8th Edition 40k Army: Completed Big Custom Hellbrute!

Finally I’ll show the Big Custom Hellbrute in it’s mostly finished form. (I say mostly as since taking these shots, I have added a bit more detail to the base and some more gore…) As you can see from the primaris sized plague marine conversion at it’s side, he is indeed very big boy!

Last off, when I posted a WIP for this beast, I only had a dark green base coat and a few shades of lighter greens drybrushed on it, so since then it has a lot more going off.

I think it turned out OK, loving the face, as it completely changes the model from it’s original Scotia/Grendel Leviathan War Golem form to something unique. Not that there was anything wrong with the original model, but I needed to create a face that gives that Nurgle Chaos vibe rather than the stock face it had. I also had to reposition the arms to give it some level of dynamism that the original lacked (IMHO, no offense!) as the standard pose was very static, and I wanted to give some sense of it lumbering across the battlefield, not just stood there, arms tight at it’s sides.

Like I said, the face carries it for me. It has a definite Great Unclean one style that locks it in as being Nurgloid in nature, plus is totally unique (since I sculpted it on) I did have to add a lot of sculpted bits to make it seem like it was fused between the hard metal and organic, but the various pipes and tubes that were present in the original helped as well, so adding extra pipes and tubes, or at least the impression of them, was an easy way to help blend the sculpted additions to the stuff already there.

The second set of clawed arms were added from some Tyranid spares I had, exposed guts bursting out blended well, merging easily into the aforementioned pre-existing tubes already there. The large mass of tentacles were added to insinuate much more mutations inside the machine, reaching out of the spaces at it’s side and under the arm. These also provided some support to the arm that I re-positioned.

The back flat armor areas were kept as intact as I could (Obviously I had plenty of places where the mutations were bursting from) but I wanted enough parts left on the model to paint in the same Death Guard scheme I have for my overall army. Battle damage was carved into the resin here and there to Nurglify? it a bit more, as this thing would draw a lot of fire on the table, so I imagine a monstrosity like this would be torn up a bit! It goes well with the Ceros and Rhino as heavy back up, it certainly starts to make my army a force to be reckoned with!

Overall I like this model, and would recommend anyone to give these little gems a go if you want to add a big lumbering mech type hellbrute/dred to your chaos bois. You can do a lot with these if you use your imagination, swap out the arms, add new heads and features, mutations and more.

Not sure what I’ll run it as, but I have a few things in mind, regardless though, I will be supplementing my troops with him, drawing fire as he slowly makes his way into battle. I do have another Hellbrute on the way, heavily converted from a Reaper Bones Graveyard Golem, but I’m not finished with him yet. Here’s a quick preview.

This one is more normal sized for a Hellbrute, but I’d say much more converted. I may make one from scratch to complete my trinity, as I have an idea, but I need more suitable parts before I start as I don’t want to just make a start, only then to stop because I am missing bits to finish it!

Hope you liked the pics, I’ll be back next time with more finished pieces and pics of the rest of my lads. Suggestions, comments and so on are welcomed, let me know what you think!

Scratch Build Khorne Chaos Rhino (How to make 40k Chaos Rhinos for pennies part 3)

Hello again, time for the reveal of the second scratch build Rhino, the Khornate version.

This one turned out to be quite a little chunky monkey. I think it was the textured wallpaper used in this build. Don’t get me wrong, it has given the vehicle a nice, almost corroded skin for the most part. That gives it a more armoured profile, plus the big chunky rivets and plates just add more to that feel.

From the front profile, you can see this is no delicate transport, just a solid lump of mechanical parts, bolted together and sent to war. The paint application here was basic than my usual (mostly to cut my time down, and also since it wasn’t for me (sorry son) but if you think about it, a load of Khorne worshipping marines wouldn’t think about beautifying such a thing, they would more likely be enamored by the sheer “Spiky Death dealing awesomeness” of this beast! The scheme is different from the Ceros prototype, sine for one, I didn’t have it on hand as a reference, and both he and I know that even he (My son) doesn’t really have a defined final idea for his overall army, just that it’s mostly mental Khorne renegades, so I just went with a palette that khorne would approve of.

