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It started quite innocently with this:



Although not the most technically brilliant conversion, or paint job, I couldn’t get it out of my mind. I kept wandering back to it in my browser, staring at it. Like I said, not the most stunning of miniatures, but it oozes character, and that is a quality I think that is lacking from a lot of straight-out-of-the-box armies. I like to call this phenomenon the Matt Hudson effect; a neatly painted army that displays conservative conversions, something that is game worthy, but not inspiring (sorry mr Hudson, I did like your Black Templars).

Anyway, having an ever growing bits box and an itchy modelling finger, I decided to do my own take on Adrain Smith’s classic Chaos Lord Korvus_________ (Please insert name, I can’t find it, or recall it.




It’s worth taking a few moments just to appreciate this drawing. I’ve seen it hundreds of times, but sitting down and studying it as I have been for the past week, you begin to see layers detail, and depth that escapes casual viewing.

I’ve started work on my own interpretation of this miniature:



I’ve caught Nurgle’s rot. I’ve been bitten by one of the many bugs that Korvus must surely call his entourage. This model deserves an army, and I, only a puppet of papa nurgle, am forced to oblige.

I’ll update on a semi-regular basis. I’m not the most reliable of bloggers, but I’m quite fired up by this project. Project aims? I hope to building a unique and character full force driven by an underlying narrative, which will concentrate on quality of quantity with my limited funds.

It started so innocently as well…

That is awsome in the most pestilant and decayingly filthy way possible!

Your picture does not show for me.

that is seriously awsome.

Wow, thank you all for your kind replies; from such esteemed company as well.

I’m in for the long haul on this plog. I’m planning on building up a chaos force over the next couple of years, and documented it here. I’m aiming to write each entry as a mini article on the project; making it as interesting to read, as I am sure, I will find it to write.

I’m taking the high road and applying the scientific method to this plog, to instil some sort of structure (is that contradictory, wishing structure from a Chaos force?). I aim to build an army that will traipse around the chaos wastes with Korvus, picking fights with the biggest, ugliest monsters out there. For years I have drafted army lists, and bought around that. But this time, I want to try something different, and build an army that is narrative driven; purchasing models with a history related to Korvus, even if this means buying illegal choices like Beastmen in a Chaos warrior army, and so on. I also want to the units to reek of originality, but, too a budget. Thanks to the crap economy, and the crap jobs market, and the fact I am one of the many thousands of crap graduates who cannot get a decent paying job for our sheep skin educations, I can only buy with what money I raise.

I’ll keep a running log of my cash flow, tabulating my Ebay sales (with a true mercenary spirit, I sell my swash-buckling painting services to the highest bidder; plus I got old Warhammer stuff to sell), and whatever money I can put into the Korvus Kitty. I’ll also post how I use this money to buy my army. I've got a Njar Stormcaller up for sale now, as well as some dark elf stuff, so i'll whack down their final fees in a post when sell them, and decide what to put the money toward.

I’m not sure where best to post the fluff for the army. I plan on writing a short paragraph (no long-winded-whimsical epic odyssey’s) for each unit and character, explaining who they are, and how they have come to fight for Korvus. I want to make each character and unit’s description as interesting as I can – and then reflect their history on the models. No converted Archaon lord for me, no siree.

I have a rough idea of what the narrative for the army will be, (thus the cryptically entitled 'Dethroned King') but i'm not that familiar with the area's of the chaos wastes:



I'm thinking that his tribe came from somewhere near the centre, toward that menacingly big black thing with the skull on it!

I want an instantly recognisable, and unique force, so i'll be heavy into converting. I enjoying looking at armies and thinking, ‘what the hell? How’d he do that?’ I have a few idea’s of the kind of models I want to create, and a very rough outline of how the army will look as a whole. Again, this stage is often overlooked in the mad rush of putting together a force to use in a game; preparation. Just taking a few moments to visualize the units, colour scheme, basing, and how it will all look completed can earn you drastically improved results to your finished army (preaching to the choir maybe?).

Already, this early in the game, I know that I won’t have that many models. Due to the high level of conversions I plan on creating, and the limited funds, I can’t see how I can create a huge army, capable of fielding multiple options of army list. However, Chaos is a ubiquitous force, one that has a shared narrative between the 40K and fantasy universes. I plan on using this army in both game systems, so I’ll have to remember to mount everything with magnet bases (yet more cost…). Plus things like ogres, knights, trolls, will have to be accounted for in the 40k universe.

