Nurgle Plague Banner

I return to work in a week. It will be strange going back, living in a completely different house, though by autumn I expect things to have adjusted to the 'new normal'. Apart from attending the Oldhammer Weekend, Warhammer related exploits have been practically nil - save from this single model. My Nurgle Plague Banner Standard Bearer.

As with all my conversions, this started life as a badly broken figure begrimed in some god-awful black substance that may once have been paint. Cleaning him up as best I could, I used wire to build up the standard and paper (coated in yellow paint) to make the flag. The design came direct from The Lost and the Damned, though I jazzed it up a but in places and added a little texture.

This model was instrumental in destroying Steve Casey's slann force so he deserves a little post of his own. Hopefully, the jobs moving house seems to generate are no coming to an end, so more time can be spent working on some new (and old projects).

Speak soon.

Orlygg

A Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers: May

Hello again dear readers. It has been some time since I last posted here (or anywhere in fact) I know, and things will remain sporadic at best over the next couple of months I am afraid. There is a great deal going on in my personal and working life at the moment and opportunities for Oldhammering are few and far between. Luckily, I was able to spend the entire day today (bar the time to complete the usual household chores) sitting at at a rather cramped and temporary painting station hopelessly daubing paint onto a couple of vintage Citadel models. 

The first of my endeavours to see completion was this rather nice Warrior Troll (check out this blogpost for more detail about troll typography) I have had in my collection for sometime. He had the misfortune to be undercoated and based some months previously, but I never quite managed to get beyond the 'picking him up and looking at him' stage. Wanting to tackle something 'big' (by this I mean easy) after a month or more away from the brushes, I decided to include him in my Nurgle army. 

Nurgle is a very forgiving master when painting. Dribbly bits, messy brushwork and peculiar blobbing all fit the Father of Flies' style perfectly, so the rusty painter is wonderfully supported when working on miniatures in his ilk. I used the some green recipe I have been mucking about with recently for the skin and used drybrushing and washing for the rest of the model. I was very pleased with the rust effect I achieved using a orange paint/chestnut ink wash but my dodgy photograph above doesn't really do it justice. 

This model will represent a minor troll hero in my army and will weigh in at 115 points. Despite the stupidity risk, trolls can do incredible damage in games and can of course regenerate too. Perfect attributes for a small, elite army like mine. The heavy plate and mail gives a better armour save than usual too. 

The second model I worked on came from an aborted Nurgle army I started three years or so ago. Originally, I was going to use this figure as part of a wider Nurgle force once A Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers was over. However, my painting has moved on since he was completed and looked rather shocking in comparison with my more recent work. This came as a surprise really, as I had considered this figure's paint job one of my all time best. It was originally painted at a time I used a great deal of white to highlight models and this resulted in quite chalky, pale finishes rather than the inky brightness of my recent work. So, I decided to repaint him. Being pressed for time, I opted to just paint over the top of my earlier work rather than stripping him completely. I kept much of the original paint scheme too, though the skull, armour and flesh have all seen extensive reworking. 

He now fits in with my other Nurgle pieces very well. I unearthed another five poorly painted Bob Olley Nurgle beastmen alongside him too. These poor mutants have never even graced a gaming table as far as I can recall. They are now awaiting repainting in the near future. Well, relatively near future! Perhaps by the end of June?

Back on topic, this beastman will lead a unit of seven models and has been beefed up as a Pestigor Champion in heavy armour and wielding a double handed weapon. He weighs in at around 60 points by my reckoning and he brings my total to 175 points this month. 

Not bad for a day's work. 

Orlygg. 

A Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers: April Part 2

It may be the closing hours of April, but I have managed to complete a further two models for my Nurgle Warband. Can you spot them in the photograph above? As you can see, I have finally got my act together and grouped together all of the models I have painted thus far int o single frame. They barely fit onto my tiny gaming board now, so future shots will have to be done on one of my McDeath boards!

I haven't yet given the warband any background, and the force is currently known as 'Nurgle Army. There aren't a great deal of models in it, are there? But such is the nature of old school chaos armies where a single model can cost in at around 100 points!

Here are the two new additions and as you can see they are both old Citadel chaos warriors from the 1980s. The model on the right is fairly nondescript really, and there are a number of variants of this model around. I would imagine that he would be a tad tricky to rank up in a large unit swinging that huge scimitar like that, but there was something about the pose that appealed to me. To help tie the model into the general Nurgle theme I used a pale green for his armour and fairly drab colours elsewhere on the model. Speed painting techniques helped bring him up to speed fairly rapidly this morning and despite the rush, he holds his own against the second model I have here, and she is everything but nondescript.

Female warriors are a rare sight in any wargames armies - for obvious reason, and though examples can be gleamed from the pages of history, in reality they were very, very few in number. I guess that is so in the quasi-historical world of '80s Warhammer too. This model has a rather odd history in my collection. I bought her years and years ago as part of a job lot but she was smeared with layers of black that no amount of Nitro-Mors could remove, so as you would imagine she languished at the bottle of a Dettol jar through most of the Oldhammer revolution. I rediscovered her recently and the many years she spent soaking in the stripper seemed to finally shift the black gunk. Upon cleaning her up properly, I found that for some reason she had been cut in half! I nearly lost her upper body down the sink!

