already have the abdominal section and breastplate as a separate piece (where the breastplate needs to be glued to the rest of the torso). Of course I didn't realise that and had to make it harder than it needed to be ;)

 

@ Eldrick Shadowblade: I have actually used up most of my Raptor weapons, but from a quick comparison, the swords should work perfectly, while the pistols would work as well, yet they are slightly more delicate and less bulky than the bolt pistols in the new CSM kit. All of them fit the look of the new vanilla CSM just fine, however, presumably because they are results of the same design process.

 

 

Anyway, here are some additional reference pictures regarding the scale issue:

 

First up, here's a comparison picture showing both the height difference as well as the evolution of my personal World Eaters recipe:

 

 

On the left is one of the first Khorne Berzerkers I painted back in 1998 or so, back when the plastic kit was released. These guys still saw use in my modern army, mostly because I was too lazy to replace them. Next in line is the first World Eater I painted when getting back into the hobby after a longer hiatus, in 2010, but using a slightly tweaked recipe. The third guy was an experiment on replacing the – by then OOP – Blood Red with Mephiston Red, but back then I wasn’t quite happy with the effect. And there’s my brand new little guy — maybe this time I have finally managed to nail the recipe? What do you guys think?

 

 

The direct comparison with a stock Khorne Berzerker is  almost a little painful to look at, isn’t it? ;) The new Marine just seems much taller — and indeed he is. Now here’s a comparison with an old model that was nevertheless a  slightly more involved kitbash:

 

 

This comparison is interesting because it shows off both the evolution of my painting recipe, as well as the fact that the legs from the new kit are quite a bit longer, the torso is broader, and the backpack no longer dominated the entire model as much. It’s especially obvious when looking at the back of the models:

 

 

Next up, another round of comparisons with some taller models:

 

 

For starters, here’s my new World Eater next to a true scale Deathwatch Marine, based on a Primaris model:

 

 

As you can see, the new CSM are not quite as tall as Primaris Marines, but they are closed (and could be used as true scale models opposite Primaris in a pinch).

And here’s a comparison with one of the wonderful converted World Eaters my buddy Augustus b’Raass sent me earlier this year:

 

 

Augustus’ model was created using older part, but it’s heavily converted and built to be taller than a standard CSM, so you barely notice the difference in height. So that’s the good news for those hobbyists with highly customised and converted chaos armies, I suppose — your guys still look good, in spite of the scale creep ;)

 

And to wrap things up for today, here's a nice little shot (if I do say so myself) of my new World Eaters test model next to the FW World Eaters Dreadnought:

 

 

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

[Kizzdougs]

Damn! I lover your work with the new kits, bro! Looking forwarding to seeing even more of them :tu:

[Lhorke The First]

Love the berzerker using the new kit. I'm hoping to try my hand at kitbashing one later this week. Also, I love those old World Eaters dreads. I've always regretted not pulling the trigger on one while they were still being sold.

 

This thread is great, I look forward to seeing more!

[Augustus b'Raass]

Those are cool comparison shots, dude! I love that you used one of the guy I sent yu (the coolest one of the bunch, for sure!) But really the same hieght is determinaed by the fact that he's standing on a 5mm cork slate on top of the 25mm base, no? I'd be interested to see what would happen if you set your new berzerker on another base (also 5mm high) and then compare them. 

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the comments, guys!

 

@ Auggs: I think there's more to it than just the basing height (which did, of course, occur to me): If your (old) CSM have a certain amount of customisation going on (added height, a more open pose, bitz spliced in from various sources), that makes them look pretty much at home next to one of the new guys, even if they still seem smaller (and weedier) upon closer inspection. The models built by Midnight Runner (or whatever his new username is. I forget) or InsanePsychopath seem like good examples for this effect, too: Those guys have essentially been building "new" CSM with old parts for years at this point

 

So, just something small for today, and basically a bit of "bycatch", as it were, while I keep messing around with the new CSM bitz: I realised that I could use some of the new parts to spruce up a Foul Blightspawn conversion I created earlier this year.

 

Before:

 

 

 

And after:

 

 

 

I didn't really like the CSM head with the one "googly" eye, but it works really well for a follower of Nurgle. I spliced together a breathing apparatus as well, while I was at it, and opened up the pose a bit.

 

I also saw an extremely clever idea over at ssspectre's blog that I had to steal right away: He used a turbine from a Raptor jump pack to create this kind of weird, bulky engine/pump on the back of a Nurglite model, and I did the same on my Blightspawn conversion, adding a bit of bulk and weirdness to the backpack:

 

 

 

 

 

 

In fact, I even made one more tweak after taking those photos, adding some semi-organic cabling to the backpack that I carefully clipped off one of the new Havoc rocket launchers and backpacks.

