Stevewren

Looks great. Having painted three myself I know that they can be frustrating, but end result is usually quite good. The models just look cool! However what are you going to do when you get to month 6, GHB 2018 gets released and Phoenix are 320 points each...???

It was a really good event. I'm glad you enjoyed the games. Where about did you finish in the end? If you could change anything for the Gutbusters what would you like to see improved or added?

Well, as usual I got my Nagash book and Malign Portents book by 9am from the excellent Element Games

After my bout with real life disease I have actually finished the whole of the Nurgle half of the Blightwar during my recovery. I managed Horticulux, the ten Plaguebearers, three Nurglings and three Plague Drones, and I have managed to throw in a Feculent Gnarlmaw as well just for fun. I'm going to take them down to the Rotherham GW store tomorrow for the Malign Portents painting competition. As part of my #365challenge I was wondering how close I have been getting to having at least one of each Maggotkin Unit. I'm well on the way to achieving this, although my issue will be finding the funds for two Great Unclean Ones and also getting two more of the Maggot Lords. Here are the Plague Drones in their finished state: So I took these down to the Games Workshop in Rotherham today for the first month of the Malign Portents painting competition. I was impressed with the quality of the other entries. Having been down for Armies on Parade and other events I haven't been blown away by the standard, but this seemed to be a little better. There was a very nice Moonclan Grot force, some good looking Khorne and Ironjawz forces. Month 2 is a Harbinger so I'd better pick up the Darkoath Warqueen!

This was very much a fun little aside from painting models. It goes together fast and you can have a lot of fun with bright colours, washing and drybrushing. My next task is to come up with some variants on this. I played my first game with the Maggotkin Battletome yesterday and I got plenty of trees out. I'm not sure you need any more than 3 or 4, but it would be nice to have some variation. I think I can afford one more of the official model which I can convert with some Sylvaneth parts, and then use a couple of sylvaneth trees which can be put on a same size base and then modded with mouths, pustules and bells to represent a Gnarlmaw.

I was sorting out the Hobby Room last week and I came across six screamers that I had built, but never done anything else with. So as part of my #365Challenge I decided to prep and paint these as I assumed that they would be quite quick to do. the first thing I did was drill out the bottom of the screamers so that I could insert some 4mm acrylic rod that I had rather than using the usual flying stands. I then wrapped these in masking tape and drilled out some corks to support them so that I could easily hold them to spray. The undercoating did a lot of the work for me. I sprayed the top blue, then a lighter blue, and the bottom was done in Zandri Dust and Averland Sunset. I then used a white spray and a purple spray to do the tails. Once these were dry I washed the underside with Sepia and the tops with Druchi Violet. I drybrushed the models with Bahoroth Blue and Hexus Pale Sun after this. The sepia and area always looks a bit dull after this, but Lamentors Yellow glaze is amazing at making things look yellow as its so strong. I also pulled some of this onto the top surface to give a green tint to the edges. I started off undercoating the horns and teeth brown and then using a bright bone to highlight them, but I really didn't like how it looked: So after showing the photos to some of the gaming group I decided to just go dark with the whole thing so I just went for a glossy black which I highlighted with a purple and black mix. I used bright blue for the raised areas and did the eyes a bright yellow. The last thing to do was just get some nuln oil and run that all over the fins on the top to darken that area. The bases were my usual recipe, although I added some little blue mushrooms to these (and I still need to put the tufts and grasses on)

Sounds like an interesting tournament. I think you make some good points about the learning outcomes from the event, particularly the one about letting the game go at the end. Its good to just be able to focus on the next one. I make some horrendous mistakes in games, and sometimes it can be hard to put it out of your mind, especially when you feel like you should have won the game, or at least would have had a chance to win.

Cheers. I've been good the first month. Lets see if it continues!

