Chaos Warriors

With the arrival of the General's Handbook, I decided to focus on making sure I have a 'legal' army for matched play. We'll probably play more narrative games than matched ones, but it seemed good to be able to do both. I need more Battleline Units and the first reinforcements actually come from models I painted years ago...

Twelve Chaos Warriors dedicated to Nurgle were painted with the advent of eighth edition in an attempt to raise a new army after being away from the game for years. Yes, one of the house rules we adopted aright away is to allow partial units by simply doing the math - Chaos Warriors are 18 points each. I didn't get far with this project as these models and five Chaos Marauders were all I managed. The Marauders were conversions using plastic kits from Orcs, Marauders, and Zombies for a wretched, Nurgly appearance...

However, after a quick rebasing, these models are all a welcome addition to my Chaos Alliance army. I need to paint five more Marauders to bring them up to strength to join the muster. I also have around 30 Beastigor and 5 Centigor to add more troops. The later are particularly needed as my existing force is slow and devoid of ranged weapons except for a few sorcerers.

I also found a Chaos Warband I'd forgotten about, also destined for rebasing (plus there are enough zombies to add another unit, though then I loose my Alliance benefits)!

My brother and I are playing a small 1300-point game tonight to try out the point values and I'll post some pics of the action later in the week...

Great Unclean One

I've had this model for years - it was a gift from my brother. At the time I was building a Nurgle-themed Warhammer 40k army (still have most of the Nurgle bits of that force and as a bonus the Great Unclean will work great with them too). I'm glad I finally got around to getting him painted.

I wanted him a bit darker than the Plaguebearers so I shifted the palette a shade darker for each stage. Rather than coating the thing in gore, I stuck to the bright green innards to tie the model in with the rest of the Daemons. This monster makes a great centerpiece for a Nurgle Daemon army and another heavy hitter if I want to combine the Daemons with my Rotbringers.

Herald of Nurgle

I decided to give my Plaguebearers the benefit of a dedicated Hero with a Herald of Nurgle.

Although the Herald lacks any Hero abilities, it could be named the general of the force and gain Inspiring Presence. On any case, three attacks, Rending -1, and D3 Wounds per hit will add more beef to any fight the Plaguebearers find themselves in.

Plaguebearers of Nurgle

That makes twenty!

Plaguebearers of Nurgle

Rawr! That makes 15 (though honestly, I would probably field 14 to keep them in multiples of Nurgle's sacred number of 7)!

Only 15 more to go... This will give me the horde unit my army lacks without cultists or thugs.

Plaguebearers of Nurgle

... and that makes ten!

These guys are fast to paint. I'm using a lot of drybrushing for the bulk of the model, then adding washes and picking out the details. Originally I painted the icky bits pale and bloody, but in combination with the drybrushing, the style didn't blend in well with the rest of the army I painted so far. I decided to pull in the bright green from my Nurglings and this seemed to tie them in nicely. I work on five at a time and can usually finish the batch in a single afternoon!

More next week... The army is approaching something that LOOKS like a Warhammer army. I still want a few more Blightkings and at least one more unit of some sort, but I'll try to get pics of the whole force assembled soon.

Plaguebearers of Nurgle!

Now back to more rank and file for the army. Without access to Chaos Thugs and the like, I don't have much in the way of fodder. Pulling from the Daemons of Nurgle list, these Plaguebearers should do nicely!

More on the way! The plan is for a single unit of twenty or so to act as a horde wave to absorb shooting and mob the hell out of smaller units.

Gutrot Spume

Gutrot Spume fought his way to lordship over the fjord tribes many decades ago, and amassed a fleet of captured vessels that he was only too pleased to lead to war. The self-styled Lord of Tentacles was a proud warrior, known to the north by the set of pseudopods that bristled across the left side of his body. Many claimed these appendages to be the signs of Nurgle’s favour, for they numbered seven, a numeral beloved of the Lord of Decay, and they often seemed to have a life of their own. The extra limbs afforded Spume an unusual edge in battle, allowing him to entangle several foes at once before striking them down.

I love this model, but I'm not sure I'm happy with the paint job. He was much brighter initially, but he didn't look right with my Putrid Blightkings so I went back and dulled him down. Now he might be too dark. Oh, well... I still have a pile of models to paint so I guess I'll move on for now. He looks good on the table surrounded by my other Rotbringers! I'll have to take some 'action' shots sometime soon.

More Nurglings!

I managed to finish another unit of these little monsters...

Not much to say beyond the pic, but the army is starting to look like an army! Another character is on the way, plus more Nurglings, and a pile of Plaguebearers!

Stormcast Eternals

I rarely buy painted models, but I just picked up this little army on eBay...

The Rider on the Dracolith and the Relictor are not finished, and the rest models may need a tiny amount of work to make them look like mine, but are way ahead of starting from scratch. The main thing is that the existing paint jobs are very neat - most are very good - and look to be finished in the official GW color scheme from the tutorial. That is important for any touch ups plus expanding the army in the future. I will need to finish the bases to match the rest of my collection, but it should be easy to pluck off the grass and simply add my normal texture over the existing one.

Very happy with this find!

Quor, the Harbinger of Decay

I've had the model for years, even before I was going to build a Nurgle Army.

I love the Command Ability the Harbinger of Decay gives the army. If this ability is used, a unit within 7" of the Herald of Decay may ignore wounds AND mortal wounds on a 5+ on a d6. This makes an army full of tough models even tougher! The Harbinger himself carries a Soulbound Shield (slung on his back) that allows him to ignore wounds caused by spells on a 4+ on a d6.

