Converting and painting Warp Talons as Night Lords

Another new unit for my Chaos Marines. I had the idea floating in my brain for some time, and I bought some Tyranid Gargoyle sprues a long time ago.

Conversions

I was way too excited and forgot to take pictures, but I think the process is fairly obvious. I chopped up some backpacks by cutting away all the side exhausts and other nubs. Measure the side up to the gargoyle wings and clip the wings down to size, then use the hobby knife to carve a more organic looking curve. Dry fit - I used the hobby knife to refine the contact points, so that the wings spread backward instead of forward, so that I won't have issues around the shoulder pads/arms. Plastic glue the wings to the backpacks.

Prepare some firstborn marine bodies by chopping off the arms and heads, and cutting away the aquilas on the chests. Any knives, pouches etc also have to go. I left two heads in place, that could fit some Puppetswar Traitor Crests. Then mount them on 32mm bases (I used some chopped up 25mm bases for elevation) and glue on basing bits.

Add the arms and heads. I used more Puppetswar bits (demon heads and tech warrior heads), and Kromlech chaos shoulder pads. The arms are a mix of Assault Terminator and Tartaros Terminator lightning claws (hence the size disparity - looks quite goofy) as well as firstborn marine lightning claws, no idea what kit(s).

Last thing to do was to cover up the mutilated chest pieces. I tried just chains, but it looks funky. I then switched to a mix of chains and beads.

Painting the wings

I primed the backpacks/wings separately Wraithbone. Paint all over the wings Darkoath Flesh, then go over the fingers using Reikland Fleshshade.

Paint the membranes Gore Grunta Fur.

I decided to go a bit further - drybrush everything Heavy Skintone. The fingers are exactly where I want them, but the membranes came out chalky.

Coat the membrances Carroburg Crimson (seen here while doing a testfit).

Paint the claws as Bone. Then paint the backpacks Leadbelcher by hand and continue as below.

Painting the armor

Spray prime Leadbelcher. Then start with drybrushing the base as cobblestone.

Start by painting the Brass. On the test model, I realized that the large bolt head looks funny, so it was to be armor colored on other models.

Then basecoat the armor Leviadon Blue, the claws Magmadroth Flame and the demon helmet horns Flesh Tearers Red.

On to the details. Paint some lightning bolts in Grey Seer.

Dot highlight the splits and bends Dead White.

There. Much better than edge highlighting everything.

Any left shoulderpads get the Night Lords icon. Start with a skull form in Wraithbone.

A couple layers should do the trick.

I guess I could have painted the wings in red, but I had Grey Seer on the palette, so here they are.

Fill in the wings Blood Angels Red, then draw eyes and a nose in Black Legion. Any similar icons on the fists get the bone/red treatment.

Painting the chapter icon of the Serrated Sun.

Edge highlight the face Electric Blue. Bloody Red for the Horns. Moon Yellow on the claws.

Paint the face masks metal along with any chainmail on the shoulderpads. Paint the eyes Blood for the Blood God! and the bald head medium skintone.

Finish off the bases with Rusty metal elements and the final drybrush.

Finished!