Daemonic Possession

I have a bit of time off work, so thought I'd try and get some painting done as I've been very slack with it in recent weeks.

The red of the Berserker's was already done, I had originally gone off the idea of using gold metallic in favour of Yellow, however upon starting with the yellow I realised I liked it even less than gold. I went back to the old faithful gold, used two feet and jumped. Before I put my gold down though I decided it would be worth while to use GW's Khemri brown as a base to make the gold fill better, rather than go straight onto black, it worked ok I guess.







That's what I have so far, need to do the weapons, line highlights, details like chains, leather and eyes and whatever else. Hopefully I should have most of it done tomorrow.

-Draz

The modelling room is a tip. I don't know about anyone else but I can be quite untidy in my own home; and my hobby room is no exception.

At 0430 this morning when getting up for work I staggered into said room, looked around and then shook my head. The desk is bad enough, but in the far corner next to my snakes their had formed a mountain of polystyrene. To some it may not seem much, to me it's massive and very daunting.. Haha.



When at work I have to walk around and secure the loading bay (security officer... yay!) of the shopping centre. Dotted around are cardboard skips, unfortunately for the cleaners it's not just cardboard that is thrown in, but a mass amount of polystyrene from the shops. I can't control myself and dive in.
"I can use that for a power plant" I tell myself
"Ooooh, molten pit for nurgle bath/pool" I say.



The problem with this is I gather a certain amount up to take home, once at home it's dumped in the corner for " future projects" I convince myself. Normally I such a convincing argument wouldn't be an issue, except I've vowed not to do anything until my army is painted, so the pile grows.

The big question is do I stop collecting the polystyrene and potentially piece of on some free goodness, or do I buy boxes and start stacking them in the corner in the hope I forget I'm doing it, and won't feel so guilty?

-Draz

Hail,

I have been looking over ebay the last few weeks to see if I can get myself some bargains, as we all know how expensive this hobby can get, especially if you're starting up. The main aim was to find a greater daemon for less than £25, which I did but forgot to bid.. so yeah.

Anyway, I was having a browse through the chaos section when I came across a few items of interest; the first of which being a 3rd edition Chaos Space Marine Codex. I just had to dip my finger into the Paypal wallet, pull out a few coppers to then click on the 'Buy Now' button. Awesome, I now have an old codex to browse through. It so happens I got home today and found it neatly sealed in a jiffy bag.



After an initial look I realise that it's nowhere near as in depth as recent releases, but still worth a good old read.

Now, onto the second item of interest; this one being my favourite of the two. Being a new player I haven't be privy to the advancement of the game, rules (which is a good thing as I don't suffer from MRS likes some of you old fart :-D) and especially miniatures. I've always had a thing for jump packs and flying creatures, I guess one could say it's the feeling or imagination of feeling the freedom of the air.

Well, while looking online I found this:



The model is of course a Chaos Space Marine Raptor, and from what I can make out it was in production in the late 90's... possibly 1998. Not sure what edition that was, but I'm sure if I stopped being lazy I could find out.

I'm not sure about you guys but I personally love it, especially the helm and it's interesting to look at the model and see how the raptors have advanced in looks. I'm more of a fan aesthetically wise to the newer model of raptors, however, I appreciate where it came from, and there it is.

Something old for you, and something new for me, good all round I say!

-Draz

Dark Apostle
By Anthony Reynolds
Reviewed by Drazilek



I have never stood on a battlefield, hot air from the engines of behemoth tanks propelled towards my unprotected face. With the sounds of gunfire skimming just over my head and explosions that devastate all that is within its path. Anthony Reynolds the author of Dark Apostle has done a fine job of bringing me to such a place from the comfort of my arm chair.

This book is a fine example of good versus evil, where the damned seem to have an unrelenting thirst for blood and corruption, never letting their foe rest. At no point during this epic adventure did I find myself getting tired of bored, I ever more wanted to turn the page and find out what was on the horizon for the characters followed.

Of all the characters within the book, I found myself sympathising with Varnus the most, his epic struggle with what was unfolding and how the torment was never ending; we all suffer from this at some point. While moving from one quest to another I could feel myself being pulled from one force to the other in who I wished to succeed, everyone seemed a hero while reading it and any of the armies was worthy of triumph.

