Kaiju Country: Primarchs

A history of violence

Anyone familiar with the lore of Warhammer 40,000 will know that the legions of genetically modified super soldiers created by the Emperor of mankind (the Adeptus Astartes or Space Marines), were led by an even greater tier of demi-gods known as the Primarchs.

These post-human avatars were as superior to Space Marines as they were to normal men. Engineered to possess heightened intelligence, incredible physical prowess and a variety of special abilities singular to each Primarch.

Before the Primarch's incubation was complete, they were cast across the galaxy by the nefarious powers of the warp, a parallel reality of roiling psychic energy and raw emotion. The scattered Primarchs were sought eagerly by the Emperor who wished to reunite his generals to lead his crusade; the greatest act of reclamation since the first ill-fated expansion of humankind.

The Primarchs would be reunited with their father one by one, having grown to maturity with vastly different circumstances and challenges. These formative years ultimately sculpted some Primarchs into honourable statesmen and strategists while others were raised in deprivation and misery, producing disgruntled and often damaged individuals.

And this brings us to Angron. Arguably the most damaged Primarch and definitely the most resentful of both the Emperor and his predestined role within the great crusade.

When the fledgling Imperium of man splintered, Angron was one of the first and most willing Primarchs to turn traitor and join the banner of the Warmaster Horus Lupercal.

The Project

I've always been fascinated by the Primarchs and how their individual journeys shaped them into archetypes of heroism and villainy. Since Forgeworld and Games Workshop started fleshing out the Primarchs in both the Horus Heresy novel series and in miniature form, I've wanted to explore them in more detail.

With the recent release of Angron in his ultimate Daemon form, I decided it was time to take the plunge and start work on a Primarch display depicting him at various key stages in his life.

I wanted to depict the character of Angron in miniature, but part of that journey would start with a deep dive into his background and the production of some 2D artwork to really start exploring what makes Angron so, well... angry.

Origins: Lord of the Red Sands

Angron's story is one of tragedy and brutality; beginning with his arrival on the oppressive world of Nuceria. Surviving in the mountains as an adolescent, Angron was eventually discovered and brought to the gladiatorial arenas to fight for the glory of the crowd under the gaze of the uncaring planetary aristocracy.

Angron emerges from his incubation chamber in the remote mountains of Nuceria

Right from the very start, Angron had to fight for survival, even against the elements and harsh conditions he emerged into. The fact that his life became even harder than just scratching around to survive in barren mountains says a lot!

Once the aristocracy of Nuceria realised his potential, they forced him to fight in the gladiatorial arena for the entertainment of the crowds. This nightmare existence was further compounded by the neural implants inflicted upon the most successful arena combatants and Angron would be no exception.

Angron is shackled and forcibly implanted with the Butcher's Nails

The Butcher's Nails are surgically implanted nodes which amplify the bearer's feelings of anger and rage to inhuman levels, suppressing positive emotions and causing immense maddening pain. This made Angron into an unstoppable killing machine within the arena but would begin to erode his sanity.

Angron quickly became the most successful Gladiator in Nucerian history earning the title 'Lord of the Red Sands'

Despite his success, Angron resented his highborn masters and would inspire his fellow prisoners to break their shackles and rebel. Eventually gaining a measure of freedom by turning on their oppressors, the dwindling band of Gladiators prepared to sell their lives dearly when the Emperor of Mankind intervened.

He offered Angron his rightful place within the armies of the Imperium, but Angron rejected the offer, choosing instead to die with his brothers and sisters fighting for freedom in one final battle. The Emperor refused to be denied and waste one of his precious sons in an ultimately futile gesture, teleporting Angron away from the battle and denying him his victory in death. The resentment that this act ignited in Angron would later fuel his betrayal of the Imperium.

The two miniatures currently available for Angron represent his participation in the Horus Heresy at the head of a Space Marine Legion and as an ascended Daemon Primarch. Although I was intending to make dioramas of these two key stages, I felt that Angron's years on Nuceria were also incredibly important to how he evolved as a character and I wanted to capture this in miniature as well.

Display concept and overall vision

With the idea of three dioramas representing Angron's character progression, I designed a display which would allow all three stages of his life to be represented together as one cohesive vision as well as three individually distinct pieces.

