Every great general surrounded themselves with trusted executors and leaders who could be counted upon to ensure their will was carried out on the battlefield. This challenge consists of painting […]
Every great general surrounded themselves with trusted executors and leaders who could be counted upon to ensure their will was carried out on the battlefield. This challenge consists of painting up to three models with the “HQ” keyword within their respective factions these officers will assist their warlords in the battles to come! Lets get started!
Challenger: Nick “NASTY” Lucas
Faction: NECRONS
HQ choices: Cryptek RATAKEESH THE SCAVENGER & Lord NASUS OF SUMAR
Challenger: Gary “PERILS” Kuhls
Faction: TYRANIDS
HQ choice: TYRANID PRIME
I chose a Tyranid Prime for my second HQ largely for story reasons…I can’t help it! Hive Fleet Kronos is known for having Tyranid Warriors as synapses to focus the fire of my more instinctive long-range monsters. And if I’m going to have Tyranid Warriors, then I’ve got to include a Tyranid Prime to be the Alpha Warrior, adding 1 to all the hits of his nearby brethren. My Tyranid Prime will act as battery commander directing the artillery barrage of bio-weapons & bio-cannons on the battlefield.
Challenger: Ian Gunther
Faction: ADEPTUS MECHANICUS
HQ Choices: Techpriest Enginseers and Dominus
My cog themed army of admech. Coming from an Ark Mechanicus, two Tech Priest Enginseers with a Dominus. Capable of supporting my knights, infantry and warlord. For the Omnissiah!
Challenger: Preston “P-FUNK” Corrigan
Faction: DEATH GUARD
HQ choices: GLUTTORAX BILEFIST and ANTAR-VAXX
First up is my Daemon Prince. His name is Gluttorax Bilefist. Gluttorax achieved daemonhood in the Plague Wars where he single handedly brought down an entire demi-company of Ultramarines on Iax by infecting their water supply without them realizing it. He then went on a series of missions to destroy the 7 largest media-cae facilities on Iax which he accomplished with relish. You might have noticed that this is not the typical daemon prince you see. This is in fact a sculpt from SpellCrow Miniatures. I am just not a big fan of any of the GW Nurgle Daemon Prince options. None of them appear malevolent enough for me. I scoured the internet for alternate sculpts or kit bash conversion ideas and fell in love with the detail on this thing. He is built with a plague axe, but I plan on using it as a plague sword with malefic talons. This will allow me to use the plague spewer that I kit bashed growing out of the bone structure in his left arm. It also provides me with the flexibility to try the axe when I want to use it as an axe. I painted his armor a little more dingy and more worn/discolored as I it is now growing into his skin as he has ascended to daemonhood, but you can still tell that he once had the Weeping Legion paint scheme on his armor. I used some green stuff to sculpt the jump pack growing organically out of his back so I can count him as a Daemon Prince with wings! I plan on using him in my battalion detachment alongside Typhus. I will use him as an offensive powerhouse with his psyker powers, high mobility, and overall grit.
My second HQ choice is the malignant plaguecaster Antar-Vaxx. Vaxx revels in studying and spreading the destroyer virus and its hive. He thus tries to spend as much time as possible studying Typhus in an attempt to improve the potencey of the plague and new strains that can be made from typhus’s blood. Antar-Vaxx gets an especially joyful glee out of infecting Imperial citizens with plagues of Nurgle that the Imperium, in their hubris, deem no longer worthy of of medical study. Many of these plagues (long thought defeated by Imperial medicine) have had a chance to resurface due to new social movements of the citizenry (our perhaps secret circles of Nurgle cultists?) decrying the Imperial Medicae as using medicine to control the minds of citizens in an effort to line the pockets of Imperial Nobility. Vaxx seizes on each opportunity to re-expose the Imperium to not only the strains of these diseases, but newly crafted much more powerful strains of these diseases. I plan to use Vaxx as a premium buffing caster to buff the troops around him.
HQ Choices: Primus RICHTUS the FAVORED, Magus COLLOSUM the DELIVERER, Iconward NITROUS
My Mad Max inspired army continues with my three HQ choices. Now that my leadership is painted, I needed a name for my cult that reflects the vehicle worship and anarachy of Mad Max while also staying true to the subversive nature of the cult. In the end I landed on FREEDOM’S ENGINE! Pretty cool right? Now for these three I tried to think of details from Fury Road that I could include on these models. Eventually, I settled on dry brushing some Longbeard Grey on the face of the Primus and putting some abbadon black around the eyes to give him kind of a “war boy” look. Except here, its pretty clear that he’s the BOSS of the war boys! I wanted to give him something to show his uniqueness and status among the rest of the army so I painted the interior of his jacket with leadbelcher. This fabled (amongst the cult anyway) gear is known simply as the “Chromed One’s Duster”. It is given to the greatest champion of Vi’Yaite’s Engine and is imbued with protective psychic energy from the cult’s Magus.
