# Death Guard WIP: Pandemic (May 2 - more Defiler paintwork)



## Svartmetall

OK, the main body of this is over at Relicnews, but since I noticed there was a link to my Nurgle 101 tutorial at Relicnews already here I figured I might as well stick a few of my Nurgly works-in-progress up here as well. 'Pandemic', my Death Guard army, is my first ever army - so be nice 

My Nurgle Sorceror:

















A Terminogre (the idea is that they met this Ogre on their travels, liked the way he kicked arse, adopted him, found a 7XL set of Terminator armour in the stores and squeezed him into it):









A Possessed Terminogre (I'm rather proud of the sculpting on this guy):









Lord Kothaar The Putrescent, my HQ:









And finally one of my line Terminators from the 'Plaguewielder' Terminator squad:









...hope you guys like these, and that maybe it'll inspire some more Nurgle armies :biggrin:


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## Ryan_M

and let the plague begin.


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## Imperial Dragon

WOW awesome wish my nurgle looked that good, would like to see more.

Edit: not to be mean to your work, but they remind me of the flood from Halo.


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## loyalist42

Damn. 

Think that says it all :biggrin: 

Great stuff man; keep 'em coming!!


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## Anphicar

That stuff is so..disgusting!

The way Nurgle should be!

I love those sculpts, man. Keep that shit up and paint it up good!


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## Jacobite

Now that is Green Stuff. I can't believe how great that stuff looks. How big is the force?

Awsome painting as well.


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## Lord Khorne

You are a totally SKILLED GS sculpter. Love the Ogre. Add more nurgle to him though.


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## Death 0F Angels

good work all around bud. hope to see more of your work.


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## The Wraithlord

All I can say is DAMN.


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## dan1986

WOW, there amazing, love the mouth and teeth on the belly of the possesed ogre, fantastic sculpting


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## ReaperOfHeresy

:shok::shok::shok::shok::shok::shok::shok::shok:
Just amazing stuff u got there, u have done just amazing GS stuff and conversions there.
Its really amazing stuff.
k:k:k:k:k:k:k:k:k:k:k:k:


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## Inquisitor Aurelius

You, sir, are one brilliant fething sculptor. Not too shabby a painter, either. Were I a more envious and resentful man, I'd say some very mean things about now.

Oh, who am I kidding - I'm a jerk.

I hate you.


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## Svartmetall

Thanks for the positive feedback, guys, you're making this noob feel happy about his first army  I found some slightly better pictures of Kothaar and the Terminator...



















And just for a change of colour, here's a Spawn I made up just in case the Sorceror's Gift Of Chaos spell works and I get to turn one of my opponent's minis into a Spawn


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## chaos vince

man those looked AWESOME!


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## dan1986

they are fantastic! the spawn reminds me of the film 'The Fly', it looks ace


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## plug

That stuff is ssssoooo good. Well done mate. Keep it up.:mrgreen:


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## bishop5

niiiiiiiiiiiiiice!!!! Love the GS work


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## DaemonsR'us

Are you sure this is your first army, are you REALLY sure? lol just amazing, i wish i could sculpt GS like that


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## The Wraithlord

So, so , SO good.


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## Svartmetall

DaemonsR'us said:


> Are you sure this is your first army, are you REALLY sure? lol just amazing, i wish i could sculpt GS like that


It's quite definitely my first army - I'm like the worst 40K _player_ ever :biggrin:. To be honest, I'm still somewhat taken aback by just how positive most of the reactions to it have been...even though working with green stuff did seem fairly instinctive to me from the first time I tried to use it.


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## lordmat0

When I opened the thread and saw the first model I thought "oh another nurge army..."

Then I saw one painted just wow you're a great painter you captured the nurge inside of you!


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## DaemonsR'us

Instictive with GS? geese now i envy you lol i really like what you did with the models though, good luck with the rest of the army and looking forward to see'ing more pics!:good:


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## 1k-termie

what boxes did you use for the Terminorgre? I know its Ogre Kingdoms body, but what about the head?


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## Ordo Xeno Commander

bloody hell mate, thats simply made of awesome. Your a fantastic modeler and pretty bloody decent painter, keep it up dude.


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## Svartmetall

Thanks again for all the positive feedback guys - here are the three Spawn I just completed for a squad-painting competition over at Relicnews:

Vet









Rhino









and Spiny









...I think they make a fairly nice trio of distinctive Spawn for the tabletop


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## Svartmetall

1k-termie said:


> what boxes did you use for the Terminogre? I know its Ogre Kingdoms body, but what about the head?


It's actually one of the Spawn heads; it normally has two big horns (which actually remind me of the Motörhead 'Snaggletooth' head ) but I cut those off, using the stump of one as the basis for a big tumour that blends the head to the shoulder nicely.


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## Sigose

WoW!! :shok:

That is trully awsome work, You are defentlly great with the plague. :so_happy:


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## Maverick421

Great job! Really like the conversions, great use of green stuff. Can't wait to see these painted.


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## The Wraithlord

I love the paint on Spiny, looks like a lionfish.


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## DaemonsR'us

keep up the good work svart k:


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## Green Knight

Your modles are spell bindingly good, nice one


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## Lord Sinkoran

they look awesome, disgusting but awesome.


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## Svartmetall

Been a while since I updated...here's a first look at Vvornth, the Plague Dreadnought that's my current focus. His right 'arm' will be a twin-heavy-bolter job, that's the next thing I'll be working on; I haven't gone hugely over the top with Nurgly bits on the CCW arm, in keeping with my 'credible fighting force' design ethos for Pandemic as a whole. Hopefully what's there is just enough to make him and his weapons look diseased and seeping, but not so much that he doesn't look like it would actually _work_ in a fight.


















It was kind of fiddly to get the head smoothly extended into a tube and get the 'tongue' sticking out at the right angle, but I'm happy with how the end result looks; you can still make out what Spawn head is underneath it all, but hopefully it's all blended it together with the GS work smoothly enough that the whole thing looks homogenous. The 'tongue', by the way, is meant to be a triple tendril to match Father Nurgle's icon. 










I'm pleased with how he's starting to look now - I think he'll make an imposing, diseased killing machine for the battlefield. 

As always, all C&C is welcomed


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## dirty-dog-

it looks as if it has more "mush" than body work, but balanced enough to still be called a dread, personaly i love it.


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## Djinn24

All I can say is wow.... I am jelious.


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## Fenrakk101

Im jealous...


I think I'll sell some of my current army and replace them with new Marines that I'm going to GS to hell


That'll be my sig: 'You've been GSed!'

You could use that


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## plug

Thats what I call different, the mouth reminds me of the alien. Well sorted and good GS work. Well done


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## omgitsduane

first off i have to say my all time favourite here is the three headed guy at the start, he is totally boss! and this dreadnaughts face looks so typically nurgle i cant wait to see more!


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## Svartmetall

Here's Dreadnought Vvornth with heavy bolter arm added and GSd in...









Note the cunning fake hydraulics 









I am really pleased with how he's shaping up now...
















...I wanted to do a Nurgle Dreadnought conversion of my own who could hold his head up in the company of the Forge World Death Guard & Nurgle Dreads; and, though I say so myself, I actually think he's getting there


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## Ice_Cube

omg hes looking ace, gonna look real mean once hes painted, well done!


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## Maverick421

Those are some crazy @$$ conversions w/ green stuff. I really like your lord and great color scheme for your termie.


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## Untitled401

Damn, all this work is really impressive dude. Any updates yet? its almost been a month since your last post.


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## itsonlyme

man that is some really funky stuff, i am seriously jealous, i wish i could use greenstuff in that mannor (well, with that ability, perfer Khorne stuff  ), cant i have seen anything i dont like!


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## Viscount Vash

Gnee Erk and Whaa?

Man you have some real natural talent there I was flabberghasted and then I read on and found this is your first bash at this, first army and an instictive feel for GS.

The only thing greener than your Plague ridden minions is myself and then you painting is top notch too.

The style of these bits is very like the old Renegades that you could get in the Rogue Trader days and the painting is superbly suited to the models.

Im just about to embark on a pox filled army myself but Im not sure i should embarress myself by trying now.
What tools do you use to sculpt with as I have had some limited sucess on lager scale things but seem to come unstuck with the smaller details.

May I place some of your pictures in the gallery?

Great work and I really look forward to seeing what you come up with next.


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## Green Knight

Hell, your green stuff work is spell binding. +rep


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## Citadel

Amazing job... This is REALLY AMAZING NURGLE ARMY!


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## Svartmetall

Wow...I continue to be somewhat blown away by how positive so much of the feedback is. 

_"Any updates yet? its almost been a month since your last post."_

Aye, sorry...I've been very, very busy with work stuff lately, plus Warhammer Online went live, and I've been Beta testing that for over a year so I wanted to be there for the live launch; it's one hell of a game. Hence the lack of updates. I'm really in a 'not enough hours in the day' kind of place at the moment, if you know what I mean 

I did get some stuff done, though - I finished construction work on Dreadnought Vvornth: 








Really pleased with the final result; I think he's going to rock whenever the hell I get round to painting him up  Doing him has also boosted my confidence about doing armoured things like vehicles; I'm now hatching plans for a Nurgle Vindicator and a couple of Rhinos for the Plague Marine squads...

I also finished Wolfie, the Spawn: 
















I especially like the torn flesh at the bottom of his torso around where the tentacles spill out...

I've also been having a first few tentative steps into the shady world of scratchbuilding; using galvanised steel wire to make an armature then building up around it. The first thing I did was a Dryad, in which I had a lot of fun doing the tree-bark texturing and putting a few knots in as well: 








To give an idea of scale:









And yesterday I finished a '3-up' scale Ork head on a pike:
















...I had fun doing the droopy ears and the skin texturing; I think he has character. I shall call him Bob. 

I've also done an 'old school' Nurgle tutorial for the upcoming issue of Firebase, and today will be working to finish the head and miscellaneous green stuff work on the 'Jaws' Possessed Terminogre. 

*pant pant*

_"What tools do you use to sculpt with as I have had some limited sucess on lager scale things but seem to come unstuck with the smaller details."_

My main sculpting tools are a scalpel, my thumb, and various wooden cocktail sticks, with the occasional addition of a proper sculpting tool. 

_"May I place some of your pictures in the gallery?"_

Go ahead, I'd be honoured. More pics when I have them...as always, all C&C is welcomed.



...


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## Random

how the F do you greenstuff like that?!?! AMAZING!


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## Green Knight

yes I agree Random, I think he must of sold his soul to Nurgle, can we see some more paint jobs.


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## Untitled401

sweet jebus...
some very inspiring stuff her man. Anyone can be good with green stuff, it just takes time and practise. But to reproduce the quality of work that you produce, not everone can do that.


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## The Wraithlord

That is some quality gs work mate, jesus.


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## Svartmetall

And I finally last night managed to settle on and make the head for Jaws:








The idea is that he's so repulsively hideous after his Possession that even the other Plague Marines can't bear to look at him, so they got him a helmet to hide the worst of what his face had turned into. He's definitely my favourite conversion so far; just needs a few augmetic cables and stuff at the back of the head and he'll be finished


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## Random

I like it how you have a story behind every model,, and this looks AWESOME, I hope you can paint it up asap  k::biggrin:


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## Svartmetall

After a lot of thought, I wasn't happy with the proportions of the Ork Head Onna Stick, so I decided to have another stab at it; here's the current state of work on Bob Mark II:
















I'm a lot happier with him, in particular the hooded, piggy little eyes and the more pronounced 'jut' of the lower jaw  When I get back from work tonight I'll do the lower lip and the skin layers & textures over the rest of the head.


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## dirty-dog-

absolutly outstanding.

i can't wait to get some greenstuff and start practising, any tips apart from keep tools wet?


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## Red Corsairs

I love those conversions and that Ork head is fantastic! Some of the best work I've ever seen!


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## cameron94

Impressive green stuff modeling!
I like them.


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## Green Knight

More outstanding work by Svartmetall, you are a true artist.


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## Svartmetall

One again, _*blush*_ at the reactions.



dirty-dog- said:


> i can't wait to get some greenstuff and start practising, any tips apart from keep tools wet?


I use a scalpel for a lot of my fine detail, using the back edge of the blade to give very fine lines etc.; I've also found wooden cocktail sticks to be very useful. Recently I've been making more use of a standard sculpting tool with a spatulate end which is useful for smothing things like armour surfaces etc.; I do find wooden tools seem to feel better to work with than metal, so I may well try proper wooden sculpting tools.

Make sure your GS is mixed as smoothly as possible so you don't get any of those annoying yellow lumps coming out half-way through the actual sculpting process - which seems to keep happening to me no matter how much I knead the crap out of my GS while mixing it. 

Erm, actually that's about it really. I have no real idea what I'm doing, I just sort of intuit my way through things so I'm not sure how much genuinely useful advice I could give anyone, really. The Nurgle stuff came very naturally to me, but as you can see from the difference between Bob I and Bob II, some other things need to be worked on and practiced; I guess like everything else, people will have natural strengths and weaknesses when it comes to sculpting. I'm doing a human figure now and am on Attempt Number 4 now, which is the first one that doesn't look like something made by an autistic chimp in wet clay; I'm not quite sure what it says about me that making hideous diseased monstrosities comes more naturally than making a human being


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## Lord Khorne

some of the very best GSing I've ever had the pleasure of seeing.
When the awards system is finished you should get an artists medal.


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## Svartmetall

Quick update - here's Jaws completely finished with shoulderpad and augmetics out of the back of his head. 
























Though I say it myself, I think he rocks. Getting this figure done has been a huge confidence-booster for my sculpting and converting overall; when I first came up with the idea of a huge mouth in a model's gut, I wasn't sure if I could pull it off. Looking at the finished result, I love it 

I also finished Bob II - who's basically an exercise in trying to broaden my sculpting anyway - now with ears and all skin texturing done:









As always, all C&C welcomed.


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## DaemonsR'us

I gotta say Bob II looks a great deal better then the first, you may not be instinctual with everything for GS but sure looks like you learn damn fast :good:


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## killmaimburn

These are amazing!! Do you have a tutorial for this up somewhere?


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## Svartmetall

*posting from work*



killmaimburn said:


> These are amazing!! Do you have a tutorial for this up somewhere?


Well, there's the general-purpose Nurgle tutorial I have up at RelicNews that's linked to in my sig...


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## killmaimburn

Oh, there it is lol. For some reason in the posts I was really looking at it wasn't there, thanks.


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## Svartmetall

And now, a Terminogre Havoc Champion - I've been thinking about making one of these for a while, wanting a distinctive and imposing leader for my heavy-support troops, and just now got around to doing it: 
















The idea is that he found a half-wrecked IG vehicle after a battle and figured this would make a better missile launcher for someone his size than the namby-pamby little thing the other Havocs used; he got one of the warband's artificers to attach the launch rail to his shoulderpad and now he has a whale of a time blowing shit up


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## Blood God

lol looks like he is going to use the railing to fling the missle. Great GS work as usual.


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## NerdyOgre254

Good to see regular updates. nice to see you on Heresy, Huw.


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## Abthrillon

A truly awesome work man, keep it up!


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## Svartmetall

I've been working on some new Plague Marines. A while back it dawned on me that the Terminators and Possessed I'd done were quite a bit better than the Marines I had, since the Plague Marines were the first things I'd made and I'd improved a bit since then; so I decided to make an all-new Plague Marine squad, incorporating everything I'd subsequently learned from working on the Terminators, Possessed and so on. I'm always trying to improve my converting, sculpting and so on, and this is just part of the process; I think it's vital to be able to admit when something you've made isn't as good as it could be, or could be improved upon., and act on that.

Here are a few of the new Marines...

A Plague Champion - I'd been thinking of making a Marine or two with a sort of plague monk look to them for a while, and this is the result:








It was very fiddly to get the multi-stranded belt right, but I'm pleased with the result. I'm intending to paint his robe up to look like the robes of the weird monk-like guys on the cover of Black Sabbath's 'Mob Rules' album.

I liked the power-armoured leg from the tutorial so much that I decided to use it as one of the new squad of Plague Marines; this guy looks kind of Fantasy-inspired with this helmt, which I think may well be at least partially due to listening to Sabbath's 'Neon Knights' track while making him. Ah well. There is no such thing as too much Black Sabbath...








I replaced the right arm with a Nurgly appendage to match the right leg; this was very fiddly _indeed_ to do, but looks nice on the finished mini. 









Here's a mini I started like 9 months ago, then hit a brick wall with - the 'Siamese Twin' Marine. Very, very tricky to get the basic assembly right, but I love the final result:








He looks really distinctive among the rest of my Plague Marines; I don't remember ever seeing a Siamese-twin Marine anywhere, so he may well be a genuine orginal 









There is another new Plague Marine already, but I am honour bound to not reveal him until the new issue of *Firebase* is out. I shall say no more 

And here's a new Terminator, again using the leg from the tutorial...








He may well end up being a heavy flamer wielder....

As always, all C&C is welcomed.


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## KrythosMJarenkai

awsome work on all the nurgly goodness. If i didnt just change my fantasy army from chaos to dark elves (dragons > worhsipping the dark gods) i would have definitly asked you for some GSing tips.


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## Vorropohaiah

these models are great - really good use of the ogre and spawn bitz. im inspired to make my own - as though i dont have enough going on as it is! lol


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## The Wraithlord

These are just staggeringly good, I am floored by your gs skills man.


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## ArmoredGhost

I think I can speak for everybody when I say I'm jealous of your skill and imagination. I'm havein' a hard time resisting posting comments after every model I see. Props and all the best.


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## Svartmetall

Thanks for all the positive vibes & feedback, guys...brings a warm glow to the rotting depths of my pestilential heart 

Painted stuff and some more new Plague Marines should be following soon...


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## Trevor Drake

That is fething beautiful work there, i absolutely love it. I mean, i love it, and im tempted to...erm...mimic some of this work on my bloodletters that im making into plague bearers. +rep


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## omgitsduane

That guy missing the leg on the page before made me actually cringe haha! he was fantastic but this







is fantastic man! This should of been done so many times before (at least I've never seen it) but its a shame he doesn't have any of the groin section left because it would of made it all the more creepy.


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## Damned Fist

Great conversion, but..., that won't be fun to base! (lol)

Well done!:victory:


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## the cabbage

I might never touch green stuff again!

Awsome work.


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## Green Knight

spellbinding job, can not wait for the painting


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## Svartmetall

Damned Fist said:


> Great conversion, but..., that won't be fun to base! (lol)


He actually fits perfectly on a 40mm base :grin: 

I would have posted more stuff but after being 'blessed' with one of Grandfather Nurgle's choicest stomach bugs I've spent the last 4 days being violently sick...the finished state of some of these guys and more new Plague Marines should be posted here in the next day or two though.


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## Volchek

Svart, sir, you are my new hero. /bow

Your Nurgle works are disgusting. I look at your Nurgle GS modeling and want to puke. Simply amazing conversion work.


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## Svartmetall

Urgh...after some delay caused by one of Grandfather Nurgle's choicest 'blessings' being visited upon me (I've thrown up more in the last week than in the previous 10 years put together and lost almost a stone in weight), here are the first three completely finished guys from the new batch of Plague Marines.

The "*I haven't thought up a nickname for this guy yet*" Marine:
















I wanted to have a reasonable variation in height between the guys in this squad, and while he's not one of my Plague Pygmies(TM) this guy's still fairly short; I really like the detail of the multi-stranded 'belt' of flesh extruded around his waist.

The '*Neon Knight*' Marine:
























One of my favourite conversions to date; I love the limb-replacement detail and also the hanging tendrils of flesh from his right side. Inspired very much by the description of the Garden Of Nurgle in the Daemons codex, I wanted to give the impression of something like a spreading vine of flesh... 

*Twin*:
























He's _big_, considerably wider than one of my Plague Terminators and almost as tall even without the backpack; he makes a really imposing Nurgle Marine. I don't know how well it comes out in the photos, but the layering of flesh around his backpack and the left arms is something I'm very happy with. It's also nice to see something I started so long ago, that had been languishing half-completed for so long, finally ready for its paintjob. 

And a first look at the next one of the new batch of Plague Marines:
















I was inspired by the Twi'lek 'brain tails' when I came up with the idea of the flesh of his torso spooging out and wrapping around him like this; there are tiny thin strands of smooth tubing buried in and weaving through the rougher-textured flesh, which was fiddly as all hell to do but I think the final result was worth it. I added rips and tears into the original model's robe to make it look less pristine and more Nurgly...also I like the little touch of having half the back of his head blown away, and his brain growing back...

These guys have involved a hell of a lot of work given that they're just standard Troops, but I want to produce a really kick-ass bunch of heavily-converted marines who can hold their head up conversion-wise with the Terminators, Chosen and Possessed, so it's worth it IMO. 

As always, all feedback and C&C is welcomed.


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## Svartmetall

Aaaand now - the smallest Plague Marine in the history of Plague Marines...Mesdames et mes Messieurs, allow me to present to you: Bubo!








He's got as much detail as any other Plague Marine I've done...he's just completely tiny 

















Just to give some idea of scale, here's Bubo with Neon Knight:








...he's just too cute for words. I have no idea why I got so attached to making pygmy conversions, but what the hell - I get some fun models out of it 


And here's Twi'lek, finished:








I especially like the horn sticking out of his shoulder - that was done in the same way as Kothaar's shoulderpad (see Nurgle 101 for details). Power armour-sized shoulderpads don't lend themsleves to this technique as much as Terminator 'pads, but it can be done. 
And I didn't accidentally split the shoulderpad in half in the process. 
Oh no. 
That was another modeller altogether _*cough*_.
















I'm looking forward to painting up his robes for that 'warrior monk of Nurgle' look...

I made an old school-looking Plague Marine for the current issue of Firebase, and now it's out I can finally stick a pic of it in here; he's one of the new batch of Plague Marines for Pandemic as well.









_*wipes sweat from brow*_

So, I'm now working on a design for a Plague Champion for this new squad of Marines then they'll all be ready for painting up.


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## Damned Fist

> So, I'm now working on a design for a Plague Champion for this new squad of Marines then they'll all be ready for painting up.
> Reply With Quote


The conversions and green stuff work is outstanding. Now, I can't wait to see how they turn out when they are painted. Well done!:victory:


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## Steel Nathan

Critcizim.. *draws a blank* 

Comment: AMAZING!!! I really loved the short Nurgle. Reminds me of an ass kicking midget I saw in a movie once...

Edit: It was mini-me from the Austin Power's movies. Ah that was some funny stuff.


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## Death 0F Angels

SPACE STUNTY OF NURGLE!!!! More of a great project. Your work is excelent as always.


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## Svartmetall

OK, I got randomly inspired to make another Plague Marine last night while watching 'Metalocalypse', and just now finished him...








I love the guts on this guy 








A worthy addition to Squad Pestis...

Work on Gothmog the Plague Champion continues apace; I did some (crappy) concept art sketches for how I wanted him to look, and now I know where I'm going with him. Once construction on Gothmog is finished it's an all-out paintfest then, as I'm going to paint and base every damn model I've made to date


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## Dessel_Ordo

wow. jsut, wow. those look bad-ass without paint man!! excellent work. How did you get the fleshy texter with the GS?
cant wait to see them painted.

ALL HAIL BUBO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Svartmetall

The crappy concept art for Gothmog:
















OK, crappy drawings; but at least it should give you some idea of where I'm intending to go with him; huge, bloated, and horribly & asymmetrically deformed. I'm finding more and more that I like to sketch out ideas for important/named models, or just generally have a pad open to get down any idea that occurs to me when I'm not near my modelling station (work, at the pub, whatever); it's a habit I got into for music ages ago, and now I'm applying it to modelling too. I did those drawings in work over the last 2 nights...

...I'm just hoping that my drawing ability becomes less sucktacular with practice 


_"How did you get the fleshy texture with the GS?"_

Im planning to do a flesh'n'guts green-stuff sculpting tutorial to celebrate 10,000 views of Nurgle 101 over at RelicNews, and I'll post that in the GS tutorials bit here too. Just need a spare hour or three to actually _do_ it first


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## omgitsduane

Dessel_Ordo said:


> texter


It's funny you spelled it that way, because after some thought, I think that is how he does it, pushing texta's lightly onto the GS



Svartmetall said:


> The crappy concept art for Gothmog:


Not crappy dude, for a pen that's great stuff, I seem to draw better with pens too, I don't know how.



Svartmetall said:


> ...I'm just hoping that my drawing ability becomes less sucktacular with practice


And it most surely will! Show us more.


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## The Wraithlord

Lol, your drawing ability far outclasses mine, believe me


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## MaidenManiac

This whole tread is filled with greenstuff goodness! Keep it coming


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## Svartmetall

Just to show where I am with Gothmog right now - here's the concept sketch next to the current state of the model:








Not too far off, actually 
Hopefully I'll have full shots of him later; I need to let all that GS cure first though.


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## The Wraithlord

I hate you. Your gs skills make me sick to my pants.


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## surreal-mind

wow... words don't realy describe the MONSTROUSITIES you have made. (-rep)


KIDDING!!, obviously. i love your work especialy how well sculpted the scratch ork 'eads are, especially the 2nd one


oh btw your good with detail for drawing (eg lighting and proportions) but your faces arnt done right, thats all thats wrong with them, you probably know this but meh.


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## Exodus

very nice orger termnator squad would rock


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## Svartmetall

Aaand here's the first full shot of Gothmog:








...obviously some way to go yet, but I'm happy with how he's shaping up so far; he'll definitely be a Plague Champion to reckon with.


----------



## Digg40k

I'm happy to be the first person to let you know that Gothmog looks bloody fantastic. As has been mentioned a million times before, your GS skills are exemplary!


----------



## Svartmetall

And now...
_*wipes sweat from brow*_
Here's the current state of play with Gothmog - weapons, shoulderpad and backpack added, diseased arm completed and basic foot added, and much GS work done on the sides and the back. 








A close-up of the detail work around the upper torso and the right shoulder. I love this stuff here; IMHO it's some of the most characterful and distinctive stuff that I've done to date, especially the 3 horns that make the Nurgle icon pattern emerging from beneath the flesh 








I should be able to get this guy finished tomorrow...then they all get introduced to a paintbrush. With, er, paint on it.


----------



## Chaosftw

Svartmetall said:


> And now...
> _*wipes sweat from brow*_
> Here's the current state of play with Gothmog - weapons, shoulderpad and backpack added, diseased arm completed and basic foot added, and much GS work done on the sides and the back.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A close-up of the detail work around the upper torso and the right shoulder. I love this stuff here; IMHO it's some of the most characterful and distinctive stuff that I've done to date, especially the 3 horns that make the Nurgle icon pattern emerging from beneath the flesh
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I should be able to get this guy finished tomorrow...then they all get introduced to a paintbrush. With, er, paint on it.


That is actually amazing sir. Your GS skill is off the carts!


----------



## Red Corsairs

Holy crap that is amazing! The GS work is some of the best I've actually ever seen! I have to +rep for this!


----------



## Syph

Awesome work Svartmetall. Cannot believe just how good you are with GS. Only one thing though; the backpack. Is it finished on those pics? It just seems to lack the detail of the rest of the model.


----------



## Lord Khorne

Wow! Those Gothmog is awesome! HOwever a bit of Nurgle on the pack wouldnt go astray. And are those guts just a bit too low... *cough cough*


----------



## Svartmetall

*posting from work*

_"...the backpack. Is it finished on those pics?"_

Nope, I'd only just added it. That'll get GS'd up tonight or tomorrow.


----------



## Dessel_Ordo

Gothmog looks amazing so far. cant wait to see more painted minis


----------



## Syph

Svartmetall said:


> *posting from work*
> 
> _"...the backpack. Is it finished on those pics?"_
> 
> Nope, I'd only just added it. That'll get GS'd up tonight or tomorrow.


Cool. The quality of the rest of the model is jaw dropping. Absolutely stunning.


----------



## Svartmetall

*posting from work*

And, finally, here's Gothmog with all construction work finished...








He's been by far the most work I've put into any normal Plague Marine, but I'm well pleased with the final result; he's every bit as imposing as I wanted my Plague Champion to be. 
















For some reason I'm very fond of his all-green-stuff foot... 
And now it's time to get painting...I can't wait to see how Squad Pestis look when painted up, especially compared to the old Plague Marines I have. 

As always, all C&C etc is welcomed


----------



## Syph

I cannot fathom just how good you are with the greenstuff. The shoulder pad looks absolutely brilliant. He'd be such a frightening sight on the battlefield.


----------



## Red Corsairs

That's by far the best Plague Marine I've ever seen!


----------



## muffinman82

this is the most disgesting thread I have ever seen and not the models your GS ability makes me sick to my stomach. Awesome job


----------



## Sieg

still amazing work. keep us posted


----------



## Svartmetall

Some shots with more painting work done - pretty much all the metals are now done on these three...
























...plus I've done all the metals on all the Terminators and Chosen now - couldn't believe how many little bits of chain and stuff I'd missed; I'm hoping that the fact that I'm now spotting stuff I'd previously missed means I'm improving in some way. 

Here's a close-up of Quorthon to show the patches of skin clinging to the skull-head:








Fiddly as all hell to paint and ink such tiny bits of flesh without messing up the skull around it; I still need to do the final inks on the skull itself, but I'm hoping you can see the effect I was after, of scraps of rotting flesh clinging to the skull. Next up for these three guys is final inking, washes and shading on the skin; armour detailing and washes, then rusting & weathering. Phew.

More when I have it; all C&C welcomed, since painting is after all my weak spot and I'm striving to improve it.


----------



## HorusReborn

just incredible, my god my fav is the one with the giant maw in it's belly! Well done!


----------



## Lord Khorne

Even Nurgle would say thats yuck!

Keep it up.:good:


----------



## Pirate Metal Troy

I'm disagreeing with the paint at this stage. I just don't like it. But they're not finished yet. So I'll give my final verdict later. The fully painted models from the first page look amazing, I hope these ones end up at the same or better standard of painting.


----------



## officer kerky

thought i knew them models from some where. its FIREBASE thats awesome. good word 

+rep mmmm nice enjoy some rotting rep.


----------



## The Wraithlord

The flesh areas look good to me but the metals need work. More shading and highlights are required to make them look like they should.


----------



## Lord Lucius

Iv been through 3 crashes, loads of "failed to find link"pages & a slow pc just to read this whole thread ,its ausome ,it almost tempts me to abandon my beloved slaanesh

prais to papa nurgle ,& prais to u sir!:laugh:


----------



## Nato13

Looking good, I agree with The Wraithlord and would suggest more work (highlights, shading etc) on the 'metal' areas. 

Otherwise these are awesome! + rep for you k:


----------



## Svartmetall

*posting from work*

OK, here's where I've gotten to now on these guys...much work done on adding shading and contrast to the skin tones, also highlighting all the metals and doing the trophy skulls.

Quorthon:









Morsh-Hâl the Butcher: 









Terminogre:










And a quick peek at the first paint on the Dreadnought - it took some while to decide on a paint scheme but finally I worked out how I wanted to do him so here's the first coats...
















I never realised how much work was involved in painting a Dread; it took hours just to get all the Boltgun Metal done on the legs and CCW, and doing all the strands of stretched tissue wound through and between the legs was very tricky. Still, a few coats and highlights from now it should start to look promising...

All C&C welcomed...


----------



## The Wraithlord

Man alive SM, these are really turning out. You are going to have one gorgeous army when all is said and done.


----------



## Lord Khorne

The Wraithlord said:


> Man alive SM, these are really turning out. You are going to have one gorgeous army when all is said and done.


I hope not! It'd be a pretty bad Nurgle Army that looked gorgeous!

Keep up the good work.


----------



## Mud213

Hopefully you spend more time playing the game too so your ridiculously greenstuffed army can dominate your opponent's troops as well blow his (or her) mind. My meager descriptions of your pustulous and deteriorating army do not give it honor. You are very skilled and I hope you end up getting paid/rewarded for your remarkable work.


----------



## Svartmetall

Well, here they are - *Terminator Squad Plaguewielder*.










A higher-resolution shot of the whole squad is here. I haven't managed to get the rust done yet, as I discovered this morning that my pot of Blazing Orange has solidified; plus I'd kind of like to do the rust on _all_ the models at the same time, since my rust method involves a lot of mixing and I want to keep the colours consistent. But, that aside, they're all done. 

Individual shots:

















































Phew. 

I have also - rust aside - finished work on the Terminogre, who may or may not end up being part of Squad Plaguewielder:









And likewise with Quorthon the Sorceror:








I like the fungus-covered look on his scythe, I wanted the haft to look like petrified wood with lichen or something on it...









Oookay. Now I can start work on painting up Squad Pestis...

As always, all C&C welcomed.


----------



## HorusReborn

I love the hard work you've put into the conversion and GS you did, that Dred looks SICK! One thing about the painting though and this may just be my personal opinion, but they look super monochromatic. Perhaps the Trim on the Termies could use a different colour just to kind of bring them to life a little more! There's a certain lack lustre feeling I get from then when it comes from the paint.. perhaps they're not done yet?


----------



## Pirate Metal Troy

I know how you feel, horus. I love the models. Some of the best GS sculpting i've seen, quite possibly ever. They just lack contrast and color separation.










Now I'm not asking that anyone be able to paint at 'eavy metal standards. But using this model as a comparison. Its got a lot of contrast. The flesh colors and the greens are clearly defined and accentuated. Every color has it's place and is sectioned off from the others. 

(If anyone knows what I'm talking about by this next part, then Kudos to you)

I find looking at these models a lot like listening to Devin Townsend's music. You cannot deny it's mastery. You cannot tell me it isn't well put together and engineered to almost absolute perfection by it's own rights. But it's like hand driving a screw into your skull.

Your models are masterful. I'm sure even the plaguefather himself is proud. But your browns and greens and flesh colours all meld together into this mass of bilous rot. If this is your painting's intended purpose, then by it's own rights, it's a masterpiece. But looking at it doesn't give me the same "WOW" feeling like that daemon prince does.

But hell, maybe you've found the true nature of what a nurgle paint job is supposed to do. Maybe nurgle isn't supposed to be pretty to look at. Maybe i just can't appreciate it because it's not "pretty".

Or maybe i'm just talking out my ass, and have no idea what the hell i'm saying :laugh:

Good job man, keep up the good work.


----------



## Svartmetall

And now, Chosen Squad 'Anthraxus':










Individual shots:


































Like the Terminators, the rust isn't done yet, but I _think_ I'm pretty much there with everything else. The overall colour scheme for these was always a few stops lighter then the Terminators, so the contrast and shading shows a little better on these guys...

Before anyone asks: I don't know what it is, but my camera _will not_ take decent shots against a white background, it just won't do it. I have driven myself _crazy_ trying to do it, tried over and over and over again but it just won't do it; the light will _not_ balance out right no matter what I do so I can't do white backgrounds in photos. 

_*wipes sweat from brow*_

Right, now I have to get Dreadnought Vvornth and Squad Pestis painted up...


As always, C&C welcomed.


----------



## Syph

I don't think I've seen such individual looking models. I think the newer photos do the painting more justice too - the detail seems clearer. It's always hard to tell in photos, but for me, I think just a green/black wash would really help these models pop. Especially as the wet-ish look of a wash/ink would enhance the rotten, seeping flesh look. 

I'm a big fan though - especially of the banner carrier.


----------



## The Wraithlord

Svart, these models are just fantastic and your ability to sculpt is just amazing. I love the individuality of each model and yes I do like the paint. Stunning work overall. 

That said, I have to agree with the others here, your models lack contrast. The best pic you have posted is the banner bearer simply because there is a contrasting dark colour to draw the eye. I would HIGHLY suggest, even with the rust you are going to do, that you go back over these models and add some dark brownish areas to them just to get the needed contrast that will make these models really pop. You could do this by making areas with grilles and such dark on the inside and lighter on top, etc. Or barring that, use the washes to darken up areas of the model in order to create contrast. Actually, that would probably be your best and easiest bet.

PLEASE believe me when I say I am not trying to demean your work here, that is not the case.


----------



## Svartmetall

*posting from work*

Armour drybrushing all done, and based:










...obviously very early days yet, but Squad 'Pestis' are starting to show promise even now, I think


----------



## Exodus

realy like this army nice to see lots of time and effort going into a unique and orignal army fair dues


----------



## Lord of Rebirth

They look great. Makes me want some DG.


----------



## drivebybaptism

Some really great convertions.


----------



## Otep

the metal looks too clean for nurgle IMO... dirty 'em up a bit and you'll be great


----------



## Svartmetall

_"the metal looks too clean for nurgle"_

The rust isn't done yet, my rust method involves a couple of stages of mixing and I want to keep the colours consistent so I'll be doing the army's rust last of all. 

And here's all of Squad Pestis with the contrasting fleshtone work done:
















Close-ups of 3 of them:
















That's actually the last of the big time-consuming coats on these guys done, now it's all highlighting, washes & inks, metals and so on; which will hopefully be a lot less daunting as there won't be any more 2-3 hour individual stages. 


I'll now be away until late Xmas Day doing the family thing (I think my brain will melt if I touch a paintbrush again today, so tonight's after-work hours are reserved for a cold beer & Warhammer Online); so it just remains to me to wish you all a festering festive season, and I'll be back soon


----------



## Sieg

merry x-mas!

also, those are looking very nice. Keep up the good work!


----------



## Svartmetall

Almost there; the 50-hour work week is an utter, utter nightmare and seems to be leaving me with almost _no_ time to work on modelling, but I've managed to make some progress nevertheless. Here's Pestis with all metals & metal weathering, skin layering, bone, horns and skulls done. Just the washes & inks to go now (the rust is getting done on all the models together, at the very end)...


































I want to do the washes & inks on flesh and armour at the same time, so I can keep a better grip on where the overall colour palette of the model is (as opposed to doing one in abstraction then it not matching or balancing with the rest).


----------



## Otep

this is going to be an insane army when you finish it... O_O


----------



## Svartmetall

Finally my camera behaved itself ...here, at long last, are shots of the finished Squad Pestis: 


































Unit shot:









As always, all C&C is welcomed; I'm pleased with how they look (they look better in the flesh than how my camera is making them look, honest) but there's _always_ room to improve what you're doing. I want my next Plague Terminators to be better than the current crop, and the same goes for my Plague Marines, Chosen or in fact anything I do. Keep pushing me 



And now: *ANNOUNCEMENT TIME!*

_*cheesy fanfare*_

Here's the reason why I've been working so hard over the last month or two to get all these guys painted up and ready for the Jan 15th deadline I mentioned: my Nurgle army has been chosen to go on display in the Warhammer World museum at Games Workshop's HQ 

Proof, from the exhibition list on the upcoming WHW flyer:









I am _really_ fucking psyched about this. To get your work in the WHW museum at all is good going, but to get your first ever army in there is a real achievement. Sorry...I'm taking a moment to pat myself on the back about this  I went in there today and was interviewed about this army and my approach to modelling as a whole, and that should apparently be turning up on the WHW website soon.


_Now_ I feel like I've really achieved something with my modelling, like all the work I've put in has produced a real and tangible result; I suspect I'll never be _satisfied_ with my work, but right now I'm certainly happy.

And now it's official - I have a diseased imagination 


_____


----------



## MaidenManiac

Totally fucking grats on having the army on display in Warhammer World!!!:victory:

I totally love the midget DG:laugh:


----------



## yanlou

congrats on getting ur army chosen to be displayed, ill have to go look see, 
just to mention, ur work and tutorials inspired me to create my nurgle sorcorer thank you :grin:


----------



## Arutha

Grats man, that is really somthing to be proud of. Nothing like getting recognition for somthing you obviously love doing.


