The Collectors {CSM Blog}

[horacus]

Keep them comming. They are great

[NealRC]

Hi
Everything about your army is great... excellent backstory, brilliant execution. I am going to flatter you by imitation and use your shoulder pad zombie idea for my Nurgle CSM.

[Icarium]

Horacus - Cheers I'll try to keep up the standard but the heat here is making everything harder! The glue has become like syrup.

NealRC - Thanks for the feedback it helps motivation which I am struggling for at the minute due to the heat! Feel free to use anything, I will prob do a tutorial on a marine at some point as people have asked for painting tutorials.

Quick update, I should have picks on tonight or tomorrow at the latest. I've started work converting the other dreadnought as Varlack has annoyed me so couldn't face more marines for a while. On another note the Collectors will definately be getting one of these in the future!!! What a model. http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/New_Stuf...ON_ENGINE.html

[Icarium]

Here are the first pics of my new Dreadnought. He's going to have his head left visible so that its clear there is a man inside the machine. As you can see he's also found an unfortunate friend who will be getting squeezed. Not got much more done but there will be pics of Varlack tomorrow and I'm also working on some fluff for him as well.

[Icarium]

Finally finished Varlack Creed, scourge of the galaxy. The famed and illusive leader of the Collectors. I will add more fluff soon but for now here are the pics. Painting this model has been hard work. The finecast mis casts make painting frustrating at times when the surface isn't smooth. Also I didn't have a good enough idea of what colour scheme I wanted when I started. Im fairly happy with how the colours have turned out but maybe there is too much red? What do you think? Im not happy with pretty much the entire right arm. The staff end was made using the avatar hand and hands from the zombie kit. There will be a back story for it but I think it might be too big? Im limitted for parts but I might try to change it at some point. Im not sure whether to have the trophy rack on top so I've taken some photos without what do you think? I might add some free hand on the armour covering his stomach. Do you think the marine on the base detracts from the model too much? Im worried it adds too much red. The cloak of chains was made simply using a cheap necklace from ebay.

Overall Im happy to get it finished. We've all had the model that we've looked forward to painting but then it takes longer and longer because you want it to be perfect and the little details become annoying to the point you just want it finished. If I end up re-doing Varlack I might have techmarine servator arms fanning out behind Varlack in the shape of angels wings. I would have also liked to make him look more of a scientist using vials from the DE range. Anyway enough from me heres the model what do you think?

[Icarium]

[roaming wanderer]

Awesome
Really really like that
what did you use for me chain cloak ?

[Icarium]

Roaming Wanderer - Thanks mate, I used a cheap necklace I bought from ebay and simple cut it up to make strips then stuck them on in layers to build up the effect. I used the sleave from the necromancer model to provide the base underneath to stick the chains to. It was surprisingly easy!

If anyone wan't any tutorials on anything I do in my army or close ups of any model or feature then feel free to ask. I will try to update on the WIP on my dread more often to show my work process. Cheers.

[Icarium]

Here is some fluff to expand the back story for Varlack providing more details on his motivations and eventual air. I am keen for him not to be the typical Chaos Lord who wants to kill everything and rule an army of slave as per usual I would rather he was a character with shades of grey rather than just black or white. Anyway read if your interested skip if your not. sorry its quite long but its basically setting up the Chapter.


Xethius struggled to raise his head. He could feel his arms and legs were firmly secured and his armour had been removed. A Space Marine Apothecary for over fifty years he felt naked with out it’s cremate plates encompassing him like a second skin. His recollections of the events leading up to his incarceration remained hazy and the back of his neck was excruciatingly painful. Slowly his enhanced sensory organs began to stabilise his perceptions and he could make out his surroundings. He was in some kind of holding cell stripped of all equipment and lit only by a bright halogen bulb that cast a sterilising light over the whole room preventing any kind of subterfuge.

