Category: Flesh Eaters

Brother Pitman, Flesh Eaters Assault Intercessor

On By Chris B.In Flesh Eaters, Indomitus, Space Marines, War of the False Primarch, Warhammer 40,0001 Comment

So you like bolters do you, traitors? Well GOOD NEWS!

Brother Pitman, Assault Specialist

It’s back to the Flesh Eaters project this week with Brother Pitman, an Assault Intercessor equipped with duel heavy bolt pistols and a chainsword. Brother Pitman will be joining my second Assault Intercessor squad as the third member of the unit.

Modelling & Painting

This miniature is a redux of Crimson Fists Sergeant Bast. I was always pleased with his guns akimbo pose, and wanted to bring it into my Flesh Eaters project. There are a couple of other effects I want to port over from my Crimson Fists army, but those are projects for another day.

The LED effects on Brother Pitman were assembled using the techniques described in my LED Muzzle Flare Tutorial, with the slight change that there are two LED muzzle flares instead of one. To achieve this, I simply repeated Steps 2 – 7 of the tutorial. The second yellow chip LED was connected in parallel with the first yellow chip LED and the green helmet LED.

A tip I remember picking up from a fellow miniature painter – possibly Apologist – is that if you have a model with duel weapons, it can enchance the pose if the miniature’s head is looking in the same direction as one of the guns it is firing. This is a principle I’ve tried to follow here. If you have the two guns firing in opposite directions and the miniature’s head facing halfway between the two, then it can make the model seem ‘disengaged’ from the act of firing the weapons.

The conclave known as the ‘Diet of Fools’ ensured the Flesh Eaters and the other chapters of the Pentarchy of Blood were incredibly well equipped for the task ahead. This glut of equipment, supplied by order of the High Lords of Terra, wasn’t just reserved for officers but also filtered down to the line units. In these holo-picts we can see a very well provisioned Brother Pitman. His chainsword will carry the word of Terra – quite literally – to his Partisan foes!

EXTRACT FROM ‘A TREATISE ON THE WAR OF THE FALSE PRIMARCH’ BY SCRIBE HOWTOPHER BUXCRAFT

As I’ve described previously for other Flesh Eaters miniatures, the base model is a Primaris Assault Intercessor (from the Indomitus box) that I have modified to wear MkVI armour, in keeping with the War of the False Primarch theme for my Flesh Eaters army. The heavy bolt pistols are made from Umbra pattern bolt guns with the magazine cut down to give them a smaller profile.

For those that are interested, my painting recipe for the red Flesh Eaters armour can be found in this earlier post. I’ve added a little more battle damage to this Intercessor squad than the previous one. The ‘paint chips’ on their armour were applied using the sponge method and Rhinox Hide, which I then highlighted along the lower edge with Evil Sunz Scarlet and Wild Rider Red to give a sense of depth. Below you can see a picture of Squad Byrne so far – three down, two to go!

That’s all for today, I hope you’ve enjoyed this addition to the Flesh Eaters project. I’ll be back with more LED miniatures soon. Thanks very much for reading, and please remember you can also find me sharing my work on Instagram, Threads, Twitter/X, Bluesky and Mastodon.

Flesh Eaters ‘Armies on Parade’ 2023 Compilation Reel

On By Chris B.In Armies on Parade, Flesh Eaters, LEDs, Space Marines, War of the False Primarch, Warhammer 40,000Leave a comment

I recently shared pictures of my ‘Armies on Parade’ 2023 project, “Interregnum at Interlude Quay”. As I mentioned in the original post, I was up against the submission deadline for the online contest, and only just had time to take the photos. But now the dust has settled, I’ve gone back and taken a few videos to showcase elements of the display board that don’t come across well in the still images, such as flickering flames and the flashing teleport homer. You can see the video on Instagram below, with an appropriate soundtrack of course!

Only a brief update today to share this video. Thanks very much for reading, and please remember that as well as Instagram, you can also find me on Threads, Twitter/X, Bluesky or Mastodon.

Brother Minos, Hellfire Dreadnought

On By Chris B.In Flesh Eaters, LEDs, Leviathan, Space Marines, War of the False Primarch, Warhammer 40,0002 Comments

This week I’m taking a closer look at the Brother Minos, Hellfire Dreadnought. If you’ve been following my recent Armies on Parade project, then you may have spotted Brother Minos providing fire support at the back of the display board. I finished him in parallel with the board, and in my rush to meet the Armies on Parade submission deadline, I didn’t have a chance to give him his article at the time.

