Nurgle Palanquin: paint along with me!

My warhammer "warriors of chaos" Troll army is coming along nicely with a number of cute units ready built and painted. However play-testing has shown that I am missing one essential element... Even with a high leadership general, I still need the ability to re-roll those darn stupidity tests. A standard bearer is required. Which got me to thinking about how to make him safe. I quite like the idea of a nurgle hero. If I go along with this I could add a Palanquin which would double the number of wounds, add one to his armour save and throw in a few magic attacks for good measure. Not bad for 40 points.

Unfortunately GW only have one model with a Palanquin and that is Epidemius . At £30.00 GBP it is a tad too expensive and way too difficult to convert for my taste. So I have had a go at making my own and you can do so too if you would like to build-along with Target...

I started with an off cut of plastic card and a 6mm diameter magnet. The magnet is there because I have magnets in the bases of my figures and this will help the model sit on top of the Palanquin when I am gaming (whilst enabling me to play him without his ride).

I then added three shields left over from the marauder horsemen I made some years ago. This was done to hide the magnet and to copy the nurgle symbol shape of three circles.

I then raised them to shoulder height of the second row of nugles from the GW Nurgling swarm pack. That's £15.00 GBP invested. I based these on a 50mm square base because this mirrors the base used on Epidemus. To lift the shields high enough I used a socket from an old socket set (mainly because it was available and I couldn't bother making something). 

I then cleaned up and assembled the front two rows of the box of nurglings. The back rows will go into my spare box. I painted these GW Deathworld Forest and a wash of Athonian Camoshade. This was mainly because I figured I had no chance of painting the backs of the little guys once they were assembled.

I then squeezed all the components onto the base.

 I tidied up the skin with a coat of Deathworld Forest to all but the recessed areas. Liche Purple was added to mouths, tongues and boils.

Tongues and boils were then painted using pink Horror and Ratskin Flesh. A wash of Carroburg Crimson was used to make them redder, whilst Cadian Fleshtone was added to the highest areas to make them more skin-like.. 

The skin was then coloured up using a highlight of Nurgling green (appropriately) and just the highest areas received a little Screaming skull.. 

The remainder was finished in the normal way. In the next shot you can see the standing area for the character.

In the following shots you can see close-up shots of the nurglings themselves. I would encourage you to click on the picks to see close up what those naughty little chaps are up to.... 

All I need now is a character to ride on it....

Chaos Tzeentch warshrine painted

Last Wednesday I posted up the start of the assembly of a flying Tzeentch war-shrine for my Troll army.

I have now completed the assembly and painted the beast. When I last left it, I had not worked out how to make it look like it was floating. The answer, as usual was to go do the simplest route. I cut a flying stand short and placed it onto that. Easy!

I have tried to maintain a consistent colour scheme across the model, so have painted the slaves that pull the shrine a pale blue colour.

When I first painted the shrine, it was just blue. However my usual advisers; the players at my local gaming club said it needed jazzing up a little. I therefore added a swirly pattern. Very easy in the end, and I think it looks OK.

As always, click on the pictures to make them larger..

Chaos tzeentch warshrine WIP

I am not too keen on the new GW Chaos war-shrine figure, but I quite wanted to add a war-shrine to my Troll army.

My thought process started with a plastic earring which I picked up from a £1 shop. I thought this would make a good pattern for a war-shrine base.

After a bit of thinking and a couple of false starts I decided to make the shrine out of cork board. I used two cork tiles glued together. I recon I can make this look like a rough cut stone. I used the parts from the earring to provide a pattern to the base. 

I then needed something to pull the shrine. I decided to use some empire fanatic figures. I added marauder heads and arms. Now I want to make the shrine appear to float. Sky-hooks anyone?

Old Throgg - complete

For the longest of times I have been playing a Warhammer Fantasy - Warriors of Chaos Troll army based around Throgg and because GW had never released a Throgg figure, I have been having to make do with marking one of my own trolls. Throgg is a troll king character who allows Trolls to be treated as a core choice. Recently I bit the bullet and elected to convert up a figure to properly represent this most important of all Trolls.

