More of the Lumbering Host

Finally, today, we have another filler model I made up to take up space in a unit. This base size is 75mm wide by 50mm deep...enough to represent 6 Plaguebearers. The ridden creature is an old Reaper model of a fly demon, or something. The wings went onto the Shite Locust, and I bent and repositioned all the legs a bit. Other than that and a little GS filler, this piece is stock. The rider you may recognize as one of the old Realms of Chaos era Nurgle champions. Minimal cutting and bending of his elongated left arm enabled him to ride his daemonic steed with ease. Another quick, fun conversion and paintjob that I was quite happy with. Most of my friends have asked at one time or another if my tournament opponents were ever annoyed or otherwise "put off" by all my non-WYSIWYG unit-filling models (and in 2 cases, entire units as 1 large model). Frankly, I've never had anyone say boo about it. I always explain before the game what they represent, show them how I reliably track wounds to the unit, and we're good to go. I think that if you make something nicely enough, and thematically sound with the army, it's never an issue if you aren't WYSIWYG.

The Mascot of the Children

This handsome little fellow is Chitterthresh, a ferocious form of daemonic insect native to the Glades known as a Shite Locust. This one is the personal pet of Kwashiorkor, and is intended to represent 20 Plaguebearers. It's base is sized for 5x4 25mm bases, with the front rank having 2 cutouts in which I place the beast's "handlers" (standard and musician). This model was a ton of fun to build. As you can see, more tyranid bitz were used in his construction. The legs are taken from 2 different kinds of lictor models, and the pincer on his tail end is a bit from the newest carnifex. The wings I liberated from an old Reaper model I'd had sitting around for ages. The front mandible came from the newer KoS claw hand. I actually only had 1, but I found this terrific new mold maker called InstantMold, marketed by CMoN and used it to make a replica of the bit for the other side of the mandible. This stuff is awesome. Drop a few bars in some hot water for a minute, then press it tightly around the bit you wish to mold, making sure to leave a clean cut to break the mold open. When its set, use it to mold with, or simply toss it back in the hot water to reuse. Sweet! I used this same method to mold the wing cover shield on his back. Yep, that's not a bit, it's just green stuff. The torso and abdomen are made from the body of an old Beast of Nurgle and lots of GS. The antennae are just some paper clips with a light coating of GS. When I first started off painting this guy, I was really bummed that I just wasn't going to get it to "pop", but with some experimentation, I found the orange-brown color scheme for the chitinous parts, which came out looking pretty hot after all. I was especially pleased with the way in which I was able to make the wing cover look ridged, like many of the beetles we have around here. A great, fun project that I'd been planning for a couple years, but only got around to this spring.

The Grandfather of the Children

Here are a couple pics of the Forgeworld GUO that I've had in my hobby room for almost 2 years. Finally got around to painting him up this May in time for the Quake City Rumble this June. Had to leave after day 1, so I didn't get to have my army set up for players' choice, but I did receive a lot of positive feedback from people walking around on day 1. This model is pretty much stock. The only alterations I made were to saw the sword off and model on a large mace instead, and resculpted the tongue slightly to fit the mace. I'd also filed down the central horn location on the forehead, and tried to find a unique position for the detached horns that came with the model. Overall, I was very happy with the way the paint j0b came out. I was especially pleased with the horns and spinal column erupting from the back (in typical Nurgly fashion). I've decided to permanently alter my bone/horn painting method based on the success I had here. And so, allow me to introduce Kwashiorkor the Swollen, Most Beloved of Nurgle. Kwashiorkor is the disease which makes the bellies of malnourished people swell up. While this guy is obviously not malnourished, I've had that name rolling around in my brain for years now, and I decided that it was appropriate.

The Children in 2010

I've not done a post on here in some time, (obviously) and am only doing so now for completeness' sake. Still, if anyone is still looking at this, here's what transpired with the Children last year...

Won Players Choice award at the Northstar GT in Minneapolis last November. This was a nice indy GT on its second year, and well attended. I went with my geographically disparate gaming group The Cat's Pajamas. How to bow out of game 5 for a medical issue, but had a great time otherwise.

