Painting the Plague Marines & Poxwalkers

Pretty much same procedure as with the CSM I did earlier. These Poxwalkers however were primed with Leather Brown spray, then got zenithal basecoats of Military Green (instead of Desert Yellow) and Matt White. I might try and paint the whole unit of Poxwalkers some day this week if a day off from work is possible. Maybe even finish the Plague Marines as well. 

Building some Poxwalkers / Chaos Cultists / Necromunda citizens

I like hordes. Yesterday I assembled and kitbashed up a unit of 20 Poxwalkers, that can also proxy as Chaos Cultists and Necromunda citizens, Scavvies and Plague Zombies when need be. The ones that don't have any technical equipment (rebreather masks and such) will surely work as Warhammer AoS zombies as well. 

Today I did some sculpting with Green Stuff to blend all the slightly mislocated and oddly grown arms in place, or just hide such things under heavy robes. I'll be adding heavy hoods for these poor dooders after the first layer of putty has hardened. I wanted these models to have really passive stances. So no lifting of arms or any heroic postures. Just shambling about, corrupt and demented. Really like how the robed bodies I sculpted from Milliput the other day came out.  

Scratch bashing more Chaos Space Marines

Went to create more Chaos Space Marines, came up with Plague Marines. Got some old Space Crusade bits there along with 40k 2nd edition plastic Marine parts, zombie heads, Stormcasts and more recent Plague Marines under a healthy layers of Green Stuff and Agrellan Earth texture paint. The earthy crust on the bases is a mix of dried coffee grounds and cheap hobby paint. Also sculpted a couple of robed bodies. Gonna add hooded heads and maybe tentacled arms and/or weapons, so they can be used as Poxwalkers or Chaos Cultists. 

Chaos Space Marines

Painting up this nice little unit. I'm working hard (mentally) with trying to cut down the number of paints and layers being utilized. This has been part of quite a few recent painting/army projects I've done. It seems that I just like drybrushing and careless washing or glazing the most. It feels free.

Precise highlights and detail work yield great results, and it's okay doing them every once in a while. However, feeling the need/demand/pressure/urge to do them on every single rank and file trooper seems to get on my nerves most of the time. Too much concentration needed. Too much stress. Feels too slow to do.

So after a lot of planning, I decided to try the following method: Spray prime the models with brown, and give sand & white zenithal spray basecoats/highlights. Then some wash and drybrush allover the miniatures. Add lots of lush greens on the base (with flock, static grass, maybe coloured lichen etc.). Then see what needs to be done. Maybe sponge in some scratches and dents, add rust and slime...

This is what actually happened with these models:

• Agrellan Earth technical paint for crackle texture. OK.
• Brown spray primer. Sand & white zenithal spray basecoats/highlights. OK.
• Brown paint + dried coffee grounds on the base. OK (but could be done earlier)?
• Seraphim Sepia wash allover. Wiped some off with fingers. OK (no need to wipe though)?   
• Elfic Flesh drybrush allover. OK.
• Rhinox Hide sponged on in places. OK (could try other browns, even Typhus Corrosion)? 
• Lamenters Yellow, Waywatcher Green and Fuegan Orange used as glazes. Mostly to add mid-tones and shade recesses. OK. 
• Oily Steel drybrushed on sharp edges that were sponged brown earlier. OK.
• Off White drybrushed over other areas, especially higher and sharper spots. OK. 
• Rust pigment powder, sealed with fixative spray. Mostly on lower areas, metal parts and recess. OK.
• More Lamenters Yellow and Waywatcher Green glazes on details such as tentacles. OK.
• Grass tufts and three different flocks (just like I did with my Skaven a while ago) on the bases. Kind of ok-ish, but not enough. Maybe should have just mixed the flocks together, rather than apply them in succession to create highlights? This was a bit slow, and didn't feel right. So I tried to:
• Drybrush the base with Elfic Flesh. BAD idea. 
• Tried to tone the bases down with Seraphim Sepia. Did NOT work well enough. 
• Re-painted the whole bases with brown (Plus Hobby Color). So back to square one.
• Washed the bases with Athonian Camoshade, and painted rims Matt Black. OK.
• Khaki was gently drybrushed over the bases. 

And this is the point where I'm at the moment. Looking super nice, especially when I think how effortless and FUN these were to paint. However, I feel like there should be SOME more detail work done. Few of the tentacles, the one big cyclopean eye, and the champions face could use a little something. Needs to be simple and quick and carefree to do. What could it be? 

Approaching the Realm of Chaos

Decided to give the Alpha Legionnaires a bit of a break and do something more mutated and chaotic for a change. Was pondering whether I should just add something to my existing Death Guard or Iron Warriors armies, but chose to give a start to YET ANOTHER force of Chaos Space Marines and their warped comrades. 

The agenda is kinda simple. Lots of mutated weirdness, sculpting and conversions (as always) involved. Heavily influenced by the old Realm of Chaos stuff. Bone coloured power armour with wear and tear, rust, slime, texture paints and transfers and all this goodness. Lush bases with lots of greenery. So super Death Guardy looking I guess. But I'll try to assemble such units that I can use this force as whatever legion I want. These are the Children of the Warp.

 

Alpha Legion (pt.9 the Chosen done)

Going overboard with the transfers on the Chose Chaos Space Marines. In addition to the Alpha Legion hydra heads, there's Skitarii and Necromunda Enforcer numerals, inverted Ultramarine logos for proper Omega symbols, Night Lords runes and whatnot. 

Here's the whole army patrol detachment so far.  

Alpha Legion (pt.8 slow progress)

Haven't had much hobby time for the last two weeks. So just a little progress with painting the Chosen. They've got quite a different tones going on compared to the regular Chaos Space Marine Squad for example. All will be highlighted and based pretty much the same. So I'm guessing that'll unify the army enough as a whole.

Did a simple conversion for the Greater Possessed. The lower snake part of the body is from Reaper Miniatures Giant Cobra. Also managed to sneak in the good old Chaos Warrior mace, which might just be my favourite plastic miniature hand weapon EVER created. I also converted a squad of Khornate Terminators. Two got their torsos turned around, so that the exhaust vents (?) normally located at their backs now point upwards. Really like the postures this gave them. Alert like hunting beasts. I used some Possessed hands as proxies for Lightning Claws. These guys are on their way to mutating to something a bit different. Mutilators, Spawn...

And oh! There's the "command" Rhino for the army. Might still add some augurs, radars, antennas etc. though, and try painting snake/hydra scales on it. Got a few more Rhinos and a Land Raider waiting to join the ranks as well. Gonna be very mobile army, with most units in their transports or able to teleport (such as the Terminators).