Conversion Time: A New Nurgle Heldrake

Hey there everybody! Welcome back to another edition of Chaos Corner. Today I have a sequel of sorts to a previous article, which you may want to peruse first HERE. In any case, allow me to present... my second Nurgle Heldrake...

So, as you may have seen in my previous article- I love the Heldrake (having 2 for my Khorne Bezerkers), but I felt that the model just wasn't "Nurgl-y" if you well, and given the model it appeared (at first) to be difficult to make suitable conversions. Of course, as a Chaos player I always have my eyes to conversion. Thus, one day I was in my hobby shop and I said to some of the gaming group that it I was thinking of combining the Heldrake with the Fantasy Zombie Dragon. The gaming group was impressed, save one. One of the circle of gamers sighed, saying that there was no way to do such a conversion. Naturally, I could not resist such a challenge and thus began to work furiously at a conversion.

I loved how that turned out. However, once I was done I realized I had a ton of parts left over- certainly enough to do another 'drake? So, I envisioned what the second one would look like, and immediately began work. However, there were problems. With the parts available, this would be a trickier conversion to pull off- I'd need lots of putty and brass rods. I also wasn't sure if my "vision" would look right, even if I could pull it off. Finally, other projects kept vying for my attention- the Imperial Knight, Plague Drones, Dreadnoughts, etc.

Finally, in the midst of summer, I began work on a Nurgle Forgefiend- and I decided to work on the Heldrake simultaneously (Am I ambitious or what?). Thus, I was properly motivated by Grandfather Nurgle to get this bad boy done.

So, let's break it down piece by piece. I put the Heldrake neck/head on the zombie dragon body. This did not fit on nearly as well, so I had to do some putty work. Putty is easy for Nurgle- you can make it look like ridges or sickly growths or whatever. It hides a multitude of sins. I then put the wings on. I could only do the two, otherwise the model would pitch. Again, I had to putty the hell out of it to keep the wings in place. I wanted the wings up, to give it some motion (it's swooping quickly).

At the back end, I wanted to put the heldrake legs on. Here, I used brass rod and drove it straight through the model. Then I glued the legs to the rod. Finally, I used putty to cover the rod.

As I looked at the model, I saw that a few things felt missing. First, in the rib cage it looked awfully empty. Thus, I decided to make putty intestines dangling in there, as if Father Nurgle wants its guts to spill everywhere to infect his enemies. I also put putty intestines around the brass rod holding up the heldrake in order to give the rod more support.

But, something still was amiss. I didn't like how he looked suspended just by the rod. It just wasn't appealing. So, as I mulled it over I did something I rarely do- I made a scenic diorama base. I used some of the spare building pieces I had to make it appear he is flying over an Imperial city. And from the one side it hides the rod almost completely.

And yet... I wanted more from the scenic base, so I decided to literally make a scene. I put an Imperial Guardsmen (painted in my brother's scheme) on the outside, looking up fearfully- he is clearly desperate to avoid the heldrake's gaze. So why isn't he hiding inside the wrecked building--- hahaha! Take a look...

But that nod to Walking Dead still wasn't enough. So, I put a zombie inside the building. A victim of Nurgle's plague, the dead man now walks, seeking to spread the joy of Nurgle's Rot with others.

But... to really doom the Guardsman, I put this message...

Boy, is the grunt in trouble or what? If the zombie doesn't get him the heldrake will. I had a lot of fun visualizing that scenic base, and I love how it came out. The scene enhances the look of the Heldarke- he is banking around, looking for a victim.  He looks emaciated and the guts spilling out of him ties him into other elements of my army (Daemon Princes, Plague Marines,  and some vehicles have the guts spilling out).

I am happy that I was able to make two Heldrakes like this. They are really different and to me, they now look like they belong to the forces of the plague god. (And I think I saved some cash, as the zombie dragon is cheaper than a heldrake, thus I have Saved Money the Chaos Way once more).

Well, that's all for now. We have all heard the rumblings--- Dark Eldar are coming up sooner or later. I am hopeful that the new book will continue what the redo started... I really should ally Chaos with the DE at some point, shouldn't I...?

Until next time...

For Your Consideration: Forgefiend of Nurgle

Hey there everybody! Old Man Chaos back with another posting. This is what I originally was going to post earlier this week, but then the GW Financials were out and I felt compelled to add my rather worthless 2 cents on the topic. What started as a short diatribe became a long rant, so I shelved this part, which showcases my new Forgefiend of Nurgle. So, away we go...

