Khorne Warband of Wrath

[RobWrath]

Hello and welcome to my Work in Progress thread. I am newly returned to the hobby and am basically starting from scratch building up a Chaos Space Marine army, at first for the fun of collecting, modelling and painting and hopefully eventually for gaming.

 

I've always been drawn to Chaos and Khorne in particular, so I intend to start here, building a berserker warband under the command of a character I created to lead my 2e army - Morgar'ak the Damned. I have a thread of backstory in my head for Morgar'ak, and as I tend to build armies to match the fluff I thought that'd be a good way to start (first installment of Morgar'aks fluff in Spoiler below):

 

Morgar’ak groaned, blinking and shaking his head in his helmet as his vision cleared and consciousness returned. As his awareness quickly returned a bloom of pain erupted from his left leg. Thank Khorne. Pain meant life. He had been so sure that death had finally come for him after 10,000 years of war…
The hated Wolves had come for them, falling upon the warband while they were celebrating a victory. The World Eaters had fought back with savagery, driving the Blood Claws back, forcing them to retreat. But…it had been a feint to draw them from cover. Once they were out in the open the Thunderhawks struck, raking the warband with withering fire. Khorne forgive….they had run for cover, seeking shelter from the heavy bolter fire in some ruins, and that is when the Thunderhawk Cannons had opened up, pulverising the stone to dust and rubble in seconds. Everything had gone black.
But he lived. If it was pure blind luck or the will of Khorne, he had survived the onslaught. From what he could see where he lay, pinned to the ground by a large piece of rubble lying across his leg, he was the only one.
He started trying to move, and noticed as he did so that several warning runes were blinking on the display of his helmet. His ancient terminator armour was damaged. Nothing irreparable but some of the power feeds were down, meaning his weapons would be offline and there would be little power to the suits movement servos. It was keeping him alive, but that was all.
With a surge of brute strength he pulled himself into a sitting position and kicked the beam off his damaged leg, grunting with pain. The armour was cracked and his leg felt broken where the beam had landed. Looking around, he could see the broken bodies of several of his warband, their power armour smashed open and blood already drying in the cold air; it seemed like once again, the sheer mass of his terminator armour had saved his life.
Movement near what was left of the doorway of the building caught his eye and his head snapped around. Power-armoured figures were moving through the gloom, picking their way through the rubble. Loyalist scum coming to check their cowardly bombardment had finished the job? Morgar’ak prepared himself for a burst of bolter fire…but no, as the lead figure drew closer he could make out that his power armour was an older version, and was decked out with spikes and brass. He was a warrior of Khorne.
The Chaos Space Marine drew closer, and as he moved into the glare of Morgar’aks’ lighting array a bone white helmet gleamed. Now Morgar’ak knew who they were; members of the Wrath warband. These berserkers were noted even among the frenzied warriors of Khorne for their insanity and savagery. They had no tactical objectives and no organisation; they existed only to fight and kill and they didn’t care who. Morgar’ak gripped the trigger of his ancient chainfist subconsciously, even knowing that the weapon would not work with his armour damaged as it was.
The leader of the Wrath marines stooped over one of the fallen World Eaters, reaching down to turn the marine onto his back with the grinding sound of ceramite on broken masonry. Morgar’ak watched as the berserker activated his chainsword, with a screeching buzz that filled the air, and slowly lowered the spinning teeth to the breastplate of the fallen World Eater’s armour, tearing a deep cut into and through the power armour. Blood sprayed out as the armour parted and the chainsword cut deep into the flesh underneath.
Morgar’ak watched helplessly, his rage kept in check despite the pain of the Butcher’s Nails urging him to surge forwards, as the Berserker Champion lowered his chainsword and slowly removed his bone-white helmet with the other hand. The face underneath was more horrifying than the skull-mask of his helmet; pale, fleshless and savage, and his eyes had the mad, flickering stare of one who is truly lost.
“Blood for the blood god!” he intoned, and it was repeated by the marines with him, their voices shrill and urgent. He reached down, his power-armoured gauntlet pushing the armour plates of his victim apart as he reached deep into the chest. With a roar of triumph he pulled his hand back, clutching the dead World Eater’s primary heart. “Blood!” he roared again, before devouring the heart, ripping chunks of it with his sharpened teeth, blood dripping down his chin.
Morgar’ak had heard that the Wrath were cannibals, lost so far in blood-lust that their desire for blood and flesh that they spent more time scavenging the battlefield than taking on the enemy in glorious combat. It seemed the stories were true. They were a shame to Khorne.
Still dripping blood, the Wrath berserker advanced on Morgar’ak and he knew he would be next. Pushing down with his near-useless chainfist Morgar’ak roared with the effort as he pushed himself to his feet, his powered-down armour feeling heavy and sluggish. The berserker’s chainsword whined as it powered up, and a second droning buzz joined the noise as another berserker approached from Morgar’ak’s right, hefting a bloody chain axe.
Morgar’ak stood motionless, towering over the two attackers, his natural height increased by the bulk of his armour. He knew that he would be overpowered if he waited, and the loss of the powered servos in his armour would make him much slower to respond to their attacks. There was also the problem of his chain-fist motor being out of action, in addition the field generator for his lightning claw. All he had at this moment was a sharp edge on each fist. That would have to do.
At that moment the chain-axe berserker raised his arm to strike, but Morgar’ak was quicker, moving with the speed of a striking snake despite his cumbersome armour, and backhanding his massive and ancient chainfist across the Wrath marine’s throat, the force of the blow enough to drive the adamantium teeth of the weapon through the armour and deep enough into his flesh to nearly sever his head. At the same time, Morgar’ak sensed the berserker-champion moving, and he raised his left hand, pivoting on his broken left leg with a howl of agony but stabbing the middle two fingers of his lightning claw straight through the champion’s throat. His chainsword, already powering down as the berserker choked to death, bounced harmlessly off Morgar’ak’s shoulder armour.
The rest of the Wrath warband started to move forwards, coming together after watching the death off their champions, and Morgar’ak was able to make out their full numbers for the first time as they emerged through the gloom. Even with his armour and weapons fully operational he could not hope to stand against so many, alone.
Time seemed to slow down. As he often did in times of crisis, Morgar’ak felt the presence of Khorne in his mind. In battle, Khorne fortified him and intensified his rage, an invisible hand pushing him towards where the fighting was thickest and where the most valuable skulls could be taken. Other times, he felt that this God guided him, keeping him on the path of battle, conquest and victory. And now, he felt the presence of Khorne when there seemed no hope.
He was alone. He was injured and his armour was damaged. To get off this world and get his armour repaired he needed a warband. To survive, he needed a warband. There was a warband in front of him, and he had just killed their leaders. Khorne willed, and the path was clear. Morgar’ak nearly laughed; his hand had been forced into allying himself with the least honourable band of Chaos marines who called themselves worshippers of Khorne…but what choice did he have?
He hefted the dead marine off his left hand, throwing him to the feet of the approaching Wrath marines, forcing them to stop. He lifted both arms out wide, appealing to the Wrath marines in what was to be a desperate gamble.
“Brothers of Khorne!” He bellowed, gesturing at the dead champion. “An offering from Khorne! Blood for the Blood God!”.
As the Wrath marines dived headlong onto the charnel offering, Morgar’ak was sure he could hear the sound of metallic laughter from deep inside his head…

