XXXIX: 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.

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.

XXXVIII: 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.

XXXVII: 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.

Barter Bucket!

I've got some Dark Angel bits up for trade on today's Barter Bucket, here's a slightly larger version of the picture they have up there.



and here's my NEEDS List:

+ Black Reach Deffkoptas (x3)
+ Vindicator dozer blade (x1)
+ Berserker chaos marine backpacks, old style (any)
+ plastic Cadian lower leg pairs (x2)
+ plastic Cadian helmets (any)

~thanks to Mik & Ron~

XXXVI: Lords of Decay

LORDS of DECAY
"Large Deathguard sub-faction. Have formerly been led by the Primarch Mortarion. Multiple encounters with the warband over the past millennium, notably at the Siege of Vraks. Linked to the Space Hulk Monolith of Woe, they are currently being pursued by Imperial forces in the Mentieth Sector."

When I first saw the crest in the Chaos codex, I just wrote it off as "generic Nurgle", and I kinda felt free to make-up my own variation. Now that I've seen the same crest echoed in the Siege of Vraks 3... I guess it's cannon, so I'm going to go back and re-paint both those banners on my objective markers to make 'em more in line with the fluff. At least I made this decision before I painted my champions. No big deal. Man, that 3rd 'Vraks book is great, I want to get some Blight Drones sooooo bad!

I did finally get a sculpting tool, so hopefully that'll help me smooth out some of the "patchier" spots on my champions. I might even have another try at sculpting antlers tonight while I'm at it.

XXXV: Base fit for a Champion (continued)

I still have some GS work to do on this guy, but mostly just on his cloak, on the back. I'm still, obviously, waiting on a head too (bits are in the mail). I really need to get myself a sculpting tool; by this stage the ol' toothpicks & pins method just aint getting good enough results. But, I guess he's mostly done now.

It took me a little while to decide what to do for a base. I kept staring at that marine helmet, & then down to the rock my champion was standing on... and it just didn't add up. I wanted to have him standing over a fallen foe, but after doing that Lazy Librarian objective marker, I knew a full body wouldn't fit on a 25mm base. I think the partial torso I came up with works well enough. I figure if I paint the ground to look muddy enough, then that much sinkage is plausible. I like it.

I followed Dverning's Rules for Basing. They can be found in the comments section of my last post, and also on his 40k Maunderings blog.

Rememberance Day

On 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month... we remember.

"...it is observed on 11 November to recall the end of World War I on that date in 1918 (major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice)."




R.I.P.

XXXIV: Base fit for a Champion

Here's the start of my other champion. I stole the idea for this conversion from Santa Cruz Warhammer. I couldn't help myself, I just instantly loved the whole "Alas, poor Yorick" vibe. I'm going with rags rather than fur on the shoulders, and I'm filing off some of the more "Blood God" type details on the armor. A different head & arm should help to make mine different enough from SCW's to stand apart, but hopefully still be nurgly in his own right. I'll post more WIP shots as this guy progresses.

But here's the real point of this post: I really enjoyed making those objective markers, and I want to make something special (scenic?) for the bases of the champions in my army BUT I also want to eventually be able to use these guys in a game. What do you guys do for the bases of your champions? Is line-of-sight something I should be worrying about?

Any and all suggestions welcome (and thank you for reading).

XXXIII: Malevolent Mission Accomplished

I did it! I got all 3 objective markers painted by Halloween night!!

I couldn't bring myself to ask the local game shop for charity, so I ended up buying 4 new pots of paint (bleached bone, camo green, graveyard earth, fortress grey) & a pot of devlan mud, so in the end I got 'em all done anyway! Even if for some reason posting pics on the 1st doesn't get me the full Malevolent Mission points over at Papa Nurgle this challenge was worth it, and I'm glad I pushed myself to meet the deadline.

I tried new techniques (sponges), and that was fun. These guys are the first things I've actually painted for my army so I had to kinda finalize my official paint scheme in the process too (for the Ghoulie in the hatch). Feels like I've made some real progress, even if I haven't really crossed anything off my checklist yet.

The Lazy Librarian



The Gun Coffin
I still don't have enough bits to stock the gun coffin full of guns, so I'll probably revisit this one at a later date.



The Ghoulie Hatch



All 3 could use some dead static grass or flock or something, so whenever I get my hands on some of that... I'll probably touch these up a bit.

Also, I wanted to say thanks to Jacob Moxham for posting a link to my blog the other day, thanks again Jacob.