GuitaRasmus

Thanks a lot for the kind words, guys! :) Thanks! The vials are actually pretty easy - just a few glazes (darker and lighter) over sybarite green, a thin glaze of Fluor Green for the glow, and some very light blue lines for the glass effect. Thanks a lot, and Sure - It's one of the heads (the icon bearer, I think?) from the Death Guard Heroes set. Thanks a lot! I have a few ideas brewing, but right now I'm working on a few NPC's for a weekend gettogether with my Kill Team gaming group, and we've got an awesome 4 player scenario planned. I *really* also should get some of my 4-5 unpainted teams painted... ;)

For anyone interested, this Kill Team is now covered in glorious paint, and can be seen here:

After a month of working on them almost every night for at least a couple of hours, I can finally present my “Creations of Ghaust” Kill Team. I’m very happy with how they turned out, but any and all comments and critique are much appreciated. Feel free to skip the lore bit, I just had some fun writing it out. Zamael Ghaus - Fleshsmith of the Black Legion. (Creations of Bile Kill Team) Zamael Ghaust is a name sometimes whispered and often cursed when mentioned in the ranks of the Black Legion. Not much is known about Ghaust before he joined the Legion. He roamed the Eye of Terror, with a few of his assistents for many years, until he was captured by a contingent of Black Legionaries. Being an apothecary, a rare treat in the Eye, he was brought before Abaddon. Few were witness to the exchange, but Ghaust admitted to having been a gifted student of Fabius Bile and later fallen from the Primogenitors’ grace, and being forced to flee further into the Eye. A bargain was made - Ghaust’s life, a laboratory and as many subjects as he wished for, in exchange for monsters. And monsters he makes; most subjects do not come willingly, whether from disobedient Black Legionaries or Space Marines from rivalling Legions or Warbands - and understandably so. His work in his laboratories is made to a soundtrack of screams, moans and gargles of agony. For someone unlucky enough to find themselves on the workbench of Ghaust, they will emerge as much, much less human, even compared to the dwellers in the Eye. Ghaust often field tests his subjects on small but important missions, to see for himself how they fare in real battle. Varghorak: Varghorak, once a Berzerker of the Angrons legion, is one of the few willing subjects of Ghaust. He approached the Fleshsmith, after failing the preliminary trials of the Eightbound, wishing to become stronger, tougher and faster, so he could better serve his deity. Ghaust obliged, using an experimental concoction of muscle and bone growth compounds in extreme amounts. Varghorak is a grotesque mountain of muscle and bone, his skin stretched to and beyond it’s limits, with a strenght unheard of, even among the strongest of the Astartes. However, the chemicals used in his apothesis has taken their toll on his mind, and he is little more than a beast now - living only for the blood he can reap for Khorne. Vraxek: A former 3rd. Legion Warrior, Vraxek has joined the Black Legion centuries ago. Like his kin, he was always pursuing perfection, in Vraxeks case, perfection of form - he dreamt of a body that was made entirely for combat. Ghaust happily obliged; Ghaust had recently aquired DNA samples of the vampiric shapeshifting Xenos species known as the Lacrymole, and begun experimenting with lacing Astartes genes with the loathsome Xenos and succeeded - over the course of a few years, Vraxek was continually treated with injections of the vile cocktail, and slowly began changing. His metamorphosis now complete, he looks like the warrior he has always been - although when thrown into the heat of combat, his battleplate cracks open, revealing his true self - a writhing mass of flesh, spiny limbs and maws filled with razorsharp teeth, charging forward while emitting blood curdling shrieks. Maliax: An apprentice of Ghaust, he has been under his masters knife multiple times himself, giving him a hideous appearance, although it is hard to understand exactly how he has been “enhanced” - perhaps known only to Ghaust and himself. He joins Ghaust in his field tests, collecting samples of tissue, geneseed and whatever else might strike his masters fancy, but on the battlefield every warrior must pull their own weight, and thus he dons a missile launcher, giving heavy support from the backline. Xorphio: Once a Legionary with very modest psychic abilities, Xorphio was “volunteered” to participate in Ghaust’s attempt to enhance psychic abilities - high level psykers and sorcerers being highly sought after in the Eye. Xorphio has endured many brain surgeries, to modify his neural network, as well as recieving constant doses of Norepinephrine, distilled from human psykers and astropaths. The result is convincing, although his appereance is rather grotesque - his brain has grown to massive size, and a third eye has sprouted on his forehead. Xorphio cares little for this, for he now displays powers that equal experience sorcerers, and can wreak havoc on any battlefield. Khimeraon: It is unknown whether Khimeraon, a lowly legionary melta-gunner (his former name is forgotten) had displeased some lord, or just happened to be in the wrong place when inspiration struck Ghaust, but it ultimately matters not - he unwillingly became the subject of a mad experiment that involved merging an Astartes with a particularly brutish xemos specimen Ghaust had stumbled upon. The experiment was a success (at least in Ghaust’s mad viewpoint), since he had managed to link Khimeraons neural pathways to the Xenos’ body, so Khimeraon is in complete control of the twisted cojoined body - however, Khimeraon, in constant pain from the mismatch of biology, forced to endure endless chemicals pumped into his body to avoid his immune system expelling the foreign tissue, hates Ghaust more than even the corpse-emperor. He is very much aware, however, that Ghaust fears not that subjects who were unwilling participants in his experiments turn on him, since Ghaust always makes sure they have a failsafe in them; a small melta-charge surgically implanted in their brainstem, linked to Ghaust’s twin hearts.

