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Converting & Painting- Chaos Helbrute

By Rob Baer | November 15th, 2012 | Categories: Chaos Space Marines, Painted Figure Showcase, Warhammer 40k

Today we have a great guest post by Rage of Khorne from The Order of Chaos gaming club.

This is a very nicely done walk though on how he built and painted his Helbrute model from the Dark Vengeance box set.
By Rage of Khorne
I started by cutting out and cleaning all the pieces of the plastic helbrute kit from the dark vengeance boxed set.

I spread them out and dry fit some of the pieces together to get an idea of how much green stuffing I would need to do. Extra bitz were collected from dark eldar, space marine, and chaos space marine kits and I mixed up some green stuff in preparation for the first part of assembly.

I used a jeweler saw to cut the helbrute at the shoulder after it was assembled so I could get the pieces lined up properly. The parts I didn’t want were set aside for later use or added to my bitz box.

When I had the approximate shape done it was time to start filling gaps and sculpting muscle. I used a round headed sculpting tool for this and after the green stuff was dry I filed away any rigid bits.

I wanted to make the helbrute look feral and animalistic so I included extra tusks and an animal’s fur on its back. The fur was done last to ensure I didn’t ruin the sculpting job with a poorly placed finger.

This is the completed model after it was constructed and given some scenic basing.

I sprayed the model with chaos black as my intention was a darker overall look to the model. I used an airbrush to block in the general armor and flesh colors and I was careful not to over apply the highlight colors while using the airbrush.
This was the model after all the spray basing and highlighting was done.
The next step was to block in all the base coats including the metals, fur, bone, and black. I used chainmail, abbadon black, bestial brown, and dheneb stone.
A unifying wash was given to the whole model to bring all the different colors together and give extra depth to the metals. The wash was a mix of the old brown ink, seraphim sepia, and water. The fur was given a further purple wash to bring out some extra darkness but without reducing the color intensity.

After the wash had dried, I highlighted all the colors with the following mixes:
Red – 1:1:1:1 – Wild Rider Red, Averland Sunset, White Scar, Water
Black – 1:1 – Mechanicum Standard Grey, Water
Grey – 1:1:1 – Mechanicum Standard Grey, Fortress Grey, Water
Brown – 1:1:1 – Bestial Brown, White Scar, Water
Metal – 1:1 – Mithril Silver, Water
Bone – 1:1:1 – Dheneb Stone, White Scar, Water

All the cords were then given a spray with a 1:1 mix of Hawk Turquoise and White Scar to create a glowing affect. The glowing was toned down in areas by lightly washing with the previous was mix I used for the whole model. The cords were then given a final highlight of 1:2 and 1:3 mixes of Hawk Turquoise and White Scar.
All that was left at this point was to do some hand painting on the armor and to finish painting the scenic base.

This fellow’s twin linked lascannon and power fist are ready to smash their way through some 2+ loyalist armor.

I definitely dig the Dark Eldar Talos bit for the head, and the “veteran of the long war” feel to him. What say you? -MBG

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About the Author: Rob Baer

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Rob Baer

Job Title: Managing Editor

Founded Spikey Bits in 2009

Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X

About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures.

Rob also co-founded and currently hosts the Long War Podcast, which has over 350 episodes and focuses on tabletop miniatures gaming, specializing in Warhammer 40k. and spent six years writing for Bell of Lost Souls. 

Every year, along with his co-hosts, he helps host the Long War 40k Doubles Tournament at Adepticon and the Long War 40k Doubles at Las Vegas Open, which attracts over 350 players from around the world.

Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including multiple first-place finishes in Warhammer 40k Grand Tournaments over the years and even winning 1st place at the Adepticon 40k Team Tournament.

With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. As a member of GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association), he advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.

While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1980s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.

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