Herald of Nurgle (part 3)

I've added the tongue (two Bloodletter tongues glued together w/ some GS to fill out the back) and a little more to the face. Sloooooowly getting there.

Man, I hope Nurgle Heralds get good rules in the next Daemon codex.

Oh! Also, a big thank you to the guys at Santa Cruz Warhammer for the Honor Role mention :)

Herald of Nurgle (part 2)

More baby steps with GS. Filled out the jowls and rolls on his neck, starting to bulk out the nurgling on his hip (might have to name these guys).

Herald of Nurgle

Mabs canceled the Plague Daemon Conversion Contest, over on Papa Nurgle, but it was too late; minds had already conjured images of daemons to be.
This is a project blog of the Daemonic Herald that I was working on for the contest that never was. I'm still trying to get him done by the December 31st deadline.

Here we go!



The base for this conversion is a Vampire Counts Dire Wolf head stuck onto a BloodLetter body. The Nurgling on his hip is based on the head of a Finecast Daemon Prince of Nurgle.



The other Nurgling (on the staff) is based off a Posesed Chaos Space Marine head. The staff is from the Vampire Counts Zombie kit.

Lest We Forget

LXXXI: the Iron Halo STC Battle Bunker

This is an early WIP shot of a terrain project I've been working on. Basic construction+surfacing is done, and now we're at the fun "gluing on the details" stage. The door pictured here is just a place holder for now (I'm actually using that door for a more 'damaged' terrain piece).

I'm calling it the Iron Halo STC Battle Bunker, and I'm putting my own twist on it, but in the spirit of full disclosure the original idea came from toposolitario.

A full tutorial for this guy with photos and printable templates is in the works too, I just need to get some Legos first, to get some better control over my press-molding. More to come.

LXXX: Alternate Plague Bearer Design Roughs

Well the post title kinda says it all: these are some rough sketches I did for alternate Plague Bearer designs we're kicking around over at PapaNurgle.enjoy!

LXXIX: 1500 points of Rainbows

HQ

• Librarian: jump pack (125 pts.) 
• Honour Guard: Champion, Noviate, 2x meltaguns, 5x jump packs (205 pts.)

ELITE

• Furioso Librarian: magna grapple, drop pod (225 pts.) 
• (2x) Sanguinary Priest: jump pack (150 pts.) 
• Techmarine: jump pack (50 pts.)

FAST ATTACK

• (3x) Land Speeder: multimelta (180 pts.)

TROOPS

• (2x) Assault Marines: 1x power fist, 2x meltaguns, 10x jumpacks (470 pts.) 
• 5 strong Sniper Scout Squad: 5x cammo cloaks (90 pts.) 

1495 pts.

First crack at writing a list w/ the Blood Angels codex. I guess I'll probably just use those last 5 points on a melta bomb or a storm shield somewhere....

LXXVIII: Incoming Rainbows

Well, this one little 'Warrior looked so lonely, I figured it was time to give him some friends. More to come!

LXXVII: First Rainbow

Ug, the light in here is utter shit. I'll get better pictures soon (promise). He's actually not a bad looking mini in real life. A lot of 1st times with this guy;

• 1st time using non-GW paints.
• 1st time applying waterslide transfers.
• 1st time printing waterslide transfers. (thank you BoLS).
• 1st time using Dullcoat.
• 1st time using weathering powders.

I think he came out looking pretty good, all things considered. 

LXXVI: Colours of the Rainbow

I've got a test figure 90% painted in the "standard" Chapter colours, and I've just started another one to try out this cammo scheme. Pictures soon.

LXXV: Rainbow Warriors

I'll be using the Blood Angels codex for these guys I think, as I want a distinctly different play-style than my Plague Marines.

I'll mostly be concerning myself with the 2nd Battle Company: "The Brothers Vermilion", under Brother Captain Kahanamoku.

First up is test marine, then the rest of a Tactical Squad (all beakies), then maybe a Land Speeder. We'll see how it goes.

LXXIV: Coming Soon

Kill Team: Game Review.

I really like this game.
You'll read the same complaints in every review: you can't skip any load-screens/ cinematics, it's hard on single player, and you can't play on-line... but you can (and do) forgive these things. It may not blow your mind, but you'll be too busy blasting everything that moves to care.



If you love 40K (and if you're reading this blog, you probably do) it's a great way to get a fix when you don't feel like painting. It made me want to make Space Ork terrain! Kill Team is waaay more cinematic than that garbage UltraMarines movie, and at $10 it's half the price of one of those lousy Garro audio books.

~Mini-Rant about Garro audio books~

I had just started reading the Horus Heresy novels, I had just finished 'Eisenstein and I was super curious about the origins of the Gray Knights, so I borrowed a friend's copy of the audio-books. The narration isn't bad, and the sound FX are fine... but they're soooo badly written! James Swallow completely mishandles characters you've been getting to know over the course of the HH novels. At the end, it just feels like nothing happened, both audio-books are utterly forgettable. I can't believe GW has the balls to ask for $20 each for these things! Ridiculous.

