Word Bearer's Modelling Suggestions

[Azarias]

Hello. Hoping this is the right forum for this kind of thread.

 

I've spent the past two weeks thinking of ways to Word Bearer-ize the standard Chaos Space Marine model using only green stuff an bitz. I've had the idea for a generous dolloping of scrolls (both open and rolled up) hanging from pauldrons, shoulders, etc..., but I've been at a loss for how to easily model the rolled up ones. Sure, green stuff is an option, but I was wondering if anyone had any better ideas for modeling them? Or any ideas in general for decking out an army of baroque zealots?

[Saa]

If you have the patience/steady hand/awesome brushes for it, detailed scripting on flat armor pieces looks great to represent meticulous copying of the Book of Lorgar.

 

Saa

 

....or something like that

[Menkeroth]

Agree! Chaos symbols painting such as in our codex + different words from the Book of Lorgar - it can be sufficient.

Hope this will help:

http://s017.radikal.ru/i427/1111/05/415e35d34350.jpg

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/8364/47891186.th.jpg

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/4889/99916549.th.jpg

[Dammeron]

One way is to use very small slices of crumpled up tin foil; after painting, they look just like tattered parchment, or you could use some varieties of paper made slightly more rigid by a careful application of watered down P.V.A.

 

Word Bearers are a very distinct legion aesthetically in that you can take inspiration from all manner of "real world" sources; religious iconography, occult symbols etc all work beautifully. You could also model some of your miniatures to be engaged in acts of ritual or battlefield worship. For example, you could have a battle brother who has paused to consecrate the corpse of a fallen enemy; riping out its organs or raising some sort of daemonic entity from its remains. I've always been struck by the notion of an entrenched battlefield choir; Word Bearers carrying various warp-forged instruments and singing their blasphemous hymns through vox-casters built into their armour or surgically grafted into their bodies. Or perhaps you could create a "Khorne Berserker" style unit of Dark Templars; those who have dedicated their existence to slaying those who fail to see the True Path.

[Azarias]

All fun thoughts - I especially like the idea for models with broadcasting equipment attached to them. I've been fishing for ideas because I wanted to see what I could include in my planned warband: The Sons of Urizen. The immediate reference is obvious - but I've been looking to William Blake's Book of Urizen for ideas as well. Certain lines ("One curse, one weight, one measure") fit nicely, and other parts hint towards basing suggestions (snow, for instance; Urizen freezes his way through a number of these works).

 

For those interested, you can find an online version here. It's all still very much in the planning stages, though. And there won't be a one-to-one association between my models and Blake's work. But it could be fun, and it might even give me new insights for my thesis.

[Brother Nihm]

What about using SM 'Purity' seals?

[totgeboren]

I took an IMO quite simple route with my standard CSM. The parchments are just made from standard printing paper rolled up into a ball a few times and then rolled out and glued to the models. Other than that, it's just paint to make em look like proper WBs.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i95/totgeboren40/Daemons/darkapostle007-2.jpg

 

 

Of course, you can always be a bit more dedicated and buy some BT sprues, and remove the BT icons like I did with my chosen squad.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i95/totgeboren40/Daemons/cthulu075.jpg

[Sangneur]

For making rolled up scrolls I recommend using green stuff in fairly thick sheets of 1/32', rolling them up as far and big as you want and applying them where they need to go. I recommend pinning as well, my green stuff likes to escape.

[Azarias]

Right, here's a thought I've had regarding the warband's commander. I'm using the standard Chaos Commander model (that terminator armor one, with all the fun little bits), but instead of the force staff, I'm trying to model a large hammer. Now, I'm hoping to keep the staff fairly intact (save where I lop the top off and pin a new piece, using greenstuff to hide the seam), and am looking for an appropriate hammer. I've had the idea to use the Grey Knights Dreadknight Daemonhammer, but I realized that it may be too large, and would look ridiculous if put together in the manner I outlined.

 

I have no way to verify this, save for buying the bit. And I'd rather not spend the money on it if I'm not going to end up using it. Does anyone here have any inkling of whether or not this would be the case? Would the hammer be too large? Or can anyone suggest a better option?

[Ah-a-nothepsis]

Hmmm I think the DKnight hammer would be too large. Does the death company box have one? Or the Grey Knights Strike Squad box.

 

Failing that, you could always use a simple staff with 4 of those Iron Halos from the Space Marine Commander boxed set, arrange it like so: (|) and call it whatever weapon you're going for, and it'd be a great accursed crozius

[Amalricus]

I used two heads of lascannons of the chaos vehicle sprue glued to the chaosy iron halo from de chaos space marines sprue to form a mace / hammer ( a very WIP picture can be posted if you wish.)

[Apostle Redbeard]

A good, fast way of producing lots of scrolls would be to take a sheet of printer paper and soak it in cold tea (really). Pout a thin layer of cold plain tea onto an oven tray and leave the paper to sit in it for a while. Once you dry it out you'll have some cool parchment-looking paper to cut into pieces and write script on for models. A plus is that of course soaking then drying the paper will help make it crinkle up a bit, making it look a lot more realistic on models.

 

I'm planning on sculpting a lot of candles on my WBs. The Vampire Counts corpse cart from the fantasy range has some cool flaming skull/brazier bits that would look brilliant on vehicles. Not worth buying the kit for, but if you can grab them from a VC player they'd be well worth using.

 

For a hammer, have you considered the GK terminators daemonhammer? It looks a bit bigger than a thunderhammer. I know the Space Wolves box has a cool hammer with snarling wolfs heads on it, because I plan on using it on my dark apostle. In fact I'd recommend picking up the SW set - so many cool bits. The lightning claws are awesome if you ever want to do display models (since chosen don't deserve melee weapons...), and the power fists let you get more variation in the appearence of your aspiring champions. There's also the plasma guns and pistols, perfect for converting up lots of combi-plama terminators. I've been eyeing up the SW terminators too - a box that actually has more than one set of claws is always good, and the leader's cloak would look sweet on a terminator lord.

[MaliGn]

Flagellant kit, black templars and dark angels kits all have various bits of handy scrolls work, both moulded to shoulder pads, loose, rolled, and the rest, also Death Company kit has some nice bits...