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Brian Mennenoh
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Decima and the Incarnate Slaughter!a Warhammer 40K diorama

The Chaos Knights Army set was purchased a while back by a friend who wanted a diorama built for his display case. As the box sat on my shelf waiting... there were multiple concepts. I've built knights before, the box art didn't really thrill me... I did some research on different Chaos knight paint schemes. I started thinking something in the pink / purple range would be really different than anything I'd painted before. As I started building the kit, I was paging through the book that came with and it mentioned several other Knights I hadn't seen before. Decima and the Incarnate Slaughter caught my attention. As I read more about this particular Knight, I found he had serious issues with Tyranids, a bug like alien race. So after looking into them, I found that Tyranids also have several color schemes referred to as Hive Fleets. I decided that the Hive Fleet Hydra would be the best contrast for Decima. As I set up the initial diorama layout, Mike (the client) decided we should add some Chaos being overrun as a reason for the knights to show up. These Space Marines are of the Black Legion, a couple of them do have shoulder insignia. Only one is still standing in the middle of the battlefield as the knights appear from the Warp behind him. With the lights dim or off, there is a fantastic red glow coming from the knight and his 2 War Dogs.

Video Link: https://youtu.be/WBlJF-H0Tjc

Reader reactions:
7  Awesome

14 responses

  1. What an amazing diorama, Brian @brithebuilder
    Your chosen scheme for the Chaos Knights is wonderfully done and way better than the one on the boxart.
    The LED addition does give it a frightening effect.
    It was a pleasure to follow your thread and see this diorama taking shape.

  2. @johnb - Thanks John! I do love the LEDs and I really appreciate you following the build, it was truly my pleasure!

  3. Amazing paint work.

  4. A wonderful build, Brian! Excellent painting and weathering! The LEDs are the icing on the cake!
    Your build thread was equally amazing.
    Congratulations!

  5. What a paintjob! Congrats to the expert @brithebuilder

    • Thanks Michael, I truly appreciate that. I don't know that I'd call myself an expert, some of the people on this forum are inspirations for me to continue to push the level of detail I try to achieve...

      Check out my YouTube channel - YouTube.com/@brithebuilder

      There will be a video of the build in the next few days.

  6. Brian,

    Neat read with a back story, a familiar theme of the zombie apocalypse or Starship Troopers with knights taking on the bugs. What I really like are all of the possibilities for painting the knights. Your Knight turned out great and the lighting and photography in showing this dio should make your friend happy. Some of the illustrations remind me of Frank Frazetta's work done for Molly Hatchet.

    • Thanks Stephen! I'm never sure about my Articles. I don't have the accurate historical information that some of our other friends write about. I tend to just build for the cool factor. The Warhammer universe is incredibly rich with color schemes and possibilities for adding dirt and weathering. There's both good guys and bad guys and orcs and all manner of other creatures that make cool display pieces. Frazetta's work is incredible. I did build the Death Dealer a while back as well. I wish I had added LEDs to the head for glowing eyes...

  7. All I can say is “amazing”.

  8. Very cool build. Different from the norm and well done.

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