The Hellforged Leviathan Walks!

I've been working on this scary fellow on and off for the past week or so, and I think I'm finally ready to call him done!

Lord Ghôrax Skullborn here is a Hellforged Leviathan built mostly from the Redemptor Dreadnought kit. I think he's possibly a little bigger than a proper Leviathan but when you're calling something a 'Leviathan' being too big shouldn't be a major issue.

Here he is without the Green Stuff and a few of the last few parts. The most significant areas of conversion were the body and the Grav-Bombard. The body is basically made from cut-up parts of the Redemptor's own sarcophagus- the sawn-off cap of an old permanent marker makes the barrel that the head (from the Skulls box) sits in. The Leviathan's larger shoulder blocks were made using the carapace plates from a Warlord (I had these spare since I built mine Loyalist)

The Grav-Bombard was made by removing the barrel from the Redemptor's plasma cannon and adding basically all the wheels from the Cauldron of Blood (I've now bought two of that kit just for bits). After this shot was taken I trialled several possible centre-pieces including the emitter from a Tellyporta Blasta and the end of a Dark Talon's Rift Cannon, but settled on the end of a Leman Russ searchlight. The gribbly teeth were horns cut from Chaos Marine helms.

Over on the other arm, I simply used an assortment of Ork Kan Klaws, as well as the later addition of a Meganobz chainclaw, to make a suitably evil-looking weapon.

Here he is with most of the Green Stuff on. A lot of extra details were added too, including chains mostly taken from the old Marauder Horsemen kit, a couple of Chaos Knight shields, the ends of two Immolator flamers and an icon pole made with a combination of a Bloodletter banner and the old Khorne CSM icon. This slots into a hole in the top of the hull for transport. On the subject, the Redemptor kit has an odd overlarge slot in the bottom of the torso to meet the peg on the legs, which is presumably for posing but means it won't hold together unglued. I filled the slot with Green Stuff, wet the surfaces, and shoved the peg into place in the right pose before removing it, making a much more snug socket so he can come apart for storage.

Probably the most interesting aspect of the Green Stuff work is the various skulls, icons of Khorne, and twisted face-things, including the rather fun Daemon face representing the Hellfire Reactor. These were made by blatant cheating. I have some moulds made up, taken from the AoS Chaos Bastion floor, which allow me to press masses of twisted skulls into Green Stuff. Since the mould is bendy I can do this around curves, but not all the skulls will come out clean, making it ideal for a Chaotic look. (I used waste Green Stuff to add more skulls to the base with the same cast) The little runes of Khorne are similarly made by 'branding' the model with a small icon cut from the CSM Khorne command helm, and the reactor Daemon is cast from the backpack on the same sprue.

Here's another fun little cheat. The World Eaters icon here is just an Ogre belly-plate with a little Earth sculpted into the middle of it.

Meanwhile a look on the other side shows the true ludicrousity of the Grav-Bombard, as well as the little hanging Khorne icons pinched from a Khorgorath after I converted five of them to make them all unique some time ago.

I did a fairly standard paint job after all that. After a black spray undercoat, dry-brushed up with Leadbelcher and Administratum Grey, I had to immediately splodge loads of Blood For The Blood God into the depths of the bombard to coat all the little spoke-things of the six wheels that make up the barrel. I also added some water-effect acrylic gel for bulk. Once that horrible mess had dried, the rest of the process was quite simple. Towards the end, I noted that the eye-sockets were too deep to paint a glow effect in, so after basing them with blue I filled them and the power-plant chimneys with more water effect before painting over the top with thinned-down paints. It doesn't really add any special effect, but does get the colour where it needs to be.

Anyway, think that might be my most detailed WIP post in a long time! Now let's hope he can actually make some 4++ saves and live for more than one turn...