A Great Unclean One (based on the LatD illustration)

There's an Oldhammer project happening at the moment which is to create something from one of Tony Hough's amazing illustrations. Now a lot of his work is 40K based and therefore not for me, but having scanned the wonderful images in the Lost and the Damned, I came across one of his illustrations of a Great Unclean One, on page 12. It's certainly an illustration which I'd seen before but it's not until I have a ulterior purpose that I actually stopped and studied it properly, even more the case when I'm about to create a sculpted version of it. 

Now I'm not usually one to post wip photos, but I'm particularly happy with this as it's taken a fair amount of work, thought and observation. 

Part of the thought process for this type of project, is about what materials, parts, bits, models etc to use. I already owned an incomplete classic, 3rd edition Citadel GUO and I had the head of one of the more recent ones (from some old project many years ago). Now it's a head I don't usually like but I could see a resemblance to Tony Hough's drawing, both in terms of the wide shape of the head, the wide, toothy grin and the shape of the horns. Hopefully you can see that here:

To complete the scene I needed a couple of naked admirers and found these courtesy of Hasslefree miniatures. Both have had head swaps, the female heads being snipped away and a skull and a Tyrannid(?) head replacing them.

With the miniatures all gathered it was time to do some cutting and sculpting. The classic GUO legs section was far too narrow for what I had in mind, so I sawed through it, off centre in an area lacking in details, in order to space and then bulk out the gap between. I then wanted to change the pose of his left arm so made a snip at the wrist, so as to reposition it. I didn’t own a right arm and looked briefly on eBay but wasn’t willing to pay £15 for one, so decided to fully sculpt that appendage. As always Nurgle sculpting, thankfully, is quite forgiving!

The next stage was to start to put it all together, to see whether I could actually realise my intentions and keep it as close as possible to the illustration. This involved a fair amount of careful drilling and pinning to join respective parts together and to make a solid base for all the sculpting to follow. Here you can see that I chopped off the original horns and inverted them so that their shape was more reminiscent of Hough’s illustration and removed his goofy bottom jaw so the head sat more comfortably on the torso without any sign of a neck. You can also see the armature for the right hand here. I had the torso of the GUO ready to go without any changes (yet). The left leg had to be substantially repositioned, so an admirer could fit on his thigh, this created quite the gap and quite the forward step, but I figured I could reduce the space by extending the belly outwards to fill the gap.

Thus began the process of sculpting. I started off with milliput to bulk out the model and fill all the gaps (sorry no photo here, I was in a sculpting frenzy and didn’t want to stop the flow) and then green stuff for the details and texture. You can see that I’ve added a plastic tongue (from the Giant set?) and lots of postules made from dried seeds, pushed straight into the wet green stuff. At this stage I had to make a crucial decision - do I sculpt over the lovely mouth belly to maintain the Hough homage or do I keep it exposed for nostalgia sake? Obviously the former won out. Here you can also see me experimenting with the GreenstuffWorld green stuff roller to create some of the ribbed intestines protruding from his open belly.

There are lots of little details in the illustration that I wanted to include in the sculpt, so I will share those here too, as these are intrinsic to trying to capture Hough’s style of work. When an earlier wip photo was shared on the Oldhammer Facebook page, it highlighted that the illustration seems to be quite renowned for the uzi toting Nurgling that hovers in the top left corner of the picture. So I found an old spore (?) model and sculpted over it to create the Nurgling. The top hat is made from a plastic tube off cut and a circular bit of plasticard for the brim. The uzi is the nozzle from a gun off the Gaslands sprue and a snip off a cable tie:

Here you can see, in more detail, the lounging admirer. A greenstuff tongue was added as if to lick the man breast and some hair and spikes adorn her head. Her left leg also had to be snipped and repositioned at the knee to both fit on and to represent the illustration. You can also see a tendril wrapping itself around her other knee and the completed belly, sans mouth.

A close up of the head shows some tiny rolled maggots infesting his horns as well as a four legged, hairy skull creature on top. I was really pleased with the sculpting of the GUO’s head, I think I hid the goofy, quizzical look of the original sculpt and created a more sneering, malevolent look of the illustration. You can also see the sculpted bile coming from his mouth, this will be added to with some stringy UHU glue after painting. 

I had to think carefully about how to create all the webs and strands of organic goo that drape off the GUO. I had a eureka moment when the vacuum cleaner got clogged with a long, thin piece of string, so used it here, soaked in pva to make it solid. I also found some tiny roots from some moss that I had in a baggie and used them to dangle from his right hand. 

And from the back, not quite so much detail here, but you can see some beads squished into the milliput sculpting.

