Friday 30 March 2018

Thanks for your time - let's forge a narrative!

I'm very pleased. I set this blog up on 8th January 2018, and only a few months later I've just passed 2,000 views. I've had some good feedback and a few people have been interested in the methods I use.

Now, the monstrous Lord Eiterfex is still being readied for battle on my painting table, so I thought I'd do something a bit different - use my models to tell a wee story. Thanks to everyone who has visited this blog or commented!















Thursday 29 March 2018

Blightlord Terminators

I couldn't think of a clever title for this post. Grandfather has blessed me with yet another cold, just after the first one! Luckily, the university inexplicably and pleasingly closes for two extra days, which means that all staff get six days off. I wanted to get out and do some of my wildlife photography but this damn cold has got the best of me. Plus, the weather's miserable. So I decided to photograph my Blightlords instead (they don't move as fast as goldfinches anyway).


I do like these models. There's a nice heft to them, and enough individual character to each sculpt that the eclectic nature of chaos. I do worry slightly that this limits the number of different squads you can have, but in fairness there probably won't be that many terminators in any given army.





I don't really have much more to say. I Blightlords are cool. I think my medicine is making me dopey!

Are you ready to stand with the righteous?

First things first: I am actually a stalwart defender of Cadian models. I fell in love with them when they first came out in 2003, and to this day I will lecture people tediously about how they're still pretty good. But the thing is... I just can't. When 8th edition pulled me back to the 40k universe, I craved the new Death Guard, but I also wanted to return to my beloved Imperial Guard too. But I've painted two Cadians armies. I simply couldn't face more of them.


There was another reason, too: I'm an almost pathological converter, and I wanted to build a Guard army which explored the weird and wonderful imagery of 40k. A Blanchian army, as it were. I wanted them to look arcane, dangerous professional and zealous, futuristic an medieval, the very sum of the mad contradictions are the heart of the 40k universe.


After a few ideas, I hit on what I wanted. The legs come from Empire Greatswords, the torsos are from Cadians (I can stomach painting the torsos) and the arms and weapons are from Scions (Stormtroopers). Now, the Scion armour has disturbingly thorny piping which looks unsettlingly chaos-y, so I trimmed it down accordingly.


I deliberately chose heads that had a stern, patrician aspect to them, mostly from Empire kits. These are very serious soldiers who take their duty in a fallen galaxy with the upmost level of care.


Assorted other bits came from kits as various as Skaven Plague Monks, Empire Knights and Adeptus Custodes. The key was to find bits which gave off that overt religiosity, balancing it with components which emphasise military efficiency.


There's no doubt that this army will take... a while. But these days, I'm less interested in getting projects done quickly as I am doing them in a way that I'm happy with.


The heavy weapon teams are fun. I had this idea of repentant sinners hefting the guns into place, with the Guardsmen actually taking over when the important bit happens. I wanted said penitents to be hunched from years of self-flagellation and hard work, so I used Skaven Clanrat bodies with Empire Flagellant heads.



I've been tracking down the weird old Inquiitorial henchmen, and plan to add those in here and there. Before long, the Imperial Guard will march into battle accompanied by the sound of hymns and the smell of incense..

Knight fever

I do rather like the new Knight Armiger. I like all Knights, as long as they're in plastic and not a tricksy Forgeworld kit made of resin that will warp when you look at it! I'm very pleased that the Knights are being expanded. Knight Armigers, of course, are a big part of that.


I like that their general outline an conception seems to be a nod to the older Epic Knights, or the Knights described in Graham McNeill's Mechanicum.


I didn't the model, but I did want to have a word about the base. This is a nice, soli model with very little space used up on the bae - a perfect opportunity to muck about with a bit of literal world-building. A nice base can really help a model to tell a story.


People who have seen my projects before will know that my collection often seems to suggest that my brain is the location of a triple threat match between John Blanche, H P Lovecraft and David Cronenberg, so for this I wanted to do something a little different, something which channels my WFB roots.

First up was the base. Creating the brook and the pool were dead easy: apply PVA to the base everywhere that you don't want the water to be, and add your sand. When that's done, apply another layer of PVA to the water areas, just to slightly smooth the dimples you'll get on Citadel bases. Then paint and drybrush your base as normal.


Now, the forest floor type base looks like I've done something clever, but I haven't. The key here is to just cast about for different basing materials. the rocks are just small lumps of washed slate. Those long flowers you can see down by the water are from strips of model rail flowers. Similarly, the foliage is a mixture of static grass, flock, leaf mulch and forest scatter available from vendors like War World Scenics. These sort of products can produce a wide range of effects and are significantly cheaper than GW might have prepared us for!


