Magnus The... Blue?!?

Hey there Chaos fanatics! Welcome to Chaos Corner. Now, I know I've been intermittent in posting. I've been very busy with house stuff and real life. As I said in my previous posting, I have been working on 40K stuff to be sure. So here is one of the big ones that I finished in recent months...

Magnus The Red. He is one of the best characters in 40K. Tragic, brilliant yet stupid, careful and reckless, selfish and selfless in equal measure. Unlike some characters in 40K fiction, he is very 3 dimensional and complex. Of course, he led his Thousand Sons to utter disaster, and in a way, they have all been paying for it ever since. The idea that a man who valued intelligence above all should see his beloved sons reduced to incurious shells of armor without will or knowledge is just an amazing story.

Naturally, with the release of the Thousand Sons, I got into them and I received him as a Christmas gift. However, I didn't want to paint him right away. I wanted to paint some of the army first, so that I could get a feel for how I wanted the overall army to look. My thought was that since Magnus would be the centerpiece, I should flesh out the army first so that he would tie into it, yet be distinct.

First off, I had to do some conversion work on him. I can't help it; its the old Chaos converter for me. The model is great, if slightly fantastical (which befits the Daemon Primarch of Tzeentch). But one of the things that bothered me was the darn chestplate with the horns. I felt that it made the model way too busy, so I decided to do without it.

As a result of that, Magnus looks statuesque- like a Roman god come to life. For his skin, I wanted to keep it darker than how I painted the Thousand Sons rank and file. So I used Kantor Blue for his skin, with lighter blues for highlights (as I feel that Tzeentch's color is blue). I also decided to make his feathers blue, but a bit lighter than his skin. By painting the wings white, with blue washes over it, making them distinct from his body but also tied in.

The other conversion I did was his open palm. I thought it was kinda silly to have that hand just hanging out there. So after some thought, I went and bought ghosts from Fantasy. I took the two that looked best (and would fit properly) and with a little putty made them sit in the palm of his hand. To me, it looks like he is summoning some kind of warp entity. I also took part of another ghost (the swirl but not the head/arms) and put it over Magnus' weapon, so that it looks like there is wrap energy coming from it.

I guess I just wanted my Magnus to look a little different, especially as he is utterly un-posable (something that is bothering me about the new GW products unfortunately). Anything I could do to make my Magnus a little unique. As for the rest of the model, I used a lot of gold for the metal bits, so that my 1K Sons gold helms and his gold would match and tie them all together.

Last but not least, his hair. I have always thought that Magnus The Red implied not red skin but rather red hair. I figured he had a ruddy appearance, but not literal red skin. (Personally I think its rather silly that he's actually RED). So I decided to go with my gut and make only his hair red. The red starts with Khorne Red and some crimson wash followed by successive brighter highlights. The hair looks vibtant and hot, contrasting nicely with his cool blue skin.

Now I haven't used him in battle yet (I finished painting him in June actually). I have decided to wait on playing Thousand Sons until their codex proper is released (which rumors indicate will be by the end of this year). Then I will field them once more as a force to be reckoned with LOL.

Well, thats it for now. I'll be back with later postings of other stuff I've been working on.

Until next time...