Hell Blade DIY Conversion Complete, Budget Can be Beautiful

TJ here with the final construction update for the DIY Hell Talon conversion I am working on: Project Carrion Daemon. The first construction post generated a ton of conversation, so I just wanted to throw up some photos and talk a little about my choices before I cover this thing up with primer and start painting it. Let's take a walk around this odd duck.

SO this model uses the wooden wings I posted a tut on not too long ago. The actual hull (or torso as it has become in this case) is just an old Dark Vengeance Hell Brute I had laying around with its arms and legs cut off. The shoulder pads worked out well to help me begin connecting the "hull" to the wings. After that, I just kind of went nuts with arms from the extra horror arms I had left over from a box. I used green stuff to flesh it out and to also lend the blended flesh/ metal effect to the model.

Generally, I wanted this model to have that predatory feel to it, like a predatory, cunning neverborn that slithered into pilot's psyche, eventually taking full possession and finally transforming the very aircraft itself into a manifestation of its will. I read about the interactions between astartes and daemons in the Heresy book, particularly in the form of possession and I just felt this approach and this model would be my best effort to achieve that effect on a vehicle.

Having an overall look at the model, it is very ugly at the moment. I hate showing a model in this state when it is composed of so many materials because it just looks messy. With that said, I added some battle damage to the wings and did some greenstuff work to bend the flesh and metal, making a smooth tansition in an area like the back where it meets the after burner (due to this likely being pretty stable), but made rough transitions around the arms and where the flesh meets the wings as I imagine the flesh here is ripped often and stressed as the daemon pushes the bond between itself and the machine while caught in the thrill of the hunt.

The back end (afterburners) is designed to be breaking out of the creatures hunched spine (the tail is actually curved below the model. I went with simple construction here to create clean space due to how busy much of the model is with flesh and filligree. These afterburners and the flat areas of the wings give me some space to balance that all out.

One of the things I love with the Hell Brute torso is how well it went together with this project. The model has fleshy hoses built into it along with the two pistons which easily give this flesh/ machine a swivel for its neck. The little butt plate the hell brute had also worked well under the face plate I used, which is a shoulder pad from a Chaos Daemon Prince. Overall, I could not ask for a better model to work with as a base for this project.

As we go under the model, we see another couple of sets of hands. Oriinally, I wanted this model to have some sort of talons, but after putting the details together on the top of the model, I decided that more hands would be better. I like to imagine this daemon (or Neverborn, I much prefer that term) as a shadowy leopard with multiple rows of arms for legs, padding through the aether on a series of clawed hands, stalking a mind ripe for corruption. Once entwined with its host, it grows fat from the slaughter offered in a galaxy filled with war ... anyway, that was my vision going into an "all-hands" approach.

The tail is actually one of the many horn options from the Ghorgon kit from Warhammer Fantasy. I used it to create the semi-stubby tail of the creature. The flight stand in actually just a stick of plastic card tubing that I made an embedded mount for in the model, which is semi-disguised by having a little lamprey mouth around the tube.

I also took some of the tubes from the Ecto Cannons (forge fiend kit) and added them to the bottom of the model to break up the flesh and to also go with the hoses sculpted into the Helbrute body on the opposite side of the model. Another small victory for the bits box.

The limbs on the very bottom of the wings are folded in tight and really just help me sandwich the wings onto the model. The also cover up the holes left from the original mounting. You see, prior to the green stuff and additional limbs, the wings were actually mounted to the hull using a wire hanger that I had bent and ran through the torso, then strung the shoulder blades onto, then bent and fitted the wings into place for the green stuff sculpting. Once the initially work on the top of the model was complete, I used some cutters to remover the parts of the hanger that supported the wings from below. I was left with metal stubs and a hole, which I covered up using these hands made from random bits (which may be from Seekers of Slaanesh, I am not sure). After they were secure, I added arms and completed the support structure.

Overall, the model cost me an old Hell Brute that I wasn't using and two 79 cent peices of wood. I will add that I benefitted from an epic bits box, but I do have to say that this thing will never touch the forge world price tag. Additionally, it fits the theme of my overall army, which is filled with possessed machines and bio-daemons, which makes me much happier that fiddling with expensive resin at the end of the day.

As a busy guy with a full time job and kids, I would recommend that hobbyists in similar situations look for those opportunities to make something from what you have on hand. It is fun, challenging and rewarding. Hell, I recommend taking on a project like this to anybody for that matter, it will make you smarter as a modeller and converter because I garauntee you will have to solve some problems as you go, look at bits in a new light and test theories that haven't been touched on the internet.

So there it is. As always, I love to read comments and feedback and am happy to answer any questions that come up, so please let me know what you think.