The Magus himself was incredibly difficult for me. I’ve never even attempted painting white before. It always seemed to intimidating a prospect. But we’re here to challenge ourselves so I gave it my best shot! Plus, I wanted to convey a sense of regal purity that wouldn’t be seen by the rest of the army. I used three different shades of grey/white and then mixed lahmian medium with the fang blue to shade the recesses. To keep with the Mad Max theme I used lahmian medium with abbaddon black to cover the top half of his head in an oily coating. Similar to Imperator Furiosa in Fury Road. I love the way he came out! He stands high above the fray shouting the litanies of his new gods over the defaced (with the blood of unbelievers) Aquila of the false emperor!
Lastly was the Iconward. I tried not to get too crazy with him. I mixed the fang and abbaddon black to try and create a midnight blue color for his banner. In keeping with the color scheme of my patriarch, I made sure to coat his tongue, claws, and body spikes in metallic colors. Edge highlighting his robes was also very difficult, but I think he turned out ok and appropriately vicious.
I used the hero bases from Games Workshop for the Primus and Magus. The Iconward stands on the Sector Mechanicus bases. The bases all came out great!
Challenger: Sam “THE STACHE” Keller
Faction: WORLD EATERS
HQ Choice: MAURICE THE DEMON PRINCE
Maurice was once a normal kinda guy, living a normal life, being a normal son of Angron, helping to cleanse the galaxy of horrible xenos filth… but that gets boring, like… name any 9-5 job. The call to absolute power (and some pretty dope photo ops) pulled Maurie towards the darkness that is total blood lust and butt stuff that only chaos could provide. However being a warrior rock star got old fast and when the color of blood doesn’t cut it for you any more you do something drastic… kinda like nikki sixx doing so much smack that you need TWO shots of adrenaline to the heart to bring you back… Maurie knew exactly what his adrenaline was…
Having Khorne on speed dial, he hit up the original master of disaster to strike a deal… “you hook me up with some daemon prince goodness, and ill savage every single orifice in the galaxy in your very bloody and bronzy name!”… However Khorne, being Khorne… threw in a catch. “you will have to be more than a daemon prince… you will have to be a hormone monster for all human adolescents, so you can control who they get hard for…. Can’t stand that FXXXXXG SLANESH STEALING ALL MY NEW SOULS!!!! >:O (Khorne scream). Obviously, Maurie agreed… and ever since his ascension, he has been faithfully bathing in the blood of all his enemies: Pretty Marines, Angry Marines, Not Reasonable Marines… (because they provide for good whiskey sipping conversations during Maurie’s down time), and last but not least… ELDAR (nuff said). Maurice is now the envy of every brolo in the galaxy now. Super ripped, sex nuts for days, fly as a mofo… no seriously, part of the deal was he got wings, and finally the biggest sword in the legion… kinda makes all the other world eaters gun shy if they accidentally make eye contact with it.
Additionally, he has fomented a reputation among all the grade school kids as the guy you call when you need to bust your first nut and become a man. Maurie lives by the law of “ball till you fall”, and by all means… the only thing that falls, are his nuts into every single loyalists mouth that thinks they got a chance.
Challenger: Nate Horton
Faction: CRIMSON FISTS
HQ Choice: Chaplain BRIMSTONE
Challnger: Clinton Chandler
Faction: Adeptus Custodes
HQ Choice: Shield Captain HADRIAN VALRUS
I chose my Shield Captain, Hadrian Valrus, to be my HQ choice. First off I need a Shield Captain on foot. Second I chose that model because of the head. Painting faces is the hardest part of the model for me. So I wanted a challenge and to complete my Custodes army.
His name Hadrian Valrus has a deeper meaning. Custodes have many names. These names are given based on their deeds. You need a 100 names to be a Shield Captain. I noticed that some the notable Custodes leaders had the first names of ancient Roman Emperors. Constantine Valdor, named after Emperor Constantine, and Trajann Valoris, named after Emperor Trajan. So I chose Hadrian to be the first name of my Shield Captain on foot. Emperor Hadrian was known as a great engineer and architect. Most notably known for the Hadrian’s Wall that split Britain from the Roman side to the northern uncivilized side. Shield Captain Hadrian Valrus leads the wall of custodes on foot against all who threaten the Emperor and his Imperial Truth.
