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tzurk wrote:Amazing turnaround on the crawler, gobert. The patina effect is lovely as is the green glow/leakage in the join between the armour plates on the front.

More rhinos is never bad news. Keep up the good work mate

Thanks mate, the stippling worked pretty well on this guy, as did the green glow on his vision slit (painted it the same as the marines lenses.

ShadowsAndDust wrote:That Plague Burst Crawler looks amazing. Probably the best one of the whole army so far.

Thanks mate, hopefully they keep improving as I figure out what I’m doing!

Earlier today The Black Death Crusade undertook its first mission in The Cebriones Crusade (hosted by Cryptic Cabin, Bristol). They descended on Forge World WY-4TT a newly populated planet (Population Density 1) with a growing society (Fecundity 1) of hardy Mechanicum thralls (Vulnerability 1) making for a tough planet to begin concocting a Grand Plague. Never the less they intended to spread Papa Nurgles joy by making the Ad Mech force Unwitting Vectors (chance to increase Plagues Survival Rate with each surviving unit) and exhuming a Viral Harvest (chance to increase Plagues Adaptability when No Mans Land objectives are exhumed).

Carrion-Lord Dregnul deployed in Deep Strike with the Verrux the Weepings Deathshroud Terminators. He sent Gangrus’ Rotborn and Tharxus’ Filthreaver Plague Marines scouting forwards with an eye on the No Man’s Land objectives. The Ad Mech sent forward their Dunerider, Breachers, Servitors and Destroyers. The latter 3 opened fire, taking a couple of wound off Sludgehammer the Myphitic Blighthauler and slaying a Poxwalker who hadn’t hidden very well but the Rotborn shrugged off the fire sent their way. Gutrain and Sludgehowler whittled down the Breachers whilst Pustus (Malignant Plaguecaster) and Feculus (Tallyman) led Gangrus’ Rotborn Plague Marines forward to successfully exhume their first objective uncontested

In turn 2 the Dunerider surged forwards and deposited the Skitarii Vanguard and their Marshall. Their combined firepower put pay to many of the Plague Marines, but they held their ground. Belchmaw was wiped off the board by the Destroyers. The Ruststalkers then surged forward and charged Thraxus’ Filthreavers, both sides whittling each other down.

Dregnul and the Deathshroud teleported in to the Mechanicum rear flank and proceeded to delete Battleclade Servitors. Then with the Eye of the Swarm Stratagem he instructed Thraxus to blast the Ruststalkers at point blank range with all their ranges weaponry, this proved highly effective and they finished them off in the fight phase
Sludgehowler pressed forward to get a clean shot at the Skitarii Rangers taking many of them down. Gutrain and Pustus’ Focussed Plaguewind made mincemeat of the Skitarii Vanguard. But in turn 3 they took their Revenge, with the Dunecrawler tank shocking the remaining members of Gangrus’ Plague Marines and Feculus to death. Pustus tried retaliating but in the panic he missed the massive tank with his staff .

In turn 4 the Ad Mech threw nearly everything they had at Sludgehowler

Shooting had very little impact so they charged in from everywhere to get him off the Objective

And that eventually put pay to him.

The rest of Turn 4 made little difference and then we were out of time. At that point I was ahead by 1 VP so we quickly walked through Turn 5 and figured that we’d have drawn that

So The Black Death Crusade set off with a victory. They also successfully exhumed a Vector Target for the Viral Harvest Agenda, that got 1XP for Pustus. Quite a few Ad Mech were left alive, some of which were below half strength which was needed for my Unwitting Vectors Agenda. As the victor I got an extra Marked for Greatness as a victor Bonus, so I Marked Pustus and Sludgehowler given how effective they’d been.

Rolling for my Path of Contagion I improved the Survival Rate by 1 thanks to Unwitting Vectors. That bagged me another 3XP which I put on Pustus. Viral Harvest turned out to be a bust and made no difference. On step 3 I rolled a 4+ for Cultivation adding 1 to the Survival Rate. Step 4 Counteragents was a fail that meant the Vulnerability stayed at 1. Step 5 is Death Toll, and even with my new Survival Rate of 3 I rolled higher and killed off the small population of WY-4TT and causing my Plague to fail at the first opportunity. Following that failure The Black Death moved on to another planet, they’re yet to figure out its name but with a Population Density of 3 I should keep concocting for a few more games at least.

Now with 7 XP Pustus gained the rank of Blooded and since he covets Daemonhood he sought Papa Nurgles blessing. Papa gifted him the Boon of being Grossly Swollen (+2 wounds). Nobody else qualified for any gifts, so on to Out of Action checks. Most passed them, but Belchmaw and Thraxus’ Filthreavers failed theirs. Thraxus suffered Crippling Damage (-1” and unable to Advance) with Belchmaw getting Fatigued (-1OC and no Charge bonus).

Overall a really interesting experience. The mission had really low VP which kept things in the balance but the XP boost from Agendas instead of Secondaries gives quite a fluffy flavour to the game. So far, really enjoyable and I’m looking forward to the next game.

Given how poorly Thraxus performed I’m thinking of interring him in a dreadnought and letting him take out his failings in a more extreme way. I bought a really rough one recently that I think came from Dark Vengeance. It took a fair bit to get two really thick paint jobs off and even more work to get the pieces apart

I couldn’t quite get the Multi Melta apart so I need to figure out how I can close the massive gap.

Further down the line of the campaign I’m hoping to raise a character to Daemon Prince status so I built this guy up a while ago

He’s mostly stock, but has a bit of chainmail added to a shoulder pad and a small tentacle from his stomach, oh and a Nurgling to keep him company!

Bit of a long post this one, hope you all enjoyed it, because there’ll hopefully be more

Thanks for looking

I looked back over my eBay purchase history and found pics of the Helbrute in its ‘as received’ condition.


Whilst you can just about see the thick paint job, you can’t really see the one underneath it, nor all of the gaps in the model. The push fit pegs were in an awful state so I had to trim them off. Even then, it still wouldn’t go together particularly well and I had to scrape joints, file polycement welds and cut other bits. Disappointingly some of his chains it seems are missing as are a couple of blades from the power fist. Eventually though managed to get the Helbrute back together and in slightly better shape than he was before… then I nurgled him up a bit with a few boils and pock marks in his armour similar to the effect on the Plagueburst Crawler. It’s not that easy to see right now, but hopefully the rust effect will highlight it for me

I then hung out of the loft skylight and gave his face a quick little prime as I figured it would be nigh-impossible to paint with his sarcophagus in place. A couple of thin layers of Zandri dust in the area and a wash of Athonian Camoshade for his necrotic head was followed by a yellow speed paint on the gums around his little orifice.

Looking at his point he’s about the same as the extra Plague Marines that I’m also painting up so he might even jump them in the queue if I can get him based and the rest of him primed tomorrow.

As for his backstory, I’m thinking that Dregnul got fed up with Thraxus positioning his squad so poorly that he ordered him to be devoured/entombed within the Helbrute. That way his poor positioning matters less and he doesn’t get other Plague Marines killed! 🤣

Also I forgot pics, but Typhus and the other Plague Marines got their skin, cloth and bones basecoated as well.

Thanks for looking

So it seems the Helbrute really has jumped to the front of the queue! Over lunch I finished up his face and the inner mouth. Masking it off I primed the outer mouth and the bulk of his body

Luckily the mask worked well so I glued on the outer mouth and finished off the priming

I think he’s already looking pretty sick, and I’m looking forward to painting more of him. The big question though is how to paint his limbs. I had been thinking to go full pink, but that might be a bit much. Maybe some athonian camoshade like skin to match his head. The other option would be to use the same as the fleshy parts of the Myphitic Blighthaulers. Whatever one I pick, the pipework will be pink. What do you guys think?

Great start on the Hellbrute!

 muette wrote:
Great start on the Hellbrute!

Thanks muette, i was pleasantly surprised that his face came out looking pretty good hopefully the rest of him does too!

Did a bit more painting tonight, throwing some Ratling grime on Typhus and some Plague Marines, then doing the armour, trim and flesh of the Helbrute. I decided to go with a regular flesh tone to match his face, but decent coverage without brush strokes is going to take a few coats I reckon;

The boils I added to him seem to have worked quite well and the use of sprue goo to seat the half beads seems to have blended them in quite well. Similarly the holes drilled in to his armour plates don’t look too dissimilar to the ones from the Plagueburst Crawler. With any luck he’ll blend in nicely with the rest of the army.

Thanks for looking

PS pretty sure it’s not just me that thinking he looks quite like the latest Ghazkhull Thrakka model!
PPS I should be collecting the Death Guard Rhino panels tomorrow!