The “figure head” was constructed from the old staple Dollar/Poundshop Halloween Skeleton garlands that we crafters love for bits, adding some horns and spikes with Milliput and plastic spikes. With further raids of the bits boxes, I just added whatever I felt like, and like I keep saying, none of this build was meant for the end result to be a masterpiece, just spending as least time as I could to create both rhinos (if I’d wanted to I could have easily sunk days into detail, but I’d like to think I could knock up 10-15 up of these, from start to finish in less than a week at a push)

Since the side panels were a little devoid of detail, I opted to put a big Khorne symbol on one side (Which saved me from having to create some time consuming details, and gets the message across about which side it’s on!) Don’t get me wrong, If need be, I would have made whatever, but time was in the essence here, so a bit of 2mm fun foam cut out would be sufficient.

The main weapon was created from a plastic halloween candy container I have had in my bits for years, and yeah I know, it’s kind of weird. I did originally consider using the brassy scheme, but I just ended up going with the same bone theme as the neck of the big daemon head which helped tie both parts together. I think it works, but if I had to do it all again, I’d try it different. Besides, it’s not for me, and my son did say that if I made him another tank, to go more spiky and death metal with it, so I greatly exaggerated everything and he’s happy with the result.

Like I said, I do like the end result, just I know I can do better next time, I find that knowing when to stop is very difficult normally, so in this case I couldn’t justify any more time to add this and that, or add more weathering and paint effects as I might do. I would say that what bugs me the most is not having the Khorne Ceros APC on hand from before was and still bugs me, as I would have liked to make sure they matched, plus I still haven’t seen them side by side to compare. I’ll try to get them back to take some side by sides pics and post them, as I will with the Nurgle versions as well (but I know they match for sure, as I can see them as I type right now.)

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the post, a little bit overdue I know (My garden has been taking a lot of my time, so bare with me!) I have another post to come straight after this to make it up to you, so standby for that. Let me know what you think, any suggestions, comments and such, and I’ll see you in the next post!

Scratch Building Proxy Rhino APCs (Part 2: The Death Guard Version Reveal)

I’ll detail this build first, seeing as though I have the model on hand here, which I can’t say about the Khorne one (It’s not here!) I think it’s ok, not what I had in mind (see the sketches in the previous post) as I did want to go for the twisted mutant baby head/monstrosity, only that I wanted to get them done quicker than usual, and spending time doing some sculpting to get exactly that, I opted the simpler route. Going for the more utilitarian and toned back mutations worked, I think, the inspiration was drawn
from a more insectoid feel.

Chunky armour plates with barbed spikes poking out, the front ram spikes mimic mandibles and the grilled front (as well as a few hints here and there were meant as if the mutations were being restrained within, striving to come out.)

Like I’ve said before, I am ok at painting, but no expert and didn’t want to sink days extra into finishing either one, so I went for a looser finish, but looking back, I would do it different if I did it again. I mean, I keep going back in, adding a change here and there, still need a banner and odds and ends, but it’s pretty much done for now.

Also, since this was a “new” design, it was never going to be as detailed as the Ceros (which took me ages, as I really got into it, and didn’t want to this time) The thing is, I might have a go at knocking about 10 or so together, do them up, paint them, then stick them on Ebay for £20-30 each, just to see how they do, I can’t justify days of work on one if they only sell for that price, so it was sort of experimental as well, raiding my various bits, using what I had.

I think the only thing I bought was some big wall plugs (the front spikes) which were £1.50(about £2) but I still have a load of them left, and the side vent things either side of the door (also big wall plugs at about the same price) The pack did both this and the Khorne one, and I think I have enough to use on another if needed, so not bad, saved me having to make them from nothing!

Overall, I think the finished Rhino is serviceable enough, even so it’s not what I wanted from the build. It will be fine to fill the ranks, but the baby headed plague monstrosity design I have in my head needs to be made, then I can move on to something different. The only thing that is a problem, is I want a Rhino for my cultists, crewed by cultists (I have a few models I want to add to one, plus matching livery to match them) Plus, I NEED to make a plaguetower of Nurgle! I just want one. I feel a need to make some versions of the old EPIC scale stuff. I have no idea how I’d run it, just that I want one!

