#helbrute

Yuletide's been busy, and I've been obsessed with Rogue Trader, so... yeah

Haven't had time to paint at all, so lucky for me, I'd taken a good few pictures before going up north to my family's house. So this, I think would be a good time to talk about the specific guys what these are.

"Even in death, I still serve!"

Dreadnoughts are one of the oldest force multipliers utilized by the forces of the Imperium, both the Space Marines and Custodes having used them since the unification of Terra. A warrior near death having been permanently interred within the confines of the dreadnought's control sarcofagus, used to pilot a massive, destructive suit of armour. Many patterns of Dreadnought suit have been made, and much of them is lost technology to the forces of the Imperium. Even the forces of Chaos, who have retained much of the Imperium's Heresy-age technologies, have not been fully able to keep their more advanced patterns of Dreadnought armour, with each that does survive considered a revered relic of the chapter.

In the 41st millenium, the most common Dreadnought pattern is the Castraferrum. Smaller than any other Astartes or Custodes Dreadnought pattern, the Castraferrum still stands at minimum a head-and-torso length taller than a Space Marine. Almost as wide as they are tall, they were designed for a variety of combat encounters, including boarding actions, tunnelfighting and subterranian combat, and of course open ground battles. Their ease of maintenance can be attributed to being powered by a thermic reactor, where as many other patterns utilize a little understood atomatic arc reactor.

The Castraferrum Dreadnought can be armed with a variety of weapons. Most often, it's weapon loadout includes a close-combat weapon and a ranged weapon, and the size of the dreadnought allows for it to wield weapons that normal marines would have considerable trouble wielding otherwise. A dreadnought's ranged weapon options include twin-linked autocannons, firing high-power shells that can shread through light vehicles, twin-linked lascannons, high powered laser weapons designed to tear through heavier armour, heavy bolters, rapid firing anti-infantry weapons with enough punch to still deal with lightly armoured vehicles as well, assault cannons, rapidfiring anti-infantry weapons, multi-meltas, short range fusion based weapons, firing a concentrated beam capable of cutting a hole in the hull of a space ship, mostly used against heavy armour, plasma cannons, volatile heavy plasma weapons, capable of blasting infantry to smithereens, but with a tendency toward overheating and blowing up on the user, and finally missile launchers, capable of firing either frag missiles, creating an explosion of shrapnel, intended to maim infantry, or krak missiles, causing an implosion strong enough to render even the most durable vehicles inoperable. In close combat, however, the Dreadnought is more often than not armed simply with a Dreadnought powerfist, though with the size of the Dreadnought, that fist is commonly suplied with a wrist mounted stormbolter or heavy flamer. The Castraferrum can also be specialized for different situations. The Hellfire configuration is acchieved with a simple swapping of the powerfist for a secondary ranged weapon, the most common combination being a missile launcher and a lascannon. Siege Dreadnoughts replace their ranged weapon with a heavy flamer, for flushing out any opposition from hiding places, while the powerfist is replaced with a siege drill, for tearing down fortifications, though it is also quite good against vehicles. The Ironclad Dreadnought is designed for close combat, and as such is armed with re-enforced armour on the front of the Dreadnought.

However, this pattern of dreadnought is not only used by the Imperials. The Ferrum Infernus pattern is the term used for the ancient dreadnoughts marching to battle alongside the ruinous powers of Chaos. Though clad in the baroque armour of Chaos, the Ferrum Infernus is otherwise very similar to the standard Dreadnought, however there are some differences in armament, such as the lack of assault cannons, and having heavy flamers and twin-linked heavy bolters as a more common option. The Ferrum Infernus may also have the standard close combat weapon with a built in bolter, though often this can mean a chainweapon mounted on the arm, rather than a power fist, with a proper Chainfist option available as well, though the most fearsome options for the Ferrum Infernus are the swift and deadly anti-infantry blender known as the power scourge, and the devastating, high-power thunderhammer. Some traitor legions even customize the Ferrum Infernus with their own unique weapons, such as the Sonic Dreadnoughts of the Emperor's Children, armed with Dirge Casters and twin-linked Blastmasters, or the World Eaters' Berzerker Dreadnoughts, armed with even more devastating close combat weapons. However, while Imperial Marines may see interment in a Dreadnought as a glorious fate, to many Chaos Marines, it is a fate worse than death, as the sarcofagus is more often than not, left out of stasis, leading to the warrior interred to go mad. And sometimes, this madness brings mutation.

This has lead to the birth of the Helbrute, a warped and mutated Chaos Dreadnought, turned from the hulking baroque slab of ceramite to a writhing mass of flesh and metal. Helbrutes have largely the same weapons as other Chaos Dreadnoughts, though less custom weapons, with the Helbrute Hammer taking the place of a Thunderhammer, though this being by no means less powerful. Most legions see the creation of a Helbrute as a punishment, and see the fury of their vile creations as a blessing of the dark gods to those not interred. However, most every Chaos Legion sees the Thousand Sons' Helbrutes with nothing but disgust. The Thousand Sons, servants of Tzeentch, the god of change, have no warriors that aren't psykers, and even they are rare. The creation of new Thousand Sons is limited to psykers, and they can not afford to be interred in Helbrutes. All footsoldiers of the Thousand Sons are merely magically charged dust, remembering the greatness of the warrior it once was, piloting the ancient suits of power armour. As such, the Thousand Sons lure members of other legions in with promises of power, before interring them withing the Helbrute, ensnaring them into a life of eternal rage and torment.

The Snake bites prepared for hunting the Araknophobia legion marines, but from the forest an ancient horrors of a monster attack. Lightning from the claws and roaring in blood lust. A chaos marine that newer will die in the bulky armor and a murderus hero of the legion, that still hunts in the darkness of night.

All my media Svartaberget Art.

@svartabergetart

*rts bleeps*

Converted a furioso dreadnought into a helbrute with helbrute fists and flamers.

Shaved off so much plastic, added a plate from the chaos rhino/land raider sprue and a choice cable from the helbrute kit. Because while the helbrute kit is satisfying to paint, it is also a lot of flesh to paint and painting the metal parts is just metallics->agrax->rust wash->metallic higlight.