Miscellanea from dark futures: Warzone mutants, samurai, Chaos and more!

[jawd500]

I remember that article too. And also fighting a force of Death Guard painted along those exact lines at a tournament. Right tough b*stards, those...

Sorry for not responding to this one! Very cool! There was a piece of fiction I remember from another early noughties WD about some hapless Imperial Guardsmen fighting against the Death Guard, and since reading it I've had pretty much had a continuous affinity for the humble Plague Marine. There's something so evocative about the image of these relentless, flyblown warriors marching across the battlefield, and it's my hope to play a game with these chaps where they can do exactly that. I recall that the famous, much-loved 3.5 'dex let Chaos Players make super-flavourful (and sometimes super-OP) lists, although sadly I hear that in 10th the Death Guard have been nerfed somewhat. I suspect that we may never see anything like the greatness of that fluff-and-crunch-tastic codex (or the Eye of Terror supplement, for that matter) again...

[jawd500]

TO THOSE VIEWING THIS THREAD LOOKING FOR WARZONE TEMPLARS

- see previous page; my response to a comment has put us on a new page! 

[jawd500]

Well, it's been about a month since I posted here, but I'm back at last with an update! And, what's more, I've finally finished those damn Plague Marines! Despite starting out as a speedpainting endeavour, these chaps were hit by the inevitable time creep that afflicts all my projects. So, alas, I ended up sinking far more hours into them than I'd intended. But, hey, I'm happy enough with the end result, so that's the main thing. First up, a painted Lord Refestus:

[jawd500]

... followed by his not-so-trusted second in command, Vorbast, sorcerer of the Plague God. Kudos to the person who can spot the Mutant Chronicles reference on this chap (there's also a couple on Refestus's banner as well).

[jawd500]

Onto the infantry. One of the main things I changed from the initial 2000's White Dwarf issue paint scheme I was going to go with (which you can find a scan of on a previous page) was to add streaks of rusting grime onto the armour. This was done using Contrast Gore Grunta Fur (a paint that is quickly becoming a go-to for me), thinned down with about 50% Contrast Medium. I also added some Militarum Green in the recesses to suggest mould, and used a flesh wash around the slimy/ semi-organic areas of the armour. When it came to skin tones, I tended to use Rakarth flesh washed with various thinned purple/ flesh washes for the severed heads, whilst using Vallejo English Uniform for the Plague Marines themselves (and the few Nurglings dotted around). This is another great paint, which has a really solid consistency and works well when mixed with Rakarth Flesh or Nurgling Green to make a rather bilious green-yellow tan. Bleh! 

[jawd500]

And the other lot of the infantry. If I find time tomorrow, I'll try and post a few squad shots in some scenery.

The only other comments to add on the painting front with these guys relates to the bases and the bolters. I was never really happy with the initial base scheme (again, see the earlier test minis if you want a reference) so changed it for a more sci-fi, Mars desert look, made from first painting on Doombull brown (a dark, reddy brown), then a flat brown drybrush, and then finally an orange drybrush over that. The bolters were painted gunmetal all over, then washed with brown wash, thinned splotches of Gore Grunta Fur and dabs of Army Painter rust effect. I always find that painting metal is a bit of a bugger, so I caved and brought some Vallejo Metal Colour steel for this, as I'd heard that it offered really good coverage. It seems to have been a bit over-hyped, sadly, at least when it comes to being used by brush - I don't know if it's supposed to really excel when used in an airbrush. The paint has the consistency of milk, and although it covers fine, I couldn't really see much improvement over bog standard GW leadbelcher. It wasn't cheap, either.

Lastly, here's the Blight Hauler again - I went back and quickly re-did its base and added some Gor Grunta Fur streaks to its armour panels.

So what now for the army? Well, there's the Hellbrute, and some Blightlord Terminators, but I think I'm going to hang fire before committing to painting them up. There's a paint scheme I've come across here (https://exterminatusextremis.com/speed-painting-plague-marines/) that looks very interesting, and - more importantly - very easy to do. I also have some new-scale Death Guard, so it's looking like Nurgle's heralds are going to be getting some new duds and some new height shortly. In the interim, I've got some Pig Iron Productions scavengers which were painted up ages ago and are in need of varnishing, so they're the next item on the docket.

