Ordo Opscuros

The first glimpse of my contribution to the momentuos Pilgrym project is up on Iron Sleet. Head on over there and have a look: 

IRON SLEET: the-pilgrym-the-black-ships-are-here/

Muscomorphus

Yesterday I cobbled together the final Blightking for the five man unit. He, or rather it, is the standardbearer for the group. I gave him a fly head from the plaguebearer kit that was kindly donated to me by Erik - a fitting mutation as flies are a recurring motif in the warbands heraldry. 

Once this misfit is painted I'll move on to the sorceror and round out the chaos warriors.

I want your skulls, I need your skulls

This monday we announced that the talented mr. Kraut Scientist (an esteemed hobbyist who probably needs no further introduction) will be taking care of the khornate side of the Path to Glory equation. Now it´s time to have a look at what he´s produced so far. 

Over to you Krauty:

First of all, I have to say that it's a colossal honour to be invited to this small event, and knowing the other guys' spectacular work, I know that I'll have to give it my best shot. That said, I played hard to get for a while, so I am lagging behind a bit, and I yet have to hammer out a masterplan for my warband. It's also been years since I built my last model for WFB, which adds to the challenge.

But I have some preliminary kitbashes to share with you, at least. Most of these are still rather WIP and may be subject to change.

Champion of Khorne

This guy was actually bought quite a while ago, since I wanted to use his arms and heads for a different project. The original plan was to turn him into an officer for my World Eaters army, but that plan never really moved beyond the blue tack phase, so this project seemed like the perfect occasion to revisit the model. While I am a big fan of the classic Khornate "bunny ears", I think the simpler helmet design really adds a sense of blunt menace and brutality. At the moment, I am still thinking about whether or not I should replace the sword with a Bloodletter Helblade...

Bloodsecrator

My main plan for this model was to make it slightly less over the top, so I replaced the comically huge icon of Khorne with a still massive but slightly more plausible standard. I also changed the right arm, while I was at it, going for an even more aggressive pose. The beastly head seemed like a cool addition, adding a certain old skoll charm to the character ;)

Khorgorath

This model was converted shortly after the release of Age of Sigmar: While I am normally not a big fan of massively mutated models, I still rather like the Khorgorath. However, I made some changes to make the model seems slightly less cluttered: The strange "spine-serpents" emerging from the model's shoulder and right arm were shaved off and replaced with something a little less busy in order to unclutter the model's silhouette. I also changed the somewhat abstract head, splicing in an ogre helmet for a somewhat gladiatorial look (the model was originally converted as some kind of arena beast for my World Eaters, and I think it may still end up doing double-duty in both armies/warbands).

Chaos Warrior

This ist the most WIP conversion at the moment, but I really rather like the look and feel of the model. I think I'd like to create a band of somewhat more individual chaos warriors, where each model reads as a character in their own right, and this guy is the first step in that direction.

So much for my first kitbashes. I'd love to hear any feedback you might have, of course! :-)

Triclops

The fourth Blightking is done.

This one might very well be my favourite to date - there's something nasty and ferocious about him I'm quite fond of. 

You normally don't see that in Nurgle models, although a lot of the old Realm of Chaos Adrian Smith drawings captures that vicious streak ( better than this model of course, but still...)

And here you see him next to his comrades. Four done - one to go!

The Fourth Horseman

Our Path to Glory project have so far been lacking one crucial element - the presence of the Blood God. That, however, is about to change...

Today I can happily announce that we now boast a full deck of Chaos gods!  Pillar of the community and all around nice person Kraut Scientist (AKA Kraut AKA Krauty AKA Arnie) will be building a Khornate warband and join in the fun.
As a long time follower of the Lord of Skulls - Kraut has a legendary World Eater army sporting a number of impressive conversions - his inclusion was a no-brainer. 

Later this week we´ll feature the first models from his talented hands. If you haven´t sen his work head on over to Eternal Hunt and have a gander: https://eternalhunt.wordpress.com/

On the Nurgle front, things are moving appropriately slow but steady - last night I threw together the fourth Blightknight so there´s only one to go before I move on to the chaos warriors. 

I might do the sorceror in between though - we´ll see...

Chaos consume us

Time for our next Path to Glory special feature - this time focusing on Alexanders eclectic and downright bizarre warband devoted to She who Thirsts: 

Hi, I'm Alexander, the third member of our coven and sworn hierophant of Slaanesh. 

With my warband I want to explore the more extreme aspects of the Dark Princess (yes, to me Slaanesh is female). The God's Hand have travelled far down the path that are the circles of Slaanesh Inferno. They keep no slaves, every torture and sensation are reserved for themselves.

