Myphitic Blight Hauler #3 - WIP

Okay, the last one of the Myphitic Blight Haulers for my Death Guard.

This one is based on the smaller tractor from the Galvanic Servohaulers set - stripped bare and with most of the armor and weapons from the original crawler. Cables are really cool and here they play a big role, I could really go to town with all the various kinds and sizes. Besides, the mouth is pretty cool I think - with several tiers to it, with many smaller jaws inside - with some wire tentacles for extra fun.

I look forward to painting those - but first, I need to level up my vehicles painting skill. More info next week.

And here are all the 3 of them together:

Myphitic Blight Hauler #2 - WIP

Second Myphitic Blight Hauler. This one was based on one of the small machines that are part of the Galvanic Servohaulers set (sadly discontinued!) - military machines from WW2 are part of the inspiration, but industrial ones are very important for this project as well! Plows, tractors and other work tools coming to life because of an otherworldly red plague, all to kill the ruling class is very fitting for this commie-inspired army.

Much more kitbashing here, the original basis is barely visible underneath all that.

Sadly, this model is partially responsible for the length of the last break here - I wanted to have that meltagun on a technological arm, but I just couldn't find the box with it! There was no substitute and I just got angry at the whole project and shelved it. Only many months later I found it by accident and gladly resumed the work on them. Thus, you can see the finished model at last!

Myphitic Blight Hauler #1 - WIP

What I was getting into WH40k with the Death Guard, I was really looking forward to the machines that they use. I especially like the smaller ones that serve as infantry support, like Dreadnoughts or the Myphitic Blight Haulers. The latter ones are the topic of the current project. I would love to have 3 of them, but sadly, GW is offering only one sculpt. It really doesn't make any sense for such a daemon-posessed machine.

So, I did the sensible thing and hacked the original one to pieces and bought some extra plastic to kitbash the hell out of them.

1st Crawler is based on a 1:48 scale model of a BA-20 soviet armored car. This cheap piece was then covered with tech and organic bits to bring it into the 41st millenium.

In general, I am pretty happy with my first truly technological model - combination of machine and organics fascinated me for a long time and it's really cool to try i out for real.

Plague Marine #06

Okay, the last Plague Marine of this first batch, probably happy news to everyone already bored with them. Well, I'll try to refine the weathering process on the next ones and include something more exciting next time.

He may be the last, but certainly not least. That that small piece of cloth was a very welcome intrusion, it breaks the dirt and rust a bit and also gives some nice surface to cover with frost and snow.

Plague Marine #05

Even more Plague Marines - and once again, this one comes without a helmet.

The sculpt is very good on this one, but he had a Nurgling hanging on the pauldron spike - seeing as I want to avoid those little buggers in this project, I replaced it with a bloody tentacle. The other pauldron had a fine skull print on it, which looked terrible after the weathering round, so I covered it with some bloody meat. Just about everything in this collection could be replaced with something bloody and slimy.

Plague Marine #04

Back with plague marines to keep things mixed here. Next week, more Bretonnia.

This is the first one that I am showing that doesn't have a helmet. With this color scheme, their faces are just a wet blob of meat, which I think is quite fitting.

Plague Marine #03

A bit late today, sorry! A small vacation left my schedule a bit disrupted.

Next Plague Marine, more weathered dudes to let me slide a bit easier through the beginning of the year. Seriously, those are so messy! I hoped they would look a bit more coherent...

Plague Marine #02

Another loyal comrade for my quite new WH40K collection of Death Guard, one that started with Lord Krvavrus. This one has probably the smallest amount of fleshy bits on him, but there are still some. I'm not sure if there are any "armor-only" models in the current Death Guard range, but if there are some, conversions will be needed.

Right now I'm busy with Christmas, but I should be able to break the monotony of those posts next week with a nice Bretonnian knight. Until then, enjoy some haphazard weathering on this one.

Plague Marine #01

And we're back with the (un)usual programming - first of the Plague Marines to serve great Lord Krvavrus and his Red Death. This one is probably my favorite of the whole batch, so he goes first.

While the painting process of those dudes is easy and rather mindless, it took much more time than I anticipated, thus the last filler post. Still, I managed to paint a whole group of them and I'll be posting them one by one because first, they are all really unique, not just rank-and-file and second, so that I can have some time to paint bigger things like standards for Bretonnians or to convert some war machines vehicles for the Red Death.