But with some nifty pin making and a little glue, she was easy to repair. As time was a premium I basecoated the entire model with brown paint and whacked over the top a couple of ink washes, first chestnut and then an orange/brown. Highlighting the edges of the armour with a dark silver was enough to give the impression of rusty plate male and I used a sickly purple to pick out the facial features and upper thigh. As green acts as a cohesive colour for the warband I decked her out with a few fancy green leather straps around her waist and tarted up her hairdo with a nice green rinse. 

She took me about ninety minutes to complete, bar drying time for the washes. 

The first warrior required a shield and I threw this together quite quickly. Initially, I quite liked the design (it is based on the three coloured grinning faces from the rear of the palanquin) but in retrospect I think it needs something more to liven it up. Any ideas welcome!

So, not bad for April, especially considering other months. A Nurgling base weighs in at 30 points and the chaos warriors 75 points apiece, giving me a grand total of 180 points for this month!

I need to put myself through the stress of moving house more often it seems, with output like this! 

On to next month!

Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers: April Part 1 (I hope)

Preparing to move house has left me with the following opportunities for doing any Oldhammering: 'slim and none at all' - and slim has just left town! Despite this set back, I managed to quietly slip away from the list of jobs my wife prepares for me each weekend to dabble with a few of my many unfinished projects. The first of these is this month's TO4OG's post. 

Unlike the others (Chico, Steve and Paul), I am really struggling to get anything completed and I have several other pieces that I hope to share before the close of this month. Both models are pretty close to completion but I want a few more hours tinkering with them before I share them here. 

After fiddling around with a few snotlings last week, I became intrigued by the little fellas and fancied having a crack at some of the Nurglings I have lying around in my collection. I have managed to build up four bases of them from the odds and ends of collecting over the years and decided to do a test paint of one of them this weekend. 

You are looking at the result.  

I used a variant of the recipe I blogged about last week, only using slightly less Bilious Green in the mix. Not wanting all of my daemonic beauties to be green, I also opted to do something similar with brown, as you can see. On the Palanquin, all of the Nurglings were painted identically for ease of painting, while with these bases I was free to mix things up a little. I used purple and red sores to add a little cohesion to the models so they group together nicely. 

Sure, the painting is a little rough and ready around the edges - but I am strapped for time. As long as my models look vibrant and exciting on the games table from about four feet away - I am happy! A hard lesson to learn indeed! 

Unsurprisingly, Nurgling bases are not worth much in actual points. They weigh in at 30 points each, but combined with the next two models I hope to put out by the end of April, they will help raise this month's quota to around 180 points! 

Keep watching!

Orlygg

A Tale of Four Oldhammerers: March's Magician of Nurgle

Oh, what a month it has been. It all started out with this great plan for getting my bigger units finished for this project. After limping along in the race during the Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers, I wanted to make more of a mad dash to the finish (this year's Oldhammer Weekend in August) and get so BIG units completed. Sadly, life as always intervened. So, a few days ago I finally admitted to myself that I was not going to get the two units of Nurgle I had wanted finished by the end of the month. 

But this left me a problem!

What could I submit if I only had a few days? 

Thankfully chaos is very forgiving in a project like this and the necessary 100 points can easily be found by painting up a single champion model. But what model should I pick? I have a stack of the classic champions that Jes Goodwin designed in the late '80s and I even went as far as fishing their bag out of the Welsh Dresser. In the end though, I decided to paint something really, really special and I chose the model you can see here. 

Being close to the beating heart of Oldhammer, I have been lucky enough to meet a few collectors with some really nice pieces, and I have even managed to pick up a few of them too! Miniatures that were produced, but for many different reasons were never actually released. And this model is one of them. Perhaps you have seen it before on one of the CCM pages?

It has been referenced under 'Empire' and someone has suggested it represents a magician or druid. After painting it, I think that this assessment is not quite right. Judging by it's cadaverous visage (the face resembles a fleshy skull) I suspect that this model was once destined for a 'baddie' range. Having worked on it for a few hours, I feel that the model was never actually completed before casting. Parts of the figure seem unfinished and strangely empty. The 'robe' seems very, very smooth when compared to similar models from the 'era', almost as if additional detail were to be added later, but weren't. 

One thing that did strike me when I was preparing the model for painting were the three 'ball' shape pieces on the back. You can see them here in the image above. I have painted them a rusty silver. They don't appear to be grenades or pouches (you can see a pouch painted red below them) and are really rather inexplicable unless you look at the model from a chaos perspective. 

I feel that they are a Nurgle symbol, such as you see on many shields and models across the Citadel Range. Have a look here to see what I mean in more detail. The red shield clearly displays the classic symbol for the Plague God, doesn't it?

