The bulkhead door crumples with the first impact, the second blow sends the door flying across the room and it clatters against the back wall. The monstrosity that fills the doorway terrifies the guardsmen manning the hastily constructed barricade. It is huge, bigger than any normal man, armour plates of putrid green and bleached bone, foul symbols hanging on chains from its armour. The corrupted warrior screeches, a high pitched wail of static, and the face in its left shoulder pad starts to gibber uncontrollably.
"You will all die tonight little fleshlings, more souls for the great father, more souls!"
The unnatural voice stuns the guardsmen into action and they open fire. Las rounds burn the air between them and their enemy, but nothing breaks through the corrupted armour. It raises a bolt pistol and fires, and a guardsman's chest explodes, spattering gore over his comrades. The invader strides forward. and a second shot removes another man's head. It is at the barricade now, and a blow from its glowing left fist punches a hole through the flimsy piles of furniture. As it forces its way through, one of the defenders is backhanded across the room, his skull and ribcage smashed.
There are only two defenders left.
"Run!" Shouts one. "Get everyone out, we cannot hold!"
His shouts attract the attention of their enemy, and the guardsman is face to face with this vision of hell. Too close to fire, he swings his las-rifle like a club, but it is futile, and the powerful left hand envelopes his helmeted head and crushes his skull.
The last remaining guardsman runs...
The first of my Dark Vengeance Chosen is finished, and finally spray varnished to a finish I'm actually happy with!
The first colour I put on the miniature was the bone - I figured it was easier to do this than do the green first, as there was so much fiddly detail, that base-coating the bone, would end up with some slippage into the green areas. It started with a base of Zandri Dust, washed with Agrax Earthshade. The highlights were then more of the base coat, Karak Stone and finally some Dheneb Stone (I really need to find a replacement for this). I could have added some white to this, but I didn't want to go too light - it's probably a little too bright for Nurgle as it is, but it looks good so I'm sticking with it.
The green was based with P3 Cryx Base, which was dark enough not to need a wash. Originally I highlighted this with Catachan Green, Deathworld Forest and Ogryn Camo - but the green was too dull in comparison to the Bikers, so I went back and added in Camo Green to brighten things up a bit. The brown is done the same way as on the Cultists. The pipes, eyes and details are based with the new Balor Brown (which is a poor replacement for Tausept Ochre in my opinion), washed with Sepia and highlighted with the base and Iyanden Darksun.
The powerfist is one of my favourite parts of the miniature - I used the same colours as for the rest of the green, but added a lot more Ogryn Camo to the top "edges" of the crazy paving effect. I'm thinking about having a little bit of this pattern on all of the Chosen, just to tie them all together.
I'm a big fan of the faces sculpted into the armour too - I like the thought of this one gibbering away, hurling insults and expletives at the enemy. The tongue is highlighted with the old Scab Red and the new Screamer Pink, which works quite nicely over a dark brown base.
With Chosen number one finished, it's back to the Cultists. I'm working on a group of 5 of the close combat squad, but before I start batch painting them (if I can bear it), I thought I'd do a test model first to make sure I like the colour scheme. I wanted to do something to distinguish them from the rifle armed squad, but still keep them tied together.
Although red isn't strictly a Nurgle colour, it does feature quite heavily on one of the covers of the Realm of Chaos books (obviously the one with Nurgle in it), so I thought I'd give it a try. It's just dark brown, with a layer or two of Scab Red, then Scab Red and Snakebite Leather. One plus point is that he didn't take too long to paint - just as well, as there's one chap who's 50% skin, who probably will take a while to paint...
He works alongside our new Chosen Marine too:
More of these ugly scum soon hopefully.
In other news, I still have a few of the "half-finished" on the go - I've actually made some good progress on Commissar Yarrick, with only a couple of colours left to do:
He's coming along nicely, although I still have some work to do on the red of the power claw. I'm particularly pleased with the Ork skeleton on the gun and the sash. I'm also working on another of the Imperial advisors:
The metal work is pretty much done, I just need to decide on a uniform colour. Last but not least I'm still struggling with the Bushido Dragon:
No idea what the problem with this miniature is, as it's a lovely looking creature, I just can't stand painting it. There is a lot of yellow to do, but that's not usually been a problem. Hopefully posting it up here will give me the incentive to crack on with it...
...and that's all folks! I've started my next article for the Ancible, so that will be taking up some time too. I also solemnly promise to comment on other people's blogs more - I really appreciate all the comments you guys make, and I have been very rude in not extending to you all the same courtesy - I am going to make this right.
As always comments and criticism welcome!