++ AUGUSTUS b'RAASS ++ pre-heresy BRASS SCORPION p.247

[Forté]

@ Forté: Where were you???

Painting non gaming minis. Working. Dealing with my kids lol.

[DuskRaider]

Congrats on the awards, frater. Well deserved although as I said previously, it should have been 1st Place. Mainly for the Pestigor skull on the base, that alone should win you not only 1st Place BUT every single game. Really if you think about it, they not giving you the top prize is just as much an insult to me, if not more so. ;)

 

Really though, great job my friend and I'm glad to hear you had fun. Winning isn't everything but having fun is, so it sounds like if anything you really did win.

[Pandoras Bitz Box]

Well donenwith you army man, sorry the games didn't go a bit better though. Sometimes it can be a bit paper, scissors stone and you come up against someone who just has the solution to you problem... And sometime dice just hate you. I'm glad you had a good time though and had good opponent, that's the most important thing.

 

Maybe I will put my mind towards a tournament, maybe try one out. I'll just have to see how my kids are around that time so I can leave my wife with them with it worrying she will lose her mind. I have to say, hearing about your positive experience certainly isn't the nightmare I would imagine having (facing sore losers, gloating winners or cheaters). Also it would be nice to get ANY games in before then... You said you've only played 25? I think I've played maybe 3 - 4 of 8th!

 

So what's next on your to do list of Projects/competition?

[Augustus b'Raass]

Woop woop! Another Death Guard character finished: the vanilla Chaos Lord of Nurgle - and with him, four of the six units of my Call of Chaos vow done!

 

 

 

 

I hope you like him! Comments and feedback more than welcome. :)

Cheers!
 

Replies:

 

@ DuskRaider: You are too kind, my friend. I guess my army suffers from the grand amount of Plague Bearers and Nurglings, who, despite being good tabletop quality, are not converted and have a very simple colour scheme. Other armies have more centre pieces, which I guess gives them a better chance of being noticed.

 

@ Pandoras Bitz Box: Definitely come to a tournament - not with the intention to win, mind you. If you go for the win, you will be sorely dissapointed as you won't unless you have the WAAC mentality and are a very good player. I go for the upper echelons of the middle, to meet fun people, for the experience and to have a bit of fun. Expectiation management of a tournament is key to enjoy it. :)  I'll be working on a Tallyman and two Rhinos next for my Death Guard, and of course on three more Armigers. I'm trying to decide if I shouldn't paint my Castellan Knight in Imperial colours, so that I can ally them with my upcoming Sisters of Battle army.... 

[Atia]

Looooove him! What parts did you use on the Lord? 

[Reyner]

Holy :cuss that lord is amazing. I love the pose! 

 

"Father Nurgle! Witness me!"

[ElDuderino]

I can't place the rest of the bits, but that chainsword looks familiar to someone who has built a couple of berserkers:D

 

I love that you used that chainsword btw, nice throwback. Lovely mini in general.

 

Seems like a nice tournament too. That slannesh army looks pretty damn cool, plague doctor masks seems a bit nurgly at first but they might protect the vain cultists from the deseases of your DG:)

Edited November 28, 2018 by ElDuderino

[KrautScientist]

Vanilla he may be, buddy, but I'd say he's one of your best Death Guard models so far! I just love everything about him -- and ElDuderino is quite right, that sword is the icing on the cake!

 

PS: Did you see my message?

[Closet Skeleton]

I was at the tournament with my second edition Tyranids and spoke with you for a bit but had to leave before the results. Congratulations on coming third for best army, sadly I had to vote for the guys who came first and second but it was a hard choice, both Death Guard armies were amazing.

 

I played Ruben's Ultramarines (I lost completely but narrowly avoiding being tabled) and may have played that Harlequin list as well if it was the one with the ravagers, war walkers and gun batteries (there were a lot of Harlequin bike lists). I have no idea where I came but it can't have been that high up since I had 2 wins 3 losses as well. I similarly only one on the first day, the

 

I also played that Harlequin and Grotesques list on the friday and got pretty flattened as well but somehow managed to beat the Ravagers and War Walker version despite the mission being theoretically the worst one for my list due to kill points thanks having T7 monsters and his bikes bouncing off my Neurothrope's 3+ invulnerable.

