Navigating the Nethermaze – Journey To The Mini Clash – Part 1

I recently purchased my ticket for the Warhammer Underworlds Mini Clash at Warhammer World in June. I’m still pretty new to  Warhammer Underworlds but purchased the Direchasm boxset when it launched purely for The Dread Pageant. I had a game or two around that time to see what it was like and really enjoyed it but then it went in the box and whilst The Dread Pageant regularly make my Age of Sigmar Hedonites lists (I think they’re a great second choice to go into ambush alongside Sigvald when running Lurid Haze!) it wasn’t until I grabbed the Harrowdeep core box that they had the chance to strut their stuff on that hex dancefloor again!

One of the things I love about Underworlds is that it’s such an accessible game. There’s huge amounts of strategic and tactical depth when building decks but also at it’s simplest it’s quite easy to pick up and play and as a result one of the few games that my kids join in with. This gives me the opportunity to tailor decks to go against my Dread Pageant to let me try going into some different styles of play and most importantly is just really valuable for getting the reps in with The Dread Pageant as my preparation for the Mini Clash!

I bought my ticket and read through the Tournament Pack before the announcement of Nethermaze but assumed it wasn’t too far off so my starting place for a deck was to have as few Direchasm cards in there as possible so that I could flex into whatever the new season threw out there without having to relearn my deck from scratch.

I really enjoyed reading baconborne’s deckbuilding exercise on the Illusion cards over on the Determined Effort blog and my initial thinking was to lean very heavily into the illusions in a similar way but my final Direchasm/Harrowdeep iteration of the deck ended up as the below:

This means it’s only Dominant Position that I have to cycle out and I’m at quite a high glory total so there’s no pressure to have to pick something high scoring to take its place from amongst the new cards. Sinking Feeling stands out as probably the next obvious choice before I see any of the new cards from Nethermaze or The Exiled Dead. I’m also at 2 restricted cards so hopefully some room there as the new season kicks in too!

There’s also the small matter of getting The Dread Pageant painted up. This shouldn’t be too big of a deal but it’s such a long time since I last finished painting a mini let alone a few (I have aspirations of doing a little display base / diorama for the Warband as well but I’ll start off with the smaller goal of just getting these to a tabletop ready standard for now!)

It’s very early days on that front and just blocking in the base colours for now but if I’m going to chronicle my prep for the Mini Clash I guess it’s only right to also show my progress (or lack of!) on the painting front.

Next time I’ll have a look at the cards from the new season that I’m considering cycling into the the deck, update on the painting progress and explore any trends from my preparation games.

WIP: Nurgle Plague Hulk and Demon Price Conversion.

Recently I made a start painting a Plague Hulk for the demonic portion of my Nurgle army. I’ll be using this model as a counts-as Soul Grinder. In my eyes, Forge World’s Plague Hulk fits the mono-Nurgle theme far better than the Games Workshop version, and ultimately saved me a ton of time not having to convert one. Hopefully I should have him/it finished soon!

Plague Hulk

Plague Hulk

When I started rebuilding my Death Guard army last year, I was mad-keen on adding a new Demon Prince to my ranks. I’ve always liked Demon Princes, and as I had a old Finecast kit layng around, I thought it wouldn’t take much to personalise it to my own tastes. The biggest problem I had was finding a suitable head I liked, which took me a lot longer to figure out than I’d hoped, but eventually I settled on a “squid-like”, mutated head from the Chaos Spawn kit. Because I’d used the head before on a Plague Champion many editions ago, I liked the idea of revamping the character into my current army as if he’s ascended his mortal form and finally been granted the blessing of princehood by the Grandfather.

Overall, I’m fairly happy with how it turned out.

Thanks for looking,

John.

Painted Plague Marines!

Just a quick one tonight, but I’m glad to say I’ve finally finished my first 5 Plague Marines! Overall, I’m fairly happy with the way they have turned out, and I should have some more painted stuff to show very soon, namely in the form of a Plague Hulk and some more Poxwalkers. After that, I’ll crack on with my Cohort of the Unfurling Pox kill team!

Thanks for looking,

John.

Plague Marines

 

Painted Poxwalkers and Kill Team Update.

A few weeks ago, I decided to make a start prepping the 32 Poxwalkers I own ready for painting. Before making a start, however, I decided to scour YouTube, and found Errant Painting’s tutorial for tackling a poxwalker horde an extremely helpful and valuable source of inspiration for what I wanted. As it relies mainly only washes and only a small amount of detail work to achieve a decent enough finish, I decided to get cracking. (Click the link if you fancy a look).

In the end, I decided to make some minor changes to my own models, but Errant’s process is definitely solid enough for getting some paint down fairly quickly. As daunting as I imagined this project to be, it really wasn’t all that difficult, and with a bit more time and effort I can see my (mini) horde of ghoulish poxwalkers growing fairly sharpish!

