Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Statistically speaking I have a 33.333 percent chance of having something unsavory happen at the beginning of each of my turns. To date I have yet to have a game where I have not had something incredibly stupid happen at least twice. I can see why an astute Warlord that had victory on their mind would steer clear of such a machine. Luckily I play for fun so at times it's actually kind of funny to see it running across the field snapping it's clawing and shrieking in it's blood chilling mechanical voice.

Personaly, I consider it a 0.1666 percent chance that something stupid happens, since I tend to deploy my dreads as near the enemy as possible, hence why I hate Dawn of War -.-

Weekend update. Keeping my word, I went back and finished details that should have been done in the first place. I drilled out a lot of barrels, even some on really old models that have been around since my original army. I touched up some bits and detail that was lacking, and overall I feel better about the effort I've been making lately.

I'm not posting pics of something so minor (drilled barrels) but I am posting some work I did on an Aspiring Champion. I had the idea on this one to have a banner covered with awards, certificates, etc that has either been awarded to the champion or ones that he had ripped from defeated enemies. But I rushed it and just left the banner empty. I went back over it a couple times and this is the end result:



I'm mostly happy with it. I know I could have cleaned up another couple things but this time it really is it. I'm done w/ this one. I actually made the backbanner worse today by trying to add some definition between the different awards on it and would up doing a lot of "fix it as best I can" work to bring it to where it is now, which is less than it was before I started I think. It is a small matter. It is a good miniature for wargaming and it meets my standard for an acceptable tabletop paintjob. I wouldn't enter it into a painting contest but I'd enter it into a 1,500 pt army for a night of "roll dice kill stuff".

In other news, I have some work done on my super top secret Project X. I will say that I was very unhappy when I really sat down and started to look at the base model. Previously I had taken a look at it to say "yup. it's what I bid on" and set it aside. I was finally starting to move the concept in my mind onto the miniature and see how much of it would transfer and what changes had to be made, what first steps would I need to take, etc. That's when it it became obvious that before I was going to get any work done on my vision I had to undo almost everything on the model. It had to have been glued by an unsupervised novice with no idea how basic modeling works and was convinced that 1 model = 1 full tube of polystyrene glue. I spend over an hour just cutting the model apart so I could repair and rebuild it to meet my standard and needs for the model I am going to make out of it. I actually got so sick of it that I gave up on everything and burned up a couple hours playing a video game just to readjust my head and not wind up hating this project.

Feh. There's a lot of work to be done on this. But in the end I expect it will be worth it.

In other other news, still no PIP heads. As stated before I won't start getting too twitchy about it until next week, but I was honestly disappointed when I checked the mail yesterday. I have a squad of Plagie Marines pre-painted, just need the heads to finish the model and then a bit of work to wash / tone / etc. Once that is done I'll have instant gratification with a new squad of gas masked Plague Marines. So I guess the good news of that is that as soon as they get here I'll be able to post something up.

And finally, in other other other news I have a Land Raider coming sometime next week and I'm pretty sure as soon as it hit my work table it will become priority #1 until it is finished. I am planning on pushing my sculpting limits on this one, I really want to warp and corrupt this LR as much as possible while still maintaining a cohesive thread with the rest of my army. I have a lot of GS on hand because of the other project I'm working on so there will be no lack of material.

That's it for this one. As always, thanks for following along and much more is on the way.

The banner looks nice, I like it! Looks like he just graduated from a Astartes School or something!!

I like the slightly brighter green than average for a Nurgle army. It sort of 'pops' a bit more than an average Nurgle DG force.

Banner guy looks great! You never considerd putting the mark of nurgle on it? I like this one too thought, love the idea of him stealing seals and such from loyalist space marines.

You've perked my intrest regarding Project X, hope you'll stick to it!

Looking great Skalk, sorry to hear about the PIP heads again.

Please tell me its a classic 2ed LR? Those things look epic IMO.

@ Yggdrasil- Ha! Thanks for that. I'm hoping he gets the opportunity to actually earn some of those certificates and awards soon. Right now he's a convincing poser. Hmm. In retrospect I actually could have not done anything w. the banner and added those things one at a time as he actually earned them (I'll do that on occasion, like with my WoC- I tabled my friends Beastmen army so I made a new BSB for my WoC with a Minotaur Lord's head atop the pole looking rather bloody and drippy. The point was not lost on my friend.