~end of rant~


Getting back to Kill Team, it's a great introduction to 40K for friends and wives. It's a fun, pick-up & play game, best enjoyed in 2-player mode.
Recommended.

NEWSBREAK!!!

The Heroes of Armageddon are finished!

go to the Heroes of Armageddon website right now!!!
the time has come to show you all the amazing + awesome armies!!!

LXXIII: Baby Steps

Recently, I signed-up for the The Independent Characters forums. I joined up because I was drawn to The ICs Hobby Progress Challenge to kinda force me to log my hobby progress, and also to make a plan + stick to it.

...so this is my before picture, and commitment.

Rhino:

• Painted, salt weathering, weathering powders
• 2nd Rhino assembled
  

Chosen:

• Primer + 1st colour on all 7
  

....by the end of the month.

...a little change of pace

A change of pace from my Lords of Decay, but a fun project for a good cause.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good: Secret Weapon Miniatures!
I placed my order on a weekend, and didn't expect to hear from them until Monday, but I got an instant response. I even added to my order after the first one was completed, and THAT was no problem. Top notch friendly service, and a great product delivered in a timely fashion. You really can't ask for anything more than that.

The Bad: Skullcrafts
Complete opposite experience. Whatever you do, do NOT order from this guy. I still haven't gotten my order or heard from him. For over 2 months now, nobody has been getting their orders from him, but that's not the worst part of it: he doesn't EVER respond to email/or communicate with the customer. No order confirmation emails, no response to any email inquires, nothing. The forum on his site is filling-up with people (who've been waiting over 40 days) asking for their money back.

The Ugly: That would be me.
I've been on both sides of the customer service counter in my day, so I know when I'm not even getting the bare minimum of common courtesy. I'm patient, but if you can't treat me like a human being, and you still want to take my money, I get ugly. I'm not proud of that, but it's how I react.

I'm quite happy to give praise, and really hesitant to slander.... but Skullcrafts has earned my ire. I'm sorry for the negativity, but I hope this saves somebody from the frustration of trying to deal with that company.

A Time for Heroes

Friends,


In the last 4 months our world has seen some extraordinary disasters, both natural and man made. The people in the Middle East and Africa have been battling their governments and each other for a different and hopefully better future. many, many people died and got hurt and this is still going on today: in Libya, in Ivory Coast, in Syria and in many other places as well.

And then the tsunami that hit Japan...seeing the footage of that wave gave me the chills and I have not been able to revisit it, realizing how much carnage and hardship this wave caused...


Storm Wardens

We cannot change any of these things by ourselves. But we can help support organizations that go to Africa and Japan, people that risk their own lives to better the life of a stranger. One of these groups is Doctor without Borders. An amazing organization and I am asking you all to check out their news feed here.

DWB go to places where most organizations have left and try against odds to fulfill their oath: to help people in need, really really in need.


And they need money. And that's where we come in...last year you all raised over 16,000 dollars for this amazing charity with the Storm Wardens Project. Here's the link, the page is still up.



And yes, it was all YOUR success. We just opened up a PayPal account and built 2500 points of models. But you all showed that our community can come together and do something amazing.


2011

Well, this year the world seems way worse off and we have decided to do another Charity Project:

Heroes of Armageddon

John and I thought it better to raise the stakes and create a much larger project: we're giving away FOUR 3000 point armies. We hope that you will all pitch in and let your heart speak. This is the change we all can make, instead of ignoring the news.


How does it work?

Every dollar that you support the project with gives you a chance to be one of the lucky four at the end of this drive. So 10 dollars of donations buys you 10 chances. 100 dollars means....right, you got it.

At the end of the drive, in July, we will run our trusty number generator and pick our four new friends.

Then, the armies will travel to Games Day in Chicago, where they will be displayed. After that the winners can take their army home or we send it off.

In short: the more you donate, the better your chances. More importantly, the more you donate, the more you help all of us to make the world a better place.


Heroes of Armageddon

Our Games Day Diorama will depict the 3rd battle of Armageddon with 4 armies: Steel Legion, Blood Angels, Ork Hordes and Speed Freaks.

We have expanded the all star build team from last year with a handful of Golden Demon winners and we also hope to go bigger and better by reaching out to more of you and the industry and collecting even more than we did last year for Doctors Without Borders.


