Counts as Khan...

I think, of all the White Scars battle companies I’ve played against, (with either my grey knights or Nurgle CSM) I have not once seen the actual Khan model. In fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen it in person, having gotten back into the hobby after they removed those models from the stores. 

This is probably due to several factors;

1. Finecast being an absolutely hateful material to work with / on. I have painted (I think) three finecast models. A Nurgle deamon prince, Draigo and Coteaz. The deamon prince was not so bad as, being Nurgle, excessive application of greenstuff was a more than acceptable way to cover up flaws.  But other than that wow… the Draigo model is just such a pants model to work on, so many little gaps and bubbles that needed filling and then painstakingly smoothing, that barely able to support its own weight sword? Oh and Coteaz’s hammer resisted all attempts to make straight. Even priming those models was a challenge, just ugh. (Although now I think about it, I was probably trying to prime them in very humid conditions, before I knew that such things mattered)
2. The scale of the older finecast stuff is slightly off. Abaddon for example, is shorter than most average space marines and whilst this could be down to the fact that the model hasn’t been updated in years ( a possible sign that Abby the Armless’ days are numbered)  Draigo’s head feels like it’s not quite the heroic scale of everything else and he looks pretty small next to the GK terminators. I built mine a huge base so he’d look a bit more imposing. 
3. Very few people are actually running a white scars battle company that is painted as white scars and are therefore wholly unbothered about having the exactly correct model. 

For my own counts as Khan I was planning on using the standard Captain figure, but this in itself problematic as he is technically armed with a combi grav, and is also on a terminator sized base, to make him a bit more imposing. This is inconsistent with true ‘counts as’. – WIP photos below. This is pre sword painting.

For some unknown reason I decided to paint his eagle as an actual eagle. But I'm not displeased with the effect. I'm also quite happy with the more natural highlighting on the cloak, although I could have maybe gone a bit darker in the recesses. 

The true 'counts as' rules are probably somewhat mitigated by the fact that if Khan is ever out of his rhino, exposed and giving up warlord, things have gone badly, but nonetheless, this is my first tournament and I don’t want anything hanging over me. Especially as the bigger base does give him a slight edge with that instant death sword of his. 

To overcome this I have done a little bit of bits box raiding, some chopping and some pinning of my Command Squad leader. The poor guy has been on a real career rollercoaster, having being bumped from the squad to make room for Corbulo as the apothecary (more on that unit in a later post) and now rapidly promoted to Captain.

This guy both satisfies counts as, and is suitably denoted as being in charge by virtue of his golden hat. 

Job done. 1% more completed.