40k: Death Guard 1st Marine Squad

My first squad of regular Death Guard marines. All models are from the Dark Imperium box set, but I've made some conversions. I'm going for a 'no two models alike' in the army.

It's quite easy to do some simple conversions to get this, as the clunky nature of the marines begs conversion. So you might notice some head-, weapon- and backpack swaps. I've also made sure to drill out all weapon barrels.

I'll be making all the squads 7 man strong (Nurgle's holy number). It might not always make the most tactical sense in the game, but I always play for the rule of cool.

The entire 1st Squad in all its rotten glory.

The champion in this squad is converted from a Noxious Blightbringer. He's had his bell removed and the large horn re-arrenged. The powerfist is added from the original Champion and the plasma gun is from the bit box.

I've gone with a blue glow for all plasma weapons in the army, for easy identification during gaming.

The blight launcher (greande launcher) weapon options seems the best allrounder, especially after falling in points from Chapter Approved 2017. 

For the bligh launchers I've used the greande launcher bit from Mantic Games Plague Stage 3a. The scale fits perfectly with the marines. 

The first marine is converted from a Champion model. I've added a head from Fantasy Blight Kings. Made a hood and tongue from greenstuff. The other marine is a standard marine, with the weapon swap and his helmet spike removed.

I've painted hazard stripes on the blight launchers, for easy idenfication during gaming.

Again going by the rule of cool, I want banners in all my squads. I don't know if I'll ever run them as actual Icon of Despair or just for the looks. But banners add a lot to a unit, that's why I also added one to my cultists (despite them not having rules for it).

This banner bearer is the grenade throwing marine. The banner pole is from the Plague Bearers. I don't know where the banner top is from, I found it in the bit box (but it must be a nurgle kit). The severed head is also from Plague Bearers.

The parchment is another unkown bit I found in the box. 

 Check out the entire Death Guard army project here.

Frostgrave: Skeletons

My collection of skeletons is from all manner of games. But I'm using both Hero Quest and Dungeon Saga skeleteons. Haven't snowed these bases, as that would look out of place in their dungeons.

But the tufts I use and the leaves (birch tree seed) is common for both winter and dungeon bases.

I've also painted up some Loka (fantasy chess by Mantic Games) skeletons. Their fur boots and fur loincloths give them a nice Felstadt feel.

And this two skeletons is the highest needed on the random encounter tables for Thaw of the Lich Lord and core Frostgrave.

Check out my other Frostgrave Beastiary.

Terrain Tutorial: Ruined Walls

A couple of years ago (around 2015 I guess) a lot of people were buying a specific toy castle from Simba Toys. Really cheap stuff. I managed to get one second hand off Ebay, super duper cheap. But the castle has lying around as parts, because in the end, I found it too toy like.

Here's what I've ended up doing with the 4 walls of the set. All in all it's become 68'' of ruined walls.

Materials:

• Toy plastic walls (lots of cheap toys out there). 
• Cork sheets (I use cheap table protectors from Ikea).
• Cardboard
• Woodglue and superglue
• Your regular basing material

Step 1:

In my Simba castle there's 4 pieces of wall. I cut rows 4 stones wide - so I ended up with 8 pieces of clean wall. And a lot of extra windows and ramparts, saved to some other project.

The long thin pieces of wall I cut into different sizes in pairs. Some half pices, some a third of the length and so on.

Step 2:

I cut the cork table protector into square pieces. Just my hobby clippers to round the edges a bit. I used these to build pillars on the edges or inside the walls. 

Using super glue, I glued wall paired pieces onto the base and the pillar. The top of these walls will be open. Cut some slices from the cork (roughly half of the pillar stones) and make some tiles. Round the edged on these tiles, like you did the larger stones.

Super glue these on top of the walls, hiding the hole.

Step 3:

Time to close up the ends of the walls. Cut as piece of cork that fit inside the end of the wall section (if not ending in a pillar). Rough it up with your clippers and glue in place. Let it stick out from the plastic a bit. Use some of all your cut off to add additional rubbble. 

Step 4:
Add some cardbaord cobble stone details to the bases. I've also added them here and there along the edges of the walls. Cover the rest with sand. Make sure to add a good amount close the the wall, make sure it never breaks off.

I've prepped two pieces with room for a gate. Glue an iron nail, head on the base, and fix in the top with a bigger piece of cork. All prepped for some homemade iron gates. I plan on building some from bbq bamboo spears and add a magnets to the end. Easy open and close, and they can be detached when stored - less risk of breaking.

