It’s been a good while since I started this guy – with the intention of using him as a proxy model for Vexnar the Reaper in our games of Gorechosen. Why a proxy? Simply put, I wanted to get in some proper practice before starting in on the rather expensive and very nice “official” models that came in the box. Similar to the previous proxy model I’d painted, but with a slight *cough* delay between models.
Anyway, I’ve finally gotten this guy done. And while he fits nicely enough into Armoured April, the impetus was just as much seeing it on the desk and just making myself get the bloody thing finished.
I’m pretty satisfied with how the model came out overall. The only real thing that bothers me is the teeth on his skull-helm look a little like a comedy moustache from a distance at time, which is probably not what The Blood God intended. There’s a slight conversion going on here, in the form of a weapon swap. He’s had his Katar-shield replaced with a hammer from one of the plastic Dwarf kits – it works both as a direct reference to Vexnar – armed with an axe and warhammer – and as a piece of looted war booty. After all, if you’re going to use a warhammer stolen from a foe, a dwarven hammer is the way to go, right?
As a final little thing, and a shout-out to all Science-guys from Germany, I have a shot of most of my main Khorne Champion-types from the last couple of years. Skulls for the Skull Throne!
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Nice little conversion, and great painting. He fits in really well with your other Khornate models
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Thanks Dave – now I need to get a few more of them done sooner rather than later!
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Very cool mate – I thought the hammer looked a bit clean at first, but I really like the concept of him looting it 🙂
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Thanks Alex. I was looking through my bitz when I saw that particular hammer head, and thought it would be a good bit of (mostly) unspoken story to him as a Champion of Khorne.
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Nice work! Love the dwarven hammer as well, especially because to the dwarves this will be a grave insult and huge effort will be put into erasing this stain on their honour, whereas to the Khorne guy it’s just a hammer and he’ll probably lose it in the next fight…
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Cheers, Wudugast – and well put on the ever-so-slightly different perspectives from both sides of the hammer, as it were. 🙂
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Nice work as always and good to see you are, for now at least, back in the blogging grove.
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Thanks mate. I had to get back to it sooner rather than later or I’d never cut my way through the backlog, I guess!
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More great stuff my man! You’ve been on a red-themed tear, and I like it! Nice conversion and love the colors.
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Thanks Mark – I clearly need to get a few more Khorne guys onto the current production line!
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Looking good, a great paint job on him. 👍
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Thanks mate!
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He looks really good! I like the weapon swap as well, and the idea behind it. I’m not much of a fan of the weird shield blades..
I should really get to painting these guys myself, they’ve been primed since the summer. But there’s so many other projects to do, and the amount of trim doesn’t really entice me..
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Thanks mate – While I’m happy with the weapon swap, I’m not too fussed about the shield blades. It makes sense that any shields carried by Khorne berserkers would also pretty explicitly also be weapons as well.
The trim was one of the things that also put me off. Luckily because I’d separated this guy into a single rather than a whole unit I was able to make myself get him done. Getting the rest of these hordes done might be much more of a task…
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Very effective- great work.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thank you, Pete!
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Very nice indeed!
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Cheers, John! Glad you like him!
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Super job! And I’d have never have noticed the potential comedy moustache unless you pointed it out – for my money, the similarly-coloured teeth on his cuirass do a good job of helping the viewer figure out what’s supposed to be going on with his helmet. But that’s just me.
Also, that base is awesome! More fantasy barbarian types should be based as if despoiling ancient temples and/or palaces.
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haha, thanks – To be honest, it didn’t stand out so much until I painted the teeth like ….teeth. And from that point on, they started to bother me. I’d do them black to try and tone them down, but then it would probably be even worse!
Thanks for the comment on the base as well. I wanted something that would fit both into Gorechosen and also not look too odd alongside his dirt-based brethren.
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Great band of epic warriors!
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Thank you, Matt. 🙂
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Very cool! The Khorne colour scheme can end up looking kind of cheesy when it’s done with a bright red, but you’ve pulled it off very nicely here. The weapon swap was great, too. I didn’t even realize it was a conversion, and the hammer came out looking fantastic!
Also, as ssspectre mentioned, I didn’t even notice the mustache thing before you pointed it out, but now I can’t unsee it.
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Cheers Alexis. I think the trick with the Khorne scheme is much the same as with Blood Angels or Flesh Tearers or any similar – to make sure the brights on the red aren’t overdone, and to balance it out – often with black/iron and sometimes gold/brass/white. To me it’s like the difference between the clownish Blood Angels of 2nd Edition and the much darker, more sombre looking BA of 3rd edition.
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You’ve done a fantastic job on the Blood Warrior champ, mate! Maybe simply leaving the teeth on his facemask in red and merely higlighting them would have avoided the “moustache” effect you describe — but I wouldn’t worry either way, because it’s looking great as is. Maybe some blood spatter on the hammer would be the perfect missing link between the dwarven hammer as a piece of loot and its use as a weapon in the service of Khorne now?
I really appreciate the shout out and the group picture, too! What a characterful and wonderfully Khornate group! 🙂
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Thanks KS! I guess there are plenty more of these guys still to be painted, so I’ll experiment with different effects as I continue through them. And then not let myself go back and change them all once I find something I like. Maybe.
My main reason for avoiding blood spatter on the hammer (and axe) is that I was concerned about overdoing the transparent paints, as I’ve already used both blue and green on the hammer. That and the stuff being so hard to control when you want it to look its best – like on my Ork Warboss’ Squighound – much of which comes under “lucky accident” but also not having a paintjob you’re worried about messing up with spatter.
No worries on the shoutout, your Khorne stuff is always inspirational to me when I see it, and I do need to get more Berserkers painted, and I’ve always enjoyed doing the Khornate stuff. Just need to clear the decks a little more so I can start a few more…
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