Ringleaders of the tormentors

Now, the semi-cryptic Morrissey reference would have made much more sense if my small band of Traitor Guard were actually called “The Tormentors”, but oh well…

Anyway, I would like to show you yet more traitors today, and that’s where the ringleader part comes in: The old LNTD list allows you to field up to three Chaos Space Marine champions as a part of your traitor force. They are supposed to represent Chaos Space Marines that left their legions behind (or fallen loyal Space Marines for that matter), trying to build up their own forces. But when I started converting my traitors, I felt that I would prefer my Chaos champions to look more like they had once belonged to the same Imperial regiment as the rest of the force. Another advantage to this strategy would be that the models would be equally usable in different army lists (Chaos Champions in LNTD, officers in IG and Vraksian Renegade Militia). And I also figured that it might be a cool idea to build some champions that could be perceived to be aligned with a special Chaos God. In an overall undivided force, these would be leading squads pledged to a single god in battle. The overall theme of a rogue regiment of the Imperial Guard would remain intact, however. So with that in mind, I started converting my “ringleaders”. Here’s what I did.

The first model simply sprang from the desire to convert the WFB plastic Nurgle Lord – it’s just such a cool model that I simply couldn’t resist. Cameron’s fantastic Renegade Sergeant was also a tremendous inspiration! Even though I stayed closer to the original model in my conversion, it really didn’t take a lot to “40k-ify” the model. This is a WIP shot:

Basically all I did was to change his weapons and add a couple of bits and bobs: Instead of a two-handed axe, I used a Bolt Pistol (from the Khorne Berzerkers) and a vicious looking weapon from the WFB Chaos Knights. I had to add a bit of greenstuff to the wound where the axe handle normally rests across his belly, but apart from that, it was a fairly easy kitbash. I also added a slightly converted CSM backpack, some cabling and an electrical coil to make him look less medieval.

When painting him up, I eschewed the standard Nurgle scheme of greens and browns in favour of using my “regular” traitor colour scheme, because I wanted to tie him in with the rest of the force. I then went back and added all kinds of rust and weathering effects to represent the rot and corruption that is so typical of servants of Nurgle. Here’s the finished model:

Not only is the plastic Nurgle Lord a fantastic model, it’s also a huge amount of fun to make the paintjob go as disgusting as possible! I added some nasty yellow pustules and used gloss varnish to make his open wounds and sores look all the more horrible. But while the model clearly reads as a champion of Nurgle, he still shares the same colours as my other traitors.

As for a suitable retinue, I am thinking about a “Chem-Squad” of some sort, a unit of trenchers with gas masks, sporting a look between medieval and World War I. I am still looking for the perfect recipe, although the models will probably be based on Bretonnian Men-at-arms, taking inspiration from Dave Taylor’s fantastic “Genswick Rifles”. All in due time…

For the time being, I contented myself with building a second officer for my Traitor Guard. Here he is:

As look at the severed heads might tell you, this guy is pledged to Khorne. I didn’t want him to look too similar to a World Eater though, so I went for something a bit more subdued.

The basic model consists of the torso of the new WFB plastic chaos wizard combined with the legs from an old plastic Goliath ganger from Necromunda. I added a bare arm from the Gor kit and a chainsword arm from the normal Chaos Space Marines. The scarred head came from the Cadian command squad and was a perfect fit.

Once again, the paintjob uses the same colours as the rest of the traitors. I must say it was quite a nice change to be painting a follower of Khorne with very little red.
This guy could eventually end up leading a squad of beastmen or something of the like. But he also makes a rather nice “normal” traitor officer.

That leaves only Tzeentch and Slaanesh, although I already have a couple of ideas…

In the meantime, let’s take a look at the bigger picture: All in all, I am rather pleased with the development of my small Traitor Guard force! As of this post, here’s where the army’s at (click for a bigger picture):

The command squad and one squad of traitors are complete. The Ogryns are playable (althoug I’ll add at least one more model to the squad). I also have a number of additional champions. Another squad of traitors as well as a mysterious transport vehicle have been built but have yet to be painted. Like I said, a squad of creepy, faceless WWI-esque trenchers would be nice, and maybe there’ll be a squad of beastmen or a full blown Leman Russ at some point? Or a couple of heavy weapons teams? Or cavalry? Whatever’s fun to build and paint, I guess! With the rules for allies, I can actually use these guys even without having a fully rounded out force. I also really don’t give a hoot about their power on the table. For me, it’s usually enough that they look the part.

