Hobby Progress New Berzerkers and Champions
I've been playing this army for quite a long time. Almost as long as the soon-to-be obsolete plastic Berzerker kit, in fact; I think it came out about a year before I picked up my first Chaos Battleforce box back in the day.
Over the years, I have collected entirely too many Berzerkers made from that old kit. At last count, there were something like 80-odd painted Berzerkers, and about as many unpainted. Unfortunately, that kit is now getting a little long in the tooth (so to speak), and as my force evolves to include newer kits, they start to look more and more out of place.
In this Crusade army, the only unit left that is composed of Oldzerkers is Gorm's Hunters:
Gorm himself was kitbashed probably 15 or more years ago, featuring parts from the Berzerker box, 3rd edition-era CSM, Chaos Marauders, and a WE symbol that I had sculpted and inexplicably duplicated on both the power fist and pauldron (I think I had just discovered push-molding).
Having already built and painted Newzerkers for Validon's and Dreior's squads, I knew it was past time to do the same for Gorm - and this week I finally worked up the motivation to finish them off:
Of course, working on this project (not to mention all the other Berzerkers in this force!) really highlighted just how out of place their Champions were. I mean, Gorm's base is a good 2-3mm thicker than those of his squad, and that barely keeps him a similar height!
So, I've also started working on some new iterations of the three Berzerker Champions in this force (so far...).
For comparison, here are the old iterations of Validon, Dreior and Gorm:
And here are their WIP new versions:
In keeping with Validon's old model being based off a metal Khârn, the new one is based off a plastic one that I had rattling around in my bits box, with a head from an AoS Slaugherpriest, power fist and pistol from CSM, backpack from old CSM, and icon spikes from the new Chosen kit. I did have to modify the spikes slightly to swing the little pennants in the opposite direction, though.
Separating Khârn's head from his body was tricky, since so much of it was incoporated into the torso. In the end, I had to carve away much of the cabling on the torso, as well as the vent on the front. I replaced the latter with a speaker from an Imperial Guard vox, and covered up the missing cables with some Chaos Star bits from the Chaos Knight kit.
Dreior was by far the Champion with the least character in his model, which is partly what inspired his backstory as a literal clone. His new model has a little more going for him, with a body and head from the Chosen kit (though I added some Butcher's Nails with green stuff - not that you can see them in the photo), a power fist from the Chaos Terminator kit (which, by the way, is perfectly scaled for power armour now) and a plasma pistol from the old Kranon the Relentless.
And finally, old mate Gorm was made from a Chosen body, head and power fist, Legionary chainaxe arm (and haft), and a chainsword that I think was from the Raptor kit. I think this model was the best homage to his old iteration, with that heavily modified power fist loosely gripping his custom chainglaive.
Now that is a face only Khorne could love. I wanted to lean into his backstory of cannibalism, so just had to go with one of the heads from the Chosen kit, and I think it captures his derangement (and degeneration) well.
That's all for now! All comments and criticism are welcome.
Edited by Cheex
- Dr_Ruminahui, Dosjetka, Spazmolytic and 1 other
- 4
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