I really like the concept of the Forgefiend/Maulerfiend. The model is very cool, though I wish the thing was a bit more poseable. At any rate, I have 2 Maulerfiends and 1 Forgefiend for my Khorne Bezerkers (which I have hunched down, thus it can be a Maulerfiend in friendly games if I wish).

Naturally, I realized that my Plague Marines have been neglected in the 'Fiend department. My wife helped me to rectify that by getting me a new 'Fiend (thanks honey). So, my first consideration was which would I do it as? I decided that my Plague Marines, usually holding their positions and hanging tough would be to give them a bit more firepower- thus a Nurgle Forgefiend was born.

Then, of course, I had to consider how I would "Nurgle-fy" it. That is, how would I convert it in order for it to be within my usually disgusting Nurgle parameters. At first I thought I'd do guts and the like- my typical number. However, as I was sifting through my bits- I discovered that I still had plenty of parts from my Heldrake/Zombie dragon that I did a few months ago (and I'm still working on the second of that ugly combo FYI).

So, what caught my eye? The rotting, almost rat-like head that is the alternate head for the zombie dragon. I also had a rotting neck for it left over as well. As I sized it up, I knew it would fit perfectly for the upright Forgefiend. Well, that was easy. But it was missing something. Then it hit me- I have to make this thing look more rat like. No, I wasn't going to buy Skaven stuff. Instead, I took one of the Lasher Tendrils and basically stuffed it up the Forgefiend's tailpipe and... instant mechanical rat tail.

Granted, most of my Nurgle stuff is either insect, zombie/decayed, and mold/sores. I have done more than my fair share of green-stuff guts and the like. I have never done a "rat-like" Nurgle piece. However, it makes sense, as rats certainly carry diseases- thus I think Father Nurgle would approve of my creation. (Besides, when I do another one later I can do the guts and all that ;-)

I wasn't quite done with the conversions (slight and simple though they are). I took the tripartite Nurgle symbol and put it dead center on the thing's main carapace. The other conversion I did was with the ectoplasma cannons. I took spawn tentacles and made them look like tongues- thus all three "heads" had tongues. The ectoplasma cannons were now heads, not weapons. Then I noticed that the 3 heads again were part of the Nurgle motif- yes, Father Nurgle approved greatly. Lastly, I added some green stuff at the arm/weapon joints- making look as if the thing were part metal, part mold, part decayed flesh. It would tie it more completely into my army.

Now for the painting. I did Death World Forrest as the basecoat. The legs I did with Leadbelcher. Then I washed very liberally with Earthshade (such a ubiquitous wash I must say). I then set to work on the armor ridges, trim, weapons, and the tail- I used the aforementioned Leadbelcher, followed by Typhus Corruption, and then Ryza Rust to make it look nice and rusty. 

The growths I then highlighted with Nurgling Green, then I washed it down with Earthshade, with a lighter edge highlighting of Nurgling Green. I did the same with the flesh portions of the head and neck.

The bones and teeth I did with a Desert basecoat and then moved up with Ubshanti Bone and Screaming Skull with drybrushes of Tyrant Skull. The tongues actually challenged me a bit. They couldn't just be straight red, but what colors would work on all 3 heads. I started with Screamer Pink, then went lighter. Then I did a wash of Druichii Violet and some Earthsahde again. Presto! The tongues are distinct, but also look rotten and sickly. The toughest decision for me turned out very well.

Naturally, I had to add some blood and slime to the proceedings. Of course, you have to be careful not to use too much, lest it drowns out the rest of your paint scheme (I am always tempted to put on more and have to pull myself away). I used the GW slime and blood technical paints, but I also used the Tamiya Clear Red- so some blood looks fresh while some of it is old and coagulated.

All told, I am happy with how this guy turned out. He is clearly an invention of Papa Nurgle, and my Plague Marines will be pleased to have him I think. At some point I will do another for Nurgle (Forge or Mauler I'm not sure). But first, I have to finish my second Nurgle Heldrake (one of my craziest conversion jobs yet, I must say). However, I have been distracted by something VERY Heretical. The Emperor would not be happy, let's put it that way. I think they'll be done by next week...

Until next time, stay heretical my friends.

The Warhammer 40K Social Contract in Action

Hey there Chaos Cultists, great and small! Summer is upon us, which means I'm going to try to get in a ton of Warhammer 40K stuff done- models painted, games played, and even, yes... a campaign. I'll blog about that at another point, but it looks like that I'll be having a campaign with my friend and my brother... a nice 3 force campaign of my own devising. Like I said, I'll get into that in the next posting or two...

