Rage and outrage

 

Ultramarine heroes stand against the horde of filth.

I was able to arrange my affairs in such a way that I was able to join the guys for a game night at one of the local game stores. This time we chose a new venue, The Outpost, for our place of battle. Nothing against the old place, but the appeal of a slightly quieter place to play (with air conditioning!) made it worth trying out. 

This time we had four armies in attendance, and with a time limit set against us we decided to team up and do two vs. two. My Deathwatch aligned up with Da Masta Cheef's Ultramarines, and RT Vorel (aka Mike) had his Wraithguard themed Eldar alien with Murl's (aka Rob) Death Guard army. We used the Open War deck to select a Twist for our ad-hoc game. There would be an objective in the center of the table and the army in control of if at the end of each round would get a VP. 

1k of Wraithguard.

1k of Death Guard (blurry pic due to nervousness)

1k of Deathwatch 

1k of Ultramarines.

Set up.

LpThe objective is a stone needle with a really cool zone marker placed around it. Rob got it from somewhere online and I like it a lot. Anyway, the bad guys got turn one and we somehow survived the initial exchange of fire with a loss or two (losing a bike was a bummer).  On our first turn the bikes zipped up and claimed the objective.

Objective held by the bikers.

It was quickly apparent that the Eldar side of this fight was almost unkillable. With the amount of firepower we threw at them, their high saves and 5+ "Shrugs" made them sickeningly resilient. Even their Nurgle alies were like "Dude! WTF?" 

With the ranges closed the combined Death Guard and Eldar were able to make their hits land. The Kill Team with four Heavy Bolters were reduced to a single guy, the bikers were wiped out, and the Ultramarines were finding themselves within engagement range of the Death Guard and were also starting to take some loses. 

On Turn Two the two Squads of Deathwatch Terminators teleported into the back of the Eldar part of the enemy Deployment Zone. After an impressive volley of Assault Cannon and Plasma Cannon fire against the Wraithlord, it was still standing with half it's wounds left! I confess, I wasn't paying too much attention to Cheef's side of things as he was mostly tangling with the Death Guard while I was having an existential crisis trying to figure out how to continue to exist after dealing with this Wraithguard army. But he did manage to get some troops onto the objective despite all the Typhus mortal wounds stuff taking place. 

Wraithbone, the original bullet sponge. 

Once again circumstances occurred that caused my Librarian to be stuck out in the open, and despite his best efforts he was soundly (as in the sound his body and armor made when it was torn apart by the warp) defeated. 

Two squads of Wraithguard vs. a guy. 

The battle Royale between the Ultramarines and Death Guard was a grueling back and forth that lasted for the remainder of the game. 

"I like your purity seals," "I like your maggots,"

On our Turn 3 the Terminators focused again on taking out the Wraithlord and actually succeeded. Yes, that took two rounds and,  yes, that took both squads to do it. 

The Wraithlord falls! 

The Terminators charged the Spiritseer (represented here by a marine proxy) and beat him to death with thunderhammers. That was honestly quite satisfying. 

The Eldar leadership falls.

So glad these guys couldn't turn around and fire...

I was in absolute awe of how much fire power the Wraithguard could absorb, and then how many models they could bring for having such a high level of resilience. 

The Eldar casualty pile.

Back to the Ultramarines side, and the fight against the Deathshroud Terminators was a heroic stand indeed despite the futility of it all. 

Heroes on both sides that deserve paint.

One melee that didn't want to end was a massive dice rolling fest on that resulted in only a single casualty on both sides. And that was even with the +1 Attack from Rage. Not quite the balance the design team was looking for with 'Armor of Contempt' was it? 

Paddycake!

Here's Cheef's thoughts: 

"The armor of contempt rule has made marine vs marine combat kinda boring, it's very 7th ed with 3+ saves everywhere. Add to that the disgustingly (yes pun intended) resilient plague marines and a unit that can almost drop a carnifex on the charge is instead damned near useless."

How the battle ended. 

We called the game at the end of Turn 3. It was a time thing, but honestly, we had 3 vps and they had 0 vps. Even with two more rounds they couldn't win this. But, there was a lot of models left and quite a few more fights to have or resolve. I was hoping the Terminators would have better luck in melee against the damned Wraithguard but we were never able to make that match-up happen. 

My only regret about this game was that I should have had the Deathwatch Terminators on the field from turn one. Their firepower could have made a difference.  Maybe.  

Despite the "OMG they're tough!" wailing from Cheef and I, we actually did have a lot of fun. Although we recommend Mike tune his list down a bit... 😉

The Fourth Death Guard Experiment.

 The fourth member of these old school (it pains me to admit that '96 is old, but here we are...*sigh*) has been completed. He is pretty close to the previous guy, Experiment #3, who followed the steps and scheme for Experiment #2.  To sum up, he is supposed to be the third step in the transition from the Horus Heresy era scheme to the current era Death Guard look. The last guy will be the fourth step. Got it? Good! Let's check him out. 

