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Servants of the Conquering Worm - A Warriors of Chaos Log

71K views 360 replies 47 participants last post by  Dave T Hobbit 
#1 · (Edited)
As previously indicated, I was made redundant recently, so intend to build a Warriors of Chaos army.

Having painted a reasonable Thousand Sons army I am feeling Tzeentched out, so will am thinking of maybe Slaanesh/Nurgle. My initial thoughts on 500 point core force are here.

I now have the Battalion and, having seen the wondrousness of the Chaos Knight models in the plastic, have deviated from my plan to build and paint the Marauders first.

The Knights will be marked by Nurgle, so I am trying a pale horse look. As they are much the same at the moment and I have not done any conversions, I have only taken a picture of one of them:



White horses usually have dark skin, so I started with a Space Wolf Grey undercoat over black primer.

Over this I added 1:1 Space Wolf Grey/Rotting Flesh leaving pure Grey in the depressions, then pure Rotting Flesh to emphasises musculature, up through 1:2 Rotting Flesh/Skull White, with a very fine pure Skull White highlight on the extreme tendons.

The tail and fetlocks are Fortress Grey, with Space Wolf Grey painted along the hairs, and a Skull White Highlight. Overall I prefer this to dry-brushing the layers on; however it did take ages.

I am planning to do a Devlan Mud wash over the top of the flesh to draw it together.

To help with painting detail I am painting the riders in pieces on wire frames:



I am currently planing a green/brown armour with dull steel detailing.

Depending on how the light is for photography, possibly more tomorrow.
 
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#3 · (Edited)
A little more work on the horses:



The chain-mail and shoes are a base coat of Tin Bitz with Boltgun Metal over-brushed and a Badab Black Glaze.

I am still mulling whether to add any rust effect.



I am quite pleased with the subtle contrast between the Bleached Bone spurs and the flesh tones.

I have also done a trial piece for green armour:



The green is a 2:1 mixture of Dark Angel Green and Rotting Flesh.

I am not sure about this. I like the colour and it does not look ugly with the rest of the model; however it looks "happy", so I am considering doing another horse with a Cammo Green or Catachan Green base coat to see which I prefer.
 
#7 · (Edited)
Fixed broken link

I really like the white horses. Not something I would try on chaos warriors. But it is looking very good so far.
I wanted to try something different; however the white does have two problems:
  1. white is a bind to blend
  2. Even using Rotting Flesh it quickly becomes a bright happy colour scheme if any other areas are bright.
Overall I am not displeased; I certainly prefer my off-white to the white horse in the WoC Army Book.


Aren't those models just the best?

Off to a good start so far, I look forward to seeing how they turn out.
Arrghh.... Wraithlord watching; this feels just like the moment when the teacher stops just behind and watches you for a minute then nods and walks off.:scare:

They are rather good sculpts, although the horses' heads did not fit very well on mine.

Also, I find the belly and insides of the legs trick to paint with the base on. Possibly if I add more Knights later, I will try painting then attaching to the base.


...try the other mix out and see which you prefer ;)
I have finished my Catachan Green tester:



I think it looks more ominous than the first green, so will be going with that: it is less photogenic though.

For highlighting I am torn between mixing with Rotting Flesh and mixing with Cammo Green.
 
#6 ·
Aren't those models just the best?

Off to a good start so far, I look forward to seeing how they turn out.
 
#8 · (Edited)
It was a busy weekend so not much achieved :(

I have repainted the trial horse in darker green base; to me it looks lighter, which I suspect is down to being over light green instead of black. However, I am hoping that once I add highlights and washes it will not stand out.




On the rest I have added, a layer of Tin Bitz over the steel areas:





As I am trying to avoid "happy", I am planning not to go brighter than Boltgun Metal, with at least one wash over the top for the weathered steel.

Where the armour is nicked, I am torn on whether to add a Boltgun Metal highlight on after the washes to make the damage look fresher.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Been busy applying for jobs, so updates got pushed a little. As the weather was not great today the quality of photographs are not great

Spent the last few days working on the Knights:






The colour scheme is the same as the horse armour at the moment. To make getting the detail easier I am painting the shields and helmets before attaching. Depending on how the horses and knights look with highlighting and washes I am pondering making the knights slightly lighter to draw the eye to them.


As I start to loose motivation doing the same thing over and over again, I also assembled four Marauders today.

The models do not seem to go together very tightly, so they need some green-stuffing around some of the joins to hide the seam/gap.



