11.11.12

Lest we Forget.

Nurgle Biker Lord WIP

Please pardon the blurriness of this pic. I will get some close-up, detail shots + a turn-around when he's ready for paint.

More disease + decay effects to be added.
(also, needs more Nurglings)

I really wanted to go for a daemon-engine vibe for this guy, not just another plague marine on a bike. Bits are pulled from the Possessed box, the Forge Fiend, Chaos Biker, Land Speeder and Raptor kits.

Raptors WIP

I'm still putting the Champ and Melta guy together, and waiting on some more DeathGuard Havok shoulderpads.
More to come!

The Raptor/Warp Talon box is such a great kit!

Test Plague Bearer

Here's my first crack at painting one of these guys. I want to figure out a couple more alternative paint recipes so my whole army doesn't look the exact same... but so far so good.

Haven't really tackled the base yet. I have to get my mud recipe nailed down, then once I have more of these handsome devils painted up; I'll muddy all the bases in a batch.

How White Dwarf talked me out of the Box Set

Everybody is excited, and rushing to pre-order the new Dark Vengeance box. Seduced by the promise of shiny new push-fit plastics. Not me; White Dwarf talked me out of it.

WD392 Gives us an in-depth look at the new box; to be honest, the whole magazine is just an ad for the new box. There's a lot being said on-line about how White Dwarf went from being a great hobby magazine to now: just a catalog.... and that is true (and exemplified with this issue). I bought this one anyway, and it's probably going to save me about a hundred bucks.

Lets look at what you get in the Dark Vengeance box:






CHAOS

I'm a big Nurgle fan, so obviously the Chaos models are the ones I'm most interested in. We get a Squad of Chosen, a HellBrute, and some Chaos Cultists. These are all new.




Chosen: We have never had an actual plastic Chosen kit before, and these new sculpts look fantastic! Hands down, they are the highlight of the box. Very little would need to be done to make these look Nurgley; you could probably get convincing results with just a good paint job and no converting at all (a rare thing for followers of Grandpa Nurgle). Of all the things that come with the Dark Vengeance set, this squad is what tempts me the most. I'll still probably end up getting these guys off a bits site after the fact.


 HellBrute: This is what they've given us to replace the hideous metal chaos dreadnought. Not bad, not bad at all. 'Tragic that it took this long to come out with something, but what I see here in the magazine looks good. It's push-fit, so it'll take some extra work sawing and reconstructing to do any re-posing of this guy... which means most armies, despite the chaos power they are loyal to, are all going to have very similar looking HellBrutes. That's fine, if that were the only strike against it, that would be a non-issue... it's still tones better than that old ugly metal dread. However, new information has come to light, we now have pictures of him from the back.... and the news is not good:

I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about it, but this model just looks unfinished.

Chaos Cultists: I'm really glad these guys are in the game. I'm glad they look like a Necromundia Hive Gang. There's 10 different sculpts, and you get doubles of most of them. Of those sculpts, I like about 3 of them. I can hear the old timers getting wound-up about how spoiled we are these days, and how back in the old days you'd be thrilled to have half that many sculpts and blah blah blah. They're not bad, but not great; we've seen better. The Forge World Chaos Renegades are amazing.

 







DARK ANGELS

...are boring. The Space Hulk Blood Angel terminators were far more dynamic than their DA brothers. I know this actualy suits the austere DA fluff, but they seem dull and uninteresting to me. I've even bought the DA veterans kit to convert into plague marines in the past, but these days there's nothing in this part of the box that I'm after.


Predictions

Chosen: There will be a new Chaos Chosen box from GW, in FineCast.

Honestly, there's nothing wrong with the Dark Vengance Chosen, it would just suck if that was the only way you could get some. I'm pretty sure that a new FineCast box will show up in the catalog once the 6th edition Chaos Space Marine codex drops.

 HellBrute: We will get Plastic PlagueBrutes.

There are 5 or 6 plastic variations of the Space Marine Dread, not counting the Black Reach push-fit version, if that is anything to go by... I'll wait for a real HellBrute kit to come out (Preferably a Nurgle specific one).

Chaos Cultists: There will be a new plastic box of Chaos Cultists.

GW can do better. I hope we get to see it. Few things can express the Grim Dark Gothic fluff of 40K like chaos cultists do. I'm sure there are a lot of Imperial Guard players who'd love some more "normal sized", non-space marine models to convert too.

