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@ zadelistol- Yeah, I wish. Chaos should get a lot of cool things.

@ Lord of Death Mountain- Thank you, I genuinely appreciate the compliment. This Dreadnought has been the most fun and the most frustrating model I've done in a while because it was supposed to be something quite different but as usual what I intend to end up with is set aside as the project warps with the winds of Chaos. I'd decided quite some time ago that that my "vanilla" Death Guard Dreadnought was going to be revisited with some GS, but now it's almost a priority. I have a feeling my old Daemon possessed Predator will be getting some GS on the right front fender as well, just to tie it in with the rest of the army.

@ Sageheart- Glad you like it and thanks for checking back in! More is coming.

@ Moltar- Your command is my... uh... well, check the pics below. Ha.



Hails to all! Man, I feel like I've been gone a month. Took a bit of a vacation last weekend, first time the wife and I went anywhere since early 2006. It was a much needed and very much enjoyed break from the real world. You may be wondering what exactly an amazing guy like Skalk Bloodaxe does while on vacation. He does exactly what you'd expect him to do- paint Death Guard miniatures!







I brought a small travel pack of 1 squad and the Dreadnought because I knew I was going to have some down time when we were not doing anything at all (I also tallied up the total points of all the stuff I have painted, but I cannot find my notebook on it right now. Going on WYSIWYG w/o additional wargear I think it was around 4,700 pts but don't hold me to that) and I wound up finishing both the squad and the dreadnought.

Pics of the final job coming in a moment, but first I have to share this- when I got up the first morning and looked out my hotel room window, I saw this and I have got pretty excited and said to my wife "That is SO cool! I'm going to take a picture of it and post it to the folks on Dakka!". I tried to get her to go stand in it but she refused. Ha!



So there you go, I'm thinking of you guys even when I'm not here.

Final pics of Squad Birka and Hrothgar the Eternal:









More coming soon. I have another squad w/ Aspiring Champion about 1/2 done, I just picked up another Rhino (eBay save, the kid that had it before me really messed it up, if it wasn't going to be in the Death Guard I'd say it was beyond salvage) there's much work to be done on the Land Raider, plus I'm looking for ANOTHER Land Raider already because I'm already tired of buddys IG dropping everything he has on my one poor defenseless Land Raider that wasn't doing anything but minding its own business... many many good things on the way. I'm motivated, I'm focused, and I'm looking forward to playing APOC.

As always, thanks for checking this out, thanks for following along, and thanks for the compliments! I really appreciate the feedback and always enjoy showing off my new stuff.

Great work, the dread is totally unique and scaryreally looks the part. The spike theme you got going on on all the vehicles is wicked. What gold do you use on the CSM trims? Need to see landraider with those death spike tracks now pleassssssse

I use Ral Partha Bronze. It's been OOP for years. I was very, very lucky to find some online from a game shop in the midwest. I bought it on good faith and amazingly it was still in perfect shape. I then bought the rest of his stock, which wasn't much. I use that same trim on my World Eaters and also my WoC fantasy army. It's quite a nice color, not too bright or brassy like some of the other available paints are, but still bright enough to not get muddled down and look more brown than bronze.

The Land Raider is on my "to do" list. I have to admit that I'm daunted by the sheer amount of work it is demanding. Nothing on it has been "easy" so far and now I'm thinking that I don't like the ink mix, it's too "bright". I've tried to tone it down w/ washes but to no avail. I may wind up mixing a new batch of ink and dirty it up w/ that, if I don't just simply prime it again and start over. Also, I had a friend point out to me that I finished the teeth in the mouth before I finished the "throat" inside the LR. So now I don't know what I am going to do. Maybe apply GS through the HB hatch... yeah, THAT'LL be fun.

For now I'm going to prime / paint the tracks and decide what next. During that time I'll keep grinding away at the legion of Plague Marines I have waiting to be painted. In all, I have at least the first half of 2011 planned out.

I think some Devan Mud or Gryphonne Sepia might be the trick to tone down the green. I tend to agree with you on the brightness. It is a little too vibrant, looks too alive. The conversions are sweet as hell. I love the corpse in the dread and the mouth on the LR. Ouch on the having to sculpt through a hatch though. Been there before. Painting a fully assembled SM Land Speeder after gluing the crew in was a nightmare.

You can do some fun stuff with Nurgle though and I think you won't need to prime again. Try perhaps a Devlan wash with a small amount of Charadon Granite mixed in?

Love it!! Don't know what else to say >_>

Those are looking really good Skalk!

