Bungo the Barbarian, Chapter 19 - The Windy City

Turdmundaz was a castle-city like no other. In form, it resembled a colossal termite hive. Its spires soared high into the clouds; coiling away and back upon themselves into one massive tangled structure formed of a strange resinous secretion of its stygian inhabitants. It was said that on a warm day, the fetid stench that emanated from the towering dung-heap could reach to over 50 leagues away, and that was probably a conservative estimate. In fact, close proximity had been known to cause potentially fatal spontaneous nasal combustion is all but the hardiest of races.

 

Buttfuldore was surveying the sea from his lofty perch among the summit peaks of Turdmundaz. He enjoyed the view on balmy days when the warm salty breeze would add a certain delicate spice to the excreta. His normal lazy demeanour was broken when he saw a glint amongst the waves below.

 

“A ship?” His shrill cry cut the stagnant air like a knife.

 

Buttfuldore excitedly hurried over to the alarm trumpet. Pressing the sound piece between his cheeks; his buttocks erupted noisily down the tumorous instrument, eliciting a booming sound that reverberated and spattered through the catacombs below.

 

Running back to the window, he grabbed a spy glass and peered hungrily at the vessel below. The ship looked to be stricken; easy prey for the butt-goblin hordes. More odd than that, was that even from the lofty height he was viewing from, he could make out a large muscled figure on the prow of the ship, who appeared to be practicing some kind of martial arts movements with great speed and skill.

 

Buttfuldore’s excitement stuck in his sphincter like a half digested Hero Sausage.

 

“By the grace of the sewage lord… it couldn’t be…”

 

 

“Such a foul smell!” Bungo’s manly exclamation woke the whole ship as he bounded headlong from the cabin and landed firmly on deck.

 

“We must be surrounded by invisible enemies! Really stinky enemies!” Bungo delivered a brutal kick to nothing in particular, before back flipping across the ruined main sail and chopping the air with a grunt of exertion.

 

“Invisible butt-balls of Inferocropolis feel my wrath!” Bungo swirled his arms like a tornado; ducking and diving across the floor in a storm of roiling muscle.

 

“I’ll teach you to befoul the air around Donglore, Lord of the Underworld”. With this exclamation, Bungo appeared to deliver the coup d’grace, and he set to stomping his invisible adversaries with a rapid series of heavy boots.

 

By this point, the Excelsior’s crew had gathered in dumfounded silence; watching the bizarre spectacle unfold. It wasn’t until a large harpoon lanced through the deck that their attention was adverted from the delusional demi-god.

 

Sallica spun towards the new threat groggily; just in time to see a swarm of small shanty-ships speeding towards them. Like a shoal of hungry sharks, their filthy hulls were encircling the Excelsior. She could clearly see the profile of large harpoon guns mounted on the prows of several of the hulks.

 

Shallica barely had time to take cover as the sky blackened with a fresh barrage of harpoons. The oversized arrows sped through the air like hungry dragons in flight; before mercilessly slamming into the stricken Excelsior.

 

Seemingly oblivious to the assault, Bungo was standing his ground defiantly with his hands on his hips. He was just in the middle of gyrating his hips and slapping his crotch mockingly, when one of the spears found its mark. Like a thunderbolt from heaven, the oversized projectile pinged off of his chamber-pot helm and clattered to the ground. A moment later, the mighty Helmet of Donglore followed it; revealing a fierce case of helmet hair that Bungo had apparently been suffering with. He swayed unsteadily; staggering back towards the guard rail before toppling from the ship. He plunged into the murky depths moments later; swallowed into the filthy seas.

 

Without a word, Shallica followed after the stricken hero; diving wildly from the back of the ship. As she disappeared beneath the waves, she caught a final glimpse of the floundering Excelsior being boarded by swarms of dark goblinoid figures.

Chaos Lord with Daemon Weapon Part II

Well, this was a post that was a long time in the making. I published the first images of this guy literally years ago, during my last Chaos kick. The mini was then left unfinished as I went onto other projects.

