World Eaters (40K) project log

I've been working on my World Eaters for a little while now, and thought it would be nice to put up some pictures of my progress. To put these guys and their probable slow rate of progress into some kind of context, I have a very specific vision of how they should look in terms of posing, equipment and so on. I'm not the best painter in the world, but I went through a number of colour schemes on tester models before I found one that fits with my skill level and will allow me to achieve results I'm happy with in a reasonable time frame. Essentially what I'm saying is that if the idea of dipping is abhorrent to you, look away now

Without further ado, my Lord on Juggernaut with the Axe of Blind Fury:



I think the axe is from the Dark Vengeance Chosen, though it could also be from the Aspiring Champion. It has an eye in it anyway. The head is from a Forge World Rampager, the legs and torso are normal CSM ones. Some of you might recognise him from The Eldar Resplendent forum, from that time when I actually completed a monthly vow.

The Terminators! They have the Forge World World Eaters conversion kit, which was as good as you would expect it to be. Shame my list doesn't include the little fellas anymore... This is actually a shot from before they were dipped, I'll upload a more recent one when they've been based. Obviously my motivation to base them has dwindled slightly since deciding not to use them. Thankfully the Terminator bits themselves were free from a friend, so they didn't cost me too much at least.



Kharn. Nothing more to say, how could I claim to be a fan without him? Ok, he won't make it into many lists either, but he was an automatic purchase.



Work in progress Icon Bearers. At first I wasn't happy with the pose of the guy on the left, but from a certain angle (ie not this one) he looks sort of like he's squaring up to someone, so he can stay as he is. I gave both of them longer handles on their axes, thinking they would need them to be able to swing further if they couldn't fight with both hands. Note the WYSIWYG holstered bolt pistols too!



These are some of the bits for my next Berzerker champion (I'll dedicate all of a future post to the Berzerkers as a whole, they are the core of the army after all). The torso and leg set is that of Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi of the Minotaurs, which seems to be a pretty popular choice for conversions. Like my other champion, he'll be getting a pair of lightning claws. The head is the sneering Rampager head, but that might change following the dry fit, I'll see how I feel. In terms of plans for him, I'll be losing the bull head on the front, hopefully replacing it with resculpted bones (or another skull or trinkets or something if I mess it up too much). Obviously the purity seal on his leg will be going, as will the censer on his belt (to be replaced by a grenade - all about the WYSIWYG). He'll be getting claws from the Raptors/Warp Talons set when I get those next week. I am very tempted to try and sculpt some chainmail to go between his legs like on the torso of my icon bearer. I've found a couple of tutorials for that, so we shall see...



There are some other bits too, but this post is long enough as it is, and I need something for future updates to make it look like I'm doing something

Very nice work so far, Mr. Believer. I am going through the same, slow process with my DV Chosen at the moment - converting posing many of them, and finding something that suits my own painting level and doesn't (quite) take forever.

It's all worth it though, in the end, as yours demonstrate. Dipping is fine, too. I've never done it, but know plenty of people who have. I would even say that it's not particularly evident in your pics.

A great looking army, keep it up!

Cheers.

Loving the juggernaught pose

I've struggled a lot with painting my night lords and am considering doing a small space marine force to go with my tempestus scions.

If you have the time to do a step by step on your dipping process that would be great as these guys looks great I think!

Awesome sauce.

Dragontree wrote:

Loving the juggernaught pose

I've struggled a lot with painting my night lords and am considering doing a small space marine force to go with my tempestus scions.

If you have the time to do a step by step on your dipping process that would be great as these guys looks great I think!

Awesome sauce.

The whole process is incredibly simple actually. I use Army Painter Dragon Red spray paint to undercoat and basecoat all in one go. Then all of the details are done - the legion symbol for anyone who wants to know is Kantor Blue for the sea and Warpstone Glow for the land. It looks a little bright before dipping, but it needs to so it stands out afterwards. The brass areas are done in Sycorax Bronze (I think. It could be Brass Scorpion, but I seem to remember deciding that was too dark). Flesh is Kislev Flesh, washed with Agrax Earthshade and touched up with Kislev Flesh. Any mistakes are corrected with a squeezy pot of Dragon Red. Silver metal areas are painted Leadbelcher, washed with Nuln Oil then drybrushed with Ironbreaker. The bases are just builders sand, because sand is sand, whatever GW say. That gets glued on before I spray them, and painted with Stormvermin Fur. Then, dipping:

