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...

"Strain 935" Troopers Complete (Finally!)

Well I have finally done it! I completed the largest unit of minis I have ever made (kinda sad but for me its something). These guys have been on my to do list ever since I finished my test model months ago, and now thanks to rampant illness and other life delays (I guess?) I found the time to sit down and paint the suckers. They were actually pretty fun to paint. I knew they were gonna receive a healthy coating of Typhus Corrosion and Blood for the Blood God so I didn't have to worry about neatness as much. So here ya go, my squad of Nurgle themed bio-terror troops that I have code named "Strain 935":

This guys comes "equipped" with a nasty little bio-plasma flame thrower for extra crispy carnage!

 Here is another with an integrated power sword.

This is my original test model, now joined by several brethren equipped with various rending claws, crushing hand-jaws and puncturing bone spears!

Now these last two models are probably my favorite. I love the chainsaw arms and when applying the gore I got to think "what happens when you are hacking through foe after foe with a chainsaw arm?" The answer was something that looks like these guys:

I think that last model is my favorite out of all of them!

And of course a group shot:

I would hate to be on the receiving end of that charge!

Well I hope it was worth the wait (if anyone was actually waiting to see them... )

In real 40K game terms these guys could be run as Possessed or perhaps even re-flavored Khorne Berserkers? The possibilities end only with your imagination and what your opponent is okay with :)

Hopefully I can ride this will to actually paint for a while and get some stuff I have laying around done for a change! Thanks for looking!

Big Plans

So I recently learned that a GW store will be opening about 3 minutes away from my house... Awesome! A friend of mine also revealed that he has some old Tau models still in the sprue. So after some talking, we came up with the idea of actually building our respective armies, learning to actually PLAY WH:40K, and once we are established we would start a special campaign game. Details are in the works, but I think if we can do it right it will be epic!

This is a pretty big thing for me personally since I had never actually planned to learn the 40K rules. But why would I then spend large amounts of money collecting sets and bits and have a 40K blog? I have always loved the 40K universe and its fluff, I just never liked the idea of buying two, three or more $60 books that are revised every few years... plus any other special Codex books (like this one that just came out) if I want to do cool special units (which I am a predisposed sucker for). I had always planned on using a more generic and unchanging rules set like Ambush Alley Game's Tomorrow's War which is a vastly cheaper book with easy rules that don't change every few years... Primary issue with this plan as I soon learned, is that everyone plays WH:40K. So I kowtow to the gaming juggernaut that is the Microsoft equivalent in tabletop war games... and must now find some books.

Now having decided that I will be playing by the "official" 40K rules, I do need to decide the direction my minis will need to go in. My initial thoughts are reworking my forces to run as standard Space Marines using the SM codex, but the models will be CSM and traitor related. I just like the chaos models so much more that the regular SM ones (with some exceptions naturally). Perhaps a play on a chapter like the Flesh Tearers or Blood Angels which are already borderline chaos in some cases. I think I can make it work...

But of course I'll also be making my real Chaos army with Nurgle and Khorne elements etc, so really I could play either SM or CSM depending on my desires that day (and possibly with the same army). Only time will tell, but first I guess I should finish painting what I have built so far...

I have completed most of the work on my Strain Troopers so expect some awesome pics in the coming week, but to hold you over I'd like to share another one of my past works. This is my Nurgle Hellbrute I painted up and I'm quite proud that I was able to get almost every little detail on this model painted! I had planned on buying another Hellbrute and converting him with some different weapons but GW just released their new Hellbrute kit... so choices of ease vs cost there...

Dunno if I'll keep that Nurgle symbol, its kinda meh...

Until next time then. Keep an eye out for my completed Strain Troopers!

Sorry... Again...

Sorry for the lack of posts the last two weeks... I finally got my hands on Assassins Creed 4 and that has become something of a black hole for all my spare time. So to somewhat make up for my lack of activity I will showcase two new models. They are the personal bodyguards for Lord Maxis himself. Clad in fearsome Terminator armor and each wielding a pair of wicked Lightning Claws, these bruisers make sure no one interferes with their Lord (unless he wants a bit of sport himself).

Here is Honor Guard #1, a pretty standard use of the Chaos Terminator Lord kit with the only real change being the spliced face from a kit I cant recall at the moment... I wanted these guys to have a menacing look so I gave them angry faces and posed them in charging stances. They are just begging to be set loose in the enemy ranks!

Honor Guard #2 has a bit more dynamic pose and yet another fearsome face thanks to his dead white eyes :)

And here is the group shot of Lord Maxis flanked by his ever present guardians.

A Look Back

Sorry for the lack of updates. Sickness and apathy have gripped me these last few weeks, but threat of Exterminatus from the Holy Inquisition has ensured my return to work. When painting my Cultists and my second Tech Wraith, I wanted to make sure the color schemes stayed congruent to my finished models. This usually means I paint surrounded by my previously finished models.

So while looking around at my finished minis I realized I have not posted any of my older works that I did before the blog started. I actually have quite a bit done from the last year 2013, including the leader for my Chaos forces Lord Maxis Crow's Eye, two of  his Honor Guard and two other Chaos Terminators, a Nurgle Hell Brute, and a special Space Marine I like to call "The Emperor's Silence"

I wont post pics of all of them in one post (gotta save some for later stuff/posts) but here is what I think of as my finest work so far in conversion and painting.

Lord Maxis "Crow's Eye" (a nod to Game of Throne's Euron Greyjoy) is the commander for all my Chaos based forces. He is a mix of Chaos Lord parts, Anvil Industry claws, Grey Knight head, Blood Letter head for the armor ornamentation, a chopped up and reposed Storm Bolter, and various spiky bits and banners etc.

This was the 4th model I ever built/painted and I am still very happy with how he came out. I wanted him to have a cleaner look so while I dirtied the ground and rock he stood on, I left him relatively untouched by washes. The wrist mounted Storm Bolter was added after the model was built and unpainted because I decided should have some ranged combat ability (and lets face it, it looks cool). The claws, well first off they are HUGE! 20mm long by themselves, I had to green stuff the wrists to make them fit a Terminator armor clad mini. Anvil Industry makes great bits and I have ordered from them several times with no problems in delivery or quality. The extra ornamentation on the base are Tyranid spikes. I wanted him to stand out on the table in every way, so the clean n shiny look, the back banner and the Chaos star of spikes on his base really make him pop. His "come and get it" stance and stern face speak to someone you don't want to mess with. I didn't get close up pics of his face but I managed to paint each cable hooked to his bionic and scalp a different color and I'm also proud of how well I caught the detail of the face (sorry again about the fuzzy pics... one day I'll learn to use this camera right).

Progress marches forward slowly on my other projects but hopefully I'll have something to show for the weeks of inactivity soon.