So to sum up, here's why I won't be getting the box: Before I got the magazine, I was ready to put my money down for a pre-order. Thanks to White Dwarf though, I've gotten up close and personal with the models, and there isn't a large enough percentage of them that I really want, for me to justify the purchase. All I need are the Chosen, and the Chosen each have to be veteran individuals. So even if I traded the Dark Angel Models away for more chaos stuff, I'd just end up with models I don't want doubles of.

I've come to terms with the fact that I'm a fluff junkie, and I am going to buy the big book, so the small rulebook argument is out too.

I guess I can just take it easy and keep working away on my Plague Bearers for now.

Betrayal

Book 1 of Forge Worlds Horus Heresy series is coming... Betrayal.  Sons of Horus, Emperor's Children, World Eaters, with a dash of Death Guard. I guess I'm cool with that. FW already have the plague marine kits, and all the old armour marks... so the good ol' Death Guard probably won't get much more love in the infantry department, but still... a new books means hope for new sculpts, right? Maybe some named Heroes/Villains.

For me, plastic Plague Bearers + Nurglings from GW were much bigger news, but I've read the Horus Heresy novels, I'll look forward to seeing whatever FW comes up with.

Leaked Brute pics

The written description of this thing didn't get me very excited. I've never really gone in for the Chaos dreads in the past; the GW metal one was such a gross sculpt, and FW models were too rich for my blood. But this gentleman here... this plastic beauty has me itching to convert him for papa Nurgle (and to buy the starter box).

Hell Brute

Plague Bearers for Plague Bearers

This is a WIP shot of some of my Nurgle Daemons.

I started working on this guy ages ago, he's based on a BloodLetter of Khorn. Perfectly balanced too, stands all on his own without a base. I started working on him long before I owned any clay shapers. Now that I've got a few more hours of green stuff work under my belt, I'm looking forward to returning to this project to add some finishing touches to him.

His left arm is from one of his Heresy Miniatures Blight brothers. There's 6 of them standing behind him there (making for a nice 7 total). I can't wait to mix and match bits on these gentlemen with the new plastic Plague Bearers box!

As a side note: I am slowly improving my photo set up. I recently bought a tripod, next I just need upgrade to my lighting situation. The pictures have been at best not-great, and at worst: pretty lousy on this blog in the past, but... I'm working on it ;)

Plastic Plague Bearers

just look at these handsome devils!

I'm only 9 days away from owning these little beauties, at last! The caption says "it includes 10 Nurglings and piles of festering maggots to decorate your bases"! Rumor is, 'this kit also includes fly-headed variants...!

This is the best hobby news I've gotten in ages. I can't wait!

New Daemons?

from the new GW teaser below

I caught wind of this rumor yesterday; 1st 'dex for 6th is going to be Daemons of Chaos rather than Chaos Space Marines. Nurgle is in both books, so I'm happy either way... but I have been praying for decent, plastic Plague Bearer and Nurgling sculpts for years! We got skunked in the last wave of plastic daemons.

My Daemons

I recently bought 6 Blights from Heresy Miniatures, and over the last few months I've been working on converting a Plague Bearer from a BloodLetter of Khorn. This makes up my 1st squad of 7.

I sculpted a Nurgling aaaages ago (planed on making more), and had been thinking of maybe getting some MaxMini Rotten Puppets to round-out my Nurgling forces (and I still may)... but I'm pretty happy to hear we are getting some new GW sculpts!

Once you factor in the Daemon Princes from my CSM forces, I'm well on my way! Heck, I might even get my Herald back on the wokbench, if the pictures in this new White Dwarf get my mojo working.

But before that, I've taken on 2 GUOs. One of them will be represented by Jon's BBDD  that I posted about last time, the second one; I'm converting from a large Fantasy Monster. It's still in very early stages, but I'll be posting pictures of him very soon. I call him "Twiggy".

Big Bad Daddy Daemon

only available at:

WIP 40K Nurgle Lord

I'm still working on a custom backpack for him. I love this model, best thing to happen to Nurgle since Forge World.

Is it time for 6th yet?

I'm trying to tie-up some loose ends, hobby-wise w/ my Lords of Decay while waiting for 40K 6th edition to drop... but w/ 5th edition rulebooks already pulled from the shelves, I wish the new stuff would just come-out already! Feels like they're dragging their feet. I don't want to start anything NEW, because; who wants to get stuck-in on a project, only to find-out "that load-out isn't legal in 6th"?

I also really hope the rumors of the new 40k chaos flyer being a dragon are false.

