Typhus, Herald of Nurgle

Hey there my fellow demented followers of Chaos! Welcome to another edition of Chaos Corner. Has it been cold in your neck of the woods? I certainly know its been cold here in the Eye of Terror (USA) that's for sure. To keep warm, I have been busy painting and taking pics of some "older" models for display on my blog. I have to, in order to keep up with Games Workshop's insane weekly White Dwarf publication schedule.

A word about that. I have seen nothing of either the weekly White Dwarf of the big magazine, aside from partial cover shots on Bell of Lost Souls and some descriptions on Faeit 212. I do not know what the overall quality of these will be. However, I am optimistic. For the weekly WD, my mantra will be simple- don't buy it the first day. Wait for word to get out about what's in it. If you like what you hear, then by all means buy it. If it has nothing that interests you or is relevant to your army, then just skip it. I think this is certainly doable. As for the monthly- I have the ipad subscription, which I renewed in January- so according to GW I will be getting the new mag, no problem. If it is going to be more "hobby-centric"- sounds like what I'd like to see. If it fails to impress or I prefer the weekly more- I can just not subscribe after it runs out again next January.We shall see on Feb 1.

In the meantime, I have been working on lots of stuff. I'm not ready to show any of it yet- I have painter's ADD right now, with lots of projects at various stages of completion. As they get done, I will be posting. Some are solid, others are fantastic (in my opinion) conversions, and a few- well, they will surprise you. But you won't see them till I'm done with them! Meanwhile, let's bring you an oldie, but a goodie- Typhus...

Ah. Typhus. The Herald of Nurgle. The Traveler. For a while, all the other cults got special characters, but not so Nurgle. Bile. Kharn. Ahriman. Doomrider (hehe). The other gods got a special character to call their own, but not the Lord of Decay. This must have chafed poor Papa Nurgle- after all, when the plague is at its height, Nurgle is more powerful than the other gods combined. So, one day, Nurgle convinced the GW guys to do right and give him his special character- thus, Typhus was born.

The model is simply incredible, even now. The plague-infested bulk of the model. The spike/horn on his helm; indeed, the hem itself, with that awesome visor. The destroyer hive on his back. The pitted and corroded grieves. The nurgling clutching at him (for the record, I never cared for the one licking the horn). The fly shoulder pad. And, of course- the scythe. Wow. This is perfect- he is truly an incredible vision of what a Plague Marine Lord should be.

I remember that I ordered him directly from GW. When it arrived in the mail, I said "I've got Typhus!"- I bet that's the first time anyone ever said that in such a positive way (see, now you know why I follow Nurgle). At any rate, I could not wait to paint him- though I didn't right away. I wanted to make sure I would do him right. I planned it very slowly and meticulously. I took my time, knowing he'd be a centerpiece for the army.

At the time, my Death Guard were a slightly brighter hue- the use of bleached bone and rotting flesh with a 'ardcoat varnish made them look decayed but also slimy- they were generally brighter. At this point, I decided that I wanted to set Typhus apart- his armor would be slightly darker- still my nurgle colors, but darker. I didn't go so heavy on the rotting flesh, sticking to the layers of dark angels and camo green.

The armor ridges and the scythe was a (then) new painting technique for me. I had always done the Death Guard weapons in boltgun with brown ink to make them dirty. However, thanks to my friend Pete and a White Dwarf article, I used scorched brown, with orange stippling (my first ever), and some metal highlights. The result is a real-looking rust effect. These youngin's today with their Typhus Corrosion and all that jazz. In my day we had to work to make the rust effect! Haha.

 The Pipes/Hives were also unique for me. Many people had used purple for Nurgle, but I never really did (some purple ink for diseased wounds was all). This time, I decided to put on some purple, but not straight up purple. The destroyer hive partsI painted with a grey-purple mix that Pete made for me. I have never painted ANYTHING else with that mix. That paint is unique to Typhus alone.

Since I didn't want that stupid nurgling licking the bone/horn on the base, I decided to do something different. I didn't want to go crazy with the base, lest it distract from the model. So- I just simply put three skulls in front of him. It looks like the 3 part Nurgle symbol. Now- did he just kill these three? Or perhaps the bugs of the destroyer hive? Or were the 3 skulls an offering to Nurgle?Thus, was Typhus completed.

In 2005, my friend Pete and I decided that we would go to Games Day in Baltimore. I was so damn excited- I knew I wanted to enter their model contest- but how? I decided I would go with Typhus and... a newly purchased Forgeworld Dreadclaw. I used the same techniques for the rust on the Dreadclaw, but brightened up the hull ever so slightly. I also did a new squad of Death Guard, with colors much closer to Typhus. I would tend to paint newer Plague Marines in this way, though I sometimes go brighter- as it is Nurgle and Chaos- why the heck not? At any rate, I worked so hard to get all of that done, with me basically working down to the wire to get it done. I even had Pete help with making a display base. So, very carefully, I carted those models to Games Day. I had a great time there, and though I didn't win any awards, I still had a blast and was glad to be a part of the proceedings. And let me tell you, Pete and I got so many ideas from that one Games Day it isn't funny. Urban table perhaps? Haha.

So, several years later, where is my Typhus now? Though I don't always use him, he is certainly one of Chaos' best special characters, and his ability to make cultists into zombies is fantastic, especially since I have like 75 plague zombies that I made for Eye of Terror. In bigger games, he is my go to HQ- since I can spend the points on him and mobs of zombies and then still have points for Plague Marines. He is a bit more limited on smaller games, but hey- can't use special characters all the time, or else they aren't special, are they? Typhus has had his ups and downs in my army- sometimes being gunned down like a bitch, other times totally destroying all who stand against him- a few recent games against my brother's Grey Knights were especially amusing for Typhus, actually.