The last part was the base. Now this is me breaking my own rule (to a degree). I’ve never really appreciated display plinths, much preferring models to be properly based, but I was given this wooden one and decided to use it here. I’ve compromised by also basing the model on a round 60mm base and then magnetising both so that he can be separated from the plinth. It seems to be a sound solution...

Both bases required some added detail and interest, so I got to work with the greenstuff roller and made some more worms to scavenge around in the foreground and hit the bits box for a range of organic looking bits. In fact I delved to the very.p bottom of the box and pulled out some interesting shapes of off cuts and unwanted pieces, including bits of horn, a pouch, some sort of lip thing and bits of resin skull. On the left is part of a GW familiar, on the right a resin chap with gas mark that I was given at a meet up, sorry I can’t remember who. Obviously there is an old Nurgling at the forefront because it’s just too cool and a mistake of Tony Hough’s not to include one there!

So there we go, the model is made. I’ve just undercoated him today with a zenithal undercoat of grey and white and my intention is to monochrome him (adding a dark wash for shadows first) then with just some washes of very subtle colour, in an almost illustrative style. Hopefully my skills are up to the job, we shall see!

7 Nurgle Warriors (600pts)

Another 7 Nurgle Warriors, with standard. Unlike the last unit, which were classic Citadel sculpts and just painted, these are my own conversions that are made in my vision of how mutated and grotesque Nurgle can be. Lots of bitz, greenstuff and imagination went into these (maybe 10 years ago!) but they are very much based on some of the imagery from the Lost and the Damned and now they’re complete with their display tray! So that is a cumulative total of 1870pts for just three units... and lots of rank and file to come...

The BitzBox Warband

It started as a personal quest in October 2015, to be creative with my BitzBox, whilst ensuring all conversions were clearly steeped in the style of RoC. A year and a half later it is now complete and I'm very happy with how it turned out:

But it doesn't stop here. This warband will be absorbed into my growing Lost and the Damned Nurgle    Army and my love of converting and kitbashing has been re-ignited. It just so happens that I've stumbled upon a new direction; AoS28. A return to the pathetic aesthetic in a grim dark style with a focus on character and conversion - perfect for me. It all takes me back to a 10 year old (and unfinished) project of mine (Rensburg).

BitzBox Warband Champion on Palanquin

This BitzBox warband project had been on hold (and forever pushed further down the painting queue) largely due to this fella. It was great fun to kitbash and convert; delving into my box of bits to create a new palanquin and leader, but the thought of painting the bastard was daunting to say the least.

But I've done it and as usual it was never as bad as I had expected or built it up (a bit like public speaking). 

So here he is; Seth Spawnbloat. Level 10 Human. Champion of Nurgle. Infestation of Nurlings. Atrophied Arm, Enormously Fat. Palanquin, Shield, Warhammer

I primed the whole thing black (to make sure it was dark in-between all the nurglings) and then used a zenithal application of white from above. I much prefer using my ink washes/glazes over a white undercoat and then building up the subsequent highlights over the top of that.

With the Nurglings I used a limited palette of just yellow, green and orange inks (some mixed together) to keep all of the nurglings unified in colour. After the various washes were dry I highlighted up, which was a pretty tiresome effort.

The wooden areas were washed and glazed with a variety of greys and pale browns for the baser colour and then highlighted up with pale greys to try and create a weathered and old looking wood effect. A final addition of some subtle green glazes were applied to give a slightly mossy look to the wood. The idea being that a slightly green tinge to the wood would be complemented by the orangy/red rust colour on the metal areas.

The writhing mass of bodies on the throne (which was fun to make) created a few challenges. I wanted to make them look like they were the same colour as the wood, so that they were actually part of the throne, but this time highlighted up with a little Elf Flesh so as to give them a bit of a warmer skin tone.

You may have noticed the tattered awning surrounding the palanquin. This was an addtition that I expected to make as there was a slightly annoying gap between nurglings and palanquin that ruined the illusion of the mass of nurglings lifting the dais. To mask this I added this decoration and deliberately made it look tatty, both by ripping the paper and washing several layers of grungy sepias, browns and greens.

The images on the awning are taken directly from the page borders found in the Lost and the Damned.

Likewise the banner behind the champion. My first idea was to use a crow illustration from the Fighting Fantasy books but it looked a bit lost on amongst so much else. The black lining could not really compete with the busy-ness of the model. So I painted over it with the most iconic Nurgle image possible, Les Edward's original illustration for the Lost and the Damned itself - just on a tiny scale!

It actually wasn't as hard to do as I though it might be. Once I had added some thin layers of background colour, I went about sketching the outline of the GUO onto the background with diluted black and then added the shadows with Rhinox brown, before building up successive highlights with a range of pale greens and yellows. I then re-emphasised the shadows and added some spots of pinky/red for the sores.