When taking away the story of the book I found the writing to flow freely and at no point did I find myself struggle to carry on, which is all credit to the author. The battle scene descriptions were amazing, especially with the Dreadnought Warmonger and his comrades, which gave a new insight into how we look at them outside of the codex. The only area of the book I’d liked to have seen expanded is possibly Word Bearers background and more of an insight into the legion itself, however I am aware there are others books and that these may do so.

To anyone reading this review and wondering if you should get it, or if you’ve been undecided about getting the novel, then I’d say go for it. I thoroughly enjoyed the read and will be picking up the other two in the series as soon as I’ve finished the next book of the ‘heresy’ series Fulgrim (for me anyway as I’m a late starter on them). Anthony Reynolds is a fine author and is up there with Dan Abnett and Graham McNeill in regards to Warhammmer 40k novels.

Until the next review
-Draz

I started painting today, out came my Vallejo Game Colour paints (love the dropper bottles); the first of which was the black for base coating. When I started I thought it a bit strange that the first two Khorne Berzerkers I base coated were slightly shiny, and I'm not talking primer shine, I'm almost considering Citadel brush on undercoat.

However, after those first two they came out all nice and matt, I think there may have been some unshaken paint in the nozzle of the bottle and that could have caused the issue, either way it's all fine now.

I've had an issue with the models on their bases, I didn't pin the models into the bases and cork, and as a result two came loose, so I've pinned them now and they seem more stable than they did, I'll do the others as and when needed, Dunc at the club can help with that one. Haha.

Anyway, to the point, I've decided I don't like metallics paints. I painted a practice model along with the base coating of the berzerkers; this is just standard bolter guy in the Black legion colours. As you can imagine it was mostly painted in golds and silver like metallics, and I really don't like it. Even with the gold highlighted with a bit of mithril they look so meh.

The more I've been looking at guides on painting and colour and the like the more I've moved away from the realism miniatures, the one that look as if they could be a real person or object, and the more I've moved towards Kevin Dallimore style of painting, more cartoonified and colourful. Models in my opinion are now painted in to dark a scheme, I know this is whats going to win you a Golden Daemon, but I don't care, I want vibrancy!

So, with this in mind I'm going to paint the Black Legion is black and yellow with either highlights of a lighter yellow or white. I haven't decided how I'm completley going to do it, but I'll try and come up with a decision by the end of the week.

Anyone out there happen to have any tips on yellow?

-Draz

Today things didn't go as planned, and thus I am at home with a high temperature, aching ribs, a bad back and a headache. With no will in the world to do much constructive beside eat tomato soup and soldiers I decided to have a gander on the Internet with regards to my beloved Chaos.

While having a look around I came across an amazing retro computer game design for Windows 95 by the name of 'Chaos Gate'. Personally I've never heard of it, but the cover to the game caught my eye, and one particular bit.. the glowing green chain-sword.



I think you'll all agree that the art work is beautiful, especially the fact those pesky Ultramarines are getting the righteous, self worth arses kicked. The the chain-sword rocks.

I've decided I'd possibly like to have a similar style chain-sword on my Aspiring Champions and the like, or whole squads with chain weapons. My question to you all, is how do you think I'd paint a similar style weapon. I realise that unless I use glow in the dark paint it's not going to glow, but I'd still like the vibrancy of the weapon.

Any tips, hints or links would be greatly appreciated.

-Draz

Hail,

I haven't made a post in a while, there are a number of reasons why, but unfortunately the biggest one being procrastination. I have made a bit of progress with the army, the chosen are built, I've started the priming of the units and the Daemon Prince has wings.

Not much considering I've had 2 weeks or so of not posting, but after 12 hours shifts and finishing at 9pm I can't really be arsed if truth be know. I have plenty if ideas and hopes, but work does at times get your hobby mood down.

Anyway, here are a few picture of the army in it's present state, bar the Rhino's.









As of Thursday I have nearly 10 days off due to having a minor day operation, so hopefully I'll be able to get a good chunk of the army painted in that time as I won't have much else to do at home. Only models left to build are the obliterators, which I plan to make from Chaos terminators, with one arm using the possessed marines mutated arms as powerfist stand ins, and all the other left over guns.

See you soon.

