Realm of Chaos – Be’Lakor the Dark Master: The First Daemon Prince – Diabolical December ’18

Be'Lakor the Dark Master: The First Daemon Prince

Finally, Be’Lakor, the Dark Master is complete. I originally started this figure just over three years ago, as part of the original Painting December, which was a personal challenge that became the genesis for our monthly painting challenges. It’s been a rather epic battle to get up the motivation to complete him, due to all the tons of little fiddly bits, and basically, negative inertia towards the model. This is why the challenges exist. To motivate me to get models like this one completed. I based him on the rolled-edge 50mm round base, as a regular 60mm base seemed much too large, while the regular 50mm base seemed a bit.. I dunno. Boring? I didn’t have any official GW 50mm bases at the time (that I could find), so I only had those alternative ones that are a mm or two shorter. I also mounted him up on some cork to increase his height and make him look a little more imposing.

Be'Lakor the Dark Master: The First Daemon Prince

Be'Lakor the Dark Master: The First Daemon Prince

Be'Lakor the Dark Master: The First Daemon Prince

Be'Lakor the Dark Master: The First Daemon Prince

His colour scheme is different to the “official” GW one. It was inspired by a google search I did when trying to figure out how to paint him. It may have been inspired by Noridicus‘ paint scheme, over at Heresy-Online, but given that he talks about how he’s also seen this sort of scheme used, it might have been one of the models that inspired him that also inspired me. I dunno. I know that Nordicus’ model looks great, and I think my rendition also looks pretty good as well.

Be'Lakor the Dark Master: The First Daemon Prince

Finally, I thought a scale shot would be in order, as without it many of these larger models seem to be much smaller than they actually are – so here he is alongside those two bastions of model scale, a Space Marine and a Primaris Space Marine! So, in the end it took three years to get him painted. I’m not sure that it’s been worth the wait, but I’m very definitely happy to have gotten him completed finally!

…now there’s one model left from that original Painting December trio. The Marauder Giant, an otherwise wonderful model with a stupid patchwork tunic. There’s no way he’ll be completed for Dauntess/Diabolical December, but perhaps as a centrepiece model for January?

Realm of Chaos – Slaves to Darkness Beastmen VII: Slaangor (Neglected Model September ’18)

Realm of Chaos - Slaves to Darkness Beastmen Slaangor Oldhammer Beasts of Chaos

I’ve completed a few more of the old Realm of Chaos Beastmen that have been hidden away, part painted in figure cases for years or decades. This trio feature a pair of duplicate sculpts, both with broken weapons, both repaired in different ways at different points in time, and a variation on the same sculpt. These three of course are Slaangor – that is, beastmen dedicated to the Lord of Pleasure, Slaanesh.

Realm of Chaos - Slaves to Darkness Beastmen Slaangor Oldhammer Beasts of Chaos

The two on the ends needed their weapons repaired. The original weapon was a mace shaped into the rune of Slaanesh, as you can see on the beastman on our right. I attempted to repair it into it’s original form by making a replacement using another model with the same weapon to create a simple mold with Oyumaru and then greenstuff (kneadatite) for the part – then pinning it onto the stub. It turned out nicely on the front half, and rough as hell on the rear. I did this a couple of years ago. For the other model, I did it a few days ago using the pick end from a Chaos Marauder and simply pinning it onto the end of the broken mace, in order to differentiate the two models a little more.

All three were incredibly garish when I got them out of the case. Here’s an example of some of the flaws I used to make in terms of composition years ago. As you can see, I could still freehand just fine, but I apparently thought that there was a need to use all of the colours on way too many models. Speaking of freehand, please enjoy the four photos of this model, showing off some of its many tattoos. There’s also a rose you can’t see on the upper inner left thigh, as it’s now covered by the shield.

Realm of Chaos - Slaves to Darkness Beastmen Slaangor Oldhammer Beasts of Chaos Realm of Chaos - Slaves to Darkness Beastmen Slaangor Oldhammer Beasts of Chaos Realm of Chaos - Slaves to Darkness Beastmen Slaangor Oldhammer Beasts of Chaos Realm of Chaos - Slaves to Darkness Beastmen Slaangor Oldhammer Beasts of Chaos

I think the updated and completed version is a pretty solid improvement over the overly-garish (unfinished) attempt from years ago, while keeping the best elements of the original paintwork…

Realm of Chaos - Slaves to Darkness Beastmen Slaangor Oldhammer Beasts of Chaos

Here the three are alongside the other Slaangor that I painted awhile back. It’s on a larger base because I decided that it was a Champion of Slaanesh. You’ll note that all three sculpts share the same base. Keep this in mind next time you see someone bitching that GW’s new digital sculpts reuse elements.

Once again, these are Jes Goodwin sculpts, though these aren’t amongst the strongest of his work. As with many of the figures of the day, they’re not particularly dynamic, and these ones are also particularly “flat” sculpts.