These were a fun little speed paint. The Nurglings were primed Caliban green and then zenithal sprayed with Deathguard green. I then dry brushed them quickly with a mix of Organ Camo and White before glazing the whole model with Waywatcher Green. This gives a really nice vivid green colour. I then went back in and washed the recesses with Athonina Camo Shade and Nuln Oil. I did all the eyes, mouths etc at this stage too. Once this was dry I painted the tongues with screamer pink and then watered down a mix of screamer pink and wild rider red which I used for all the sores. All of these got washed with Drucji Violet. Blood for the Blood God went on all the sores and they were highlighted with white to make them look glossy. Horns were Rakarth Flesh and a quick highlight with Palyd Whych Flesh which I also used for the teeth (just a careful dry brush with very little paint on the brush). The most time consuming part was dotting all the eyes with yellow. One thing I did with these was not to base them. I usually use the cork bark for the bases, but because of how these models are made I didn't want to do this as they wouldn't sit flat on the bark well, so I went back to the traditional way of sanding afterwards and then brush painting the base. This is very annoying! I will try not to do this again. It is much easier to make the bases first and then attach the models to them. When you get a somewhat dubious looking join you can just go in with the foliage and use this to cover up any of the gaps that you may ave left.

They work well with the GW bases. I like all the contrasting metals you have on them.

I also wanted to say how nice the StD chaos warriors are looking! Very unique scheme that I haven't seen before. I've just started working on some warriors too, and I hope they look as nice as yours do!

Painting and Modelling: January has ended and its been an interesting month. First off I've hit the target of a model a day, painting 46 models so far in 2018. These have been a mix of units and a character. Horticulux Slimux has been by far the most interesting of the models I've done. He was really fun to paint, and there is a lot of detail that gives the model character. I was pleased with the final outcome so he will be the model that I will submit to the PMP End of Month review run by @Vincent Venturella to see what they say about it. I decided not to put everything I do up as some of the things I intend to paint will be done quickly. The units were for my Tzeentch and Nurgle forces. I managed 10 more plague bearers, which gives me 30 now, and I finished some Pink, Blue and Brimstone Horrors. I also made good progress on getting models built and undercoated ready for next month, as well as getting some thinking into my army for the South Coast GT this year where I want to do something for the Coolest Army Award that they do. It will be a Maggotkin Army of some description. Gaming I had two tournaments planned for January, Heat 1 at Warhammer and the Sheffield Slaughter, my local GT. The Heat was great fun and also very successful. I managed to qualify for the final with a 3-2 record combined with some good soft scores. In the end I finished 13th, which is probably my best finish ever at a large two day event. I was also fortunate enough to take the Best Painted award at the event with the Lords of Change Tzeentch list. I was hoping this good run would continue into Sheffield, but unfortunately I had to pull out from the event. Aquisitions I bought the Maggotkin book when it came out along with the cards, and I picked up Sloppity Bilepiper, the Scrivener ad the Lord of Blights. I also purchased a Pusgoyle Blightlords Kit. I managed to sell the Stormcast Host from the Blightwar Box, so the money from this and the refund I got from the Slaughter covered the costs of what I bought. As usual l also had to stock up on 32mm bases and Tajima 1 got some business from me as I ran out of a few tufts and grasses. Personal Bit of a rough one. I got ill before Christmas and haven't recovered throughout January. I've had several days off work, which is unusual, and in the end it got quite serious as I was admitted into hospital at the end of the month suffering from what turned out to be Pneumonia. This has led me to another week off work. I have also missed an important basketball game, and I was also training for the Manchester Marathon which I have now deferred until 2019 as I will not have done the training required to run a time that I would be pleased with. Overall this has been really disheartening as I enjoy sport and being active and not being able to do things has left me feeling a bit down. I would rate January about 3/10 in terms of a good start to the year. Lets hope things improve in February!

Thanks

Make sure you show off some photos when he's done - its a lovely model to paint.