Lol, that must be a really nice flamer!
That flamer did a heck of a job with the snow around there!

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:
The Land Raider is on my "to do" list. I have to admit that I'm daunted by the sheer amount of work it is demanding. Nothing on it has been "easy" so far and now I'm thinking that I don't like the ink mix, it's too "bright". I've tried to tone it down w/ washes but to no avail. I may wind up mixing a new batch of ink and dirty it up w/ that, if I don't just simply prime it again and start over. Also, I had a friend point out to me that I finished the teeth in the mouth before I finished the "throat" inside the LR. So now I don't know what I am going to do. Maybe apply GS through the HB hatch... yeah, THAT'LL be fun.

Skalk,

Glad you got a little vacation time in. Although, I think my wife would kill me if I brought minis to paint on the first vaca we've had in 3 years! Squad and Dread look stunning! There's something about that dread's CCW that makes me want to hurl...in a good way.
If you'd like to tone down your LR you may want to try creating a wash by mixing black with a dark red (like GW Red Gore or Scab Red) and then add a significant amount of water to it. Red is the natural contrast to green on the color wheel. I know you may be thinking red wash = pink, because often it does, so if you add some black to it, I think it may darken your land raider and keep some of the molded details. Another option would be to use some classic GW Chestnut Ink, if you can find any. As I believe it it OOP. Just some random thoughts on the matter.
I can only imagine how daunting that LR is, but don't give up, bud. It looks so sweet as is, that when you finish it, it will blow people's minds.

Mods deleted my flamer template. I'll host elsewhere and put it back up.

@ Rabid Ferret- I've all but soaked it in GS and DM, hasn't had the effect I am hoping for. I think a new batch of ink is on the way. I've also noticed that my Plague Marines getting brighter and brighter... I need to take one of the old ones from the original 1997 batch and use that as my guide, I've been just mixing lately and I'm off enough that some stand out more than others. I can "fluff" it by saying they are newer to the Death Guard (which is true...) but I need to regain some visual continuity.

@ Limbo- This is partially your fault. tipios is the other culprit. I hate Dreadnoughts. This one I played a game with on Sunday. First roll- 6. Hey diddle diddle, right up the middle. Oh look, a Leman Russ Executioner with Plasma Cannon sponsons! *Fzzzwhoosshhh .... KA-BOOM!* Yeah, I hate Dreadnoughts. A lot.

@ zadelistol- I think it's more scale to the old Heavy Flamer template, it's pretty big. I'll upload / repost later when I get home.

@ Moltar- Glad you like it. Creating a feeling of nausea is the highest compliment for a hobbyist that focuses on Undead and Plague Marines. My wife has accepted my -addiction- hobby and is quite cool with it. Besides, she was asleep for most of that. Ha. Regarding the tone, I'm going to give washing it down one more try. I'm going to mix a new batch of ink, but on the Land Raider I'm going to try a mix of Red Gore and maybe Snakebite Leather into the ink pot I already have, just need to tone down the whole "neon" feel. I have no interest in adding any sort of Slaanesh element to my Death Guard. Though I do have a pot of Chestnut Brown, I will try that first. Thanks for the idea. I'm really looking forward to completing this project because it will without a doubt be the centerpiece of my entire army, plus learning how to properly apply it in a tactical sense will most likely turn my current losing streak around. I have a very powerful army if I use it correctly. Battle Wagons with Deff Rollas? Whatever. Bring it on. Ha.


Just a text update for the afternoon. I'm almost finished with my next squad, should have them done and posted tonight or tomorrow at the latest. I'm really cranking right now. I'm feeling very motivated and I'm also finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The Death Guard will eventually start to wind down. It's not going to be anytime soon, but aside from a few more vehicles I want to add (another Land Raider, two more Rhinos, the Vindicator that I picked up yesterday, and a few other surprises) and fill out my Havocs with a Missile Launcher and Lascannon team, I'm finished. No more Plague Marines once this batch is done. I need to stop somewhere, and I think this is as good as any place to start settings goals and limits.

However, that doesn't mean that I won't be working on peripherals. I have a very strong interest in creating a massive Traitor Guard / Chaos Cult full of miniatures that are currently living on my Shelf of Shame. I've been working on it here and there behind the scenes, and have pressed miniatures from Necromunda, IG ranging from RT, 2nd ed, and current plastics, Blood Bowl, Demonblade, Ral Partha, Reaper, etc into service. Some are sporting PIP gas mask heads, others have been horrifically mutated with the help of a wonder saw, GS, and a huge Chaos bits box. Without a doubt this will be my next project and of course I'll be tagging them along with the Death Guard and keeping this thread alive on Dakka until they finally get sick of me and give me the boot. So I'll be around for a while longer I think.

