The Black Crusade Completed

It is done! All five of Grandfather Nurgle's drippiest terminators are complete and will be posted off to join the Black Crusade this afternoon! Lets take a look at the last three:

I spoke extensively about the painting methods for these lads in the previous post. Thus I'll just pull out the interesting bits of these three to showcase.

This chap is an example of how thinking about assembly can create a sort of theme in the model. In this case the repeating eye of horus motief on the shoulder and chest.

The aspiring champion of the unit needed a little more to subtly differentiate him from the rest of the unit. The central trophy rack - with skewered Blood Raven helmet - helped but I decided to add some design work to the loincloth. The open, drooling mouth is an old Nurgle transfer that I trimmed to remove as much carrier film as I could manage - sharp blades for the win. Then with copious amounts of MicroSol I gradually softened and dissolved the carrier film forcing the printed region to conform to the shape of the cloth. Finally I added some Seraphim Sepia to kill the very white transfer.

Love those lightning claws, so crude and brutal. I oiled the exposed workings with a couple of layers of brown ink. Also quite chuffed with how the freshly severed hand came out.

The last of the Puppetswar plague warrior heads was a doozy. This poor fellow is in the process of developing the face of a plaguebearer. The gods bestow their gifts uncaringly after all. I love how this was sculpted, the nose seems to have collapsed inward leaving room for the eyes to merge into the classic plaguebearer cyclopean orb. The teeth have sharpened and the classic single horn has erupted. The original brow ridge and facial architecture is still present. Very cool. I adjusted my usual skin painting to include a thin wash of Athonian Camoshade to create a greenish tinge.

I was so torn about the big skull shoulder pad. Part of me wanted it brass, I couldn't see any justification for bone so in the end I just left it rusted! Worked for me.

And so here they are! Proper bad ass terminators. If you want them then there is still time! Go to the Black Crusade website and contribute. You'll get an entry for every $1 you donate.

Well, that's all from me, next week we are on holiday but I have two posts scheduled and ready to go, just have to rely on Mulder to push the button. See you in a week folks!

Hmm, Mulder doesn't seem to be concentrating on posts...

TTFN

Black Crusade: Forward, for the Grandfather!

Greetings all, today - in somewhat stark contast to last post's Harlequin Troupe Master - we look at a pair of completed Black Crusade Nurgle Terminators.

In my previous posts (Assembly and rusting) I talked about the parts I used and their posing and also mentioned the rusting and basic weathering so I will brush past them and just take you around some of the key features of these delightful gents.

I've always, always loves this chainfist. Just such a brutal design, it is specifically built to catch the opponant and pull into the body for maximum damage. The double edged construction also means he can strike on the return stroke as well! I've added some brass detailing to break up all that rust. The new brass tones are lovely (Warplock Bronze base, Brass Scorpion highlight and Runelord Brass second highlight) and a quick wash of Sotek Green and White Scar mixed in roughly a 2:1 ratio gives a nice verdigrised finish.

That chaos marine champion headon the terminator bodies works very nicely. I debated for some time about which chapter to skewer on the trophy rack. Imperial Fists or White Scars would draw the eye from the face, Dark Angels, Crimson Fists or Black Templars would blend with the armour, in the end good old Ultramarines was a smart choice, the cool blue contrasts the warm greens and browns without leaping out too much. Speaking of leaping out, the lenses needed those brass rims as the green lenses dropped into the background without them.

Lord alone knows what is leaking from that bag on the trophy rack. I'm thinking loyalist proganoid organs to corrupt and implant in new Death Guard. The insignia is an old transfer which I applied using my usual method (see tutorials above).

A nice shot showing the final colour of the armour. This was achieved entirely with streaky glazes of shading washes, specifically: First a fairly comprehensive wash of Athonian Camoshade over the Vallejo Grey-Green. Once this has dried I applied streaks of Seraphim Sepia making sure to "stump" the streaks (feathering the edges with a clean damp brush to prevent ugly tide marks). Finally very thin streaks of Agrax Earthshade gave texture and depth. This, on top of the scratched rust showing through from previous stages left a lovely deeply textured finish.

The bases are Secret Weapon Bone Field 40mm bases which were kindly donated to the Black Crusade project. After painting the earth Dryad Bark and the skeletons, well, bone, I added copious amounts of water effects - these bases have a raised lip to contain water effects - and stirred in thin streaks of my blood mix (3:1 red ink to chestnut ink), Athonian Camoshade and brown ink to add colour, depth and the ewww factor.

