My take on pre-heresy World Eaters

[Ithmaril]

Hi there,

Here are the pictures of my first Pre Heresy / Heresy World Eaters. Actually, they're my first attempts at converting Space Marines (learned to love the plastic...) and making pictures of them for the internet, so I'm thankful for every kind of comment and advice, regardless if it's concerning the fluff behind them, models, or the pics. Especially since I'm quite a sculpting, conversion, and general 40k noob. ;)
I imagine this to be my first long-term project, and I hope I'll manage to keep my motivation up to finish 500 points of them, and maybe 1000 afterwards.

So here we go:

Tactical Squad "Arrgoth", 3rd Gladiator Company, World Eaters Chapter

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What's next:
- Brother-Sergeant Brutus (for the Imperator Astartes Victorum competition of the pre-heresy forums.)
- Scouts
- First Paintjobs

Hope you like. Stay tuned!

[Aflo]

Lookin pretty smooth so far buddy. I'd highly reccomend Synapse's plog for some hardcore, pre-heresy, world-eater action

[crandall87]

Looking good so far. Some nice GS work there. Will be nice to see these painted

[Ithmaril]

Thank you... yeah, I'm a dedicated reader of Synapse's blog. Absolutely awesome. Lets me feel quite... small and humble.

The vet sergeant is coming along nicely, but no pics yet. My Scouts arrived this morning, but I haven't yet decided how to use them. In the meantime, a dreadnaught-related question (I already posted at another forum)... need some more opinions about that. It's about pre-heresy Space Marine Dreadnaughts.

As far as I can see, the horus heresy CCG Art depicts dreadnaughts similar to the rouge trader ones: clumsy humanoid constructions. The other type of PH dread I frequently see on the net ist very similar to today's venerable dreadnought by GW.
Now, I don't like any of these very much. A rouge trader dread is hard to come by and imho kinda ugly, and a modified venerable dreadnought is too expensive and too much of a standard solution for me. Then, some days ago, I've found a box of old space crusade (called starquest where I come from) miniatures in my basement, and immediatly fell in love with the dreadnaught. Some pictures:




I have to admit, I just love this design. Looks similar to the law enforcement robot from robocop, and has a kind of... gigeresque quality to it. Plus, it doesn't look -too- chaos-tainted...
So, my question would be, what is your opinion regarding the usage of this miniature as a basis for a PH world eaters dreadnaught? I intend to make it bulkier (by pointing the chassis down, making the weapons more horizontal), add more details, and a big back banner. Of course, this bad boy will get a round 40k-base. I'm particularly interested in your thoughts towards the "historical accuracy" and style. Being the representation of a kind of chaos dreadnaught (the epic space marine game chaos cybots had the same style, I believe), I don't think that it would be far-fetched to say that this dreadnaught design was around before heresy... or at least, I don't believe that the traitor legions completely restyled these things after their betryal.

What do you think?

[Ithmaril]

Apart from that (still hope to get some opinions concerning the usage of this dreadnought model, tho), for your viewing convenience, here's a group picture.

[Ithmaril]

No paintjob update yet... I'll wait until I'm really happy with my test model. Don't really like to push this thread myself, but oh my, if progress is made, progress will be documented. Still hope you like, and I'd appreciate any comment.

[5.] Brother-Sergeant Brutus of the World Eaters, 3rd Gladiator Company, Veteran of the Great Crusade, leader of squad "Arrgoth".



Being a proud and renowned warrior from the days of the great crusade, brother-sergeant Brutus was one of the first World Eaters receiving experimental versions of implants similar to the ones of his primarch Angron. Fierce and merciless towards his enemies, he always had managed to keep himself a certain degree of humanity and honor. But because of the instability of the prototype enhancements implanted into his head, an inner conflict drove him into a dangerous kind of schizophrenia. For decades, the thirst for blood and slaughter on one side, his discipline and humanity on the other, fought for his soul- making him a dangerously unpredictable personality, sometimes honorful and focused, sometimes going berserk like a madman.
At the end of a long and seemingly unstoppable descent into madness, he met his fate at Isstvan V, where he finally ripped the implant of his traitor primarch out of his head, inflicting himself a deadly wound. Nevertheless, he fought his traitor brothers with righteous and superhuman rage, praising the emperor until his bloody end between the chain axes of his former comrades, finding peace and salvation for eternity.

He's the veteran sarge for my first squad. I went for some serious iron armour / retro roman / great crusade -look while trying to make it not too painfully obvious and different. Furthermore, I decided to give all the helmetless Marines really long, greasy, hardcore 80's metal band hair. I hope it makes them look even more savage, brutal, own-minded and as if they wouldn't really give a damn about body hygiene. You know, like metal bands from the eighties.

Here's the first group picture of an actual ("playable") squad.



On a different note, my old scouts arrived today... looking great, love the models, pictures will follow.

[charlie_c67]

Originally Posted by Ithmaril

[5.] Brother-Sergeant Brutus...snip...leader of squad "Arrgoth".

Sounds like a cross between a pirate and someone who likes to wear white make-up and paint their nails black . Looking good though!

[floyd pinkerton]

looking great up to now mate, keep it up!

[zealot!]

lookin awesome. keep going.

[Aflo]

Looking pretty smooth mate, I really like the gladiatorial aspect you've got goingon, especially the captain's breastplate. Now get em painted!

[doghouse]

Nice! They have a seriously brutal look to them and I agree with Aflo they have a nice gladitorial feel to them.
I really like what you've done with the back pack vetns and the use of additional plates.