In the meantime...

Fantasy gaming blogs are currently active with rumours of imminent release of more warriors of Chaos Monsters/characters. Amongst the figures that are rumoured to be released is a model for Throgg. .

Oh GW! if only you had been quicker, you would have saved me the effort!!!!

Never mind, my Throgg figure is now finished.

 

For my Throgg figure, I had been using my oldest Troll figure. This is an old GW troll from the 1987 citadel catalogue. This is model that represents a thin haunched figure, smaller than the current models. Although this does not quite match the Throgg stories of him being the biggest and best of all Trolls, he is my oldest model in the army and I have developed a love for him Therefore I wanted, to persist with the model.

My way of getting around this was to say that Throgg is now very old and has grown demunitive with age. This would still leave the problem of him looking lost amongst his bigger Troll guard. Therefore I decided to give him a little help and provide his own bearer troll to carry him around. It feels like suitable support for a King.

In a previous post, I have discussed how he was assembled.

I choose to keep his skin colour similar to that used on the other Trolls in the unit. However, I wanted to mark him out as older. To achieve this I added more pink and skin tones into the brown / beige colour system. I also tried to paint his hair brighter than it should look, to represent a wig. I thought an old king would have a little vanity.

 Here is is with his unit (or bodyguard)..

 Hope you enjoy.

Throgg on the workbench

I have been playing a Throgg / troll based Warrior of Chaos army for a little time now. For those who don't know, Throgg is a troll king character who allows Trolls to be treated as a core choice. For my Throgg figure, I have been using my oldest Troll figure. This is an old GW troll from the 1987 citadel catalogue. 

Since I decided to paint up the army I needed to do something with the figure. Out of a sense of loyalty to the old figure, I wanted to retain him as my king, but I also wanted to make it clear he was the king. Therefore I needed to lift him up a little.

After a little thought I opted to have him lifted high on the shoulders of a troll slave. A was able to get my hands on the troll from the 7th edition box set. The base figure is modelled about to throw a stone bust of a dwarf. It took quite a bit of work to cut this away from the model, but it left him with raised arms that could look as if he is supporting the troll sat on his shoulders. I had to work hard to bend the legs of the metal troll to make him sit more.

I had to disguise where throgg sat by extending the grass skirt so it appears to hang down the back of his supporter.

I bent and then re bent the plastic trolls arms and wrists until his hand are in a position to appear to support the metal troll.

I had to repair a little damage to the arm muscles, but all in all, it worked better than I feared it might.

All that matters now is to paint the combined figure up....

Mountain Chaos Troll

I have been putting together a Throgg based troll force, and have painted four Chaos Trolls to date. It is time to add a fifth..

 I had to order this bad boy via GWs mail order service; and elected to have it delivered to my local store. The process worked well and the figure was waiting for me within a week, so that system appears to work well.

I have continued to follow the same colour scheme as the remaining trolls. I now nearly have enough for a full unit. Will just need to devise a Throgg figure. If all works to plan that should be quite interesting....

More to come.

More Chaos Trolls

A little over a week ago I posted up my first two painted trolls. Two was never going to be enough for the fun I have planned! So it is time to add a couple more to the collection.

 Although these are Chaos Trolls I have gone for quite a restrained colour scheme. Fear not I have plans for a much more colourful unit to follow. However, for now I am keeping to this brown look. 

 I have never really felt comfortable before with the technique required to paint different coloured patches of skin, so I was a little uncomfortable painting the lighter belly, inside of arms and legs. However I need not have worried, it was far far easier than I had imagined to get a fair colour blend. It was literally as easy as painting one colour over another.

As always, click on the image to make it bigger....

Mountain Chaos Trolls

It has been a little while since my last post and I suppose that that should not go without comment. I had a holiday so was out of the habit of posting and then work got a bit busy. Any-hoo that was then, this is now.

I have owned and played a small Warhammer Fantasy Warriors of Chaos army for some time that was built around a small troupe of Trolls. The only problem was that I was slightly intimidated with the thought of painting them.