Let me know what you think in the comments section. As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Six months of eternal hunting

This post marks the six month anniversary of my blog. While this may not be a particularly long time in the greater universal scheme, I am still quite proud to have reached this first milestone. A few words, if I may:

Numbers and fun facts:

• I managed to churn out 50 posts in the last six months (this is no. 51), with most of them actually featuring some kind of conversion or paintjob. Considering my rather spotty working discipline, that’s quite a feat!
• I managed to rack up a little more than 6,500 views. Huzzah! What’s more, there’s a steady trickle of comments coming in, so I no longer feel like I am talking to myself all the time. Still, there can never be enough feedback, so speak up, people!
• I ‘ve managed to get in touch with lots of very talented artists and extremely dedicated bloggers. This was maybe the most fun, as people I had worshipped as “hobby deities” started commenting over here or replied to comments I made on their blogs. Blogging helped me to become a part of this community and to get in contact with some great people: Ron from FTW, Commissar Molotov and the INQ28 gang over at the Ammobunker, Col. Shofer, Cameron, the Spiky Rat Pack, Miniature Tim, Morbäck, HOTpanda and Mordian 7th, to name just a few. That was awesome!
• People from as many as 68 different countries around the globe visited this blog. That was really quite a surprise for me, but you’re all quite welcome! The more, the merrier, I say! I just hope that you didn’t merely stumble on this by accident while you were actually looking for something worthwile to read…
• I managed to get my English in working order again. While this was basically the “grownup” pretext for me blogging about toy soldiers, it’s still really nice to see that I am now much more fluent at expressing my thoughts in a foreign language than I was six months ago, the odd grammar hiccup here and there notwithstanding. So if what I write still doesn’t make any sense to you, rest assured that it would probably be just as garbled in my native German.
• blogging did indeed help me to continuously keep working on my hobby projects. The necessity of producing content for this blog acts as a pretty effective incentive for getting stuff done. Then again, blogging is quite a lot of work, so I guess it all balances out in the end. But like I said,  it’s great to be part of a larger community of hobbyists instead of only fiddling about in the mancave without any external input.

Thanks:

This blog definitely doesn’t function in a vacuum, so I feel that some thanks are in order. So thank you very much…

• …to all the people reading this blog: seeing that people are interested in stuff I do constitutes a – sometimes much needed – boost to keep me hanging on during more stressful times.
• …to this blog’s followers: you guys are obviously even more awesome than the readers
• …to all the people linking to this blog or commenting, helping me to conquer the blogosphere one hashtag at a time
• …to all the commenters on my threads at Dakka, the Ammobunker, Throne of Skulls and GW Fanworld, for basically all the same reasons.
• …and of course to my dear cousin Andy for fanning anew the flames of my old addiction and for repeatedly handing me my ass at 40k and of course for serving as an nearly unlimited repository of obscure plastic bitz from time to time

Resolutions:

So where do we go from here? The Eternal Hunt can obviously never be finished, so it’ll all keep going, I guess. Here’s a little gameplan for you:

• more content: It goes without saying that I will keep producing content for this blog. Some of it might even be interesting! While it may not always be possible to stick to the posting schedule of twice a week during more stressful times, there will be something new every once in a while; That much I can promise you.
• new projects: Of course there’ll be new hobby projects too, be it terrain or new models. Actually, I’ll post a whole new army project of mine soon-ish — as if I didn’t already have enough on my plate, right?
• new series: I’ll also be tackling the occasional new series, for example the tentatively titled “Totally worth it”, where I’ll be speaking about hidden wargaming gems, lost tabletop treasures and underappreciated classic — according to me, that is. I’ll also be throwing in the odd anecdote from my clumsy adventures in wargaming, of course.
• more games: Coming mainly from the converting and kitbashing side of the hobby spectrum, the actual gaming sometimes tends to feel like an afterthought to me: Sure, it’s actually giving you something to do with all those little plastic men, but there are days when 40k just feels bothersome, glacially slow and counterintuitive. But then, there are sometimes moments of pure clarity, where everything just clicks and your army comes alive on the tabletop, and you are inspired for days or even weeks to come, writing fluff or doing conversions to honour those moments. I guess I’ll have to put more games in, in the pursuit of those rare, elusive moments of perfection.
• more World Eaters: Showcasing the work on my World Eaters army, Khorne’s Eternal Hunt, was what spurred me into action in the first place, so you may rest assured that a sizable portion of this blog will always be dedicated to the warriors of the XIIth Astartes legion — however, that means that I’ll also have to buckle up and actually paint more of the guys. Quite a task, seeing how my cupboard of shame is getting bigger and bigger, especially concerning my World Eaters.

