THE PUNISHER

Welcome to Idle Hands, my weekly segment where I discuss conversions, painting, and strategy for the Warhammer tabletop game…

THIS WEEK

I don’t have much to show this week, the work I’m doing now is tedious and I’ve had less time than usual to do it. Likely, it will take me a few weeks to settle into a good rhythm again – sometime after school starts. For now, I’ve got to take what I can get (time wise). Still, I have a lot of stuff coming down the line and I’m back to working on my Tourney list again. I’ve decided to focus my attention there until it’s completely finished, then I’ll work on the diversions – ergo, all of the rest of the Chaos army that’s not in my MSU list. For now, I focus on what is likely to be the biggest sticking point, my Marauders. There’s 48 of them in two units, so best I start grunting my way through now…

UNHOLY CONVERSIONS

Allow me to introduce the Punishers of Khorne, a unit of 24 Marauders with Flails, a Musician, and a Standard Bearer. I’m using a Juggernaut as unit filler and to break up the front rank a bit, and I’ve done a lot of converting on the unit. I’ve repositioned the flails to give them a little more of a feeling of natural movement. I’ve also replaced a few of the flail ends with skulls as befits followers of the Blood God. I’m using cork and GW Astrogranite on the bases to give a solid stone foundation, with GW Mourn Mountain Snow. The first order of business when I got started on these guys was filling the undersides of the bases, I used Milliput – it’s cheap and easy to work with.

Once it’s set I then filed the bottoms flat, drilled and mounted magnets then primed the models and they’re ready for paint. This is a tedious process and I found that not all of the Marauders bases were set after a day, so I decided to work on these in sections. I’ll be working a rank at a time until the unit is finished.

WET PAINT

While I waited on the first batch of bases to set, I turned my attention to my unit filler. I’m using a Juggernaut in each of my Marauder units. I made the bases using a Monster Base and a Cavalry base, this keeps the Jug at a comfortable distance from other models in the unit while ranked up. The Jugs end up filling for 6 Marauders, I place them up front so I can remove the last rank and a couple more before switching the filler for actual Marauders.

Unit Filler

I’ve discarded the idea of doing a “brass” Juggernaut and reverted to the more traditional red and brass color scheme of Khorne. I wanted to do some experiments here, particularly with light and shadow. I did some work specifically around the eyes to give the appearance of a soft glow, and there’s a lot of layered color in the reds, lots of shading there in general. Also, I decided to try using some of the Skill in a Bottle (Devlan Mud) between layers on my stone work, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Overall, I would call this one a success.

Test Model – Skar

Skär offered another chance to experiment, as the test model for the unit (both units really) I decided to see what I could do to make the painting a little less tedious. Working on this guy led me to the conclusion that limiting the color palette for the Marauders was definitely the answer. I also tried out a new paint, I’ve been using the Ceramacoat paint from Hobby Lobby for a while now. Mostly, I’ve used it on terrain – until recently. I actually used it along with some GW Ink on the Seekers that my Marauder Horsemen are mounted on. This time, I decided to give a look at the browns I’ve picked up. The Sienna doesn’t quite match the brown I’ve been using for leather straps and belts, but it’s close enough that I think I’ll begin using it instead of the GW equivalent. Primarilly because it comes from a squeeze tube, and an 8oz bottle is 75 cents compared to the exorbitant rates that GW charges for their paints.

Here’s a close up of Skär, I used some liquid green stuff to add some scar tissue to the right side of his face (his right, your left). I gave other models in the front rank similar scars in different places on their bodies. I’ll probably continue adding scars to the rest of the unit, it’s the little touches that make all the difference. Yes, that is a skull attached to his flail, this was taken from one of the Marauder standard tops, I snipped the skulls and added them to two of my Marauders flails. I’ve added a handful of others throughout the unit.

I’ve already gotten a couple of layers on the rest of the front rank, so I should have them completed soon. Since I’ve streamlined the process with these guys, I should be able to knock out the entire unit in a matter of a few days (time permitting).

COMING SOON

Once the Marauders are finished, I will likely work on my Warshrine. This is a particular challenge I’ve set for myself, I wanted to see how many models I could make with a single kit. I’m starting with the Ogre Kingdoms Ironblaster as a base, the chassis and Rhinox will be used as a Warshrine. I’m magnetizing it so that I can change marks as necessary. The Ogre driver will be converted into a Shaggoth using a Dark Elf Black Dragon body and a generous amount of Green Stuff. And finally, the Cannon itself will be turned into a monstrous Hell Cannon, I’ve never cared for GWs interpretation of the HC concept. Mine will be mounted on legs from a Defiler, and of course the hole thing is going to have a sort of Akira inspired musculature holding it all together. There will be screaming faces, body parts, etc. It should be interesting at least…