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Hello!

New poster, but I've been collecting and painting various 40K things since third edition in 1999. I used to post on the Golden Throne forums quite a lot, but they seem to have vanished into the mists of time, so I've ended up here.

After defecting to Star Wars: Imperial Assault and X-Wing for a few years, I've been drawn back into 40K by a group of friends who have started playing 8th edition on a regular basis. I have 6000pts of older half painted Blood Angels but they seem so small next to Primaris marines, so I've decided to start a new Death Guard army to join in the fun - the models are new, bulky and available at a low cost, so it was a no brainer!

I started this project a month ago and my first goalpost was to have around 800pts completely painted by the 15th September, and I'm well on my way.

I started with the first strike box, and here are the poxwalkers. I painted these mainly using washes and drybrushes, as they are so numerous I can't spend too long on each model!




I have some old models from a previous Chaos army lying around and a few of them will find their way into the Death Guard, after being either appropiately converted / painted. This Helbrute I will use as is and is painted the same way I will paint the rest of my astartes.



I've gone for a paint scheme that is close to the pre-heresy colours, but not an exact match - I want to limit the amount of gold and bronze trim I have to paint. I usually paint my models as neat as possible and cut very few corners, but in order to get an army painted I'm going against that habit and being quite sloppy. I'm using textured paint / Typhus Corrosion and even regular paint used far thicker than I normally would just to add extra texture. Luckily, I think this works quite well on the Death Guard, and I'm using blood/dirt splatters to cover up my mistakes.

This sorcerer needed a head and chest swap to fit in with the new Plague marines - thankfully the model was a relatively new finecast one, no way I would have bothered to cut away that much of the model if it had been metal. I've also used a bigger base so it doesn't look tiny next to the Plague Marines. I intend to use the sorcerer as a Plaguecaster in-game for now, unless my opponent has a problem with proxying a sword as a staff.



I also had to pick up a Blight Hauler for my starting force - it's so cute and it's not a bad price either!



Currently being painted are two squads of 7 Plague Marines and a Daemon Prince, with an additional 40 cultists I haven't yet touched but should do at some point.



I've subscribed to Warhammer Conquest magazine, and I intend to paint each Death Guard unit as it arrives (the Primaris will probably be sold to a friend, but I can always add them to my Blood Angels if that falls through). On top of that, I will be buying additional units as a reward for myself when I am satisfied with my progress - next up will be the Know No Fear box, which I will be splitting with my Primaris-collecting friend. I'll end up with three Lord of Contagion due to the magazine - I hear they're rubbish in the game, but I look forward to painting them, and one of them will be a good chance to convert something cool.

Comments and criticism are welcome!

Nice, another Conquest blog - i will be watching...

Still working on my pile of 14 Plague Marines (about 80% completed) and will post a group shot when they are done, but in the meantime here is a before and after shot of my paint scheme.

I'm using unthinned paints for the armour and deliberately trying to leave brushstrokes all in the same direction, to try and give a subtle "woodgrain" effect, followed up by washes, stippling, typhus corrosion and blood splatters. Incredibly quick and sloppy work - I'm even using the textured basing paints on the armour in places!

It's not going to win any awards and it's not something I'd use on most models, but:

A - These guys are meant to be filthy
B - I want to paint these models as fast as I can and get a fully painted army on the board by the end of the year
C - It looks OK from a distance



For a comparison, here is one of the basic marines from my last army:

Today I got the first delivery of Warhammer Conquest magazine, with the easy build Primaris intercessors and Plague marines.

I shoved the intercessors into a box somewhere and will do something with them later, and got to work converting the Plague Marines.

I'm working my way through Plague Marines at a good pace - I currently own 17, 5 completed and 9 nearly finished.

Here are the converted Easy Build Plague Marines. I'm going to buy another two copies of Issue 2 of Conquest, so I will have 4 sets of Easy Build plague marines total. I hope that my conversions do enough to hide the fact I have a bunch of them!



Here are my finished three unconverted Easy Build Plague Marines for comparison:



I'll post more and better pictures as soon as I have some completed 7 man squads.

I am in the same boat as you with the ETB Plague Marines, I already have a set so will be converting the second set with the multi piece parts.

I am liking your pre heresy colour scheme.

I've been doing some more work and finally hit the 600pt painted mark, although that's only if you ignore the minimum squad size for Poxwalker!

Here's Plague Marine squad number 1 - consisting of the easy build Plague Marine kit, the Icon Bearer, two of the Plague Brethren and one multi-part model.



Here's everything I've completed so far, working out at 602pts.



Finally here's what's on my painting bench. (I've got 40 cultists still to start work on, but they're very low priority for me right now as it's a lot of work for very few points, and I want to get a fully painted list on the table ASAP.)



My next purchases will be the Death Guard half of Know No Fear, two more Easy Build Plague Marine kits (Issue 2 of Warhammer Conquest) and another Blight Hauler. I should be able to scrape together a 2000pt list using those models, although it won't be super competitive.

EDIT - I also got slightly distracted by the pile of Primaris marines, so I've started work on two 5 man Blood Angel Primaris squads.

Really boring update, I've been a bit ill, haven't painted as much as I'd like and had to postpone a game or two.

I have made a slight change to my finished plague marine squad - I've given the champion the pre-heresy colour scheme shoulder pads, mainly so I can pick him out on the table a bit better.



I have been doing some work on my in-progress models. I'm hoping to have the first batch of Warhammer Conquest models painted before the next delivery arrives, but it doesn't help that I've added an extra 8 models on top of that. I'm holding back on the Daemon Prince, painting that can be a reward for getting the basic troopers done!

The Death Guard have had their base colours applied followed by a wash - I'm starting to add more layers on top of that, which is why some of them seem to have brighter helmets than everyone else. I'm being lazy and using pre-molded plastic GW bases on them, which is so much easier and they actually look pretty good IMO.

I've (pretty much) finished the red on the Blood Angels and just need to paint the remaining details - I'm trying out some red glazes on them just out of curiosity, they will definitely need a matte varnish applying! A gravel/sand mixture has been glued to their base to match the rest of my Blood Angel army, but not touched it with any paint yet.

The army has grown even more, and I seem to be spending most of my hobby time just assembling and applying the base colours rather than actually finishing any models.

Here's a shot of the whole army, minus 40 cultists and 26 poxwalkers. I can now put together lists up to 2250pts, so I can start getting some proper games in once I've applied more paint!

This is a really cool looking army. Just to let you know, issue 6 of Conquest will have more of the ETB plague marines in, so you'll probably have even more of them to convert.

I've made some more progress, but it's the type of progress that is not much to look at.

Every model I own has been painted up to the dirty white which is the base of my colour scheme. Next step is to block out all the base colours, apply an all over wash and glue them to one of my already-painted scenic bases. At this point they're table ready and I'll use them in games.

After every model is table ready I will go over each model and apply highlights/dirt/blood to get them to a proper finished standard.

This picture of my easy-build marines shows this nicely. From left to right:

Finished, Table Ready, Base White (with some base colours added).

pgmason wrote:
This is a really cool looking army. Just to let you know, issue 6 of Conquest will have more of the ETB plague marines in, so you'll probably have even more of them to convert.

That's the last thing I need to be honest, but at least it gives me more time to focus on completing the existing models. If it had been something cool like a Plague Surgeon or a Tallyman I would have dropped what I was doing to focus on that, but since it's a fifth set of plague marines I already own it's going right to the back of the queue.

Great to see an army that is not all big guns, the good thing is that if you stick with your subscription you will have a third myphitic blight hauler and some tanks in the form of the PBC and Rhino.

Love the dirtying up of your marines, have you considered any goo (Nurgle's Rot) or rust (Nikilakakakakak Oxide)?

They look really great. Good job

ListenToMeWarriors wrote:

Love the dirtying up of your marines, have you considered any goo (Nurgle's Rot) or rust (Nikilakakakakak Oxide)?

I actually picked up one of the Secret Weapon miniatures rust paints to try it out, but on closer inspection it's something like step 7 of a 9 step series to painting rust, and on it's own it's just very watery yellow paint!

I'll be looking at something less involved, and in the meantime I used that yellow to mix up the blonde hair for my first completed Primaris marine from Issue 1!

Other slight progress:

- Bought more Plague Marines to bring all five squads up to 7 men
- Bought another Bloat Drone because one on it's own looked lonely
- More boring work on the base colours
- Nearly finished my first 5 man Intercessor squad for my Blood Angels, the first model is below:

I really like what you've done with your death guard by keeping them similar to the pre-heresy scheme. I quite like the new models a lot when they look like what you've done, they seem so cartoony when GW does them.
Shame about the secret weapon rust paint, if you wanted to try some quick and dirty weathering, Tamiya do weathering sticks where you just rub the compound on the model and it sticks. I don't know if it'll give you the rust look you want but it might be worth a look!