There is a technique to it that isn't hard to master, but looks really bad if you get it wrong. I use Army Painter Quickshade (dark) for my minis. Dark is recommended for "evil" minis - don't use it on brightly coloured Eldar or light coloured stuff, as it might just make them look like they've spent the day rolling in the mud. You'll need to tip the pot about a bit before using to make sure it's mixed but don't shake it vigorously or you'll get air bubbles. With infantry sized minis that will fit in the pot, take a pair of pliers (a big pair, not like electrical pliers or needle nosed ones). Clamp them on the underside of the base and just dunk the whole thing straight in the pot. You don't need to immerse it for long, just a few seconds should be sufficient. Then pull it out, let some of the excess run off and start swinging it back and forth. Really go for it, like you're trying to throw it overarm (obviously keeping a really tight grip on the pliers!) It should go without saying that you need to dip outside whilst wearing old clothes. Might want to wear some goggles or something just in case (safety first kids!) This will remove a lot of the excess dip, and you can experiment with how much you want to leave on according to taste. If you're quick, excess amounts that pool on ridged or pitted areas can be removed with a brush, or moved about, but this stuff gets very thick and tacky VERY quickly, so you need to watch out for that or you'll leave brush strokes (or even brushes!). I think the drying time is 24 hours, and it's super important that you put the minis on something you don't mind completely ruining that they won't stick to, like an ice cream tub lid or something. According to Army Painter, you can highlight before or after dipping. If you have a satin varnish you want to use, after dipping looks like a viable option from examples I've seen. I actually quite like the shine the dip leaves by itself though, and will be experimenting with highlighting and shading before dipping in the coming weeks.

If the mini is larger than infantry sized (like the Juggerlord, the bloater!), you can just brush the Quickshade on. You might find you need more than one application to achieve similar results, but the important thing is to wait until each coat has fully dried. I found that the chestplate of the juggernaut was a problem area for clinging, and went too dark and uneven. I just went over it with some Khorne Red mixed with Nuln Oil after it dried, then coated it with 'Ardcoat to get it to match. You can't tell the difference now. I will be trying Quickshade out on a Heldrake soon, so we will see how successful that it...

The base can then be finished off. I find it's useful to have the base colour on before dipping as then you don't need to put too much paint on after you've dipped, thus obscuring more detail. The snow, if anyone was wondering, is just GW snow. I mix some with PVA until it's spreadable (a sort of porridgey mixture) to build up the layers, then when that's dry after about an hour or so I put a layer of PVA on top of that and sprinkle some on to make it look like it's freshly fallen on top of compacted snow. I know a lot of people hate the GW snow, but this is the first time I've used it and, with a little patience, you can get good results. Expect to burn through plenty of it though.

One very important thing to note is that GW Purity Seal is NOT compatible with Quickshade. I have a can which I have used on other minis I didn't dip and had no problems with it. I tried it on a dipped mini and it frosted it. Army Painter recommend their own product, though I think a lot of people have had success with Testors Dullcote.

Where to buy: I haven't seen these products in stores, but I got both the spray and the dip from ebay UK with no problems. The Quickshade came from a seller called ibuywargames and the spray was from thetrolltrader. Both offered free postage in the UK too. That's everything I can think of. I would definitely recommend using a couple of tester models to experiment with colours and so on though, I was glad I did as it gave me the confidence to know what I was doing with the stuff that mattered. Hope all that helps, and thank for the kind words!

Gobsmakked wrote:

Very nice work so far, Mr. Believer.  I am going through the same, slow process with my DV Chosen at the moment - converting posing many of them, and finding something that suits my own painting level and doesn't (quite) take forever.

It's all worth it though, in the end, as yours demonstrate.  Dipping is fine, too.  I've never done it, but know plenty of people who have.  I would even say that it's not particularly evident in your pics.

A great looking army, keep it up!

Cheers.

Thank you! I wish I'd started a log earlier, it's already encouraging me to work on more stuff, as evidenced by the rapid (for me) progress on my champion last night:



This is where the purity seal was. Needs neatening up slightly, but it's gone with no trouble, as has a sneaky little aquila I hadn't noticed lurking around the other side. WYSIWYG grenade too, woot!



And here he is so far. Liking how the head looks at the moment, the sweep of the wires attached to the nails really adds to the feeling that he's lunging in one direction. If I can get a decent pose on his arms, that head will be staying, as the contempt filled "I'm going to beat you down, weakling" sneer is one I'm loving. The bull head symbol on the front was much easier to get rid of than I thought it would be, and sculpting the sternum was no problem. I tried out some chanmail after getting rid of the groin plate bit, but it didn't look right as there was nowhere to attach it properly to make it look natural and integrated. I'm still glad I got rid of that groin plate though, it looks like he would have a greater range of motion now and makes it a bit harder to tell what the base mini was. There was a cross symbol on his belt, which I shaved off and replaced with a slightly filed down symbol of Khorne, cut from the dangling chain of an unused Berzerker close combat weapon, which was exactly the right size. His left foot comes up off the base slightly as the original mini is supposed to be standing on debris with his right foot. Snow will go there. Snow solves all these problems

I'd like to hear more about your snow! Yours is the best snow I've seen in an "amateur" (if I may) setting, at least from that one picture.
I want to do snow for my dark angels, but I'm scared to start.