Inspecting the kit: Greater Demon of Nurgle

So, the greater Daemon of Nurgle. We have already seen a few cool unboxing posts on the web (see for instance Kristian Simonsen's thorough review).  Instead of doing the same, I will just add a few comments to get kit and then get back to the hobby table and work on the model!

So far, I have built the main body and arms. And chopped the antlers of the head with the big grin and glued this in place. Also, I have cut up the sword to have it resting on the ground (just as this awesome guy does it). That is where I am.

This is my 3rd big model of recent date. I built and painted an Imperial Knight three years back and I have just finished an Eldar Knight. Like the other kits, the Great Unclean One builds like a dream. However, as far as I can estimate it actually comes in bigger and fewer pieces, which makes the building process faster. Nice! Obviously the actual model differs a great lot to both the Imperial and Eldar knight being literally almost just one single big fat and bloated daemon. Which certainly fits the name!

As usual when building these kits I get surprised at the way the kits are engineered and go together. Building both the regular head and the cyclops head had an awesome gimmick as a surprise.

Mould lines are easily removed and the joining surfaces and nicely worked into the design hiding them nicely. I will be going over the joins with modelling putty, but to be honest, with some care you could just clean up the pieces and glue them carefully, and you would probably only need very limited putty work for a regular tabletop quality model.

I will leave my praising here, and get back to the model.

2018 - a new year, new challenges, more hobby

Time to return to the blog... In many ways 2017 brought me a lot of new hobby experiences. Primarily while painting Eldar. The small force I started back in early 2015 has turned into a proper army, and since 8th edition dropped in Spring 2017 I have been gaming and adding to the army. By the end if the year I finally feel that I have both the relevant bitzbox content, knowledge of the range and experience to work more freely with the Aeldari aesthetics.

For 2018 the Aeldari army will become more themed towards gaming in the Thorn Moons setting developed by the ironsleet crew. More menacing and alien. Here is a late 2017 conversion: A warlock based on Harlequin and Drukhari plastics.

Also, in late 2017, GW offered me to review some upcoming stuff starting with the new Greater Daemon of Nurgle. Pretty awesome! Initially I sketched this up. This is the beginning of a project that I am sure will take a lot of time, but will be extremely rewarding and fun to do. Trying to "break" the scale of the model to make him even bigger. Lets see if I can make it work. I'll have to start hunting for Epic models or maybe some Warmaster minis... Projects like these mutate during the creative process and I am really excited to see how this one will end up!

Finally, at the very end of 2017 I got back in touch with a bunch of old hobby friends, and I really hope that 2018 will continue on that great vibe. I hope that 2018 will bring lots of painting, gaming and lots of chances to meet fellow hobbyists.

Mordheim

My Cult of the Possessed warband emerging from the caves beneath the city.

Recently, I have been getting into gaming regularly and prepping for games. I have built a small force of Chaos Possessed: A few beastmen, a magister picked from the drawer of half-finished stuff, some henchmen, mutants and two Daemons. The image above features the deamons and the first beastman painted. Also, the terrain is actual the one half of the Pilgrym gaming board, the old Botanicarium. A nice setting that works nicely as a Mordheim backdrop.

So to kickstart some more frequent posting I want to feature my Possessed Warband in the next posts...

Teddybär Total

It's all hobby, but not my own. A friend of mine is just as passionate about sewing teddy bears as I am painting miniatures. This weekend she has ventured off to a competition in Münster, Germany to compete in the "Golden George", and I think it would be worth posting the link here. The Golden George is akin to our Golden Demon, so it is one of the biggest shows for teddy bear hobbyist. The Teddy bear-sewing community is interesting to compare to our hobby since it is also a hobby niche with events, competitions, champions, and passionate geeks, and collectors.