The Lord of Skulls prepares for battle

At any rate, I played a game last week at my local store. My opponent was a younger person (younger than me, at any rate). I have played him before at the store- fun opponent, serious player but willing to laugh off mistakes. He is also a good modeller and painter, in my opinion.

This thing is huge! It is inevitable that GW will make plastic Titans sooner or later...

Well, we had decided the week before that we would fight, and yes, we would go with a Lord of War. I was very excited, as I have never gotten to use my Lord of Skulls before. The day of the battle, the guy tells me that he has a Leviathan brand "Knight" (and damn it, that it is a huge model- very nice, although it lacks the finer details of a GW model). I was fine with this (I don't care if it isn't GW). However, he had a special request- could it instead count as a Lord of Skulls as well?

This was an odd combination, and it didn't work that well.

Now, he has Black Templars and Dark Angels. There should be no way that they can have a Lord of Skulls without it being "Come the Apocalypse". AT LEAST. Plus, the model is radically different from a Lord of Skulls. The Leviathan model could pass as a Knight (A big one, to be sure), but I don't know about a Lord of Skulls... However, thinking that I have played this guy before, and the fact that he was very excited about it (he even had a backstory for it)... how could I say no? So I agreed. Then, he asked if we could go up to 3K points. Now, I only brought a few extra things with me... so I ended up with a squad of Spawn, a Dark Apostle, and a Bloodthirster. Again, not what I planned, but hey, its all in fun.

Kill! Maim! Burn! Indeed

Right there is what I think GW is getting at with 7th (unbounded and the like). We talked about it beforehand, and came to an agreement. Plus, he even had a storyline in mind. This is the type of thing that a Tournament would go beszerk over, but in a friendly game, why not? Besides, now we would be evenly matched- no way to complain that taking a LoW was unfair or anything. I now envisioned that this game would be brutal, and it would be anybodies game. I won for placement, and put my LoS on the far side of the board with a Maulerfiend and a Warpsmith in Rhino for support. My opponent placed his LoS opposite mine- he said that he was dying to see them fight, and that the Emperor was blessing him... The guy wanted to play straight up kill points, and that's all, again I agreed. Ultimately, our lists were almost 3K points

Well painted, with subtle conversions and nice winter basing.

The game, as it turns out, did not go as either of us predicted. In my first turn, my LoS did some damage to the nearby Centurions (those are tough bastards). My Helbrute destroyed his pesky thunderfire cannon quickly. I then advanced my rhino and Maulerfiend on with the LoS. On the other side, I drove up my other rhino (containing Kharn) and a squad of Spawn with a Dark Apostle.

The Black Templar Lord of War has its sights set on single combat.

Then, my opponent went. The first thing he did was advance his LoS so that it was literally face to face with mine. He really wanted this up close. So, he charged. When he rolled with his destroyer weapon, he rolled poorly, rolling mostly ones and a 4. I lost 3 hull points. He was not happy. Then I rolled. I rolled a couple of ones myself, but also a 6. Then, on the D table, I rolled a 6 again. I killed his LoS outright. One blow. Gone. Even his cataclysmic explosion did little, though it took a HP from my Maulerfiend. I laughed and said how crazy that was...

I rolled well on the Destroyer table- praise Khorne and the Skull Throne!

Sadly, the guy was upset. Angry. Mad that he lost his LoS so early- and it was on his charge besides. Because he was so pissed, the rest of the game wasn't as fun. I  and some other guys tried to tell him to buck up, as the dice could have easily gone the other way, but it was no use. He was mad and that was that.

The forces of Khorne advance!

The rest of the game was interesting, though not surprising. His Chapter Master and squad tore through the Spawns. My Maulerfiend finished off the Centurions up close. And my LoS began to take out chunks of his army as he moved toward the center of the field.

And they both bite the dust!

That Contemptor is awesome, even if it cleaved me in twain.

Then, his Chapter Master gets to Kharn, and they duel. Interestingly, both died simultaneously- the legend of my Kharn continues, as this is how he has met his end in several games recently. His  Contemptor Dred tore my Helbrute apart in spectacular fashion. Then, my 2 Heldrakes came on the board, and began to incinerate things (I only take 2 Heldrakes IF I know my opponent is fielding lots of flyers or if it is well over 2K points), and the Templar/Bezerker battle ended with but a handful of Templars left. The Maulerfiend was destroyed by shots from his Devastator squad.

