Rubezahl The Magnificient – Daemon Prince of Slaanesh And Lord Of The Union Of The Egoists Warband

To Rubezahl The Magnificient the most noble aim is to satisfy the self. If you act in the interest of another you commit the most grievous of crimes. He was once an assault Captain of the Emperor’s Children named Rufus Sallin, a dashing warrior who did not crush the emperors enemies but removed them from existence with the deft hand of a surgeon. However the excesses which condemned the Emperor’s Children for eternity left their mark on Rufus Sallin. He was almost destroyed by the fall, the seemingly unending bloodshed combined with powerful chemical agents of alien origin burned nerve endings and destroyed the pleasure centres of his brain. He was a lost soul, trying and failing to relive all those lost glories. He wandered for millennia across the planets of the eye until he found the entity to whom he would be forever bound. His purpose became to attain daemon hood and the whispering voice guided him from slaughter to slaughter all in for one thing, himself. As he expertly carved the meat of a thousand former brothers and cousins he attracted a following. Try as he might to ignore them in aid of his own selfish preoccupation they refused to abandon him but simply allowed themselves to be pulled along in his wake. On his ascent to daemon hood Rubezahl was a changed creature. Where before he was silent now he was a demagogue, preaching the primacy of the self. Anyone could join the union but to leave meant death as did anything perceived by Rubezahl as altruism. The purpose of this loathsome murderous host became the destruction of as many living creatures as possible for as long as possible and as such set its course out of the eye of terror into the teeming imperium of man.

Nurgle Rotbringers – The Glottkin

Nurgle has an aesthetic that has basically remained unchanged from the early artwork. The difference is monstrous bloated forms of the Nurgle daemons can now be given true form and The Glottkin is a great example of this. All the layers of skin and muscle means it really lends itself to the airbrush. And the fact it’s three figures in one gives scope for some subtle contrast.

I knew I wanted the gargantuan form of Ghurek Glott to be classic zombie, greens blues and grey with livid purple shadows.

Otto Glott’s armour had to be gold. I loved the idea of a once noble character fallen into decay and that fit nicely. He is the warrior of the three and some vitality seemed appropriate so I went for a rosy flesh tone. This was also a nice contrast with the deathly colouring of his larger brother.

 

Sorcerous power emanates from Ethrac Glott. I visualised him as a character mummified from within by this malign energy. So I went for a dry chrysalis like appearance with earthy ochre and oxide tones. This was combined with the quintessential green of Nurgle in the glowing magical fire issuing from the sorcerer.

I think this quite understated contrasting of desaturated colours was successful. It created a cohesive whole without losing the three characters’ individual identities.

This monster was a hugely rewarding experience to paint, very dynamic texturally and lots of little details that get the creative juices flowing. It’s also safe to say it’s an impressive thing stomping around the battlefield and as always with Nurgle very fun to deal with.

Thanks for looking. Jamie 😀

Eater of Worlds; Kharn the Betrayer

I started this version of the coolest World Eater with the pose. I knew I wanted him to be just about to strike with the flail of trophies, so I was always building around the chains that I knew would be swinging around his back. Kharn is a massive character literally as well as metaphorically, so the logical choice was to use a Primaris marine body. This would show both a body which has perhaps been enlarged by the power of Khorne (of which he is the avatar) as well as simply being a larger canvas on which to paint.

This was always going to involve a lot of green stuff work and over about 6 months of patiently layering the sculpting putty the great warrior began to appear. This is a really nice process as every bit of his equipment is part of his character, the helmet, the chains, the vent on his chest… gradually building each element, slowly it morphed into the character until BAM there he is, Kharn the betrayer. At the same time I was fitting kit-bashed parts from many other models into the mix. Finding the right place and time to add a piece (building a model like this is also a bit of problem solving and forward thinking, you create problems if you put an element in at the wrong time and have to fix it later) and beginning to create the base. The base is almost as important as the main figure, it shows the drama of the situation the figure is in, how the character is effecting his surroundings or how they’re effecting him, whilst adding to the silhouette of the finished model.

Now we come to Gorechild. This is Kharn’s (and someone else’s…) iconic weapon and as such needed special treatment. I wanted the classic design, the simplicity and clean lines seem to fit better. After all it’s a weapon of function rather than a decorative piece of art. I scaled the design up a bit (it was originally designed for a larger hand…) and simultaneously created the bare arm, full of tension and wires of muscle.

Painting this model was very fun, good mixture of textures and materials. Once again the Iwata eclipse was used and showed what a beautiful effect an airbrush can give when you combine it with brush work. I wanted Kharn to have battle damage, but not too much, after all I don’t imagine there are many heroes who can even touch his armour with a weapon! The trim had to be metallic but not gold, not lustrous high sheen decoration, but rough cast brass (I also tried to sculpt this into the green stuff), lightly polished by friction. The last thing to add is the all important blood, He may not care from whence it flows but I think you must not overdo technical effects like blood as they have a tendency to overwhelm the delicate paint work you’ve already done. I also think finding a little splash of blood as your looking over the model adds to the narrative of the model and although there’s a place for it a model totally covered in blood splatter might dilute that.

 

Thanks for looking 🙂

Jamie