----------



## HorusReborn

Awesome stuff man! Always nice to have your work out there to be admired by all!! Congrats on the achievement, the pat on the back is well worth it!


----------



## Chaosftw

That is fucking awesome man! Grats to you and your "Diseased imagination" lol!

Chaosftw


----------



## Lord Khorne

Congrats!!

Epic Win!!! 

BTW are they paying you to show your precious army (just out of interest)?

Good work, can you post pics of the exhibit?


----------



## Vorropohaiah

some very lovely conversions here, and i lvoe the whote robes too


----------



## Red Corsairs

I really like your models and congratulations! Now I have the chance to go and see them in the flesh!

+rep for the amazing work and the grand achievement!


----------



## Broken Sword

I have been a fan of your modeling for some time and have began remodeling loyalist dreads to fit the four Cult armies of the Dark Gods and so far, I have my Slaanesh and my Khorne dreads and I plan to put Grandfather Nurgle's dread together next and I must say that you modelling skills have provided some inspiration in the direction I want to take it. Keep up this excellent work and I am glad to see from the support you have gathered that the modelling side of our beloved hobby is not dead!


----------



## Unforgiven302

How in great Nurgle's name have I missed this thread until now? :shok:

All I have to say is... HOLY FIST F*#@!!! 

What an outstanding achievement in modeling you have achieved. Stunning work that sets the bar for the rest of us. I am now standing up and applauding you sir. :clapping: Unbelievable....


----------



## The Wraithlord

First, the crit. Models look fantastic man, absolutely fantastic! That said, I would suggest a brown or black wash on the guns/weapons to tarnish them up just a bit. They look too clean for Nurgle as they are 

Second, on the WHW museum: fucking A!!!! Congrats on that and well deserved indeed.


----------



## Syph

The Wraithlord said:


> First, the crit. Models look fantastic man, absolutely fantastic! That said, I would suggest a brown or black wash on the guns/weapons to tarnish them up just a bit. They look too clean for Nurgle as they are


I recall him saying that he'll do the rust wash once they're all painted so the rust is consistent (I think he makes it from scratch).


----------



## Svartmetall

_*wipes sweat from brow*_

Well, I have no idea how I'm going to get the rust done on everything by Friday (I'd _really_ hoped to be finished on the Dread several hours ago so I could get started on the rust-work earlier, and I'm now at the stage time-wise where every single hour counts), but here's the finished paintjob on Vvornth:


























I think he looks like a pretty respectable Nurgle Dreadnought. 

Now I'm going to take a short break before starting work on the rust, will start on Vvornth himself since he's got by far the most metal on him.


----------



## Svartmetall

Rust done!










I'm happy with the overall colour balance of Vvornth now; he's a decent first Nurgle Dreadnought, if I say so myself. I already have plans (and parts from a bits site) for Plague Dreadnought Number 2 

An odd angle of Kharzhâl, but one that I like nonetheless because it shows off his nifty left shoulderpad and the overall colour range of the model:








Every good Plague Marine squad needs a Champion, and he makes a good one.

And what plague party would be complete without a Possessed Champion of Nurgle? Morsh-Hâl, in all his glory:








Rawr! It's a real rush for me to see what started out as a 'can I even _do_ this?' sculpting challenge end up like this, I love this mini.

Okay. The whole damn army is done now, apart from the glowy bit on three plasma pistols and a bit of grey stone on Vvornth's base, which will take approximately 20 minutes tonight. I was just too tired to do a whole-army shot last night, but I may be able to rustle one up tonight at some point... 

At least I'm secure in the knowledge that it WILL all be ready for the exhibition now, and that I've given it the best fucking shot I can manage at this stage in my modelling career, and pretty damn happy with that


----------



## Syph

Well done mate +rep.

I'll be down Warhammer World taking some snaps of these as soon as they show up!  

Again, well done.


----------



## Svartmetall

And here's my pestilent posse _in situ_ in the Warhammer World exhibition hall:



















































I feel proud of this 

I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of today yet, but whatever I end up doing I know it won't involve a bloody paintbrush  ...I suspect an evening of Warhammer Online and beer may be on the cards, followed by drunkenly assembling and NOT PAINTING some horrendous Nurgly abomination at like 0400. There are worse ways to spend an evening.


----------



## Syph

Well done mate. Saw the post about them on the WHW website. k:


----------



## MaidenManiac

Epic win, thats just the words to describe it:biggrin:


----------



## The Wraithlord

Ok that rust did the trick. Damn nice work man, and awesomeness in a can to see them in the WHW display case like that.


----------



## HorusReborn

Yeah they definately look 1000 times better in that case by far! You have a well deserved part of WHW! Congrats again man, you have every right to feel proud!!!!!!!


----------



## Damned Fist

> And here's my pestilent posse in situ in the Warhammer World exhibition hall:


Congratz! You should be proud as these models are exceptionally 'creepy'. Which is the point.:wink: Great work Svart:victory:


----------



## Chaosftw

Well Done! Job well done! You should feel Proud. That is one amazing paint job!

CHeers,

Chaosfw


----------



## Munky

congrats mate im glad the hard work has paid off for you and please please keep making models.
+rep


----------



## Syph

Went to WHW today and had a look at these Huw - can I just say how brilliant they actually are? Earlier in the thread people mentioned (myself included) about giving the models more contrast etc. I can confirm that, under those lights in WHW, they look _perfect_. Top stuff.


----------



## Warpath

As Syph said these really are much better in the flesh, up close and having a proper look :good: Was a pleasure to meet you too and to have a look through that sketch book of yours. Keep up the fantasic work fella.


----------



## Vorropohaiah

some lovely conversions here - my fave is the the one that uses the ogre body with the gaping maw - very well done!


----------



## LimitingFactor

*fine work!*

Those are the best Nurgle Troops i have seen. They remind me of road kill.


----------



## Svartmetall

Here's the Possessed I've been working on for a conversion competition at RelicNews, alongside the crappy concept sketch he's based on:
















...I suck at drawing, but I liked the idea, a sort of Plaguebearer-in-Terminator-armour looking kind of thing.

Some detail shots of the green-stuff work:

















Kind of pleased with how he looks; the deadline is tomorrow night so I still have work to do finishing off the head etc. tonight when I get home from work.


----------



## Trigger

Man, that greenstuffing is stupidly good!


----------



## The Wraithlord

Dude, that is just freakin' cool. Can't wait to see the finished product.


----------



## Svartmetall

Aaaand finally, here's my finished entry...I made it with 20 minutes to spare before the competition deadline 

*POSSESSED OF NURGLE*


























More angles:

















...I'm pleased with him.


----------



## CamTheApostle

Oh dear gods! :cray:

That is beautiful, man.


----------



## Vorropohaiah

holy...

thats very good work on that possessed. great GS work coupled with a very good breakdown of the terminator/spawn parts (i love the way the legs have been extended) makes this a really great piece. cant wait to see more!


----------



## Concrete Hero

Your work is incredible! And that possessed is just outstanding! +Rep to you for amazing quality stuff!


----------



## Critta

Awesome work, loving it.

Here have some rep, that's an amazing conversion!


----------



## Dessel_Ordo

amazing work man. and congrats on the WHW exibit too


----------



## Pirate Metal Troy

Best model on heresy.


----------



## Svartmetall

Pirate Metal Troy said:


> Best model on heresy.


Wow. Er...thanks.

_*blush*_

I never really know what to say when people say things like that; I still feel like a noob in so many ways...but things like that definitely make me feel good.


----------



## Imperial Dragon

Dude that is wicked! i really wish i could do things like this, the face looks like a plague bearers one and there's just so much detail i can look at them for hours! Your work has always inspired me. :victory: 

Can't wait to see any more ideas that you have for the future.


----------



## HorusReborn

he looks eer stunning? LOL as stunning as a denizen of Nurgle can look LOL great work with the GS man, I could definatley use a tut on that!


----------



## MaidenManiac

Pirate Metal Troy said:


> Best model on heresy.


Word.
Honest.

If you dont win that contest I _really_ want to see which entry that does, cos that's bound to be out of all reasoning awsome:wink:


----------



## Infael

+rep

That is a truly awesome piece of work, man, I don't want to post pics of my Death Guard after seeing this thread as they pale in comparison


----------



## scrotrot

Nice and dirty work.


----------



## inqusitor_me

DAM BRO!!!! that is defo the most ............ im lost for words DAM!!!!!!


----------



## Otep

jesus christ in a hand basket!

O_O O_O O_O these are insane.... i keep forgetting how amazing these are untill i take another look... 

please brush against me so that a small measure of your GS skills can transfer to me


----------



## Svartmetall

The conversion competition turned into a real nail-biter, very close all the way; I won 55-52 in the end though  I should have pics soon of the new squad of Plague Marines I'm working on, also some concept art of the Daemon Prince of Nurgle that's in the works...


----------



## HorusReborn

congrats man, would love to see your competition if it was that close


----------



## Damned Fist

Congrats! I also can't believe that it was that close. You nailed your entryk:


----------



## Gaius

*Amazing army*

Your work is truly amazing. I'll be looking forward to seeing more of your work.


----------



## FUZZTONE

Holy crap in a basket! It makes me want to convert everything to Nurgle. including my Nan (shes halfway there already, she just needs a bit of green stuff to complete the effect!)

Great work


----------



## Vampboi

Wow, just discovered this thread and these models are absolutely FANTASTIC! :good: Keep up the great work, can't wait to see more of it.


----------



## Tossidin

I too just found this thread.... And holy crap this is the best thing I've seen in a long time!!!!!!!! Unbelieveable!!!!!
Respect to you m8!!! cant get enough !!!!!!!!!!s into the post, cause this is awsome!!!!!!!! :victory:


----------



## Svartmetall

New stuff at last  By way of warming up for the epic process which will be the design & construction of Daemon Prince Borborygmus, I decided to crank out a few new Plague Marines. Using parts from the stripped Plague Marines I'd done when I first started this army - I realised I could do them much better now and decided to clean-slate things by stripping them and re-using the bits - mixed in with plastics, these guys were the result:









I love the little belt of chainmail holding in the guts on this one, also the shredded, rotting skin draped over the rear of the model...










Another nice bunch'o'guts, plus I like the way the swollen lymph glands are half-buried in the surrounding corrupted flesh...










The addition of a tongue made all the difference to the Catachan head I used on this guy - up till then, it had been one of those models where you keep looking at it going "Ehhh...it needs _something_", if you know what I mean. This one's kind of an exercise in using a lot of different textures in a very small space, while still keeping them defined from one another. I think the 'hanging skin' effect on the rear torso of this guy came off pretty well...


























A big fat bloated bastard to wield this squad's flamer. I _really_ like the green-stuff buboes and guts on this one, and he nearly got turned into a Plague Champion. He's very much the result of me sketching away furiously in my little notebook one night in work; the eagle-eyed (or just really anal ) may notice the cunning use of a Khorne Berzerker's right gauntlet to give a meatier trigger-guard assembly to the flamer. I'm still probably going to make a bloated Plague Champion along these lines, though...










This guy, however, ended up becoming this squad's Plague Champion. I'd been looking for a way to use the helms off the new plastic Chaos Knights, and it struck me that by removing one of the horns on this helm and adding just a tiny bit of stretched tissue with GS I could get a nice twin to the Nurgle Champion helm that's on the Chaos Upgrade sprue:








I'd also really liked the torso I did for the rotting skin and guts tutorial, and wanted to use the resulting Plague Marine body for something; this guy was the result. Getting the pose right and blalanced-looking took some work, but I like the finished result a lot; kind of a 'lean and mean' look for Nurgle, but still fitting. The green-stuff work isn't completed yet on this guy, by the way, but I thought I might as well include in with the rest of the squad (Squad 'Necris', for those keeping count). 


And I _finally_ managed to get what I thought was a really nice portrait shot of the Possessed Terminator, showing almost all the GS detail off to full effect:








...I don't think any of the previous pictures of him have quite done him justice, but I really like this one. I think I may finally be starting to get the hang of taking pictures against a white background, too...



As always, all C&C is welcomed


----------



## Lord Khorne

Noice!!! Love the termi and the flamer. And yes the champs head is cool.


----------



## Svartmetall

*posting from work*

This afternoon I finally finished work on the rejuvenated/resurrected Marines, having stripped the metal bits and mixing them in with plastic bits and a few old-school bits I managed to get my hands on. So, here in no particular order are the next 8 rebuilt Plague Marines:









I think it's just the body language, but the one on the right looks really pissed off about something to me; he looks _mean_ . I've always liked the gas-mask look the model on the left has, it's one of my favourites out of the current GW Plague Marine sculpts.









I wanted to have at least one model in the classic 'walking along carrying the bolter in both hands' pose; it severely cuts down the conversion options because so much of the figure is closed off in that pose, but there's always room for _some_ green stuff. And I like the way the Possessed backpack fits on the Champion torso on the left-hand model.









I particularly like these two, because they're unusual for Plague Marines - the left-hand one is an old Fabius Bile bodyguard body that a friend of mine gave to me, and I thought the tube coming out of his mouthpiece just begged to be part of a Nurgle conversion; the right-hand one is a Classic Plague Marine body I found on Ebay one night.









Another annoyed-looking guy on the right, and a Melta-wielding Plague Marine with a mutated right arm just for the hell of it. 

I've had a lot of fun reassembling these guys after stripping them, particularly with mixing up the metal bits with plastic ones to get a more individual and less 'straight out of the box' look which is definitely what they had last time. Also the GS work now ties them in visually a lot more closely to the Terminators, the Chosen and particularly to recent-build Plague Marines like Squad Pestis. 

Here's how they looked about 3 weeks after I started 40K modelling:








...and here's how they look now:








They'll be being painted in the same high-contrast scheme I used on Squad Pestis; they are, after all, part of the same army.

 

As always, all feedback and C&C is welcomed.


----------



## The Wraithlord

My god those are freaking impressive. I would love to have that ability with gs. Maybe if I actually used it more but the stuff scares me


----------



## Death 0F Angels

nice updates. thread is as lovely as nurgle can possibly be.


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## yanlou

lovin the nurgley goodness and i cant wait to see your daemon prince,


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## Red Corsairs

Fantastic as always! I truly do admire your GS work, it's by far going to be the best Nurgle army I've ever seen, it already is!


----------



## Chaosftw

AHHHHHH he is at it again. This is madness! I love looking at this thread! Keep it up man!

Cheers,

Chaosftw


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## DarKKKKK

This work continues to inspire me to work on my stuff, too bad usually by the time I get home I either want to play my 360 :mrgreen: or have to do homework :ireful2:

Seriously though this work is amazing, keep it going and continue to find new ways to make those disgusting nurgle the way their supposed to be. :good:


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## Zaden

What you do with green stuff is...incredible. I mean, there are no words. You are a master of your craft my friend =) Keep the updates coming!


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## Svartmetall

Gah - I'm having one of those periods where there never seems to be time to _do_ anything, lots of various IRL things needing doing which, when you add a full-time job to everything, has meant I've not been able to get anything _like_ much time as I'd like to get on with modelling...like many other things at the moment in my life, it's very frustrating.

However, I have managed to find time to finally complete the resurrection of the old metal Plague Marines. I had a bunch more that I'd not realised still needed doing so here, in no particular order, are the final 11:









A flamer-wielding Marine and another conversion of one of the Fabius Bile bodyguards...









A very fat guy with a bolter and someone posing in an unnecessarily dramatic fashion with a chainsword...









Another fat bastard with a bolter, and a Marine with a mutated left arm...









Two of my favourites - the metal Havoc Sergeant body, with a melta and a Possessed chainsword right arm that's been converted to be his left arm, and possibly my favourite body of the current Plague Marine sculpts with a Possessed blade-arm mutation. 









I really like the shredded stomach skin on the guy on the left, and the guy on the right has a claw mutation from the old Chaos Mutations sprue which has been converted to be his right arm (instead of the left arm it is off the sprue).









And finally one of the gasmask-equipped bodies waving a chainsword in a suitably encouraging fashion...


Here's the total haul of resurrected and reconverted Plague Marines:








...a higher-resolution shot is here. It's a _lot_ of green-stuff work altogether, but worth it because once painted up and combined with Squad Pestis - currently getting some R&R on the shelves of the Warhammer World Display Hall - this will hopefully be a pretty impressive-looking agglomeration of Plague Marines, every model converted and some _very_ converted.

_*sigh*_

Maybe sometime soon I'll actually have time to start this Daemon Prince...


_____​


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## Red Corsairs

I'm jealous, I honestly am! Your sculpting skill and the quality of it is fantastic. Have you ever sculpted a model from scratch or with an armature? And if not have you ever considered to or do you ever plan to? Because I'd be very interested to see how it'd turn out.

Looking forward to the next updates Svartmetal!


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## HorusReborn

yup definately love your work with Green Stuff. Can't wait to see these bad boys painted up!


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## Damned Fist

I just finished going through this entire thread again and I must say that the amount of work you put into every conversion really makes this army unique. Your skill with the GS is exceptional and I love the effort you put into each model. I think that effort really paid off with your placement in the Warhammer showcase as well as the conversion contest that you won. Well donek:

..., That being said, I must admit that the paint scheme on this army erases all that effort!:cray: Let me explain. You have spent an *enormous* amount of time converting each model to make them truly individual. EVERYONE of your minis are a one-of-a-kind creation (Really great stuff!). After they have been painted, however, all I can see is a sea of green. There is no contrast and no differentiating one mini from the next. Their skin is green, their armour is green, their mutations are green, and even the bases are green!uke: Therefore, they lose their uniqueness. By no means do I want to make it sound like all is lost because I believe with a little effort and experimentation you can add a lot to this army! You have a good base completed on them to work with so I would offer a few of my humble suggestions for you to consider.

1) First and foremost- Add contrasting colour! 

Your main colour being green the use of red as a complementary colour is much desired and easy to add. (And by red, I mean various shades and tone of it such as pinks as well) All you would have to do is pick out some of the 'rot' that you created to show blood red entrails hanging out, open wounds and muscle, and even some 'pink' soft tissue here and there.

You could also choose a different colour for the armour. Even if it is a different shade of green to set it apart from the nurgle mutations. As for the skin tones and mutations..., you can create a wider range by using darker greens in the deep recesses or even some purples (nice for shadows and 'bruising') and work up to beach bone for a final highlight. (Yellow can also be used for this as well as white.) The idea is to mix it up a little to help the models keep some of that individuality you worked so hard for. 

2) Change the bases!

Find another theme for the bases. I would suggest something in the browns but avoid plain green. Add some 'points of interest' on a few of them to help break it up a bit. Perhaps some skulls with the skin sloughing off of them, or rotting vegetation, etc..., Hummm, Some water effects might also work nicely. (But now I am rambling:no 

3) Work on you Bone!

This is the easiest to do. Your skulls, horns, and other bone features need a couple more washes of Devlen Mud and then a final highlight of bleached bone on the raised parts (such as the eye sockets, and teeth) to help them stand out more.:wink:

In the end..., it's your army and you are the one that needs to be satisfied with it. I honestly love what you have achieved in your sculpting. I just think that more can be added to the colour scheme to compliment that accomplishment. This is just my humble opinion, however, and you can take these suggestions for whatever they are worth.:victory:


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## Svartmetall

*posting from work*



> Have you ever sculpted a model from scratch or with an armature? And if not have you ever considered to or do you ever plan to?


 I made a start on a scratch-built Nurgle Obliterator a month or two before Christmas, but then everything else sort of overtook it; plus, I didn't think it was turning out too well, but I do intend to make a new one (or even a whole squad of Plague Obliterators) and incorporate everything I've learned sculpting-wise since then. I've also done a 3-up scale Ork head and a Dryad, to try doing skin and bark textures; I'll be doing a lot more scratchbuilding in future as I want to seriously develop my overall sculpting skills. 
Galvanised steel wire, btw, which is cheap and available at any hardware store, works great as wire for pinning and also for making armatures with.




> Their skin is green, their armour is green, their mutations are green, and even the bases are green...Add contrasting colour!


 I know exactly what you're getting at, and the level of contrast in the army was the subject of much debate over at RelicNews. One thing I must point out is that I paint for the naked eye, not the camera; those who've seen the army in the flesh have pretty much all said it looks fine in person contrast-wise, but doesn't come across so well in pictures. To quote the mighty *Syph*, who saw them in person in the Display Hall:


> his WIP thread photos do not do them justice...I can confirm that, under those lights in WHW, they look _perfect_.



There really _are_ bits of red, purple and stuff in there, but it's done subtly; I try to paint as realistically as possible. The bases are actually a very light drybrush of Scaly Green over the natural grey of the slate, so they look more like a pale blue-grey than anything else; again, that's in the flesh though. I actually am happy with the colour scheme myself - believe me, there has been a ton of development and experimentation going on over the last 9 months or so to find the Death Guard colour-set that works for me - but I accept that the way I've done it doesn't necessarily translate too well into pictures (and I freely admit to having less than uber photographic skills, anyway). 



> Work on your Bone!


 Hehe - the bone/horn colours I use are actually one of my favourite bits of the colour scheme  I Google-image-searched a bunch of pics of horn and ivory, and worked out my own way to imitate that; it shows up best on the 'Rhino' Spawn, but I use it anywhere I have bone or horn(s) showing. Again, I guess this is something that works better in the flesh than in a picture...

While I am gently doing the agreeing-to-differ thing over the constructive criticism of the colour scheme, I do however appreciate you taking the time to _offer_ said criticism, regardless  And on a related note one of the units on my to-do list at some point is a squad of Chaos Marines with the Mark of Nurgle, as opposed to pure Plague Marines, and these guys will have a very different colour scheme and overall feel to them to help differentiate them visually on the table/in the display cabinet.​


----------



## Svartmetall

A tiny thing by way of an update, but at least I managed to get my scanner working again; so here's a copy of the _(insert standard disclaimer about how bad I think my drawing is)_ concept art for Daemon Prince Borborygmus' head...








...I've made some progress on him, but given everything that's needing to be done to the Giant model it's not ready for even early WIP pics to be posted yet, though the nifty arm idea I had for him appears to be working so far. Early-WIP pics of him should be turning up soon though, I hope; currently I'm having fun designing his weapon.

I also got inspired and added part 3 to the Pandemic story Incursion...​


----------



## gwmaniac

Wow, that drawing stuns me, it is just as great as the minis! Have some rep, I look forward to seeing the rest of the army!


----------



## Syph

Hi Svartmetall. Great to see you're still working on these: how many more units do you anticipate doing?


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## MaidenManiac

Svartmetall said:


> ...I've made some progress on him, but given everything that's needing to be done to the Giant model it's not ready for even early WIP pics to be posted yet, though the nifty arm idea I had for him appears to be working so far. Early-WIP pics of him should be turning up soon though, I hope; currently I'm having fun designing his weapon...


Basing him on a giant? This will be intresting indeed:good:


----------



## Svartmetall

Well, here's the first peek at at least a _bit_ of Lord Borborygmus...for his weapon arm, I had the idea that his muscles and tendons would have become detached from the bone as they were filled with the power of the Lord Of Decay, so they would be hanging down from the humerus when the arm was raised. So here's my attempt at sculpting a reasonably convincing-looking scapula-and-humerus joint with pendant musculture and tendons: 










I wanted it to look as though all the muscles were still there, since he'd need them to actually move the arm, just not attached properly any more (curse my logical brain, which attempts to rationalise the mechanics and workings of even a Daemon Prince!). It's not as clear as I'd like from the photo, but the contrast between the smooth bone(s) and the finely-striated muscles has come out quite nicely; hopefully at least some of that is visible, though, so you can at least get the idea of what I'm working towards. The arm will eventually be wielding a big scratch-built Plaguesword; here's how it looks position-wise to the rest of the torso:










The Giant model has a slightly odd posture, so I may well end up pinning and repositioning the legs (as I have done subtly with the right arm). Since the body is in two halves I've made two separate back 'walls' for the stomach cavity which join up flush when the two halves are joined together; I may also be slightly repositioning the upper and lower halves of the torso, so more pinning may be required. After talking to Mark Bedford at the Forge World open day on Sunday, I bought some 'Magic Sculp' at his recommendation and will be experimenting with that, too (though maybe not on this model unless it suddenly becomes natural to me to use it; at least I'm _used_ to Green Stuff). 


More, as they say, when I have it...​


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## MaidenManiac

This teaser post certainly didn't decrease my intrest:biggrin:


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## Svartmetall

In addition to improving my sculpting (and my writing, and my painting, and my guitar playing, and...aaargh! There aren't enough hours in the day dammit) I'm trying to improve my 2D art skills, so I'm practicing when it's quiet in work; here's some of the concept art I've been doodling for Borborygmus' weapon:










I like them all, but I think I'm heading for something between the top and bottom ones, actually...


----------



## Concrete Hero

Right. After seeing that muscle sculpt there's no doubt in my mind that you are in fact, a witch...

That's bloody amazing man. How long did it take? Just excuse me as I grab my torch and pitchfork


----------



## The Wraithlord

Dude, your sculpting is top of the game for sure. I don't think you are a slouch at drawing either as I could never have drawn that nicely.


----------



## Svartmetall

Lord Borborygmus is turning out to be a _very_ fiddly beastie to put together - doing all those individual teeth was a bit of a nightmare - but here's where I am with the Daemonic dude's head right now: 








...I think he's finally coming together decently now, in terms of starting to resemble the concept sketch somewhat  One little touch I really like is that there's a stretch of exposed bone there with no skin on it, which will probably only be really clear once he's painted up but will hopefully add a nice bit of character detail to the overal sweep of the lower jaw. Compared to the mouth/jaws, the rest of the head should actually be relatively straightforward; I've painted the inside of the mouth because, much like Jaws, there was going to be no real way to get a brush inside past the teeth once they were _in situ_ so I had to paint it before the roof of the mouth went on. I've also started to bulk out his shoulders a little so they'll match the head slightly better.

I've also decided on the weapon I want to go for - it'll be the blade of the bottom sword with the femur-bone handle of the top one. For some reason, I think my sketches look better inverted...








...not sure why that is; I may actually make the weapon next as a break from the intense green-stuffing required to do the mouth; I've never really scratchbuilt a weapon before, so it should be interesting (though of course that means I may suck at it :biggrin.

All C&C welcomed; as always, there'll be more when I have it


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## HorusReborn

very nice! Love the sculpting as usual!!! The giant conversion is ace man, really. There is something I'm curious about with the mouth/head there is a join on the middle right side (looking at pic on monitor) is that intentional or to be fixed?


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## Svartmetall

HorusReborn said:


> There is something I'm curious about with the mouth/head there is a join on the middle right side (looking at pic on monitor) is that intentional or to be fixed?


 If you mean the bit halfway down the vertical segment of jaw, that's where the skin peels back and the bone is exposed. If you mean where the normal horizontal lower jaw meets that same vertical bit, that's where it extands back behind the vertical bit and will be extending out to the left as per the orginal sketch.


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## seandb

Wow, I just came across a gold mine. Great work Svart. I haven't seen someone put so much work into each model - this army is going to be so damn original!


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## Svartmetall

I'm working as much on trying to improve my general sculpting as anything else at the moment, so work on Pandemic is slightly slower than usual. However, I went to the AmmoBunker Open Bash this weekend just gone, and that's inspired me to actually finally get the current ~1,500 points' worth of Pandemic to a playable state...and this involves vehicles. Rhinos, to be precise...so here's the initial idea I've had for a way to Nurglify a Rhino:








I want to avoid the "I stuck bits all over the outside of the model" look that so many vehicle conversions have and really give the model some depth by going inside with conversion work and having things visible quite a way past the normal surface level of the model. If that makes sense. Areas of this kind of work in various places on the model should hopefully give them a nicely 3-dimensional look...

I've also had an idea for what may turn out to be a fairly nifty way to make sections of armour plating for Nurgle vehicles and other constructs...not sure whether it'll work or not yet but I'm going to have a go over this coming weekend. If it doesn''t suck, photos and possibly a step-by-step tutorial will be here soon after


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## Concrete Hero

I have to say, that's a really good effect. Brilliant work on the sculpting man.

How much are you intending to do on each Rhino?


----------



## Broken Sword

Very Nice! I have been sitting around trying to figure out how to Plague-out a rhino without it looking campy and you seem to have found the path! Excellent!


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## Svartmetall

A bit more progress; slime-mould-like tendrils worming their way out from the holes in the armour and over the body (I removed most of the previous smooth bits to replace them with mould tendrils since they looked a bit too generic tentacle-y to my eyes, if you get what I mean), a bulging mass of tumourous flesh poking out of the right rear 'shoulder' and a custom Nurgle icon on the door:









The Nurgle icon in close-up; I'm kind of pleased with how this is turning out (another set of very thin tendrils need to be added, but I want to let these cure overnight before adding those):










As always, C&C welcomed, more when I have it, yada yada ​


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## Da Red Paintjob Grot

:clapping:.


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## Syph

Seems I missed a few updates. Lord B is turning out really well, the jaw looks excellent mate. Really impressed with the method you've chosen to create your Nurgle Rhino too; you're totally right about the sense of depth your conversion lends you.


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## Svartmetall

The finished icon:








The really small tendrils on top I think give it just the right amount of depth.​


----------



## Svartmetall

Been very busy with other stuff, but I managed to make a bit more progress on Rhino Number One (I guess I'm going to have to come up with names for the vehicles, since I'm naming every damn member of each squad):


















The Dremel came in very handy for making the holes from out of which the tumourous bulges emerge; I think between said tumourous bulges and the sunk-in holes with tendrils and moulds creeping out from them, I've finally managed to settle on the 'look' I'm after for my Nurgle vehicles. The pieces are only dry-jointed together at the moment, but I think I'll be able to start gluing it all together now I've got a handle on how to do the conversion in a way I'm happy with.


----------



## Svartmetall

A bit more progress on the Rhino:








The left-hand side now matches the right, in terms of overall amount of detail. If you look at the flesh inlaid into the front section, I'm really happy with how the veins work on the bloated flesh underneath; I think that detailing may well become a regular feature of my Nurgle sculpting, I'm certainly planning to use it on bits of Lord Borborygmus when I get back to working on him. I also like the hint of pus-like fluids oozing out from around the edges of the door...

I realised that the work I'd done on the right side wasn't quite complete, given the way I'd removed some of the upper armour; this left a sightline that needed filling. What it needed was this:








Now you can see where the track continues up inside the armour housing of the vehicle. I think this little bit of detail makes it look a lot more mechanically credible and three-dimensional  I'm quite tempted to use the Predator turret base that comes in the Chaos Rhino box as a way to give the Havoc launcher a nice solid mounting; I need to think about that a bit first, though.

I've also started work painting my way through the mass of Plague Marine rebuilds. So far I'm just grinding through the boring bit, i.e. all the basecoating, but it's nice to see a real army-size mass of troops starting to take shape. I'll have at least 3 fully-converted 10-man squads of Father Nurgle's finest soon enough...



I've also started working on a bunch of original designs - not Games Workshop IP, this is stuff out of my head - which I'll be working on as part of my self-imposed 'improve my sculpting' program. I've decided on the first four things to be built, and am now getting the various bits of concept art I've done translated into basic armatures; this stuff will get its own thread once I've made enough progress with stuff for it to be worth posting pics of . 



More, as always, when I have it.


_____


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## BobPanda

WOW !!! . this rhino makes me speechless. ! ... if you continue like this, this vehicle has a good chance become the best nurgle vehicle i've ever seen! .... => def worth some rep ! ... 
keep up the great work !!! really inspiring!. ..


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## Bardictraveller

Sir,.. you sicken me.. (how often does that happen really with frickin' plastic? :d)

If I wasn't too immersed in my Salamanders WIP atm, I might be persuaded to unleash my Grey Knights on your workstation ! (only.. I fear my Knights would be sickened to death, and my Inquisitor Lord would saction Exterminatus on our planet.. and i actually like living here...)

If I figured out how to give rep, you'd get as many as i could give.
Love your work with the GS, and I like your painting. Can't wait to see more of your diseased host of Father Nurgle 

Kudos!


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## Micklez

You sir are bloody amazing, there is no two ways about it. Good luck with your project but i seriously dout if you actually need it. +Rep


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## jackd334

Wow  I lov the maw on the terminogre, he looks awsome  I only started on here today, and im also a sculptor/converter. Im doing some scratch builds atm, where do i make a WIP blog thingy like this lol?


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## Riandro

Jack, make a new thread here.


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## Azwraith

awesome work dude so amazing!

i love how when you read it all that alot of people are like really nice and inspired at the beginning and then slowly get more and more aggro at how awesome you are!! 

(they are not mean aggro just like first of "wow tahts awesome" secndly "i hate you" hahaha)

if you do a vinidicator which i think i read you are.. you so have to have a tongue coming out of the barrel


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## Svartmetall

Between live roleplay events and working on my original sculpts there hasn't been much time to get stuff done on Pandemic, but I got some more done on the Rhino - now with Havoc launcher and pintle-mounted bolter assemblies done, and battle damage added in places:
















It's definitely starting to take shape now; next I'll glue the top on and add any GS bits that need to stretch or intertwine between that and the sides (for example, where there's a hole near the exposed section of track on the right front. I took the combat blade off the twin-linked bolter, since it didn't make any sense to me to have what's basically a bayonet on a weapon that's permanently mounted on top of a vehicle. 

I don't want to go too overboard with the battle damage, since even though they're Plague Marines and not too fussed about appearance they'd still repair anything that damaged the structural & defensive integrity of the vehicle (it still has to _work_ after all, dedicated to Father Nurgle or not), but I like the scratched battle damage on the left front. I wanted it to look like they'd been up against 'Nids at some point and something gribbly had been trying to carve its way into the hull...

Detail of the Havoc mounting:








I made an X-shaped assembly of sprue in the hole to mount the launcher onto, then pinned the Havoc assembly to that (figuring it's going to get knocked over or something at some point and so a bit of structural strength would be handy), then built up the organic GS texturing around it. I particularly like the multi-stranded segment of flesh reaching out from inside to wrap around the base of the launcher. I'm looking forward to doing the front panel, since I have what I think could be a nifty idea for a trophy-rack sort of thing there; pics when I have them.


Work on the first of my original sculpts is progressing apace; hopefully I'll have WIP pics at some point this weekend.

_____


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## Lupercal101

OMG, my sculpting has now been proven to be crap. i already knew this, but here is proof. the possed terminogre is without a doubt the best GS work i have seen to date. +rep


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## Lord of Rebirth

I just can't get enough of how you used the Havoc launcher.... Could I nick the idea for an Iron Warriors Rhino?


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## jackd334

Iv had an idea to hit you with. An insne artillery piece for a death guard army: The chaos hellcannon? Swap the crew n 40k it up a bit, vwola, nice n nurgley


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## Da Red Paintjob Grot

Well, having a hellcannon part in my room, i'd say it'd work better as a replacement for a vindicator battle cannon. Again, This is awesome. Also, you feature in my sig Svart!


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## Svartmetall

Lord of Rebirth said:


> Could I nick the idea for an Iron Warriors Rhino?


Of course. Royalty payments can be deposited with my Cayman Islands account 

I have a few ideas for Nurgle artillery, but that's a long way away given how much other stuff I have to do at the moment; as for the Vindicator, doing the Rhino has at long last given me a 'way in' to how I want to do Nurgle vehicle conversions, so the Vindicator will be more likely to get done now. I've already worked out how I want to do it, though, I'm just on the lookout for the right bits I need to do what I have in my head.

Anyway, back to working on an original sculpt...


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## MRBON3Z

im not really into nurgle but that is SWEEEEET!


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## Svartmetall

Now, what does any good Chaos vehicle need? 

Why, it needs a hood ornament, of course!
















It was kind of fiddly threading all the bits onto that very fine chain, but worth it for the final look. The Rhino's pretty much done, now, I just need to attach the rear door and that's it. It does feel nice to have _finally_ wrapped my head around how to Nurglify a vehicle in a way that I'm happy with, and getting this one done means doing the rest will be a lot simpler since I'll already have a template to work from.

Since I was already working on a couple of original scratchbuilt models, it seemed a good moment to have a crack at something I've fancied making for a long time - a Herald of Nurgle based on the one from the Chaos Daemons codex; if you read that, on the page about Plaguebearers it goes on about how they are recognisable by their thin wasted frames and bony limbs, and then proceeds to show a drawing of a hulking great Sumo Plaguebearer  I've always thought the one in the drawing would work well as a Herald of Nurgle (the bigger, tougher and more disgusting Plaguebearer; it is to a normal Plaguebearer pretty much what an Aspiring Champion is to a normal Plague Marine) model, so I've started to make one of those from scratch as well as the other models; here he is at his current very early stage, next to the drawing from the Codex:








I _think_ I'm starting to get the feel for posing armatures now, and I like his businesslike striding-forward-to-eviscerate-you body language. In the background of that shot, you can see the very skinny (and small) armature for the Ghoul design of mine; to give you an idea of scale, the Herald is just slightly taller than a Chaos Terminator.

I've also started work on painting the Possessed Terminator for the painting competition, and will tomorrow be beginning work on the scavenger-worm creature from my original designs.

More when I have it...


_____


----------



## Svartmetall

Here's how Herbie is coming along...









I dunno why...he just looks like a Herbie to me :biggrin:


----------



## yanlou

ooo very nice, i love how hes coming along, this is also helping me for when i start scratch building my own daemon prince, cheers, 
i look foward to seeing more:grin:


----------



## Lucius The Typhus

I am fricking jealous! I wish I could use GS that good.


----------



## Svartmetall

And just to prove that I haven't forgotten them, I finally today finished basecoating the 22 new & resurrected Plague Marines; it's amazing how much time even plain basecoating can take when you have a lot of highly-detailed figures to do. 3 of the ones in the front row in the first picture are further along in the painting stages than the others, but rather than just do those and leave the rest plain undercoat I figured I wanted to get them all at least basecoated just as a psychological step:
























Now you can see the conversion work beginning to sit properly with the original figures; even at this early stage I think they'll be a force to be reckoned with once finished. Nurgle alone knows when I'll have time to completely paint all 22 of them, but at least now - unlike when I was desperately using literally every waking moment not in work to paint things for the WHW deadline - I can chill out a bit and do them in lots of maybe 3 at a time, which is considerably more relaxed.


----------



## Damned Fist

Still progressing well..., although I would like to see some paint on that rhino soon!:wink:


----------



## Orochi

A CHALLENGE TO YOU SIR!

taking into account the fact you SHOULD BE A FORGEWORLD SCULTPER,

I'd love to see a Great unclean one.

maybe even with a bit of personal spin?

Would love to see what you could come up with.


----------



## Svartmetall

Here's Herbie with new and improved moobs, a smoother and slightly bigger eye, a section of spine added to his back (which will be visible poking through the final skin texture), better leg proportions and some _really tiny_ teeth:









It's probably not clear from the pics, and there's obviously a long way to go yet, but in the flesh he's now starting to feel like a recognisable version of the one from the original art... 








...I think I'm finally getting over my mental block about scratchbuilt figures. Which is nice.


----------



## Svartmetall

OK, so, in between stages of green stuff work on the Guardian Dryad I have finally managed to finish the Rhino:
































...I'll almost certainly do better Nurgle vehicle conversions in future, but this is my first and I'm still pretty pleased with how it came out.