Addlecroft the Putrescent

You can never go wrong with the addition of spell casters. Here is the first wizard for my Nurgle army, Addlecroft the Putrescent (it's almost as much fun naming these guys as painting them)...

I have the far more sinister spellslinger mounted on the horse up next, but I like this squatty little model...

Morbidex Twiceborn

Morbidex Twiceborn has always honoured his debts, and to the Nurglings of his master’s garden he owes a great deal indeed. Born in fire, the man who became the Lord of Nurglings was badly disfigured in his youth. Blaming flame-wreathed Tzeentch for his misfortune, he made it his life’s work to seek out the Architect of Fate’s arch-enemy, Grandfather Nurgle. In the end, it was Nurgle that found him. Whilst climbing a high peak that led into the Realm of Chaos, the young aspirant was buried alive under an avalanche of Nurglings. The daemon mites were of good humour, and posed Morbidex riddles in exchange for their help. For every quandary he got right, they squished him upwards, but for every wrong answer, they gifted him a physical attribute that echoed their own. Since his slimy rebirth amid that avalanche, Morbidex has become more powerful than ever. In Rotwater Blight he rides to battle once more on his pox maggoth Tripletongue, gaggles of faithful Nurglings swarming in his wake.

This was fun to paint! It's been quite a while since I tackled anything this large. It was actually pretty fast to paint as well, finished over the course of a single weekend. This is a fantastic centerpiece for my Nurgle army.

I had to order a 100mm round base because I bought this model back during the End of Times and it only came with a rectangular one then. I'm still waiting for it to arrive, but was so happy with how the model turned out I wanted to get these pics up on the site. This model had been magnetized at the waist of the rider so I can field all three of the Maggoth Lords. I built the beast as Tripple Tongue because I liked that head best. Obviously this will be 'wrong' for the other Maggoth Lords, but the guys I play with don't mind. The rider will mark which of the Maggoth Lords has come to the battlefield.

The other riders will be painted soon, but I am furiously painting Nurglings in order to take advantage of Morbidex's abilities to swamp the field with the little buggers...

Maulblade the Doomkin

My Nurgle Chaos Lord is named Maulblade the Doomkin. He is sort of the Eternal Champion of my Chaos collections as I've had several models to carry the name over the years. You can see my Oldhammer version on my Stro'Knor Macekiller blog. They share nothing in common beyond the name. While I intend to eventually paint all of the named characters GW currently supports, I always enjoy having my own aspiring icon!

I simply painted him in the same colors as my Blightkings and he may serve as a champion in one of the units in the future when I've painted some of the 'name' characters.

While I am interested in seeing the new point values due out this summer I am enjoying just building a meandering force. Currently I have...

Maulblade the Doomkin (Lord of Plagues)
Addlecroft (Rotbringer Sorcerer)
Quor (Harbinger of Decay)
Festus the Leechlord
Gutrot Spume
Morbidex Twiceborn (but the rider is magnetized to be able to field any of the others)
The Glottkin
20 Putrid Blightkings (and Maulblade makes 21... see my last post)

3 Varanguard (converted to bear Blightking riders)

Herald of Nurgle
20 Plaguebearers of Nurgle
12 Bases of Nurglings
2 Beasts of Nurgle

Skaven Plaguepriest
20 Plague Monks
5 Plague Censer Bearers
Plague Furnace

Not sure when I'll get around to painting all of this, but I like that Age of Sigmar encourages varied collections (at least for the time being). When I am tired of painting Blightkings, I can paint a unit of Skaven and use them on the table without committing to painting an entire chittering horde.

Bringing out one of the big guns next week!

Nurgle Rotbringers

That makes ten - one big unit or two small...

I think my plan now is to paint up twenty-one of these brutes (I have a few extras from a box I bought for conversions). Then I can field four five-model units or three seven-model units (the sacred number of Grandfather Nurgle). I have enough boxes now to do this, but I think I'm going to paint up a few characters first...

Nurgle Rotbringers

I keep saying this, I know, but again I find this is one of my favorite models!

Deluge of Nurgle

I tried. I really did.

There are a pile of tutorials on the web on how to quickly paint Nurglings. I tried them all - spray paint, airbrush, drybrush - some of them looked ok, but they didn't look like MINE. They didn't look right next to the Blightkings. So I resorted to going about this the hard way and treating them like any other model meaning base coat, washes, and multiple layers. It is going to take me a couple of weeks to paint the minimum nine stands I need to field the Warscroll Battalion, Deluge of Nurgle, but hopefully the results will be well worth the effort. I like this battalion because it blends mortal followers and daemons and serves as a great core to expand the army in either direction.

More Blightkings coming up, but once I've slogged through these little monsters I'm going to tackle Morbidex Twiceborn and his hulking Maggoth.

Nurgle Rotbringers

I love everything about this model - the face, the axe, the shield... a brilliant bit of sculpting by GW!

More next week - musician and standard bearer!

Nurgle Rotbringers

Here is another great brute...

Nearly all of the Battalion Warscrolls require three or four units of Putrid Blightkings so I have plans to get another two boxes!

Nurgle Rotbringers

It's been a while since I've painted any Age of Sigmar models, but I have a pile of them. My brother is rebasing his old High Elves for the new rules and I need to get busy, so I decided to dig back into my Putrid Blightkings...

Hopefully this will just the first of a wave of Nurgle models!