Ladies and Gentlemen- I Give You... The Bloodthirster!

Hey there my fiendish fanatics! Welcome back to a special edition of Chaos Corner. Old Man Chaos has a confession- I was supposed to be working on my Harlequin vehicles, but, alas, the Khorne Daemonkin book came out. And, as you all know, my dear readers, Chaos is my true 40K love. How could I resist the lure of the book? Or the new Bloodthirster? What can I say? I am weak. So, without further ado, I give you... the Bloodthirster of Khorne!!

First off, the model is huge. Absolutely huge. It makes the old Bloodthirster look like a minor daemon. The new guy is just terrifying- muscular, vicious, pure aggression. The model is simply fantastic- those huge wings, gigantic weapons, the baroque armor plates... this thing is a pure monster, simple as that.

What's great about the model is the various options. The weapons are all cool looking (except the flail- its OK, but not my cup of tea). The three faces are also very different and very nasty looking. But, no matter what choices you make, this thing is an evil looking daemon. I chose the Great Axe of Khorne. In friendly games, I can just say he's a Bloodthirster of fill-in-the-blank. I just love the huge axe- its bigger than a Terminator! I also decided not to do chest armor, because I just see him as this all powerful daemon of war that needs no armor to kill his foes.

In terms of painting, I used several techniques in GWs own video. The flesh is done with the following steps- Khorne Red, Nuln Oil, then, careful drybrushes of Khorne Red, Wazdakka Red, and Evil Sunz Scarlet (very careful, you want the various reds to show slight variations in skin tone). Finally, I used Wild Rider Red as an edge highlight. I DID NOT use the Bloodletter Glaze- I like glazes for several things, but I thought it would produce the wrong red.

The armor and axe I did Balthazar Gold, with a wash of Earthshade. I then drybrused Griffon Gold- in some places heavily, and lightly in other places. Finally, I did Ironbreaker around the edges, skulls, etc. I didn't think it would work (I was planning on using Brass Scorpion- but the video convinced me otherwise). The armor is very cool looking, and different from any armor on my World Eaters, but close enough to be the same Khornate force.

The wings were a bit of fun. I did Bugman's Glow, followed by a wash of Crimson. Then, I drybrushed Bugman. With that done, I drybrushed with Cadian Fleshtone on the raised areas on the outside of the wings, and on the deepest areas on the inside, making for a nice visual effect. Finally, on the Chaos markings on the back of the wings, I highlighted with Kislev Flesh, to make them stand apart from the wings. Finally, I did the wing veins with Incubi Darkness.

The horns I did black with some grey edge highlighting, followed by 'Ardcoat. What can I say? My Khorne Daemons have always been influenced by Darkness in Legend. So the horns are a shinny black against the deep red of his body. Like I said, all my Bloodletters are done the same way.

The hair I did with Stormraven Fur, and the skulls are built up from Zandri Dust to various bone hues (Ubshanti, etc.). There are a lot of skulls on the model, but not enough to really detract from the creature itself. I say that because I find the Khorne Daemon Bloodthrone to be waaaaaayy too overwrought (seriously, one of the worst models GW has ever made). The Bloodthirster is not that at all, thankfully.

 As for the fire- again, I mostly copied the video- Yellow Glaze, followed by Orange Wash, Yellow Wash, Crimson wash, and finally a bit of Yuriel yellow paint.  I did not do Nuln Oil, as I felt the Crimson turned dark enough on the fire.

Finally, I tried some of the Martian Ironearth for his base. I really didn't like it that much, so I did the rest of the base my usual urban wasteland grey. However, I kept the Ironearth around the fiery skulls- the land burning upon his taking off/landing.

Of course, the Bloodthirster has some company. I already had 2 Daemon Princes of Khorne. One of them is from GW, the other is from another place that I can't seem to remember the name of. The last, and most recent, is a Daemon Prince I bought from my local "used" for 25 bucks. Now, normally I wouldn't do that, but buying him used saved me 10 bucks, and I really liked his pose. Plus, there was absolutely NOTHING wrong with the model, so why not? After all I just bought the Codex, cards, and Bloodthirster- surely a $10 break is justified.

I painted him with the same techniques that I used with the Bloodthirster (at the same time too)- so they do have a rather consistent look to them. The Daemon Prince is clearly the Bloodthirster's subordinate, both waging war in the name of Khorne.

I must say that putting the 3 Daemon Princes with the Bloodthirster is a great visual- plus I would hate to face that on the battlefield! That's a lot of Daemon coming at you!

