Wednesday, 26 August 2015

The Death Knights - Ode to my youth...


Warning : What you're about to see is a selection of poorly painted models from between 1996 to 2006...

I don't know why but seeing those models I painted in my early years got me to dig in the boxes to let some old friends get some fresh air and light.
Between 15 and 26 years old I had this monomaniac obsession to build a chaos army for 40k. This was greatly due to the release of the Chaos codex for the 2nd edition and my previous intoxication with the Realm of Chaos books. Chaos was al I wanted to buy and paint, the eldars and fantasy models from the beginnings were gone (well just in boxes), 40k, chaos final point.

I remember thinking a lot about what colour scheme to use to get the best group effect... For some reason, I thought Khorne and Nurgle were the cool gods and therefore I wanted to give them a good place in my army. Oh and I wanted them to have white helmets to make them look like skulls. Oh and  they had to have snakebite leather gloves as well because gloves are made of leather right, so they have to be leather brown or something ?


Yes, I know starting with a 4 colours colour scheme is probably not the greatest of ideas, that's 5 if you're adding the metal on all the rims...
Over the years I have bought a metric ton of chaos space marines of all ages, even getting most of the Rogue trader range from the mail order service.

In the picture below you can see some of the 2nd edition marines who have been revisited a few years later with some new arms and weapons. The guy with the heavy bolter is one of the very few who's still in his 97 paintjob (look how clean the paintjob is) 



And here's a champion I converted a few years after that, you can note the use of a classic Jes Goodwin Khorne champion. That's one thing I did very early, I always had to chop my Realm of Chaos champions to give "good bits" to my marines...



Below is a squad of terminators with 2 heavy weapons (rules allowed you that at the time) some of which later received new plastic heads because I thought it was way cooler...
I have to say though I'm a huge Goodwin fan, those terminators are some of the very few of his models I find bad. The 2nd edition teminators in general are not my favourite but the chaos ones just don't look chaotic to me compared to the Rogue trader ones which had this more organic look...
I guess it just shows he's just half a god.

In the middle is Lothar Typhus who has lead this army right from the start. This is the 4th incarnation of him and you can still note the classic Jes goodwin chaos warrior head which has been on all Lothar's models.
For the record I always got silly jokes about his name because Lothar Typhus pronounced with a bad french accent is close to "la tartiflette" a french meal with cheese...

Terminators all around

French Tartiflette (I like that a lot)
Speaking of Lothar, at the release of the first metal demon prince for 40k, I decided to make my trusted leader in elevated form. This implied sculpting the whole head (adding some guitar and bass strings) to echo the original Goodwin head and sculpting a whole gigantic scythe to look cool. The wings were ordered from mail order and are designed for a Lord of Changes.


In all honesty, I think it's still a good model considering it's 15 years old or something. The dead ultramarine was another way to link my creation to the old stuff and it added some drama to the base.


I remember being really enthusiastic when the first plastic Berzerk box was released as it basically meant building tons of convertible Chaos marines. It also enabled me to create this particular unit I had in mind since the Realm of Chaos days when champions could be brought back as undead.
The painting is not great but I remember it looked really cool to me as I took the time to carveevery body to insert a skeleton chest inside. Given time, that's one idea I'd really like to do again with more confirmed skill and technique.


Some of the models I loved most in this army were my 2 chaos dreadnoughts. Though the models aren't very great to begin with (those head always looked stupid te me. I've always loved their sheer weight and the sense of power they have.




Like always, I augmented them with old parts meaning chaos titan tails and a palanquin rider for one of them... (the one below seems to have suffered from a broken claw (only converted myself to pinning late...)


Some of the most silly creations amongst my marines were created from various bits added together :


And as any chaos general will tell you, the champions are the ones you need to take care of.
For the record, I'm usually quite superstitious when it comes to gaming and I only field champions sporting the head of one of their enemies... This means the one on the far left never got to play but the one in the middle already killed a C'tan Nightbringer (as in their first codex) in close combat, if you remember the stats of that beast you 'll understand that this was a miracle !


These must have been my very last marines created for this army before I decided that was enough and that I needed to take a new path for my chaos. I think the conversions work quite well even though the painting is still not very good



I'd have plenty more to show but for some reason I just wanted to keep the best for the end, namely Sodomth my Slaanesh captain...
I hope you'll excuse me for the rather low form of humour displayed here but I thought it was so cool back then (something around 2002) I just had t odo it, and it's made so much people laugh (or grin) I just can't resist offereing you the vision of this poor taste that was mine a few years back





I'm very conscious that I haven't shown you any very nice model here but those have a special place in my hobby life as they were the first army I started. I've spent a good part of my carrer (from 1996 to 2006) with them and I have painted such a vast amount of models for it (those were really just the very tiny tip of the iceberg) that I cannot overlook what they represent. all the errors and mistakes taught me a lot but the one thing I like about them is how I was daring at the time even though my skills were less than adequate...
I really want to find the right mix between the will to do cool stuff like back then and the will to do them well like now.

