Death Guard March

I've gone back to my old Chaos Space Marine project. My first intention was to build a solid 1000 to 1500 points playable army of Emperor's Children, but after finishing the fifth book of the Horus Heresy series, I wanted to mix things a little and decided to expand the army to Death Guard.

I had bought the set of Plague Marines way back, but never got the spark to start with them... until recently. Our little circle of like-minded talented hobbyists put together a small playful painting challenge, where each would have to paint a miniature of their choice within three hours. So I chose to paint one of the Plague Marines, as I had a very clear vision of the colour scheme I would use for it; dirty and weathered white armour, rusty trims and patinated copper, sickly gray skin and bright orange as contrast.

The outcome of the challenge was very promising, considering the time used for one single figure. It was nice change to my routines too, as I've used to spend hours and hours with my previous miniatures. Full of hobby spirit I decided that I would put my Chaos Space Marine project back on track and paint the rest of the seven Plague Marines with the same technique and colour scheme.

Now here's the first four members of the Death Guard, marching on the ruins of some long forgotten battleground, searching for something to stab with their infectious blades...

Death Guard, 4/7

Thorwarg Ironmane

"Like iron is forged to steel, so has our brotherhood been forged in the fires of the battlefields. We paid the ultimate prize in the hands of those Tyrannid scum but we survived  and the brotherhood will never break. Together we will avenge the death of our forebeards and make our ancestors proud!"

So here comes the revered force commander Thorwarg Ironmane. He was the high commander of  the League of Emberg. Emberg  was one of the smallest  of the Squat Leagues closest to the Eye of Terror and included only four strongholds. When the Splinter fleet  destroyed the Squat home worlds Thorwarg and his brothers had gone to war and were drifting through the warp when the tragedy happened. Warned by his spiritual ancestors, Thorwag quickly steered his ships back home to aid his brothers but Warp currents delayed Thorwarg's fleet and when they finally got there it was too late. Now Thorwarg and his fighting brotherhood are roaming around the galaxy to seek their vengeage!  

Squats beign so stunty and all, I decided to give him a battle shield to go to war. For the obvious fact that the shield and it's carriers can, at some situations be too much for gaming purposes, I added magnets to allow him to be mounted either on the shield or just regular gaming base for those drop pod assaults missions etc.

"Forged in fire, forged in death, We march to war, Hammers will rise and heads will fall, when we go to war, Red dawn is rising, the brotherhood of steel…" 

Old Squat battle hymn 

A Fistful of Arcos

JB sent me a photo of the whole lot of Arco Evisorators a few days ago, accompanied by scary machine servant Magos done by JB himself. It was the first time for me to see them all together. I must admit, they do look pretty damn awesome when striding forward together.

What a merry bunch of butchers.

More Arco Evisorators

Another pack of murderous Arco Evisorators got finished few evenings ago. These "Stooges" are even more violent and agile than ones done before, but I'm sure they'll fit in just fine.

The half-bald nutter is equipped with some sort of stinger that he uses to pick up the chopped-off heads from the ground (too bad he doesn't have any hands to tie the trophies on his belt). His friend with the flesh mask has had some bad luck with the evisorator, so his left arm has been replaced with a syringe filled with battle steroids or some other drug to help their kinds go crazy. He's a helpful little critter, stinging his mates with the needle whenever they turn their backs on him, making them go berzerk with adrenaline overdoze... And then there's the gas-mask fella. He's sipping some delicious brain juice out of his beheaded victim's head. Yum yum! He's a happy little guy, singing in the rain – of blood.

- Kari

The Brotherhood of Steel

My Squat force has now reached the point where I have managed to get the troop choices ready and painted. As you all surely know, this is also the most boring part when new army is started. Row after row of foot soldiers who all look very much alike. I have proceeded with great speed and it has been a great fun all the way!

But before I start converting any more miniatures, I must first just sit back and start to work on the background story for these guys.

Where do they come from? How did they managed to avoid from the fate that met their brothers?? To who they hold they grudge now??? Lots of questions that need answering…

The great thing about army projects is the fact that they last for long periods of time. After every new character / squad there should be enough time to really think that what needs to be added next. I don't want to rush things and I need to check all the newly released plastic kits for good parts etc...

Tactical Squad #2

[missile launcher, plasma, sergeant with storm bolter]

Devastator Squad

[4x heavy bolters]

Commission Work: Lady Inquisitor

Hi folks! Here's my latest creation, Lady Inquisitor of Ordo Xenos. I introduced this project to you in one of my previous posts in a form of a sketch, but after that I kept the process pretty much in the dark.

Here she now stands, proud and noble, armed to teeth with Xenos weapons of different origin, in her well-travelled and battle worn dress and tight corset-like body glove armour. She carries a small power generator on her back which is connected to a strange weapon of two tentacle-like needles. Capsules of different size and shape, filled liquids and poisons of different sort, stick out of her back like dark flowers. Her head is shaven (something nobles of her kind might do to show off their caste in where she comes from). She's very self-assured and knows what she wants. You can only guess what her entourage would look like...

The original sketch of the Lady Inquisitor (pencil on paper, edited in Photoshop)

It took me good three months to finish her. I kept pushing the project forward with small but sure steps, putting an hour in to it every now and then. The process wasn't all sing and sunshine as I did have some set-backs on the road. Just when I had one piece ready and sculpted, the other parts looked odd or off-place. I had to sculpt the dress twice as I wasn't satisfied by the way it looked like. It was way too light build and was sculpted to look too rough and unnatural.

She also had her head swapped once. The first one was Slaaneshi Daemonette's but I didn't like it that much so decided to get one from the Dark Elf Sorceress. The new head was much better, more femine. But there was a new problem to be solved; her mouth. The original head had it's mouth wide open, like if she was roaring out some loud commands or something. It really didn't fit in as her body language spoke very much different language – very static and noble. So to solve this new problem I had to cut off her jaw and re-sculpt the whole lower part of her head, to make her look more like in the sketch. No easy task for me as I'm used to sculpt ugly men with rough shapes. But I think I managed to pull it off.

Her colours – as so often in my case – are very much in the style of Blanchitsu; reds, oranges and dirty white. She actually blends in the Rogues Malus and could very well be one of them. I gave an extra effort to her face as I wanted it to be perfect. Painted the damn eyes three times to make them look the way I wanted to – piercing and precise! When the head piece was done, the rest of the painting went like clockwork.

Hope you like the outcome as much I liked making the piece! Now it is time to look for a suitable package for her to make her journey to Spain safe... Adiós!

- Kari

Booklet from JRN

A friend of Spiky Rat Pack from Denmark, JRN (MiniaTextures) has published a small booklet about his Post-Centaur painting. JRN is very well known amongst us hobbyists for his distinctively stylish and amazing miniatures, along with the fact that he has actually won not just one but two Slayer Swords in the past!

This is truely a rare opportunity to dwelve even deeper in to JRN's projects and learn more about what he has been doing in the past few years. There's only a batch of 100 booklets printed (and signed), so I encourage to hurry up before it's too late!