Piiiiigs iiiiin Spaaaace!

My Creations of Bile army needs some Troops - but I'm under no obligation to make them normal!

These heretics are a mix of the full Chaos Space Marine kit, and the monopose Start Collecting ones (I do love a Start Collecting box).

But the real novelty is what's resting on their shoulders. The pig heads are from Puppetswar (my favourite source of alternate heads) and I picked them up on my last order, not knowing what use they could be, but certain I would find a way.

So these are filling out the Troops choices for Fabius Bile - just some heretics-for-hire who didn't read the Circe chapters of the Odyssey.

The Aspiring Champion got lavished with kit (I couldn't find a spare melta gun for the unit, so decided to spend the points on the boss hog instead) - a lightning claw and plasma pistol. He should be quite tasty in melee (Miss Piggy always seemed to do alright).

The rest of the grunts are kitted out for melee (it's the best way with Creations of Bile). Not wanting to go overboard with the pig heads, they get normal helmets. Although to keep the fleshy aspect, I used either half-helms or painted the tops as if their scalps were exposed for easy trepanning by the Good Doctor Bile.

As I mentioned in the Month 1 report for the Hobbypocalypse, I reckoned I'd taken the wrong approach with the pale armour, so for this squad, I reversed it:

I sprayed the models black (just to ensure total coverage), then sprayed them with Wraithbone primer, allowing me to wash and drybrush the armour right away.

Usually I would have painted the gold trim first (so I could be as sloppy as I liked), then cut in with the pale armour. This time, the armour was all sprayed and done, so I had to paint the gold trim carefully (and pin-wash it with Agrax).

It was a gamble which method would take longer, but it paid off - I got these done in about half the time of the Possessed, and the armour panels looked a lot smoother.

• Armour: Black primer, Wraithbone primer, Seraphim Sepia wash, Bleached Bone drybrush
• Gold: Retributor Armour base, Agrax Earthshade wash, Golden Griffin drybrush
• Flesh: Bugman's Flesh, Reikland Fleshshade, Kislev Flesh layers
• Red claws: Khorne Red base, Nuln Oil wash

They're nothing like as formidable as Possessed in melee, but when they get that second wound, I think they could give most units a run for their money.