Speaking of the ewww factor his friend has it in spades. This is one of the Puppetswar plague warrior heads and they look great in place. This one has some aweful form of necrotising fasciatis eating away the skin of his face while leaving the poor sufferer alive. Ick. Several thin layers of blood mix and then some mixed 2:1 with brown ink for older blood made a decent job of it.

Decent shot of the exposed, rotting brain (add grey to a pinkish flesh tone and then liberally wash with blood mix, I'm a Biomedical Scientist, I like to get these things right... don't judge me!) and of the severed hand dangling from the waist.

And then yaay, more copse parts! This chap was painted with a 50:50 mix of Ratskin Flesh and Rakarth Flesh with more Rakarth Flesh added for highlights, then treated the same way as the exposed skull.

The ranged weapons were painted black to add a little more colour interest to the models. I painted them in a stippling fashion leaving the edges rusty to give the appearance of chipped and flaking paint.

Finally another Secret Weapons Bone Field base, this one with more room for water. I like the finish this achieves, reminds me of the plague swamps encountered by the Sons of Horus in False Gods.

So, two down, three to go! Should have all of them done by the end of the week and then pack them up and send them off to Black Crusade central. Like what you see? Why not contribute to the charity drive and win them!  More soon folks.

TTFN

Behold the Black Crusade!

Some of you may remember the Storm Wardens charity project from last year. It was a great event combining the talents of painters from all over the wargaming Blogosphere to create an army and then auction it for charity. Well, it's back in a new form, behold the Black Crusade!

The most exciting part, for me at any rate, is that I am part of it this year! I'm painting a squad of Death Guard terminators for the project and have decided to up the ante. Remember these?

This army is sold, you can't have it anymore!

Yup, I am donating a portion of the sale to the Crusade. So in addition to the kick ass army you get 100 chances to win ANOTHER kick ass army! Huzzah huh? Anyway, this cannot be any more first come first served as I only have the one of these, so if you want in get in quickly! Until next time folks, 

TTFN

Sorcerer of Nurgle

And so it begins... The first model of my Nurgle Warriors of Chaos army and it's magic...

Well, a sorcerer at any rate.This charming (if a little drippy) chap is Lothar Pneumophilus, Sorcerer of Nurgle (Nurgle, for the uninitiated is the Chaos God of Plague and Decay) and one of the powers behind my Chaos Lord's throne. The model has had no modifications of any sort as he is a splendid sculpt. The only addition is the wee nurgling chap at the front representing the Warrior Familiar that he has in the list. Painting started with the clothing. I intend to use what I call "Andy Green" - named for Andy of Lair of the Breviks fame - for the main army colour. This colour starts with a basecoat of Charadon Granite so every piece of cloth was basecoated in one go. I intended to use Charadon Granite as the basis for all of the colours on the model to bind it together.

Working on the principle of painting inside to out I first darkened the under-robe down to black with many layers of Badab Black. Then the main robe was worked up to Andy Green. This is done using the following process: Wash the Charadon Granite basecoat with Devlan Mud, rehighlight all but the shadows with Charadon Granite then sequentially highlight first with a 50:50 mix of Charadon Granite and Catachan Green, then with pure Catachan Green. Moving into the high points we then make a 50:50 Catachan and Camo Green mix and follow that with pure Camo Green. Final highlights are with Camo Green and Dheneb Stone. Eight stages. Yes I know that is a lot but it goes quite quickly and creates a wonderful earthy, nurgle-ey green.

I then moved on to the cloak. I wanted a heavy, dark, canvas look to the fabric. Mixing Codex Grey into the Charadon Granite acheived a nice brown-ey grey. I then glazed the finished fabric with a thinned mix Thraka Green and Badab Black. The weathering on the bottom of the cloak was done after all the other steps were finished. I used Forgeworld weathering powders (light earth and dark earth) to add the dried earth. The wetter mud at the edge are a mix of gloss varnish and dark earth and then an edge of Devlan Mud.

The scrolls were basecoated in Dheneb Stone, the bones in Khemri Brown and then both were washed in Devlan Mud. Scrolls were rehighlighted with Dheneb Stone and then with a mix of Dheneb Stone and Skull White. Bones were my usual mix of sequential highlighting through a mix of Khemri Brown and bone all the way up to bone and white.

The staff top is glued together with some nasty, slimey fluid. Ick. Base coated in Catachan Green the ick was then glazed with AK Interactive Slimy Grime Dark. This is an enamel product that allows you to fade out the effect by "stumping" - gradually removing paint - with odourless turpentine. A hit of gloss varnish finished it off and left it with a slimey finish to the entire piece.

