Hey everyone, I am currently suffering from a bit of Writer’s Block when it comes to completing the second part of my Eternal Hunt Awards, so in order to try and break through that – or, if nothing else, at least finally post some new content over here – I would like to show you what I am currently working on:
As some of you will still remember, the last model I painted in 2019 was…a World Eater:
And it didn’t take long for me to return to the XII legion in the new year (wile I have also been on fire regarding a few INQ28 characters, that’s a story for another time…). So, what do I have to show for myself?
First up, I have been messing around with some of the conversions for my “Hateful Eight” World Eaters Killteam project, making some additional tweaks to the models and giving them that extra bit of quality control.
Take, for instance, this World Eaters Havoc I built last fall:
While taking a closer look at the model, I realised that the missile launcher arm came with an Eye of Horus design on the pauldron, and while that certainly isn’t a big deal, it did bother me a bit — it felt slightly too “Black Legion” for a member of the World Eaters. But I had an idea: why not turn it into a World Eaters legion badge? Thanks to the GW plastic skull kit, it was easy enough to carefully shave off some jaws and use them to transform the emblem on the pauldron into a World Eaters symbol:
I’ll admit it’s not easy to make out, but it should look suitably different to the original design once painted. It’s also a very easy recipe to create World Eaters symbols that I wish I had thought of earlier…
On the same model, I am also currently experimenting with adding a chaos knight pauldron as some kind of armoured cowl, and I do like the way it looks:
I am still messing around with different variants of doing this, but I do think the addition of some kind of cowl actually makes the model resemble the artwork it was based on even more closely:
There was also thus guy here, built at the same time as the Havoc:
I still think this is a rather intriguing conversion: I wanted a model looking massive and archaic, its armour looking like an ancient, heavily customised set of Mk. III armour — hence the legs and helmet. A few things kept bothering me about the model, however — it always looked ever so slightly dodgy from up close. So I tweaked the model a bit:
Now this one is a tough case because people on the forums keep telling me the older version actually seems more balanced to them, but I am simply much happier with the new version: In my opinion, the bladed crest on the Marine’s left pauldron was so massive as to unbalance the model’s silhouette a bit, so it was replaced with smaller spikes (I did keep the part for later use, though). The backpack also didn’t result in the silhouette I wanted, so I went back to a classic CSM backpack. The biggest change, however, is that the axe was replaced with a meteor hammer, one of the World Eaters’ more gladiatorial weapon choices. I have been looking for a way to include one of these in the project for a while, and here it is.
It wasn’t all kitbashing, though, I also managed to get something painted: My first painted model of 2020, and also a World Eater. This gentleman here:
Yet another alumnus of the same kitbashing session as the other two, this model was originally built to resemble a clasic piece of artwork courtesy of Mark Gibbons:
The illustration was originally featured in the second edition Codex Imperialis and accompanied by a quote of one Kargos Bloodspitter (of Horus Heresy fame). Anyway, I didn’t want my model to actually represent Kargos as a character, but I did want to channel the artwork as much as possible (incidentally, fellow hobbyist Mr. Poom actually created a brilliant 30k version of Kargos Bloodspitter, based on the very same piece of artwork, a couple of years ago).
Anyway, seeing how the conversion was already in my case, all that remained was to get some paint on the model:
I unfortunately painted the model before Mark Butcher asked for a tutorial in a recent comment, so that will have to wait until a future post. For now, suffice it to say that I employed my updated World Eaters recipe again.
The model’s base provided an interesting challenge, because, while I did not want to perfectly replicate the “standing on a field of skulls” look from the artwork (as that seems a bit too 1995, even for my tastes, plus it wouldn’t match the basing on the rest of the group), I did want to give it a bit of a shout out, so I came up with a bit of a compromise:
A veritable pile of skulls, but still “fenced in” by some rocky parts.
And here’s the base, mostly painted:
And with that, the model was finished:
“Though the gates that stand between the mortal world and the immortal Realm of Chaos are now closed to me, still I would rather die having glimpsed eternity than never to have stirred from the cold furrow of mortal life. I embrace death without regret as I have embraced life without fear.”
Once again, here’s the artwork that inspired it all:
Moody glamour shots aside, here’s a proper look at the finished model in more detail:
I am actually really happy with the finished model, both because I think it has come out fairly well, but also because this has been a great occasion to include another tribute to a classic piece of Warhammer 40k art in my collection!
Oh, and before I forget: Thanks must also go to my fellow hobbyist ElDuderino: The converted Blood Warrior helmet he sent me as part of a pretty sweet bitz drop last year is what really sells the conversion, if you ask me. I shall be naming the model “Brother Orska” in his honour! 
And here, just to round things out, are all the little rascals I have so far:
So that’s it for today — seems like a pretty good hobby start into the new year, though, if I do say so myself! It goes without saying that I would of course love to hear your thoughts on the model, so please feel free to leave me a comment!
And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!