Warning: I copied this post from my dakkadakka forum blog, and amalgamated several posts into one blog post. Each post is in ascending chronological order going down the page.

I've had a 'sort-of' command squad for the Divine Exorcists for a while, so I thought it was about time I actually got the squad sorted.
Therefore I created two veterans to go with my existing company champion. I'm quite pleased with the poses and can't wait to paint them!  

Yes, I definitely do like painting daemons. I bought two of these metal daemon princes back in the early 2000s. Both got built and painted, and one survived the ages as Kamonok of the World Eaters of Frenesia (see my relevant thread). The other was painted hideously and was eventually taken apart and stripped. Recently I rebuilt it and converted it a bit. This ANGRY looking creation is the result. It wasn't intended to represent a particular god, but rather just be a way of trying a different colour scheme to those I usually go for. It came out fairly well, I reckon. I didn't give it a name since it will only be used for dark apotheosis results in games (probably)! 

Chief Librarian Israfil of the Divine Exorcists. Considering the Divine Exorcists supposed to be led only by librarians, it's taken me a long time to make any librarians!
He was good fun to make, with his 'superhero' stance. I made his psychic hood, in one of my more creative moments, from an SM shoulder pauldron.
The base is made by pressing various rocks and resin bases into a block of playdough and casting from the resulting mould with resin.  

I'm proud to say that my Divine Exorcists space marine army is now finished. By that, I mean that all the units I wanted to include are now complete, and there are no projects on the go at present. I might paint up a character or two from time to time (no army is ever truly finished), but at least I can cross this force off my list of projects that are in progress!

The army contains a variety of miniatures acquired from different sources. Some, such as the vindicator, one of the land speeders and many of the power armoured marines are from my little brother's collection that he passed to me when he gave up the game in about 2000 (hence the vindicator looking like it's been put together by Orks). Others, such as the land raider and the assault terminators, were bought second hand from ebay and repainted. There are metal sergeants and modern plastic vanguard veterans. The dread is metal and the terminator squad is a mixture of metal and plastic models.The bikes really were cobbled together, featuring dark vengeance ravenwing bikes, some of my brother's plastic bikes, and a metal attack bike. I enjoyed bringing a force together from many different sources and trying to make them look homogeneous.

I hope you enjoy the pictures of the complete force.  The pictures have a lot of light in them (they're right by a window), but let's just say it's the Light of The Emperor...

It's always nice to have a sunny day (there haven't been many round here recently) to get the army out and take some naturally lit pictures of how the army is shaping up!
The Bloodstorm so far...

Warning: I copied this post from my dakkadakka forum blog, and amalgamated several posts into one blog post. Each post is in ascending chronological order going down the page.


A rhino for the 'breacher' squad of berzerkers.

Part 2 (part 1 can be found here: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/150/659202.page#9150523)

The void expanded to the height of the room, which was easily 30 metres. It was roughly circular, but the shape changed with every passing second. The void was jet black, save for swirls of blue light that twisted and turned across the surface.

“Bring the machine!” bellowed the Warpsmith. Attendant cultists scurried into a side room and re-merged pushing a giant set of legs, as tall as a tank. The legs looked similar to a design used by the techpriests of Mars to create dunewalking machines of war. They were baroque and ancient, the armour painted in red, with exposed pistons and wiring underneath. The cultists manoeuvred it into position in front of the void.

Prostrednik began a to recite a prayer to Khorne – a guttural incantation to the God of blood and warfare. The cultists joined in, their varied voices creating an unearthly cadence to this hymn to endless bloodshed. Prostrednik began to carve the icon of Khorne into the machinery, and motioned to some of the cultists. They began gathering buckets of blood and started to pour them over the legs and pistons of the legs.

