[WFB] Mortal Chaos Slaanesh Diary, Bases done. 1/2 Nette unit done, Pics up{56k warning) Options

[GreyArea]

Hello everyone.

After a reasonably long break from all things Games Workshop, the bug has bitten me and I need a creative outlet. I was thinking of doing Chaos in 40k, then realised I really can't be stuffed painting tanks and Smurfs all day long...and bolters are just plain boring.

So I have decided to give Fantasy a go for a change, and also my local club seems to have more of a Fantasy following than a 40k following so it works out well (I hope).

Now then, on to the ideas I am currently playing around with for this army, and why the hell it warrents a diary for you to waste your time reading whilst at work, or at home not painting! Shame on you both!

Basically I'm looking at doing a Chaos Mortal army of no pre-determined points value, I'm going to collect what I think looks cool and/or what I can sculpt to look cool/convert. The main plan is to go with Papa Nurgle as a patron god but the color scheme of just browns, yellows and rusts is kind of off putting, even if it has the occasional pink/purple and red. So my solution is to try out some ideas with color schemes that are not so 'boring' to paint.

Now the army is going to be conversion heavy. Being an ex-nid player I have all sorts of organic spiky bits in my bits boxes and can use spore mines 'tails' for improvised tentacles or even make a mold out of them to do my own green stuff casts. I have several plans at present to somehow make some warriors be 'bonded' to their armour to represent the Chosen in the army along with head swaps with zombies/skeletons with green stuff to blend it in.

On a unit leader/champ I'm wanting to have his shield as a semi random grouping of carnifex extended carapace bits and a tentacle arm holding it on, based on a plastic Warrior and having a modified sword of some sort. Also some Warriors I want to have tails snaking out of the cloaks or something like that, kind of mutated, rotten and just plain creapy.

The bases I'm thinking of making look like a barren, dead wasteland with sticks, pebbles and broken tiles from buildings (plasticard coming out ones behind makes you think of ways to actually put it to some use).

I also have several widths of guitar wire (coiled) which I think could be used for tentacles in a way, if only i can find a way to bend it easy (applying heat to semi-melt it before attaching it to the model? It is a copper like metal so should go a little more plyable?)

Also having a lot of Ork bits from both Fantasy and 40k will be handy to use some how, no idea how though.

Plans on Chaos Knights are kind of on hold, cos I am going to need to find 5 more GorkaMorka Mutie mounts for them, I really don't want to have to sculpt up from a horse base to a nurgle mount, will be a bloody nightmare!


So that the ideas are out of the way...you may be thinking 'How the hell is this crazy idea going to even get off of the ground? Were is it going to start?'

Well the simple answer is, with 1 or 2 boxes of Chaos Warriors, some green stuff, plasticard rods and imagination. I have to trial some color ideas and a few new techniques I have wanted to try out for a while (involves blending inks how I want it and getting the right tones).

I have got the first warrior mostly assembled right now and he is looking at me asking were his arms are from the forearm down. I think painting him with the shield on would be a bit harder, so I'm going to blue-tac the socket and paint from that, then paint the shield arm mostly and attach to finish it off.

Now for the color scheme i am wanting the shields to be a deep deep read with highlights in a lighter red. Due to this im leaning away from a dark green for the body armor, though if i wash it with chestnut ink and a bit of red ink mixed with some purple ink it could come up really sickly looking with a very very watered down coat of orc hide wash (yes i still have some of it! yay me!) The weapons will be done to look corroded but still have the metallic shining through cos I have always thought the warriors need to have some form of metallic shine through.

I will do some testing later on tomorrow and hopefully get some photos up to share, the experimental warrior will be hidden in the middle of the unit so if he is buggered up or the only non-converted it will not really stand out too much.

Now to get some sleep and mull this over and figure out how the hell I'm to pull it off....mm..zombie arms replacing normal arms...tentacles....boils....organic shields...food....sleep needed before brain melts down...