Speaking of, I did play my first battle with the Daemonkin book last week (sadly, my Bloodthirster was not ready so I did not use him, as I never use a model that I haven't finished painting).  I won the battle, score 2 to 1, as I managed to kill my opponent who had the relic. It dropped, but the game ended at that point. The book was a lot of fun, very fluffy but not overpowering. A lot of my guys died to Grey Knight Terminators, but each death created more Blood Tithe tokens (which I made myself by the way, using square fantasy bases). The more he killed, the more I was able to summon bloodletters, a daemon prince, and a pack of flesh hounds. True to form, the hounds pursued the unit with the relic, tying them down till the Maulerfiend arrived and finished them off. It was a great game.

At any rate, I should get back to painting my Harlequins. But... the lure of Chaos... is... too strong. Want to do... more... for my Khorne Daemonkin...

Until next time!

Random Stuff

Hey there Chaos worshipers of all shapes and sizes! Old Man Chaos has just returned from the Eye of Terror (in actuality I finished moving, unpacking, and setting up my new place- whew!). I have a few things I thought I'd update you guys on, if you are interested:

Dark Eldar

I had my first two games with Dark Eldar about a week ago against Iron Hands with Grey Knights allies. My friend Pete can smile now (see that game HERE)- my Dark Eldar got their asses handed to them- not once but twice. In the first game I held a lot in reserve, which enabled my opponent to table me by the start of turn 2. Yikes. We then played a rematch where I held less in reserve- and I was pretty much undone by the end of turn 2 again, so I gave up.

It was just brutal. My rolling wasn't even that bad- but my opponent had plenty of tanks and guns- my Dark Eldar just couldn't catch a break at all. I was absolutely despondent at the end of the games. I barely put up a fight at all. I don't mind losing- I get upset when it wasn't even a contest, like why did I even bother putting my minis down? I no sooner put them down and I had to scoop them all up. My opponent was gracious both times to be sure. Still- I was shamed, to say the least.

So what happens now? No, I will not put the DE back on the shelf for another edition. I will find a way to make the army work. I just think in this edition of overwatch and Imperial Knights that the new DE book as it is now just isn't enough (they took Haywire Grenades from Wyches- WTF?). The supplement (Covens) is hardly much better (though a couple of the formations are interesting). I am at a loss on what to do here. And you know I love my Dark Eldar army...

Campaign for Trovana Prime Update

 I played another battle against my friend Brian in our campaign last week. As you may be aware, I have been running a few articles about the Judgement of Trovana Prime (look HERE and THERE for the most recent posts). I have been enjoying the campaign, but I haven't won a game yet, which is odd for me. Not that the games haven't been competitive (some have been blowouts, most have been really close). The best "victory" I got was that I destroyed his Imperial Knight (meaning he can't use it again for the rest of the campaign).

So this week we played a Maelstrom of War mission (Cloak and Shadows). This mission has the deployment at the short edges- a long way to trek to get to the other side. I played very well, plenty of killing on both sides. However, the tactical objective cards just wouldn't come to me- I kept getting cards for objectives that were on my opponents side; while he kept getting cards for objectives that were ON his side. As a result, the final score was 10 to 1... BUT in terms of kills and objectives held it was much much closer.

Brian remarked that while he loves the card missions for variety, he also feels that it may be too random- he acknowledged that the game was much, much closer than the lopsided victory points would suggest. Nevertheless, he repelled my advance into his territory, and the campaign goes on.

I did learn a few things though-

1) Plague Marines should use plasma- I had always equipped them with Meltas, but I have since discovered that it is tough to get them close enough for Meltas to make the difference. Plasma Guns have the better range and are still S 7 AP 2, which still gives you a chance to explode a vehicle.

2) Obliterators- I have always been reluctant about using them- they are a bit pricey compared to havocs, but their versatility is key. They got in some great shots until Brian's Centurions grav gunned 'em down like bitches (did I mention how much I hate these guys?).

3) Daemon Princes- they are a bit funky, especially with grounding tests, and they can't charge ground units if they were in the air the previous turn, which is annoying. However, I used the Prince to harass the ground troops with Smite, and he did charge and destroy a Storm Talon. Not too shabby.

4) Plague Drones- they are great, bringing some speed to Nurgle. However, they don't work well against Terminators, let's put it that way. Next time I'll try to have them go after regular marines or vehicles instead.

Well, that's all I have for now. I am slowly but surely painting stuff, which I'll be sure to post when it is all finished. Until next time...

