The (International) Herald Tribune

Last week, I decided I needed some Nurgle Heralds on foot. Just basic stuff. No huge, all-conquering awe-inspiring Greater Daemon or Daemon Prince, just some lowly little Heralds. I figured I want some low-level characters for more low-level armies.

Also, thanks to the Daemonic Table, you can never tell when an enemy psyker gets his mind fried and you get a free Herald dropping out of the ether. Better be prepared for the occasion, as it would surely be considered rude not to take advantage of free models...

I wasn't really happy with my initial efforts though:

In the end, I decided it was the head, tore it off again and came up with a new version I prefer by far:

Obviously, I still need to do all the greenstuffing, but I think the basic concept is very sound.
Oh, and the model isn't small, it's just standing on a 40mm base. I was never really happy with the official concept of Heralds just being slightly beefed-up regular troopers, I always thought they should stand out, so they should be discernibly larger and certainly get a base upgrade.

I actually can't remember where I got the antlers from, but I really like them as they feel so Nurgly...

+++

So, when I said some Heralds, I wasn't exaggerating, I was working on two of the dudes at the same time. However, I was even less content with where the second Herald was going, so I disassembled it completely and now am left with just the bare bones of a model:

Still a long way to go, obviously...

The story... so far

The Daemons are coming along. It goes in leaps and bounds, though, with a lot going on at times, and then not very much or nothing at all happening when the project ends up shelved for months. I managed to get most stuff done back in 2012/13, the status after some very productive six months back then:

After that, things slowed down a bit. It is noteworthy that the army was conceived in 2011, using the old Codex Daemons from back then (5. edition). As a nice little touch, I had envisaged to have all units 7 men (creatures) strong, as an hommage to Nurgle (7 being his sacred number). However, under the current Codex, all troop choices need to be at least 10 strong, so I had had to adapt to this.

First, I upped the strength of the Plaguebrides (counts as Daemonettes) to a full 10, so they are a legal choice now:

I realize the picture isn't exactly fortunate, because lots of the girls are standing in each other's way, but I think you get the gist.

Anyway, that left me with a second troops choice missing for the army to conform to standard army selection, so I went to work on some Plaguebearers derived from several different Confrontation Mid-Nor dwarfs. You have seen these guys already, but for the sake of completeness:

You will notice that there are 4 minis short of the minimum size of 10, one of those minis has been completed since the picture has been taken, while two others are very close to completion and the final mini - the unit's champion - still needs some serious work.

I am not a big fan of armies that don't look like armies, so I will certainly paint several more troops choices before I will add more characters or big gribbly stuff. That is the one gripe I have with the army - I just painted random stuff in the beginning, leaving me with a collection of miniatures that do look good, but are not gameworthy.

Back from hibernation

Because it is not dead which can eternal lie... or something along those lines. It certainly appears this blog is only ever used in spring and summertime. I certainly did not plan on this, but I'm certainly willing to play along 8]

After a short foray into the WHFB universe has been ultimately cured by End Times and 9th edition, I haved moved back to the grim darkness of the 40th millennium. For the time being.

While GW manage to regularly ward off my hobby interests by various decisions and products, they also regularly manage to reel me back in with some amazing releases. This time, it was the Mechanicus. While the Skitaarii (sp?) were nice, it was the new walker kits that really blew my mind. I haven't figured if and how I can fit them into my army concept, but if I find a way, I will do it.

For the time being, I have bought the Sicarians, because I will use several bitz for a current ChainsawDaemonEngine project I am working on - keep tuned in.

Also, I am just inches away from being in possession of a fully-painted, legal army... and I intend to use it. Not sure about all the recent focus of 40K on gigantic Apocalypse-style mini-titans, flyers and all this nonsense, but I figured I'll just ignore that. So I got me some fittingly Nurgly dice:

Whaaat? Actually playing a game? Clearly, things are getting out of hand here...

More Plaguebearer Progress

...and they keep turning up, one by one, little by little. But the important thing is to keep going, and the full ten-man unit will be finished in time.

As a sort of "what I did this month" thing, here is the status of the unit so far, 6 models finished including the musician:

Plaguebearers (Progress)

I have posted some early pics of my Plaguebearers converted from Confrontation Mid-Nor Dwarfs in an earlier post. I now have something to show:

Some progress on my Plaguebearers... I have finished four so far:

while three more are in various states of unfinishedness:

and three more are still awaiting paint at the moment:

I like these models, because they were the very very first ChainsawDaemonEngines I ever put together, about two years ago now. I only ever painted two of them and left the rest lying around... until now. I promised myself to finally give them the paint they deserve and not put anything else on the worktable until all of them are finished.

Thing is, I have tried exactly that several times before, without any success at all in the past. So having finished two more models now (making four in total, see first picture), I have actually come a long way already. As I am writing this, another one is very close to completion as well.

Some more pics:

Blowflies of Nurgle (Supplemental)

I recently found a forum post where a a year ago I had shown where the markings on the wings of my unit of Blowflies of Nurgle are derived from. I had totally forgotten about that! However, I really like it, so I thought I'll share here as well:

 

Mein Liebster!

Considering the... manageable :D number of subscribers and commenters of my blog, I would have never expected this, but I have actually been Liebstered. Incredible! And many thanks to Adam Wier from Between the Bolter and Me.
Alright, here goes:


Eleven Truths:

1. I actually have a Master's degree in Theoretical Quantum Physics.
2. Everybody thinks I'm too old for miniatures and tabletop now, including myself.
3. I much prefer converting and painting to gaming. Actually, I haven't played a game since spring 2011.
4. I was one of four members of the Epic Rules Committee, overseeing the online development of GW's Epic:Armageddon.
5. As far as I can think back, I have always been fascinated by Fantasy and Sci-Fi.
6. Despite this blog's title being French, I don't really speak that language; it was just intended as an hommage to Jules Verne.
7. I started out life as a pathological introvert, but have graduated to regular introvert since.
8. I am currently re-watching all episodes of TNG, I'm not a Trekkie though.
9. I think I have found the love of my life, and she's still with me.
10. I still paint all my minis using enamel colours (Humbrol).
11. I started the hobby 19 years ago, with 40K 2nd edition.

Eleven Questions (answered to):

1. Eisenhorn or Ravenor? I must confess I haven't read either. Love Dan Abnett, though.
2. What is your favorite aspect of the miniature hobby? Creating new models ('converting').
3. Will dread Cthulhu rise from his sunken city of R’lyeh? XCOM will be there to meet him.
4. Who is your favorite artist? John Blanche.
5. If you are about to embark on a long drive with nothing to think about, what musical album would you want to listen to? Any old Kyuss stuff.
6. Have you ever played the cRPG: Planescape: Torment? No.
7. Games Workshop’s White Dwarf magazine recently switched formats and is now weekly, thoughts? It has now fully degenerated into a product advertisement leaflet with no hobby-relevant content whatsoever. Only pictures. I really tried hard to still like it, but simply couldn't.
8. Is the Alpha Legion the Imperium’s doom or their salvation? Neither. A thousand men cannot alter the fate of an empire of this size.
9. Benchmade or Spyderco? I actually had to google that. Can't really say.
10. What boardgame would you most like to play this weekend? Heroquest!
11. Who is your favorite sculptor? Simon Lee / Spiderzero

 Eleven Blogs (in order of latest update):

1. Eternal Hunt - Devout (and verbose) follower of Khorne
2. Officio Convertorum - Great conversions and paintjobs, and really steady output
3. Mind of the Daemon - Awesomely gritty Chaos
4. Legion of Plastic - migsula and his XX Legion are already legend
5. Gardens of Hecate - Ana's incredible original and innovative take on Malifaux
6. Three Flies for Nurgle - A great blog by a fellow Nurgle afficionado; also check out his second blog, Mars Irae
7. Rusty Painting - Also Nurgle; oh, and Necromunda!
8. Spiky Rat Pack - THE best blog for all things =I= and Blanchitsu at the moment, IMHO
9. Brushes United - Painting and converting by the grime crew... inspiring
10. Risus Damnatorum - More great conversions and painting
11. The Tears of Isstvan - Another great =I= blog with artsy undertones, sadly abandoned

Eleven Questions (Asked):

1. If you could wish for one thing except more wishes, what would that be?
2. What was the first miniature you painted?
3. What was the best miniature released last year?
4. What was the latest movie you watched in the cinema?
5. Would you rather die now or live forever?
6. Whom do you consider the worse geek, yourself or the hobbyists around you?
7. The discontinued GW game you wish GW would bring back the most?
8. How many DVDs would the internet take up if you removed all the porn?
9. In how many years will tabletop miniatures be 3d holograms?
10. If John Blanche and H.R. Giger had a child together, what would it look like?
11. I accidently the box. Is this bad?

Thank you for the attention.
PS: "Liebster" is a German word and means "favourite"