What I am hoping for is that GW does more with the character (as they have with Ahriman, Kharn, and Bile and Lucius) in their fiction. After all, what is his full story? Why don't the Death Guard get the Horus Heresy treatment? Fulgrim,  Lorgar,  Magnus and Angron (and their "children") have all gotten some great stories from the Horus Heresy- so why not Mortarion and Typhon? I would also like to see some 41st Millennium Typhus stories. His appearance in Cadian Blood was fun. The short story with him and the singing virus in The Carrion Anthem wasn't bad, though a "singing virus" isn't quite what I have in mind when I think of Typhus. Come on Black Library- give me books worthy of the Death Guard!

Hope you enjoy the pics. Until next time...

Just Completed: A Few Daemons

Hey there everybody! Old Man Chaos is back in action. Well, not that I have been "out of action" per se, but I have been very busy with home and work stuff. However, I have been doing some painting and such. I was in the midst of working on my Khorne Bezerker army when the Daemon Codex was released. I have played 2 games with that book now, and I am dying to try out more options and ally combinations. I really love the book, as a matter of fact, even if Warp Storm is a bit messy.

At any rate, as a result of the Daemon book, I got the itch to work on some Daemons again. Now, I had some in various stages of completion, so I was now energized to go back and work on them. So, without further ado, let's take a look then...

First up, my Daemon Prince of Khorne. I put this guy together quite some time ago, but I never painted him. He kinda just got lost in the shuffle. Originally, I wasn't sure what I was going to make him. Then, when I began work on the Khorne Bezerkers, it was a no brainer that I would do him in the colors of the Blood God.I didn't give him wings, as I really wanted him to look like a Chaos Space Marine gone terribly, terribly wrong. I even gave him the spikes on his upper back to make him look like a Terminator perhaps. I put some of those old resin rubble pieces on as well, just to give him a bit more action on his base.

In painting him, I had to "re-create" my Bloodletter scheme on him, using the new paints. I put Khorne Red all over everything (body and armor plates), then washed with Nuln Oil. The armor I then proceeded to paint a la my current Bezerker scheme. As for his flesh, I built up very carefully from the darkened base coat, using Wazdakka Red and then Evil Sun Scarlet. Now he was quite bright, and I then used the Bloodletter Glaze to finish. He looks strikingly close to my Bloodletters (and they were painted a few years ago). At least now I know that I could do more Bloodletters and have them look close enough to be a coherent army.

Next up, I have a set of Nurglings. My friends got me these when I was sick last summer, but I hadn't gotten to them. The Nurglings are really cool with lots of personality- some are fearsome, others are mischievous. The box gets you 3 bases, but I decided to "Save Money The Chaos Way" (trademark pending- kidding kidding) by stretching them to be 6 bases. See, although they don't look AS numerous, I felt that piling them all together loses a ton of detail anyways. So, I spread them out, making 6.

I made the Nurglings different shades, all of them tie into my Plaguebearers and my Death Guard. I found that the Nurgling Green and Sepia wash make a very effective combination (more on that in a bit). Overall, they were simple to paint and, en masse, they look just fine. I don't use Nuglings that often, though now I might use them a bit more.

I had bought a box of the new Plaguebearers last summer, before I hit the hospital. I had put them together, but did little else with them. I really like the models. They go together well, and they fit in with the aesthetic of the metal Plaguebearers, so you can mix and match just fine (you really CAN'T do that with any of the other Daemons- they look way to different). Keeping the look the same was a big win in my book, but the plastic are just great with their greater posing action.

I painted these guys in the various hues of Nurgle. Nurgling Green and a Nuln Oil wash (with a successive highlight of Nurgling Green) really make them look like my metal Plaguebearers. However, I discovered that Nurgling Green and Sepia also go together great, giving them a dirty, dingy look. I didn't even need to do any successive highlights- it look perfect that way. I also liked doing Zandri Dust and Sepia- those guys look quite different, but again, they are the colors of Nurgle's Rot, so that's fine with me. I am pleased with how they turned out.

Last, but not least- I realized I needed heralds (Locus for FNP? Sign me up!). I bought the new plastic herald. I love this model- it is so big and well detailed. The only thing I didn't like was the tongue, so I placed it in his guts instead, making it look like a tentacle or something. I painted it in the same way that I did some of the others- Nurgling Green with Sepia wash. He looks so rotten- I used further washes on his diseased leg, giving it a cancerous look. This model is great- I just wish it had a bit more posing ability.

I needed another herald (already have Epidemus), so I tried the old (and very simple) conversion
route. I picked up the fantasy Nurgle Champion. I then put on a Plaguebearer head and some Nurglings on the base. Done and done. He's a champion, so I did it as if he is going to become a Greater Daemon one day- he's larger than other Plaguebearers, looking more like a Great Unclean One. I painted him in my more "traditional" Nurgle way. The result is pretty cool, in my opinion. IF I do another herald, I'm not quite sure how I'll do it. What other model could I use and still have it look like a Plaguebearer? Hmmm...

Well, that's all for today, folks. I am almost done reading Angel Exterminatus. I intend to do a mini review for both this and Ahriman:Exile in the coming days.


Until next time.