What Possessed Me?

Hobby updates may have been a little slow since the new year, but I have not been tardy!

We begin a new army: The Creations of Bile!

At the start of January, I was invited to join a new series on DZTV - a 'Tale of Four Gamers' style vlog of building a new army across a series of months. Ingeniously titled 'The Four Horsemen of the Hobbypocalyse', it features channel regulars Brapscalion, Sultan and Monkey

Exclusive to DZTV members (who can also play along at home and get a coveted stamp, see below), it is, at the time of recording, an absolute blast.

While the others have begun Tyranid, Deathwatch and Ork armies, when asked for my preference, I knew Creations of Bile was for me. Lots of potential for conversions and a new colour scheme to try out. Also, someone has to be the villain.

The aim of the challenge is to complete 250pts of painted models per month, and I'd already got my general, Fabius Bile, in the bank.

As for my first choice of unit, the experience of my very first battle of 9th Edition made it a no-brainer: Possessed, and lots of them!

I didn't want to just rely on the actual Possessed kit - as well as being expensive for just five models, they are on the small side, so don't really convey the robust nature of the twiceborn. So I took a set of the Shadowspear Chaos Space Marines, another full kit of Chaos Space Marines, a box of Plague Marines, the Possessed kit, some Spawn bits, and whatever else I could get hold of.

Very quickly in the kitbashing phase, I realised I wanted to make a Possessed from every one of the Founding Legions (so I guess I'm making at least 18 of them!). Bile has previous in experimenting on loyalist prisoners, so that's all perfectly narrative.

This Salamander Possessed received a Saurus head from the Seraphon kit, as well as the flamethrower arm from the Possessed.

For the Iron Hands Possessed, I used the bionic hand from the Hellblasters, and the Reiver helmet (with the skull painted all fleshy - which reminded me of the Knightmare health counter).

The Night Lords Possessed - though he was based on a Plague Marine's body - has a very nifty winged helmet, courtesy of Kraken's Corpse-Grinder bits. The Plague Marines are great for Possessed, being both chunky and horribly infected, and I've snipped away most of the obvious Death Guard icons.

Having already painted a Greater Possessed and Venomcrawler as test cases, I was pretty confident in the colour scheme:

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

However, I soon realised that what works for character models doesn't quite work for scale - I spent a very long time adding thin layers of Wraithbone over the black undercoat to get a smooth finish, and getting these guys ready for my first month's deadline was a close finish.

But finish I did, and the first episode is now live (hence I'm now allowed to share my progress - I'll keep doing so at a month's remove). If you'd like to follow the progress as it unfolds (and the other guys have made some very entertaining vlogs), either through video or the Discord chat, drop in on the Deployment Zone.

And to close on the catchphrase that I have forced the group to adopt: We Ride!