I decided a few weeks ago to include The Red Angel in my AOTE army, but I had no idea how I was going to model and paint one...! For those unfamiliar with him, here is a photo of the artwork from my Collected Visions book:



According to the TF fluff (since I can't find any other mention of him!) The Red Angel is an unknown warp entity who killed Sanguinius' equerry at Signus Prime, and then inhabited his corpse so he could remain with the Heretics after leaving the planet. He was present at Horus' final tactical meetings before the invasion of Terra, and so one assumes he was not only an incredibly powerful psyker but a savvy leader too?

I spent a few hours on Tuesday night looking through HH artwork and reading up on daemonic possession in the Inquisitor series, and then proceeded to have a spectacularly graphic nightmare about it! :lol:

I woke up about 6am and suddenly had the flash of inspiration to start the model - before work, I trawled my bitz boxes and found almost everything I needed. Today I picked up some old broken jewellery chain from a friend's shop, and this is the finished model (excuse terrible camera phone zoom!) -



and a top-down view, since his pose is... yogic to say the least!



Now I know the armour isn't quite right, especially the knees and breastplate, but I'm quite happy with that as it stands! Or rather, hovers! :lol: I could have used one of the pairs of Berserker legs which match the knees more, and a SM chest would have emulated the cables better... but I decided to use SM Assault legs and the Berserker chest, just for the chain and for more versatility in the pose.

He is completely free-floating, held up by only his chains which are superglued to keep them rigid, and one which is plastic and takes most of the weight from the middle of his back. The base is obviously the Chaos Termie Lord's, and the weird angle adds to the illusion of levitation and gives a great way to hide the start of the chains.

The legs and pelvis are each separate - both right and left legs are the completely clear-of-the-ground ones from each pair of Assault runners (so there is full tread detail underneath!) and the pelvis is the square-standing Tactical one. The arms are also from Assault SMs, a chainsword left and plasma pistol right (to give a complete cuff rather than the half-cuff on the boltpistol arms) with Zombie hands - these are slightly oversized, but since he is bound with chains and armed with Daemonic Talons, I thought it would be ok...

Finally, the shoulders are Sergeant Haas FW resin with the RS logos removed, and the lolled back head is the severed baldy from the Zombie sprues. With suitably glowing eyes it will looking quite sinister I think!

Comments? Suggestions? I have yet to texture the edges of the base, and I will be adding another layer of glue to the chains to make them stronger.

Very nice Shroud... was thinking about the Red Angel and how I would model it the other day and this is pretty close to what i had in mind!

Will be really interested to see how you approach the painting, and how you represent the "flaming" look. Had any thoughts yet?

well it looks like the one on CMON, wich someone has posted on here( somewhere in the demons part) but looking good
:)

Yes, I have had some thought on that... I believe the exact wording of said thoughts was "DO NOT WANT!" :lol:

I almost sculpted a pillar of fire for him to sit on, but it would have made it a rather bland model and I really wanted to play with levitation effects. I also considered giving him a head made of flames and painting a face into it... but that would have looked terrible too!

I'm thinking I can either paint cracks and magma effects onto the surface of his armour plate and ridges (only leaving the binding chains intact) in a kind of 'surface camo' flame effect... OR I can say that the artwork shows him using a psychic power or teleporting, and therefore I won't have to bother! ;)

My model will be a quite early version of him, not long after Signus Prime - I can probably justify any difference from the artwork with that explanation.

EDIT: Killjoy - yes indeed, I took some cues from Rogal Dorn's version of the Red Angel, undoubtedly. I tried to 'fix' everything I didn't like about it, while keeping the same sort of look.

In fact, I just realised where my pose has come from - any PlaystationOne geeks ever play Martian Gothic? :lol:

Looks pretty tasty so far. I agree with not sculpting flames - it rarely works.

Go for a lava effect as used on the Balrog or Eldar Avatar, glowing from the joins in the armour, eyes, mouth etc...

Alternaitvely make a few and do a Jimi Hendrix mid game, so long as the battlefield and rest of your army is flame proof :P

Damn fine model I am going to have to do one someday.
I would paint the eyes glowy and paint him like that new army in the new Chaos codex with the magma effects like you said.

Umm Shroud is that the same model Rogal Dorn did a long time ago? :huh:

BBL - Did you read his second post?

Looking good. I'm not too keen in the position of the right leg, but he has the right feel to him. Well done with the levitation effect. I'll add another vote to the levitation effect!

BBL - see above. As far as I am aware, there is no rule on this forum that says you can't make a model of a character if someone else has already done it... otherwise the Primarchs would be somewhat tricky, eh? :rolleyes:

Here is a reminder of Rogal Dorn's version, and mine next to it:



As you can see, there are many differences... not least the choice of parts and the fact that I have suspended mine using just chains rather than a black rod.

