Gods in the Underhive (Slaanesh)

Of the four greater Chaos Powers, Slaanesh is unique in not getting even a single suggestion for how to incorporate her worship into the fluff or modelling of a corrupted House gang. I would guess that if they had, it would probably involve Eschers modeled and/or painted to look like they're wearing even less than usual. Let's see if we can't come up with something more interesting than that.

- Goliath: I see a few possibilities here. As with the Eschers, the amount of exposed skin on display could easily suggest something sexual. But I feel like it would be more interesting to explore something like a gang focused on self-perfection to an unreasonable degree, a la the Emperor's Children or the Flawless Host. The amount of stimms they have to use also leaves an opening for falling into the use of less functional drugs as well.

- Van Saar are possibly the most compelling to me here. Imagine a gang suffering nerve damage, all their senses failing them, becoming more and more desperate to be able to feel anything, anything at all, at any cost. Easy pickings for the Dark Prince!

- A Cawdor Word-Keeper could easily fall to the temptation of the inhuman charisma the followers of Slaanesh are noted for. With such oratory and personal magnetism, just imagine how well he could spread the good word of the Redemption. And surely one so righteous would be able to resist the corruption that comes with that power...

- Orlocks, being kinda generic in many ways, don't present a whole lot of specific handles here. The similarly generic sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll combo does feel like it fits pretty well, tho, and could make for a fun project.

- For the Delaque, I think once again their connection with the Silent Ones might be a cool angle. Perhaps one of them becomes fascinated with the different range of sensory inputs that humans have, and pushes those it's connected with to explore them to the utmost. 

- Escher: Again, I think chems are a fun way to go here. This is one of the few that suggests a specific gang build to me, not only focusing on the use of stimms themselves, but also taking chem darts all over the place and getting their enemies all fucked up on Obscura and Kalma. 

- Corpse-Grinder Cults could easily be Slaaneshi as well. In this case, it would perhaps be less about "meat make strong", and more about the sensual allure of eating something with actual flavour. As with Nurgle, there's also some scope here for cool modeling projects with themed masks.

As a side note, I'm only planning one more of these. This is an area where Khorne really suffers from the problem of all war gods in wargames, where turning to him generally involves just doing exactly the same thing that literally everyone else in the game is doing anyway (i.e. violence), just more so, and he becomes basically the generic default option. The standard CGC are already more interesting than anything else I can think of for a House gang.

Anyway, until next time, y'all have a good one, y'hear! 

Gods in the Underhive (Nurgle)

I'm supposed to stay awake for a few more hours after falling and concussing myself due to fever-induced vertigo, so it feels like a good time to write about Nurgle.

The Book of Ruin offers a few suggestions about narratives for Chaos-corrupted House gangs, but it feels to me like they went for the low-hanging fruit. In the case of Nurgle, their suggestion was regarding Cawdor, since they basically spend their lives picking thru filth heaps anyway. But consider:

- A Goliath gang who have shifted their definition of strength from what they can overcome to what they can endure. Every time they take pride in shrugging off some damage or pain, Nurgle's hold on their souls tightens just a little further. There's probably also some potential to draw from the line in Hammer to Fall, "Build your muscles as your body decays", but that just popped into my head, so I haven't thought further along that line yet. 

-  A Van Saar gang, their immune systems shredded by the radiation from their faulty tech, discover that, somehow, the diseases they are left wide open to no longer affect them, even tho they have clearly not been cured by any means.

- Orlocks are kinda Cawdor-lite in this specific regard. Not a whole lot I can think of that's really cool here, just that they probably cracked open something while mining that they really should have left alone.

- House Delaque was created by a plague of dream sickness, which puts them pretty squarely in Nurgle's wheelhouse from the word go. But even beyond that, there are some interesting possibilities. The things they do for the Silent Ones frequently take them to the deep, dark places of Necromunda, where all manner of foulness lurks. Further, the Silent Ones might well be careless about something that was harmless to the original Delaque species, but is highly infectious for humans.

- House Escher bring to mind a subtler taint, reminiscent of the Dan Abnett short story Pestilence. Spreading Nurgle's plagues thru tainted chem deliveries, perhaps even focusing on medical supplies for extra irony.