The champion himself needed to stand out amongst the colours I'd already used and I'd already decided that I wanted him to look quite pale. I ended up going a bit pinker than expected, only to make him pop from all the other colours. 

Writing this all out does always make me realise just how much internal thinking occurs when painting models, an ongoing internal monologue.

The final element to complete was the shield and again I wanted to create a nice contrast with the warmer colours of the champ, so I hit the demonic shield with the baby-blue treatment and a bit of subtle purple on the tongue and yellow on the horn to mimic the warmth of the flames higher up in the composition.

So has the painted version lived up to my expectations? Those expectations were pretty damn high after being so proud of the actual build of this model and I have to say that I think the paint job does the model justice. I'm certainly happy with all the decisions I made and the composition and balance of the whole piece holds up. I know I'll never be the best painter around, but this is up there with my very best.

Hope you enjoy it too. I'll post up some photos of the finished bitzbox warband later..

BitzBox Warband Characters

To continue the slow work of finishing my bitzbox warband, I can now introduce the two lesser characters to accompany the previously showcased minions; 

Darn the Veiled (Marauder, Mark of Nurgle, Horns, Heavy Armour and Shield)

Araf (Level 5 Beastman, Mark of Nurgle, Bestial Face (dog) limb loss (leg), Demonic Steed (Skull Face, Horn)

As you can see I've rolled up the Chaos Attributes from the great Lost and the Damned tome and gone about converting them to match the rolls. I've now finally got around to painting them too:

You may recognise a few of the multitude of bitz used here (go on play the game, you know you want to), and you may also identify with where my inspiration came from for Aruf; namely the Groot character below, which I believe was modelled and painted by Mike Mcvey.

His steed is a direct copy of this Tony Ackland illustration from the Chaos Spawn section from the LatD. Originally I was going to sculpt on the scaly skin (I forgot), then I remembered and was going to use crackle medium (I forgot again) so in the end I painted a furry kind of texture to break up the large, flat areas of horse body. I wished I had sculpted the scales on though, it would have looked better and more in keeping with the original illustration.

Darn is a simpler conversion, using a Chaos Warrior body, with a Knight of Nurgle head and some greenstuffing to the new addition of a shield.

And the two of them gallivanting through some quite familiar territory. 

The next and final piece of my Bitzbox Warband is the leader mounted onto a palanquin; I'm slightly daunted by the size and intricacy of it, so it may take some time. I plan to finish a few other quick projects alongside it to break up such a large project.

BitzBox Beastmen

I like my beastmen to be a proper combination of beasts and men, so for this stage of my bitzbox warband challenge, I kitbashed a load of (mostly) plastic and (some) metal parts to create a range of characters that showed a range of hybrids between man and different beasts. I also wanted to have lesser and greater hybrids - the greater hybrids can look far removed from the man and more bestial (but are probably more fun to convert) yet actually I prefer the subtle mutations/changes that you may find on a more human like figure with a few mutations that can almost be hidden. These are mostly greater mutations/hybrids:

So each conversion stuck to the theme of one animal, but with greater or lesser mutations. First up is a more typical beastman - goat head and hoof and an extended belly, but otherwise still retaining much of his soldier background with his uniform and blunderbuss. Not so far down the path to damnation and he can probably function pretty normally:

Here I've again gone for a head swap, adding a fly mutation to an otherwise humanoid body (which is actually a metal savage orc that I found headless in my bitz-box). A heavier mutation - can he speak? Has his brain retained any human elements?

The third beastman is relating to the avian, but with some Nurgleesque gut spillage. A cold-one claw has been added to his feet and I think the head is from a Bretonnian helmet? The arms are from a plaguebearer and have nice talon like fingers to them. I tried to paint the fur of the beastman body to match the feathers on the bird head. I was tempted to give him wings, but realised I needed them for my upcoming harpies. So he's flightless, which must be quite irritating for him:

Next up is my lizardman. Again utilising the head of a cold-one but I tried to position it in a way that made it look dynamic, almost as if he is contorted with pain and rage due to his heavily mutated self. A cold one was again raided for the tail, an old chaos warrior mutated arm was stuck to a plaguebearer body and a metal leg from the Nurgle palanquin champion was added. I think his left arm and axe are orcish. He's more lizard than man now (say this with an Alec Guinness voice):

And finally the cow-centaur. Cow body from the giant sprue, torso from a zombie, head from the chaos warriors mutation sprue, skaven left arm and banner pole and right arm/spear from a goblin. The banner design is straight outta Fighting Fantasy - see the link for the other ones I've completed. Much more heavily mootated than some of the udder beastmen on show here:

And here they all are looking perfectly mutated, chaotic, lost and very damned.

