Start of a new scratch built army - Overlords perhaps?

Really wanted to start building up a new army for Warhammer 40k - AGAIN. I'm not sure what codex these guys will eventually fit into. I'd very much like them to be of some Xenos origin (or even off the chart weird Imperials), but can't come up with any suitable faction. 

All of the models (or as many as possible) will be quite big - about the size of Demon Princes, Dreadnoughts and Ogryns, accompanied by a variety of (non-tank) war machines and vehicles. All will be personalized with simple freehand runes and patterns. Maybe they're some super powerful mercenaries? Even the mysterious Overlords from the planet Barbarus? Gene-enhanced mutated xenos rogue psyker cyborg monsters. Ridiculous and awesome.

As much as I'd like this group of huge monstrosities to be of any other origin than Chaos (as I've already got lots of Death Guard, Iron Warriors and Alpha Legion stuff on the shelf), the models and army composition I have in mind would just fit super well into the Chaos Space Marines, especially Iron Warriors list. Word Bearers and Night Lords might also work. For the color scheme I'm thinking mainly black robes with stained red clothing. Yellow and white runes and patterns. Iron, gold and bronze gear. Blue and cyan spots on plasma coils etc.. So not that far from the usual Word Bearers scheme, and pretty close to my old Iron Warriors. 

I've begun sculpting already. Here's two HQ characters. At this point with no better ideas, I'm building them up as Demon Princes. Accompanying them are two Helbrutes. Next up will be a trio of Obliterators and some troops, maybe a unit of 5 Chaos Space Marines that will end up looking something completely different. Then Centaurs (Bikers?) and big Demon Engines. 

Anyways, these will be made of any cheap hobby clay, Green Stuff, Milliput, bits from random toys and a few actual miniature bits thrown in. This is fun. But who or what are they?

Nurgle Rhinos completed!

 The two beauty's are here, ready to rumble and transport and contaminate. 

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WIP - Painting the Nurgle Rhinos

It's been a while since I wrote down proper notes about the paints or techniques being used. Occasionally I've documented these things by taking loads of pictures with paint bottles and brushes next to the miniatures. It might not be a good idea to spend huge amounts of time in such bookkeeping on every single miniature. But when experimenting and/or coming up with army wide schemes it seems to prove useful later on. 

With these Rhinos I decided to try OIL WASHES for the first time ever. Amazing stuff. Looks great, fun to use. Not a big fan of waiting the stuff to dry overnight or even over a span of few days. So it takes a bit of organizing, perfect timing and luck to keep things in progress, with all the extra varnishing stages and drying times to take into consideration. But I love the results and the actual act of looking the oil washes do all the work by themselves. 

And the notes / stages of painting, as the process was a bit different from the rank and file Nurgle troops I've done recently:

* Army Green spray primer

* Agrellan Earth for texture

* Desert Yellow & Matt White sprayed zenithally

* Khaki (Vallejo) watered down, wash on the recess

* Elfic Flesh (Vallejo) drybrush

* Rhinox Hide (Citadel) stippled on metals, edges, tracks

* Oily Steel (Vallejo) drybrushed on metal edges

* Off White highlight details 

* Gloss Varnish spray allover & under

* Raw Umber, Orange Yellow, Emerald Green & Lemon Yellow oil washes (Sang, diluted with HanArt white spirits), rubbed off with tissue & cotton swabs from the protruding ares

* Satin Varnish spray allover & under

* Lamenters Yellow (Citadel) glaze tentacles & details

* Athonian Camoshade (Citadel) shade undersides / recess / teeth edges

* Elfic Flesh teeth & bones

* Seraphim Sepia (Citadel) shade teeth & bones

* Volupus Pink (Citadel) + Elfic Flesh blended on meaty mouth parts

* Elfic Flesh fine highlights on details

* Green washes (dirty mix of several greens + orange) on tentacles etc.

* Transparent Orange (Vallejo) with that dirty green wash on rusty parts

* Oily Steel touch ups on metal edges

* Off White highlights

* Volupus Pink painted on moist (with water) surfaces inside mouths

* Satin Varnish spray all over

* Gloss Gel Medium + Volupus Pink & Red Ink (Vallejo) or with Casandora Yellow (Citadel) for slime

* Khaki & Pale Grey Blue (Vallejo) gentle drybrush on tracks and lower edges

* Shining Silver (Army Painter) on metal edges

* Matt Varnish on metals, bones & teeth

* Minor touch-ups on many details, dirt, rust here & there

* Gloss Varnish tentacles, buboes & other slimy details

(Hope I didn't miss too many stages here... 

I'll post the pictures of the finished models as soon as I have time to take them.)

Finished Chaos Cultists of Nurgle

While waiting for gallons of slime to dry on the Rhinos, I finished this unit of Cultists today. Damn sure they'll see some Necromunda action some day as well.

And here's a few WIP shots. 

Painting log of the Helbrute "VOID"

When posting the pics of the finished miniature a few days ago, I didn't have time to go through and include these WIP pics as well. So here we go! I put on so many layers of drooly sliminess on it's mouth I completely forgot to add any slimy drooliness elsewhere on the model.

Scratch building Death Guard Rhinos - WIP

This duo has been taking shape for the past few weeks along all the other Nurgle stuff. I'm having a really enjoyable and efficient work flow going on. Simultaneously painting a unit / vehicle / character or two, while sculpting, converting and assembling others. So while anything has to dry or set, I can work on any or all of the other things. Now alongside these two Rhinos, I have a unit of 10 Chaos Cultists on the painting table, and four different Death Guard characters being sculpted / scratch built. This way I get to start new things and also finish others almost on daily basis, while only working for a few hours a day. 

So what's up with the Rhinos? Well, they seem possessed for starters. The tracks are no longer functioning so they move like snails, slowly slithering forward with demonic vigor. I really wanted to play with the hollowness on their hulls. And they will be getting modular turrets full of maggots and tentacles so they can be used as Predators or maybe even Plagueburst Crawlers.