- Corpse-Grinder Cults: What, you think Khorne is the only one who benefits from a Hive being filled with piles of rotting flesh? The focus here becomes less cannibalism, and more just about gratuitously leaving rotting meat all over the place for decay to take its course. Altho not leaving the cannibalism angle out entirely; perhaps only consuming the dead once they have sufficiently "ripened". The angle for Escher works here, too, spreading the diseases thru the food supply rather than chems. Also some cool potential modelling opportunities using Blightking parts, and perhaps an insectoid aspect to the masks rather than the standard hornéd beast look. 

Well, hopefully none of y'all catch anything like this shit I've got, and until next time, y'all have a good one, y'hear! 

It Dreads Nought, for All Dread It

Last, but absolutely not least, we have this monstrosity, an updated take on the Mk IX Dominator class Chaos Dreadnought from Space Crusade's Mission: Dreadnought expansion.

I really wasn't sure how well it was going to come together for quite a while, but now that it's done, I'm incredibly happy with the result, especially the eyes.

Wasn't entirely sure how I wanted to do the plasma coils. I had a few ideas, but ended up just going with the classic blue. Really grooving on the biomechanical aspect here, similarly to my Maulerfiends. Unsurprising, really, since it uses so many Fiend parts.

Not much to see back here, but I figured I'd include the angle for completeness's sake. Also, speaking of the parts, I'm kind of curious if anyone can name all seven models I used bits from.

Not sure what all the spent brass on the base is from, but it's too small to be from that thing. I like the Conversion Beamer as one of the secondary guns as another old school nod. I do wish I could find my static grass, tho. I've always liked how it goes with this base.

And just to round things out, here's a shot of all three of them together. I look forward to seeing how everyone else's projects end up. Until next time, y'all have a good one, y'hear! 

The True Mechanicum and the Problem of Khorne

Setting up the photography for the other project I mentioned is taking longer than I expected, and this thing is almost done, so I figured I'd post it. Still needs some touch up, and then Nuln Oil Gloss over just about everything. 

While deciding how to paint my True Mechanicum Robots, I ran into a bit of a problem. The obvious approach is to just do a darker version of the standard Adeptus Mechanicus look of red and brass. The problem is that, while red and brass and Imperial says AdMech, red and brass and rebelling against the Imperium says Khorne, and I didn't really want them to be super Chaos tainted, focusing more on Silica Animus, Xenos tech, and forbidden stuff like Phosphex. I figure they've ended up with some Chaos effects, because it's really hard to avoid that in 40K, but I don't want it to be the main thing here. Hopefully the red and steel with a few brass details manages to thread the needle there. 

The other problem with True Mechanicum is getting them to look creepier than the regular AdMech stuff, which is a job of work, since those guys are already creepy as hell. 

I kept the cogs on, but did them in a single colour instead of the usual split, which I believe is intended to symbolize the duality of the Omnissiah and the Emperor, and of the Adeptus Mechanicus themselves and the Imperium as a whole. The True Mechanicum reject the Emperor and the Imperium entirely, and do their cog icons in a single colour to symbolize the singular nature of the Omnissiah. 

The inverted skull here, similarly, represents... Ok, no, I admit it: it's just like that because I didn't notice in time to fix it. Pretend I was able to come up with something suitably deep. 

Oddly, despite being where most Dreads or Robots mount their primary weapon, the Fuckoff Huge™ Flamer is tertiary, mostly there in case some infantry try to object to the Colossus pulverizing their fortifications. 

With all the Gauss Blasters on top, it reminds me of a late-90s Warlord Titan, but chonkier. It felt kinda weird painting the Gauss, because the few actual Necrons I've painted have been Thokt Dynasty, but the story I have for these is way over on the other side of the Galaxy, so I went with the more standard green. 

The Gravitic Singularity Lance on the left arm is the main weapon for its primary role, and it's actually a close combat weapon, not a gun. It's very unwieldy, but since the Colossus is a Siege robot, intended to hit large stationary things, the sheer destructive power is far more important. It creates a miniature black hole at the tip of the lance, and then thrusts it into the target, with generally catastrophic results, especially against things that have already been destabilized and weakened by the Gauss beams. 

Hopefully I'll be back soon with this thing finished, some work on the SC Dread, and/or some 40K civilians. Until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear! 

Dreadtober 2022 Start

Missed a couple of years for a variety of reasons, but I'm back for Dreadtober this year with a variety of projects.

First off, this one isn't actually a Dreadnought, it's a Colossus class siege robot. I've been digging into a lot of the older fluff lately, and for a long time, the only real distinction in 40K between Dreads and Robots was whether they had a pilot or a computer. They had tons of cross-compatible parts, and were frequently salvaged from to repair the other. I had figured this one was just going to live in my head for the foreseeable future, since I can't afford an Ironclad kit right now, but then I found one while digging out stuff to sell, so here we go!

