After finishing the Death Guard (well, I still have their five Terminators to paint, which I have now bought from e-bay!) I have moved onto the World Eaters, the Space Marine devotees of Khorne.
The World Eaters are the first of the two army lists I shall be painting and have collected from the 'Slave to Darkness' book. Unlike the Death Guard from the 'Lost and the Damned', the World Eaters (and Emperor's Children) army list is more akin to the loyal Space Marine list. There are the three formal types of squad (Tactical, Devastator, and Assault), as well as all the different types of Officers.
The full World Eater army is quite a fair sized force. There are sixteen Officers: one Lieutenant Commander, one Lieutenant, one Captain, six Libarians, four Medics, and three Chaplains. Squad wise there are: eight Tactical Squads, two Devastator squads, four Assault squads. This makes a total of 128 Marines, which I have now collected.
This does not include the additional forces which are part of the list such as Tech Marines, Beastman squads, Possesses, Chaos Spawn, and Demons. I have some of these, but will be adding them as I go along as they are not core to the army. I do have the full complement of Chaos Terminators from the list in White Dwarf #116, consisting of four squads of five Terminators, and one Captain to add to the list and paint as well.
One major difference is that the World Eater squads are eight strong rather than ten, as eight is the sacred number of Khorne. This means that the Tactical squads do not have a flamer Marine, although they still retain their heavy weapon. The four squads I have painted so far are all Tactical squads, and they have a number of optional upgrades.
These upgrades, like the loyal Marines, have to be applied to all the squads of the same type in the army, with the exception of Jetbikes and Chaos Steeds. For the Tactical squads the only upgrade I have applied is the give the squad sergeant a Power Glove, as they are very good in Rogue Trader.Also, I have several Power Gloved miniatures, so it helps differentiate the sergeants in the squads. I kept the Missile Launchers as they are versatile weapon.
Painting wise I am basing the paint schemes of the Rogue Trader era.
A mix of reds, gold/brass, and black, with a good mix of metal, bone, and the occasional piece of blue armour from the old (Rogue Trader era) World Eater armour. I have also taken the old approach of painting each of the miniatures as an individual rather than just in a blanket uniform.
In addition I have taken to using a technque I used for my current 40k Edition era World Eater army. This involves drybrushing red ( GW Evil Sun Scarlet, the modern equivalent of the old Blood Red) over the black to create a darker 'blended look' mix of black and red. I have also applied that to mixing gold and red, and metal and black. I think it adds to the mix of individuality and the dark Chaotic feel.
Enjoy :)
Four Tactical squads and an Officer.
Squad one.
Sergeant and Marine.
I painted the Sergeant by drybrushing red over black, and made the armour look half and half blending the red into black. It's an effect I liked painting and plan to use more. The shoulder pad has a little orange added to give an almost Chaos glow.
Marines with Bloodletter heads.
With the Marine of the left I have gone for the more solid brighter red, and on the Marine of the left a predominatly black armour.
Two more Marines with a slightly darker armour.
Metal skull faced Marine, and on the right a Chaos Heavy Weapons Marine, with the Chaos Missile Launcher.
A lot of people really do not like the Chaos Missile Launcher. I don't mind it, but think design wise it is a little too long and is too heavy at the end. The plastic missile launcher from Genestealer is a lot better design, but I only have a few of those and am going to use them for the Thousand Sons. I also wanted to keep the original missile launcher to keep with the original feel of the army.
Squad Two.
Another Power Gloved Sergeant, this time with a golden arm. I repostioned the helmet horns as well.
The othe Marine is a sculpt based of the Sergeant sculpt (or visa versa?).
Marines with a stylised symbol of Khorne on their helmets.
Two Marines, both from the basic sculpt.
On the right in a similar style to the one in the Slaves to Darkness book.
Marines, one with skull knee pads, and more gold tubing. Behind him is a heavy weapons Marine with a head of a Bloodletter.
Squad three.
Again, the same Khornate looking Sergeant, only this time I have painted the red-black drybrusing vertically, black-red-black. A little bit of gold adds some colour.
On the right is another Bloodletter headed Marine with more black armour.
Two more Marines, drybrused on the left, and more solid colours on the right.
Another specifically Khornate Marine of the left. I painted the web looking part of the armour bone to bring out the organic looking armour.
On the right is a generic Renegade with an odd spike on his helmet. I also thought this was a strange miniature, but he still adds to the Chaos craziness.
The orginal Chaos Renegade on the left (I bought him second hand, and someone of time has snipped the combat accessory to a point).