The void crackled. Fire spat out through its centre - a gush of purple-red flame that met a group of cultists head on and immolated them where they stood. Prostrednik cackled.
“So it begins!” Flames licked out around the machine. Blood swirled from the void and created a vortex around it. Cultists screamed and were sucked into the Warp. Prostrednik stood back and watched as his ritual came to fruition. A magnificent swirl of colour enveloped the room, at once red, black and purple. An angry roar erupted from the madness, tearing through the chants of the cultists, causing them to fall silent. The vortex swirled faster, burning the walls and causing blood to boil off them until the air was filled with a hot, red, choking mist. As the vortex slowed, another roar burst forth from within, and this time the roar had a face. A metal face with giant teeth of bone. Its eyes glowed red and a metal tongue flicked out from behind those teeth. As Prostrednik’s eyes adjusted to the mist, he gazed upon the form of the daemon, entombed within the walking prison of the arcane machinery he had created. It had a monstrous, muscled body of purple-grey flesh and arms that ended in writhing mouths of bone and scale. It’s arms were covered in red and steel armour and bony tentacles erupted from bloody rents in its shoulders. Skulls poked through the flesh like faces in a sea. Prostrednik thought he recognised one of the faces.

The machine lurched into life and the daemon roared. Black smoke belched from an exhaust on the daemon’s back. The daemon took several steps with its arachnoid legs, impaling a cultist under one foot. It looked down at Prostrednik with its unnatural green eyes.

“I name you Kov Šelma. We require your help, in the name of the Blood God. Will you fight alongside these mortals?”

The daemon roared in approval. 

WIP shot of the maulerfiend.

Warning: I copied this post from my dakkadakka forum blog, and amalgamated several posts into one blog post. Each post is in ascending chronological order going down the page.

Another squad of cultists for the Bloodstorm. I used parts from DV cultists, skitarii rangers, electropriests, cadians, catachans, bloodreavers and empire flagellants.

 

This squad was well underway before today, but I finished the last two berserkers today.

This could be a boarding party, or it could be a vanguard unit that uses its shields to repel bolter fire.
Either way, I'm quite pleased with how unique this unit is!
The one with a hand missing will be holding a banner, which I'm painting separately before attaching to the model. 

Some fluff to get your teeth into:

The Bloodstorm’s homeworld of Bohemus was once a peaceful industrial world, but the arrival of an unnamed group of cultists marked the start of the sewing of discord. Whispers of the falsehood of the God-Emperor’s claim to be ruler of mankind were the first notions of the most insidious and treacherous of infestations – the worship of Khorne. Soon , whole swathes of the population were conducting rituals to channel the power of the Blood God. Buildings, once mighty, gleaming spires of Imperial might, were now beginning to deform and twist into mutated horror-houses of the warp.

Barely a hundred years after the first mentions of the Blood God had started to befoul the minds of the inhabitants of Bohemus, a warband of chaos space marines, led by infamous warlord Krev Grazl arrived on the world. The inhabitants welcomed the marines at first, but soon grew distrustful of these newcomers, deserters from the Black Legion, who claimed to worship no particular God of the Warp. Spying an opportunity, the self-appointed leader of the Khorne cults on Bohemus, Zorka Nykl, attempted to build a bridge with the chaos space marines as they attempted to build a fortress on the world in the face of growing animosity. Nykl’s tales of fearsome warriors fuelled by the rage of the Blood God, tearing enemies apart with the minimal of weaponry, began to turn the heads of the marines.