So, thats my mini thesis. Hope you'll all stay tuned and inform, what I hope is, a special project.

It has become obvious to me that this will be quite an erratic blog, both in frequency of updates and models bought. Such is the nature of Chaos.

Selling totals for January: £309.

Star Sell: Blood Bowl Chaos Mutant Ogre, £48:



So, with this surprisingly profitable auction, I have around £100 to play with. I still haven't finished sculpting the King yet and I really should prioritize that. However, fickle fancy is a sexy bitch and I went ahead and bought myself these:



4 for 99p each. I have one ogre body left over (converting Obliterators for my Black Legion army) to mash with the cold ones to create a horrible Chaos beast.

I also picked up a boxed set of flagellants on the cheap from a friend of a friend of a friend:



Luckily for me, they are the 20 man boxed set that were originally released. A box full of beautiful models and all manner of weird and wonderful extras. Cudos to GW on this kit. I may buy another for more sand timers.

I have to agree that the flagellant box is the best! This should be interesting.

Ohh loving it so far looking forward to seeing how this develops. Thought your original conversion was fantastic it really captured the feel of the art so I can't wait to see the next one. Keep em coming!

I’m a sucker for the old school. I like reading fluff from before I started collecting (some of it is before I was even born). I hoard details in text like I horde possessions; it’s something in every one of our natures – the compulsion to horde, categorize, contextualise, and fixate upon. I do the same with images, and models. Writing OOP after a model listing for ebay will quadruple the amount of viewers you have on an item guaranteed. However, after years of lusting after the models of my youth, the reality of owning these models can be a bit of a let down. Older models, especially from the eighties are often a lot smaller and thinner than their contemporary counterparts. So, what is important when modelling is to recreate the archetype of the model.

The word archetype incorporates the Greek word arche, meaning origin or source, and it’s meaning derives from Plato’s idealist philosophy of perfect forms. Plato theorized that all physical objects have a perfect form that exists outside of our physical reality, and all physical matter is moving toward replicating this perfect idealistic form. So all apples, are in effect, an imitation of the perfect, archetypal apple.

If your still reading, you may be wondering, ‘what the hell has Plato got to do with collecting a chaos force?’ Well, like hoarding OOP fluff, I horde images. By saturating my consciousness with images of what I think comprises Chaos , I can begin to independently formulate the look of my army. I can create and convert the army to closer resemble that perfect ‘other’ of chaos that exists on the metaphysical plane of human consciousness… yeah even I think I’m stretching it with that last statement.

Images of Hell.

I’ve been compiling images for a while now, so nearly all of these images (models and art) go unaccredited. Sorry for this, but I mostly use Google and coolminiornot.com, as well as old rulebooks and white dwarf articles for reference. I doubt there is an image here that cannot take five minis to find in a good search engine.

I want to start off my comparing two images, and explain the difference between, what I feel is, an archetypal image, and an illustration.

Archetype

John Blanche:



A name I think we are all familiar with, love him or loathe him, Blanche has a very distinct style that has helped established the visual world of Warhammer. Below are sampling for the conceptual sketches done for the Vampire Counts project. Although not originally planned for general release or public viewing, they none-the-less reveal some interesting facets of the GW think tank.

I remember reading an article in White Dwarf, where Jervis Johnson was explaining how the GW team goes about designing a new army. For starters, these images aim to generate archetypal images, they don’t have to be finely detailed, draughtsman like images: in fact, the looser the better. This argument follows a line of art criticism that is beautifully illustrated in Scott Mc Cloud’s, Understanding Comics, and can be found here:

http://scottmccloud.com/4-inventions/triangle/index.html

The illustration above falls somewhere between the cartoon, and the abstract, on The Big Triangle; an image that we can impress our interpretation onto, and interpret. I will refer to this method of viewing an image as reading it.

Illistration:



First of all, a definition: Illustration, noun; a picture that complements text, a provision of pictures accompanying text, something that helps explain something. I think the majority of us can agree, that the above image is pretty damn cool. Perspective is spot on, light sourcing, movement, and detail, all compact into what is a recognisable Chaos warrior. However, what we gain in clarity, we lose in interpretation. We cannot ‘read’ the image with as much personal input as we can a John Blanche picture. It is an image that was designed to illustrate, not necessarily inspire.

