Techno-Barbarian Berserkers

Khorne clearly owns my soul. I'm working on a Unification-Era project, and decide to add some of the Emperor's foes, gene-bulked techno-berserkers. And then accidentally manage to make new models for my Daemonkin Army. Ah well! Here we have my first three three frothing mad berserkers. I'm no longer clear if they're from pre-Unity Terra, or the Khornate hoards of the 41st Millennium, or from Angron's pit-fighting pals in Nuceria: but they're definitely not just Age of Sigmar Khornate characters any more.

The conversions are all fairly simple: Chaos backpacks, ork nob weapons, Skitarii sicarian heads.

And this final dude is probably my counts-as Kharn, if I ever want to run him:

Converted Orruk Megaboss

Long time, no posting... Sorry about that! Here's something to make up for it: a conversion of the new Age of Sigmar Orruk Megaboss. Original plan was possibly for a pre-discovery Angron, but he's just too big and I didn't have a head that fitted which could be Angron (was tempted by the Ogre head with the chainmail face mask for a bit?) Instead he's ended up as a mini-Daemon Prince, some sort of Terminator Lord on the path to ascension. In game I'll probably run him as a Lord-on-Jugger, have him join the Bone Collectors (my Bloodcrushers).

He's been a fairly simple conversion. Head and axe head from a Daemon Prince, shoulders are the rear pads of a Forge Fiend, neck is from a Jugger. Plus a load of green stuff to fill the gaps left by not putting on the main torso armour, and a few extra bits & bobs (Khorne icon on his loincloth, DP loincloth on his rear, random grill from somewhere on his back).

Look how big he is! I really didn't realise when I bought him, thought he was a bit of a rip-off until I started making him. But no, he's worth it.

'Rage of the Dying Race': Converted Herald completed

Of all the races of the galaxy, the Eldar's souls shine brightest in the Warp. 10,000 years ago this led to their doom, when the echoes of their lusts combined to form a new god, Slaanesh, whose birth tore the Eldar Empire apart and created the Great Eye. Ever since, the Eldar have sought to control their emotions, to prevent such an event from happening again. But it is a hard road, and anger is one emotion it is hard to contain. The Rage of the Dying Race is a Herald of Khorne, formed from the overflowing fury of the Eldar: every time that an Exarch screams hatred at their foes; an Exodite vows revenge on aliens who have stepped upon their world; a Corsair spits in fury at an ambush gone wrong; or an ousted Archon curses their exile from Commorragh.

Nothing really to say about this guy's painting: I did what you'd expect, pretty much. Brass armour, red for revealed skin, glowing green things, white/grey skulls and helmet: just like the rest of my daemons.

Now on to painting marines. Lots of marines. 3 layers of red paint later, I've done the basic armour and am moving on to blacking out the bone areas:

Jugger-Helbrute

The cheapest Blood Host is a Slaughtercult plus a standard Helbrute. So if I want to get a Blood Host into a 500pts battle, a Helbrute seems a good choice! As I had Dark Vengeance sitting around, this was a quick-and-dirty addition to the force.

This model really wasn't modified much. One leg was sawn off at the hip, and stuck back on in a slightly more dynamic running pose. The head is from a jugger. But that's it. Was tempted to modify the arms, but it all seemed like far too much bother. If I make a second one I will!

Eldar-inspired Herald

This guy is a Herald of Khorne (because they're such cheap HQ choices!), who has been formed from the violent thoughts of Eldar. The perversions of the Eldar gave birth to Slaanesh, and now the Eldar have an entire way of life that attempts to deny Slaanesh by entirely focussing on other pursuits. But surely an entire slice of their population being that dedicated to the Path of the Warrior must have some sort of echo in the Warp? I've always liked the idea that there might be links between Khorne and Khaine, as well.

Obviously the body of the model is the new Exarch. He was tilted forwards slightly, given arms from Dark Elves and Dark Eldar, a head from the Chaos Chariot, and wings from the Vampire Counts Morghast. It's an odd concept, but was quite fun to make and I was worried that I'd never find anyone suitable for the Chaos Chariot head! It's too elegant to be put on a beastman/cultist/marine body.

2nd Squad of Possessed

My second possessed squad for Hans Kho'ren's Skull Takers. I had so much fun building the 1st squad, that I wanted more! Also, this enables me to take 2 Blood Hosts, which seems an amazing idea for maximising Blood Tithe points.

These guys have the Roman-style shoulder pads from the Marauders kit. Mostly because I'd run out of the ones with the spikes... I think that they still look gladiatorial though, so still fit with the theme. I think that this champion is possibly my favourite non-HQ model I've made so far. The Wrathmonger legs, horn-swapped head, his mini-daemon-prince pose... I even like his trophy rack more than the ones on other champions!

Kagh Bo'orchu completed!

