Monkey Chukas C'tan Conversion: The Sequel

Today we get a follow up on Monkey Chukas C'tan conversion. GSI was asked for some follow up photos by Netsurfer733, so I asked Monkey Chuka, and MC came through with this excellent sequel...

Following on from my initial C'tan Conversion post back in 2014, I finally got round to painting it!  It has also been renamed as a 'God Shackle', inspired by the Games Workshop campaign supplement: 'Shield of Baal: Exterminatus'.  (Being both a Tyranid and a Necron player I was very happy with Shield of Baal and some of the artwork in it is amazing).

Anyway, the God Shackle itself is described as a

"...relic discovered by Anrakyr in the depths of the Star Hallows that allows him more exacting control of the C'tan shards in his possession. On Asphodex this would even allow the Overlord and his Crypteks to boost the power of the Burning One, rather than relying on its innate rage alone.  The only drawback of using such a device is that the tighter the leash placed around a C'tan's neck, the more likely the creature is to rebel against it."

It can be used in Mephrit Dynasty detachments and seemed to match what I was trying to achieve in this conversion perfectly.

Having been inspired by the fluff, I reckoned it was finally time to paint it. Although I am the owner of an airbrush, it has sadly only ever been used to basecoat models.  I'm a fairly lazy painter and normally rely heavily on drybrush techniques which are fast and effective.  I realised that this just wasn't going to look very good on the smooth lines of a C'tan Shard. So I thought it might be time to get out of my comfort zone and utilize the airbrush for its intended purpose.

I mainly used Vallejo Model Air paints mixed with airbrush medium.  The shackle was primed black and a basecoat of Steel applied.  I used a Citadel Nuln Oil wash mixed with glazing medium to add shading.  The C'tan shard was primed white with a basecoat of Pale Green.  I then applied lighter colours Duck Egg Green and White, angling the brush from above and using less paint so that the darker shades were still visible in the shadows of the model.  The finished result was too pale and lacklustre so I mixed Citadel Golden Yellow with airbrush medium and re-highlighted all the white bits.  This looked much better and I was fairly pleased with my first attempt at serious airbrushing.  I attempted to do a bit of object source lighting on the Shackle.  I wanted to show the directional glow of the C'tan's body on the metal of it's prison.  This went horribly wrong so I just re-painted it in Steel. (Baby steps! Maybe next time.)

The cabling attached to the shard (created with a Tentacle Maker Tool Box) was a mixture of black, Gehenna's Gold and Brass Scorpion with a wash of Reikland Fleshade and silver highlights.  The glowing spheres of the portal and console used the same colours as the Shard but were applied with a brush.

There are more pictures of it on my blog, if you're interested.

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