I also found time to finish off two Plague Marines who'd been languishing half-finished for ages; first of all the Plague Champion whose torso I made for the rotting skin and guts tutorial:









And secondly the Plague Marine I made ages ago as a sort of _homage_ to the one in the current CSM codex on the Plague Marines page:








I really like the bayonet-style CC attachment on his bolter, it came off a Defiler's autocannon and seems to fit just right there.

Now to grab a cold beer - we're suffering a heatwave here in the UK and the heat is just _vile_ right now - and see if the Guardian Dryad's ready for one of its final stages of work...


_____


----------



## Damned Fist

Quite disgusting! I mean, seriously, really good work Svart:victory:


----------



## AM.

:shok: Amazing DG man.


----------



## dark angel

Great! what else can i say?


----------



## Svartmetall

And just to prove that, even though I'm concentrating hard on my non-Nurgle sculpting at the moment, I've not forgotten about Pandemic - here's the current state of play with Herbie, now with finished face and improved upper body:








I like the scar on his left cheek, you can see the cut go inside to the tissue below the skin...


----------



## AM.

It's coming along nicely. GJ :good:


----------



## Svartmetall

Well, time to show you something I've had in the back of my mind for a while. A few months back I went to the Ammo Bunker Open Bash at Warhammer World, and someone there was looking at my army on the display table and suggested that I made some Nurgle Traitor Guard to add to the rest of Pandemic for Apocalypse games...and so the seeds were sown. Here, based on a Catachan, we have the first test model for my Traitor Guard of Nurgle:
















Now, actually making a few squads of Traitor Guard is low on my current list of priorities compared to getting my original sculpts done, but I wanted to make a test piece as a proof-of-concept model to stare at and work out what I'd want to do for a whole unit (just as I did with my first Plague Terminator, in fact). I want to keep them fairly realistic and low-fantasy looking, the logic behind Traitor Guard being that they don't have the superhuman physiques and resistances of Astartes so would tend to be more diseased-looking than Traitor Marines, but not just piles of slime and goo; he's basically just a very, very diseased-looking human. I like the Ghoul left arm on him, as it's fairly subtle but gives a nice edge to the model as a whole and takes it further away from the original pure-Catachan look. I wish GW did plastic Ogryns, though...I think I could have a _lot_ of fun doing a squad of Plague Ogryns :biggrin:

And here also is a work-in-progress Plague Commissar, based on the Fantasy Sorceror of Nurgle and intended to help inspire and discipline the Guard:








For some reason I could only get a decent shot of him with the flash off...the metal kept reflecting so much light from the flash it killed the photo. Ah well. I cut the long floppy bit off the top of his head and green-stuffed in a more sensible-looking one, gave him a chain belt holding in what's now a two-layer gut, added a chainsword slung over his back for that Grim Dark Future look (which will be having a green-stuff strap added going over his shoulders and round his bulging gut) and wrapped barbed wire around the haft of his banner. The logic behind this was that he could convince potential recruits of the benefits of Grandfather Nurgle's gifts by going "Look! Barbed wire through my hand and I can't feel any pain! Neat, huh?" 

As always, all C&C is welcomed. It'll be a while till I spend any serious time on these - not least because once I can devote proper attention to my Nurgle modelling again I have the Daemon Prince Lord Borborygmus, Cardinal of Corruption to finish first - but I'd like to make an interesting, characterful and credible-looking bunch of Nurgle Traitor Guard once I do so.


_____


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## Azwraith

looks awesome! very impressive you could use Ogres as a base with some heavy weaponry as Plague Ogryns.. i mean they are very similar size and body. and after all the converting you wouldnt be able to tell the difference.. maybe through some cigars in


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## WarlordKaptainGrishnak

omg you should so be the new god of nurgle

+rep best nurgle models i'v ever seen

keep up the good work


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## foulacy

Beautiful.


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## Svartmetall

I'm still mainly focusing on the original-sculpt work at the moment, but have found time to start work on a new Possessed. I was inspired to make this guy while clearing up the piles of bits that littered my workstation and finding a power-armoured right foot and left leg - for a while I've liked the idea of a Plaguebearer in power armour, so here's a couple of WIP shots of my take on it:









I basically just made a skeleton frame of armature wire anchored to the legs and then scratchbuilt everything else on that, adding the shoulderpad when the right arm was complete enough. At some point I'll post complete frame-to-finished-model pics to show his development stage by stage.








I like his lolling tongue; he's curing right now, next up is adding the skin around the exposed spine, the horn on its head, and his hands & weapon (I'm currently planning to use a smallish plastic scythe from an old plastic...something). 

...more pics when I have them.


_____


----------



## AM.

I'm seriously impressed by your works. This P.bearer looks amazing.


----------



## scubamansam

very nice keep up the good work wish i had the green stuff skills you have


----------



## Lord of Rebirth

Odd idea but perhaps if you do another plague bearer in power armour maybe place the power armoured feet/legs in a VERY awkward position to emphasize the inhuman/unreality of the daemon.


----------



## Svartmetall

Here's the Possessed with horn and a lot more body detail added:








I really like the way the spine shows in between the flesh of the back now, building up the flesh sparingly around the torn skin I'd already done has given pretty much exactly the effect I was aiming for. 








He's really starting to get there now, and is rapidly becoming one of my favourite conversions/sculpts (not sure quite which he counts as since he's largely scratchbuilt but still uses a standard shoulderpad and most of two legs).

And here's where I am at the moment with the now-properly-named Yaaghash, Herald of Nurgle - buboes, feet, and knees added along with the beginnings of his recurved horn:
























Given how the Possessed's spine turned out I'm looking forward to getting Yaaghash's back done now...

As always, more when I have it; I've now been sculpting for 10 hours straight today, though - mainly working on chainmail and heads/faces for my original-sculpt work - and am thoroughly exhausted and need to fall over.


----------



## Svartmetall

And here at last is the finished Possessed:
























...I'm pleased with him 


_____


----------



## Chocobuncle

I really like that their guts are always exploded but as an idea for more orgianlity why dont you have like maybe the chest, heart, or brains kinda exposed or something because it would make your works way more better than the average nurgle marine with intestines popping out


----------



## Winterous

I've just looked through this whole thread.
It took quite a long time, as I had to stop frequently to retrieve my jaw from the table.

One question, did you use glue on ANY of these models, or does the inordinate amount of Green Stuff hold it all together?


----------



## shaantitus

Best, most vile, disgusting,sickening, foul, warped, bloated and diseased nurgle force ever. Someone mentioned FW sculpting work. You should be doing this for a living. Everything is magnificent.


----------



## durian

thats disgusting (projectile vomiting)
i love the last possessed, hes............. cute?
+rep


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## Svartmetall

Ooookaaaayyy. I'm going to be taking a bit of a break from the original-sculpt stuff for a bit, and lavishing a little more Nurgly love on Pandemic. I've actually been taking a couple of minis and tools into work and doing some sculpting there (I currently work nights in tech support, and it gets quiet later on) and here are some detail shots of some of the new guys who'll be joining the ranks of my Plague Marines:
































...it's nice to know I can do work of this standard _in_ work; that's going to save some time on my way to my goal of 77 Plague Marines, every one a full-on conversion.

I'll also be concentrating on getting Lord Borborygmus finished - or at least significantly advanced - and maybe an interesting vehicle conversion..._if_ I can work out how to do it...


_____


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## Winterous

:O
Lovely, as always.

No ideas for the vehicle though, it'll be tricky.
Your focus has been on, well, intestines, and well, you know, vehicles don't HAVE intestines.


----------



## shaantitus

Why not? I have seen nurgle vehicles with intestines. But the huge maw in the belly of the terminogre at the start of this thread could be scaled up and used as one of the access hatches through the side of a rhino or landraider. The other door could be a huge sphincter. Eeeeeeeeeeeww.uke:


----------



## Masstadon

you have achieved something i cannot. make the models look repulsive in the case which is good for nurgle.. not that im saying they are bad all those models are great!!! i wish i could do what you did with those models..but i cant lol..probly why i also play emperors children haha


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## sir_m1ke

I think wat disturbs me most about the possessed is his lil butt....it's TOO tight...that guy has been doin some serious squats and butt clenches....

you thread is brilliant, +rep all round, my own Death Guard log now looks somewhat pathetic....


----------



## heretical by nature

thats amazing i love it keep it up!


----------



## piemaster

Winterous said:


> I've just looked through this whole thread.
> It took quite a long time, as I had to stop frequently to retrieve my jaw from the table.
> 
> One question, did you use glue on ANY of these models, or does the inordinate amount of Green Stuff hold it all together?


Your GS work is really good. I'm off to look at your tutorials so I may absorb dome of your skills. Oh, and have some rep as well


----------



## Phenious

How do you make all the tiny details in the GS? like the stretched thin look or bubbles in the flesh. I would love to build some more nids and try my hand at scratch builds and heavy conversions but not much technique in GS detailing.


----------



## Svartmetall

I'm planning to do some more tutorials in the near future on things like flesh textures and Nurglifying armour, but if you can let me know which exact bits of Nurgly detail you mean (link to a specific pic or something) I'll do my best to tell you how I did whatever it was. For now, maybe check out my Rotting Skin And Guts Tutorial and see if that gives you any inspiration.


----------



## Phenious

That does help actually, I think I can use that idea in the various tubing that lays just beneath the flesh and exo on my nids. There are so many techniques to learn out there its hard to know where to start some times.

Also reading back to some other posts about your paint scheme, I believe they are quite right, there isn't a whole lot of contrast in your flesh and poison tones. Is that on purpose, to mute the colors or are you in need of some advice yourself on how to make the tones pop and really come to life? Cause I have a few ideas that would really help out some of those marines and termies to just make people do a double take.


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## Fumble Tumble

urk......
well done mate this stuff would be inspiring if i collect DG


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## HandOfNephthys

I am your slave...
+Rep


----------



## Svartmetall

_*sigh*_

Well, this is a difficult update for me to make; the reason there hasn't been the flow of new Nurgle I'd intended here is that I've been hit with depression again, and it's pretty bad this time. Just after I came down with mild-ish depression a few weeks back due to current-job-induced stress and other stuff, I got hit with an _entirely_ unwelcome and unwanted house move that's going to be happening at some point probably just after Christmas, which has really sent me over the edge (I hate moving house at the best of times and do not want to leave the house I'm currently in at all, but for various reasons this is pretty much unavoidable for me right now). So I'm a bit of a mess right now, I'm afraid, and can't say when I'll next have new Nurgly stuff to show people here.

Sorry.




_____


----------



## Winterous

Svartmetall said:


> _*sigh*_
> 
> Well, this is a difficult update for me to make; the reason there hasn't been the flow of new Nurgle I'd intended here is that I've been hit with depression again, and it's pretty bad this time. Just after I came down with mild-ish depression a few weeks back due to current-job-induced stress and other stuff, I got hit with an _entirely_ unwelcome and unwanted house move that's going to be happening at some point probably just after Christmas, which has really sent me over the edge (I hate moving house at the best of times and do not want to leave the house I'm currently in at all, but for various reasons this is pretty much unavoidable for me right now). So I'm a bit of a mess right now, I'm afraid, and can't say when I'll next have new Nurgly stuff to show people here.
> 
> Sorry.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _____


Sorry to hear that man, it's an awful thing to suffer.
Best of luck, best of wishes.


----------



## wombat_tree

Svartmetall said:


> _*sigh*_
> 
> Well, this is a difficult update for me to make; the reason there hasn't been the flow of new Nurgle I'd intended here is that I've been hit with depression again, and it's pretty bad this time. Just after I came down with mild-ish depression a few weeks back due to current-job-induced stress and other stuff, I got hit with an _entirely_ unwelcome and unwanted house move that's going to be happening at some point probably just after Christmas, which has really sent me over the edge (I hate moving house at the best of times and do not want to leave the house I'm currently in at all, but for various reasons this is pretty much unavoidable for me right now). So I'm a bit of a mess right now, I'm afraid, and can't say when I'll next have new Nurgly stuff to show people here.
> 
> Sorry.


Dude don't be sorry, you have showed us some of the most amazing conversions ever. We should be the sorry ones because we haven't given you enough rep . By the way out of intrest how much do you spend on green stuff because you certainly use a lot of it! Although it has been said before I shall say it again, THIS IS SO FREAKING AWESOME! :biggrin::good:

+rep


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## Svartmetall

Well...I'm starting to pull myself out of the hole. Which is a good thing . 

So, while not back to full Nurgly capacity just yet, I decided it was long past time to address something that had been bugging me for a while about the paint scheme I've been using for Pandemic. Namely, the flesh tones. Due mainly to me not really knowing what the hell I'm doing when it comes to painting, I went for a safe greenish hue for the flesh on the models I've painted so far; however that gave very little if any contrast with the armour colours, and this has been pointed out over time by more than a few people. 

So, I'm trying a more realistic pinkish flesh tone for the troops. Here's a contrast photo with one of the current colour scheme and a test piece model on which I've tried the basis of the new one, albeit with no ink or washes on it yet; I just want to get feedback on the general idea before I go any further.










It was a bit of a shock at first to see pink on my guys, but I think it might be starting to grow on me; bear in mind that neither the armour nor the flesh on the model on the left have any ink or wash work yet. The plan is to use red and maybe a bit of purple wash in the recesses, and in some places to use yellow inks to give the impression of lesions and so on. Maybe a tiny bit of green ink/wash to give some unity overall, not sure yet. It would be tempting to re-do the flesh on the already-done troops so the whole army matches, assuming I can get a pink-based flesh tone that I'm truly happy with. 

So, any and all C&C is welcomed...


----------



## Argitist

Yeah, once it's washed and toned down I can see it looking really grotesque, love em man.


----------



## Winterous

Happy you're feeling better man, let's keep it that way


----------



## jpunk

Good to see you back in the saddle, Svart.
Good start on the flesh. I really love your conversions (in fact, they nearly inspired me start a nurgle army, but then I realised that would be a) blatantly ripping off your style, and b) heresy...) but I have always thought that they needed a little lift painting wise, and I reckon a little attention to the fleshy parts would be absolutely perfect.

So here's a +rep, whether it's for bouncing back, some awesome conversions, or pushing yourself to raise your game *even more*, I'll let you decide.


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## bishop5

Yes, definately yes.
Can't wait to see more!


----------



## MaidenManiac

The pinkish fleshtone is looking good so far. It does give that "contrast" as you say youre after imho. Cant wait till the finished testmodel is done 

Keep up the good work and you should be safe from new foxholes, Ive heard that Papa Nurgle watches over his children:wink:


----------



## wombat_tree

Yay Svarts back! Nice flesh tones I really think they will improve your models tenfold. I'd +rep you but apparently I have to spread the love around before +reping you again.


----------



## heretical by nature

thats amazing, enough said


----------



## Svartmetall

Well, now; before the depression kicked in, I'd started working on more Plague Marines. For a while now I've had the idea of making 77 Plague Marines, all full conversions, with Apocalypse games in mind, and the detail shots I posted a month or two back were from some of the newest batch...I'm up to 54 Plague Marines in all so far, and here are the rest:




























































































This picture should illustrate why I call these two plasma gunners Jules and Vincent :biggrin:









All 54 of the buggers:








A higher-resolution version is *here*.


_____


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## jimmyhoppityhop

damn loads of nurgle, wishing i had the skills you do with the green stuff, ever thought of making a turtorial on how to become one with the green stuff


----------



## CaptainLoken

Do i spy a space crusade bolter in the middle of all that?


----------



## Cleitus_the_Black

As always they look awesome. 54 painted up staring at you from across the table would be impressive and fear inducing.


----------



## Svartmetall

CaptainLoken said:


> Do i spy a space crusade bolter in the middle of all that?


Indeed you do, I picked up a few going cheap on Ebay a while back. You have to trim various bits off to get them to fit with a modern plastic Marine's limbs, and the plastic those old SC bits are made of is nasty hard-and-brittle stuff, but I love the bayonet-type attachment on them (which is really why I bought them). As much as anything else I want to give the impression that some members of this army have been around since the Heresy itself, and I feel that using old game parts like those helps to create the 'old school' feel on a model


----------



## The Wraithlord

Sweet conversion work as always Svart. You have vehicles to convert as well or just going with an all foot army?


----------



## moo

Awesome work, i love the indivduality you put into every single one of your models. I too am interested in what else you will add to your force. Definately inspiring work, makes me want to convert some deathguard myself


----------



## wombat_tree

Svartmetall, many years from now children will be named after you in your honour and the Golden Daemon will be renamed the Golden Svart. Your stuff is legendary beyond words and I only hope my new Death Guard will turn out something like yours (wishful thinking I know, but then a man can dream). May your dice always roll 6's (except in Ld tests).


----------



## Winterous

wombat_tree said:


> May your dice always roll 6's (except in Ld tests).


Which don't matter because he plays Cult Marines, which are Fearless 
I disagree though, his painting is good, but FAR from the best, his work is incredible because of the amazing sculpting, the painting is just good.


----------



## Blackheart_101

Winterous said:


> ... I disagree though, his painting is good, but FAR from the best, his work is incredible because of the amazing sculpting, the painting is just good.


 :shok: Sacrilege !!!


----------



## Svartmetall

Winterous said:


> I disagree though, his painting is good, but FAR from the best, his work is incredible because of the amazing sculpting, the painting is just good.





Blackheart_101 said:


> :shok: Sacrilege !!!


No, he's absolutely right; my painting definitely lags behind my sculpting & converting at the moment. I just don't find painting as much fun or as inspiring as the sculpting, building and converting side of things; whether that's because I'm just innately not too good at painting or because I'm so into the sculpting, building and converting part that I've just never stopped doing that long enough to properly work on my painting and thus get some more rewarding results painting-wise is something I've wondered about myself. My painting is something I intend to work on over the coming year or so, though, starting off with the new scheme for flesh tones I showed a test pic of earlier...


----------



## GiftofChaos1234

just discovered this and read through it.... all of it.....
wow that took me 2 and half hours +Rep!


----------



## papa nurgle

Very nice! Can't wait to see more


----------



## nurgles_warrior

omg i am amazed at these, i dont see why gw havent made plastic death guard on your designs, there just brilliant, good luck with the painting:victory:


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## WarlordKaptainGrishnak

again this is awesome keep up the amazing works

+ rep


----------



## Svartmetall

The Wraithlord said:


> Sweet conversion work as always Svart. You have vehicles to convert as well or just going with an all foot army?


 No, there are vehicles too - I've already shown one of the Nurgle Rhinos I'm making for the Plague Marines *earlier in this thread*. In general I'm planning to keep it mainly foot-sloggers, though, in keeping with the XIVth Legion's original setup; for Apocalypse games I will be adding allied Traitor Guard of Nurgle, with a lot more vehicles. 

I'm planning, for example, to convert several 1/35th scale *Sturmpanzer IV 'Brummbar' assault guns* into counts-as Nurgle Medusas. They have a blunt, blocky look to them that to my mind perfectly suits the no-frills approach of the Death Guard, and with a little work I think could be made to to look like something made on a Chaos-run forge world. This was inspired by Dan Abnett's descriptions of standardised-pattern Chaos AFVs in the Gaunt's Ghosts novels, especially 'Honour Guard'; I figured it'd be nice to have a unit of obviously non-Imperial vehicles that had to have been built somewhere not under Imperial control, instead of the usual 'Basilisk with a Chaos icon painted on the side' approach. This way it establishes that there are production lines churning out stuff for the bad guys, too...


_____


----------



## MaidenManiac

Svartmetall said:


> I'm planning, for example, to convert several 1/35th scale *Sturmpanzer IV 'Brummbar' assault guns* into counts-as Nurgle Medusas. They have a blunt, blocky look to them that to my mind perfectly suits the no-frills approach of the Death Guard, and with a little work I think could be made to to look like something made on a Chaos-run forge world. This was inspired by Dan Abnett's descriptions of standardised-pattern Chaos AFVs in the Gaunt's Ghosts novels, especially 'Honour Guard'; I figured it'd be nice to have a unit of obviously non-Imperial vehicles that had to have been built somewhere not under Imperial control, instead of the usual 'Basilisk with a Chaos icon painted on the side' approach. This way it establishes that there are production lines churning out stuff for the bad guys, too...


This idea has huge potential and Im sure you will nurse this plan with Nurgles most careful brew. Cant wait till there are some pics rollin :biggrin:


----------



## Svartmetall

MaidenManiac said:


> ...I'm sure you will nurse this plan with Nurgles' most careful brew.


 I was planning on nursing it with Carlsberg Export, actually :drinks:


----------



## Svartmetall

A quick Nurgle update - I'm largely occupied with non-Nurgle sculpting again right now, as part of the long-term 'become a better sculptor' program, but have found time in between things to do this Plague Champion head, which I'm rapidly becoming rather fond of:








It's one of the old Mutation sprue heads, with everything below the nose removed and replaced with a lower jaw that's rotting off the head but is still attached by skin and sinew, with the side of the cheek exposed on the left. The teeth were really fiddly to do...








I wanted to have a go at sculpting real character into the detail of a head, which is something I've always found daunting; and, of course, the only way to get over that is to just man up and _do_ it  I liked the result of the head work enough that, although he started off as just a random model to experiment on, this guy is now going to be another Plague Champion (much like the test model for the rotting-skin-and-guts tutorial, who also started out as Random Plague Marine #34 but ended up becoming a Champion).



And now, a slightly longer life update. When I posted to say that I'd been hit with depression again, and it involved an unwelcome house move, it was actually the forced house move that had turned a mild depression into a full-on meltdown. Every time I've moved house in my adult life (having always rented) it's been fairly horrible experience, as there were always negative things going on that turned what was inherently a stressful upheaval into a total nightmare (e.g. getting evicted due to no fault of our own just after my father had died). 

Well, to cut a long story short, I'm buying a house. Price agreed, survey done, and I'm just in the middle of solicitor faff right now; I hope to be moving into my own place in the next 6-8 weeks, tops. It's a huge and scary thing to do, but I think it's going to be a really positive thing for me overall, life-wise; finally, I'll have a permanent place that I own and in which I can do what the hell I want, unbeholden to housemates, letting agencies or anyone else at all. MINE! I've already decided which rooms are going to be the modelling studio and the Room Of A Thousand Guitars (well, OK, 22 guitars), and I can even get the Norwegian Forest Cat I've always wanted.

So now I can say that Schloss Svartmetall...it really exists :biggrin:


_____


----------



## Winterous

That's awesome man, good for you!

And great sculpting as always.


----------



## papa nurgle

very nice conversion work!


----------



## dthwish09

the artistic work is amazing, well put simply well done


----------



## Mabrothrax

Great work as ever Svart.

Count the seven!


----------



## BearsofLeon

I just found this thread, and I read it from beginning to end. Why don't you do a Mortarion conversion? I used the Nightbringer from the necrons for mine. I added pustules and such with a plasma gun for The Lantern. I think that if you made a Mortarion, it would overshadow all other work. By far. Plus, he was the one who said that the Death Guard should use less vehicles and such! This has inspired me to the fullest, as I am planning and making a Word Bearers and Death Guard Heresy Legion army both led by their respective primarchs.

Just something to think about.


----------



## Svartmetall

I definitely have plans to, at some point, do full-on Mortarion and Typhus conversions/sculpts for the army; for Typhus I want to make the closest thing I can to the illustration that's been in the last two CSM Codices, I love that picture. I don't know whether Morty still uses the Lantern after becoming a Daemon Primarch, most of the fluff I've seen just mentions the scythe. Nurgle alone knows when I'll get around to those two, though; right now getting ready to move into the house I've just bought is sort of occupying most of my brain


----------



## WarlordKaptainGrishnak

Svartmetall said:


> I definitely have plans to, at some point, do full-on Mortarion and Typhus conversions/sculpts for the army; for Typhus I want to make the closest thing I can to the illustration that's been in the last two CSM Codices, I love that picture. I don't know whether Morty still uses the Lantern after becoming a Daemon Primarch, most of the fluff I've seen just mentions the scythe. Nurgle alone knows when I'll get around to those two, though; right now getting ready to move into the house I've just bought is sort of occupying most of my brain


i did that for typhus. original model is cool but it doesn't seem to me to have as much character as his illustration


----------



## BearsofLeon

For Mortarion I would consider sculpting a Lantern. I think this is a good idea because the CSM's dont have access to a ton of weaponry anymore, AND the Lantern is Mastercrafted. I wrote some rules for mortarion, would you like them?


----------



## Damned Fist

I'm a little late seeing this one..., but first off; congrats on the house! That's big news. Second, the sculpt is fantastic. I love the detail that you put into your work. It gives them so much characterk:

Wish you the best & may God bless your new home:victory:


----------



## BearsofLeon

May Nurgle bless his home I think you mean.


----------



## Winterous

BearsofLeon said:


> May Nurgle bless his home I think you mean.


Nurgle > God.


----------



## Svartmetall

Thanks for all the postive stuff, guys, it definitely helps. *BearsofLeon*, I'd definitely be interested in seeing your Mortarion rules. Did you make them for an Apoc datasheet, or what?

Anyway, here's Plague Champion Khöros, finished:
































I'm pleased with how he's come out; he's not the biggest, most disgusting (wait till you see Volvulus the Bloated...) or scariest-looking of my Plague Champions, but I think he's got some real personality. 


The house-buying process is going _very_ slowly; I've just talked to my solicitor with a view to kicking arses and getting things moving properly, since we're both of the opinion that things are taking longer than they should. Once I'm in and settled, then I should be able to get down to properly channelling my energies into modelling again; plus, since I'll _finally_ have what is indisputably my own space in which I can do whatever the hell I want, I can finally turn my energy to some of the bigger projects I've had in mind for a while. Like full squadrons of armour for a Traitor Guard army, maybe even my own take on a Plaguereaper or a Nurgle Plague Tower... Right now, between the ongoing house situation and adjusting to being back in work (boo!) it's hard to get much done, especially given that most of what little modelling time I seem able to muster at the moment is being used working on non-Nurgle sculpting-improvement stuff. 


I've been getting more and more into the idea of the Traitor Guard army that I did a test piece for a while back. I'm planning a series of characterful vehicle conversions to counts-as for various bits of Guard armour that I'm finding quite inspiring right now; I suspect at some point another epic Nurgly WIP thread may well appear here 


_____


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## BearsofLeon

Another WIP thread from you? This is too much. We'll be blessed by Father Nurgle if this happens...you are giving me ideas for my death guard so I can model my own 

Here are the rules for Mortarion that I made....they are a little overpowered....
sorry about capitals

POINTS: 650
UNIT OR FORMATION: MORTARION 
TYPE: MONSTEROUS CREATURE, INDEPENDENT CHARACTER 
STRUCTURE POINTS: NONE
WEAPONS AND EQUIPMENT: THE LANTERN, THE MANREAPER, FRAG BLIGHT AND KRAK GRENADES
OPTIONS: None
UNIT STATS: WS:8 BS:6 S:8 T:9 W:6 I:6 A:5 Ld:10 Sv:2+ (3+)
UNIT OR FORMATION NAME: MORTARION, DAEMON PRIMARCH OF THE DEATH GUARD 
WEAPONS RANGE STR 8 AP 2 SPECIAL PISTOL, GETS HOT 
SPECIAL RULES: DAEMON PRINCE: MORTARION IS A DAEMON PRINCE IN ALL ASPECTS AND THUS BENEFITS FROM THE "ETERNAL WARRIOR" SPECIAL RULE
WINGED: MORTARION HAS DAEMONIC WINGS. SEE CODEX: CHAOS SPACE MARINES FOR DETAILS
PROPHET OF NURGLE: NURGLE'S FAVOR IN MORTARION HAS GRANTED HIM AN UNHOLY, GROTESQUE APPEARENCE. ALL UNITS WITHOUT THE MARK OF NURGLE SUFFER A -2 MODIFIER TO THEIR LEADERSHIP
NURGLE'S GIFT: MORTARION HAS THE SPELL NURGLES ROT, HOWEVER, HIS ROT IS MUCH MORE POWERFUL. WHEN CASTED ALL UNITS WITHOUT THE MARK OF NURGLE WITHIN 6 INCHES TAKE A STRENGTH 7 AP 4 HIT
REGENERATION: IF MORTARION HAS LOST A WOUND, HE MAY ATTEMPT TO REPAIR IT. IF HE DOES, HE MAY NOT MOVE OR SHOOT DURING THIS TURN
MANREAPER: MORTARION'S MANREAPER IS A DAEMON WEAPON IN ALL RESPECTS. IT ALSO COUNTS AS A FORCE WEAPON
EXPERT CASTER: MORTARION ONLY FAILS A PSYCHIC TEST ON A ROLL OF 12


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## ChaosSpaceMarineGuy

@Svartmetall:

great scuplting! Wish i could do it to that degree. the ogre with the tummy mouth is my fav. great job dude! :so_happy:


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## Skull Harvester

I just saw this and I must say, absolutely jaw dropped. Incredible skill, detail, and feel. I love the models, and I can't wait to see the Daemon Prince. Good job Svart, putrid glory to Nurgle!


----------



## shaantitus

You are making the rest of us feel inadequate. You have more skill with the nurgley goodness than is 'right and proper'
Incredible stuff mate. Congrats on thr realworld successes too.


----------



## Svartmetall

OK, so...I got the keys to my new house on Friday :biggrin:.

I spent most of today using a van to get a ton of my stuff over to there from here. In theory my shiny 20Meg cable connection gets installed and hooked up on Wednesday but you can never be sure with these things...so for now I shall just say thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement during the last few hellish months, and that I shall be back posting here again as soon as I can


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## Blackheart_101

Congrats on your new house Svart, it's good to see you back on Heresy.


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## forkmaster

Im currently a pure Imperial Guard collector (I do have a Tau and tyranid army as well but thats not the point), when I found this thread this morning I simply fell in love with Nurgle and looked through the entire thread (33 pages to be exact). Man you are good dude. Would have given rep for each picture but even you should know its too many. XD I'll use some of your pcitures for inspiring because now I just want some models to make in the appearence of father Nurgle.


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## c013

Very in awe of your work, love nurgle, love your conversions. I REALLY want to see you do something like a nurglie hell blade from FW, just a thought.


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## Svartmetall

Well, well, well...here I am posting from the crypts of Schlöss Svartmetall :biggrin:

Life has been _ridiculously_ hectic these last few weeks, between moving in and trying to sort the whole place out by myself, finally getting back to my full working hours again post-depression and also a quick visit from one of Father Nurgle's 'gifts' which had me largely horizontal for a few days...but I made it. I'm in my own house, I'm making good progress on the getting-things-sorted list, the internet connection here is _really_ fast and today I got round to organising and sorting out the house's box room, which has been earmarked from the beginning as the modelling room.

The view from the battlements:









Two things I found on Ebay which will become BIG models later this year:









And I had apparently amassed more Warhammer and other models than I'd realised; you don't realise till you sort them all into one place...
















You can just see the Guitar Room through the far doorway...

So. I'm still kind of exhausted, but getting settled into the routine of life in my own house decently enough. Modelling will recommence in the next day or two :biggrin:


_____


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## ChaosRedCorsairLord

Haha the box subtlety labeled 'Loyalist weakling bits' is classic.


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## Winterous

That's alotta boxes!


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## cheaky

I just want to say thanks. Your stuff is inspirational and every time I'm going to do some GSing, I have a quick look at your stuff to get an idea of how to do it right (well, more correct). Can't wait to see later projects!


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## MrZombeh

I think i had an orgasm...
Epic stuff overall, love 'most every Nurgle-like.


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## Winterous

MrZombeh said:


> I think i had an orgasm....


Charming, I'd rather not hear about that to be honest.


----------



## Son of mortarion

Svartmetall said:


> No, there are vehicles too - I've already shown one of the Nurgle Rhinos I'm making for the Plague Marines *earlier in this thread*. In general I'm planning to keep it mainly foot-sloggers, though, in keeping with the XIVth Legion's original setup; for Apocalypse games I will be adding allied Traitor Guard of Nurgle, with a lot more vehicles.
> 
> I'm planning, for example, to convert several 1/35th scale *Sturmpanzer IV 'Brummbar' assault guns* into counts-as Nurgle Medusas. They have a blunt, blocky look to them that to my mind perfectly suits the no-frills approach of the Death Guard, and with a little work I think could be made to to look like something made on a Chaos-run forge world. This was inspired by Dan Abnett's descriptions of standardised-pattern Chaos AFVs in the Gaunt's Ghosts novels, especially 'Honour Guard'; I figured it'd be nice to have a unit of obviously non-Imperial vehicles that had to have been built somewhere not under Imperial control, instead of the usual 'Basilisk with a Chaos icon painted on the side' approach. This way it establishes that there are production lines churning out stuff for the bad guys, too...
> 
> 
> _____


I know it deviates from the normal no-frills, but you though of modelling some stuff on them to make them look like a mobile shrine to nurgle?, similar to how sm command vehicles have a lot of imperial religious imagery. The armor around the gun seems like a good place to do this.


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## Svartmetall

Modelling time is still harder to come by than I would like - although the house is settling down a bit now - and most of that is currently being spent on non-Nurgle 'improve my sculpting' stuff...but I have found time in between everything else to do some work on Volvulus the Bloated, the next Plague Champion I wanted to work on. 

Here's the original concept sketch I rustled up a while back in Bugman's Bar over a pint:









And here's how Volvulus' WIP torso is looking now:








I'm kind of pleased with how he's looking so far; I wanted it to look as though his bloated flesh was cracking the armour as it expanded, oozing out and spilling over his legs. In the flesh, as it were, the actual model looks quite unpleasant even at this early stage 


















I need to concentrate on getting the non-Nurgle stuff completed before much else can happen with Pandemic, but rest assured as soon as I have stuff it'll be turning up here. Likewise, as soon as it's feasible I'll be opening up the WIP thread for the Traitor Guard army...


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## warsmith7752

If only i could sculpt green stuff as well as you do svartmetall.


----------



## Tinweasel

Just out of curiosity, how do you transition your GS work back into the stock parts? Acetone slurry, plain ol' finger-smoothing, or something else?

It's a very nice transition and ought to carry over great into painting!


----------



## Svartmetall

Tinweasel said:


> Just out of curiosity, how do you transition your GS work back into the stock parts? Acetone slurry, plain ol' finger-smoothing, or something else?


Nice to see you posting here, *Tin*...I usually employ the good old finger-smoothing method, but for tight spaces where my fingers won't fit I use a cocktail stick with a very smooshed-out end that, when moistened, works pretty well to get a smooth transition between GS and model.


----------



## Vredesbyrd

Just been through the whole log and your work is stunning. I have issues filling in gaps with greenstuff so I'm always massively impressed to see work like this. Definitely a source of inspiration for developing my greenstuffing skills.


----------



## DarKKKKK

Continues to impress me. I thought your "Snivelling Loyalist Weakling Bitz" box was hilarious :laugh:

I keep telling myself I gotta get going on my Nurgled out Vindicator soon, your thread kind of helps me move towards getting it started :mrgreen:


----------



## Azazel5112

wow epic and inspirational, thanks for the tutorial going to put it to good use on my Dreadnought to Nurgle DP conversion (with GS nurglings on it if they turn out) +rep for sure


----------



## PapaSmurf124

outstanding work. I love these models. Excellent inspiration for me to start with my GS


----------



## Svartmetall

Right...

_*cracks knuckles*_

Non-Nurgle improve-my-sculpting work stuff is done and dusted. Time for more horrendous hijinks and cadaverous capers in the realm of Father Nurgle, methinks 

I've done a little more work on the Daemon Prince (renamed 'Yersinis' from the original working title of 'Borborygmus'), namely adding an exposed spine to his back and various 'orrible fleshy bits:








The current plan is to scratch-build ornate, vaguely Terminator-esque Daemonic plate armour over his arms and legs, and leave his body largely bare flesh, for a nice contrast over the finished model. A Daemon Prince converted from a Giant is always going to be a 'big centrepiece' kind of model anyway, so I figure you may as well go all out and take the time to make something really crazy,.


I also found, while in the course of continuing to sort and organise the house, something I bought in early 2008 - a Forge World Nurgle dreadnought:








I added the spiky bits back then, but am now working on making it a tad more individual. I never particularly liked the eyes on the right hull front - they never seemed very Nurgly to me - so I'm replacing them with the classic fly-hive perforated spheres. I'm temopted to replace the FW close-combat arm with a scratch-built 'plague claw' kind of thing; I suspect sketching will probably need to happen before I can decide on anything firm, though.

So...watch this space. I'm back to full modelling capacity now and firing on all cylinders - the Traitor Guard army WIP thread will be appearing soon, too. You have been warned :biggrin:


_____


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## WarlordKaptainGrishnak

OMG SVART RETURNS...WITH COOKIES...

well nurgle-ly goodness...just as good as a cookie...

Keep it coming again Svart love your work

Grish


----------



## imm0rtal reaper

This log contines to be an inspiration. I've just started a nurgle army, largely because of your wonderful work. Great job man!


----------



## Fireflies

Just read Through the intere post.. I don't really know how to discribe this, its awesome looking! keep it up!


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## aquatic_foible

you sculpting is most impressive, sir, most impressive! i especially like the spine on the prince, and the exposed tendons on his arm. 

i will continue to read this thread, and continue to derive both inspiration and pleasure from it... :grin:


----------



## xenobiotic

This might be a cheesy post to make, but I have to:

As defined by http://www.thefreedictionary.com/epic:


> *ep·ic *
> 
> adj.
> 1. Of, constituting, having to do with, or suggestive of a literary epic: an epic poem.
> 2. Surpassing the usual or ordinary, particularly in scope or size.
> 3. Heroic and impressive in quality.


I think that your skill with greenstuff, as shown throughout this thread, embodies most of the adjective definitions of the word *EPIC*.

Keep up the superb work, I can't wait to see the traitor guard!


----------



## Primarch Lorgar

just read it all from start to finish, amazing, I worship you! Can I see some pics of your entire army? Please?k:


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## nurgles_warrior

loving the work as normal, keep up the good work


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## BearsofLeon

Svart, you have improved greatly in textures and finesse since the beginning, good to see you back after moving. In addition to a Mortarion mini, why not do his bodyguard? The Deathshroud?


----------



## Horacus

Now that's the way to paint a deathguard  You're awsome man


----------



## Horacus

Svartmetall said:


> So, any and all C&C is welcomed...


How do you arrive to that flesh color?


----------



## Svartmetall

> _"How do you arrive to that flesh color?"_


 When I can find the piece of paper with the recipe on to remind me, I'll post it :biggrin: 


While working on the Forge World Dreadnought over the last few days I've solidified in my head one approach to armour I'd like to use quite a bit on Nurgle vehicles; it's based around the idea of acromegaly, a condition where the pituitary gland never sends a 'stop growing' signal to a part of the body. People with giantism are prone to it, since giantism itself is a closely related condition (in the course of researching source material for The Abhorred, I've been reading up on diseases and stuff) and since Nurgle has always been as much about growth as about decay to me - albeit growth in the sense of tumours and the like as opposed to anything healthy - this was a natural way to incorporate extending things on Nurgle models. 

Yeah, I know..I think about things too much. 

So I figure it's logical to have something like acromegaly affecting armour on Nurgle-dedicated things, especially anything Possessed or something like a Dreadnought which I've always thought of more as a sort of super-Terminator than a vehicle. On the FW Dreadnought, I've used this to extend edges of the armour to try and convey the idea that it's still _growing_:










I hasten to add that the frontal armour plate between his legs isn't finished yet, I need to add another strip in there and I'm debating adding some lengths of chain to that armour piece too.