I toned dowb the rust that was so pervasive on the Experiment #3, and applied Plaguebearer Contrast paint in the receeding areas and the rotty bits.  The rust on the plague knife was painted to be closer in steps to the one that Experiment #1 has, which is all rusty and tetanus evoking. The results are a more dirty and grimey look, even though it does appear to a bit subtle in these photos. It's got a Blanchitsu vibe to it that I have never been able to pull off before I really think that's cool.

So with that here is the current look of the progression:

The Rotten Many line up.

So far so fun! We'll be looking at the last guy really soon, and in that post I will get better pics of all these guys, who, I have to admit, have been more fun to paint than I thought they would be. 

The Third Death Guard Experiment.

 

Experiment #3.

Inspiration struck me again, or maybe those three primed models at the back of my painting desk were calling out to me, taunting and teasing me to return to their experiment in putressence. Or it was the new Codex beguiling me to get something playable for the army? Whatever it was, I found myself hammering away at Death Guard #3. 

I basically painted this one following all the steps for Death Guard Experiment #2 with a few exceptions: I made the metal on the backpack more weathered as well as the knife, and I painted the power armor trim to match that of Death Guard experiment #1. He was basically done at the Heresy-era stage, but it was time to put on some wear and tear. And a bit of rot. 

Heresy-era scheme, pre-rusted.

I took some thinned Agrax Earthshade and darked some of the low lit areas on the model. Then I used Orange Ink and made some vertical lines in some spot to suggest rust streaks and added some Agrax Earthshade over that. I used Nurgle's Rot Technical Paint in a few spots as well to subtly imply this warrior's increasing decline into Nurgle's embrace. And it looks cool too. 

Rust and rot.

The orange is a tad overwhelming I think, so on future model's I am going to try to be a little more discreet with it's application but I think it looks fine here. I did some touch-ups with Pallid Flesh to tighten a few areas up, but essentially the miniature was done after this.

Pallid Flesh touch-ups.

I really like how the backpack turned out also. And I had to add the obligatory blue wire with white stripes...

Rear rust.

And here he is with the other two models, and you can kind of see how he fits in between the two stages. He is closer to the Heresy-era scheme than the other one. The next two that I do will be closer to the greener guy on the right. 

A rotten progression.

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. 

Shamble On

Recently Warfrog gave me a 6 figure box of Nurgle Plague Zombies. He got them by accident somehow and couldn't conceive of a purpose for him. So he gave them to me, which I am thankful for. But when I went to incorporate them into a list I figured out that I needed more, so I went and got a second box. Unlike a lot of kits I buy or acquire with the intentions of building and painting quickly but instead leave on a shelf or in box for many years, I actually built these in one sitting!

Zom-bee-ee-ee

The guy with the rubberband on him didn't want to join together as flush as he needed to be, so the added pressure of the rubberband was required to secure to two sections. It looked too weird having a dislocated bicep floating above his arm so this was a necessary step.

Happiness is a tentacle arm.

So does this mean I am about to go full throttle into building and painting up a Death Guard army? Well, I am unsure of that, so much so that I haven't even put the usual 'part 1' on this post's title. But I might assemble the Know No Fear plastics, run them with my early 90s Deathguard in a few small games and see where it takes me.

Early '90s Deathguard

While getting my new painting station set up, and getting my chaos marines gathered for some more painting action, I found myself admiring these really old Deathguard. These are the original models released for use with the army lists that were presented in Realm of Chaos: Lost and the Damned, one of the single finest books GW ever published (and if I may be so bold, this isn't an opinion, it is a measured, weighed and studied scientific fact!).

During my 2nd year in art school my room mates and I played an all chaos campaign per the rules in the chaos books. and I played the Nurgle faction. One of my roomies, Ron, sold these models to me, along with a few others he gave me, and thus my chaos force was started. I thoroughly enjoyed those games, and my experience with Chaos has been nothing nearly as awesome of those early games. I still consider myself an 'nurgle player' even though I haven't fielded an all-nurgle faction since the early
90s, as I feel that with the current rules that fighting against that might not be too fun, and I sort of like the smorgasbord mix of unit types that make up the current chaos warbands that raid the worlds around the Eye of Terror.

These are the painted ones, that I have yet to strip down. I did not paint these, in fact, I don
t think Ron did either as I believe these might have been 2nd hand to him as well.

I think these models have so much character compared to the Deathguard that would follow. Also, I always thought that nurgle worked better as a long-range fire-support role than an assault option, as their added Toughness made them annoying to deal with. Also, as the next pic will support, they were sort of intention for a more long range mode. The original Deathguard list could have 2 las cannons per squad!

I already stripped the really badly painted model. 

These are some pretty rare models actually, especially these las cannon guys. So I wanted to share these with you while I consider stripping these models and repainting them. However, I also want an opinion on the red trim from you all. This was a legit paint scheme back in the RT days, but faded away with 2nd edition. I like the contrast, but I might go for a rusted-red look as opposed to a painted one.

I have seen some amazing paint jobs on nurgle models throughout the years, starting with the first issues of WD I ever saw to the more recent Golden Demon awards, and have always thought that my nurgle models would be my ultimate challenge as mini-painter. While I tinker with the World Eaters, Orks, Orcs and Space Wolves, I am thinking of these guys and how I want them to ultimately look.

I hope you enjoyed this!