-Draz

The other day I was reading a post by Ron at From The Warp that gave tips on making a blog more successful. One of the points made by Ron was to give credit to those that deserve it, that got me thinking.

Before i started creating my chaos army I put in a lot of thought as to what the initial list was going to be; this was so I had a set plan I could follow and wasn't continuously buying models willy nilly with no set structure. At the time I had no idea of what was going to be in the army, how I was going to play it, or whether it would work as a competitive list (I plan to try GT's at some point), I just knew it was going to be Chaos.

While scouring the Internet for info I came across a tactical thread on Heresy Online by a user going by the name of Broken Sword. The posts contained within the thread were amazingly informative and unbiased to any specific units. Some of the units were less favourable than others, however there were still tactics and strategies given to the less favoured regardless. An emphasis was also placed on trying things, and simply not just reading what was being said, but to get out and experiment, find out what fitted you.

Within the users signature is a link to a blog called Dark Future The blog is filled with tactica, and not just for Chaos, but for other races such as Dark Eldar. Some nice conversions can be found within the blog, such as the Brass Scorpion and Imperial Rider.

So from this blog I have managed to find a list I'm happy to build, and many more ideas for future progression. Thanks dude.

-Draz.

In a previous post I showed a few units I had put together and planned to base. With a bit of research online I found a method I was happy with, and this method was with the use of cork. The blog this idea came from is The Painting Corps.

Once I'd decided to use cork I needed to find some, this however is easier said than done in the UK it seems. I scoured B&Q, Homebase, Topps Tiles and Wickes but nadda, not even a sniffing of a cork tile, I soon realised the only place I was going to find some was on ebay.

Anyhow, after acquiring the cork tiles I set about breaking one up into rough pieces with a pair of pliers, aiming to make the pieces the same or similar size to the bases. These broken up bits of cork were attached to the round bases with a bit of super glue as I wanted a more stable stick than from what I'd get from PVA. Once dry the bases and cork with brushed with a relatively watered down PVA mix, this was t give the cork a bit more rigidity and a protective layer.



After 24 hours I added 'neat' dabs of PVA glue to the areas of the bases not covered by the irregular contours of the cork tiles. I then sprinkled over citadel grit/sand, I'm sure anything could be used, I'd have preferred ballast, but I didn't have any.



The bases were once again left for 24 hours, which was yesterday, so they'd dried by the time I got home this afternoon. With a dab of super glue on the models feet, they were attached to the cork tile bases.


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Personally I don't think they look too bad for a first attempt. What do you guys think?

-Draz.

The best way I have found of getting a Defiler for £10 is by going to a poker game held by one of your gaming club members, pretending you know absolutely nothing about the game and lull them all into a false sense of security. It doesn't end there, the next stage of the plan is to make a psychic link to all the Jacks in the deck and summon them to you almost every game.

Well, that or get someone to give you £25 and put the £10 to it. I did the first one, but with a little less of the pretending (as I don't really know that much about Poker, but enough to know when someone is trying to bully you out of chips.. hahah) and less of the psychicness.

But yes, a good night Saturday was, especially as I wasn't planning on going, so with my winnings I decided to spend it on something that I could destroy the rest of the club members models with.. a Defiler!



So I'd just like to say thanks to the guys at the club, and Corania Prine for a wonderful evening, and a really cheap Defiler! *grins*

-Draz.

I've decided forcing myself to do some modelling, even though I'm knackered is a good thing, so once I got home, checked emails and made food I got to work. My intentions were to get my chosen sorted, and these would be made from the Dark Angel robed veterans. Of course the icon would be taken off and a few more spikes here and there, along with some nice horned helms.

Mid assembly I realised I'd have to wait for the poly cement to fully dry before I went all aggressive with the icon removal, so out came the Daemon Prince. I found it pretty daunting when getting it out of the box, I'm not used to metal models, before this one the only models I've painted and assembled that have been metal were horrors, not the hardest of creatures.

However, I didn't let it get in the way and away I went. I don't know if it's just me but sometimes when using super glue I stick two pieces together and BAM, stuck like gravy to a dinner cloth, and then other times it just blatantly, outright refuses to stick; this is even when it appears it's a flush fitting. One thing that has crossed my mind is that I hadn't washed the metal parts in soapy water before hand, could this be causing problems?