I do not like the look of the big horns and top-knots so I have removed them.

The great weapon on the left is the most complex. I started with a one-handed axe and glued the shaft of the left-hand axe onto the bottom. Both hands have been cut at the edge of the wrist guard and rotated to fit. I like the pose; however am still wavering back-and-forth on whether or not the shaft is too long.

The middle left is made for a flail with the chain removed then the head attached straight to the shaft.

The two on the right are both made from flail shafts with the head of the left-hand axe attached to the top.

With the 20 I have from the Battalion, I plan to build eight with Great Weapons and eight with Hand Weapons, plus Standard Bearer and Musician so that I can either make two smaller units or mix them to make a big unit.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Been a little busy recently; deciding to make up some modular movement trays did not help.:ireful2: However, progress is now progressing:biggrin:

As the knights are still separate form the horses, I am still treating them as two sub-projects; not sure if this is good or not as:

I can get in to more areas but am probably spending time highlighting and shading areas that will not be visible.

I can convince myself I am taking a rest and changing task, but have to remember to match the colours.



There is not actually a stripe under the face-horns; my camera just decided to impose a stark shadow.






These two fill me somewhat with confidence that my white horses scheme might work.





At the moment the bone does not have any washes or highlights; hopefully once they are on these two will look more morbid, and the bone/flesh contrast will be better.
 
#11 ·
Looking good so far Dave, keep it up. How do you plan on doing the bone areas?
 
#12 ·
Thank you.

Usually I do bone with a Snakebite Leather shade/base and work up to make a warm bone. However, I am considering a cold distressed bone for these: the bits of dead thing I have seen lying on the surface around here lose their brown tones and start to develop a green patina

I am considering a Bleached Bone base with Devlan Mud wash, then Bleached Bone highlighting to create a colder bone. I am not sure of exact proportions to make the greenish patches yet.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Due to a gardening accident I have not been able to use my left hand very well, so a slight break from modelling; hence a hiatus.:ireful2:

Provided I do not spend too long, I can paint now, so I have progressed the bone slightly since last post.



The shading is Devlan Mud followed by slight Bleached Bone highlights then a wash in places with Gryphonne Sepia, followed by more slight Bleached Bone highlights.

Although it is warmer than I intended, I think the contrast with the horses and armour is better than the dirty cold bone I was originally planning.

Ironically, the enforced break has lead to many ideas for conversions; I might even be able to hold a knife well enough to attempt them soon.
 
#14 ·
For several, quite tedious, reasons progress took a little longer than I anticipated :(

Having forced myself to sit down and not stop until I had assailed the mould lines on all the fingers (even with several needle-files and a scalpel I still cannot find an easy way to keep the fingers but lose the flash) I am back on track now with the Marauders:

Full Unit



As indicated, they are mixed between great weapons and hand weapons; I have left the shields off to make painting easier.

My camera died so I do not have photographs of them as two separate units.

I am pleased with the green stuff seam filling on most of them; however some of them still look a little odd (especially the standard bearer). Once they are painted I intend to add shoulder-pads and cloaks; hopefully that will conceal any dislocated joints

Command Group

To make them special whilst still being part of the unit I have used heads from the Marauder Horseman sprue.

Chieftain



A subtle mutation to show the "favour" of the gods; the upper arm is the Marauder arm with knife, cut just behind the bracer, with the short tentacle from the Spawn sprue green stuffed on instead.

The axe is from the Horseman sprue.

Musician



Annoyingly the plait goes the opposite way from the hair and beards on the usual Marauder heads so I have tried to make it look as if it is flicked out by motion instead of the wind.

Standard Bearer



I have left the banner off to paint separately.

I did not feel a muscular psychopath would forgo a weapon to carry a flag, so wanted to swap the banner to his off hand. The diameter of the pole is greater than a weapon haft; I managed to save the thumb but the fingers are slightly wrong; I am planning to conceal most of the rebuild behind a shield.
 
#15 ·
Love what your doing so far, warriors of caos are a fvourite of mine. When i get a job (soon hopefully) im hoping to start a WoC collection again. They have the best models in my opinion. Can i ask, will you be using a shaggoth? He would look awsome in the same colour as your horse.
 
#16 ·
Love what your doing so far, warriors of caos are a fvourite of mine. When i get a job (soon hopefully) im hoping to start a WoC collection again....
Thank you for the comments

If your Warriors are anything like your Nurgle daemons they will be awesome.

