A Death Guard 'glitch'; The Sons of Horus; and a few World Eaters

Erm, well this is'nt good.....

I had quite happily painted my Death Guard and moved onto the World Eaters when a problem arose. The problem was that the paint had started to rub off the Death Guard! I had properly undercoated and varnished them, but still the paint had started to leave the miniatures in alarming amounts.

 Look, it's rubbing off!!

(the red was Vallejo too, but I caught that with my nail as I rubbed off the grey green).

Now I had never had a problem like this before, and it seems to be down the the Vallejo Grey Green paint, as the Citadel colours I had used were fine. I can only put this down to a rogue batch of the paint as I have not had an issue with Vallejo before. I chatted to people on the 'Oldhammer' Facebook group and they seemed to agree. Needless to say I am not impressed and a little reluctant to keep using Vallejo paints. Also it means I have a Renegade army which requires repainting.

Originally I had painted the Death Guard in a slightly grubby version of their white and red armour from the pre Heresy Rogue Trader colour scheme. However, in keeping with my 1991 look approach I have decided that if I need to repaint them, I might as well do it in the colours of the time. So I have opted for the classic green and red of 'Lost and the Damned' and White Dwarf fame.

In happier news I have been shopping.
I been shopping on e-bay, buying a lot of Renegades with the aim of taking this vast Tratior Legions project one step further by adding some Sons of Horus, based on the Black Legion list in Slaves to Darkness. I have a force from each of the four Chaos Powers, but always felt that the most important force, that of Horus himself, should be present.

So to add both to this idea, and to fill gaps in the other Legions, I have purchased another 51 Renegades (actually 53, I bought another two this evening!), and in addtion I have added Terminators and Robots as well, but more on them next update. Needless to say that this has'nt been cheap, but I have also been lucky in a few auctions, but the total bill is around £270-ish. I'll do a proper update on the gathering Sons of Horus as a later date.

In addtion to repainting the Death Guard, and the test miniatures of the Sons of Horus, I have only been about to paint a few World Eaters. This is mainly due to the upcoming horror at work that is Christmas, and my sorting out of miniatures for the now five Legions. I have however still painted a few Renegades.
Enjoy :)

Death Guard reboot:

Two test model Renegades in the new, non rub-off paint scheme. 

I have based these on the classic look from the 1980's. The armour is the shade of the old Goblin Green paint, and highlighted with that and some added yellow. I have painted the armour edges in Blood Red, and given everything a nice dark wash. 

Personally I think that the glitch might be a blessing in disguise as I prefer the classic Nurgle look, and it seems to fit my idea of Death Guard Renegades.

Rear view.

Sons of Horus test models.
At the time of Rogue Trader I wondered about the pre Black Legion armour colour. The epic Space Marine box suggested they were black, which was no help as they were meant to have painted the armour black later. A White Dwarf article at the time also suggested that the tanks were black, which while possible, did'nt help on the Marines armour colour.
At the time I recall discussions suggesting that the armour colour was either grey/off white, an idea derived from a lunar grey from the Lunar Wolves idea; or green from photos of painted renegades. The green was much later picked up by GW and is now the Sons of Horus colour. Now I did'nt want to paint them with 21st Century background fluff, but from the background of the 1980's. However without any firm evidence to work from, I chose the green for variety and that it looked good.
I painted them from a black undercoat with Vallejo German Uniform Green, then with a higlight of that mixed with Citadel Warpstome glow. The whole thing was then given a thin black paint wash. 

World Eaters! 

I have only managed to paint a few in the last week or so.

Warhammer Chaos Champion of Chaos, painted up for the World Eaters and to be used as a (non psychic power using) Libarian.

Legionary and Sergeant.

Heavy Bolter.

Two more World Eaters.
I have added a few normal Marines in amongst the Renegades to add a little variety, and to add some more number tothe Legions. I have added about 20 Marines to the five Legions, so they are not common. Adding the Chaos backpack I think gives them that more Tratior feel.

Next update will hopefully be on a few more World Eaters, and maybe some more Death Guard. Also there will be more on my e-bay shopping.

Rogue Trader World Eaters (part 1).

Now before I get to the World Eaters I just wanted to say that my blog has reached a total of 90,770 views as of today. Thank you to everyone who has taken an interest. :)

After finishing the Death Guard (well, I still have their five Terminators to paint, which I have now bought from e-bay!) I have moved onto the World Eaters, the Space Marine devotees of Khorne.

The World Eaters are the first of the two army lists I shall be painting and have collected from the 'Slave to Darkness' book. Unlike the Death Guard from the 'Lost and the Damned', the World Eaters (and Emperor's Children) army list is more akin to the loyal Space Marine list. There are the three formal types of squad (Tactical, Devastator, and Assault), as well as all the different types of Officers.

The full World Eater army is quite a fair sized force. There are sixteen Officers: one Lieutenant Commander, one Lieutenant, one Captain, six Libarians, four Medics, and three Chaplains. Squad wise there are: eight Tactical Squads, two Devastator squads, four Assault squads. This makes a total of 128 Marines, which I have now collected.

This does not include the additional forces which are part of the list such as Tech Marines, Beastman squads, Possesses, Chaos Spawn, and Demons. I have some of these, but will be adding them as I go along as they are not core to the army. I do have the full complement of Chaos Terminators from the list in White Dwarf #116, consisting of four squads of five Terminators, and one Captain to add to the list and paint as well. 