Nurgle Poxwalkers

As noted in my last post, I decided to pick my two favourites to act as Bloab and Itch, the Poxwalkers which will accompany my Cohort of the Unfurling Pox kill team. These two certainly seem to fit the bill, I reckon.

Bloab & Itch

Thanks for looking!

John.

Death Guard Kill Team: Cohort of the Unfurling Pox WIP.

Now that Kill Team has had its offical 8th edition make-over, the lads and I decided it would be a fun idea to build ourselves each a warband and get a campaign on the go once we get a couple of training games under our belts on Monday night.

It’s Killin’ Time!

Picking a faction for my Kill Team was an easy choice – it had to be Death Guard! The first thing I set about doing was writing a list, which consists of five Plague Marines and two Poxwalkers, giving me a total of seven models! (Seven, of course, being the unholy number of the Plague God, Nurgle). Next, I picked out some of the Plague Marines I’d already spent time kit bashing, and then cobbled together a couple more with the weapon options I wanted to complete the squad. As for the Poxwalkers, I’m in the process of batch painting some at the minute, so I’ll likely pick my two favourites and give them a touch more attention with my brush than the others. Here’s my list:

Leader:
Plague Champion – Festasmus The Reeking
w/ Plaguesword, Plasma gun, Power fist.

Specialists:
Plague Marine (Veteran) – Mulgh Glouch
w/ Icon of Despair.

Plague Marine Fighter (Zealot) – Bubox the Pestilent
w/ Flail of Corruption.

Plague Marine Gunner (Heavy) – Rancidous the Curdled
w/ Blight launcher.

Non-specialists:

Plague Marine Gunner – Malignus Muttermould
w/ Plague belcher.

2 Poxwalker – Bloab & Itch.

Left to Right: Malignus Muttermould, Mulgh Glouch, Rancidous the Curdled, Festasmus the Reeking and Bubox the Pestilent.

I suppose I’d better get painting, then…

John.

 

All is dust…

Hey guys, just a quick post to show my latest painting. This one took AGES and I’m glad it’s over. Looking forward to getting a little more productive with some airbrush work now this is done!

 

James.

Death Guard Helbrute… FINALLY Done!

Yesterday evening, I came across a blog titled “The Unforgotten” by fellow blogger Wudugast over on Convert Or Die; which, as it happens, is literally brim-full of really cool conversions (so make sure to check it if you haven’t already)!

What caught my attention about this particular post, was that the author was discussing the subject of unfinished projects – something that I’m particularly guilty of myself – and that he was taking part in a community painting challenge organised by Azazel’s Bits Box, which called for interested parties to finish an unfinished model that has essentially been sat gathering dust for several months. Intrigued, I decided to sign myself up.

Returning readers to Slow And Purposeful may remember a project I blogged about many moons ago – way back in 2015, actually. Yup, you guessed it. The dreaded Death Guard Helbrute!

The Helbrute, way back in 2015…

And so, last night, I took to the challenge determined to finally put this model to bed… AND, you know what? I did!

Boncruncha’s Death Guard Helbrute… Done! 

Thanks to Wudugast and Azazel for the inspiration!

Until next time,

John.

Malignant Plaguecaster & Lord of Contagion Conversions.

Being a long-time servant of the Plague Father, I was delighted to see the new Death Guard models released as one-half of the 8th Edition starter set last summer. I was in love with them! Sadly, though, my love fell way short when it came to the Malignant Plaguecaster.

Malignant Plaguecaster

My main issue with this figure, like many have stated, is its face. It just didn’t do anything for me. Secondly, I also wasn’t keen on the psychic power manifesting from its right hand – it just felt like overkill on an already busy model!

In order to tackle the issue, I decided to convert it using some spares from the Blightkings sprue and a small amount of green-stuff.

Bonecruncha’s Alternate Malignant Plaguecaster

Personally, I think he came out quite nicely, and having a unique character to add to my army beats fielding a generic one any day in my book. On a similar note, I decided to personalise my Lord of Contagion by swapping out its helmet with Orghotts Daemonspew’s head. I reckon the bare head works a a treat!

Unmasked Lord of Contagion

Until next time,

John.

Easy To Build Plague Marines Conversions.

So, for a while I’d been pondering how to tackle converting the three ‘ETB’ Plague Marines which were released last year. Having bought a set for my army on release, I unexpectedly aquired a second from my daughter who – at that time – had fancied giving the hobby a go. Her interest didn’t last long, sadly, and I decided to make use of the models she had by doing a few conversions.