A few more characters need to be painted to complete this warband - I'm determined to stay focused on one project at a time, until it's completion... but I'd really like to kitbash some subtly mutated, robed and diseased flagellants next. They'll have to wait.

BitzBox Warband - the troll and the centaur

Just over a year ago, I started on a Bitzbox Warband which followed these simple rules:

1. Every model must be converted / kitbashed to hell (and therefore unique)
2. I must use only currently owned bitz (no buying more stuff!)
3. I must not use more than two parts from the same kit on one model
4. If using Realm of Chaos, then rolls must be adhered to or complete the conversion and then find attributes to match (I did the latter here).

And as a reminder (to me and you) that this is what I "rolled up" on the Lost and the Damned retinue table:

• Seth Spawnbloat. Level 10 Human. Champion of Nurgle. Infestation of Nurlings. Atrophied Arm, Enormously Fat. Palanquin, Shield, Warhammer
• Darn the Veiled. Chaos Marauder. Mark of Nurgle, Horns, Heavy Armour Shield.
• 5 Beastmen. Standard. I decided to create a Beastman champion to lead these; 
• Araf. Level 5 Beastman. Mark of Nurgle. Bestial Face (Dog), Limb Loss (leg), Demonic Steed (Skull Face, Horn)
• Chaos Centaur. 

The last model on the list is shown here and whilst working on it, I also found a partly converted stone troll from my old bitz box that was just screaming at me to be completed - I've painted a lot of stone trolls in my time and they always provide a treat for the brush. So I've added him to the group and in doing so have broken my own rule 4, but for completions sake, here's the new addition:

• Troll. Pinhead, Horns

Hands up like you just don't care. The score sheet is based upon "When The Saints Go Marching In". Imagine him banging that out on his drums as the warband approaches....

The parts used for the conversion are pretty diverse, Orc drums, Horror torso and arms, flagellant boards, plastic dragons(?) tail, plastic cold one body. I deliberately painted him pretty Tzeentch like with yellows, blues and purples, but the addition of a greenstuffed gut, gave him a slightly Nurgle look.

The troll is a very straightforward conversion; a plastic chaos warrior head applied and greenstuffed around the neck and a ForgeWorld GUO horn added to his shoulder with some sculpted flesh around it. I wanted to create an albino feel to this chap, working with cool pinks and a cool blue for the scales, contrasting with the more solid colours of the wood, metal, axe and base. Always a pleasure to paint these though.

Moving onto the 4 Beastmen next, maybe.

Dungeon scenery part 2 (Heroquest)

Having completed the first set of resin furniture from Scotia Grendel, I felt the urge to go all old school and paint up some Heroquest scenery too. I didn't want to touch my own boxed copy (there's nostalgia attached to the original plastic, unpainted set I own) so I picked up some broken and damaged lots from ebay and set about adding some extra details before painting them up. I have to say that painting such pieces is a real chore to paint (even after using grey primer to speed up the process) and it took all my willpower to persevere and not get side-tracked onto all the more interesting projects, like more npc's for example...

Here's the outcome. You can see that I've used some Styrofoam to add height to the tomb, added extra weapons and barrels to the tables and raised up the altar: 

The alchemists table came to me in good condition, if a bit sparse, so I added a scroll to the desk. The only fun bit is painting a few additional details, like the ink in the pot on the quill.

The tomb was primed grey so it only needed some drybrushed highlights and a load of weathering washes. I was tempted to add some decals to the shields but common sense and need to move on prevailed.

Very quick and easy paint job here, unfortunately the top of the halberd is missing and I forgot to add a new weapon in my haste to progress. Anyone for a metal pole as your weapon of choice/

I raided my bitzbox here and added a load of weapons and other artifacts that I can imagine are for sale from an appropriate merchant. I have now bought the merchant model....

I think this one will be added to the tavern pieces I painted last time around. Again I've got the appropriate npc's lined up (from Otherworld) to paint soon...



And the altar. It's a bit too tall now so the mage/sorcerer that I'll paint up for this will be stood on a step/plinth. I see this as a sacrificial altar (hence the blood) and I was very tempted to freehand an image from the Heroquest rulebook onto the blank page ion the right. Again, common sense prevailed (although it is the small, unique details that can set pieces apart..) I also have some slave girls which I'll paint up to accompany this piece.

Next up I'll paint some of the npc's I've mentioned in the post and I've got a few scratchbuilt bookcases that need some attention too. I'll play some games with my kids soon so I can get some nice set-piece photos with all the pieces included.