Shiva's Red Corsairs

Today I have a special guest article from Shiva, showing off his amazing Red Corsairs Chaos Space Marines. Each of these models has been lovingly converted and painted to make them all unique, and they look fantastic!

Having collected the Astral Claws in the past around the time the Badab War books came out from Forge World I have a special place in my heart for the Red Corsairs and their leader, Huron. As soon as I saw this stunning force I knew I wanted to help show it off to the world. Without further ado, here's Shiva to talk about his models.

Shiva: I started my Red Corsairs journey way back in the early 2000s to 2010s. They've caught my eye ever since seeing them in a White Dwarf article. The red, black and brass just worked so well together and stuck with me ever since, being my go-to for anything Chaos for years.

While I did have to drop out of the hobby for almost a decade due to health issues, the release of Kill Team and eventual new Chaos sculpts in 2019 got me back into the game, taking it a lot more seriously than before.

I wanted my new collection to feel truly unique, so I started by kit bashing all of my Marines in one way or another.

I think of each member as their own character, having a backstory including their former chapter before becoming renegade and joining my warband. 

Because of that, I've been told it feels a lot like an 'evil Deathwatch', and I think that description fits quite well and actually influenced my future plans for the project, but more on that later.

The aforementioned kit bashing was one step towards uniqueness, the paint jobs were another.
As my skill in painting grew, I started to add little free handing details to go with the former Chapter idea, adding chapter badges and the like to some of them. 

Even the Red Corsairs scheme as a whole evolved over the years. I think I've had three different schemes before finally settling on the current one, but I'm still changing it slightly to this day, especially for my latest addition, Huron Blackheart.

Huron is a must-have for any Red Corsairs player, being the only named character to ever get a model and rules. While I loved Juan Diaz' original sculpt, it felt way too small and outdated compared to the 2019 releases.

To remedy that, I've started to convert my own with the help of the community. The Havoc bodies are great for Chaos character models, being beefier, taller and more ornate than other Marines, so this was an obvious choice to start with. The Indomitus Chaplain had a really characterful head with the bionics in the right place, which was my next step. Add Abbadon's Claw, the arm of the Blackstone Fortress Chaos Lord and an Axe from the Chaos Marines kit and you've got yourself one Huron Blackheart in the making.
While I can't take full credit for the conversion idea (that goes to @nothern_nomad on Instagram), I've added my own details and embellishments to make it my own.

Let's not forget about the more human part of the Red Corsairs (or any Chaos army really), the Cultists. These, once again, allowed me to bring some variety into the collection. The Blackstone Fortress sculpts were already amazing as-is, so they didn't get any conversion work done. I did, however, give each one of them a different skin tone which helps the thrown together Militia look I was going for. After all, no human is the same.

I'm currently still working through my Kill Team roster, but I'm already thinking of the future. I've started converting a Rhino to bring it into the new style of Chaos models, but it's still very early in the building phase so no pictures of it yet, I'm afraid.

I've mentioned the 'evil Deathwatch' idea before, and this is where I will head into. My plans involves converting miniatures to be able to play my force as count-as Deathwatch with models to reflect their unique weapon options. 

I think it will make for some great kitbashing opportunities and truly unique Chaos models. Who knows what the future brings, I may even expand upon the idea and introduce some Death Guard-esque models.

Anyway, thank you for having me. You can find more of my work on Instagram @shiva.paints.minis or on Twitter @SecretlyShiva.

Tyler: A big thank you again to Shiva for taking the time to share his Red Corsairs with us! Be sure to follow him at the links above to see the further progress of these space pirates.

Until next time,

Tyler M.