Angron WIP

The primarchs were the ultimate expression of the Emperor's implacable will to conquer the galaxy - the product of his highest and best efforts. So, too, a hobbyist who models a primarch should call on all his skills to create the very best model he's capable of. No half-measures will do.

Which is not to say that he has to be 100 feet tall, or wield an axe that's 50 feet across. It's not about how big it is, it's about the motion in the ocean (of blood). He's a demon primarch, not a titan.

Once I'd decided on the scale, the next decision was a base model to start with, and this was an easy one. Of course the plastic demon prince would have been alot easier to convert, but there's just something that seems right about representing old characters with old models. So I decided on the 3.5-era demon prince, which is a beautiful sculpt, full of gothic horror and menace. Just as importantly, it predates GW's decision to go PG-13 and sell toys, as opposed to models. Unfortunately, the pose sucks. Like half the models in the GW range, it doesn't look like it's doing anything in particular. Just squatting passively, looking fierce. Obviously this would never do for the primarch of the XII legion, who is busy slaying mutha fuckas 24-7, and never, ever takes a break. Not for anything.

The challenge, then, is to turn this

into something like this

While continuing the in-motion theme of the entire World Eaters force I've been working on.

Since the only proper place for the World Eaters primarch is in the thick of the fighting, and he would obviously be at the front of any charge he was a part of, I decided to pose him running directly at the enemy, or perhaps into, through, on top of them, etc. After about 5 hours of clipping metal pieces, playing with the pose, and applying super glue liberally, in addition to another three or four hours of green stuffing the joints, I ended up with this:

I clipped the back out of the left knee but left the upper and lower leg attached in order to straiten the leg without sacrificing too much stability. That part was relatively simple, as were the arm and foot poses. I had to separate the right knee completely to get it to bend back like that, so he would look like he was really running full-tilt at the badguys. That little metal knob on the pelvis also had to be clipped off to allow the torso to twist properly.

Clipping the neck out of the torso without damaging the breast plate was by far the most difficult part of the reposition. The wings were also a pain to get in right. I clipped the horns off of the demon head because, as one can see in the John Blanche illustration, he doesn't actually have horns. What he does have is alot of loose wiring left over from his cybernetic augmentation, which almost look like dread locks now. This would fit in pretty well with the rogue trader-era aesthetic, where space marines wore earings, mohawks, etc., and in general looked like characters from a William Gibson novel. Every once in a while you can still see traces of this aesthetic in the range, as with the demon prince of khorne, who has an earing and a khorne rune stamped on his ass, or with blood claws, who still occasionally sport a mohawk or two. Grimdark is clearly winning out over cyber punk as the dominant aesthetic, though.

Obviously this is just the beginning of my quest for bloody perfection. I still have alot of detail to add, but the general outline of what the model will look like ought to be clear. More pictures as the project progresses.