The Wulfen Have Awoken My Daemons

Hey there folks! Welcome back to the Corners of Chaos. I'm still thinking about last week's Tournament. That was a lot of fun. There's supposed to be another in April- hopefully that weekend will be clear so that I can go.

I just finished the Curse of the Wulfen book. I love the story- a saga of heroes, misguided heroes, and some villains too, in the form of Chaos daemons. I also love the friggin' cliffhanger of an ending too. Wow. I am really looking forward to the conclusion (assuming they are following the format of the previous campaign book releases).

Of course, my eye was immediately drawn to the Daemons part of the rules. I am slightly disappointed with the Daemonic Incursion "Decurion". The number of models (and points) required to take these formations make it fairly impractical. You simply don't have the points in most 1800-2000 point games to fill out the Incursion and have the flexibility that the Daemons codex actually provides. I mean, you can possibly have both a Tallyband the Tzeentch formation (9 units!!). It blows.

However, if you take ONE of the formations AND instead use CAD... well, then it is possible to build a decent army around a solid core of the Formations. I could well take a Tallyband, and then take a standard detachment with a few other daemon types. That, I think, would work really well. I could (thanks to my numerous Daemonkin) also do the same with a Murderhost. Tzeentch and Slaanesh- well, I don't have enough models for those, and I doubt I ever will.

I am appreciative of the god-specific psychic powers, artifacts, and warlord traits. Several of the warlord traits are actually useful, and some of those artifacts can be nasty. I am pleased they expanded this after the rather too narrow scope of the original Daemon codex. Oh- another bonus- you can now take the new Bloodthirster and give him Lesser,  Greater, and Exalted Gifts. That ain't too shabby.

Of course, all this talk of Daemons really got me thinking. I told you before, the lure of Chaos is very strong, and I can only be away for so long before I get sucked back in. Well, thanks to the Wulfen book- I'm doing Chaos again. Now, don't get me wrong- I still have Mechanicus I'm working on. I'm enjoying that army so I will continue to build on it. However.... must... paint... Daemons! LOL

After reading Wulfen and dreaming of a Tallyband, I counted my Plaguebearers and Nurglings. I had 6 between the two unit types (provided I use the minimum sizes for each). So... you know what I had to do. I decided to buy one more box of the plastic Plaguebearers of course! Now I have 7 units (and of course, I already have a Herald of Nurgle).

I love this "new" plastic kit. Don't get me wrong- the metal ones from 4th (I think) edition are really nice. At the time, they were the best. I enjoyed painting those (I think it was in 2002 or so). Those metal models inspired me greatly, impacting my modeling work in many ways. I had already been doing Plague Marines, but doing the Daemons pushed my painting techniques further, thus influencing my painting of subsequent Plague Marines. Indeed, painting these metal Plaguebearers made me a much better painter- I only started seriously painting in 2000- and my Dark Eldar were quite plain. Using the old White Dwarf articles, I learned about new techniques and applied them to the Plaguebearers. I really upped my painting with them. (Truly, that is something I truly miss with White Dwarf magazine as it is now. It is merely a sales brochure- I loved the old WD that had hobby and story articles that INSPIRED).

Anyways, as I assembled my Plaguebearers I decided I would do something totally different. I decided I would spray them white and then do their flesh ONLY using washes. It is a technique that I have NEVER used before. Naturally, I have used washes (recesses, to alter a hue), but never have I used washes to primarily paint a model. I have read about the technique (WD had a few articles when the new paints were released, but mostly I read about it online).

So, I used different wash combos on different Plaguebearers. For some, I used Cammoshade to make the sickly, pale green that has been the trademark of my Plague stuff since day 1. However, the washes allowed me to get a nice color much more quickly.

For others, I used alternating coats of Fleshshade and Sepia. This gave them a more fleshy, yet still sickly appearance. Though my original Plague stuff was NOT this color, I had since painted Nurgle stuff in all kinds of colors, as long as they were disgusting (though I still primarily do that pale and sickly green, I have enough colors interspersed that they still form a coherent looking army).

On one, I used Fleshade and Earthshade. That guy looks the most different. However, he still looks like part of the same Daemonic force. I think I may paint future Nurgle stuff with that color combo, as I like how dirty it looks.

There was only one model I had a mishap with. I used Bel Tan Green on one- yikes. Waaaaaayy too green. I tried to put Cammoshade over, but to no avail. So, I had no choice but to re-coat him with Deathworld paint, followed by Cammo wash. Despite this error, he still came out looking like his festering brothers. (Note to self- don't use Bel Tan Green over white again. Ever.)

The rest of the details I painted with regular paints and the technical paints. The guts I did Khorne Red, then I brightened them up with lighter reds, finally adding pink to some of the intestines. Then I followed this by using Blood for the Blood god technical paint. Nice and goopy in some spots.

The swords I did with Leadbelcher, followed by Typhus Corrosion technical paint. This gave them a filthy look. As for the eyes, I used my old technique of painting the entire eye area white, followed by a Mephiston Red eye rim, and finally a slit of black for the iris.

For the sores and tumor looking stuff, I used various contrasting washes (yes, Bel Tan Green works for this stage, as does purple and yellow) and the Nurgle's Rot technical paint around/over the sores, then used white to highlight the top of the sores.

Finally, I put gobs of Nurgle's Rot on their swords, their sores, some of their mouths, and running down their legs and onto the bases. Once all of that was done, I used 'Ardcoat over the entire model- sword and all (EXCEPT the banner). This gloss varnish makes them look extra slimy and sickly.

Oh- forgot one thing. My Plague champion I put a zombie head on. The one think about the kit I don't like is that SOME of the poses are limited. The champion is posed so that his sword is sticking straight up. I decided that, since there was little I could do with the sword, I put a zombie head on the Plaguebearer, thus making him look different from the others. After all, according to the mythology, anyone killed by one of Nurgle's plagues becomes a Plaguebearer in the warp. So- why not look slightly "man-ish"?

Now- a confession. I enjoyed painting these guys so much that... at last week's Tourney, I bought a Start Collecting! Daemons of Nurgle box... That means I have more Nurgle stuff to keep me busy. I told you- Chaos will always have me in its grasp! Hehe! As for the ones I just finished, they match quite well with the rest of my Nurgle Daemons- as I mix and match them, they would form a very unified force- all the colors of filth and rot. I think I will paint my next batch of Nurgle stuff in the same manner with the washes, as I like the results of this technique.

I also wanted to show off some terrain I recently finished for my friend Joe. As you may recall, we recently finished his ice world table (it is beautiful for sure). Joe had the old wrecked ship terrain from an old 40K boxed set from the early 2000s. He asked if I would paint it for him.

So, I painted the ship to be Dark Angels, which is now is primary army that he's working on. I did it simply, Caliban Green with lighter green highlights. As for the snow, I started with Kantor Blue, then used brighter blues. Then, I followed with a liberal drybrush of Russ Grey, followed by brighter greys and whites, making sure to leave the blue beneath. It gives the whole thing an icy appearance. If you paint it just snow white, you lose a ton of detail and visually its rather dull. The blue under the white gives it the appearance of glacial ice or something.

These didn't take me long to do. I used Blood technical paint to give it a little something interesting. I also put on some Dark Angel transfers. With all the pieces together, they really make a nice set of terrain pieces, and the ice blue will go with Joe's table perfectly.

So- that's everything for now. I'll be back next time with undoubtedly more Daemons, but I will be getting back to Mechanicus as well very soon.

Until next time...