Over the weekend, I finally completed the rest of the conversion work and the greenstuff. I really love the way that the mini has come out, and I hope that when Chaos get a full codex, they'll put the rules for Daemon Weapons back in! For the moment he might have to slug things out with his chain-fist, that I had originally added just for coolness.

As far as the build is concerned, he is mostly one of the Forgeworld Word Bearers Blade Slaves. I took the base model and combined it with some parts from my bits box, as well as the Slaanesh head from a Chaos Warrior Chariot, which I purchased online. I finished him off by blending in some of the converted bits with a little greenstuff work, and I'm happy with the way his mask/helmet came out with it being pulled away from his face.

Needless to day, he is destined to join my Emperor's Children in battle, so he'll be getting the purple and gold treatment as soon as I can get a few more models finished and ready for undercoat (with all of these projects on the go, it seems wasteful to paint just one at a time, but it will take me a bit longer to get the rest of the conversions ready!)

Well, that rounds out another Week of Chaos! Check back later to see if I can get some more painting done next time!

Converted Slaanesh Obliterator

Continuing onwards, I picked up a Lord of Contagion from the Dark Imperium box.

It is a really nice model, but I don't play Nurgle. A bit of a conundrum really, as I sure do like nice minis. Luckily, the dark gods of conversion have always favoured me, and I once again beseeched them for some evil gifts of naughty knowledge.

Miniature wise, there was one part of the figure that just had to go if I was to un-Nurgle the thing; his massive bile belly. It was a painstaking procedure, but I cut away the stomach area and then swapped it out directly with some of the abs from a Kairic Acolyte. It was harder than that sentence made it sound. I then had to build up and reconnect his legs. From there it was a lot of fun, as all I had to do was choose some weapons and his head and well as the other details. Interestingly, I had a Horus Heresy Rotor Cannon to spare, and it seemed to fit pretty well. Part of the fun of Obliterators is that there are no real rules about what they have to have, so you can go a bit crazy with the armament.

Scale wise, he turned out pretty big too; at about twice the height of a guardsman and a good deal larger than a regular Terminator. He is mounted on a 50mm base.

Now all I need to do is build 2 more to make a unit...

Slaanesh Female Raptor Squad

Keeping the Chaos posts going, I'm sharing this rather buxom unit today. I picked these up just over a year ago at Salute 2016 from a lesser known manufacturer; Prodos Games. If you've heard the name before, it is probably in relation to their highly successful AvP table-top game. These models are part of a game called "Space Crusaders" that they released a little while ago, and a unit of 5 of them is a reasonable £20. A pretty decent price for such well-sculpted resin miniatures.

I'll probably do a full review in the future when I get more of them painted up, and a chance to take some more interesting pictures. That said, one of the things that I really like about them is the variety of poses. They're nice and dynamic.

I had originally planned to paint them up differently from my Emperor's Children as a separate force of Daemons, but why have two smaller forces when you could have one massive one with tons of options? Tough decision.

I've really enjoyed painting them so far too. The little skulls and bone details are great, and I've been using the same style on their skin as  I did with my Daemonettes which has worked out well. The details on their faces are also really cool, and I've been very impressed with how their expressions have come to life as I've worked on them. I've said it before, but when you're painting female faces, it's really important to keep the highlight fairly smooth and not too harsh, otherwise they look all craggy (which works great on rugged marines, but looks terrible on women). Just something to keep in mind if you're thinking about picking up a box of them.

So much gold filigree to paint....

Style wise, they might not be everyone's cup of tea, as lets be honest, that armour ain't covering much, or protecting from much either! I like them though, as part of the fun of Slaanesh is always keeping it bodacious and ostentatious!

I've finished 2 of them so far, with another two most of the way there. I'd love to get the squad done, so wish me luck on the last leg of the journey.

More Chaos again tomorrow, keeping the conversions coming...