Sunday 25 March 2018

Painting the Synod of Suffering

I've had a surprising number of messages about this, which was pleasing. I came up with this scheme because I don't much care for Nurgle being green. Green is Orcs and Wood Elves to me. I wanted something horrid and industrial, degraded and corroded. I thought I'd do a quick guide to show just how easy it is. Please be aware that I tend to paint all base areas and then all inks etc. The images are presented in that order, though the bullet point don't always line up 100%.

1. Pick a model

Pretty obvious.

2. Basecoat

Spray paint Chaos Black. When that's dry, give it a second coat with Leadbelcher spray.



3. Corrosion

Paint the model - using the most knackered old brush you have - with Typhus Corrosion. If you want, ignore the cloth and guns, but it doesn't matter much either way. Leave this to dry thoroughly.



4. Rust that joker

Drybrush all over with a selection of browns and oranges. I've tended to use  Squig Orange, Fire Dragon Bright and Mournfang Brown, but you can select tones based on how bright you want it.



5. Flesh

Base flesh areas Bugman's Glow. Then wash Reikland Fleshshade. Finally, drybrush Cadian Fleshtone. If it's a large area, a light drybrush of Kislev Flesh helps too.



6. Cloth

Base cloth areas in Administratum Grey. Then do a layer of White Scar onto all but the lowest areas. Then wash with Agrax Earthshade (don't worry if it's a bit sloppy and uneven, that's fine).



7. Horns, hooves and so on

Base with something like XV88 or Zandri Dust, then add a layer of Karak Stone. Then add a wash of Agrax Earthshade for tone.



8. Guns

Base in Balthasar gold. Then it's a simple case of washing in Agrax and finishing up with some verdigris. Use Nihilak Oxide. I'd spread it around without fussing too much, then use some tissue to pull most of the liquid back off. This should leave the verdigris nicely collecting in the recesses.





9. Blood and pus smears

The blood smears are a mix of Abaddon Black and Blood for the Blood God. The exact mix depends on how stale you want it to look. I then paint it on so that it's oozing from eye slits, joints and corroded areas. Around the tentacles and horns, I found it best to coat the entire area and then wipe the majority off with a finger or tissue - like a reverse drybrush. The manky green pus or bile or whatever it is stains are Nurgle's Rot, dabbed onto cloth areas and running from random joints.

10: Base



Start off with the usually: PVA some sand down. When that's dry, drybrush a shade of orange (whichever you fancy), then drybrush Karak Stone over that. Dessicated yellow static grass can be glued down in patches for a wasteland effect.

An there we are! Easy. Some models have tubes and random other bits, but that's personal choice.


The Banegor rises

The largest, mos brutal and most cunning Pestigors inevitably rise to the top of their herds. Their power and authority is such that they regularly carry weapons forged by the Death Guard themselves. 


At the time of writing, it seems doubtful that GW have any plans to bring Pestigor back, but I rather like them. I've always had a soft spot for Beastmen. I got to thinking about the Plague Planet's feral populations, and I had the idea that the emaciated tribes are being bullied by tribes of monstrous Pestigor. The Death Guard actually treat them reasonably well, certainly more so than the human tribes, because the Pestigor are brawny brutes who make good shock troops! With this in mind, I set to work on this monstrous Banegor, a leader among the hordes.



The base is a Nurgle Chaos Lord, which they're currently selling under the name 'Lord of Plagues'. I swapped his head for an old Gor champion head. This did require sawing, pinning and poly cement. He looked a bit funny after that, so I built up a hefty throat out of green stuff. I swapped his axe for a spare Bubotic Axe from the Blightlord Terminators kit.

That's when the fun began.


He needed to look a bit more... Gor-ish. I cut a wide divot out of the front of each boot to form a cloven hoof, and then used green stuff to sculpt some fur. I can't give much avise about this - it's just a case of sticking to the task an persevering.


What am I going to use him for? Well... we'll see.


Sunday 18 March 2018

The Spidefiler scuttles from the hellish factories of Belisarius Cawl...

