Chaos Squats Hero on Black Shadow: Taming the Rust Monster

Here we have another Chaos-Squatified Imperial Guard Special Character, this time the Attilan Commander Mogul Kamir. Like the others, the Hungry Ghosts incarnation swaps the horse for a motorcycle. Unlike the others, this Chaos Squat has the body of the dreaded Rust Monster (from the mid-80s Citadel Advanced Dungeons & Dragons series). He has been renamed Gemist Knarst and integrated firmly into a Vincent Black Shadow with floppy weak legs (Tyranid Spore Mine tentacles) so he cannot escape.

Your basic Rust Monster is a bunch of lumpy rocks and probing antennae. Plus the mysterious propeller tail. So it was a fairly obvious idea to provide some additional probing antennae (from the Dark Eldar Talos) and other sensors from some Eldar, Dwarfs, and Battlefleet Gothic. The lumpy rock pattern was amplified with some Lizard Men Saurus Shields covering the back tire, the top of a Nid Spore Mine, a Tomb Kings Standard top, and a heavy-on-the-rivets Dwarf war-machine bit from the WFB 7th edition boxed rules set.

But then there's the face. The Rust Monster has a tiny almost unnoticeable head, relying on touch instead of sight. Which is a bit preposterous for a cyclist. And so I expanded on that foundation of preposterity: I had a sprue of the plastic Space Dwarfs with a miscast head, just the front half with melted facial features. Someone less silly would have tossed it aside, but I saved it for many years, until it could be nestled between the Rust Monster antennae to form a blind mutant biker. There was also room for a ridge of hair (Trolls) and some cyber-sensors.

However, that melted face blind biker demanded a bike with multiple fully formed faces. The Tomb Kings Standard provided 6 nice skulls, and a ridge of spiky tooth-shapes similar to those on the Saurus shields. Pointing the way is a pointy-nosed goblin-faced metal shield from the 1987 assortment.

Since I don't know the meaning of "too many", an armored Gnoblar Head was slapped on the front of the Dwarf war machine bit. And a couple more heads are dragging from ropes in the rear (Vampire Counts). The ropey pattern of their ropes along with the similar styling on the Dwarf Machine accentuate the ropey look of the Rust Monster tail.

And that is how you ensure you don't finish painting your tanks.