Death Guard - Myphitic Blight Hauler - Nearly done

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on a Death Guard Myphitic Blight Hauler. And wow, I love this. It's practically done at this point, I just need to base, varnish and add any glossy and gore FX.

But it's nice to have a record before I do all of that [SPOILER ALERT: raw unvarnished pics look better]

Everything about this thing is awesome. The fact it's £18.50 direct from GW. How easy to build it is. The paint job I coaxed out of it and its rules are absolutely fantastic too.

I like it so much I just got another one off ebay for £11.06! I need to get an 80mm base as well but have a unit of 2 will be cool.

I am considering doing the fleshy bits on the second one more like my Blood Bowl Rotspawn though. Whether that will stand out against the armour plates I'm not sure but it's worth a shot.

Then again, covering it in red if I don't like it isn't too difficult to do. The rust looks really great here. It's a mix of my Vallejo Rust Model Wash, Rust Orange pigment powder and even Dirty Down Rust [wherever it is yellow rust - the bottle has started to dry out and that was the best I could get from it].

The Cursed Verdigris 🗽 came out great too. It's such a contrast but it is weird to look at the previous post and see how brown it as and still have a little hankering for that true Grimdark aesthetic. The patination on the armour plates, with the subtle Blood Bowl decals look cool though.

The colours are much too bright in places here, which is what I love. But, just one day I'd like to do something truly horrifying that doesn't throw in some brightness. Another decal on the track guard. The one thing this is missing - numbers

Either a big one on a track guard, or some little ones on the weapon cowling. Nevermind, maybe try on the new one...

Death Guard Myphitic Blight Hauler

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on a Death Guard Myphitic Blight Hauler. I love these models. I think they're the best value items that Games Workshop sells - £18 for a chunky little tank that's easy to build. Anyway. These pics are from 28th May 2023!

What had happened was that my youngest [he was 17 at the time!] had shown an interest in 40k. Given how much I like this model and it's not too small, not too detailed with plenty of scope to make mistakes without issue we got him one. 

And, later on I got myself one and that weekend I decided to show him how to paint it, based on my own Death Guard. His is the one on the left and for a first go [not first painted miniature, he's done a couple at GW and Warhammerfest] it's quite good.

Now, we could leave this here, but I had intentions to go further. Except, he's never shown any interest in finishing his up. I had thought about sitting down one day and just doing mine in the hope he'd follow up. But I think he's lost interest.

Which means mine has been sat unfinished for nearly 3 years and for some reason [avoiding Capillary Towers] it appealed to me. I'd say there wasn't a lot left to do but I genuinely enjoy just putting washes on to make this grimy and decayed looking so there was a fair bit to do, because I wanted to.

And here we are with a lot of washes. Purple, green, sepia, red.

I was really pleased with the mottled green on the track guards. It looks very similar to the 'superglue' technique -without the risk of gluing my fingers together!

Now this is not finished. I need to do all the rust effects and paint the red bloated skin and all the pustules.

I also need to add some sand and weird growths on the base.

That said, I could really stop here and it would be pretty cool and grimdark.

But I just can't stop. Much like the orange missiles I'll just keep throwing more colour at this. Whether the result is better or worse I know I have not done enough to call it finished.

Regardless, I love it. I just wish my son had wanted to finish his off as having two of them finished would be so great.

Battle record - Warhammer 40k - 01/01/226

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been playing Warhammer 40k! Shock horror. Anyway, 13 years agon my eldest son was still invested in the hobby. For 2 years he'd been buying figures, helping build and paint, playing a game and even went to Warhammer World for a Tournament! Of course that enthusiasm waned somewhat as my own grew. And for all this time he has shown little interest. However, he moved to Sheffield last year to take up a teaching job and the school has enrichment clubs for all students after school. He was supporting a cookery class initially but having jokingly mentioned the Warhammer Alliance programme he genuinely started to consider it. So much so he went into the Warhammer store, Element Games and there are a few more gaming shops there too. He got himself some Thousand Son's, paints, brushes and other hobby supplies. Even if he doesn't do the club he's actually having fun. So, he asked me for a quick game to get a handle on the rules. Annoyingly I'd left my 10th edition rulebook in the shed, but I made do with a 9th edition one. I wanted to use the Tyranids, as I have the Codex and it would be easy for him to read the rules. Death Guard for me, using the combat patrol stats. The plan was: 

• 3 Ranged Warriors
• 10 Termagants
• 1 Ripper Squad
• 5 Plague Marines
• 10 Poxwalkers

But I couldn't find the Poxwalkers, so chose another squad of 5 Plague Marines. I had no idea... It turns out Toughness 6 and Lethal Hits made it completely unbalanced in my favour.