Any feedback, ideas, reference links or just random musings are always welcome.

Cheers

Adam

This post has been edited by GreyArea: Mar 1 2008, 06:13 PM

[GreyArea]

Ok after some very very limited thought, I have came up with an idea for my first unit of Nurgle Warriors, now to start sculpting.

Just need to know if a unit of 12 is enough for battles over 2k points or if i should make it a unit of say 16 or so. Ill have to ask later once I have it started.

I will keep you all posted, I think I have the good camera with me now so images SHOULD follow soonish


Bring on the green stuff!

[tintaman]

Some sweet ideas there Greyarea, but a unit of 12 warriors is kinda crud, as it only hasone extra rank. Units of 15-18 I think would be better, in either 5x3 or 6x3. Mmmm, nurgle. I was going to do a nurgle army, till i realised I didn't have the converting/painting/greenstuffing skillz to do something cool and original.

good luck

[GreyArea]

OK todays developments.

I went through all of my paints to check out which old ones are now dead and what colors I will need to go out and buy. Lucky me only had to get 2 paints this time so I'm a happy chappy (tin bitz and shining gold...EVERY pot of tin bitz has dried up on me within 3-6 months of buying it, even though it's kept exactly the same as all the rest of the metallics...WTF!?!? Spent $40 on tin bitz alone cos of this to date! >.<)

Once I got the paints, some new flock (needs to replace some old crappy stuff I had from back with teh model train period) and spent over an hour at Northlands (local shopping centre worth a damn) looking for cheap jewelry chains, which was wasted cos everywere i went wanted $10+ just for a single necklaase, and no-were sold it off of a spool...how frustrating!). I got a new movie and spent some time watching that and cleaning up 4 Warriors to do a test run on the color scheme I have in mind.

No green stuffing for this first unit I think, jut will do some head swaps with some old Zombies I have on the sprue still and possibly occasional arrow in the shield (I've left off the knocks cos I cant make em well enough yet, spent an hour attempting to get em done to no avail).

I have undercoated them now and they are in the shed drying off. They are without shields so I can get to the bodies easier.

Going through my bits box I also found alot of 'Nid sprues, mainly devourer and flesh borers. It started me thinking, all those ammo feed tubes...look alot like tendrils and guts, or a reasonable base for some sculpting for tentacles. So I'm intending to try that out on the next lot of 4 warriors I assemble possibly.

As for the unit size I think 16-18 should be sufficient on the battle field with hand weapons and shields. Next unit I'll convert to have threshers which will count as halberds, everybody loves a grim reaper in heavy armour don't they? Will have to do alot of scrounging to do it but if needed I have the odds and ends (plasticard) to scratch build threshers if needed, though it would be time consuming...but unique...mm...think I'll do it just cos of that.

I hope to get these guys finished, or almost finished tonight, depending on how long the inks take to dry as the scheme is going to be reliant on them for alot of the effects.

I will keep you all posted.

[GreyArea]

After alot of swaring and painting of my hand by mistake I have 4 Nurgle Warriors.

They came out OK but I cannot get any pictures up untill Thursday at the earliest. They are not totally finished and I must say I'm not 100% happy with them. The effects I tested out came out better than I thought but they are just too dark.

Lots of browns and dark greens with rusted/encrusted weapons. Not much really stands out so I'm considering repainting/painting a new guy and seeing how it goes over the next few days.

I am also considering getting hold of some of the B2B bases for them to bring out the character I'm aiming for, assuming the test bases I'm running with now don't turn out too well.


Hell I'm even considering changing patron god to get a more stand outish and colorful army than just drab greens, browns and rush of Nurgle...so either Slaanesh or Tzeench (not a fan of Khorne for some reason, never really have been).

Don't care about battlefield effectivness of the marks, cos I can just take em as Undivided for the first few battles.

Thoughts and opinions welcome as always

[GreyArea]

Todays minor update, nothing fantastic but progress.