So this begs the question - could this be an unreleased Nurgle Magician instead? I believe so and it is for this reason I chose to paint him up for my (very slowly) growing old school Nurgle army. 

He was great fun to paint. The unfinished areas were suitably challenging and resulted in me having to be more creative with my painting. I had a little serendipity along the way too. As I was sticking the model to it's base, I managed to drip some superglue onto the figure's robe. In attempting to wipe it away I ended up sticking my fingers together and making a right old mess. However, the dried glue gave the robe a little irregular detail and instead of stripping it in the Nitro-Mors overnight (remember, I was on a time limit) I decided to just paint on over the dried glue. 

Can you notice? 

Recently, I unearthed a pot of Bilious Green in my storage area and decided to put the paint to one side to do something with. I haven't actually painted a model with the stuff for over twenty years and the challenge of doing so was a welcome one. You will have seen that I used this green to build up the skin tones with the final highlight being pure Bilious Green - a classic '80s clolour you just don't see any more. Bright red made up the eyes, a purple tongue and brown rotting teeth. The hair was also straightforwards - just grey, light grey and white painted in streaks. 

The robe was harder (not just because it had a crusty layer of superglue on it, either) as it was just so bland. It looked too smooth to be the fetid rags of a Nurgle follower. To solve this, I used a stippling effect with the paint while highlighting and created a rather wormy, irregular finish. A good glaze with a chestnut ink made the material look oily and damp. Nice and offensive like all good Nurgle follower's like to look! 

The staff was a throwback to an old undead army I painted in 2010. I used gold as a basecoat. Then washed over in a dark black ink. Once this was dry, I made a verdigris green wash out of blue and green and seeped this over the staff. Once this dried, the gold looked filthy and aged. I used the original base colour once again to highlight the edges of the metal. 

Bags, feathers and belts were painted quite simply with browns and blacks, as were the shoes. I used my prized Foundry Boneyard triad for the animal skull on the end of the staff. This really is a set of paints you NEED to own as they are absolutely excellent for painting bone. Finally, I used red and blue as spot colours for the pouch and dangling hair tuft below the animal skull - what are these called? 

All in all, I just scraped in with the time limit. Phew! I have been so busy I haven't even had a look at what the other boys in my Oldhammer gang have been up to this month, so I better go remedy that immediately! 

Orlygg

A Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers: December

Published just time time to make my fellow gamer (Warlord Paul's) blog post out of date, points wise at least, I have returned to the business of A Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers after a long absence. Sadly, we have had quite a bit to deal with family and work wise and hobby time has been seriously reduced. My mojo has also been seriously drained by the bleak winter light, but inspired by the glorious output of many a Oldhammerer I have picked up the brush once again and set to work. 

The chaos warrior you see before you is the second model in my new Nurgle army, after the Palanquin of Nurgle I completed last time. If truth be told, I began work on this model in late October, and started work a proper in November. It has taken me just under two months to finish it. No wonder I am languishing at the bottom of our league table!

As with the palanquin model, I used the randomly generated charts in the Lost and the Damned to create the background to this model. There is a handy champion chart on p.209 and I rolled a d1000 to determine what my second character would have in terms of attributes. The dice came in with a lowly 44, so I hastily flicked through the book to find out what fate had in store.

Well, my second character would be a human and have Blood Substitution (maggots) and Agility as their attributes, along with chaos armour. You can field an infinite number of champions as part of your army, each costing 100 points at a base rate, so reaching the target each month shouldn't be too difficult, as if I am in a fix I can just roll off and create a new champion. The trouble is, some of them can turn out to be pretty weak and feeble, a bit like my leader, so there is always a risk. 

The model was pretty straightforwards to paint, if time consuming. As you might have guessed, I have painted A LOT of chaos armour of a variety of hues in my time, so finishing this was no real struggle. I used Foundry's bright green as a base before mixing in a little yellow and bleached bone to achieve the highlights. The shading was added using the same base colour I created with the addition of plenty of black and green ink. 

I quite like using red alongside green, so chose a fairly dark shade to pick out the gloves. I opted for a cheeky blue spot colour too, on the fiendishly faced codpiece! Gold, again Foundry, was used to pick out a few details here and there and silver drubrushing brought out the detail on the chainmail and sword. I used a series of glazes to cut back the brightness of the silver paint and make the figure look a little more dirty. 

The Lost and the Damned has some great ideas for iconography and I wanted to do something a little different on his shield. I chose the plague chalice design and painted it up on a yellow background (chosen to contrast with the green) but used a very similar green for the cup - to help tie the shield back in with the rest of the model. 

If you look at the chaos warrior model, you might notice that it has several maggots or worms wriggling from within. I painted these up using a nice pink created by mixing a dark red with pure white. I repeated the maggot idea on the shield - again to tie the two together. 

