Haark Haark the Laark

Just time for a little character work in between painting more magnetised doors for Leofa's tank collection.

Haarken Worldclaimer is a funny one, imho. Technically, it's a lovely model, and I like the place it has in the fluff. Seeing one of Abaddon's boss champions in the flesh is a nice treat, and he certainly made a splash as the poster boy for Vigilant Ablaze. Crypt Angel colours for him here, of course, and I was pleased to see he had enough demon faces already that I didn't need to freehand any more Winged Maw sigils.

Personally, I don't like the model very much, though. The horrible thin attachment to the base for the 'leaping off something' GW trademark pose knocks it down a peg or two, for one. I'd actually rather see him on a flight base, skanky plastic things that they are, then this over-posed alternative.

It didn't help that the plastic posing pipe had snapped off in transit (predictably). I reglued it twice before having to pin it, it's just not quite strong enough to hold him up especially after a snap. 

His sunken bald head is devoured by its baroque surroundings, his armaments are very mismatched and he's nicked all the railings from the British Museum to stick on his backpack. Man or fence? You decide.

He's hopping off a space wolf (Space Wolf Hopper?) because he'll be appearing in a forthcoming battle report against Stylus's Wolves. As will Stylus's own copy of the model!

And then Stylus pointed out to me that in his stats, he can't actually use his spear in melee. That's just silly, that's entirely what spears are for! He's not bad otherwise, a decent jumpy character slayer who almost crosses the line into overpowered if you put him in a Host Raptorial detachment and give him the Trait (+2" to all jump troop charges within 6") and relic (d3 mortal wounds to a unit he moves over in charge or movement phases).

Except you can't do that! If he's a Warlord he has to take a specific warlord traits (Lord of Darkness I think? Forces enemies to roll two dice for morale and take the worst, whatever it's called), so he's blocked from leading the Host Raptorial as well as he could. And then his weapons are a bit weird. Trying to fight like a one-armed Logan with a lone claw makes him a little weaksauce for my taste, it's not the best weapon pick even if it looks cool.

Hey ho - it's all standard 40K preposterousness, I don't really know why I'm grumbling. I painted up some more Darkness models from The Edge to give him his own little escort jump squad - these are Slaughter Crows, who stilt walk on machetes. Creepy but cool, I like these guys!