 

TL:DR - Morgar'ak ends up a solo survivor of a WE band and is forced to become the Warlord of the Wrath warband to survive. 

 

I'll start posting how far I've got with building Morgar'ak and his buddies below, just post this to check it works first!

[RobWrath]

So who is Morgar'ak? He's a WE legionaire of old. Ferociously devoted to Khorne, but also driven by his outright hatred of the Imperium. Not a mindless berserker but his rage is amplified in battle by the Butcher's Nails.

 

I always imagined him as bigger and stronger than average (in fact in 2e I wrote some special rules for him in this regard), but the Warlord Trait and the fact all the SM's have grown since then kind of makes up for that. 

 

So lets have a look at him.

 

 

Not much yet, but I'm just at the stage of working out how he's going to be assembled, hence all the blue tac.

 

My berserkers are part of my Call of Chaos vow so they are built and in the process of being painted. I will post some pics of them up next.

[Dragonlover]

Oh sweet, another Daemonkin warband! These guys are the ones with bone helmets right?

 

Dragonlover

[RobWrath]

Oh sweet, another Daemonkin warband! These guys are the ones with bone helmets right?

 

Dragonlover

Yup, these dudes (thanks for the prompt to post some berserkers!).

 

Demons will no doubt follow. I have been wanting a Bloodthirster since my playing days in 2e, and the new ones look...well, the actually frighten me. 

But all I have at the moment is these cool guys from 2e, and they are as close as I can currently get to a finished model to show you! 

Quite happy with my paintjob on these, apart from the swords. Didn't get them quite right.

 

[Brother Mayhem]

Nice work, I like the Banner Beserker. I've painted all of my Khornate units as the Wrath too, great colour scheme. 

[RobWrath]

Nice work, I like the Banner Beserker. I've painted all of my Khornate units as the Wrath too, great colour scheme. 

Ah, another one. When I first looked around I couldn't really find many examples of Khorne CSMs painted as the Wrath. But it seems there are a few lurking around.

 

I think they will look superb on the tabletop en masse, especially once there's a mix of berserkers, champions, terminators. Perhaps a Wrath helbrute.

 

And then of course we get to model and paint Arbra'Gax...

[Dragonlover]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm the only person on earth with an army painted up as The Harvest.

 

How'd you do the two handed chainaxe? AoS parts?

 

Dragonlover

[RobWrath]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm the only person on earth with an army painted up as The Harvest.

 

How'd you do the two handed chainaxe? AoS parts?

 

Dragonlover

I was tempted by Brazen Beasts as I like the darker, heavier reds. But the fluff says they are well into war engines and I'm not. 

I also previously painted a squad of BL veterans (as was) with bone-white helmets, along with the Lord of that particular army. And it looked cool. So that sold me.

 

I've completely forgotten the bits I used but yes, I picked up a set of arms from an Aos kit holding a 2-handed flail, cut the flail head off (which will be used elsewhere, you can play spot the part) and stuck the chainaxe on.

 

A lot of my guys have bare arms and the champs are bare chested. 

[RobWrath]

Another little update. 

I took the plunge and glued together my first couple of assault terminators.

The sergeant has a non-legal weapons but it looks cool and in a game I'd choose one of his CC weapons (chainfist or power axe) and the combi plasma.

The trophy rack is build of a few little bits from the standard CSM sprue.

 

The standard termi is my first attempt at cobbling together a pair of Lightning Claws from cataphractii claws - it's quite hard to remove those strands of fabric without losing the shape of the glove. I think this is ok. Bit of greenstuffing needed on both but they are more or less there.

 

I also did a bit of painting, working towards my Call of Chaos vow (of a squad of berserkers).

 

So now we have the champion with the basic colours blocked in (haven't done his skin yet - I'm thinking of going for a dark brown colour...any thoughts?), plus the banner bearer.

The eagle-eyed will spot some classic looking chaps at the back, very much making up the numbers. I actually used them as test minis for the colour scheme...but they can hang around a bit.

[RobWrath]

So last night I sat down to build some more berserkers and found that somehow my numbers of legs, bodies, arms and shoulder pads do not add up. So I need to do some bits orders.

 

I also had a free hour to sit down with a very sharp knife and start a project I've been planning for a few weeks - a Dark Apostle for my warband.

 

I'd done some advance bits shopping and had all the bits I needed; I just had to do some very careful cutting.

So here his is as he currently stands:

 

You can play a game of 'spot the bits' if you like; his torso, shoulder, forearm, hand and weapon are all cut from different places and joined. 

I'm quite pleased with how that looks; my idea was to emphasis the massive musculature of his right shoulder, holding his weapon above his head.

 

Haven't fixed the other arm yet, and regular BnCers will notice I've 'borrowed' the idea of the Apostle carrying a Khornate warhorn from KrautScientist. Hey, it's a good idea!

 

I've also realised I should probably model the armour plugs on the upper bodies of all my bare-chested marines. Fortunately, I came up with an idea of how to do that this morning.

 

I will also write up the fluff idea I have for him.

Edited November 20, 2018 by RobWrath

[RobWrath]

Bit of progress on the DA. Right hand slightly repositioned and glued, left hand glued but not fixed to his body yet.

 

I've also managed to find him a backpack with a cape.

 

 

Trying to decide whether to model armour plugs onto his chest or not. I'm sure I've seen people who have done it. 

Think just a little blob of greenstuff would work?

[RobWrath]

Progress on the berzerkers. Definite progress. Red done bar the final edge highlights, metallics done. Still plenty of fiddly stuff to do but as these are my first painted models for 20 years I'm not too displeased how they are shaping up.

 

[Dragonlover]

I think for armour plugs you probably want something a little more hard edged. Maybe plasticard tubing?

 

Dragonlover

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Well done.

[RobWrath]

I think for armour plugs you probably want something a little more hard edged. Maybe plasticard tubing?

 

Dragonlover

 

Mm, yeah. I was hoping to use something I had kicking around anyway, a gun barrel or something. Not seen anything that was just right though.

 

My best idea was the sheath of a bit of electrical wiring, with the wire left in the back to pin it to the chest. But it looked just slightly too big. 

[RobWrath]

A very subtle amount of progress, probably undetectable to the naked eye.

 

I'm building up the highlights on the red and black armour - but doing it slowly, using several layers of thinned paint. 

It's not a way I've done it in the past but I'm hoping it will give a better and smoother effect. 

 

Metallic is done, bone is done except for the final highlight of pure white. I think finishing the bases will make a big difference but I've also decided I want to rebase them on 30mm; the 25mm bases look puny now. I may wait until after the CoC finishes to do that though.

