A quick detour from my recent Nurglite shenanigans for today, as we jump back to the XII legion for a bit: because I have a couple of kitbashes/conversions that I would love to share with you:
Ever since the release of Codex World Eaters, I have been searching for an excuse to convert a Master of Executions for the 4th assault company — mind you, there has been an executioner in my army background longer than this has been a thing in the official fluff. This gentleman here, dear Huntmaster Torus:
But as long time readers of this blog will know, I will always jump at even the flimsiest excuse for creating yet more characters, right? And a sinister headtaker seemed like the kind of project any self-respecting World Eaters aficionado could get behind.
After all, there were quite a few cool modeling options available to me: The actual Master of Executions model from GW, the fantastic World Eaters lord bitz that come with the Lord Invocatus kit — or, indeed, a particular Mk. VI Legion Praetor with a massive, two-handed axe from the Horus Heresy line of models who seemed like he had been made for the job. So I slowly managed to get my hands on all of those models, but then…did absolutely nothing with them.
You see, the stock Master of Executions is serviceable, but also very cookie cutter. The Chaos Lord bitz from the Lord Invocatus kit are awesome, but they alone were not enough to come up with the right kind of model? And that Mk. VI Legion Praetor? Suffice it to say that A LOT of people have been using him as their Master of Executions. In fact, kitbashing a Master of Executions itself has almost become a bit of an in-joke, and it seemed like every hobbyist in the world already had one, and all the cool ideas were already taken: Everybody and their cousin were coming up with all of these sweet conversion ideas while I was floundering.The various possibilities just canceled each other out in my mind, and I ended up doing nothing with them…
Well, no longer! Because the other night, I had an idea: I dug into my bitzbox, and after a short while, I had this:
I really wanted to put my own spin on the character archetype, and I am pretty happy with what I have so far: The torso, arms and backpack are all from the Lord Invocatus/Lord on Juggernaut kit (they are all from the “lord” side of the kit). I combined them with legs from the AoS Khorgos Khul model (marketed as a vanilla “Mighty Lord of Khorne” these days, it seems): I love how the leg armour has that little round indentation that just seemed perfect for the World Eaters belt buckle!
The helmet, meanwhile, came from the AoS Skullgrinder — I really like that helmet and had been waiting for ages to put it to good use!
As you can see, I went for a sword over an axe. It’s because I really fell in love with the massive chainsword — it also gives the model a very particular look, almost like a dark knight or paladin, which I really enjoy. Also, the ring on his right hand is just a placeholder for now. I imagine he’ll be holding a clutch of dangling skulls before long…
But wait, there’s more: With the Master of Executions out of the way, I was free to use some of the leftover kits/bitz to make this gentleman:
Now to give credit where credit is due: I did not come up with this idea myself, but it’s rather a recipe that I’d seen at least once or twice on the internet. So it was mostly a matter of adapting it for my own use. But I loved the idea of a very gladiatorial World Eaters officer, and one with a decidedly Heresy-era look to his armour. The body is from the aforementioned Mk. VI Legion Praetor kit, while the arms are chaos Terminator arms. The twin Lacerator swords came from the Eightbound. And a berzerker backpas adds a certain “je ne sais quoi” to the model.
I haven’t decided yet whether he’ll be 30k or 40k — he does have a Heresy-style look to him, but I’m pretty sure he’d also look terrific in 40k red and brass. I can already say that I’ll be adding some chains to his wrists, both to attach them to his weapons and to blend the arms and hands together a bit better (on top of covering up a bit of shaving I have had to do on one of the lacerators).
Now my favourite part about these two characters is how they almost embody opposite interpretations of the consumate warrior archetype:
Sinister but weirdly regal swordsman on the left, bulky, menacing pitfighter on the right. Quite a pair, aren’t they?
But wait, that’s still not all: Before we tune out for today, I still have one more piece of bonus content for you all:
Maybe you’ll remember my long-suffering Terminator Lord wielding twin lightning claws? He started out like this:
Then I gave him quite the workover after my last longer hobby hiatus, using some new World Eaters bitz and a leg swap to turn him into this:
This poor chap has been tweaked and re-tweaked to within an inch of his life, and yet it looked like I still wasn’t done with him:
You see, my one gripe with his latest incarnation was how the old Terminator chestpiece was quite a bit too narrow. I tried to distract from it with some dangling chains, which worked pretty well… — but then I found myself wondering whether one of my leftover Eightbound breastplates might fit — and it slid right over the chest piece!
Seriously, it was almost ridiculous how well the bit fit over the existing torso piece. The most complicated thing was to take off and reattach those chains and tilting plates I had added to the model.
The new breastplate adds a lot of bulk to his torso and makes him look bulky and overmuscled — which, I would say, is a perfect look for a genetically engineered XII legion madman 
What do you guys think?
So, once again, that’s it for today. Three massive, bulky XII legion slaughterers, all converted-up and ready to fine-tune for another year or so
Seriously, though: It goes without saying that I would love to hear any thoughts and suggestions you might have. And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!