The Anaplastic Four!

And now my Hobbypocalypse watch has ended.

Month 6 was all about the characters!

I've been saving up for this. To my mind, a Fabius Bile army needs a lot of characters (have all the Assassination secondary points, you're welcome). Partly because the army comes to life from overlapping auras and buffs, but also because in the narrative, Bile likes his entourage.

First up is the Greater Possessed - who has the distinction of being one of the few models in my army not to be a conversion (I just like the original too much). I did my best to distinguish the bone-coloured armour from the actual bone protrusions - but this model's all about the energy of the pose.

Next up is one of the least impressive and most important units - the Exalted Champion. When all you have is melee units, an HQ that allows all wounds to be rerolled is a must-have.

This one is a survivor from the Cultists of the Abyss kit I used for Cultists - the Firebrand. He's a big fella, and when I added an astartes head and arms, it scales quite nicely. The original model also has tusks and a carapace-like backpack, which fits in very well with the theme of 'Bile's experiments'.

Here's one I wasn't expecting: the Forge World Traitor Librarian in Cataphractii Terminator Armour - an absolutely stunning miniature that was generously gifted to the army by Liam Dempsey, one-half of the Deployment Zone.

I've wanted this model for years, and I think it may be limited edition. And so, cultural vandal that I am, I took my clippers to the resin. The chainaxe was replaced with a Tzeentchian combi-bolter, and the Bloodletter in mid-summon was replaced by a Pink Horror.

Standard paint scheme as everything else, with the exception of the magical flare (Lothern Blue and Emperor's Children). I've tried blending before, but with light pastel colours, there really is no hiding place. With a wet palette and a lot of mixing, I ended up with something I was really happy with.

Final character is probably the least-effective, but one of my favourite. The Master of Executions is ready to do everything the Greater Possessed can do, but more cumbersome and less useful to the group.

He's based around a spare Khorne Slaughterpriest, with Chaos Space Marine pauldrons, backpack and holster. The hood is from the Necromantic Horrors Blood Bowl kit. I should probably have made more of the backpack, because he's so freaking big, it's Hello Kitty scale on him.

The original model also had a really cool external spine that would be covered up by the backpack, so I took a press-mould and redid it with greenstuff, making it external to the backpack (I don't know what a chiropractor would say).

And there we have it: from no army in January to full army by the end of June (it's been under wraps since then). It's been an absolute blast building this alongside the other three Horsemen and all the hobbyists in the DZ Discord - some cracking armies have come out of this project.

All the remains is, now that it's built: who's first to face them?