Warhammer: Realm of Chaos

Chaos Spawn

by
WarlordQueek

The Rant

Chaos Spawn - the greatest opportunity for conversion known to Warhammer.
What do people do with this though? They squander it. Most of the Chaos spawn you see nowadays in people's armies are the standard Cidatel Miniatures version, in which you have a choice of bodies, legs, tails and heads. Not that I'm objecting to that, of course - this gives scope for millions of permutations of Spawn, and probably no two Cidatel Spawn are exactly alike, buuuuuuut.....

All the Citadel Chaos Spawn are the same SHAPE! By that I mean that all the Cidatel Spawn have long bodies, moving low to the ground like crocodiles, with four legs, 5 frontal appendages, and 3 rear appendages. You think the Chaos Gods would be that unimaginative! With their omnipotence and insane minds? I seriously doubt it!

A Chaos Spawn should be one of your armies' main attractions, something that shows off your modelling and painting prowess, something that people look at as they pass in tournaments and go - "Wow, that looks pretty damn weird.". Because thats what Chaos Spawn are - weird. Really weird. Blasphemy against nature, that shouldn't be allowed to exist weird. A Chaos Spawn in my mind has loads of heads, tails and more legs than a Morris team(Americans ignore this reference).

So what do you do to make a truly original Chaos Spawn, one of your very own, with your own personal touches? The answer is in a single word...

Conversion.

If you convert a Chaos Spawn, or even better, scratch-build one, you can make it look like whatever you want. Literally. Absoutely anything your twisted little Chaotic minds can concieve, can be done. There are two things essential to this practice - A bits box and modelling putty, which can be bought in Games Workshop stores or any good hobby shop. The bits box will supply the parts, the modelling putty allows the parts to mold into each other, and make the model into one whole thing.

Creating a Monster

First you need a piece to build the model around. This is usually a body part, but can be anything, like in the spawn in this picture, which is based around the head, and HAS no body. This main body part should be reasonably large, to create a big Chaos Spawn that would fit well on a monster base.

The next thing to decide is how the spawn moves around. There are many mothods of locomotion available. You could have a spawn with anything from one to millions of legs, you could let it jump around on a single stump like Tzeentch Flamers, have it knuckle along on its hands(just make sure they can reach the ground), give it wheel-type feet, have it roll along the ground if it is spherical, move along like a snake, give it wings to hover above the ground or have it slime along like a slug or a Beast of Nurgle.

Next are the various appendages that can be attached pretty much anywhere on the model. Extra arms, legs, heads, eyestalks, tentacles, wings, claws, bony blades, spiked tails, mace tails, extra mouths, horns.....anything is possible. A good rule of thumb is to use parts with a distinctly organic feel - clothed arms or metal parts tend not to be found on mindless Spawn. Parts from Warhammer/Epic 40K Tyranids are very good for this, as they all look sufficiently strange and twisted. The spawn should have some method of detecting enemies - not nessecarily eyes - antennae, compound eyes, flickering tongues could pick up vibrations from nearby movement, whereas large noses or ears could smell or hear the enemy. Spawn should also have some form of attack, from arms, claws, tentacles, teeth or whatever. Very large parts should be pinned as well as glued in, and the modelling putty should strengthen the bond further.

Once you have decided on the form your Spawn is going to take and glued it all together, you can apply the modelling putty. You should do this all at once, as the modelling putty will go hard a few hours after you mix it. While you use it, keep kneading it occasionally to keep it pliable. Modelling putty should be put in the visible cracks and joins, and anywhere else you feel is it appropriate. Be careful not to obscure details on your Spawn with too much modelling putty. You can also add details to your Spawn with putty. Tentacles, areas of scaly skin or fur, small spines, etc. can be created reasonably easily with modelling putty. Modelling putty can also be used to create strange liquid or slime dripping off the spawn, or, for a really insane Spawn, trickle PVA glue down a mouth on your spawn to create a drooling effect. Small holes or claws can dribble strange coloured slime or poison, or blood can trickle from cuts in the spawn's flesh, or from its claws!

Lastly, the Spawn is painted. There are no limits on how you paint your spawn, but here are a few pointers.
Organic-looking colours like greens, browns or reds are good. Try not to use metallics, except on chains and stuff. Bleached Bone or some of the more pallid flesh colours are good for eyes, claws and teeth. Eyes can be yellow, white, green, blue, or anything else, but try to make them bloodshot, which adds to the insane look of the Spawn. Try to pick out details on your Spawn with different colours, and don't limit yourself to a few basic colours. Experiment with washes and inks for slime and skin. Poison can be any colour, purple and turquoise are what I used. Veins can be painted on the model in blood red, putrid green, or whatever tickles your fancy. I'm sure you can think of more imaginative touches than the few I've included here.

Finally....

The stuff I've included here are just guidelines, and not even very broad ones at that. Chaos Spawn can look like anything your mind can contrive and realise in a model. Try to be imaginative, and you can create stuff I never would have thought. Try to make something so that, once someone sees it for the first time, they'll say "What the fuck is that thing?" loudly. And if anyone ever tells you that what you made isnt what a Chaos Spawn should look like because its not a proper Chaos Spawn model, hit them...repeatedly, to punish then for their close-minded ignorance.(Dont do this if they're bigger, stronger, better armed or smarter than you though, or you will probably regret it, and if you do its not my fault - you are stupid.)