This is still an experiment when it comes to weathering, it will probably take several rounds of those before I find something that really satisfies me. At least the color scheme works good IMO.

Blood Bowl Markers - 'Infected Pallid Ale' Kegs

Continuing the streak for my beloved Blood Bowl Team: the Putrid Punters! Thematically related to the previous entry, the Horticulturist, here I am with some tasty, healthy and organic beer.

There is a generic upgrade for every team, the "Bloodweiser Kegs/Babes" which are supposed to reinvigorate the players after they are knocked out - and having some neat marker for those is easy enough. Still, for my Punters, I wanted something special, something that would fit well their alternative take on biology. I had this giant bell laying around and it was a perfect use for it. The second one took some more thinking, but I think it's not worse - a walking gland full of beer, which could be distributed through a fleshy tube - a more organic approach. Both were based on 40K poxwalkers - those small guys are perfect for generic Nurgle dudes. WIP post can be found HERE.

The painting was even better than converting in my opinion. First, there was this giant bell and metal is always welcome. Secondly, the sacs showing between the fleshy bits on the right one were supposed to look half-transparent, showing some contents inside - I never painted something like this, which is also nice. Thirdly, after all was painted I had to do all the water effects, with a large amount of resin in the bell and even more beady foam - also lots of fun. I'm quite satisfied with those.

Another note - I painted many nurgly and undead pieces in my hobby career, with its fair amount of gore and unsavory details, but in my opinion, the "walking keg" is my most disgusting miniature by far.

Edit: Forgot to mention, but this another entry for the small challenge "If not minis, then what?", so about what would you be doing if not hobbying. If I had this crazy amount of time, I would definitely try brewing my own beer. Perhaps more palatable to humans that this thing here.

While most Blood Bowl players and fans love to drink copious amounts of Bloodweiser, the Putrid Punters are beer snobs who bring their own hand-crafted kegs to every party, dismissing famous brand as watered-down parody of real beer. Created in their microbrewery by good Mr.Rotlaug, the Infected Pallid Alle (I.P.A.) is their beverage of choice - with just the right amount of foul bitterness mixed with tangy aftertaste of decay. They bring it to matches either in giant bells or drink it straight from the tap. Only with this behind the sidelines they can be expected to get up from knockouts more often.

Blood Bowl Nurgle Staff - Mr. Rotlaug the Horticulturist

It seems there will be quite a streak of Blood Bowl staff right now - and it's all for the smelly Putrid Punters of Nurgle!

After the Head Coach it's time for the Horticulturist. He's basically a wizard addition for the team, but the whole idea od a nurgly gardener with his free-range bio-vegetables was sweet and I had lots of fun putting this little "almost-a-diorama" together. The WIP post can be found HERE.

Festus was used as a base, because he's basically that as he already is. Still, that wasn't enough, so I have him a snazzy hat, a shovel, lots of healthy produce and a referee to taste his refreshments. He's supposed to be also a beer brewer for my team, so I wanted to put some foam on the guy tasting the brew - a new challenge for me. I made it with small glass beads mixed with gloss varnish and some pale green paint. Does it look okay?

Mr. Rotlaug here is also my answer to yet another challenge amongst polish bloggers, this time it's "If not minis, then what?", as a question what would one be doing if not wasting time and money on this hobby. I live in a modern (poorly lit) apartment, so no farming for me, but I do enjoy my houseplants and would probably work on them a little bit more if not painting minis. Close enough for the topic IMHO!

Every self-respecting Blood Bowl player knows that proper diet and good nutrition are the keys to success on the pitch - and Nurgle players are no different. Pedantic about the quality of their veggies, they often keep a small garden with only the best organic, bio, fair-trade and free-range greens for their high nutritional needs. Those who want to be even more serious about it employ a professional, a horticulturist - and the good Mr. Rotlaug is the one working currently with the Punters. While quite peculiar and difficult to understand (thick dialect developed in Averland), he’s nonetheless extremely knowledgeable and his veggies are truly exemplary. They are so good, actually, that they can be deployed on the pitch as a weapon - being so healthy, they are actually disgusting and distracting to other players that grew up on Big Moot Sandwiches and Orca-Cola - even causing stomach difficulties! Thus, the Punters rely on Mr. Rotlaug every time when they want to make a point of their exceptionally healthy diet and crush their weaker, poorly-fed opponents.

