Chaos World Eater & Cult

I started this army as a combined Black Legion force with devotees of Khorne, Nurgle, Slaneesh, Tzeentch and Undivided. It very quickly grew to the point that each faction deserved its own webpage, especially once I added matching Lost and the Damned factions. All five factions can of course still combine to make a very large Black Legion force.

The World Eater chapter are followers of the blood god Khorne. Appropriately I themed this faction around close combat engagements but included a few long range elements to retain some competitiveness. The faction includes enough models to be fielded as either a Khorne Black Legion contingent, a stand-alone World Eater force using the NetEA or EpiUK list, or a Lost and the Damned Khorne Cult.

World Eater Retinues: The core formations for the Khorne factions are World Eater marines and Berzerker. I needed to have a decent quantity of each due to the discrepancy of model count between the Black Legion, NetEA World Eater and EpicUK World Eater force. The regular marines include all character options except a cowardly sorcerer which doesn’t belong in a proper Khorne force. I used different chaos marine models from all editions of the EPIC game as well as the odd Bloodletter and Berzerker on the regular marine bases to emphasis the nature of Khorne. They can be mounted in Rhinos for mobility.

The retinue can be upgraded with a four Berzerker based with Rhinos if fielded as a Black Legion list.

Alternatively, I have enough Berzerker bases to field two dedicated Berzerker only retinues (using the EpicUK list) or two “half-and-half” retinues of Berzerker and Legionaires (as per NetEA list).

World Eater Terminators:The retinue is supported by a full sized force of Khorne Chosen Terminators including lord and champion option. If needed, the Terminators can be transported in Land Raiders.

World Eater Biker: The only thing better than crazy power armoured berzerker with chain axes are crazy power armoured berzerker with chain axes on bikes. The bike models are custom sculpts from a very talented hobbyist on the Tactical Commands forum. The command base is a minor conversion of my own.

World Eater Raptors: The Raptors are based on Exodus Wars Edenite Assault troops which are an ideal proxy for Chaos Raptors. The formation includes a slightly converted leader.

Khorne Daemons: The Khornate daemon pool is led by a Bloodthirster Greater Daemon and Angron the Primarch of the World Eaters (using a 10mm Warmaster model with a slight conversion to remove any 10mm scale parts of the model). The pool includes a horde of eight Bloodletters, eight Fleshhound bases and eight Juggernaughts. The Juggernaught are led by a lord made from a Warmaster model.

Daemonic Walker: The dedicated World Eater lists have introduced a number of daemonic walkers to Epic based on the more recent Warhammer 40k Chaos units. All of these models are custom sculpts from artists on the Tactical Commands forum: Two Greater Brass Scorpions, four Blood Slaughterers (both from the same sculptor as the bikes) and two Soulgrinder (“Otterware” Defiler with the addition of some 40k parts and Green Stuff to “possess” them). I also added three Dreadnoughts with minor conversions.

Daemon Engines: Daemon engines were one of the original icons in the Epic game system. Over time I collected at least one of each of the orignal models and now have enough to field several formations: Three Brass Scorpions, three Cauldrons of Blood, four Doom Blaster, and one Death Dealer, one Tower of Skulls, one Blood Reaper, and four Cannons of Khorne . The Cauldrons of Blood were driled out with a dremel tool and then filled in with water effects tinted with red ink. Where appropriate the other guns where also drilled out. The Cannons of Khorne are crewed by Chaos Squats as a nod to the Warhammer Hell Cannon.

Khorne Covens: Three Mutant Covens form the core formations of a Khorne Lost and the Damned force. I kept the martial theme and went with a mix of beastmen and blood letter for the regular mutants. The Big Mutants are based on the old Minotaur and Troll models with some simple conversions to break up the monotony. The leaders of the Covens are Chaos Champions and a really big guy that can serve as the cult leader.

Two of the Covens can be mounted on improvised Land Transporters for added mobility. The models are converted from old Ork plastic battlewagons and some GHQ truck parts that I had in my bitz box. I also added some Hellhounds as the fire and brimstone theme seemed to fit.

A small group of Chaos Hounds can join the Covens to absorb a few hits. The dogs are from the Warmaster Daemon range.