[jawd500]

A month goes by and I post nothing, now it's a weekend and I post a whole bunch! Moving on from Papa Nurgle, here's some Pig Iron Productions minis I finally got around to varnishing. I'd had these knocking around for ages but was inspired to paint them after coming across something called 'Apokalypse', a super-edgy underground tabletop RPG from the 90s. I could say more about it, but I think it'd give more of a flavour of the game just to show you the book's introduction. Apologies in advance for the swearing, if that's liable to cause offense.

I'm a big fan of these sculpts, primarily for their simplicity. I'm a believer in less being more, and although I dig the aesthetic of the 40k universe, one of my major gripes with GW is the ridiculous amount of finicky detail they put into their models these days. If you can convey the essence of a figure through a few, clear details and a good pose, that's all you need. Otherwise, it's just more time and effort the poor painter has to lavish on a model. Anyway, enough rambling - enjoy!

[OSHIROmodels]

I like these 

[Malamute]

I like what you’ve done with the Pig Iron Scavengers, simple but very effective.

[Ragsta]

That RPG seems perfectly appropriate for current times too. Your Nyrgke marines look awesome, really nice painting and basing.

I’m a big fan of Pig Iron, I kinda wish I’d used them more when I built up my Guard and Chaos! Great sculpts and you’ve painted yours up nicely. The sculpts are less detailed than ‘others’ as you say, but I think they’re perfect this way.

[Bullshott]

Nice work on everything, particularly the Pig Iron stuff. I've got a load of the scavs with close combat weapons painted. I just need to give some attention at some point to the bare metal that is the command and shooty figures.

[jawd500]

Thank you everyone for the kind replies - glad you liked the Pig Iron figs! In future I'll try posting some more non-GW stuff. Before that, though...

A quick update before I head off for a week or two. Part one is a painted Chaos Familiar model with a Nurgle colour scheme. These grim little boi is actually what got me back into painting after sinking out of the hobby for a few months. It's only now that I've gotten around to properly varnishing and photographing him. I don't know if there'd be any practical use for him in a game, but hopefully my hypothetical opponent would be happy having him trailing around Lord Refestus or Vorbast the Sorcerer as a mascot.

[jawd500]

Part two is what's next up on the painting front. I am determined (determined, I say!) to successfully speedpaint a squad in one or two painting sessions. After I'd built the plague marine force, I still had a number of bits left over. I decided to make a squad of 'ordinary' Chaos Space Marines: despite my many years in service to the Dark Gods, I realised I'd never done one of these before! I was also partly inspired by another back issue of White Dwarf that showed the original CSM plastic kit when it first came out, mixed with some of the plastic Khorne Bezerkers. I've put it here in case anyone else gets those nostalgia vibes.

[jawd500]

The boys in plastic. As I type this, they're outside awaiting spray-painting. I've been painting a heck of a lot of green at the moment, so I want to do these chaps as Word Bearers, as the dark red should make for a nice change. They're made from a mixture of Khorne Berserkers, the wonderful old Chaos Mutations sprue, straightforward CSMs, and a few of the old plastic Possessed bits chucked in there. There are also my ever-present epoxy putty mold ammo pouches. In keeping with the Chaos Undivided theme, I've constructed four of these guys - mostly using the Mutations Sprue - to represent a follower of each of the Chaos Gods. Khorne gets the heavy bolter, Nurgle gets the lumpy, boil-laden head, Slaanesh gets the long tongue and tentacle, and Tzeentch is the blind head - he probably uses the severed one he's holding to see! I also used a Chaos Mutation arm as a head for the Champion - clearly the Gods are smiling upon him!

To paint the squad, I'll be using the steps laid out in Pete The Wargamer's World Eaters Speedpaint tutorial, just using a darker red.


The twist here is that I am going to force myself to abide by a strict time limit. Six hours to paint these guys, in two lots of 3-hour sessions (so two evenings, in other words), and that's it. Finito! While they obviously won't be as detailed as the Plague Marines, I think it'll be a fun challenge to see if I can manage it. I think every wargamer who spends any significant length of time in the hobby tends to get a bit bogged down. I can't speak for anyone else, but I think sometimes I lose track of those halycon days from childhood where you could storm through an entire army in a weekend painting session. Sure, I probably wouldn't want to see the results of those sessions today, but hey, you get the point!

[Freddy]

Cool looking conversions and paintings!