I think you have made some well considered points here my friend. I agree with some clarification to set up rules (after the Wanderers being played two different ways at different events), and I'm also a fan of removing 'models within' to 'Units within' I also like that GW are now using the 'wholly within' wording for some abilities. Your Archaon improvement ideas are also something I agree with. Their is nothing more depressing than the Lord of the End Times going into a unit of regular troops and not doing anything, which happens more often than I like! The Tzeentch book suffers from an internal balance problem. Also there is a lack of imagination amongst Tzeentch players. For some reason the tournament armies all look similar, despite the fact that there are other good options. Other Battle Tomes seem to have more variation amongst their players. For example DD is an interesting one. My list doesn't care particularly what the Destiny Dice are because they generally get used for casting spells, so 2's and 3's can both be used a lot. 6's are good of course for when you want to power something through. The split rule is something I'd like to see laid out in a really clear way. I'd love to see someone like yourself do a photo guide that shows how to lay out the blues and brims after the split and give a clear interpretation to when it happens. I don't use the mechanic as I'm not 100% sure that I would do it correctly, and I'd rather not leave a bad impression of myself or the army. Hopefully you have sent the link to this post to some of the GW staffers you know as I'm sure that they would appreciate the detailed analysis, even if they don't use it all.

Yep, I totally agree. I was able to get thirty rank and file guys done pretty quickly at the start of the month so I didn't feel too guilty about spending the extra time on Horticulux Slimux. Next up I have 20 Pink Horrors to do as well as some nurglings, so again I should be able to make some good progress in February

I still haven't decided on my list for the weekend. I could take my heat 1 Tzeentch list, or I could try for something a little different. Or I could just pull out the Glotkin and get the Nurgle out.

I built Horticulux Slimux as soon as I got the Blight War box when it was released, but he's been undercoated and sat on the painting desk since then. However with the release of the excellent Maggotkin battletome I decided he should be the next model (no.31) in my painting challenge. I have to say that he has been fun to paint so far, but I have also spent more time on him than I expected to. I started off working on Horticulux himself. Normally I'd go for a dark green as he is supposed to be an old plague bearer, but I knew that I was going to paint Mulch quite dark so he needed to be a bit brighter to stand out. I used a base coat of Ogryn Camo for the highlights along with Palyd Wych Flesh. Once id done all the highlights I glazed the whole model with Waywatcher Green and then Lamentors Yellow which gives a really vibrant bright green. Because I'd done the zenithal prime I had a lot of the darker areas already done so I could just glaze and shade over these sections with dark green and purple glazes to get some depth into the recesses. Once I'd finished the skin I went in and quickly picked out the details on the bone, wood and the eyes (I left the pupils out as the GW one looks a bit bonkers with the pupil!) Once i'd finished the rider I started working around him with the rest of the details. One of the things that its important to be aware of on this model is that there are a lot of different elements, and it would be easy to get carried away and have everything painted in lots of colours. What I tried to do was keep the pallet of colours limited, but that then makes it hard to get variation unless you vary the tone of the colours. I also wanted to play around with the finishes. I started with the shell which is a very dark purple that I made from black and Naggaroth nightshade. I then dry brushed up the details with straight Naggaroth and then added in some Palyd Which Flesh (PWF). once it was dry I could highlight the extreme points with PWF and then covered it with And Coat to get a shiny reflective effect. On the tree I worked purple into the brown so that it would tie in with the overall scheme as well. That just left all the details around the tree (there are a lot!) All of these were either yellow (to match the eyes), purples or greens. The only bit I'm not sure with at the moment is the tongue in Audrey2 - the red may need to be glazed with more purple, or maybe repainted green. I'll hopefully finish the painting this weekend, and I still need to add a base... Speaking of which I managed to make a start on this tonight. I had a large piece of play bark which I was going to use, but the curve on either side were too extreme for the model to fit on - Mulch is quite wide and has a very flat base. So i grabbed a saw and cut the piece in half so that I would have a large flat surface to position the model on. I superglued this onto the base and then added filler and a second piece. Once this was dry I sanded the base in sections and then left it in the drying cupboard for a few hours. Once the PVA had set I then superglued a selection of skulls under the lips of the rock to. I'm not sure what to do around the area where the plough will go. I think the plan might be to have natural vegetation and tufts towards the front of the base and then some more natural aquarium plants at the back where he has been plowing the earth. I also think that there could be some space for a fe Nurglings to go on the base in a few areas if I decide I have the time. I had time the other evening to finish the model off. To keep the scheme going I used the same light green on the top half of Mulch. I did this fairly quickly using dry brushing and a bunch of washes. Once this was all dry I was able to go in and add some mottling to the skin. I then glazed in the green and yellow to get the bright green look. The bottom half was done in Kabalite Green, which I washed down with a lot of blacks and green shades. I picked out a few of the muscles quickly and then mottled the skin again. I like this technique because you can focus the patterns on the raised areas and it works as a highlight that draws in the eye. I then picked out the details of the mouth which was a fun job. The base was painted separately. I sprayed it Rhinox Hide and Zandri Dust, then picked out the skulls. The whole thing then got drydrushed with Terminatus Stone before I picked out all the skull highlights. I then glazed these with some greens to tie it all together. I then applied all the tufts and grasses around the base to blend the whole model together. Its been a fun model to paint and I hope you've enjoyed the write up.

