Kharn the Betrayer: Sculpting Commission

[Brother Heinrich]

http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121215210031/warhammer40k/images/9/96/Kharn_betrayer-internal.jpg

 

This is pretty much the quintessential pre-heresy Khârn. But I like your take on the crest, go for it I say.

[GhostMalone]

At Calth remember.

Istvaan v is in the collected visions hardback and he has precursors to serum pattern helmets there.

Honestly he could change his armour as often as he wants new pieces repairs and so on.

[Mahoo]

Always love seeing custom Kharns. Will definitely be following this

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

There is one piece of PH art with the ears on Kharne:

 

http://i.imgur.com/dlgf53Y.jpg

[Greyall]

For all the good the Horus Heresy (both its Black Library and Forgeworld incarnations) ressurgence has done, the blandness of armour and characters is - to me, as an art lover - its biggest flaw. Though, granted, there aren't many more, if any.

 

Quick examples:

 

1. Black Library - In Fear to Tread, Raldoron of the Blood Angels states his armour is bland, with his pair of artificer shoulder pads being reserved for ceremonial occasions.

 

2. Black Library - The above Khârn, while extremely well drawn, is, to be blunt, just 'meh'. I don't mean it as criticism to the artist, these are clearly orders from above. And while World Eaters are known for their straightforwardness, they're also proud warriors, and this should be stated aesthetically, as well.

 

3. Forgeworld - FW is much less guilty of this, but some of their attempts to mix the typical baroqueness of Space Marines with the gritty realism of the setting (which I support and also practice) have also ended on the bland side. Praetors, while awesome models, could do with added bling. The Deathshroud Terminators are probably the best example, though - again, awesome models, lack of accessories and iconography. On the plus side, the models previewed for the second Heresy book are absolutely marvellous, so perhaps this was a first step. I'm nothing if not extremely thankful for what they've done with the Heresy, right now.

 

Mileage may vary, of course, but I do miss some (emphasis on 'some') of the tone of the old 40K illustrations, where pelts, scrolls and non-skulled motiffs were a common sight on Astartes.

 

Sorry for going a bit off-topic, Veteris. That helm design is great and goes exactly towards what I'm saying. Keep it up.

[Gawain Veteris]

Hey Brothers,

Been a while since our last look at this project. I hope it suffices to say that this is because I've been delightfully busy

I'm just gonna provide an update of what I've done on this model since the last post and briefly say what's left to be done.

http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h451/Zaevin/KharnWIP1_zpsa62a6371.jpg

Here we have a pic of the model from the front as he stands now.

The keen eyed among you will see that the armour is modelled with close inspiration from the Rampager squads available for the World Eaters Legion. It seems that this squad would be an ideal bodyguard for this character so I wanted to make sure that he would stand out from them while not looking conspicuously out of place.

In aid of this his helmet design was an important point to get right and I hope you guys like what I've come up with.

http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h451/Zaevin/KharnWIP2_zps74780fd3.jpg

http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h451/Zaevin/KharnWIP3_zpsc9393a3e.jpg

One could almost call the helmet a death mask as I've incorporated teeth shapes in the respirator grill and prominent cheek plates. The unusual detail on this pseudo MKV helmet is the valour crest which in many ways isn't a valour crest like you might find on the legion centurion model from FW. It's much closer to that of Vulkan Hes'tan of the Salamanders chapter.

I must say I did take a sort of delicious irony that a member of the world eaters legion, one of the main forces present at Istvaan V, the site of the doom of the Salamanders as a Legion, wears similar head gear to a paragon of their chapter ten thousand years later.

Many suggestions and information from you guys, as well as the client, informed the decision to have Khârn wearing this helmet so I'd like to thank everyone who made them

It does seem that when converting these days for Pre Heresy we have a lot more 'official' stuff to work with than we used to. By this I mean that I see Pre-Heresy as comparable to Ancient History. There are some things for which we have 'solid' evidence and can confirm were the case. We also have conflicting evidence and have to choose our favourite or the most realistic account. There are some things which are unclear, such as the precise details of character armour. This used to be the case with heresy armour itself but for obvious reasons a lot of these concerns are now cleared up.

I am however a fervent proponent of the doctrine that while it may be important to adhere to fluff, it is equally important to produce a model that you're happy with. If a model's pose is improved by having his weapon in the wrong hand (as may be the case with Bjorn the Fell-Handed *hint* *hint*) then so be it. IMO it's a small sacrifice for something that looks good and in many cases better than the official picture we may have in our heads

I seem to have rambled a bit... Let's talk models!

http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h451/Zaevin/KharnWIP4_zps2e522a3a.jpg

There is still some work to be done obviously but we can get a better impression of the model now than before. The right fore arm needs to have some muscle and skin put on it :P There are gonna be more chains, spikes and skulls on the model too. You may notice that the shoulder pad which will bear the legion icon has been scoured so that I can sculpt it on and this shoulder pad will be MKII as per request.

