Realm of Chaos: Champion of Slaanesh (“Paint the Crap You Already Own!” April 2020 Challenge) (Jes Goodwin, 1988)

Realm of Chaos Slaves to Darkness Chaos Champion of Slaanesh, Jes Goodwin, 1988

My next model for Ann’s “Paint the Crap You Already Own!” challenge is this Chaos Champion of Slaanesh from the Slaves to Darkness releases of 1988. This particular model has been sitting around, somewhat part-painted for …I dunno. 15? 20 years? A hell of a long time. When I say part-painted, I mean I’d done a rougher vesion of the turquoise armour, and based it on a 25mm square base with green railroad flock. 3 or 4 years ago when I was doing some of my other old, unfinished chaos models I fished it out of the figure case and it’s been sititng on a tray on my painting desk ever since, with no real sense of urgency to work on since I didn’t really like the figure. After completing the Dwarf the other week, I asked Marouda to choose three figures for me to work on completing next. She chose this figure, no doubt because the various shades of Aqua and Turquoise are “my favourite colour” as well as another two – both of which are still WIP and one of which led to a block of 5 being worked on sort-of-together.

Realm of Chaos Slaves to Darkness Chaos Champion of Slaanesh, Jes Goodwin, 1988

I kept the aqua-turquoise armour, and went with a brass for the helmet, which had sat, primed white since I could never figure out what to do with it. The bondage glove and sock went from the dark purple that they were basecoated in to something with much more pronouced highlights, and the crest stayed in the original yellow, but with more emphasis on the highlights and shading. The corset and right bracer had enough in common with the right pauldron in terms of sculpting that they all got the same treatement – pearlescent red (which you cannot see in the photos at all) with a subtle red wash. The other metal accoutrements also got given the same brassy treatment as the helmet, as did the metal furniture of the weapon. Red gemstones and that was mostly that.

Realm of Chaos Slaves to Darkness Chaos Champion of Slaanesh, Jes Goodwin, 1988

The shield, naturally had to be one of the original plastics from the era of the sculpt. I went with one of the smaller “chaos” shaped shields in the end, as the main issue I have with a lot of them is that they end up covering a lot of the hard work you put into these lovely classic sculpts. I followed the same overall palette that I used on the rest of the model, with a freehand rune of Slaanesh that looks a little reminiscent of a dancing humanoid figure, due to the angles. I also gave the crescent on the end a bit of a crab-claw shape, as a nod to the daemonettes. Gloss varnish on the steed’s tongue for a nice, extra-slick look.

So thanks to Marouda’s choice (which admittedly was greeted with “that one??”) I have another model in that camp I rather like adding to – models I pretty much disliked, didn’t want to paint, and now have a real fondness for as finished pieces. Yeah, I’m happy with this one.

Iron Warriors MK.IIIc Pattern Predator (MechaNovember ’19)

Iron Warriors MK.IIIc Pattern Predator

Here’s the final of the three, very neglected, vehicles I managed to make myself finish through November. I really should have taken a “before” picture of this model, but it was very much something that was warped, repurposed and then cobbled together. Originally, I got this as a secondhand piece, covered in spikes and bits of the original Chaos Vehicle Sprue and painted in a dark blue of (presumably) the Night Lords. After disassembly, I found that the hull was mis-aligned and the hull was heavily scarred with plastic cement from where all of the crap was glued onto it. I covered the holes at the front and back of the hull where the joins were, as well as the scars on top, sides and front of the track assembly.

Iron Warriors MK.IIIc Pattern Predator

I considered removing the spiked hedgecutters, but they really did not want to come off, and so I’m writing off that one bent spike as “battle-damage”. I added some etched brass details as well – the large Legion Skull Icon on the front of the hull as well as the smaller IV and Icon on the fender and turret. The large Legion number and vehicle name were from the Forge World decal sheet.

Iron Warriors MK.IIIc Pattern Predator

The metal top hull plates didn’t fit well at all, and the same was true of the two halves of the turret. I tried to fix both, but to no real avail – it feels like they’ll be one of those things that other people don’t notice too much but annoy the hell out of the painter (me). I’ve also added some hazard stripe decals on the hull and rear of the turret, as well as painting a small amount of the trim in copper to make the vehicle a little more like my older Iron Warriors infantry.

Iron Warriors MK.IIIc Pattern Predator

As one of the engine exhausts was missing, and naturally the fine pipes were all broken, I reattached a pair of the exhausts at the rear of the tank – though with the engine hatches located at the rear of the hull it doesn’t seem a terrible fit. I also needed to fill in some space to bulk out  the rear of the track sections, so a combination of a pair each of jerry jans and the original rhino kit stowage crates covered that. With the finish, I wanted it to look “clean”, yet worn – befitting the more orthodox Iron Warriors.

Iron Warriors MK.IIIc Pattern Predator

Here is the Predator alongside some of the Iron Warriors infantry that will be fighting alongside it.

Iron Warriors MK.IIIc Pattern Predator, Plague Marine Rhino Mk.I.

Finally a shot of the Iron Warriors Predator alongside the Iron Warriors Plague Marine Rhino that I finished as part of MechaNovember ’19.