This particular example is a True Mechanicum* variant. Unencumbered by the narrow minded restrictions of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the creator felt free to include Xenos tech, in the form of the Gauss Blaster array, and probably some aspects of the Gravitic Singularity Lance on the left arm. There's going to be some sort of fuckoff huge flamer on the right arm, in place of the single Bolter that the classic version carried for anti-infantry work, but I'm not sure where I put the bits I wanted to use for it.

Then there's this mess, inspired by the Mk IX Dominator class from Space Crusade's Mission: Dreadnought, but limited by the bits I happen to have on hand. Again, I'm frustrated by not being able to find what I want for the right arm. I've made like 5 Maulerfiends, how the hell do I not have any Hades Gatling Autocannon anywhere I can find them? Secondary armament is going to be a Missile Launcher and Conversion Beamer, but I'm not sure yet how I want to mount them. Then I need to figure out something more interesting for the front of the thing. 

Finally (for now), we've got the literal physical incarnation of a Twitter shitpost. I can't remember who, but someone was talking about how much it would suck for a White Scars hero to get stuck in a slow, plodding Dreadnought, and I spewed out some bullshit about a Techmarine bolting the top half of a Dread onto a Land Speeder. Then, again while digging out stuff to sell, I also found a couple of AoBR Dreads and this beat to shit secondhand Speeder, so I decided to actually build the curséd thing. 

This one, I at least don't have to hunt for parts for. Just needs some gaps filled in and a fresh coat of primer and I can start painting it. I decided to go with a weapons fit that will let it actually be used as Land Speeder Tornado, because that felt like it made the whole thing even more ridiculous.

I'll be back once I've made some progress. Until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear! 

*Referred to as the "Dark" Mechanicum by the hidebound fools in the decadent Adeptus Mechanicus. 

Remembrance and Honour

When I first started playing 40K, back before the turn of the century, there was a guy named Tobin Lathrop who was a fixture of the Seattle gaming scene. Absolutely great guy, and he became something of a role model for me as a gamer who really embraced the whole hobby, and didn't get hung up on not being the most skillful player or anything like that. He'd just keep showing up with his fantastic looking Imperial Fists and have fun hanging out with everyone while getting his butt kicked. As a regular at the bottom tables with a bit of a knack for painting myself, it was reassuring. 

On a few occasions, when he was downsizing his collection, he'd just give stuff away to people who he thought would appreciate it and put it to good use. At one point, he gave me a bunch of long OOP Mordians, because he knew I used them as Command Squads and officers in my metal IG army, and that I didn't have many opportunities to expand that force.

The last time I saw him (tho I didn't know that at the time), he gave me this LE101 Chaos Renegade Marine, telling me* that it was the first Chaos Marine GW ever released, because he knew that I had gotten started in 40K with Chaos Marines, and they've always been my core faction.

At this point, I was starting to really run into disability issues, and was kinda falling out of being able to make it in to events and stuff. Some time later, he got pancreatic cancer, and just under two years ago, it killed him.

I still hadn't done anything with this model, worried that I wouldn't be able to do something worthy of the emotional and historical weight it had, and that continued until GW announced the 35th anniversary of Warhammer 40,000. I decided that, worthy or not, it was time to do something with it, and figured I'd also take advantage of the motivation to do something with the Imperial Space Marine from the 30th anniversary that had just been sitting around in primer gathering dust for similar reasons.

It took me a while still to decide what colour scheme to use. Part of me wanted to paint him up as Alpha Legion, which were more specifically my start in 40K, but I eventually decided that the first Chaos Marine should really be done as a Word Bearer. 

The Imperial Space Marine was simpler, of course. I really couldn't think of anything other than to paint him up as a tribute to Tobin's Imperial Fists.

I didn't have the courage to try to freehand insignia on either of them, but other than that, I'm really happy with what I managed to accomplish with them. I know I haven't been around the 40K blogosphere for ages, but I've had a painting streak thread going on twitter for a couple of years now, and that, combined with not worrying about how things would work in the game, has led to some pretty substantial improvements in my painting, if I do say so myself, and I feel like I was indeed able to do something worthy with them.

I don't know if there is anything after we die, any form or part of us that survives the passing of the body, but if you are out there in some way, Tobin, this one is for you. Thank you for helping me get into a hobby that has brought me so much in the quarter century and more since then.