I'd wiped half the Termagants out before he'd even got a go. It was only when he started to use the terrain for cover saves that he could weather the storm. The Rippers did not survive either.

Then the Tyranid Warriors managed to make some damage on the left side, but I could see that things were not going to end well. I hadn't spent any CPs, I didn't need to. So to help change the narrative I thought it might be fun for the Tyranids to bring on reinforcements.

With just the Warrior left a Psychophage appeared. Just 2 Marines remained in this squad, but the other squad had finished the Termagants and would be coming to reinforce what was left.

The Warrior has Fall Back, Shoot and Assault, which came in handy. The Psychophage was going to instakill any Marine it wounded. Plus it has Devastating Wounds.

But as Play On Tabletop like to say "dice tell stories". Although my 'old Yeller' dice had had some insane rolls - four 6's on ten dice, this triple 1's was jaw-dropping. It was one of those moments where we laughed and when I said "dice tell stories" he liked it so much he'll consider using it when he sets up the school club.

It didn't change things much. The Plague Marines had met their match, and although they'd been too tough for the weaker bioforms now they could not crack the Psyhophage's touch chitin armour. It had a couple of scratches but ultimately it squished the Death Guard.

This was SO much fun. I hope my enthusiasm was contained. He seemed to enjoy it and was inspired enough to get a Thousand Son's Codex with his Christmas money. I got to share some of my ideas about how a gaming/hobby club can go beyond the Alliance support. But apparently it's a structured programme that will give him plenty to teach them when he sets up the club and will cover multiple terms. I hope it does expand to include role-playing and terrain building.

I can't convey how happy and proud this made me. He's an amazing person who I love spending time with, watching TV shows usually. But this is a much more shared experience. As he lives elsewhere and he has his own interests; the fact I got to spend a few hours helping him build some figures, giving him tips and then playing a game with him was an absolute joy.

#DreadTober Death Guard Foetid Bloat Drone - White pics

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity DreadTober is a long ways back now but it looks like I forgot to share the white background pics of my Bloat Drone and three Space Crusade Chaos Space Marines.

In some respects it's nice to get a second bit of the cherry on this one. It came together so quickly and the Attack Bikes overshadowed its completion somewhat.

It's funny, I have no reason to have this army but I could envisage having a few of these Bloat Drones and Blight Haulers too.

My son still has a Blight Hauler at primed stage and should he ever want to paint it I'd probably get one too so we could paint them at the same time.

The plan was to do that with all these guys but Armies On Parade meant I couldn't wait around on that schedule.

As mentioned these were just a bonus. Sat around for years they had no real purpose and I wanted to see if my Death Guard scheme would still work on something not overtly Nurgle but basic Chaos.

I think it did, although their stature could have been enhanced by some tactical rocks perhaps.

Although that would have been a bit difficult while still trying to have the tar-swamp bases.

I did enjoy putting the Nurgle Blood Bowl team decals on those shoulder pads.

Just about visible under the muck and grime I really love that touch. I've got another Plague Marine from the Space Marine Heroes set to paint up and he has a space on a shoulder pad for a decal, where usually a horn is erupting on these models.

Lastly, this was a test to see what the Poxwalkers looked like bursting from their plague containers before AoP.

I had such a blast with these I've still got the Gellerpox Infected to do at some point when I feel that infected open wound start to itch again. What I'll ultimately do with them I've no idea but they've been a great project this #NewYearNewArmy

#DeathGuard #KillTeam Poxwalkers - White pics

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer Death Guard Poxwalkers. Here's the white background shots, they all seem a bit dark, which is where Camera360 had a decent enhance feature to lighten everything, but then they'd all look like paintings rather than photographs if I'd persevered with that app.

Anyway, you at least get to see the back views on these too.

It's really weird as I write about these because it was a while back now and I have no recollection how long they took or how laborious it felt. 

It's great that they're just done, but I do wonder if I was ever so inclined to have more Poxwalkers would I feel that this amount of effort was worth it or not?

Sure, I have the Gellerpox Infected to do at some point but they are much more diverse models, with only a few similar to these.

I imagine I'll start them at the same time, work on bits concurrently and then focus. 

Ultimately I just love what I painted here. These will definitely be models I return to down the line and will be surprised at the results I achieved.

And the best thing is I know they are far from perfect. They are insanely busy to look at but that feeling of overwhelming satisfaction, despite their flaws is a gift beyond measure.

I've always wanted to paint my armies and I've always wanted to paint to the best of my ability. Sometimes compromises have to be made, but in sacrificing quality how will I ever progress as a painter, and in sacrificing finishing models how will I feel satisfied. To be able to balance the two - quality and delivery and yet still feel like I've improved as a painter, or even just comfortable with whatever flaws there are is the high point of my hobby exploits.