[Robot 2000]

the use of all the extra armour is very cool, makes them look a bit meaner and clunkier than regular space marines

I also think the dreadnought is a cool idea, although I'm not such a fan of the old style weapons, the general body shape is very nice

[Ithmaril]

Thank you all for these very encouraging comments, it all perfectly helps me through my current ordeal to find my personal way of painting white armour. On a serious note, I was already kinda worried if I'd have to bump my own thread for the rest of my life, because everybody else seemed to get responses for their topics, and I didn't.
I guess it's because I'm really starting to love this project and having much fun with it... obviously, these two days were no reason to panic, but it's kinda intimidating at the beginning how... active and productive this community is. I'm just not used to message boards of this size, and the possibility to descend to page 3 within an hour or so.

Nethertheless, my motivation to make a whole playable army of this project (that started as a kind of just-for-fun conversion exercise) almost exploded in the meantime, so I've started painting, almost collected all neccessary bits to add 5 more Marines to squad Arrgoth and worked out a plan for a dreadnought conversion based on the chassis above. Now I just need to get my hands on that camera again, to present you pictures of all the things I mentioned, plus my retro-squad of scouts.

Again, thanks a lot for commenting!

charlie_c67: You're talking about Captain Jack Sparrow, right?

[charlie_c67]

Was thinking more Steve the pirate....

[Ithmaril]

So, I finished up my Dreadnought conversion yesterday night. The good news: I like the result. The bad news: Probably won't get a camera into my hands until Sunday evening. That's a pity, but, oh well. Still, I've got an other lifesign for you: My first army list. Apart from some bits I already ordered, which should arrive in a matter of days, I've got all the neccessary miniatures ready for conversion and/or painting, except for the captain- gotta think of something special for him, and start ordering bits then. So, here it is, the army whose creation you are about to witness in this humble little blog.

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World Eaters Legion, 3rd Gladiator Company, Rapid Intrusion Force / Terror Squad Codex Space Marines, 500 Pts.

Trait: Fierce
No mercy, no respite / Take the fight to them / Eye to eye

HQ1: Captain (60); Power Weapon (15); Plasma pistol (15)
90 Pts.

TR1: Tactical Squad (-5-, 75); Bolt Pistols & CC weapons; Furious Assault (15); Sarge with Terminator Honors (15), Plasma Pistol (10), Powerfist (15)
130 Pts.

TR2: Tactical Squad (-5-, 75); Bolt Pistols & CC weapons; Furious Assault (15); Plasma Gun (10)
100 Pts.

TR3: Scout Squad (-5-, 65); Bolt Pistols & CC weapons
65 Pts.

EL1: Dreadnought (105), CC weapon / stormbolter; multi-melta (10)
115 Pts.

[crandall87]

these are coming along really nicely. I can't wait until sunday to see your dread.

[synapse]

Originally Posted by Ithmaril

So, my question would be, what is your opinion regarding the usage of this miniature as a basis for a PH world eaters dreadnaught? I intend to make it bulkier (by pointing the chassis down, making the weapons more horizontal), add more details, and a big back banner. Of course, this bad boy will get a round 40k-base. I'm particularly interested in your thoughts towards the "historical accuracy" and style. Being the representation of a kind of chaos dreadnaught (the epic space marine game chaos cybots had the same style, I believe), I don't think that it would be far-fetched to say that this dreadnaught design was around before heresy... or at least, I don't believe that the traitor legions completely restyled these things after their betryal.

What do you think?

deffinately, use the SC dread - I love it!

and the exhaust vents are really cool on the models!

[Ithmaril]

crandall87: Thanks, I hope you'll like it.

Synapse: Thank you for your input- it's an honor to have encouraging comments by the two outstanding pre-heresy truescale marine sculptors, who gave me lots of insopiration, in my very own little thread. I'm a great admirer of your and doghouse's work.

[Ithmaril]

Dreadnought pictures I promised, and dreadnought pictures you shall recieve. ;-)

World Eaters Dreadnought, MK1 pattern
Basically, I used the chassis of the old Space crusade dreadnought. Why I did so is already explained earlier in this thread, for further information on my opinion towards the design you can also check out this little thread in the pre-heresy forums. I gathered some evidence for the case of the design in there.

Long story short: I ripped apart an entire Sentinel (arms and engine exhaust), scratch-built the meanest cybot power fist I could imagine (Quartered space marine shoulderpads. Searchlight. Old imperial vehicle accessory sprue blades), made him bigger whereever I could, filled the gaps, and tried to make his armement as flexible as I could to cover all codex options. Models for an assault cannon, a rocket launcher (arm-mounted) and the multi-melta were also provided by the space crusade kit, the sync'd Lascan is a conversion using two multilasers for scale purposes (didn't want it to be bigger than the other guns). In the end, an ogre nations "fleshy" Banner was added. After maybe something around 8 hours of work, this is his current state... just check the original SC dread pictures above on this page to see how this wee little fellah changed.





Example for the standard codex configuration, assault cannon and close combat weapon





Example for a "shooty" combination, rocket launcher and sync lascan





Example for a completely nutty apocalypse-esque configuration with as many mean weapons attached to him as possible





Hope you like so far! Some opionions, criticism and hints would be much-appreciated. Furthermore, I still need a kickass name for him... any suggestions?

[zealot!]

wow! :O

plz paint the dread soon