Y'all have a good one now, y'hear! 

*As far as I know, this is correct, but it's really hard to find precise and complete info on old GW releases, so I'm stating only what I know to be true. It is unquestionably one of the first, and the tab on the base actually names it a "Chaos Warrior", which suggests to me that the sculpt was done before the writers had really nailed down what they wanted to do with Chaos in 40K.

Scenic September: WarCry Terrain

Finally getting around to posting the pics for the other half of Azazel's September challenge. Again, mostly just a pic dump, as there isn't a whole lot to say about these. Sprayed black, then just heavily overbrushed, using a half-inch brush for the grey first, then a quarter-inch for most of the rest. The seasoned and cut timber is XV-88, while the fresher logs are Rhinox Hide (I think. Might have been Dryad Bark) for the bark, and Ushabti bone for the still-green inner wood. Some Typhus Corrosion and Skrag Brown for rust on the steel parts, the always wonderful Nihilakh Oxide on the bronze gratings, and then a bit of drybrushing to bring both of those back up.

Starting off with the bell tower, the coolest piece in the set. Again, these were shot before I switched back to my dark background again, and the high contrast made it hard to get great pics, but if you open the bigger versions, they should be a bit better. The stairs fit really nicely, staying in place well, but still easily removable to use elsewhere.

In retrospect, I probably should have done a "breakdown" pic of this one, too. It's actually four separate parts, each usable on their own in combination with various other parts of the set: The fallen statue, the stairs, the platform, and the "gate" on the end of the platform. Again, stays together very nicely during game play despite how easy it is to take apart and move around.

The various smaller pieces of the set. I don't have enough room in my lightbox to show the bridges actually in use. The log barricades really didn't photograph well here; the bronze sections are much clearer in person. If you look at the end parts of the little ruin, you'll see there are two different broken grating pieces. If you put them together facing each other, they're both distorted in the same direction, so you can set up a spot where something just busted right through and the broken parts all look right for it, like it really was one section originally.

The first of the larger buildings. It takes a lot of angles to show everything that's going on here.

The second larger section of ruins. I really like how that joining piece between the two halves works. It's just the right degree of broken down for the gap there. There's a third pic of this, but it's not uploading for some reason.

The final, and largest, section of ruins. I don't really have a good shot of the whole bunch of it together, but here's one from a game a while back. This was actually before I'd got it to the point it is in the rest of the pics, but it still looked pretty good at tabletop distance:

I'd like to do a little more with it, maybe do a super light drybrush with an off-white over everything, and there's a ton of sloppy spots that could use some touch-up, but it's more than good enough for casual use. As usual, I have a few more things currently going on, and hopefully I'll get some of them done and ready to post soon, but who knows how long it will actually be. Until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Squaddie September: 40K Beastmen

First off, a quick note that I fixed the photos in the previous Squaddie September post, got some new pics against a black backdrop. Still not perfect, those Models are just as much of a pain to find a good angle for photography as they are for finding a good angle to get a paintbrush in there, but at least the colour scheme is visible now.

Anyhow, as the title indicates, this time we've got the Blackstone Fortress Beastmen ready to go. These guys were much more fun to paint than the Megavolt Cultists, and I decided to mostly stick to a pretty limited palette and see how many browns I could use in there:

The rusted metal on the machetes was my fave bit, I always like doing rusty metal. Then they got some cleaner metal on the Chainswords and pistols, and a bit of red and yellow flair to tie them in with the Renegade Guard Squads. Looking it it now, I notice I also forgot to do the brass rings that a couple of them have in their noses, but whatever. I may get to it at some point.

Even some pretty cool detail back here. I like the hair they've got, lots of cool details like braids and little charms woven in.

Pretty simple lot, it's back to the grindstone for now, but I've got a couple more posts from the September challenge to write up, so they should be along reasonably soon. Until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Squaddie September: Megavolt Cultists

EDIT: Better photos added!

The first of a few posts for Azazel's Squaddie/Scenic September Hobby Challenge. It's taken me way too long to get this stuff photographed and ready to post, but now it begins.

First off, no, that isn't a typo in the title. When I was a kid back in the early 90s, one of my favourite cartoons was Darkwing Duck, and as soon as I saw the name "Negavolt Cultists", I knew I was going to have to do them up as a tribute to his longest-lasting and most persistent nemesis, Megavolt.