I’m calling it 95% there, I’ll still go back and add and change bits still, clean the paintwork up here and there, but it’s pretty much there. I still need a back banner adding, but with this being just a plain troop transporter, it’ll do!

Stay tuned for the next reveal!

Scratch Building Proxy Rhino APCs for pennies!

Since Well before my Chaos Ceros APC designs, it was always my intention to make myself a large vehicle detachment, so it should come as no surprise that I had to add more of such. Only thing was, I misplaced all my Ceros design templates, so I needed to either try and remake them, or start again but use a closer analog to the traditional GW rhino APC.

You should know that I am not one for carefully measuring and calculating anything. Unless I find it unavoidable, I wing it 100% with whatever I make. My way is not perfect but I hate being stifled by anything other than the creative process. But, I caved and tried harder to make the next additions more in line with sizes, shapes and style.

After a long time of trying to find easy templates in a more GW fashion, I ended up using the ones in Wyloc’s video on youtube. I pretty much only used to dimensions from his vid, just to get that Rhino classic aesthetic, so if you read this Wyloch (which I’m sure for certain he has before in the past) I send my thanks! Just that simple shape was enough to get a new set of templates made to churn out a couple at once, one for my Nurgly bois, one for my sons Khorni bois.

However, after doing this, I ended up finding the Ceros templates, so now I have two different sets. I’m thinking after comparing sizes of the Ceros to the traditional Rhino, the Ceros will be closer to a landraider in size, so generally when I get to fielding them, I’ll be using the Ceros pattern as that. (Unless I end up making a set based on the dimensions of one of the landraider designs, which I probably will!)

The new builds, are surprisingly smaller than the Ceros, very chunky in fact, but since many design parts, materials and elements are the same on the Ceros, they easily fit together in style. I do enjoy the flexibility of personalisation with these scratch builds, so much in fact I want to make a cultist one, crewed by my fervent corrupt human worshipers of Nurgle, who kind of resemble an imperial guard unit anyway, so that is coming, plus I have a separate detachment of Chaos Space Marines from the Purge Chapter which I want a dedicated transport for.

I would fucking love to do one more custom Rhino for the Death guard, but to make it into a plague tower of Nurgle, but I’d like to try making my own version of a Death Guard Plague burst crawler. We’ll see, just there are too many cool things I can think of to personalise them into, and once I’m finished with the Nurgle bois, Tzeentch beckons me to use the CP Models Bird like Avian models as Tzangor, and a pimped out glowing Thousand Sons Rhino with Sphynx accents would be a good model to make. Plus, I get to make a big floating tower model that’s bristling with guns and such, would be fun to make. No real reason behind it, I would just like to give it a go!

I do promise that when I make the next Ceros and Rhino, I will give you a full tutorial, with downloadable templates (that way I won’t loose them!) and when I do, they will be available as PDFs on DriveThruRPG and Wargame Vault. I do miss posting the tutorials like I did with Grim’s Dungeons of Doom, I know a lot of people do get a load out of them and I’ve seen plenty out there trying my methods, which is nice to think I’ve inspired some to get trying.

They do take extra effort and time, as you gotta remember to get decent photos of the stages involved, and it can be tricky to remember doing it when I’m in the zone and focused on getting it made!

Still, the process was quick as I knocked up these two in a couple of nights, followed by a couple of other days painting them (reveal in next posts) I am trying to get myself into the habit of spending less time painting minis, I have a tendency of spending far too long on even the most basic troops and terrain, so I allow myself to be a little more sloppy and hope it all comes together in the end, which I think it does mostly.

With the more limited time I have, it is a good compromise, leaving the more careful jobs to character and special models. I don’t paint for competitions, tournaments or praise, I know I’m not a top painter, but slightly above OK will do me fine.

 

Next time, I’ll reveal the finished work, starting with the Death Guard Rhino, take you through how I achieved the various looks and materials used a bit more in detail.

After that we’ll take a look at the Khorne version and analyse, then I’ll do a size comparison with the Ceros vs Rhino (I might be able to get some shots of the Khorne APCs too)

Until next post, Stay Sane, Stay Grinning, and Stay inside coz’ there’s a Nurgle about!!

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