Astra Militarum: Cadian Squad

Cadians: the most boring of all the different types of Imperial Guard Astra Militarum, insomuch as they look very similar to twentieth century military folks.  As do the Catachans, to be fair. Nevertheless, here they are.

Chaos Daemons: Plaguebearers No.2

Continuing the Nurgle theme that has featured so prominently this week, I thought I should include these Plaguebearers.  These were some that I bought off eBay (always a good source for cheap(er) miniatures).  They were already assembled, but the painting was all my own.

The Plaguebearers were lots of fun to paint, and consisted primarily of a black undercoat, olive green basecoat (actually, the technical name was Death Forest Green) with a brown drybrush (Snakebite Leather in this instance), and then a liberal washing with a dark brown (either a wash or watered down brown paint).

The Plaguebearer kit is absolutely fantastic.  Not only does it fit together well, but there are so many options, and tonnes of bits left over at the end of it all to allow you to create some horrors of your own.

There are some nice, gory details - such as exposed entrails and bones - which grubby the models up a little.

The bone-coloured Plague Blades were painted using Karak Stone (a kind of khaki colour) which then had a stagnant green wash over it (in this case, Athonian Camoshade from the Citadel Wash colours).

Aaaaaaaaand, there you go!  The finished article!  Easy to paint, and lots and lots of fun to play with on the tabletop.

Space Marines: Techmarine WiP

Following on from this morning's Apothecary post, and as part of the same project, here is my work-in-progress Techmarine.  I bought the Techmarine/Servitor kit, and there were plenty of bits left over, which I was able to combine with some Tactical Squad bits, some Devastator bits, and a few Command Squad bits.

In total I managed to make sure he has three Mechanicum motifs on him, just to make sure that nobody made the mistake of thinking he *wasn't* a big fan of the old Red Planet Cogs'n'Skullz Club.

New Arrivals: Glottkin Goodness

 

Calling all Nurgle-Worshippers! The ENORMOUS Glotkin kit is arriving this weekend, and here are some sneak previews from this week's White Dwarf (released on Saturday). I managed to grab a copy a little early, and I have to say this kit looks FANTASTIC.

Standing head and shoulders (if you can tell where the head and shoulders start and finish) over last week's Maggoth Lord kits, this is an absolutely massive model, which looks like it would be a great centrepiece for any WHFB or even 40K Daemons army.  The conversion potential is massive, to say the least.  Perhaps a Great Unclean One proxy?  An enormous, OTT Daemon Prince?  Even just as a focal point it is a great item to include.

At first I was a bit "Meh" about the prospect of them, but closer inspection reveals them to be... "WOW".

Space Marines: Apothecary WiP

I've gone for something slightly different this morning, and decided to post up something that is still a work in progress.  Here is my WiP Apothecary for my new Vanilla Marines faction.

I couldn't find my regular Narthecium (annoyingly), so I gambled and used a Terminator one.  I'm hoping that the plethora of Purity Seals will disguise the bulky shoulder pad enough!

There are plenty of bits used in this guy from the Sternguard and Vanguard Veteran kits - they are both FANTASTIC kits for plundering if you want to put together any Command Squads or Honour Guard.  Speaking of which...

Blood Angels: Veteran Sergeant

This Blood Angels Veteran Sergeant was made out of the new Space Marine Tactical Squad kit, with additional components from the Death Company Kit, which is always a good source for Blood Angels bitz.  In my excitement, however, I armed him with a Grav-Pistol, which - unfortunately - Blood Angels can't have. Oh dear. As with my other Tactical Marines, I have gone for the fairly stark white-on-black effect for the angel wings that dominate the iconography.

Grey Knights: Strike Squad Brother

This isn't a completed squad yet, but rather a test model.  Given that the new Codex was released recently, however, I doubt that it will be very long before I get cracking on the rest of them.

A lot of people aren't particularly big fans of the Grey Knights.  Whilst I wasn't a *huge* fan of the way in which Mat Ward treated a lot of their fluff, I love their aesthetic: the over-the-top inscriptions and intricate detailing of even the most base troops. Lovely stuff.

Chaos Daemons: Herald of Slaanesh

Here's another Herald!  This one is the actual GW Herald Of Slaanesh, albeit placed atop a 40mm base to match her up with the other Heralds.  The buffs that Heralds can offer Daemon units are fantastic, but they will *always* suffer from being shot to bits when they first arrive in play.

Astra Militarum: Catachan Jungle Fighters

The Catachan Jungle Fighters are perhaps the least imaginative fighting force within the GW range, based very much on Vietnam-era jungle troops. Think 'Rambo', or 'Apocalypse Now' or 'Platoon'. You get the idea.

That being said, they are a lot of fun to paint, and they tend to look quite good when they are assembled en masse. The palette mix of tanned flesh and combat fatigues helps to give an idea that they are fighting in hot and sweaty conditions on a Death World.

The one problem with these chaps - as with all Imperial Guard Astra Militarum - is that they are as cheap as chips, points-wise.  Which is great news when it comes to building army lists, but not so great when it comes to looking at the list of things you need to paint.  The combined points cost of the chaps above, for instance, is about 80pts.