I'd also really like to see what other projects people learnt with and projects they've spent time on in their earlier days so come on, ive those a chance to see the light of the web !

23 comments:

  1. Well, you obviously evolved as a painter through the years, but the spirits were always there! The kitbashing and some of the compositions are really nice, They would look great if you reapinted some of them or added toucches here and there...

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    1. Thanks a lot !
      The idea would be tempting I agree but that would be a very bad idea to get back on what's aalready been done ! I have so much left to do and so little time !
      After all I played many games with those without their poor quality ever being a problem. I'll just keep them as is, there are really too many to be remade I swear (about 10000 points during V3 to V5) !

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  2. Random food picture and a dodgy Slaaneshi Lor, good post methinks :)

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    1. Not random food Chico, this is Tartiflette, a specialty with potatoes, onions, bacon and delicious cheese. Perfect to keep you warm during those long winters !
      The Slaanesh lord can also keep you warm but it's a tad different.

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  3. My wife is looking at me wondering WTF I'm laughing my arse off about :D

    You can go as low brow as you want with that style of humour JB. I don't think I had the ingenuity to come up with that sort of conversion at that time. Wish I did though :)

    You sure did have a sizeable Chaos army back in the day JB, but I tend to agree with your sentiments, that the first RT chaos marines looked the best. I'm kicking myself now that I never paid attention to them when they were first released.

    I don't think I have as much stuff painted from my youth actually. At that time I either didn't have the money to buy enough of them to make up a force or I just played with my mates minis.

    Full marks for effort JB, well done!

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    1. Well if that made you laugh, it means it was worth being shown at least !
      Now I' trying to picture what this army would look like if I was to take everything out, that would take the good part of an afternoon to do that really, might be tempted though, don't think I ever did that actually.
      For now I'll have far less naughty models to show, I hope you'll forgive me ;)

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  4. Great pieces ! I'm particularly fond of the undead space marines. Just like you, I think a squad of those with your modern skills could be just awesome. Don't forget to add this to your to do list ;)

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    1. Well since this could easily be integrated into my current 40k chaos army, I'll consider the idea but that won't be a close future thing for sure !
      My young self says thanks !

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    2. By the way, I have to say I agree with you : your winged version of Typhus is also quite a piece.

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    3. Cheers, I think he was one of the very first models where I actully tried to do things with care and when I tried to take the time not to screw things up !

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  5. And they're paint jobs that yer not proud of? I actually think they're pretty neat. Cheers for sharing.

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    1. To be honest, some of them are OK(ish) but some are real catastrophies really ! Once again I only showed the tip of the iceberg here ^^
      Some ideas are still fun though, glad you like to see them. Do you happen to have examples of your earlier works maybe ?

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  6. Since you've been brave enough to show these early works, I'm going to go ahead with my plan to repair and rebase my 2nd ed Orks and let judgement fall as it may :D they deserved better than the box they've spent the last 20 yrs in, time to make up for that!

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    1. Yes please, just let them get some fresh air and new bases before taking another 20 years nap in a shoebox ! Bases and repairs only promise ? no repaints !

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    2. From the picture of said Orks I saw, they looked pretty damn good...come on Crooks!

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  7. I love it mate, they might not be painted to a world beating standard but they certainly aren't horrible by any means of the word.
    As someone who has never really gone further than a weapon swap, I'm always impressed by folks such as yourself who seem to have tinkered with every miniature in their collection.

    I only ever managed to (badly) paint about two dozen minis in my 92-96 glory days!

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    1. Cheers Bruno !
      I have to say I didn't paint much between 1991 and 1996 apart from a dozen Realm of Chaos models and some eldars but tha tmust have been a 20 models done at best, 1996 and the release of the Chaos codex for 40k 2nd ed was the real kickstart (also felt a little more confident in doing a whole army). Being of a lonely type at the type, this also really helped me focus on the hobby fo ra good 10 years until girls screwed everything and killed my hobby (as well as breaking my heart).

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  8. Actually, I like the Daemon prince. I think it still holds up.

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    1. Agreed, he's one of the late models of this army (made him immediately when the model was released) and I took extra care for once, that must have been th efirst time I realised spending this extra time could actually pay quality wise.

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  9. Oh my god - I tried looking at these pics yesterday on my iPhone and couldn't see any of the detail on Sodomth, as in nothing at all. Now I can see it in all it's messy glory - I am shocked and laughing at the same time. You even painted his man mess!

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    1. Devil is in the details ain't it ? That poor sister of Battle too has had some pretty harsh time... I'm wondering if there's a connection to hidden vice or just my youthful and tasteless self expressing its will to shock... Who knows ?

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    2. I wonder if it's Sodomth's thank you to himself at a battle well won? He's Slaaneshi so he probably doesn't need any reason at all... ;)

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    3. Indeed, any reason is a good one for him but he's actually been quite successful druing his hort carreer on teh tables !

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