The Bloodworks
On its way from the Sanguinal Refineries to the Cranic Furnaces the mixture of promethium, blood and daemonic ichor travels and is stored and stabilised in a network of Haematic Plasma Regulators and Condutis. Much like the other Belochian structures claimed by the servants of Khorne, this machinery is slowly turning into organic structures, the conduits ever more resembling blood vessels while the plasma coils contract and beat like cardiac muscles. The tanks and heat vents' sides bleed from never-healing wounds on their flanks and skulls are tossed around, often piled into impromptu altars to the Red God. The reek of blood clings to the air, as does the faint echo of a laughter coming from the Skull Throne.
Recently I've started playing Kill Team relatively regularly and that motivated me to get back to this terrain project. These are all relatively small pieces made with a combination of bits from the Sector Mechanicus kits I assembled in the past, plastic piping and even a plastic container for toothpicks.
The strainght pipes are cut to the same length as the gantries of the Hanging Ways, just like the original Thermic Plasma Conduits. The curved one is only a few centimetres smaller than the angled walkways I stil have to assemble, but I couldn't find anything of the exact same size. The veins crisscrossing them are sculpted with greenstuff.
The ladder going up the vent is made using cleaned up sprues.
The Thermic Plasm Regulator is converted exactly like the Sanguinal Refinery, with bone spurs from the Ogor Mawtribes range, Khornate symbols and trophies and also the horns with dangling skulls from the Black Orcs banner.
Finally I had the hatches from the STC Ryza-pattern Ruins to which I simply glued some skulls. They're the only pieces that have not been smeared with my home-made texture (coffe grounds and PVA) to represent the wounds on the sides of the structures.
The palette is essentially the same as the other pieces. However, this time I've used an iron mica effect enamel spray for the undercoat rather than Leadbelcher spray, resulting in slightly darker tones.
As always, every piece is perfectly sized to match the others, either to join at ground level or to sit on top of larger pieces.
Zodgrod Worthsnagga
With his Grabzappa crackling, Zodgrod herds his notorious super runts into battle. This irascible loon is never happier than when wrangling especially large and rowdy foes, usually by peppering them with needles from his Squigstoppa Numba 5, then burying them in a rampaging horde of diminutive little monsters.
After nearly two years of no hobbying, as I had no place where to assemble and paint models, I finally got a nice permanent hobby station in my new flat! I've already started painting the Stormvault terrain I got at Warhammer Fest 2023, but I'm only in the early stages, so nothing to post about yet. However, rather than leaving this blog to languish for longer, I've dug out my terrains and photo backdrops so that I can post the last few models I did in Manchester before leaving.
Zodgrod was one of them, a present from my then girlfriend, which I assembled straight out of the box, planning to add him to the the Skrapjunkiez for 40k rather than Kill Team games. The idea is they've hired the most notorious Runt Herder of the galaxy to help them keep the rowdy grotz of Badlanding in check.
Paint-wise, his iconic blue hair-squig matches the lucky paint on the Skrapjunkiez and I then only had to replicate their drab grey and leather on the fatigues and bags, and their red spot colour on his beast pelt.
For now, I'm not expecting him to see much gaming action as I still have to find gaming buddies to play 40k with... although I should first read the rules for 10th edition...
Lathanshar the Emulatrix
Lathanshar gazed upon the glory of Shalaxi Helbane when they were but a common Daemonette. Seeing the impossible grace of Slaanesh's favoured hunter as they fought a raging Bloodthirster, a new obsession blossomed in Lathanshar's mind. They had to be like Helbane in appearance and skills. To this end, they strived for centuries, hunting down and besting in single combat mortals and daemons alike who displeased Slaanesh with their dullness. For their efforts, Lathanshar was generously rewarded, quickly raising to the rank of Herald. As their kills continued, sensoriums sprout from their head to help them in the hunt, then a claw morphed into a hand and to match it, a third arm emerged from their body. They then halted their hunts and obsessively studied under the best daemonic weaponsmiths to forge themselves a long spear and a shield.