Having now completed two character models I am going to opt for a proper unit for January. As I love the old plastic GW skeletons, I am going to do a unit of them. In the Nurgle list, they are known as plague skeletons - and will need an undead hero or chaos champion to lead them. If I plan to paint 14 models - this will take me up to 140 points for the skellies plus whatever the leader of the unit will cost. Of course, If I upgrade the unit further I can probably reach 200 points, which would make up for the month of November that I missed. 

Right, I am off to finish a couple of other painting projects. 

Happy New Year!

Orlygg

An Oldhammer Bookclub: A review of Brain Craig's Plague Daemon

Plague Daemon remains one of my favourite covers. Did you know that it was originally to have been published under the title, Ystareth?

"The dire magician stood back, and it was one of his unhuman companions who stepped forward, bearing a heavy halberd, ready to make a solitary charge. The three remaining monstrosities spread out, two with longbows at the ready, the third with a massive spear. the halberdier was the one with the scaly skin and snake-like tongue; he was the most powerfully built of the beastmen. When he charged the door, it seemed as though he would cover the distance in a matter of seconds. But the snake-tongued monster had covered no more than half the distance when something reached out of the water and caught his ankle, bringing him down on the narrowest part of the causeway. It was along, black tentacle, smooth and leech-like...

Thus was Harmis Detz, soldier of the Border Princes, plunged into a desperate struggle against the plague-bearing forces of chaos. The story is told by Orfeo, first introduced in Brian Craig's Zaragoz. 

So reads the blurb.

Welcome back to the Oldhammer Bookclub, and a rather belated meeting it is too, considering I started reading the book in August and finished it in September. Life got busy is all I can say, and it took me much, much longer to complete this novel than I expected. In fact, I found myself reading a few pages each evening just before I put the light out and, looking back, I quite appreciated this slow-burn approach to the story. 

Like Zaragoz, Plague Daemon is a novel I have read before, several times. My first experience with the book was back in 1990 when a school friend (and Bloodbowl enthusiast) called Moley was given the book by his brother. I can recall seeing that dramatic cover on his bedroom floor to this day and getting the opportunity to flick through the novel. At this point in time, the only GW book I had in my possession was David Ferring's, Konrad, and I was disappointed to find that the specially drawn illustrations that had supported the narrative in my book, was not present in Plague Daemon. That is something that still disappoints today, though we do get some fine illustrations of the characters and images taken from the Realm of Chaos: Lost and the Damned book. 

I didn't actually get to read the book until I was at university later on in the 1990s. I had a girlfriend at the time called Nicola, and we whiled away the warmer months exploring the towns and villages of the West Country, particularly in Cornwall, and one of our favourite haunts were second hand book shops. I had just discovered the incredible Conan stories written by R.E.Howard, and unbelievable as it sounds now, they were out of print then and trying to find a copy seemed an impossibility. Whilst looking for Cimmerian adventures, I discovered an ex-library copy of Plague Daemon in a 'fantasy section' and, despite it being a later Boxtree edition, I was suitably pleased. 

I read the book over that weekend. Life was slow for me then and, apart from drinking in the pub come evening, there was little to do but read or socialise in the era before mobile technology, the internet and tablets. At this point, I was between painting kits and had been thoroughly turned off Warhammer by the Red Period - though Plague Daemon did inspire me to buy up some paints once again and dabble with a few pieces, some of which were used as window displays in the old Exeter GW shop. 

I have always loved maps, from Warhammer to Fighting Fantasy. Plague Daemon gives us quite a bit of information about the Khyprian Empire, a part of the Border Princes not chronicled before or since. 

The book took me back in time. I didn't know it then, but the changes I disliked about GW we down to a shift in leadership. Bryan was gone, with most of the painted miniatures. The new owners had debts to pay. So, launching full force at a younger market made perfect sense - but the product had, for me anyway, lost it's charm, and now seemed more child-like and 'toy' orientated. Ironic I know, considering Citadel miniatures are (and were) 'toys'. Plague Daemon took me back to the Warhammer World as I recognised it.

Twenty years later, Plague Daemon still draws me back into that chaos haunted world, doomed to destruction, but with a populace largely unaware of their imminent and horrific end. I loved every page. So, as before with Zaragoz, I present this review using the series of questions I used previously. As with the previous Oldhammer Bookclub review, the rest of this article will contains SPOILERS so if you haven't read Plague Daemon, and plan to do so, I recommend you cease reading now! 

As I have said, the specially crafted internal illustrations were replaced with character sketches.

1) Did the book engage you immediately or did it take time to draw you in?

Despite having read the novel before, I could recall little of it save the identity of Ystareth, the plague daemon, and the method it used to spread it's appalling pestilence. As before, the story starts with a quick prologue chronicling Orfeo's situation in Arjijil and shows us one of the travelling player's attempts to escape his captivity. I know others have found these little scenes distracting, but in all honesty, I rather enjoy them. This little escapade is no longer than ten pages and is easily completed, and serves to develop the relationship between Orfeo and his captor, Alkadi Nasreen. Of course, the escape is foiled, but it's outcome sets up this second tale of Chaos well. Wanting to know more about Orfeo's fate after Zaragoz, I was thoroughly absorbed by this brief prologue.