I need a Red Angel for AOTE2 in September - he's just that good! - and so regardless of who has done it before, I need to make one as close to the artwork as possible.

very cool man ;)
Just a thought, when I have been painting demons, possesed models, I always space wolf grey into the highlights as you get a very cold, unworldy highlight, just though I would let you know ;)

Excellent job, Shroud!

You mention that you had been thinking of putting flames where his head was, etc, well what if you GSed flames around his head, so you can still see the face, but there are still flames all around it?

Someone else tried that on CMON, and it looked rather tragically like a big ruffled collar. I will stick to painted effects, and hope for something half decent... :lol:

If I had more time, I'd make a lot more of an effort to match the artwork exactly.

There is that WHFB Wizard with the flaming hair from the plastic kit.
It may not be appropriate, but at least it's a maybe.

Where'd you get the diddy chain?

The chain is scrap jewelry chain, kindly donated by a friend who owns a repair shop. I think it's actually very old silver, which makes this the most expensive model I've ever made... :lol:

I think he is spot on, nice use of that torso, very cunning

The chains look good as well

is he gonna be your 'librarian' for the campaign ?

Possibly... although I may have to take Imperial Army to even out the numbers a bit. He'd make a tasty Primaris Psyker anyway!

:lol: lol, I can only imagine.

He would make a very interesting Primaris Psyker.

Brilliant sculpt there.

Doesn't need GS flames, as you say they can be very miss and less hit.

If you want an effect use wisps of cotton wool on the finished painted model, coming from the neck of the armour so it looks like he's being boiled alive. ;)

hard boiled marine anyone :D

Started the paint job last night, before I suddenly became all feverish and started hallucinating... guess I've been possessed too! If I require chains to stop me from floating away, I'll let y'all know. :rolleyes:

I've gone for black undercoat - Scab Red and a VERY old Shining Gold (which is almost silvery) for the armour and trim, and Boltgun Metal for the chains. Once it looks presentable I will post PIP.

Now, back to bed. Paracetamol, please...

Devlan mud!

Finally got my hands on a good camera (thankyou darling! :P ) and so here is the finished article:





I was VERY pleased with the way this turned out, almost justifying the 3:30am finish on the Friday night/Saturday morning! :lol:

I decided to stay away from fire effects, and just have him as a somewhat inert daemonhost - let's assume the fire was part of his teleportation or aura of psychic fear...! I was very happy with the red blending too - thanks for the advice Iacton! The pallid grey flesh and glowing yellow eyes are somewhat unsettling, just as they should be...

I will finish him off by free-handing the BA symbols on his shoulders, when I feel I have enough time and a steady hand. I tried to use transfers but the RA shoulders are just too curved to get a good adhesion.

Comments?

Love that conversion. The red is very nice, a lovely dark hue without being muddy.

I think my only criticism is that the flesh tones are too close to the colour of the base, the could do with a little more presence - at present the chest seems more the focal point than the face.

Regardless, a very nice piece, and a wise decision to avoid adding flames.

Looks good; recipe for the red? And the gold, for that matter? I concur the flesh doesn't stand out as much as it could but not sure how I'd change it!

Looks really good, Shroud, and I love the conversion itself.
Ialso agree on the flesh tones.

Wow Shroud this is one of your better ones.
Maybe a few more highlights on the face but it looks great.

Great job mate!I agree with BigWill,maybe some more highlights on the face but other than such trivial matters,he looks absolutely great! ;)


Cheers!

Awesome stuff mate, really nice job you've made here! Looks like its made some steps forward since AoTE!

Lovely job with the red as well.

Cheers guys!

I gave the flesh a wash of Devlan Mud to try and make it less grey... wonder if I could add another layer of dark grey highlights and then give it another wash? Maybe in something more adventurous like green or blue?

The red is Scab Red over a black undercoat, sometimes an extra half coat to make sure it's all even. Then a liberal washing with Badab Black, and more into the recesses. First highlight is with Scab Red, then 1:1 Red Gore and Scab Red. Final highlights with Red Gore and tidy the recesses with thin lines of Chaos Black and a light Badab Black wash.

The gold is a 1994 pot of Shining Gold which I've had around forever, straight over black undercoat. Wash heavily twice with Badab Black, then highlight once with Shining Gold and once with 1:1 Shining Gold and Mithril Silver.

The old gold paint looks alot yellower kind of like VMC's Gold

For the decal you need micro-sol,it makes the decal soft and conforming

Very nice. I'll be interested to see how he looks after those extra washes/highlights.

I think the base would need something to make the model pop or bind together even more.
Other than that superb work, much like the original art.

very good... i love it... :D

Looks good... what rules are you going to use with him?

This was specifically for the Age of the Emperor event on the 12th and 13th of this month at Warhammer World - they had rules for him in their codex thing.

In normal games, I will probably just use him as a Librarian.