But without further ado, here is the link to their main page. The webdesign is somewhat old-school which means that I cannot deep-link directly to the competition. You will have to go through the front page to "Golden George", then you can go to the "Online-Voting".

http://teddybaer-total.de/

Here you can vote for your favorite. Without giving too much away I would say that my overall favorite (which also is my friend's entry) is among the dioramas (they call the category "Tableau"). Every entry is mixed when you go to the voting section so you need to scroll around. Remember to vote for your favorite and also to "like" the entry on facebook if you feel like sharing some good craftmanship.

But do take your time and have a look at the many bears. Not as sinister and dark hobby stuff as we usually like, but the entries show passion, dedication, and great works of craftmanship.

Now, their process of participating, entering conditions, and so on are something very intesting when you compare it to miniature painting competitions in general, but that will be a good topic for another post.

First painted mini

Going through some old cases of miniatures I discovered the first mini I painted. Ever.

Painted back in 1990 or so I believe. Funny enough the colour scheme is a classic one. Black, bone, metal, and a touch of red. I worked with Humbrol acrylic paints and I believe we had about 10 paint pots. I also found some of the models from the bright days of the mid 90s. Quite striking stuff actually. Digging through old issues of White Dwarf  from back then is fantastic. Vivid colours, strong poses, classic I think. Speaking of old models and paintjobs I also found a few classic Chaos Champions from around 1990 or so. Jes's stuff. Good stuff. A cool thing about models from this era is the fact that most models except from monsters and cavalry were one-piece casts. This gives most models a strong frontal style. Head on. Posed with the weapons ready. Visually, they all have an obvious strong front. I love picking up one of these from time to time. Fast to paint, rewarding to present and photograph, and classic! Based up nicely they stand the test of time.

Hobby thought - an ecclesiary parade

Hobby thoughts. So many. Thousands of ideas and so few hours dedicated to actual modelling and painting.

The other day I imagined something that I would love to see done. A parade of silent, parading, ecclesiary figures. Just a selection of plastic heads with suitably depressed or stern facial expressions, some arms including the odd autopistol or stubgun, and lots of greenstuff. I imagine the models on gaming bases, but at the same time I see them as s blurr of colours and movement. Like a background corner of a John Blanche illustration turned into gaming models. Red robes, black and white check-patterns, pale faces, and blackened steel weaponry.

I would like to see this parade some day. To create it and try to be as expressive and bold in the creation process as I have imagined it. That might prove a challenge though.

Insisting to paint...

We never have enough time to paint or sculpt, do we?

And we think a lot about how much we really want to work on this and that project... Well, tonight instead of thinking about how I really want to work on the project and spending lots of time time being annoyed that I wasn't doing as much hobby stuff as I wanted to I just sat down and did some work.

Nothing fancy, just another hour and a half on the daemonhost and some initial jabs of paint on a conversion I refer to as "the Skulker".

Sometime we just have to grab the brush and get going with paint and miniatures instead of thinking about how much we want to paint while not doing anything about it. Yesterday, I caught myself having these silly thoughts and tonight I was close to being there again. But I insisted.

I insist to paint miniatures because it is important to me.

A hobby moment - bitz round-up

Today I had one of those fantastic hobby moments where you grab a single bit and think: "This would be so cool with a quick head-swap!". From there I just worked at random through a box or two and found the rest of the pieces for the conversion. Before showing it I want to play a little around with parts of the mini and try a few alternatives here and there, but the general idea was formed by a single plastic bit that just asked for a change.

So far the bitz round-up goes like this:
- Bretonnia knights sprue hunting falcon
- Space Marine plastic plasma gun (left hand)
- Emperor's Champion main body
- A random shoulder pad
- and a head from the Ghoul plastic sprue

Intrigued to see the model finished? I am!
Really looking forward to bashing the bits together one of the next evenings...

Desktop - brush, paints, inks, and a huge orc

I love images of painting sessions:

The way the paints move around on the table, the intuitive colour choices that follow a general plan but also add a slight variation to the overall look. At least that is the way I paint when I enjoy the hobby the most. Playing around with colours, mixes, and sometimes taking that brown shade for the axe shaft somewhere else...

More shots of the orc when I have his base finished. These will be studio-style pictures btw.