But let’s wind up this post on an uplifting note, shall we? I’ll just show you a picture of all the World Eaters models that I actually managed to get painted. Here they are:

There’ll be more shortly. Until then, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more! I’d be honoured if you all joined me for the next six months of eternal hunting 😉

Inquisitor 28: Inquisitor Erasmus Gotthardt

Once I had begun putting together Inquisitor Antrecht and his retinue, I found myself thinking about both possible friends and enemies of his as well. Today, I would like to introduce you to a man who, in a way, is both. Meet Inquisitor Erasmus Gotthardt.

I am always easily drawn towards certain visual archetypes. One that really fascinated me while browsing through the Inquisitor rulebook was that of Inquisitor Tyrus: A massive, implacable man, quite intimidating and possibly terrifying to behold, as he is slowly advancing towards his quarry. So in a way, Inquisitor Gotthardt started out as a way of building a character similar to Tyrus at the 28mm scale.

Here’s the result:

I started with an AOBR Terminator to make the model look suitably massive. However, I didn’t want him to be wearing a standard Terminator armour, so I added a couple of bits to individualise the armour: The shoulderpads are armour plates from the Ork boyz kit, while his chestplate came from a Chaos Space Marine. I also added scrolls and decorations to make him look more like an Inquisitor and less like a Marine sergeant. The head is from a WFB Empire flagellant.

Regarding the paintjob, I went for the classic “Inquisitorial” colours of gold and crimson for a rather regal look.  I have to be honest with you, though: That meant I could also use the Inquisitor as a test piece of sorts for the colour scheme I wanted to use for a small Custodes project. Oh, and I decided to paint his energy mace in light blue to make it pop more.

All in all, Inquisitor Gotthardt is quite an imposing figure. One thing that’s important to note though is that he is not actually supposed to be wearing Terminator armour! He may be based on an AOBR Termie, but I wanted his armour to look if it was more of a special design. If I ever were to do an INQ28 Space Marine, it would be a truescale version, so he would look just as big as, if not a little bigger than Gotthardt. So the armour is really supposed to be some “regular” power armour, pretty much like the one Tyrus is wearing. Maybe it’s even only partial power armour. I really only build him that way for looks, not because I wanted him to be invincible during games.

As for the character’s background, I already mentioned that, while working on the model, I hwas thinking of Gotthardt as some kind of Tyrus-expy: A bombastic, narrowminded Monodominant, strict in his rejection of what he considers to be Heresy (i.e. pretty much everything). However, as I began to think about the various possible members of his retinue, Inquisitor Gotthardt’s character somehow slowly began to transform. I now see him as more of a “good guy” (insofar as that category can even be applied to Inquisitors at all): fair and straightforward, if a little orthodox in his philosophy. But at the same time, he is a tortured man, full of insecurity over his old friend Antrecht’s seeming betrayal and torn between what he believes is right and what Antrecht has told him during their various confrontations (Fear not however, the role of pompous, insane Monodominant will be filled by somebody else — I have a plan!).

So with this gradual shift of his character in mind, I sat down to write a short piece of background for Inquisitor Gotthardt:

Inquisitor Erasmus Gotthardt, Ordo Hereticus (formerly of the Ordo Malleus)

Inquisitor Erasmus Gotthardt is a man torn. Torn between old loyalties and his beliefs. Torn between what he has been told and what he believes to be right.

Once he was one of Inquisitor Antrecht’s closest friends, and both of them worked tirelessly to smite the daemon wherever it was found. Many were their exploits in the service of the Ordo Malleus, and their friendship endured through all the hardships they had to face during their arduous work.