@ wolfshadow- Thanks for the compliment. Other people have noticed that as well, especially on the tabletop. What looks extremely bright in photos actually mellows in "real life" and stands out more distinctly. While it is not always to my benefit that people remember my Havoc squad is on the rooftop because they don't look like the rooftop they are one, I'm really enjoying the uniqueness of my force and because I have found a formula that is an almost exact match to the original ink that I used to use I'll be able to use this same scheme for as long as I want.

@ Limbo- Thank you . I had considered putting the Mark of Nurgle on it but it seemed too "easy", meaning it is something one would expect to see in a Death Guard army. This is more unusual (and unlike some of my ideas, this one I did not 'borrow' from someone else, this came to me in a vision... ha). The original idea was to copy pictures of documents and awards online, downsize them, print them, and done. Result was that downsizing that much obscured the detail on the printer. So believe it or not, each one of those truly is an award or some other document. One of the is the US Constitution, another is the US Bill of Rights. Notice that they are completely indistinguishable from a random piece of paper. There's a metaphor there but I'm not going any further with it. Bottom line is end result I still had to paint outlines and squiggly lines and pretend wax stamps and ribbons... but at least I know what mistakes I made on this so if I do it again (which is highly likely) it will look better.

@ zadelistol- I'm giving PIP a few more days before I send them an email. I submitted my order on Nov 23rd, the 14th will be 3 weeks. If this were being shipped in the US I'd have a different expectation. That's doesn't mean I'm not disappointed; I'm just not upset about it. ---- You make me really want to tell you what Project X is, but at this point I feel that with all the suspense and buildup if you knew what it was without seeing the awesome amazing incredible OTT end result along with it you'd be disappointed because it's not incredibly unique, I've found a number of them on Dakka and would likely find even more online via any search engine. So I can't tip my hand even in a PM, but I'll throw you this scrap at least: as awesome as it would be and as much as I would like to have one again (yes I used to have one, sold it when i was hurting for $$$ and have regretted it ever since) this project is not the original OOP Land Raider. That is not saying that someday I won't have one again, I just haven't bid high enough on the ones that have shown up on eBay.

Thanks again everyone for following along and posting comments! There's something to be said about acknowledgement and validation from your peers.

Today’s update is actually from work I did last night and I’ve already got more work done on them, but here's the project I am working on this week. This squad was thought up a few weeks ago but my most recent game is what motivated me to truly get them going. You’ll recognize the converted RT model if you saw the update a while back. The GS didn’t come out as awesome as I had hoped but admittedly I did not give it the attention I should have so the result is equal to the effort.



Death Guard Havocs with Autocannons. 8d6 of S7 AP4 that can reach out and touch good up to 48". It's good for killing... well, almost anything. Sure, some things will still get a save, and heavier vehicles don't have a lot to worry about, but bottom line is that the AC is a lot of dakka for the points spent.

I also made a new Aspiring Champion for this squad. It won't stay with this squad specifically, but he does fill a necessary slot. From now on whenever I make a new squad of anything I'm going to make an Aspiring Champion at the same time. I'm also going to pay more attention to the WYSIWYG and model them w/ Bolters and a pistol puch that I can call a Plasma if I want, or have it be a standard Bolt Pistol. Reason being is that I'm going to make some "double duty" models that can be Aspiring Champions on their own or Chosen in a group. Each one is so unique that I doubt anyone will have an issue with me using the same models in different roles (at different times of course).

So the Death Guard is still growing and going strong. I'll have this new squad done before the end of the week. More coming soon.

VERY NICE!! The thing that seperates the havoc from the devastator imo. Most people will say "get missile launchers instead", but then you're missing out on some really cool weapons! RT marine turned out great, very freakish. Aspiring Champion fits nice too, kinda like "On my mark *Raises Hand*....DESTROY!".
Did you have trouble putting the Autocannons on? I've only done one so far, and I found it to be a real pain to get it on right, and I didn't even place it right... just look closer at his left shoulder =/ Btw, thanks for voting on him.

