Abaddon the Despoiler Scratch Build
This post is originally from September 2017, and is today copied over from the original Brush and Boltgun site. I thought it quite fitting in light of the new Abaddon miniature being released.
Last year, I decided that I wasn’t keen on the Abaddon the Despoiler miniature from GW, which, for someone so poignant to so many events, isn’t very impressive. I decided to build my own, and got to a certain point earlier this year where he was shelved, and stood lonely among a smattering of Red Corsairs and undercoated Chaos Space Marines.
With the release of the new Chaos Astartes codex, I thought I’d get him back out and see if I could do him justice. Initially, he was just the Chaos Terminator Lord miniature, with a Power Fist altered to make it into a kind of Warmaster’s Claw. I used the storm bolters from one of the Betrayal at Calth terminators to make the weapons on the back of the Claw, and cut the finger off another claw to make the thumb. His head just had a small topknot added, and this was taken from one of the normal Chaos Space Marine heads.
His sword was one of the two-handed Nemesis Force Swords that the Grey Knights are so fond of, and I used this solely because of it’s outrageous size. Below are the initial results. Forgive the picture, this was before we were regularly posting for Brush and Boltgun, and as such, they were taken all over the show. I’ve gotten rid of most of the pics as they were terrible.
After painting him over a period of time (between Sons of Horus) I got to a point and stopped. I didn’t think this version was doing him justice, and shelved him for the future. Below is where I left him.
And thankfully, I’m continuing him using a light box so you can see the colours properly.
The first thing I did when I picked him back up again, was to carefully remove him from his base. I’ll be putting him back on it, but I’m recording a video of a quick and easy way to paint stone (linked here). Once removed, I started painting his blade – the ‘how to’ for his bade can be found here.
Sword out the way, I started to consider his trophy spikes. For Abaddon, having one Dark Angel helmet, a Tyranid skull and a few other bits didn’t seem enough. Looking through the new Chaos Astartes codex, there’s a picture on Abaddon’s bio page I recognised from the last release – Abaddon is towering over the observer, and his trophy spikes are cluttered with skulls.
Luckily for Abaddon, I’d just picked up the Citadel Skulls box, so pin vice in hand, I got to work. I drilled holes through the skulls at different angles, then used lengths of paperclip to hold them all together. I added the spikes to the top of each section of paperclip, then drilled holes into the top of his armour, and fitted the trophy spikes to him.
With that I painted them all Citadel Rakarth Flesh, and re-applied Vallejo Model Air Rust over all the bronze areas. I painted his face with Vallejo Flesh Base, and washed it with Seraphim Sepia.
Next I washed the skulls with Citadel Seraphim Sepia, and washed the Bronze with Citadel Agrax Earthshade.
Next, the skulls were gently brushed with Rust again to pick out the highlights, and the skulls were painted with Citadel Ushabti Bone, before being drybrushed with two lighter shades of an Ushabti Bone and White mix.
The spikes, tubing and parts of his claw were painted up with Vallejo Model Air Chrome, then washed with Citadel Nuln Oil. The claws themselves were painted with Citadel Leadbelcher. I then added highlights to the Bronze using Citadel Retributor Armour. I also took this opportunity to repaint all the Citadel Abaddon Black that I’d splashed and painted on , reapplying it to neaten all the areas of bronze.
When I came to paint the red of his loincloth and hair, I realised that his hair looked a bit feeble. So using two more Chaos Space Marine heads, I took the topknots off and made the vertical piece longer. This was held together with another short length of paperclip. Once in place, I painted the reds using Citadel Mephiston Red, washed with Citadel Druchii Violet, then highlighted using pure Mephiston Red, and finally, a Mephiston Red and Citadel Fire Dragon Bright mix for the extreme Highlights. The same was done for the grip of his sword.
His face was painted with another Flesh Base layer, leaving the Sepia visible in the recesses, then adding two highlights, each of which was Flesh Base with increasing amounts of White added.
The Eyes of Horus I painted with Citadel Averland Sunset, then darkened the edges, first using Citadel Fuegan Orange shade, and then with Citadel Carroburg Crimson shade.
The lenses on his armour were painted.
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