Army showcase: Khorne's Eternal Hunt

Hey everyone, this is KrautScientist speaking. Old School Terminator contacted me to ask whether I would be willing to contribute some content for Dark Future Gaming, and of course I said yes! How could I not: DFG has been one of my favourite hobby sites ever since I got back into tabletop wargaming in late 2010 after a longer hiatus. So this is really quite an honour for me, and I hope that I’ll prove myself worthy. Thanks for having me, guys!

Right, with that out of the way, let me introduce myself: I am a 31 year old German who has been addicted to cutting apart little plastic men since the mid-nineties. My wargaming system of choice is Warhammer 40k, also I am also quite interested in Inquisitor (played at the 28mm scale) or other specialist games like Necromunda. I am not a competitive player by any stretch of the imagination, preferring friendly, laidback games with a decidedly narrative bent. My favourite parts of the hobby are converting and kitbashing stuff and inventing background for my armies, though. I am also not actually a scientist.

Speaking of armies, what I would like to talk about today are my World Eaters. You see, I’ve always been drawn to the Ruinous Powers, especially to Khorne, so after getting back into the hobby, it quickly became clear to me that I didn’t have any choice but to build and paint an army of World Eaters. That was the birth of Khorne’s Eternal Hunt. Here’s a sneak peek:

What you see above are all the World Eaters I have managed to get painted up until now. There’s quite a bit more (unpainted) stuff where this came from, but for today, let’s focus on the finished part of my army. I’ll walk you through a couple of pictures and tell you what I did and why. Here goes:

My World Eaters' background is that they are the remnants of the 12th Astartes legion's 4^th assault company. While most of the legion fractured into small warbands after the Skalathrax campaign, the 4^th still functions as a fairly coherent fighting force. And even though this force is reasonably similar to other World Eaters’ forces all over the galaxy, there’s one marked difference: The legionaries of  the 4^th are still clinging fiercely to their martial honour, a remnant of their past as the Warhounds Astartes legion. They feel that it is only their honour that still gives them purpose, and so they are eternally trawling the galaxy for powerful warriors and worthy prey, a never ending hunt in the service of the Blood God – hence “Khorne’s Eternal Hunt”.

But enough with the fluffy parts, let’s take a look at some models, shall we?

First up are my regular berzerkers, the “Huntsmen”. I’ve got two squads of these painted at the moment:

As you may be able to tell, some of these models are still from the years before my hobby hiatus, so the paintjobs may look a little dated. Still, I tried to add small conversions here and there to spice things up a bit: Both squads have an icon bearer (I am of the firm opinion that every squad in a CSM army should have an icon bearer, even in those cases where it doesn't give them any advantages rules-wise) and I built two skull champions with power fists (sadly, with the new rules’ focus on issuing challenges, these guys won’t be nearly as useful as they used to be…).

Then there are these guys, the “Lost Brethren”:

These were built quite a few years ago but only painted last year. I had originally intended them to serve as Possessed. However, with the more recent plastic Possessed released by GW, these guys look quite tame by comparison, so they end up being used as normal berzerkers as often as not. All of these were converted using Khorne berzerkers and parts from Ork boys and the old chaos mutation sprue.

The basic idea behind them is that those legionaries beginning to show too many signs of physical or mental corruption are singled out by the officers of the 4^th, in an effort to keep the madness at bay and keep the company functioning as more than a band of frenzied madmen. The Lost Brethren are used as a vanguard, giving them a final chance at an honourable death before corruption takes them. They have to die, so that the company may live…

The “Harriers” are the 4^th assault company’s dedicated corps of jump infantry. I always felt that Raptors were a fantastic – and very fluffy – addition to any World Eaters’ force, so I built these using parts from the berzerker and CSM kits as well as Pre-Heresy style jump packs courtesy of MaxMini. 

These were built before the new plastic Raptors were released, of course (I got a box of those right away!), but I still hope they’ll hold up reasonably well next to their newer kin.

