Wow, I don't even know how this came together! I doubt I could replicate it. This thing has components from so many different miniatures, all pinned together with scratch-built parts, but it all snaps together remarkably well. The figures are left unglued for ease of painting. Almost everything piece is pinned, so it's incredibly solid for as fragile as it looks.
This model represents a Chaos Space Marine Lord riding a Palanquin of Nurgle. The palanquin is an ugrade which I believe gives the Lord extra attacks and makes him harder to kill. As a drawback, the rules stipulate that he takes up more room in vehicles and must be mounted on a 60 mm round base (typical for artillery or large monsters) rather than the standard 40k infantry base (which I believe is 25mm).
In both Warhammer Fantasy and 40k, the Chaos gods grant Daemonic Steeds to their mortal champions, i.e. Chaos Lords. Nurgle, as a personification of pestilence, sloth, and slow creeping death doesn't have "steeds" per se, instead Lords favored by Nurgle ride into battle on thrones carried by a rabble of lesser daemons , mutants, or other foul creatures.
There hasn't been an official model for a Palanquin of Nurgle for like 20 years... as far as I know, the only one they ever made was discontinued before I became involved with the hobby (circa 2000). The
Palanquin has none the less existed (off and on) in the various
iterations of the rules for both Fantasy and 40k ever since, and players
have had no choice but to convert their own.
My 6th Edition Warhammer Armies: Warriors of Chaos book even had a photo of an converted Chaos Sorcerer mounted on a Palanquin in the gallery (an anomaly, usually you'd only see heavily converted models in the pictures of the staff's personal armies) despite not actually having rules for it! This palanquin was supported by only three nearly mutation-free ordinary humans. Exactly what kinds of creatures can and can't be the bearers of a palanquin is kind of open-ended... Most of the descriptions specify that it is Nurglings, but I've seen conversions featuring Chaos Warriors, Chaos Marauders, Beastmen, Chaos Spawn, Chaos Space Marines, Cultists, Beasts of Nurgle, giant flies, nameless monsters, etc.
This is it the original:
Still pretty cool, despite lacking dimension (I assume older models always had "flatter" poses due to some limitation related to casting). As I think I've mentioned in a previous post, this is the kind of old-school Chaos aesthetic I really like; where it's kind of ambiguous whether the model should belong in a space or fantasy setting, and likewise whether they're meant to be mutants or demons or something else entirely. I tried to pay homage to that look with my palanquin bearers.
*Chaos Space Marine Lord*
The guy on top. Pictures of him off the palanquin will be posted further down. He is based on the Chaos Lord supplied in Dark Vengeance. Actually, for all the modifications I made, he doesn't look that different, to me at least, because the bulky stock figure is mostly just one piece (only the hands and backpack would've required assembly). He looks like a different guy I guess, but in the same pose and with his cape flapping the same way.
His gun is removable (pinned gun-to-hand, in contrast to the rest of the army), and ~80% scratch-built. I even had the presence of mind to take step-by-step shots! (below)
His giant hand mutation (counts-as powerfist) is metal, and from a Daemon Prince model (stay tuned). This hand is removable (pinned) as well, and swappable with another holding a poweraxe (below).
His single curved horn is a tendril from the stock Hellbrute (the other two saw use on another yet-to-be-posted model).
His large cyclopean eye required minimal sculpting because I worked off of detailing already present on the stock model's helmet.
His bulgy arms are Ork/Orc arms.
The left pauldron, featuring a big fly emblem, is entirely scratch-sculpted from greenstuff.
Like his Plague Marines, he was given battle-damaged and corroded armor, had greenstuff pustules and a gut-plate sculpted on (cracked, with cut intestine hanging out), and had several Nurgle emblems inscribed in various places.
His backpack was created from an Ogre Kindoms Bulls animal skull standard, an Orc Boss's face-armor, tubes that were removed from the Hellbrute, hollowed out Tyranid Hormagaunt thighs, a sliced Space Marine backpack exhaust vent, greenstuff, and styrene tube.
*Big Guy*
On the left side of the first photo, wielding the spiked club. For the rest, I will proceed clockwise.
His head and left arm (holding the palanquin) are from the Ogre Bulls plastic kit. The pole (Ogre banner) he's grasping is was sharpened on the bottom and glued in place into a corresponding hole on the palanquin. I gave him some boils on his scalp in the shape of a Nurgle emblem.
His right arm and club are from an older, metal Golgfag's Ogres ogre.
His little legs are from the Empire Militia kit.
His stomach, back muscles/fat, and entire torso are greenstuff.
*Four-legged Cloaked Creature*
His legs are two sets of Goblin Wolf Rider legs, cut so they'd fit together with the feet flat on the ground.
The torso beneath his tattered greenstuf robes is from a Gorkamorka era Ork driver or biker (not sure). The head is from the old multi-part plastic Night Goblins, with the pointy goblin nose removed and the hood extendeddown with greenstuff to cover all but the evilly grinning mouth. It fit right over the tiny-by-current-standards old scale Ork head with only some superficial filing!