“Brother Minos was a former captain of the Flesh Eaters 3rd company. Laid low in combat against vile greenskins, his injuries were severe enough to require interment in a dreadnought. Methodical and with little patience for fools in life, in near-death he was more than willing to answer the Chapter’s call to battle against the False Primarch and his misguided followers.”

EXTRACT FROM ‘A TREATISE ON THE WAR OF THE FALSE PRIMARCH’ BY SCRIBE HOWTOPHER BUXCRAFT

Modelling & Painting

Brother Minos is based on the Dreadnought from the Warhammer 40,000 ‘Leviathan’ boxed set. Technically this is a Ballistus pattern, but I’ll always think of a Dreadnought with two different ranged weapons by the old ‘Hellfire’ pattern name.

The primary LED effect on this model are the missiles in mid-launch. I did also consider lascannon effects, but I’m already planning lascannon effects on another vehicle, so I decided to just focus on the missiles. I used  Yellow/Amber 0805 Chip LED (3V) from the website Small Scale Lights, as detailed in my LED Rocket Launcher tutorial. All six LEDs are connected in parallel to a single battery in the base. I only made two slight deviations from this tutorial. Firstly, I used two LEDs (back-to-back) per rocket to make the effect brighter, since this is a centrepiece model. Secondly, I added a quick spray of Chaos Black to the stuffing used as missile smoke. This gives some texture and contrast to the stuffing, otherwise it’s just a large monotone cloud of white. It’s worth noting that the stuffing was sprayed before it was added to the model!

As with my Crimson Fists Redemptor Dreadnought, LED searchlight as that should obviously be illuminated, and an ‘active’ sensor on the other side to visually balance the model. The searchlight is a resin cast, and the active sensor is a hole filled with Water Splash Effect Gel from Green Stuff World. Both have a single TruOpto 1.8mm LEDs behind them – yellow and green respectively – and are connected in parallel to a battery in the base. This is a separate battery and circuit to the missile LEDs, but both circuits are operated by to a single sub-miniature Double Throw Double Pole (DTDP) micro switch.

Purely as a matter of personal taste, I chose not to illuminate the sarcophagus vision slit. I made this choice because the vision slit is rarely illuminated in art, and personally I think it detracts from the concept of a sarcophagus and the near-death state of the marine inside. The rest of the machine is alive, active, and illuminated, but the sarcophagus itself is a cold and silent tomb. That’s not to say lighting the vision slit is wrong – and I know plenty have – it’s just not for me.

The design philosophy for my Flesh Eaters army has always been that of a Rogue Trader era (i.e. 1st edition 40K) aesthetic. This tends to mean no excessive decorations – space marines were a lot plainer back then and chapter identity tended to be expressed via paint scheme, rather than trinkets on the armour. However, for this Dreadnought I was very influenced by the picture below, which can be found in the Rogue Trader rulebook (pg. 22). Please excuse the poor-quality picture, the image was right on the gutter. If you’re newer to the hobby and having trouble working out exactly what you’re looking at in the picture, then this is what the original Space Marine Dreadnought looked like.

The image above shows a Blood Angels Dreadnought wearing a necklace of skulls and bones. Pretty badass! I decided to replicate this, although initial mock-ups with the necklace across the aquila made the front of the Dreadnought look very visually cluttered. So, I decided to turn the necklace into a belt. It also made more sense for the trophies to be at eye-level with the opponents they are intended to intimidate. The necklace chains are made from a Chaos vehicle accessory sprue, and the various skills and heads are from my ‘bits box’ and the Citadel Skull set (this is the kit that keeps on giving!). I added extra purity seals to the lower front of the torso, just to emphasise this isn’t heretical, but “sanctioned” trophy taking.

I took some other visual cues from this image, such as the ‘Nil Desperandum’, i.e. ‘Never Despair’, banner, and the laurel wreath banner top. I didn’t try to copy it exactly, as the Dreadnought’s banner had to fit in with the style of other banners in my army. But hopefully I’ve captured the ‘feel’ correctly. You may have also spotted the ‘Ferrum Et Ignis’, i.e. ‘Iron and Fire’, graffiti from the image reproduced on the lascannon arm. I’m not sure who was brave enough to graffiti a Dreadnought? Maybe it was Brother Talon, he does have a death wish after all!

