“I am the way into the city of woe,
I am the way into eternal pain,
I am the way to go among the lost.

Justice caused my high architect to move,
Divine omnipotence created me,
The highest wisdom, and the primal love.

Before me there were no created things
But those that last forever—as do I.
Abandon all hope you who enter here.” 

― Dante Alighieri, Inferno

Is it pretentious to begin a journal entry with a literary quote?  Perhaps, but it seems apt here.  This is not my first attempt at an online modelling diary, but hopefully it will be my first successful one. With success being measured in regular content and set goals being achieved. Not much to ask for is it?  This journal aims to be a record of my latest migration geographically, on a whole new bandwagon. A rambling tale of my travels into a new gaming community, through a new edition with a whole new army. Let's not abandon all hope...

I am a life long wargamer.  I started the Hobby back in the glory days of 2nd edition 40k, Necromunda, Bloodbowl and square bases. Through the years I have jumped from system to system, faction to faction, made friends, lost them. I found love, built a new family, rebuilt an old one and have grown through all the troubles of life to hopefully be a better human. Through it all, games have provided a creative outlet, a meditative space for a innocent joy that you only knew as a child. This whimsical fantasy world where you leave behind the here and now and travel to spaces that only you know how to find.  Spaces where you laugh through your nose, suspend your disbelieve and explore the purely imaginative.  That is what I love about games.  But that is enough of that, for now... 

So what filthy bandwagon are we riding?  Well change begets change, and the Changer of Ways has been beating at the edge of my reality.  And I have relented, following the way into the city of woe.  I wanted to jump into DoT since the Battletome dropped, the models are stunning, the colours a riot and they really do fit into the high fantasy setting of AoS easily, unlike my feather toting puffy pants enthusiasts.  But I was put off, mainly due to just how over the top they were rules wise.  I consider it very important to not only play for your own enjoyment but for your opponents as well.  And rolling up to an event with a wheel of cheddar always made me think twice.  Don't get me wrong, I like to play hard when I do but it is always more palatable for your opponent when it is the cheese less travelled.

So Tzeentch.  When I think of Tzeentch I see bright colours, noise, wild shapes and impossible architecture.  Escher style illusions and Dali visions of time.  I see madness and it is glorious.  I feel that this imagery is captured really well in the current GW DoT range.  So the irony that as a hobbyist you do not have to be imaginative to capture this most imaginative of forces is not lost me.

My test scheme for my horrors is below. The pink horror model from the Silvertower is such a lovely model. Simple, yet wild, the asymmetry is a riot. Love it.  As to the scheme I worked up from a white base, airbrushing first a deep purple and then working up to a light pink. This was then finished with a 2:1 pink:bone mix. I felt the bone just humbled the pink down, made it a bit more real.  Gold was done with Liquid Gold, which I will never use again, such a pain in the ******. Simple silver, kept dull and contrasting electric blues with the occasional orange splash.  It is  a typical GW scheme but it really works well. I'm very happy with how it turned out and the process was quite quick. Although the eyes need work, not enough going on there I think. 

The marble base was my first attempt at green marble. It came up ok. I worked up from a black base with a range of greys finishing to white. I then applied a green glazes over the top with a gloss varnish finish.  It only occurred to me after the fact that I should have done the gloss first and then applied the glazes as you really need a smooth surface to glaze over.  Currently the base looks like it has a rough texture, because it does... So in future I will apply several coats of gloss to fill in the texture and hopefully that will achieve a more glassy texture.

For my acolytes I wanted to capture the progression of mutation in the skin tone.  I started with a pale grey base and progressively worked up to a pallid flesh tone. I then added pink tones to the feet and a 'birth mark' style banding across the shoulder and back. I future I think will try and do this with more of a leopard print pattern and pink glazes rather than the using the airbrush.  My accuracy with 'the beast' is not that great yet and taping up is time consuming so I'll try and avoid that. I do like how he turned out however. I feel there is enough of a contrast with the daemon portion of the army but still enough uniformity to gel well with the army as a whole. 

I will be attending a MOAB this year.  A long running event held in Sydney on the 29th September.  This sets a pretty punishing pace for me but I work well to deadlines, in fact I need deadlines.  My list is not yet set but from initial musings it will include...

• The Cursling
• Gaunt Summoner
• Tzaangor Shaman
• Ogroid Thaumaturge
• 30 Tzaangor
• 2 units of Acolytes
• Enlightened on Discs
• Skyfires
• Summoned models

I really want to find room for a Fatemaster, not commonly seen, his CA is rubbish but a fast cheap hero with a 2+/4++ the right relic and maybe some screamers to babysit him might play well in more than a few scenarios.  Considering the event is about 10 weeks away that puts me putting out at a unit a week, plus display board and practice games. Balls to the wall!

If you got this far, thanks for the read. I hope you enjoyed it and I will be back with updates as soon as models get churned out. 

Cheers

Origin