The arm with the axe is a current Night Goblin spear arm, with the axe head from a 2nd edition 40k starter set snap-fit Ork.
The straight arm holding the palanquin by straps is from the old Night Goblin kit (formerly held a gong).
I sculpted ~70% of the cloth parts. He has shotgun shells on his belt, partly a shortcut to avoid sculpting more robes, and partly just to look cool.
*Cloaked Skull Face w/ Skull Stick*
Legs, Empire Militia. Peg-leg, current Night Goblin spear.
The arm resting on palanquin handle... Skaven Clanrat musician (bell-ringer) arm from back when one sprue with parts for Skaven, Night Goblin, and Skeleton Warrior standard bearers and musicians was common to all three kits for some reason. The upper arm was bulked up with greenstuff to fit the robes, which were sculpted with a different arm-position in mind. The hand is a severed hand trophy/fetish bit from the aforementioned multi-army standards and musicians sprue.
The other arm, same source, Skaven standard bearer arm.
The skull on top, also same sprue (meant for Skeleton Warriors standard), with Nurgle emblem drilled into forhead.
Head, old Skeleton Warriors helmeted skull (contemporary with old Night Goblins and their shared sprue).
The robes were entirely sculpted by me, save for the bit of cloth tailing behind him (Dark Vengeance Space Marine Librarian) with the ring of keys and high-explosive grenade on it.
*Pointy Hood In Front*
He is actually part of the structure of the palanquin. He is a Gnoblar (more lowly version of a goblin, slaves of ogres) from the Ogre Kingdoms Bulls kit. The stock figure is meant to be carrying his master's ogre club, is dragging a sack full of unknown contents, and also has a pie comically strapped to his back (probably not visible from any angle on my palanquin model).
The club was trimmed down, and served as the front beam of the palanquin. His right hand is visible, you can see his skinny fingers wrapping around the top of the club/beam (part of the stock model).
The head is an old Night Goblin, similar to the four-legged guy (nose removed, hood extended), but with a cyclops eye and little pinhole nostrils sculpted on to resemble a Nurgle Daemon. I'd call him a Nurgling but he's a little big and lanky.
That's the fun thing about Chaos, though. Exactly what a creature is doesn't necessarily need to be defined.
*Nurgling In Front*
This one is definitely a Nurgling. And this was a very fast sculpt, like my Sorcerer's familiar.
I took a plastic Snotling (included as an extra embellishment with the old plastic Night Goblins), cut the nose off, gave him the same one-eye-tiny-nostrils treatment as the guy next to him, and added a horn from a current plastic Night Goblin bow. I didn't even feel the need to sculpt a base around the horn to emphasize that its growing from the head, I found it looked convincing enough just glued.
With a square file, I made a little "shelf" on his shoulders that the palanquin rests on. Because of the way this whole monstrosity fits together, he's in there tight, even without glue.
His right arm, which formerly held a fat, cartoony club with a nail through it, was cut off.... and is simply absent, Presumably it's somewhere beneath the palanquin, supporting it. I can't even tell.
Less is more!
*The Palanquin Itself*
As stated, the front beam is part of the hooded former-Gnoblar in front. The rest of the platform is scratch-built from clipped-up sprues. With a razor, I rounded off any sharp corners cut up the ends so they'd look like beat-up wood, and I scored them along their length to simulate wood grain. If I was to do this again, I would definitely score them deeper, because some depth was lost upon priming.
The handles are cut-up current plastic Night Goblin spears, as are the blades strapped to the corners. The straps that aren't part of the handles or blades or in 4-leg-guy's hand are greenstuff. They all work together well, I think.
The cylindrical parts that stick off of sprues (which as fare as I know represent the points where the mold is filled with molten polystyrene) are interpreted as metal couplings in the context of this model. At the rear of the top of the palanquin, two such points served as the mounting points for the Lord's throne (better visible in the photo of just the palanquin, below)
The vertical parts of the throne with skulls on top are from the Skaven/Goblin/Skeleton musicians and standards sprue discussed above. They are implements for striking the Skaven's bell. Originally, they had spikes on top, but I cut the skulls flat, and hollowed out, first with the small "hobby" drill bit, then the larger one (I always do this for accurate hole placement), then with an "ordinary" i.e. larger sized drill bit, and finally I twirled a file around in them.
The cross beam beneath the seat is a tab from some random plastic "slottabase" style figure. Most metal and single-pose plastic Games-workshop models have a tab that connects their feet that fits into a "slot" in the "base". Slottabase... ...This name might specifically refer to certain figures from a certain era, I don't know, I might be misusing it. I don't really care.
The seat is an old Night Goblin Gong.