The Lord of the Flies, Daemon Prince of Nurgle

Hey there Chaos cultists, young and old. I'm back once again, as promised, with a weekly post. I don't know if GW can keep up a weekly publishing schedule, but I'm not sure if I can! Hehe! Oh these tight deadlines! My editor is killing me. I kid! I kid!But seriously, I'm going to do my best to update once a week now. So far, so good...

At any rate, I'm here with one of my all time best models- my Daemon Prince of Nurgle, the Lord of the Flies himself. It is a model that has a bit of a nice history for me, and it is indeed one of my favorites of all time. So, without further ado...

So, when the metal Chaos Daemon Prince came out many moons ago, I know that I and a lot of other Chaos Space Marine fans loved the model. Half Space Marine, half Daemon Prince- it was (and is still) an amazing model. It has a real heft to it. At the time, it was huge for a single man model (that has certainly changed now, with all kinds of huge models).

However, the model had a problem for me. It simply wasn't Nurgle-y enough. It was a generic, fit for any Chaos force Daemon Prince. But there was nothing at all "Nurgle" about it. What would I do about that? You know what I'm talking about... old school Chaos conversion, of course.

By this point in my modelling career, I was getting better and better at my putty work, and my eye for conversion was getting stronger. Now, a conversion for me is pretty straight-forward (just wait till you see a conversion I'm working on right now- oh boy!), but it my earlier days it was tricky. However, after converting and puttying a batch of Death Guard Plaguemarines, I felt that I was ready for a big conversion.

However, before I got to it, I had a bolt of inspiration and some good luck. While I was at my local store, I happened on a model (from Legends I think?) that was a giant bug, complete with wings. All of a sudden, I knew exactly what I was going to do... So I bought the model instantly, and went home with all haste to work on my Daemon Prince.

As you can see, I went all out, but NEVER over the top. I used the bug's head and wings very simply- but this absolutely made him look like a fly- a dirty insect worthy of Papa Nurgle himself. I painted the head and wings a bit differently. I painted them with boltgun metal, then I used various inks to give the fly and his wings a shinny, iridescent look.

Then, came the putty work. I decided to totally obscure the front, building layer upon layer of putty to make his armor bloated and malformed. I put a bunch of holes and sores. But the big thing was the guts that I had spilling out of his stomach and onto the ground. For sure, this was a Daemon Prince of Nurgle.

I painted him like I painted my Death Guard in those days, with green undercoat, and successive layers of Cammo Green and Rotting Flesh. I did use some washes to dull him down just a bit though. His armor ridges I did brown (again, as I had done the Plaguemarines in those days). The sword was the same rust that I used on Typhus- brown, orange, and boltgun metal stippling. The guts I did in various reds, with some light pink highlights.

 All said and done, it was one of my favorite models that I have done. I was proud of my conversion work, and my painting really suited the model. What I did not know is what would happen with this guy. Wherever I went, people were fascinated by my Daemon Prince. Other players asked "Can I pick him up and look at him" or "Wow. Where did you get that fly head"? Other players said that this model inspired them to do more modelling/painting of their own. Hearing such praise was very flattering and humbling.

That wasn't all. One day, I was playing at a 40K tournament at I-Con. There were several prizes being offered- winner, best list, best player, and best looking army. At the end of the tournament I placed pretty well, but when they announced that I won best looking army- I was thrilled! I couldn't believe it! Again, very humbling. And what was the prize? A 50 dollar gift card to a local store. You know what I did with that card? Hehe- I bought the Daemon army box which had just come out, of course!

Well, that's it for this edition of Chaos Corner. I hope you liked the pics. I will be getting Warhammer Visions, and I will be buying this week's 1st weekly White Dwarf to see what that's like. I will report on my thoughts on both sometime early next week and let you know my 2 cents.

Until next time!!

Happy New Year and A Rant

Hey there, my fellow denizens of the warp! Old Man Chaos is back with the first edition of Chaos Corner for the New Year- I will have a hard time writing 2014 for the next few weeks, but I'll figure it out eventually! I hope that all of you had a great New Year's Eve, and that this year will be better than the last (even if the last year was good, it could always be better).

However, what will the new year bring for our favorite hobby and game, Warhammer 40K? 2013 was a big and busy year for the 40K universe. Tons of new releases, complete with Codexes, supplements, models, and even 2 expansions. I suspect that 2014 will keep up that relentless pace. The constant releases will undoubtedly please some, and piss off others.

