Fabius Bile was the chief Apothecary of the 3rd Legion (Emperor's Children). Learned a bit about him listening to the Fulcrum audiobook a few months ago - so when they announced a NEW version of his miniature, I said; "What the heck... He might be a fun alternative warlord for the Noise Marines of my Chaos Space Marine force (I mean, some of the Noise Marines I built used some old "Bile's Creations" as the main body - to which I added sonic blasters!)
Fabius Bile and one of his Surgeon Acolytes.
The pose is similar to the original model, but being a much lighter multi-piece plastic model, it is much less chunky and the litheness of the figure and equipment gives the overall model a bit more dynamism. Of course, it also gives the model a bit more fragility! But I guess that is par for the course with GW these days!
He wears a coat made of flayed skin. Usually it's portrayed as being all one colour. I guess if you wanted to spend some time and bleach it all and make it all one colour... but Fabius Bile is a singularly evil individual - deeply psychopathic - I wanted mine to look a little more raw and nasty - and skin comes in different colours!
I read somewhere about Nazis keeping tattooed skin of Jews killed at concentration camps and thought I'd include some tattoos on Bile's coat. There are two, but I wasn't as happy with them as I was expecting to be, so I stopped at just two...
Even included some T'au and Ork Skin! and a little bit of blood spatter... part of me feels like he needed MORE... but I was a little afraid of going overboard. I never know when it's too much until it's too late! That's the problem with these not inexpensive models - they cause some anxiety about really not wanting to fuck it up!
The kit includes a Surgeon Acolyte. I had to do him on a slightly different base because he's busy plucking bits out of a fallen marine that is deeply buried in rubble... Which wouldn't really work with the Sector Mechanicus, Sector Imperialis, or Necromunda bases I've been using for the rest of the Chaos Space marines. so I tried to make it at least look like it was urban rubble, rather than dirt. Probably should have had a couple of pieces of wire sticking out that could have been painted to look like rusted rebar...
Why do I think of these things AFTER I'm finished...
Ah, well...
Fun little addition to the force. He doesn't really DO much - other than take the first bullet - not much better than a cultist... except toughness 4... because clone fathers enhancements. I think while he's still around he gives a bonus to enhancement rolls when Fabius is doing his Buffing Chaos Marines thing... because, of course, that's something you do ON THE BATTLEFIELD rather than in the lab back at home... I guess, fluff-wise, the enhancements are short-lived drugs that might wear off before they GET to the battlefield...?
I debated somewhat about what chapter to make the marine victim. Ultimately went with Ultramarines in hopes that I'll eventually get to play some games with my friend Aaron - who has a burgeoning force of Ultramarines... though they haven't seen any use (or fresh paint) in some time!
Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:
The June Wrap-Up of Games and Stuff...
Also have the Archivist on the workbench - the new Zoat miniature from Blackstone Fortress: Dark Alliance. And more Blackstone Fortress miniatures... and more Chaos miniatures... and... and...
Also planning to kick off this little narrative 40K campaign with Finnegan this week. Initially we'd planned to do it with Kill Team, but I'm now thinking just Combat-Patrol-sized games of 40K - they will play FAST!
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Awesome model and fantastic painting!
ReplyDeleteWow, that's gruesomely nice. I think I can see the tattoos: a two-headed eagle and a heart with a banner.
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad the background in the Bile shots is so busy because it detracts a bit from seeing all of the detail in the mini and in your paint job, especially with the "medical" equipment. The closeup pix of the acolyte seem to work better.