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.

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.

Malignant Plaguecaster - WIP

WH40K with Nurgle continues. I wanted to have more finished conversions before I start painting, so I did some other characters too, besides the Lord of Contagion two posts ago. Today comes the Malignant Plaguecaster, the simple psyker from the previous starter set.

I was mostly fine with the model, except for the puff of noxious gas that he was blowing from his hand - I hate painting such special effects. I decided to replace it with a writing mass of tendrils, which is both properly substantial and also a connection to the flesh horror theme of this army. There is a toothy maw between them - it was a perfect use for the little squig that I spared from Mollog's kit.

Blood Bowl Markers - Pleasant Buzzbugs

Once again I'm here with a small project that's actually painted - re-roll markers for my Nurgle team.

While absolutely anything can be used for this purpose, my Putrid Punters are now a very long-term idea when I want to have anything for them that fits the theme, so all the staff, star players, scenery, up to the whole stadium at some point. That's why I wanted those little bugs to serve as markers and they will deplete as I use them up - I don't expect to have more that 4 re-rolls for them anyway.

Eyestinger Swarms from Kill Team: Rogue Trader box were perfect for this role - small, characterful and fitting (despite coming from WH40K). I converted them just a little bit - some details on the bases to replace those overly science-fiction ones. I am actually surprised how well those orange wings turned out with the yellowish-greenish tones I used for their skin, I have to consider using one of the bigger winged models for something! Maybe a cameraman...

Every time a Nurgle team trains, they sweat a lot. And I mean, a lot! The peculiar fragrance this creates attracts certain insects, that the Punters came to call them “pleasant buzzbugs”. They swarm up around the stadium during those preparatory sessions and often stick around for the match itself too. The buzzing noise they create is very pleasant (hence the name!) to the followers of Nurgle, filling them with confidence about themselves and their good god. This means that the more bugs, the better they are prepared to play! Still, should they run out of favor of Grandfather Nurgle during the play, the bugs will lose their interest and fly away - giving the opposing team a signal that maybe the rotting ones are finally running out of steam!

Lord of Contagion - WIP

The unexpected happened - I got myself some first 40k minis to paint, an actual collection!

Blood Bowl got me into Nurgle good and I just couldn't stop marveling over modern Death Guard miniatures - all of them full of little, unneccesary detail, holes and gribbles, with so many variants and options... Death Guard players are just spoiled with how rich the range is - so I decided to give them a go. I am quite fascinated with morbid combinations of flesh and machine and this project will be good for exploring that - once I get their style and theme right.

The big leader guy from the previous starter set, Lord of Contagion, seemed like a very good start. The current idea for their theme is white/wintery armor with an industrial and soviet feel to them - with some flesh&technological horror included. To get some of that that, I cut off the special effects from his back (I hate painting those) and replaced them with some smokestacks. He is standing on a T-35 tank turret I painted in middle school - to make him stand out a little bit more and get that some soviet points too. The original tank model was wrecked by a cat long time ago, so this is its new purpose.

Some more HQ will be coming up while I'll be exploring the color scheme and trying out some snow effects for the bases.