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I think I'm going to try and log this next army project from start to finish. I'm usually really bad at doing WIP photos, so this is going to be a bit of an effort on my part.

Step one: buy needed stuff. Did that over the last few days. Stopped by the Chicago Bunker, and ordered some of the FW nurgle upgrade kits for marines and terminators, and fancy rhino/LR doors. Got in on the Warstore's post-christmas sale to order most of the GW stuff I needed, and ordered a few direct-order-only items from the GW website. Picked up some more Fens resin bases, that match my Nurgle Daemon bases, from ironhalo.

Here's what's coming, should make for a 3500 point Nurgle force:

1 FW Nurgle Sorceror
3 FW Nurgle Marine upgrade kits
2 FW Terminator upgrade kits
5 sets of Deathguard rhino doors
1 set of Deathguard Land Raider doors
1 set of chaos landraider tracks (I cannot stand the idea of a chaos landraider driving around with Imperial Eagles on the tracks)
1 each of the FW Nurgle Dreadnoughts, plus arms to go with these.

3 boxes of chaos marines
2 boxes of chaos havoks
8 chaos bikers
2 boxes of chaos termies
1 chaos termie lord
4 chaos rhinos
1 chaos predator
1 chaos vindicator
1 chaos land raider
2 boxes of plague marines
3 obliterators
1 Typhus
2 bitz boxes of death guard shoulder pads
2 bitz boxes of extra meltaguns


Trying to decide how to paint them. I'm leaning towards The Cleaved, from the C:SM codex. Looks like a fairly simple scheme with Dheneb Stone armour, and oozing blood/oil from gaps in the armour, which will be interesting to paint.


Next update will be when the boxes all arrive.

This is interesting. I hae never seen a forge world nurg. marine painted as the cleaved. I will keep watch.

Looks like a really nice idea (although massive) and I look forward to seeing if you do paint the Cleaved, which personally I hope you do!

Anyways, Ill be watching this one...

Ooo, makes me tingle! Sounds awesome and a it would be so cool to see a project log with wip pictures start to
finish.


//Edge

Today was the first day of the NFL playoffs. What better way to dedicate six+ hours to working on a project, sitting in front of the TV.

During the week, I received the bulk of my orders. I'm still waiting on a couple of things, including the Forgeworld parts, but I've certainly got enough to start working on:




First things first, I got the bases for the army. These are the same bases, from Iron Halo, that I used for my Nurgle Daemons, which will make it easy for the daemons to stand-in when needed as Daemon Princes, Greater or Lesser Daemons.





These will all get painted in one big batch, to match what I've already got.




Scabeiathrax supervises the process. It's important the channel the right spirits into a new army.



Following this, the boxes all get opened, and sorted into buckets of parts that I'll use, and parts that I won't.



This means that I won't spend any extra time filing or trimming parts I won't use, and also sets the first seeds of what I want to do in mind.



Specifically, this time around, I'm doing all the Rhinos with closed hatches. My Emperor's Children are an open-hatched army, these guys will be different. So I don't need any of those parts. I'm going to replace smokestacks with the small chaos heads, so I'll need those, but I don't think I'll need the larger heads. As for the troops, I'm going to skip the holsters and combat knives, and I don't need any of the non-Nurgle specific parts, so they can be put aside. I'm not a big fan of marines with horns or top-knots, and I want everyone who can to have a helmet, so a bunch of heads are being put aside, while others (the top-knot helmets) are having their hair removed. In spite of worshiping the Chaos Gods, these guys are still an elite military operation, and they're going to dress like it, wearing their helmets into battle.

At the end of the day, I've got everything cut off the sprues and sorted. The metal and resin parts have been washed (I'll do this again when the FW parts come in - do you want pictures of this step?) During today's games, I'll be filing off mold lines, and if I have enough time, drilling bolter barrels.

Looks good man, and yeah, I also like to work on my Warhammer during say, football or darts (obviously different in the UK!).

I really like the sounds of this army: the bases look good, I much prefer closed top rhinos, I love the sounds of you keeping a coherent theme with the helmets and I like the minimalist approach for the wargear too - very Death Guard esc...

Have you decided which army your aiming for?

I'm going to do it as The Cleaved. Most Nurgle armies I've seen are done as Deathguard, and The Purge have some interesting painting possibilities. I'm going to use the Deathguard iconography though, as it's really just a Nurgle symbol. This also means I can run a squad or two as plain Chaos marines, whereas that's not really true with pure Deathguard.

