A Forge Boss in a full servo harness is an endgame beast that is worthy of being properly represented on the table. It's often packing a stat line comparable to a Brute, so it should look suitably menacing.
I started building Dakk early, well before he actually had a servo harness in the campaign. Getting hold of one turned out to be the hard part: I was rolling really poorly on the marketplace, so in the end I had to do a deal with the Escher player after Week 5, with the finale only three days away.
The Kitbash
This is one of those too-good-to-be-true kitbashes - it's a Brôkhyr Thunderkyn with a head swap and a little bit of flair. The exoskeleton has fairly human proportions, so you don't really notice the stature of the underlying pilot so long as you sell the faction with the head and gubbins.
I assembled the body of a Thunderkyn with a bolt cannon as it is a great stand-in for a heavy bolter. Next was a suitable head from the old core Goliath Gang kit, which was also the source of the armour panels. The head went on easily enough with a little bit of sprue goo. The panels went on the left arm to keep the silhouette similar to the original Thunderkyn.
In terms of additional gubbins I found that a mohawk from the Mauler kit was a close match for the curve on the back of the suit. I considered adding more chains to the back of the model, but it already has a lot going on and I didn't want it to end up too busy.
Priming and Zenithal
For all my Goliaths I do a zenithal prime, then hit them from below with magenta ink to help lay down some quick purple shadows for the green/purple colour scheme.
Base Colours
I was working to a deadline for the campaign finale, so this was a pretty fast paint job.
I started by blocking in a quick gradient from Monument Black Green up to Green, and the gun was Black Templar Contrast paint. Working inside out, next was the tunic inside the harness, which was a neutral beige, followed by a quick basecoat of the skin.
Metallics, Details and Highlights
Next came a couple of tones of metallic for the harness itself, and brass for the gun and armour trim. Then it was contrast paints for the remaining details - cables, boots, that sort of thing. In keeping with the rest of the gang, the mohawk was Blood Angels Red. Then it was time for some blacklining with Druchii Violet, glazing it back on in places to reinforce the underpainting. After that came some quick edge highlights, before I knocked out the base ready for game day.
The Finished Model
I was really happy with how he came out - the Thunderkyn makes a great base for a full servo harness build, and with some quite simple changes he looks pretty natural as a Goliath with an exoskeleton. On the table he's every bit the endgame beast, and he came together just in time for the campaign finale.
