Typhus' Crew of the Terminus Est ... my Death Guard

[Plague Dave]

My brethren in Chaos! This is the official WIP thread for my Death Guard army. Nice of this painting project to come along, too, as a couple of the things I'll get done here will 'finish' my list - to the extent that I'll have options up to 2500 pts painted.

What I'll be working on the longest will be my Nurgled Land Raider. I picked up the FW doors, and plan to scratch and pox the rest of the surface to match. The vents towards the back will also get caved in a bit so that I might add Nurgle tubes ala the DP's and Typhus' back. I'm also making it look quite a bit like the painting on the front of the box, since I consider it one of the best looking pieces of Chaos vehicle art. So it'll be quite spikey! You can sort of notice in the picture below that I already added the spike plates on the front ramp (sorry, it was down in the pic). This doesn't allow it to open all the way, but ... sacrificing function for awesomeness there.

Next up ... but probably the first things to get painted, will be my Berserkers. A little Khorney for a Death Guard army, I know, but it's Typhus' Death Guard, not Mortarion's, so I figure he picked them up somewhere along the way. The scheme will be very rusty, and I'll replace most of the Khorne icons with those of Nurgle. In the pic below, the Skull Taker is already somewhat assembled, and I'm very much looking forward to completing the conversions I have in mind for him.

Lastly, I'll be stripping, and repainting a squad of Plague Marines. This army has slowly been growing for about three years now, but since I'm playing a lot more frequently these days, I wanted to crank through all the painting. I've gotten much better over time, and these guys just need a complete retooling. See my recent thread about my new improvements (along with the start of my FW squad) for an idea of what I'll be doing with the little fellas.

Hope you all enjoy.

~Plague Dave

[Plague Dave]

Official entry #1!

I've been hard at work trying to paint, and get stuff put together enough for yesterday's 'ard Boyz prelims. Sadly, the DG boyz didn't do so hot, but they looked good. I was one of few with a (mostly) all painted army.

So here's the new stuff. I've gotten three Berserkers painted up. I was hoping for four at this time, but given all the sprue clipping, cleaning, reposing (see below), etc. I guess I'm not too far off my mark just yet. I'm calling these guys the Rust Buckets, as they're 'Zerkers fallen to Nurgle's decay.

The fellow on the right is a bit darker. He was the test model for the scheme (also the only one spray varnished at this point, so I don't know if that had an effect), but I'm thinking they're looking pretty good. Here's some side shots. Notice the Nurgle markings on the shoulders. I also went with a lot of white/bone colors to pop off the otherwise dark, and solid scheme. The black studded belts were another way to break the rust color up a bit.

After clipping all the 'Zerkers off the sprue, I also found out why people want new models for these guys. Most of the arms stink. Both arms on the body as standard makes it look like they're trying to shield themselves with a pistol and chainaxe for some reason ... A keen eye may have noticed I reposed a couple of the arms on the painted ones above. Here's another in progress shot of my making them a bit more diverse, and dynamic!

[templarboy]

Those berzerkers are really great. Love the decay!

[Plague Dave]

May Update 2

I'm not as far along as I was hoping I'd be at this point, but I think I can still get the last couple Berserkers done within the next week (before I play my next game coincidentally). To make sure and update before the month's close, though, here's the next three members of the vicious Rust Buckets!

Some quick notes:

The guy on the left is the one I showed the arm repositioning for in my last post. He's the dopiest of the bunch. I really don't like those skinny heads.

The center dude got an arm twist to make it look like he's tearing at something with his chainaxe. Also ... I will never paint those ribbed horns like that again. Way too many tiny lines!

My favorite of this group is the rightmost one. I took a normal CSM head, and transplanted the bunny ears on. Given the chest piece, I wanted to have a rivet theme with this guy, and that head was just too perfect. While those ended up being a bit too wide, I don't think the head position is too incredibly awkward. He's just brooding and dynamic.

Here's a side/back angle to show some other interesting bits on them:

[Plague Dave]

June Update #1

The Rust Bucket Berserkers are finally complete. I wasn't thinking they'd take until the June update, but here's the last two, including the Skull Taker!

The Skull Taker's Power Weapon is sheathed at his side. He's busy dangling skulls he's claimed!

I'm also a big fan of the one-horned dude above. The horn was cut off the Slaanesh champion head on the CSM sprues. I always felt it was more befitting of Nurgle.

Here's the whole lot.

And I've not neglected my next project. Quite a bit has already been put into my Land Raider. Here's some shots of the GS and xacto work thus far.

I'm doing my best to match the FW doors with the rest of the body. On another note, I've worked a bit on the doors and lascannons. I'm getting them magnetized for easy opening/removal. I started with the smaller magnets, as seen below, but they just weren't enough for the lascannons. I added the larger magnets on the horizontal edge just today, and it's a great improvement. They don't fall off with the slightest twitch anymore.

I just started work on the second side, and have most GSing/scratching done on the h. bolter/turret area, too. It doesn't seem to be taking too long, so hopefully painting starts in a week or so.