What are you doing while waiting for 6th?

Bye bye community

bye bye community

My last post (March 26th) was full of optimism and joy at the FTW community being back; 4 days later it was down again "for good".

Such a pity.

I get it; Ron is a husband, father, and has a full-time job, his personal time is precious. FTW must be very time consuming to maintain (to do it the way it has been done). Ron has pulled the rug out from this group before though, he chucked it all in and started the short-lived Black Dot Barrel Studios about a year ago, so the 'real' return of FTW (WITH blogrolls) was highly anticipated.

But it was just a tease, and it's over now.

Here's why I'll miss the FTW Community:
It was a curated blogroll. Most people, they just add blogs to their roll and then forget them. Part of what made FTW stand out was, Ron used the same techniques employed by gang-leaders throughout history: he asked that you fly the colours, and in exchange he would show you love, and make you feel like part of a group. Your blog would no longer be a whisper in the darkness, you would be part of a discussion. And it wasn't an empty promise, every bodies web traffic went up, comment counts went up and bonds were formed. What's more, Ron kept it clean: in a culture of sniggering man-boys that was quite impressive and really, really refreshing.


Like any community that looses their home, it falls to the people to maintain collusion when there's no hub to hold the center. The Commissar is down, and the lines are breaking. There are others who have stepped in to fill the void (I've signed up with Tale of Painters) but as with anything when the people are different, the dynamic is different. He's keeping the name this time, but FTW no longer = the FTW community. I wish Ron all the best, I do. I will continue to follow his blog. He made a really nice place to gather, I enjoyed it, and it will be missed.

Please, feel free to recommend other hobby groups/communities in the comments section :)

They're baaaaaa-aaaaack!

The FTW Blogrolls are back! And I, for one, am glad to see it.
Well done, Ron! Welcome back, everyone :)

Rhino II

I recently got my hands on the Forgeworld Masterclass book I've been coveting for ages, and it got me all fired-up to do some tank conversions/ weathering. Unfortunately, the closest thing I've got to any Tanks on my workbench though are a couple of Rhinos.

This is a pic of Rhino II. Not glued together yet, this is just a dry-fit pic. I wanted to go with the old-style double doors on the front, so I tried my hand at scratch building some. Rivets are GS, but for future projects I think I'll have to find another alternative.

The right/front smokestack is something I've wanted to try ever since I first saw the Battlescape scenery kit from GW. I used a combination of pressmolded GS (using instant mold) and plastic tubing, florist wire and plastic strips.

It's been a bit hit/miss with Instant Mold. I really like that it's re-usable, but sometimes the detail has come out a bit soft. I may have to try Blue Stuff.

**Bonus Hobby Tip**
When you're not using it for molds, Instant mold can be sculpted into a great clam-shell to store that sticky yellow component of your GS.

Daemon Princes (part 5)

"C'mere...Gimme a kiss!"

Here's a look at the head-swap I did on my Finecast Daemon Prince of Nurgle. I call him Ol' Maggy. Head generously donated by Mike from The Santa Cruz Warhammer Barter Bucket.




I realize these aren't the greatest pictures, but you can kinda see where I've tried to continue the vertebrae down his long maggoty neck.

Still lots of gooey texture to add to the belly and arm-pits, but getting closer and closer to "done".
More to come!

A shoulder to cry on

I gave the DP's shoulder pad to my Ultraforge model, so as a personal challenge, I wanted to try to emulate it as best I could with GS. Still some touching up to do, but I'm mostly happy with how it's coming along.

Daemon Princes (part 03)

A side by side shot of my two Daemon Princes. You can just kinda start to see some of the WIP conversions I'm making to my Finecast Nurgle Prince.

Stop S.O.P.A.

Prince in Progress

Thursday I gave a sneak-peek at one of my WIP Daemon Princes. Here is another one. This pic is from a test-fit with the wings. Still a lot of work to do on this guy.

More to come.
:)

1 Step Forward, 2 Steps Back

So, I didn't get my herald sculpted and painted by Christmas as I'd hoped. He fell off the workbench, and snapped off the staff with the 3-eyed nurgling. The fall also damaged and loosened his "good" antler to the point where, it's a complete re-do. I'll be honest; it was kind of a bummer. I knew I wouldn't be able to repair the damage and get him completed by the deadline. For now, the herald has been put on the back burner.

But I haven't been totally idle since then; I've put in some conversion time on my 2 Daemon Princes. Here's a peek at one of them.