My normal way of encouraging myself to paint an army is to put myself into a tournament. It gives me a deadline and a list of models to complete. To this end I signed up to a doubles event at Warhammer World. Therefore for your entertainment I present the first two figures; two chaos trolls...

  I elected to use these old Orcs and Goblin figures for three main reasons;

1. I don't like the Chaos Trolls GW produces
2. I quite like these models
3. I can get them quite cheap on ebay....

You will notice that these two chaps are the same basic model with just a little tinkering. I swapped the weapon around and played with the pose by straightening him up a bit and twisting his arm positions. By placing a rock under one foot I have made a subtle difference to his stance that hopefully hides the fact that they are the same model.

Warriors of Chaos

I started this army late in 2009 based on a couple of fun lists (here & here) built for the 7th edition of the game.

It is a fun army that I bring out when I am looking for a bit of light / fun gaming.

Where there is a link, there are photos..

Characters:

Archaon Dorghar

Lords and Chaos Champions

Scorcerers

Daemon Prince

Festus

Galrauch

Kholek

Prince Sigvald

Throgg

Valkia

Vilitch

Wulfrik

Core:

Chaos Warriors

Chaos Marauders

Chaos Warhounds

Marauder Horsemen

Special:

Chosen

Forsaken

Chariots

Ogres

Dragon Ogres

Trolls

Chaos Knights

Rare:

Spawn

Scyla Anfingrimm

Warshrine

Hellcannon

Shaggoth

Giant

Easter shopping: Day 1

A week away from my painting base has given me the perfect opportunity to collect some more fresh clean plastic and metal ready to be abused with my paint brush.

It all looks so lovely in it packages that I felt the need to photograph it...

For your delight, fresh from the shoppe shelves, 40 ghouls, 15 chaos nights, 20 Grave guard, 6 bat swarms and a winged vampire.

Week 13: Slaanesh Marauder horsemen

For some reason I find painting cavalry figures far more time consuming than I ever imagine that they will be.
This week I have painted my second box of slaanesh Maruader horsemen.

The general idea is that I will end up with three units of slaanesh cavalry armed with throwing spears and with only light armour. This maintains the fast cavalry ability and enables my mages to move around the battlefield within a unit that will not panic.

The unit colours match the previous marauder figures I have painted. I have deliberately varied the position of the horse figure along the base to give a looser feel to the unit in a way that I hope emphasises their more independent approach.

Easter is now upon me and I plan to take a break from painting as I visit relatives. Have a good one....

I 

Chaos Marauder Horsemen; WIP

A weekends work and the Marauder Horsemen have moved forward a little.

I love the models of the horses; they just have so much life about them. They only required a little green stuff between the legs and along the backs, so all in all not a lot of work at all.

The marauder horsemen themselves are a different matter. I found the anatomy a little too comic book for my liking. Also the model does not have a good pose for the normal way you would want the model to act. If you give a marauder both light armour and a shield then he looses his fast cavalry abilities. The light armour is modelled on, so the only option is not to attach the shields. However the left arm looks daft if you don't attach a shield. I have opted to add throwing spears to the left arms, but there are insufficient in the set so I have had to borrow spears from skeletons and empire figures. Not working too bag despite this. I have chosen to use some heads from the flagellant set. I believe that they work quite well. Still a lot of work required with these figures.

Week 10: Dog gone

The end of week 10 sees the end of the assembly and painting of the Chaos warhounds (at last). The army list I'm working too only requires 17 warhounds, but they come in boxes of 10 so it seemed daft not to paint all 20. The thought of three poor lonely unassembled puppies was too much for me to bear.

After listening to comments and advice I have elected to give the dog a bone, and an arm to one lucky pup. It adds to the character and helps to distinguish between figures. I have tried to vary the position of the figures in the base to make them appear less uniform.

I am going to claim the extra three figures in my painting points total. After 10 weeks I should have achieved 160 points. These warhounds count as 20 points but that only takes my total to 152. Erm, 8 points behind. Not sure how I'm going to catch that up. I'll have a go at completing the starting number of skeletons next week.