Grots! (Part 1)

I recently bought some 2nd hand grots. And yes, I already had a bunch, why did I want these? Well, this particular range was released as part of the Gorkamorka line as Rebel Grots. A year or so later they were incorporated into the 40k line with the transition of the 3rd Edition of that game. For some reason I never got any of these while they were readily available. And with my plan to divide and expand my Orks into separate divisions themed around the clans, it makes sense to have some corresponding grots.

I thought it might be neat to show how I prep the bases on metal miniatures like these.

As with a lot of metal miniatures with slotta-bases, often times there is a gap remaining. It is often wise to fill in these voids to avoid the appearance of strange dips and holes next to their feet.

An unprepared grot.

I have found that the best way to do this is with PVA glue. To be specific, I use Elmers Multi-Purpose Glue. But before you start dumping your sticky white goo into the hole, you need to prevent that stuff from oozing all over the place. A small strip of clear tape (I used Scotch Magic Tape in these examples) along the bottom of the slotta-base does the trick.

Magic Tape applied.

Next I start filling it with PVA glue. Ultimately this will dry clear in time, but it also shrinks. Sometimes I have to apply glue a few times before I am happy with it.

Fill it with glue!

I have ten of these grot buggers drying now. I will likely need another round of glue before I can apply the gravel. A few models had some bigger rocks added to their base to help create a feeling of environment.

...What is the plural form of an assembly of Grots? 

Here they are a few days later with the grit added to their base and with black primer applied. In hindsight I probably should have snapped a pic prior to priming them, but I think you get the gist...

Primed and ready....for paint! 

I painted up their bases all the way, as well as the bases of those three Plague Marines that are lurking in the background. I like to paint bases at this stage as I tend to be a bit sloppy with this stage and didn't want to repaint the main model if I didn't have too.

Sandy bases painted. 

Whenever Part Two happens I should have a clan color scheme picked out for these gits.

The Second Death Guard Experiment.

Death Guard #2.

And here is the second of the Rotten Many. Following on from the first experiment, I wanted to do something extremely different. I want to paint this miniature in the classic colors from the Horus Heresy. I really like this color scheme, and I thought it would look interesting to do that scheme on these classic models from the mid-90's. I found this tutorial that Games Workshop put out a while back, gathered the colors, and dug in.

Primed. 

Basecoat of Rakarth Flesh.

I decided that the GW tutorial linked above doesn't quite take the armor scheme up bright enough. It's a fine battle-ready scheme but I like to go a bit further. Also in other model examples and book cover art that I have seen of Heresy era Death Guard they are usually shown to be very white. I found another tutorial that mirrored the GW one almost exactly, but did in fact take the armor past the Pallid Flesh level and up to white, which I do like better, so I think I will use both for references.

Pallid Wyche Flesh*

After the Pallid Wyche Flesh layer, Agrax Earthshade was carefully applied to the recesses and joins.

Agrax Earthshade *

I used Balthazar Brass for the base coat on the trim and spike which follows those two tutorials, as a departure from the Ral Partha Copper Metallic that I used on the 1st Death Guard. The guts were base coated using Screamer Pink. The armor was touched up using Pallid Wyche Flesh and highlighted with White Scar.

Highlighted up with White Scar.

The rest of the model went smoothly. I mostly followed the steps for the shoulder pads as shown in the two tutorials, but like the first miniature I chose to give the brass/gold areas a red ink wash. The guts were colored exactly like the first one was model also.

The finished model.

In the GW tutorial Emma added decals to her Death Guard miniature that I thought looked really good. I was able to track these down to being produced by Forgeworld but I wasn't prepared to pay what they are asking for these things. Seeing few other options, I might have to just bite the bullet and go for it anyway. All in time.

In the meantime I want to paint up some more Death Guard whose color schemes are in a transitional state between these too miniatures. I guess you could say that these are my control models on either end of the Death Guard color spectrum. And the next lot are going to sort of be balanced in between. I think this will be fun to do!

The controls are set for the states of decay.

*Note: in this photo I am using an indirect light source so that the contrasting hues can be seen better.

The Death Guard Experiment

The first of the Rotten Many. 

All this "modern plague" couldn't keep my thoughts away from Papa Nurgle. So much so that I decided to finally paint a Deathguard miniature. The miniature of choice was one of a pair that was released as the first plastic Plague Marines way back in '96. These guys are virtually mono-posed (you can adjust the elevation of the gun arm, so technically their duo-posed I guess?) in that simple pushfit style that GW was pumping out in the early to mid '90s. Anyway, I have at least three of these boxed sets and I decided a few years back to finally do something with them. Since that point however the Deathguard were released as a range and they are not only amazingly more detailed but exceptionally bigger.