I couldn’t find out who made this image, but I suspect that it was generated as promotional fluff for Warhammer: Age of Reckoning, the video game. If this is the case (and please correct me if I am wrong), the artist has done a superb job of distilling the messy conceptual detail that is seen in Blanche’s work, producing an image that is illustrative of all chaos warriors. He has presented the viewer with a typical chaos warrior, not an archetypal one.

So what are Chaos warriors? What is the perfect vision of that archetypal chaos warrior look like? That depends, person to person, but I think this image comes closest to my ideal:



This armour looks Grecian, or, perhaps, it would be fairer to say, the armour is based on classical designs. The word classical is a fairly broad term for ancient civilised cultures such as the Romans, Greeks, Mongols etc. If Salvador Dali had designed Greek armour, I believe it would look something like this; albeit without the massive helm that would have undoubtedly looked like a phallus.

So, I have a rough reference point. I’m also going to use Ian Miller (look him up through Google, you’ll know who I mean). It’s good to draw inspiration from fantasy artists, but it’s even better to go to the source of their inspirations. Below, I have put a link to another photobucket file full of images that I will use as reference for the imagery of the army. Since The chaos realms would figure at the top-most pinnacle of McCloud’s Big Triangle, it seems appropriate to draw from surrealist artists, as well as the work produced in the Renaissance, which always inform GW imagery.

The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin



Here's a wiki link about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gates_of_Hell

Images of torture and damnation are, I think, wholly appropriate to the Chaos theme. I'll have a go at sculpting details depicted on Rodin's The gates of Hell into the armour of my warriors. I'm planning on including some big guys in my force, giving me lots area's where I can sculpt armour and personalize.

Here's a link to my photobucket page of reference (check out the Flesh hounds chucking up blood):

http://s751.photobucket.com/albums/xx159/lilizzyloser2008/Chaos%20army%20refference/?start=0


There is another batch of images I have drawn upon heavily for the manufacture of my models, but I want to keep these a secret until I can post up some WIP shots. Must warn you though, this secrecy of mine is the kind of secrecy used in Dan Brown books; its an obvious scam to keep you reading until the end of the book, and you think it wasn’t even that good of a secret anyway.

This is going to be really cool isnt it?

I like where this heading...go on

Ohh consider yourself followed Sir, as a point of reference on OOP fluff and Games workshops inspirations you might want to look at some of Michael Moorcocks books and his huge influence on Games Workshops Chaos forces.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_and_Chaos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbol_of_Chaos

He essentially divined the concept of Chaos as a force fighting against, or with, his main protagonists. I will point you towards the Elric or Corum books as they have some of the most detailed descriptions of the gods and how they appear. Especially the second trilogy of Corum books if you feel like doing some really horrible Nurgly creations.
Great find with the Big Triangle, very useful! I'm also glad to see a bit of the old Ian Miller stuff again and a bit of Plato always makes things better! Can't wait for the updates

definitely watching this! I'm excited!

Looks like you have done your research. Good Luck and God Speed.

Unstable atoms.

In chemistry, the chemical elements labeled as synthetic are too unstable to be found naturally on Earth. These synthetic elements possess half-lives so short, relative to the age of the Earth, that any atoms of these elements that may have existed when the Earth formed have long since decayed away. Indeed, as we research the outer limits of the peridic table, we are discovering atoms with such brief, insubstantial lives, it is debatable whether it can be said that they had existed at all. Yet, these atoms, present at the birth of the universe, could have been essential building blocks of creation.

These flies, are my synthetic atoms:

This is looking great. I've got to second the suggestion to look at the Micheal Moorcock books for inspiration. I'd also suggest a lot of the old '80s shorts GW published back then as well.

Fly Tutorial

STAGE 1: Body

a) Have an idea of what scale you want your flies to be, then, roll balls of green stuff slightly bigger than needed.

b) Pinch the ball, and draw out a 'tail' to the shape below.




c) Leave overnight to dry and harden thoroughly.


STAGE 2: WINGS

a) Check your bitz box or newly acquired metal models. You are looking for little metal 'tabs' or 'flash' - little excess slivers of metal to use as wings (see circled).




b) For the ease of assembly, glue the belly of your fly to a pin. Carefully glue the tabs to the fly.



TIP: Due to these size of these components, it is advisable that you use a pair of tweezers. Beware tweezers without a rubber grip on the contact points. Even slight pressure will see the tab shoot out of the grip. Try rubbing a little plasticine onto the contact points to avoid unnecessary screaming.