Just caught up on this lot. That DP is looking sweet as. Well, you know, sweet in a disgusting, too-sugary type way Like what you did with the old RT guy too, love those old chaos guys, they rock as far as I'm concerned.

8 STR 7 shots is pretty cool. Light vehicles and big creatures beware.

Might just steal this idea and order a box of CSM and some Reaper Autos! I sadly only have the one on my defilier currently, but it works out great when I use it!

lookin good

Awesome work, dude.

I'd love to have my Legionnaires face off against your Death Guard. That'd make for a fun game. : )

@ Limbo- I'm going to make a Havoc squad with every list-legal combination of weapons, including 4 Meltas and 4 Plasma Guns. Yup, I can do that according to the rules. Although Papa Nurgle sometimes punishes me for taking too many Plasma Guns I can't resist the idea of a 7 man squad laying down that much "move and shoot" firepower. - I didn't have any issues with getting the AC to line up when I was modeling them. The one on the RT model had to be converted to fit, but the other three models was just glue and done. There is the slight angle to the AC but that's ok, it looks like it is being swung around to engage a target. And from the positioning / helm I used I can almost hear the Marine screaming "GET SOME!" as he burns up a belt of ammo.

@ monkeytroll- Welcome back! Glad you're liking the Daemon Prince. It is as done as it is going to get. It was turning into one of those projects where if I let it continue I'd never have finished it. There's a LOT going on with that model. If you ever see one in person check it out, the detail on it is madness. - I'm running low on RT CSM models. There was an auction on eBay a while ago that was *all* RT but I missed it. I expect more will be joining but it's not going to be for a while.

@ wolfshadow- ... like a Rhino filled with Space Marines? Light vehicles beware indeed.

@ zadelistol- Glad I am an inspiration! Autocannons are filled with goodness. Multiple shots, decent AP, fair chance on punching a vehicle, only thing I don't like about them is I can't move and shoot. But with a 48" range I'm ok w/ that. Check eBay before spending retail $$$, you might get lucky. I bought my 4 Autocannons and a CSM in a lot for $9 shipping included.

@ weetyskemian44 - thanks and welcome back! I've been reading though your quest for perfection. There's a lot to it for sure. Your painting and photography is excellent. You and I share a LOT of the same miniatures, though I think most of your models look better.

@ Vladsimpaler- Thanks for the compliment, fellow Chaos player! Your stuff is awesome. I have 3 of the 4 models you have in your Frenzied Four. It didn't make me want to paint them in opposing colors or anything. Nope. I'm not working on that behind the scenes at all. And I'm not trying to get that 4th model, either. - It seems like most of the people I've been introduced to on Dakka are from CA. I wonder why that is? But I agree, World Eaters vs. Death Guard. Or better yet... as allies in an APOC game stomping Imperial heads into the mud. But until one of us travels to the other side of the country it'll just be a good idea.

Thanks all for the replies! Tonight's update is completely awesome if I say so myself, which I do therefore it must be. Ahead of schedule but no known corners cut, I present Death Guard Havoc squad- Autocannons:



The photos do not really do any of the models justice, I really put some work into this batch. The Aspiring Champion is really cool. I even did some highlighting on him, starting to experiment more with that technique. The star of this show is the RT model. Again, another look at "before":



...and here he is in all of his Chaos glory now:



I dare say that his current incarnation is a lot cooler.

In other news, still no PIP heads. According to their website I should give it 4 weeks to arrive, it's only been three. I'm glad I looked it up instead of sending off an email. I'll give it another week.

In other other news, MORE Marines on the way, I saw an auction I could not refuse and scored a deal so sick it is almost embarrassing to tell what I got and how little I paid for it. It works out to around 10 cents per Marine.

In other other other news, Land Raider should be here tomorrow or Friday and I have shelved Project X because it started to annoy me. My next "take to work" project is going to be another squad of Terminators. With Reaper Autocannon of course. Pics tomorrow.

Thanks for following along. More coming soon.

10c Per marine is a awsome deal, even if you have to strip them. Good job!

Love the Autocannon marine. He looks pretty awsome, and is indeed significantly cooler in this incarnation.

wolfshadow wrote:
Love the Autocannon marine. He looks pretty awsome, and is indeed significantly cooler in this incarnation.

