Rogue Psyker coven for renegade Imperial Guard

I may or may not have mentioned that I was going to start work on a renegade Imperial Guard army...

Basically, I've been hording bitz and occasionally picking up kits over the course of about a year (thus far), and this is a taster of what is to come...

The idea behind this force is that it represents some of the most oppressed sections of Imperial society that have been pressed into service. After all, the Imperial tithe comes to all worlds, be they hive worlds, agri-worlds or even feral worlds. All must pay the allotted amount of man-flesh to feed the eternal meat-grinder of the Imperial war machine.

Thus, the bulk of this army will be represented by abhumans, those considered to be "stable mutations", and feral humans and those conscripted from penal colonies.

What I've prepared here will form the basis of a unit of Wyrdvane Psykers (the unit that replaced the old Psychic Battle Squad). I wanted them to have quite a shamanistic appearance, but also showing a good amount of mutations, indicating the blessings and dark favour of the Chaos Gods. I've also got a cool idea in mind for their dedicated Chimaera transport, although you'll have to wait a bit for that one... As well as for a bit of further painting to take place!

I've used the following:
1. Vampire Counts - Necromancer (minus the daft bat wing ruff - I've had this one laying around the place for  a couple of years now. Sadly firmly glued to a small square base, now also stacked atop a round one. Regrettably, I realise that I could have come up with a better solution than this, but that's hindsight for you, innit?)
2. Warriors of Chaos -sorceror from the Glottkin kit (obviously had to feature)
3. Warriors of Chaos - Festus The Leechlord (also had this for ages, an impulse buy that I did nothing with)
4. Beasts of Chaos - Great Bray Shaman (picked up with this project in mind)
5. Beasts of Chaos - Malagar the Dark Omen (again, picked up with this project in mind)

I also included the brazier / cauldron type piece from the Skaven Screaming Bell kit for a bit of fun. I've had this bit knocking about for ages, but with no real obvious use for it, despite it being a nice little feature.  If I base it, it can also double up as an objective or something...

Typhus - Back Where I Belong

This is the first model I've painted in some time, and the first
model for my Death Guard in even longer.  I feel like I've been gone too
long.

Plague Bearers, Herald of Nurgle, and full army shots

Although it's been kind of fun, it's something of a relief to be finally done with painting all these Daemons. It's also been an unusual experience for me in that:
1. I completed a project
2. It didn't take me a lifetime.

Having said this (and I think I may have hinted at it before), I do have ideas in mind for all the new Nurgle kits that got released for End Times.  Quite when I will get around to buying / doing this work, who can say?

The plague bearers I've been working on are a mix of the most recent metal ones from a good few years back, with a couple of older sculpts thrown in.  There is a bit of light conversion work to produce some Icon bearers, and they've all had their tabs cut off in order to mount them on resin bases (lots of sawing - urgh).

I had been intending on attempting to replicate the scheme I had used for the previous batch of plastic plague bearers, but I've either forgotten how to do it, or there is some bizarre difference in quality between plastic and metal that can cause paints to react differently. Obviously the latter is likely to be science I've just made up...  Anyway, the crux of the matter is, I tried something a bit different, and on several of the models went for a bit of a more abstract application of glazes and washes. I think they roughly tie in with each other, which is the most important thing. They also don't look out of place next to the plastic plague bearers either. Relief.

The herald is a proxy, which is produced by MaxminiEU, I can't remember for the life of me what the thing is called, but it's of little importance. It seems to more or less do the job. I have to say that I don't like the model as much as I did when I bought it (at Salute around 2 or 3 years ago). But hey, i was doing this whole thing on the cheap remember....

Plague Drones of Nurgle & Nurglings

More quick, dirty daemons of Nurgle. Thought I'd share with you some more evidence of my activities...

In terms of interesting things to say about these big flies, well I binned off making the riders for the plague drones, as I thought they made the models look ridiculously goofy. It's just improbable, but not in a cool way. I tried a bit of an experiment on the wings, which basically involved creating (or trying to create) a moth style mottled pattern on the wings.  This was then washed with successive layers of Athonian Cammo Shade and Agrax Earth Shade (or whatever GW calls them these days).  I then decided that the wings should also appear a bit more like the wings of bog standard insects too, so I painted on a significantly thinned down layer of Vallejo metal medium, which creates an unusual pearlescent effect. This seemed the best way of creating an iridescent effect. It doesn't come across too clearly in the majority of the pictures, as it only glisten as it catches the light, so you'll have to trust me when I say it looks good if you see it in person. Seems to combine well enough with my daemonflesh recipe, and the greenish carapaces

For the Nurglings, I used some stuff I had laying about the place, in the form of some models from Maxmini.eu that are their proxy Nurgling models I suppose. I also added a few bases of Nurglings using the Nurglings you get on the plague bearer sprues.  Not much to these. Quick layers to build up a fleshy tone, then glazed with yellow and purple. Add a bit of Tamiya Clear Red, and done.

Nurgle Soul Grinder finished

A while ago I posted some photos of this beast, which I'd based on the Araknarok kit.

Very basic conversion, which blocks up a few holes, adds a few green stuff cables and adds a few capering nurglings and an artillery piece in the mouth.  This was basically a tester piece for learning how to use tentacle makers.  I know I'm capable of better both in terms of the greenstuffing and the paint job, but I think it does the job.

I've better plans for another counts-as soul grinder of Nurgle which is based around a different kit...

This thing is huge

No idea why this looks so green

Or why this looks more grey than green