Blood Bowl Nurgle Staff - Marggh Mawgino the Head Coach

After a really long break, here I am again with some content for my beloved Blood Bowl team, the Putrid Punters!

This time it's the head coach, a character that gives you such a rarely used advantage, he's practically useless... but he's still an important person and a great modelling opportunity. As I mentioned in the WIP post, an ogre's body was the core idea for this conversion, all to make him this absolute unit of a coach. It works, he's towering over all his players!

I had to remind myself how to paint this yellow skin, but painting him was an overall pleasant experience. I have some other small things for this band planned, so this was a good warmup.

Through all the years and many time jumps, the Putrid Punters relied on their ancient and trusted coach Oughustus. Unfortunately, the stationary life of a coach made him susceptible to growing greater and more glorious with every season, until he became simply too big to fit in the time portal. Instead, he was consumed by the warp, never to be seen again. Some journalists argue that he ascended to daemonhood, watching the Punters from the comfort of Grandfather Nurgle’s garden. Hard pressed, the team pitched in and recruited a relatively new, fresh and fit head coach Marggh Mawgino. While he’s not as experienced as his predecessor, he knows much more theory and the modern take on Blood Bowl - so maybe together with his ancient, veteran players, they’ll be able to compensate for each other’s weaknesses and achieve something passable.

Lord Krvavrus, Harbinger of the Red Death

After some small sneak peeks through WIP posts, I can now properly start a brand new collection here, 40k Death Guard.

The general idea about them is to have them in all-white armor, with no extra decorative trims, like on a real military tank, but HEAVILY weathered. This then goes in a wintery setting. Amongst all that dirty white comes the red, all the fleshy bits will be painted as bloody viscera, standing out from the background. This guy here is the main leader of this new force and also a guinea pig for this whole new endeavor. And by new, I really mean new. There are so many "first-times" here, I haven't felt like this in years! I never painted any 40k, I never used chipping medium, I never used snow effects, I was very excited painting him, even if he's a little bit lost amongst the rust and grime.

Obviously, some fine-tuning will be needed on the technique, but I am looking forward to it nonetheless. I have lots of marines already primed, some terminators ordered, and conversion parts for the Blight-haulers waiting. Yet another new nurgle force coming right up! And there is another one in the works as well!

Krvavrus, fed up with Mortarion’s obsessions, decided to take his cohort and carve up his own path in the galaxy. Led by Nurgle’s own voice, they found a small, frozen mining world with a red dwarf casting its feeble rays upon it. Here, a blessing struck the whole force, a powerful disease that seemed to impart thoughts and purpose on their very flesh. The unworthy were overcome, turning into growing, pulsating mass of viscera covering the ground. The strongest were able to contain it and wield this new “Red Death” as a weapon against the inhabitants of the planet. The government is trying to diminish the influence of this new threat by dismissing it as just a “Red Scare”. Still, they do know that the situation is dire, for Krvavrus and his brethren won’t stop until there is a completely red planet under a red star, the first seed in Nurgle's great new plan.

Iakob the Savage - WIP

After Havel, here I am with even more vampires! Just a conversion WIP though.

Back when WFB was a thing, there was a possibility to build a vampire character that's a murdermachine and melee and yet possesses the ability to use magic from the Lore of the Beasts. Thanks to the vampires' unique rules, they could retain their powers while using the spell that transformed them into monsters. A mountain chimera in this context was stupidly overpowered. Of course, it cost a lot and was very easy to counter, so nobody used it seriously. Still, I loved this idea so much that I wanted to at least model a vampire to fit that description, a powerful barbarian just barely containing his inner beast. And after that, of course, the transformed versions...

This is my take on this. The model is based on a Khorne Exalted Deathbringer from GW. I redid quite a lot with him, I expected this conversion to be much easier, but the ideas just kept coming. Because I'm using the same head as the one on Gavros, I kept his ears small and sculpted some weird tendril hair on his previously bald head. I'm really unsure if I like it... if it's bad after getting some paint, I'll just rip it off.

It's a miracle I managed to fit him on a proper 20x20mm base!