With careful matching of surfaces and details it should hopefully be a seamless join once painted up, making the model both more individual and more Nurgly. It's actually quite subtle when you look at the model as a whole, but will make a real difference on the finished entity; I'm now looking at developing and extending this idea on the Vindicator and Defiler that are on my things-to-make list. The Defiler in particular should be fun, since I have a pretty strong idea of how I want to do that one to make it look really distinctive - ideas which should also work on any potential Soul Grinder, too, should I ever end up making a Nurgle Daemons army...


And here's a Plague Marine I've been working on, trying to nail the blend of extended armour in with buboes and torn flesh. I feel like I've finally managed to properly get the hang of the 'flesh oozing through armour' look on this guy's shoulderpad (took me long enough):










I think with figures like him I'm starting to get a properly distinctive look to my Nurgle troops, one that's unified across the army as a whole but that still allows a lot of room for individual variation on models. And, with everything I've added to my arsenal of sculpting & conversion tricks over the last 6-9 months or so, I can't wait to start on the next batch of Plague Terminators :biggrin:

More, as always, as soon as I have it.


_____


----------



## ClassyRaptor

Freaking sweet mate, undoubtably the best Plague Marines I have ever laid eyes upon.


----------



## Dave T Hobbit

Svartmetall said:


> Yeah, I know..I think about things too much.


There is no such thing.



Svartmetall said:


> ...managed to properly get the hang of the 'flesh oozing through armour' look on this guy's shoulderpad (took me long enough)


It does indeed look oozy

Is there a special trick to it, or just repeated small layers?


----------



## Svartmetall

I've just made a tutorial on how to make a custom biomechanical power claw for a Nurgle Dreadnought; once that's been approved it'll show up...

EDIT: *ah, there it is...*


----------



## Otep

dear goddess the plague returns!

i really dig your models  +rep!

if ii had a 100th of your gs skill i;d be happy lol


----------



## Svartmetall

I've had a few people here and elsewhere asking how to do the acromegalic-armour thing...

I build up an 'undercoat' patch of GS in the area where I want the extra section of armour to be, keeping the level of this a couple of millimetres below the actual level of the armour to leave room for the final layer:








...then, once that's cured hard, I add the final layer over this so there's a firm backing for the GS:








Having that backing layer means that you can get a smooth join between the top layer and the plastic of the model itself without displacing the whole section you're adding on. To actually get the seamless join I use an old wooden cocktail stick, where the tip has smooshed out with use into a fairly flat surface 2-3mm across; I wet the tip of this with spit so it's as smooth and softened as possible, then carefully smooth the top layer of the GS over the model's plastic with repeated small motions. It's best to apply light pressure and use repeated movements; too much pressure and you tend to push the GS down below the level of the plastic, which makes a visible depression and spoils the smoothness of the join.
















Wherever there's surface detail up to the edge of the existing armour surfaces on the model, try to match and continue that so that it looks like a homogenous part of the armour detailing.

And here's the same technique on the other arm:
























What you're aiming for is to make it seamless enough that it's invisible when paint is applied, so you'd never know the model had had pieces added to it at all unless you knew what to look for. 

Here's how the whole thing is shaping up now, almost done apart from a section or two around the waist joint:
















He's going to be fun once painted, with all this detail  


_____


----------



## Marneus Calgar

That looks really sweet! If I ever attempt gsing, and manage to get 1/8th as good as this, I will be happy!

+Rep


----------



## omgitsduane

I will fight anyone that doesn't agree with this being the best plague marine army ever witnessed! Also it's really pushing my inner papa nurgle to start my own death guard wing for my army of chaos. DAMN YOU SIR


----------



## Grim Jaw

Dude, gs, that is so awesome, i've tried using it, and its just too hard


----------



## Horacus

That's a sweet looking dread, keep it comming


----------



## Svartmetall

Here's the finished Death Guard Dreadnought:





































I'd been a bit iffy about the chainblade attachment to the lascannon arm for a while, it didn't look bulky enough; so I replaced it with a Nurgled-up Ork chainblade - pinned on for strength - extended the bar that links the lascannon barrels together down so it looks as though it's helping reinforce the chainblade, and bulked up the original joint area so the bigger blade seems to fit naturally. 

I'm pleased with how he's come out, all things considered; the model had basically been sat there for 2 years or so with nothing happening to it (I added the big spikes back then, but he's been languishing in a dusty corner of my modelling desk ever since) so it's nice to see him finally finished.

Next up: Nurgle Obliterators!


_____


----------



## WarlordKaptainGrishnak

My Lord Svart you are now to be known as simply The Creator. An amazing dread, look forward to seeing it painted. +rep

Grish


----------



## yanlou

man that is awesome, once its painted itll be near impossible to tell the gs from the forgeworld thats how well its been sculpted, are you sure ur not nurgle incarnate:grin:


----------



## qotsa4life

Hey man I just read your thread, all 38 pages. It's extremely inspirational. Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing your obliterators! +rep


----------



## Skull Lord Kar'gor

Awesome sculpting on the Dread dude, you have some great skill! :victory:


----------



## The Wraithlord

Lol, the FW Dread wasn't Nurgle-y enough for you as it was?? :laugh:


----------



## Svartmetall

The phrase 'enough Nurgle' has no meaning for me :grin:


----------



## coalheartly

.......can...i...eat your heart in an attempt to gain your mighty powers?.........


----------



## shaantitus

coalheartly said:


> .......can...i...eat your heart in an attempt to gain your mighty powers?.........


I think you would catch something. Svartmetall IS Nurgle Himself. He nurglifies things the way nurgley things should be nurgled. 
At the very least he is Scabeiathrax as part of a demonic incursion.

Either way eating his heart would be bad for you.

Rep for your foul,pestilent abominations.uke:


----------



## coalheartly

shaantitus said:


> I think you would catch something. Svartmetall IS Nurgle Himself. He nurglifies things the way nurgley things should be nurgled.
> At the very least he is Scabeiathrax as part of a demonic incursion.
> 
> Either way eating his heart would be bad for you.
> 
> Rep for your foul,pestilent abominations.uke:



But, if I eat his heart, I could gain the demons power! I mean, my friends and family maynot be to happy about it, but, MORE PUSS FOR THE PUSS GOD


----------



## papa nurgle

Does your amazing, fantastic, painting, modeling and creative skills know no bounds! :shok::shok::shok::shok::shok::shok::shok::shok:

There is too much AWESOMENESS!:wacko:


----------



## BearsofLeon

Holyshitfacesonastick.
That spine on Whatshispustulentface is amazing! 
How do you create buboes and pustules out of GS? I have been wondering this for a while. And what tools do you use for GS sculpting?

Cant wait for your Pusbliterators.


----------



## Svartmetall

Well, it's early days yet but I thought it'd be nice to show the basics of how I'm doing the Obliterator. I'll be doing a step-by-step tutorial when the whole thing's completed, but for now here are some of the details I'm adding to make the basic Minotaur model look more 40K-like.

First, extending the shoulderpad to cover the cutaway segments so it more closely resembles something like a Terminator shoulderpad:









And removing the two small outer toes and replacing them with one large one to match the other half of the foot, for an appropriately Nurgly 'cloven hoof' look:








Note the awesome custom combi-melta in this shot! 
_*cough*_
I just wanted _something_ on the end of his weapon arm to help give the right feel for the model while I worked on the initial stages. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

Next, the first bits of work on the all-important biomorphic weapon arm. Where possible I'm going to be modelling my Obliterators with weapons you don't normally see on Chaos foot-soldiers, so plasma cannons and the like will be prominent; this particular Obliterator will be wielding a multi-melta...








...which, when viewed from the front, just happens to make a familiar symbol:








:biggrin:

And to give you an idea of scale, here he is next to a new Plague Marine I've also been working on:








He's big, but he is a Heavy Support choice after all - he _should_ be big. It's obviously a fairly early stage of Obliterator development, but hopefully this will give you some idea of where I'm heading with this guy...


And while I'm at it, here are some more shots of the new Plague Marine - I like the extended, cracked torso armour and the stretched flesh over and around the augmetic cabling on his legs:

















More when I have it...


_____


----------



## BearsofLeon

Yay Svartmetalls back!!

Really liking the Obliterator.


----------



## Svartmetall

By using the Minotaur model as a base, I actually get a nice smooth size progression from Plague Marine up through Terminator to Obliterator:










On the tabletop, I reckon they'll fit in rather nicely.


----------



## BearsofLeon

I thought the guy in the middle was your HQ?


----------



## Svartmetall

*posting from work*



BearsofLeon said:


> I thought the guy in the middle was your HQ?


 He is, that's the current model for Lord Kothaar the Putrescent; but just 'cos he gives the orders doesn't necessarily mean he's the biggest. 

And if I'm using it, the Daemon Prince is like 2x the size of the Obliterator anyway :grin:


----------



## yanlou

im liking the obliterator so far, will you be using a spawn head by any chance?


----------



## Svartmetall

> _...will you be using a Spawn head by any chance?_


 Probably not, as the Spawn heads aren't quite the look I'm after for an Obliterator; that's still the part I'm most undecided about. I may well end up sculpting heads from scratch for them.


A small update - time has been harder to come by than I would've liked in the last week or so, lots of stuff going on with work - but here's some early GS progress on the Obliterator:



























The aim is to make the multi-melta look as through it's been extruded out _through_ the flesh as well as biomechanically formed from it, hence the torn and stretched tissue around it and the swollen blood vessels leading into the melta barrels themselves. There's also a little more work done on extending the existing armour plates, and smoothing out the musculature on the top of the torso (there's a long, sharp groove cut into there which needed to be eliminated); still early days but the character I'm aiming for is already starting to emerge, to my eyes at least. 

C&C welcomed as always


----------



## Varakir

it might just be through lack of looking, but i don't think i've ever seen really nicely converted oblits. I know these will look awesome, and it's quite interesting to imagine what it'll look like when it's finished.

I wish i could give suggestions, but alas my evil genius powers are nowhere near your level...


----------



## yanlou

wow thats looking really gd, cant wait to see more, 
if i may make a suggestion for the head you could go with something like this 
http://www.bitsandkits.co.uk/warhammer-giant-head-c-p-4335.html?sesid=idq687ka88i5d2vlr9m7og7uk6
im not sure if itll be to big for your model tho


----------



## Supersonic Banana

OK after going through this thread for 2 and a half hours I think you've infected me! Is this a new disease that you've concocted by which my jaw keeps hitting the floor and my tongue dropping out! (That reminds me... I better find that soon...)
I think that i'll need a new face so could you sculpt me one out of gs? knowing your skills it would probably be better and more life-like than...well life I guess.
And what I really don't understand with your dreadnought... HOW THE HELL DID YOU MAKE NURGLE MORE NURGLY?!
You have shamed Forge World by improving the un-improvable!


----------



## Reaver02

Amazing work here. You inspired me to make my own plague bearers in fact. I will be using your work here as reference to all that Nurgle goodness. Thanks and keep it up!


----------



## Boc

I've just gone through this entire thread start to finish and, I must say, I want to switch from a Khornite army to a Nurgle army!

To add onto the hundreds of comments before mine, your GS work is absolutely fantastic, and I've never seen anything quite like it. I just wish I could give you more rep because this is amazing stuff.

I certainly look forward to seeing more in the future!


----------



## Orochi

That obliterator looks like something out of Classic Doom ha!


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## turel2

Your GS work is very good, you should do a tutorial.


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## Svartmetall

turel2 said:


> Your GS work is very good, you should do a tutorial.


_*cough*_

Waaay ahead of you on that one:

• Doktor von Svartmetall's limb-replacement clinic
• Pinning tutorial
• Custom right-handed power fists
• Custom Chaos lightning claws
• Rotting skin and guts tutorial
• Old-school Plague Marine tutorial
• Custom power claws for Nurgle Dreadnoughts

:biggrin:


----------



## Zaden

I've repped before for this last year, but have some more for keeping up such amazing work! Any chance you could post a picture of the whole force thats currently completed all together?


----------



## turel2

Svartmetall said:


> _*cough*_
> 
> Waaay ahead of you on that one:
> 
> • Doktor von Svartmetall's limb-replacement clinic
> • Pinning tutorial
> • Custom right-handed power fists
> • Custom Chaos lightning claws
> • Rotting skin and guts tutorial
> • Old-school Plague Marine tutorial
> • Custom power claws for Nurgle Dreadnoughts
> 
> :biggrin:


haha, fantastic. I'll read through these. :grin:

+rep btw


----------



## kharn-the-betrayer

Awesome, nice sculpting


----------



## vista101

Nice green stuff skills, that guy with the teeth for his stomach is epic!!


----------



## Flayed 0ne

yes...very awesome...very, very awesome...people who do thier own "Nurgling" = Epic...i hope someday ill be so skilled...

:clapping:


----------



## Svartmetall

OK, just a small update again - on top of work stuff I've been busy working on some nifty new things for Secret Weapon, among other things, so once again progress on these is being frustratingly slower than I'd like it to be. Also I've spent a lot of time just looking at the model trying to work out in my head how to go about the next step, which is something I always do when I'm doing something new (this is after all my first stab at an Obliterator). Anyway, the multi-melta arm is just about where I want it to be now:


























I'm pretty happy with this look; I _may_ add another blood vessel or two on the exposed inner-flesh areas but otherwise I think it's done and dusted. It now looks to my eyes as though it's properly emerging from flesh within thick, hide-like skin, and the bulking-up of the arm involved in layering up that flesh means the wrist area now looks credible in terms of having a weapon that size coming out of it. This also means I have a solid visual reference point for the biomechanical weapon arms on the other Obliterators when I get around to working on those; I do after all want/need to have a unit or two of these guys. Next up - starting on the augmetics, mutations, and armour sections on the body


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## Winterous

Fucking magnificent, as usual.


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## Svartmetall

Here's where I am right now with this guy's other arm - the Codex says that all Obliterators have a powerfist, but fluff-wise I figure being able to morph weapons at will they'd have a wide range of close-combat stuff, so this guy has a power claw:


















Obviously nothing like done yet, but this should give you an idea of the kind of look I'm after. Between the multi-melta and this he's staring to look like some kind of super-Terminator, which is no bad thing in my book. 

I've also been working on a second Obliterator - this one has a scratchbuilt biomechanical plasma cannon:


















Again, early days, but this should give you an idea of how he'll look; I'm currently planning to give him a hammer on the end of his right arm (a la Hammerstein from the ABC Warriors) and his pose deliberately echoes that of the Obliterator from the last Codex...

As always, C&C is welcomed


----------



## Viscount Vash

Svartmetall said:


> Also I've spent a lot of time just looking at the model trying to work out in my head how to go about the next step, which is something I always do when I'm doing something new.


I'm glad to hear its not just me that stares at minis trying to figure out what/where next.


As always your work is inspired and top quality.

I love this thread, thankyou for your continued posting. 

Reppage time.


----------



## Dave T Hobbit

Svartmetall said:


> ...the Codex says that all Obliterators have a powerfist, but fluff-wise I figure being able to morph weapons at will they'd have a wide range of close-combat stuff, so this guy has a power claw....


Sticking it to the man! Don't let the rules tell you what to do!

On a more serious note, your point is both valid (very important) and well converted (more important in my view).



Svartmetall said:


> I've also been working on a second Obliterator - this one has a scratchbuilt biomechanical plasma cannon.


Amazing beginning.


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## Chaosftw

Man Svart, 

I have not looked at your WIP yet since my departure from the site which was when you were around page 11. So i have taken the last hour to bring myself back up to speed and sir again nothing short of extraordinary. I now just like you have been since I have seen you post around the site am doing the deformed Death Guard. I would love it if you could take a look as i begin my project and assist me in my quest to make a great army for my up and coming tournament!

Cheers,
Chaosftw


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## Loli

Nurgle are the best of all the chaos gods and your thread continues to show why that is 

Aweomse stuff good sir


----------



## SGMAlice

As ever, your work is excellence incarnate.

Particularily impressed by the Tri barrelled MultiMelta. Only ever seen that on whats his face's throne, the WH guy. Kamarov or something XD I has a Goldfish memory!

Keep it up my friend. +Rep

SGMAlice


----------



## Svartmetall

Well, I've finally finished work on the stuff I was sculpting for Secret Weapon miniatures, so last night I started work on Obliterator Number 3 - Lascannon Guy:










I knew the lascannon barrel by itself would look too skinny sticking out of the thick Minotaur upper arm, so first I thought of adding something like the bar that runs underneath the gun barrels on a Reaper autocannon and then extrapolated from that, making it curvier until I came up with what you see there. It still has the combat blade from the Reaper there, though, just to make a visual connection between the two. I particularly like the ribbed bit inlaid (via some fiddly Dremel-ing) into the tricep area of the arm; the idea is to echo the similar ribbed detail on a standard lascannon and make it clear that the whole arm is the weapon, it's not just a weapon stuck on the end of an arm. I plan to add some thick power cabling going out of the top of the shoulder into the torso...

Progress on these will be faster now


----------



## Marneus Calgar

Looks superb! Can't wait for more updates!


----------



## Varakir

Svartmetall said:


> Progress on these will be faster now


Awesome, my brain is frying trying to imagine what they will actually look like finished :grin:

The lascannon guy looks great so far, the ribbing on the arm is extremely neat and tidy.


----------



## Winterous

That heat sink.
*That heat sink.*

Omg, it's in his arm, that's fucking incredible; fucking nails the concept of Obliterators.


----------



## wombat_tree

Svartmetall said:


>


This guy's shoulder pad reminds me of the Engineer RIG armour from Dead Space.

Anywho, great work as usual.


----------



## Svartmetall

Winterous said:


> That heat sink.
> *That heat sink.*
> 
> Omg, it's in his arm, that's fucking incredible; fucking nails the concept of Obliterators.


Glad you like it :biggrin: Here's the sketch I did on Wednesday afternoon while enduring the pain and anguish of lunch and a pint in Bugman's Bar:








I had done an earlier sketch for a body lascannon, but this was the second attempt - the main difference being housing the heatsink in the tricep area of the arm rather than in the middle. I liked it, so I went home and started building it 

And here's another angle of the heatsink - I cut five ovals from 1mm plasticard, and put a 0.5mm spacer in between them; sanded them to a fairly even overall profile and then set the resulting assembly into the arm. 








Once the flesh and armour plate is built up a little it should look properly integral to the arm itself...


----------



## Winterous

Oh my god those armour plates are a part of the arm, you didnt' add them.
That just makes it so much more awesome


----------



## Dave T Hobbit

Svartmetall said:


> I cut five ovals from 1mm plasticard, and put a 0.5mm spacer in between them; sanded them to a fairly even overall profile and then set the resulting assembly into the arm.


You make it sound so easy.

What did you use to cut the plasticard?


----------



## Svartmetall

Dave T Hobbit said:


> What did you use to cut the plasticard?


My trusty Swann Morton scalpel.


----------



## Winterous

You should have said laser eye beams


----------



## Dave T Hobbit

Svartmetall said:


> My trusty Swann Morton scalpel.


Thanks. Can it cut through in a single stroke or do you use multiple passes?


----------



## Svartmetall

Dave T Hobbit said:


> Thanks. Can it cut through in a single stroke or do you use multiple passes?


Actually I thought about it, and realised I'd had a brainfart when I said I'd used the scalpel. I cut the basic shape out (having used a technical-drawing stencil to get the ovals marked onto the plasticard, using an 0.5mm black drawing pen) using one of those extending-blade craft knives, then used the scalpel to make the fine cuts to get the shape fine-tuned. The scalpel will cut through 0.5mm card in one pass, but nothing thicker than that - their blades are _very_ sharp, but quite brittle - but a craft knife's blade has no problem with 1mm plasticard in one pass. I've not done much scratchbuilding with plasticard at all yet, so it's interesting for me to try new stuff like this.

EDIT: in fact - without blowing too much of the 'how to build an Obliterator squad' tutorial that'll be appearing when these guys are done - here's a step-by-step rundown of how Lascannon Guy's heatsink was done.










































You can see how many pins I used to hold everything together securely; I'm maniacal about strutural solidity on a model, but I figure it's worth spending an extra minute or two when building something for the peace of mind of knowing it'll be permanently a lot more drop-proof once complete. I used two bits of armature wire to join the lascannon barrel to the arm so it couldn't rotate around the axis of just one piece, thereby making it firmer and more secure.


_____


----------



## Dave T Hobbit

Svartmetall said:


> The scalpel will cut through 0.5mm card in one pass, but nothing thicker than that - their blades are _very_ sharp, but quite brittle - but a craft knife's blade has no problem with 1mm plasticard in one pass.
> 
> I've not done much scratchbuilding with plasticard at all yet, so it's interesting for me to try new stuff like this.


That I my experience too; I wondered if Swann Morton blades were more robust.


----------



## Svartmetall

Dave T Hobbit said:


> ...I wondered if Swann Morton blades were more robust.


I think it's an inevitable side-effect of the tempering process, to be honest; to get the steel able to take an edge that sharp it has to be hardened to the point that it's relatively brittle.

On a slightly more on-topic note - at lunch in the pub today I came up with what I think is a decent design for an Obliterator twin-linked flamer (my Sketch Book Of Doom accompanies me pretty much everywhere) so at some point I'll have a good basis to start with on that one, as well; that will give me 4 Obliterators in total, which is enough for the smaller army lists I have 

I'm thinking the one on the left is about what I want it to look like...








...I'm debating using 3 flamer nozzles like the one on the right...


----------



## MaidenManiac

Svartmetall said:


> You can see how many pins I used to hold everything together securely; I'm maniacal about strutural solidity on a model, but I figure it's worth spending an extra minute or two when building something for the peace of mind of knowing it'll be permanently a lot more drop-proof once complete...


Word!



Svartmetall said:


> ...I'm debating using 3 flamer nozzles like the one on the right...


I say go for 3 barrels here too. Having "3 barrel nurgle symbol kind of gunz" on all of them might make it a bit corny though. As long as every kind of Obliterator looks a bit unique I think youre more then home safe :wink:


----------



## Winterous

3 barrels sounds good, and nice design 
Maybe he should have Meltaguns poking out of his arm further up as well.


----------



## Amoeba Bait

Svartmetall said:


> And here's a Plague Marine I've been working on, trying to nail the blend of extended armour in with buboes and torn flesh. I feel like I've finally managed to properly get the hang of the 'flesh oozing through armour' look on this guy's shoulderpad (took me long enough):
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> _____


Oh goD!!

Soooooo gross yet strangly beautiful at the same time!

well done.


----------



## wombat_tree

I vote for three barrels. Oh and nice sketch.


----------



## forkmaster

Seriously, I wont be surprised if a black van parks outside your house, then some dudes in black suits (men in black?) knocks on youre door and they're like "Come with us" and you get to know they are the GW and they want to hire you for the developing team. :biggrin:


----------



## Winterous

forkmaster said:


> Seriously, I wont be surprised if a black van parks outside your house, then some dudes in black suits (men in black?) knocks on youre door and they're like "Come with us" and you get to know they are the GW and they want to hire you for the developing team. :biggrin:


We'd finally have some half decent Plague Marine and other Nurgle models.

GUO, ugly.
Plaguebearers, ugly.
Plague Marines, ugly.

Ugly not meaning hideous, ugly meaning bad models.


----------



## wombat_tree

Seeing as you just made those Tyranid Boneswords to sell I reckon that you should make some 'pestilent daemons' *cough*plaguebearers*cough* to sell.


----------



## Winterous

wombat_tree said:


> Seeing as you just made those Tyranid Boneswords to sell I reckon that you should make some 'pestilent daemons' *cough*plaguebearers*cough* to sell.


Wait, he made Boneswords?


----------



## Svartmetall

Winterous said:


> Wait, he made Boneswords?


Yup, they're *here*


----------



## Winterous

Svartmetall said:


> Yup, they're *here*


Fantastic quality, but to be honest I don't like them.


----------



## forkmaster

Winterous said:


> We'd finally have some half decent Plague Marine and other Nurgle models.
> 
> GUO, ugly.
> Plaguebearers, ugly.
> Plague Marines, ugly.
> 
> Ugly not meaning hideous, ugly meaning bad models.


I wouldnt say that about the Plague Marines, but the other daemons suck as models!


----------



## Winterous

forkmaster said:


> I wouldnt say that about the Plague Marines, but the other daemons suck as models!


Alright, they aren't so much bad as mediocre and dated.


----------



## Gluttoniser

Damn, surely you are a herald of Grandfather Nurgle


----------



## Svartmetall

A little bit more progress...been mainly adjusting to having my work hours changed this past week (insert 'management are pondlife' rant here), and after working the same hours for seven years it's hard to get used to anything different.
_*sigh*_
Finally managed to get the vented surround for the plasma cannon muzzle looking right:
















I've also been subtly building up various bits of the cannon assembly to get the overall proportions right; it's basically done, now, apart from a large-ish cable that'll run from the underside of the arm into the body that I can't really do till the arm is pinned and attached properly. And I _finally_ manged to take a picture that showed the finely-detailed vent on the side(s) of the cannon; that was damn fiddly to do, but should look really nice when it's painted. 

And here's Multi-Melta Guy...








...and Lascannon Guy...








...both showing off the basis of the Giger-esque tubes that will rise out of their backs; these are all built up around pieces of armature wire, each section carefully bent with pliers to give the right curvature. All the extant drawings of Obliterators show them with this sort of thing coming out of their backs, so I figured it'd be nice to have them on my models; they also give a nice front-to-back visual balance, stopping the models from looking too front-heavy with the big biomechanical heavy weapons. Eventually these pipes (which I reckon are thermal exhausts for the energy-generating mechanism inside the Obliterator's torso) will be a lot thicker than they currently are, but I'm building them up layer by layer toget the curvature right. I've also built up the flesh around the base of the lascannon barrel and added some thick veins running across the exposed inner flesh, which should hopefully tie in nicely with the flesh work on Multi-Melta Guy's weapon.

These models are a real labour of love...but then I figure having a full unit of converted-to-hell custom Obliterators Of Doom™ will be worth it in the end  As always, C&C is welcomed.


----------



## shaantitus

We are not worthy. These are fantastic. I have no criticisms or advice at all. You are WAY beyond my level.


----------



## Son of mortarion

Damn you Svartmetall, you managed to both get me to build my own, and be excited to see your obliterators, despite my strong dislike of the unit.:so_happy:


----------



## Chaosftw

Another job well done as always Svart! I really love the Plasma Cannon arm and the back side to the LC arm. But on that same note im just wondering why you chose a really beefy looking model and then the LC bit just seems small to me. 

In any case they look really great! Whats the next project? any idea yet?

Cheers,
Chaosftw


----------



## Svartmetall

Chaosftw said:


> ...I'm just wondering why you chose a really beefy looking model and then the LC bit just seems small to me.
> 
> In any case they look really great! Whats the next project? any idea yet?


Well, I decided at the start of working out how I wanted to do my Obliterators that I wanted to use the actual weapons parts as much as possible, since in-fluff they're making the actual weapons out of their bodies, not some weird Daemonic counts-as. The biomechanical plasma cannon is the furthest I'm intending to get from using an actual GW weapon part, and even that's sculpted to look as much as possible like a half-melted but still recognisable plasma cannon - getting the distinctive perforated bit around the muzzle right was crucial to the look. 

**Awoogah! Awoogah! Over-thinking things alert! Awoogah!**

So with this one I really wanted to use an actual lascannon barrel, and they just _are_ skinny. I thought of adding a smaller bar running parallel and underneath the main barrel, but figured that would look too much like a Reaper autocannon (and would also, given the angle of the upper arm, make the arm too bulky where it would have to extend to meet this second bar); I thought of adding a biggish axe-blade type of combat attachment, but that would look too much like a Necron Warrior's weapon, and so what you see is what I eventually decided upon. This guy's lascannon involved more staring-and-thinking than any of the others; I like the curve of the power cabling that extends to the combat attachment, as it stops the whole thing looking too straight and linear and gives a sort of _art nouveau_ look to it. I'm also going to add another section or two of stretched flesh between the lascannon barrel and the cabling to get the visual balance right. 

The thing is, I figure a lascannon would be the hardest body weapon for an Obliterator to produce. It's the highest-Str weapon they do, and while things like plasma cannons and flamers are basically 'point and vent the hot stuff' affairs, a laser absolutely _has_ to have a focusing mechanism which involves very fine tolerances to avoid diffusion in the air when firing. That's going to be hard to accurately produce from your own bodymass, so I reckon once an Obliterator has made one it's probably not going to want to reform that into anything else unless it absolutely has to. With that in mind, I reckon a lascannon would have been around longer and look a little more battered and worn, and given that these are Nurgle Obliterators it gives me an excuse to have more Nurgle-esque dried and dessicated flesh stretched between sections of the weapon to give more of an impression of age. Kind of like the difference between a pristine bookstore shelf, and a dusty, cobwebbed library shelf; they're effectively the same thing, but they look so different.

If any of that makes sense 


_____


----------



## wombat_tree

Svart, you're just too good at explaining the method in your madness. Seriously, you are the only person that I have ever met and am ever likely to meet that would explain such a seemingly simple thing in such a complicated and intricate manner as you just did. 

Note: That was a compliment by the way.


----------



## Svartmetall

_*blush*_
I have a horrible tendency to over-think things - I'm an Olympic-standard worrier, for example, I just can't seem to switch my brain off - but I suspect that when it comes to designing and converting and stuff, it's better to think too much than too little. My Little Black Book Of Doom™ accompanies me pretty much everywhere to ensure that I never lose an idea, because I'm always getting ideas for stuff to make or developing ideas I've already had...


----------



## Chaosftw

Svartmetall said:


> Well, I decided at the start of working out how I wanted to do my Obliterators that I wanted to use the actual weapons parts as much as possible, since in-fluff they're making the actual weapons out of their bodies, not some weird Daemonic counts-as. The biomechanical plasma cannon is the furthest I'm intending to get from using an actual GW weapon part, and even that's sculpted to look as much as possible like a half-melted but still recognisable plasma cannon - getting the distinctive perforated bit around the muzzle right was crucial to the look.
> 
> **Awoogah! Awoogah! Over-thinking things alert! Awoogah!**
> 
> So with this one I really wanted to use an actual lascannon barrel, and they just _are_ skinny. I thought of adding a smaller bar running parallel and underneath the main barrel, but figured that would look too much like a Reaper autocannon (and would also, given the angle of the upper arm, make the arm too bulky where it would have to extend to meet this second bar); I thought of adding a biggish axe-blade type of combat attachment, but that would look too much like a Necron Warrior's weapon, and so what you see is what I eventually decided upon. This guy's lascannon involved more staring-and-thinking than any of the others; I like the curve of the power cabling that extends to the combat attachment, as it stops the whole thing looking too straight and linear and gives a sort of _art nouveau_ look to it. I'm also going to add another section or two of stretched flesh between the lascannon barrel and the cabling to get the visual balance right.
> 
> The thing is, I figure a lascannon would be the hardest body weapon for an Obliterator to produce. It's the highest-Str weapon they do, and while things like plasma cannons and flamers are basically 'point and vent the hot stuff' affairs, a laser absolutely _has_ to have a focusing mechanism which involves very fine tolerances to avoid diffusion in the air when firing. That's going to be hard to accurately produce from your own bodymass, so I reckon once an Obliterator has made one it's probably not going to want to reform that into anything else unless it absolutely has to. With that in mind, I reckon a lascannon would have been around longer and look a little more battered and worn, and given that these are Nurgle Obliterators it gives me an excuse to have more Nurgle-esque dried and dessicated flesh stretched between sections of the weapon to give more of an impression of age. Kind of like the difference between a pristine bookstore shelf, and a dusty, cobwebbed library shelf; they're effectively the same thing, but they look so different.
> 
> If any of that makes sense
> 
> 
> _____


Well your logic makes sense no doubt, and the fact you wanted to keep the weapon barrels GW oppose to mad GSing them makes sense as well. Although I think they should buy the rights to that Plasma cannon arm you created because that thing is sick. But hey what do I know 

well done man!

Chaosftw


----------



## ChaosRedCorsairLord

Svartmetall said:


> _*blush*_
> I have a horrible tendency to over-think things - I'm an Olympic-standard worrier, for example, I just can't seem to switch my brain off - but I suspect that when it comes to designing and converting and stuff, it's better to think too much than too little. My Little Black Book Of Doom™ accompanies me pretty much everywhere to ensure that I never lose an idea, because I'm always getting ideas for stuff to make or developing ideas I've already had...


I'm guessing you're the kind of person who gets an idea in the middle of the night or in the middle of a work shift and can't get it out of your head until you start it?


----------



## Son of mortarion

As both a fellow nurgle player and insane converter, I can say that I empathize with the mad *need* to convert, design or visualize projects. It does seem like a disease sometimes, especially when inspiration strikes at inappropriate/inconvenient moments, which is why I also keep a sketchbook nearby.


----------



## Svartmetall

ChaosRedCorsairLord said:


> I'm guessing you're the kind of person who gets an idea in the middle of the night or in the middle of a work shift and can't get it out of your head until you start it?


You have no idea...I actually got the idea for the first pygmy Plague Marine after I'd gone to bed one night, and in the end there was nothing for it but to get back up and start choppin' 

Here's the result - Bubo, the Pygmy Plague Marine:








...and don't forget his 'big brother' a.k.a. Pustule, the Pygmy Plague Terminator:









:biggrin:


----------



## Chaosftw

Svart,

I may borrow your midget marine idea and make a squad just for shits and giggles. I hope you dont mind  I can name one after you if that helps 

Chaosftw


----------



## Winterous

Holy Fucking Shit, Svart Has 1337 Rep Points!


----------



## Svartmetall

Winterous said:


> Holy Fucking Shit, Svart Has 1337 Rep Points!


Heh...I hadn't even noticed that until you pointed it out, but now it's been screenshotted :grin: 

Obliterator-wise, the hammer I was sticking on the end of Plasma Cannon Guy's arm (I _really_ need to come up with catchier names for these guys) just wasn't working, so I've scrapped that and am going to build a weird power-claw-thing based very much on the one in the classic Adrian Smith pic:








I figured his pose is fairly close to that one anyway (I have a printout of that shot and the one from the new Codex on the wall in my modelling room for visual reference) so what the hell, I may as well make the right arm's power fist/claw...thing...like the pic too. Pics as soon as I have anything worth posting of his Right Hand, Mark Two  

I've also inserted and started bulking up the vent pipes on the backs of all 3 of them, and have finally worked out how to do the armour plate on their bodies; I'm thinking very much based around the Mark III 'Iron' armour pattern. I bought a set of that from the Warhammer World shop a month or so back - with the intention of making some truly veteran Plague Marines, still wearing their pre-Heresy armour - and I really like it. I Blu-Tacked together one figure to stare at and see what it fired off in the old grey matter, inspiration-wise, and literally tonight the cartoon light bulb appeared in the air over my head and I realised I could (at least try to) sculpt some of the Iron Armour sections onto the Mino bodies to give a nice feel. 

As with PCG's right hand, pics as soon as I have anything worth posting...


----------



## Son of mortarion

sweet, I was wondering if you were going to armor them up.


----------



## Svartmetall

Son of mortarion said:


> sweet, I was wondering if you were going to armor them up.


Well, with the same Armour and Invulnerable saves as a Terminator I wasn't going to have them going commando :biggrin:


----------



## Son of mortarion

true, but there are wonderful mutations that act as armor, and I view the invulnerable save as part of their daemonic nature. So I was just curious about which way they would go, and you went the same way as I have on the ones I am making for my friend.


----------



## Svartmetall

Son of mortarion said:


> ...and I view the invulnerable save as part of their daemonic nature


Ehh...I wanted to make the distinction between Obliterators and (say) Possessed. If we take a Possessed as being 50% Chaos Marine and 50%Daemon, I figure an Obliterator is more like 33.3% Chaos Marine, 33.3% Cyborg and 33.3% Daemon. The daemonic part is what allows them to do the morphing and production of body weapons, but ⅔ of their nature is still fully physical and rooted in the real (as opposed to the Immaterium). Hence me making their weapons look much like the standard mechanical heavy weapons, rather than some bizarre daemonic counts-as.


----------



## wombat_tree

Svartmetall said:


> If we take a Possessed as being 50% Chaos Marine and 50%Daemon, I figure an Obliterator is more like 33.3% Chaos Marine, 33.3% Cyborg and 33.3% Daemon


Technically seeing as a cyborg is part human part robot, that would mean that he is about 45% Chaos Space Marine, 15% robot and 33.3% Daemon.  But I think I'm just being anal :biggrin:.


----------



## Marneus Calgar

Svartmetall said:


> _*blush*_
> I have a horrible tendency to over-think things - I'm an Olympic-standard worrier, for example, I just can't seem to switch my brain off - but I suspect that when it comes to designing and converting and stuff, it's better to think too much than too little. My Little Black Book Of Doom™ accompanies me pretty much everywhere to ensure that I never lose an idea, because I'm always getting ideas for stuff to make or developing ideas I've already had...


I wish I was like that, if I had a little book for my A Level Design work, and come up with designs wherever I am, that would be the best. 

But as for the models, what did you use? Is it simply, a beastmen minotaur and lots of chaotic bits? As well as the weapons of course. I'm thinking of doing something similar, might as well throw myself in at the deep end eh, with the converting and stuff. I really love the look of your stuff, its so clean. I shall have a look back at your nurgle 101 thread on that other site, for inspiration. 

I have an idea on the armour front - Since most of the Obliterators are generally former Techmarines, why not sculpt some Artificer armour on some too?


----------



## Svartmetall

Marneus Calgar said:


> But as for the models, what did you use? Is it simply, a beastmen minotaur and lots of chaotic bits? As well as the weapons of course.


Just the Minotaur base and weapon parts, really; everything else is scratchbuilt & sculpted. 



> I have an idea on the armour front - Since most of the Obliterators are generally former Techmarines, why not sculpt some Artificer armour on some too?


It would certainly be interesting to sculpt Artificer armour...but I figure these are Obliterators that have have been out there kicking arse in the name of Nurgle for millennia. They would have re-made their armour after taking battle damage so many times that none of the original pattern would have survived by now. Over-thinking it again, I think Obliterators would basically grow their armour to repair battle damage in the same way that they would form weapons; in areas where they had formed new armour plate to cover damaged sections, it would look almost like a scab of new metal formed over the existing armour. This opens up interesting possibilities in the biomechanical department...


----------



## Marneus Calgar

Svartmetall said:


> Just the Minotaur base and weapon parts, really; everything else is scratchbuilt & sculpted.


Ah, cheers, might get onto this after xmas (if other things like starting FOW doesn't get in the way ). 



Svartmetall said:


> It would certainly be interesting to sculpt Artificer armour...but I figure these are Obliterators that have have been out there kicking arse in the name of Nurgle for millennia. They would have re-made their armour after taking battle damage so many times that none of the original pattern would have survived by now. Over-thinking it again, I think Obliterators would basically grow their armour to repair battle damage in the same way that they would form weapons; in areas where they had formed new armour plate to cover damaged sections, it would look almost like a scab of new metal formed over the existing armour. This opens up interesting possibilities in the biomechanical department...


That is definitely one way to think about it , I was just reading the Lexicanum entry on the Obliterator virus and it's pretty much how you said, they regrow the armour.