Cawl coughed, infected mucus drooling from his faceplate. Scrapcode fevers gnawed through his innards with gleeful flushes of hot and cold. The Hellwright grinned, insomuch as he still could grin. Even now, bowing low, his life in the balance, he could not repress a feeling of pride. He could feel the masterpiece skittering about in the necrotic valley below, the gurgling wails of its victims forming a song of suffering and discord. 
"I like it," hissed Lord Eiterfex, above and nearby, "I think it will do nicely."
Cawl didn't dare rise yet. 
"I am glad it pleases, my lord."
Eiterfex chuckled, wet and rotten. 
"You've done well, Cawl, stop panicking. Grandfather will be pleased."
Cawl straightened up slowly, cautiously. He was careful not to look directly at Eiterfex. He still had waking nightmares from the last time. Instead, he looked down into the valley. The great horror of flesh and rust was weaving webs of steely thread around the yowling victims. 
"I'll start building the rest," he said eventually. 



Quick aside about the Defiler model. I love that model. Nostalgia has warped my perception, no doubt. I remember the first time I saw it. It was June 2003, a few days after the last exam of my first year at University. I was sitting on Sibly Hall's field with friends, lounging in the afternoon light. I'd purchased a White Dwarf earlier and I opened it to have a flip as we sat there. And that's when I saw the Defiler for the first time. I'd been in the hobby eight years, and I couldn't believe what I was saying. Remember, before this, a dreadnought was a massive centerpiece model for a 40k army. And here I was, faced with a massive metal spider-crab o' death. I look back on it as the beginning of the truly amazing models: the Mumak, the plastic Giant, the High Elves dragon, the Imperial Knight. Okay, they've sometimes gone too far (the clumsily overstated Archaon model springs to mind), but generally GW has wowed us with kits we always thought were impossible until we saw them. And it started with the Defiler.



So when I say I didn't want to use the model for my Death Guard, it's not because I dislike the model. It's because, as ever, I had an idea that wouldn't go away. And trust me when I say, this conversion was even more complex than the Rust Hound. So, I think I'd better break it down into different bits. If nothing else so that I can remember what I did.

Legs

I'm starting with these because they were comparatively easy. I removed the legs from a spare Adeptus Mechanicus Dunecrawler and then cut the foot off of each. I then got four of the long forelegs from the Arachnarok (I had a spare I'd picked up cheap for bits). Now, I had to cut the leg and the claw so that they roughly aligned. Then I used pins and superglue to quickly get a bond between the parts - they components really weren't designed to be together! I then used plastic glue to ensure the bond was solid and left all four legs to totally harden. Then I did some gap filling to make the join look smoother (well, in Nurgle terms).



Body and head

Urg, this was a struggle! I saw the Arachnarok's head off at the neck (and it has a bloody thick neck). Next, I assembled the body halves and face plate of a Bloat Drone. Then I sawed it in half, removing most of the tail so that the back was flattish. After a bit of lining up, I pinned and glued the head to the bod. I left it well enough alone for a while. Then I used tissue, PVA and green stuff to build up a neck so that the join didn't look comical. At the same time, I decided that it needed a mouth, so I inverted the Arachnarok's jaws and glued them onto the bottom of the drone's body, along with the two big mandibles. I had to use the above method to build some flesh up around them, but it didn't take too long. I finished the head by pinning three Maulerfiend tentacles beneath his jaws. The image I had in mind was similar to the scene in the 2005 War of the Worlds movie when Tom Cruise is trapped in the ruined house and sees the fighting machines doing some weird and gribbly thing with their long tendrils outside.





The cannon

So, this bit was actually a lot easier than I was worried about. The limb it's raised on is a Rot Fly's body from the Plague Drones kit. Attaching the cannon from the Forgefiend was easy: pins, glue, some filler. I knew that attaching it to the body would be a different matter. I cut the Rot Fly body until its curvature was about the same as that of the Arachnarok's back. Now, I knew that conventional pinning wouldn't be enough to hold the cannon in place. So, I got a much longer, thicker pen. I drilled a hole in the Arachnarok's back and a corresponding one high up on the Rot Fly body. I then put some superglue gel on both holes and fed the long pin all the way through. The superglue dried just quickly enough that I could position the 'tail'. Then I used a fairly large amount of poly cement to seal it. When that was fully hardened, I built up my PVA, tissue and green stuff method to both make the join more smooth and reinforce it a bit. Eventually, when I was certain that this was all completely solid, I clipped the pin off where it protruded from the Rot Fly. You can actually see a bit of it still, dressed up as a random spoke.




Attaching the legs

There really wasn't any easy way to do this. The end of the legs and the spider's body simply aren't meant to go together. It was a case of hack and slash: I cut the surfaces of both sides to be flat and then pinned them in place, with slatherings of poly cement. The gaps were big and ugly, so I built up flesh around them.



Webs

It's cotton glued down, coated in watered PVA and then painted. Sounds easy, doesn't it?


 Size Comparison



Think I might paint a rabbit next.