Creature Caster Maggot Demon, Is It Tempting Enough?

When the Creature Caster Kickstarter launched I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't the only person to say "eh, where did the cool Nurgle-style Great Unclean One-type demon go to?" There was some info in the YouTube videos about changes to some models and it was probably explained somewhere why this model wasn't going to be part of the campaign. Frankly, I was disappointed, as it was the only model that interested me. Now we have a new rotten chap to tempt us in the shape of the Maggot Demon. There are scant details beyond the below picture, so I'm holding fire at the moment to see if we get any better views before I commit any cash.

The Army That Won't Parade - Re-Capturing The Slow Hobby Spirit

Sadly, Armies On Parade isn't going to happen for me this year. I found myself over the last week or so getting really anxious about having things at a certain stage and the amount of painting time I had left. 

I also realised that I was starting to paint in ways that I simply didn't want to: ultimately, I was losing my 'slow hobby' spirit and turning leisure into slog. Not a recipe for happiness.

So I returned all my Nurgle folks to their shelf and turned again to picking them off one or two at a time and experimenting away contently, while imagining that I'm a real artist. 

At least the tidying away led to more effectively presented shelves, so, dear reader, please take this humble photograph as a small prelude to my annual 'climbing sprue mountain' posts...

Artistic Inspiration From Deviant Art: Slaanesh, Nurgle, and Just Plain Crazy

Deviant Art is fantastic inspiration for painting miniatures. It's full to the brim of work by indie artists in a range of mediums doing some cracking work in all the fantasy and science fiction genres. It's been a while since I've posted anything that I've been looking at, so here for your viewing pleasure is a small selection of work by the Russian artist PabelBilly. There's Slaanesh and Nurgle inspired and just plain crazy! Lovely stuff from a very talented chap.

Nurgle Gun Drone Or Blight Drone Substitute

This interesting little morsel was posted up on the HiTech Miniatures facebook page yesterday. I was thinking it might make a potential substitute for a Blight Drone. I've just taken my drone onto the table for the first time this weekend and it proved to be a rather nifty prospect, being heavy on the weaponry but taking a Fast Attack slot in force organisation. Useful when blasting away at marines and terminators. 

Armies On Parade - Accidental Nurgle Goo And Gloss

Following a slight problem with a forgotten paint box during my holiday last week, I ended up experimenting with something completely new: Tamiya X series paints. This wasn't entirely intentional yet by happy accident I think I've found a neat way to do the 'gooey' weapons on the Obliterators and Mutilators. These paints are glossy which is very unfashionable these days. I'm hoping they might lend a slight old school edge to this bunch of degenerates. Here's how it's going so far:

Armies On Parade - Choosing The Nurgle Heavy Mob

I'm off to Cornwall on holiday with the family and in-laws for a week tomorrow, so you know what that means...? Tons of quality painting time while the grandparents, aunts and uncle look after the kids! So with that in mind my thoughts are turning for the first time in earnest to this year's Armies On Parade. This is my basic plan: simple base populated by the Nurgle Heavy Mob. That means, 3 Daemon Princes, 3 Obliterators, 3 Mutilators, the Plague Hulk, and the Helfly. I might do 10 zombie style crazy gang cultists too, so I can use the cool smaller models I have. Here are the three sets of heavies:

As for the base, I'm thinking really simple because I don't have the time to do anything fancy. This is all about motivation, a set goal, and an opportunity to show off some minis in public: I'm not trying to win anything (although with the introduction of a gold, silver and bronze prize per GW store it's a possibility I might get a trophy, which would obviously be lovely).

Spellcrow Plague Flying Engine Jump Pack Thingy

Now here's an interesting conversion piece, a big plague infested jump pack from Spellcrow. Hands up who's thinking of converting their Nurgle Daemon Prince with one of these...*puts hand up*

First Action For Castle Davenheim - Tau Vs Nurgle Chaos Space Marines

Castle Davenheim saw some action for the first time yesterday in a skirmish game of 40k. At loosely the 250pts level, a handful of my Nurgle Chaos Space Marines took on a small exploratory Tau force commanded by my friend Corbett. Even semi-painted, when accompanied by some of the other elements of Davenheim, the castle provided an instant setting for a small table game.

It's a real testament to the 6th ed 40k rules that a skirmish game at this level is both enjoyable and mechanically satisfying. Certainly the wound allocation system - closest to furthest - makes a small shootout 'realistic' enough so that units need to manoeuvre with real care. The assault phase also works perfectly at this low points level, with the pile-in system providing a fluid 'cinematic' solution to melees. Perfect Saturday afternoon entertainment.   

