Lots of Red: 1st Painting Batch Done!

The first batch of painting is done and (finally!) photographed. Sorry the photos aren't very good, my camera is rubbish and my house is dark...

Djymikh the Debaser is a patron of Hans Kho'ren of the World Eaters. When Hans Kho'ren's Skull Takers were recruited by Angron for the attack on Armageddon, Ymmikh accompanied them, eager to shed blood in Khorne's name.

Bunankh the Deranger is the beast that broke the mind of the Red Cardinal of Iddesleigh. The Blood Cardinal, plagued by visions of a grinning daemon torturing him to death whilst his entire world burnt, lead the horrific Crusade of Peace in order to root out the evil which he believed must lurk in the populace of Iddesleigh. The innocent agri-worlders were entirely wiped out, a task started by the Blood Cardinal's fanatical followers and finished by Unnakh himself once enough blood had been shed to allow him to enter the physical world. The Red Cardinal was the last person on the world to die, impaled on the spire of his cathedral by the mocking Bunankh. Now he seeks to destroy Armageddon as he did Iddesleigh...

The Bone Collectors. Once mortal champions of Khorne, they walk the fine line between Spawnhood and Daemon Princedom: vastly mutated beyond their mortal bodies, but only just maintaining control over their form and mind. They spend their lives shedding blood and collecting kills for Khorne: to keep him smiling upon them; to persuade him to not smite them into Spawn; and possibly to convince him to bless them as Daemon Princes.

I love the way that characters in Black Crusade have to balance their infamy vs their corruption, that whole idea seems a wonderfully Realm of Chaos vibe. These are my counts-as Bloodcrushers

This particular group of Bloodletters were all created from the blood shed in fights between Space Marines, between those who should be brothers. They first emerged in the Horus Heresy, as Angron purged his legion on Istvaan III, and have followed his career ever since - from Ultramar to Terra to the Eye of Terror. Now that Angron has descended from the Devourer of Stars to destroy Armageddon and its Space Wolf defenders, they pull themselves out of the Immaterium once more, formed from the blood of Astartes of both sides.

Mankind has always told tales of horrors lurking the shadows, violent man-shaped beasts waiting to emerge and devour. From beyond the circle of light cast by flickering campfires to under the beds and in the cupboards of brightly-lit hab-blocks, people have always stared fearfully into the dark. And with good reason, for in the liminal shadows these bestial Bloodletters wait...

Born long ago in a terrible crusade between two armies of heavily armoured knights, both believing that they fought for the One True God, these Bloodletters have always flocked to violence and sought to use mankind's violent urges to create rents in reality.

So along with 3 Soul Grinders (using my Daemon-Knights models) this is 1,500pts of Chaos Daemons! Next step: 4 more small-sized Bloodthirsters (who, like these 2, will be used in games either as Bloodthirsters or as Daemon Princes), and then I'll have my birthday and with that extra cash I'm going to get the new Bloodthirster and bits for more Bloodthirsters in his scale. And also, with Khorne Daemonkin now released, I quite want to build some Chaos Space Marines and some Cultists...

The Kitbashed Bloodthirster

My second Bloodthirster is based around the spare torso that comes in the Bloodthirster box, plus a raid on my bits collection. You get 2 torsoes in the box because one head has an attached neck and the other doesn't. A nice bonus, I thought!

The legs are the back legs of a Forgefiend/Maulerfiend, they have that goaty feel that's oh so Khornate. Plus lots of pistons, helping anchor the model in 40k. They were joined by a plastruct tube, and then I filled it all in and bulked it out with green stuff.

The head is from a defiler, and the wings are from a daemon prince. The lower arms are also from a daemon prince - the whip/tentacle arm is meant to be his tail.

He just needs a chain going up his rear - I've got to dig around deep in my craft box, but I'm sure I remember seeing one in there.

And now one final shot, of the family so far. This guy is a bit less tall than the official Bloodthirster, due to the wings, but he's got a bulkier lower body and I don't think it's game-breaking. Next I need to work on both their bases, and then break out the paint!

The Classic Bloodthirster

"That day, we faced twelve. The Cruor Praetoria, the twelve strongest; the twelve daemons whose lives and deeds most pleased their wretched Blood God over fourty thousand years of warfare."

Here's my first Bloodthirster. He might be downgraded to a Daemon Prince rules-wise once the new stuff arrives, if the new kit is too much bigger! Over time, he might even drop out of my count of the twelve. But for now, he's a start...

For my first Bloodthirster I decided to pretty much assemble the classic Bloodthrister kit it as it comes, to provide inspiration / scale guidance for the rest. Of course, I had to make some modifications. Otherwise it'd be boring.

I started by making the legs more dynamic - so easy with Finecast, I just dunked them in boiling water for a minute, bent them to their new pose, and then put them under the cold tap. I wanted to make him look like he's running, add a sense of movement, so I also added the whip the wrong way round. I think that makes it seems more that he's sprinting forwards, just in the moment of cracking the whip down. My previous models for my Adeptus Mechanicus & Dark Mechanicus (viewable here http://admech.blogspot.com) are quite static, so I'm keen to use this project to experiment with more dynamic models and poses.

I want all of my Bloodthirsters to have at least *something* that makes them more 40k than WFB, some technology, so I changed the head. I also want them to work alongside my planned Forge of Souls / Dark Mechanicus daemon army, so a technological edge is essential. I quite like the idea of them all having helmets rather than uncovered heads, this may continue for the entire army of 13. The head is from the vehicle upgrade sprue, an excellent little sprue that I use lots.