Xethius attempted to correlate his situation with the disjointed images he remembered from his mission. They had been attached to a squad of Terminators tasked with clearing a known inter stellar craft which had gone silent in the previous months and was considered extreme risk due to it passing through areas of space known to harbour Genestealer cult cells. They were to provide support only in the event the Terminators were forced to retreat to the transport ship. Upon docking with the stricken vessel it had quickly become apparent that there was something drastically wrong as scanners could only detect life in the depths of the vessel and nothing near the navigation bridge. The Commander had ordered the five man Terminator squad deployed with orders to secure the vessel and locate any survivors. After that the images became one nightmarish blur. Slashing talons, a fighting retreat; followed by hordes of savage beasts surging from vents and intersecting corridors. A fleeting glance through a viewing portal revealed the unimaginable. Their carrier ship was spinning in space unanchored and displaying alarming levels of battle damage with vapour trails of vital oxygen purging into space. They were trapped. Memories of hearing the rapid concussive sound of bolters being fired at close range from behind the xenos. Who could it be? Was it fellow marines from within the ship? Then the dawning realisation as his brothers too began to fall to the relentless barrage of bullets. These were not the emperors.

Xethius was roused from his revere by the sound of the solid lock being forced open on the door to his cell. Two hulking Marines in jet black power armour walked into the room. One slapped him casually across the face with his armoured hand causing his vision to blur once more.
“You will be speaking with Creed. Any attempt to resist or escape will lead to amputations.” Warned the marine who had struck him with appalling casualness.
The other moved to his side and unfastened his hands. The pain as the blood rushed along his arms reactivating his nerve cells was excruciating. His arms were roughly seized on either side and he was escorted from the cell. Xethius was led through the interior of some kind of interstellar vessel until he was dragged into what appeared to be a laboratory. In front of him was a man dissecting one of his battle brothers. Initially he appeared to have not even registered his arrival he was so engrossed in his work. But then he spoke and Xethius was filled with a primal instinct to listen and focus all his will on the owner of the voice as if his life depended on it,
“Do you know why you are alive whilst your brothers are all dead?” Asked the man.
“No I do not.” Xethius replied.
“Because you are a man of science. You have been trained as an apothecary, therefore you understand science and will therefore understand what I will tell you and more importantly understand the implications.”
Xethius remained silent. His thoughts were racing as he recalled rumours and reports regarding a figure shrouded in mystery and legend.
“People say that I am a monster. This is fine if you wish to scare children but if you wish to discuss the future fate of humanity then I will not be viewed as a monster I will be viewed as the saviour,” The man still worked on the dissection and hadn’t even turned to address him.
“You’re Varlack Creed. Your actions have hardly been beneficial to humans.” Stated Xethius.
“Well done; I see my reputation is growing at a satisfactory rate as I had planned. My actions now are irrelevant. The history books are written by the victor and will be forgotten as so many other tragedies in this vast galaxy. What I seek to do is take humanity to the next level of our evolution. Ideally this would have occurred naturally but as the Imperium is well aware, time is running out.” A tone of mockery entered his voice as he spoke the word Imperium “Mankind is beset by enemies from all sides, the unstoppable Tyranids from the outer rim, the foul Orks, Eldar which raid our planets with impunity, the Tau who claim peace but if history has taught us anything its that religion cannot be reasoned with and the Chaos within us tainting all who it touches with false promises. Who is there to lead us in this time of need?” asked Varlack.
“The Emperor will guide us as he always has, with him at our side we cannot fail.”
At the sound of the Emperors name Varlack spun around a scalpel clutched in his hand and an expression of rage on his face.
“The Emperor! He lies in his golden throne whilst mankind is reduced to a fighting withdrawal across its entire empire. He has disserted us in our time of need! For a darker age a darker saviour is needed. A man who is willing to do what is necessary to preserve the genes of men.” With alarming speed Varlack regained his composure and continued “The Emperor gave me the idea, if he could construct a gene seed which created the Space Marines and allowed them the strength and fortitude to create the empire then a new gene seed was required to save it. Only the emperor didn’t go far enough. He used only human DNA. I will use anything and there in lies my power. A visionary for the new era.”
“Your insane. Mixing human and xenos DNA is heresy! I would expect nothing more from someone who has sold his soul to Chaos.” Spat Xethius.
“Chaos? I serve no gods.” Varlack was once more calm, “Those Legions who prostrate themselves before primal gods and lose themselves to their base instinsts disgust me. Mankind must save itself. Look to your left if you don’t believe me.”
Xethius looked to his left and saw a huge staff. It appeared to be circulating some kind of liquid around its mechanical parts. His gaze travelled to the end where there were four severed human hands. They surrounded a larger hand banded in the black and yellow colours of the Collectors. The hands were all attached via a tube which was pumping a red fluid into them. It was then that one of the hands twitched causing Xethius to flinch.
“The tubes are a form of cardiopulmonary machine?” gasped Xethius.
“Yes.” replied Varlack. “The hands each came from an acolyte of the four greater gods of Chaos who came to my ship seeking to convert me to the ways of their masters. I listened patiently to each of their proposals as any educated man would do. Each was found lacking and as a result became part of my Staff of Hands. The applicant for Khorne offered me endless battles in order to spill blood for his god. A man who seeks only to kill is no more than an animal, have we evolved a mind and reasoning only to abandon it? I think not. Slanesh offered me the joys of the flesh. One need only look at the perverted Eldar to see what lies down that road. Nurgle offered me the chance to live forever and rule an empire of the diseased and disfigured. Tzench the cleverest and most manipulative of the gods offered me what he thought I desired and was the one which most tempted me. However his obsession with the powers of the Psyker and the warp were his undoing. I will not tolerate the taint of the warp to distort and destroy the future I am building.
So they all in turn became part of my staff and as result I can call upon the aid of any of the gods without sacrificing anything of myself. I have outsmarted the gods themselves; a situation they find most vexing and I’m sure has earned me their enmity for eternity.”
Varlack had remained standing and held Xethius’s gaze through out the duration of his speech. It was only when he finished speaking that Xethius realised he had been riveted to every word he said. This was a dangerous man with a gift for words and the intelligence to achieve his ambitions.

