Heldrake Conversions

The last additions that I wanted to share in this set of updates are a pair that were created together: my twin heldrakes, the Cry of Oblivion and the Roar of Despair.

The original idea to create these heldrakes actually came well before I started my Dark Mechanicum project. After the release of the 6th edition chaos space marines codex, and the new daemon engines, I was speaking with a friend who mentioned his disappointment with the heldrake model.

In particular, he noted that the options for customising and posing the model were very limited, which I had also found to be the case with its options in the codex.

For some reason following this, I decided to take on the challenge of creating two clearly different heldrakes and see if I could overcome some of its limitations. These models then became the centrepiece of a slaaneshii chaos space marine army full of various winged units and jump infantry.

Later on, I then repainted their armour to add them to my growing Dark Mechanicum force, but decided to keep the lilac flesh underneath unchanged.

 

After years of repairing and strengthening the fragile wings, I have my doubts about whether they were the best idea, but I still think they are some of the most impactful conversions that I have managed.

The Cry of Oblivion has two large wyvern-like wings in the place of its arms, while the wings of the Roar of Despair form an X-shape on its back and leave space for two sets of the larger legs. I also used maulerfiend heads on both, as I felt they gave a more slender, predatory appearance.

The wings of the Cry of Oblivion had to be fixed in place due to their size and downward angle, but I was able to pin each wing of the Roar of Despair rather than gluing them (which is hidden by the top-armour). This makes it possible to safely remove them for storage and transport which has helped immensely.

Daemon-Powered Vindicator

Following the creation of the crewed defiler in my last post, I was left with the majority of the defiler's top-half spare. This was my chance to finally try an idea that I been thinking about for a while: a daemon-engine vindicator.

The model was inspired by the appearance of the Deimos pattern vindicator, with its raised, centrally-aligned demolisher cannon (hence why I was keen to use a defiler torso for this).

Although it was simple to replace the front panel of the rhino with the torso, there were a lot of gaps that needed filling in. My approach was to use pieces of sprue or other spare parts to start filling each gap, and then finish covering them with cloth scraps or mutated flesh (unfortunately not clear which) created from green stuff.

The last alteration I made was to replace the rhino's normal top hatch with a bastion escape hatch, which gives it some additional bulk to fit with the front-half. I think it would have also benefitted from some extra armour to thicken the plating on the sides, but on the whole it still achieves the overall effect I was hoping for.

A Daemon Engine with a Crew

 A key feature of this project has been the link between the daemon engines that form the core, and the presence of the infantry supporting them. However, it was only the land raiders and fortifications that offered any real interaction with the cultists which form the bulk.

While coming up with ideas for new additions to the force, it became my goal to create a unit that would more clearly integrate the cultists and the daemon engines. This was the result:

 

I envisioned this daemon engine as a hybrid between a bastion and a defiler, with the cultists operating the armaments from the defensive platform while the machine stalks the battlefield on its legs. The machine's lower half is an unmodified defiler, so my focus was on the construction of the upper platform.

 

The platform floor was created using a bastion upgrade kit, with the gun emplacement parts and a couple of spare internal doors from a land raider forming the walls. I also used a couple of small chains from a bracelet to create barriers in the gaps between them, where they were left open for the weapons.

 

 

I created the battlecannon and its mounting using spare forgefiend parts (which were left over from the helbrutes, nicknamed helsentries, featured here), and used the end of the barrel from the defiler's cannon to provide more of a resemblance.

Conveniently, the fittings for the defiler's secondary weapons are the same size as the slots for the fortification gun emplacements, so they did not require any modifications.

In addition to serving as a defiler, I made it possible to equip the machine as a forgefiend. The front legs can be moved forwards to replace the claws, and I created a couple of extra mountings to attach the forgefiend's cannons using more of the leftover parts.

 

This configuration lacks some stability compared to the defiler, due to the front legs fitting more loosely than the claws and not having the full six legs for support. However, I always value having options for different loadouts when it comes to preparing for a game, as it adds more variety to the lists I can try.

 

With the walking weapon-platform complete, I was left with a number of spare parts to make use of. Most notably among them, the top-half of the deflier (minus secondary weapons). As it happened, this was an opportunity to try a particular conversion that I had been thinking about for a while - which will be the feature of the next post.