Thanks a lot! :) That's exactly what I was going for! ;) Thanks a lot! Glad you like the lore too. I'm planning on Black Legion, since I think it'll contrast nicely with the reddish/fleshy hues I'm planning for the skin. Lots of fleshy horror and flayed skin. I'm somewhat nervous about the black, since I've never really painted any black power armour, but I'm looking at ideas online.

Thanks to everyone for the input on my WIP post - I think I’m calling the Kill Team done now. They were a pretty big undertaking, and one of my most intricate conversion projects (especially “the thing”), but I’m very happy with them and really excited to get some paint on the them. Feel free to skip the lore, but I was just so excited about the ideas for their background I got while building them, that I had to write it out. Zamael Ghaus - Fleshsmith of the Black Legion. (Creations of Bile Kill Team) Zamael Ghaust is a name sometimes whispered and often cursed when mentioned in the ranks of the Black Legion. Not much is known about Ghaust before he joined the Legion. He roamed the Eye of Terror, with a few of his assistents for many years, until he was captured by a contingent of Black Legionaries. Being an apothecary, a rare treat in the Eye, he was brought before Abaddon. Few were witness to the exchange, but Ghaust admitted to having been a gifted student of Fabius Bile and later fallen from the Primogenitors’ grace, and being forced to flee further into the Eye. A bargain was made - Ghaust’s life, a laboratory and as many subjects as he wished for, in exchange for monsters. And monsters he makes; most subjects do not come willingly, whether from disobedient Black Legionaries or Space Marines from rivalling Legions or Warbands - and understandably so. His work in his laboratories is made to a soundtrack of screams, moans and gargles of agony. For someone unlucky enough to find themselves on the workbench of Ghaust, they will emerge as much, much less human, even compared to the dwellers in the Eye. Ghaust often field tests his subjects on small but important missions, to see for himself how they fare in real battle. Varghorak: Varghorak, once a Berzerker of the Angrons legion, is one of the few willing subjects of Ghaust. He approached the Fleshsmith, after failing the preliminary trials of the Eightbound, wishing to become stronger, tougher and faster, so he could better serve his deity. Ghaust obliged, using an experimental concoction of muscle and bone growth compounds in extreme amounts. Varghorak is a grotesque mountain of muscle and bone, his skin stretched to and beyond it’s limits, with a strenght unheard of, even among the strongest of the Astartes. However, the chemicals used in his apothesis has taken their toll on his mind, and he is little more than a beast now - living only for the blood he can reap for Khorne. Vraxek: A former 3rd. Legion Warrior, Vraxek has joined the Black Legion centuries ago. Like his kin, he was always pursuing perfection, in Vraxeks case, perfection of form - he dreamt of a body that was made entirely for combat. Ghaust happily obliged; Ghaust had recently aquired DNA samples of the vampiric shapeshifting Xenos species known as the Lacrymole, and begun experimenting with lacing Astartes genes with the loathsome Xenos and succeeded - over the course of a few years, Vraxek was continually treated with injections of the vile cocktail, and slowly began changing. His metamorphosis now complete, he looks like the warrior he has always been - although when thrown into the heat of combat, his battleplate cracks open, revealing his true self - a writhing mass of flesh, spiny limbs and maws filled with razorsharp teeth, charging forward while emitting blood curdling shrieks. Maliax: An apprentice of Ghaust, he has been under his masters knife multiple times himself, giving him a hideous appearance, although it is hard to understand exactly how he has been “enhanced” - perhaps known only to Ghaust and himself. He joins Ghaust in his field tests, collecting samples of tissue, geneseed and whatever else might strike his masters fancy, but on the battlefield every warrior must pull their own weight, and thus he dons a missile launcher, giving heavy support from the backline. Xorphio: Once a Legionary with very modest psychic abilities, Xorphio was “volunteered” to participate in Ghaust’s attempt to enhance psychic abilities - high level psykers and sorcerers being highly sought after in the Eye. Xorphio has endured many brain surgeries, to modify his neural network, as well as recieving constant doses of Norepinephrine, distilled from human psykers and astropaths. The result is convincing, although his appereance is rather grotesque - his brain has grown to massive size, and a third eye has sprouted on his forehead. Xorphio cares little for this, for he now displays powers that equal experience sorcerers, and can wreak havoc on any battlefield. Khimeraon: It is unknown whether Khimeraon, a lowly legionary melta-gunner (his former name is forgotten) had displeased some lord, or just happened to be in the wrong place when inspiration struck Ghaust, but it ultimately matters not - he unwillingly became the subject of a mad experiment that involved merging an Astartes with a particularly brutish xemos specimen Ghaust had stumbled upon. The experiment was a success (at least in Ghaust’s mad viewpoint), since he had managed to link Khimeraons neural pathways to the Xenos’ body, so Khimeraon is in complete control of the twisted cojoined body - however, Khimeraon, in constant pain from the mismatch of biology, forced to endure endless chemicals pumped into his body to avoid his immune system expelling the foreign tissue, hates Ghaust more than even the corpse-emperor. He is very much aware, however, that Ghaust fears not that subjects who were unwilling participants in his experiments turn on him, since Ghaust always makes sure they have a failsafe in them; a small melta-charge surgically implanted in their brainstem, linked to Ghaust’s twin hearts.