 

Converting Dark Imperium Plague Marines

Nurgle seems to be getting some love these days, but what about everyone else? If there's one thing that a decade of collecting Chaos has taught me, it's that if you sit back and wait for nice new models to come out for your faction, you might be waiting a while.

With that in mind, I picked up some of the new Plague Marines on eBay (from Troll Trader). For those who don't know, I have a very themed force of Emperor's Children, with only Slaanesh units. Needless to say, I wasn't interested in using them as Plague Marines, but mostly in putting together a new unit of standard Chaos Space Marines that would be cooler than the ones that you buy off the shelf.

There were a few things that worked in my favour; namely that there are some similarities in the Nurgle and Slaanesh aesthetic. Mostly in the form of gribbly tentacles, and a few bells doesn't hurt on your Slaanesh either (although you have to be a bit careful). The main part that obviously had to be changed was the Nurgle icons and a few of the puss-ier details. The other obvious choice was to change their heads to some more standard Chaosy ones. Handily, eBay has a wide selection of bits up for grabs, and I picked up some Raptor and Warp Talon Helms, which are excellent parts to use in Chaos conversions like these. I also had a few parts from one of the Silver Tower kits (Karric Acolytes?) in my bits box, and they were also a good source of parts.

The other thing that concerned me was the scale. I'd seen some pictures of the plague marines that made them look pretty big compared to regular marines. It was a relief when they turned up, and they were almost exactly the same scale as the Dark Vengeance Chosen minis, as I knew that they would work with what I had.

With the talking part done, here are some pictures of the miniatures that I've come up with so far. In the end, I had to swap out a few shoulder pads and bits too, as well as combat weapons. I still need to greenstuff them, but I think that the squad is looking great. They're really nice minis to work with and handily, they weren't too difficult to convert if you're willing to put in a bit of extra time and effort.

The Lascannon guy is still in need of quite a bit of work, but he looks pretty badass so far, so I'm looking forward to adding the finishing touches to him.

Well, that rounds out day 2. I've got more painting on the table next, so check back tomorrow to see what I've been working on.

Chaos Posts All Week - the 2nd Wave

About a month ago, I ran a week featuring some of my old chaos conversions; with fresh miniatures every day. It made sense at the time, as with 8th almost out, everyone including myself was locked into a bit of a hobby holding pattern of sorts that didn't seem to be going anywhere fast.

With the new edition out, I've been on a building and painting spree. Just for fun, I thought it would be cool to do a second week of posts, but this time to feature new miniatures every day. I've got plenty of great new conversions to share with you all, as well as some new painted miniatures, and all manner of delights.

With that announcement out of the way, welcome to the first day of my new Chaos Posts. I recently finally finished this Aspiring Champion. The model is slightly converted, as I swapped his Power Axe out for a raptor Chainsword. It's a great model though, and will look extra great standing out the front of the unit in this edition! ( I was never much of a fan of those realistic casualty rules as it was just a bit convoluted and involved). He is pictured with my converted shirtless marine and a chosen with a beaky head swap. Let it never be said that I don't have an eclectic collection!

I've been hard at work converting the rest of his squad and getting them ready for some paint, so check back tomorrow to see what I managed with a set of the new Plague Marines and a whole lot of elbow grease!

GK Contest 2017 - I'm the Winner! (2nd place, figure category)

I woke up to some exciting news today. While I was asleep last night, it seems that I was also busy being judged for my painting abilities somewhere in China.

To cut a long story short, my figure placed second in the main figure category (narrowly squeezing past hundreds of other entries). The best part? probably the $200 prize, although really just finally getting a win somewhere was well worth it, after a few dismal showings at Salute!

I'll add a link to the main gallery http://www.e2046.com/contest/2017/, which now features all of the winners at the top. The first place position in my category was well deserved, and I don't even want to know how many hours they spent on that massive dragon and all the figures and bits.

In other news I have plenty of 40k stuff coming up soon. I'm planning to run another full week of Chaos posts next week showcasing all of the things that I've been working on since 8th Edition came out, so stay tuned for that one.

Cheers