The 5 creepy fellows in robes were my "Nurglized" idea of some Flamers, which I used at the Northstar GT. I'd heard from my friends that it was a real cheese fest the first time around, so I decided to boost up the power level of the army a bit by adding the flamers, and making a few other changes. My favorite is the tentacle-thing in the red robe. That's the Pyrocaster, in case I wish to include one in the list. He's a 100% complete sculpt. On the other models, I sculpted the robes and used a variety of bitz for arms/feet and heads.

Accolades for the Children

And, finally, here are some awards won at the three indy GTs I attended this season. First up, was The Midwest Rampage 4 in Bloomington, IL, in May, where I took the Player's Choice award. Unfortunately, my wife called me on Saturday AM to let me know that she had only had 1 hour of sleep the night before because our two young children had taken sick, and I needed to come home early. So, I left after the first three games, didn't receive a paint score, and took dead last in the tournament (grumble, grumble). Next up was The Quake City Rumble in San Francisco in June, where I took Best Painted Single Miniature for my DP. I also got 2nd Best Painted army (behind Ed Phillips beautiful VC) and 2nd Player's Choice (behind John Lentz' hilariously themed and converted "Squigtonnians"), finishing up 24th overall out of 103 players. Lastly, The Battle on Beale in Memphis in July, where I took Best Appearance (this time edging out Ed Phillips), and 2nd Player's Choice (where he edged out me;), finishing up 7th overall out of 93 players, which was my best GT finish ever. All in all, 6 awards in one season, an unprecedented number for me. This is going to be something quite difficult to repeat, I have a feeling, anytime in the near future, but rest assured, I'll be looking to surpass it one of these days.

The Monstrous Brethren of the Children

This gnarly thing is a conversion I made to represent a DOW Ogre Maneater. At the Midwest Rampage, during one game, you get an additional 250 points of DOW troops to use in a single unit, so I decided to run 2 Maneaters with heavy armor and great weapons. Not the most tactical option, but I already had my old Exalted Daemon model on a 40mm base that wasn't being used for anything else, and, let's face it, you can never have too many monsters in this list;) The main body is mostly sculpted green stuff over the torso of a Lichtor. To this I added yet more Tyranid bitz (his claws, spines, and tail maul). The head and tail were entirely sculpted, as were the muscles overlaying the Tyranid claw arms. After having seen Primeval, I was very much taken with the giant crocodile, Gustav, portrayed in the film. There is a scene where the beast rises out of the muck and reeds to confront Orlando Jones with his mouth wide open, and there are all these flies buzzing about in the air, and the words "Gustav, Greatcroc of Nurgle" swept unbidden into my mind. This conversion was mostly spawned by that movie image. I was going for sort of a mutated, devolved crocodile, and I think it turned out pretty good.

The Slimedogs of the Children

Well, here are the beasts. I was really pleased with the changes to these guys from the SoC list. The points cost went up, but they were just simply too good before. They lost 1A, a pip of WS, 2Ld, and the Cloud of Flies, and now have I1, which, combined with a 20 point increase in cost seems pretty steep. However, they gained regeneration, slime trail, and +1W (!!!) which is more than a fair trade in my opinion. Beasts are now a little less hitty, and easier to hit in shooting/hth, but they are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay tougher to beat up, which, as I've said previously here, is really how I always thought nurgle stuff should be.

These guys were some of my favorites in the army, and were great fun to make. 3 of them have parts of a chopped up Dhole mini from RAFM's Call of Cthulhu line. For the woefully uneducated, the Dhole is basically a great big, gnarly worm. I made parts of the lower bodies of the brown, green and multicolored "bruised" beasts with bits of Dhole, but the lions share of each of them is sculpted from GS. The yellow beast is entirely sculpted (with the exception of some Tyrannid legs and the maw from the OK BSB standard top) of GS and Apoxie Sculpt. He was partially based on an illustration of a Shoggoth from the classic CoC module The Thing at the Threshold.

With these 4 guys finished, I've officially got a full 2250 points painted, and what an enjoyable time it has been. There will be more updates, though, as I finish other projects for this army. I'm currently making up a nasty, diseased-crocodile thing on a 40mm base to go along with my long-since-posted Exalted Daemon (since there's no such option anymore...hisssssssss!!!) as a pair of DoW Maneaters. Should be done with that dude inside of a month. Then it's just some movement trays and the display board, and the Children of the Glades will be ready for action! I've also got an idea for a large creature that I'll probably run as an entire unit of 20 Plaguebearers. Stay tuned....