Exhibits from the Nurgle Grotesquerie #7

World Building part 8: Background to the Path of Martyrs

Historically, during the long drawn-out and tragic period known as ‘Old Night’, the populations of the majority of the worlds inhabited by mankind in the Abstruse Sector slipped back to the worship of the Old Gods in varying guises, and were brought to compliance with the Imperial Truth only with great difficulty during the Great Crusade (M31).  Soon enough, when Horus Lupercal and many of his brother Primarchs rose up against their father, many worlds in the Abstruse Sector also rose up in support of Horus, and threw off the yoke of Imperial oppression.

For thousands of years thereafter, the Abstruse Sector became synonymous with words such as strife, unrest, and upheaval. Many were the campaigns which sought to bring this troubled region of the galaxy back to the Emperor’s light.  The ‘Path of the Martyr’ is a string of shrine worlds and moons linking the rim-ward fringes of the Seriphos Sector to the core-ward fringes of the neighbouring Abstruse Sector.  The ‘Path’ is so named as it marks the route of successful campaign of reconquest undertaken by Imperial forces led in part by Saint Felicitè, during M37.

A series of shrine worlds were erected in ensuing centuries, marking out key sites of victories, designed to act as lasting monuments to the sacrifice of millions of Imperial lives. At the end of the ‘Path’, lies the world of Felicity, which marks the site of the eventual doom and ultimate sacrifice of  Saint Felicitè, where she was stricken down as she concluded rites of banishment which ended a Daemonic incursion, and paved the way for a decisive victory against the more corporeal forces of the Archenemy.  Following this victory, the hold of chaos over the Sector waned, and was seemingly expunged. All rejoiced.

Relative peace followed until mid M39, when the entire border region between the Seriphos and Abstruse sectors was embroiled in one of the most severe warp storms in Imperial history (although due to the vagaries of misplaced data and the bureaucratic processes within the Administratum, this cannot be verified). Cut off completely from the divine light of the Astronomicon, unreachable by astropath, warp travel or even travel in real space for centuries, the Abstruse Sector had become a watchword for misfortune, nay, a curse, an augur of misery. It was a region of the galaxy that was largely ignored, although the angry stain of the warp storm dominated the skyline of many worlds at that fringe of the Seriphos Sector. A stain that was said to echo that of the very Eye of Terror itself.

In recent times, as inexplicably as it arose, the warp storm has suddenly receded.  The Path of the Martyr is once again accessible to travel, and exploratory missions of the Holy Ordos of the Inquisition have begun, with the purpose of recovering relics and attempting to ascertain the possible causes of the Warp Storm.  Eventual repopulation of the area is a secondary concern. Surrounding space is heavily interdicted by elements of the Imperial Navy which call the Seriphos Sector home.

Reports from the Holy Ordos indicate that exploratory forces of the Archenemy and the greenskin have been encountered on the Path, though the Throne knows what sinister purposes and motivations have brought them to the region…

World building part 7 - rubble paste

It had been a while since I'd worked on the terrain I'd put together, so seeing as it's been far too hot for painting round these parts, I decided to try out a cool technique that I'd spotted on Bell of Lost Souls recently.

The technique is basically making quick and easy rubble that can be applied to the bases of models and terrain pieces and so forth.  There's a video some dude made up on You Tube that will also prove to be a useful reference point. Some of the "ingredients" that he used, I've changed either for convenience, or because it isn't readily available in the UK.

Anyway, here's a list of what I used, the pictures below are a rough reference guide:
Corroded iron flakes from an old metal plant pot
Crushed snail shells (no snails harmed by me, I just used what the local birds left behind)
Some small ready made bricks (available from Ebay or most model shops)
Chopped up straight bits of sprue (get rid of any with writing on, or those round bits)
Cork chunks (available from Ebay or most model shops)
Sand (use about an equal proportion to the total volume of everything else)
Mix all the above together in a plastic pot or whatever else you have laying around. I'd advise against using your best china for obvious reasons.

