Further on and further in

I haven't really made much in the way of progress over the last few days, partly due to being really tired and partly due to a lack of light bulbs but I've done a little more today so I'll share the progress with you.

Firstly the Changeling. It's really depressing me that he's just sitting on my windowsill, part painted and looking a little less that one dimensional so I've done a little more work on his robe. I've blended from Temple Guard Blue to Calgar Blue and then from Calgar Blue to Altdorf Guard Blue and while it looks subtle in the pictures it's actually looking pretty striking. I just need to give it a wash with Drakenhof Nightshade to pick out the detail again (I'll neaten it up with a cotton bud so I don't have to repaint the raised areas) and then I can focus on the arms. After the arms will be the staff and then the fine detail of the cloak.

The end is nigh!!!

Well, maybe not but my thirst for evil has been slated temporarily with the acquisition of... DARK VENGEANCE :D

I've seen the models painted in many different ways and I've seen various people assembling and painting them but nothing can quite compare to how it feels to open and handle the models knowing that they're mine and mine alone.

Now though I've got to decide how I want to paint them. Do I go for the colours of the Black Legion? Maybe the pinks of the Emperor's Children? Or the blues and yellows of the Thousand Sons? What about the reds of the Word Bearers or the World Eaters? It may not seem like it but it's a huge decision for me as it dictates how I'll be playing the game as I expand my army...

Praise be to Tzeentch!

Or at least that's along the lines of my latest project will say. Completed: one Herald of Tzeentch with pictures to follow below.

As my horrors are all pink I made him blue to contrast. To mark him as more than just a horror (and also to represent one of his gifts) I cut the tongue and tonsils away and added a metal arm from the old horrors. I had 2 old arms, both with and without flame but I decided to give my herald the Flames of Tzeentch gift so I chose the flame hand.

Geekgasm

Oh dear Gods it's beautiful! While not strictly a Daemons post I feel this will be the beginning of something amazing and will quite possibly end up as my second blog. New Chaos Space Marines release!!!!!!

The advance order stuff is enough to practically mind rape any geek and leave him/her with that tingly glow that you get after special times. I was already excited about Dark Vengeance but this is just making me go over the edge.

From what I can see this release really gives the Chaos Marines their own identity as an army as opposed to them just being naughty space marines. This is done by updating the look of the army and including new war machine beasts like the heldrake and the forgefiend which I will blatantly be having at some point.

What's nice about this is that I don't yet have Dark Vengeance set so hopefully I'll have seen the new army book by the time I get it so I can decide how to paint my models in like with a chapter or two. I think what we're witnessing here is the eventual birth of blog number 2 and I'll write a more in depth review of the new products there. Woo to new Chaos stuff :D

Edit (3/6/2013): I did have a second blog but it got neglected so I just mixed the two into one blog so this is the only one. I still have the blog under the old domain but strictly to redirect people here.

Nurgle Paced Progress

We all know the pace that Nurgle daemons move at. Very very slow. That's basically where I am with my projects right now, I'm getting through them but really slowly.

Yesterday I did some work on my herald of Tzeentch, or angry Papa Smurf as I'm currently calling him because he's all blue. I know, so original.

The other day I worked on The Changeling (as you saw) but today has been reserved for my chariot, or The Beast as I like to call it. Ironic that in an army full of actual beasts it's the non-living structure that gets that nickname.

Dancing Queen

Today saw the beginning of a new era of Slannesh when The Masque danced into my display case. I was going to paint it like my other Daemonettes but I've decided that they're too purple. I won't be repainting the Daemonettes but no more Slaanesh Daemons will be done in purple, they will be done like I've done The Masque.

I decided to make the model do what the character is described as doing i.e. assault the senses. Of course I can't simulate stimulation of four of the senses so I'm having to just affect sight. I've given her human flesh and made her look rather ordinary in direct contrast to the fact that she has clawed feet, 3 arms and a monster face. The idea is that her appearance is both natural and unnatural at the same time which is impossible yet possible because I've done it (I think).

Nurgling Update

After my last post I was thinking that the Nurglings just weren't working for me but I couldn't quite put my finger on why. As I was dry brushing the bases I realised there were two things bugging me. 1) I hadn't done anything with the maggots in some of their stomachs. 2) The blue Nurgling on the front of one of the bases didn't look finished so I cast my mind through the diseases I know of that turn flesh blue and all the ones I could think of eventually led to no oxygen supplied to the extremities. This got me thinking, instead of blood and gore, that one should have dead flesh so parts of his fingers and toes were painted black and around the split flesh was also blackened. It's a small thing but doing it has made me feel much better about the entire unit.