In the meantime, however, Slaanesh's attention has wondered elsewhere, and though Lathanshar has retaken their hunts, no new rewards come to them. And so the Herald suffers, for they still miss a claw to truly be like their idol. And as they suffer, Lathanshar grows ever more aggressive, their hunts ever more frenzied, their killings ever more gruesome. And yet, they still are denied...
I got the base model for this conversion for free at the Manchester store when the previous Hedonites of Slaanesh battletome was released. Like so many others, it had languished in the bits box until I had to pack my stuff. It was assembled as a regular Daemonette, but I decided to chop it a bit and convert it.
In the bits box, I had a Daemonette Banner Bearer arm, a Tree-Revenant blade left from converting the Shadowkin, a Witch Aelf head and shield from converting the Shroudmaidens and an arm from the Sisters of Silence. The plan was to keep both claws and have a proper small version of Shalaxi Helbane. Hard as I tried, however, I could not keep both the banner and the claw arms without pushing either of them way too much towards the back of the model. So I had to renounce to that. Everything else fitted in just perfectly, including the Tree-Revenant blade which took the place of the chopped away Slaaneshi icon on top of the banner pole.
The slabs of stone on the base are offcuts from an old movement tray.
Painting-wise, I wanted to try a yellow-green palette, rather than the traditional pink-blue-black, against the Daemonette pale skin. I settled for a golden armour and bright green hair, nails, claw and spurs. I still kept touches of blue and black on the tabard, the shade used for the skin and on the stones on the base. The skin looks a bit too rough, but I'm overall happy with the model.
Cadet Baume
Lucas Baume was born from the upper classes of Gallia, and like many privileged youngsters he considered it a great honour to be accepted into the planetary Astra Militarum academy, famed through the Segmentum Pacificum for the utter devotion of his trainees to the Imperial Creed and the dictates of the Adeptus Munitorum. He excelled in his training, showing tactical acumen and total disregard for the safety of the lower ranking trainees he led during gruelling combat simulations. As the perfect candidate for officer duties, he was promoted to Cadet shortly after Lord Regent Guilliman had called the Indomitus Crusade. Gallia sent hundreds of regiments to the mustering grounds and Cadet Baume was seconded to the 9th Light Infantry platoon of the Gallian 1643rd, ready to complete his officer training en route and take command. But their transport was engulfed by a warp storm and spat out of the Malfactus Rift. Harrassed by the orks of Badlanding, the ship managed to reach Finis Sidera and dock there. Cadet Baume offered the few surviving guardsmen to the Rogue Trader cartel running the station, and asked to be deployed in a suicide mission to reclaim the lost sectors of the base. As soon as the soldiers heard his plan, they deserted, joining the crews of Rogue Trader ships. From that day, Cadet Baume has been drinking heavily, ashamed by his failure, and hired himself as bodyguard for the Rogue Traders. Ever since the arrival of Inquisitor Quintus Severus to Finis Sidera, the disgraced soldier has tried to pledge his services to him. The shrewed Inquisitor has not yet accepted the offer, distrustfull of a man unable to fulfil his duties.
This was a model I did to get rid of bits shortly before packing my stuff. It is a simple conversion, the only part requiring some careful work being the cutting of an old Cadian lasgun to be replaced with a boltgun.
The rest of the bits are old Cadian legs, a Tank Officer torso, belt accessories from the Genestealer Cult upgrade pack and a French Infantry head from, I guess, the Brothers Perry's Napoleonic War range. Don't even ask me how that bit found its way into the bitz box!
Obviously, the fact that the torso had braces worked incredibly well with the head, so I replicated the colours of the Light Infantry uniform in the Napoleonic army.
Tor Megiddo: The Wanderer
They call themselves Wanderers. Tribeless Yaike Yaike, outcast Golden Spirers, rogue Flesh Barons. Dogs without a master. Drifting through Tor Megiddo ash wastes and blasted badlands, just like another meaningless grain of red sand. Scraping a living through the work of their blades and guns, through morcels of knowledge of man and machine bodies. Killing and fixing, as asked by those that toss them a bone. But that is good for them. They live, they fight, they have no master. For that is all that matters on the Red Sands of Tor Megiddo.