“Now let us return to the reason for you being alive. I desire access to all the Space Marine Primarch genenomes. It will speed up my research and allow me to concentrate on the second stage of my hypothesis.” Stated Varlack.
“The lords of Terra will never agree to that.”
“Believe me I can continue to take them from living Marines I have already collected the samples from over sixteen Chapters including four Chaos Legions. By providing the samples you prevent more of your brothers being taken. Allowing me to focus on the true enemies of Mankind.” reasoned Varlack.
“What will you do with them?” Xethius asked.
“I will create the strongest and purest human DNA code which will be able to incorporate the benefits from xenos DNA without becoming tainted by it. Allowing the resulting offspring to be human …but evolved.” Revealed Varlack with a gleam in his eye.
“Madness! It would never work. You are delusional and insane.” Shouted Xethius.
“On the contrary I am the only one of all the billions of souls in our empire who has envisioned the solution to our survival in these dark time and has the ability to implicate it. Come and see for yourself.” Varlack gestured for Xethius to approach the operating table.
On trembling legs he approached, the table. From his previous position it had looked like his brother had been alone on the table now it was revealed otherwise. Xethius’s stomach contracted involuntarily as his mind registered what he was seeing. Next to Brother Fointus was a clinically dissected Genestealer, some of its internal organs had been removed and transplanted into Brother Fointus. What made his blood run cold however was that some of the organs were beating, Fointus was still alive!
Xethius lunged for Varlack attempting to end this abomination once and for all but his arms grasped air and with two perfectly timed blows to his knee and back Xethius slammed down onto the metal grating. Marines rushed into the room and hauled him to his feet. Varlack stood facing him, once again calm and composed.
“Take him and deliver him to our contacts within the Imperium.” Ordered Varlack before pausing in thought, “However he doesn’t need his hands to deliver the demands, remove them. I may need them for my staff.”
Xethius let out a howl of anguish. He had been willing to sacrifice his body for the Emperor but now he would lose even his soul. The last thing he saw as he was dragged kicking and screaming from the room was Varlacks eyes shining with mirth before he pulled up his surgical mask and turned back to his work.

[horacus]

Imposing models, great fluff

[juicytomatoes]

Varlack looks very impressive! Fantastic stuff...

[Icarium]

Horacus - Thanks alot I'll try to keep up the standard.

Juiceytomatoes - Thanks I wasn't sure about Varlack for a while but he turned out well in the end!


ITS ALIVE! Ok long time no updates but finally finished the second dread!!!! It was a long drawn out process and as a result Im not as pleased with it as the previous one but then thats to be expected as I used all the best bits on the first one! I like how the civillian being crushed as come out and the way the marine appears to be looking at him. Next up will be a five man marine squad and then Im out of models so I need to push the boat out on these guys!!! I will have one taking the face from a civilian but other than that Im open to suggestion for carnage. So what do you want to see? I will also do a tutorial for them.

C and C welcome.

[horacus]

Magnificent dreadnought

[gonzosbignose]

Wonderfully dark and gruesome theme, merged with a superbly executed and vivid colour scheme.

Really looking forward to watching this one develop.

Regards

My name is Daniel and I am a wargamer