I thought it was a terrific weekend. Certainly enjoyed myself a lot more than at last years Heat 1. You got to play some top people as well which is always a real positive! Looking forward to read about how day 2 went

Good article. I'm as guilty as others for not rebasing my old armies. I have rebased bits and pieces of my empire army (this was a serious force of will as the basing was some of the best I've done), parts of my wood elves/wanderers, and some of my slaves to darkness and some of my High Elves. I find that I have rebased the models that might be useful, and then older or compendium stuff has stayed on squares. What I actually think is that I should sell some of the models on squares as I think there will be people who will get a lot more use from the models than me. I can't see empire knights ever being used and I have two big units of ten so these might as well go to some one who will actually use them.

I'm going to try and track it daily, although not update every day. I want to do 365 models. I reckon its possible. I'll be sure to count any terrain I do too! At the moment the updates would be - Tuesday: very sick, Wednesday: not quite as sick, Thursday: now got a stupid cough etc etc I'll probably have recovered just in time to go back to work!

Update: 28/02/18 Number of models completed = 70 February Worked on a unit of Nurglings (tidied the hobby room a bit and got some models ready to Ebay) Completed 3 Nurgling Bases Prepped 6 Screamers (undercoated), built and undercoated bases for 3 Plague Drones, 2 Blightlords, 10 Blue Horrors, 6 Screamers, Built 4 Objective Markers, Assembled 3 Plague Drones. Worked on the Screamers Completed 6 Screamers Finished a Feculent Gnarlmaw and 5 Chaos Hounds. Played first game with the new Nurgle Battletome - lost to Death! Finished 5 Pink Horrors Started working on Plague Drones Completed 3 Plague Drones Bought Malign Portents Book and Card and entered the GW Malign Portents competition Undercoated some shields Holiday! Holiday! Holiday! Holiday! Holiday! Worked on some Chaos Warriors and an Exalted Flamer Finished an Exalted Flamer Nothing done Nothing done Worked on some Chaos Warriors Birthday - received 4 boxes of Pusgoyle Blightlords, an Ogroid Thaumurturge, and a Darkoath Warqueen Assembled two Blightlord flies Nothing done Worked on Chaos Warriors Worked on Chaos Warriors Nothing done Snow Day! Did some Chaos Warriors (again!) January Worked on 2 blue horrors (not based yet), assembled 10 pink horrors Spray primed 6 pink horrors Spray primed 4 pink horrors and zenithalled the first 6 Nothing done Completed 5 Blue Horrors Nothing done Completed 5 Blue Horrors Nothing Done Completed 20 Brimstone Horrors and 10 Plague Bearers Started working on Horticulux Slime More work on HS No painting, but I did get my list written for the Warhammer Age go Sigmar Heat 1 3 games of Warhammer at Heat 1 (bought the Maggotkin Book, cards, and Tzeentch cards) 2 games of Warhammer at Heat 1 - finished 13th and won best army Nothing done Nothing done More work on Horticulux Slimux More work on Horticulux Slimux More work on Horticulux Slimux (I'M SEEING A PATTERN HERE...) Worked up the base for HS Completed Horticulux Slimux Built 3 Nurglings Nothing done Nothing done Nothing done Nothing done - Hospital Nothing done - Hospital Nothing done - Hospital Nothing done Worked on 5 Pink Horrors, Primed 16 Chaos Warriors, Built a Lord of Affliction and Blight Lord Primed 3 Nurglings, 10 Blue Horrors, 8 Chaos Warriors, Built some bases, Finished 5 Pink Horrors