 

I've played a few games at my nearest GW with one of the guys who brought a Cultist, Abaddon and Ahriman list but those are so common I don't know which one you played.

[Shovellovin]

Holy that lord is amazing. I love the pose! 

I agree. That lord's pose is well done; very evocative. I like seeing a Death Guard model posed as celebrating a victory or issuing a rally call. The Death Guard are often portrayed as dour so it's refreshing to see one full of passion.

[Augustus b'Raass]

Thanks guys, for the awesome response to the Lord!

To add to the string of Death Guard characters, here's my finished Tallyman!

 

 

 

 

I really like how he's just literally counting kills on his little board there! :D

 

Let me know what you think!

Cheers

 

Replies:

 

@ Atia: Lessee, the head is from the DI bolter Death Guard, from the Plague Marine kit we have the Belly plate, the backpack from the Plague Spewer, the bolt pistol, the left arm and the left pauldron, while the right shoulder and arm are from the Foul Blightspawn. The legs are from the DI Lord of Contagion, and lastly, the chainsword is from the Khorne Berzerker kit. The rest is all sculpted!

 

@ Reyner: Thanks, buddy! That's a good cry! 

 

@ ElDuderino: Slaanesh, Not Slannesh. English speakers have too much trouble with the double a in 'Slaan'- it's there that the stress lies, not on the '-esh'. So SLAAnesh. Not slaNESH :P (sorry, pet peeve ) But yeah, that Slaanesh army looked fantastic - I spoke to the guy and he had some wonderful thoughts on sculpting, too!

 

@ KrautScientist: That's high praise - and no critique or hairs even! :D I must've missed your message, apologies. Will read and reply tomorrow. Sleep now....

 

@ Closet Skeleton: Hey buddy! Nice to speak to you - that 2nd edition army of yours was brilliant and a true blast from the past. I commend you for sticking to it and going for all those old metal miniatures. Congrats too on the win against the Eldaeri list with the war walkers and ravagers - vehicles suffer against haywire, from which Tyrannids naturally have no fear. So good on you! The cultist+Abaddon+Ahriman list was played by the American guy (David? - I can't remember). I'd love to play you in the future. 

 

@ Shovellovin: Cheers! It's exactly what I was going for so I am glad it came across as intended. :)

[Pearson73]

Aye, that Lord is cracking, both the pose and head. A simple but very evocative 'beseech the Dark Gods' action.

 

Nice work on the Tallyman too.

[rednekkboss]

Excellent idea for the goose!

 

Outstanding looking army. Always nice to see everything on a table together!  Its just a great thing when an event is fun. Granted, I've been out of the tourney game for some time, but it seems like here in the states certain organizers are trying to stress the fun over the WAAC competition. Which is refreshing. If I can ever get a whole army painted, I might even go to one.

 

The screaming Lord is just ridiculously cool! Bravo.

 

Wa-what?!?!? Sisters?!?!  You have my attention!

Edited November 29, 2018 by rednekkboss

[Augustus b'Raass]

Alright, next project. 

 

My tournament list proved highly vulnerable to Eldaeri haywire bikes, so I am thinking of replacing the big Questoris Knight with three Helverins. I don't have three Helverins, but I do have three Warglaives - one bought from a buddy for EUR20, and two more traded for -oh how Dutch I am - a bike. 

 

Here's what I have so far:

 

You might think: what are those feet? They're Greenstuff copies of the Mini Knight Wolf Feet from Shapeways, ie these things:

Hidden Content

 

Here's a closeup of the originals and the Greenstuff feet in action!

 

In addition, I couldn't restrain myself and got a copy of the Armadillo carapace for the Armiger chassis, also from Shapeways - this thing:

Hidden Content

 

Seeing as these are Warglaives, I need helverin autocannons for them. I already got a set from eBay, but that still leaves me two sets of cannons short. I'll see if I can scour them off eBay for relatively cheap. If not, I'll try to make something of my own using Blue Stuff mold and the barrels of the FireRaptor cannons I have lying around for ages now. 

 

That's it for now, Chaosification and, of course, pilots incoming!

 

Cheers

 

Replies:

 

@ Pearson73: Thanks, bud! I'm very pleased with how that relatively boring head turned out great in this particular pose :)

 

@ rednekkboss: Aiming for fun over WAAC is always the best attitude. Unless you're facing geese, of course. Then, the gloves must come off. Also sisters INDEED! I already ordered Saint Celestine!

