Building custom Khorne Berserkers.

[Ap0k]

Actually, they're already built.

A few of you guys might have seen this unit I built for the UK GD a few years ago. Turns out someone else saw them and wanted a set for themselves, so has commissioned me to take another shot at them, keeping as much of the original style as possible, with a few tweaks to colours and certain models.

So we swapped the huge ogryn conversion out, since it's not really that helpful for tabletop use. The guy leaping over the wall pretty much got turned into just a normal running guy, and the crouching one got replaced because it is apparently a bitch to get a hold of crouching legs these days. Overall though, I managed to get the new squad pretty close to the old one, posing and conversion wise. Anything different is either due to client request (such as the double chain-fists) or because it's just not possible to use exactly the same parts as were used in the existing set.

So here's the progress after about 30 hours of cleaning parts, gluing and sculpting. I've wrapped them in spoiler tags because they're pretty wide, and will break the forum layout.

And here's the point we're currently sitting at. The reds are done, short of maybe a few extra details at the end of the project if there's time. A basic start has been made on the flesh tones which is really just a quick basecoat followed by a wash to define the shading. The plan will be to sort out the flesh across the entire unit over the next few working days, so that'll naturally involve some more work into the shadows and, of course, the highlights.





And that's it for the meantime!

[gonzosbignose]

What a fantastic start to a blog.

The conversion work is superb, excellent use of bitz and greenstuff work combined with some exceptional movement of existing parts.

As if the sculpting and conversion work wasn't stunning in itself, you then follow it up with some of the most sensationally rich red i think i've seen in a blog for some time.

Thanks for sharing and I'll keep my eyes on this one to follow progress.

Regards

My name is Daniel and I am a wargamer

[BasetheRuin]

Omg this is jaw dropping. So much inspiration in there. So much originality. The work of an all round modelling master!

[Ap0k]

The flesh is finally done. The steps are pretty convoluted, since I ended up going back and forwards on a few stages to get something that looked right, but at it's core, it was pretty much a basecoat of 1:3 Astronomicon Grey:Space Wolves Grey, followed by Badab Black. This part was mostly to develop a rough idea of where the shading would lie. From there, I went back over most of the flesh with the original Astro/Space Wolves Grey mixture to bring the colour back up everywhere except the deepest shadows, and then hit it with a couple of watered down Badab Black washes into the recesses to give a bit of a smoother transition. Tidied up the transitions a bit more with the grey mixture once again, and that was pretty much the shadows done.

From that point it was pretty much a case of building up to the highlights through the original basecoat mixture, into a more pure SW Grey, into a final highlight of Skull White.

And that was that!




The plan for next week will be to sort out all the bronzes (nightmare ahoy!), and once that's out of the way, it's pretty much plain sailing to do any final details like silvers, the WE logo's on the shoulder pads, and any tattoo's/veins/skulls/glowy runes on armour and of course, the final stage will be the basing and mandatory blood splattering.

In all, I expect to be finished in a couple of weeks.

[swampman6]

very very different, and i love them!!

[totgeboren]

Wow, I missed your GD entry, really stunning work! Looking forward to seeing how these new guys turn out.

[Deamon-forge]

oh my they are really stunny. what are the bases of the bodys?

[Ap0k]

oh my they are really stunny. what are the bases of the bodys?

Arms and torso's are from the Beastmen Gors set, while the heads are from the necromunda Goliath gang.

[Jo-Jo]

The whites and reds! Look like Santa!

[igneous]

looking good.
are you going to make a daemon prince or something big and scary?

[Ap0k]

Future stuff along the same theme will be entirely up to the client really. I'd certainly do a daemon prince or something big if it was requested!

[Ap0k]

So that's another week down, and it sees the brass pretty much finished up, with the exception of super small details like earrings/eyebrow rings and stuff.





All that really leaves is the silver metallics, and the various miscellaneous details. The plan is to get the whole project wrapped up in the next week or week and a half, and assuming things move to schedule, it'll work out at around 90-100 hours from the very start of the project to the very end. Not too shabby when you consider the original squad took about three times that!

[Mega Nutz]

Fantastic builds, every inch berserkers!!

[horacus]

The look so damn awsome

[d6juggernaut]

You've managed to make the rather goofy looking berserkers look extremely intimidating. It has the right amount of fancy bling to not look ridiculous like the majority 40k design, and it looks simple enough to be really scary. Elegantly done, my friend

[Student]

They are shaping up nicely. Great work.

[Hadriel Caine]

These look absolutely incredible. Great painting, astounding conversions.

[cyrus]

stunning work. Very different indeed...

[Ap0k]

Aaaand we're done!




At the last minute, the client expressed an interest in backing out of the deal if an alternate buyer could be found, so we decided there was little point in adding more cost by going back to do tattoo's/blood/armour runes and whatnot. I think they look damn solid as-is though. A much cleaner look than the original versions, and I had the chance to rectify some of the mistakes I made the first time around, so I'm happy enough!

With the client situation as it is, that means these guys are on sale for a short period of time, so if anyone is interested in picking them up, feel free to get in touch!

CMON link should be live in a little while, so I'll update the thread with it then, if anyone wants to throw them a vote there.

[horacus]

¡Blood for the bloodgod!