Cry Havoc!

Now naturally I never work on just one project at a time... Severe hobby ADD has me constantly thinking of new ideas while working on ideas I just thought of. So while I was wrapping up my Malus the Undying, I began to really think about the army he will lead. I have my Strain 935 Troopers and of course Malus himself, but what about the meat and potatoes units?

In typical fashion I think from big to small, and while I don't have any vehicles yet, I do have lots of Chaos Space Marine Squad boxes lying around. So Havocs were up for imagination, and I'll be darned if I didn't just finish chopping up my new box of Obliterators... I now have these neat little weapon sprues with no Obliterators slated to use them...

Now a bit of back-story, I love rotating barrel type weapons! Miniguns, Gatling guns, assault cannons, you name it. So I took the heavy bolter guns from my CSM sets and took the assault cannon barrels from the Obliterators and made happy little counts-as autocannons/heavy bolters (I can really use them as either but will normally run the autocannon stats). Here are the three that I have made so far, as sadly Obliterator boxes only come with three of these awesome weapon ends...

Here you can see how I took SM Devastator squad ammo boxes and chopped off the handles to make ammo drums for my autocannons/heavy bolters. Its much more practical looking than the 15 round ammo belts hanging out of the normal CSM heavy bolters! You can also see the MaxMini ammo belts I used to fill in for the old ammo belts I cut away (but not discarded, those will be put to good use elsewhere).

The heads for these guys will be the CSM helmets with topknots to designate their heavy weapons specialty. I also need to make one more Havoc trooper for this first squad (I really wish Obliterator sets had more of those barrels... ) but I'm not sure what to add. Maybe I'll throw in a flamer equipped soldier for possible close quarters encounters? I'll think more on that later... 

Also in the squad will be an Aspiring Champion equipped with plasma pistol, CCW and melta bombs (head will be the Nurgle Champ head from CSM squad sprue). I did some light conversion on this guy by taking the SM Devastator Squad Sergent arm with pointing chainsword and replaced the weapon with a CSM style chainsword.

And accompanying the heavy gunners and champion will be two standard bolter marines used as disposable wound buffers. I took pics of one as they are rather boring compared to all the other stuff I've made. Mainly I wanted to show how I also replaced the standard bolter clip with an ammo box (much like SM Sternguard bolters) using once again the SM heavy bolter ammo boxes. I figure if you are in a squad of guys toting massive bullet spewing minigun type weapons and all you have is a standard rifle, you will want to shoot just as much and reload just as little :)

The "knife at the ready" look was an attempt to make something that looked less boring than the standard static pose. Kinda looks like he is ready to round a corner and knows someone will be waiting nearby. The white is paper which I am experimenting with as a cheaper alternative to green stuff when covering those darn slots found in a lot of the 25mm bases. It all gets covered with glue and sand for my standard basing anyways so why waste costly green stuff?

Here you can see a little touch I'm adding to my Nurgle force. I have a bunch of these Bretonnian (?) flintlock pistols laying around and I think they make a cool alternative to the standard bolt pistol.

I plan on making at least one more Havoc squad (probably Las Cannons mostly for anti-armor punch) to add to the Nurgle force. Then I'll round out the army with Plague Marines, Malus the Undying, my Strain 935 Troopers as possessed, maybe some Plague Zombies and some armor to boot. All just rough ideas for now.

Thanks for looking!

Massive Update of Doom!

In typical fashion I'm sure I've lost any and all attention to my blog through lack up timely updates. One day I'll get better at this blogging thing...

Allow me to bring you up to speed on the work I've been doing these last two weeks since I posted my Typhus conversion tease.

I have finished my Typhus stand-in and man am I proud of how he turned out! Using Obliterator legs, back and shoulder pads I have made a very bulky and powerful looking commander for my Nurgle force. I also used a Tyranid Hive Guard head to tie him into my Strain 935 Troopers with the eyeless maw look. Some protruding Tyranid spiky arm things from his back take to place of those terrible looking fungus chimneys on the standard Typhus (I really hate those things.... ) and with the head, help reinforce the fact that my Nurgle Lord is the carrier/host of the Strain 935 virus. However, Typhus is a name already used, so I needed a new name. My I present the Reaper of Worlds, the Plague-bringer and host to super-virus Strain 935, Malus the Undying!

Take a look:

For the scythe arm I used a Terminator LC with the claws shaved down to little knuckle spikes (like the spikes on the hand guard of the stock Typhus). The bulk of the hand and arm makes it look like Malus could wield the weapon one handed if needed. The scythe itself is toothpick wrapped in green stuff and topped with a Tyranid bonesword for the blade. 

I think I'm actually as proud of the base as I am the actual model. The dead loyalist marine was a challenge of cutting and clever posing, and I used a Skaven tail for the spine connecting to the Vampire Ghoul skull. It really reads that whatever killed this guy, be it the giant daemon scythe, a withering psychic power or the touch of 935 on an undeserving host, it wasn't pretty.

This pic should show a good scale comparison. The left is my stock Typhus that I was 90% finished painting when I decided to make a cooler looking one. The right is a filler marine for my first Nurgle Havoc Squad. More on them latter today.

I hope Malus was worth the wait! He was a fun challenge to build and required tons of careful cutting and shaving to turn this:

Into this:

Now if only the weather would stabilize so I could start painting him...

Oh the things to come...

Apologies for the lack of posts in the last few weeks. With the release of The Elder Scrolls: Online I have been happily questing and exploring my favorite fantasy world Nirn (and Oblivion). But fear not! For I have also begun work on a new Typhus counts as/conversion and I have to say, I'm extremely excited about how he is turning out! I have also acquired one of the new Hell Brute kits thanks to my always helpful local GW store and some bits, kit parts unused and donated by good friends. Lots of cool little projects like objective markers and the workings of an Abaddon conversion will follow soon! The model building and converting addict in me is cackling in delight as I cut, shave, glue and sculpt green stuff... "More!" it cries, "MORE! Mwahahaha!"

*ahem*

So, allow me to tease you with a little pick I snapped with my phone:

I shall have more completed pics to show soon I hope once my weekend is upon me. I really need to buy a little hand powered hobby drill and some tiny brass pipe or tubing for weapon hilts/shafts...