Chaos Space Marines: Plague Marine

This is my first attempt at painting a 'modern' Plague Marine - up until now I have had to make do with old, statically-posed 2nd Edition models. They served their purpose, but these chaps are just lovely! Easy to paint and loads of Nurgley detail.

I used my traditional Nurgle colour palette here: Death World Forest and coppery/brassy colours with plenty of inks and grime. Great fun!

Eldar: Windrider Jetbikes

Ah, Jetbikes.  How I dislike your plain and dowdy sculpts.  But how effective thou art on the battlefield. Eldar Jetbikes are now widely viewed as one of the best Troops choices within Warhammer 40K, due to their mobility and their rending weapons.

I used the same colour scheme for the Jetbikes as for the Guardians (and the Rangers, too, I suppose!), going for a muted, almost Dark Eldar-esque dark green, with bone-coloured accoutrements (and Jetbike!)

Initially, I washed the carapaces of the Jetbikes in my Ultimate Essential Agrax Earthshade, but for once it didn't do the models any justice.  Rather than picking out details and adding depth to the model, across the flat surfaces it just gave an appearance of grubbiness and grime - not very Eldar-like!  And so, I opted for a clean, crisp finish instead.

Chaos Daemons: Herald of Khorne

I've never been a huge fan of the new Herald models - I think they are fantastically sculpted, but they just look too similar to the core troops.  The Herald Of Nurgle looks like a fancy Plaguebearer, for instance, and the Herald Of Khorne looks like a slightly larger Bloodletter.  I therefore decided to use this WHFB Chaos Lord to represent my Khornate champion.

He is suitably impressive (he towers over other infantry models), and he seems to give off a feeling of martial prowess that is the hallmark of all things Khorney. Tada!!!

Chaos Daemons: Flamers of Tzeentch

Here are some Flamers Of Tzeentch: so-called, because... well... I'm sure you can make the leap of logic. These chaps form a fairly important part of my Daemons army because they can shoot! Which is rather important, I suppose...

They were super-easy to paint - mainly relying on drybrushing, with only a few details picked out for finishing touches.

As with all Daemons, these chaps are very forgiving of slap-dash painting, and look great after a few washes to pull the colours together.

Chaos Space Marines: Dark Apostle

This Dark Apostle is basically the Chaos Space Marine equivalent of a Chaplain: the man whose responsibility it is to rile up the troops and get them motivated for WAR!

I really like this model, but it is a perfect example of both the best and worst of Finecast.  On the one hand, some of the details are superb, and the light nature of the medium allow sculptors to include features such as the flowing scrolls; on the other, some of the details and edges get a bit too sharp, and some of the finer points of the model are really brittle. I had to use superglue for repairs on more than one occasion.

Nevertheless, I feel that the finished product is a pleasing one - I just have to be super-careful with storing him, now!

Here are some work-in-progress shots of him, to show how the model came in a number of different pieces.

The scrolls were my favourite part - I spent quite a bit of time doing the detailing using thinned down paints and inks.  Hopefully, I don't break it anytime soon!  He is probably my most fragile model in my whole collection.

Astra Militarum: Colonel Schaeffer's Last Chancers

These three folk are a small portion of the penal legionnaires known as 'Colonel Schaeffer's Last Chancers' - hardened criminals and ne'er-do-wells who have been given one last shot at redemption (I guess it's in the name, really!)  Although these folks are metal, they were lots of fun to paint, and the miniatures have lots of character to them.  Highly recommended!

Chaos Space Marines: Chaos Sorceror on Palanquin of Nurgle

Here's one of my more grotesque kitbash/homebrew projects: my CHAOS SNAIL (which is a representation of a Palanquin of Nurgle).

The CHAOS SNAIL itself is basically a blob of Green Stuff with Zombie and Ghoul arms thrust in at the end.

The Sorceror himself is forged out of some Chaos Knight legs and regular CSM bits.

Chaos Space Marines: Kharn The Betrayer

Here's Kharn - another one of the named characters in the Chaos Space Marines Codex.  He was quite a lot of fun to paint, although you may notice the slight bendiness of his axe.

Of course, this is once again a result of Games Workshop using a resin that they have trademarked as Finecast.  It can render high-quality detailing, but it is extremely delicate and bends like a bugger if you apply the lightest pressure to it. Bah! The Librarian I did not so long ago really suffered from BFS (Bendy Finecast Syndrome), as did an Eldar Ranger that I shall post on here soon. So annoying...

Chaos Space Marines: Possessed

For the longest time, I avoided the Possessed, mostly because I thought they were far too cartoon-y for the GrimDarkFuture of the 41st millennium.

But as a completist, I decided to give them a whirl and they were a lot more satisfying than I expected.

I still haven't used them on the tabletop - I hear they are pretty expensive and relatively ineffective in recent rulesets.

But nevertheless, they are quite fun to paint, and nice to have as a part of my collection.

I have mentioned the 'goof rubicon' in the past, and I still cannot help but feel that these chaps have passed it...

But they were quite fun, anyhow. Hurray for the forces of pestilence!