He’s back, the head is once again the original one, and all is well in the Kill Team again. I’ve tweaked it a bit, added the tubes on his right gorget side (not sure why they weren’t modelled there), added a tube on his left arm (probably to cool the tissue from all the warp energy coming out) and a yucky syringe on a servoarm on his back pack, injecting foul chemicals to enhance his psychic powers:

Thanks for the feedback! I’ve decided that none of the heads are as cool as the Aberrant head I used originally, so I bit the bullet and bought a pack of Aberrants to replace the head I destroyed. I think I managed to make him even better this time, but more on that, when I’m finished with him. I suddenly remembered that my Berzerker (Skinthief) has a bolt pistol on his datacard - that had to be portrayed, so I built him this wrist mounted contraption, linked via cables to his nervous system, so it can fire at his will. I’ve also auditioned another head for the Khimerae, thinking the cables om the head shows how he can control the beast, linked to it - however, it seems kinda strange, that the cables enter the beasts cheeks. I’m kinda leaning towards the original with the rebreather, but any input is appreciated: Lastly, I found a way to really make my missile guy come together. I combined some of the cool elements I had, and made him into an assistent of “Not quite Bile”, who, besides collecting samples, also has to pull his weight as a heavy gunner. He now has the empty helmet of a primaris marine, the remains of which lie on his base, after harvesting some samples for his boss. Anyway, it looks really cool and grisly, I think - when painted up, the gore will really get the point across - also note the updated should with flayed flesh, to help him adhere to the rest of the guys - all of them has bare skin or fleshy parts, while he is almost all armour - that should be remedied now:

Testing out yet another head for the psyker (the hose will get connected to the backpack vials): Thoughts?

I’ve spent most of tonights hobby session actually gluing things together, so they aren’t held by hope and blutack, but I got an idea for the missile launcher guys left arm; maybe a narthecium, so he can help the hardworking poor doctor gather samples? Seeing as he’s pretty much the only one that isn’t a raging monster, it seemed fitting, but please give your opinions.