After a few hours of cleaning up the flashing/mould lines and super gluing myself to... myself I was starting to get somewhere, well until the sword arm and the sword arm shoulder pad fell off. The biggest problem I am having, and despite my efforts to pin them is the wings. He's a Tzeenchian Daemon Prince with wings that doesn't want his wings to stay fixed. What I am wondering is so I even bother trying to super glue the things on, or do I try and Green Stuff them, or both? I've never done anything like this before so it's causing me a headache. I've stopped for today, readying myself for a fresh start tomorrow.



Does anyone have any tips on how I can get these bad boys to stay on? They're the Zombie Dragon wing things, so not overly big or bulky and quite a bit lighter than I was expecting. I'm thinking possibly going for pro with some GS, I'll need to use some anyway as there appears to be a fair bit of touching up and gap filling to be done.

So yeah, any ideas?

-Draz.

I've had a day off work (Woot!) and decided instead of doing the normal clean and sort stuff out I'd get some needed hobby time in. The last two weeks have been extremely hectic at work and thus not a lot has really been done as the energy hasn't been there.

So I got to work on my CSM: Battleforce and the first to be assembled was the Khorne Berzerkers. I haven't done anything to them apart from give the champion a Power Fist, he'll also have a trophy rack, but that hasn't been started as yet.



The scheme will be as it is in the Codex for Black legion with the helms and shoulder pads red, whilst the rest remains Black Legion, I'll more than likely do the Power Fist red also to break the body up a wee bit. As you can see I started basing, and then realised I've ordered some Cork tiles from ebay to use for basing, so they'll have to be removed. I got over excited and too eager, oh well.

Next on the assembly line was the two, 7 man Plague Marine Squads with 2x Meltaguns and Power Fist. The meltas are from a blister pack I purchased from GW as I wasn't sure I'd have enough in spares, as I planned originally to have a 5 man chosen squad with 5 meltas. With these guys I'll be doing the same type of scheme as the Khornes as I want to keep the same design going through the army, rather than having every unit look different with the exception of colour.



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It took all day, but that's what I have. In previous assembling I've taken care to get rid of flashing/mould lines to a degree, but not overly been worried about it. However, with these I've taken my time and really tried to get all excess off of the models, I'm sure there will be some still on them, but at least I tried.



That's it for today, hopefully the cork tiles will arrive tomorrow, if not I'll just assemble something else.

-Draz.

The grips of Chaos have taken me from at last. For many months I have managed to stem their hunger and reaping claws of dread, but no longer can this mortal body and soul bat down the darker force.. and you know what, I embrace it. Muwahaha.

Anyway, I've decided to venture into the Chaos realm with a Legion that won't be unknown to you all, and some may even say it's a little bland - Chaos Undivided. My main reasons for going this route was firstly ease, I'm new to the hobby and didn't want to be bogged down with trying to paint colours that were out of my depth. It also allows to a bit more create license in the units I use and the colour scheme I can employ.

I want to paint for the enjoyment and I realise from trying to paint initially Imperial Fist and then Flesh Tearers that there is no way I can enjoy it, especially as a new comer if I dread sitting down and painting a sea of one colour. So I'm not going to.

Now, onto where I've started, the tanks; these are my first port of call because I know within me it's probably the least favourite part for me. Painting a plain of flat surfaces and trying to get the paint thin enough to not get too many brush strokes, this leads to many layers and then leads to ARGH! So I thought I'd get it out the way first, however to my surprise I've enjoyed painting them a lot more than I initially thought, taking away the black areas and focusing on the coloured I'm quite please, there are overly too many brush strokes visible, and those that are I'd put down to my haste of wash appliance.

Here they are so far.

Chaos Undivided generic Rhino


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Undivided Khorne Rhino


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Undivided Nurgle Rhino


As you can see from the pictures there are no spikes! WooT! I'm at a stage where I'm thinking that people are going too overboard on spikes, slim, nurglish stuff and a mass of skulls. I know this is what Chaos ultimately is, but I thought I'd go for a more renegade stylish force first and then at a later date for some more spikey, black, pustule contaminated milarky.

Anyway, this is what I have so far, as you can probably tell they aren't totally finished, and I'm debating doing to the Generic Rhino as I have to the others, but with a yellow to make it stand out more, but then am I making it too uniform? who knows, we'll see.

-Draz.