Though when first revealed this model drew a lot of criticism on game forums I think once you get it up close and start work on it you discover that it's loaded with all kinds of cool little bits of style and detail. It grows on you the way the pile of skulls grows at the feet of Khorne, a little at a time.
One of the challenges of painting this model was the sheer amount of small details on it. While painting it I just kept discovering little things that I'd missed here and there. I expect when I do another one that it will go much faster simply because I now know what to expect. This first paint job took me quite a while in spite of its simplicity due to the challenge of making color decisions for each part of the model and in the number of times I discovered some small detail I'd missed.
This side angle photo of the model gives a pretty good overall view of it. The Bloodletter crew is painted like all my other Bloodletters, including the Herald Of Khorne on foot I built from this kit. The cannon barrel is brass, the chassis is black. I used red and brass on the Khorne skull rune at the front to make it really pop out and to keep the model from being too dark. The lower part of the chassis has a weird organic look to it with holes containing skulls, so after picking out the skulls I painted the surrounding area with a dull beige color and then a red wash.
The view from the front shows off the cool Chaos Star on the muzzle of the cannon and the aggressive stance of the daemonic crew.
This rear view shows the Khorne skull rune platform on which the Bloodletters stand. I again used my lava theme basing for this Chaos model as I've shown in some of my other articles here on Spikey Bits, but patterned it to appear as a burning wake created by the passage of the wheels of the chariot.
This top down photo of the model provides a clear view of the skull rune at the front. The red and brass really stand out against the black armored chassis. I put a little extra care into blending the bone color on the large horn at the front of the model as it is very prominent and I wanted it to be eye catching and elevate the look of an otherwise simple paint job.
I kept this paint scheme somewhat simple because I have another of these models to paint and time is always a factor when painting a lot of models. I'm also planning on doing one of these kits as a Herald On Bloodthrone Of Khorne and may paint the chassis red or brass on that one to make it distinct from the Skull Cannon versions of the model. I'm still pondering the final paint scheme on the Bloodthrone till I get it built, hopefully soon.
I have to say I really enjoy this model now that I have gotten it painted. And having only played Warhammer with Warriors of Chaos in all their forms for the past twenty years this is my first chance to actually use the conventional Warhammer cannon rules in all that time. So I popped this thing into a small 700 point game recently and what do you think happened? As always, my own dice destroyed it and me! In fact, I failed virtually every dice roll for the entire game, including my first time ever using a regular cannon in Warhammer. Yes, folks, it misfired and exploded on my very first attempt to use it. Now you know why I put a lot more time into the hobby part of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 than I put into the gaming part.