Step 5:
It's time to paint up the walls. I base coated them in a lot of black spray paint. Drybrushed the walls in grey. Painted the sand brown. No highlighting.

I then added static grass and ivy (cheap flock, super glued on and covered in super glue afterwards). Then some homemade snow paste (woodglue, white acryllic, white sand, baking powder).

After it dried I've sprayed with matt white from a long distance 60 cm (2') in small burst. Adding a nice frosty looking coat that I use on all my terrain, to bind it all together.

Lastly I've added winter flowers, I don't want these frost coated. They add just enough colour.

Showcase
All pictures taken on a nice 3'x4' felt mat from Ceri Design. There's some written posts on my trees and my little ruined house.

40k: Chaos Cultists

I really dig the Chaos Cultist models, they are full of character. Through some lucky trades I've managed to get a hold of two old boxes of Dark Vengeance. Selling the Dark Angels and Khorne Marines I've managed to end up with 40 free cultists and 2 free Hellbrutes.

Very minor conversion work done to these guys. I've added a banner, despite it not having any rules - other than rule of cool.

Did a few simple weapon and bajonet swaps.

I've used the same colours for these guys as my other Death Guard, but made sure to mix them around on the 'double sculpts' - a way to counter the monopose feel.

40k: Deathshroud Terminators

My Death Guard army will mostly be build and converted from the Dark Imperium core box contents. As I've gotten quite a few sets, I have more Lords of Contagion than I'll ever need.

I really like the fluff and concept for the Deathshroud Terminators. And I wanted some to boost Mortarions ability to survive a round of shooting. So I've converted myself some. 

All three are converted from the same Lord of Contagion model.

Despite being a clunky model, it was fairly easy to repose. I've only had to fill gaps with greenstuff a few places. 

Hood are made from greenstuff and the helmets are from fantasy Chaos Warriors. The gauntlet pistols are made from Mantic Plague soldier laser rifles. 

The scythe blades are made from plastic card. I've used my hobby drill to make damage to the blade, like you'll see om all melee weapons in the Death Guard model range.

The Deathshroud Terminators are casting a smoke cover over themselves. So I've made some chimneys on their back from cut up lollipop sticks.

I've given two of the models a new front armorplate. The bits are from the Blight King models from Warhammer Fantasy. They fit fairly well, you some greentuff cover was needed with one model. The nice thing about Nurgle followers is, you can just make something tentacly.

I've managed to find a lot of cheap plastic 'half-pearls' on the internet. Comes in different sizes. The are perfect for boils on the fleshy parts of the models or as bubbles on the ooze on the bases.

Greens
The WIP shots of the work done on the models before priming them.

40k: Mortarion - Demon Primarch of the Death Guard

A gigantic model and a lovely plastic kit. This model really shows how experienced and talented the sculptors at Games Workshop are. The bits fit together perfectly and the design is made so almost every moldline is hidden.

Conversion

The only think I really dislike about the model is the original scythe. The bone details were too far out, didn't look good. Too cartoonish. So I've cut the detail off, cleaned with greenstuff. Drilled a symbol of Nurgle in the scythe, like I have on my Deathshroud. 

I've also kept all the nurglings off the base. I don't really like the comicbook look on the nurglings.

Painted

I decided early on to speed paint the model just like all my models. I basecoated the model in three different colours: green, brown and rotten flesh. Picked out the details in one layer of paint. Then gave the entire model a quickshade varnish from Army Painter. The only place I did extra work was on the wings, where I added some extra washes (for more nuances on the large wing areas). 

The plama gun 'The Lantern' I've painted with blue colours like all the plasma in the army. It makes the weapons stand out for easy identification on the battlefield.

Like all my bases I've added warped and rusted metal scrap. The slime bubbles are made from half pearls.

Devil's Run: War Rig!

The War Rig is a bloody huge resin monster of a model. An absolutely brutal kit for Devil's Run. ... It doesn't really see much action - but that'll properly change in some upcoming campaign gaming.

Part of the standard equipment on a War Rig is a Whalers Harpoon. So I've build one from a Warhammer spear, hobby chain and a lollipop stick. I've also added some extra armor to some cab windows and a sniper rifle (also part of the War Rig gear). 

The big weapons on the tanker are not must haves on the War Rig, so I've magnetized the weapons. Makes it a lot easier to transport the model and the can be taken off if not used in games.

The tanker itself is a bit undetailed, so I've added some extra chains and armor plating. Mostly it has helped catching washes and weathering.

The VW bus back is such a great little detail. The smiley face is a reference to The Comedian in The Watchment. I try to sneak at least one blood spattered smiley into each gaming system I do - it's become a thing.