I also love that the way you have made them, fits in more with the fluff than GW's own models


----------



## Svartmetall

A bit more progress - having decided the hammer-arm on Plasma Cannon Guy just wasn't working, I decided to give him an ornate power claw kind of thing based very much on the Obliterator illustration from the old Codex (which I think is an Adrian Smith drawing, but don't quote me on that):








And the original for comparison:








Quite a bit of cabling and other biomechanical gubbins to add yet, but I think it's going to look nice as a balance to his heavy weapon on the other arm; the body of the claw is actually quite an intricate assembly of plastic bits from Possessed arms and old power fists, all pinned together for maximum durability - even the fingers and thumb are individually pinned. You can also see the 'base plate' for the chest armour - I do a rough layer of GS to mark out the shape I want and get everything reasonably flat, then do a final smooth layer on top to be the actual armour surface. 

And here's the chest armour base on Multi-Melta Guy:








And a side shot to show the thickness of the armour plate:








I figure there would be quite a bit of variation between individual Obliterators, even if they were basing the armour off the same original pattern; hence MMG's chest plate having the circular cutout at the bottom to match the circular armour piece over the groin area. 

And the neighbour's cats have taken to sitting outside my modelling room to lend moral support:








Which is nice, given that I'm a total cat freak 

More when I have it...


----------



## Kreuger

You do beautiful work man! I am continually impressed. I don't know what you do for a living but you apply what is essential in graphic design to the design of your conversions and sculptures. Your "awoogah awoogah" statement sounded rather like a creative director at work. =)

I find it very appropriate that while discussing your thought process for these you mentioned both Art Nouveau and H.R. Giger. I think there is a case to be made that Giger is the inverse of Art Nouveau. 

Art Nouveau draws all of its inspiration from life, growth, and the natural world. Giger draws his from death, nightmares, and entropy. His creations are all the outgrowth of death (also appropriately Nurgley.) 

Cheers Dude,
Kreuger


----------



## Svartmetall

You're absolutely right about the content of Giger's paintings, but he's actually quite a big fan of Art Nouveau himself (I'm a total Giger fan and have just about every Giger book there is) and the curvature and organic lines from that style clearly come through in his own work. I think it's in the 'ARh+' book that he mentions his liking for Art Nouveau, though I may be remembering it wrong; at some point I may even try my hand at sculpting something out of a Giger painting, just for shits & giggles 

Doing these Obliterators has actually spurred me on to make the final model for Lord Kothaar the Putrescent, whose current counts-as model is this: 








...which is something I made about two years ago, intending it to be a Possessed; I liked the resulting monstrosity enough that he's been acting as the stand-in model for Kothaar ever since, but with everything I've learned since I feel that now I'm ready to make something at the standard to be a _proper_ HQ model for the army. Cue acromegalic Terminator armour, counts-as lightning claws and madly detailed armour...


----------



## Kreuger

Viva la mort!


----------



## Winterous

Those cats are the best 
And hooray for the Space Hulk Chainfist guy!


----------



## Svartmetall

Winterous said:


> And hooray for the Space Hulk Chainfist guy!


He's actually Space Hulk Heavy Flamer Guy  - but you still get a 9/10 for observation.


----------



## Winterous

Ah, fuck, the Chainfist guy has his LEFT hand held out in a dramatic pose :S


----------



## aquatic_foible

Svartmetall said:


> Doing these Obliterators has actually spurred me on to make the final model for Lord Kothaar the Putrescent...I feel that now I'm ready to make something at the standard to be a _proper_ HQ model for the army. Cue acromegalic Terminator armour, counts-as lightning claws and madly detailed armour...


this prospect excites me a little more than it probably should! :biggrin:


----------



## Son of mortarion

Got any plans for super-heavies, such as a plague tower?


----------



## Winterous

aquatic_foible said:


> this prospect excites me a little more than it probably should! :biggrin:


You should probably see a doctor about that :S


----------



## Svartmetall

Brief update - I've been merrily Dremel-ing away at the guys this evening, and have routed in channels in which to inlay suitably-curved pieces of thick guitar wire:








The important thing is to carefully bend the wire (I used a pair of long-nosed pliers) to give it the right curvature to match where it's being inlaid into the body, so it looks like it's properly part of the body and not just a flat, straight piece of wire. The exception to this was the little 'Achilles tendon' piece in his left calf, which I wanted to be straight specifically to look like it was replacing a tendon. GS will be built up around the routed parts of the body to blend everything together; some of these areas will also have body armour over them. 

I've done similar Dremel work on the other two Obliterators as well, but I've also built up the GS around Multi-Melta Guy's power claw so that it looks a lot more like a proper powerfist:








Now it has the right bulk to match the length of the claw sections...

...more when I have it


----------



## aquatic_foible

those obliterators are looking better and better with each and every post. kudos, sir!

i don't know if you've already mentioned this, but what are your plans for the heads of these guys?


----------



## Svartmetall

50,000 views! Thanks to everyone for all the encouragement and support, it means a lot to me :drinks:


----------



## Unsuitably

Congratulations on hitting 50,000 views. I'm new to the forums but your army and sculpting is just unbelievable. You really deserve all of the views.


----------



## Marneus Calgar

Svartmetall said:


> 50,000 views! Thanks to everyone for all the encouragement and support, it means a lot to me :drinks:


You deserve it! This thread is pure awesomesauce. Puts me to shame with my 2 blisters with metal obliterators in


----------



## wombat_tree

aquatic_foible said:


> those obliterators are looking better and better with each and every post. kudos, sir!


Well obviously, this is Svartmetall we're talking about .


----------



## Master WootWoot

Why don't you make a Tzeentch fantasy army? Can't even imagine. Okay... i can! It would have been the best army i have seen.


----------



## Midge913

Very nice Oblits! Keep up the good work! looks great:clapping:


----------



## wombat_tree

Master WootWoot said:


> Why don't you make a Tzeentch fantasy army?


Nurgle>Tzeentch

That's why.


----------



## Svartmetall

Right...the first stage of the body armour on the Obliterators is now here. I also got a bit carried away and started a fourth Obliterator, about whom it's probably not giving too much away to say he's called Flamer Guy:









2 views with the arms removed to show the leg armour more clearly:








The idea is that Obliterators would basically _grow_ new armour to cover battle-damaged areas, forming armour plate from their bodies in the same way that they would form a weapon. So I wanted the armour to look as if it had been replaced and re-replaced over and over through the millennia, with the Obliterator probably unconsciously following the patterns of its original armour at first then gradually moving further away from that over time, each new reformation of the armour pieces marking a further deviation from its original pattern towards a more organic layout that would follow the Obliterator's own body. 

I also wanted the armour to have visible layering, to reinforce the idea of it having been grown like a shell over the inner body of the Obliterator; in fact mollusc shells and crystals were the main visual pointers for the look of the armour, both being things that grow in stages and have multiple angles and shapes reflecting the way they're formed. The end result should hopefully look like a collection of related straight - or only gently curved - segments forming an overall shape that wraps around the Obliterator's body, clearly armour plating but equally clearly not the product of conventional forging or metalworking. Some areas of what you see here will have another thin layer of very smooth final GS added to represent undamaged fresh growth, others will stay as they are or have texturing added to show damage and multiply-reformed sections of armour, with the onset of Nurgly rust and corrosion/corruption in places (since these are after all Obliterators who have long been in the service of the Lord Of Decay). 

Two rear views from each side to show the power cabling buried in his body:









I wanted to have a more symmetrical Obliterator after doing three ones with different left and right arms, so the twin-barrelled flamers from Leman Russ sponsons seemed to work pretty well on each arm; he also has deliberately matching augmetic cabling on either side of his torso, and I'll be trying to keep everything symmetrical on this guy just to provide more visual variety. 


Here's the buried power cabling in Plasma Cannon Guy's torso, also showing a bit more work done on his power claw with added cabling: 










And, also sporting augmetics and some of the new body armour, here's Multi-Melta Guy:









Rear-torso augmetics; I like the stretched flesh over the paired power cables:









And two side view to show how even the armour plating has power cabling peeking out from deeper within the leg: 










blah blah C&C welcomed blah blah 


_____


----------



## Marneus Calgar

No need to say C&C, you're only gonna get complements!

Very nice stuff, I love your scultping. I also really enjoy the original names for them  

Any choice of head yet?


----------



## Svartmetall

Marneus Calgar said:


> Any choice of head yet?


Oh yeah, I forgot to say - I think I'm pretty much set on sculpting heads from scratch for them, since I can't find anything that's the right size that works for me. I really tried to get Ogre heads (with suitable augmetics and stuff added) to work but they were too big, and everything else was too small; the metal Daemon Prince head is the perfect size but I don't like it for an Obliterator, so I'm going to use that as the size guide and just try to sculpt heads for these guys.


----------



## Winterous

I'm kind of dreading the heads actually, nothing you do can be good enough to fit the glorious bodies :<


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## Marneus Calgar

Winterous said:


> I'm kind of dreading the heads actually, nothing you do can be good enough to fit the glorious bodies :<


Are you doubting the great Svartmetall? :shok:


----------



## Gresil

Marry me Svart.


----------



## Winterous

Marneus Calgar said:


> Are you doubting the great Svartmetall? :shok:


I can't imagine anything actually equaling these in quality D:
Heads are hard to do, they're often the worst looking part of a model.


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## Midge913

Svart,

I just took the time to read through this entire thread, about 3 hours in total. I just wanted to tell you that your work is incredible. Watching your process evolve as it has over the duration of this project has been awesome. If you look at the whole thing from start to current one can actually watch your skills improve and your process become more creative. You sir are one of the most inspirational modelers I have even had the pleasure to see in action and the fact that it brings you such joy is evident in the products you produce. Keep up the good work sir, and I will be following closely with anticipation for updates that are sure to follow. 

On a side note I wanted to belatedly congratulate you on the spot you rightly earned for your models at WHW, and on the house purchase. There is nothing quite like having your own space in which to ruminate. 

Once again exceptional work.


----------



## Svartmetall

Winterous said:


> I'm kind of dreading the heads actually, nothing you do can be good enough to fit the glorious bodies :<


Well...here's the head of Grimgor Ironhide, which I copied as part of my ongoing 'improve my sculpting' program:








...I figure if I can pull him off, I can probably manage some Obliterator heads  The plan is to sculpt them separately (in case I have an instance of Horrible Fuck-Up Syndrome) and then glue 'em on and GS them in when done...


Oh, and *Midge* - thanks for the compliments.
_*blush*_


> If you look at the whole thing from start to current one can actually watch your skills improve and your process become more creative.


Well, I'd only been modelling for about 9 months when this thread started, so I would hope to have improved a bit by now  

_____


----------



## Master WootWoot

Midge913 said:


> Svart,
> 
> I just took the time to read through this entire thread, about 3 hours in total.


Y-you managed to read trough this thread in only three hours? You're an abhuman, and that's considered heresy!


Back to the thread, the head is amazing! I think you should make something like a half-god or something soon! Mortarion! Ku-gath!


----------



## wombat_tree

Holy cow that looks good. :shok:

The only thing that makes it marginally worse that the GW model is that the chin/lower jaw area looks quite fat compared to the GW one (though that could just be the image playing tricks on me).


----------



## Marneus Calgar

Winterous said:


> I can't imagine anything actually equaling these in quality D:
> Heads are hard to do, they're often the worst looking part of a model.


Svart has proved you wrong 

Thats brilliant stuff Svart, do you always have to have something to work from? (Sketchs, models etc), or do you sometimes just go from scratch?

Can't wait to see what you do with the Obliterator head


----------



## Svartmetall

You know how sometimes, out of nowhere, it suddenly becomes immensely important that you build a certain model? I'd been feeling in need of a break from so much intense Obliterator work when the idea of making some Possessed suddenly seemed terribly compelling. 

So...I've started a pair of Possessed models. 

I've always liked the toothed torso on the Possessed sprue, but figured it could do with being..._more_. Hence this:








Aficionados of this army will understand why I've decided to call him Jaws Junior :biggrin: The legs were extended with aramature wire to keep him tall and slender overall and in proportion with the stretched torso.


And his companion, a fat bastard to contrast with JJ:








I've named him Smiler, for obvious reasons; the hands are Possessed armour with Spawn fingers blended in and pinned on.

They make a nice pair:








It's very tempting to call them Finney and Mudd, but I don't know if anyone would get the reference...

More when I have it.


----------



## Dave T Hobbit

Svartmetall said:


> They make a nice pair:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Very impressive (again:wink.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Svartmetall said:
> 
> 
> 
> It's very tempting to call them Finney and Mudd, but I don't know if anyone would get the reference...
> 
> 
> 
> If I remember correctly Tad Williams' Otherland series; which reminds me I need to find the third one.
Click to expand...


----------



## Midge913

You are quite correct Dave right from the pages of Otherland... great series. Great work again Svart! Finney and Mudd are very appropriate names for these two. I think the spilling guts on 'Finney' are ace very nice detail there.


----------



## Master WootWoot

Really like the Fat Bastard! I'll see if i can find some rep in my room... It was here yesterday!

Edit: Found it!


----------



## forkmaster

Svartmetall said:


> So...I've started a pair of Possessed models.
> 
> I've always liked the toothed torso on the Possessed sprue, but figured it could do with being..._more_. Hence this:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> And his companion, a fat bastard to contrast with JJ:


Nice work on the possessed, the first model has a head from the original possessed marines package used to come along the regular 10-man squad but they have been taken away which I think is kinda sad. I simply love the both, especially the boomer. ;D


----------



## Svartmetall

forkmaster said:


> ...the original possessed marines package used to come along the regular 10-man squad but they have been taken away...


You can still get that sprue, it's now the *Chaos Mutations* Bitz sprue. 

And *Dave* and *Midge* - well spotted  I really like the 'Otherland' books, and while I hadn't planned it beforehand when I saw the two of them together 'Finney and Mudd' sprang to mind straight away. Been doing more work on them (and some Obliterator stuff) over the weekend, more pics tonight hopefully...


----------



## Svartmetall

A bijou update-ette...

Here's Smiler's finished face, with flesh added around the teeth and a new third eye to better fit the proportions of the expanded head:









And I've also smoothed in the flesh of the Spawn hands so they blend seamlessly with the Possessed gauntlets:








Next I need to decide on what backpack to give him; my current thinking is to sculpt Possessed-style armour over the lower legs to match the gauntlets. Between that, the gauntlets and the backpack he'll have enough armour to pass for a corrupted Astartes but also have plenty of pure fleshy Nurgliness.


And here's JJ with finished fleshwork around the teeth, and new teeth added in the groin area to match the ones at the back of the head on the torso:









Detail of the rear of his left leg, with muscle fibres showing through the warped armour plate and a flesh-wrapped sinew (or bone, or something) running underneath the leg:








Next I need to work out what weapon(s) to give him. No idea yet 


And I finally decided on a close-combat weapon for Lascannon Guy:








A nice big power...claw...thing. More blending-in to do yet, obviously, but he'd gone without a left arm for so long it was starting to bug me. I also wanted to give him a weapon that was quite different from the ones on Multi-Melta Guy and Plasma Cannon Guy, who have relatively sane power-claw type affairs. What's also been bugging me is the lascannon itself; I think I actually will replace the hanging cable - much as I like its _art nouveau_ curvature - with a straight bar. This will give the weapon some extra bulk and solidity which I think it needs, and also echo the Reaper autocannon, which I've always liked and considered to be a really iconic Chaos weapon.


More when I have it...


----------



## Midge913

Looks great as usual Svart! Am I correct that that is a weapon arm from a rat ogre? Either way the lascannon guy is looking good, but I agree that the Lascannon needs..... something, and I think that replacing the cable with something rigid and bulky will make it look more proportional. Can't wait to see all of these guys painted up! :victory:


----------



## Son of mortarion

Svartmetall said:


> What's also been bugging me is the lascannon itself; I think I actually will replace the hanging cable - much as I like its _art nouveau_ curvature - with a straight bar. This will give the weapon some extra bulk and solidity which I think it needs, and also echo the Reaper autocannon, which I've always liked and considered to be a really iconic Chaos weapon.
> 
> 
> More when I have it...


how about keeping the cable and adding a "bar" made of bone under the barrel.


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## Dave T Hobbit

Bother you to botheration Svart! Is there is no escape from your better-at-sculpting-than-me-ness!



Midge913 said:


> Am I correct that that is a weapon arm from a rat ogre?


Looks like a Soulgrinder Claw to me


----------



## Svartmetall

Dave T Hobbit said:


> Looks like a Soulgrinder Claw to me


Yup, it's the lower ⅔ or so of one section of a Soul Grinder's claw. I've been wanting to use one as a CC weapon for a large-ish model for ages


----------



## ScaB

Hm cant wait for oblits, btw how its going with your demon prince? I ask becuse you put some photos and then he gone 
About models, amazing job as always what can i say. Keep going with this blog you rly inspire peoples i think.


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## Marneus Calgar

Looking brilliant!

Very nice stuff still coming . Those heads look awesome, looking great overall  

+Rep if I can!


----------



## forkmaster

Svartmetall said:


> You can still get that sprue, it's now the *Chaos Mutations* Bitz sprue.
> 
> And *Dave* and *Midge* - well spotted  I really like the 'Otherland' books, and while I hadn't planned it beforehand when I saw the two of them together 'Finney and Mudd' sprang to mind straight away. Been doing more work on them (and some Obliterator stuff) over the weekend, more pics tonight hopefully...


Oh awesome, I have to get some of those! :biggrin: Thanks alot, I thought they were removed forever out of the store.


----------



## Grins1878

Dude, that's feckin amazing! Can't believe this is the first time I've come across this thread, although to be fair, I generally dislike chaos. I never found the miniatures too impressive tbh, but you've worked miracles on them!

I'm generally stumped for words with the amount of detail you've managed with green stuff! Superb work mate! Keep it up!


----------



## Lumat

Sir, you give a whole new meaning to the term green fingers! Amazing work.


----------



## Svartmetall

More progress...

Here's JJ with his axe and the start of work on the mutated left arm:








The teeth embedded in the arm are _really_ tiny and fiddly to do, it took like an hour to do just that one row and those are currently curing so I can add the next ones tomorrow. I've always liked that axe from the Chaos Knights sprue, and finally I got a chance to use it on a 40K model; I like the smooth transition between the Possessed upper arm and the Chaos Knight gauntlet. The left arm, however, is scratchbuilt over a base of armature wire.

I've done some work on Smiler - mainly on his belly and intestines - but not enough to be worthy of new photos yet; rest assured the fat bastard will be turning up here as soon as enough has been done to him to make it worthwhile.


I've made progress with Flamer Guy's arms; he now has solidly pinned-together arms as opposed to blu-tacked-on appendages:








Bending the sections of guitar string on either side of each arm so they followed the curvature of the arm was tricky since I was trying hard to avoid that thing you often get with bent guitar strings when the windings stretch out unevenly around the core and look uneven; I'm fairly happy with the way these have come out. The smooth blue cabling is strimmer cord, if memory serves, and should make a nice contrast to the guitar wire; I'm still debating whether or not to add combat-blade attachments, almost like bayonets, slung beneath the flamer nozzles.

More detail work done on Plasma Cannon Guy's power-claw arm:








I've tried as much as possible to match the spiky detail on the Possessed claw pieces so as to make it look seamless when painted.

I rebuilt Lascannon Guy's lascannon so it looks beefier and also matches the Reaper autocannon more:








I prefer this look, as although I did like the curvy cabling he had previously this looks a lot more businesslike to my eyes. I also added to and tidied up the fleshwork where the left claw blends into the armour.

...and I also worked out what detailing I wanted to add to the back of his torso:
















A beefy-looking power cable embedded deep into the right side of his body; I figure since a lascannon is the highest-powered weapon an Obliterator can produce, it should have some heavy-duty power supply detail to reflect this. The cabling itself is from the Sentinel multi-laser, if anyone was wondering...

And finally a unit shot to show how all four of these guys are starting to hang together:








...this should be a really imposing-looking set of models when done. I'm actually looking forward to painting them, and I usually have to be at gunpoint to stop converting and sculpting long enough to paint anything :biggrin:


----------



## Midge913

Looks incredible Svart as usual. I really like the change to the Lascannon guy. Where the curvy cabling added some contrasting visuals it just looked sort of off... The straight bar definitely works much better. The sculpted details on his arm right above the start of the lascannon also look very nice. 

Flamer guy is looking good as well, but visually the weapons look almost too small compared to the rest of the squad. Something about the proportions throws me off a little. I only really noticed it when you put up the group shot, as the rest of the weapons on the other guys just look so much beefier by comparison. I think that either adding a third flamer nozzle, like you did with the multi-melta, or adding a combat blade or something underneath the existing barrels would help bulk it out to match the rest of the squad just a little better. Just a small thing that caught my eye.

Excellent work as always and I continue to be jealous of your greenstuff-fu. +rep mate.


----------



## Dave T Hobbit

I agree with Midge913: both that your skill is great and that the flamers look tiny compared to everything else. As the entire forearm looks thin I am not sure if a combat blade would be enough; possibly replacing the strimmer wire with a fused in fuel tank/blister would add bulk.


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## forkmaster

What really got me steamed up is to see how the heads will turn out. Have you thought about your heads for the oblirirators will look like?


----------



## Zodd

This is amazing . Fantastic sculpts. +rep
Regarding flamers; What if you mounted some big chainsaws to those flamers ?
The other weapons have internal powerfeed, so i think that a tank will be out of context. But that is just me.


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## Master WootWoot

I want to see some obliterator heads! Now! What about twisted gas masks?


----------



## Otep

your an evil, evil little nurgle infested man *glare*

i really dig your oblits  they keep getting sexier and sexier i see them! well, as far as nurgle/chaos goes


----------



## Svartmetall

So, with festive-season, er, festivities out of the way, time to do more work on the Obliterators and more...

First off, here's Flamer Guy with bulked-up arms, the beginnings of his dorsal exhaust pipes and a matched pair of power blades attached to count as his close-combat weapons:








The blades are a pair of Orc cleavers...








...with lengths of armature wire _very_ carefully attached and mounted into the blade so it looks properly like power cabling forged as an integral part of the weapon. The arms are obviously not finished yet, but they're starting to bulk out nicely now. 

I've made a tutorial on how to do this - since it basically lets you turn any blade into a power weapon - but I suspect that's still stuck in the moderation queue. 

The beginnings of a random Plague Marine, with the bulbous gut of the original figure encased in warped armour:








I had a bit of a lucky streak on Ebay just before Christmas in terms of finding metal Plague Marines going dirt cheap, so I now have two boxes of Plague Marines, three of the old metal Death Guard Havocs and several of the really old metal Plague Marine models sitting in a vat of Dettol removing the assorted layers of paint ready for conversion; the ranks of Pandemic grow ever larger 

Speaking of paint...having had a game the week before last, I decided it was time to - gasp! - _paint something_. 
Yes, I used the 'P' word. 
Even though the friends I play with are the last people to nitpick about minimum-of-3-colours or whatever, I felt a bit bad having an HQ model that was just undercoated black; so I decided it's time to paint up the slightly converted Great Unclean One currently acting as my Daemon Prince on the table. He's only basecoated at the moment, but I wanted to show the little bit of last-minute conversion I decided to add to his sword:








I figured a little section of teeth growing out of the blade would look cool, hence this. 

Inspired by the colour scheme on the back of the actual GUO box, which is something like this: 








...I'm going for an earthy look, with a lot more brown tones than I've used before. One thing I have planned for some point this year is a total revamp of the colour scheme I've used on Pandemic to date (including, but not limited to, making things quite a bit lighter and with a lot more contrast), concurrently with seriously working on improving my deeply mediocre painting abilities; accordingly this guy has a blended basecoat of Calthan Brown and Orkhide Shade, and I'll be lightening up the skin tones as I go.

More when I have it...


----------



## Winterous

Too bad the GUO model is hideous 
And not in the good way, it's just an awful model.


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## Svartmetall

Winterous said:


> Too bad the GUO model is hideous
> And not in the good way, it's just an awful model.


See, I actually like it, always have; it does seem to polarise people, though. It's a bugger to assemble but I like the bloated, shambling-mound sort of look it has.


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## Midge913

I really like what you have done with the flamer guy! His weapons look like they would be much more consistent with the rest of the squad. GUO is looking good....er bad.... well you know what I mean . Can't wait to see him painted up!


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## Master WootWoot

I like the GUO a bit too, but i don't find it wicked enough. The forgeworld one is very good.


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## Gresil

I'm a fan of the GUO sculpt too, and I like your alterations. I'm looking forward to seeing more progress on your paint-scheme revamp; more contrast is the way to go I think, it will showcase your conversions more. Will you be going for rusty metallics?


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## Svartmetall

Master WootWoot said:


> The Forgeworld one is very good.


It _is_ very good, but it's also like 3x the price. Current plan is to use this guy as my Daemon Prince stand-in until the actual DP model is completed, and at some point scratchbuild my own GUO to go with this one (similar details, different pose and weapon - I'm planning to give him a huge 3-ball spiked flail) to count as Daemon Princes for a 1,500-point Nurgle Daemons army. I didn't realise just how many Nurglings I had until I organised everything into the new bits boxes a month or two back, and I've got _dozens_ of the little buggers, enough to make lots of swarm bases for a Daemons army while also leaving enough to add to various Pandemic models' bases for flavour. I even managed to find, via Ebay, some of the old Nurglings that are flipping you off...I love those guys 



Gresil said:


> it will showcase your conversions more. Will you be going for rusty metallics?


Definitely, it's Nurgle so rust = good. And showcasing the conversion work more is certainly part of the reasoning behind the colour-scheme revamp, as well as purely aesthetic grounds.


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## Winterous

Svartmetall said:


> I'm planning to give him a huge 3-ball spiked flail











DOOOOO EEEEET!


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## Oldenhaller

lol....always found it odd that a long range squad exarch was given a bolas...go go gadget web of skulls!


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## IanC

I love Nurglings. Even though my Daemon army will be mostly Slaanesh, i'm still going to include a unit or two of the other Gods, and Nurglings are my choice for Nurgle. They are just so fun looking.


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## Gresil

Are you planning to add any more bulk at the base of the flamer guy's blades? At the moment they seem to jut out of his arms quite abruptly.


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## Svartmetall

*posting from work*



Gresil said:


> Are you planning to add any more bulk at the base of the flamer guy's blades? At the moment they seem to jut out of his arms quite abruptly.


Yeah, they'll get blended in a lot more smoothly; in fact I think I worked out how I want to do that last night while staring at it  Still no sign of the tutorial clearing the mod queue, but I'm starting to look at a lot of other WFB weapons with an eye to powering them up in the same way for 40K; powerscythes, anyone? I've been wanting to make a new set of Terminators for a while, since I figure I can do them a lot better now, and I'd like them to have sycthes for that Deathshroud feel :biggrin:


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## Svartmetall

Gah, only a tiny update-ette this time around; it's the time of year when we're at our busiest in work so I've been having do extra hours (don't you just _love_ a management that forces you to work extra long shifts just before they make you redundant? Fuckers...) and in my currently-less-plentiful spare time have been working pretty much exclusively on a non-Nurgle project that I need to get finished by next week. I'm pretty much completely exhausted and stressed out, but I am at least getting the current project done and done well. Which is good. 

However...you know how sometimes you're working on something and you realise you have a lump of GS left over that's cured a little too much for what you're working on, but you don't want to just chuck it away? I found myself in such a situation last night, having spent ages working on a very small detail bit, and so decided to see just how much I could customise a Plague Marine with just one piece of GS. Here's the result on a freshly-stripped Plague Marine I picked up on Ebay:










I started out with a roughly croissant-shaped lump of GS, wrapped it around the existing gut on the model and then began working it around into the shapes that suggested themselves to me as I went along, matching the model's original detail where needed to make it seamless once painted. It's quite a free-form and improvisatory way of customising a figure, but fun and relatively quick; if you wanted to customise a lot of figures and time was a factor this could be a good way to do it. If enough people would be interested I can work up a stage-by-stage tutorial showing the kind of thing you can do with this.

And - speaking of tutorials - the *power weapon tutorial* I mentioned has cleared the mod queue at last. 

More soon...but for now, cold beer (trust me - the way work is right now, I fucking _need_ a cold beer just to de-stress) and back to the non-Nurgly task at hand


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## Midge913

Excellent work on the conversion as always Svart and that Tutorial will come in handy as well! Good stuff!


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## Dave T Hobbit

Svartmetall said:


>


Interesting effect; it looks melted as if he has lost all his body fat without his skin regaining it's elasticity.


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## philsminions

So impressive! Your work is truly inspiring. Maybe one day, I'll take that giant leap into conversions with GS...I should probably work on my "beginners skills" first! Really enjoy marveling at your work. Can't wait to see more!


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## TheSpore

Dude this green stuff work is amazing. thats about all i can say.

I do feel although you thought out side the box looks wise i just thing you used a scheme too common with nurgle but still damn good work


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## Svartmetall

Well, it's been a while since I've updated. I've been snowed under with real-world stuff in the last month, mainly revolving around being made redundant (so I am now job-free, as it were) and any spare moments were spent making another incarnation of the Tanith scout for purposes of my own sculpting growth. But now...now I'm free to get back to Nurgle, and this little hiatus seemed like a good excuse to show where I've gotten to to date and post the army shots I've been asked for on more than one occasion. Yes, quite a bit isn't painted yet, but meh  

While assembling all the models this afternoon, I realised that I appear to've lost track of how many Plague Marines I actually had converted up; if I'm working on something else like the Tanith (or whatever) and have a little bit of GS left that's not enough for the job at hand but too much to just chuck out, I'll usually use it to make another member of the ranks of Pandemic:








77 Plague Marines, every one a conversion. Which is probably enough to keep me going for the moment, anyway :biggrin:

And here's the full Pandemic army as it currently stands:










Squad by squad - the current *HQ* group:








Left to right we have Quorthon, Sorceror of Nurgle; the Daemon Prince Yersinis; Yurgel, bearer of the Plague Banner; and Lord Kothaar the Putrescent, Terminator Lord of Nurgle and all-round cad and bounder. 

*ELITES*

Possessed Squad Gyrsh - led by Aspiring Champion Morsh-Hâl the Butcher, the dude with the jaws in his belly:









Terminator Squad Plaguewielder - led by Terminator Champion Ghûl, the dude with the Reaper autocannon:









Terminator Squad Anthraxus:









Dreadnought Horgh:









And Dreadnought Vvornth:









*TROOPS*

Plague Marine Squad Pestis - led by Plague Champion Kharzhâl:









Plague Marine Squad Virulis, led by Plague Champion Volvulus:









Plague Marine Squad Necris, led by Plague Champion Ghâth:









PLague Marine Squad Entropis, led by Plague Champion Khoros:









PLague Marine Squad Five, led by Plague Champion Sereveth:









Plague Marine Squad Six, led by Plague Champion Myurin:









Plague Marine Squad Seven, led by Plague Champion Pryestes:









Chaos Marines with the Mark of Nurgle, Squad 'Forlorn' led by Aspiring Champion Ùresh:









And some random Plaguebearers, who turned up from the Warp one day and just sort of hung around after that:









*FAST ATTACK*

Some Spawn of Nurgle:









*HEAVY SUPPORT*

Havoc Squad:









And the Obliterators of Nurgle:











I really can't face working out how many points all that comes to, but it's a lot. I need to convert up some more Rhinos, I know that much...and there's a _lot_ of painting to be done :biggrin:


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## Zodd

That's a lot of Nurgle in one place.Wonderfull sight. And what lovely Nurglenames, Prince Yersinis, etc.:biggrin:+rep


----------



## Kreuger

Looking smart and diseased as always Svart!
Good luck in the job hunt!

Cheers,
Kreuger


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## Midge913

Wonderful as always Svart! That is a lot of nurgly goodness. I am a big fan of that guy in the havoc squad that is still unpainted, really cool conversion.


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## wombat_tree

Svartmetall said:


> I really can't face working out how many points all that comes to, but it's a lot.


From what I can see it is roughly this: 

HQ
Quorthon, Sorcerer of Nurgle, Terminator Armour, Mark of Nurgle, Nurgle's Rot T: 150
Daemon Prince Yersinis, Mark of Nurgle, Warptime T: 155
Lord Kothaar the Putrescent, Terminator Armour, Mark of Nurgle T: 140 
Yurgel, bearer of the Plague Banner, Mark of Nurgle T: 110

Elites 
7 Possessed, Mark of Nurgle T: 132
5 Terminators, Three Chainfists, Pair of Lightning claws, Mark of Nurgle T: 245
5 Terminators, Three Chainfists, Pair of Lightning claws, Mark of Nurgle T: 245
Dreadnought Horgh, Lascannon T: 125
Dreadnought Vvornth, 15 T: 105

Troops
7 Plague Marines, Plague champion, Power Fist, two plasma guns T: 231
7 Plague Marines, Plague champion, Power Fist, two plasma guns T: 231
7 Plague Marines, Plague champion, Power Fist, two plasma guns T: 231
7 Plague Marines, Plague champion, Power Fist, two plasma guns T: 231
7 Plague Marines, Plague champion, Power Fist, two plasma guns T: 231
7 Plague Marines, Plague champion, Power Fist, two plasma guns T: 231
7 Plague Marines, Plague champion, Power Fist, two plasma guns T: 231
7 Plague Marines, Plague champion, Power Fist, two plasma guns T: 231
7 Plague Marines, Plague champion, Power Fist, two plasma guns T: 231
7 Plague Marines, Plague champion, Power Fist, two plasma guns T: 231
11 Summoned Lesser Daemons T: 143

Fast Attack
4 Spawn 160 T:160

Heavy Support
7 Havocs, three Missile Launchers, lascannon, Autocannon, two Heavy bolters T: 250
4 Obliterators T: 300

Total: 4430 points

Bear in mind that some of the wargear may be wrong and the Havoc squad is not actually legal as they are only allowed four heavy weapons per squad.

It's awesome to be able to see a full army shot of you're force, they're looking great even when most of them aren't painted

EDIT: Do you have any plans to make a defiler? I think you could do a great job of it. Oh and what ever happened to your idea for a Traitor Guard force?


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## Svartmetall

wombat_tree said:


> EDIT: Do you have any plans to make a defiler?


Definitely, and there's one sat in a box next to my modelling table right now. I've wanted to make one for ages, but only late last year did I finally have the _Eureka!_ moment where I hit upon the way I wanted to model a Defiler of Nurgle. Let's just say it's going to involve some interesting texture work...



wombat_tree said:


> ...whatever happened to your idea for a Traitor Guard force?


It got somewhat delayed by life, the universe and everything, but I am still intending to start work on The Abhorred...er...at some point. I like the conversion possibilities of Nurgle Traitor Guard too much to not do it; and since I apparently have over 4,000 points of Death Guard already, I just need to make 1,000 points of Traitor Guard of Nurgle to have a serious Nurgle force for Apocalypse games :biggrin:


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## Son of mortarion

What are you thinking of using for the guardsmen themselves? I have been toying with the idea of using skaven clanrats for guardsmen, and stormvermin for vets/stormtroopers. I was thinking that if I removed the heads and replaced them with hoods and removed the tails, they would have a nice hunchbacked nurgle cultist look without going too far.


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## ChaosRedCorsairLord

Son of mortarion said:


> What are you thinking of using for the guardsmen themselves? I have been toying with the idea of using skaven clanrats for guardsmen, and stormvermin for vets/stormtroopers. I was thinking that if I removed the heads and replaced them with hoods and removed the tails, they would have a nice hunchbacked nurgle cultist look without going too far.


I had a similar idea and started a small Traitor Guard using these conversions as inspiration: http://blog.spikeybits.com/2010/01/for-emperor-imperial-guard-greatcoat.html

They've actually worked out pretty well.


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## forkmaster

Nice looking force there, now its all about getting them painted up.  The Havocs I really liked the missile launcher dudes. Im hoping to get some of my own soon.


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## Zakath

Huh, just found the thread and I got to say its awe-inspiring!  Very cool conversions and all, took me more than 4 hours to go through this all just because I had to stop on every damn picture for ages. I can't quite figure out what drives someone to such a neverending project but maybe I don't even need to


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## Hammer49

Nice looking army coming along, with some nice conversions. Keep up the good work.


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## Epidemius

Very nice work. The Plaguefather is pleased.


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## wombat_tree

Epidemius said:


> Very nice work. The Plaguefather is pleased.


I'm pretty sure Svartmetall *is* the Plague father.


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## thenickrulz

*Wow*

Wow great job man!!


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## sphere830

What a fantastic thread! Very inspiring mate.


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## Svartmetall

OK...well...I've already found a new job, and done my first week; in this job climate I'm somewhat proud to say I was only unemployed for 10 days after being made redundant before finding gainful employment again  

I'm still very tired while adjusting to a totally new schedule and stuff, but whilst doing so I've managed to find the time and energy to start work on something I've wanted to make for about 2 years - a Nurgle Defiler. After finally hitting on the way I wanted to make one a couple of months back, I actually ended up finding the inspiration to make _two_ of the bastards - and here's a first look at Defiler #1. The design idea for this Defiler (#2 will be very different, by the way) is basically a dead, mutated crab, which has been dredged up from the bottom of a particularly noxious ocean and turned into a tank...sort of thing:


















Note the re-posed right front leg; I cut it in half just past the 'knee' pivot and flattened the leg out a bit to make it extend further, which allows me to make the overall pose a little different to most out-of-the-box Defilers and a little more arachnoid. It's fiddly as hell to do, but worth it; I pinned the two halves of the leg together for strength and stability, and also pinned on the Tyranid claw that replaces the original mechanical claw for the same reason. The main body is from an old messed-up Defiler someone else gave me the remnants of, as you may be able to tell from the differently-coloured plastic; I'm just using it as a mule to pose the legs on for now. The big spikes are built up around pins embedded into the legs, to give the whole thing some solidity and durability when being handled. Here's a close-up of the re-posed leg, showing the rusted pistons and carapace of shell-like armour:










The carapace isn't finished yet as I'm building it up in layers to get it smooth and solid before adding the final layer, which I'm planning to give a distressed surface texture somewhat like what you see on a Blight Drone; but hopefully this will give you an indication of where I'm heading with this Crustaceafiler :biggrin: Assuming this leg ends up roughly how I want it to, the other three will be made up to match, then I'll start work on the turret. 

I'm also working on sketches for the heads for the Obliterators, and as soon as I hit upon something I'm happy with I'll start sculpting those to get them closer to completion. As always, C&C welcomed...


_____


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## Kreuger

Damn man. 

I'm excited every time I see a new project log post from you, and they always inspire me to go work on my own miniatures. Real life usually intervenes and prevents that, but the inspiration never fails!

Those legs look great! I'm looking forward to what you'll do with the forward claws, the body, and the second defiler! 

Despite playing chaos for 15 years or so, I never invested in a defiler. They're appropriate additions to the canon of daemon engines, but I always felt the models are sort of 'off' . . . too tall and too Arachni-centaur-oid. I always want the 'turret' to be shorter and more vehicle hull-like. I'm just rambling about what I consider them to be. 

I know what ever you do won't disappoint!

Cheers,
Kreuger


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## Midge913

I am with Kreuger that thing is fantastic! I love the reposition of the leg as it gives it a unique look and a definite sense of motion. The use of the Tyranid crushing claws is inspired and absolutely conveys the look you are going for with the crab like sea creature. Excellent work as always mate!


