Last Batch of Berzerkers

People who know me know two things about my hobbying: I enjoy rehab projects on models other people have tried to paint or started painting, and I love a good deal. This lot of Khorne Berzerkers checked both boxes. I picked them up very cheaply on eBay and they needed some work to get them into tabletop shape. You can see the "before" at the bottom of this post.

I bought a job lot of 13 models. One of them was the original plastic mono-pose Berzerker that I don't much care for, so he got left out of the revamp. Of course I also had to convert one into a standard bearer because reasons (well, summoned lesser daemons).

They turned out reasonably well I think, they certainly fit in well with the previous ones I painted. And as far as plastic Berzerkers for this army, I think I'm done. This makes enough models for five squads of eight, less two models - 38 in total. If I can dig up a couple metal Champions that would be great. 

Here's the before shot. The models were actually not bad, some of the painting was kinda sloppy though and I don't think the models were primed - there was actually some bare plastic showing through in a few spots. But this was pretty much all corrected and they're ready for the tabletop.

Next up I have to finish the Bloodthirster and maybe some Rhinos. There's also a Terminator squad and Havoc squad to get ready. We'll see if they get done before the game planned for early May.

In the meantime... SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE OF KHORNE!

Khorne Blood Slaughterer “Impaler” and Friends!

Some more escalation in the Khorne 40K project. This is a Khorne Blood Slaughterer Impaler (a mouthful), it's a resin model designed by Forgeworld. And I say "designed by" deliberately.

The Blood Slaughterer looks like a cross between a Brass Scorpion (cool) and a Defiler (ugh) and there are two versions: the standard Slaughterer with two close combat cleavers, and this Impaler variant with a harpoon on a chain.

The model comes in a bunch of parts, the legs being particularly confusing and tricky to assemble. But I found a blog post that gave some helpful tips and better than that, included photos of the assembled legs. So I just put together the legs to look the same as the ones in the pictures, then assembled the lot. While the other blogger painted the parts as components, I put most of the model together before painting and just did the "arms" and shoulder plates separately. I also didn't glue the model to the base till it was all painted, which allowed access to the underside.

I knew that there was no way this model would survive sitting on a shelf, let alone gaming, without a base, so I got a 100mm round base from GW. It was just big enough.

 

This is a really characterful and cool model. We'll soon see how clever it is on the battlefield.

The other models I've finished for the army are three icon bearers. Back in fifth edition, daemons were summoned to battle, and appeared within a short distance of a chaos icon. If you had no icon still on the table, your daemons didn't appear - an undesirable outcome to say the least. So I had to paint one icon bearer for each of the three Berzerker squads.

This is the only metal icon bearer GW produced for the army, it came out in 1996. It's a great little model too, I like the bareheaded Berzerker. Really fun to paint.

 

I had to convert a couple others, for two reasons. First, I didn't want multiples of the same model, and second, said model was friggin' expensive. So I converted a couple plastic Berzerkers to carry icons. This icon is from the Bloodletters box.

This icon is another random plastic bit, not sure what Khorne kit it's from, but it looks fine.

Here's a picture of the Blood Slaughterer with the Berzerker icon bearer, just to show how big the model is.

And lastly, here's something to make collectors' heads pop off. Yes this is how I got the icon bearer I painted for the army.

                                                

What can I say, it wasn't the first time and won't be the last. Models are meant to be painted!

So until next time... Blood for the Blood God!

Khorne Catch-Up! New/Old 40K Project Summary

Well isn't this a surprise. A planned project is unceremoniously shouldered aside for an insane new project! This is a compilation of my posts about this project from the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge blog, just to keep everything in one place.

So... I've had ten assembled but unpainted second-hand Khorne Berzerkers (the old style multi-part plastic models from 1999) in a Plano case for years (over 10?) and on a whim decided "wouldn't these be fun to paint?" and it was on...

Several eBay purchases later I've got a pile of unpainted metal old-school metal models (and more plastic Berzerkers) for the army, and these are the first painted Berzerkers.

Of course I had to do a bit of repair and conversion (I wanted each model to have a bolt pistol and either a chainsword or chain-axe) but I think they've turned out OK. The paint formula is as follows: basecoat Khorne Red, overbrush Mephiston Red, wash with Vallejo Red Wash, paint metal bits Leadbelcher, wash the whole model with Nuln Oil, paint the brass bits Brass Scorpion highlighted Retributor Gold, wash the brass bits with Agrax Earthshade, that's pretty much it. On some of the models I highlighted the red back up a bit with Khorne and Mephiston Red, mainly on the helmets.