A major moment in the game in  my view...

The Templars did have a Stormtalon, and it zeroed in on one Heldrake. I took Jink, but it wasn't needed as he failed to hit. Yikes- bad rolls. My other Heldrake would later vector strike him and actually destroy it (my rolls were dead on for most of the game when it counted). That meant my Heldrakes were the masters of the sky. My Lord of Skulls was now nearing the center, killing off what was left (including those Devastators). Finally, my Bloodthirster appeared. He shot at him and grounded him, then he had the Contemptor and Terminators charge him. The Contemptor rolled poorly, and again the guy was pissed. My Bloodthirster then killed some terminators.

... since it meant that I could do this in later turns.

At this point, my opponent decided to concede. With the Lord of Skulls dominating, he couldn't win. He killed several of my units, but I had killed more, and that killing would continue unabated, while he had less and less to kill my units. Ultimately, I had 2 Heldrakes, the Lord of Skulls, a Warpsmith and 9 Bezerkers, and a Rhino. He had his Land Raider, and the terminators and conemptor locked with the Bloodthirster. Even IF he had killed the Daemon, the Lord of Skulls was ready to smash that Contemptor to pieces and shoot the terminators.

He made some mistakes. Once his LoS was dead, he decided to pretty much ignore mine. His Centurions were killed before they could act, true, but he had a Landraider, Storm Talon, and Devastators. They should have shot all they had at the thing. But he didn't. Thus, my Lord of Skulls could strike with impunity.

The Heldrake's point of view

His anger had gotten the better of him. Once the game was done he said that Lords of War were stupid and that his army sucks. I told him a single die roll of 6 was what changed everything. I said that I play Khorne Bezerkers- everyone says they suck due to the difficulty of CC armies in 7th- and yet I won. There are many factors, and that next time or the time after he would win. It was to no avail. He was upset and that was it.

Look, it happens sometimes- every player loses their cool at one point or another. In my younger days I would get pissed (Red Terror, Pete?). I understand. But even in my worst moments, I was still sportsmanlike. Shake hands. Have a laugh. Swear revenge.

I felt bad for him, but at the same time... if HE rolled that 6 on the Destroyer table- would he have felt bad for me? And besides, I agreed to every request he made- can it be a Lord of Skulls? Can we just play kill points? Can you increase your list to 3K? As far as I'm concerned, I lived up to my end of the social contract. I hope that he will put this loss in perspective and laugh it off at some point.

Other than that, I have a 2K point game tomorrow against Ultramarines, and I will be looking forward to starting the campaign soon. And I finished some models that I plan on showing soon. And I have mini- movie reviews. And... wow... when did it get so busy here at the Chaos Corner?

Until next time...

Conversion Time: A Nurgle Heldrake

Hey there Chaos fanatics! Old Man Chaos is back with another blog post- trying this weekly proved to be too difficult, but I am trying to get a few a month up, plus keep up with my painting and hobby related stuff. I have a few things I want to talk about and show off, starting with a recently completed Plague Marine Heldrake. So, away we go...

"The man at Radio Shack said I was mad... Well- who's mad now? Hahahaha!"

I was in my local store a few months ago (before winter came and derailed my whole schedule) gaming (I forget which battle it was now). As such, there were a bunch of us hanging around, talking about strategies, upcoming GW releases and, modelling. Well, I am not sure how the conversation turned, but I remarked that the Heldrake did not lend itself easily to Nurgle- it didn't look sickly. So, I proposed a conversion that would take parts of the zombie dragon fantasy box and basically kit bash it to make a properly decayed looking Plague Heldrake. As I discussed the potential conversion, one esteemed gamer told me it could not be done. The wings were the wrong size, it would be impossible to get them to stay- and so forth. He told me that I was mad to even think of such a thing! Well, that did it. The old Chaos converter in me decided to take up the gauntlet that was thrown down- I WOULD accomplish this feat!!!

So, it took me a few months due to interruptions (like, say, oh I don't know...an Imperial Knight perhaps, just for starters... as well as me getting back into Ultramarines and continuing with my Khorne Bezerkers... Geez), but I finally set to work. Having 2 kits, I decided to kit bash them in equal measure- thus 2 kits will get me 2 Heldrakes (not exactly saving money the Chaos way, but the zombie dragon is slightly cheaper than the Heldrake, so...). What follows is the first Heldrake that I completed.