To this, then add a decent spoonful of PVA glue. Paint should now be mixed in until the mixture is fully paste-like (the video reckoned to use black, but I ran out so I threw in some grey).

And the pictures:

Mix of crushed snail shell and metal flakes

bricks

Chopped up sprue

Cork chunks

All mixed in a pot. With sand.

Add PVA, and then add paint to point of saturation.

Apply with the spoon. Don't use your best spoon.

You used your best spoon didn't you?

Scatter more bits of sprue on top and press in if you want.

Once you've sprayed this lot, and drybrushed it, in theory it will look proper good, according to the internet.

Heldrake conversions part 4

The long awaited 4th installment...

I'd not done anything on the heldrakes for a while as I'd been waiting on a Tentacle Maker from Green Stuff Industries (which actually arrived a few weeks back). Which of course, in true Tony of Nurgle style, I then left untouched for several weeks.  This is a) a great blog, and b) a great tool.  I'd highly recommend it. The only minor quibble is that the shipping to the UK is currently hella expensive, but the good news is, they are working on getting this tool stopped in indie stores in the UK (I've been asked by GSI if I know of any reliable outlets and recommended Element Games and Dark Sphere).

Anyway, long story short, last night's game got cancelled, so I thought I'd have a couple of beers and roll out some tentacle goodness (not a euphemism).  As you can no doubt tell, I've still got a fair way to go on this one. There's a lot of vacant space on this here Vargheist body that I will try and disguise by adding more cables. I do still want lots of gaps, but at the moment it's looking a little too "wasp-waisted" for my liking.

Vindicare Assassin 3D sketch for INQ28

The Vindicare Temple is one of the temples of the Officio Assassinorum. The motto of the temple is Exitus Acta Probat, "the Outcome Justifies the Deed." Vindicare operatives are the most skilled snipers in the Imperium of Man and are usually directed to assassinate targets who are believed to have been possessed by daemonic entities or to have been corrupted by the Ruinous Powers of Chaos.

This is another sketch for use INQ28. It's as simple as kit-bashes get.

The entire body structure is from a space marine scout sniper, and the head is from the new Tempestus Scions kit.

This image forms part of the inspiration

Eversor Assassin 3D sketch for INQ28

For quite some time now I've been both curious and keen to give INQ28 a go. It seems like a great opportunity for conversions and narrative gaming. Before the experts laugh too enthusiastically at my "noob" status and poor explanations  - I've never played this or even looked at the rules.

For those that know even less than me, INQ28 seems to be a homebrew hybrid rule set based on Necromunda (a specialist skirmish game that used to be produced by Games Workshop), but also encompassing the rules for Inquisitor (another specialist game that used to be produced by Games Workshop). Inquisitor had a small range of models produced for it at a larger 54mm scale, although as I understand it, no scale was specified for playing the actual game.  Again, as I understand it, the lack of terrain available at 54mm scale resulted in people playing the game using the more familiar 28mm scale, which has the bonus of providing a wider variety of ready built terrain as well as terrain kits, and of course a plethora of miniatures.

Anyway, less of me talking crap about something I've not really read up on. Here are some pictures of an Eversor Assassin I put together earlier on.  The torso, legs and gun arm are from a space marine scout, the head from a chaos warrior, the neuro-gauntlet arm is from the chaos marines raptors kit, the vials of combat drugs from the Dark Eldar Talos Pain Engine, and last but not least, the hand on the gauntlet arm is from a chaos marine.

By daemons be driven

Following on from the proxy Soul Grinder the other week, I've been stripping paint from old miniatures, re-discovering stuff in old boxes and the like...

Daemons of Nurgle incoming...

This is The Old Death from Enigma Miniatures

Good innit?

These from Maxmini.EU will make a herald and Nurglings

Gratuitous Nurgling bases and old Plague Bearers

and more

and more

and more

Gawd, yer don't sweat much fer a fat lass