I am looking for work too so hopefully we will both be lucky soon.

...will you be using a shaggoth? He would look awsome in the same colour as your horse.
I am considering a Shaggoth after I had painted up at more core units and a few specials. I have always seen them as dark skinned; however, using the flesh tones like the horses might indeed look good so I will come back to that later.
 
#17 ·
thankyou :)

Thankyou :) If i ever do wariors again it will be a battalion bulked out with monsters and some chosen i think. And the shaggoth could have dark green skin on his lower half to match your armour colour? And then a brown loincloth like your saddles. Just a thought :) Can not wait to see more of tis army!!
 
#18 ·
My camera is hobbling along again, so more progress reportage.

First the Marauders are under coated and based. This time formed up as separate units.

Hand Weapon Unit



Great Weapon Unit



As my camera is not whizzbang the contrast is not superb; I tried with a white background an got even less detail.

Horizontal Great Weapon



As contemplated earlier, I have shortened the shaft on the horizontal great weapon; I think it looks better now.

Unlike my W40K miniatures I have decided to try painting the bases first so i do not risk over-brushing feet.

The base coat is Calthan Brown with an over-brush of Tallarn Flesh then a dry brush of Bleached Bone.



I am considering adding static grass or flock after the models are painted; probably a scorched or dead grass effect.

However, I am not certain what - if anything - to do to the small rocks. My current thoughts are:
(i) leave them as they are;
(ii) pick them out them using the same pallet so there is a subtle contrast;
(iii) pick them out using a sandstone pallet for some contrast;
(iv) pick them out in a grey pallet for a sharp contrast.

Thoughts and alternative suggestions welcome.

.
 
#20 ·
I think mixing up the colouo the base might look a little miss matched....
I tend to agree on strong contrast looking odd; however, the rocks and ground are unlikely be the same colour in real life so a slight contrast might look better.

I might try something out on one of the rear rank models when I have finished off everything else; then if it looks odd I can paint or flock over it without it being too obvious.

...brown grass would look ey ool prhp with small clumpsf brown flock on larger bases....
I am planning an expedition to local modelling shops next week to look at various grass mixes; clumps on the larger bases is a good idea.

I have started on the flesh tones on the Marauders:



I did these with a Tallarn Flesh base coat, washed all over with Ogryn Flesh, then picked out the muscles with Tallarn Flesh.

Annoyingly the horizontal Great Weapon slipped whilst I was painting and managed to disassemble itself from the slight jolt and I did not notice until the glue was dry that my fix is crooked:ireful2:

This taught me two things:
(i) painting units always causes paint blindness; I reached the highlight stage without noticing a model with neither hand painted;
(ii) the guide for stopping Foundation paints clogging up your brush (wash the brush at the end of every track on the CD) was not written by a King Crimson fan.
 
#21 ·
More progress on the Marauders.





To add some variation but maintain the look of a coherent unit (especially if I field them all as one big block) I am using two different schemes for cloth:
Charadon Granite washed with Black
Hormagaunt Purple washed with Leviathan Purple

Fluff wise this represents some Marauders having looted expensive dye/cloth.

The leather is base-coated with Scorched Brown. Currently I am thinking of a Bestial Brown highlight.

The wooden areas will probably bee Calthan Brown to keep a distinction form the leather and coordinate the model more with the bases.

I am still pondering a good colour scheme for the fur areas.
 
#22 ·
marauders are looking really good so far sir, a solid, cohesive unit. kudos!

perhaps light grey / white for the fur just to bring a little bit more contrast on the models...just my two cents, though... :grin:
 
#23 ·
marauders are looking really good so far sir, a solid, cohesive unit. kudos!
Thank you.

Your DA are also coming together well.

perhaps light grey / white for the fur just to bring a little bit more contrast on the models...just my two cents, though... :grin:
I agree a pale tone might be good to add contrast.

Having thought some more, it might keep the army coherent if I use the same fur throughout the army, so the scheme might have to work for Warhounds as well; either that, or do two different fur schemes in the unit so the inconsistencies are across units rather than between them.
 
#26 ·
woah, just love those maruders, i think it's the contrast between the legs and the base that really bring out the models, good job man....
Thank you.

I am hoping the basing scheme is neutral enough to do the same for other model paint schemes as well without limiting my palette too much.

