Scrap Code Flayer

Unit Name: Scrap Code Flayer
Unit Type: Lesser Daemon
Org Slot: Troops
Model Bucket: Scrap Code Daemon
Army List: Daemons of the Ruinstorm (Mechanicum Themed)

Model Concept/Conversion

When I first came up with the idea of the Scrap Code daemons it was after reading Know No Fear and seeing what the Word Bearers did to weaponize the Scrap Code. I loved the idea of this code that was so perverse that is corrupted anything it touched. I came to this idea of how they spoke through bursts of scrap code, which likely meant that their form of communication was alien to all forms of life. I wanted to emulate this in my core units and selected the Pink Horrors as my base model.

The starting model quickly gave way to this idea of a flailing creature that had razor sharp cable-like tentacles. I had recently purchased the Tentacle maker from Green Stuff World and was eager to try it out, but that was only one part of the conversion, I still had this big goofy face and tongue to deal with.

I took a pair of clippers and removed the head piece of the Pink Horrors and the tongue. The resulting stub was filed down so that I could apply some kind of functional “face” to the model, but I had not come up with an idea yet. Taking inspiration from lore and Know No Fear, again, I remembered broadcasting scrap code to jam transmissions and corrupt the Vox network. I remembered that I had some of the old Doom Sirens kicking around somewhere and set to work on cutting one of them up to make a “grill” for the model’s face. The result was this green stuff stamp that put a series of lines down the front of the model that gave it this totally alien look.

I made a BUNCH of cables. Clipping the arms just below the elbow and hollowing out the socket so that the cables fit nicely really completed the look I was going for. The initial prototypes had an almost comical appearance, that of a “wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man”, though once I had the “face” trimmed and solidly connected, I twisted the cables in such a way to give the illusion of momentum. I added a last cable to the snaking tentacle behind the horror’s head and at that point the major work was done.

At this point I went over the models to remove any extra bits that didn’t fit in and rebased them onto 32mm bases. This was actually one of the harder parts because Pink Horrors have a single attach point to the base and I had to be careful not to break it when removing them from the 25mms. The 32mm bases I used were nothing special, just standard GW 32mm bases.

Painting The Model

The paintjob on these took some time, and it was the first model in the army that I painted, so I was still experimenting with colors and ideas. I wanted to paint it with this rusted color scheme that gave the model this feel that whatever was holding it together was decrepit and would fall apart if not for the creature being a daemon. I had come up with a color for the cables and it was something I was going to stick with throughout the whole army, but I need to also make sure it worked first. The basing was going to be an evolving process that I turned into a much greater concept in the army without realizing it (more on that later).

The initial priming was done with Krylon Gray Primer, which is something I used on all of my models until the stuff vanished sometime in 2020 and I was forced to switch to Rustoleum Gray Primer (that has this shiny sheen to it and is also darker). I then base coated it with Black Templar contrast paint to give it a good undercoat to work with. Making sure to coat the entire model, it makes the crevices stick out enough for when I went over them in the next stage.

To get the dirty, rusted feel on the body, I dry brushed the model with Mournfang Brown, taking care not to get much on the cables or the base. I used a few different techniques to really make the brown pop on the model. The cables were a different dry color to start. I ran a light dry brush with Celestra Gray to really make the notches on the parts pop out. After that I applied a purple wash I had made with metallic purple ink to give them a faint coloring and a metal look to them. I applied a decent amount of Blood for the Blood God technical paint where the cables met the arm and they were complete. I repeated this process for the facial grill, save for the technical paint and the model was done.

The base was a weird process I refined overtime, but the original concept was to apply Mordant Earth to the base in large quantities and then got over it with Hexwraith Flame, dry brushing with Celestra Gray after that. The end result was pretty cool, but I was doing the process all wrong and I added an extra element later that really made the process amazing. I started with applying the Hexwraith Flame to the base in large quantities, then applied PVA glue in a thin coat on top of that. Once dried, I applied the Mordant Earth, and once it was cracked and dry, a drybrush of Celestra Gray. The final piece at the top was this color from Turbo Dork called “Dark Net”, which is a turboshift acrylic paint. The paint is designed to go over a black base coat and be applied a few times for maximum effect, but my use of it was just to give the base the faintest glimmer of metal in what was otherwise a flowing liquid, the birth of my “Fleshmetal”.