I agree with @Dave Fraser Those Arkanought troopers and the Chemist have come out really well. The blue colour scheme for the overalls is excellent. The models look very detailed from the shots you've posted - you've down a great job getting them finished to such a consistent standard.

I like your honesty in this Dave. I could do with some of that! I have brettonian and dwarf armies that are complete but could just be sold off. I also have a bunch of Models that are still on squares that could be sold or rebased. I like the sounds of your challenges. Be good to see another seraphon army out and about, and I'm sure the Deathlords will be cool. Painting big monsters is always the most fun!

This is a photo of all the models that I painted in 2017: The year got off to a solid start with the Tzeentch release. At the start of the year I didn't own any Tzeentch models at all, but I was looking for a new project for the South Coast GT and I was fortunate to get some of the Acolytes to work on. I painted 20 of these, and I have another 20 that are partially done. The kit is great though, so I used them to as the base for 20 Maruders. I fleshed out the army with 6 sky fires, a Tzangor Shaman and 4 Lords of Change. This took me up to March, and it meant I had another 2000pt army completed to add to my collection. one of my goals for 2018 will be to add to this army. I'd like to run some more horrors and also have a unit or two of Enlightened on Disc to go in for a more fighty force. Later on on 2017 I started on this and have added 10 Brimstone horrors so far, as well as a unit of Blue and Pink Horrors. I also got a Gaunt Summoner which I spent a bit of time working on - I'm extremely pleased with how he came out. I spent some time painting a few Nurgle models as well. These were mostly converted for an army project that I started but never finished. However it looks like the start of 2018 will give me some exciting new editions to go into this force. If the new Battletome is competitive then I may try to paint up and actual net list of Nurgle, but if it isn't then I can have some fun adding models as and when. in 2017 I have done 20 Plaguebearers, 10 Warriors, 3 Beasts of Nurgle, a Lord of Plagues, a converted Harbinger of Decay and Festus. I was a little frivolous with my spending this year so I have the remains of the Blightwar box that I can add to this force along with any new models from the upcoming release. And finally, and some what randomly, there are three warhawk riders that I had sitting around for ages. I have a large Woodelf collection and I have a lot of older or unfinished models that I really want to add in and rebase, so I like to do a few of these as little projects throughout the year. The first of these for 2018 will hopefully be the Sisters of the Thorn. I have the steeds completed for these ladies, but the riders have been in an unfinished pile for over a year now. I think they have deserved to be moved up the painting queue. And of course I also did an awful lot of terrain this year. Preparing for Blood and Glory was very stressful and at times I was really down about the whole thing, but the tables and terrain I managed to complete looked spectacular. I'm not going to put the photos here as they can be found littered throughout the blog, but that was a good 4 months of hard labour and I now have 9 high quality sets of table terrain that I can pull out when friends come over as well as having it ready for next years events. Maybe I can add another table or two if I feel motivated... Overall I am pretty pleased with the amount of hobby that I got done this year. Lets hope next year will be just as productive. I'd love to see how everyone else thinks they have done so pop onto the 2017 retrospective thread here and/or start thinking what your 2018 goals could be and post them too. Have a terrific 2018 everyone!