I tried as best I could to go with a similar colour scheme, with a drab yellow for most of the clothes, greenish-blue for the gloves and leg wrappings (Megavolt's boots), red for most of the backpack unit and wire insulation, and brass for the electrical contacts and exposed bits of wiring.

Bangles Approved

Unfortunately, nearly all of this seems to have been washed out by my camera not being able to handle them against a white background. I may have to re-shoot with my black backdrop, but I can't deal with it right now. Dealt with! But I did get this one "action shot" on the black background before I shut down my photo setup.

Megavolt Cultists attempt to hunt down Beastmen within the corridors of the Blackstone Fortress, but are outflanked and ambushed in turn.

Also, on a totally different note, this was supposed to be part of my last post, on my Death Guard army. I made up some "souvenir" copies of my Army List for the event, but it turned out that almost no one wanted them. One guy wouldn't even pick it up. All that, despite the fact that it was just done with coffee grounds and used tea bags and they actually smelled quite nice.

It amused me to wait a moment after handing these across and then say "And here's a copy you can actually read" and give them a non-aged sheet in a much more reasonable font.

That's it for now. I'm going to take a look through the other shots I took and see how many of them really want the black background as well. Hopefully at least some of them will be decent as they are, and I can get them up relatively quickly. Until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!

Death Guard Army Showcase

I'm submitting this one for Azazel's Awesome August Hobby Challenge. Not because every single one of the Models seems awesome to me or anything like that (tho quite a few of them would probably qualify on their own), but because I painted almost all of it in a week. I had finished the Angel of Disease for Jewel of July, and one of the Predators, plus the underlayers for the rust on the other Vehicles, were done then too, and one Squad of Plague Marines just needed touch up and re-basing, since I did them in like 2002. All the remaining work on the Vehicles was done in that week, tho, and the other 22 Infantry Models were primer at the start of it. Anyhow, on with the show!

90s metal Plague Marines with newer arms, the Serpents of the Light. I had a couple of the old backpacks, and got someone to help me cast up a few more to fill out the Squad.

This is the Squad from 2002, the Unyielding Kings of Agony. Those are Tactical Marines, a few random bits, and a whole lot of putty. I am still damned happy with how they came out.

The new guys, Cleansed in Pestilence. Even with no easy customizability, there is a ton of variety in the sculpts, and they were a whole lot of fun to work on. There are only six right now because it's OFCC tradition that every team who didn't win puts a Model in the Bucket of Death, and there was one that I have a dupe of.

The Doom of Artifice. I fucking love this Predator sculpt (altho not dealing with hybrid kits), and particularly for Nurgle, it just feels right. Hopefully at some point I'll get around to doing a couple more back and forth bouts of stippling on green and rust colours to really get the transitions right.

The Unholy Blasphemies. These are cool Models, very fun to paint, altho I kept finding more bits partway through that I hadn't realized were actually something else and needed to be re-done. I tried to mess with them a bit to get a little variety, but they're only available as an ETB kit, so there's not a whole lot to be done. A proper kit for them with some options would be great.

The Lord of All Plagues and Fever. Converted from a Dark Vengeance Chaos Lord.

I forgot, I meant to do more work on the pattern on his cloak. Well, that's what happens when you're finishing an Army in a week.

Last, but not least, my BlightKing Terminators, Blessed Are the Sick. These guys were a hell of a lot of fun to make and paint. I'll try to do another post on each of them individually at some point.

The names mostly come from Morbid Angel songs, except for the Unyielding Kings of Agony (Slayer), and the Serpents of the Light (Deicide). As mentioned, due to rushing, there's a lot more I want to get to, particularly some obnoxiously bright highlights on the green, and without those, I had to tweak the colour balance really carefully to get them even this visible. Need to clear my desk off properly again so I can get in to the light box and change out the backdrop for a darker one, but that's not happening anytime soon.

This really shows how feast and famine my productivity can be. I got whatever it was done between January and March, then nothing from then 'til mid July, and then another 36 completions in less than a month. Unfortunately, the two purchases I made since then added another 46 unpainted Models plus Terrain, so I'm even further in the red despite that. Hopefully some of those will make it as part of next month's Scenic & Squaddie September Hobby Challenge. I have a bunch of other stuff well along, too, and have been keeping my momentum up fairly well, so hopefully there will be more soon, probably a mix of stuff for various smaller-scale GW Games, since I'm way more into those than full-on 40K these days. Until then, y'all have a good one, y'hear!