My favourite of all the Nurglings has to be the front one with his eye being poked out. I actually painted a lot of blood around the area to look like it's just happened and I love it.

Turning the Wheels

Today has been quite a busy day for construction. I assembled both wheels, the two stands and two of the four seekers for my Exalted Chariot of Slaanesh (pictures to follow). I've also constructed and primed The Masque and The Changeling. In light of having The Changeling I've decided to convert and repaint the model I was using as an Iridescent Horror to become a Herald of Tzeentch on foot because The Changeling replaces the Iridescent Horror. Also now I can fit the standard bearer and the musician in the front rank (once I actually get round to finishing them I'll show you) which my amazing modelling skills had prevented with the Iridescent as unit champion.

The main modelling job of today was assembling the Chariot. My life that was a lot of round spikey bits! I have to say though I'm impressed with myself because I've only put one piece in backwards and unless I told you which piece you probably wouldn't notice which one it was.

The Chariot Rides!

Or at least it will do soon as I've finally fixed my colour scheme! Oh happy days, praise be to Slaanesh! And to Shamus at the Dudley store for doing some painting experiments and helping me work this all out. Not too much though, don't want him getting too big headed.

So instead of the silver/gold effect I'm now going for a copper effect. The chassis and wheels are being based in Warplock Bronze, then layered up with Brass Scorpion and Runelord Brass, given an Agrax Earthshade wash on the wheels and a Seraphim Sepia wash on the chassis and dry brushed with Golden Griffon. The idea of this is to counter the brightness of the steeds and the daemonettes (which won't be painted like my unit of 10) to give the model a more balanced effect. The reason behind using the two different washes is that they each give a different hue to the Runelord Brass so it will have the effect of breaking up the block colour while still keeping to a theme.

Finishing Touches

I haven't actually painted anything new today (except for the Athonian Camoshade wash on my Nurglings) but I've finished off my incompletes i.e. my Plaguebearers from yesterday and the Pink Horror.

All I did was finish the bases but I took it nice and slow to minimise errors. The bases are done with the Astrogranite texture paints and dry brushed with Ulthuan Grey. I'm debating whether to do other stuff to some of the bases to distinguish them from each other such as add different colour for each God or something like that. I haven't decided yet but it's something I'm considering.

I'm not showing the Horrors until they're all done but I'll show the completed Plaguebearers (below).

The Devil is in the Detail

Quite literally in some cases and today has shown one such case as today's project was... Plaguebearers!!! I saw a YouTube guide on these that I liked so much that I ditched my own carefully planned and thought out colour scheme in favour of this one and by Nurgle I'm glad I did.

Yesterday I posted pictures of them all built up and primed in white, so today has been all about painting them. After a not so quick trip to the Dudley store and to Model Zone *gasp* I had everything I needed to make them look especially gross and diseased; they are Plaguebearers after all.

Chaos Fury

Since the last post I went a little... Crazy. I decided that the Plaguebearers weren't enough to satisfy my modelling cravings so I put together almost everything I have to paint (except the Chariot because that can't be painted how I'd like in one piece). Oh I also didn't put the Nurglings on their bases because I want to paint all of them first. No paint gaps on my watch, Nurgle would not be pleased if I didn't paint each Nurgling.

The rise of Nurgle

Once again I've gotten bored with my Horrors (but I did manage to finish another one so now I've got 6) and my chariot isn't looking great so I'm holding off until I can figure out what to do with it. In the lull my Plaguebearers were calling...

The horror... THE HORROR!!!

As much as I keep going on about my Horrors, I'm still not finishing the unit. Instead I'm working on my Exalted Seeker Chariot of Slaanesh. The reason is that as I was tidying up from my Daemon Prince I had an OCD attack and felt the need to organise my entire room; the only thing that didn't fit anywhere? The Chariot.

So far the construction of this beast has not gone smoothly. I'm constructing it bit by bit and painting as I go. The metal I've done was sprayed white, base coated with Leadbelcher, then Ironbreaker and then brushed over a layer of Golden Griffon. Unfortunately that was a lot of metal which I didn't like so I tried to break it up with purple gems so the dots were done with Xerus Purple and highlighted Genestealer Purple. That STILL wasn't enough so I painted a section of the front with Warplock Bronze to highlight the Mark of Slaanesh.