[DuskRaider]

I always liked that carapace, I just know I'd have to destroy it if I were to use it. Not a huge fan of the feet, but they already have ornate trim so I can see you making them work quite well.

 

As for the Autocannons, why not make them out of something else? IG Autocannons could work, maybe Chaos Space Marines but I'm unsure if they even have a plastic ones these days. Or go even crazier and try Decimator Reapers. Make them unique, at this point in the timeline each Knight is going to be a character in its own right.

[Pandoras Bitz Box]

Love the Lord and Tally man! The Lord looks well creepy with his screaming face and I love a cool open chest scream pose (hence my choice of pilot!). The Tally man looks awesome too, I really like the vox caster and his list he has made... Does he check it twice? Seems appropriate for the season! Very epic paint jobs. I love the way you do nurgle stuff, I think it's one of my favourite colours schemes and quite unique in my own experience.

 

Looking forward to these Helvarines. In fact i think... it's the last thing I read last night?... and I think that I had some weird dreams about having long autocannon arms and having trouble opening doors...

[wiqid]

Great looking stuff mate and some menacing looking conversions and nurgley paint jobs. Churning them out at an impressive rate compared to my snails pace lol.

Keep up the great work!

[rednekkboss]

Between you and Duskraider, I can see me impulse buying a knight or armigers.  Such bad influences!! I'll echo wiqid on wishing I could work at your pace.  Though maybe after the first of the year, I might step things up.... depends on what is happening with our move. In the game, do you find the smaller knights (in numbers) more effective? Favorite weapon load out? I was toying with getting 2-4 to go with my army. And they look like a great target for conversions.

 

Sisters were my main army for a while in the '90s (yes, I'm old), nothing like bringing some righteous fury down on some heretics. Do you have an Order in mind for the sisters? Or are you going with your own scheme? If they do plastics, I might be doomed.  For that matter, I play my Chaos Guard with imperial rules.... so my sisters might be doomed too!

[Augustus b'Raass]

WITNESS ME! 

For those of you who enjoyed my Tournament report of the Alliance Open GT at Amsterdam, here's The Spider and Bone from TableTopTactics discussing it from their perspective.

 

They discuss my game against TTT's B-Bone from minute 25:00 (and his game against my good hobby buddy Ruben from minute mark 43:45) 

 

 

Hidden Content

It's funny how the internet works: these are just two dudes who have been successful in the nichest of niche markets, and now discuss something that only sideways has to do with me for seven minutes of a two-hour-plus video, and I'm like "WOOOOOO my moment of fame!".... I'm such a fanboy. Blegh

 

Fun story: My buddy Ruben also joined Lawrence and BBone at the No Retreat game in Gibraltar, this fall. He got in partially because he profiled himself as he is: one of the 8 rowers in my country's Olympic rowing team. He represented The Netherlands in the last three Olympic Summer Games so, naturally, he listed his profession as 'professional rower'. Now, after the third game ended on day one of the tournament, I was standing outside waiting for B-Bone to go have dinner with Ruben, the rest of the Amsterdam Battle Brothers Team, TTT's Lawrence, and a guy named Marc who was also at No Retreat (and who as it turns out can eat two racks of ribs in under three minutes - we almost literally blinked and they were gone -insane!). Marc started chatting with Ruben, saying something like 'I kind of avoided talking to you during No Retreat, as I didn't want to get into an argument with you'. To which Ruben replied: 'How so?'. Marc's answer was as honest as it was hilarious: 'because I thought you were a professional rower, but you actually seem like a nice guy!'.     He was serious: he thought that Ruben was paid to get into arguments with people - to have a row at them - instead of being an Olympian Rower. LOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLL

Anyway, back to the hobby itself.

 

I made some progress with the Armiger Helverin conversions. I wrote in my last post that I needed two more sets of Helverin Autocannons. I looked for them at eBay and they cost at least $18 per set  -which is way too much in my opinion. That's about as much as a Warglaive goes for on the aftermarket sales. So I had to look for an alternative. I tried recasting the base of the Helverin Cannon (so sans the barrel) with Bluestuff and putty, but that would never turn out as well as a proper bit.