This was my first warrior, before I knew what this project was about. He is a ritualistic torturer and flesheater. The conversion combine parts from electro-priests, cultists and daemons.

I really struggled at first when it came to the Stormcast miniature. What to do with it. In the end I turned him to chaos. He is the unreasonable fury of jealousy. In his hand he carries the head of his lover, well aware that she will just grow a new body to keep tormenting him.

My lieutenant, chaos should be strange and take odd turns. I was very much inspired by Kingdom Death when it came to this conversion. The parts are from the empire, high elf and dark eldar ranges.

Since we are inspired by the classic Realm of Chaos books I decided to add a more nonsensical miniature, the fallen king.

For heavier hitters I rolled up a troupe of Hellstriders. As an other nod to older editions I included a centaur. 

This has proven to be a lot of fun. My warriors just need to be painted and based. Then I have a few more Hellstriders to complete, some more sculpting on my giant conversion and my chaos lord.

Till next time,

Alexander 

Peek-a-boo!

Boom! Third blightking painted!

The sculpt, with the cheeky little nurgling peeking out of his belly, is such a brilliant one. Therefore I gave him a head with the eyes and mouth sewn shut - the idea being that the nurgling guides him and does all the talking.

With three blightkings done they're starting to look like a unit!

Next up - a look at Alexanders warband dedicated to She Who Thirsts! 

The Fat and the Furious

After Nordics tzeentchean interlude we're going back to the warm, moist bosom of Papa Nurgle. This time with the second painted blightking for the planned five man unit. 

Here he is next to some of the older models. The colours doesn't match exactly - I used a tamiya spray on this guy - but it's close enough. Some minor variations in hue makes the units more interesting. 

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

As readers of this blog probably are aware of by now, me Alexander and Erik AKA Nordic are planning a Path to Glory campaign using the new rules for AoS. (Rules which can by downloaded from GWs site for a measly 4 quid). 

So far you've only seen my nurgly stuff, but that's about to change (pun intended) as I have the honour of featuring both my co-conspirarators warbands here on the convertorum. First up is master sculptor Nordic and his amazing warband dedicated to the Architect of Fate:

Hi! Nordic here. 

 I chose The Architect of Fate as my deity because I felt Tzeentch is a rather unrepresented but very interesting god. Being the convertion nutter I am I will have ample opportunities to create lots of mutations and weird gribblies.
I am starting my warband from scratch, so it will be an intense time ahead to get everything done in just about three months! 

Champion: Kithelon of the Aether, Chaos Lord (Rewards: Warpcraft and Arcane Vessel) 

Warband:1 Tzeentch sorcerer lord, Feldrek Flameborn
5 chaos knights
3 chaos trolls
10 ungors

Crown of fingers mutation for one of the coming knights.

Birdfaced ungor made from a clanrat with feathers from dark eldar scourges and legs from a daemonette. sword from vampire counts skeletons.

Ungor with head from corpsecart and helm from VC skeletons.

Another birdfaced ungor with sculpted face on the shield.

Goblin made from horrors with grot head and hobbit goblin arm and a clanrat cleaver

A goblin made from a hobbit goblin with grot face, flagellant mace and the foot is from the chaos warshrine ogre.

I will make five more count as ungors.

Just to show something painted. here is a color test on a base.

That's the start of my warband. Now I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of new bits so I can start working on my knights!

Thank you Nordic for this insight into your process. We'll soom be back with Alexanders warband dedicated to the Prince of Pleasure. Stay tuned! 

Blight is right

Work continues on the nurgly warband. Here's the third blightking ready for painting.

Path to Glory

This spring me and a few friends are planning a Path to Glory campaign using the new rules for Age of Sigmar. 

They're a sort of homage to the old Realm of Chaos rules where one creates a chaos warband led by a champion and slugs it out in the chaos wastes. All done the old fashioned way using randomised tables and dice rolls! It's really quite fun and charmingly old school.

I, unsurprisingly, am going for a warband with Nurgle as its patron. That way I could simply expand the small warband I started last year (plus it's my favourite god anyway). 

Here's what I rolled up: 

Champion:
Mawgut Gloop the Obese, Chaos Lord ( Rewards: corpulent mass, fleshy folds)

Warband:
5 Blightkings
1 Nurgle Sorcerer
10 chaos warriors
3 chaos trolls.

Alexander does a Slaaneshi warband and Erik AKA Nordic chose the Changer of Ways.

Here's the second blightking (I made one last year along with Gloop himself). These guys are just unbelievably fun to work with...

I've also started to transfer the old models to round bases. Round really does look a lot better than square - no matter how classic they may be...