Friday, May 25, 2012

Heresy Era World Eaters - Storm Eagle and Berzerkers in progress

The Forge World order I'd made over a month ago finally showed up last week, and I immersed myself in a frenzy of clipping, washing, rinsing, and straightening resin over the course of several evenings. Eventually I managed to get a few things built and primered, though nothing's fully completed as yet. Nevertheless, thought some pics in process might be in order!


First up on the building queue was the Storm Eagle. I was always lukewarm on the Storm Raven kit, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't really good either. The Chapterhouse extension kit was a step in the right direction, but the FW Storm Eagle kit really knocked it out of the park. My only minor niggle was the puny tail fin, so I bodged together a version of the "T" shaped tail boom which I think helps tie it in with the aesthetic of the Thunderhawk and the Storm Raven (and the new SM flier as well). This kit was a right pain in the butt to assemble - many of the panels were extremely bent and required a serious amount of time with hot water to try and wrench the pieces into some semblance of straight. After that there was a significant amount of clamping/banding/holding to get everything together. I love how it looks now that it's built, but I'm in no rush to build another one, that's for sure!


Of course, the Storm Eagle needs a unit to ride around inside it, and in this case it's a whole mess of frothing lunatics! A 16-strong squad of Berzerkers, to be precise. These are made from a mix of fantasy Chaos Marauders, the metal World Eater shoulder pads from GW, and Forge World Mk.V marine armour and Chainaxes. The intent was to make them look far more wild and deranged than the standard tactical and assault marines while still tying in with the rest of the army, which I think worked out pretty well. Still a long way to go on these of course, at the moment I'm just blocking in the main colors. Lots of highlighting, weathering and whatnot still to go...

11 comments:

  1. I really love where this is going. The mix of bare skin, armor from the heresy era and the blue and white of the old World Eaters already looks good. I cannot wait to see these guys busting out of the front of a storm eagle.

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  2. Flippin' sweet work here Mr. 7's, I love the berserkers!

    How did you find the build of the StormEagle if yo don't mind me asking? Was the resin pretty straight and not shrunken?

    I really like what you did with the tail as well, good work as always!

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  3. Solid work, Mordian :) I'm loving the Bezerkers, and completely jealous of the Storm Eagle. I just made a sizable order to FW myself, but it didn't include one of those...

    Your sheer speed and enthusiasm put me to shame, my friend, well done :)

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  4. Thanks folks!

    @OST - They're gonna be a scary unit for sure, what with the Assault Vehicle rule, the Tempus Fugitives list version of Chainaxes are Rending and coupled with the Chaplain's Litanies of Hate they're able to re-roll any misses. Blood for the Blood... Er... The Emperor!

    @Redscorps - It was hands down the most frustrating FW kit I've ever assembled. It literally took me three evenings worth of work to build it. While there was no shrinking, many of the parts were seriously bent (the two main side panels has nearly 45 degree bends in them). Great looking model when it's all done, but I definitely cursed long and loud while building it.

    @Tim Toolen - With the price rise on the horizon, the Storm Eagle is actually almost a bargain now! Lots of work still to go, but the army is coming into focus - With the three-day weekend coming up I'm hoping to get the 'Zerks finished off and get started on the Storm Eagle...

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  5. Digging those Berkerkers!

    Ahhh...before the fall...

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  6. Looking great and that change on the tail fin is genius.

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  7. Serious bends in the Storm Eagle kit? Hmm, I was thinking of one, now I'm not so sure.

    Love what you'be done with the Berzerkers, too. The bare arms really make them stand out, and the thought of them streaming out of a Storm Eagle is frightening, esp to anything like a Guard gun line. I couldn't fend off Kharn and his minions last time, and they only came in Rhinos...

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  8. I appreciate the kind words, everyone!

    @Colonel Winterborne - Thanks! It was fairly simple, I just cut a notch in the Storm Raven tail fin that matched the profile of the Storm Eagle tail boom. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

    @#2501 - Don't get me wrong, I'm really pleased with the final result, but it definitely took a higher-than-average amount of elbow grease. Its a great model, just a challenging kit.

    I'm looking forward to seeing how the Berzerkers work on the tabletop. Knowing my luck the Storm Eagle will be Destroyed/Explodes on turn 1. Hah!

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  9. I'm with the Col, that tail conversion does wonders. I thought the Storm Eagle was kinda funny looking, but a small change and it's back to looking like a proper SM flyer!

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  10. Mordian! The tail fin on your Storm Eagle simply finished the model. From what kit are those bits? I'm really curious. I've ordered one myself, and would love to do the tail boom like you did. But what kit is it from?
    Cheers in advance!

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  11. The tail boom and fin are from the Storm Raven kit - FW provided the majority of the plastic kit, so I just cut a notch into the plastic Storm Raven tail upright such that it fit onto the back of the Storm Eagle rear fuselage and added the "T" style tailfin. Thought it ties all the marine flyers together nicely!

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