Plague Hulk - My Entry For The Forge World Open Day Competition

On Sunday I went to the Forge World Open Day and entered the painting competition. This was first time that I'd shown my work in public and I was rather nervous. It was, though, an amazing experience, which really made me feel part of the community. It was also an immense pleasure to have some of my work in a display cabinet with other dedicated and talented hobbyists, and to display my work in GW HQ only meters away from classic and contemporary works of painting wizardry. Thanks again to everyone who gave me wonderful and positive feedback, including one of the FW designers who thought I'd won (I didn't).

By pushing myself to participate/compete I've now got the confidence to work harder, stretch my abilities and enter more competitions. My work is very different to the vast majority of what's out there, but seeing it side by side with the 'mainstream' I've had an opportunity to reflect on how it holds the same value, despite standing out for its stylistic and painterly departures. I began painting as a therapeutic exercise in dark and difficult times: I hope you'll forgive me blowing my own trumpet a little because it has evolved into a genuinely self-asserting craft.

Nurgle Terminators (Forge World Parts)

Being an old fashioned gaming fellow all my Chaos units have to adhere to the deamonic numbers set out in Realm of Chaos. With my Slaaneshi fantasy army it's six and multiples thereof. And with my Nurgle Chaos Space Marines it has to be units of seven, fourteen, twenty one, and so on. Here then are my seven Nurgle Terminators. I've taken the rather standard route of getting the regular box and adding the Forge World Death Guard parts, but I've also tried to be a little more creative with the plastics. Achieving a unit of seven was very economical as all I required were two extra pairs of legs, which my brother dutifully supplied - thanks Paul.  

Then it was just a case of mixing all the shoulder pads around the unit and working in some interesting plastic parts. I chose to utilise a couple of spare Plague Bearer heads and the candle topped altar piece from the Coven Throne. Yes, it's undeniably OTT, but it's exactly the kind of look that I enjoy. It also makes this guy look something like a standard or icon bearer, which could have useful in-game roles. With the unit as a whole I'm pleased with how dynamic they look. That's not something I was expecting with terminators as they're often rather lumpy and sluggish looking.

The Helfly Grows... Some Colour On The Nurgle Heldrake

It seems as if all my hobby time in the last few weeks have been sunk into sticking things together, most prominently this guy. I have a project for the Forge World Open Day painting competition to focus on over the next two weeks, so I've been busy over the last couple of days getting primer, base and a first shade coat on numerous models. Lots of work to do... (how often do I write that!). 

The Helfly And The Herald Of Nurgle

Firstly, apologies for the odd nature of these photos. As usual I'm trying to experiment with too many projects at the same time and everything is a rush. So here are a couple of shots of this evening's works in progress. 

Most prominently there's the Helfly. On this I've finished all the greenstuff work and gone round the whole thing several times smoothing out the gaps and checking for anything I'd forgotten to clip off when getting the whole thing to actually stick together. Tomorrow the primer. Really looking forward to that. Nestled at the base you'll see the beginings of my Herald of Nurgle on palanquin. Here he is close up.

This should be a reasonably straightforward corpse cart plus converted Bragg the Gutsman. This will be pretty much as you see it now, with some work done on the ogre to ensure he's sufficiently nurgled. The corpse cart is a nice little kit that I've wanted to get for a while; really easy to put together and insanely gruesome (in a good way obviously). Luckily, I can use the necromancer it comes with in the undead cohort that's forming part of my Cult of Slaanesh. How economical of me!

Building a Nurgle Heldrake: The Helfly Part Two

The Helfly is now 90% completed. I've got it fitted to the flying stand (though not glued), the engines and wings are in place, and I've got a few finishing touches to do before priming. Very happy so far. I can report that fixing the wings and legs in those positions was extremely fiddly! 

Building A Nurgle Heldrake: The Helfly Part One

Big spider plus bits equals Nurgle Heldrake: the Helfly. 

This is a conversion job that's been done before by a few people, but my take is distinctive because it's supposed to be a direct substitute for the standard heldrake. I've modelled the legs in a forward attack pose rather than drooping down limply because I want to retain the notion that this thing plummets from the heavens to being wanton destruction. It's not simply dawdling along! Engines to be added once the bits arrive. And as a little teaser, the bits for the wings are in the last photo.

The baleflamer ready for action

Soon to be wings

Plague Drones In Flying V Formation

Here are all my buzzing friends in formation (currently minus riders/pilots): a unit of seven - being the number of Nurgle - led by the blight drone. Hopefully these shots show all the different poses that are achievable with this kit - not just the rather uninspired floppy legged ones on the box...

