Rogue Trader World Eaters (Part 6): Bloodletters and a Chaos Dreadnought.

As a change from the World Eater Marines I decided to paint some Bloodletter Demons, and a Chaos Dreadnought.

The Bloodletters are the Lesser Demons of Khorne, and the World Eaters can have up to three summoned squads of them, albeit at 600 points per squad. I really like these miniatures, the sculpts give them a lithe and otherworldly feel. The arms, legs, and bodies are overlong and spindly without looking comical. The Gieger Alien looking heads also add to the weird looking length and feeling of movement. GW went on to make horrid Bloodletters in 2nd Edition, before finally returning to a similar design to these with their current plastic set.

The Bloodletters were a joy to paint. I wanted a bright, slick, otherworldly demonic look the them. So I undercoated them white, something I rarely do (I usually undercoat black) and only do white if I want a brighter look to the colours. I undercoat the Slann white for this reason. I then painted Citadel 'Bloodletter' red ink over the white. This made them look pink, which whilst amusing, was'nt a problem. After allowing that to dry, I then painted them, with another ink, this time a brown, Citadel 'Agrax Earthshade' to add some shading. Once this was dry I again painted them with the Red 'Bloodletter' ink to bring out the intial red and tie the brown and red together. Once dry I highlighted them lightly with bright orange, and then added the details.

For the Chaos Dreadnought I used the same drybrushing techniques I use with the renegades. The only differences were that I wanted to make the highlighting more stark to bring out more depth of colour, so made the highlighting more of a clash. Also I washed the Dreadnought with GW 'Bloodletter' ink before the last set of highlighting in order to bright out more of the red paint colour, and to just see what it would look like. I am very pleased with how he turned out, with the mix of reds and orange making him look almost flayed. 

Enjoy :)

 Squad of eight Bloodletters.

In order for them to balance and not fall over, I had to bend a few of the arms and bodies to better place their centre of gravity.

 Bloodletter #1, with shouldered sword.

For the skin, swords, and milky white eyes,  I took my inspiration from the Bloodletter on the front cover of the 'Slaves to Darkness' book.

 Bloodletter #2. 

I painted the tongue purple as it seemed to fit the look of the Bloodletters more than red or green. To get that effect I waterwd down a little purple paint and let the paint form natural highlighing and shading.

 Bloodletter #3.

 Bloodletter #4.

 Bloodletter #5.

 Bloodletter #6, same sculpt as #5.

 Bloodletter #7, again with shouldered sword.
His legs are acutally legs designed for mounted Bloodletters, but work they well for a dismounted Demon.

 Bloodletter #8.

 Close up of the skin tones. I am very pleased with how they look and the tones.

 Chaos Dreadnought.

 Right hand side view, showing the Heavy Plasma Gun arm, and the highlighting on the shoulder.

 Top view of the Gieger-esque looking bio-mechanical carapace.

 Biological 'exhaust sack'.

 Left hand side view of the claw. 

I progessively highlighted from black to an orange-white to make the claw more Demonic crab looking.

 Great Goblin/Gnoll archer!!
Why?

I've added him because I bought him today quite by chance. I found him in the bottom of a box of junk in a box in a Flea Market in Worthing. He only cost £1. 

All on his own, poor little Goblin. :( 

Despite all the Renegades, I've not forgotten the Goblins! :) 

Next update might be a special one. I am nearing 100,000 views very soon, as of this evening I am up to 99,389. So I might do a retrospective update on all the different things I have posted since I started my blog. :)

Rogue Trader World Eaters (Part 5): Robots, Terminators, Tactical Squad, and e-bay reinforcements. Oh, and I have a flag.

I'm back. Well, technically I have'nt been away. I was unable to update the blog last week due to dentistry problems requiring a root canal. Not nice, I spent a lot of time in pain, and it was very distracting from serving the Warmaster. :(

However, I have'nt been idle. Last week I started gluing together all sixty three of my Chaos Terminators for the various Legions. In addition I tried out the Dettol paint stripping technique, which works very well. This week I have finally got back to painting, completing my last World Eater Tactical Squad, and a Robot with attendant Chaos Techmarine.

Also I have been shopping. As always I have been in need of a few more Renegades here and there for the Legions. I have managed to buy another twenty two Renegades, with one more in the post, as well as a Sixth Land Raider, and a couple of Rhinos.

Enjoy :)

 Colossus Robot with Tech Marine.
I have painted the Robot in an old Khornate Traitor Legion colour scheme from 1988, and painted the Tech Marine to match his charge.

 Closer up.
The paint scheme is the classic red/black beloved of Khornate Renegades. There was a gold skull rune on the original design which I might add later.

 World Eater Techmarine, using the Space Marine RT01 Commincation Officer Orinoco. The armour looks like it could easily be used in the Chaos Legions, and fits the look of a Tech Marine. I also gave him an unusual backpack to add more character...

...I had a broken Space Ork Heavy Plasma Gun, so I clipped the rear of it to fit, and added it as a arcane-tech looking backpack. 

 Maniple of Cataphract Robots, with Tech Marine.
I will be painting these at a later date and choosing one of the old 1980 paint schemes for them and the Tech Marine to keep them non-Legion specific, so they can be used for any of the Legions.
I just thought I would include them as I have finally paint stripped them (one of them was previously in the Squat army) and re-assembled them.

