The Court of Flies - ThatOneWurm's Chaos Knights (Painted Karnivore and Corrupted Acheron)

[ThatOneWurm]

“Carnax-7, a world that will soon be forgotten by the ignoble followers of the False Emperor. Lines of feculent trenches fill this muddy world, reinforced by several Astra Militarum regiments. Impressive siege-works and engines speak edicts of fire and flame into the sky and down upon our forces.

 

But we are patient, for we know that all things will end eventually. This is the painful lesson being taught to the false worshippers here now. Their siege-works, their lives; all will decay before us. Brought to ruin upon the tolling of the bells.

 

And I can hear them ringing now.”

- Princeps Belzaii of House Khlorys, She Who Tolls For The Dead, the Mayfly Queen of Ner’gahl, the Swarming Sin of Salvir, the Pallbearer of Carnax-7

 

 

 

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Howdy y'all! This is gunna be the start of WIP thread for my Chaos Knights that I've started working on to help me focus in on the project. Long time lurker here and witness to many of the classic knight threads here over the years that inspired me to not just collect Knights, but push my skills to make them the best I can!

So far, I'm closing out on finishing up a Wardog that is serving as a rough test scheme for the House, and so far, feeling really good about it!

I'm gunna look into updating this thread whenever I have something to add with posts regarding kitbashing, modeling, painting, or even basing if people are interested in the trench basing I'm trying to convey. Any comments, critiques, and advice is definitely welcome! :D
 

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For those curious about the quote at the beginning, the thought process behind the force is a Chaos Knight House aligned to Nurgle assisting in the siege of Carnax-7; a fortress world of my own creation within Imperium Nihilus. I have some ideas for perhaps a small accompanying force of Death Guard and maybe even an Astra Militarum regiment for them to face off against, but I've told myself I am going to hold off on that until I have a fully finished and playable list of models (2k points). Thankfully don't need too many when collecting Knights!

 

Up next is a Cerastus Knight Lancer that I'm converting to become a Fly-Prince of House Khlorys, or the Court of Flies as they are known amongst the followers of the Plague Lord. Perhaps the Lancer will even be the Princeps Belzaii herself!

 

Edited October 20, 2023 by ThatOneWurm

[Firedrake Cordova]

Nice work - the painted model looks like something straight out of John Blanche!  

[Wormwoods]

If there's one thing I love to see, it's a Nurgle army that isn't just green! Great mashup of kits there, too! 

[ThatOneWurm]

Firedrake - That is such a wonderful compliment! He is one of my biggest inspirations and I was hoping to try and channel some of his style into the House I'm making. I guess I'm on the right track there! Thank you again, probably the best compliment I could ask for.

Wormwoods - Right? Trying to keep the greens very subdued so that the tesseract glow on power cables and lenses pops more, like how Blanche uses red as the pop color, but here being that sickly bright green. Also inspired a bit by the Death Guard in the Angels of Death animation that had bright green eye lenses, and its a mental image I just couldn't get out of my head. The hull color is actually really simple in order to keep my sanity; just Leadbelcher drybrushed over Chaos Black spray, with a 2:1 glaze of Biel-Tan Green and Agrax Earthshade used as wash/glaze over it.

But with that said, I've finished basing the War Dog, which means update pics and moving onto the bigger beastie. The Cerastus Knight Lancer.

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“For when the Great Bell tolls / His children, His servants shall rise. / From filth and decay are they wrought / And upon a throne of rot shall the Maggot-Princes writhe.” -Canticle of the Thrice-Decayed



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Touched up some of the rust effects again and added the faint hint of some streaking out of the rusted pockets on the hull. In addition, finished up the base finally; using a combination of Stirland Mud, Mordant Earth, and Stirland Battlemire along with some actual dirt to really try and make it look muddy, something that I pushed further with Nuln Oil Gloss across it and in between the floor boards of the trench.

If you're curious what the trench floors are, its a bit of an attempt of mine to reduce, reuse, and recycle. All the floorboards there are actually cut from the box that the Blighthauler came in! Turned out pretty great and got to use some materials for modeling instead of tossing them out or letting them accumulate. Anyways, here are some other pictures without the filters!