Plague Drones - Out Of The Box

I survived a week of near-fevered anticipation and the plague drones are finally mine. I am not disappointed because this is a great kit. I picked up two boxes from the marvellous Firestorm Games in Cardiff for a couple of reasons. 1. I wanted to see if there was the possibility of converting three of these bugs into a Nurgle heldrake, and 2. I wanted to make all the different options available, and create - along with my Blight Drone - a unit of seven buzzing flyers.

On 1., the answer is pretty simple. Without a lot of messing around the conversion isn't a possibility as far as I can see. Perhaps someone highly imaginative will dream up an ideal way to do this but I can't. However, as you can see from the look of these bugs, a converted O&Gs massive spider would fit right in... so maybe there's one final addition I need to make to this force...

On 2., all the options can be yours with two of these kits. You can swap all the horns around, mix up the tails, and change the arms on the plaguebearers, though in general there are two options per plague drone. Plenty of variety can be attained through fixing the wings and legs in different ways. This would be more restrictive if modelling them up for WFB. If I'm ever going to use them in that system I'll use longer flying stalks so the models are based up in unit formation. I never want to model for that eventuality if I can avoid it and it's actually easier to do with flying creatures.

So here ladies and gents is my first complete drone. I went with the musician as it was the one that happened to come out of the box first. With the legs splaying forwards and to the side I think I've achieved a more dynamic pose than the ones GW have used in their promo photos. Plenty of Slaaneshi work going on in these parts too, so expect March to be a pageant of chaotic greens, pinks, and violets. 

Plague Hulk Underway

Where oh where are the new Greater Daemons? I've been told the old ones feature in the new books so what does that mean other than a potential long wait for the new models to arrive? Boo GW, BOO!

So for now my Plague Hulk will have to be my Nurgle army centrepiece. I suppose that as far as replacements go, this is a beauty. Albeit a very, very dirty beauty. Here you can see that I've base coated and begun using the shades/washes to build up colour. I'm going to use the fabulous new Fuegan Orange right across all my Nurgleites, bringing a solid theme to the rusty bits without resorting to tubs of dust (weathering powder), which really isn't my scene. As you can see, my daughter is starting to take an interest in Daddy's toys...

Spellcrow Plague Marines

I don't know, you wait for ages for alternative plague marines and then loads of people seem to be making them. This guy - a Plague Prince - is part of a new range of bits and minis from Spellcrow. He looks quite promising I think. According to Facebook this range will be available shortly.

Finecast Plague Marines - Out Of The Box

*RANT COMMENCES* Why exactly - I hear you ask - are you bothering to do an Out Of The Box review of the Finecast Plague Marines, which are just reproductions of the Death Guard models from all the way back in 2002? 

The reason is that I thought it was about time that we revisited the whole Finecast story now that these products have been around for a fair old while. Doing this with Plague Marines, who are I must admit rather messy by their very nature, might be seen as a cop out. Fair enough. I also happen to have a batch of Space Marines sitting on a shelf too, and I'll talk about those when I do a companion post to this. But back to Finecast… 

Resin is here to stay. Or is it? The rumours are that GW would love to go all plastic in the future. When you see the very high quality plastic clamshells that are coming out right now - the new Daemonic Heralds for instance - it isn't hard to believe that this may well be the direction they'll take. It is possible. The trouble is, as far as I can tell they make huge profits from Finecast: it's cheaper than white metal and they used the switch to bump up prices. 

Plenty of people noticed and were pissed off with this. But as I seem to say all the time, show me a manufacturer who produces comparable quality models at a more competitive price? No one can, because there simply isn't anyone out there as good as GW. There. I said it. Am I a blind fan? Hardly. But I accept that all companies are out to make a profit and that's the deal we have to swallow. Again, it's worth stating that you don't have to follow the buy-an-army strategy that GW promote with their codex and army book range - it's your game so play it however you want! 

These Plague Marines are great. Much, much better then their previous metal counterparts. You can see all the detail. You can see all the flash - and there's plenty, but it's ok because it's simple to deal with. Mould lines are quickly dispatched. Drilling to pin is super easy, as is matching up the pins and holes. 

Finecast had a bumpy start and miscasts are bloody annoying. Yet GW have changed all miscast stuff I've had from them, no questions. And the ease of working through the early stages of a model means it's a far superior medium to white metal, where casting issues often doesn't come to light until a mini is primed or even base coated. 

These smelly chaps will form part of my Armies on Parade display - hence why I purchased GW after converting the Avatar's of War Corruptors. I am at a slight risk of becoming a Nurgle completist however... *RANT CONCLUDES*

Much Better Photos Of The Plague Drones

These are from the ever-dependable Faeit 212. For me, this seals the deal - I simply cannot wait to get my hands on some of these. I might even get six straight away if the options are good.