[Yogi]

Disgusting.. in a good way.

[Plague Dave]

June Update #2!

I've finished all the prep work today on my Land Raider. Priming has begun! Below are some pics of the work before the priming.

Here's a shot of it all pieced together. It still comes in several parts for painting purposes, but it's an imposing figure already.

If you'll notice, the outer spikes on the front end were actually cut off their base (took 'em off the half circle one), and just pinned right into the body. I wanted it to look a lot like the painting on the front of the box for the Land Raider, and this seemed to best way to go about it.

Next up, I've melted holes into the vents in the back, and gotten my Nurgle stink tubes in place! All the GS kinda defeated the holey look, but I left some gaps here and there. I was really impressed with how well a soldering iron melts holes into plastic, though. [My area was well ventilated, no worries.]

The underside:

The tubes:

Let the painting commence.

[Terminatorinhell]

I really like where the LR is going!

[Brother Kovash]

Awesome work on the land raider, glad to see you didn't put the spikes all over the top. A friend of mine did that, and I think all of them have snapped off at least once, yet he keeps gluing them back on.

[Plague Dave]

Thanks for the comments, guys. I hope you'll be happy to see:

July Update #1

The Land Raider is finished! ... basically. Still a couple things to touch up, but I won't be doing it today, and I just wanted to get pics up. These things are monsters. I thought all was going so quickly when I had the body's coats all done, but the devil's in the details, I guess. I'm quit satisfied, and happy with how it turned out. Along with my somewhat recently painted Dread, it's another shining example of my updated scheme.

Here it is!

As mentioned in previous posts, I did what I could to match the Forge World doors on the rest of the body.

Overhead! The hatches are also left loose (doors, and 'turret' parts are still separate), so I can add combi-weapons, or Havoc Launchers as I see fit.

The Nurgle stink tubes all painted up just like I have on my Typhus model.

I made my mud with PVA glue, my darkest brown paint, and sand all mixed together. It received a lighter brown dry brush as a highlight.

Like I said, I'm very happy to have this beast done. Hopefully now that he's all painted, he'll actually do something good for me in games (he's been immobilized on a hill twice now!). The interior is also all painted up, but as it's tough to photograph, and a bit of a schlock job (who ever sees the inside?), it's not worth showing.

Hope you all enjoy!

[That guy!]

Awesome work! This is gonna shape up to be an excellent blog!

[Evil Hypnotist]

Looks awesome so far, how did you go about doing the rust and LR bodywork?

[Plague Dave]

Looks awesome so far, how did you go about doing the rust and LR bodywork?

 

Thanks for the comments, guys. I'll have more pics up in a day or two. Got 4 of 7 Plague Marines repainted thus far. While it was nice to take some time not painting after the LR, I think I took too much. The pressure is slightly on to complete the last of them.

 

As for the LR's rust (and all the rust I have in my army), it's simply Vallejo's Parasite Brown caked on Beasty Brown. I tend to leave my metallic areas a little rough with lots of grainy paint, so it tops those areas off nicely. On the body of the LR, where it's not metal underneath, I actually roughed up the area beforehand to match what the FW gents did with the doors. To do this, I scraped it with an x-acto tip that's just a metal point (used otherwise for making guide holes for drilling ... at least that's how I've found it useful). A lot of back and forth scratching made the area rough enough to get the rust color not looking flat.

 

Looking back on it, I could have gone a little more crazy with adding pox, and buboes, but when would a Nurgle player not say that?

[Plague Dave]

July Update #2

Alright, here's some Plague Marines all painted up. I'm really liking how my new scheme melds with the Beserkers I did. There's a nice contrast, but they all fit rather happily together on the table.

With the white layer semi-dry-brushed on, and a nice brown wash, they end up with a Nurgley, crusty look and texture.

I keep the guns mostly clean, though. Can't have a bolter jamming on me when it counts (I roll enough 1s ...).

And here's a direct before and after shot of the first ever PM I painted (originally done about 5-6 years ago):

How I was ever happy with them back then, I'll never know. [And yes, I did switch his backpack.]

Thanks again for looking! I've got another PM almost done today. With some weekend plans, I should return with the Icon Bearer, and Champ early next week before this thing wraps up.

[Plague Dave]

Getting the last update in on the last day ...

Here they are! The whole Plague squad.

And some close-ups of the Champ and Icon Bearer:

I love having these guys up to my new standards of painting. Now they look as good as my FW squad. I've got another group of metal PMs that will need to be redone eventually. Maybe when another Call comes along.

I hope everyone enjoyed the thread. Thanks again for looking.

[Brother Kovash]

Great work on the Plague Marines, you've put mine to shame. I rushed mined to get them done for an apoc game back in July, but yours look amazing.

[Gubnutz Da Grim]

I like this scheme as well. It is a nice change from the normal green and the gritty dirty look is perfect not OTT. The raider looks very good as well. Love the tubes out of the back.

 

Looking forward to seeing more of this army for sure.

 

Gub

[Gresiloth]

STUNNING Land Raider, and I really like your white 'n' rust paint scheme. Great work!