Groundwork starts Dark Brown, then Steel Legion Drab, then Rakarth Flesh drybrush.

Of course Kharn sneaks in a photobomb... but someone else did the basic painting on him, I just touched him up and redid the groundwork. I might still change the trim to bronze actually.

 

Next up in the Insane New Project sweepstakes, here is a Khornate Chaos Lord on a Juggernaut to accompany the Berzerkers.

Since our preferred edition of 40K is 5th, I'm trying to build my Khornate 40K army exclusively from models that were current for that edition, and that means everything but the Berzerkers will be metal, although I do have a random box of newer plastic Bloodletters that came from... somewhere, that may get assembled and painted for this army. Waste not, want not!

This model was obtained through the mail from Tista Minis in Hamilton, Ontario and I feel like it was a bit of a bargain. I think I paid $35 CAD for it, painted (badly) of course, but it stripped down VERY nicely to bare metal in no time at all. Contrast that with a new (plastic) Chaos Lord on Juggernaut, available from GW for... $83 CAD. Of course the new one is likely twice the size of this one (it comes on a 90mm oval base, as opposed to the 60mm base this model sports), BUT it's also 66 parts, when the old metal model was... ten parts. AND IT'S METAL. A no-brainer.

I just love the character on these old metal models. I think I finally discovered the blue formula for the armour deco.

The Juggernaut has a very determined look on its face too. This is peak 1990s GW isn't it??

 

Next up we have a metal Chaos Dreadnought done up in Khornate colours, for service with the Berzerkers.

Firstly a word on collecting these ancient out-of-production models. I might have mentioned this before, but generally speaking OOP Games Workshop stuff ain't cheap. Yes you might get lucky from time to time (like I did with the Jugger), but people on eBay generally are aware (or think they are aware) of the prices these models will bring and set their own BIN accordingly. Models sealed in original blister packs or boxes can be outrageously priced, but painted stuff can sometimes be had for not-unreasonable prices. This model was unpainted and loose and acquired on eBay for about $100 CAD. 

"A hundo for a chunk of metal that cost $55 brand new? That's crazy!" you might exclaim. But I have a perfectly reasonable justification for this. The Bank of Canada has an "inflation calculator" that compares the cost of a basket of goods in any year to its cost in any other year, and that's a good enough proxy for me. It tells me that $55 in 1999 is equivalent to $99.18 today, and that's about what I paid for the model. The other thing to consider is "what would an equivalent model cost, brand new from GW?" The answer here is... about $75 for the Space Marine Venerable Dreadnought. So maybe that's a bad example.

 

But then again, maybe not... is the new Venerable Dreadnought "comparable" to this classic Dreadnought? The new Dread is a million plastic parts that you have to assemble (correctly), and has a fist on it that would put Hellboy to shame. This one is METAL and fewer than 10 parts. I'm also paying for the old-school cool because this model fits right into the 25-year-old aesthetic of my project. To me that's worth $25. I know, this is all just to make me feel better, but it works :-)

How cool is this, right? I know it's missing the trophy pole but I have a plastic one I might add later... anyway the red was done with Khorne Red, highlighted Mephiston Red, washed with Nuln Oil, then brought back up with KR and Mephiston. Brass bits were done in Brass Scorpion, highlighted Retributor Gold then washed with Agrax Earthshade. The rest is mainly Leadbelcher washed with NO. Groundwork was Dark Brown, Steel Legion Drab, Rakarth Flesh as a final drybrush.   

    

              

Of course there has to be some daemons right?? Well, I'd painted three Bloodletters for an Idols of Torment game a few years ago and had four left in a Plano case. But Khorne's sacred number is 8, so I had to find another one... which I did, on eBay, a couple weeks ago. So the remaining five Bloodletters went under the brush.

This is the new one, he looks like a Champion of some kind which is good, he's the only example of this sculpt in the group.

The paint recipe for these guys is easy... the skin is Khorne Red, Mephiston Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet just blended upwards. Horns and claws are Cantor Blue highlighted with Thunderhawk.

Eyes and teeth are Wraithbone, I was reading in the old Slaves to Darkness book that Bloodletters have "milky eyes" so I redid the eyes on the first three as well. The weapons were fun to do, they were painted Corax White and washed twice (heavily) with Biel-Tan Green. I think they look pretty cool and of course red and green are complimentary colours so that works.

 

Can't not post a bare-cheeked rear view of these daemons! ;-)

Anyway that's got us almost caught up on the Khorne 40K project. I've painted another tranche of Berzerkers since this lot, as well as opening up a sealed blister pack with a Berzerker icon bearer, so you'll see those soon as well. Until then... Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne of Khorne!

Dallas