Saturday, June 12, 2010

Chaos Space Marine World Eaters Terminators



Terminators are probably some of the coolest figures in GW's catalog. This represents a few months of work, doing a little bit at a time. I think the results are well worth it.

The technique I used on these involved a base-coat of  Testors Model Master Gold Leaf spraypaint. Some artists use Testors metallics as a base primer to expose flaws in their work, and it works well; both the Gold and Silver spraypaints are quite thin and have very good coverage. The advantage here is that I get a very good gold base (for the trim on the armor), while at the same time providing a basecoat with very good bonding properties to plastic.

Next I hand-painted the red areas using GW Red Gore paint. I applied this a little thicker than normal, in order to get sufficient coverage over the glossy gold paint (too thin and it just beads up), with subsequent coats thinned to 50% paint/water.

The only modification I did was on the unit sergeant. Rather than use a kit provided head, I replaced it with the "fanged" head from the Khorne Berzerkers set, customizing my models slightly and tying it more into my World Eaters Army.

Forgeworld World Eaters Chaos Space Marine Dreadnaught



The Dreadnaught has always been an iconic unit within the Space Marine armies of Warhammer 40,000. Available to both the loyalist Space Marine chapters, as well as the Chaos Space Marines, the latter has been saddled for years with a very dated, all metal dreadnaught model with few options.

Forgeworld, a subsidiary of Games Workshop/Citadel, fills a niche in the colletion, aiming at producing products Games Workshop either doesn't cover, feels is not profitable enough, or provides customized and high end products for the enthusiast.

One important series is its collection of Chaos Dreadnaughts. For the most part these are unique units with their own iconography or imagery, and many are specific to sub-factions within the setting.

As I have finally settled on World Eaters as my Chaos legion of choice, it was only inevitable that I pick up the Forgeworld model, particularly as the UK Pound to US Dollar exchange rate is the most favorable it has been in years. In order to keep initial costs down, I ordered just the body, and will order the arms at a later date. This also gives me more time to consider the exact load-out I should use.

Over the years Forgeworld has been criticized for poor casting quality (or, at least, quality not equal to their price). To be frank, I have yet to get a bad cast from Forgeworld, and this Dreadnaught continues that trend. With only one flake of flash on the leg, the casting of this piece is flawless.

The purpose of this blog is to document the building and painting process of this guy. Although I have come up with some efficient techniques, I'm going to push this up another notch and see what I come up with.