The plasma pistol is modelled from a standard space marine plasma pistol to look more pre-heresy in design. This is very easy to do. All it is is shaving off the bottom of the fat end of the gun :P

I'm using the force axe from the Sevrin Loth (i think) set as the basis of the large chain axe which is specifically not gore child :P

Anyway I've rambled too long. I'd love to hear what you guys think as always.

Cheers,

GV

[Brother Heinrich]

Outstanding work, the sheer brutality of his armor is really well done, perfectly captured the gladiator/centurion blend of the World Eaters and Khârn himself.

[Brother Arcturus]

I could be wrong bout this but wasn't Khârn missing the shoulder pad on his bare arm?

[T0MMY]

Yessss - he is looking awesome.

[GrandMagnus]

Throne that is so awesome. I hate you, your greenstuff skill is too good, I dont think its the first time I say that... :P Will you leave the axe like that or do some work on it, because it would look better imo as a chainaxe. More Kharni...

[GhostMalone]

@arcturus- I think that's post heresy with the shoulder pad

[Brother Arcturus]

Ahh, I see. Well at any rate, definitely looking forward to seeing this completed, really looks interesting.

[Chaeron]

Simply superb - immense work!

[Gawain Veteris]

Hey Brothers,

 

Please find below the finished pics of Khârn the Betrayer. Let me know what you think :) 

 

http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h451/Zaevin/FinishedKharn12_zpse0c9018a.jpg

 

http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h451/Zaevin/FinishedKharn1_zps314c7d7a.jpg

 

http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h451/Zaevin/FinishedKharn2_zpsdd25cae5.jpg

 

http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h451/Zaevin/FinishedKharn3_zps1eb58937.jpg

 

http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h451/Zaevin/FinishedKharn4_zps4d64f32e.jpg

 

http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h451/Zaevin/FinishedKharn6_zpsd06b5f23.jpg

 

http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h451/Zaevin/FinishedKharn7_zpsf9fd1909.jpg

 

http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h451/Zaevin/FinishedKharn8_zps2806db17.jpg

 

http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h451/Zaevin/FinishedKharn9_zps7aea900a.jpg

 

http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h451/Zaevin/FinishedKharn10_zpsa6f37676.jpg

 

http://i1110.photobucket.com/albums/h451/Zaevin/FinishedKharn11_zps45fbedfa.jpg

 

Thanks very much for your interest in this topic :)

 

GV

[Nevetz]

Woo! Awesome!

[Brother Ambroz]

Freakin awesome man. Love the way that he's done. He definitely would fit right in with a rampager squad.

[Grotsmasha]

Kick ass dude!!!!! My only suggestion would be to add a strap to hold on that armour plate on the unarmoured arm.

 

Cheers,

Jono

[GrandMagnus]

Awesome, you really did it this time dude! :thumbsup:

[GhostMalone]

:cussing unbelievably breathtaking!!!

 

I agree on the strap for the arm ;)

[Bryan Blaire]

I love it, it's awesome! My only comments would be that his exposed arm seems to come out too high, as it if was level at the shoulder with the top of the chest plate, rather than coming out of an arm hole in the side of the plate (since the power armor plates do have to be thick, it seems like lowering his arm some at the shoulder would give this effect), and I would also echo the need for some kind of mechanism/strap/wire enclosures holding the shoulder plate to the torso plate. No matter what, it's a fantastic sculpt that I could come no where near talent-wise!

[Wicced]

looking fantastic man :tu:

 

i second the strap for the bare arm and my only real nitpick would be the axe blade, i think it looks a little unfinished in comparison to the rest of your great sculpting work.

[Laborious]

Simply stunning! Really impressive work. Only criticism I can raise is what has already been said, some sort of strapping for the bare-armed shoulder pad, and the head of the chain axe still looks quite rough. Really well done, mate. :)

[Unknown Chronicler]

Outstanding work! This Khârn has no bounds and he really looks like I have had imagined him, keep up the good work!!!

[Firepower]

The overall quality of the sculpt is superb.  However, some spots really stand out.  The skulls on his waist are relatively crude, especially the ones towards the rear.  Gorechild's blade is kind of uninspiring. 

[GhostMalone]

that's because its not gorechild :)