It Came From the Forums: Brutal Word Bearers from RazakelXIII

Old School here with an It Came From the Forums that is special to me because it has inspired some of my own work directly. Of course, I am speaking of RazakelXIII's very Gothic Word Bearers! Where better to begin looking at this army in depth than with the Dark Apostle! The Unhallowed is an enormous model on a very scenic base with tons of skulls and gore! The model is perfect for a centerpiece and certainly one of, if not the best Dark Apostle conversions I have ever seen! But that is just the beginning. There is much more to see, so let's take a look:

The model itself is covered in skins, fur and icons, many of which have either been enhanced with some sculpting or just plain sculpted completely! 

The icon on the base is a little gallery of gore in its own right, complete with a dismembered Guardsman!

... just one more look at him before we move on ...

Let's get into some of the little things that make this army really shine. The Champions here are a reflection of the rest of the rank and file Word Bearers, complete with each WB being kitbashed with CSM and Warriors of Chaos parts, green stuff candles and strips of flesh used like purity seals all over each model!

A jump pack sorcerer!

Warpsmith ... made before there was even a codex entry: Brilliant!

One of the other very nice touches in this army are the banners. Each is large and made from tanned flesh and usually soaked in blood!

The defiler here is absolutely awesome. Covered in the Word and tearing Guardsmen in half while stomping around with 4 DCCWs!

One can never have too much Forge World!

The first acolyte, an excellent representation of a sorc with a force weapon roasting Guard!

With all this serious Goth, there has to be something a little light hearted and this artist picked one that is side splitting; the Word Bear! All Fear the Bear of the Word!

Another outstanding HQ choice!

No respectable legion of evil religious maniacs would step off to war without the Dark Mechanicus! 

This Warhound is seriously corrupt with tons of flesh and gore and scribbled Word across its hull.

The banners of flesh bear the heretical writings of Lorgar in foul mockery of the proud Legios of Mars!

On the inside, we can see that being a titan crew of the Dark Adeptus Mechanicus is dangerous business ... one can really get attached to their work (pun-ishment indeed, haha).

The pilot and crew are in an even more gruesome situation!

 

No host of Word Bearers (or any CSM army these days) would be complete without their herds of cultists. These are based on the Empire Flagellants and bear tatoos, flails, stolen rifles and tons of other heretical paraphernalia. Units like this will always stand head and shoulders above the Dark Vengeance repeats we see out there and really make me want to change my own cultists up.

Another great model with active basing!

The classic rogue psyker is busting Guard heads with a wave of power that is cresting behind him! 

The cinematic theme doesn't stop there. Each squad has tons of scenic quality which we will look at some more as this post continues.

More Word Bearer Goodness!

 

Another place where Razakel really shines as an artist with this army is the vehicle armory! The vindicators here are covered in the Word and many other gory trophies and decorations.

I am not worthy! 

"I came here to kill loyalists and chew bubblegum, but in the grim darkness of the future, there is no gum!"

Now, let's get back to those cinematic effects we were talking about. The melta gun here is just ... well, melting this poor chud!

While another is burned to a crisp!

and another is learning the deadly effects of the boltgun up at point blank range!

(blogger is really being odd, shifting my photos around as I post, but these predators are pretty sweet)

The outstanding action of this Word Bearers army isn't restricked to the special weapons, there are Word Bearers ripping out spines.

and ripping out hearts ...

Here is another look at that (why do I think of Temple of Doom when I see this).

In all seriousness, this army is simply amazing and and the Razakel's Thread on Bolter and Chainsword is filled with great WIP images, models I didn't show you here, tutorials and much more. It is rare to see an army like this where each model received a ton of extra work and character and when I see it, I am reminded how I got into this hobby. My hat is off to Raz! Please check out the link and maybe even give the artist some encouragement! This has certainly inspired my own Word Bearer bikers and my future Word Bearer Projects as well.

As always, feel free to comment here or recommend an It Came From the Forums based on a project thread you have found. We are always looking for more armies in the forums of this quality.