These two* Plague Marines had their bases extended using ring extenders, primed white, and... neglected for three years. I think my focused changed from Chaos back to Orks and Wolves or something as I haven't done too much modeling and painting since 8th edition launched. But, they are still fine when grouped up I think and a perfect canvas for conducting my painting experiments on.

Extended base with new basing grit.

Enter Contrast Paints. Particularly the Plaguebearer color.

Just Plaguebearer Contrast Paint.

I love this paint! I liked how this turned out to the point that I had an attitude of, "well this is done, isn't it?" in regards to the way the green armor turned out.

After setting it aside for a few months (everything above this paragraph was written in April, it's now September) I began tickering with it again. I lightly washed Agrax Earthshade into the groves to give the model a little more depth. I was still so pleased with that I almost left it at that, but desire to sate my curiosity to give this thing a bit more highlight was irresistible. I used Ogryn Camo to give this a highlight. It looks good, but I dunno, I think I like it the other way... I will probably do another one up to compare the two. Not that it matters since I think no two of the my Deathguard are going to look alike.

Highlight of Ogryn Camo. 

The guts were done using steps found in the Know No Fear book. Screaming Pink, a wash of Druchii Violet, a brushing of Pink Horror and a wash of Reikland Flesh shade. Pretty simple really, and it looks good when finished.

Red Metallic trim. 

Following the Know No Fear book's direction on painting Death Guard, I used Krieg Kaki for the final highlight. And,, suddenly I like the way it turned out! This was the kick I think it needed.

I always liked the red trim that the 'eavy Metal team used on the original Death Guard back in the Realm Of Chaos: Lost And The Damned era (circa 1989) but I also like the current look of painting the trims and spikes a copper/brass metallic color. I decided to go with a best of both worlds approach. What I did was paint Hashut Copper over the Ral Partha Copper Metallic base coat. I next applied a Red Ink over that, and presto, I now have an interesting red metal color.

And sticking to the tradition I started years ago based off of a joke from Archer, I had to make one of the wires blue with white stripes. Or white with blue stripes. Whatever.

Finished!

I contemplated decals, but decided to hold off until I have at least a unit of these guys done. Finally I applied the grass tufts. I may seek out some tufts in red or orange colors just to add a bit more contrast to any more Death Guard I paint. And I do have a lot more to paint!

To sum up, this experiment was a success, even though it felt like it took ages for me to finish this one miniature. The Contrast paint was a huge boon as it allowed me skip a lot of stages. This was a successful experiment for sure and I am excited to finally work on an army that I started way back in 1994!




*For some reason I lost the photo that had the two miniatures side-by-side, but trust me there were two at this point. 

2020 Inquisitional Conclave - The Fashionably Late.

As noted at the end of the 2020 Inquisitional Conclave post, I decided to give those who are going to be late a grace period of a few days. One reason for this is way back when I first posted the idea of doing this challenge was that I did state a deadline of September 1st, however my work schedule made things difficult so I moved the deadline up a few days. But then I realized, and received messages also, that some folks might not have caught that deadline change. So no worries, we'll just let them be fashionably late. So let's see who is slipping in the door while the first presentation is starting off...


The first person to show up fashionably late was Inquisitor Greyfax. Things got a bit tense when the two Greyfax's were seated next to each other, but stranger things have happened....

Check out Rory's post for more details.

"What you mean you don't like my hat?"

...and sadly, that was the only one. Zzzzzz over at Devos4 has been communicating with me but he has had some complications. Perhaps his Inquisitor will gatecrash the Conclave at a later point? We shall see.

Alternate view of Oblivianna*

I haven't heard from anyone else so it's safe to say we can close the doors and let these Inquisitors get down to business.

Thanks to each and everyone who participated and who came to view our collection of Imperial fanatics, it was a lot of fun. What do you all say, shall we do it again next year?

Alternate view of Waaarghpug's** model.

Also, as a reminder for those who dig these paint/model challenges the big one, and my favorite one, is next month. I am talking about Dreadtober. Dreadtober is the annual challenge to paint a dreadnought, or dreadnought class (i.e. a Tyranod Carnifex), model by month's end. Not sure who is running it this year but I expect to hear some chatter by month's end.

Some git got started early! 

* See more at dlwdg.blogspot.com .
**See more at waaarghpug.blogspot.com