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## The Wraithlord

Holy hell man, did you take out stock in GW's greenstuff or something?? Stunning work as always my man.


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## Zodd

Very interesting theme, Sea Food. I look forward to see, what you can get out of the exo-skeleton of a crabzoidzilla. And the things that grow on them


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## Svartmetall

Well, here's where I am now with Crabzilla - all the basic armour plating done on the legs and the spiky crustacean edging done on the two front legs:


















It's fairly painstaking stuff, as each spike has to be added individually and then smoothed in; the final layer of GS armour should blend everything together seamlessly, as well as adding some extra surface texturing to the flatter areas. Hopefully by now you can see the look I'm aiming for - very much inspired by things like isopods and spider crabs.

One of the main issues I've had in the last 10 days or so is tiredness - the new job I got is with GW, I'm working in the casting/moulding department, and while it's certainly interesting working in an environment where I'm surrounded by GW models all day (I think hobbyists like me probably get a lot more out of a job like that than people who aren't into the hobby) it's very hard on the hands, and I've always had trouble adjusting to different sleep patterns. After three weeks of it my hands are starting to adjust, but I'm still very tired a lot of the time; after 8 years of a sedentary tech-support job being on my feet all day and working with my hands is a bit of a shock to the system. But a welcome one, in a lot of ways. 

And now, I go to work on...gasp!...a new paint scheme. I'm excited about finally finding a colour scheme that both highlights my conversion work and also genuinely pleases me visually; in the April WD there's a pic of a French Golden Daemon-winning Fantasy giant with a tree-bark-like mutation on his left side, and the colours are wonderful, really vivid and contrasty. 










I really like this colour scheme, I reckon it'd work perfectly for the kind of conversion I've been churning out. I'll never be able to paint that well, but it's a good inspiration point, and my thanks to the estimable *SilverTabby* for her help in reverse-engineering what colours were probably involved in this. I'll work on how to do the armour plate to go with that scheme and see what I can come up with...pics as soon as I have enough to post


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## Winterous

Looking good!
And wow, that Giant. Wow.


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## Midge913

Fantastic looking conversion as usual Svart! It is really coming along nicely and it definitely conveys the look you described as your end goal. That paint scheme is really fantastic as well and I look forward to seeing your version of it.


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## MaidenManiac

Grats on the job man, looks like youve found an employment that will fit you like a glove 

Nice work on the Defiler, gonna be interesting to see the claws


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## Svartmetall

OK. So. I think I can say, hand on heart, that my painting to date has been deeply mediocre at best - verging on 'it sucks', I fear - and I've been thinking for a long time as I've worked on my sculpting and modelling that it's long past time I did something about this. A bunch of my friends here have started running regular games at Warhammer World on the open gaming night there every Wednesday, and that's been the final push for me to man up and do something about my painting so I have an army I can bring to the table and not feel like I have to apologise for. The colour scheme I've been using for Pandemic is something that dates back to late '07 when I first started modelling, and it's fair to say that it doesn't in any way do justice to the amount of conversion work I've been putting into the models themselves. 

So, I've decided I need to completely re-do the colour scheme for the whole army. The enormously talented *SilverTabby* has helped me reverse-engineer the Chaos Giant colour scheme I posted a pic of, but I also wanted to come up with a colour palette for the armour that would give the overall model a lot more contrast and highlight the conversion work done to the armour itself. Here are the 3 final contenders for the new scheme for Pandemic's armour; I've used old-school plastic Plague Marines as models since they are identical and have a lot of armour surface area:


















The differences are relatively subtle, but certainly noticeable in the flesh. All use Orkhide Shade as a foundation, then differing combinations of Rotting Fleshm, Bleached Bone and finally some watered-down Skull White to build up the shades; #3 adds an extra layer of Camo Green between the Orkhide Shade and the Rotting Flesh. I wanted the armour to be a lot lighter, the better to reflect the Death Guard's original pre-Heresy white, and also to balance and contrast with the tones of the flesh and the plentiful Nurgly mutated bits. 

Individually they look like this:


























I wanted the armour to look streaky, to give the impression of the discolouration that would accrue over 10,000 years of decay and neglect; I've used Gryphonne Sepia, Ogryn Flesh and good ol' Devlan Mud to enhance this effect. I did a lot of image searching on Google and Flickr (the *Rusty and Crusty* Flickr group is a goldmine for shots of rust and decayed things in general) to help work out where to go with this, and streaks of discolouration work well to convey the impression of decay and dilapidation. 

*Paint scheme #1* is a lot more white, with more even coats of Bleached Bone and the final wash of Skull White, with the washes doing most of the work in terms of adding the streakiness I want. 
*Paint scheme #2* is, I suspect, my current favourite (his left leg and shoulder pad are not complete, so ignore those); it's less white, and I made the colour shades more streaky as I built them up rather than rely on the washes alone. 
*Paint scheme #3* is more green overall, using more Thraka Green wash to add discolouration, but I suspect it may be a little lacking in variety compared to the other two which use non-green contrast shades in the washes for overall contrast and variety. Given the Nurgly nature of the army, I think I prefer its green-ness to #1's white-ness, though.

So I welcome all C&C on this one. I'll stand behind my sculpting and converting till the cows come home, but I freely admit to being something of an underachiever when it comes to painting so I'll happily bow to the advice of those more knowledgable than myself on this one. My own instinct is a close call between #2 and #3, with #2 just edging it right now, but I'd like to know what you guys and gals think...


----------



## Varakir

I'm more preferable to #1 and #3, the 2nd scheme looks a little too bland, whereas the other 2 seem to have a lot more depth.

Overall i think #1 is my favourite. The darker shading on the white is great, but i do prefer the lighter green from #3.

I assume you will be picking out all the details with various other colours? I know it'd be a fair bit of extra work for test models, but i think finishing the models off and basing them would really help in identifying the better scheme.

also, as I haven't commented on crabzilla yet.....love it!!! :victory:


----------



## Chaosftw

Bringing the 'Old School' Marines back! I love it! some very cool marines! I love the Knives the most definitely adds the 'Ya we're badass' feeling.

Good on ya Svart!

Chaosftw


----------



## Winterous

I'd say two, but add a bit more colour to it.


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## Midge913

I think personally #1 is my favorite. I like the darker colors and greens in the recesses. #2 is, oddly enough, a close second I think it just lacks some of the contrast that #1 has.


----------



## The Wraithlord

Add my vote to #1 as well, far and away the best of the three.


----------



## Winterous

I suppose my vote for #2 with more colour kinda IS a vote for #1.


----------



## aquatic_foible

Another vote for #1 here, sir. And it's always nice to see you putting down the sculpting tools and picking up the brushes. Can't wait to see some more...


----------



## Svartmetall

OK, thanks for the feedback, peeps; I'm working up a fully-painted and converted Plague Marine at the moment (I'm a painfully slow painter, though that may just be lack of practice combined with the inherent slowness of feeling my way into a totally new paint scheme) to show the whole scheme together, so pics will follow as soon as he's done. Trim-wise, by the way, I'm going with bronze; it would work against the relatively pallid armour and also sit well with the other colours.


----------



## MaidenManiac

Svartmetall said:


> Trim-wise, by the way, I'm going with bronze; it would work against the relatively pallid armour and also sit well with the other colours.


Sounds neat. Bronze can be nicely corroded and fit very well, looking forward to test model


----------



## Kreuger

A late comer vote for #1. Though its difficult to judge the final effect without the rest of the scheme and details worked out.

Bronze is good. Sounds like a good time to practice your verdigris. =)


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## Svartmetall

Okay, here's the test paint scheme on my chosen test model, Random Plague Marine #66:


















I'm not convinced about the backpack vents being silver - the idea was to have them rusted and blackened from millennia of heat - but from looking at them in their bare silver state I'm suspecting they'd be better in bronze like the rest of the trim and metals, making them silver might be too fussy and multi-coloured for the Death Guard. The boltgun's not done at all, but meh - you know what a boltgun looks like; similarly the left arm's claw isn't done either, but that'll be a straightforward bone colour, which I know I can already do. I'm wondering if the bottom line along the boots should also be done in bronze like the normal trim, or left as it is.

To give you a reminder of the paint-scheme inertia I'm trying to overcome, here's the current colour scheme for Pandemic next to the proposed new one: 










As a mediocre-at-best painter I'd _really_ appreciate any and all feedback on this one; I feel like I need to up my game a lot when it comes to my painting, and a total re-working of the paint scheme is a good place to start. This new scheme obviously has a lot more contrast and variety overall, but hopefully it manages to keep that ancient-and-decayed Death Guard feel. This would be a very big change to the army, but if it makes it all look cooler then it would surely be worth it; if it works I'm contemplating stripping _everything_ that's currently painted and re-doing it like this to keep the whole army homogenous.


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## Marneus Calgar

The scheme looks good, I love the white. 

However, the sythe on that dude I think should be more... Boney, at the moment it looks too much like the colour scheme of the maybe make it look slightly different from the scheme? 

Looks great though!


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## wombat_tree

The armour looks very well done, a huge improvement over your old scheme. My biggest complaint is the colour of the mutations. Green just doesn't really work that well. On my models I've found that purple can work very well, orange can also look great. 

http://i1040.photobucket.com/albums/b408/wombat_tree/DSCN0762.jpg

Now while for the most part your model is much better painted in my opinion the purple mutations really help to add a lot of contrast to the model and I believe that the purple is quite effective. Perhaps try using purple or orange on one of your models

Edit: I have 1,111 posts :biggrin:


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## Midge913

I think the new scheme is looking great Svart! My only real issue, a very minor one mind, is that the bronze looks almost too dark. Overall though the scheme is definitely cooler than the old one. Good luck with the repaint bud!


----------



## Hammer49

The new scheme looks good. I would consider using some light washes of devlan mudd, thraka green, on the mutations just to add some more contrast.


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## Svartmetall

Some good feedback here; I'll probably collate the feedback from here & elsewhere and do a second test model (if I'm going to strip & re-paint everything I've painted to date, I'm definitely going to subscribe to the 'measure twice, cut once' school of thought) incorporating what looks both in keeping with what I have in my mind's eye and do-able by my meagre painting skills. Watch this space 

Basing-wise, I'm very tempted to use the reddish-brown 'oxidised rock' scheme I've used on my Spawn:








Hopefully this should work a lot better with the overall colour palette of the models.


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## wombat_tree

The bases look good but I'd give the rocks a light drybrush of a lighter colour like maybe codex grey, just to add a bit more variation in colour.


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## Midge913

I like the bases Svart but I agree with Wombat they need a little more contrast, not much, but something to make them pop just a bit more.


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## Svartmetall

Much in the 'Argh! I must make some of these, _right now_, for no immediately apparent reason!' manner in which making Finney and Mudd suddenly seemed terribly important one night, it struck on me on Friday evening that I had to convert some Plaguebearers. Not only am I constitutionally incapable of having just one project on the go at one time, I do after all have vague plans to make a Nurgle Daemons army at some point, and some of my Death Guard lists include Plaguebearers; so here are the initial results:


















I actually like the current Plaguebearer models, by and large, but in what's become the tradition for any army I use I feel it incumbent upon me to convert every single model*...hence using Orc swords & cleavers to replace the rather odd triangular plagueswords they come with. I also cut away the 'dripping goo' bits on the bell-ringer from the Plaguebearer Command set - as I've never been entirely convinced by them - to give the model a slightly clearer outline, and replaced the bone thingy he carries with a skull on a stick to give a much more interesting beater for his bells. I'm also going to add a third bell, both to echo the three-circle Nurgle icon and also because having three bells would allow him, if they were tuned right, to play the riff from: 




on them. Which would just be cool - imagine a shambling horde of Plaguebearers advancing to the sound of that riff...

I'm also giving all of them a larger and more rounded single eye, as some of the Plaguebearer models don't really have much in the eye department yet the fluff is quite specific that they _all_ have a single cyclopean eye; likewise I'm adding torn and oozing guts to a lot of them for the same reason. Being metal, it's actually relatively easy to do small re-posing on these guys, as in the angle of the bell-ringer's striking arm, so that should allow me to vary the poses enough to give reasonable variety over different squads. I love the black and white Plaguebearer drawings in the Chaos Daemons codex, and some of the legs on the out-of-the-box are a bit too thin and weedy-looking for my tastes, so I've bulked them up and added Nurgly detailing to the flesh. I'll also be scratchbuilding at least one Herald of Nurgle model just for the hell of it (the one I started almost 2 years ago is OK-ish, but I know I could sculpt a better one now), but for now the one that's pointing to his left with the upraised cleaver will act as a Herald should the need arise. 

This is also tied in with the total revamping of Pandemic's colour scheme that I'm working up right now - along with my long-standing dissatisfaction with the Plague Marines' colour scheme I've never been really happy with the colour scheme I had on the painted Plaguebearers, so they're sitting in a jar of Dettol right now being stripped ready for re-painting with a new-and-improved scheme for my Nurgle Daemons. The idea is to get a much earthier and richer palette on them, using Orkhide Shade and Calthan Brown as foundations and working up from there; a month or three back I gave the Great Unclean One model I have a basic going-over with just those two Foundation colours (and some Red Gore in the exposed wounds and mouth), and really liked the earthy, rich-toned feel it gave the model: 










...so I figure this would be a good basis for the Plaguebearers too. Compare him with the old Plaguebearer colour scheme: 










...and to me the Plaguebearers look pallid and one-dimensional; hence the stripping they're currently undergoing with conversion and painting in the new-and-improved scheme in mind. But for now, off to Ye Olde Fridge to grab a bubonic beverage before heading back to do stuff to more Plaguebearers...



*** OK, so I'm not going to convert each individual Nurgling. That would be completely demented


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## wombat_tree

Awesome! I've never really liked the Plague Bearer models but what you've done is definitely a step in the right direction. I look forward to seeing them painted.


----------



## Chaosftw

wombat_tree said:


> Awesome! I've never really liked the Plague Bearer models but what you've done is definitely a step in the right direction. I look forward to seeing them painted.


I would have to agree with this 100% Your models always come out top notch but to take models that are rarely seen because they are to expensive, are no longer viable in the CSM Codex and lack detail is very nice to see!

+Rep for sure!

Chaosftw


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## Marneus Calgar

Ok, svart, here's one for you.

I've just acquired some of the classic Plaguebearers and I have a spare Rhino, now, I really wanna do something with it. Looking at your stuff I would love to get somewhere near. 

How would you recommend I started converting it? Trial and error, or sorcery?

I also really want to make them look good, so, advise away my friend!


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## TheReverend

dude, there is some amazing work on here, your green stuff skills are amazing!! 

+rep

rev


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## Svartmetall

Marneus Calgar said:


> I've just acquired some of the classic Plaguebearers and I have a spare Rhino, now, I really wanna do something with it. Looking at your stuff I would love to get somewhere near.
> 
> How would you recommend I started converting it? Trial and error, or sorcery?


Er, you mean the Rhino, the Plaguebearers, or both? Whichever, I'd say sit down, close your eyes and think about it before going near a model or a tool; every good conversion starts with inspiration. Somewhere buried in the depths of this thread is the process by which I nurgled up my first Rhino, so maybe have a gander at that once you've thought up some ideas of your own; never _start_ with other peoples' ideas, though, as that makes it more likely you'll just reproduce rather than originate. Get a few of your own thoughts collated first then check out other peoples' stuff for further inspiration.


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## Hammer49

Fantastic work. Really like the paint scheme your using.


----------



## Marneus Calgar

Svartmetall said:


> Er, you mean the Rhino, the Plaguebearers, or both? Whichever, I'd say sit down, close your eyes and think about it before going near a model or a tool; every good conversion starts with inspiration. Somewhere buried in the depths of this thread is the process by which I nurgled up my first Rhino, so maybe have a gander at that once you've thought up some ideas of your own; never _start_ with other peoples' ideas, though, as that makes it more likely you'll just reproduce rather than originate. Get a few of your own thoughts collated first then check out other peoples' stuff for further inspiration.


What about tools, etc?


----------



## Svartmetall

Marneus Calgar said:


> What about tools, etc?


 I'm afraid that's kind of a 'how long is a piece of string' question really, mate - the tools you use are dictated by the textures and effects you decide to create. Which is why I say sit down and think through the conversion you want to do first, _then_ work out what you'll need to do it. 


OK, so the GS work on the initial batch of 5 Plaguebearers to be converted is complete (I've started on several others, too); here they are:









Close-ups of the eyes I've added to give the models more character and fluff-correctness:









They've just been glued to their bases, and as soon as I finish typing this they're going to get primed...hopefully I'll able to post pics of them with their initial 3-colour foundation paint scheme later this evening.

And I've decided - this will be the basis of a Nurgle Daemons army. I've wanted to make one for a long, long time - I bought the Epidemius model just after he came out, and have had vague plans to make a Daemons army ever since; the Traitor Guard army _will_ get made as well (I'm still building up vehicles and working out design choices in my head for those guys), but inspiration for Daemons is what's landed on me lately, hence these guys. Cue the next army WIP thread from yours truly, any day now :biggrin:


----------



## MaidenManiac

Svartmetall said:


> I'm afraid that's kind of a 'how long is a piece of string' question really, mate...


From one end to the other.


Nice going on those Plaguebearers, 1 central big eye really fits them. Gonna be interesting to see your take on the Beasts, as I kind of lack belief in their models atm


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## Midge913

I am a big fan of the changes you have made to the PBs Svart, subtle yet effective conversions that add quite a bit of individuality and character to each one. Looking forward to seeing your daemon army shape up.


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## Svartmetall

Well, just because I've *started a Daemons army* doesn't mean I've forgotten about the Death Guard. Having been a bit stuck on how I wanted to do it for quite a while now, I finally worked out how I wanted to do the leg armour on the Obliterators; a while back I started on this, trying to do a boot-like affair on the foot:








But I was never happy with this; not only was it fiddly to sculpt, it just never _looked_ right to me. Given how the technophysiology of an Obliterator would function, why would they form a shoe-like arrangement of armour around the foot - given that it could all be formed into one solidly armoured lump anyway? 

So after a bit of thinking, spurred on by finally getting my hands on the Daemon Prince of Nurgle in work and seeing how its foot was modelled, I settled on this arrangement:








Basically a sheath of armour around the bottom of the leg, with the two hoof-like 'toes' extending forward to allow for balance control. Much more solid-looking - which fits the Terminator-esque armour stats of an Obliterator - and a lot more simple, which fits in with what seems to me to be the most logical way for an Obliterator to form and manage its own body.

Around this, I built up segments of armour to match with the grown-crystal look of much of the rest of the Obliterators' armour. Here's the finished leg armour on Plasma Cannon Guy:








The armour is quite thick in places, as can be seen from these shots:








...which again fits the on-paper nature of an Obliterator, and gives the model a very solid look. I'm almost certainly going to thicken up the upper edge of the thigh armour so it matches better with the bulk of the lower-leg armour, too; I'm currently debating whether to add separate kneepads or not. 

I'm planning on keeping the rear of the model mainly bare flesh and augmetics, with the bulk of the armour forward-facing. In the previous Codex it mentions how Obliterators tend to move slowly forwards laying down a solid barrage of heavy-weapons fire to clear the way, so it seems logical to assume they'd have the vast majority of their armour facing ahead to minimise the effects of incoming fire from the most likely direction for it come from, given their _modus operandi_.


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## Winterous

Fucking magnificent work!


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## Midge913

Absolutely awesome mate! I really like the way the leg armor turned out. They way that it layers together, and the lines of the model are awesome!


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## Djinn24

Oh thats what you were talking about on Skype, top notch!


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## Hammer49

Excellent work on the oblit.


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## Dave T Hobbit

Excellent as ever.


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## yanlou

wow, awesome work, i can just imagine them wading through heavy weapons fire, large calibre rounds plinking of its armour.

I would say add some knee pads, it would make the legs seem more like power armour a little and add to the front heavy armour look.

+rep


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## DijnsK

that Possessed Terminogre looks friggin amazing!! 
how did you sculpt that??


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## Svartmetall

DijnsK said:


> that Possessed Terminogre looks friggin amazing!!
> how did you sculpt that??


 _Carefully_. 



yanlou said:


> Wow, awesome work, I can just imagine them wading through heavy weapons fire, large calibre rounds plinking off its armour.


 That's exactly the image I'm going for, and keeping in my head - the line in the good, er I mean previous, Codex is 'They advance in a methodical manner laying down a constant barrage of fire'. That and the phrase 'hulking, weirdly baroque leviathans' are central to how I see Obliterators.



> I would say add some knee pads, it would make the legs seem more like power armour a little and add to the front heavy armour look.
> 
> +rep


 Yeah, I'm now definitely thinking some kneepad-esque bulges would be a good idea; they'd give some definition to the overall shape of the leg. And thanks for the rep - bloody hell, 3,000! :biggrin:


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## koby

just sat and read all 60 pages! Was a boring afternoon at work! I've been toying with my next army for quite some time! Either Tyranids or Orks so this has now made it Tyranids, Orks or Nurgle Marines! 
I've always wanted to a Death Guard army, maybe the new Finecast range will help with the converting too, i saw in the list that PM's were getting recast into resin. Who knows. Also, about 30 pages back there was a Deamon Prince...i read 30 pages in anticipation of seeing another photo....WHERE THE HELL IS IT?!?!


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## Svartmetall

koby said:


> I've always wanted to a Death Guard army, maybe the new Finecast range will help with the converting too, I saw in the list that PMs were getting recast into resin. Who knows.


 They definitely are, I've cast a bunch of them myself in the last month or two. I wish all the metal ones I've bought on Ebay over the last year or so and stripped and converted were bloody resin, it would have been so much easier to do things to them...grrr... 

_*walks over to give hindsight a good kick in the nutsack*_




> _Also, about 30 pages back there was a Deamon Prince...I read 30 pages in anticipation of seeing another photo....WHERE THE HELL IS IT?!?!_


 Currently it's on a shelf in the modelling room, feeling somewhat neglected since other projects kind of took priority. Don't worry, he'll get finished...eventually. I just realised that since a Great Unclean One model worked fine as a counts-as Daemon Prince but I only had one Rhino, and was having to use Terminators to counts-as for Obliterators (which felt astonishingly lame)...there were other things I needed to model properly first. Daemon Prince Borborygmus will indeed have his day, although knowing me I'll end up pulling off half of what I've done already (not the half-skeletal arm, though, I love that arm ) and re-starting him in a fit of dissatisfaction with what I've done so far.


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## Horacus

Keep the great work pal. Remember, the good old granpa is with you. ¡All Praises!


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## koby

Good to hear on the Deamon Prince! I hate using stand ins as well, can't be as lame as a van sar heavy stubber acting as an autocannon! Really need to buy one haha...got too much to paint tho! 
I know how addicts feel now, i'm itching for the next nurgly fix!


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## Svartmetall

Well, 'tis my birthday today, so I headed to Bugman's Bar for lunch & a pint and then indulged in a little retail therapy:








It'll be a while before I start work on the Mark Two Plague Terminators but at least I'll have these ready for when I do. And I figured I may as well get myself some Finecast Plague Marines just to see what I can do with them when they're in a medium that actually does lend itself to converting, unlike metal...

And many thanks to *SilverTabby*, who popped round a bit earlier with a Nurgly birthday cake she'd made me:








It merely _looks_ wonderfully horrible, it tastes great. 


But wait...what's this I see lurking in my fridge? Why, I do believe it's a very cold _beer_! And on such a warm evening as well...whatever shall I do...?

:biggrin:


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## Midge913

Happy birthday mate!


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## TomG

I just went though this entire thread and I have to say it's all incredible!
I love wandering onto threads like this because they're so inspirational and you have an insane talent there, sheer awesome!

Keep up the great work and have a good birthday!

p.s that cake reminds me of something I made in Home Ec one time...although I bet your one tastes great!


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## aboytervigon

Awesome Its my B-day on tuesday so Svart are you a gemini?


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## forkmaster

I saw there will be new resin Death Guard coming out, are you thinking about buying them?


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## yanlou

Happy Nurgley Birthday :drinks:.

I look forward to seeing what you do with the new Finecast Plague Marines.


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## moo

Happy birthday dude  i hope with age and beer comes more converting goodness and inspiration ^^


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## papa nurgle

aaaaaaaaah! I am marveling at the creations of a twisted GOD! you are fantastic. From an artistic point of view your modeling leaves nothing to be desired. the proportions, dimensions and skill level required are AMAZING! I have told you before and i will again. YOU SIR... ARE A GENIUS!:shok::shok::shok::shok::shok::shok::shok::shok::shok::shok:


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## Svartmetall

Time to meet Obliterator Number Five - the catchily-named Plasmagun Guy. Since I started on the Obliterators I thought it might be fun to show one of their limbs in the process of changing from one weapon to another, so while he already has a twin-linked plasmagun on his left arm this guy's close-combat power claw on his right arm is morphing into another plasma gun (his loadout would count as twin-linked plasmaguns in-game). 

Here are the two limbs in their initial state, the morphing arm and the twin-linked plasmagun arm:








The morphing arm is the lower half of a Spawn arm pinned onto the upper arm of a Minotaur arm, whereas the twin-linked arm just has two lengths of plastic tube pinned onto the arm. I took great care to make sure all three gun barrels were absolutely parallel to each other and all pointing in the same direction:








...since I figure that even while he was still forming one of his weapons, he'd always have his eyes and targeting gubbins locked on the target. 

From the right side you can see this clearly, as well as the division between claw and gun sides of the right hand:








I _may_ replace the curved green cable with a thick piece of guitar wire or even a green-stuff cable, if the TubeTool I've ordered from Masquerade Miniatures arrives soonish; I think I need to stare at it for a bit to make up my mind on that one (something I do a lot). 

And a close-up of the hand itself:








The idea is to show the mass of the hand flowing from the claw on the right side to the beginnings of the plasmagun on the left side. Imagine this in motion like a slower, viscous version of the T-1000's morphing in 'Terminator 2' and you should get the idea. 

Some more detail shots; I'm really pleased with how the dual cables in the left side of his back have come out, the curves blend in nicely with the rest of the body:








They should hopefully look pretty seamless when painted. 

I also wanted to have some mechanical gubbins in the front torso of one of the Obliterators, so he has this:








I figure it helps put the 'mechanical' in 'biomechanical'; still a lot of blending in to do, obviously, but this should give you some idea of where I'm going with Plasmagun Guy. 

Just for the hell of it, here's the original Crappy Concept Sketch™ for the twin-linked arm - I'm still debating whether it really makes sense for an Obliterator to have a chain weapon, but they _do_ look cool. While having lunch in Bugman's last weekend I came up with the top one, then re-did it with better proportions and a bit more detail.









And here as well is the CCS for two of the heads, as I'm currently visualising them:








These will need to be sculpted from scratch, obviously. I'd like to have effectively bare heads - to help give them more character as opposed to just having a faceless helm - but will have quite a bit of plating on the head itself, and something like a gorget rising up from the thick chest armour plating to help convey the heavily-armoured look vital to an Obliterator. 


More, as always, when I have it.


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## Winterous

Absolutely fantastic work!
But um...

"(his loadout would count as twin-linked plasmaguns in-game)"
Why say that? They can choose what to shoot whenever they shoot.


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## Svartmetall

Winterous said:


> They can choose what to shoot whenever they shoot.


 Oh, absolutely - I just thought it'd be nice to have each of my six planned Obliterators modelled with one of the six loadouts they have in the Codex. Gives it a nice fluff-completeness to my mind; I just wish they could have heavy flamers, 'cos I could have a lot of fun doing a biomechanical one of those. I might just do one anyway for the hell of it...and that would give me a Nurgle-approved 7 Obliterators, after all


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## Winterous

Svartmetall said:


> Oh, absolutely - I just thought it'd be nice to have each of my six planned Obliterators modelled with one of the six loadouts they have in the Codex. Gives it a nice fluff-completeness to my mind; I just wish they could have heavy flamers, 'cos I could have a lot of fun doing a biomechanical one of those. I might just do one anyway for the hell of it...and that would give me a Nurgle-approved 7 Obliterators, after all


Hell yeah!
And realistically TL Flamers isn't far off it


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## Dave T Hobbit

Superb work.

The concepts are brilliant. I am most impressed however with how crisp your GS edges are.


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## yanlou

Im loving what your what your doing Svart, can i ask tho, i gather you bought a set of sculpting tools that have finer ends to them, something like these? http://www.modelzone.co.uk/model-kits/tools-and-accessories/set-of-6-stainless-steel-probes.html
As im planning on getting some as my gs skills are getting better and i think im getting ready to do even more finer detailed sculpting, thats why i asked, as your an expert in GS.


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## Legiomortis

Its some excellent work, I for one love the original Termi-Ogryn conversions as most others have said the level of fine detailing in your GS is extremely high standard.


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## aboytervigon

Death guard are one of the coolest looking armies in my opinion soooo....

Great work

+Rep

Keep going

In that order.


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## moo

I love how detailed your concept sketches are and the way you work so easily with GS, always a pleasure dude  and thanks for motivating me to getting into deathguard ! nurgle goodness ftw ^^.

From a gaming point of view 7 oblits are a bit tricky to sort out, but heck i'd model the flamer one anyway since you seem pretty pumped about doing that. My terminators are carrying 2 heavy weapons just cos i love the weapons lol.


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## Svartmetall

yanlou said:


> I'm loving what you're doing Svart, can I ask though, I gather you bought a set of sculpting tools that have finer ends to them, something like these? http://www.modelzone.co.uk/model-kits/tools-and-accessories/set-of-6-stainless-steel-probes.html
> As I'm planning on getting some as my gs skills are getting better and I think I'm getting ready to do even more finer detailed sculpting, thats why I asked...


I don't actually have a set like that, I'm still using my staples of a scalpel, clay shaper, about two normal metal sculpting tools and a couple of cocktail sticks. Meh...they do what I need them to do. It can't hurt to get them anyway, though, you may well find something that works well for you; I may actually pick some of those up myself for the same reason...




moo said:


> From a gaming point of view 7 oblits are a bit tricky to sort out...


 I'd probably go with squads of 3+2+2, you could work that into even 1,500-point lists and that'd pack one hell of a punch.


----------



## yanlou

Quite a collection of tools then, thanks for the reply:victory:


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## Svartmetall

OK, just a tiny update-ette...my TubeTool from MaxMini arrived yesterday and I had a play with it last night after work & working out. I replaced the cabling leading into the proto-plasmagun with tubing made with the TubeTool - the mid-size plates, to be precise - and I think it looks a lot better:









One nice thing about tubing made from green stuff (as opposed to guitar string) is that you don't have to apply it to the model as soon as you've made the tube, while it's still uncured; if you let it cure first after making the tube you can, once it's hardened, trim it with a scalpel to the exact shape you want. If you look at how it lies flat along the arm leading into the back of the plasmagun barrel here, you can see where I shaved the underside of the tube down somewhat to give the impression of it sitting within the arm as it enters the back of the gun barrel itself. I figure this would be the conduit down which the plasma travels before being fired out - normally this is buried invisibly within the arm, but since this is an arm that's still forming the weapon you can see the exposed plasma conduit. 

You can also, of course, bend the tubing to any curvature you want while it's curing to match where you want to put it on a model; you might not need or want to do that every time, but in this case I wanted it to fit precisely in the crook of the arm so being able to do that was handy. I'll do some more experimenting with it but I'm already conviced that, despite being somewhat pricy, it's going to be a pretty useful thing to have around.


----------



## Legiomortis

And this thread shames my futile attempts at a nurgle army.

But credit where credit is due, your work is nothing short of sublime Svart, looking forwards to seeing them finished.k:


----------



## Winterous

Looks fantastic man.
And I am definitely getting one of those tools, just too good to pass up!


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## Boc

Man... that is insane. The sculpting along the muscles, where you match it beautifully to the plastic portion of the model, is flawless. And whatever that TubeTool is... wow.

I'm convinced you've actually made a deal with Satan (or Nurgle) to be this good at green stuffing.


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## BearsofLeon

SVART I AM BACK FROM HIATUS

and holy dear NURGLE this thread has DOUBLED IN SIZE, and amazing job! I am so happy to seeyou progressing


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction Svartmetall!


----------



## Svartmetall

Well now...it has been a while, hasn't it? 

I've been in a bit of a slump for a while, I must confess, caused by a combination of things. I failed to get a job I'd spent the best part of two years working my arse off to get through the application process for, which was very upsetting and depressing, and I've also been having _extreme_ difficulty trying to adjust to the very early morning starts I'm currently having to do having been happily nocturnal most of my adult life (I'm actually beginning to suspect I have a thing called Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, which perfectly explains both my natural sleep/wake cycle and the problems I've been having since I started having to begin work at 6 a.m.). Cue total lack of keen for anything, an almost permanent state of exhaustion, and what has at times felt like a relapse of depression. And so, as of last week, cue anti-depressants. 

_*sigh*_

Anyway, in a bid to get the modelling ball rolling again I took a look at the army pics from a while back and realised that as much as anything else I _really_ needed to get some damn Rhinos built; I had the best part of 100 Plague Marines, and just 1 Rhino. Some friends of mine have started their regular Wednesday night gaming sessions at Warhammer World again, and I'd pretty much said to myself I didn't want to play another 40K game using the same old stand-in model (an unpainted Mark One Vindicator I got off Ebay ages ago, in fact) for the second Rhino; I wanted to have decent Rhinos that fit in with the rest of Pandemic. Now maybe it's just me, but I find it very hard to get excited about a Rhino, even though I know you need them for just about every army list going; so, using a bit of psychology on myself, I went ahead and bought two sets of the Forge World Death Guard Rhino doors - figuring that if I'd actually spent the money on some after-market upgrades I'd have no excuse not the get the buggers built and I'd _have_ to get them done...

...which seems to have worked. Here are the Rhinos for Plague Marine squads 2 and 3, one with pintle-mounted bolter and one left vanilla for the sake of visual variety:












































I chipped the hell out of just about every edge, and used the Dremel with first a conical drill bit and then a burnishing wheel to create the eaten-away looking patches (the burnishing wheel being basically a round wire brush, which smooths and also slightly melts the plastic for a very Nurgly look); the tiny ball thingies are the little balls out of a water filter, stuck on with good old super glue. The combination of holes and tiny raised nodules should give an interesting surface texture once painted; they were primed black an hour or two ago and I'm hoping to start work on the rest of the paint job tomorrow, going for the same tainted off-white I used on the test model for the army's revamped-and-improved colour scheme:










OK, so a pair of Rhinos isn't exactly massive; but it's the first modelling work of any kind I've managed to get done for a couple of months, so for that reason alone I'm pleased with them. Plus it's been a chance to explore another way to Nurglify armour (and I'm always looking for more of those) and also means I can put together just about any army list I want up to ~1,500 points and have enough transport for all the troop units without having to use slightly embarrassing stand-ins. So here's hoping I can get back to my normal Death Guard update schedule reasonably soon...watch this space...


----------



## Chaosftw

Well look who is starting to jump back up on the horse!

Good to hear things are heading in the right direction! the work you have done looks great! it is small by your standards but thats ok, "Baby Steps!" lol  I look forward to the next update!

Cheers,
Chaosftw


----------



## Midge913

Welcome back Svart! Sorry to hear about the whole job thing, believe me I know how much that sucks. Rhinos are looking good and will look really cool in the updated Pandemic scheme. Looking forward to oogling more photos in the near future!


----------



## Hypn0sis

Sorry to hear about the job and everything, but I'm glad to see you modelling again! Rhino is looking good and I can't wait to see more. This thread is one of the main reasons I'm painting again, it has been very inspiring. I also want to give sculpting a shot thanks to you, so I'll be wathing this thread for more tips!


----------



## wombat_tree

You're not the only one who hates painting Rhinos. I got fed up with trying to paint mine so I just hid them in a box hoping no one would notice . Anyway, good to see you're back and the Rhinos (as boring as Rhinos are) look pretty cool, though I'm surprised that you haven't put more green stuff on them.


----------



## yanlou

Nice to see some more stuff Svart, now i wonder if WoT had any influence lol.


----------



## Svartmetall

wombat_tree said:


> ...I'm surprised that you haven't put more green stuff on them.


I was deliberately trying to see what I could do _without_ GSing the crap out of something for once.



yanlou said:


> ...I wonder if WoT had any influence...


 Not as far as I'm aware, though it's possible; but the lack of Rhinos had been bothering me for a while.


----------



## Zodd

Good to see you're back Svartmetall. I have actually missed your infested contraptions.


----------



## yanlou

Svartmetall said:


> Not as far as I'm aware, though it's possible; but the lack of Rhinos had been bothering me for a while.


Maybe popping alot of boxy (is that a word ) things has helped lol, maybe all those noobs helped too lol, anyway tho, i know what your saying, i need a tone of rhinos, but i cant be arsed as they seem to me like the most boring model in the hobby, so well done for getting the motivation to get some done, as you can guarantee all ill be be building one day will be rhinos lol.


----------



## Chris Guard of Mardat

Great work on everything on I've seen, only got to page 30 but I love what I've seen so far, if I ever turn to Chaos Space Marines I'll probably go for a Nurgle based army.

+rep


----------



## forkmaster

Ive wondered where you went, welcome back at last.


----------



## Svartmetall

This next update has taken longer than I'd intended, due to a combination of things. The depression makes everything take longer anyway (but I _am_ slowly beating it), I'm a slow painter at the best of times and I've also had to change my sleeping pattern _again_ - although I'm back to my preferred late-shift hours now, which is a huge plus. I'm just one of life's inherently nocturnal people, basically, and being able to work evenings again has been a HUGE relief - I basically spent 4 months seriously sleep-deprived, which may well have played a part in exacerbating/causing the depression - but changing sleep patterns is very hard for me and I spent about 2 weeks doing not much except sleep as I re-adjusted. But thing are definitely looking better 


Anyway, I mentioned painting; I was sick of having just a primed-black Rhino as Pandemic's wheels, and decided the next priority for me was to get the one I converted up ages ago and the two new ones painted. I wanted the colour scheme to tie in with the updated army colour scheme, since I think that highlights the conversion work a lot better and is also a more vibrant and interesting scheme overall - so, while nowhere near finished, here's where I'm going with them:









I think the metals on the Forge World doors pop nicely against the shaded white-to-green palette:








The basic colour scheme is Orkhide Shade → Rotting Flesh → Bleached Bone → Skull White, with Goblin Green drybrushed over the pustulent bits in between the coats of Rotting Flesh and Bleached Bone. I've been working on my shading by practicing on sections of sprue, trying to get the graduation between colours looking smoother; the camera seems to have made these look brighter than they appear in the flesh, but meh. You get the idea. I really want to improve as a painter, and the only way for me to do that is to...y'know..._paint_.

And here's the original Rhino from way back finally with some real paint on it, the Nurgly fleshy bits I've strung through the vehicle basecoated in Charadon Granite ready for its final flesh tones:
















I'm thinking to go with pinkish flesh with a liberal spread of tumorous discolourations, which should again pop nicely against the background colour and the metals; the combination of all 3 should hopefully give a really rich overall colour mix to this Rhino. I kind of made a rod for my own back with this one, as getting even just a basecoat on the tendrils took _ages_; I'm learning that complex conversions lead to time-consuming paint jobs  Next up will be finishing and shading the metals (I love Tin Bitz as a colour but its coverage is bloody terrible) then starting the fun business of weathering, rusting and streaking across the Rhinos.

Since I'm well aware that my painting abilities lag some way behind whatever other modelling abilities I may possess, all C&C is particularly welcomed on this side of things...