Anyhow, I watched more games today, Packers lost, which is always good, and I cleaned the mold lines off of all the vehicle parts (land raider, 4 rhinos, vindicator, predator, and a defiler top that will be usable with the bottom of a Nurglish soulgrinder)

Total time spent so far: 14 hours


edit: got correct chapter name

Looking forward to see what you do with that paint scheme. It will be fun to see some of your WIP.

- Blackbone

Spent the last two nights filing mold lines while watching 'The Wire' (which I highly recommend, great show so far).

As I go through these parts, I tend to start thinking about overall aesthetics of the army. Marines, even chaos marines, are professional soldiers, and, as such, need some level of standardization in their equipment, and especially their vehicles. (Unlike, say, orks, where each vehicle should look different).

I'm not a big fan of chaos rhinos, especially nurgle ones, that look like something is bursting out of it. If it's not daemonically possessed, why would it need a tentacle monster inside it? I'm thinking that I'm going to do some decay as large pits in the surface of the hull. I'm also thinking about using the salt method of weathering to make them look nice and rusted up, although I'm wondering if the dripping blood/oil described in The Purge's section of the codex would look too busy on top of a heavily rusted vehicle. I'll have to consider that too.

Time so far: 20 hours

I thought the cleaved had the black drippy-drip.

Oh, maybe you're right. What's in a name. They're going to be light armour with drippy-drip.

Taken from lexicanum
The Cleaved is a warband of Chaos Space Marines. Oil-like blood constantly oozes from the joints in their power armour. These marines are known to have a high threshold for pain.

Yup, those are the ones.

This looks like a massive project. I like the sound of it, oily drippy-drip all over. I'm looking forward to seeing it come to fruition.

Two more weekends of NFL games, and I'm finished filing, scraping and drilling out bolter barrels. Still waiting for my Forgeworld order before I can start assembly.

Total time so far: 45 hours.

I've also planned out what exactly is being built:

2 units of metal plague marines, seven men each.
Champion w/ magnetized arms. 2 Special Weapon troopers with magnetized arms for plasma/melta/flamer options, rhinos for each.

2 units of 10 marines w/ FW nurgle torsos. Each unit will have two men w/ magnetized arms for special weapon options or a heavy weapon, one magnetized champion. These squads will serve as either plague marines or CSM w/ Mark of Nurgle, as needed. Rhinos for each.

1 unit of 10 men, all with the chainmail torso parts. Squad will have four men with magnetic arms for heavy weapons (Havoks), magneto-champion

1 unit of 7 men, 2 specials & champ.

1 unit of chosen (using DA Robed dudes), magnetic champ, 3x magnetic specials/PWs.

1 unit of 7 bikers, magnets for champ and special weapon options. FW torsos here.

1 biker lord/sorcerer model

1 unit of 7 terminators, magnetic arms, FW torsos
1 unit of 5 terminators, magnetic arms
1 terminator lord/sorcerer
1 Typhus

1 FW sorcerer.

2 extra 25mm bases and bodies, to use as needed.

Land Raider
Vindicator
Predator
Defiler
3 Obliterators
2 Dreadnoughts

Any Daemon Princes or summoned daemons to be used in this army will be seconded from my Nurgle daemon army.

Sounds very cool. Cant waite to see more.

Some more work tonight, with pics.

First, here's me washing the resin bases. Exciting, I know, but it's an important step.



Here's the filed parts of the infantry, all laid out and organized:




Okay, those were fun. On to the neat stuff, Dremel sculpting. Sometimes, you get a really cool model, but there are parts of it that you don't like. Here's one:



That's the Games Day marine from a few years ago. What I like: The torso, with the chainmail. The slight twist to the body. What I don't like for this army: 1) He's stinking loyalist scum. 2) He's dumb and not wearing a helmet in battle.

This is an all pewter model though. In order to get it ready to be part of my army, I need to remove his head, and his loyalist powerfist arm, as well as remove the purity seal, and the crux symbol on a string. That's a decent amount of work. And, it only takes a few minutes with a Dremel (and a jewelers saw).

First, a look at the setup, and tools.