The two of them went separate ways when Antrecht set out on a quest to take down the notorious heretic Amnon Helix, and they did not see each other for a long time. So Gotthardt was all the more shocked when he heard the accusations leveled at Antrecht after the disappearance of Witch Hunter Ferrante. He could not believe that his friend could have fallen so far, so he sought him out in order to make him see reason.

During their confrontation, Gotthardt implored his old friend to finally come clean, to accompany him before the Conclave and deal with the accusations. Gotthardt felt that they were beginning to work out some kind of understanding, but then the rash and fanatic Inquisitor Fiegmund, an erstwhile pupil of Ferrante,  interrupted their discussion and tried to apprehend Antrecht by force. In the ensuing three-way fight, Ferrante was attacked and horribly maimed by Antrecht’s Daemonhost, while the Inquisitor managed to get away. Afterwards, the Inquisitorial Conclave at Pervatia Secundus addressed the question of how best to stop Antrecht. Inquisitor Gotthardt was thorougly examined and interrogated due to his connections to the fugitive and the grievous injuries dealt to another member of the Holy Ordos, and there were those who suspected that he was Antrecht’s accomplice in the matter. Riddled with doubt over what he had witnessed and weakened by his long interrogations, Gotthardt adressed the Conclave:

“You may keep arguing about whether there is any method to Lazarus Antrecht’s madness. You may keep searching for a name to give to his philosophy: Call it Istvaanianism or Antrechtism or call it by its true names: Madness. Heresy. That is the only classification I need. And though I may weep for the friend I lost, I must not waver in my task. For he whom I knew is dead and gone, and the last service that I may do him is to run down and take out the monster that he has become.”

***

As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Huntmaster Isgarad

Say about the new 40k rules what you want: One change I as a World Eaters player can only applaud is the addition of challenges. It’s easy to see why I might be in favour of this: It’s a cool way of adding cinematic moments to a game, and it’s also something that fits my army’s fluff rather nicely. It’s also a rather nice throwback to my own Warhammer Fantasy times of yore. In fact, cousin Andy and me sometimes threw in duels between our generals when we felt like it, even when the rules did not yet officially allow it.

But if you want to have warlords and duels and all that, you really need a model who looks like it could pull its own weight, right? Wouldn’t want to get caught in a challenge with a model that looks unimpressive. Well, by lucky chance, I had built the right guy for the jobsome time ago and painted himt just in time for 6th edition…

First of all, let me say that the Chaos Lord in Terminator armour is easily one of my favourite plastic kits. It’s full of options, it delivers quite a bit of bang for the buck, and it’s easy enough to add some extra variety to the kit with the addition of stuff from your bitzbox. So I am not ashamed to say that I already built several of those Termie lords — all I can say in my defense is that it’s a lot of fun — much more fun than painting them, unfortunately!

That said, some time ago, I felt that I had to built a truly intimidating model for my World Eaters. So I cracked open a brand new Termie lord kit, gathered a couple of additional bits and got to work. I wanted the model to look like a truly accomplished warrior of the 12th Astartes legion. I also wanted to add a certain amount of dynamism to the model, making it look like it was in the midst of battle. And I wanted to add some decorative bits to show that this guy is not just some run of the mill Chaos Terminator. Here’s what I ended up with:

As you can see, most of the parts are from the Termie lord kit. I added a Bloodletter sword as his primary weapon and built his sword arm from a Terminator arm, a Chaos Knight forearm and the sword itself. I also gave him a power fist, just because it looked cool. I added a Chaos Marauder shield to his fist as some kind of combat shield. This type of shield is also a recurring visual motif in my army. Parts of a Marauder standard were used to build a crest for his head to represent a more individualised type of the classic Khornate “bunny ears”. I also used shoulderpads from the Chaos Knight kit to make his armour look like it was a special design.

His head is from the loyal Assault Terminators, although it definitely looks suitably angry for a World Eater. And of course I added some skulls to his amour and used them to emphasise a sense of movement. I also planned to base him using one of the very nice resin bases from the GW 40k basing kit.

I was really pleased with the conversion, since the model has a really dynamic pose and looks like it’s in the middle of a fight – or a duel, as it were.

