The pinpoint grew into a thin, jagged line of orange light. A vertical wound, a crack in reality, that hung in the air. It contorted and widened as if a knife were being twisted within it. Orange light poured out and illuminated the twisted branches of the forest for a minute. Shapes moved within the fires: crested hunched backs, elongated and horned heads, birdlike legs, black swords.
The amber light blazed brighter for a moment then flickered out, leaving the forest in its more usual twilight gloom.
The daemon known as Mournblade and his followers had come to the Realm of Death...
- 💀 -
These models were built very slowly over the course of about 6 months(!) from leftovers and spares in my bits box. A friend gave me a huge bag of assorted bits as part of a hobby clearout so he could focus on his current projects. In this bag (among other things) was a near complete Khorne Skull Cannon. I assembled this group from the Bloodletters and Herald in that kit, plus some skulls from the Citadel Skulls box (including two Bloodletter skulls that I used instead of the normal Bloodletter faces) and a few small odds and ends from my bits box.
They were painted during the pre-Christmas holiday. I thought they would last the whole break (knowing I don't get much hobby time over Christmas anymore) but I finished them in a few days. Unfortunately I did not get any further hobby time before the New Year, so these were the last models I completed in 2018!
This was a fun project as test models go, but I think it is a dead-end for me. I can't imagine myself painting many more Khorne Daemons in the near future. The background for them doesn't fire my imagination enough: I struggled to write even the small snippet above. I'd like to get a couple of the new Flesh Hounds and to build a Khornate Spawn, but I'm not sure when I'll get round to it now.
Mournblade - Herald of Khorne
Shadowreaper
Nightbane
Grimstrider
The Skull Harvest
And for a little added "Wrath & Rapture" flavour I've added an unnamed
Daemonette:
The Daemonette is like. Wait, this isn't were I left my glasses!
ReplyDelete=D
DeleteHahahaha!
Loving those!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Riot! =)
DeleteExcellent! The skulls in place of the regular heads really help. I still much prefer the 3rd/4th ed 40K Bloodletters, tho. I hear you on trying to write fluff for Khorne, too. It's just a little* too narrowly focused to be able to find much of interest.
ReplyDeleteThe new Flesh Hounds look fantastic, tho, and I totally think you could do something interesting with them.
Game-wise, I think I would use these not as an actual Warband or anything, but more as a hazard or scenario feature. Work up some sort of behaviour table for them to roll on each Turn**, have them show up semi-randomly. Maybe roll a die at the start of each Turn and add the number of Models slain so far. On an 8 or more, these guys show up somewhere near where the last casualty was removed from. Or something like that?
*OK, a lot.
**Roll a die:
1-6: Move toward the nearest Model. Charge and attack it if possible.
Yeah, after the open ended fluff of orruks Khorne feels really one-note.
DeleteThat's a fantastic idea! I will be stealing it.
Hell you can go nuts with having different times/days of the month or moon phases being more portent in summoning demons.
DeleteAnother thought: Flesh Hounds, specifically, are often dispatched to hunt down someone who, for whatever reason*, has displeased Khorne. You could randomly determine which Model in the fight they're hunting, and they would go after that one instead of just whoever's closest like the Bloodletters would.
Delete*Could be pretty much anything, really. For arguably the single most powerful entity in the galaxy, Khorne takes offense at some ridiculously petty stuff. Maybe they didn't change the toilet paper roll or something.
@commissarmoody - oooh, that's a cool idea.
Delete@WestRider - so I *do* need those Flesh Hounds after all then =D
Nicely done, and some great ideas above - ones I may use in some of my own stuff.
ReplyDeleteAlso - Mournblade. A brother of Stormbringer? :)
Thanks! I look forward to seeing what you do.
DeleteCould be! That was the kind of vibe I was going for.