I have finally settled on Slaanesh as a theme so now repainting the Warriors I did as Nurgle demo's.

The colors I'm going to work with are causing some issues however.

For cloaks I'm thinking of doing Liche Purple highlighting up or a dark blue and amke the armor plates a purple/pink? I have NO better idea for armor besides the pink/purple, hows about just normal boltgun metal highlighted with mithral silver or should it be stand outish more? For the shields I'm thinking of doing a deep purple or deep blue with a purple highlight with a gold/bronze on the raised bits, I really don't know.

The boots and that sort of thing will be the normal browns and the fur on the shoulders will be a light grey for contrast.

Feedback is needed here on the proposed colors as I'm unsure. Want them to be a purple/pinkish type thing though. The helmet may look good in a pink/purple but i will go on what is suggested.

And finally, would a black or white undercoat be better for Slaanesh mortal army?

Thanks

This post has been edited by GreyArea: Jan 9 2008, 11:33 AM

[BookKeeper]

Todays minor update, nothing fantastic but progress.
I have finally settled on Slaanesh as a theme so now repainting the Warriors I did as Nurgle demo's.

The colors I'm going to work with are causing some issues however.

For cloaks I'm thinking of doing Liche Purple highlighting up or a dark blue and amke the armor plates a purple/pink? I have NO better idea for armor besides the pink/purple, hows about just normal boltgun metal highlighted with mithral silver or should it be stand outish more? For the shields I'm thinking of doing a deep purple or deep blue with a purple highlight with a gold/bronze on the raised bits, I really don't know.

The boots and that sort of thing will be the normal browns and the fur on the shoulders will be a light grey for contrast.

Feedback is needed here on the proposed colors as I'm unsure. Want them to be a purple/pinkish type thing though. The helmet may look good in a pink/purple but i will go on what is suggested.

And finally, would a black or white undercoat be better for Slaanesh mortal army?

Thanks

Well if you are using liche purple as a base colour either white or black undercoat will be fine (at least in the case of my bottle watered down liche covers even metalics easily!) So it depend on how you are doing your other colours, if you are going from a lighter purple through pink for the rest of the armour I'd go with a white undercoat, if you are going for metalics, black is the only choice. (though not having done it myself you could try a very watered liche purple over boltgun or posibly mitheril would be better to see what effect that gives you for the armour plates)

[Lord_Ulrik]

My Slaanesh warrior armour, barding on horses etc is getting the same treatment i gave my Warmachine army




only used boltgun metal, black ink, purple ink and shining gold.


just got to get teh techniques right

[BookKeeper]

My Slaanesh warrior armour, barding on horses etc is getting the same treatment i gave my Warmachine army


only used boltgun metal, black ink, purple ink and shining gold.
just got to get teh techniques right

Thats some very shiny purple top stuff!
I'll have to find the images of your warmachine stuff I think

[Lord_Ulrik]

Thats some very shiny purple top stuff!
I'll have to find the images of your warmachine stuff I think

You have images of my Cryx?

or were you the lucky one who get them in the end?

[BookKeeper]

You have images of my Cryx?

or were you the lucky one who get them in the end?

No but I know enought to do a search for "cryx" limiting the results to your membership name worked a treat, shame you sold them really. (all the images are still in your photobucket account.)

[Lord_Ulrik]

No but I know enought to do a search for "cryx" limiting the results to your membership name worked a treat, shame you sold them really. (all the images are still in your photobucket account.)

Van't justify an army i'm not using and loosing interest in

WHFB is my main game and i dabble in Urban war as well.

[GreyArea]

OK minor update, no piccies yet but should have some up tonight of a near complete unit of Warriors.

I spent most of yesterday at the local GW painting in air-con comfort and finally nutted out a color scheme I'm happy with. It's prodominantly purple. Armor base is Liche Purple shaded up to Warlock Purple then a mix of Warlock and Skull White with a light wash of purple ink to bind the colors together and the shading together better.