This is a standard Dremel rotary tool, with a flex shaft attachment, and a hanging mount. For the detail work, both of these are necessary. The shaft attachment means that you're really working with a pencil-style tool, rather than supporting the weight of the Dremel in the hand that you're working with. The hanging support means that you're not supporting the weight of the shaft attachment either, nor fighting its natural tendency to straighten out. Dremels are pretty light, but the work involved here requires precision, and the more control and balance you can get out of your tool, the better. Notice, also, the safety glasses on the desk. You're going to be shredding through metal, and shavings do fly off. Wear safety glasses, or don't do this. Your eyes are too valuable.



These are the three bits I use for this sort of work. From top to bottom, there's a really fine engraving bit. There's a straight cutting bit below that. I use it for smoothing surfaces, as the long flat blade works like a file. Finally, there's a large engraving bit, which is used for speedy removal of material. (The red spot is not blood, it's paint on my desk).

Doing this requires a light, but firm touch. The first thing you want to do is use your desk as a stabilizing surface, and anchor your hands together, just like when you're painting.



Go slowly, don't press the bit into the metal and let the tool do the work. If you push the bit into the metal with too much pressure, it can catch and the torque will drag the bit across surfaces of the piece that you don't want, ruining it. This is a subtractive sculpting method, and you can't easily add back stuff that you accidentally removed.

Here's the finished marine:





There's a hole for any plastic marine head, which will fit inside the thinned out neck guard. His right arm is gone, replaced with a nice flat surface to attach a plsatic arm to, and the chainmail has even been re-holed beneath where the crux used to hang. Another loyalist has seen the truth and joined the forces of chaos.

This method can be used on plastic, but it's trickier, as the dremel really heats up, and the plastic can end up melting around the bit. You may have to stop periodically and clean the bit off with a hobby knife. It is, still, a really fast method for removing unwanted detail though. I removed the Dark Angels Iconography from some terminator legs and a robed body, replacing them with Nurgle's tri-circle design:

Thanks for the tips. Don't use that toothbrush!

I got my FW order, finally, and spent some time cleaning and prepping those parts. Added to the mix:

Infantry Upgrade packs (30 power armour, 10 terminator armour)


Two dreads


Five rhino, and one landraider door sets, plus LR chaos tracks.


After prepping that, I set to painting the bases. These are The Fens bases from Ironhalo. Step-by-step follows:

Step One, prime black, and then use one of the old Dark Angel Green spray cans to spray the bases Dark Angels Green:


Paint the ground Calthan Brown


Pick out the larger stones with Charadon Granite


Wash the whole ground area with Devlin Mud


Drybrush the larger stones with Codex Grey


Pick out the bubbles with Knarloc Green


These are then given a coat of Matte Varnish, and left for the final steps when they've got models on them. The final steps are giving a gloss finish to the water, and adding some yellow static grass clumps to the ground.

Time logged so far: 55 hours

Wow! those bases look amazing! My only suggestion is to make the water seem like it has more of a surface... Through, I dunno, drybrushing a lighter green?!

Even so, how can you manage to motivate yourself with that much to do?!

Looking good.

There's no real texture on the water to drybrush against, and drybrushed water would look odd. It's meant to be a very still water, like in a swamp, where there aren't any currents really anyway. When the gloss coat is added (after the guys are added, so that they can be matte sealed on the base), the overall effect looks better.

As for motivation - I dunno, it's just a process. You want an army, you have to put the time in

Wow, I just wan't to say, god help you Redbeard. How much money was that?

I dunno. Less than I make in a week, so I'm not too concerned. I guess you could figure it out if it really matters

whoa.

Very nice stuff.

Redbeard i have always wondered, how do you and others manage to glue the minis on a sceneic base ? Mine can barely stay on a flat surface , not to mention the bumpy surface a scenic base has!

Good grief now thats what I call an assembly line Mr Ford would be proud!

Now THIS is an exciting blog. Very ecxciting to see it all gathered together before you actually start out, rather than adding stuff slowly. Every of your army that I have seen so far is pretty dang awesome and very well done, so this one wont be any different. Good choice on the purge too.

Very much looking forward to updates!

LunaHound wrote:Redbeard i have always wondered, how do you and others manage to glue the minis on a sceneic base ? Mine can barely stay on a flat surface , not to mention the bumpy surface a scenic base has!

Pin the model to the resin base and secure w/ a touch of super glue.

Exactly what SparkeyG said. You put a pin into the model's bases, and they'll never come off