Ebb and flow

Hello again.

I cannot believe it is over two months since I last put something up on the blog, but there it is. A veritable cornucopia of technical issues, family holidays, the sad loss of my beloved Border Collie, impending redundancy and other life events have seen my activity slip to what I would call "very limited", but here I am again.

So, to recommence my musings after this latest lay off, I am linking the last post I did with this one by way of showcasing a few choice items from my Death Guard, which, I hope, also convey quite why I was so excited by the new release of Warhammer 40K edition whatever, complete with the Death Guard miniatures.

Now, this trio of ne'er-do-wells are not the Bee Gees, nor Genesis post-Steve Hackett. They are not A-ha (which Occasional Wargamer Brother Kev has a penchant for, much to my amazement when I discovered it!). They are not even the Sugababes in any of their various incarnations.

No, these three scions of Chaos are the source of much amusement, a depiction of my mad desire for converting and scratch building much of my Chaos forces back in the day and also became a sort of figurehead for my Death Guard in its paltry number of actual outings to the tabletop, a sort of signature dish for how I wanted my force to look.

"Why amusement?" I hear you cry.

Well, in one particular game against Nephew Paul, one of them wiped out most of the Chaos army in dice-fuelled fits of psychotic rage. He did more damage to his own side than all of the Space Marines opposite could manage between them! Then another, in the same game, walked calmly across the battlefield, lascannon shots bouncing off all over, and ripped the offending Predator, with its puny, twin-linked lascannons, to pieces with its bare claws. It then promptly scored two wounds on the Space Marine Chaplain who was the only thing left alive on the opposing side...........and Nephew Paul promptly rolled a double six for invulnerable saves, thereby earning a draw! Happy days!!!

Anyway, all three of these beasts were converted from the plastic Space Marine Dreadnought kit from Games Workshop at least ten years ago, and probably nearer twenty, when I first set out on this Death Guard frenzy. A lot of greenstuff, bits of other kits, pieces of wire, plastruct and sundry other bits later, I had three Death Guard Dreadnoughts of my own, each unique and, in my eyes, showcasing exactly why Chaos was King. All that potential for conversion and creation at a time when most people just seemed to want to build the various kits according to the manufacturer's instructions. If I had wanted to do that, I would have settled down with one of Airfix's offerings!

Part of the "legend" was that they all had names and personalities. We had the troop muncher with the plasma cannon (I think I called him something like "Bubonicus", but my memory is failing somewhat!), the armour hunter with the multi-melta (Lord Tsetse, as the fly-resemblance is entirely intentional) and the bruiser with the twin close combat weapons (Lord Tetanus). According them noble titles emphasised the message - these guys were there to lead the footsloggers like good (or not) medieval knights.

I make no claim that any of them are the greatest/ best/ most reasonable/ other examples of the breed - I have seen some truly stunning GW kit in my time, converted or otherwise - but they are the sort of thing that first led me to build exclusively Chaos forces for 40K. Nothing has ever come close to making the workbench in 40K terms, as I just love the opportunities for modelling and creativity afforded by Chaos. Orks could have rivalled it, but I cannot get over the inherent silliness of the breed. Oh well.

Time for the photos. See you soon.

G

"Bubonicus" is all his glory. He was the first one built and I used the metal claw from the original, metal Dreadnought kit by GW. The rest of the kit formed the sole dreadnought from my original Chaos Legion, the "Medusa Legion", which had an Ancient Greek vibe in my imagination, with lots of red plumes and close combat weapons. I may show them at some point. The plasma cannon is from a boxed set of Orks from about 30 years ago, the rest a mix of greenstuff and sundry kit parts.

Ah, the front view seems to have failed. A plastruct girder is his main weapon, allied with a powerfist with built in flamer for that "up close and personal" combat experience, this is Lord Tetanus, all black eye and brute force. Subtlety not required... 

And, finally, Lord Tsetse, the fly-like leviathan who likes to eat tanks for a living. He is the most converted of all, with arms splayed more widely via inserts and greenstuff, a largely scratchbuilt multi-melta from plastic tube, prominent antennae and proboscis from brass wire, a face sculpted from green stuff, powerfist claws from more plastruct and token trophy rack with incense burner for that extra bit of religious iconography. The clawed foot is just another attempt to do something a little different to the other two.