You may have also noticed the black symbol on the Dreadnought’s body above the Crux Terminatus. It might be slightly hard to make out in the photographs, but this is the ‘Rose of the Pentarchy‘, an Orthodox campaign badge from the War of the False Primarch.

I don’t much new to say about the painting recipes used on this model. I followed the same paint scheme as for the rest of my Flesh Eaters, which you can find detailed in this post. I followed my rules for Terminator iconography and freehand checks patterns to visually link Brother Minos to the Terminator squad and help suggest that he is a storied veteran.

That’s all for today, I hope you enjoyed this detailed look at Brother Minos. Thanks very much for reading today’s post, and please remember if you’re on Instagram, Threads, Twitter/X, Bluesky or Mastodon you can also find me posting my work there.

“Interregnum at Interlude Quay”, Flesh Eaters ‘Armies on Parade’ 2023

On By Chris B.In Armies on Parade, Flesh Eaters, LEDs, Space Marines, War of the False Primarch, Warhammer 40,0003 Comments

“The War of the False Primarch was a dark and bloody episode of the Imperium’s history, now largely lost to myth and purged from all records, that plunged the Segmentum Pacificus into anarchy from 780.M33 to 860.M33. The conflict was finally ended when the High Lords of Terra convened the Pentarchy of Blood and tasked five loyal Chapters to destroy eleven others that had been declared Traitoris Perdita for their actions during the war.”

IMPERIAL ARMOUR VOLUME TWO – SECOND EDITION PG. 17

Concept

The Flesh Eaters space marine chapter, a key member of the Pentarchy of Blood, bring the will of the High Lords to the Partisan naval base of Interlude Quay deep within Segmentum Pacificus. Following the trail of intelligence gained from civilians captured during the Pacification of Logan’s World, Brother-Chaplain Uriah Grimm sets the world of Interlude Quay aflame, disrupting Partisan supply lines. Amidst the chaos, elements of the Flesh Eaters first and third companies launch a strike against hidden bases belonging to the Silver Stars chapter. The hunt continues for the Abomination known as the “False Primarch”.

This year’s board is continuing the story from last year’s Armies on Parade contest entry, the Pacification of Logan’s World. The army has grown over the past year, so a larger board would be required. I quickly arrived at the concept of an attack on a hidden base or bunker complex. This idea would allow me to showcase detailed close-up action and also a sweeping battlefield.

Designing & Building the Board

The board was built from a large picture frame, giving it a pre-made border. The middle of the frame was filled with layers of foam board, which are cut into the shape of the hill at the rear, and the earthworks disguising the hidden bunker at the front. The foam boards were then textured with a mix of sand and Vallejo model texture paste.

The various structures on the board are mostly made from Games Workshop kits. The ruins at the rear of the board are made from the Sector Imperialis Ruins kit. The tank traps are from a very old Games Workshop battlefield scenery kit. The partially ruined defence line in the middle of the board is made from part of the discontinued Wall of Martyrs kit and layers of cork board.

The fires burning in the ruins are made from flickering LED tealights covered in soft toy stuffing. The stuffing was given a spray of Chaos Black to make the smoke darker. The burning ruins were intended to both hide the transition to the background image and sell the idea of the burning city. I wanted to give the impression that the Flesh Eaters were pouring out of the city to overwhelm the hidden base of their enemies.

The background image of the burning city skyline was a royalty-free image taken from Freepik.com, printed out A3 size, and then glued to a sheet of foam board. Unfortunately, now that I’ve looked more closely, I’ve realised this was an AI generated artwork, which I don’t support on principle. Next year I think I’ll investigate painting the background myself.

The Silver Stars & The Hidden Base

I knew from early in the planning that I wanted some antagonist miniatures on the board for the Flesh Eaters to fight against. It gives a sense of life to the battle scene and helps give context to the muzzle flares and bullet impact effects.

The Silver Stars chapter are a creation of my good friend and regular opponent, Apologist. They are the instigators of the War of the False Primarch and the leaders of the Partisan faction. I have quite a lot to say about modelling and painting the Silver Stars, so I’m going to devote an entire separate article to them soon.

Going back to the board and the hidden bunker, he internal walls were made from the Zone Mortalis Columns and Walls kit. The lighting is simply two red LEDs connected to resistors, a switch and a battery pack underneath the bunker floor. I bulked-up the shape of the LEDs with acrylic gel and then painted a silver frame around them to give a utilitarian look. The propaganda posters were designed digitally and printed on paper, which I then stuck to the walls using Pritt stick.