On the right another heavy weapon Marine. With him I mixed styles painting the armour more solid but a darker red, drybrusing the red and black on the missile launcher itself, and giving him a piece of old World Eater blue armour on the leg.
Backpacks.
I have kept that old feel for the armies by used only old Rogue Trader backpacks on all of the miniatures in all of the four armies. Most have the Chaos backpacks, the Death Guard and the occsional Character model have other Rogue Trader backpacks.
Above are some of the painting effects I have used on the World Eater backpacks.
More backpacks.
World Eater Officer.
For many of the officers in the World Eaters (and the Emperor's Children) I have used some of the Champions of Chaos miniatures from fantasy ranges.
I have done this to add variety to the armies, to use some great miniatures, and to differentiate the officer models from the rank and file.
Many of the Champion miniatures fit in very well. Several of them have tech weapons, or swords/axes which can be assumed to be Demon Weapons or Chaos Weapons. The armour suggests a mutation of the power armour into Chaos armour. The overall look and individuality of Officers is one of those who have perhaps journeyed further down the path of Chaos than other Marines in the Legions.
The above miniature is 'Face of Juggernaught, axe, and mace tail'. I love the look of the axe, having that great Ian Miller Chaos Weapon look. I have'nt decided which officer he will be, but might be a Librarian, Khornate Librarians of course don't use their psychic powers.
I experimented when painting the armour, painting a dark green over black, and then highlighting from the green with red. Then I gave the whole miniature a couple of heavy black washes. The idea was to give a him a slick dark looking Demonic armour, made darker by painting the axe, tail, and head, red.
Next update: more World Eaters!
I still have a lot to paint, and am already part way through a Devastator squad and two more officers, and hopefully will be able to get an additional Tactical squad painted. With Christmas looming I will have less time and energy to paint as work gets busier, but I hope to keep the output going. :)
Personally I reckon the Chaos marine heavy weapons rock!!!
ReplyDeleteThey do look a lot better than the shoulder held heavy weapons on the loyal Marines/Guard. I think the Chaos missile launcher is a little too long, but I still like it. I agree, the other Chaos heavy weapons look great, full of power and menace.
DeleteI like them and I don't at the same time. Th elevel of deatil is honestly not great on them and I think teh Perrys were not hugely inspired by the concept. The Missile launcher looks like a dolphin... funny thing though if you consider the vast amount of Heavy Weapon bearers since there are 12 of them Vs 52 other troopers. Th eway they hold their weapon is great though and combined with the plastic hybrid heavy weapons they are perfect !
DeleteI have always liked the Chaos Renegade range, although I think they could have done with more generic looking duplicates of other weapons such as flamers, melta guns, and plasma guns.
DeleteI disagree on the detail point. A lot of the miniatures have a lot of little details, from faces on the knee pads, armour edges, tubing, helmets, and etched looking details (such as on the shoulder pads). Some of the heavy weapon marines have less detailed armour, but I don't consider it to be that bad.
I agree with you that the missile launcher is'nt the best. I think they were going for more shark than dolphin! The other heavy weapons, and the poses of the Marines are much better, and a lot cooler and meaning than the loyal Marines.
I think the Perrys were under pressure to sculpt a lot of miniatures at the time. With the Renegades range they had to cater for four types of Marine for each different Chaos power, as well as generic Marines. I think the did well, and linked them in with the Chaos artwork, especially Ian Millers. I think the need to cater for four Chaos powers explains to some extent the large number of heavy weapons Marines as well.
The plastic weapons are great. For authenticity sake and the look of them I have stuck with the original heavy weapons for the World Eaters and Emperor's Children. I'll use the plastic one forthe more mutated Thousand Sons.
I should clarify I meant the level of detail on the heavy weapons alone, I'm fine with the details on the marines themselves which I fancy a lot. ;)
DeleteI can see what JB points out and I agree to some extent, but I believe the Renegades ranges have a fistful of quite charming minis. The homogenization work you did here is amazing, that red & black combination is the real deal. I love them!
ReplyDeleteBoth you and JB are right in that the Renegades are a great range of miniatures, but the heavy weapons themselves are a little bland when compared to the detailing of the Renegades themselves.
DeleteIn defence of the heavy weapons themselves I would suggest that perhaps they were designed to offset the detailing of the Renegades armour so as not to look too much. Also, I think the the Heavy Bolter and Las-Cannon are quite detailed, but the others are functional but fine. The missile launcher is the only one that's really not very good.
Glad you liked the painting Suber. I followed the look of the Khornate Renegades in Slaves to Darkness to give a Khornate look and feel to the army rather than a uniform look. They are great fun to paint. The red and black is quite striking.