Making of a Malal army, Part 11 and Beyond! SUGGESTIONS PLS

[Ekoi]

A few of you who lurk /tg/ might remember this stupid and slowly ongoing project of mine.

 

For the past... year or so I've been hammering out this project, trying to think before outright leaping. I try to leave that for my orky projects. :)

 

Malal, Malice, whatever you'd like to call him; I prefer Malal. The retconned Chaos God of old, who currently exists only in memory and subtle references. There's little definitive info that's available, and there's simply so much fluff left to interpretation and debate.

 

This project of mine is to make a 40k Chaos Space Marine army based upon Malal. I intend to use the abysmal 4E CSM codex to work with, but in some more casual games I'll be using the 3E Chaos book and the 4E CSM "generic summoned daemons." Ideas for house-rules are welcomed, but not quite something I'm focusing much on at this point.

 

Malal; personal judgment/view from what I've researched:

 

He's a parasitic god who grows in power as the other big 4 do so themselves. He seems to have a certain preference to using individual agents for his goals, but isn't above warbands. He enjoys the destruction of entities and followers of other chaos gods.

 

Followers of Malal are often those wronged by a greater power, be it a servant to a great nobleman or a follower of chaos forsaken by their god. As he has far fewer followers than that of the other gods, followers of Malal seem to be given greater gifts and powers from him so that they might accomplish his/their goals with greater effectiveness.

 

If I had to put emotions to his name, vengeance seems to be a notable one. Rage, hope, pleasure, and despair can all be driven from revenge, thus the parasitic nature.

 

He is often associated with the self-destructive aspect of chaos, and many interpret this as such on an individual scale, such as the emo stereotype, which I consider inaccurate. A god who has far fewer followers than his peers that tends to have individual agents work under him would not simply throw them away as easily; he would be more conservative when possible. This self-destructive aspect is reflected in his/his followers actions, which often involve the destruction of followers and daemons of other gods.

 

His number is 11 and his emblem is a bisected half-white-half-black skull.

 

Now the biggest thing I get when I bring this up is "there's no Malal in 40k!" and while that is technically true, you can guess I grow tired of hearing it. Y'know what, I'll just throw my entire stance/argument to this in a spoiler tag and be done with it.

((I really wish this board had hidetags))

 

Yes, I am quite aware that the Sons of Malice indeed worship a a being they call Malice. While the Sons do indeed call him a god, it seems more like they summon a greater daemon based on the sacrifice of great warriors. I've read Labyrinth a few times, and there's even a link to it in one of the archived threads for those who would like to read it.

 

But let's face it. For one, we're dealing with old or otherwise retconned lore here, and there's huge gaps that can only be filled with interpretation. Secondly, while I'm still trying to gather reputable evidence on the matter, Malice seems to have been created after Malal was retconned out of WHFB's lore, as GW's way of appeasing the few fans or whatever. One can only assume, but it would be rather likely that "Malice" would have still been "Malal" in 40k had that issue of rights not have existed.

 

Anyway, in regards to interpretations and my own project, I kinda feel that the Sons were indeed worshiping a great daemon. To not conflict with what little cannon there is, my warband might be a splinter of the Sons who also thought this, and went on to find the true Renegade God themselves. It covers having a fewer amount of marines in my force, as I did plan to use a good amount of generic-daemons.

 

Anyway, enough of this silliness, we're here for MODELS! (Mainly! Or so I'd hope!)

 

>Current projects: Designing(and building) armor and weapons for the Daemon Prince.

 

>Mostly finished: Blueprinting Lesser Daemons and Greater Daemon.

==Full To-Do list==

HQs:

•Daemon Prince (Designing)

•Chaos Lord (Designing)

•Chaos Sorcerer (Planning)

•Greater Daemon (Designing)

Elites:

•10 Chosen (Planning)

•Terminators (Unsure)

Troops:

•11x2 Marines (Planning)

•11 Lesser Daemons (Designing)

Heavy Support:

•Obliterators (Unsure)

•Defiler (Unsure)

 

I've got a good amount of stuff to work on, it seems! While it won't be the most competitive, it should do well enough, I'd hope. Trying a bit for relatively low Marine-count, but that's likely to bite me in the ass when it comes to playing, ha hah!