As for my own part, I have some concrete ideas and feelings about all these changes and their impact on our gaming community. This is just a slight rant on my part. In between these rants I will post some nice pics of my Daemon Prince of Khorne from Ultraforge for your approval...

1- GW wants to make money- it is amazing that some people get "offended" that GW wants to make money off releases. Of course they do. Escalation reflects their wish to sell Super-heavies, while Stronghold wants people to buy the terrain kits. Some are angry that GW does this- but this is what all companies do. You don't HAVE to buy anything (especially Escalation, as so many have said they will not play Escalation games).

2. We all need to "Chill Out"- some people go crazy when they see a particular rule, model, or supplement... in other words, people fear "changes". I look on BoLS and other sites and it is amazing how many people seem to freak out when a new army or expansion  is released. The comments get quite negative, even hostile. Is this the kind of community we wish to be? Bitter and suspicious and even occasionally mean-spirited? Surely not. Therefore, I'd like to ask our gaming community to just take a deep breath and relax. Of course, share your opinions- but do it in a civil way, and try not to get too excited without having all of the facts or being nasty to those whose opinions are different from yours.

3. Let's Remember What Got Us Into The Hobby- whenever we talk about the meta, nerfs, WAACs, and all that jazz, we lose sight of what got us into the hobby to begin with. The storyline, the cool models, conversions, personalization, and fun, enjoyable games. There is more to our hobby than math-hammer and "broken" units. I hope that our community can look at all the good stuff with 40K. Yes, there are certainly "problems" with 40K too- I'm just saying that we should not ignore what's right about it. Now that is a perfect segue into my last point...

4. GW Has Responsibilities Too- The company needs to make sure that they balance their business side with doing good for their fans. For example, I wish that GW would continue to change the White Dwarf further, to include more modelling, conversions, and fluff. Also, I think that they need to be a bit more careful in their digital releases. December's Advent releases was just wild- so many dataslates and the like- perhaps it would be wiser for GW to slow that down just a bit, as their were things I would have bought but there were just too many. A little more staggered release schedule for digital releases would be better for us and GW. If the rumors are correct, the Tyranid release will see some dataslates released at the same time- perhaps a bit too much to buy all at once? If they scattered it over 2-3 months, would that make more business sense? It would allow people to buy at a better pace, and keep up excitement for the armies even after their release windows.

Well, at any rate, that's my New Year's Rant, for your consideration. Until next time...

A Dameon Princess for a Naughty New Year's

Hey there Chaos fanatics. Old Man Chaos is back with a bit fun. For Christmas, I bought my friend Pete a basic "studio" kit- it came with some lights, different fabric backgrounds, etc. It is the perfect size for taking pics of Warhammer miniatures. He told me that it was great, and I said "Boy, I should get one of those for my blog". As it turns out, my brother was listening, and he decided to get one for me for Christmas.

The thing is awesome, no doubt. Now, I am sure there are "higher end" products like this on the market, but it is something so simple, so basic, that it is perfect for someone like me- I'm an amateur, not a photographer. This is just the right speed for me, and I love it- both for its ease of use functionality and for the fact that I will no longer have to use the backs of foam trays to block out the background (which is invariably my living room).

So, I decided to take it for a test whirl by taking pics of something that I don't believe that I have ever shown on my blog before- my "Daemon Princess of Slaanesh". Undoubtedly, many of you recognize the model as the Ultraforge Pleasure Daemon. Holy cow- what a model. When the original Daemon codex appeared several years ago, everyone wanted a Daemon Prince with the Lash of Despair. Hehe! Now here was a model that looked perfectly "Slaaneshi", and it had a whip. Perfect indeed!

I wanted to paint the model to look similar to, but different from, what I was planning to do with my Slaanseh Daemonettes- black clothing (S&M leather), with purples, pinks, and a nice-looking skin tone (for me, what GW shows as their Daemonettes is actually waaaaayyy too ugly for Slaanesh- and I like the old metal ones better, truth be told).

At any rate, assembling and painting this model was a breeze. The flesh tone came out perfectly and smoothly, and the wings made a nice contrast with the rest of the model. The black "leather" and metal studs complete the effect. Finally, I added some runes (which I copied out of a Fantasy book, but I can't remember what they mean...).

It has been ages since I have used this model, and after looking at it now I realize that I should correct that- it is an amazing model, if not entirely PC. However, it certainly fits with the fluff and aesthetic of Slaanesh.

As for the photography kit- it works very well. The pictures I got with this are just great. The details show, the colors pop, and I have nothing getting in the way in the background. Further, these pics were taken with a simple digital camera (I don't have a fancy SLR or anything), and the result is just terrific. Maybe one day I'll get a better camera or something (again, I am more of an amateur).

