Alright alright alright. Mud on the field.
Bring a sponge.

Hobby Talk

And if you get that reference then I’d best not Drift into a tangent too much. Okay I’ll stop now and just talk about what’s been on the hobby desk for the last couple of weeks.
Notably it’s all been Death Guard, with a slew of different kits built, partially built, painted and partially painted. Like any ‘real’ hobbyist that means that yes, I do have something in pretty much every state there is for the Death Guard and I just can’t stop myself. Though a palette cleanser will be coming along soon. Until then though let’s show off some Death Guard shall we?

Actually finished

These guys fit into the ‘and I built them this month as well’ bucket. 5 (count them) Grave Warden Terminators to bring them up to that juicy full sized squad of 10. Like the previous batch I’ve done there was a little magnetization applied for the Sergeant and heavy weapons guy. Unlike the last one I got the polarity of these two to match, meaning I can slot those arms onto either of the bodies. But I also did them in such a way that they were the opposite way around from the one guy already magnetized. Oh well, no big loss there just a minor niggle that’s going to stick with me for a while.

There’s something else you might notice if you look closer at them, especially around the boots/shin plates of the Wardens. These have a little bit of sponged ‘mud’ over teh top of the cream ceramite colouring. This is the first (okay second, we’ll get to that in a moment) attempt at weathering models and I think the effect looks good without overloading the model with ‘weathering’; something I think some get all too into. Yes it’s very cool you’ve rusted, muddied, blooded and splattered with more grime your model.. but he’s now so caked in it that we can’t see the work you did to get to that point. There’s also another reason why I’m only going for some very light ‘muddy’ weathering.
Astartes clean there armour.¹
It’s a known thing that Space Marines have done since I started back in 3rd Edition. Which means that ‘7yrs of pure grime and rust cakes over the armour’ style just doesn’t work for me. But that’s a personal thing, you guys that go harder on the weathering have done some stunning work, and one day I might do something similar. But today is not that day.

Partially Painted

This box-naught is mostly completed now. Little details are left, like the skull/wing/details on the sarcophagus and the hunter-killer missiles need… well they need painting, let’s just say it. And it’s been an interesting test model to see how the scheme holds up on larger flat panelling. I’m mostly happy with it. Mostly.
Look it’s the green shoulders. I’ve used a mid-to-lighter green on the shoulder on the Tactical squad. After a little Seraphim sepia and a thing layer of Vellejo’s Sick Green over the top it works pretty well. It pops from the rest of the miniature without taking from the main focus or hurting the colour scheme. But on this box-naught…. I’m unsure. I don’t think it looks bad, far from it. I’m happy with the result and a little edge highlight on the corners of the panels should help to make it ‘pop’ but unlike on the Tactical marines that green stands out a little too much right now.
One other thing, look at the flat armour plates on the legs. You see the muddy splatters. That’s because this was the first model that I tried that muddy weathering on. I likely need to go a little heavier on the metal plating around the feet but for a first attempt I’m happy with the result. Otherwise it wouldn’t be in here and I’d have had to start again. There’s also another five Tactical marines on the desk to finish this month, bringing me to 15 mk4 Tactical marines. Almost at a full size squad too.

Partially Built

Now for something controversial. I like the 40k Chaos Marine models.
I also think they can have there place in Heresy if used sparingly. Unless you’re Word Bearers then all bets are off (and I’ve seen a mostly-40K Word Bearers Legion project in the flesh and it looked gorgeous). To that end I’ve used the new Chosen kit I’d picked up for a 40K idea and started repurposing it for Heresy. There’s a couple of things to note like the fact there’s more plasma pistols in the squad of 5 than technically allowed.
Rule Of Cool.

Yes I built them before I double checked what the current loadout for them was, so this counts as a ‘mistakes were made’ moment. I’m still going to build another 2 with those chonky² chain-axes and give them plasma pistols. They can just be counts-as Volkite if needs be. Just because I like how they look. As for them having a place in Heresy, well that’s easy.

• Are we playing a game set during a specific Narrative moment Pre-Siege like Istvaan? Then they’re likely staying on the shelf, unless I decide ‘Rule of Cool’ takes precedence.
• What about something set during the Siege? They can come out to play since, well, we all know that the Death Guard were corrupted on route to Terra. That means the beginnings of what would eventually be the Plague Marines, but that corruption isn’t as overt across the entire Legion like it would be for the Word Bearers and Emperor’s Children³.
• Are we just playing a ‘Heresy’ game outside of a Narrative event? They can come along too.

What’s Next for the Death Guard

Getting the missile launcher parts I need to build up a full unit of 10 of these. 5 will have the over-the-shoulder setup from the plastic kit, whilst the other five are going to have the underslung variant. Just because I can then split them into two different units if I really wanted but also because I like to mix-n-match a little too. Those and a second Box-naught should take me up to everything I need to have done for the King Fluff Doubles in July. But first…

Palette Cleansing

I need to take a little break from building and painting small models. So I’m going to dive into a little conversion for 40K which is probably going to become a quick 2-3 month project to punctuate the Death Guard with. Knights.
Chaos Knights to be specific. I have some Helverins in shrink-wrap, the legs from the Onager Dunecrawler in the post and hopefully enough spiky bits to properly adorn them with. Might even have to break open the box of skulls too.
The colour scheme is also going to be a slight departure. Because I’m thinking ‘hot-pink’. Like I said this is a palette cleanser to go from a duller, muted colour to something a lot brighter. I’ll probably include them in the next hobby update along with the rest of the Death Guard.

Until next time, this is the Casual leaving with one final thought.
Where am I going to get hot-pink airbrush paint?

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1. In Horus Rising and False Gods, Loken is interviewed while cleaning or making minor repairs to his suit. In a number of Space Marine codexes it’s noted as part of the daily ritual of a Marine. You honestly think that any Marines is going to go planet-side without at the very least having cleaned off the blood of the last Xenos that has splattered across his chest? ↩︎

2. This is a technical term ↩︎

3. Looking at you Kakophoni ↩︎