Alright, time for some heavy hitters:

 

These are the 4^th assault company’s Dreadn…uhh Helbrutes: On the left, we have Khoron the Undying, Keeper of Trophies. This ancient warrior serves as an Ancient of Rites to the company, and is a shining example to his brethren that even the fate of being entombed within a Dreadnought’s sarcophagus does not necessarily rob a man of his mental faculties nor his honour. The guy on the right is quite the opposite: Marax the Fallen was sentenced to an eternity of war for betraying Lorimar, Captain of the 4^th assault company: His mind is gone, and nothing but an amalgamation of fury, pain and hatred remains, serving as a chilling reminder to the legionaries of the 4^th what awaits them, should they give in to madness…

Khoron was converted from a loyal Venerable Dreadnought kit, while Marax was originally a Furioso. Funny story, GuitaRasmus and I built pretty similar looking Dreads at the same time without noticing (although his is obviously light years cooler…).

I built these two for maximum flexibility, using nearly all the weapon options from the Venerable Dread kit and adding a few of my own. Take a look:

 

This is Khoron with all the different equipment options. From left to right: Plasma cannon, twin linked Las, CCW, Reaper Autocannon and a heavy Bolter. The other heavy Bolter worn by the model was kindly sponsored by my fellow World Eater Biohazard.

Of course, the weapons can be exchanged between both Helbrutes. Take a look at these additional pictures:

Fortunately enough, these guys still hold up, even when compared to the new Helbrute model, in my opinion. Granted, the latter is awesome and sports a very organic look, but I think Helbrutes with a more Dreadnought-like look still work as well. The loyal Dread kits are also a joy to work with, and very easy to convert to chaos. I cannot recommend them enough!

Oh, and here’s an even bigger monster for you:

 

This is my Defiler, the Daemon Engine “Unending Bloodlust”. I wanted the Defiler to look less like the lovechild of a crab and a gorilla and more like one of the FW Daemon engines. Fortunately, I found Amaximus’ fantastic Defiler conversion and adapted it for my own use. 

I have to be honest with you: I was quite afraid of tackling this conversion, and I am so glad it turned out the way I had planned! 

And what would a Chaos army be without some suitably menacing models to lead it? My World Eaters are no exception! Take a look:

These guys are three of my Chaos Lords. The 4^th assault company’s commanding officers are called “Huntmasters”, seasoned hunters that will not rest until they have run down their prey or perished in the attempt. From left to right, you see Huntmaster Bardolf, Lord of the Huntsmen (commander of my footslogging troops), Huntmaster Isgarad and Huntmaster Charun, Lord of the Harriers (commander of the jump infantry).

Bardolf was converted by combining parts from the CSM and berzerker kits with the lower body, cloak and weapons of a WFB Warrior of Chaos. I really like his menacing, slowly advancing stance. It really says: “You’re sooo gonna get it, once I reach your lines!”, doesn’t it?

Isgarad was mainly built from the Chaos Lord in Terminator armour, with a couple of additional bitz. I wanted to build a hulking lord, seemingly locked in a duel to the death. This guy was also partly inspired by Wayde Pryce’s fantastic Lucid Furien Kain, btw.

And finally, Huntmaster Charun. The model was basically an attempt at building an “evil version” of Winterdyne’s fantastic Chapter Master. I used parts from the berzerkers, various WFB chaos kits and a MaxMini jump pack.

So before I wind up this post, let me show you a couple of things that didn't fit in anywhere else:

This guy is a test model for a small squad of Brazen Knights. Even though there are no official rules, they could be played as various “Counts as”-options: Bikes or allied Bloodcrushers, for example.

The pose on this guy was lifted wholesale from a model on Sprugly’s fantastic Khornate thread over at Warseer.

On the left is a test model for my Chosen, the “Sons of Cron”. Until the rest of the squad is finished, I use this guy as a regular skull champion. In the middle is a World Eater channeling the legion’s gladiatorial traditions. He’s a fairly easy kitbash , using parts from the CSM, WFB Chaos Marauders and a couple of additional bitz. On the right is an old plastic berserker from the early 90s (once again sponsored by Biohazard) that I painted for nostalgia’s sake.

I also made a set of custom objective markers. These are some of them, mostly made from leftover bitz. I have started to build a new one for each army I defeat: quite a nice narrative touch, and a great way to honour/ridicule your opponent…

And finally, some more group shots of all the painted models together:

Right, I sincerely hope that this post didn't bore you to tears! Thanks again to the DFG team for letting me ramble along as long as I have! And thanks to you for looking at this! If you would like to see more of my World Eaters, their background or my other hobby projects, check out my blog at http://www.eternalhunt.wordpress.com

And if you have any questions or other words to share, I’d be glad to hear them in the comments section!

This has been KrautScientist.  Thanks for tuning in ;-)