Conclusion

There we have it, another ‘Armies on Parade’ project concluded! If you were following this project via any of my social media accounts, then you may have seen that it all came together very hurriedly in the end. In fact, I only finished painting it on the evening of the deadline, and only finished photography and sent the submission email with ten minutes to spare! Despite all this, I’m pleased with the outcome, especially the hidden bunker elements. I’ll start earlier next year, although I always say that…

Given a bit more time, would I have done anything differently? In hindsight, the bunker foreground could have been lower, and the rear of the battlefield could have been higher. This would have allowed a better lower angle for photography to capture a sweeping panorama without the bunker walls blocking the miniatures behind them. I would also have liked to have had some Partisan Imperial Guard fighting alongside the Silver Stars, if I’d had the time.

What’s Next?

What’s next for the Flesh Eaters? This certainly isn’t the end of the project. You may have noticed a Dreadnought in the pictures which I haven’t shown elsewhere yet, so he will be getting his own photography session and blog article soon. I also have more Assault Intercessors to finish, plus a Terminator Librarian, Terminator Captain and a rather large tank! I’m already thinking about what next year’s Armies on Parade board theme will be, but I think it’s safe to say it will be a continuation of Brother-Chaplain Uriah Grimm’s adventures in the War of The False Primarch.

That’s all for today, I hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s Armies on Parade project. Thanks very much for reading today’s post, and please remember if you’re on Instagram, Threads, Twitter/X, Bluesky or Mastodon you can also find me posting my work there.

Flesh Eaters Terminator Squad ‘Naismith’

On By Chris B.In Flesh Eaters, LEDs, Leviathan, Space Marines, War of the False Primarch, Warhammer 40,000Leave a comment

Terminator Squad ‘Naismith’ is complete, just in time for Armies on Parade 2023. So now is a good chance for some group pictures and a look back at the design and development of this unit.

Design Philosophy

I’m very pleased with how this unit turned out, especially now I’ve seen all of the models together. I wanted to continue the ‘Rogue Trader’ era aesthetic and the ‘War of the False Primarch’ army theme of my Flesh Eaters with this unit. Thankfully the Leviathan Terminators are still very close in aesthetics to the original RT09 Terminator squad, so I didn’t feel the need to convert how they looked. With a little retro iconography, they fit right in with the look of the army.

If you’re seeing my Flesh Eaters space marine project for the first time and you’re interested in how the LED effects are achieved, then you can find detailed explanations on my LED Miniature Tutorials page. My painting recipes for Flesh Eaters armour, freehand checks, and Terminator iconography can also be found in previous posts.

Squad Members

Brother-Sergeant Naismith is the leader of the terminator squad. He likes to look his enemies in the eye as he cuts them down with his power sword. You can read the full article about this model here.

Brother Lazarus is widely believed to be one of the best shots in the 1st company. Whether serving in the sternguard or the terminators, his marksmanship is beyond reproach. You can read the full article about this model here.

Brother Furian has an unerring ability to identify the weak points of any obstacle, whether that is an armoured bulkhead, xenos vehicle or fleshy Partisan during the War of the False Primarch. You can read the full article about this model here.

Brother Rephas is a zealot of the High Lords cause. He is equally happy blasting Partisans apart at range or pulling them to pieces in close combat. You can read the full article about this model here.

Brother Erasmus is known for lacking a sense of humour. The task of liaising with the machine spirit of his assault cannon to monitor ammunition levels and barrel wear takes his full concentration. You can read the full article about this model here.

Last, and probably least, is the squad teleport homer with flashing beacon! You can read the full article about this model here.

Now the squad is complete I have to ask myself, should I have done anything different? If I were to go back and make any changes, it would be to add small variable resistors under the bases of the sergeant to tweak the power sword brightness, and the assault cannon to tweak the motor rotation speed. I might also have made the assault cannon muzzle flare slightly larger. Other than that, I’m extremely satisfied with how this squad turned out!

I hope you’ve enjoyed following the progress of this unit over the last couple of months. That’s all for today, but I’ll be back again soon for more Flesh Eaters, plus a few side projects.  In the meantime, thanks very much for reading today’s post, and please don’t forget you can also follow my work on social media at Instagram, Threads, Twitter/X, Bluesky and Mastodon.