Chapter One begins the tale proper with a scene setting overview of the land of Khypris and it's periodic threat of invasion by the tribal, Zani. In fact, much of their society to geared around these invasions and Harmis, the central character, has spent his life training to deal with them. Where Zaragoz was very much a slow burning adventure with much of the early book setting up the character of Orfeo, with Plague Daemon the reader is flung into the action from the very beginning. Harmis finds his outpost overrun by what he assumes is a Zani invasion, we the reader are better informed and can recognise the strange signs Harmis uncovers to be the work of a far darker power.  

Thinking about the question once again, I have to say that I was both engaged immediately (by the premise of the tale) but drawn in over time by the experiences of the characters, and in the ways that they changed. 

2) What was your overall 'feeling' about the novel once its was complete?

I found the ending to be rather sad. So sadness remains my overall feeling about the novel. GrimDark is a term thrown around fairly liberally now, but in truth the tone of Plague Daemon is much darker, and far grimmer than anything Black Library would put out now. Women give birth to mutated fetuses, which require burning, children are killed and young people are butchered because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is no 'Boy's Own' tale about Imperial Knights or Space Marines. Actions can have dire consequences and the 'goodies' often die painful, inglorious and futile deaths. 

"He could not bear to look at the hollow eyes of the little children. He could not bear to see what had been done to them!

Bleak.

3) Pick a character - are their actions justified?

When reviewing a book of this type, it is easy to cling to the main character and analyse their journey through the narrative in some detail, and indeed, there is nothing wrong in this at all. Personally, I often find the supporting characters more interesting, especially when they are actually characterised with a little depth. So I am going to pick Astyanax. He appears at the very beginning of the novel and is mortally wounded in battle with chaos mutants, but the echoes of his actions resonate through the rest of the story as to make his a far more important character than he initially appears to be. 

Astyanax is a powerful wizard in the mould of many fantasy wizards; he lives in a remote tower, along with his apprentices and works tirelessly to extend and enrich his knowledge. However, his purpose is the protection of the land from chaos, and he seems to be well versed in the threat Ystareth poses to Khypris. So well versed, that he has prepared agents to act in defence of the realm once the daemon is lose - with one of their responsibilities being to break the bridges that span the waterways in an effort to slow the daemon's progress.

He has also spent a long period enchanting the local waterway, the Black Tarn, so that it's waters can help nullify the effects of Ystareth's magic. Averil, one of Astyanax's apprentices, uses the magic of this water source to prevent the disease that cripples the land consuming Harmis along with it. 

Though Astyanax is killed in battle against the forces of Chaos, his actions are thoroughly justified and if anyone can take the credit for preserving the state of Khypris, it should be he. Without the knowledge he passes to Averil and Nicodemous, and the magical properties of the Tarnwine, there would be no way that the forces of good could stem the tide of corruption that Ystareth wroughts across the land. 

4) Is the overall plot engaging?

I would say so, yes. Though the plot seems to unfold far slower than in Zaragoz. Brian Craig gives the reader plenty of time to experience the impact a plague daemon (and the Zani invasion) has on a remote society. As I have said before, much of this is pretty bleak and compares the fragility of human nature when under pressure with the hideous evil of chaotic power. The temptation to abandon your humanity lies manifold during the journey, and through greed or fear many a minor character succumbs all too easily. Despite the depressing circumstances, I never gave up willing Harmis to victory - an easy feat considering I knew that he'd emerge victorious in the end. I felt myself concerned for the fates of the other characters too, particularly Averil, and Craig adds a nice little sexual tension sub-plot involving her, which was nicely wrapped up at the end of the tale. 

The tension builds nicely as the novel develops and I felt like I too was being drawn inexorably towards the daemon too. The final battle inside the plague choked palace of Khypris is atmospheric, if a little short. Some of the best writing in the novel can be found there, but I felt the final battle was a little rushed, almost as if Craig was approaching his word limit.

And images taken from other publications, such as White Dwarf and the Lost and the Damned.

7) Which passage in the book strikes you as being the most poignant or memorable? 

Choosing a memorable moment is never as easy as it sounds. And in doing so I considered, and discarded,several key scenes. The first was the attack on Astyanax's tower at the beginning of the novel, an action scene that best resembles what a 'great Warhammer battle' requires, at least to me. The 'goodies' of the mythos defending themselves against the horrors of the world, and prevailing despite the heroic cost of doing so. In fact, I have long thought about designing a scenario based around this small conflict, as it would require but a handful of models, a few pieces of custom scenery and a whole load of narrative and tactical choices for both sides. Perhaps I will one day. 

The second would be the aftermath of the attack on the gypsy camp. There are no heroics here, just the awful suffering of a survivor. But such scenes help to show the consequences of evil upon the world the characters seek to save. It helps with connection. For me, many of the later Black Library books were so shallow I felt little, or no connection with the world or it's characters at all, nor did I feel that their choices would have any real impact on the wider, or smaller, world in which they lived. 

