O you proud Christians, wretched souls and small,/ Who by the dim lights of your twisted minds/ Believe you prosper even as you fall,/ Can you not see that we are worms, each one/ Born to become the angelic butterfly/ That flies defenseless to the Judgement Throne?
Dante Aligheri
The true power behind Throne.
Who was Maloghurst?
Equerry to the Warmaster, Maloghurst helped realise the will of the Warmaster, coordinating the efforts of the Legions Astartes, Titan legions, Mechanicus and the myriad other organisations in the Imperial war machine. Spymaster, chief enforcer, and later Estoerist, Maloghurst was Horus’ go-to guy to get stuff done.
Maloghurst had become crippled, his body ruined on the world of Sixty-Three-Nineteen during the final days of the Great Crusade. His spine deformed, he was retired from active combat service, serving tasks within the legion beyond the remit or the Astartes. Assassination, propaganda and spying become new tasks to which he took with great talent.
As the Heresy bloomed, Malohgurst’s role comes to encompass the myriad treacheries of the warp. He helped developed the Lupercai and communicate with the fell powers on behalf of the Warmaster.
The model is surprisingly good – I’m not sure what it is about studio photos but they never quite seem to capture the essence of the sculpt. This was painted in a more traditional ‘grim-dark early Forge World style, detailing the armour with micro-abrasions, pitting and battle damage. The aim behind this style of painting is to present a character without filter – to step into the universe and see every detail in as realised a fashion as possible.
The hairspray technique was used to create a barrier between the undercoat and paint job. This was then dissolved with water and chipped away to create realistic pits in the armour. Brzone and cold golds were used to highlight the shoulder pads and banner, to give an uncompromising look to the metals.
When painting a model as badly mauled as this, take the opportunity to really show that on the shin. Purples, magenta and dark blues were all glazed into the shadows to create a positively horrid skin tone.
2 Miniatures were sent to me by clients – I know, deeply unfair when they sold out so quickly. Neither of these is mine and I am not selling these as a scalper.
The second one was painted alongside the first, but I used the original artwork of Malhgurst to paint him in black armour.
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Gallery