 

So I turned to my quite extensive backlog of FW miniatures. And I remembered opting for a trio of Chaos Contemptor dreadnoughts with Butcher Cannons when I was slowly returning to the hobby after the hiatus I had last year, when 8th had just been released. So hey-ho I found three unpainted Butcher Cannons - and I snatched a fourth off the striped Night Lords Nurgle Contemptor I am saving for my Death Guard... 

 

The next problem to solve was the fact that the Armiger arm mounts are 1:1 mountings, while the decimator guns have the male end of a male-and-female mounting. So I cut of the male part (which sounds dirty but isn't really) and glued a red plastic ring around it. I made the rings by sawing them off  a plastic ball point in 3mm intervals. Glue in a magnet and push in and sculpt some putty, and hey presto! I fixed two sets of Decimator-Butcher-Cannons-turned-Helverin-Autocannons in under 30 minutes! An easy fix, and one that I am quite pleased with. 

 

 

Here's some pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

And the last Helverin, with the stock Autocannons (but with the Shapeways 'Armadillo' carapace:

 

I hope you like the  conversion and would love to have your feedback!
 

Cheers

 

Replies:

 

@ DuskRaider: Why destroy it? Just build on it. I'll show you what I have in mind for it in a near-future post. Thanks for your comment. It wasn't in the back of my mind when I got the idea, but I did read your post beforehand and so it must've influenced my thoughts. So thanks!

 

@ Pandoras Bitz Box: Of course he doesn't check it twice: there's no time to go back to his counting with all the bloodshed and death surrounding him (I killed quite a bit of Tau the other day Opening doors with cannons for hands would make things more difficult, yes...

 

@ wiqid: Cheers! I move fast, I know! I did post some ways to speeden up your process, maybe it's some help to you?

 

@ rednekkboss: I can totally understand this: DuskRaider's force has been a massive, massive inspiration to me this past year. He's a Nurgle demi-god, and I can only strive to reach his heigths. I do think five Helverins might be more effective than two with a Questoris Knight, but I must test this in my local meta. I played against Sisters in the 90s (I too am old). For the colour scheme, I think I'm going for white armour, with red robes and black weapons. Well see. 

Edited December 1, 2018 by Augustus b'Raass

[Pandoras Bitz Box]

Duel butcher cannon style guns look very very cool.

[DuskRaider]

Praise Nurgle, those Butcher Cannons...!

YESSSSSSS

Those are perfect! Although I think Armadillo Armiger should have gotten a pair, he screams 'character' to me.

And of course I'd have to ruin it, it would be for the Undying God. All things rot, dear friend. Some more than others, especially when in the loving embrace of our Plague Father.

Edited December 3, 2018 by DuskRaider

[Kizzdougs]

Damn! They look fantastic with the Decimator weapons :tu: 

[KrautScientist]

That's a very nice weapon graft with those Decimator cannons -- they do an excellent job of making the model look 100% more chaotic ;) Incidentally, the ectoplasm cannon from the Forgefiend also work very well, although they are just too different from the stock Helverin cannons.

 

I am really looking forward to seeing these next models take shape -- and would encourage you to get just a bit more adventurous with their faceplates, if it's not too much trouble ;)

[teku]

butcher cannons are look great! I agree that the butcher cannons should be more fitting on the Armadillo Armiger.

[Augustus b'Raass]

I've taken a slight detour from the Helverins as I realized there's only 11 days left until the end of the Call of Chaos - and I vowed to finish two Rhinos. So I set to work on building those. 

Here's the first WIP. There's still dremel damage and crackle paint to do for the plate's surfaces to go, but it's pretty much ready for paint!

 

 

 

I hope you like it!

I'll post the other one soon enough. 

 

Cheers

 

Replies:
 

@ Pandoras Bitz Box: Thanks! I like them too :)
 

@ DuskRaider: Haha glad you like them. Armaddilo Armiger already has the carapace and the wolf feet - isn't that enough? ;) Don't worry - the cannons are all magnetized so it would be easy to switch them around. :) 

 

@ Kizzdougs: Cheers!

 

@ KrautScientist: I plan on putting some Raptor chain weapons under the 'normal' cannons. The ectoplasma cannon is just too different from the autocannon, so it wouldn't be able to stand WYSIWYG scrutiny. Don't worry about the faceplates. Think C'thulhu.

 

@ teku: Oh yeah? Well I might do that then. Because magnets! :D