Blood Bowl Big Guy - Kryp'er the Chaos Troll

I started painting the smaller marauders and humans first for my Chaos Pact team only because it made sense from a narrative standpoint. This whole time, the most fun miniature in the whole bunch was the troll, it was the one that convinced me to get this team. Now, it's finally painted!

The idea here was to do the same color scheme that Chaos Trolls from WFB used. I always liked that one, but never had the opportunity to use it. Blue skin also nicely contrasts with the orange armor, so that's a plus too.

Nothing else to say here, just a great model from Greebo. Now to paint the other two big guys, a minotaur and an ogre!

With the core players for the Kreegan Krashers found, it was time for the heavy hitters. As it is customary for Chaos Renegades teams, the headhunter Dugtig wanted to go big - as many brutes and monsters as the rules allowed! He started with the troll - after helping recruit players for countless goblin teams, he already knew a good candidate. Kryp’er was a troll with an especially vicious streak and a tentacle for an arm - Dugtig tried to pitch him as a Sea Troll several times, but the greenskin coaches weren’t convinced. Now he would gladly take him into the Krasher’s roster! Sadly, Kryp’er was way too stupid to use that appendage as aptly as Rotspawns do, but thanks to its reach, he could always reach to help his teammates in a scrap.

Blood Bowl Chaos Pact - Specialist Marauders

I am slowly trying to get through all the stuff that I started before the big hiatus and one of those is the Chaos Pact team for Blood Bowl that I got as a present back in 2019. I already painted the renegade part of the team, as well as half of the humans, now it's time to do the second half. First five marauders were thought of as blitzers and fighters, those here are more specialized and actually capable of handling the ball.

Like before, I wanted to experiment with skintones here, so they are quite a diverse bunch. It was an interesting experience, I'll have to broaden my horizons a bit more in other projects too. Besides, I must admit, I'm quite glad with how their hair came out. I hate painting long hair usually, but this time it went well - perhaps it's because of the sculpt itself.

While his new marauder blitzers were already sparring with the renegades, the goblin headhunter Dugtig was slowly paging through other applications from other Kreegans, a violent fan-group. He wasn’t getting very far until he questioned Ragnar the Red. That outspoken Kreegan not only convinced the goblin that he was a good choice for a player, he was also able to give some good pointers on finding some specialists amongst the rowdy rabble. Together they gathered the marauders that would be tasked with handling the ball on the pitch - with Ragnar being chosen as the obvious captain of the team. Now, with such a strong core of the rowdy hooligans, Dugtig decided to name the team “The Kreegan Krashers”.

This time the boys are first. The middle one is Ragnar the Red, the captain of the team - and I think I made his red mane stand out quite nicely. The one on the left was slightly converted to sport some extra arms.

And the girls. The one on the left was converted a bit to hold a ball up, I designed her to serve as a thrower for the team. The other one, I'm surprised how post-apocalyptic she turned out! It wasn't (consciously) intended, but with that dark clothing and green mohawk, she would fit in Fallout right in!

Blood Bowl Chaos Chosen - Hieronymus the Unabated

I'm back to at least post something for my very own topic for the game mentioned in the previous post. I feel quite guilty about inactivity here, but there was home improvement, sickness and lots of work to be done lately... Hopefully I can regain some speed after going on a vacation for a moment.

I chose the "Heavy Metal" topic because I had this guy almost ready and he's probably the most fitting for this out of everything I have at hand! A product of the sleep-deprived mind of a very new father, he's finally ready. Hieronymus, the namesake of the painter that inspired the general mood of this team. This nice tin fishman turned a little different from the early sketches, but I still like him like this. With all this metal, painting process was quick and enjoable.

All the general design ideas about them are in the WIP post to be found HERE.

Hieronymus the Unabated is a well-known member of the Lost & Damned, a creature so old and alien, he lost his humanity a long time ago and never looked back. On the pitch, he’s very cold and calculating. Still, the inability to understand his thought processes renders that moot - nobody knows what his goals are at any given moment - and anything and anyone standing between him and his goal is risking, well… disturbing displays of violence, snacking on lost body parts. Extreme hardiness is what gives him lots of fans on the bleachers. Less so on the opposing teams, but such is life.

Blood Bowl Chaos Chosen - Boshoi Siblings - the Uncleft

So, Bretonnians turned out rather repetitive, so I did a quick change of pace and returned to my weird Chaos Team, The Lost & Damned.

