Killteam: The Ebon Blade
Fireteam Deimos - Heretic Astartes
Aspiring Champion: The Lord Executioner
This miniature holds a special place in my heart. Sometime around going to university I lost touch with miniature painting, probably due to lacking the time, space, and disposable income required to maintain the habit. That changed in 2012 with the release of the Dark Vengeance box set. I’d been into Chaos Space Marines since accidentally buying the wrong codex when I was 9, and something about the enormous sword, flowing cloak, and wildly impractical horns just spoke to me. One short trip to ebay later, and I was the proud owner of the Chaos half of the set, and a renewed love for miniature painting.
I had no interest in the Crimson Slaughter, the khornate warband Kranon the Relentless canonically leads, so I became one of the many, many people painting up Kranon and his Chosen as their own preferred flavour of Chaotic Marine. And, because I’m deeply indecisive about these things, my Kranon has been variously a member of the Night Lords, the Iron Warriors, the Word Bearers, and, briefly, the Thousand Sons. My interest in each of these usually lasted just long enough to nearly finish the model before deciding to strip it and start again.
This time I’ve taken a somewhat different approach. Realising that the thing I kept changing my mind about was the story behind the character, I elected to simple leave that aspect undefined. I focused instead on the tone I wanted to convey, taking my cues from the model itself rather than any specific lore. I realised that what I wanted was a dark, demonic presence, utterly implacable and ultimately unknowable. A monster whose very presence on a world is a death sentence for all who dwell there. And, in keeping with the minimal lore principal, I decided this particular chaos lord would go by a title rather than a name: The Lord Executioner.
In terms of the actual colours, I chose to base them around the Black Legion, although I knew from the start that bright gold trim would not give me the result I wanted. I went through three iterations trying to get it to look suitably dark and ominous, ultimately ending up with a burnished brass look that, along with the purple notes in the main armour panels, probably takes this The Lord High Executioner closer to his origin as a Night Lord. Normally that’s the kind of realisation that would have me starting over, but since I’m not worrying about the lore I can simply be happy that it’s conveying the tone I wanted! I ended up repurposing one of the brighter variants for the designs on the cloak, so even those failed experiments bore fruit. The recipe I ended up using actually came about by accident while I was working on the shield for a Goliath Barbarian. The riskiest trick I tried out was using fluorescent paint for the eyes, plasma coils, and gems. Under a UV light, this gives the Lord Executioner a truly demonic appearance.
I’d initially planned to render the sword in muted but clashing gradients to try and convey its demonic energy, much as I had for Abaddon. However, having put in the red of the cloak, eyes, and plasma pistol, I realised that I wanted to keep red as the only strong colour on the model. I instead went the other way, painting the sword blade the same way as I had the armour panels, with the hilt matching the armour trim. I actually ended up liking this effect a lot more than I expected, rather than the weapons feeling like tools he is using, or cursed objects he has found, The Executioner's weapons seem to be forged from the same arcane matter as his armour, as if rather than being corrupted from a once noble form he has stepped fully formed from the warp itself.
Icon Bearer
WIP - watch this space
Heretic Astartes Gunner
WIP - watch this space
Fireteam Tartaros - Chaos Cultists
I’d originally planned to use the cultists from the Dark Vengeance box for the unaugmented human portion of the killteam, but after a decade of being painted, repainted, converted, and, in several cases, cannibalised for parts, they weren’t really up to the task. Luckily there were shiny new Blackstone Fortress cultists to play with.
Having already painted the Lord Executioner, there wasn’t much to be done in terms of choosing colours and styles. There was, however, the small matter of a lot of exposed flesh. Skin is one of those things I avoided painting when I was younger because my at the time standard approach of prime, basecoat, and drybrush produced a result I would charitably describe as “unnerving”. After returning to painting and developing some subtler skills it became easier, but it’s still something I’m less familiar with than I would like.
Luckily, the cultists gave me plentiful opportunity to practice.
This was the first time that I paid real attention to the way that light works differently on skin compared to metals or cloth. Once I’d got my head around the highlight placement (and practiced blending a bit more) I was able to achieve a result I’m very happy with, and skin has become one of my favourite things to paint. I made a point of I’m still not hugely confident with faces, so I was very glad that all but one of the cultists are wearing face-covering helmets!
The main decision I had to make with regards to colours was the flame emanating from the spout of the Firebrand’s flamer. I considered going red and orange like I had for the Lord Executioner’s plasma pistol, but rejected this on the basis that it looked too…normal. I want the Ebon Blade to feel otherworldly and demonic, and regular flame didn’t feel like it fit that mould. Instead, I decided to create a deeply unnatural green flame implying that the fuel is either chock full of copper or carbon monoxide, or possibly burns some far more exotic demonic substance. Knowing that the flame was going to be bright, I purposefully went for a dark skin tone for the wielder in order to provide better contrast.
I do have some plans going forward. The Firebrand is a bit of a sticking point given that he’s clearly a bit too large for the 25mm base.
