[alasdair]

Hi there guys,

With the launch of Age of Sigmar I have decided to start a new army to go along with it. If you want my opinions about the game itself, check the thread on the warhammer general board, this is going to be purely about army building and the miniatures themselves.

My alliance of choice is Slaves to Darkness. I am going to be taking full advantage of the free form army building format and including a healthy mix of mortals, daemons, skaven and beastmen.

To start off, I have got some Putrid Blightkings with Gutrot Spume as well as some Forsaken and Nurgling Swarms.

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Pretty straightforward on the Blightkings. Hugely versatile kits. I decided to slightly tone back the 'daemonic' and focus more on the 'fallen knight' aesthetic (these two along with 'the leper' are the three aspects of nurgle followers). I added in standard Warrior and Forsaken bits to them also. My favourite is definitely the one with the mace and shield, I feel like it has very strong character.

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Spume assembled as standard. Big fan of this kit, lots of detail and his pose is very flowing and characterful.

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Next for the Forsaken. A lot of people criticise this kit for being too ridiculous, goofy almost, and I can see why. Some of the bits are just too much, especially when it encourages you to have two mutated arms as well as a mutated head. As I did with the Blightkings, I wanted to make them a bit less over the top, a bit more warrior/gladiator, as well as incorporating Blightking bits to define their allegiance to Nurgle. I also tried to keep any mutation consistent. Tentacle head guy has tentacle arm, as well as things like the one without a head (having the mass of eye stalks coming from his torso) with the vestigial person sprouting from their arm. I also added corrosion and texture to the armour and weapons using a dremel to tie them in with the Blightkings. Very happy overall with how these turned out.

I decided to put them on 32mm bases, however I do not have enough spare to base them all, I will have to buy some.

Next time I will be working on my Sorceror. I love the 80's Realm of Chaos vibe going on in this army so far, so for my Nurgle Sorceror, what better than an actual Realm of Chaos mini? I have tracked down the 'Bell Staff and Sword' miniature from the CH5 'Champions of Nurgle' series and will be receiving him in the post soon.

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Until next time!

 

[alasdair]

Hi guys

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Sorceror arrived, so I got right to work making him battle ready. The base model is quite nice, so it required little modification.

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Firstly, the model had the old Nurgle mark on his forehead. While I have no problem with retro citadel, the old Nurgle icon is undeniably... phallic... (Which is probably the reason they standardised the triad). I filed down his head and sculpted it flat, before adding a trio of boils mimicking the newer Nurgle symbol.

My next modification was on the staff. I originally was going to change it entirely, but decided I was quite fond of the bell image. I decided to make it more defined however. On the model there is a maggot and some clutter which joins it to the bottom of the gap in the staff. I decided to chop this all out and replace it with a slightly smaller bell from the Blightking kit. Finally, the haft of his knife was slightly large, I believe it was supposed to be the end of a bone, but I didn't like the way it looked, so I chopped the haft off a Blightking weapon of gnarled wood.

Beyond that I added liquid greenstuff to fill gaps and add some texture. Regarding the base, I kept it simple but instead of a normal skeleton, I used one from a Chaos Marine banner which has some goop or slime on it, which I will paint in the same way as the goo on the Sorceror's sword. Perhaps he is a recent victim of a noxious spell?

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When I was scouring my bits box for various nurgley bits, I found this cute little vulture mini. I believe he is from the TK Screaming Skull Catapult, but he makes a perfect familiar for my Sorceror so I put him on his own base.

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As well as my Sorceror, I have been working on some painting test pieces. Nothing to see really, but I have a clear idea of what I am going to go for. If you have seen my Plague Marine in the painting and modelling forum, I will use the same rusty chipped armour technique, along with a bloody, scabrous skin tone. I do want to fully model my first section before I paint however, since I plan to paint them all in one go to make the weathering as consistent as possible (check my salt/hairspray weathering tutorial out in the tutorial section if you are wondering what I mean).

However by next time I will most likely have started my first 5 Blightkings, so stay tuned!

In the near future I plan on purchasing a cohort of Skavenslaves armed with slings to add model count to my burgeoning warband. I am also considering the addition of a Jabberslythe.