I already painted the Beastmen, they were the last before the hiatus and they are all a dark and twisted take on both Chaos and Blood Bowl. Now it was time for the Blockers, or Champions as I call them - really useful players that command the lesser creatures around them. Here are the Boshoi siblings, a conjoined monstrosity with the bigger half stoping and chomping all around the pitch (talking too) and the smaller half handling the ball and being the brains of the operation.

This guy was painted the most already and was overall pretty simple, so I chose him first. All the general design ideas about them are in the WIP post to be found HERE. Painting was a joy, I like flesh and there wasn't many differen textures involved. In the end, they turned out almost exactly as I envisioned - I didn't plan for dark teeth, that just happened because of the basecoat and I loved it.

Should the Lost & Damned rely only on their chaotic and unruly beastmen, they could just as well go back to the maelstrom from where they crawled out. The true stars, who carry the team on their shoulders, are the four Champions - the rest of the players are just lowly retinues to them. One, or rather two of them are the Boshoi siblings - a conjoined monstrosity, sharing one body with two eyes, two functional hands, two legs, and one mouth. They work and play as one, a terrifying charger out of your darkest dreams. Contrary to what one may think, they actually enjoy their life, more together than anyone else in the world. Boshoi receive every one of their mutations with fervor and make sure to make a great spectacle for the gods out of everything they do.

Blood Bowl Nurgle Staff - Infectius the Plague Doctor

Now this model was actually painted before my hiatus - and even photographed, but I just couldn't go through yet another round of editing. So, using my new setup, I retook the photos and here he is, sorry for the delay.

The colors were chosen to fit my Putrid Punters, with the notable exception for the white cloak. I painted it this way to make him look just a tiny bit more like your usual doctor. Just in case his helpful nurse, a sign, a doctor's bag weren't enough of a clue. Now he can join the team as the first proper member of the staff - first one of the many more to come!

The WIP for him can be found HERE.

Even if you are not interested in Blood Bowl, Blood Bowl may be interested in you! Such is the life of poor Infectius, a quiet, nerdy boy who always had a passion for all things biological. That evolved later into devoting himself to Nurgle and studying all his diseases and peculiar physiology of his beloved creatures. He would spend the rest of his days cooped up in his laboratory if not a recruitment organized by one of the high-ranking daemons. He wanted to create a guild of Plague Doctors, as a Nurglite alternative to Blood Bowl apothecaries. Being too timid and awkward to refuse, Infectius went with the daemon - and unfortunately for him - proved himself to be an exemplary doctor, being able to patch up even the weirdest of bodies and injuries. Then he got together with the Putrid Punters and the rest is history. The jocks from the team still occasionally make fun of him, but at least they respect him as the last chance to get back, should their regenerative powers fail them. And Infectius, while stressed and anxious most of the time, can at least find some meaning and purpose in his difficult task, which also involves endlessly learning new things about Grandfather Nurgle and his devotees.

Blood Bowl Chaos Chosen - The Unmade

After way too much time, we're finally at the last duo of weird beastmen - the Unmade (I couldn't find a fitting name that wasn't also the name of a GW Warcry warband...), the beastmen who mutated in ways directly beneficial in Blood Bowl - a very rare sight.

These are the ones that certainly gain the most after painting them - they both have big, creepy eyes on them. That also meant that they were pushed to the very end of my beastmen - I was intimidated by the prospect of painting so many eyes... Thankfully it wasn't as bad as I thought. Besides, painting wood and a lion's face from a photo were some nice changes to the usuals in this project.

The WIP for the left one can be found HERE and the right one HERE.

Most beastmen playing in the Lost & Damned are just random fluctuations of Chaos that had to cope in the new, Blood-Bowl-obsessed world they found themselves in - but some are created special. Those Unmade, were seemingly disassembled by their gods and made anew to carry unique mutations to help them play. It may be an ability to split oneself in two halves to dodge better, an arm mounted on a wheel to help pass farther and or eyes flailing on their nerves to see everyone and everything on the pitch and react accordingly. Still, no matter how useful or skilled they are, they don’t get many fans during their careers - they are literal slaves to their roles, single-mindedly devoted to filling their tasks. What starts with a strong drive and focus, turns later into psychosis. In their final hours, they get so overwhelmed with their specialization, they forget things like walking, seeing, breathing, perishing without understanding anything around them.