 

[RobWrath]

Ok, bases aside I think these guys are done. Comments and advice appreciated. I have a load more models of this warband to paint and I'd like to improve as I go along.

 

I've done very little to the eyes, as everything I did made them look worse!

 

[RobWrath]

Models have been re-based, undercoated black. Bit of grey needed and we're done.

 

Also working on a bit more of my warband's backstory fluff, I'll add that shortly.

[RobWrath]

More progress! I finished my COC vow and have my first 5 models complete! I have another couple partially painted in my 'to do' pile but I was never going to get them done in time.

 

 

Unhappy with:

The eyes. Just can't get them right.

 

Happy with:

The red power armour and the overall colour scheme. Think my warband is going to look great as a tabletop force.

 

I also did some cutting, sticking and greenstuffing, and have my Dark Apostle ready to paint. 

For the time being he's going to by my warlord so he's pretty grand. He's also huge, as you can probably tell from the scale against the terminator in the short below.

 

His torso, right arm and right hand are all from separate models - I did some very careful cutting and then blended them together with GS. I think it's pretty seamless and hopefully the joins really wont show once it's painted. 

 

 

I also did a bit more work on my next squad - some close combat 'berserker' terminators. The sergeant has a power axe and chainfist (yes I know it's not a legal combo) and the others have Lightning Claws of various designs. Here's the latest - Cataphractii claws joined to a Chainfist base. Bit of smoothing to do but I think it looks ok.

 

 

Comments and advice appreciated!

 

Edited December 11, 2018 by RobWrath

[RobWrath]

Bunch of pictures to add as updates today. I have kind of more or less finished assembling the 5 man Terminator Assault squad. I wanted to give them a squad vibe but an individual look - so they are all different but all quite, well, spiky. Lets see them all together.

 

 

Worth mentioning that none of the paintwork is mine - they were an ebay bargain and they were partially painted. Basically undercoated with some gold trim. Shouldn't be a bother to paint over. 

 

Terminator Sergeant Vilkas, carries a power axe and a bespoke chainfist with a combi-plasma built into the back. I'll write some fluff about who's skeleton that is on top. Almost certainly a loyal Marine of some flavour.

 

Brother Zezen. The squad's banner-bearer, has an icon of Wrath mounted on top of his armour. he also has particularly ornate Lightning Claws (I've put trimmed down AoS gorefists over the top to hide the clunky joins between the cataphractii claws and the regular terminator armour).

 

Brother Byk. He has Raptor lighting claws, which I think look fine on a terminator. 

 

Brother Abkhaz. I made his lighting claws by cutting cataphractii claws to fit at the ends of chainfist gloves. Think it looks fairly seamless, and certainly will with a bit more filing, a bit of GS and some paint. 

 

Brother Arth. Went for another different approach to making LCs here; for his left hand I cut a chainfist at the wrist and attached the claw over. Needs some filling with greenstuff. The right hand is actually from a Terminator heavy flamer. Again needs some filling.

 

I am undecided whether to fit the backs of all the Lightning Claws with gorefist bits so that they all match. Or whether to basically leave them as they are now. 

Any thoughts?

 

Next conversion project is building the remainder of my berserkers.

 

I think I should have enough bits for 2 squads of 8 (perhaps even 2 squads of 9 or 10, gasp) with a distinct berserker chamption (bare-chested with a chaos knight helmet and a power fist). I've also put some cool bits aside to make an exalted champ to buff one of the squads. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RobWrath]

Berserker box now transformed into a bunch of berserkers, using a mix of part from the current berserker kit, the standard CSM kit, some AOS bits and even some old Necromunda plastic bits. Pictures to follow!

 

Also slipped and cut myself very deeply while cutting a 25mm base off so they have been born in blood!

 

Blood for the Blood God!

[RobWrath]

Picture time!

 

I did my best to pose these guys in slightly different positions than usual. Some filling to do and a lot of sprue cleaning but I think some of these guys look pretty cool so far.

 

[RobWrath]

Did a review of my painted vs unpainted models. See below; painted models on the right.

 

 

MUST STOP BUILDING MODELS AND GET ON WITH PAINTING THEM!

[RobWrath]

Yeah....that didn't go so well. Built an exalted champion. 

I wanted him to have a striding sort of pose, and a double-handed axe. 

 

Not sold on the head yet - my current idea is to use the skull head as shown but bling it up a bit with perhaps a row of spikes like a crest. I can try it - I've got loads of spare heads. 

 

Also might trim down some AoS gorefists and use them as pauldrons, or rather stuck over the existing ones (with the Chaos stars filed off).

 

[RobWrath]

A note - this project is going to be on hold for a bit while I paint up my Blood Bowl team(s). 

 

I'll come back to it later!