No battles this week, but lots of hobby progress! I've mentioned before that some of the models in this force are very, very old. Remaking these classic models has been on my To Do list for a long time, and the release of the Chaos Space Marine Chosen box as a standalone kit gave me the impetus to finally dive into it.

Validon

Validon's original model was based on the metal Khârn the Betrayer - I had received multiples of the model in a trade about 16+ years ago, so just had to convert one into a unit champion (of course). As the years went on, he received numerous additions and updates, including numerous coats of paint to "fix" his old paintjob, and a chainsword in 8th edition when dual-wielding became a thing.

Last year, I received another plastic Khârn in a trade. I already had a plastic Khârn painted, so I immediately knew how I wanted to use the second one: as an update to Validon's classic model.

One of my goals with these model updates was to make sure I retained enough details to keep the individual recognisable, as if the updated model was a plausible evolution of the character itself. For Validon, other than retaining Khârn's basic design features, I added a three-pronged spike from the Chosen box (with pennants rotated around to match his movement) to his backpack and a head from one of the AoS Slaughterpriest models to approximate his old helmet's design.

Dreior

Dreior's original model was an attempt by my to make a "modern" Chaos Marine out of spare parts before the updated CSM kit was released, using an AoS Blood Warrior head, Raptor power fist and DV Chosen backpack. Honestly, the less said about the old model, the better!

For his new incarnation, I wanted to retain that right-handed power fist - which, unfortunately, is a bit of a rare configuration. Thankfully, the new Chaos Terminator kit has a right-handed power fist, and (with a suitable arm) it's pretty perfectly scaled to put on a power-armoured body. I decided to give him a plasma pistol instead of his old FW combi-plasma, though I ran into a similar problem: not very many left-handed pistols in the Chaos range. Thankfully, I had a (rather beaten up) Kranon the Relentless model kicking about that was perfect. I also decided against giving him a bare head (which was the original plan) and gave him a 3D printed helmet instead. 

Gorm

Another ancient model from early on in my collection, maybe even one of my first conversions. Gorm was originally built from a Berzerker with a CSM power fist (with the pointing finger repositioned) and a chainglaive built with an old Chaos Marauder arm and Berzerker chainsword.

I knew the new model needed to have a similar running pose, and a power fist loosely gripping a chainglaive. This was accomplished using the new two-handed chainaxe arms from the CSM Legionary kit, with the chainaxe head replaced with a chainsword, and a power fist from the Chosen kit. The power fist was very tricky to do: I had to remove the daemonic face from its palm, just the power fist from the elbow, and even repositioned the thumb, before sticking it onto a different arm.

The only thing I'm a little annoyed about was that I didn't pay attention to Gorm's original skin tone, but let's just chalk that up him running out of tanning lotion since the Heresy.

Overall, I'm extremely pleased with how these three guys turned out. The old models were bothering me but the characters had quite a lot of history in my lore, so when I saw the Chosen kit I knew I had an opportunity to give them the update they deserved. That kit is an absolute goldmine of some extremely cool bits (as well as some...rather derpy bits), and I thoroughly recommend it for conversion fodder!