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
I really like what you've done with your death guard by keeping them similar to the pre-heresy scheme. I quite like the new models a lot when they look like what you've done, they seem so cartoony when GW does them.
Shame about the secret weapon rust paint, if you wanted to try some quick and dirty weathering, Tamiya do weathering sticks where you just rub the compound on the model and it sticks. I don't know if it'll give you the rust look you want but it might be worth a look!

Thanks,

Just want to clarify that the Secret Weapon paint isn't bad, the one I bought is just very much one step in a many step process, not a GW technical paint style "just blop this on". I'm going to pick up a variety of different rust-like shades next time I stock up on paints and work out something I like.

I've used the tamiya sticks in the past, it did a great job of muddying up tank tracks but I'd prefer to find a couple paints I like and then use then just use them as my go to rust. :-D

I need people opinions - what colour should I paint the chest eagles on my Blood Angels? I normally go for white, but I've been thinking about going for either black or gold on my Primaris (the Sgt gets gold regardless because he's a squad leader!).

Oh I wasn't saying that the paint was bad, it is just a shame you've got a multiple step process in doing rust. Only other thing I'd suggest is weathering powder, I've never tried those however!
In terms of the eagles, you could go for black to be thematic with the whole decimation of Baal and her successors?

Progress update

- I've painted the 5 Intercessors that I'm keeping from Conquest issue one, which is the start of the Primaris reinforcements for my existing BA army. I've applied a coat of Matt Cote from Humbrol to finish it off and get rid of the gloss, but it's dried far shinier than I'm used to. It might just be because I've not use this pot of varnish for so long and didn't stir it thoroughly enough, so I'll sort that out soon. In the meantime, here is a poorly lit photo of the too-glossy marines, plus one of my old Blood Angels:



- I've assembled the new Plague Marines to bring up my army to five squads of 7 marines, with some slight conversions I'll show when finished. I've done the boring work of getting the primer/basecoat down on the entire army and have started working on the detailing. They don't look like much yet, but they'll get there. Here they are on a windowsill that has seen better days:

 Tyranid Horde wrote:

In terms of the eagles, you could go for black to be thematic with the whole decimation of Baal and her successors?

I've gone with black. but with the skulls painted bone - it looked a bit wrong with the skulls in black to my eye.

Progress update

I've taken my Death Guard out for their first game, facing off against Guilliman's Unpainted Sons for control of some piles of foam in a small 500pts game*. I took two 6 man squads with 2*Blight Launcher and Plasma champion, a Chaos Lord with powerfist and my Helbrute, I faced off against a Lieutenant, 7 Intercessors, 5 Hellblasters and 3 Inceptors.

It was a victory, mainly due to some unlucky dice rolls on my opponents part rather than anything I did - 3 Hellblasters exploded on turn 1 and at that point I pretty much had the game in the bag. I am really enjoying the small squads of Plague Marines with 3 special weapons, they're resilient enough not to just melt, they have decent firepower but not so much that they are singled out for death by the enemy.

I hope to get some larger games in on some proper terrain, but this was a good incentive to paint some more Death Guard and I know my opponent has also started work on his Primaris since then.





I've applied a coat of spray-on Humbrol matt varnish to my issue 1 intercessors and that's fixed the shininess, so issue 1 of conquest is completed. The bases are a bit bland, but I am basing them to match my Blood Angels army I started 10 years ago. I may go back one day and add some tufts and extra details to the whole army.





On the desk currently is still a pile of 29 Plague Marines, and I should be working on just them until my second Conquest delivery arrives, at which point I'll switch to painting a 5 man Blood Angels Reiver squad, a Blood Angels Lieutenant and some more Poxwalkers.

*as opposed to a large 500pts game

Congrats on the victory, if somewhat lucky! I've heard plague marines are pretty nasty being able to move and shoot with their heavy weapons (correct me if I'm wrong).
Are you happy with the matte finish now? I've been looking at getting around to varnishing my older armies and was wondering what a good spray on varnish would be. The boys in red look sweet.

Glad that the new layer of varnish worked out for you, the matte effect is so much better. Your BA look great, really neat and effective scheme, and you have not overdone the highlighting of the red.

And congratulations on the win in the game, Disgustingly Resilient makes such a difference in smaller games. Best of luck in reducing the pile.

Progress Update

Another update without new painted miniatures to show off, but I think I've done a substantial amount of work none-the-less.

I have painted all my Plague Marines, another Plaguecaster and that dude with the bell to what I would consider the minimum tabletop standard. All the base colours have been painted / shaded and they have (mostly) been stuck to my usual painted scenic bases. I have run out of 32mm scenic bases and must buy more.

There is still a lot of work to do to get them up to my 'finished' standard, but I no longer have a horde of plain white Plague Marines. I'll post more pictures as and when I finish models.

Finished:
- Plaguecaster
- 8 Plague Marines
- 6 Poxwalkers
- Helbrute
- Blight Hauler

Table-Ready:
- Daemon Prince
- Plaguecaster
- Marine with a massive bell
- 29 Plague Marines
- 10 Cultists

Not Ready
- Lord of Contagion
- 20 Poxwalkers
- 30 Cultists
- Blight Hauler
- 2 Bloat Drones

Since I can now start taking these to the game store without shame I have also bought a carry case - the Tabletop Tyrant Figure Case. I picked this one because it can hold a decent chunk of stuff and is a reasonable cost - I have another of the same type for my Blood Angels. It can hold everything I currently own with a lot more room for extra plague marines and characters. If/when I get Mortarion/Knight/Crawlers I might need to buy a second case for the larger models, but I can easily carry 4000pts of infantry and smaller vehicles in this case.



I can also use the foam trays in my old school GW carry case too, although that is currently full of Imperial Assault models.

I have done some work on the Blood Angels too - I've assembled 25 marines models that I already own to fill out existing tactical and devastator squads up to 10 men. I could just about pull together two fully painted 10 man tactical squads before (with a load of spare sergeants and heavy/special weapons), I'm going to bump this up to 4 full tactical squads and 1 full dev squad for now. This is going to be low priority stuff for when I need a break, the Death Guard and Primaris are more important to me.

Tyranid Horde wrote:Congrats on the victory, if somewhat lucky! I've heard plague marines are pretty nasty being able to move and shoot with their heavy weapons (correct me if I'm wrong).
Are you happy with the matte finish now? I've been looking at getting around to varnishing my older armies and was wondering what a good spray on varnish would be. The boys in red look sweet.

Plague Marines can move and shoot heavy weapons without penalty. Unfortunately their only heavy weapon is a heavy flamer equivalent that autohits, so not much use! They do get to rapid-fire up to 18 inches and fire assault weapons with no penalty after advancing, which is pretty useful.

I'm very happy with the finish now, I'm just annoyed with myself that I didn't give the varnish a proper long stir and shake before using it. It had been sat unused for about 2 years, obviously it needed more than a quick shake!

I've used two varnishes recently - a Humbrol Matt Varnish spray that cost about £5 from Hobbycraft and a brush on one called Humbrol Matt Cote, also from Hobbycraft. Both of them usually give a great result, but I have messed both up before. The Matt Cote dries glossy if you don't really, really, really stir it (as I discovered) and the spray can give a frosty effect if the humidity is too high. I'm not planning to stop using them, but I'll use the brush on varnish as my first port of call - it's easier to fix a glossy miniature than a frosted miniature!

Ah that's the rule! The move and shoot with no penalty is the same as the Eldar battle focus special rule. Might grab myself a can of spray, although it's gotten a bit colder and I might leave it until next year. You've a lot of work ahead of you!

I'm still working on my models, but was holding off on posting anything until I actually finished a unit.

I've got a lot of Primaris Blood Angels and Death Guard squads half painted, but I wanted a quick break from that so I found and finished the Death Company models I'd bought in the Deathstorm boxset but never got round to completing.

They've not turned out as well as I hoped, but they're still good enough for the table IMO.





In regards to what's coming next, I'm currently alternating between working on the following:

- 32 Plague Marines
- Daemon Prince, Noxious Blightbringer and Malignant Plaguecaster
- 11 Blood Angels Reivers
- 5 Blood Angels Intercessors
- 5 Blood Angels Hellblasters

I've sadly had to amputate the hand of my finished Intercessor sergeant and replace it - I've only just found out that he can take an additional chainsword for 0pts, and I have no idea why anyone wouldn't take that, so I suppose that's another thing to paint.

I think the Death Company look great, highlighting all that black and the many fiddly details on the kit are a right pain. I have 10 constructed that I will probably never get round to as I just cannot build myself up to paint them. I notice a few bit swaps on your DC, I see a Sanguinary Guard arm and maybe some veteran parts. Out of interest what else is there?

I'm not 100% sure because I just raided my bits box, but I think the power fist and melta pistol are from the Sanguinary Guard, some of the heads and torsos are from the Sternguard, some of the shoulder pads are the old Blood Angels pads and there is a foregworld heresy torso in there too.