 

[Llagos_Tyrant]

Awesome models, great weathering, quotes, and thread formatting. Top form!

[ThatOneWurm]

Here is a small update for my pledge for the 12 Months of Hobby: the lower legs of the Cerastus Knight Lancer getting all the metals and weathering done up! Looking forward to getting the upper half hopefully weathered and done during the week in the evenings piece by piece so that they are done by the end of the weekend, leaving only the armor panels and basing for the big lass.

Got a big attempt at basing here, my first real foray into scenic basing following the war dog's base, so there is some trimming of the corkboard that needs to happen to bring it back to the original intended size of the base.


 

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"Blessed are the faithful of the Maggot-Lord who serve our House. Those given new purpose in their life to join their steps with our own in rhythm to the tolling of the Bell."
-Princeps Belzaii regarding the Household Guard and Cultists of the Court of Flies

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And to keep my own sanity from doing these large models and hearing the call of Nurgle, here are some little base fillers for the Knights I do as a little treat for myself. Representing foot soldiers of the Court of Flies assisting their liege Lords in the Siege of Carnax-7, I'm hopeful to add these guys to the bases of the Knights to really sell the Household at war vibe and the crazed assault of Chaos on the Imperial trench lines.

For these little duders, they are a pretty simple kitbash. Poxwalker heads on top of Ash Waste Nomad bodies, with some of the rusted and decayed weapons from the poxwalker kits added onto them as well to further sell the rusting and decaying nature of the House Guard.

Edited September 19, 2023 by ThatOneWurm

[Pearson73]

Wow, the weathering and texture on the legs is amazing! As are the Armiger conversions, ace idea!

 

The little plague troopers are nicely bashed too.

[ThatOneWurm]

Thank you for the kind words Pearson! I've been really enjoying how the weathering has come out on the base frame-skeleton. I think next on my list for Armiger conversions is probably going to be a Karnivore of some kind! I got it into my head of doing some kind of mosquito-esque flavor for them, so we'll see what the ol' brain matter can come up with for the conversion itself.

Outside of that, major update on the Cerastus Lancer! She's all painted up now! Just gotta slap it with some Munitorum Varnish, add in some particular effects and clean up some areas, and then finish up the basing!

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[ThatOneWurm]

"Stride to the tolling of His bells! Hark! Hark my blessed maggots! The Court of Flies answers His call! Charge warriors of blighted Salvir! Charge!"
- Princeps Belzaii ordering the first charge across the dark and muddy wastes of the Carnax-7 fortifications



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The first true Knight of House Khlorys, the Court of Flies is now done! All based up, painted, and now varnished, I'm considering them finally done! Excuse the dramatic "eye-level" photos earlier, but I was indulging myself a bit looking up at the knight from the view of the Household guard fighting alongside them.

Gunna be taking a bit of a breather for a bit now as I plan out the next addition to the House, and if anyone has any suggestions or ideas, I'm open to them! Some of the Knights I've considered was another Cerastus conversion using the new Acheron model releasing later, or one of the more classic Abhorrent-Class Knights, like an Abominant or Rampager or something, specifically using bits from the Death Guard Miasmic Malignifier. But for now I rest and go back to the drawing board.
 

[ThatOneWurm]

Small update, pre-Call to Arms vow for October. Taking a break from the bigger knights I threw together a new War Dog to join the Court; this time a Karnivore. Main thought was to have a Karnivore that looks more like a predator or vermin of some kind loping through No-Man's Land in trench warfare, slaying the dead they come across. Planning on having them be my October Call to Arms vow alongside the next Chaos Knight, of which variety, I'm not sure yet. So far I got the pose set up that I want with it also crossing through the blasted wastelands of No-Man's Land; I'm open to suggestions if people have them as to what they should be built as!

More updates to come as I begin painting the little Karnivore and finish out the skeleton of the larger knight just to have the base frame to work with as I settle on a loadout. I would magnetize them, and have done so with great success on previous Imperial Knight models I've done, but I think I'd rather just build a thematic army that fits whats in my head than worry about what particular datasheet is best or whatever. I want some Nurgly Knights and Nurgly Knights I shall have!