Eventually, Nykl sensed that the marines had been sufficiently convinced of the allure of Khorne that he thought he should unveil his final convincer. He brought Krev Grazl and a group of his trusted veterans to The Great Shrine: a massive throne, built of the skulls of those who had refused to submit to Khorne in battles that ravaged Bohemus as the cult swept the world. Upon the seat of the throne lay the most magnificent weapon ever seen by the centuries-old eyes of Krev Grazl: an axe as long a human was tall, with a head of bone that seemed to writhe with some bound power. Nykl explained that a small meteorite had landed outside the capital city. The meteorite, red as blood and covered in the stony faces of denizens of the warp, split open upon impact to reveal the axe. The axe was much heavier than it should have been for its size and it took several men with servo-harnesses to lift it and bring it to the temple. Seeing the axe as a gift from Khorne, the devotees in the temple had mused and whispered about why Khorne would gift them such an unfeasibly heavy and large weapon. When Krev Grazl had arrived, the plans of Khorne became clear. Khorne had forseen that Krev Grazl would arrive and be able to wield the axe. And wield it he did. Nykl gestured for Grazl to approach the axe. As he drew near, the axe writhed, the surface shimmering with power. He held the axe aloft and swung it in a great arc. A distorted and high-pitched roar erupted from the weapon, causing human onlookers to cower in fear. Grazl recognised that this, like Abaddon’s Sword, Drach‘nyen, was a daemon weapon, and lifting it was not a matter of strength but of being a kindred spirit with the daemon. Krev Grazl, rewarded by Khorne for many victories over the centuries, has daemonic gifts and mutations that allow him to control the power of a daemon weapon. Few people could even touch a daemon weapon, let alone wield it in battle, and Grazl knew from that moment that he had been truly rewarded by the Blood God.

The warband swore their allegiance to Khorne, repainting their armour and war machines in colours to honour Him. The inhabitants of Bohemus swore allegiance to Krev Grazl, and the tales of his might began to outpace his actual deeds. Many viewed him as a descendant of Khorne, born in the warp and sent to realspace to claim the skulls of the mightiest of Khorne’s enemies.  

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This is Xanakionahr, Bloodthirster of the Third Host.

The model is 'Greater wardaemon' from Ultraforge miniatures, with a Bloodthirster axe added.
it will have a proper base eventually, but I'm waiting for some to arrive.
Some highlights are still needed but I'm happy with the work I did in one evening! 

edit:

Model with proper base!

Behold! Cultist squad Ekumus! When they are not slaughtering in the name of the Blood God, they are helping Warpsmith Prostrednik create foul and macabre daemon engines.  

The human inhabitants of Bohemus form two distinct races: the giant, ferocious Mamuti and the more typically-sized Číslo. The Mamuti make excellent space marines due to their size and hardy nature. The Mamuti have long been ruled by the strongest and fiercest warriors of their race, and in more recent industrial times, the Číslo used to their technology to subjugate them and put them to work in the factories. Since the Bloodstorm arrived, they started to train Mamuti factory workers in the martial skills of Khorne, and were soon impressed with the results on the battlefield. Some of the Mamuti choose to fight many battles in traditional dress rather than power armour, fighting up close with mighty axes or swords.Only when fighting in extreme conditions or against heavily armoured foes will they then choose to don suits of power armour.

Here is one of the Mamuti, Bojovnik, tattooed with emblems of Khorne, but retaining the traditional look of the Mamuti people.

(I think the model is from the Black Sun range) 

Here are the Bloodcrushers of Sepakalohr! The models are Bringers of Fury from Titan Forge miniatures. I'm quite pleased with the OSL for their bellies. What do you think?  

I started a game of Execution Force tonight, with members of the Bloodstorm in place of the box cultists.

Warpsmith Prostrednik, with the help of its acolyte, Opravář, is planning to bind a daemon to a machine and create a new daemon engine. A team of assassins plan to stop the ritual, but they must fight their way past a horde of blood-crazed soldiers of Khorne. Who will succeed? To be continued... 

The battle was a tense one, with the assassins meeting fierce resistance in the dark halls of the sanctum. Cultists and chaos space marines emerged from every direction, relentless and bloodthirsty. Soon, The fury of their rage was evident as they set up on the assassins. The Calldius assassin pirouetted, flipped and sliced her way through cultist after cultist, but her agility was no much for the brutality of the cultists as one shot her arm with an autopistol, causing her to fall. Another launched a wall of flame that incinerated her alive. The Vindicare assassin, too far away to help, heard her screams and pushed forward, dropping cultists with precise shots from his Exitus pistol. He advanced steadily, searching for the transporter to the inner sanctum. Eventually, climbing over the bodies of the fallen, he found it. In triumph, he radioed the Culexus assassin the location. As he did so, he felt a heated pain through his torso. Blood poured out from his chest as the point of a jagged axe split his ribs. He fell to the ground, praying to the emperor that his colleagues could finish the task of locating the warpsmith.

