Part 41: Progress Report

The Champions for my 2 BBQ Plague Marine squads are almost complete. The one on the right is mostly done, and nearly ready for paint (just a little more GS work to smooth out on the back of the cloak). The other champ, the one on the left, still needs a head & backpack (shoulderpads have been added since this pic was taken). The green on his base is Thraka Green; I read that in "the old days" people would put washes of Inks on their bases to keep sand particles in place, so I tried it... but I don't think it did anything. My first try at sculpting his head (with antlers) was a bit of a disaster, so for my second attempt I'm going a different route... and this chaos marine from the $12 3-pack box is going to be my guinea pig.



kinda just looks like a big green dong on the side of his head at the moment, but it's just a WIP

Oh, and speaking of my BBQ squads, here's the 1st of the 4 Flamer Plague Marines who will be attached to those squads.



So to sum up: 1 BBQ squad assembled (and mostly primed), 1 Plasma squad fully assembled and a second BBQ squad half assembled. Mr. antlers there (with the green dong) is going to be the first marine in my 2nd Plasma squad. 2.5 of the 4 Plague Marine squads in the list. It's about time to do some painting on tester figures, I reckon.

Gill Stevenson hates Gamers

Dang!

"Game publisher and miniature manufacturer Games Workshop just sent a cease and desist letter to..."

I keep hearing about these kinds of stories, and now boingboing is reporting another one. I'm new to this expensive hobby, and I'm no legal whiz but... seems to me GW legal department is doing waaaaaay more harm than good by squashing any show of interest by their customers. I did some googling, and this non-stop barrage of cease and desist letters comes right on the heels of Gill Stevenson's appointment as legal manager for Games Workshop 14 April 2008, "...she joins as legal manager for Games Workshop to focus on commercial and IP matters."

Nice going, Gill.

(she's on facebook, if you want to send her a message)

Part 40: Break a Leg

I tried a couple new techniques; Repositioning a leg, and basing with cork. 'Still a WIP, but I'm having fun with it. I have 2 squads now assembled & based, and now I'm just waiting on a couple heads to arrive in the mail & I can get started painting these guys hopefully in the next week or so.

Crimson Fists!

To me, NOTHING says 40K like some beaky-helmed Crimson Fists shooting-up some Space Orks.



Whenever GW updates with a new box or codex (eg; Skaven, Space Wolves), all the blogs go crazy & re-post images from the GW site, and I always thought: "What's the point? I would never do that". But today, the Crimson Fists got some love in the form of some conversion packs, and I find myself posting about it.... 'cause before I turned to Nurgle, I very nearly followed the way of the 'Fist.

I'm a devout follower of the PlagueFather these days, and I won't be puting together a Crimson Fist army any time soon........ but a cool diorama might be fun (we'll see)

Part 39: Bitz Trade

I went to my first ever Bitz Trading Day at the Burnaby, B.C. Games Workshop today; it was very positive experience. I only brought some Dark Angel bits with me, but I ended-up swapping 2 melta guns for 18 old-style chaos backpacks, so it was a good day.

After getting a close look at them, I don't think I want those black reach Deffkoptas anymore... I had planned to use them in a conversion project, but in the end I think I'd prefer to scratch build everything.

I am still on the look-out for a vindicator dozer blade though, so if anybody out there has an extra one; those DA bits are still up for grabs.

Part 38: Scatch-Built Blight Drones (continued)

picture of Eric's WIP Blight Drone

There are at least 5 of us making Blight Drones now at Papa Nurgle. Guys, it's getting easier all the time with this dimension guide for scale & this step-by-step tutorial by Animeric... there's really no reason for you to not try this at home.

Part 37: Scratch-Built Blight Drones

"Where ever they were encountered, the air grew thick with poisonous fumes and the soil of Vraks rotted beneath them as their corpulent flesh wept continually with dripping icor "


The new Siege of Vraks book 3 is great, well worth owning (especially for Nurgle players).

Everybody loves the Blight Drones, but the models are Forgeworld-expensive. So who's making their own from scratch? I know some of us have started to post some WIP pics over at Papa Nurgle. In the interest of spreading this rotting foulness as far and wide as possible (for the PlagueFather!), I'll be posting about my progress here too. Daemon engines are notorious for being "staggering in their diversity, and blasphemous in their malignant design" but if you wanted to play along & make your own, and say you wanted to try & stay roughly the same dimensions as the Forgeworld counterpart, this may come in handy. I wonder how many of these we can all make before the end of the year?



Here's my 'drone at the "space shrimp" stage, next to the screw-cap (from an old bottle of speedball ink) that I'm thinking of using as a rotor housing.