Thanks a lot - even though I don't play computer games at all, Dead Space keeps popping up as a comment to my work - looking at pics of the game, I can definitely see why! Couldn't ask for a bigger praise. Thanks! Thanks a lot - although I eventually went another route. :) I agree - the new melta-gunner spawn is much more characterful and fits the theme much better. As for Bile, I'm not sure I agree, especially from the side view - I think this one is better, but I'll give it a shot. :) The missile launcher guy, I'm still kinda on the fence on - he works, sure, but it isn't really giving me that "Hell yeah!" vibe the other ones do. I hate to admit it, but I agree about the psyker - I'll try to fix the head with greenstuff, if it doesn't work, I'll try to find another. You may be right. :) Thanks a lot! In my painting/gaming group I'm sort of known (notorious?) for doing and redoing both paint jobs and conversions several times over. It's silly, I know, but if I get another, better idea, I CAN NOT not do it. I have to get it out of my system. I want every single model to convey my vision, however snooty it may sound. Visionary: I've already tried the DE bits, but good idea - they are MUCH too small. Bile is actually quite a bit bigger than most chaos marines, so they look totally silly on him. Meltagunner: I'll try it out. :) Missile Launcher - I'm not sure about the "cherub" thing, but you definitely got my mind going. Thanks! Ventrilokar - I've already done the Curseling thing with a (yet to be publicly shown) Warp Coven Sorcerer, so I think I'll head another direction, but good idea. Thanks again! I know what you mean about melding the parts together, and I totally get it - although a caveat is that I WANT to make it look stuck together; it's not grown out of him, spawn-style, it's grafted together with him using surgery (like Dark Mechanicus Khimerae). However, I've tried some things so far: If you look closely at the pics, you'll see his left (power armour) arm is ripped and torn where it meets the body - to symbolize that it had to be "modified" to make him fit it, after the surgery/merging. His right legs join to the body is hidden by the loincloth. The head maybe needs to be more mutated, but my challenge is finding something that isn't too big and still is clearly a marine - marine heads are actually pretty big, compared to most human models, and a lot of the heads I tried looked comically large. I have a plan, regarding the current one, using sculpting to make the skin merge into the neck/jaw of the beast. Thanks again for the very detailed, thoughtful, and well written feedback from you and everyone else - it is REALLY appreciated, and definitely helps me up my game and making them even better. :)

Thanks a lot for the feedback, guys - I’ll respond to them each tomorrow. For now, an update on the meltagunner; it bothered me that he didn’t read as a marine, like the rest of the Kill Team hopefully does - and it dawned on me that the human part of the spawn is pretty much marine sized - so I took a leap of faith, cut of some of the human limbs, and replaced them with power armoured limbs. This way he reads as a marine, and the armour will give him a way to tie in with rest of the Kill Teams colour scheme. I’m liking this much more, but I would love your feedback. I’m still debating whether he should have the shoulder mounted melta, or get a power armour arm, with shoulder pad, and a one handed melta gun, but I REALLY should get to bed now…

Okay... The melta gunner turned out cool, but he's more of a cool CSM miniature, than a bespoke Creations of Bile miniature... So I've been wracking my mind for the last couple of days, trying to come up with something more body-horrory (yes, that's a word now!). I decided to try and go in a completely different direction. Bile is known for his work on enhancing space marines, yes, but just as known for just making horrible Khimeric creatures - so I decided to try and meld a human and a horrible xenos creature together. (here with an alternative head, maybe a Dark Mechanicus Magos Biologis decided to experiment on himself) I've also had to do some modifications to the psyker (floating dude); I wanted to try and de-genestealercultify the head a bit, and I wanted him to have a bigger brain. Long story short - I cut off the top of his head, put on the brain from the skaven stormfiends, and it looked... Kinda like giant 70's afro. Doh. ... So I had to try and find another head. I think this Berzerker head is kinda cool, the tubes symbolize the gross stuff pumping into his brain, and the will get connected to the (new) vials on his backpack: As always, I'd love to hear any input or thoughts on these. :)

Cool, I tend to agree. :) Thanks a lot! I think it was a good choice too, swapping the hands, but I still kind of think the melta guy needs something, a... Je ne sais quoi, to make him as cool as the rest. Regarding the claw, I see what you mean. I just don't know where I should find the bits. Thanks a lot, I DO put a lot of time into both of those. :) Yep, I was going for a "Now, there's an interesting specimen..." kinda look.

I’ve messed around a bit more tonight, and decided on an empty hand for the melta gunner and the helm hand on the missile guy: I’ve also spent some time figuring out what weapons to give my surgeon - a chainsword seemed so boring, but the cane is way too iconic for Bile - so I decided to make a sort of surgeons claw, with vials filled with nasty stuff to pump into his victims. I’m leaning towards keeping the needler gun, as it’s cool and can counts as either a plasma or bolt pistol, depending on my mood. I’ve also exaggerated the pose a bit more, to make him look like he’s turning around to draw his gun. Still debating whether that works or not.

Wow - thanks for the thorough and detailed feedback! It’s really cool that you’ve looked so closely and taken time to write this. You’ve read my mind about facing, another thing I ponder a lot, to have a proper distribution of left/right/front facing guys. I was messing around with a melta guy last night, this is where I’m at right now. As usual, any input is appreciated.