_____


----------



## Red Corsairs

The tanks look great so far, you are right about the metallics on the FW doors as they do contrast nicely. Looking forward to seeing them finished, I've always been a fan of your Nurgle projects.


----------



## Dave T Hobbit

Svartmetall said:


> But thing are definitely looking better


Excellent news.



Svartmetall said:


> I'm thinking to go with pinkish flesh with a liberal spread of tumorous discolourations...


As the green is quite pale without strong shading and highlights, I suggest a fleshy pink rather than a vibrant pink so it does not overwhelm the greens.


----------



## Son of mortarion

I think a brown wash in the recesses would set off the green, and help dirty the rhino up a bit,


----------



## Disciple_of_Ezekiel

Hey Svartmetall,

I think the conversion work you have done on these looks fantastic with al the nice nurgley details all around. The different shades of green really set it off on the Rhinos as well. Super!

Looking forward to seeing them finished.

Regards,
DoE


----------



## khrone forever

ive just read the whole of this thread over several hours. all you work is fucking awsome :biggrin: its almost persuaded me to do my own nurgle themed army, almost...

anyway....awsome


----------



## Hellados

I think they all look amazingly disgusting!! I love the art work and i love the green stuff!! You are clearly an incredibly talented artist mate!! +rep


----------



## nsr250repsol

Very nice work all around! Truely an army to be proud of.


----------



## Svartmetall

OK...the depression isn't completely gone yet, but it's a shadow of what it was and I'm definitely starting to get back into a regular modelling habit now.

One thing I've noticed over the last few weeks is just how many half-finished things I have lying around; I'm a classic example of someone who gets an idea for something, starts making it in a wave of enthusiasm and then gets another new idea and goes off in a wave of enthusiasm to do that instead without finishing the first thing. I'm not going to stop building new stuff, by any means, but I have resolved to start finishing work on a bunch of the various half-completed projects that are lying around as well. 

And yes, I'm looking at _you_, Mr. Defiler. Stop scuttling off into a corner, and sit still while I glue things to you.

First to receive the 'getting finished at long bloody last' treatment is Plague Champion Volvulus the Bloated. He's the leader of my second squad of Plague Marines, Squad 'Virulis', for whom I did a rough concept sketch in Bugman's ages ago and built the torso, then promptly got carried away with...er...something else. Just to jog your memories, here's the original concept art: 









And here's where he is now - I'm just waiting for the GS work on his left arm to cure before he gets finished (hopefully tomorrow, in fact):

















The powerfist with severed head and the combi-melta are from the *Chaos Space Marine Lord*, the head is an old-school Death Guard one and...I have absolutely no idea what model the backpack comes from, but it was buried in one of the deeper strata of my bits box and seems to fit this guy's bulk :biggrin:. He's a huge, hulking fat bastard of a Plague Marine; I liked him a lot when he was just a torso, but he may well now be turning into one of my favourite Pandemic models, full stop. Looking at these pics now as I post this, I'm starting to suspect I'll end up using him as a good chunk of the visual template for the next batch of Plague Terminators...


And I've also turned my attention back to the pair of Possessed I started last year; the fat one ('Mudd') is currently legless while I mull over what legs I want to give him, but the thin one ('Finney') is now getting his mutated arm fleshed out and also has a proper head and backpack: 









The mutated arm is very much based on one of the *mutated Chaos Marauder arm* models from Warhammer Online; the concept with him is to make the whole model tall, thin, and with as many teeth as (in)humanly possible all over the place. Even the right side of his head is a jawbone that's growing down into his torso to join up with the one in his torso. Mudd's legs may well end up being scratchbuilt, as I tried using Terminator lower legs but they just didn't look right with the Ogre torso.


And, by the way, whilst I'm getting more and more into the idea of making Nurgle Raptors after working out *how I wanted to do the backpacks*, the next new thing I start is looking almost certain to be a heavy bolter-wielding Havoc squad, after *SilverTabby*'s Tyranids nommed more of my guys than I like in our last game due to a distinct lack of shootiness on my part. I got lucky on Ebay and picked up 4 of the old-school metal shoulder-mounted heavy bolters, which I love since they're a big brutish lump of metal whose chunkiness fits Death Guard perfectly IMO - like having a Chevy V8 engine block on your shoulder or something.

More stuff soon


----------



## Midge913

Some more smashing pieces Svart! It is also good to hear that you are on the upswing as far as the depression goes. Hope to see more work from you in the coming weeks as it is always an inspiration.


----------



## Skari

Ewwwwww. (thats a good thing, right?)


----------



## DeathKlokk

Go Svart go! As someone who fights off depression occasionally, I'm glad to hear it's getting better.


New stuff is looking Boss. Volvulos's backpack is from a Sorcerer model BTW.


----------



## Kreuger

Hey Svart, glad to hear your thought-bits are on the mend and you're getting the chaos out of your system into the world.

These guys are looking good. I'm particularly impressed by how clean and smooth your greenstuff work is. I've probably done a lot more greenstuffing that the average gamer, and I still have trouble getting rounded forms to be that clean.

The rhinos are also looking good. One critique, (and it might just be the photos) it looks like the metal on the doors is getting a little lost. And as I say it could be the photos, but it looks like the silvery color on the arrows could use some shading or additional contrast/definition around the edges to pull it out of the tank's colors a little more.

Keep it coming!

Cheers,
Kreuger


----------



## Svartmetall

DeathKlokk said:


> Volvulus' backpack is from a Sorcerer model BTW.


I found my old Chaos Collector's Guide this morning and checked - it's actually Ahriman's backpack. I guess I'm just taking it back off that jumped-up little Harry Potter wannabe for Father Nurgle  

And *Kreuger* - you're absolutely right about the metals on the Rhino, it's because in those photos they haven't been highlighted or shaded yet. Both are happening, and once I've got the weathering done pics will be posted for your perusal.


----------



## Dave T Hobbit

Glad you are getting back in the saddle.

The new work looks exquisite.


----------



## Kreuger

Ah, gotcha. I wasn't sure how far along you were since you commented on the color separation. I look forward to the finished product as always.

cheers,
Kreuger


----------



## Svartmetall

And here _is_ the finished product - Plague Champion Volvulus, in all his putrefying...er...'glory':


















I ended up pinning the backpack to his torso, since it's such a heavy component that I could see it falling off all too easily; the GS power cable going from the powerfist into the back of his torso is meant to help make it look more naturally a part of his wargear. He's definitely become my favourite Plague Champion to date, and I suspect this model has actually raised the bar I've set myself for my standard of Plague Marine conversion.

The bits I needed to get on with work on the Defiler have now arrived, so it may well be next for the 'finish the bloody thing!' treatment, and I've also started work on the squad of 7 Death Guard Havocs - 4 of which will be wielding the old-school metal heavy bolters. And since I've _finally_ managed to get my camera to work with my laptop, it means I can post my rambling diatribes from the modelling table itself rather than having to take the camera downstairs to the desktop gaming machine every time I want to post a picture of something ghastly I've made


----------



## Midge913

Beautiful work on that one Svart! The power fist really stands out as incredibly imposing. Looking forward to the Defiler and the Havocs.


----------



## Red Corsairs

Fucking brilliant. It's amazing as always Svart. I haven't been following your work properly for a couple of years now but I won't stop following it again now that I have seen what I've been missing. Keep up the fantastic work.


----------



## WarlordKaptainGrishnak

Another awesome conversion Svart. and I like where your heading with the new colour scheme. Keep it up bud.


----------



## Svartmetall

OK, so here's the first Rhino with all metals, highlighting, rust, verdigris and weathering done:


































And yes, I know I've left the exhaust stacks un-done - that's because on a Rhino they're about the handiest bit to hold it by while painting, and will therefore probably end up being the last part painted to avoid wearing the paint off 

Now to try and work out how to paint the tracks...


----------



## Dave T Hobbit

Very icky looking. :victory:



Svartmetall said:


> Now to try and work out how to paint the tracks...


Step One: pick up a brush....


----------



## Tensiu

Woah, the best Rhino I've ever seen, woaah. Not too corrupted, but still obviously Nurglesque (Nurglish?) even without His markings.


----------



## Hellados

ah god these things are putrid! i love them! i cant help but think the tracks may need a bit more colour but youre 1,000,000 times better then me


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## Midge913

Love the Rhino Svart!!!! The streaking technique you have used is really incredible.


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## Red Corsairs

Amazing painting as always Svart. It looks disgusting, which is of course a good thing!


----------



## lunawolf

Step 2 : choose what color you will apply !


----------



## Svartmetall

Quick update - as part of the ongoing 'finish what ya started' program, I'm going to be updating the paint jobs on _everything_ that's currently painted to match the new-and-improved paint scheme for both vehicles and infantry, and this includes Dreadnoughts. 

Which means it's time for good ol' Dreadnought Vvornth to get a bit of makeover; I've never been happy with the paint scheme on his armour as it was, it had frankly been done in a hurry in the rush to get everything ready for going in the Warhammer World Miniatures Hall, and it was never really much good. So, being pretty happy with the colour scheme on the new-build Rhinos, I decided to update Vvornth's paint job to match that - I also realised he'd been getting lonely stuck on the shelf by himself, so I gave him a little companion: 



















Final weathering still to be done, but this already makes the pallid greenish flesh pop better and the new base colour (which will also be applied across the whole army as I go along) helps the whole paint scheme leap out a bit more. 

As always, all C&C is welcomed


----------



## Midge913

He is looking good mate, though I still think the fleshy parts should provide a bit more contrast. Maybe go a bit darker with the organic parts so they really stand out.


----------



## Svartmetall

Midge913 said:


> ...I still think the fleshy parts should provide a bit more contrast. Maybe go a bit darker with the organic parts so they really stand out.


After staring at it for a while this morning, that's pretty much the conclusion I've been coming to as well; darken down the green at the edges and maybe use some contrasting washes or inks for flavour. I shall experiment after work tonight...


----------



## Kreuger

I agree with you and midge on the contrast. I also think there is too much contrast between the magazines and the heavybolters and the pallid white. My eye keeps going back to the separation between those areas.

Otherwise, awesome work as always svart.


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## TheReverend

I love the way you have painted the dread and the rhino, I really like the scheme.

Rev


----------



## Red Corsairs

Fantastic painting on the dreadnought Svart.


----------



## Svartmetall

OK, here's the first update of the day...

You may or may not remember the Flyspawn I did _aaaages_ ago, but - even though I've always really liked him - for some reason I never got around to basing him or painting his talons. So, as part of Operation Finish The Bloody Thing, here he is:


























I like the green-tinged rusted blade, and the way he seems to glisten in an unpleasant fashion. I've always had a soft spot for Spawn (no, I don't know why either) and now I finally have 2 squads of 2.

Next on today's to-do list is more GS work on the Havoc squad; more pics in a bit


----------



## Khorne's Fist

I think his claws/spikes could do with a similar wash to what you did on the sword, but otherwise it looks good.


----------



## Svartmetall

And the next one: here are the seven Havocs of Squad 'Plaguehammer', after two rounds of GS work on each:


























This ia actually the first time I've ever put together a single squad simultaneously, keeping the look unified (in this case fat bastards who've grown too porky to run fast, which is why they get to hang back with the long-range heavy weapons) across the whole squad and using fairly matched parts - e.g. each right shoulderpad has a skull on it - on all of them. The Champion is the one with the chainmail loincloth hanging down; I've been really getting into blending GS'd cabling made using the Masq-Mini tool with the rest of the GS work on these guys, and I would totally recommend this tool to anyone who thinks they might have a need for this kind of thing in their projects.

More as soon as I have it...


----------



## Midge913

Looking great Svart!!!! I think that the squad looks very unified. I love the Chaimail loin cloth on the champion, the integration of the GS cabling, and the guy with the tendril crotch! Keep up the good work man.


----------



## UDLT

wow... just wow...


----------



## OIIIIIIO

I think that I need a tetanus shot just from looking at these guys ... so, uhhh, when are you going to start sculpting for GW? You have real talent Svart, I am jealous.


----------



## Disciple_of_Ezekiel

The flyspawn looks very demonic thats for sure Svart. I like that he looks "wet" it gives it that nice and nasty looking look to it. 

As for the new green stuff work, dude, BEAUTIFUL work! Def stuff to be proud of man!

Regards,
DoE


----------



## ChaosRedCorsairLord

That fly spawn would make Jeff Goldblum proud.


----------



## Horacus

Really awsome. Papa nurgle is so proud of you.


----------



## Svartmetall

Operation Finish The Bloody Thing continues apace - the Forge World Death Guard Dreadnought I bought just after I got into the hobby which sat there for about three years before I GS'd in the acromegalic armour, and then sat there again afterwards...is _finally_ getting painted. No more will he stand on the shelf next to my modelling table, glaring pointedly at me with a "You _still_ haven't got round to finishing me?" expression.


















On a model where one of the primary aims is to blend in the conversion work seamlessly with the existing detail, the primer stage is the first chance to see whether you've really got the blending right or not since everything's now the same colour; I'm definitely happy with how he looks even at this early stage. The plan is to use the exact same paint scheme on him that I used on the test Plague Marine; I'm hoping he and Vvornth will make for a nice pair of Nurgle Dreadnoughts (and I still have an AoBR Dreadnought waiting to be Nurgled up to complete the unholy trinity).

And now, back to GSing up the Havocs...


----------



## CLT40k

Looks really cool... Especially the chainsword on the las arm


----------



## Kreuger

As always watching with interest as you develop your projects. And of course nurgle and his minions are keep their compound eyes on you too. I'm sure of it.


----------



## mutronics

As a sufferer of depression myself I know how hard and frustrating it is to actually get something done! 
That being said, this is JAW dropping work. You can count me among your fans and will be watching this thread with bated breath.


----------



## .Bragg.

Well worth the wait I'm sure! Nice to feel confident in the paint scheme before committing to such important models. Will be keeping an eye or two on here as always


----------



## WarlordKaptainGrishnak

Continiously awesome work Svart. Long time follower of your log. Love the new scheme you've decided on, it really gells with your conversion style. I like the new PM additions you have going, looking forward to seeing them finished. And the Dread, looks beast. Now get it painted!


----------



## Svartmetall

Cry 'Dogs!', and let slip the Havocs of...no wait, that's wrong...

After a very busy week where much of my spare time was eaten up by mortgage stuff and other things, I've managed to finish the lion's share of the GS work on the Havocs. 

Here's a group shot:









And some detail shots, starting off with the Champion:









And his second-in-command:









And the rest of the squad:


















Hopefully I'm starting to get the hang of integrating the Tube Tool cabling in with more traditional Nurgly flesh; the Champion and the second-in-command are the ones I'm happiest with right now. I'm trying to get the cabling to sit naturally with everything else and not look all Here Is The Tube Tool Part, if you know what I mean. 

And now, thanks to the wonders of eBay, I finally have the particular heavy weapon I've been wanting for my Havoc Champion - a Legion of the Damned heavy bolter:








The things are like rocking-horse shit, but I finally managed to get my hands on a pair; I have a bunch of the standard old-school metal heavy bolters, but I love these ones with the skeleton on them. So once they're stripped - they're marinading in Dettol right now - I can start final assembly with the heavy weapons. I'm going to give the Champion a powerfist, and random close-combat weapons with maybe the occasional bolt pistol for the others. And the second LotD heavy bolter will be reserved for the second Havoc squad's Champion 

Painting is slowly progressing on the Dreadnought, although I realised that it's a lot easier to paint a Dread with the arms _off_ - I'd gotten so carried away with the idea of finally getting him finished that I went ahead and glued his arms on, when I should've waited. Cue some careful hacking and slashing to get them off again for painting purposes. Doh!


As always, all C&C is welcomed.


----------



## Zodd

Svartmetall said:


> Hopefully I'm starting to get the hang of integrating the Tube Tool cabling in with more traditional Nurgly flesh; the Champion and the second-in-command are the ones I'm happiest with right now. I'm trying to get the cabling to sit naturally with everything else and not look all Here Is The Tube Tool Part, if you know what I mean.


Those tube are spot on, very well blended. But maybe some ruptures or cracks with Father Nugle-juice leaking. How about that ?


----------



## Svartmetall

Zodd said:


> Those tube are spot on, very well blended. But maybe some ruptures or cracks with Father Nugle-juice leaking. How about that ?


I'm not actually a huge fan of broken cabling, as such; I figure that would've gotten repaired. Rusted, corrupted and corroded is one thing, but it needs to _work_ even so; so something as blatantly non-functional as a broken cable would get fixed by the artificers.


----------



## Midge913

Sculpting is fantastic as always man! Though the plain looking head bits look a bit out of place with the beautifully sculpted torsos. Any plans on adding bits to the helms and heads?


----------



## Svartmetall

Midge913 said:


> ...the plain looking head bits look a bit out of place with the beautifully sculpted torsos. Any plans on adding bits to the helms and heads?


Probably, yeah. I know I want them to have sensors etc. to help with the heavy weapons' targeting, which is why I've used the placeholder heads you see; I'll stare at them for a night or two and see what the old grey matter comes up with by way of a solution (I have a shelf by my bed I use for just such a purpose, to literally sleep on design issues by fixing the look of a model in my head before I doze off). Originally I thought of using WFB knight helms to help differentiate them from the normal Plague Marines and blu-tacked some on as placeholders, but - after some staring & thinking - I realised they didn't look right. My current thinking is that I may well end up keeping these heads, but adding Nurgliness and maybe more cabling to them.

Assuming that I end up with a look for Havocs that I'm thoroughly happy with on these guys, I'm intending to make 4 more with missile launchers that I can swap out for the heavy bolter guys should an army list require it (keeping the other 3 as ablative armour guys for casualty-removal purposes); I'm keeping an eye on eBay for some of the old-school bottom-loading bazooka-style missile launchers, as I like the look of those, although I think the current Havoc ones are pretty decent too. I have one of the bazooka-style ones already, but with 4 of the current ones sat in a drawer in my bits cabinet I guess I could just go ahead and make them with those anyway.

In the spirit of Operation Finish The Bloody Thing, though, let's get these guys finished first :biggrin:


----------



## DeathKlokk

Anyone else find it funny that Svart can sculpt like a God but still scours ebay for a HB with a skelly on it? lol

Svart, I'm pretty sure I have a few of those MLs you're describing. PM me an address and they're yours!


----------



## Svartmetall

DeathKlokk said:


> Anyone else find it funny that Svart...scours ebay for a HB with a skelly on it? lol


I wanted that specific HB, though. I debated just sculpting a skeleton onto one of the other heavy bolters I already had, or decorating one using Tomb King/Vampire Count skeleton bits, but it wouldn't have been quite the same, and I wanted the Old School look using that particular weapon gives.

And...PM sent


----------



## Svartmetall

And here's the first finished Havoc, one of the 'ablative armour' guys:










And from all angles:


















He doesn't have a heavy bolter, but I figure all Havocs would have the modified backpack that allows them to pick up and use a heavy weapon should another squad member drop theirs (I very much had the 'Enemy At The Gates' thing of "...when the one with the gun gets killed, the one behind picks it up and shoots" in mind); getting the backpack cabling to sit just right with a clean joint involved making it and bending it to the right curvature, then letting it cure hard and cutting this so the faces of the cable section properly matched the angles of the backpack's side before gluing it on. He has the cabling for targeting optics attached to his upper skull curving down to just above the right eye, but hasn't fitted his scope over the right eye since he isn't currrently using a heavy weapon. I know, I know, I'm over-thinking things again...

Now I have him as a baseline for the unit as a whole, it should be relatively quick now to finish the whole lot; the only thing slowing me down now (apart from the fact that I seem to be immensely sleepy a lot of the time right now, no idea why) is working out the best way to pin the metal heavy bolters to the models' shoulders while keeping their right arms looking naturally posed.


----------



## KjellThorngaard

That is a cool looking mini. Your GS abilities make me cry. Cables? Cables?! You make cables from green stuff? Wow. Very nice.

Your fluff is cool, too. It makes sense and allows you to indulge your creative whims. Keep it up.


----------



## CLT40k

Ha, I'm glad I'm not the only one who takes his minis to bed with him... My wife was making fun of me the other day cause I always take minis with me to the toilet and think about the paint job while I do my thing... 

As always the GS work is incredible... and I think the Havocs will look really sweet when done.


----------



## .Bragg.

Disgusting! That being a compliment under these circumstances  
When you say you've modified the backpack, is that to allow room over the shoulder? I think I've just answered myself there 
can't wait to see them painted, have you got a scheme set for these guys?


----------



## Svartmetall

Awfun said:


> ...can't wait to see them painted, have you got a scheme set for these guys?


Yeah, they're going to have basically the same colour scheme as the rest of the army; I can't see Death Guard getting too fussed over special paint jobs for the heavy-weapons guys. I have made sure to use shoulderpads with skulls on for all of their right shoulders, though, just to give a little element of visual unity.

And here's the first heavy-bolter-wielding guy:









I'm finally happy with the balance of the weapon on the right shoulder; this took several different goes with blu-tacking stuff together before I was satisfied, as it's quite tricky with these big chunky weapons to balance them visually with the figure as a whole, and also have enough physical room for the bolter itself next to the head. I particularly like the detail of him holding two heads, ready to be made into blight grenades, in his left hand.










And here's the next non-heavy-bolter guy:


----------



## khrone forever

lovely work again Svart. lovely .....pustuals? i think....uke:


----------



## Midge913

Very nice man!!! I am thinking about going with the shoulder carried heavy weapons for my Devastator squads for my IF successors and seeing these clenches that for me. I love the balance of the model.


----------



## Svartmetall

And here's the finished Havoc squad:









Firstly, the final non-heavy-bolter guy:









...the next two standard heavy-bolter guys:

















...and finally the Havoc Champion:

















The augmetic detail on the top of his head:









It took me a while to decide how to do his backpack; I knew I wanted something more ornate than the normal ones the rest of the squad have, but it still had to work when asymmetric to allow for the heavy weapon. In the end I took one of the Possessed backpacks, cut off the right-hand vent and relocated one of the spikes to the middle of the backpack body; between that and the bones on his LoTD heavy weapon, hopefully it gives him some overall visual unity and style. I will be doing another squad of Havocs - but with missile launchers this time (oi, *DeathKlokk*, you never replied to my PM ) - and having these guys finished means I now have a visual reference point to keep the next squad unified with them. All C&C is welcomed, as always. 


So...what next? In terms of new stuff, given that I have one in several army lists I'd like to try playing - and having had the box sat on my shelf for _way_ too long - I think it's Vindicator time. And continuing in a vehicle-y vein, as part of Operation Finish The Bloody Thing I suspect Crabzilla the Defiler is next on the List.


----------



## Winterous

...I just realised, but I don't think that Havok Champion is a legal model, I'm pretty sure the Aspiring Champion of the unit can't take a heavy weapon.


----------



## Skari

Very nicely done. Your greenstuff-fu is strong. +rep


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## Midge913

Love the way the squad turned out mate!!


----------



## .Bragg.

Owieee! Those are disgusting! Great unison across the squad, you can tell they all gave up on the Emperor at the same time! +rep


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## Zodd

Superb Sculpting, Sir Svart, and Sublimeness certainly shows in the details.
And I concede, those hoses are just spot on.k:


----------



## Chris Guard of Mardat

These are great :biggrin::clapping: just gone through the whole thread, and I must say you've improved loads. I really like your Obliterators, and I may have to get a new army now...

+rep


----------



## Red Corsairs

Fantastic work on the Havocs Svart! I now look forward to watching crabzilla the defiler progress...


----------



## Disciple_of_Ezekiel

Well done Svart, well done indeed. You def have a nack for converting and modeling Nurgle that is for sure!

+Rep

Regards,
DoE


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## eskeoto

Well, I haven't touched a model in a little over a year. One look at your work and now I want to again. Probably in horrid disappointment as mine won't turn out that disgusting


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## TheReverend

Great work. I don't usually like that style of heavy bolter but you have made them look good. The green stuff is fantastic. 

Rev


----------



## Svartmetall

This the Possessed I mentioned in the Angels Of Disease thread - I started him just before I moved into my house over two years ago, and he's just sort of sat there since then. I've always liked the idea of a Possessed who's reasonably normal(ish) on one side, and fully Daemonically mutated on the other; so now he'll combine Operation Finish The Bloody Thing and Operation Stop Painting Like A Tard. I've already finished his construction, adding the right arm and resculpting his back to fill in the gaps in the original Spawn torso:

























The Tallarn Flesh basecoat was done back when I started him (no, I have no idea why I started painting him before I'd finished building him either) but what I've done in the last couple of nights is the armour pieces & weapon, paying particular attention to working at highlighting the metals. On the flesh the plan is to go from natural flesh on the right hand side to green on the tentacles, which should be a challenge to my painting abilities as they stand - but then that's the point.


Also, it being my birthday last weekend, I treated myself to a model I wasn't convinced by at first sight but which has seriously grown on me since - Mamon, Daemon Prince of Nurgle:









I have a few things I want to customise on him a bit, but I think he's going to be both a lot of fun to paint and a really cool HQ model.


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## Dave T Hobbit

Lack of lateral symmetry is an excellent idea.

Form a pure gaming perspective having him Terminator scale might reduce his effectiveness, but the larger size allows greater differentiation between the halves.


----------



## Red Corsairs

I too like the Posessed and am looking forward to seeing him fully painted. I'll also be looking forward to seeing what you do with your sculpting talent on Mamon.


----------



## Svartmetall

So...painting, and the hopeful improvement thereof. In between being glued to the Olympics (I don't do sports, as a rule, but these were special) I've mainly been working on painting the Angels Of Disease, but this has also spilled over into Pandemic's paint scheme, which I still didn't feel I'd nailed with the last test model. So, after much work on blending and colour paletted - especially for flesh - here's what I'm hoping will be the definitive Pandemic colour scheme:









No, the metals aren't weathered yet, but then you already know what rust and verdigris look like...I've taken the overall brightness of the armour down a notch or two, and tried to give the flesh the look of bruised, stretched and generally deeply unhealthy tissue - basically I wanted his body to look like spoiled meat 

















The idea is to give a fairly rich overall mixture of colours, while keeping the flesh corrupted and having a bit of the old-school greenishness to the armour; here's the new test model next to the previous one for comparison:









Looking at it on the screen, my camera is as always tending to wash things out a bit and make them look more pallid than they actually are; all I can say is that in the flesh, the model's skin looks genuinely distended and repugnant to my eyes...which in the world of Nurgle has to be a good thing. 

All C&C is welcomed, as always 


_____


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## Chaosftw

Looking great man! Always love to see what comes out of your head and onto the models! Always inspirational!


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## Dave T Hobbit

My comment was going to be that the scheme looks washed-out; however you say it is less so in real life.

I like the variation in the entrails.


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## Viscount Vash

Mmmmm variation in entrails....

Class stuff as always Svart, the Havocs are awesome.
I must now stop looking, as your Nurgly glory is pulling me off my pre-ordained Chaos painting order.

Damn you and you poxy marines. :biggrin:


----------



## Svartmetall

Well...here's a bit of a left turn. Quite a few of the army lists I've worked up over time have had a unit of Khorne Berzerkers in them as shock troops, and I've been wanting to put together a squad of them for a while but didn't want to go down the same old red-armour-with-brass-trim route like you _always_ see with Khornate troops. So, after mulling it over for quite some time (and grabbing some inspiration from the fluff behind the Uruk-Hai Berserkers from LOTR) I came up with the idea of having Khornate troops with gun-metal armour with actual blood splashed over it, rather than armour that had just been painted red. 

First off, a 1.5mm spacer at the waist to give the model better proportions and green stuff used to sculpt waist and lower-torso armour pieces:









Then, a very metallic-heavy armour scheme all over:









...and finally, BLOOD. The idea (which I shamelessly nicked from the aforementioned Uruk-Hai Berserkers) is that these guys fill their helmets with blood just prior to going into combat, so when they upend the helmets to put them on the blood splashes over their armour for that blessed-by-Khorne look (which is why the helmets themselves don't have blood on them, it's all fallen out onto their torso armour):

















I'm not 100% convinced by the olive drab-type green on the weapons and backpack; do you think black would work better? I intended the green to function as a toning colour against all the metal and the blood, but looking at it I wonder is just straightforward black might work better.

As always, C&C is welcomed.


----------



## Kreuger

Svart, I like the idea. I'm not excited by the execution. The model and sculpting are well done as always. I don't know if this guy is still WIP, but he really doesn't look finished to me. In a general way I think he's kinda flat and missing contrast.

I think he's only at the start of the patented "Svartmetall work shopping process".

So conceptually, I think you have a totally solid idea - referencing the uruk-hai. Really bright shiny armor, not only doesn't make much sense with blood thirsty butchers, but its going to look mighty weird next to your gloriously nasty nurgle marines.

Consider if you will, the layers of grime on those Uruk-Hai berzerkers, the thick scabbing of the blood, the neglect of everything except the implements of slaughter. These guys need to be way dirtier, boots caked in mud, and blood crusted around the edges of the armor and joints. In fact if you took the style of Nurgle marines, weeping goo and pus from everywhere and made it, more like 'weeping/dripping' blood from the joints in their armor . . . I think you might be onto something.

I'd point you to something more like the Reavers from Firefly/Serenity, but less generally pointy. (Pointy is so 4th ed chaos.) Chaotic, dirty, unkept . . . except I think their weapons should be more cared for. A berzerker should love and revere his weapons in much the same way as a samurai. They are the implements of his holy work.

So I think if you take this guy and:
- dirty him down with brown/red/black washes
- maybe stipple some crusty/bloody red/browns in strategic places 
- clean up his weapons so their cutting edges are shiny
- add another accent color - silver and bronze are well and good but he reads a lot more like an iron warrior than a berzerker

then you'll you'll have a real winner!


Hope that helps!


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## Regnear67

I have to agree with kreuger your on to something but it just doesn't senn finished and as a fellow fallower of the mighty plague father it needs to be more grimy dirty other then that its awesome


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## Dave T Hobbit

The olive looks wrong to me. The other colours are silver (neutral), bronze/brass (yellow-orange), and fresh blood (red-purple), so a green-blue would balance better.


----------



## Svartmetall

Kreuger said:


> I don't know if this guy is still WIP, but he really doesn't look finished to me. In a general way I think he's kinda flat and missing contrast.


He's not had weathering and washing yet, no; I wanted to make sure the basic scheme was nailed before I did all the fine-tuning stuff.



> _So conceptually, I think you have a totally solid idea - referencing the Uruk-Hai. Really bright shiny armor, not only doesn't make much sense with blood thirsty butchers, but its going to look mighty weird next to your gloriously nasty nurgle marines...
> 
> ...Consider if you will, the layers of grime on those Uruk-Hai berzerkers, the thick scabbing of the blood, the neglect of everything except the implements of slaughter. These guys need to be way dirtier, boots caked in mud, and blood crusted around the edges of the armor and joints._


The Uruk-Hai thing was mainly for the idea of the blood-filled helmet leading to the blood-splatter down the armour (found the book - it's "The Lord Of The Rings - Weapons And Warfare", a decent source of inspiration actually since the kit in those films was superb and all really well thought out). I really wanted to avoid anything like the traditional red-and-brass look that you see all the time on Khorne Berzerkers (likewise, if I ever do a unit of Tzeentch Marines I'll be avoiding blue-and-gold like the plague) so the very metallic, almost Iron Warrior/Steel Brethren look was deliberately chosen to make that point. I think you have a point with the caked-on blood and stuff, though, for sure; I'll add some gore to the chainsword, carbon scoring on the bolt pistol and a bit more general splatteriness and wear & tear all over him.



> _In fact if you took the style of Nurgle marines, weeping goo and pus from everywhere and made it, more like 'weeping/dripping' blood from the joints in their armor . . . I think you might be onto something.
> 
> I'd point you to something more like the Reavers from Firefly/Serenity, but less generally pointy. (Pointy is so 4th. Ed Chaos.) Chaotic, dirty, unkempt..._


Both these are good aesthetic ideas for Khornate troops (especially the Reaver one, although I _like_ pointy ), but I'm wanting to keep these guys deliberately a lot neater than the Plague Marines purely for the contrast - I want them to stick out like a sore thumb and be obviously not Nurgle troops. Think of them as a contrast colour against the general Death Guard background as much as anything else. 





Dave T Hobbit said:


> The olive looks wrong to me. The other colours are silver (neutral), bronze/brass (yellow-orange), and fresh blood (red-purple), so a green-blue would balance better.


You're right, the olive definitely doesn't work. How about a grey-blue, almost a Space Wolves kind of colour? That would also work well with any caked-on gore I add to the chainsword...although I had wanted to keep the third colour consistent across bolt pistol, chainsword and backpack, which is why I'd been thinking black. 



Thanks for the feedback, guys; I'll have a play this evening and see what comes out. As much as anything else, it's quite refreshing to do a totally different flavour of Chaos for a change.


----------



## Dave T Hobbit

Svartmetall said:


> How about a grey-blue, almost a Space Wolves kind of colour? That would also work well with any caked-on gore I add to the chainsword...although I had wanted to keep the third colour consistent across bolt pistol, chainsword and backpack, which is why I'd been thinking black.


SW Grey could work. It might seem drab against silver armour; however you risk that with any mostly metallic scheme.


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## Lethiathan

Well, I like the zerker and all, but like the others I think It's missing something, I would recommend several layers of washes of varing colour (Red for blood, Black for oil, Brown for dirt, ect.) to give it some life!


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## Svartmetall

Here he is with various bits added:

















Based on the feedback people gave, these are the various changes I've made today: eyes painted Snot Green with Scorpion Green highlights; washes of Badab Black and Nuln Oil on armour; wash of very watered-down Rhinox Hide on some armour pieces to simulate dried blood, flaking off over time; fresher blood on torso dimmed down a little as it was a bit too bright in places; backpack arms painted black with wash of Skavenblight Dinge (best paint name _ever_); bolt pistol carapace segment and body of chainblade painted with The Fang and a wash of Space Wolves Grey, then washed with Rhinox Hide for more of the dried-blood effect. 

I went with green for the eyes so they'd stand out against everything else; having done some reading up on methods for painting blood I'm going to try and pick up some Tamiya Clear Red acrylic tomorrow in town, since that seems to be very useful stuff for reproducing the old claret. Assuming I can get blood happening the way I want it to with that, then I'll add some wetter-looking blood to the teeth of the chainblade and the torso.

I'm happier with how he looks now, but C&C is welcomed of course 


_____


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## Moonschwine

Looking nice. I still feel that those weapons need more contrasting casing colours. I say this because it seems to be too "washed out" in comparison to the "Bling" effect of the metallics elsewhere on the miniature.

The dried blood effect however is working a charm.


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## Svartmetall

Moonschwine said:


> The dried blood effect however is working a charm.


Heh - the last time I cut myself significantly while modelling, I smeared a bunch of it (I'd managed to cut 1/4" into the end of my thumb with a fresh craft knife blade, by virtue of being a bit of a tard, so there was plenty of blood to go round) over a piece of paper so I'd know _exactly_ what fully-dried blood looked like. 

Which may mean I need some kind of professional help :biggrin:


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## Regnear67

thats looking a lot better now, great work as always.


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## Kreuger

Definitely a step in the right direction.

I think he still needs more contrast and definition around the armored plates. They still seem flat and mighty chrome-shiny.


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## Lethiathan

Seconding Kreuger, What you need is repeated washes into recesses so that you get build up of paint, and a darker colour.


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## SilverTabby

To be honest, I preferred the Olive drab on the weapons. Gave it something that wasn't mono-tone, and gave them a link to the rest of your army. Personally, I would do:

Olive drab basecoat. 
Wash with watered black to give sharp dark recesses. 
Attack profusely the higher recessed bits (the top end of weapons, top of backpack arms) with red/purple wash, and the lower bits with blue/purple. Tend more towards red / blue than purple with the mixes.

That should introduce a tiny bit more colour than just the olive, and tie it more with the blood and guts. But then if you're going for simple, maybe just changing the colour would work for you. I'm notorious for overcomplicating things.

I'd also wait with doing the blood until the rest of the model is shaded, highlighted and finished. If he's putting on the helmet last, do the blood last :wink:


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## Svartmetall

Thanks again for the feedback...









I changed the pale blue-grey for pure slate grey (Eshin Grey) since the blue-grey just wasn't working for me; I know, I know, colour theory etc. but in the end I had to make a call, and slate grey had been my very first thought for the weapons' colour. The blood is Tamiya X-27 Clear Red acrylic, which is great stuff; I'm sorely tempted to get some of the other Tamiya Clear colours for similarly wet effects. Finally I added a little more weathering and staining to the armour (mainly Nuln Oil and more watered-down Rhinox Hide) and picked out the Khorne emblem on his knee with Screaming Bell, which is a nice reddish copper that just screamed 'Khorne!' at me the first time I saw it:










Here he is next to the Plague Marine colour-test model, to show how the two colour schemes contrast:








...and contrast is what I was after; I wanted a totally different look that would stand up by itself so that if I do have a unit of Berzerkers or even just normal Chaos Marines they would be clearly different from the mass of Nurglites making up the rest of the army. Quite apart from wanting to avoid the cookie-cutter red-and-brass look, I've always liked the look of Iron Warriors/Steel Brethren/Iron Knights - the very metallic Space Marines - so that was the conceptual starting point. 

The plan was to make a squad of 8, but as with the Plague Marines it's dawned on me that with a new Codex just around the corner it might be more sensible to hold off making new troops until I know what are the wargear options. On purely aesthetic grounds, I'd love to make Khornate troops with paired axes or chainswords, for example...maybe even with a single two-handed weapon like a halberd or an Eviscerator... 


_____


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## Lethiathan

He looks alot better! I would still apply more washes, but He looks really good!


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## Regnear67

he turned out to look really awesome great job


----------



## The Wraithlord

A couple of paint suggestions if I may (as your gs-fu is mighty and in no need of help). Using this latest model as the example there are a few things that really need a bit done to them to really make the model live up to its gs'ing level. First, the gun is a mash of colour because of the colour you have on the outer casing (same on the backpack I believe?). There is not enough contrast between that bluish/green and the metal areas of the gun. I would suggest a much darker colour, even going to black on the casing as right now it all blends together a bit much.

Second is the metal of the armour itself. Sorry to say this but the model looks half painted right now simply because, from what I can tell at least, there are no highlights on it. In fact, the silver metal areas on both minis on this page are way too bright to my mind. I would give all the silver looking areas a light wash or two of black to even it out and then just a few edge highlights using the same original colour. It won't really change the look of the model but it will make it pop more and give the areas more depth. Hell, just that alone will make your models look far better. Metals are a bit harder to paint than most people realize but once you learn the tricks it becomes very easy. You could even do the same with the bronze areas but just use Devlan Mud to shade it a bit.

Don't take my word for it though Svart, give it a try on a test model first. If you don't like it, you haven't ruined a model on my say so


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## Kreuger

I think the Wraithlord hit it on the head. Excellent suggestions every one.


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## Svartmetall

I'm still wondering about black for the gun, but the armour is highlighted to hell and back...maybe the camera's washing it out. It goes Boltgun Metal - Chainmail - Mithril Silver highlights, washes of Nuln Oil and then Rhinox Hide...


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## Kreuger

Svart, it could be the flash, but you'd know better than we would.

You might want to consider starting the base color darker as opposed to highlighting so high.

