The FleshEngine

Through the smoke and the mud and the blood thundered the GodEngines of the Mechanicum and and we followed on behind. The heretics and infidels could not stand against us. Until the day we learned that not all the Noble Knights had remained loyal to the Goldem Throne. Until the day we met the Fleshengine. It stalked through the ranks of our men, and where its trunklike legs of iron struck the men were sucked into the armour, screaming as they were wrapped in tendrils of iron. Where the men were spat in, rugose demons emerged from the carapace of the unholy thing as tiny creatures capered over its armour. An entire battalion of Guardsmen fell to it, blown apart, ripped asunder or torn into unholy twisted versions of humanity. And then, then this broodmother, this fleshengine, turned on our Knights. I had never heard metal scream before that day. 

Now I can hear nothing else in the night. The screaming of Knights. 

I had the chassis of a Knight left and I had always intended to create chaos version, but it wasn't until I looked closely at the Mephitic Blight Hauler kit that I figured out how to do the 'face'. Once I had that the rest sort of fell into place. 

This has been a massive project, so I apologise for the amount of photos and the length of the post, but this has been about three weeks on an off so I collected a lot of information. 

Step one was to cut out the face of the Blight Hauler. I also turned around the mouth parts and fastened them in to create a lower jaw. 

Using the dryad sprues I added some nurgly growth to the main body in various places.

This was probably the fiddliest bit of the conversion - I cut the joints of the fingers and remodelled the hand so it was pointing. 

Then I used a combination of foil and plastic putty to create an organic neck to fill where the new head would attach - you can barely see it on the finished model but leaving a gap would have felt very, very wrong. 

I wrapped barbed wire round lots of bits of the body - like this carapace cannon which I ended up leaving off. 

The chap being absorbed was a left over catachan who was sawn on a diagonal. Barbed wire was added for that Hellraiser touch and his shoulder joint was rebuilt so he was reaching out. 

Then painting the whole thing in my rust colours and airbrushing a coat of chipping medium over the top. I've also been playing with masking fluid on another project but for this chipping fluid was the definite tool for the job. 

A trick I learned last time was that if you apply the chipping medium very thick and don't let it dry before you add the top coat, the top coat splits and cracks. This is a very handy bit of information if you want to happen on purpose. 

Then I added the trim. If anyone is interested, the colour scheme is House Hawkwood from Fading Suns. 

Then, once it has dried, time to attack it with a toothbrush. 

Then it was a case of painting details...

And adding weathering using pigments and airbrush thinner.

I added some rigging and banners, just for fun and visual interest. 

I detailed the base with various bits of junk and the head I didn't use. 

This is going to be entered into a painting competition, so wish me luck!