My favourite moment has to be when Harmis faces the daemon, and knowing it's true name can finally exert his power over it. There is a lovely exchange between the two opposing characters that continue the theme of what chaos is that Craig began in Zaragoz. Here it is:

"Know, Harmis, that every nation of the earth is but appearance and illusion, and that the power of kings and princes have is but a shabby shadow of the real power which stands astride the world. Your rulers are but puppet clowns, dancing on the strings which gods and daemons tug for their own amusement. This world is but an eddy of dust in the whirlwind of eternity, infinitisimal in the eye of time. What do you think it can signify, to save a nation? What do you think it can matter to the masters of chaos, if a world such as yours were here, or gone, or never at all, when there are so many worlds in the universe of stars?"

"I do not believe that there are masters of Chaos," Harmis replied, as steadily as he could. "Not even those who style themselves as its gods. And I do not care at all what matters to them, or to you or your monstrous kind. I care about what happens to me- which is this world, this nation, and my friends. You have murdered my brother, and thousands of our kin, but you still have me to face, and in the power which Astyanax and fate have given me you will meet your last reckoning. Come down from the throne Ystareth, for it is I who am the judge here, not you."

Ystareth, like so many lost to chaos, have lost sight of what it means to be human. That mortals will fight, not for power, but for the earth upon which they live. For their family and friends. For the very things that make us human. And that characters such as Harmis will sacrifice far more than their souls to do so. 

During my games of Warhammer, I have always attempted to orchestrate such meetings between characters. That final duel between good and evil that will decide the fate, not of nations, but of the characters themselves. Once all that stood between victory or defeat was a single halfling, alone between the broken barricades. A troll squared up to that fragile break in the battle line and charged, yet that halfling summoned his courage and passed his fear test and stood his ground, preventing the troll from breaking through and ultimately winning the battle. So incredible (an unexpected) was this feat, that all the players clapped and cheered the little chap, even those on the 'loosing' side, and everyone agreed that that small event was one of the finest moments in their gaming lives. 

True heroism. 

Overall Score: 4/5 - another worthy read that builds on the successes of Zaragoz. An unexpectedly bleak vision of the Warhammer world. 

So, have you read Plague Daemon recently, or long in the past? What are your thoughts and memories of the novel? 

Orlygg

Orlygg's First Commission: Chaos Champion of Nurgle for Stuart Klatcheff

Stuart recently asked me to paint a miniature for him, as part of a trade deal and I was more than happy to do so. He had selected the famous 'pointy skeleton' example from his collection, with strict instructions to Nurglify him up. He wanted something a bit different for the shoulder pad and I suggested red, knowing from experience that a dark crimson works wonders with the plague lord. 

I used my now normal method to prepare the model for painting. A white undercoat followed by the base colours. Over this I liberally covered with my own homebrew ink wash, which is made up from chestnut, dark brown and a little red, and set aside to dry. This was the day before BOYL and I have spent the last couple of evenings working on him. The model was a bit of a departure for me as it was the first time I had used Foundry paints as I have to say, they are easily the best paints I have ever used. Gradually, I intend to move over to their system as my older pots run low. 

I bought the bone triad of colours and used them to work up the detail on the top half of the model. I found the paint to be quite fluid and didn't have to include as much water as I normally do to get the control I was after. Using each shade in sequence made things easy and the bone was soon worked up nicely. 

The shoulderpad was base coated in a red/brown ink mix and them highlighted up through adding additional blobs of red paint to the mix. The final highlights are pure yellow though, and I find that adding yellow in this way gives a very striking colour indeed. 

The cloak was an exact copy of the technique I used on my recent evil sorcerer model, only I used a different shade of green as my basis and worked up the highlight by adding the brightest bone shade in the Foundry triad. 

The sword was easy too, just a gold and silver basecoat washed over with a couple of layers of brown ink. I drushbrushed over the blade with progressively brighetr shades of silver but chose to leave the gold untouched, save for a fine bright silver highlight on the hilt. Over this I added my homemade verdigris wash to help age the weapon and give it that Nurgle look.  I added a couple of gemstones to the pommel using the standard method for such things. 

I wasn't sure whether to do just my standard base or to add static grass or flock, so in the end I opted to do both. Overall, I am very pleased with the result and I hope that Stuart is too. I have a section commission to do shortly, as soon as a suitable figure can be found, for Steve 'Citadel Collector' Casey, which will be a little more ambitious and involves something I have wanted to do for sometime. Keep your eyes peeled for that when it comes! 

Orlygg

On Palanquins and Chariots

Today I want to talk about two of my favourite units in the third edition of Warhammer some twenty five years ago or more. Both were documented in White Dwarf 114 with interesting articles. I present both below to aid the discussion of them.

