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.