Here are the team leaders for the 4 army projects


Dave Taylor: Steel Legion

Jawaballs: Blood Angels

Mad Boy Genius (Spikey Bits): Ork Hordes

Goatboy (BOLS): Speed Freaks


These four wonderful modelers were so kind to say yes to us and have committed to finishing up these armies in an amazing way: creative, fresh and with a great paintjob. Through these guys, we have been able to lock down 3 Golden Demon winners to paint the centerpieces of the armies and have created a total build team of close to 20 to 25 people, all of which are wonderful artists and gracious with time and effort for this cause. More on all of the participants next week.


Our main site for the finished units and more info is Heroes of Armageddon


There is more....

Just like last year, as our way of saying thanks for your help, we will enter you in a weekly prize drawing once for every dollar you pitch in so not only will you be helping a good cause, but you might just win something amazing for your trouble. Everyone who has supported the project up to that point will be eligible to win. The prizes will be really, really nice.


What can you do?

Put the "H.O.A." button on your page. You can help spread the word and link to the heroes site and the site of the bloggers involved. Why not create a special blogroll for this? That would help immensely.

You can hold a local event to raise money or just post some fliers at your favorite gaming spots.

You can send in prize or model donations and be part of the many sponsors that help us out.

You can talk to family and friends and tell them about the help that they can give

AND

you can send us models that we then distribute to the teams that need them. A list will go up soon with requests.


Last Years winner

Last year's Army winner Jacob, watch a video of him at Games Day receiving the Storm Wardens Army Grand Prize.




Are you ready to make a difference?

Are you ready for 4 awesome armies?

Are you ready for Armageddon?


John & Mike

Coming SOON!

LXXII: AJ's Hatch Tutorial

The other day I was asking AJ how he makes those great levers and handles on his scratch-built hatches: today he put up a tutorial on just how to do that. Check out his blog, it's full of inspiring stuff.

LXXI: Jingle-Bones!

Secret Weapon RULES! I can't wait for these to be available.

LXX: My First Rhino

Painting still in progress... then I'll be trying-out some weathering powders to make it look properly rusted, and then some mud on/around the tracks. I'm toying with the idea of doing some OSL around the headlights... but I've got a bunch of new techniques to try on this project already... we'll see.

(sorry about the crappy picture)

LXIX: a Dark Eldar gift to Nurgle

Khymera 2



Khymera 1

If, like me, you've been using Dire Wolves as bitz for Nurgley conversions (or as stand-in for ugly metal models), you'll be happy to see the next wave of Dark Eldar pre-orders. The Khymeras will look lovely as Beasts of Nurgle or Chaos Spawn with just a little GS rotting skin/chaotic tentacles added.




Dire Wolves

LXVIII: Converting Helmets

First crack at converting an "Iron Armour" helmet with green stuff. I'd like to get some of those Forgeworld pre-heresy and Death Guard conversion kits some day... so a few of these home-brewed helmets scattered throughout my army will hopefully help them fit-in.

LXVII: Dressing-Up Plaguebearers

This Plaguebearer from the Mordheim Carnival of Chaos really got me thinking the other day... about pants. Plaguebearers are commonly modeled "nude", and that's fine, it makes sense that their clothing might've rotted away... but if everybody else in the warp can figure-out how to wear armour and fetish gear, why couldn't our Plaguebearers pick up some discarded, disease-ridden plague-rags now and then? I think a few scraps of clothing here and there will really add some character and sense of history/age to my lesser daemons (and hopefully will help distinguish them from their humble Bloodletter roots).

*uncredited image from an Italian site, please leave a comment if you know who the painter is

LXVI: Converting Plaguebearers

In Astro Mag #8 they have a nice lil' mini-tutorial on converting your own Plaguebearers from the Bloodletters box. I'm actually right in the middle of trying this process for myself. Most Nurgle players I've spoken to usually go this route rather than resort to the GW metal models.

LXV: Finaly, some proper Plaguebearers

Last year all the Chaos Powers got brand new plastic kits, except for our beloved grampa Nurgle (despite the fact that nobody needs updated sculpts more). The the current GW Plaguebearers are pretty wretched, but given what ForgeWorld has done for 40K Nurgle armies, I still had hope maybe we wouldn't be entirely forgotten. Sure enough, at Games Day UK WarhammerForge was announced and our lesser daemons finally got some relief in resin.... and now at last, they're available.


Did you know the french word for Plaguebearer is Porte-Peste? So cute.

Unfortunately these new Plaguebearers are only available in rider positions. Bummer! In the end, it looks like I'll be just using pictures of them as inspiration for now, while I add a ton of GS to some Bloodletter minis (and maybe I'll fill-out some of the ranks with a few of these Heresy Miniatures Blight Demons).

LXIV: Press Molding

I love the idea of home resin casting, but I'm a little intimidated by the process (and the start-up cost). If this video is accurate, Instant Mold might just be the perfect alternative product to help me add a little more bang for my buck. $13 + shipping seems pretty reasonable for a re-usable product too!

Has anybody tried/used this stuff?