Definitely agreed. At first I thought "sacrilege!" but it has turned out to be pretty awesome. : )

As for the Frenzied Four, they have been alerted of the presence of their rivals, the Flirtatious Foursome, in a nearby system. The battle is sure to be epic and pretty bloody.

Quick update and then bed. One of these days I really need to just stop all this madness and sleep. Yeah. That'll happen.

Since my last update a while ago I searched through my bitz, built the most ridiculously expensive Chaos Terminator squad I have ever built (6 Chainfist 1 Powerfist 4 Metal combis 2 Flamer combis and a Heavy Flamer) primed white and gave them their first ink base wash. So it's official, my next project really is another squad of Chaos Terminators:



They will look distinctly different next time you see them.

@ wolfshadow- Thanks. eBay is my friend. There's no way I could be doing this if I were buying stuff retail.

@ Vladsimpaler- I'm glad you like the conversion. If it makes you feel any better I have that same miniature in it's pure form, unpainted and likely to stay that way. Confused about the Flirtatious Foursome... is that some Slaaneshi warband?

Those havocs turned out awesome!! I want 4 autocannons aswell >_>
Gah, please tell me you're doing more terminators than those 6? You have to do a couple with Manreapers as power weapons, or atleast a terminator lord with a Manreaper. I've wanted to do that for a while now, but since I play Iron Warriors, I've had no excuse to =/

Arggg! Not knowing what Project X is killing me!

I do like how the RT model turned out, Perosnally I didn't like how scrawny he looked but now he looks much better!

And Limbo, you can have Iron Warriors with a squad and hq from the Death Guard. Might not be to the fluff but it could still work.

True, but I don't really need another lord xP And he wouldn't fit with the fluff I have planed. So I still say, Skalk, Manreapers!!

@ Limbo- I already have a Lord in Terminator armor w/ a Manreaper. You can see him in my lineup here. Look for the big guy with the scythe in the upper left near the trees and hill. Coolest part is that he's actually my Death Guard Lord from 1997 that was converted just before this game, I finished it up later but haven't posted any pics of him yet. I'll take a specific picture when i get home tonight. The Terminator squad I am working on now is simply another squad of Elites but of course he can join them. I will say that the Manreaper is competely useless against Kans though, and that is a problem. I'm thinking I'm not going to use a Manreaper again until I'm playing against squisher targets. But back to the Terminator Veterans. I already have one that I play pretty regularly. The reason I went with Terminators w/ Chain Fists is because (1) My Tyranid friend is working feverishly on his Space Wolves, and (2) another friend of mine just got back for Afghanistan. Between Land Raiders and Leman Russ tanks I'm going to have a lot of opportunity to carve up some heavy armor and the extra D6 on the CF is going to come in handy. The only reason I didn't fit all seven Terminators w/ CF is because I only had 6 left in my bitz box. Ha.

@ zadelistol- I'm thinking it'll be ok to forget all about Project X for a while. I am supremely sick of even looking at it. And as soon as my PIP heads get here that is going to become my #1 priority because I have many bodies already primed and inked just waiting for a head, that is a project that will move along quickly once I have the heads to put on. Plus I'm working on my new Terminator squad, and I have a Land Raider that should arrive in the next few days. I'm sure the spark will return and I'll revisit Project X but right now I'm sick of it and I know better than to "force" this or I'm going to scrap the entire project and go play video games instead. - Glad you like the RT model w/ the conversion and new AC. I never liked that model really. When the one I used showed up in a batch of older models I bought on eBay (the Mk VI Beakie I used in my Heavy Bolter squad was from the same auction) I decided I would use it for something at some point, and this was as good as any purpose. I think it looks a lot more menacing and serious now, it was kind of cartoonish before.

The Autocannon RT mini looks way better now indeed!!!

Also like how the whole squad turned out, they're great!!!

I'm looking forward to that picture =)
Btw, what are you missing from your force? What do you really want to add before you can consider it finished?

@ Yggdrasil- Glad you like them. I slowed down and paid a bit more attention to the fiddly details on this squad. I'm noticing that my painting style is changing a bit, I've been experimenting more with different washes, shading, etc. I won't be making any revolutionary changes because I want to continue the theme that ties my army together, but I think I am creating more detailed models now.