So, now that I have my new "studio", I will be showing more pics of my previous models, and also as I finish new ones (and boy, I have a few doozies in the pipeline that I am really excited about). I plan on showing another of my old Ultraforge models very soon too... Hehe.

Anyways, I hope that you like the pics and much as I enjoyed shooting the pics (which I certainly did). Until next time...

Celebrating The Apocalypse Part 3: Plague Marines Assemble!!

Hey There my crazy chaos fanatics! We're back with another installment of our celebration of the upcoming release of Apocalypse. I can't wait to get that book- I was always a sucker for Apocalypse, and the stuff I've been hearing about it makes it sound really good. 

I am also excited about going to my Games Workshop store and participating in their Apocalypse battle, "The Destruction of Kanthar IV". My Death Guard must venture forth once more, spreading disease and horror on this feeble imperial world. Now, as the day of battle draws near, I need to select my forces- I had to get them out and ready to go.

As I decided to do this, a question hit me- just how much should I take? That led to a bigger question- how many Death Guard Plague Marines do I even have? Oh boy... this is going to be a lot tougher than I thought!

With that, I decided to bring up all of my Plague Marine stuff and check. All of a sudden, as I brought the Army Transports and foam trays up from my basement, I realized that I had way more than I thought... My wife was right, I have enough Plague Marines (in dollar terms) to fund our future child's college education. 

After bringing it all up from my basement, I decided to put it all out on the table- yes, ALL of my Plague Marines, all assembled. I really have never put all my Plague Marines out on the table as a showpiece (even in my bachelor-Apocalypse I did not use every single Plague Marine). 

As I was putting them out, I decided NOT to put out my Nurgle Daemons, my Plague Zombies, or my Traitor Guardsmen. I'm undecided over whether I'll take them to battle on Saturday, but for this display I would put out only the dreaded Plague Marines of Nurgle and their various war machines. 

After I put them all out, I just stared at it all. I can't even begin to tell you how much in terms of hours, paint, putty, cash, and blood, sweat, and tears I put into this army. I am, as you may know, doing a Khorne Bezerker army, but I know that it will never get to this level. No way. My Plague Marine force is truly legion size (and I had 7 squads of troops to boot- bless Nurgle!). 

I have been assembling this army for years. 10 perhaps? I started Dark Eldar in 2000, and I transitioned to Plague Marines I think in 2003? Now I can't quite remember, but it has to be nearly a decade. Looking at it all, I am pleased how the whole army is tied together. I have used various paint schemes (and different paints!) over the years. Indeed, my painting style has evolved over time- I have a stronger eye for detail, I have gravitated to darker looks, etc. Yet, the army does indeed look like a cohesive whole. They are the colors of rot and decay; of disease and despair. So, some look the same, others look different, but at the end of it, they look like a single army, under a single banner. I sat looking at the whole army, awed. 

I am not awed because of my "skills" (such as they are). I just can't believe how it all looks together, knowing that I built them all up, converted, and painted them (my friend Pete did build a couple of the trickier ones- the Titan, the Drop Claw, and the strangely huge defiler- but I did paint them). I sat looking at the whole army for several minutes... I was just shocked at seeing them all at once; my brother saw it and said that it looked like something from a White Dwarf article. Wow. This army has been 10 years of my hobby life, and to just see it all there was amazing. I am proud of my work, warts and all. 

Perhaps at one point I'll go into a little more detail about some of the units--- like how my displeasure at the GW Plague Marine sculpts led me to create my own, using putty, guitar wire, and nails for their spiked helms. Or how I used plastic bug toys to make my Raptors- bug heads and clear plastic wings that I used green ink on. Or how my Land Raider was partially inspired by a Raider conversion shown in the 3rd edition Chaos Codex. Or how my brother and Pete found the Nurgle Lord on Palanquin at a Bitz Wagon (anybody remember those?) and got it for me while I was stuck working on a report for graduate school. Or how about that defiler... the one Pete and I dreamed up long before they had Soul Grinder? 

I could go on and on, as so many of those models, paint jobs, and ideas have a story. Perhaps I will expound on them one day here at Chaos Corner (my original reason for starting this blog, after all... which I never quite got around to). At any rate, I'll let the pics speak for themselves. 

Mortarion himself has come forth...

I'll let you guys know how the battle goes on Saturday. I hope that you are going to be enjoying the Apocalypse this weekend!

Until next time...