 

First up is the very well known Palanquin of Nurgle model. This was a thing of beauty upon its first release, if a follower of Nurgle could be described as such, and I was eager, nay desperate, to get my hands on a model. One of the things that really stood out for me were the varied riders of the Palanquin. The champion with the sword raised, the Nurgle sorcerer and the futuristic renegade. Sadly, I don't think you ever got all three in the kit, but I was fun wondering which you'd like to get hold of first.

 

It took me years to get one, scoring a complete kit (still in the blister) in about 2004. It was a lovely model, and came with the champion with the raised sword (seen in the illustration below) and was a joy to assemble. Like all the big models of the 80s/90s, it weighed a hefty amount and felt great in the hand. This is some important to me in my appreication of models. The weight just feels 'right' and the models are a joy to handle through the construction and painting process, as they are when the are let loose on the table top. I am sorry, but plastic and resin just don't have that same 'feel' to them for me!

 

Like an idiot, I sold mine for about £12.50 about a year later. Something I have come to regret because they are now very hard to get hold of for less than £50. This was made even more difficult by the new 40k version being released a few years back. It was an okay model but lacked the rotting horror of the original. Subsequently, I feel that the classic model has probably made its way into many modern forces. Hopefully, it will one day make it into one of mine.

 

What follows is the lovely fluff and rules supplement that appeared in WD114. It also has some entertaining rules, such as the Nurglings popping up from the slime left by the palanquin. The rules go on to explain that the palanquins were used both by champions and plaguebearers themselves! Now this is something I have never really thought about before. I am fairly sure no seated PB were ever released but it would be a simple matter to convert one.

Great illustrations support the article and a Realm of Chaos narrative too. The Lost and the Damned, from which these articles are taken I believe, are rich is short stories written by Rick Priestley, Bill King and a great number of other authors.

Adrian Smith's unique pencil style captured chaos like no one else. His illustrations of Nurgle are particularly horrific and here the seated champion with the sword is depicted.

In a Realm of Chaos double whammy, issue 114 also contained a detailed article on Chaos Chariots. These were fairly varied constructs, and full rules were included in the article about how to adopt different beasts for traction and how chaos dwarfs had to be present in the force for their construction. GW also released a model around this time sculpted by the Perry's but I was quite traditional in its form and for suitable for chaos warriors in the Empire rather than the Realms themselves. Unlike the palanquin, I own this model (despite selling it in the same purge as the palanquin) as I have managed to by the model back quite cheaply in recent times.

 

Have a look at the article here.

No narrative this time, but detailed background about how chariots are put together in the Realms of Chaos. There are lots of good ideas here, and this source is full of great ideas for narrative skirmishes between the forces of chaos. I am sure there is a reall y good campaign in here somewhere.

Just like most things in the Realm of Chaos books, the options and detail behind the chariots is extremely detailed, if not exhaustive.

Craziness abounds in the detail here when you chariot is damaged. You could probably play several games without ever getting the same result. Additionally, the last paragraph may be of particular interest to converters. Using unusual creatures to pull the chariot? Citadel Sheep anyone?







 



My restored and painted Chaos Chariot by the Perrys. Sculpted in 1987 but not released until later if my facts are correct. The model makes good use of the first Citadel plastic horses and has lots of baroque detailing and nasty faces here and there. The chariot's extras (here a flag pole and bow and quiver) and the same that fit other Khorne units of the time, most notably the Juggernauts.

Do you have any opinions about these two models? Are you lucky enough to own them, and if you have a link to a painted example please do share? Or are you not a fan? If so, what are your reasons?

Orlygg

'Eavy Metal Specials: White Dwarf 114

 

As many of you will be aware, we have reached issue 114 of White Dwarf in our history of Warhammer Third Edition. As an offshoot of the 'Acceptable in the '80s' series, we are dipping into the work of the 'Eavy Metal painters of this period. There had been a period of change for the figure painters, and things were certainly much more organised than when Colin Dixon was first employed. If you recall, Colin was the original full time miniature painter, though by the later '80s the department had grown to include a wider group of artists, lead by the very capable Phil Lewis. Andy Craig, the great friend of Oldhammer and this blog, started his career as WD114 was organised for printing, and examples of his early work appear within the articles presented below. He would soon be joined by other '80s painting heroes, such as Tim Prow, Ivan Bartlett and many others. Unoffical members who were friends of the studio, such as Pete Taylor, also has their work showcased during this period.

If Helen of Troy was the face that launched a thousand ships, Phil's Bloodbowl minis must have lauched a thousand spin off teams. Such an iconic collection of minitures, and colour scheme, with many one off conversions. I am currently working with Phil to do an interview about his time at the studio and, hopefully, he will give us a little more information about the creation of the Chaos All Stars.

Steve Mussared's work was famous for the heavy gloss layer of varnish that protected these miniatures. He was an avid gamer and all of his miniatures were painted with gaming in mind. He had an unique style, and I have said it before, back in the '80s you could pick up a mini and name the sculptor and idenify the artist too because there were so many differeing styles. The converted daemon of Nurgle is a particularly memorable model for me. Steve's signiature grey bases really offset the bleached colours on this model.