If you start over a black base coat and build up: 
tin bitz(warplock bronze) > brazen brass > boltgun metal, and then maybe a few choice spots with chainmail. 

I think mithril silver might be inappropriately bright for chaos marines.

That's about the formula I used to get the metal color on my Iron warrior models. At the least, black base > tin bitz (warplock bronze) > boltgun (lead belcher). Add washes as needed.

Good luck!


----------



## Svartmetall

Well now...Heresy's back, and we have a shiny new Codex to play with. So without further ado, preamble or prevarication - here are the first 6th. Edition members of Pandemic.

First off, a WIP Helbrute that I really need to think up a name for (I like _Pestilens Triumphans_, but that's reserved for...well you'll find out in due course ):









I need to bulk up the weapon a bit, otherwise it'll look too weedy next to the big CC arm; I'm thinking to use one of the ectoplasma cannon breeches from the Maulerfiend kit as a casing or surround for the 'Brute's multi-melta barrels since that matches the Helbrute's details well and is just about the right size. I replaced the CC arm's stubby fingernail-type things (you'll see where they went in a moment) with long talons, added a bunch of hanging flesh descending from just below the head, and re-distributed the horns around the head to give him a Nurgle-approved complement of 7. 
Head detail:










Next up, an almost-done Plague Champion modelled with one of the new weapon combos possible in the new Codex - in this case, a plague knife and lightning claw:
















I just need to finish off the GS work around the arm joints, then he'll be ready for painting. I love the look of the Mk.III Iron Armour, and I like his 'come get some!' pose too  I have enough Iron Armour sat waiting to do a full squad, so he'll have some minions soon enough.


Since Obliterators are now in Finecast, it means reposing and generally buggering about with them is _far_ easier than it would otherwise have been. I haven't in any way forgotten or abandoned the Minotaur-based Oblits from way back when, but seeing the (excellent) Hitech Miniatures Carcass Virus Cult models made me realise I wanted my Oblits to be more tech-y looking than they had been, so I seized the opportunity to mess about with some FC ones and this is the result:









Re-posing the legs alone makes a huge difference to these models; not only does it give them quite a bit more height, it also stops them looking like they've just shat their pants. I'm still steering well clear of the 'weapon porcupine' look you see so much with Obliterators, though; whenever any of my Oblits have more than one weapon barrel, it's always the same _type_ of weapon to keep it looking consistent. 
A few more angles:

































The lascannon barrels work well enough to look Chaos-y, but are non-specific enough in this context to work for quite a few of the weapons Oblits can now use. I'm going to make one with an assault cannon in some form (playing with a scratchbuilt multi-barrelled weapon on another Oblit at the moment, but it's not quite there yet) since they can now form those, but have already converted up a melta-wielding one and another with more of these lascannon barrels - those two are currently primed black, though, so despite my best efforts with the camera earlier don't show much detail. I figure once I have two squads of 2 or 3 of these guys done, it'll give me enough of a solid visual reference point from which I can go back and re-work the Minotaur ones to match these guys' more tech-heavy look. 


And, while a tad disappointing in the Codex (only 2 base attacks for a 55-point model that can only do melee attacks? Pff) I just had to have a go at some Mutilators, and here's the first of them:








...his mutated right foot/claw thing is where the Helbrute's fingernails went. Waste not, want not etc.

I'd known about Mutilators for some time, which had given me space to think through how I wanted mine to look. Like Obliterators, I didn't want to have them looking like they'd just randomly sprouted differing types of melee weapons from every orifice, rather that they'd concentrated on one type (as their rules suggest); this guy's going down the 'power axe' counts-as route.
More angles:
































As always I've tried to blend in the GS work with the model's original details to the point where hopefully you won't be able to spot the joins once it's painted. 


And, as always, all C&C is welcomed 


_____


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## Wathier

There's definately some really nice stuff in this plog! The last GS- work you showed in your previous post is really nicely done! You've got some pretty decent GS skills my friend! Hope to see them painted soon!


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## Midge913

Sweet looking stuff as usual Svart!! I love the new talons on the Hell Brute. I like what you did with the Oblit and I must say that not having all of those weapons sticking out at random odd angles really does a lot for the model over all. Looking forward to seeing the paint.


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## Hellados

I'm jealous, when I try to green stuff it just turns into a goo that sticks to everything LOLZ


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## scscofield

This is the type of stuff I hope I can manage when I start converting my various random stuff over to Nurgle CSM. Awesome work dude.


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## ckcrawford

Thats pretty terrific. Has GW asked you to design their models yet? Good job mate.


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## ckcrawford

What tools do you use to shape your green stuff?


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## Svartmetall

ckcrawford said:


> What tools do you use to shape your green stuff?


A couple of 'proper' metal sculpting tools, several cocktail sticks in various stages of smooshed-out-ness, the back edge of a scalpel blade and my thumb. Whatever works, basically.


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## Kreuger

Svart, your work looks excellent as always!

You also suggested Color-Shapers in the past too.


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## SilverTabby

Hellados said:


> I'm jealous, when I try to green stuff it just turns into a goo that sticks to everything LOLZ


Lick the tools, or keep them moist with water. Helps with the sticking. :wink:


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## Kreuger

I've also seen forehead grease suggested! But take that with a grain of salt.


----------



## Svartmetall

And here, at _long_ last, is the first painted Obliterator:


























And two shots of how he'll look at normal 'on the table' gaming angles:










I've kept the metals clean and non-rusty, because I can't see rust having time to form on something that's constantly extruding new shapes (reinforced by the fact that, in the new Codex, Obliterators have to use different weapons each turn). The armour and skin however match what I'm doing on the Plague Marines themselves; I think I'm finally starting to nail the 'spoiled meat' look I've been aiming for on the flesh. 

Unless anyone can see anything glaringly wrong with these, I'm going to forge ahead and paint the rest of the Obliterators and the currently-lone Mutilator to match this guy 

As always, C&C welcomed.


_____


----------



## Kreuger

Nice work man!

I think the overall effect is killer. I have 2 related critiques. I think the trim is way too bright. Your logic for why makes sense, but I don't think bright shiny works, especially compared to how nasty and textured the rest of the model is. I think either everything should be weathered down our none of it because its but just the guns that change, it's their whole bodies heaving and reconfiguring.

The second critique is an extension of that thought into the hoses. They're also a bright metal and would benefit from being differentiated from the trim, and weathered/nastied.

I think you've done a great job here. Some of the qualities I particularly like are the skin tone, the asymmetry of the shoulders, the more erect pose, and the new head.

Keep it up! I look forward to the rest of the squad.


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## Dave T Hobbit

The green and flesh both have visual texture which is good; however it lacks a pop for me. I suggest adding a blue-violet either as a spot colour or patches of wash.

If you do not want to rust the metal you could go for an oil/grease look instead with black and brown washes. This would take the shine off and match the runnel patterns on the armour better.


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## Svartmetall

Dave T Hobbit said:


> I suggest adding a blue-violet either as a spot colour or patches of wash.


 How about for the eyes...?



Dave T Hobbit said:


> If you do not want to rust the metal you could go for an oil/grease look instead with black and brown washes. This would take the shine off and match the runnel patterns on the armour better.


 Yeah, in the absence of rust oil/grease was the next thing I was going to try; I just went into town and picked up some Tamiya Smoke clear colour, so I'll be experimenting with that in a bit (yay for having the week off ).




Kreuger said:


> ...the hoses. They're also a bright metal and would benefit from being differentiated from the trim, and weathered/nastied.


 Yeah, I'm thinking to just generally darken them down a bit, possibly with inks or the Taimya Smoke if that works nicely...


_____


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## Midge913

I think the flesh tones and the armor look great man. I would just echo the comments already made about the brightness of the trim. Dave and Krueger had some great suggestions and I second them.


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## Svartmetall

Here he is with the Smoke paint used to oil up and discolour both the armour trim and most of the cabling:


























The camera's washing it out a bit, but it looks like oily cable to me in the flesh - the Smoke paint also makes them look slightly glossy and wet, which is ideal. I'm debating adding a bit of the Clear Red to one or two of the smaller cables that are buried in flesh, to make it look like they've just emerged and are still freshly bloody, but that aside I think this guy's done (*DTH* - his eyes will be turquoise-y like on *the poisonous-yellow Plaguebearers*, but I can't find the bloody paint pot atm :biggrin. 

Cheers for the feedback, 'cos I think you were right about that little extra flavour that it needed; work will now start in duplicating this paint scheme on the other Obliterators and the Mutilator 


_____


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## ckcrawford

I'm surprised you buy obliterator models. I almost feel you could convert terminator models with your skill and still be perfect.


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## SilverTabby

From the photos alone (I will be able to tell better in person when I get the chance) I'd say the Smoke may have a nicer effect slathered on all the metal rather than applied to the recesses. From my previous experience with the stuff, you can pretty much coat the metal in it and it'll recess nicely. 

Always experiment on something else first though. 

With the spot colours thing, it's similar to what I was saying about using red as an intermediary colour and to add something between the two main colours. 

And why does Heresy keep telling me I'm spelling colour wrong? Stupid US spell-checks... :wink:


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## Svartmetall

ckcrawford said:


> I'm surprised you buy Obliterator models...


I've always liked the detailing on these models; the problem I always had with them was the "I just crapped my pants" posture and the way they always got made up with the weapon-sticking-out-of-their-arse porcupine look, which just never made any sense to me. Now they're in Finecast (and therefore much easier to re-pose), I wanted as much as anything else to show that you could take the normal models and - with not too much megaconverting required - still make decent-looking Obliterators out of them. 

That's not to say I'm not still going to go ahead and make uber-Obliterators out of the Minotaur-based ones I started, and those ones will probably serve as squad leaders or something for Obliterator units on the table...but while yes, it would have been easy to convert ordinary Terminators to traditional-looking Obliterators I kind of wanted to make a point, if you see what I mean. Plus, I'm keeping my boxes of Terminator models for...y'know...more Plague Terminators  




SilverTabby said:


> I'd say the Smoke may have a nicer effect slathered on all the metal rather than applied to the recesses.


 I decided (after testing the Smoke on an old Chimera hull I'd painted with bare-metal colours) to use it more locally and keep some of the metal areas almost entirely raw metal, for more variation on the model overall. Verdigiris, when there are bronze-type colours present, I tend to apply evenly; but on this one I decided to go this way. As always with me it tends to look better with the mark one eyeball rather than a digital camera. 


_____


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## Dave T Hobbit

The wash seems to have made a positive difference.

I look forward to the turquoise eyes.


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## Kreuger

I think the wash definitely helps, and the turquoise eyes will be a good addition.

I still think you need more differentiation between metal areas and hoses. It's probably a personal foible, but having every metal surface on the model look the same looks somehow wrong. Consider if you will, the silver chainfist; the housing, the body of the weapon, and the teeth of the chainfist are all the same color. 



Svartmetall said:


> Here he is with the Smoke paint used to oil up and discolour both the armour trim and most of the cabling:


I see an argument could be made for obliterators form homogeneous metals, but I don't think that's necessarily more likely nor is it more visually compelling. It ends up looking kind of flat, and more color and value contrast would improve the look.

Cheers!


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## notsoevil

Always great, Svartmetall. As much as I loved your Minotaur-Oblits, these are much better.


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## timff8

I love what you did with the Mutilator model, Svart. So many people overlook the Mutilators because they only work in one army build, with one mark, but they really are very cool.


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## Svartmetall

timff8 said:


> I love what you did with the Mutilator model, Svart. So many people overlook the Mutilators because they only work in one army build, with one mark, but they really are very cool.


Thanks . I tend to build what I think is cool or fun simply because I think it's cool or fun, and have never really worried overmuch about what's 'uber' on the battlefield - not least because I am one of the worst 40K players _ever_ and possess all the natural tactical acumen of a f**king Weetabix. As soon as I knew about Mutilators - which was about 5 months ago - I knew I was going to have to make some regardless of their stats/abilities (which I didn't know until the Codex came out) or their perceived usefulness. They can morph close-combat weapons out of their bodies, so my attitude was pretty much why _wouldn't_ I want to make some? 

:biggrin:


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## Mossy Toes

The Oblit looks great!

Honestly, I haven't tried playing with Mutilators yet, and I feel like I ought to, sooner than later. I don't want to write them off without giving them a fair shot...


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## Djinn24

Looks great, wish I would see them in person. The wash helped out a lot. Can't wait to see what you come up with for the for the Mutalators.


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## Son of mortarion

Svartmetall said:


> And here, at _long_ last, is the first painted Obliterator:
> 
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> 
> And two shots of how he'll look at normal 'on the table' gaming angles:
> 
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> 
> I've kept the metals clean and non-rusty, because I can't see rust having time to form on something that's constantly extruding new shapes (reinforced by the fact that, in the new Codex, Obliterators have to use different weapons each turn). The armour and skin however match what I'm doing on the Plague Marines themselves; I think I'm finally starting to nail the 'spoiled meat' look I've been aiming for on the flesh.
> 
> Unless anyone can see anything glaringly wrong with these, I'm going to forge ahead and paint the rest of the Obliterators and the currently-lone Mutilator to match this guy
> 
> As always, C&C welcomed.
> 
> 
> _____


This is why I love seeing your work, Svart, you took one of the worst models in the range, and added subtle tweaks that turned it into one I would want.


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## timff8

@Son of Mortion:
Absolutely. He took one of the most pants models I have -ever- seen, and made it awesome. I can't believe the crap that GW employees try to tell kids about how awesome the models are, and how much they should buy them.

@Mossy Toes:
Mutilators work great, they just have to be used right, and it's hard to find unless you think about them the right way. Like Obliterators, you -have- to give them Mark of Nurgle, otherwise meltas, lascannons, missiles and power fists will just insta-kill you. When running Mutillators, you need to run them in a "Space Wolves but not" list. If you can flood the field with bodies and just sweep towards the enemy whilst firing at full effect (you'll need Obliterators) you can overwhelm your opponent and stomp into melee with your Mutliators. They function a lot like Lone Wolves in this capacity. If you're running any other kind of list, Terminators are just going to work better, really.


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## Svartmetall

And here's Mason the Mutilator (+1 internet for anyone who gets that reference _without_ Googling it) all blended up, just waiting for the final weathering pass:

















And next to the first fully painted Obliterator, to show that hopefully I'm able to keep this paint scheme reasonably consistent:









blah blah C&C blah blah...


____


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## timff8

I didn't get the reference...

I really like the blood on the flesh along where the claws are emerging. Very cool.


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## Dave T Hobbit

A Mutilator that does not look ridiculous: good work.


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## DeathKlokk

Very NICE!


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## yanlou

really good, might do something similar when i get round to getting mine.

As for the reference, Red Faction?


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## Zodd

Lost for words....adorably comes to mind..sort of


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## SilverTabby

This kitty approves :biggrin:


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## Flerden

Jeebus what GS work, really awesome stuff. Especially the first Rhino. Or well everything is awesome. And your painting skill are getting better with the thread. And yes I looked trough all of it last night :laugh:
The pygmy marines are cool too.
You do really earn the little rep I can give atm! Keep up the great work!


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## Svartmetall

Here's the next Obliterator, not yet weathered but all blending, highlighting and other non-weathering paintwork done:










































From some reason my camera's making most of the flesh look redder and less variegated than it looks to the naked eye...meh. It's actually more variegated and less red than it looks here 


_____


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## Zion

Very cool Svart!


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## Kreuger

Keep on, keeping on. He's looking good man. Once the shiny silver is dirtied down he'll be excellent.


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## timff8

I really like the breast-plate on this one; very Plague Marine-y.


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## SilverTabby

I like the look of the flesh in the pics, it has nice depth. But then i'm a fan of a more extreme painting style than yours. 

In the actual flesh, the figs look good. Your camera tends to bleach out the greens a lot...


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## Hellados

wow that is really does look very good! and tbh that armour does look weathered to me but i think we have different views on 'finished'


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## Svartmetall

And here at last is the whole unit, done and dusted; there was a slight delay last night when I dropped this last Obliterator like a spaz, and had to re-attach one of the exhaust pipes on his left shoulder and re-GS and paint it...but here he is:

































The whole unit of three Obliterators and a Mutilator:









Other Obliterators and and least another two Mutilators will follow in due course, but this means that now for the first time I actually have a fully-painted heavy support unit (and if the Mutie can counts-as for a Obliterator, two)  I'm sufficiently happy with the colour scheme that this will now be the template for anything else that follows (I'm going to re-touch the three Rhinos I currently have assembled so they match). 

C&C welcomed as always.


_____


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## .Bragg.

Ah! Your painting has improved loads, which will naturally happen in time haha. Great blending with the armour and a nice fleshy skin tone! Would you consider making the metal parts a tad rusty? +repzilla!


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## Old Man78

+rep, I think they are disgusting abominations which I'm sure is the whole point, excellent work


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## Svartmetall

Awfun said:


> Would you consider making the metal parts a tad rusty?


Since Oblits are constantly extruding new pieces (more so since this silly rule in the new codex where they can't use the same weapon in consecutive turns, grrr) I can't square my head around making them nurgly and rusted, rotted, decrepit and decayed; you'll notice they're not actually modelled in a particularly Nurgly way, they'll mainly be sharing an armour colour with the rest of the army.


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## Farseer Darvaleth

You could make the weapons leaky, though, with perhaps some oily viscera streaking outwards from where the weapon has emerged from the Obliterator's flesh?

Gruesome, but Nurgly. Loving the paint job these guys are rockin'.


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## .Bragg.

A good answer :grin:


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## Svartmetall

*Resurrection*

A year. God, has it really been a _year_ since I updated this...? To cut a long story short, _long_ episode of depression, basically; the Black Dog had me in its jaws for much of last year. It sucked. But I'm pulling out of it now, and have started to get stuff of a Nurgly nature done again. 

So in keeping with the spirit of resurrection, I've started working on revamping the painting on some of my very first models to get them more in line with how Pandemic are looking these days. I've always had kind of a soft spot for the guy at the head of this squad, the first Plague Champion I ever put together: 









...but as you can see, his paintjob left much to be desired (quite apart from the very primitive state of my GSing back then); no sense of contrast or highlighting at all, and I went way overboard with the inks on top of that. So, applying what I've learned from doing the Obliterators and so on, here he is with a paintjob that should allow him to fit in with the rest of the army:

















As much to acknowledge his age as a model as anything else I've left much of the original armour colours intact, so it's not a total denying-the-past repaint, but have blended some shades in at the top and bottom to increase the overall contrast a little (the original was literally the same colours all over). The flesh tones mean you can actually see the GS work now as well as giving the model some much-needed overall contrast, and the blue trophy helmet on his backpack works as a spot colour. Seeing him like this has given me confidence that I can get most if not all of my first fumbling attempts at Death Guard able to sit happily enough with the newer work. The Nurgle icon on his shoulder, by the way, is painted with Tamiya clear acrylics - a base coat of GW Rakarth Flesh to give a light background for the translucent acryclics, then one coat of Tamiya clear orange and two of clear yellow; the combination of these two colours gives a nice venomous amber sort of colour which looks really nasty and unhealthy in the flesh. 


I've started work on a Heresy-armoured squad of Plague Marines, to function either as Chosen or just to represent veteran Marines who've been among the ranks of Pandemic since the Heresy itself. It's still early days with these guys, but here's a group shot: 








...and a detail shot to show the kind of physical weathering I'm doing on the armour:









Carving away sections of the shoulderpad trim like this to show a smooth surface of the shoulderpad beneath is very, very fiddly indeed, but it helps give the impression of truly ancient armour that's seen many thousands of battlefields across the millennia; when painted, I'm hoping this will look truly three-dimensional and help make the model look more solid and realistic. I bought a couple of sets of the Iron Armour when it came out, loving the really heavy-duty feel of it, and it's nice to finally start actually using the damn stuff...I've mixed in some parts of other armour Marks, too, to give the impression of armour that's had pieces replaced over time due to battle damage.


And finally here's a new set of wheels for Pandemic - a Predator:


























This model is a real _smörgåsbord_ of a kitbash affair, using parts from the Baal Predator, Chaos Predator, Immolator and Leman Russ to create the whole thing, with a set of the FW Reinforced Armour to add more bulk to it. One thing that bugs me about so many of the Predators I see is that they basically just look like a Rhino with a turret stuck on the roof and two guns hanging off the sides on a coat hangar; I wanted mine to look a lot bulkier and more 'tanky' overall. 

Front and side profile views:

















The Immolator top hull section gives the hull more height and bulk, and also allows you to use the front turret ring to place the Predator turret a lot further forward than if you use the Rhino kit's rear top panel; the old GW Predator model had a turret in this kind of position, and I wanted to evoke that sort of old-school look. I also like the small spikes all over the thing - those are just the top sections of the trophy-rack spikes from the Chaos Spiky Bits sprue, each one pinned to give it more durability when the model is handled (as are the more traditional trophy spikes on the top of the turret). The big vent filling the rear turret ring, by the way, is from Zinge Industries, who make some nice after-market bits. 


So. Back from the dead, as it were . All C&C welcomed as always.


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## Miami

Welcome back! Always nice to get some inspiration from fellow Chaos followers. Can't wait to see stuff get painted!


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## SwedeMarine

WB Svart. Nice to see a year away hasnt dulled your skills. You did that Plauge Champion very proud. And im very likely going to steal your idea for the Predator for my own. I really like the way it came out.


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## Kreuger

I'm glad to hear you're breaking free. I always look forward to your updates. I still find it mind boggling that GW/FW haven't transferred you to a position permanently sculpting nurgly bits.


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## revolantis

Great to see this log up and running again! The predator in particular is looking fantastic.


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## Tawa

Welcome back Svart!

Loving what you are doing to that Predator. So much so I may just have to steal the idea! :good:


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## whittsy

Everything here is amazing. I have a question though, with your green stuff work, how do you mould it so well I can never seem to get my GS looking like anything other than smooth! It's very frustrating! Any tips would be fantastic!


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## Varakir

Nice to see you back guv, fantastic post to return with too :victory:

That pred is a work of kitbash art!


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## Nordicus

So yeah, I just stumbled over this project log for the first time - Truly inspiring work! Even though Nurgle is not my favorite of the Chaos Gods, this is awesome to see and I will definitely be keeping an eye on it.

Great work! :good:


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## Svartmetall

_*blows dust and dead moths off the top of the thread*_

I'm back! 

I've done more hobby stuff in the last two months than in the last two years combined, at least, so here's the first fruit of my renewed keen - a Mortis-pattern Nurgle Dreadnought. I took a Dark Vengeance Helbrute and chopped it in half, adding spacers to give it more height, and used two of the normal Helbrute kit's twin-linked autocannon arms, basically scratchbuilding a left arm since these are both right-handed weapon attachments:










...and then went to town with Ye Olde Greene Stuffe™


































...so. First update in one hell of a long time; feels good to get something up here agin after so long away from the hobby. As always all feedback etc is welcomed 


_____


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## Old Man78

Ahhhhhh you talented people make me sick, how you can work gs like that is really impressive. Once again Svart you show you can capture the essence of filth in your work, good to see you back!


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## Kreuger

Looking excrement . . . er excellent as always! Nurgle would be so proud. 

I still can't believe GW hasn't hired you to redo their nurgle line.


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## Svartmetall

And here's the first of several Defilers - I got this dirt cheap off eBay looking like this: 









The idea behind this one is that it was originally an Undivided Defiler (possibly one of the Black Legion's) discovered by Pandemic as an inert shell on Agripinaa, its Daemonic inhabitant having been totally banished by the Grey Knights and the hulk left to rust. Never ones to pass up an opportunity to add new things to their ranks, Pandemic proceed to basically bolt a Daemon of Nurgle to it in Soul Grinder fashion in the hope that it'll be able to assume control of the Defiler, and this thing was the result. 


























The rear-mounted turret gives it quite a distinctive look for a Defiler, and actually makes a lot more sense balance-wise for the vehicle; it also allows the use of a longer gun barrel for a more high-velocity tank-hunter feel to the gun. I love the little Daemonic 'face' on the blob of flesh attached to the upper front hull, particularly the baleful, glowering eye 











More Defilers to come soon...


_____


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## Kreuger

That looks great man. There are a few touches I particularly like. Such as the styracosaurus bone shield and horns around the main gun and the pedipalp like protrusions below the eye-blob. 

I'm not sure I agree about the sense of a rear facing gun. It definitely looks good and rather crab like, but I think the function of a wider rear section is to absorb the recoil when the gun fires. If you think of tanks or artillery jumping/rearing when the shot leaves the muzzle, were this to rear it might fall backwards unless there's enough weight and leverage in those forward reaching arms to counterbalance the force of the blast. 

I know that was silly and nit picking. Oh, and I also liked that you removed the humanoid head from the top. Those things always looked stupidly out of place to me. 

I looked forward to the others!


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## Svartmetall

And here's the first Relic Predator, done as a flame tank; this was another eBay find that originally looked like this: 










And now looks like this:









Cutting the original Predator sponson mounts to fit around the exhausts was fiddly but worth it, I really like the look of the rear-mounted flame cannon sponsons: 

















Detail shot showing the 'plumbing' for the flame cannon, custom gun mantlet and the toothed mouth that has grown over the millennia to replace the original hatch:










_____


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## Kreuger

At the risk of sounding like a nurglicious groupie, this looks great too! 

The tubing on top of the turret is really well done as is the maw/hatch. I like how naturally the piping moves from the incendiary barrel through the top of the turret.


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## ExaltedUrizen

This is some of the best green stuff work I have ever seen! Nice work.


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## Svartmetall

Quick WIP peek at some details of the next vehicle - Vinnie, the Daemonically Possessed Vindicator 


















Very early days, obviously, but hopefully this will show where I'm going with this dude. 




_____


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## Svartmetall

And here are the other two Defilers I'm working on at the moment, both conversions of Defilers I picked up for stupidly little money on eBay; one has the _incredibly original and imaginative_ name of Mr. Spiky for obvious reasons, the one that looks like it's covered in vines I have yet to think up a name for. Still, here you go - first off, Mr. Spiky: 


































Detail of the turret GS work:











And here's The Other Defiler™:


































And again, detail of the turret GS work:











...as always, all comments and feedback are welcomed 




_____


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## Kreuger

Very interesting. Those spikes on the joints, are that from punk /metal gear? Such as leather bracers or jackets? 

Could you perhaps take a new photo of the last defiler from a 2/3rds overhead view? I'm not sure if I'm sold on the asymmetry. It can be great if done well. 

I am however, partial to the lasher tentacles. I've long had a tech marine helbrute conversion planned, where those same tentacles would sprout from the back as a heinous equivalent of oversized servo arms. 

And as usual, your green stuff work is excellent.


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## Svartmetall

Kreuger said:


> Those spikes on the joints, are that from punk /metal gear? Such as leather bracers or jackets?


They're actually for beadwork; I can't remember what the process was that led to me finding them on eBay, but you can get _tons_ of spikes for peanuts - for example, £3 gets you 600 of the small conical ones I used on the leg joints of the second Defiler. Search on eBay for 'spike bead' and there you go. 

I'll try and get another shot taken in a bit to show you how the asymmetry balances; I'm totally anal about this sort of thing, and much staring at blu-tacked bits was done before any gluing happened


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## Kreuger

Thanks Svart. I'll keep an eye out! 

And I see what you mean. There's a ton of those beads for sale.


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## shaantitus

Svart, I was feeling good about some gs work I did on my leviathan, then I come in here and feel REALLY incompetent. Once again your work is in a class of its own. I think a collaboration between you and blackadder is in order. He can Build you a titan, and you can Nurglify it. Greatest thing ever.


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## Kreuger

Then @Blackadder can make the martinis.


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## Gorthol

@Svartmetall Wow! Your green stuff skills are unbelievable, nicely done!! I really like the defiled with the gun turret placed at the rear; looking forward to seeing more!


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## Svartmetall

Here's what I've been working on the last night or two, a Rhino I picked up for peanuts on Ebay which turned out to have much thicker paint on it than the pics had suggested...so I'm adding some tasteful and understated _*cough*_ spikes at the front, replacing the original exhausts (which had been overpainted to the point the detail was killed) with fly-hive type organic exhaust tubules, adding one big damaged headlight to the right front and generally chipping, Dremel-ing and scraping the shit out of it. 









Also, the top hatch doors had been as overpainted as the exhausts, so I figured replacing it with a sort of alligator-mouth type affair would be appropriate:









More pics soon...


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## Nordicus

That is some top-notch greenstuffing there my friend - Can't wait to see it painted!


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## Kreuger

Looking good man! The exhausts are looking rather like sea-sponges. 

I hope you go a bit further with the gator tooth design and extend it to more of the hatch doors. So it covers all of the hatch seem and to give the whole a greater look of organic flexibility. 

I'm also digging the asymmetrical headlight arrangement.


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## Svartmetall

Kreuger said:


> I hope you go a bit further with the gator tooth design and extend it to more of the hatch doors. So it covers all of the hatch seem and to give the whole a greater look of organic flexibility.
> 
> I'm also digging the asymmetrical headlight arrangement.


I don't want to make it look like a Possessed Rhino; the idea was really just to sculpt some kind of characterful join for the two halves of the hatch, since the previous owner had just killed it with paint, so I'm going to bulk it out a little, but not too much. As for the headlight, well you know I love asymmetry, and stuff like that just allows me to give different vehicles their own character and distinctive visual hook without making them too crazy - Rhinos are after all the most mundane vehicle for Space marines, Chaos or otherwise. Now the Land Raider I have waiting to be converted, on the other hand...


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## Kreuger

I suspect that we mostly agree. Even if they aren't necessarily possessed, I think a blend of industrial and organic parts makes for a compellingly unique chaos look. 

I think chaos rhinos have quite a bit of design latitude without starting necessarily into "possessed" territory.


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## Svartmetall

Kreuger said:


> I suspect that we mostly agree. Even if they aren't necessarily possessed, I think a blend of industrial and organic parts makes for a compellingly unique chaos look.
> 
> I think chaos rhinos have quite a bit of design latitude without starting necessarily into "possessed" territory.


Absolutely; and, looking at the 3 Rhinos I already had completed, I'm realising I could and should do better with them. I did them as 'quick and dirty' Rhinos for a game a couple of years ago and have never really finished them; looking at the gator-mouth hatch here on the Rescue Rhino, I think I need to do a similar amount of weathering and bullet-holing on them, and give each one a little bit of green-stuffed _something_ just to add more character to it. 

So, I was doing one Rhino, but now it looks like I'm doing 4


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## Svartmetall

Still (job-hunting is taking up more time than I'd like) working on the Rhinos; here's how they looked at an early stage, I very much did them as 'quick and dirty' builds just to get some ready for a game a year or two back, and I've never really been happy with them. 










So, just to give you an idea of where my head's at with them now, here's the Possessed Rhino that's always been the ride for my lead Plague Marine squad, Squad Pestis; in the first pic you can see it had some bodies chained to the front, and I started think, 'why would a Possessed vehicle attach trophies to its own front?'...dissatisfaction grew, so I'm totally reworking the front of it, and this time-lapse compilation shows you how I'm changing it:










...a lot more Possessed-y now, IMHO. I'm also adding small segments of jaws etc on the other Rhinos, spurred on by the 'gator-jaw' top hatch on the rescued Rhino; more pics as soon as I have him done...


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## Svartmetall

More work done on the face - I don't know why, but I'm getting an Ian Miller vibe from this now...


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## Kreuger

@Svartmetall man, that's looking awesome!


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## Svartmetall

And here's the Possessed Rhino's mouth, finished and with a suitably ghastly glistening-red interior to the oral cavity 



























_____


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## Kreuger

Very nicely done. Following along the teeth from the left around in a spiral, that maw almost meets the golden ratio.


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## Svartmetall

Kreuger said:


> Following along the teeth from the left around in a spiral, that maw almost meets the golden ratio.


Well I'm glad _someone's_ paying attention 

Seriously, I'm maniacal about proportion, and with so much asymmetrical work I spend ages thinking about the relative proportions of bits and trying to get the asymmetry to balance. Fibonacci _et al_ are a great guide to that sort of thing...


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## Kreuger

Well, ya know. I know you're not producing this (or any of your work) for a "demographic" but if you _were_ it would likely be something akin to, "long time chaos devotees who appreciate high quality sculpting and conversion work, who may have a formal arts education."

What can I say? I'm a fan. =)


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## DkMiBuch

The inside of the mouth is just perfect!
Really great stuff.


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## Svartmetall

DkMiBuch said:


> The inside of the mouth is just perfect!
> Really great stuff.


It really is horribly glisteny in the flesh


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## Svartmetall

Argh..sorry for the long delay in updating. I had a big depression crash at the start of September which took a couple of weeks to climb back up from, several months of being unemployed not helping. Still, I start a new job (nothing exciting, but at least it's money coming in again) on Monday and have been working on something I've not done before - my first Daemon Prince of Nurgle.

Here's where he is at the moment; most GS work is now done, I just need to let what's on there cure before adding the last bits to the face and right arm. The 'herpa-derp' face on the original GW DPoN was the first thing to go (seriously, that thing's just fucking terrible) so I used the big Spawn horn and sculpted a new 'face' around it; the left arm is a Mutilator arm with scratchbuilt upper-arm section to get it to the correct proportions for a Daemon Prince, and the right arm is the plastic DP arm with a cut-down Soul Grinder sword blade replacing the rather Tzeentchian original. 


































Really looking forwards to painting this guy 

As always, all feedback etc is welcomed.


_____


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## Svartmetall

All build work finished on Yersinis:



































And some detail shots:

























...painting work has begun


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## DaisyDuke

Man you got them crazy skillz!


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## ExaltedUrizen

Wow, attention to detail is amazing as always, I especially love the chaos star on the shoulder pad blending into the spike. Great work!


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## Kreuger

Excellent work as always. For some reason the thing that stands out to me in these photos is the two horns laying on top of its head, one plastic the other green stuff. The precise duplication is just awesome.


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## Svartmetall

And here he is, basecoated:


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## Kreuger

Looking awesome man. Even just at the base coat level it's clear your painting has improved by leaps and bounds over the past few years. 

I find the problem of blending from flesh to metal or armor fascinating. I dealt with it when working on my last vindicator. When the transition happens is a interesting problem.


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## Svartmetall

Here's where he is now painting-wise (forums seem to have lost the earlier post?):


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## Svartmetall

Based, and with more highlighting done:










































I didn't get him finished in time for Dreadtober, which I've been beating myself up about, but on the positive side I now have a game-ready Daemon Prince, which I've never had before. And it's made me more keen to get the other two DPoNs I have sat around, barely started, to the same state of readiness.


Oh, and _this_ is what happens when you give some of your Nurglings tins of paint and tell them to cover up all the red on that Word Bearers Rhino you captured a while back...they drank half the bloody paint before it even got to the Rhino:


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## Svartmetall

Argh...sorry for the far-too-long delay in posting, been adjusting to new job, new sleep pattern and other stuff. Still...I finally got some proper work done on my army's wheels, first of all this ex-Word Bearers Rhino: 


























Now, the eagle-eyed will already have noticed that there are a total of 10 trophies on this Rhino, 9 skulls and one head. The head being that of Axillus, until recently a Champion of the Word Bearers and the man whose ride this was. Now, what's more evil than cutting off the head of your enemy and mounting it on a spike above the door of his own Rhino, so that you can gloat at it every time you go in? Attaching it to a life-support mechanism, so that he has to watch you doing it 









Axillus. Quite probably regretting some of his recent life choices. 

This Rhino obviously isn't weathered yet, but the idea is it's only very recently been captured by Pandemic (they had a serious run-in with some Word Bearers during the 13th Black Crusade hijinks); they got some serfs to respray it just to cover up the Word Bearers red, but they kept the iconography shiny and polished just to mock Lorgar's boys even more. 




And here's the first of the Rhinos I did ages ago as a somewhat rush job to get them ready for a game; I was never happy with how they looked, so have re-done them with a bunch of green stuff work, extra Dremel scraping and more weapons:


































Note the bare-metal panels; I wanted to convey the idea that parts had been so badly damaged they had to be replaced with freshly-welded parts )inspired by a van up the road from where I live that some guy appears to be doing the same on), and Plague Marines being Plague Marines they didn't give enough of a shit about appearances to paint them at all, just left them bare metal. Come the weathering-and-rust stage of painting, this should look fun; I'm actually looking forward to painting this now (along with the other 5 Rhinos I'm working on right now).


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## Svartmetall

GS work progressing on the next two Rhinos:


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## koosbeer

Your GS work is fantastic! Very impressive. Good job and looking forward to see more.


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## Red Corsairs

Always loved your work bud, only right my first post in over two years is dedicated to once again complimenting your seriously good sculpting. Nice one on that Daemon Prince.


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## Kreuger

Svart, those are looking thoroughly diseased and "lovely." I'm sure grandfather Nurgle approves!


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## Svartmetall

Red Corsairs said:


> Always loved your work bud, only right my first post in over two years is dedicated to once again complimenting your seriously good sculpting. Nice one on that Daemon Prince.


Well, thank you; and nice to see you're back


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## Svartmetall

Taking a brief respite from doing the Rhinos (doing 5 vehicles at once is quite the task) to enter the 'Squaduary' mission on the Steppping between Games blog: Squaduary goes live! Stage 1 - Stepping Between Games Here's my entry, a squad of veteran Plague Marines, all in heavily weathered Mk. 2-4 armour pieces; only 6 in this shot, in the middle of constructing number 7 right now...


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## Svartmetall

Current state of play on some of the models from the Plague Veterans squad; for some reason the flash just would not fire on the shot of the champ, but meh.


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## Kreuger

Lovely work as always! The mutated feet are a nice touch. That's not something I think we usually see from GW.


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## Tha Tall One

You always manage to produce some of the most brilliant sculpts! Your skill never ceases to amaze.


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## Svartmetall

And here's the entire finished squad...










Some close-ups:


















...rather pleased with how they've come out 

As always, all feedback is welcomed...


_____


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## Svartmetall

And here's the entire finished squad...










Some close-ups:


















...rather pleased with how they've come out 

As always, all feedback is welcomed...


_____


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## darkreever

Hm.. very confusing


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## Svartmetall

darkreever said:


> Hm.. very confusing


Yeah, now it's double-posted...and I deleted one of them but it's not gone?


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## darkreever

I'd just leave it be


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## Chaosftw

lol Start uses confusion! its super effective!


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## Svartmetall

A random Spawn, because - well, because Spawn. I have an unhealthy fascination with the things...


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## Svartmetall

At least it didn't randomly double-post this time...


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## steamius

Very lovely green stuff skills!


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## Svartmetall

Beginning paint work on one of the Defilers, including trying to get a better rust recipe than I've used in the past....




























More pics soon, working on the turret right now...


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## Svartmetall

More paint - yes, I know I'm a desperately slow painter - and while there's still obviously a long way to go, hopefully now all the chassis' rust is done and all the ivy-like flesh is at least basecoated, you can now see where I'm going with this.


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## Kreuger

Hey, looking good man! 

What's your new rust recipe? 
I always made it with iron, oxygen, and hydrogen.


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## Svartmetall

Kreuger said:


> What's your new rust recipe?


Start off with Rhinox Hide for a deep brown base, then Vallejo Hull Red, Vallejo Orange Red and then bring it down a tad anywhere it looks too bright once dried with Typhus Corrosion, which also adds a little texture. No mixing or drybrushing required, works on infantry minis too.


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## Spoticus

New to reading this post - very envious of the greenstuff skills - where did you learn? I need to develop this skill further.


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