 

(Oyumaru is something I have and will be using. It is a key tool for this project. Making custom bits isn't much of an issue.)

 

To not have an insanely huge opening post, I'm just kinda going to split it a bit. (Or not, seeing as it just merged the posts. Welp.)

 

Now, while I may be good for bouncing ideas off of, I often have difficulty when it comes to brainstorming on my own unless stuff sans the sudden bursts of inspiration. Any and all suggestions I receive are much appreciated, and to be frank I could really use em.

 

((REALLY wishing there were hidetags now! 8D ))

 

Lesser Daemon

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/3830/blueprintlesser.png

 

I have a pretty solid Lesser blueprint currently, though it's obviously missing the head. I've yet to have a chance to compare a kroot hound model to a genestealer body so I still don't know if those k'hound heads are a usable size.

 

It's based on what is assumed to be official art of Malal's lesser daemon, though I've yet to find an exact source for it yet. It seems to be widely accepted as official, and I like the design enough anyway.

 

Greater Daemon

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/1007/blueprintgreater.png

 

Ah, my Greater Daemon, one of the centerpieces for the army.

 

I went ahead and got a soulgrinder kit mainly for the upper body. I've already made Oyumaru molds of it, and when I'm ready I'll cast the front half and pull it out early so I can easily bisect it and shape it to my needs. The rest of the kit will be useful for pimping the model later, to make it look more Chaos than Tomb Kings.

 

The arms I'm still iffy about and I'm not sure what to do with them. Ideas welcomed, as always.

 

Daemon Prince

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4540/blueprintprince.jpg

 

Another centerpiece, and is in a state of development hell right now, design-wise.(no pun intended)

 

For the head, I've got the Defiler's skull mask that I plan on using, and for the horns I'll be making a rack very similar to Be'lakor's there. Fairly simple concept but it'll look good, I hope.

 

For the chest I've copied the CSM breastplate already. I want to make it different from the standard design, but all I know is don't-wants instead of wants. Things I know I don't care for are the circular vent, the rib-stripes, and basically the way they did the arrow-trim around the collar. I've drawn some more ideas for the breastplate in my spare time, but I'm honestly not sure about which way to go about it.

 

The arms are going to be based on the CSM-styled arms, but are going to be molded so that they are free of daemonic faces on them.(a blank slate for me to work with) I'm going to remove the stupid elongated middlefinger feature because I just find it tacky. No design-idea for what should be on the armor otherwise here.

 

I've finished making a blank version of the pauldron with just the trim. Not sure what to do for the actual design of it though. Well, that's a half-truth. I know I'd like to use different arms to represent different psychic powers, including different styled pauldrons. Recycling an idea I originally made for Scripty to use on his Mortarion, one pauldron will be an orb embedded in it. (I will not be modeling warptime or Gift, as I would never use them on their own anyway.)

 

As the default axe didn't interest me, so I've been working on a design that's less weedy. A kind Anon threw an idea at me that I rather liked, and I've worked with that so far to get what we see now. (NO Dreadaxe for the prince, as that's going to the Chaos Lord down the road.)

 

For the legs I've figured out how to armor them. I've made copies of the rear-leg armor from the necrosphinx kit(as it's just the right size) and removed the carving and designs from them so far. I just need to reshape them a bit more so they fit together, then I'll use them as blanks to clone and build upon.

 

Wings will be on magnets, nothing hard about that.

 

Not sure if I want to give the prince the tail. While it would fit with the dragonish theme, it seems a bit dull in design. Maybe a more customized tail could work, but of course I have no idea for design.

 

Psychic Powers ideas:

Doombolt: Likely some sort of daemonic gun mounted on the arm. I've some razorback heavybolters that might be a good base.

Wind of Chaos: Unsure on this, to be honest. While I could easily go the flamethrower route, it seems a bit of a cop-out.

Lash of Submission: I'm thinking something involving chains, a bit inspired by Spawn. Wrapped along the arm and extending from it.

Bolt of Change: Likely what I'll use the orb pauldron for. Maybe carve runes into the gauntlet.

Warptime and Gift of Chaos are two that I for-sure have no intention of using. Not sure about Nurgle's Rot either as it seems a bit weedy.

 

Chaos Lord

Not much so far. Considering a sort of "true scale" thing, or at least suitably larger than a standard marine model. Currently I have the Venerable Dreadnought's sarcophagus front that I'll trim the bottom off for the chestpiece, and it's shinguards for pauldrons.

 

He'll be using a powerweapon/daemonweapon in the form of a slightly redesigned Dreadaxe. Because of this meltabombs seem like a must, and personal icon too if I'm using daemons. I'm wondering if the 2+ the Terminator armor gives is worth it.

 

Chosen

Outside of also being truescale, I don't have any notable plans currently; not even wargear! Will likely act as the Lord's honorguard, him fulfilling that important 11th model.

[tiny sam]

Nice!

[Subtle Discord]

All the power to you. From what I'm seeing here, I can't wait to see this develop. As long as the overall theme fits the universe, the name put to anything is cosmetic and/or up for interpretation. Sometimes I want to throttle 'fluff-nazis'. As long as I'm not trying to break rules and/or create something stupidly outside of the cannon, its my creative right to interpret my army any way I please. If I want to 'The Blue Oyster Boys' and sculpt the helmets in honor of the Village People, as long as I don't break any rules, show me where it says I can't?

 

In my humble opinion, there's one rule that trumps all else, especially with the thinned down Codex Chaos Marines have right now; Counts As. As long as it's not abused and your opponent knows what in your army is following the 'Counts As' rule, all bets are off. I'm an old school Chaos player. I remember some of the crazy things Chaos used to be able to do, even strictly from a mutations point-of-view. Right now I use 'Counts As' all of the time because I refuse to lose all of that artistic freedom just because there is no firm rules for that guy who has some insane mutation as a mark of his Gods favor. I do it also in the hopes that the future Codex will bring back much of what Chaos is lacking right now, and I can apply the new rules to what I've built.

 

I'll try to avoid ruining your spoiler, but personally I think your spin on things is perfect. We know Slaanesh 'grew' over the millennium in to one of the four major powers. I can only imagine how many lesser gods are still building strength and might someday 'ascend' while others wither and fade. Who knows, maybe your take Malal should be that consuming lesser infant gods is how he/she/it grows. Hummm... the 'Cannibal God', the manifestation of the act of survival itself. Any group pushed to the limit will turn on itself to a degree, and the stronger will consume the weak so they might continue on. Who would the strong pick to consume first, given the right opportunity or basic need to survive? The object of their malice.

[Biohazard]

Subtle Discord has put it perfectly about the gods growing over time. Its always hinted at in the codex that there are an entire pantheon of gods. Khorne,Slaanesh,Nurgle and Tzeentch are just the main players. The big 4 if you will but there simply has to be other deities just waiting in the wings for there time to play. I really like the look youre going for here enough like the rest of the 40k style but just different enough to stand out and as said the 'counts as' rule is there to silence any nay sayers. Really looking forward to seeing this progress.

 

As an aside the Defiler mask is a really good fit for most of the Daemon Prince heads. The only problem i have with the kit is the lack of lower leg armour.

[Dark Apostle Thirst]

You might also want to see this thread on Malal and his sons - http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=229147

[Lord_Azoth]

amazing..love the concepts..looking forward to see more updates!

[Ekoi]

All the power to you. From what I'm seeing here, I can't wait to see this develop. As long as the overall theme fits the universe, the name put to anything is cosmetic and/or up for interpretation. Sometimes I want to throttle 'fluff-nazis'. As long as I'm not trying to break rules and/or create something stupidly outside of the cannon, its my creative right to interpret my army any way I please. If I want to 'The Blue Oyster Boys' and sculpt the helmets in honor of the Village People, as long as I don't break any rules, show me where it says I can't?

 

In my humble opinion, there's one rule that trumps all else, especially with the thinned down Codex Chaos Marines have right now; Counts As. As long as it's not abused and your opponent knows what in your army is following the 'Counts As' rule, all bets are off. I'm an old school Chaos player. I remember some of the crazy things Chaos used to be able to do, even strictly from a mutations point-of-view. Right now I use 'Counts As' all of the time because I refuse to lose all of that artistic freedom just because there is no firm rules for that guy who has some insane mutation as a mark of his Gods favor. I do it also in the hopes that the future Codex will bring back much of what Chaos is lacking right now, and I can apply the new rules to what I've built.

 

I'll try to avoid ruining your spoiler, but personally I think your spin on things is perfect. We know Slaanesh 'grew' over the millennium in to one of the four major powers. I can only imagine how many lesser gods are still building strength and might someday 'ascend' while others wither and fade. Who knows, maybe your take Malal should be that consuming lesser infant gods is how he/she/it grows. Hummm... the 'Cannibal God', the manifestation of the act of survival itself. Any group pushed to the limit will turn on itself to a degree, and the stronger will consume the weak so they might continue on. Who would the strong pick to consume first, given the right opportunity or basic need to survive? The object of their malice.

The spoiler wasn't a SPOILER really, just me breaking up the post a bit and otherwise not forcing a rant.

 

Subtle Discord has put it perfectly about the gods growing over time. Its always hinted at in the codex that there are an entire pantheon of gods. Khorne,Slaanesh,Nurgle and Tzeentch are just the main players. The big 4 if you will but there simply has to be other deities just waiting in the wings for there time to play. I really like the look youre going for here enough like the rest of the 40k style but just different enough to stand out and as said the 'counts as' rule is there to silence any nay sayers. Really looking forward to seeing this progress.

 

As an aside the Defiler mask is a really good fit for most of the Daemon Prince heads. The only problem i have with the kit is the lack of lower leg armour.

Yeah, I have the majority of the bits and kits for my current plans, and the mask is near perfect fit. C: As said before the leg armor for the necrosphinx is a near-perfect fit, and when smoothed out doesn't look out of place at all. (hopefully it looks good when I add the bling to it)

 

You might also want to see this thread on Malal and his sons - http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=229147

I'll be sure to give it a propa read soon.~

 

amazing..love the concepts..looking forward to see more updates!

Cheers!

 

However, I'm kinda stumped on some of notable things with my blueprints, so updates will come when ideas either pop into my head or get suggested. @.@;

[Biohazard]

I dont know how exactly but I completly missed the part when you said about the sphinx leg armour. ^_^ Ill have to look into aquiring some of those parts myself.

[Ekoi]

The two pieces in question are these. When you remove the fins they connect almost perfectly, and on the Prince's leg you'd only need to fill in a bit of a gap on one side.(or file/grind the insides of armor or the leg itself)

 

http://i.imm.io/bGUf.png

 

I made epoxy(greystuff) copies of the pieces, removed the large rear fins, filled in the four circular gaps on each half, and smoothed out the rest of the features so I can later give it more of a chaos look. I did a similar process to the Prince's pauldren too so I basically have a giant blank spacemarine pauldren. I'll see about getting photos over the weekend, but it's not hard to imagine them, methinks.

 

Wish I had some of that material that made dryfitting much easier. What's it called... Bluetack?

[Ekoi]

While I'm in this rut with the Daemon Prince, I figured I'd toy with my Chaos Lord.