STAGE 3: LEGS


a) Here's where it gets tricky. You need to get the thin spindles of metal that collect around your pin drill when pinning a metal model. You know, those bits you would normally blow away from the tip? Well, these will make the legs of your fly.





I normally found three of these enough.

STAGE 4: HEAD

a) Repeat stage 1, only on a much smaller scale.





Dab the head onto the body while the putty is still sticky to gauge the proportion. Wait until it is dry, then glue.


Repeat until you feel sanity loosen it's surly bonds, and you'll have a wonderful addition to your nurgle characters - or even a super cheap alternative to nurglings.

Go spread the disease.

Hi Lillizzy

Jumoing back to the start of your thread, I think the Nurgle character's name is Corpus Festerheart. I hope you'll get back to him at some stage.

The flies look very cool too, thanks for the tutorial.

Cheers
Dave

Corpus Festerheart...

Well, if that isn't his name, it should be!

Fantastic conversion there - looking forward to more...

I just looked up the name of the character I am sculpting.

@dave - spot on - his name is listed as Korpus Festerheart in the old Hordes of Choas army book. However, I misread his name as Korvus Festerheart. I'll stick with my mistaken name for the remainder of this project.

Updates:

Body. The chest amour covers quite a lot of the upper body, and it looked a little plain. I sculpted bumped texture and will add a trim to neaten it up later. However, on reflection, it doesn't look that great, and breaks theme from the original artwork.



Head, side view: WIP



Axe: WIP

I made this from an old ogre's axe top (metal), and the plastic double handed weapon from the current ogre iron gut kit. It looks a little shakey now, but I plan on beefing it soon.

Hands:



The spikes were made from the tips of pins and a steady hand.





Decoration:

I've sculpted the stern thinking man from the gates of hell in miniature for the breastplate of Korvus. When the sculpt is nearing completion, i;ll decide whether to use it or not:





Not much of an update on Korvus but he is coming along. I've also started work on the Tzeentch special character; The Changeling. here's a WIP:



Pretty exciting huh? Here's it with a little meat on it's bones:



I plan on pimping this guy out over ebay to raise funds for the project, or I may keep it as I have a couple of sculpts up already. I'll see my auctions go, and how attached I grow to this model before I'll list it. I won't put up any links for these here - not the time or the place- if your determined enough, you'll see my items.

I'll post up some fluff next (tiny, tiny amount, no 'short stories'), and post the Fetish the army will fight under.

G.Night Dakka Dakka.

G.Night all.

This looks promising
I'll be stalking this thread like a creepy guy stalks a lone wanderer at night

Update:





AXE



HANDLE

Currently drooling in fervent anticipation of seeing the finished article! These are looking great, loving the generally holistic approach to the concept. I do believe I will be replicating those flies, I think my DE will need a big pile of corpses as a webway portal at some stage, they are a stroke of inspiration!
ps. loving Nagash secretly overseeing it all in the background of some of those photos.

Awesome.

@ FRODO - DAMN IT! You discovered the super secret identity of my super dark, super evil, dark-power-behind-the-chaos type character. My fluff is now debunked.

I picked up Nagash ridiculously cheaply in a lot that included two classic grey knights, classic primaris psyker and two metal chaos spawn. I've sold the majority of the items on, but, when it came to nagash, I couldn't bring myself to sell him without painting him first.

More pretty pics:




Anybody with any ogre bodies you want to offload please PM me. Oh, i'm also looking for very fine chain to use on Korvus. PM me if you have anything suitable, or if you have any links please post them up, i'm sure it would be useful to the whole community.

Updates soon, Korvus is really taking shape now.

As a Heads up I will be in Cardiff GW store tomorrow evening for the games night. If anybody wants to see Korvus up-face and personal, pop along. I'll have my 40K army if anybody fancies a game, although I haven't played for close to three years. Plus I'll bring the unit I'm currently converting - and they're something special.

Please post pics for us stuck in a another country!

Sorry man I couldn't resist, Nagash was one of my first big metal models back in the day. I still have a super soft spot for him. But I will be interested to see how he fits into all of this! I have to agree with Munch Munch though we need loads of pics! As a side point what it the orange modeling putty you have been using, it looks quite versatile.

Very inspirational stuff here. Your scavanging/pillaging/converting/sculpting is wonderfully resourceful, and I'm enjoying the thoughtful recording of the process and underlying ideas as things take form.

excellent sculpting work, really phenomenal.