Thanks for reading, I'll be back later w/ new pics.

Latest squad is done:



I really like the model on the left. Does anyone have any idea what it is / what it is from?



Something really interesting must be over that way --------->



This Aspiring Champion is lame and I don't like it. It serves a purpose and that's it. It's done.




That's it for tonight. Thanks for looking.

Skalk man your wife must really love you to bring your hobby on vacation !
Man loving your dred and how your squad is coming out. Yes too bad we are at opposite sides of the country...me in sunny California and you in 20 ft of snow j/k nah would love to have a game of good vs. evil and cleanse you from the board !!!

Alright, yeah I've seen the old heavy flamer template. A friend in college had one and still played by the rules that used it. He still hadn't upgraded. XD

Ugh Skalk look what you done to Fasteddiexx1 http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/330738.page

SKALK!!! Your Marines are the most Plague-iest I've ever seen!!! man you can just see the snot oozing out of the those pustules!!! Amazing conversion work Brother!!! Keep the snot flowing!!!

SNOT FOR THE BLOO... I mean SNOT GOD!!!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:@ zadelistol- Yeah, I wish. Chaos should get a lot of cool things.

Hails to all! Man, I feel like I've been gone a month. Took a bit of a vacation last weekend, first time the wife and I went anywhere since early 2006. It was a much needed and very much enjoyed break from the real world. You may be wondering what exactly an amazing guy like Skalk Bloodaxe does while on vacation. He does exactly what you'd expect him to do- paint Death Guard miniatures!

ROFL!!! Man, if I ever tried that I would get every sideways, upside down, stabby eyed look you could imagine getting from a spouse....
Skalk, your dominance over the female species impresses even me.... I must build temples to honor your...ummm.... craftiness and have the cultists gibber your name to the gods of the warp....

Nothing quite says "romantic evening" like Gore Red washed over Vomit Brown and Bleached Bone.

Quick update for now- I'm hammering out the next squad, I'm moving along at a pretty fast pace. I also have some WIP for that Rhino I mentioned earlier. Man what a mess that thing was. Here's a pic of it before I bought it:



It's OOP which fits the rest of the vehicles in my army, I picked it up for only $10, and it was going to be warped by the irresistible forces of Chaos anyway... but man, I had no idea just how horrible it truly was. Small matter, though. I am a master of recovering Imperial vehicles and twisting them into the wretched machines of putrescence that you have all come to know and love. I had to completely disassemble it and get rather creative with the reassembly. Pics of that process coming soon. I'm quite proud of where it is at considering where it came from.

"But Skalk, what about the Land Raider???"

Yeah, I know. It's coming. I promise. I'm not feeling the love for it at the moment but I'll figure out how to get past the current obstacles and then it'll be flat out again. The good news is that I'm really cranking on the Death Guard overall, the new Rhino will be a valued addition and the new squads are going to bump my "painted points" up significantly. APOC is coming. Father Nurgle shall consume yet another world very soon.

Ok, here's my weekend update. Before I get started, this is the first time I've tried doing a "start to finish" photo log of a project. This is going to be a long post. You might want to grab a beverage and get comfortable before you start reading this. It's ok, I'll wait.

*waiting...*

All set? Awesome!

Just for reference, this is how the Rhino looked when I first got it. Sorry if the photo size is off, I didn't take it myself.



The photo shows a really bad paint job, but little else. It was so much worse than the photo indicated. It was put together with polystyrene glue, and whoever put it together used probably 1/2 the tube. It was so thick that it didn't just bond the plastic, it actually dissolved the plastic in places and fused separate pieces into warped clumps. I had to use a chisel tool to cut through the plastic welds. What a mess. And that's also when I found out that the model was also broken and there were huge cracks in the hull and the frame. It was slathered with glue, broken, and cut up so badly that it looked more like a Looted Wagon than a Blood Angel Rhino. Ugh. Anyway, I tore it apart down to basics:

No top, no rear, just glued hatches:



Open top Rhino?



Ugh. What a pile of junk.



This is where I had to get creative. With most of the top and all of the rear hull cut out by the former owner, I didn't have much to work with. So I flipped it around. I had to do some bracing so the warped hull would retain its shape, but at least I recovered most of the top hull.



The front was still a problem, though.