Chaos never looked so good as it did when the original RoC books were being produced. The range of colours was wild and varied, yet consistant in their own strange way. Here we see many of the models painted for the Lost and the Damned, inlcuding one of Andy's plaguebearers. This, and many of these models, were on display at the Foundrty during the Oldhammer Event. Seeing them in the magazine is nothing compared to the real thing, believe me!

An Tzeentch gets its chance to shine, cracking (as they do) with deeply magical hues. Again, some of these models were on display, and I recall sing that Tzeetch champion among others in the Foundry cabinets.

Quite a varied bunch on this page; Bloodbowl, 40k and Warhammer. Note several of this minis. The Eldar Titan was painted by Andy Craig using his (then) signature yellow and black combination. The 'Kinky' Chaosette also was painted by Andy but he gave the model away to an ex-girlfriend! Opps! Perhaps someone will be lucky enough to discover her again one day! I love the Knights Panther conversion here, obviously made in homage to the famous John Blance painting. 

Another mix of Bloodbowl and Chaos. This page sees a rare glimpse of the '80s Chaos Chariot from the talented minds of the Perry Twins. I love this model. I bought in 1989 and foolishly sold it about 10 years ago. Thankfully, I have since got my self a second version and have painted it up for my Khorne Army!

 

 

Any thoughts or comments on these models. Any memories that you are desperate to share? Please do.

 

Orlygg.

Three Flies For Nurgle! Outstanding Nurglesque miniatures!

The Dog's..? The Badger's..? The Flies eyes?

I get plenty of emails about Old School Citadel and Third Edition and I love to share with readers of this blog the photographs of incredible miniatures that I receive.

But when you receive a Nurgle (most of us owned one but flogged it cheap about 10 years back) Palanquin painted THIS WELL, you really stand up and take notice.

Forget Moriarty, Orlygg, this miniature painter (or leadsmith, to coin a phrase?) has gone above and beyond the call of the Realm of Chaos and gone totally painterly. The result? An astonishing blend of Blanche and Old Master. The culprit? None other than Loris Accaries, a new man on the blogger scene but someone who is certainly going to make a big (if slight putrid) splash!

If Da Vinci had got into Realm of Chaos, the result would probably looked something like this! 

Accaries skill as a painter has brought this twenty-five year old sculpt alive and given in an immediacy that is vibrant and very fresh (for a rotting corpse like daemon...)

And believe it or not, there is loads more to come. So do yourself a favour! Follow the link below and join this blog. I, for one, cannot wait to see what the master of the decayed delivers to us next!

http://three-flies-for-nurgle.blogspot.fr/

Orlygg.

Nurgle Warband Complete

Painted during some of the most challenging days of my life, my Nurgle warband is finally complete! I have a strange affinity with these models as they have shared the ups and downs with me without fuss or complaint. I also think that the beastmen are some of my best work to date- I hope fellow bloggers agree!

No updates since the 14th of April? I have spent the last couple of weeks working on the final five beastmen and a currently top secret 'other' project that I hope to be able to share with you soon- it needs to be completed first! The 'other' project took up a fair part of my time and I only began work on the beastmen half way through last week. I had some great fun experimenting with the old citadel inks and found that the colour effects they produce (deep and pigment heavy) ares quite different to the subtle shades of modern washes like the late Devlan Mud.

Well here are the beastmen. The first four are all scuplted by Bob Olley and were released around 1990 alongside the second volume of Realm of Chaos. The style is distinctly un-citadel (Bob had his own range called 'Iron Claw') and in the past I have found his models difficult to paint well. I think I did an ok job this time around though!

I think I have alluded to this before, but painting these old metal models is so refreshing and stimulating. After  years of painting up plastic space marines or rank of (fairly) identical ranked models its fantastic to work on miniatures that are all different. I love finding the little details that you only notice when painting has commenced- belts, pouches, talismans etc.

I included a beastman champion to lead the unit. This miniature is one of my favourite Realm of Chaos miniatures- released in 1988 and sculpted by the Goodwin (I think- please correct me if wrong) I am rather pleased with the colour scheme and over all finish of this one!

And to finish this blog, I shall share with you a group shot of the Warband in all its Nurglesque glory!

Until the next time.

Orlygg.

Nurgle Warband Approaches Completion

Just another quick update to share with you the completed second minotaur. Painted quite quickly for me yesterday in about 5 hours. A very enjoyable model to work on it was too, especially when considering GW's latest minotaur release... I am not a fan. The bases have also been finished off and help lend a little consistency to the chaos warband. Apologies for no close ups on the new minotaur, the shots I took were up to scratch so I'll have to take a few more at a later date!

I have 5 more beastmen to paint next, all of them Bob Olley sculpts from the Realm of Chaos 1989 release. I think I am going to do something a little more uniform with their colour scheme, so that they look like them have come from the same herd or something.

Until the next time.

Orlygg.