[sitnam]

I’ve been dying to see some chaos corrupted Cerastus knights, great job. The Armigers are also degustingly lovely.

[Pearson73]

Those are some cracking shots. Love how you've done the mottled green on the carapace.

 

Nailed the pose of the Karnivore, looks really predatory.

[ThatOneWurm]

Knight Update; I've settled on a Knight Abominant for this bugger! Feels like a nice marriage of lore and rules with the new edition and I'm all about that. Swapped out the volkite for the knight preceptor weapon (mostly cause it looks cooler imo) and did up a custom electroscourge/balemace with the chain arms attached to plague censers. In addition did some work on the cockpit to make it look almost like a sewer grate or cage in a way with mushrooms growing out of it. I like the idea that for this knight's its less about pterrorshades and more so spores from these mushrooms, fly swarms, or maybe even fumes from the censers. Either way, very happy with how its progressing and loving how the discordant head looks on the knight. Just gotta work on the more fiddly bits now.
 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Really nice work!  

[Torbenos]

 

Quite an inspired project, it has a lot of character and gives me a more evocative vibe than I usually get from knigh projects. Beyond the strong theme-ing with the Nurgle conversions I'll also commend you on your photography, the little leg close ups with the lighting are excellent. The Ash Waste Nomad+Poxwalker kitbash is also an inspired one.

[Urauloth]

Headswaps on the knights look absolutely incredible. Really love the lore for your household, too, this is a great project.

Nice to see someone else making Nurgle cult types out of Nomads - I hadn't thought of giving them Poxwalker heads, though, that's a nice touch!

[ThatOneWurm]

Thank you all for the lovely comments! It means an absolute ton to hear them!

Small update on the Call to Arms work. Got the base paints done up on the Knight Abominant and the War Dog; as well as the beginnings of another Cerastus Knight (a plague-spewing Acheron) joining the House! Though a picture of them will come once I'm happy with a picture and how the base frame of it is looking. As for painting these particular lads, we are now at the stage for nothing else but washes and technical paints after some touch ups with leadbelcher and stormhost silver. And then after that, basing them all up!

For those curious on the green glow done up, thats just stormhost silver passed over with tesseract glow. So all the vials, , energy sources, and oozing liquids on these guys are going to get a treatment of that after the washes and technical paints are applied to try and give it as much of a glow effect as I can with that method.

For now here is an update photo for the two lovely fellas, and at some point I should probably start naming these Knights. So if people have suggestions I'm all ears!

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Looks like good progress  

[ThatOneWurm]

"In the depths of the mud and sludge are our maggots found. In the refuse and carrion of the Corpse-Emperor do they feed. So listen, foolish followers of the False Emperor! You may run! Run to the horizons that you can still see!

Our Maggot Hounds will still find you."

 

 

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Much more major update this time around! We got a lovely little Karnivore (or Maggot Hound as the Court calls them) joining the siege force and is largely finished painting!  Don't worry he don't bite, I promise.

Still got some armor plates to toss onto the little bugger, but overall I like the profile of it and its silhouette on the base. I definitely would like to see how a small pack of these guys looks on the table, and definitely am eyeing some more blight drones to purchase for bits.


So next on the painting desk is the Knight Abominant to finish up, but in taking a bit of a breather between painting models I decided to treat myself with kitbashing another Cerastus Knight. For myself I love kitbashing more than painting, and I'm just happy to see the models are coming out in a way that I enjoy the scheme on them. Either way, on the carving block is probably my favorite knight out of the Cerastus Knights, the Acheron. While the stats might not be too exciting, I just love the concept, the weapons, the lore, and especially the silhouette. And so slapping some Chaos Knight bits onto it, and some pieces from the Blight Drones, and a chunk of pieces from the Miasmic Malignifier Kit, we now get a corrupted Acheron belching plague smoke into the air, and spewing foul alchemical concoctions across the battlefield. And this lovely fellow is probably going to be the first Noble that I attempt to mark out with additional heraldry, and of course, a name and some history.
 

[Firedrake Cordova]

The painted one looks disgusting and awful, just a Nurgle intended, so well done!

 

The Knight Abominant looks very impressive