Until next time!

 

[alasdair]

Hi guys, got an update for you,

I have finished painting my first 5 Blightkings. Quite happy with how they turned out.

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I went with chipped, rusting armour using the hairspray weathering technique and a sepia tones armour colour. To contrast this I went with an almost healthy skin tone, rather than the pale, rotting colours you usually see on Nurgle. I made use of a lot of tonal washes as well as quite vivid layering to make it seem bruised and bloody. Lots of rust and verdigris on various dark metal tones to complement this.

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Looking forward to applying these techniques onto different minis now that the Blightkings are done. The Forsaken are primed, and I have just started to build a newly bought regiment of Stormvermin, so watch out for those in the near future.

 

[Meldon]

Looking great there, nice to finally see some fantasy getting some love, way to much 40K in here

 

[R_Squared]

I agree they look really great, I especially like the more healthy skin tone and sepia colouring. It really makes a change to see that scheme.

 

[Kreuger]

These guys are looking really good. I think they might be missing some contrast though. All of the colours appear very mid-toned. I wouldn't go so far as to suggest black lining, but a similar practice using a mix of nuln oil, [brown] wash, and water applied in the deeper folds and creases would really make these guys pop.

 

[alasdair]

Thanks guys. @Kreuger I agree, although the lighting does seem to desaturate them quite substantially. I have gone back and added some faint brown washes to break up the different sections of the model and make it all a bit more defined however.

Made some pretty huge progress since my last update.

First off, here is my fully painted Sorceror, Samson the Harbinger and his familiar. I was not a fan of how the vulture familiar was turning out so it was substituted for this pair of Nurglings. It also allowed me to test out how I am going to paint my Nurgling swarms.

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Really happy with how these guys turned out. The Sorceror was a joy to paint.


Next up are the Forsaken, the Cursed 7. My lore for them is that the warband is permanently cursed by having 7 Forsaken, whenever one falls in battle, another warrior mutates to fill his place. It is a reminder of a past transgression (perhaps a failure at the Siege of Altdorf by Spume?) by Nurgle.

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Not much to say about these. Spent nowhere near the same amount of time on them that I did the Sorceror or Blightkings, but they are passable for the tabletop.


I have also started work on Gutrot Spume as well as the first 10 of my Stormvermin. Only done the armour so far.

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Tomorrow I will be assembling the Jabberslythe, so I will keep you all updated.

 

[R_Squared]

That sorcerer is brilliant. His look is intense and very disturbing, just as a madman in the thrall of the lord of rot should be.
I also like the way you have used the purples on the nurgling familiars, it ties in nicely with the forsaken and their various mutations.

 

[Kreuger]

Very striking. I think you have exactly enough saturation on the sorcerer. His colours look almost too rich, but I think it's really working for you to make him a center piece.

And looking at his face, I think he's what Mickey Rourke would look like as a sorcerer of Nurgle.

 

[Meldon]

I love the armour on the Stormvermin, is it finished of is there more to come on that bit..??

 

[Asamodai]

I'm not a big fan of Nurgle (or Chaos in general) but I like the direction you've gone for on these guys and that the fact you're mixing all the different elements of Chaos. It's good to see AoS getting some love.

 

[alasdair]

Long time no update, but I assure you I have been hard at painting and made lots of progress on the warband.

Firstly the big man himself, Gutrot Spume.







The tentacles on this guy were great fun to paint. I did a 3 part wet blend of flesh through purple to almost blue at the ends of the tentacles, then light purple bands with very faint orange/brown edges, and of course a generous helping of gloss varnish to finish.





Next up come the Nurgling swarms. Simple but I like how they turned out.



As an afterthought I added some slimy muck on the base in their wake, as if everything they touch dissolves and turns to sludge.





Finally I have made a bit of progress on the Jabberslythe. As with all large finecast/metal minis, the bastard had so many gaps he ended up being composed of nearly as much greenstuff as resin. I pinned every limb and roughly filled it with putty, before sculpting a smooth surface over that and adding scales and fur.



I have started painting him, but only got as far as basecoats so far. I used a blutack mask for the first time to create the stripy hide. Looking forward to finishing this guy.