Basically, I decided to use the body of the Heldrake with zombie dragon wings. So, it is fairly simple: I glued the wings onto the body. Presto. It was not difficult at all. Indeed, the nub of the wing fit fairly well in the nub for the Heldrake wing, though it was not a perfect fit. In order to make sure it wouldn't break, I added a bit of putty work to secure it. Frankly, I think this was the most straightforward conversion I've ever done. The wings fit just fine. And while they are a bit smaller than the Heldrake wings, it is still a large wingspan (just backwards instead of forwards).

The head was actually trickier. It was not going to fit onto the body at all, so I had to cut, pin, and use plenty of putty. This was actually clever (if I do say so myself)- I used the decayed neck to actually hide the conversion- the putty around it looks like dead skin and even tissue in the throat of the ugly beast. With the putty securing it, I know that head isn't going anywhere. And the downward angle of the neck and head makes it look like that it is belching a poisonous Nurgle fume on the terrified Guardsmen below! Hahaha!! Nurgle loves his little pets indeed! For the final touch, I put Chaos Spawn hooks in for the Heldrake legs, thus making it look totally warped and unnatural. Plus, the poisoned hooks will be lethal for those Vector Strikes.

So, now for the paint job. I started the whole thing with Deathworld Forest green. The Heldrake body would stay that color, pretty much. On the wings and neck, I built up from there with Nurgling Green and even a drybrush of brighter flesh shades (to give the wings definition). The bone was my usual Dust buildup, with a drybrush of Tyrant Skull and a light Praxetti White.

The metal portions were done up in Leadblecher followed by washes of Earthshade and then the new Effect Paint of Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Orange drybrush. The effect is different from my old way of doing rust, but the effect cannot be denied- the thing looks rusty and broken and dirty- just the way Grandpa Nurgle likes it!

The engines I did purple (it really does contrast the green well). The bone continues from the neck to the back of the Heldrake, giving a nice bit of continuity there. The "legs" I did in the green, but the hooks I did bone, but without the drybrushing of Praxetti. The guts in the neck I did with various reds (I was going to do pink, but I decided against it). I must admit it took me a bit of time to get the wings and bone just the way I wanted them.

However, the model was not done. How could it be, now that we have that fantastic effect paint, Nurgle's Rot. I applied it rather generously, as this is a Plague Heldrake. I was careful to put just a bit on the tongue and his teeth, looking like he just spewed the unholy filth of Nurgle upon his errant children. I also put a bit on the wings, just to give them a slimy look. Thus, my beast was completed, and I am eager to have him take to the field!

Of course, I am still working on my other Heldrake, though working with the zombie dragon body is far trickier than I had first imagined. However, with the spring here I will put him together, sooner or later. I'll let you know how that one goes.

A few other things I wanted to talk about. First- the weekly White Dwarfs. I think they have been really good lately, since they have been 40K focused. In particular, the issue that gave the rules for the Knights. Now, I know some people complained that the codex was pricey for 1 model army. I didn't mind, as I loved the fluff for this newly re-illuminated area of the 40K lore. But- the rules were in a 4.00 WD, which is amazing if you think about it. Again, the weekly WD is giving us choice, which is good.

I am not pleased about the recent "limited supply" Void Shield generator though. I don't mind having limited edition books, so long as the regular book is out there. Forgeworld is expensive, but you don't NEED anything from there. The special one off model like the "White Dwarf"... who cares. But- this is different. They limited it to 1,000... what? Why would they do that? It's stupid. And I wasn't even going to buy it in any case (so this is not sour grapes for not being one of the lucky 1,000). It just makes no sense. This reminds me of what comic books did in the 90s- limited edition this or bagged copy that. Ugh. That is something this hobby does NOT need, and I hope they don't repeat this experiment in the near future.

I made this with a Demotivator site... and saved 100$

Finally, I introduced a friend to the game last week. He knew about Warhammer in general from computer games (fantasy, mostly). He saw my models when he visited my house on many occasions. He was interested, so I loaned him the rule book, which he read through. So, the time was right and we played a 1,000 point game- Ultramarines versus Khorne Bezerkers. I made both lists, but allowed him to choose. He chose Ultramarines... and proceeded to kick my ass! Brian was a quick study, and was rolling and cursing the dice gods just like the rest of us. He won 4 to 8 for points. He did a fine job. The best part... he wants to play again this week...

As Mr. Burns would say... Excellent!!

Until next time...