 World Eater Tactical squad. 

Finally painted the last of the eight Tactical squads in the Legion detachment. 

 On the left a Skull Headed Renegade, which I decided to paint green to give a more organic chaos feel, and on the right a horn helmed Renegade.

 Skull faced Renegade, with Minotaur headed Sergeant.

 Two 'Bloodletter headed' Renegades. I was very pleased with the depth of red I achieved on these two.

 Renegade with bolter, left,and Heavy Weapon Trooper, right.

 Sixty three Chaos Terminators.
These will broken down as follows:

Twenty one (four squads of five, plus a Captain) for the World Eaters;

Twenty one (four squads of five, plus a Captain) for the Emperor's Children;

Eleven (two squads of five, plus a Captain) for the Sons of Horus;

Five (one squad) for the Death Guard;

Five (one squad) for the Thousands Sons.

 Twenty Two Renegade reinforcements for the various Legions. I also have a Nurgle Renegade in the post on his way.
I will have an 'organise' of the Legions soon as I am near the end of those I require to complete. I'll then post the photographs of the 'Scale of the Heresy'. 

I also bought two Gnoll/Great Goblins and a Slann.

 More tanks: One Land Raider and two Rhinos.
The Land Raider is in poor condition and will have to be taken apart, rebuilt, and repainted. It also has no Las-Cannons, but I have an idea in converting some old 1989 Imperial Guard ones.
The Rhinos are fine and only require the addition of new hatches on one, and the repainting of both.

 Gloop.
More stuff in the Dettol paint stripper.

Flying the flag for Praetoria (or the British Space Empire/VSF/Steampunk).
I have been meaning to add flags to my Imperial Guard for ages, and just decided to the other night. The flag is one from a Victrix Napoleonic British box set, but it works fine for these, and saves me painting one.

The next update will be on a few more World Eaters. I have the Bikers to finish off, and want to paint some Bloodletters and Officers.

Rogue Trader World Eaters (part 4); odds and ends, and a Predator tank.

I've had quite a productive week of painting. I managing to paint another World Eater Tactical Squad, a Predator, and two World Eater Officers mounted on Juggernaughts.

The Tactical squad was very quick and easy to paint and in the style of the others I have painted. In a similar vein I painted a Predator for the World Eaters, but with a little difference. I wanted to break up the solid red block look of the tank, and so graduated the red from an orange highlighted red at the fore, to the drybrushed black-red at the rear. Also, as the model had lost is turret mounted Auto-Cannon, I replaced it with a cut down plastic Chaos Auto-Cannon.

Finally I have painted two of the five World Eater officers mounted on Juggernaughts. In the Slaves to Darkness World Eater army list, any officers may be mounted on the demonic Juggernaught for 75 points. I always liked the 'Juggers' and over time ended up with five of them. The first two riders I have painted are more fantasy in design than the others, but I consider that in the 40k setting to be more that they are wearing a form of mutated power armour and/or Chaos armour.

Enjoy :)

 This weeks painting.

 World Eater officers on Juggernaughts. 

For these two I wanted to go for a look which suggested an almost fusion of man and demon, and so painted them in the same colours. For the others still on my painting table I have gone for a more seperate loo bewtween rider and mount.

I have not allocated the rank/position of the officers yet, but will consider which of them seems more of a Libarian, Captain, etc. 

 I painted this officer gold/brass. I wanted at least one of the officers to have the solid look of brass reminiscent of one of the colours of Khorne.

 Right side view.
I am probably planning to add Khornate banners to the lances at a later date.
To add colour and background flavour I painted generic looking glowing runes to the sword.

 The 'Steel Officer'. 

Keeping with the theme for these two offciers of blending with their demonic mounts, I opted for a steel look for this one.

 Left side view, with the demonic 'back banner heads.

 World Eater Predator.
As noted above, I wanted to break up the block of colour look to this tank, and to give it a slightly more unsual look and feel. So I painted the rear of the tank in the darker look, and make it look lighter towards the front. The photograph does'nt quite capture the contrast as well as in real life.

 'New' Auto-Cannon.
As I lost the original Auto-Cannon I replaced it with this one, which I cut down to size and added to the turret. I think it looks suitability archaic and baroque.

 Tactical Squad.

 Sergeant and Renegade.

 Rear view of the sergeant, showing the metallic look linking between the Power Glove and backpack.

 Renegade with 'Bloodletter head' and missile launcher.

 Renegades, one skull headed and other in Mark VI armour.

 Another Mark VI Renegade on the left, and horned Renegade on the right.

 Renegade with tentacle arm.

 He was orginally released as a limited edition LE101 Chaos Renegade Marine in 1988. I actually bought one at the time as a limited release, but have also bought the same miniature again subsequently. Personally, think he is one of the iconic looking Renegades of the ranges. I like the artwork of him in the Slaves to Darkness book, page 166.

My painting table.
I have an Assault squad mounted on motorbikes, a Rhino, Chaos Dreadnought, three more Juggernaught riders, and a Robot with Techmarine. 

Next update will be on probably be on more World Eaters!