One major difference is that the World Eater squads are eight strong rather than ten, as eight is the sacred number of Khorne. This means that the Tactical squads do not have a flamer Marine, although they still retain their heavy weapon. The four squads I have painted so far are all Tactical squads, and they have a number of optional upgrades.
These upgrades, like the loyal Marines, have to be applied to all the squads of the same type in the army, with the exception of Jetbikes and Chaos Steeds. For the Tactical squads the only upgrade I have applied is the give the squad sergeant a Power Glove, as they are very good in Rogue Trader.Also, I have several Power Gloved miniatures, so it helps differentiate the sergeants in the squads. I kept the Missile Launchers as they are versatile weapon.

Painting wise I am basing the paint schemes of the Rogue Trader era.
A mix of reds, gold/brass, and black, with a good mix of metal, bone, and the occasional piece of blue armour from the old (Rogue Trader era) World Eater armour. I have also taken the old approach of painting each of the miniatures as an individual rather than just in a blanket uniform.
In addition I have taken to using a technque I used for my current 40k Edition era World Eater army. This involves drybrushing red ( GW Evil Sun Scarlet, the modern equivalent of the old Blood Red) over the black to create a darker 'blended look' mix of black and red. I have also applied that to mixing gold and red, and metal and black. I think it adds to the mix of individuality and the dark Chaotic feel.

Enjoy :)

 Four Tactical squads and an Officer.

 Squad one.

 Sergeant and Marine. 

I painted the Sergeant by drybrushing red over black, and made the armour look half and half blending the red into black. It's an effect I liked painting and plan to use more. The shoulder pad has a little orange added to give an almost Chaos glow.

 Marines with Bloodletter heads. 

With the Marine of the left I have gone for the more solid brighter red, and on the Marine of the left a predominatly black armour.

 Two more Marines with a slightly darker armour.

 Metal skull faced Marine, and on the right a Chaos Heavy Weapons Marine, with the Chaos Missile Launcher.

 A lot of people really do not like the Chaos Missile Launcher. I don't mind it, but think design wise it is a little too long and is too heavy at the end. The plastic missile launcher from Genestealer is a lot better design, but I only have a few of those and am going to use them for the Thousand Sons. I also wanted to keep the original missile launcher to keep with the original feel of the army.

 Squad Two.

 Another Power Gloved Sergeant, this time with a golden arm. I repostioned the helmet horns as well.

The othe Marine is a sculpt based of the Sergeant sculpt (or visa versa?).

 Marines with a stylised symbol of Khorne on their helmets.

Two Marines, both from the basic sculpt. 

On the right in a similar style to the one in the Slaves to Darkness book.

 Marines, one with skull knee pads, and more gold tubing. Behind him is a heavy weapons Marine with a head of a Bloodletter.

 Squad three.

 Again, the same Khornate looking Sergeant, only this time I have painted the red-black drybrusing vertically, black-red-black. A little bit of gold adds some colour. 

On the right is another Bloodletter headed Marine with more black armour.

 Two more Marines, drybrused on the left, and more solid colours on the right.

Another specifically Khornate Marine of the left. I painted the web looking part of the armour bone to bring out the organic looking armour. 

On the right is a generic Renegade with an odd spike on his helmet. I also thought this was a strange miniature, but he still adds to the Chaos craziness.

 The orginal Chaos Renegade on the left (I bought him second hand, and someone of time has snipped the combat accessory to a point). 

On the right another heavy weapon Marine. With him I mixed styles painting the armour more solid but a darker red, drybrusing the red and black on the missile launcher itself, and giving him a piece of old World Eater blue armour on the leg.

 Backpacks. 

I have kept that old feel for the armies by used only old Rogue Trader backpacks on all of the miniatures in all of the four armies. Most have the Chaos backpacks, the Death Guard and the occsional Character model have other Rogue Trader backpacks. 

Above are some of the painting effects I have used on the World Eater backpacks.

 More backpacks.

 World Eater Officer.

For many of the officers in the World Eaters (and the Emperor's Children) I have used some of the Champions of Chaos miniatures from fantasy ranges. 

I have done this to add variety to the armies, to use some great miniatures, and to differentiate the officer models from the rank and file. 

Many of the Champion miniatures fit in very well. Several of them have tech weapons, or swords/axes which can be assumed to be Demon Weapons or Chaos Weapons. The armour suggests a mutation of the power armour into Chaos armour. The overall look and individuality of Officers is one of those who have perhaps journeyed further down the path of Chaos than other Marines in the Legions. 

The above miniature is 'Face of Juggernaught, axe, and mace tail'. I love the look of the axe, having that great Ian Miller Chaos Weapon look. I have'nt decided which officer he will be, but might be a Librarian, Khornate Librarians of course don't use their psychic powers. 

I experimented when painting the armour, painting a dark green over black, and then highlighting from the green with red. Then I gave the whole miniature a couple of heavy black washes. The idea was to give a him a slick dark looking Demonic armour, made darker by painting the axe, tail, and head, red. 

Next update: more World Eaters!

I still have a lot to paint, and am already part way through a Devastator squad and two more officers, and hopefully will be able to get an additional Tactical squad painted. With Christmas looming I will have less time and energy to paint as work gets busier, but I hope to keep the output going. :)