I normally don't join painting and modelling challenges or invitationals, for the simple reason that I can never really meet the deadlines. This year, however, I have some models built but laying unpainted on my hobby desk. When the Inqtober22 prompt list was released I saw they could fit in and that motivated me to paint them.
The first is this Mercenary Scum I built around the front body of a Chaos Warrior and that I will use for Tor Megiddo games, if we ever get back to that setting.
I trimmed away the fur and claws decorating the shoulders and then glued the back of a Space Marine vehicle gunner to complete the torso. The arms with bolter are from the Space Marine scouts while the head is from the Genestealer Cult accessory sprues. From the same sprue I took two daggers with grenades and used them to hide the sides of the gap between the Chaos Warrior legs and the Space Marine back. To hide the central part of that gap, I used the track links from an Imperial vehicle, worn as if additional armour plating.
Since he is not a Purebred but a tribeless mercenary, I totally avoided the red I used on them and kept the yellow only on the bandana and the black on the boots, gloves and fatigue arms.
The rest of the model is painted in worn and dusty metal, with some touches of green on the cables, granades and gogle lenses to further distinguish him from the Purebred.
"Kraevahn's Survivors", 163rd Grenadiers
The New Drekport Corps, given their remote location at the fringes of Imperial space, seldom had the chance to fight alongside Schola Progenium-trained Tempestus Scions. For this reason, they maintained a grenadier corp, recruited from veterans of the regular infantry platoons and trained in the use of carapace armour and hot-shot las-weaponry. These grenadier platoons were at the forefront of the system defense when the Malfactus Rift opened. The 163rd, under the command of Captain Kraevahn and at the time at full strength, were sent to Beloch with orders to protect the planet's hives and their factoria.
As they withstood dozens of Renegade and Xenos raids, the 163rd became excellent city fighters, able to survive and prevail in the tangled urban war zones of Beloch. Even when warp rifts opened on the planet itself disgorging tides of daemons, the 163rd kept fighting to ensure the evacuation of crucial assets from Beloch's main spaceport. The nightmarish siege saw the 163rd ground down by wave after wave of daemons, Captain Kraevahn and his Command Squad along with a depleted squad led by Corporal Transk the only members of the platoon to board the last cargo ship leaving Beloch.
Ever since, Kraevahn's Survivors have kept operating as higly specialised fire teams, fighting either on their own or reinforcing the "Hot Heads" of the 5th Irregulars. These hardened veterans have carried out countless raids on every planet in the New Drekport system, denying resources to renegades and xenos alike, and learning all the wily tricks the Administratum does not print in the Imperial Primer.
I've painted Kraevahn's Survivors to match the 5th Irregulars, thus with Black Templar highlighted Eshin Grey for the armour, Talassar Blue highlighted Alaitoc Blue for the fatigue and Goregrunta fur highlighted with Balor Brown for the leather. This time, however, I started from a 3-stages zenithal highlight: flat black, grey at a 45º angle and white at a 90º angle. I based the weapons with Leadbelcher and then washed them twice, first with Nuln Oil and then with Agrax Earthshade. Cables and grenades were picked up in green and red.
Captain Kraevahn (Tempestor)
Private Valbek (Tempestus Scions Comms)
Gunner Lensk (Tempestus Scions Gunner with Grenade Launcher)
Gunner Pajk (Tempestus Scions Gunner with Hot-shot Volley Gun)
Gunner Rausch (Tempestus Scions Gunner with Plasma Gun)
Doc Tyborc (Tempestus Scions Trooper with Medi-kit)
Colour Sergeant Keist (Tempestus Scions Trooper with Platoon Banner)
Corporal Transk (Tempestus Scions Trooper with Scion Blade)
Troopers Voorsch and Dovorr (Tempestus Scions Troopers with Frag Grenade)
The urban camo pattern on Transk's, Voorsch's and Dovorr's cloack is what I'm happiest about. I basecoated them Celestra Grey, washed Nuln Oil, hedge highlighted Ulthuan Grey and then stippled patches of Abaddon Black. Using a smaller brush I then stippled White Scar on top of the black patches once they were dry.
