Heresy & Heroes

Emperor’s Children Sonic Dreadnought

My eyes!! Yes, they’re now ruined. The hot pinks, tiger stripes, moody golds, neon greens and electric blues of the long-corrupted Emperor’s Children have burned my corneas and retinas to ash, but the damn thing is finally done. I’m actually pretty proud of the result too. I’ve been working on it for ages now and, in fact, this is another resurrection job. I should have taken a better picture before I took the Fairy Power Spray to it, but you can just make it out here…

The old version was a proper mess, so it’s great to see one of my favourite Forge World sculpts cleaned up and shown a bit more love. Of course, I can’t really see it because my eyes, as mentioned, are now a bloody mess (alright, that’s a bit OTT, but you know what I mean).

I really wanted to capture both the insanity and love/lust of vibrant, brilliant hues that the Emperor’s Children are now known for, and to pay a little homage to the old school ‘Eavy Metal painters who first bought the long-fallen 3rd Legion to life. Needless to say, I am now really looking forward to painting some dark, subtle, understated minis.

One of my favourite bits of fluff is the Battle of Skalathrax where the Emperor’s Children fought the World Eaters, and Kharn earned his name ‘The Betrayer’. I wanted to incorporate a nod to that battle and used it as an excuse to try out a little of my freehand painting which is an area I really want to work on this year. In my mind, this dread’s close combat weapon was scavenged from a fallen World Eater Dread, perhaps that had had its mind destroyed by a sonic weapon. It’s a trophy and it allowed me to mix up the pallet a little too – it’s win-win!

The Blastmaster was one of the last parts I painted on this figure, and by that point, I was pretty done with metallics. So, using some pictures of old French Horns for inspiration, I did a bit of blending and used some different washes to break it up a bit, and I’m pretty happy with the results. Sonic weapons are unique to Slanneshi Space Marines and I wanted that to be reflected in its looks.

And yes, the tiger stripes on the legs were really fun to paint and so much easier that I thought they would be. That, and the green part of the front are the two pieces that I’m most proud of on this model. Very Slanneshi to.

The freehand on the top was fun, but nerve-wracking. I’m really pleased with the effects achieved and it really helps to break up the model a bit too because those big areas of just pink were not that fun or good to look at. Painting in shades of a single colour really helps to keep the theme together.

And that’s that! Fitting to end with the back of the Dread (quite happy with the exhausts too as it happens). I know that technically it should be called a Sonic Helbrute now, but Sonic Helbrute sounds like a failed Comic Book bad guy from the 80s. Sonic Dread sounds infinitely cooler.

The mini was undercoated black and Citadel paints were used throughout, as were a wide variety of brushes. Oh, and I just found my actual digital camera. The above are all taken with my iPhone, but I’m going to try the camera soon and I’ll do a post about the differences and we can check out the results too.

I hope you enjoyed it. I’m now off to just look at shades of grey on the pantone website. Onwards!

I’d love to read your comments or questions. Stick them below!