If Rhinos still had forward hatches I'd have replicated the same sort of "gaping maw" like I did on the Land raider. Since they don't, I went digging through my bits box. I could not find anything that would work. I finally had to take this hatch off a Necromunda terrain piece. I'll repair that with something else later. Once I put the hatch on I saw that the gap where the bottom of the hull should be was more significant than I had hoped and resorted to the bitz box again, this time finding an old Gorka Morka ram bar that fit and all things considered I think all this worked out pretty well:





After I took the above photos I removed the Rhino ram bar (which was now some weird looking Spiky thing on the back of the Rhino hull) and added a rack of Chaos trophy spikes because there was a gap that needed to be filled on the top and just using plasticard looked weird.

Purists will likely scold me for not stripping and cleaning the model first before the next step. And I'll agree to a point- If I were trying to recover this for any other Legion I would have. But since I was going to be visiting the horrors of all things Nurgle upon this former Blood Angels vehicle, I saw no reason to add that lengthy process. I just sprayed them down w/ flat white primer. You can see the rips in the hull I was mentioning earlier now that everything is cleaned up and flat white.







Once I had the "work" done and I had the model as solid as it ever will be again, the fun truly began. I dug through my bitz box again, mixed up a huge ball of GS, and invoked the ruinous power of Father Nurgle.











Once the GS had hardened I started the base colors for the "flesh" and hull. The small spot of green is a color test.

Ok, ok... it's from me forgetting that I do the flesh first and then the hull ink next. Anyway, you'll notice that the paint (GW Vomit Brown for those of you that care) is a bit sloppy here and there. It's ok. It gets better later. You may also notice that the paint looks "glossy". It's because it was still wet. I took these photos as soon as I was done.







Next I based the spikes ( GW Bleached Bone)







Ok... NOW I inked the hull (I use a mix of Formula P3 Green and Yellow ink). I give the hull a "blotchy" appearance by wetting down the hull with water before washing it w/ the ink.









After the ink wash had completely dried I gave the entire model its first shade wash of GW Griffon Sepia. I can't go on enough about how absolutely amazing this stuff is and how it has changed how I paint. I'm not a "bad" painter, but there's a lot of room for improvement and this stuff makes my models look a lot better in a lot less time.







While I was waiting for the Sepia wash to fully dry I painted all the metal bitz on the Rhino. The silver is GW Boltgun Metal. The gold is Ral Partha Bronze.











Once all of that was done and dried I washed the "flesh" again, this time w/ a 50/50 mix of Red Gore and water. I also picked out some of the basics on the trophy rack.







After the Red Gore wash dried I did a light drybrush of white and then Vomit Brown again to take the overall redness out of the "flesh" and pick out the detail better. Also put some touchups on the bone spikes and ulcerated boils in the flesh, also had to touch up the front of the Rhino as bit of the ink came off earlier. Also a bit more work on the trophy rack.







And it's done! The Combi-Bolter was added, and the model got had the final work done it, a light wash w/ a bit of black to shade in specific places, and some Devlin Mud in others.

















To recap, here's the before and after again:



And finally, here it is with the other two Rhinos I did previously. Fits in rather nicely I think.



This project was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to putting my new Rhino on the table and bring the fight to the enemy! Thanks for checking this out, and as always more updates are coming soon!!!

Nice walk through of how you saved the rhino, and good job on the finished product.

love what you have done your chaos marines look amazing!!!

Very nice save on that rhino man.
I've been following your progress from the start of the thread and I have to commend you on some very nice work.
Looking forward to seeing more.

@ tipios- This was a really fun project once I figured out how to put it back together. There was a short time I thought it was going to be a new piece of terrain. Ha.

@ risewiththefallen- Thanks for checking my stuff out and for the compliment. I'm looking forward to seeing your Bezerkers.

@ FITZZ- Man your avatar creeps me out. Thanks for following along. I've seen your stuff before when I was surfing the Gallery. It looks like the conversions are excellent. Any chance of cleaner pictures?

@ Skalk..

The good Captain is a wonderful guy once you get to know him.
Appreciate the kind words about my own Death Guard,I plan to do a photo shoot of the entire army in the near future,which is going to be huge.

In the meantime keep up the great work man,it's a lot of fun seeing what you come up with.

FITZZ wrote:I plan to do a photo shoot of the entire army in the near future

You just reminded me I wanted to do that this weekend. I think I have a touch of Nurgle's Rot, I feel icky and my head is cloudy. Ugh.