The spiky back of the throne is an armored smock worn by the 2nd Edition Warhammer 40k starter set Orks. The back of the back consists of a couple shields from the older fantasy Chaos Warriors multi-part plastic kit. The bottom one was carefully cut to fit under the one with the face, on top. The top shield also contributes those arm/side-part-of-chair(?)-like protrusions and I think that really ties the whole thing together as a throne.
The placard-bearing skeleton on the pole a single piece (base decoration) from the Warhammer Giant. It was originally mounted in a pile of rubble. The skeleton-post was cut and pinned to the top of the throne. The rubble pile was repurposed as the pile of filth under the throne. It fit perfectly. The diagonal piece of wood that propped up the skeleton (the top of which is still on to of the throne) even looks like it's contributing to the support of the seat. Radical.
Oh, don't forget, ........................................*The Base*
The base... I don't know how to describe what it represents. Highly customized Nurgle models are often given bases that are just fields of swampy, moldy, gross, possibly-alive stuff.
The first layers of the base were made using a technique I found on some other guy's blog. I'd give due credit, but I don't remember. Just google "nurgle basing tutorial", that's probably how I found it. Basically, you put down a layer of dilute white glue, then dribble superglue around. Some chemical physics occurs and when everything's dry you're left with these moldy looking bubble structures.
Then I started using the crevices in between glue-bubbles as a convenient place to stick left-over little bits of greenstuff if I felt like being done with a sculpting session.
Eventually the base was almost entirely full, and anyplace black was still showing, I sprinkled vermiculite (I ran out of sand and it made a fine substitute. It's a volcanic product that contributes to better drainage for soil. I use it for my cactuses.)
By the way, I'll note that before I did any of this, I planned out how the rest of the model would fit together, and drilled the holes in the base for the pins in the figures' feet, and marked them on the underside with pencil. Always plan ahead.
Here's the Lord by himself. He could be swapped to a standard infantry base with ease.
Here he is, sans weapons.
His alternate weapon, the poweraxe, is visible kind-of in that photo. It's nothing spectacular, just an Ogre Bull hand with the club cut and replaced with an axe shaft from the older plastic Chaos Warriors.
Powerfist (big hand) is the obvious superior choice most of the time anyway, since it's way more deadly and its (accordingly more severe) drawback (always striking last) is negated by the greatly increased ability-to-not-die-right-away granted by the combined effects of the Mark of Nurgle and the Palanquin.
Here's a close up of the gun.
The primer came out a little fuzzy, but for Nurgle that's no problem, it'll just look like rusty.
The animal skull is from the old Skeleton warriors. It was just another skeleton head, but didn't commonly see much use among undead players I encountered because those little horns were separate pieces that had to be glued on, and it was incredibly fiddly! I always wondered whether it was supposed to represent a Beastman skeleton, or just a human skeleton reanimated with whatever kind of skull was at hand.
The second barrel (don't know if it was ever apparent there were two from the photos) is a highly trimmed down skeleton warriors axe. It was trimmed to just that little spike, and drilled out. The other barrel is some drilled-out weapon shaft or something.
It is meant to be generic, "whatever you wrote in you army list" combi-weapon. Characters in Space Marine (Chaos or otherwise) usually have the option to upgrade their standard Space Marine boltgun to one of a variety of "combi-weapons", that is, a boltgun incorporating an auxiliary downsized version of another type of weapon. They can be fired as the other weapon once per game.
Having one thing that's obviously a specific combi-weapon permanently glued to your model isn't conducive to tactical experimentation. Rather than build half a dozen different double-guns for this guy, I elected to just make the barrels look distinct from one another. As long as you've paid the points and have a copy of your army list, no one minds this sort of thing. And if your opponent does object to this sort of thing, you're not likely to have a rewarding experience playing with them under any circumstance.
The spiky details, magazine well, the texture on the bottom of the magazine, trigger guard, safety/random-buttons, and ejection port are all styrene sheet/rod.
The magazine is a sector of one of those rings from the Wargames Factory sprues that I described at length in my Hellbrute post. I sure got a lot of use out of those for them supposedly being disposable.
I promised step-by-step shots, and here they are. I probably won't annotate much because there's not much else to say. It started with a pieces of sprue, and the rest is styrene and skeleton bits.
The Start:
The lower portion of the weapon is sawed from the top of this piece:
The magazine well is defined with careful cuts:
Can't tell if a step has occurred here, it was probably just meant as a less blurry shot
The pieces are assembled:
A different angle I guess? This was like last Christmas, I don't know.
...aaaand a random Chaos Lord work-in-progress shot:
Whah! Done.
This was a colossal post for a colossal piece.
And the conclusion to a colossal series of posts documenting a colossal project.
Yup, that's it. A one-thousand-X-hundred point army, heavily modified, customizable, and totally unique, all from just the contents of a starter box and already-owned components! All done, and all posted.
Almost...
One final piece remains to receive finishing touches, and thorough online commentary...
And I have a feeling it'll knock some socks off...
All-in-all, the palanquin was the most satisfying thing I've completed so far. But what's coming is even sicker!
Check back soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment