Chaos cultists from Dark Vengeance

It's been a bit quiet at Miasma of Pestilence over the last couple of weeks, but I've managed to bash out a few more cultists from the Dark Venegeance box to join Arnold Porkinson's merry band of miscreants...

Again I've tried to go for a quick, sketchy style.  I have to say, though, I think I'm struggling a bit with the human flesh tones. Each time I'll be thinking "it looks pretty good so far", and then I'll somehow over-egg the proverbial pudding, and then struggle to get it to a state that looks semi-reasonable. And that state will be different to what I was hoping for in the first place!  Not to worry though. Practice can be no bad thing...

I've doubtless said it before, but these cultist models are great. Not only are they decent looking characterful models, but they are relatively straightforward to paint. They seem to lend themselves quite well to the use of a fairly limited palette.

Chaos cultist from Dark Vengeance

Simple as. Just a quick job on a Chaos Cultist from the Dark Vengeance box...

Pretty happy for a quick enough job. It's a bit of a rough cut, so there's probably a couple of bits that could do with tightening up.

These cultist models are boss, though. I love the bits of guard uniform that crop up on these models.

Death Guard possessed Helbrute / Dreadnaught - Work in progress

A while back I got a £5 eBay voucher on Facebook, so I immediately put it to use and picked up an extra Helbrute for myself. Why not? It was only £2 in the end, plus I thought it might be quite good fun to mess about with and try and convert.

Obviously, with my limited skill set, any conversion work is not going to be ridiculously extensive, but here are some shots of what I've managed so far...

This is the top of the close combat arm. To which I have
decided to add an attempt at the mark of Nurgle using
the heads of some poor unfortunates. 

I was attempting to make them appear to be pushing their
 way out from below the surface of the armour plate.

I've given it this head from the new Plague Bearers kit.
I really like the bizarre rotten proboscis. It looks quite
unpleasant.

This was midway through what I've done so far...

I then started to add a couple of trimmed down trophy racks from the Chaos
Terminators kit. I didn't add them to my terminators as I thought they looked
a bit crap on a terminator size model. Particularly as I'd used the Death Guard
upgrade set that Forge World make. Including the trophy racks would have
made them a bit too busy. As well as crap. 

T'other side.

This is some sort of plague censer from the Skaven Plague Furnace.

Why wouldn't it be vomited forth from a mouth in the
palm of a power claw? That's normal, right? 

Euphraxes, Lord of Chaos

I've spent a bit of time over the last few evenings working on the Chaos Lord model from the Dark Vengeance box.

I've decided to paint him up to go with the Word Bearers  marines (the Tony version) I've been working on, which are the Chosen from the Dark Vengeance box.

I've named this guy Euphraxes, and I've painted his rather large sword to represent a Daemon Weapon. As to the True Name of the foul denizen of the warp that is imprisoned within the blade, of that I cannot speak, lest the beast be unleashed.

Word Bearers Chosen champion

Here a few quick dirty snaps of the champion from my batch of Word Bearers marines, from the Dark Vengeance box.  I have to say, I'm not entirely sure whether he's finished or not... In fact it's likely that the third eye in his forehead could have been done a bit better, but I think it's OK for a dude with shaky hands. I also hope I've not overdone it by giving him a bit of blue tinted flesh.

Decide for yourselves!

Word Bearers marine #3

This is the third of my Word Bearers (or Dark Vengeance Chosen).  I almost feel like I've been incredibly productive, although I'm clearly working a lot more slowly than pretty much anybody that I can think of off the top of my head.

Again, I'm pretty satisfied with this overall. I can only hope the Urizen would be proud.

Details of the paint scheme and general ideas behind these guys can be found here:
http://miasma-of-pestilence.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/word-bearer-marine-with-lightning-claws.html

Word Bearers marine #2

So, I actually managed to get some more painting done over the last week. OK, OK, know, its just one measly marine, but I did spend about 1 hour per evening on it. I think I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out though.

Expect more slow progress soon...

Ninjas Skinks, damn...

Yeah, so, Skinks.

I had so many plans, but over the last couple of weeks my plans have been undermined by small reptiles.  My sons Lizardmen army is apparently much more important than anything I might be interested in. So, to avert a small-scale nuclear weapons exchange I have been helping to build, undercoat, paint and base over 40 Skinks and a mother-pig-sticking Stegadon. 

Needless to say this, coupled with work, has taken up pretty much every waking second of my life for what seems like years.

Anyway, today I've managed to paint (finish off) some stuff of mine. Tony kindly posted me up the Dark Angel half of the DV boxed set, so in addition to my Ad Mech mania, I'm now building a DA army too. You know, cos that's how I roll, yo.  Or something.

So, instead of just diving in and messing up all those shiny new DA minis I thought I best practice on some of my old marines... I apologise for the horrendous photos, I promise to improve. Maybe.

Bog standard dread. 

Marines. Old Apothecary in the middle. White is a bitch and that is all I'm going to say about that.

Army is going to be 3rd Company hence the diagonal red stripe (yeah, I said 'hence'), backed up with the usual Deathwing and Ravenwing.

I really need to dedicate some time to cracking on with this lot now, cos all these unpainted minis are making me cry inside.

This weeks no-need-to-know-info is that listening to Lemon Jelly (the Lost Horizons & Lemonjelly.ky albums specifically) makes dealing with Skinks almost bearable.

Tony has been posting some dark, yet strangely poetic words lately so I thought I best join in:

"Echoes of past events nudge the tiller on my present course, I await its reflection in the future"

I love Adventure Time, please don't tell my wife....

A brief explanation of my absence from the Warp...

It would seem that I have been very quiet recently.  Quieter than the very grave itself.

However, I have been doing stuff which unfortunately has mainly included being very busy at work.  Luckily I have managed to soundtrack a good deal of this busy time to Propagandhi and such like. Which has contributed quite drastically to life being bearable.

This period has also seen the introduction of my good bud Tom to the world of Miasma...

It has also included me going a crazy building spree. This has mainly involved cobbling together loads of bits I've been getting off Ebay, along with some Forge World parts.

I also managed to pick up a copy of the new 40k box, Dark Vengeance.  The sculpts are really nice.  Quite looking forward to painting them up.  I have to say, they seem to be yelling

"WORD BEARERS"

at me in a very loud voice.  Which is no bad thing.  No reason why the sons of the Urizen can't go campaigning with Mortarion's lads, right?  Particularly with this new Horus Heresy book Forge World are doing.  And, erm, the rumoured Dark Apostles that will be appearing in the new Chaos Marines codex...

But yes, I shall be attempting to put in more time on this here blog.