My initial scribbling depicted three regular pillars with a large symbol of Khorne in the background

My final concept sketch would show the three dioramas rising from a lake of blood suspended on crumbling pillars

After much pondering, I decided to produce three dioramas, supported by large marble pillars which are protruding from a lake of blood. Each of the three pillars would be in different states of repair, with each crumbling to reveal the skulls of Angron's fallen enemies. This would also represent his decent into madness and Chaos - the glossy exterior gradually falling away to reveal the corruption within.

From a practical point of view, the pillars would need to be mounted on metal pins within a single base plate but still be removable for individual inspection and transport. The core of the pillars would be constructed from wood then clad with a façade of Foamex, skulls and filler.

I worked out the dimensions of each pillar top; two would be 10 X 10 cm and one being 15 X 15 cm to accommodate the considerably larger Daemon Primarch miniature.

Diorama 1: Blood for the Crowd - Build

Angron

Obviously the star of the show in terms of this diorama would be the depiction of Gladiator Angron butchering his way through a number of other combatants in the Nucerian Arena.

With this in mind, I began looking for a miniature to base the piece on. Primarchs are pretty large compared to regular humans and although I could enhance the musculature, I couldn't increase the stature of the model beyond a certain point. Eventually I settled on an Age of Sigmar Blades of Khorne Slaughter Priest which was large enough to be a Primarch while also having some 'Gladiator-ish' armour plating.

I began by removing all of the Khorne iconography as at this point in Angron's life he wasn't even aware of the god of slaughter let alone bearing his mark! I also removed the head and arms as I'd need to re-sculpt these later.

The basic body with new hands and axes pinned to the upper arm stumps

I liked the half turned body and axes at 90 degrees as it suggested movement and allowed me to position enemies around him which he could feasibly reach

I added a short fur cloak to echo the one that the Forgeworld model wears. Note that I left the skull underfoot for now for ease of sculpting

At this point, I sculpted the leather belt around Angron's waist and the one across his chest as well as starting to rebuild his arms

Next came the basic head and face

I deliberately went for the classic Angron sneer

The area behind the neck was re-sculpted to fill the gap between the pauldrons and cloak

I removed the skull which was originally under Angron's left foot and replaced it with the body of a fallen enemy. I used a Blood reaver for the body - as you can see from the picture, I had to remove a lot of the upper body, the head and an arm to make the pose more realistic

While sculpting the rest of Angron, I used a Greenstuff roller to make some dreadlocks for Angron. I use thin gauge aluminium wire inside to allow for posing once cured

I applied the Butcher's Nails dreadlocks to the back of Angron's head then re-sculpted the join while tidying up the face

Getting the dreadlocks to lay naturally was tricky, but I think the end result works well

Angron's victim fully sculpted - creating a truly passive pose from a miniature can be difficult, but it's key to giving the illusion of sleep or, you know... permanent sleep

Arena Combatants

As with the poor fellow under Angron's armoured boot, I used Bloodreavers for the other arena fighters which Angron was engaging. Although I wanted them to be clearly defeated, I wanted to imply that Angron had only just come to rest after killing his enemies in a blur as if he'd murdered them in the blink of an eye like swatting flies.

This poor fellow has been disembowelled

I posed him so that he looked as though he was falling backwards convincingly with his arms spread wide in surprise

A running miniature was perfect for this as I'd use the raised foot to base the miniature rather than the intended one so that he would be at a 45 degree angle

I removed this miniature's arm then re-pinned it with a trajectory which suggested a rapid unexpected disarming had occurred. I sculpted a welter of blood over the pinning wire

This chap hasn't just had his throat cut - the blow went so deep that his head has almost been completely severed. I removed and re-pinned the head then used wire and epoxy putty to sculpt the spurting blood. I carved the weapons from the miniatures hands and re-sculpted them to make the hands appear limp. The raised foot indicates the direction that the body is falling in the final piece as his leg has collapsed under his weight

To help sculpt the three miniatures, I pinned each one to a single base

The pins were invaluable in stopping the miniatures from flopping around while sculpting tiny details like fingers

Painting and basing

The base for the diorama was pretty simple as the arena would be A). Flat and B). Sandy

With those two things in mind, I cut a piece of Foamex to the right shape, bevelled the edges then used a textured sandy coloured paint to break up the surface a little. While the texture paint was drying, I pressed the miniatures into the surface so that they would fit nicely once it was completely dry.

