Two weeks since my last post. So much for my goal of posting once every calendar week. Still, I actually have hobby progress for the first time in a long while, so I’ll go with it.
This week, I’ve managed to start work on my Nurgle Chaos Marines, getting the Plague Marines, the Daemon Prince, and a Sorcerer assembled. All were Finecast, and happily without any noticeable flaws beyond a small gap on the Daemon Prince (which could have easily existed in the metal version), and for the most part they went pretty quickly. The arms on a couple of the Plague Marines were a bit fiddly, but otherwise they were about as simple to assemble as it comes. I touched up their backpacks with a bit of Liquid Green Stuff to make them a bit less pristine. I hope the effect works when I get around to painting them.
One thing that surprised me about the Daemon Prince is how small he is. I mean, sure, he’s big compared to a marine, but I had this image in my mind of a much more hulking model. My kitbashed Slaanesh Daemon Prince is taller, although definitely thinner. Still, he’s about the size of a Dreadnought, so he’s not tiny, and he’s still beastly in combat. He had Bendy Sword Syndrome, but a hit with a hair dryer and a quick dunk in cold water fixed that right up. The gap in his model is right behind his head, and you can see where I’ve tried fixing it with more Liquid Green Stuff. Not as successful here, but I have time to give it another go.
You might notice that I haven’t attached his smokestacks/bone tubes/whichever yet. That’s because I haven’t decided on if I’m giving him wings or not. Technically, I should, since he’s more awesome with wings, but I also haven’t decided on a solution. One possibility is to give him the fly wings off of the Plague Drone kit. I’ve seen a couple of examples of this, and it looks about the right size, wouldn’t be too unwieldy, and would be thematically appropriate. The other is going Mantis-Style, like this conversion on BoLS. I even have a friend who has a pair of hive arms I can use. I’m undecided, though, especially after seeing how small the model is. Of course, the plastic Daemon Prince might not be that much bigger; I haven’t seen one up close. Still, I think I like the insect wings… or I might just keep him stock. I’m still undecided.
The Sorcerer was a last-minute purchase, and the easiest build; I just did a head-swap for the Nurgle Aspiring Champ head from the standard CSM box. Looking him over, the rest of him is easily Nurgle-able with the right paintjob.
This week, I should be getting some Forge World Plague Marine bits I procured off of eBay (from a US vendor, and they’re still in the clamshell, so they look to be legit), and that’ll give me a good 17 Plague Marines to play around with. I’ve got extra Chaos Marine bodies as well, so I can probably Nurgle up another 3 and make it an even 20. Between that and the 20+ Cultists I’m going to devote to the cause (if not more), I should be good on Troops. Also, I broke down and grabbed the WHFB Nurgle Lord (the mini is too good to pass up) to get 40K-ified. Between that and everything else I have, I think I’m good to go on this project (for now, anyway).