 

Anyway, as always, let me know what you think!

 

Edited May 19, 2019 by KrautScientist

[Evil Eye]

Looking gnarly! Reminds me, I need to make some slightly bulkier legs for my converted Foul Blightspawn, as his current legs are rather puny and somewhat at odds with his incredibly bulky upper body.

[Leviathus]

Fantastic conversion Kraut!

[Excessus]

That's a very nice berzerker! :)

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the feedback, guys! :)

 

Incidentally, here's another photo showing the aforementioned, added cabling:

 

 

And, just for fun, a comparison shot with the Plaguecaller and Blightspawn -- both use the same base model :)

 

[Evil Eye]

I'm loving the Plaguecaster's staff in particular- the "curved section with an orb in the middle" thing is one of my favourite design tropes.

[ElDuderino]

Sweet, the new head really brought the whole model up a notch. Very cool breathing thingy too.

[Augustus b'Raass]

Wow, I love the idea of using the chem thrower as a basis for the plague sprayer! Considering I still need to make a third Blightspwan, consider that idea blatantly stolen!

Great use of press molded blightking torso, btw. As per usual, I might add! You're getting quite good at that! :tu: 

[Atia]

Gosh I love that Blightspawn  

[Mechanist]

The new Eternal Hunt marine is looking ace. And the update to the Blightspawn works well.

With a new recipe worked out for the Hunt will we be seeing some ETL Khornate goodness?

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the feedback, everyone! :)

 

@ Auggs: Judging by your ETL vow, you are already on the way to making good use of the stolen idea, buddy ;)

 

The copied Blightking breastplate was simply an emergency solution, as I didn't have a single (Nurglite) chest piece in the required scale -- damn those massive Plague Marines ;)

 

@ ElDuderino: Thanks a lot, mate! I don't want to - literally - paint myself into a corner with ETL and overreach with the consequence of having to put an Oathbreaker banner in my signature for a year, but I do of course want to make a contribution, and for the Chaos forum, no less. So allow me to quote my post from the Chaos Outpost for a second here:

 

 

The oculus viewscreen was a migraine smear of fouled transmission signals, and yet there was no mistaking the brief glimpses of explosions and collapsing structures: A battle was raging on the face of the planet below.

 

The Lord Captain stood at the centre of the command dais, massive like a heathen idol in his ancient warplate. The gathered Huntmasters waited.

 

"And so it begins."

 

Deracin was invariably the first one to break the silence. There was the hint of a grin in the sound of his voice.

 

Lorimar inclined his head ever so slightly, the movement accompanied by the purr of ancient servos.

 

"They are all down there?", he growled.

 

Deracin consulted the dataslate embedded into his vambrace: "Yes, Lord. Many who said they would be here already are. And given the warp transmission signals, more will be arriving by the hour."

 

Lorimar nodded, almost as if to himself. The pain of the nails was just a dull ache for once. "Semper has brought this on himself", he growled softly. Then he straightened himself with the sound of grinding ceramite and turned to face the assembled Huntmasters:

 

"Prepare the Dreadclaws and assault craft. It is time to make planetfall. Let us go hunting."

 

 

+++

 

 

From the depths of the void between the stars, Khorne's Eternal Hunt returns. I, KrautScientist, rise to the challenge of E TENEBRAE LUX on the side of the Chaos Space Marines forum and vow to complete 1 (counts as) Huron Blackheart of total value 105 pts on or before September 1st, 2019. Success will bring me eternal glory and failure will doom me to wear the Badge of the Oathbreaker until the year-end.

 

 

I wanted to start with something nice and easy to get back into the swing of things. So I chose this gentleman here:

 

 

 

 

 

This is basically a Khornate version of Huron Blackheart I created a couple of years ago -- come to think of it, I believe I actually built him for one of the regular contests over at the - sadly defunct - Throne of Skulls forum. Ahh, the memories...

 

Anyway, I think he should read as a Huron counts as fairly easily, even though I have horizontally mirrored the character ;) As Captain Semper and Atia have helpfully pointed out (the sly devils...), in order for this guy to really count as Huron, he will need something to represent his little Hamadrya pet. And while this meant I had to improvise, I was not without inspiration:

 

 

 

This is still just a WIP for now, but my idea was for the "Almost-Hamadrya" to look like a daemonic spirit, some kind of Khornate familiar or even a half-formed Khornate Daemon. I'll still need to tidy up the conversion a bit, obviously.

 

Anyway, here's my first vow so far:

 

 

Wish me luck! And, as always, let me know what you think! :)

[Gederas]

I quite like the Khornate Huron. That conversion still looks really good, even after not having seen it since way back when on your blog :lol: