Hungry Ghosts Chaos Squats of Khorne: Spider-Squat, Spider-Squat, Finishing the Assembly of Spider-Squat

When we last saw our Thunder Chiefs Rough Rider Spinne Sluitdiep, he was laid out in embarrassing disassembled pieces, like C3PO in Cloud City. Once Chewie brings me the hydrospanner, Spinne will be on his way to recovery. Meanwhile we have seen just about all of Spinne's cycle except for the greenstuff gap fillers.

Spinne is shown as the enemy (friend, bystander, etc) sees him, bearing down with unholy bloodlust. I've positioned him so his gun arm is firing straight forward and his axe waving in the air. I glued some Space Marine weapon scope bits in the notch of the armor plating, because I like them, and they let Spinne see the blood fly cell by cell. As can be seen in the picture, the gaps in the rider's horns and axe-arm were filled with putty.

A happy coincidence resulted in the front fender of the Ork bike providing a bottom jaw to the Skull on the armor. On the other hand, I did not originally intend the front section to be non-aligned with the rear, but that will turn out to work out nicely once we see the bike based.

Here is the view of the assembled bike and rider from the right side. A good amount of greenstuff went into assembling the bike, but it is more hidden from view than with the previous bikers.

A key area was where the Front Wheel section attached to the rest of the bike. Luckily, the Chaos Dread Power Scourge part was just about exactly long enough to reach from the Vindicator bit that hold the tracks, while leaving enough space to insert Spinne's relatively long limbs. Spinne's leg was positioned so it is resting on a small protrusion from the Power Scourge. His driving arm is curving under the gun arm, and is attached to the handlebar behind the armor.

Spinne has come to life a similar curved-spikes-and-skulls as the other Thunder Chiefs, giving them a bit of a unifying design despite the eccentric constructions of the cycles and riders. Not that I am a mighty genius; spikes, skulls, and circles are hard to avoid in the Warhammer universe so you might as well put them in harmonious locations.

Thunder Chief Sluitdiep from the left side, with leg and driving arm attached to the Scourge protrusion on the other side and the other handlebar, respectively. Spinne's arm is heavily armored to resist the effects of his Exploding Warhammer.

A Lammasu's eye view of the back, showing the details of engine region. Again, I tried to use bits that provided circular or ovoid patterns, with a couple on the Vindicator bit and another plastic bit attached to it. Spinne has 3 exhaust pipes, the large one in the center, and the 2 mouth-ends of the Wight skeletal horns. I added a skull above each of the 3 pipes, to suggest the Great Noxiousness of Spinne's fumes. The skulls were given a crown of spikes curving behind them, while a skeletal angel of death observes the unholy scene created by Spinne's Daemonengine.

A smoke launcher from the Chaos Accessory sprue has been split in half and added to the sides of the engine, These launchers are another of my favorite bits in terms of appearance, and the 3 buttons on each half also nicely echo the 3 exhaust pipe skulls and the 3 holes in each of the 3 skulls.

Now we turn to some pictures of Spinne primed and washed, to get a better sense of him as an integrated entity instead of a pile of bits, and so details can be discerned with more ease.

A Starscream's view over Spinne from the front. The bits picked for this view emphasize groups of 2 circular designs in contrast to the 3 seen from the rear. Thus, 2 eyes on the armor plate with the 2 scopes above them, and the 2 eyes of Spinne behind the scopes. There are also 2 skeletal fenders with nice round heads, 2 launchers on each side of the split smoke launcher. Spinne's horns provide another pair of curved accessories, with their length that allows them to curve over his shoulders to his back.

A Giant Space Hamster's view from above this time (the GSHs are as real as those Vargouilles constantly trailing Space Marines and Inquisitors). In this picture, the complementary designs of the curved spike bit over the engine and the spiked curve created by Spinne's outspread upper fighting arms.

Spinne's long, braided, flowing beard is also visible. While it is a blatant Imperial lie that the Tyranid ate all of the Squats, in Spinne's case, Tyranids did eat all of him. Except the beard and horns. The Dark Mechanicii spake "Brothers in Blood, we can rebuild him. We have the Technology. And the sacrificial kittens."

A detailed view of our Thunder Chief from the right. Those Wight Horns are so damn cute, and their curve flows well with Spinne's legs. I had been waiting a while to find the right spot for those horns. I also think the Necron Lord Arm is an interesting bit. While it clearly resembles the Necron Scarab, it does so in a way that it might fit well with Eldar or Tau figures.

If you have paid super close attention, you will notice that the pictures above showed Spinne floating above the Scourge-chassis. Here, the gap was filled with the lower part of a Space Marine backpack, which provides some nice vents as well as lumbar support. You may also have noticed that I find backpacks of SMs and CSMs to be very versatile sources of conversion fodder. But with the backpack, chains and bars, and underslung cable, I think I've made this section of the bike as complicated as possible.

Details of the left side, with the steering arm and leg more visible than from the right.

That's it for the Thunder Chiefs for now. Next up will be the assembly of the Hellhound and Leman Russ that take up the rest of the 1500 points in the current Hungry Ghosts army list, hopefully followed soon after by painted versions of the last 3 Thunder Chiefs.

Today's bonus pictures are detail images from some of the Thunder Chiefs.