The Culexus assassin, knowing the radio silence meant the death of his colleague, pushed on, sprinting through the halls, broadcasting the location of the transporter to the Eversor assassin. They reached the transporter at the same time, and were transferred in a burst of light to the inner sanctum. As their eyes adjusted, they saw that blood ran down the walls and across the bone floor. The twisted faces of daemons seemed to coalesce across the red gore that infested every surface. They cursed the daemons that would create such filth and made their way down the corridors. Eventually they reached a temple that defied description. Shifting facades of blood and glittering warp energy confused and disoriented them. They held onto their faith in the imperium. They would prevail.

A huge axe raked in front of the Culexus's face. he reacted, swatting it away and thrusting towards the assailant. A twisted looking space marine helmet, with horns sprouting where it's audio sensors should be, stared back into his eyes, He saw a flash of green light in those eyes, and noted the baroque red armour. A berzerker of Khorne. It was a twisted, ancient space marine, part daemon, part machine, with a huge bionic arm that held a bolt pistol. The two of them fought, assassin against marine. The assassin blasted bolts of psychic energy, but the runes of Khorne on the marines armour simply glowed and absorbed the blasts.

Meanwhile, the Eversor confronted the Warpsmith and a team of cultists. He fought with cultists, slicing their limbs off and adding to the blood. A voice boomed out.
"Their blood will only add to the power of this ritual, as will yours!"
The Eversor carried on, trying to ignore the voice as it clawed at his ears.
"You will never succeed! Your false emperor protects you not!"
The cultists kept coming. They swung at him with axes, blades and clubs. One shot his foot. It bled. As he looked at it, a blast of melta energy shot towards him. The warpsmith had fired from one his mechatendrils. The shot took off the Eversor's right hand. He leapt at the warpmsith, aiming for the head. A giant, daemonic hand clasped at his arm and stopped his attack. Another grabbed his right leg. He struggled. Prostrednik laughed.
"Blood! Blood for the Blood God!"
The mechanical arms pulsed and wrenched, and the assassin was torn in half. The warpsmith tossed the pieces of the dead assassin into the blood at his feet, and turned to finish the last assassin. He saw it was a good fighter. His more combat-fond brothers would surely appreciate the martial skill of this soldier. The warpsmith preferred the elegance of daemonic machinery. The ritual was far from complete, and he could not let this interloper stop him now. He fired with the meltagun and his bolt pistol, aiming for the hideous mask of the assassin. He missed, again and again. He roared in anger. The assassin danced and twisted, parrying the blows of the berzerker and avoiding the shots of the warpsmith. He jumped over the berzerker and stuck a knife in its neck. The berzerker roared and flung the assassin across the room with its bionic arm. It crouched to the floor, clutching at its neck. The warpsmith shot the berzerker in the head, killing it.
The warpsmith turned once more, to see the assassin climbing to his feet, drenched in blood. The assassin advanced. Mechatendrils erupted from the walls, clawing at the assassin. He was halted, mere feet from the warpsmith. He fired blasts of psychic energy, but they caused no harm to the warpsmith. Prostrednik aimed its bolt pistol at the assassin's head as the assassin strained against the mechatendrils.
"Khorne will not be sated with this offering, but I will enjoy it. Die, assassin."
The bolt pistol fired, tearing a hole through the mask and exploding the brain of the assassin. Blood erupted from the back of his head and sprayed across the room.
The last thing he saw as the light faded was a jet black void opening in the centre of the room, forcing blood to traverse the floor in waves...  

So, in the middle of a taxing piece of work I have to do, I took a break to put together some bitz from my bitzbox.
The result is... a champion of Khorne! No story or name yet, but it looks kinda cool, no?