Daemon Prince of Nurgle: Maggot Spawn - Done

It took me almost three month to get flying Daemon Prince of Nurgle done. There was just too much going on in the non-hobby-life. At the same time, when I had some spare minutes to work on him, I experimented a bit with colors and techniques, which also resulted in investing more time than initially expected. As I am quite happy with the result, I don't mind that it took that long after all.
I added for example brown spots on his skin, to make it more diverse and interesting... there was simply too much grey-green as a whole. I applied the first layer to define the shape with a sponge and then worked those spots up with different washes. The use of washes was extensive on this miniature; I never was a friend of washes but I start to like (and understand) them.

The base is another custom piece. The foundation is a Corpse Field Base from Secret Weapons Miniatures, but a changed the ground, added tree stumps, exchanged the heads of the corpses and put some maggots on the bodies to feast on them.

As said, I am overall happy ho the Maggot Spawn turned out, but I hope that I won't need that long for my next Nurgle project.

 

Daemon Prince of Nurgle: Maggot Spawn - Conversion Done

The conversion of the flying Daemon Prince of Nurgle is done. After the skin was completed I continued with the carapace. At first I planned to put one big horn right above the head (and get rid of the small horns on the side) but after getting some really valuable feedback from a friend I went with the original design.
The carapace turned out rather clean as there was going to be a lot of details on the skin: details in pustules in different shapes and sizes, open wounds and maggots that crawl out of them. They way I imagine it, the Plague Prince is spawning the maggots, they drop to the ground feast on the corpses, grow and turn into Beast of Nurgle which eventually will become Plague Drones. That's what Nurgle is all about: The Circle of Life! As with the scared skin I also tried to keep the look of the Pustules in line with the ones from the Plague Ogryn Leader.
I played around with different trophies and trinkets but - as with the details on the carapace - stayed away from adding any as the skin was pretty noisy already. In the end I only went with a set of bells for the horns.
The Maggot Spawn is not ready for getting painting (the wings are just tagged using blue tag) which I will - along with building the base - do next. Can't wait to get the Plague Prince ready for the battlefield.

 

 


 

Daemon Prince of Nurgle: Maggot Spawn - WIP

As I want to continue with a Nurgle arme, but not necessarily jumping right away back to a mono daemon army I decided to get my Plague Marines back on the tabletop (at least from a gaming perspective). In order to keep the daemons and the marines tied together nonetheless I started working on a Daemon Prince of Nurgle aka Maggot Spawn.

I used the Plague Ogryn Leader from Forgeworld as well as two Plague Drone bodies as basis for the conversion. The rest is greenstuff… a lot of it. I am currently working on the skin. Next will be the carapace. Something I am not completely sure about is additional details/extras. I thought about adding maggots and maybe even the flies that come with the Maggoth Lords kit. A bell also would be nice, but I am not sure where to hang it from… maybe also the carapace or the horns. Latter I eventually will remove as I would like to have a single big horn to extend from the carapace right above the head.

I already spend quite some time with this conversion and there is still a lot to do, but so far I really enjoy bringing the Maggot Spawn to life.

Modular City Terrain Boards - WIP: Paving Tiles

After I lost my miniatures case (it hasn’t been found/returned yet) my motivation to continue working on the Nurgle daemons was at the low point. I thought about not continuing with the army at all. But thanks to the great talks I had with various hobbyists in the GW store and online in the different communities I will carry on with the Carrion Cohort… just not right now. I am still hoping to get my army back and therefore I won’t start filling up the ranks right away. Also, I need some time to have the wounds healed.

Instead of working on daemons I spent the last two weeks with the modular game table. After I glued on the streets I started working on the actual terrain respectively the space where terrain pieces are going to be placed. It took a while to figure out the right size for the tiles (also in terms of what I actually can produce with my foam cutter)… and then it took even longer to get those tiles (around 500).

Gluing all those tiles on the boards also took some time and it also was a bit boring, but now, with the foundation in place I can start with the fun work: building hatches for the floor, building a water reservoir, building air shafts, weathering the tiles, adding rubble and destruction, etc… all those elements hopefully add variety and interesting spots/landmarks to the board. At the same time I want to build all the details in a way that I still can place terrain on top of it.

Rogue Daemon: The Corpse

Last week my local Games Workshop Store (Berlin 2) not only held the Armies on Parade competition, but also the Rogue Daemon painting challenge. Lars, the head honcho of the store organized it as there is no German Golden Daemon any more. I wasn't preparing something special just for this event, but brought my unit of Plaguebearers (40K Unit) and The Corpse, a Herald of Nurgle (40K Single Miniature).

There were great and truly inspiring entries, and I had a lot of great and heart warming talks with all the hobby enthusiasts in the store... about techniques, armies, background and all the other aspects that make this hobby so awesome. You can see all the miniatures of the Rogue Daemon here.

I was really surprised and delighted when I heard the The Corpse won first place in the 40K Single Miniature category!

I am super happy, at the same time I am (still) devastated as the case with the rest of my army is still lost.

Missing: Army Case!

On Friday I forgot to pick up my army case in the city train; I nodded off, woke up at my stop an walked out of the train. I didn't realize that I forgot my case until the next day when I wanted to continue with the second unit of Plaguebearers. I am still devastated. 

I filed a notice of loss, plastered the lamp posts around all the stops on the train line with "have you seen me?" leaflets and went to the lost-and-found office. So far there is no sign of the case, but I haven't lost hope just yet. 

The only good thing is that my already painted unit of Plaguebearers as well as the Corpse wasn't in the case as I left them at the local GW Store to participate in the Rogue Daemon painting contest. But everything else of my Daemon army, including the codex, rule book, the Portal Glyph, the 2nd edition metal Bloodletters... everything is gone.

Modular City Terrain Boards - WIP: Streets

After cleaning up the boards for the modular city scape table I now (finally) made up my mind regarding the layout of the streets. At first I wanted to align the streets horizontal/vertical (classic layout). I tried to put them in the middle and on the side of the boards to get not only enough variety, but also sufficient space to place terrain; I wanted an option where I can have rather big place somewhere if needed. After some simple paper design tests and research I decided to go with a diagonal setup.

Vertical/Horizontal

Diagonal 

Making sure that ankle of the street pieces is correct, so they are properly aligned when putting the tiles together was a bit of a hassle, but luckily I was able to remember some of the things I have learned in geometry classes.
So far I only have cut out cork street pieces; cork because when painted black and dry-brushed it looks like asphalt. Before I clue them onto the board I need to build some manhole covers and decide where I want to have the streets to be destroyed and to which extend. 

Building this modular board takes time, also because I am not 100% focused as I still building and painting my Nurgle Daemon Force at the same time, but so far I am happy, especially with the diagonal pattern as I have the impression that I can do way more different and interesting layouts.


Additions:

• Nurgle Releases: I don’t have a Fantasy army, but I have a lot of ideas how I can use those fantastic looking miniatures for my 40K Nurgle force. Stay tuned. 
• 2nd Plaguebearers Unit: I am still painting them. I spend around 12h painting pustules, but they are done. Next I will take care of the rusty swords and horns. 
• Beasts of Nurgle: I ordered bits to build seven Beasts of Nurgle; I am not a fan of the GW model and I wasn’t able to find any nice miniatures from other manufacturers I like… okay, this is only partially true. There were some awesome looking Bile Worms as well as fantastic looking Cthulhu spawns, but unfortunately both companies that produced them ran out of business.