Winter's Finally Flippin' Here

IT TOOK SO LONG
AND I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING

After reviewing my winter plaguebearers, I realized that I was overcomplicating everything again. To wit:

Metal and plastic Plaguebearer kits.

That's correct, sharp-eyed viewers. I just left the horns alone, tidied up the details, and finished up. The hardest* part? That Nurgling front-and-center between the plaguebearer's legs. For the love of Grandfather ...

Perhaps He's Best Unclean One

I finally assembled my Great Unclean One kit, and ... wow. Color me very impressed. There are tons of options, and Rotigus, the kit's alternate build (I built a bog-standard GUO), gives plenty of options that can easily be folded into a large-scale conversion. (I've got an idea for a Contemptor conversion I've been kicking around for a while that might incorporate those pieces.) When I've knocked out more of my army, I fully plan to purchase this kit again and massively convert it.

But there's one thing that makes me a little sad about the kit: just how much it outclasses the Forge World Great Unclean One. To wit:

Left: Forge World Great Unclean One. Right: Games Workshop Great Unclean One. Both are stock, except for a repaired horn on the FW model — I bought it second hand and the original owner had lost the piece long ago.

Chaos Decimator: Ready for Priming

I finally finished off the Decimator. I had no more flat surfaces to cover, so I had to stop.

Chaos Decimator. GW bits: Primaris Redemptor Dreadnought; Nurgling from unknown kit; cloth and torsos from Putrid Blightking kit; unknown Eldar weapons; flesh sacs and pipes from unknown monstrous Tyranid kit; Plaguebearer head, arm and icon; leg from Skeleton kit; monstrous fangs from unknown Tyranid kit; head and arm from Helbrute kit. Forge World bits: plate from Nurgle dreadnought; shoulderpads from Plague Marine upgrade kit. Privateer Press: skeletons from Cage Rager; back from unknown Trollblood kit. Kneadatite, chains, framing wire, framing nails, pill bottle, pumice grit and bells.

I'm only partly kidding: I had a lot of fun adding layers upon layers of junk onto this model, so I just kept going until it got difficult to do more.

Another Quick Aside

When I reviewed my collection and realized I had holes in it — as shown in A Tiny New Project and A Tiny Project Continues Apace — one of those holes was a barebones Chaos Lord. Volero Scalpondus, the head of Lux Larvalis, is a Chaos Lord on Palanquin of Nurgle; he's too big to really be a standard Chaos Lord, and I don't really want to use him in every single matchup, anyway.

In any case, I resolved on creating a quick-and-dirty Chaos Lord: Something horrific, but relatively simple.

I had a vision, and I started here:

Chaos Space Marine kit with Plague Marine Upgrade Kit pieces.

A Tiny Project Continues Apace

A little confession — while I have most of the strategic particulars of Lux Larvalis dead to rights (how many tanks, how many warriors, intelligence assets, etc.), I only have three characters sketched out to any degree. This guy is not one of them.

Chaos Sorcerer on Palanquin of Nurgle. GW pieces: head from Plague Marines kit; front torso from Putrid Blightkings kit; back from Tyranid Raveners kit; lower body from 3rd Edition Hive Tyrant; left arm from an unknown Ork kit; backpack from Chaos Space Marines kit; exhaust port from an unknown Ork kit; arm and staff from unknown kroot kit; power scythe head from Deathshroud Bodyguard kit. Forge World piece: Plague Marines Upgrade Kit shoulderpad. Wyrd piece: arm from Rail Workers from Rail Crew kit.

A lot of the creatures and forces of Chaos I put together start with an internal vision — some idea, usually inspired by some bits I have lying around. This piece came together from two items I've been tinkering with, one of which didn't make it to the final product: The body of the metal Hive Tyrant (The long tail on this guy) and some Forge World plague marine upgrade bits I've had lying around forever and a half (I went with the heftier blightking/new plague marine pieces instead for size reasons).

What I didn't start with was a backstory, a formal position in Lux Larvalis, or even a name.

Chaos Decimator, Part 4

"Unleeeeeash meeeee": Primaris Redemptor Dreadnought (GW) with Plaguebearer head and arm (GW),
Skeleton leg (GW), Putrid Blightking torso (GW), Cage Rager skeletons (Privateer Press), miscellaneous plate
from Nurgle Dreadnought (Forge World), and various Tyranid spikes/fangs (GW).

There's one last thing I want to do to this plaguebearer — I want to add a breathing mask to its mouth. I'm a little torn on how I'm going to do that; I'd like it to be clear plastic, which poses a half-a-dozen hurdles, but I'd settle for a green stuff mask. We'll see.

But there's more!

An Old Plague, Part 2

I'm mixed on poxwalkers. Yeah, I get that they're good (probably still decent even after GW toned them down), but ... like, zombies, man. They're a little played out. Still, I managed to accidentally my way into about 60 of them while picking up various Dark Imperium lots for the foetid bloat-drone. Since they were decent fodder at first, before Chaos cultists and plaguebearers got significant boosts from updated rules, I ended up fielding them a lot at the start of 8th Edition.

Long story short, I painted a full unit before moving onto my plaguebearers. It's likely going to be, say, 13% of an eternal shame that I finished them before I dug into my favorite one-eyed daemons. (That's almost a full e-shame, for those who count things like that.)

Poxwalkers from the Dark Imperium kit.