Death Guard marine with plasma gun revisited

I'll be surprised if that hunk o' junk can even shoot...

So bit by bit, I attempted to follow Deadestdai's advice and put a glow effect on the energy coils of the plasma gun.  Never tried this type of glow effect before and I'm not entirely convinced I've got it right, to be quite honest.

I've tried to give the glow a purple tinge in an attempt to be in keeping with the purple in the helmet lenses. Part of me is thinking it looks OK for a first attempt. Part of me is thinking "that's the same colour as Windolene".

Anyways, this guy is pretty much done.

Work in progress Death Guard marine with plasma gun

This one's been taking a while.  Where does the time go?

Thought I'd take another opportunity to post something up as it's been a while.  This guy had been partially completed for a few weeks, so thought I'd take the time to do a bit more on him this morning.

I've added in a bit of purple on the helmet lenses. Not sure how strongly it comes out in the photos, like. But the colour seems to contrast well with the rest of the model (cheers for the suggestion, Tim!).  Thought I'd see what other people thought before I added it in to the models I've already been working on.  So please comment. And it's fine to say it looks crap or whatever. Which it is possible that it might.

As I was saying, this is a work in progress and I've a few more bits to do on him yet.

Hopefully I will be feeling a bit better tomorrow, as currently feeling too thick-headed to concentrate very well.  Thanks, man-flu.

Test pieces 27th Feb 2012

Some spare chaos marine shoulder guards I found laying around seemed like a good place to start on  attempting to use colour theory in my Death Guard scheme.

So, the last week or so has been a total write-off for one reason or another. Which I probably shouldn't go into, but I love moaning. So moan I shall, in a minor way.

This week, I'd hoped to get painting sessions in most evenings. This did not happen. My cunning plans were ruined.  Instead, this week has mainly featured some mentally long working days and man flu.  I've been feeling pretty rotten and tired.  It was very rubbish indeed.

Minor groan over with.

Anyways, above is a picture of some spare chaos marine shoulders which I finally got round to working up as a test piece.  Earlier on in this blog, I've probably mentioned hoping to try and learn something about colour theory.  So it seemed like I should get some purple into my colour scheme somewhere.

So first off, in the top part of the picture are some Chaos aspiring champion shoulder guards. I'm working on a Nurgle army, so obviously I had no reason to use the other three for anything.  I started out with a thin base coat of Tin Bitz and then gave it a wash with Leviathan Purple, and left it to dry. For about a fortnight (Thanks, busy life).  The one at the top left has been left in this state so as folk can see it.  From there I painted on Knarloc Green in a patchy covering on the raised parts, so that some of the base coat showed through.  Finished off with a 50/50 mix of Knarloc Green and Gretchin Green thinned out with Vallejo's Thinner Medium (invaluable stuff - you need this in your life).  White bit done as usual. Mix of Dheneb Stone and Vallejo Off-White and Thinner Medium.

The stuff at the bottom is worked up from a different method.  Nothing ground breaking, obviously.  Base coat of  Knarloc Green.  Washed over with Leviathan Purple. Again the white bit was done as above, and again I used the mix of Knarloc Green and Gretchin Green which I attempted to put on roughly.

The state of greeness that I've left these in is a bit different from what I'd previously been doing, as it's brighter and sharper as opposed to the mouldier green finish I've put on to the full models further down the blog.  I'll add in the mouldy green later.

...And they shall bray henceforth like the beasts of the fields

This will be the squad leader for my first squad of Possessed Death Guard marines. The head is a spare part from the Hellpit Abomination kit.  I find the long neck to be fairly obscene.

I got these beastman heads from the bitz box at the local gaming club. I've trimmed off the braids and pony tails and what-not as they were just getting in the way, and wouldn't have looked right in any case.

I quite like the beastmen heads. They don't seem to look that out of place on the top of a power armoured body.  The grimacing faces help to make them look like they are in distress or pain, and the forward jutting posture makes them look quite aggressive.  I need to find some legs for these lads.  Waiting to stumble across some running legs - probably from the assault marines kit, if I manage to stumble upon any on Ebay or whatever. Unless someone following this thing speaks up and says they've got some going spare...

Powders of dubious repute...

I nearly shat myself. Maelstrom managed to send something 2nd class and it arrived a day later.

And these be the colours.  I'll be using them for the bases on my models, and also on the tanks.

T'other day, as we say in Yorkshire, I ordered some Vallejo weathering pigments, for weathering stuff and the like.  I got the Rust and Oil set.  Looking forward to learning to work with this stuff. I predict many tragic experiments in my future.

Recovering the opposable thumb

So, I had a top quality game on Sunday with Tim.  Take and hold type mission for 3 objectives.

As it turns out the rot could be stopped. However, I can think of several things that I'd do differently next time.

I started out the first few turns too cautiously, and I probably suffered as a result.  I'd also make some revisions to my army list, and try not to forget to utilise the stuff I've paid good points for...

Closing moments of the game were fairly fast paced, and for a good amount of time, it seemed like either of us could take the victory.  But a decisive last turn from Tim and a poor round of shooting from me saw victory go the Guard.  Next time, they won't get off so lightly...

In other news, I've actually managed to do some more painting, in particular I'm working on some minor adjustments to the Death Guard colour scheme I've been working on.  Hope to do more tonight when I get in from work.

Can the rot be stopped?

I may well be playing the first game of 40k I've played in 4 years or so.

I'll be playing with 1500 points, of mainly part built models and proxies. I'm a total class act.

I expect Tim to be playing with about 4 million guardsmen and tons of tanks.  To steal a phrase from another blog I follow:  and they shall know loads of fear...  They meaning me.

****

In other news, I've had what I hope to be a fairly excellent idea for making a second squad of possessed chaos marines without using that crap GW kit. Not that I've made the first one yet... I will have to give it some more thought, and look for some bitz on t'internet. I tell thee.