The third Coven pushes along the Altar of Khorne. The model is a kit bash from a Doom Blaster chassis, some old Fleshhounds, a tongue depressor, Hirst Art stone and various 40k and Warmaster pieces. More info on the design can be found on the Epic conversion workshop page.

Titans: Khorne has favoured his chosen with two mighty war engines: A Lord of Battle and a Feral Titan. The Lord of Battle is magnetized to mount any of the four weapon options. The Feral Titan is a conversion based on the very old Warhammer 40k Blood Slaughterer model. The top portion of the model is converted from an old Juggernaught, various Ork parts and plenty of Green Stuff to remove anything that would suggest a 28mm/40k scale

Objective: The Khorne objective is a skull held by four old style Bloodletter. The skull is from Hirst Art with the addition of a few chains from a jewelry store.

The other objectives for are “generic” chaos objectives shared by the five contingents. The Chaos Portal is made from Hirst Art stones and a bit of multi-layer optical film that reflects light at different colours depending on viewing angle (across the rainbow spectrum).

Somebody asked how I painted the Daemon Engines, so here is the recipe:

The iconic colours for Khorne are red and black, with bone and brass as the usual colours for decorative elements. I am using Games Workshop Foundation Paints to build up the red and bone so a black undercoat is the best choice. Before undercoating the models I have drilled out all the gun barrels and used a dremel tool with a round milling bit to grind out some of the larger openings (e.g. the cauldron of the Cauldron of Blood). After the black undercoat I use Dheneb Stone as a foundation for all the skulls and bone parts on the models. I thin down the paint with water to prevent clogging the fine detail in the skulls. Two thinned down coats are better than one heavy one for detailed areas like these. Note that I am using a pretty big and cheap brush for this. I buy them at the dollar store for $2 for a pack of 10 and they are excellent for this kind of rough work. Games Workshop or similar brushes often cost more than this for a single brush… Of course I still use higher end brushes for detail work as the quality of the hair really starts to matter once you care about precision.

The second step is to give all the bone areas a good wash with Devlan Mud. Washes are a great time saver in general and in my opinion almost essential for Epic scale models. I always leave washes to dry overnight.

After the wash is dry I go over all the bone areas with several drybrushing steps with Dheneb Stone and later a 1:1 mix of Skull White and Dheneb Stone. I use the cheapo brushes for this as well. The picture below shows some models after the wash and initial Dheneb Stone drybrush stage.

At this point I block in all the other major colours: Mechrite Red for the body for the vehicle and Vallejo Brass for all the metallic/brass parts. I really like Vallejo Brass as it is one of the few metallic colours covers nicely in one coat and thus saves me the hassle of having to clean up the metal areas with black again.

I leave everything to dry overnight and then hit all the red and brass areas with a wash of Devlan Mud followed by a wash of Bhadab Black for the red areas only (again waiting a full night between washes). The Devlan Mud wash gives some nice shading and definition to the brass areas while the two washes for the red create a deep shadow fade at all edges.

This is actually the bulk of the work and the remaining steps can all happen very quickly. I highlight the red with Blood Red diluted with some flow improver. Blood Red is a slightly transparent colours and gives a nice transition when you highlight with it (without fancier techniques such as wet blending or lots of layering). I also paint any remaining pieces in black followed by a Adeptus Battlegrey drybrush where there is texture in the black area. Finally, I go over the bigger brass areas with watered down Vallejo Brass again to restore the metallic shine that the Devlan Mud wash dulled down. At this point I had a bit of a creative challenge with the Cannons of Khorne as the face on top of the gun had no obvious colour choice. A little bit of photoshop work gave me three options like this (all three are the same model with just the face modified in Photoshop).

As so often, feedback from the online community pointed to a better fourth options of an anthracite-like look. I build this up with mixes of black and Hawk Turqoise on a black base. This goes to show that painting a text model is a very good idea whenever you are painting a new series of models!

For some of the Daemon Engines I added a bit of green elements (Dark Angel Green followed by Snot Green highlights) or metal “working parts” such as gun barrels (Boltgun Metal followed by Bhadab Black wash). Finally, I highlighted the bigger horns and teeth with Bleached Bone followed by Skull White to differentiate them from the bone/skull areas.