A few weeks ago, I was flipping through an old White Dwarf and came across that famous article about Steppenwolf. I'm not sure if anyone remembers it, but basically, a guy who worked for GW in France had created a Chaos barbarian hero who was his general through tike and Space- 40k, fantasy, necromunda and more all in different variations from mounted and on foot, on a chariot and in terminator armour. I always loved that article.
Recently working on my Valhallans I had an idea - maybe I could convert my own general, something unique for the army. Many years ago in about 2008 when I came back to warhammer, I had my first guard army. The army was for a custom planet called Haddrack- a sort of volcanic Death World where gas-masked warriors lived beneath a barely breathable sky in hive cities. Ithe army sort of never really blossomed, but they had a few squads, a sentinel and a chimera and several games mostly against the Tyranids.
At the time I had an idea - wouldn't it be cool to have a female commander? - there weren't any at all at the time, so I bought a metal battle sister model with a heavy bolter as the gun was separate so I could replace the arms. I converted her with a big fur Pelt over her shoulders and different weapons, but other than cutting away the details it was pretty basic and still looked a lot like a battle sister. Regardless,the Princess of Haddrack appeared on the scene and left them I to the battle. The old army colours was a reddy-orange armour and grey coats. They were all converted using cadian plastics and to be honest it was a bit of a mess.
Anyway, fast-forward to 2026. I'm digging through some boxes of old models. The army was long retired and what they had was drafted to other projects, but what couldn't be saved was basically just spare parts. I found the model I'd made and had a thought - what if she survived that last battle where she died to a pack of genestealers... and what if she joined my Valhallans. Somewhere I the back of my mind d, memories of Steppenwolf and the fact she was a 1990s metal model sealed the deal. I stripped off the dodgy old conversion and went to work rebuilding her.
One thing was for sure, I wanted her to look a lot less like a battle sister than before. I also wanted to keep her armament pretty similar which back then was a sort of hand made power fist with a circular saw blade built in for reasons that mostly relate to playing Quake 3. I didn't try to do the saw, but went looking for a new power fist.
The build was completed in a day, but I spent a good few hours fiddling with her - first of all, I had to clean the model and cut away more from her old conversion. It's a shame I don't have a photo of the before and after. For her years commanding the original force from Haddrack, she had been converted with a fur Pelt across her shoulders with a lot of the original battle sister pads remaining. I cut those away with clippers and also cut away the remaining robes that hang from her arms. The hat came from a Vostroyan and was in my bits box for many years. I cut both the hat and her head ever flatter until the two pieces fit convincingly. Actually no greenstuff was used on this model, and all the sculpting was in standard milliput. Seemed more 90s, and actually I like the softer material and the durable finish.
In terms of parts, I had a pair of plastic shoulders from a tank crew frame, and the canteen on her waist is an old cadian part. Her bionic arm comes from a skitarii ranger while the fist and plasma pistol come from the heresy Mk6 marine kit. Her cape is a 5th edition fantasy chaos warrior bit which actually was glued to my old unfinished "King of Haddrack" who was part of the same old project. The last part used was something I can't identify. I had a metal tube that looked like a smoke stack in the bits box with a round cup on the end with a skull on it. I cut the cap off and used it to replace her medallion. Copious quantities of milliput were used to make her upper arms and to meld everything in, as well as to build the bottom of her great coat and all the fur trim once the model was dry enough to handle it. I haven't gone to these lengths in a long time to convert something.
Here's a work in progress of the model glued together and filled in:
To match her new model, I wrote a short back story. I love a good back story with a couple of hooks in it... GW should give me a bunch of money to write the book! Okay maybe not, but I enjoyed it, and she has been back in action. Always nice to cobble a model together from spares and create something you like. For second editions she is being used with a power fist, bionic arm, refractor field and master crafted plasma pistol.
Haddrack, the death world. A violent landscape of simmering volcanoes and seismic cataclysms. A world where a once proud warrior culture thrived in scattered hive cities buried beneath the surface - fuelled by an economy born of rich mineral deposits and industry.
A decade ago, without warning the Tyranids came. Terrible ships descended from the scorched skies upon the benighted surface and war raged in the ashen wastelands. In the final battle, Blazdemona led her people as Crown Princess alongside her father the King of Haddrack, but her command squad was overrun. Summoning all the martial prowess of her people, she slew three genestealers in single combat - her Haddracki disc gauntlet hewing their alien bodies with horrendous power, but it was not enough. With a roar of rage, one of the beasts tore her left arm from her body and she was cast to the ground. Just when all seemed lost, the King of Haddrack intervened. Bundling his only daughter's stricken body into his royal cloak. He threw her on the back of his Fire Dragon Harkonus and whipped the beast towards the evac point. She was evacuated in the final off world transport mere moments before the surface was ignited from orbit by an Imperial cruiser in a roiling plasma wave that destroyed all life on the surface. The imperium had triumphed, but there was nothing left and the king had sold his life to ensure his daughter's survival.
With no home, the remnants of the Haddraki defence force were absorbed into the Guard. Some units were taken as far as Armageddon Prime to be refitted. Blazdemona was left behind, her wounds so severe that she spent over a year recuperating before finally being fitted with a new bionic left arm on Valhalla. Thirsting for revenge against the aliens, she enlisted immediately where her skills helped her rise to the top once again on that strange frozen planet so unlike her home world.
Some say that even a decade after the tragedy on her homeworld, she still longs to return. One rumour even has it that the Royal skull pendant she bears is actually a cypher that can open the ancient blast doors of Haddrack once again, and that in their final hours the warriors had created a weapon known only as Omega. A weapon that still lies dormant - just waiting for a command from the royal line.
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