Hellbrutes (part 3)

Hellbrutes slowly becoming ToadBrutes

A little more progress on these ugly buggers. Day by day they get closer to their final forms. I'm still confident I can get these fellas done by the end of the month. Twice I was almost distracted from my goal, once by my Obliterators, and again by my HellDrake.... but somehow I resisted, and I am more resolute than ever.

Nurgle list (1850 pts.)

Nurgle Daemon Prince + Nurgle Lord

7 Plague Marines

10 (of 20) Nurgle Cultists

Nurgle Forgefiend

Obliterator Cult (2 of 3)

Blight Drone Swarm (2 of 3)

"Toad Brutes" (HellBrute Mayhem Pack Formation)

Hellbrutes (part 2)

Nurgle Hellbrutes (2 of 3)

I got some more super-detailing done on Ol' Smokey here, and, as promised; a pic of his pack-mate.

I have a 3rd Hellbrute, another DV push-fit model, but what I really want is an old ForgeWorld Nurgle Dreadnought. We'll see what happens.

Better pictures/ close-ups to follow soon.

Hellbrute WIP

Nurgle Hellbrute 

I grabbed this push-fit Dark Vengeance Hellbrute on the cheap from ebay, just so I could mess him up. I did a foot and an arm swap but mostly I was challenging myself by trying to make the back of this model look good; but in the end, I wasn't really that inspired to do much else with him, and he sat on a shelf for a good long while. Then the Hellbrute Dataslate came out.... and work began anew.

Man, oh man!  Deep-striking Hellbrutes into the heart of the enemy? That thought just put a big ol' smile on my face. I knew I needed a Hellbrute Mayhem Pack in my army: that meant I needed to get this guy Nurgle'd up + done, and he'd also need 2 friends.

So I bought the new Hellbrute box. Not a bad kit, ('certainly it looked better from behind than the DV version) but not very inspiring. I got distracted by something else, lost interest and so Ol' Smokey here and the Mayhem Pack project were shelved.

Recently, however, I've been bitten by the hobby bug again, and I cleared my workbench of all other diversions to focus on getting the 'Pack completed. I really love daemon engines, but this kit just didn't seem Nurgley enough for me, and it really didn't scream "tortured soul trapped inside a daemon engine against their will" either: something had to be done. I tried playing with adding a plague bearer face over the horned "mouth" opening on the model, and I liked the personality it instantly gave the kit, but the scale was all wrong. Then it hit me; Plague Toads! I got out the green stuff I started globbing it on, and I have to say, for the first time in a long time, I am really, really excited about this hobby again!

I'm committing to getting at least 2 of the 3 'Brutes done by the end of August. I'll post more pictures as this progresses.

Forgefiend (part 01)

Here is a WIP shot of my Nurgle Forgefiend.

Most of the converting and green stuff is done, I just have to magnetize the weapon options and attach the hooves. The base needs a little more work/ rubble too, but nearly there!

As usual; I apologize for the poor quality of the photo (camera/photographer is crap).

This guy has been clogging up my hobby bench for a while, so the thread on the SMCA boards was perfect motivation to push this project to the finish line.

Raptors

WIP Nurgle Raptor Champion

cough cough 
dusty in here, been a long while since I posted anything!

The good news is: I haven't been totally idle!
I've mooooostly been chipping away at my Raptor Squad and Forgefiend...

Also, as much as I hate the look of the back of the Dark Vengance Hellbrute, I got one cheap from ebay to convert-up + be more nurgley + in-line w/ the new kit (just for fun, probably won't deploy him on the table).

BUT I've also been dipping my toes into the realm of Terrain (gasp!)
I've got a bunch of great looking Armourcast stuff, and some Battlefield-in-a-Box pieces too to help round out the GW terrain and the few random things I've scratchbuilt.

Of course, this is all hearsay without pictures. I have some nice lights and a little light box thing... but a crap camera. I'm taking this WIP picture with the old camera, but the new set-up should be in place soon. When that happens, the photos will flow like water, I tell you!

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 :)