The clocks are based black, midnight blue highlights then going up to enchanted blue then again a wash of blue ink to dull it down and blend it all better. The fur is greys and horns/leather stuff is pretty much browns to light brown. Weapons are a simple boltgun over black then mithral. The shields are the same as the armor except for the raised bits which are brazen brass highlighted with shining gold (think thats the one) with a light very thinned down black ink wash to tone it down again (came out VERY bright compared to the rest of the model, so dulling it down was required).

Bases still need to be done and I'm going to be working on about 9 more guys today in the hopes of finishing the unit tonight, or atleast as close to as I can.

Now just waiting on the PVA to dry on the bases so that I can spray them out the back and get ready for another paint-a-thon.

I'll post a load of pics tonight for you all, maybe then I'll get some interest here lol

[GreyArea]

WE HAVE PICTURES!!!

Finally!

Ok today was productive...and not so productive. I spent a bit of time in the local GW getting some painting done there to get away from the heat and to be able to paint in relative comfort (IE: Air Con that worked!) and able to concentrate on just that: Painting.

I managed to get 9 warriors base coated and now ready for the layering on the armor and cloaks and all 12 warriors getting their bases treated with some love and static grass.

Now I can read your thoughts ticking over...'he said pictures...he lies!'

Well here they are, none are totally finished yet, but well on their way.

I bring you...

My Slaanesh Warriors... (please excuse shoddy shots, shoddy Kodak cam.



Warriors front




Warrior back




Warriors to be done more of. Lots more work is needed there, possibly another 3-5 hours worth :S


I hope the shading came out well on them in the photos, should of though.


Thoughts and opinions are always more than welcome.

EDIT:

After these 12 Warriors, I have another 12 to assemble and paint and a unit of 6 Knights by this time next week I think. Also I'm going to look at scratch building a few Spawns from assorted Tyranid bits and green stuff eventually in between painting sessions. Going to be fun...Spawn of Slaanesh...fear that potential 18" first turn move!

This post has been edited by GreyArea: Jan 11 2008, 07:26 PM

[BookKeeper]

Also I'm going to look at scratch building a few Spawns from assorted Tyranid bits and green stuff eventually in between painting sessions. Going to be fun...Spawn of Slaanesh...fear that potential 18" first turn move!

Look forward to it

But first, while your paint job is high quality as always, I feel there needs to be some interest to break up the purple, A different coloured helmet and shield maybe. Bone, or midnight blue?

More thoughts after I think about it some more.

[GreyArea]

I may be able to do something different with the shields as most of em are just undercoated black atm (only the one glued on and 2 others mid way through painting that may pose a minor issue).

I could do the shields warlock purple and highlight up to a pinky/white like tentacle pink for a more stand out 'wow' factor as they do look kinda dark, having a large area at the front being much brighter would possibly assist in that.

I'll paint a shield up sometime today in that color and blu-tak it onto a nearly finished Warrior for a visual. They are a little brighter in the flesh, the camera as always washes it out a bit.

Now off to paint and mess around a bit I think.

[mikecro]

Look pretty cool to me. I agree you may need to do something to break up the purple a bit - bone or gold coloured shields could help do that nicely.

[GreyArea]

OK I have found a way to make the shields look better.

I'm going to use this shield on all of my warriors (boob worm Slaanesh Lord's crescent symbol shield...sexy!):


http://store.us.games-workshop.com/storefr...&Img=215244

It will need a slight GS modification to the arm holding it but will look the part.

I can do it in a metallic and/or pink and it should look perfect.


Now for the update for the day:

almost finished the remaining 9 Warriors and got a Boobworm Lord sorted out, so now I can/will be able to field a legit low point army. All I have to do is assemble the Lord tomorrow (can't be bothered tonight) and do a final highlight on the armor and do the standard and final touch ups on the last 9 guys along with the bases..

not bothering with the shields as yet cos I want to use those others.

