Crixus the Undefeated

So this is my first Contemptor Dreadnought, 100% made of paper, glue and blood of innocent victims. I'm quite satisfied with the result, this guy looks cool, his base looks awesome and he will (I hope) gather a lot of skulls for the skulls throne. 

To make him I exchanged the heavy bolters for a pair of lascannons and his other hand storm bolter for flamers (built-in his axe... I just though it would be quite cool to bury an axe in someone's chest and them light them up with a flamer XD). For those familiar with StarZ series Spartacus, yes, I took the name of the gladiator Crixus, one of my favorite characters there.

For the fluff, Crixus was a child gladiator in the planet dominated by the Nucerians, the same nation/culture that enslaved Angron. Rescued by the World Eaters shortly after Angron was found and put in command, the boy became a bittersweet reflection of the Primarch's own childhood, receiving some special attention of both Angron and Khârn until he was successfully trained and equipped as a Space Marine. For some years afterwards Crixus became an usual survivor among his colleagues, being, more than once, rescued alive after his entire regiment was butchered. His savagery, single combat skills and intelligence made him a respected sergeant shortly after the Horus Heresy.

Dedicated to Khorne as a berserk, Crixus fought in many battles, including the Dropsite Massacre, gathering skulls and glory, until the Siege of Terra, when, besides Khârn and other berserkers, he invaded the Imperial Palace. In the heat of battle he was separated from his squad and ended up inside one of the Imperial Fists main defense lines. After the defeat of Horus, the retreating World Eaters found Crixus' dying carcass laying against one of the bulkheads inside the Palace, with an empty boltgun, five empty clips, a broken chainaxe and surrounded by hundreds of loyalist corpses, both Astartes and Imperial Guard.

The retreating Marines took Crixus to the Battleship Merciless, where he was entombed within a Dreadnought exoskeleton. During his long years of adaptation and refitting, he ordered the Dark Mechanicus tending him to implant his new body with dozens of sharp brass thorns and blades, transforming him into a fearsome agent of Khorne. After the Khârn's betrayal and the splitting of the World Eaters, Crixus took a small cadre of Dark Mechanicus and bloodbrothers across the Warp, searching foes strong enough to test his new robotic body against. Recently associated with the Blood Wolves and Devourers of Flesh, Crixus and his cadre became an important element among the warbands of the Segmentum Obscurus. 

While inside the Warp, Crixus fearsome rage started to channel heat to his mechanical body. Today, even in realspace, his armored plates become red with heat and the ground blazes under his feet while the anger of his Butcher's Nails drive him to murderous madness. Despite becoming a horrible figure to gaze upon, this unnatural heat prevents the Dark Mechanicus from repairing him until his rage has cooled down, sometimes days after a battle. More than one Mechanicus lost a mechatendril or even a hand trying to make some routine maintenance in Crixus hull, mistaking the red hot armor for the usual colors of the World Eater's plates.