I was a little afraid of actually painting this guy, to tell you the truth. I like this model a lot, so I was apprehensive of the possibility of screwing up the paintjob, so I put off having to paint him for quite a while. In the end, my curiosity got the better of me though, so one warm afternoon, I got to work. And fortunately, my trusted colour recipe didn’t let me down. Neither did my – sometimes a little spotty – talent for painting. What a relief!

Here’s the completed model:

However, the base did pose a bit of a problem: The resin bases, although very nice, are slightly larger than the standard Termie base for some reason. This left me with three options: Use the resin base on top of a Termie base and have it look goofy. Use it without the Termie base and have it look unfinished. Or build my own base.

So instead I looked at the elements that I really liked (the banner pole from a Space Marine officer, trampled underfoot) and tried to recreate a similar base with cork and stuff from my bitzbox. I also added a really cool resin skull (once again courtesy of Doombreed). Here’s two detail shots of the base:

It may not be as great as the resin base, but I think it’s a fairly close approximation. And it actually has the right size. I’d really like to know which rocket scientist decided to make the resin bases just slightly too big… Or am I missing something important here?

Anyway, I am mighty pleased with how this model turned out! I think he looks really intimidating, like he would be a beast to face in battle. Just right for an officer of Khorne’s Eternal Hunt.

All that’s left is to come up with some background, so that Huntmaster Isgarad may take his rightful place amongst Lorimar’s Chosen. I’ll keep you updated. Until then, let’s have a little scale shot with a normal World Eater. The Huntmaster is quite a big guy:

Alright, then, let the dueling season begin. I, for one, am ready 😉

Let me know what you think in the comments section. As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!

Speaking in tongues

I told you before that deciding on a course of action for converting my Ogryn Berserkers was pretty hard at first. Well, third time’s a charm, or so they say, so my third corrupted Ogryn was actually much easier to conceptualise and build.

Once again, fellow Chaos-worshipper Doombreed provided the main ingredient for this project: He had sent me an Ogre belonging to the Scraplauncher/Ironblaster kit some time ago. The great thing about the model was that its pose was much more intimidating than that of the regular Ogres. Combine that with the idea of a huge gatling gun, and something to make the Ogryn look suitably corrupted by the ruinous powers, aaaand…well, here’s what I managed to cook up:

As you can see, this guy actually did get a huge gun: It was spliced together from a Chaos Termie Lord’s Bolter and the barrels from a leftover Dreadnought assault cannon. Of course I also had to add a backpack with lots of ammo to the model’s back.

The other very prominent feature of this model is the horrible, prehensile tongue emerging from the Ogryn’s gaping maw. While this guy lacks his squadmates’ crude implants, I wanted to show that the powers of chaos had still found a way of corrupting him, albeit in a more direct way. So in a moment of inspiration, I cut off the Ogryn’s lower jaw and added a tentactle from the old Chaos mutation sprue. The Ogre body also has all kinds of wickedly sharp metal shards punched through the skin, so this fact in combination with the mutated head made the model look suitably twisted.

So I got to work on the paintjob with the intention of lavishing some extra attention on the model’s mouth, in order to make it look really disturbing. Apart from that, I used the same recipe as I did with the other Ogryns. Here’s the finished model:

To be honest, I am really happy with how this guy turned out! The model’s pose and weapon are a perfect fit, and the mouth and tongue are just horrible (in a good way), which makes this Ogryn a true centrepiece for the squad. I also added some spent shell cases and a skull with a bullet hole to his base as small visual flourishes.

Like I said, I took some extra care to make his mouth and tongue look as disgusting as possible. Once again, Tamiya Clear Red was an indispensable tool: I stippled it into the mouth cavity, onto the model’s chest and on the tongue for the extra wet and gory look:

All in all, this guy is really quite a monster, don’t you think?

With a model count of three, this squad is now also legally playable as Ogryns or Big Mutants. Here’s a shot of the squad so far (click for a bigger picture):

A bit like the three Stooges, huh? In any case, there’s really no mistaking them for loyal Ogryns, is there? 😉

I’ll probably add another model to the squad, but it’s in an early WIP state at the moment.

Let me know what you think in the comments section. As always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!