Hans Kho'ren has always preached that the aim of a Space Marine is to emulate their Primarch. His loyal apothecary, Kagh Bo'orchu, is essential for this. It is Kagh who implants new members of the Skull Takers with the gene-seed and blood of their Primarch to turn them into true World Eaters; Kagh who was one of the first apothecaries to experiment with the Butchers' Nails; and Kagh who, after Angron's apotheosis, studied with Lorgar's Word Bearers to discover the secrets of the Possessed. Kagh's drive to become more like Angron has taken him far from humanity, but his journey is not yet over.

Kagh Bo'orchu's right arm still bears the twisted Chaotic remains of his Narthecium, constantly in flux and emitting new spikes as required. His armour is brass, forged to mimic the Armour of Mars worn by Angron, showing he is an important figure in the Skull Takers. On his left shoulder he bears a gladiatorial shoulder pad, in memory of Angron's past; his right shoulder pad is a snarling skull, symbol of Hans Kho'ren's Skull Takers. His helmet is pale and horned, like all in the Skull Takers, in honour of their daemonic patron.

Chaos Cultists

To support my Chaos Space Marines I want some Cultist chaff, to throw at the enemy and sacrifice for Blood Tithes. They're pretty much just the basic plastic ones from Dark Vengeance, with some head-swaps and weapon-swaps on the close combat squads. I quite like the shooty guys as they are, not sure if I want to head-swap them.

Hans Kho'ren's Skull Takers

My force of Hans Kho'ren's Skull Takers grow, with two standard Chaos Space Marine squads. All with the skull-and-gladiatorial shoulder pads, which will be spread across the army.

Their upper halves are primarily from Chaos Space Marines, with Chaos Warrior axes (a nice brutal "Skull Taker" vibe) and the legs again drawn from my bits box. They have been fighting the Long War in a very casualty-heavy way for 10,000 years: their armour is salvaged and scavenged, their ranks expanded by more recent defectors as well as the original World Eaters. So not all of it has nice brass edging. All of the helmets are horned because all of the serious troops in my Daemonkin (from the Bloodthirsters to the Bloodletters and everyone in-between) have horned helmets.

This squad is made up of more recent recruits, ferocious barbarian warriors who have been gene-bulked and strapped into power armour. Their helmets, from a mix of Chaos Warriors and Chaos Knights, show their primitive origins. The legs of the champions of both squads, surviving members of the original World Eaters legion, have Wrathmonger legs. This makes them nice and big, almost true-scaled, which I like. I trimmed their tassets off their plackarts, as their upper legs looked a bit blank without them.

Possessed Chaos Space Marines

Here's the first squad that I've built for Hans Kho'ren's Skull Takers, a squad of Possessed. These guys seem pretty essential for Daemonkin, as adding them will enable me to have a Slaughtercult at the core of a Blood Host. Free Blood Tithe points is always good!

Their shoulder pads display their allegiance, matching the ones used by the rest of the Skull Takers. All of Hans Khoren's men wear one gladiatorial shoulder pad, reflecting their father Angron's past. The Skull Takers believe that they should emulate their primarch as much as possible, continually remaking themselves in his image, and this is part of that. Their other shoulder pad is always a skull, proudly displaying their loyalty to Hans Kho'ren, the Skull Taker, commander of the 19th Company of the World Eaters.

The torso, heads, and arms are all from the standard Possessed kit; the backpacks are from Chaos Space Marines; the legs are a mish-mash of random Space Marine bits that have been clogging up my bits box for too long; the shoulder pads are from Berserkers and Marauders. The Champion's legs are from the new WFB Khorne Wrathmongers, lovely pieces.

My 1st Chaos Space Marine: Kagh Bo'orchu

There's still lots to be done to this guy: his base, lots of smaller armour plates and details, and so on. But here's the basic structure of Kagh Bo'orchu, one-time apothecary and loyal lieutenant of Hans Kho'ren. In game he can be a Possessed Champion, Herald, or Lord, as I go through my current period of rapidly adjusting army lists all the time.

Half way to completing the Cruor!

The Daemon-Primarch Angron was accompanied to Armageddon by 12 Bloodthirster bodyguards, the Cruor Praetoria. I've now completed 6 of them, half way there! (Although the next 6 will all be of the bigger size, and I haven't made Angron either, so really I'm much less than half way there. Ah well.) I'm quite tempted to field the 6 of these as a 1,500pts Khorne Daemonkin Unbound force...

Dzamhes the Decapitator has merged with his weapons to such an extent that it is hard to tell where he ends and they begin. He wields his brutal sword and whip with expert skill, leaving a trail of dead behind him as he chases the next hero whose tale he will end.

Gotfrith the Deflagrated faced one of the founders of the Grey Knights during the Horus Heresy, who cast him back into the warp using sorcerous flames that stripped the flesh from his bones. Despite being rebuilt in brass and iron he has never fully recovered, and his wings remain in tatters. He has nurtured his hatred over the millennia, and now his loathing of all living things is a potent force that fills all in his vicinity.

I love the Morghast wings, and as soon as GW released them I wanted to use them to make Skarbrand. Very happy with how it worked out.

