Kitbash Primarch- Corvus Corax

[oileanach]

For the uninitiated, in Warhammer 40,000, the Primarchs were ten foot tall, genetically engineered, post human demi gods, created to lead humanity into a bright new future as rulers of the galaxy...of course, things didn't work out quite as planned!

Those wonderful chaps at Forge World have been creating ruinously expensive rule books describing them and are in the process of sculpting all 18 of them. Sadly, although the ones they have created are nothing short of superb, they haven't quite got around to sculpting my favourite, Corax, the Raven Lord, leader of the XIX Legion, the Raven Guard.

Now I live in hope that Sam Egan (my hero!) will be allowed to sculpt him next- the way he's brought so many of these mythic fantasies to live is breathtaking. If Matt Murphy-Kane (another hero of mine- I'm quite the fanboy! ) gets to paint him I think I'll be in geek heaven. But in the meantime, I need a proxy.

Normal spess mehrens are too small to do the subject justice, so I did a little tinternet search and found this fine looking fella:

Ok, a bit too fabulous for my taste, but he'll let me try out the paint scheme(s) I'll end up using on the official Corax, if and when FW get around to selling him.

First issue is weaponry. Corax leads a special forces outfit, he's as likely to shoot a target as leap up and do a Wolverine on it. Some pouches and grenades are a must, but he needs a gun and the fluff mentions a fancy, hi-tech three pronged whip. The whip is going to have to be scratch built, but the gun? What would be a worthy weapon for a Primarch?

Bottom to top:

• an Umbra Ferrox pattern bolter with targeting scope (bit like a saw or minimi, only firing cannon shells!) Commonly issued to RG, so readily available.
• Tigrus pattern seeker bolter. Issued to SF tasked with taking out high value targets. Being better than standard issue might recommend it to the boss?
• Tigrus pattern multi-melta. As above, but with a limited use anti vehicular beam weapon attached. The Fluff actually had him issued with a custom built version.
• Heresy era heavy bolter. Drum fed heavyweight version of the standard bolter. Again, made an appearance in the fluff, in the audio drama 'Ravens Flight'.

[oileanach]

First steps are fairly simple- just a kit bash, really.

The mini, with some resin and plastic bits attached:

His jump pack:

Adding some decals and trying different paint schemes got me to here:

[oileanach]

Now that I'm happy with the look I want, I've laid down some base colours. The hard part will be highlighting the mini- black is a complete 'mare to paint, so I'll be using the various feathered and metallic areas of the model to show light and shade- but that's next weekend, for now he looks like this:

Comments, suggestions and mickey taking all welcome, guys. It's early enough that I can change most things on the mini if I get/hear a better idea...

[Will Vale]

Love the wings to bits, they're really cool. I think the big gun could do with the arm being a bit lower though - I know he's superhuman but that thing's heavy! I also quite like the idea of him casually lobbing shots into the melee below as opposed to rushing in to hit someone.

Paint looks nice and neat, although IMO the mouth is a bit saturated and lipsticky? Are you going to add any accent colours?

My 2p,

Will

[oileanach]

Proper Freddie Mercury! I'm having a sleep on the fizog question. I'm a big fanboy fan of Neil Roberts, so I'd like to get close to something like this:

So the lipstick and the eyes will change, possibly the skin tone with it. The trouble is how to get the impression of alabaster skin on a human face, on a predominantly black/purple mini? Neil used lots of warm yellow/sand tones below Corax's face to key it into the picture, I suspect I'm going to have to use a much colder grey or blue. Before I sacked it and set up for photos I tried a light glaze with the base colour and a little deep blue- I liked the effect, but it was already gone 2am... It might be an idea thinning the next few coats with retarder and attempting to blend some mid tones and highlights in. Not the easiest thing to do on a face less than 4mm from hairline to chin! I can see me spending most of next weekend on it...