Building a Better Heldrake Part 5: The Final Product!

Old School here with a fully painted Heldrake Conversion for your viewing pleasure. This project has been a hell of a lot of fun and is probably my favorite model that I have painted yet. The way it looks on the table is outstanding and I can't wait to put some more word bearers and even some daemons on the field with it. Let's take a look at how it turned out.

The parts from the Forgefiend/ Maulerfiend kit really fit together perfectly with the Terrorgheist kit and made for a continuity of theme across the model that made painting it a natural process. The "finger jointed mouth" coming out of the armoured head for instance, really supported the idea that this is daemon flesh bound into armor to serve as a daemon engine.

The cables and everything also fit themes found across the new CSM daemon engines. If you look at the actual Forgefiend/ maulerfiend kit, you will find that under the armor, the beast is just a core of corrupted cables. I chose brass colors because they fit well with the fire and brimstone of evil armies, but also because it complimented the color patterns across the model.

That same continuity of machine and daemon was something I wanted to preserve in the back end as well. To do so, the flesh from the original Terrorgheist and the Maulerfiend tentacle tail and legs were brought together with Green Stuff and once painted, give the illusion that this model comes out of the box this way.

From overhead, the model has a huge wing span and on the table-top, it adds to the menacing theme of it being a daemon engine and also lends the terror that a 360 degree baleflamer deserves to the battlefield.

The bone was painted in three shades, beginning with Graveyard Earth, then Karnak Stone and finally a light drybrush of Ushabti Bone (I think that is what they call the new Bleached Bone).

From the underside, the same process applies, but we also get to see the large Chaos emblem and more exposed wire and bone. Which, while I wish it could be seen from above, is still a nice touch that I imagine strikes fear into the heart of even the Astartes.

I almost took the wings up a couple shades, but in the end decided not to as they look perfect to me in combination with the other colors on the model. I also don't want to step out of the dark, Gothic theme the model has taken on.

All in all, the Drake itself is seriously my best effort in terms of painting and is sure to be a centerpiece in my army in the future whether the Word Bearers are joined by Traitor Guard, Daemons or any other bad guys that could join up with the bearers of the Primordial Truth.

No model is complete without a good base. Here is the final product for the base, which really came to life on it's own with just a little coaching from the brush. As stated in previous posts, I wanted it to look like this either was a world where the Word Bearers had already destroyed the false idols of the corpse god or perhaps were even on a world they had once "Enlightened" in the Crusade Era and have come back.

Originally, I thought about putting slaves inside the building, cutting down the sanctuary, but in the end, the model is already really busy and I just wanted to keep the base simple, but effective in the end.

One thing I paid special attention to in the basing was also the little details like the bullet holes here. I have this pile of rubble down in front of the wall with some bullet holes in it, along with the shots all over this side of the wall. I made sure that those two elements went together to help create the scene. Even though most people would never notice something like this, it gives me a small piece of mind.

Ultimately, the project was a great break from the commission projects I have been working on and a huge confidence booster as it really looks way better than I really imagined it would turn out. I really can't wait now to get some more Word Bearers done up and on the table.

As always, please let me know what you think.