Vizekh Sorceror-Bane has always been a foe of those who delve too deep into occult lore. He lurks in the warp, waiting for a psyker to get too greedy, to attempt to use a spell beyond their ability to control, poised to consume their souls.

Putokh the Disemboweler has spent the aeons of waiting in the Warp well, crafting himself a fearsome body in Khorne's Brass Foundries. Now when he emerges into realspace he soars high above the battlefield, before diving into combat feet-first, chain-claws revving, and tears his apart enemies before they have a chance to defend themselves.

Next up I want to make some Chaos Space Marines to round out my Daemonkin, the Skull Takers of Hans Kho'ren.

Six Converted Bloodthirsters!

Angron's Bodyguard, the Cruor Praetoria, is now taking shape, with my 6 smaller Bloodthirsters all built. As you can see, they are all designed to be roughly the same size as the classic Bloodthirster in the middle. In game terms I can run them as normal Bloodthirsters (of Unfettered Fury) or as Daemon Princes - this will be particularly good for Codex: Khorne Daemonkin, if the rumours that some of the formations need non-Bloodthirster HQs are true, and as it seems like Daemon Princes can carry the cool artefacts that Bloodthirsters can't.

As you can probably tell, these Bloodthirsters have been made from 6 basic kits (Juggernaught, Balrog, Bloodthirster, Forgefiend, Hive Tyrant, Daemon Prince), but hopefully mixed up enough and with enough extra pieces from my bits box added that by the end they are a coherent set of 6 Bloodthirsters. Hopefully!

The Lord of the Rings Balrog is an excellent Bloodthirster stand-in. He's bigger than the classic model, comes with a wonderful whip (which I trimmed the flames off very easily), and just fits so well! I opted to give him a headswap for a Juggernaught, giving him a more bestial, bull-like appearance. I also up-armoured him, with bits from Daemon Princes, Hive Tyrants, and WFB Marauder shields. Finally I swapped his lovely big wings for some smaller Daemon Prince wings - I want to use his wings for some larger Bloodthirster projects!

As soon as I saw the WFB Morghasts I knew that I wanted to use their wings for a counts-as-Skarbrand, they're just perfect. Possibly they're a touch small, but they're so beautifully made. Skarbrand's body is a Juggernaught, his legs are from a Hive Tyrant, and his brutal twin cleavers are from the Morghast Harbingers (with Daemon Prince arms & shoulder pads). Finally his head is from the Balrog, with some green stuff tentacles for dreadlocks. I love my green stuff tentacle maker so much, it's changed everything!

This Bloodthirster is my weediest, apart from the classic. He'll probably be relegated to being a Daemon Prince more often than not. His wings are the old metal ones from a Chaos Dwarf Lammasu, whilst his torso and shoulder pads are from a Daemon Prince. His legs are the marvellous Forgefiend back legs again, and his arms are from the very useful Hive Tyrant.

This final Bloodthirster is the most unique, thanks to his Blood Slaughterer legs. The idea is that he is an overseer of the Brass Forge, working for Khorne to create his Daemon Engines. His Hive Tyrant torso ties into this, with overlapping armour that evokes the Blood Slaughterer, Juggernaughts, and Brass Scorpions. His arms and wings, of course, are from the Daemon Prince again.

These guys are now all sitting on my painting desk. I've got quite a task ahead of me...

Counts-as Bloodcrushers

My initial 1,500pts force is going to feature 2 units of Bloodletters, 2 Bloodthirsters, 3 Soul Grinders (using my Daemon-Knights models) and a unit of Bloodcrushers. So here are the Bloodcrushers, and I have a valid army!

The key theme in this army is Bloodthirsters, and I wanted my Bloodcrushers to fit in with that. So I've gone for a more upright bestial feel rather than the traditional Bloodletters-on-Juggers, using Vampire Counts Vargheists as the core. They're still around the same size as Bloodcrushers, and I think that their statline looks appropriate, so hopefully no-one will complain.

Everyone in the army has horned helmets - for these guys, I've gone with Epic Warlord heads and horns that were originally spikes on a Tyranid Trygon (I used the Trygon tail on one of my Daemon-Knights). I've also given them a bit of armour, shoulder plates and bionic jaws from an old Ork Boys sprue.

The core of the models is the Vampire Counts Vargheist/Crypt Horror kit - I've used the Vargheist hairy backs and the Crypt Horror arms (with some hands swapped for Ogre Bull hands). I now also have a pile of spare wings, which I'm sure will come in handy later...

And one last shot, all the Khorne models that I've made this week! It's been a productive one :) I still need to base them before painting begins, but then we're ready to roll.

Converted Bloodletters

To use my Bloodthirsters outside of an Unbound game, I'll need some troops. I want them to have more of a mini-Bloodthirster feel than the normal Bloodletters, more like the previous version of Bloodletters. And the best way to do that seemed to be Beastman Gors.

To tie in with my Bloodthirsters, I've given them all helmets. One batch with Chaos Space Marine helmets, one with Chaos Warriors. I went for the horned helmets throughout, a theme that's looking like it will run all the way through the army.

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.