On the subject of basing, GW seem to paint the edge of their bases a different colour from the rest; I am not sure if this would look better or not.

any more news on those knights? i have high hopes for them :D
As part of my plan to get the army on track and vaguely keep it there, I decided to revert to my original plan of getting a minimum troop selection and Hero complete before I did anything else so that I had a legal army.

8th Edition will probably be released before I finish the Marauders so I will need another unit to be legal; as I am part way through the Knights, I might finish them before I add a general.
 
#27 ·
To add lightness to the Marauders I am experimenting with linen puttees and arm wraps.



The base colour is Deneb Stone with my old friend Devlan Mud for a wash.

I have also being experimenting with Bestial Brown up to Deneb Stone for the fur areas; however after many attempts with much fiddling of set-up, my camera will not take a clear shot of it.

If I can get a better picture of the pelts I will upload later; in the mean time careful peering might allow you to make out the slight difference between the puttee and the fur edging.
 
#28 ·
A quick question for people who try to play with armies built of models they like.

The changes with 8th Edition have possibly rendered some of the advice upon which I was basing decisions less ideal; I have therefore sought revised advice on what might be a good list to build towards in the short term; however, the advice will not be based on the same level of replay as 7th Edition for a while so should I:

(a) completely ignore the question of what might be playable for several months and build whatever I feel like; once things have settled down I can build enough to make it a valid list even if it means leaving lots of units on the shelf until I have a huge army;

(b) ignore the question of what might be tactically better for several months and build whatever I feel like that fits a valid army list even if I am left with units that are much worse than another option I could have built without compromising aesthetics;

(c) assume that the changes in tactics required will be obvious where it really matters and build towards a list that seems reasonable tactically now?

More pretty pictures of what I have already to come when I get some to come out clearly (I swear the camera pixies are messing with me).
 
#29 · (Edited)
As promised, some pretty pictures.

I have finished putting linen wraps on the Marauders.



The handle of the Chieftain's axe is the first coat of Warlock Purple. I am hoping it will add more visual interest to the unit whilst still looking coherent.

Having now read the section on army content thoroughly, War-hounds still do not count as Core for minimum; this leaves me with a maximum legal army of less than 700 points without more Core.

Although I am happy with how the Marauders are going I am looking forward to doing something else for a while after I finish then up and complete the Knights, so my choices are reduced to either:
(a) not build a valid army;
(b) build Warriors with whatever I think looks best.

And speaking of Chaos Knights, a little teaser of the possible highlighting:





To give the impression of it being better than just heavy armour I have highlighted straight with Cammo Green without blending. I am not sure if it is too stark or not.

Comments and opinion, as ever, welcome.
 
#30 ·
Nurgle Warriors with HW & Shield have been made quite decent under the new rules, 3+ armour save and a 6+ ward save in combat and you've got the -1 WS as well which after some careful reading of the new book can actually take an opponents WS down to zero if they fail a fear test (WS 1 from failing fear and an extra -1 from Nurgle)- works great against Skaven.

Loving the scheme on the knights, I know how much of a pain it is to paint loads of marauders!
 
#31 ·
...Warriors with HW & Shield have been made quite decent under the new rules, 3+ armour save and a 6+ ward save in combat....
Indeed; and they do not look too silly either.

...you've got the -1 WS as well which after some careful reading of the new book can actually take an opponents WS down to zero if they fail a fear test (WS 1 from failing fear and an extra -1 from Nurgle)- works great against Skaven.
I see where you are going; not sure whether or not it would actually work. One for the rule forum I think.

Loving the scheme on the knights....
Thank you

I know how much of a pain it is to paint loads of marauders!
I am just getting mildly bored of them at the moment; I will probably be looking forward to it be the time I get round to bulking the units up.
 
#33 ·
I really like your steeds/marauders, I'm not the biggest fan of nurgle in general, however I love what you've done there, especially the marauders.... I'd give rep but it won't let me :(
Thank you.

You've come up with a scheme which seems to be quick, but still nice and effective....
In theory it is quick; I could theoretically paint the units up in a few days of effort. In practice it takes ages (as you can see by the progress of the log) for me to get anywhere, as there are too many things I think I should be doing.

You on the other hand seem to be able to design and paint very fast for such as good result.
 
#35 ·
quite amazing painting so far, I really like your knight, and the marauderers are very nicely done

keep up the good work
Thank you.

This project was designed to be primarily aesthetic rather than playing so I am trying to push the envelope.

More praise is always good, as it counteracts me seeing all the things that did not go as well as I hoped, and motivates me not to slip back into my old habits.
 
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