Regarding the Stormvermin, I am really not happy with how they were turning out for multiple reasons. I may come back to them one day but they have currently been put on the backburner.


I also had my first game with the full force as it currently stands. Against a Wood Elf opponent with Durthu and Dryads as well as some Sisters of Averlorn. We used the realm of life rules from the new book as it was quite fitting considering the two sides.

I managed to bait Durthu into charging the Jabberslythe, who survived long enough for Gutrot and the Blightkings to charge in and finish him off - not before Spume received a mighty 6 wounds in single sweep of Durthu's sword (the only reason he did not die was that the next round I was able to disable his weapon with Gutrot's clutching pseudopods).

Gutrot and The Jabberslythe were felled by arrows from the Sisters of Averlorn soon after, but the Blightkings charged and made quick work of them.

On the other side of the board the Forsaken and Nurglings fought a war of attrition against endless dryads, constantly being summoned from the Slyvanaeth wildwood nearby.

I managed to scrape a victory after my Sorceror took a risky trip through a Realmgate Portal to snipe the branchwraith behind the summoning with an Arcane Bolt.

Fantastic game overall, very thematic.

 

[alasdair]

Hi there guys,

I apologise for the lack of updates as of late, but I have been busy with other things.

I have however made a moderate amount of progress on the Thrice Damned. In fact since my last update, I have bought, built and painted an entire new unit!

I felt like I needed some decently quick skirmishers for my army, and my choice was a trio of plague drones. I have been getting my teeth into The Quest for Ghal Maraz campaign book and the description of them really appeals to me.

I have made a few modelling decisions first and foremost. Primarily is that I didnt include the plaguebearer riders. I feel like they look better on their own, and mesh with my army as just a trio of beasts better. Secondly as you can see is the lack of wings. While the stock wings are quite nice, I wanted to make my own wings. They are going to be transparent gossamer insect-like wings. My plan is to print a vector onto some acetate, and cover it with an iridiscent film so it will give a similar effect to real fly wings when they catch the light. I will then cover them in some kind of clear resin or varnish to stiffen them.





For now, the fully painted drones without wings though! I went with a sickly bone colour for the skin offset with a dark brown carapace and the many boils and pustules. The eyes are done in the same way as my fly-headed blightking, black with a gloss varnish. Really happy with how they turned out and excited to work on the wings for them too.

I also decided to construct my own flying stands using transparent 4mm rod, as the GW ones have them barely millimeters above the base. I wanted mine to actually look like they are flying.

What do you guys think?

 

[Kreuger]

Those are looking really nice. I think the carapaces need another "something" probably more of a highlight. The bone+pustules is really working though. Great job!

 

[alasdair]

Those are looking really nice. I think the carapaces need another "something" probably more of a highlight. The bone+pustules is really working though. Great job!

Thanks Krueger. The carapace a are rather dark I agree. These pictures don't show them very well but they do have some slight carapace highlights coming from the edges (a la tyranid chitin) but I wanted to keep it fairly dark as I am nervous the iridescent nature of the wings could make them look messy if I didn't moderate my colour quite conservatively.

No pictures as of yet, but I am currently building a regiment of 20 Plague Monks. Lots of fun, but as is the way with all these old kits they are absolutely covered in mold lines so it is a slow process.

 

[alasdair]

Hi guys,

Finished building my plague monk horde today. 20 of the buggers, took a long time just to clean the mold lines as I say.

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Nothing particularly special about these guys beyond the bearer of the word:

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One of the head options for the command is half skeletal. I decided to carry this idea a bit further, and substituted the normal skaven arm for a skeletal one by cutting off a spare skeleton warrior arm at the elbow and replacing it. Quite happy with the look.

Going to try to get these guys painted ASAP, and I have recently been to hobbycraft and picked up the right stuff to finish making the wings for my plague drones finally, so expect updates soon.

 

[SonofVulkan]

Some great stuff here. I especially like the rust effect on the Blightkings armour. I know what you mean about the mold lines on the Plague Monks, it took me ages to put mine together. Keep up the great work.

 

[driller]

Alasdair, could you conjure up just a text-only tutorial for the armour and the flesh? Thanks in advance!