Historia Squataticus: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Squats in Warhammer 40K

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Chaos Squats 40K Special Characters: Gunnery Sergeant Chhattisgarh

Chaos all around. Things got a bit Chaotic here at Hungry Ghosts Headquarters. Chaos from without and Chaos from within.

The original plan was to create the Hungry Ghosts as an Imperial Guard army with Catachan Special Characters. Well, it turns out that there are a lot of Squats, interesting Squats, and that brought on a frenzy of army list wrangling to squeeze all of the Squats minis into one army. Which led to the converting of more Special Characters not from the Death-World. And that led to trying to create an army list that included all of the Squats and filled all of the troop types and characters in the Imperial Guard book with a minimum of miniatures.

That is a tale that will unfold with time. Today we will look at a Special Character from Catachan, whom we saw in bits form a while ago. Now fully assembled and fully loaded come Hungry Ghosts Gunnery Sergeant Chikibi "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" Chhattisgarh.

The Hungry Ghosts version of Gunnery Sergeant 'Stonetooth' Harker started with Squat Adventurer 5. Like the standard Harker, Sgt Chikibi has battled the Tyranid menace. As we can see, Sgt Chikibi not only squashed the evil bug, but ripped off its arms, then ripped off his own, and replaced them with the Genestealer arms for Extra Killing Power. With his double Genestealer Arms (from the old Rogue Trader Genestealer Arms sprue), Sgt Chikibi can rip a nearby enemy to shreds while blasting away at the massed monsters on the move.

To start small, we can see that Sgt Chikibi's lower left arm wields a Las Pistol, another Rogue Trader sprue-sourced bit. And his first 'Bang' begins with hand grenades strapped to his wrist.

From this angle, more 'Bang' grenades. The grenades are plastic bits from Imperial Guard sprues. The double-arm required larger shoulder armor than usual. But, no surprise, the shoulder armor bit is from the venerable Skeleton Army set, this time a skeleton breastplate.

As the proverb goes, excess is best. Adventurer 5 was designed with a heavy load of equipment, so I loaded him down with more. Hitching a ride on Sgt Chhattisgarh's back is his pet bat, Bruce. I think it is from an old Creature Swarm sprue.

Our Sergeant also has been given a mutant prehensile tail, a metal bit from an old Chaos Hound.

Now for the big 'Bang'. Like the original Sgt Harker, Chikibi wields a Heavy Bolter, strapped to his lower right arm. The 'Terrordactyl' starts with the Heavy Bolter from the Rogue Trader weapon sprue. I added various bits to give it the appearance of a monstrous creature - the eyes are sliced off gems set in metal, not sure where they came from. The grasping claw is from the Epic Tyranid Lictor. The bone wrapped handle is from the sword from the mid-1990s Orc Regiment sprue, and the large spikes at the rear are from Tyranid biomorph bits, while the small spikes are Dark Eldar. And once again, the ancient Skeletal Horse provided the ribcage and spine.

The size of the Terrordactyl provides enough cover for the right arms that a smaller piece of shoulder armor was sufficient, so a bit from the Lizardmen Saurus Warriors sprue.

Another view from at the front shows off the Gunnery Sergeant's minor accessories- Unlike 'Stonetooth', Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has a pipe for tobacco smoking from the Dwarf Warriors sprue, and carries a hammer and sack of nails hanging from his belt on the right side.

From above we can see that Sgt Chhattisgarh's Genestealer claws and his Terrordactyl will not be bound by the size of the base, reaching out to blast any enemies. By now, some readers may be wondering, we've seen the Bang Bang, but where is the Chitty Chitty? Chitty Chitty is the sound made by snapping Genestealer claws open and shut.

And yes, I couldn't resist painting Chikibi in Papa Smurf colors. More Special Characters coming soon.

6 comments:

  1. Nobody does this kind of thing better than you. These are some of the most satisfying hobby posts there are. I am satisfied.

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  2. Of COURSE it would be Papa Smurf...I've always been suspicious of that guy!

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  3. Yeah, I love this guy too.

    Enough to name him Chikibi, which is the name of my baby-blanket (though the woobie's name is spelled Chickie-Bea).

    Yes, I still sleep with it.

    All of the chickies and duckies have faded away though, just hints of yellow and blue and red on the whitish base, riddled with holes.

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