 

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/4965/blueprintlords.png

 

I have little idea what I'm doing!

 

(blank parts so I can more easily modify them)

[Ekoi]

I'm still unsure how I'm doing his pauldrons, but in the meantime...

 

Parts I'm going to use as blanks for my Prince. Chest armor came out okay, but that's not an issue because I'm going to remove all it's detail anyway. The pauldron came out nicely, I think. The leg armor fits great and just needs to have the rest of the details removed, then I can plan on the design for its trim.

 

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/4305/doops.png

[Biohazard]

The leg armour looks great. The pauldron looks really good as well

[Ekoi]

Oh hey, a dryrun of my chaos lord.

 

Mind the off-brand blu-tack, it's not as strong it seems and I had to use a notable amount of it to keep hold.

 

I'll need to get some more nonchaos terminator parts to work with for the final build, but it gives me some direction.

 

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/9062/1330460655404.png

[Corsair]

His upper torso looks AWESOME!

 

...but it makes him look like a dwarf when you see his legs -_-

[Terminatorinhell]

Would it look a bit better if the shoulders were horizontal? Maybe add something to give him height?

[Ekoi]

Hello, what is this?

 

It seems to be a notable update.

 

Built my Malal Lord finally. I also have enough greenstuff to where I can start building my greater daemon.

 

Still do not have much designed for the daemon prince, and would love suggestions for that too.

 

http://i.imgur.com/7T9Fj.jpg

[Terminatorinhell]

very nice, I just think the staff needs more detail and his right shoulder joint seems off, is there a lot of gs there?

[irwit]

Loving this thread, fantastic original ideas and creations. Cant wait to see this progress!

[Ekoi]

very nice, I just think the staff needs more detail and his right shoulder joint seems off, is there a lot of gs there?

The dreadaxe's head was originally larger, and I had tried my best to trim it down to a reasonable size, but I still think it's too large. I'll likely remove it in favor of sculpting a smaller one. Being a daemon weapon, which seem to require two hands, I have it quite a long shaft. Hopefully I can get better details on the second attempt.

 

In regards to the shoulder, I can see what you mean. I may need to pry the arm off and shave down the attaching GS some.

 

Starting to regret having basecoated the model now...

 

Loving this thread, fantastic original ideas and creations. Cant wait to see this progress!

 

Cheers! As always, I am open to suggestions for ideas as I work on these.

 

Cast the back half of the soulgrinder's torso last night. My first time working with actual green stuff instead of the greystuff I've been using, and it didn't catch nearly as much detail as I expected. I will try the front half next in hopes that the back is redeemable, so I hopefully don't have to recast it. I need to get some sturdy wire for the armature soon for the arms, not that I know exactly what I'm doing with those.

[hushrong]

An army for Malal? Always good in my book!

 

Really looking forward to seeing those daemons!

[Ekoi]

Here's some progress on that Greater daemon.

 

Smoothing and filling in areas on the legs at the moment.

 

Haven't decided on if I want to have a tail or not.(it would likely be either a pair of tails or a single tail that forks into two ends, if so)

 

http://i.imgur.com/gA6oD.jpg

[The_Chaplain]

I said as much over on /tg/, but that baby needs a tail so it doesn't seem as front heavy; a literal counterbalance if you will.

[Ekoi]

Finished resculpting and sanding the legs, along with mounted the frame for the two tails and two tongues.

 

Somewhat at a pause at this point due to not knowing what to do for the arms. Until I figure that out about all I can do is more touch-up on the torso to fill in gaps, which isn't really report-worthy in of itself.

 

http://i.imgur.com/7ZRG7.jpg

[Dark Apostle Thirst]

That GSing... B)

[Ekoi]

The upper torso is just a press-molded soulgrinder torso with some of the mechanical detail removed; I cannot really take credit for it.

 

The greystuff jobs on the legs are something I'm somewhat proud of though, considering the makeshift tools I had to sculpt them with.