Here's what I set up tonight. This is 100% of my painted army. It's not a "list legal" army because I have a lot of fillers, like the Special Weapons on the far right and the Havocs on the far left. But the squads are all ready to go. I didn't tally the points here but it is a lot.








This photo should be the last thing any army ever sees.... ha


Ok. That's it. I am done for the weekend. Goodnight Dakka, see you tomorrow.

Skalk,

Awesome save on that rhino. Although tasking, I appreciate the step by step photos, even though I know it can be a bit annoying to have to remember to stop what you're doing and pick up the camera every 20 seconds. The group shots looks quite menacing!

Nice Rhino Skalk, after looking at the process you went through to get it to where it is. I gotta ask, do you use primer?

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:
@ Limbo- This is partially your fault. tipios is the other culprit. I hate Dreadnoughts. This one I played a game with on Sunday. First roll- 6. Hey diddle diddle, right up the middle. Oh look, a Leman Russ Executioner with Plasma Cannon sponsons! *Fzzzwhoosshhh .... KA-BOOM!* Yeah, I hate Dreadnoughts. A lot.

That's how Chaos Dreadnoughts are supposed to work =) You roll a six, he rushed to close to a plasma cannon, opps he died cause he's so crazy, *everyone laughs* ^^ Only time I hate them is in Dawn of War vs a shooty army.......they become so useless -.-

Army looks great! Especially like the centerpieces ^^

I take full responsibility in forcing you to make any sort of dreads. Now come on you still got another one to sort out.

@ Moltar- Thank you for the compliment. Were I not a dedicant to Nurgle I doubt it would have been as easy, the fleshy corruption helped cover a lot of the "unsalvageable" parts. I've always wanted to do a "step by step" and as simple a process as this was, it was 40 pictures from start to finish.

@ zadelistol- I do not use primer, I use cheap Wal-Mart flat white spray. 98 cents a can. Or whatever. The really, really cheap stuff.

@ Limbo- No, it is supposed to run up the table in cover, melt the Executioner, then charge into close combat w/ a bunch of completely unprepared and terrified Guardsmen. I'm going to try a game where my entire Elite list is nothing but Dreadnoughts. I'm hoping that eventually the odds will even out in my favor and I'll get to see a Dreadnought actually do something other than provide kill points for my opponent.

@ tipios- I've decided to not Nurgle up the Dread I have finished already. I'm just going to get my hands on another AoBR plastic and have another go at the "crystal sarcophagus", hopefully doing it right this time. But do not hold your breath, I'm going to finish what I have right now before I go back down that road again.

P.S. @ Limbo & tipios- you are both enablers, you know that?


Quick update- Father Nurgle has been spreading his love all across the Northlands and has decided to bestow his miasmic gift upon me. I'm not even sure if I am going to go to work today.

So since I have been up all night hacking my lungs out and praising the glory of Nurgle, I decided to gather together the "last of the last" to see where I am at and I was amazed. I have 7 squads of Marines, 6 Aspiring Champions, and the Land Raider left. That's every model I own that has been marked by Nurgle. Missing from this photo is the Khornate Nurgle Veterans. I have no idea where they are. For now they truly are "The Lost". But here's what the last of my army is looking like:




Wow.

I am amazed at how this has all happened. I have less unfinished models for my army than I have finished. I can see the "end" of this project within realistic grasp. I know that the Death Guard will never be "done", but once the stuff you see here has been painted (add another Land Raider, a Dreadnought, a Vindicator, a Missile Launcher and Lascannon Havoc squad) and I am finished with this phase. I know I'll keep going on a Nurgle theme once the Plague Marines are done though. I've seen some amazing examples of Traitor Guard in many different threads on Dakka. I'd like to paint up a couple hundred of those I think.

I'm off to recite holy litanies to the Putrescent One. Thanks for reading. I'll be back.

I'm not sure how well the sarcophagus is sealed, but could you cut it out, seal it, place the skeleton inside, then lay the dread on its back, balanced and supported to stay at the right angle and fill the sarcophagus with water effects? Just a thought.

I genuinely thought about re-doing the one I messed up, but I'm going to leave it as is. If Papa Nurgle wanted a pus-filled tank, he'd have a pus-filled tank. The broken glass makes it even the more disturbing really, if you think about it. A venerated Death Guard Plague Marine encapsulated in a life-support system, head lolling around, eyes wandering to and fro, electrical impulses triggering instantaneous and flawless response from the behemoth of a machine he is wired into... is he literally looking at you, or is that just a sensor?

I just creeped myself out. It probably didn't translate into text all that well, but eegh... yeah, that was creepy to me.