@ Limbo- Interesting questions. I don't know the answer. I could say that nothing is missing and that it was finished in 1998. But then I could say it's missing everything and it won't be finished until I can field minimum 10k pts in an APOC game.

The original Death Guard models I have were simply a contingent of a much larger force. My Lord was absolutely brutal. Always took the marks of Khorne and Nurgle, was kitted for CC to the point that he could stand toe to toe w/ a Bloodthirster until it became wound attrition, the Bloodthirster had way more. I had a squad of Khorne Berzerkers in Terminator armor, they were the hammer that smashed against the anvil that the Death Guard provided. I also had Iron Warriors, Alpha Legion, and Black Legion represented on the field depending on what my needs for that specific game were. Bear in mind back in the day point cost were way higher and there were less models on the table. And I almost always brought some Plaguebearers and frequently my GU1. So the miniatures I had made up my army with a decent selection and variety.

Right before I started this blog I played a 10k pt game of 40K (5k per side) and I struggled to fill 5k points of painted miniatures even when I added everything I had and in the end I wound up fielding unpainted stuff, the entire point of the game was to field completed units. Because I roleplay my army even if it is to the detriment of victory my Berzerkers died completely pointless deaths and my Death Guard had the best "point for point" kill ratio on my side of the board. That left a definite impression on me. I started painting the Death Guard models that I had played unpainted. I took a picture of them (i.e. the beginning of this thread) and started to play them to the exclusion of all else, which of course prompted the "need" for more troops, more Champions, more everything. I now have enough to play a 2,500 pt game fully painted and I have some huge projects coming. There's honestly no end in sight. I want to model another Dreadnought (which is partially your fault) and I want at least 3 Land Raiders available and I've been looking at a Baneblade... no end in sight. If I were sane I'd have a nice tidy 2,500 pt army and be happy. But I'm an obsessive collector. I'll keep going on this until another project steals my attention. For what it is worth I did the same thing with my VC army and wound up with over 450 zombies. I'm not going to stop doing this anytime soon.

Since I started about 1,5 year ago, I have no idea what your talking about xP I can guess the models since I'm a whore for lore, but past edition rules and such....way above my head. Berzerkers in terminator armor? MoN and MoK on the same model, that sounds crazy.....and really fun
(Btw, I'm not sorry about the dread)
Personaly, I just want all the cool models in the codex....which is every model, but not noise marines and most characters.

I see your point on the collection. I plan of having around 3-7 K for my Ebon Gauntlets, including, hopefully, a Fellblade Superheavy.


And god help me when the Grey Knight plastics get released.

Ah okay. Well since it's been shelved I can wait and forget about it till you mention it again.

Sadly since I have a few bills that just came up and christmas that has arrived I can't buy anything else till after the start of the year. I have been playing for going on two years now. How you find your mini's so cheap is amazing! I need to start browsing E-bay more often I guess. Doesn't help that I have to help my brother get his Nid army up and running since he can't get a job. So I'm paying for two armies. Speaking of which, I need to get some good idea of what to get him for his army for christmas. I know the dex and HQ but not sure what HQ to get. He has seen the swarmlord and wants it but doesn't do conversions very well so I would have to do it><.

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:

@ Vladsimpaler- I'm glad you like the conversion. If it makes you feel any better I have that same miniature in it's pure form, unpainted and likely to stay that way. Confused about the Flirtatious Foursome... is that some Slaaneshi warband?

Haha I was referencing your comment that you were going to be painting the same 4 miniatures in opposing colors. : )

It really is too bad that we live on opposite sides of the states, I'd love to play a game or 2 against some like minded people. (Maybe even a couple 2nd edition games, for kicks. )

Hi guys. Thanks for posting, it's really cool to know people are genuinely following this project. I will reply properly tomorrow, just stopping in quick enough to post better pics of my Death Guard Lord as promised. Keep in mind most of this is 1997 or so. I'll detail the different parts / bitz and what I did and all that tomorrow. It's been a long day and I don't have the attention span to do this correctly right now.





3 more pics in gallery.

quick update- I've got a lot done on the new Terminator squad. They will be finished by the middle of next week. WIP pics coming maybe tomorrow or Saturday.