Tomorrow I plan on looking into doing some work on a Spawn I have in mind, will keep you all posted regarding it.

[GreyArea]

OK minor update I guess you could call it.

Almost finished this unit of 12 Warriors, now thinking do I want to have them as a 12 'man' unit or a 16 man unit?

If i go with 12 I can start on my Chosen Warriors unit with the box I have under my desk atm and do a better scheme to show they are Slaanesh's Chosen Warriors. Again they will have to wait for a while to be finished due to me wanting those shields for the entire army (I think they look cool and will bind the army together better than a common paint scheme). Also I have been thinking the armor is WAY too dark for a Slaanesh army so will be doing some things to rectify that.

They are the following ideas:

A: Metallic armor with purple/pink helmets or random armor plates.
- Should make them lighter and the shield I can do a outer rim of purple/pink and inside of silver with raised Slaanesh symbol in a gold/bronze. a Lighter grey fur on the cloak and a lighter blue on the cloak itself.


B: Start the base color of the armor as Warlock Purple instead of Liche Purple and go towards Tentacle Pink as the final highlight with white mixed in for final lining.
- This will make them more bright by a long shot and stand out alot more on the field. The shields will be done as A above I'm thinking.


C: Keep at what it is but for lighter and larger highlight areas and silver shields and possibly silver helms with a slight purple wash/ink to tie them in a bit.
- My least favorite idea at present but suppose it could work.


Good thing about Warhammer is I can use the slightly different color schemes to represent individual regiments and get away with it, though I dont want to exploit this as it will ruin a running theme.

Opinions are always welcome.

Also finished cleaning up the boob worm properly and now have just got to look into making a base that will do it justice, so thats on the back burner for a bit, possibly till tomorrow or so.



EDIT:

I think I have stumbled across a scheme that is a hybrid between metallic armor and the purple/pink armor I have at present.

If i have some of the thigh plates based in Warlock Purple (more pink than purple) and the rest in a shiny metal/silver it will bring out the character of Slaanesh a bit more and making painting them easier and faster (drybrusing most of the armor will be a real boon in time saving and the effect will be just as good, if not better than present armor due to me not being too good with layering atm, though getting better and learning to make it alot more gradual rather than as harsh as I just did an hour ago on the remaining 9 warriors were th final highlight is so bright it makes it just look like 1 layer has been done rather than the 5 before it). Also this scheme will look AWESOME on the new shields I'm planning on getting. The main body of the shield will be silver, the Slaanesh sign in a gold/bronze and the outside and cresent (which is raised slightly) will be the purple/pink. I can't wait to place the order for em

I will get a demo done up (assembled and hopefully undercoated) tonight and will do a demo test of the scheme tomorrow, though I may need to go out and buy new metallics, mainly Chainmail though my 12 year old Mithral and Boltgun are looking pretty good, I wouldn't mind back ups, just incase.

Also after discovering Maelstrom Games again I'm thinking all new stuff I buy will be from there rather than the local GW, the savings are just too damned good to miss out on. The Boobworm I got yesterday from the local GW: $44.00....from Maelstrom Games: $29.76 at current UK exchange rate. Granted 1-2 week delivery time but hell...its almost 35% saving and free postage.

May save up and do a bulk order eventually.

Oh the bank accounts going to be sore after that one......

This post has been edited by GreyArea: Jan 13 2008, 02:31 PM

[GreyArea]

OK I have been working on an idea for the next unit of Warriors...making them alot more Slaanesh-like.

How you may ask?

Well I say by giving them barbed whips made out of Guitar Wire. Thats how:







I have 2 more getting finished off but I think they will look awesome painted up with sexy shields.

Going to finish off the next two, speed dry the GS and then under-coat spray them.

I have also removed all the horns on the helms (guy in the picture with horns is about to get them forceably removed) for 2 reasons:

1: I hate painting horns all the time

2: I think it looks better and more sleek.

Will update later tonight with progress.

C&C welcome