After washing off any excess texture paste I then primed all of the miniatures in light grey.

My diorama of ghosts on toast, a modern masterpiece

Prior to adding the texture paste, I had already worked out the position of Angron and his defeated enemies

To make the base look even more like toast, I used some weathering powders

I painted the deaded combatants in fairly muted colours as one would assume that they wouldn't be equipped with top quality equipment given that they probably wouldn't be wearing it for long and would more than likely get it dirty

The miniature with a new neck hole was modelled with an open hand as his spear dropped from his limp fingers

I used some clear red paint and Uhu glue very sparingly to add a little extra blood spray to the arm of this unlucky warrior. In all honesty, I'm not a huge fan of the Uhu technique as I feel it can often be over-used ending up with the seen looking like a splatter movie

I tried out some new painting techniques that I've been learning to paint the skin of the figures, painting the lighter tones where the light falls naturally and making sure not to 'detach' musculature by separating parts with too much shadow. I think I'm improving but I've not yet perfected it!

Again, I used Uhu on the disembowelled fighter - I cut most of it back once it was fully dried, but it helps to have a longer piece to anchor the glue while it's still curing

Note that I painted the miniatures on the pinned base I used to sculpt them - it made sense not to overhandle them before they were based

Once they were fully painted and varnished, I glued each miniature to the diorama base. I did this before sticking Angron in place so that I had room to make any adjustments to their poses

I really love the slowly falling pose of the middle gladiator, with his dropped spear falling in the opposite direction

Leave him alone, he's armless...

Although I added more blood spatter and a little more weathering powder later, this was the basic diorama complete with the exception of Angron. The blood spray was used to imply the direction of Angron's movement and how he dispatched his victims

For some reason I didn't actually take any pictures while painting Angron despite him being the actual centrepiece of the whole diorama! What a silly goose! I wanted to stick to a classic Angron palette but hint at his future incarnations. To do this, I used red for his Pauldrons and white for his greaves - red for his future daemon form and white for the colour of his legion, the World Eaters. I didn't want Angron to look too blatantly 'Khorne' aligned at this point, but I was happy to allude to the shape of things to come with colour, axes and a liberal helping of blood!

Anyway, once I'd painted Angron and his impromptu foot-rest, I glued him to the base to complete the mini diorama!

Angron standing triumphantly atop one of many fallen arena combatants

The trail of carnage left in Angron's wake

The Pillar

Way back at the start of this project I had decided that I wanted all three dioramas to work together as a cohesive display but also as individual pieces in their own right. The pillars were a big part of this, tying the three scenes together and actually adding to the overall story while it still being possible to display them alone.

To make the pillars, I constructed the core shape from wood with the intention of cladding it with Foamex which I could then fill and chip away at to create the marble façade.

The basic wooden pillar and the Foamex cladding ready to be fitted

I glued the cladding into place with Superglue - I tried to keep the gapping to a minimum by cutting the plates at 45 degrees where the ends butted up together. Cutting 45 degree angles by eye with a knife and steel rule is difficult and often annoying but it keeps the need for gap filling to a minimum

After filling all of the gaps in the cladding, I then methodically busted up the surface with large chips and cracks across the surface

I cleaned up a load of plastic skulls and cut off the backs so that they would sit naturally on the surface of the pillar

The skulls were individually placed in the deepest chips of the pillar surface

Once I was happy with the skull placement I filled the gaps and textured the putty to look like broken masonry

I then painted the surface to resemble marble, painting the cracks with an earthy brown so that they would stand out nicely against the dark marble surface

I did initially attempt to use the baby wipe marbling technique which everyone raves about but I didn't like the lack of control over the surface patterning. As a result, I created my own marbling technique which involved a white spray base coat followed by layers of dappled black templar contrast paint from Citadel.

The blueish hue could be built up over intervening layers of gloss mod-podge to create an extremely glossy semi-translucent surface. I added some thin veining detail with Ulthuan grey which I washed with a thinned contrast glaze to tie it back into the rest of the surface. Overall I was very pleased with the way the effect looked when finished.