The face of the model shows the corruption and noisome foulness of the flesh that lies within. I wanted it to look bloated but bloodless. Normally overweight people are pinker but I wanted him to look ill, really ill. I started from a mix of Tallarn Flesh and Dheneb Stone as a basecoat. Then a wash of Ogryn Flesh and Thraka Green to send him green about the gills. The eye sockets were glazed with Leviathan Purple to make him look tired and the deep recesses were shaded with Devlan Mud. I then highlighted with the original skin mix and then again with a little more Dheneb Stone added. I washed the beard of boils with a couple of thin coats of Baal Red which self highlighted with the top skin colour. The lips were glazed first in Leviathan Purple then with thin Baal Red. A highlight of the skin colour knocks the colour back into the skin to stop it being too bold. A final very thin glaze of Thraka Green finished the skin tone nicely.

The last element to be painted were the maggots (Vallejo Deck Tan washed in Gryphonne Sepia and rehighlighted with Deck Tan) and the Nurgling. The Nurgling was painted with a 60:40 Tallarn Flesh and Catachan Green mix and then highlighted by adding bone to the mix. Deep recesses were picked out with thinned Devlan Mud. The exposed flesh and viscera were glazed with two coats of my blood mix - 4:1 Red Ink to Chestnut Ink. Picking out the bone and black eyes finished him off.

This model effectively sets the colour scheme of the army, add some rust (well, a lot of rust) and this is what the army will look like. I want to add some slushy melting snow to the base to give a nice contrast to the very dark colour scheme but that will have to wait until I buy some water effects. Until next time folks.

TTFN

Nurgle Warriors of Chaos (Workbench)

Greetings all, I had intended to show you some shiney new painting today but an acute attack of the lurgey has put paid to that.

Yup, Mulder and I are under the weather...

Instead - and quite fittingly - I thought you might enjoy taking a look at the work I have been doing on my fledgling Nurgle Chaos Warrior army. This is a project in conjunction with the Beard Bunker and most of the WIP work will be going there but I shall share the finished models with you all too. Without further ado, here we go:

The two chaos warrior units in the army are both 14 strong with a space for a character. I wanted them to be really, really nurgle. In fact I wanted the whole army to feel old school Realms of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness style. To achieve this I went in and attacked every armour plate and weapon with my wannabe dremel to create pitting in the surface that the Jeffrust would make into corroded wrecks. The second quick element was adding some Puppetswar rotting warrior heads to five of the unit. They are pictured below:

contrast messed with to help visibility.

These should give the old school "gifts of the gods" look I wanted. To help the nurgle vibe even more I converted the command group to have appropriate toys. Lets start with the champion:

A quick conversion this, just a couple of quick slices with my trusty Chopper II and an Empire Flagellent scythe became the highly appropriate weapon of an aspiring champion of Nurgle.

The musician was made by combining a cut down standard pole with a plague monk gong and a standard top. Swopping out the weapon head for a plague monk drumstick end made for a nice looking Nurgle musician. A dolorous tolling of a terrible gong made for a more Nurgle feel than a horn. The next unit will have a drum.

Finally the standard bearer had the top of his banner pole extended by about 3/4" and a 40k Chaos Marine Nurgle icon added. Really sets off the banner and pledges their alleigance most firmly.

While we are talking standards, this is for the Marauder horde I am going to use. The horde (50 strong) is going to be a ragged crusade of a mixture of warbands drawn together under one ruler. If you are curious the backstory for this army is on the Beard Bunker. There will be converted flagellents, plague monks, beastmen, a corpse cart and some mantic ghouls as they look like nutters. I wanted the standard bearer to be a walking scripture bearer and I think the model captures that nicely. Handily the Flagellent box includes all sorts of wacky stuff to make for dynamic and crazy looking cultists.

While I was playing with flagellents I decided to make 4 mutants, I thought that 4 in a unit of 50 would be enough to give a "gifted by chaos" feel without making the unit overloaded with mutants.

This fellow is bursting with tentacles. Decided to use a blinded head as though he now uses the tentacles to feel his way like a squishy Blind Pew.

By comparison he got off light.

The last mutant is also the most disturbing. Something about a sinuous neck always freaks me out. Obviously all of these need some liquid green stuffing to smooth out the joins. I always liked how the chaos rewards were always so random. To the chaos gods there is no difference between a third nostril, super strength and the ability to smell colours. They are all gifts.

Anyway, my diseased ramblings are becoming more random. Fare thee well all, I have an appointment with a duvet and mucho orange juice. I leave you with an image of the failed aspiring champion I will have leading the marauders:

TTFN