Easy to Build Plague Marines

One of the main issues I faced was that certain parts where moulded to others, making it difficult to shuffle the bits around freely. That said, with some careful cutting, filing and minor green-stuff work, I managed to kit-bash the Champion and Blight Launcher carrier fairly easily using spares from the Plague Marines multi-part kit.

Alternate Blight Launcher

 

Alternate ETB Plague Marine

However, the third marine had me beat. At first, I thought about doing a simple head-swap and calling it done. I knew that if I did that, though, it would constantly bug me that it wasn’t different enough from the original sculpt – and, if truth be told, because of the position of the arms and bolter, I was concerned that I would end up damaging the model beyond repair. While searching for inspiration on ‘the net’, I was surprised that there wasn’t a great amount of converted easy-to-build Plague Marines doing the rounds – and if there were, I didn’t find many. This was especially true for the one that was causing me the biggest headache to figure out.

But… I think I’ve finally cracked it!

Alternate Plague Flail

I hope some of you find this useful if your planning on doing something similar, and I hope you like what I came up with.

Until next time,

John.

Kastoros Lydon – The Choirmaster – WiP Daemon Prince of Slaanesh

“Dearest Fabius taught me so much…”
The voice spoke from the silhouette of the throne that Altrian had been thrown down in view of. A bank of spotlights had been mounted on the wall behind the throne. The light from them was blinding. Without his helm even his post-human eyes teared up trying to look upon the figure reclined there. Cheap theatrics Altrian thought to himself with a sneer but had expected no different. “This, my magnum opus, is as much his creation as it is mine,” the voice continued gesturing to the machinery that idled behind Altrian with a maddening, teeth-itching hum. Voices Altrian half-corrected himself, well, singular voice but multiple speakers. 

“I was but a child taking my first timid steps when he took me under his wing. Fabius is a godless man though. He thinks that makes him stronger than the rest of us. But his godlessness is just to hide his fear. Fear that he treads a path not his own… Sweet Slaanesh loves him and watches over him even though he spurns, the youngest god’s love. It was sweet Slaanesh that saved me, elevated me, remade me in an image more pleasing to him.”

“When he was my master, before he was yours, Fabius took my voice from me for some petty transgression…

It was the cruellest and yet most delectable thing. In my enforced silence I heard it. The siren song of Slaanesh. The birth cry of a god layered in the lament of the dying of the race that birthed him. It was so beautiful and with every ounce of my being I longed to add my voice to that song. Not the tinny artificial thing from the vox-aug I was fitted with or even the voice I had use before then but my true voice. I knew it was buried. Inside of me. I needed to bring it to the fore.

“Pain was the answer as it so often is. I built this device for me. Its tender attentions ministrations took me to the brink. The thread that separates life and death. In that place I found my voice. I surrendered myself to the death I knew would meet me and I screamed, my very soul shrieked out in blissful agony. That soul-cry joined with the Song of Slaanesh. It was a fleeting note. My weak, pitiful, physical form was torn apart by the intensity of its tone. But my one note in that glorious song and the price I paid to sing it, caught the attention of my sweet god and in his delightful excruciations I was remade. Slaanesh brought me into his choir but I knew that my place now was to help others find their voice.”

Almost lost in the thrumming of the pain engine behind him Altrian heard the rustle of robes and a number of cybernetic limbs.

“Honoured Adept Domitian here, made a weapon of the process,” the voices explained as the robotic hands of two Thallax hauled Altrian to his feet. The figure on the throne rose to his feet. Taller than a regular astartes and thinner, more graceful of limb. The full horror of its visage became clear as it spread its leathery pinions blocking the harsh spotlights and allowing Altrian’s eyes to adjust. He at last made out the true horror that was his captor –Kastoros Lydon; Kastoros The Resplendent; Kastoros The Choirmaster; The Silent Song and a hundred other names besides. The daemon’s ornate armour was a headache inducing riot of pink, warped into something more fitting to his form even if less practical now. Practicality was rarely a concern for the servants of Slaanesh let alone for those no longer confined to the harsh truths of mortality.  His face and helm had long since blurred. Now his visage was of a cruel, living ceramite behind a static-spitting voxgrille, almost lost in a mane of tubes and cables. When he spoke the words came from the psychically slaved heads skewered on trophy racks atop the creature’s throne. 

“I had so hoped Fabius, would be with you. I wanted to give him my thanks and repay him in kind. I shall take some comfort, for now, in adding your voice to the song in his stead”

Still got a long way to go on this mini but I’m working on a new Daemon Prince. So far there’s an assortment of bits from: Fulgrim, Chaos Terminator Lord, Helbrute, Dark Eldar Scourges, Possessed, Khorne Blood Reavers and an ever increasing amount of green stuff. Got quite a clear vision for both the mini and his background though so that should see me through the hard work. Looking forward to getting him to a point where I can start painting!