8th Edition 40k Army: Completed Big Custom Hellbrute!

Finally I’ll show the Big Custom Hellbrute in it’s mostly finished form. (I say mostly as since taking these shots, I have added a bit more detail to the base and some more gore…) As you can see from the primaris sized plague marine conversion at it’s side, he is indeed very big boy!

Last off, when I posted a WIP for this beast, I only had a dark green base coat and a few shades of lighter greens drybrushed on it, so since then it has a lot more going off.

I think it turned out OK, loving the face, as it completely changes the model from it’s original Scotia/Grendel Leviathan War Golem form to something unique. Not that there was anything wrong with the original model, but I needed to create a face that gives that Nurgle Chaos vibe rather than the stock face it had. I also had to reposition the arms to give it some level of dynamism that the original lacked (IMHO, no offense!) as the standard pose was very static, and I wanted to give some sense of it lumbering across the battlefield, not just stood there, arms tight at it’s sides.

Like I said, the face carries it for me. It has a definite Great Unclean one style that locks it in as being Nurgloid in nature, plus is totally unique (since I sculpted it on) I did have to add a lot of sculpted bits to make it seem like it was fused between the hard metal and organic, but the various pipes and tubes that were present in the original helped as well, so adding extra pipes and tubes, or at least the impression of them, was an easy way to help blend the sculpted additions to the stuff already there.

The second set of clawed arms were added from some Tyranid spares I had, exposed guts bursting out blended well, merging easily into the aforementioned pre-existing tubes already there. The large mass of tentacles were added to insinuate much more mutations inside the machine, reaching out of the spaces at it’s side and under the arm. These also provided some support to the arm that I re-positioned.

The back flat armor areas were kept as intact as I could (Obviously I had plenty of places where the mutations were bursting from) but I wanted enough parts left on the model to paint in the same Death Guard scheme I have for my overall army. Battle damage was carved into the resin here and there to Nurglify? it a bit more, as this thing would draw a lot of fire on the table, so I imagine a monstrosity like this would be torn up a bit! It goes well with the Ceros and Rhino as heavy back up, it certainly starts to make my army a force to be reckoned with!

Overall I like this model, and would recommend anyone to give these little gems a go if you want to add a big lumbering mech type hellbrute/dred to your chaos bois. You can do a lot with these if you use your imagination, swap out the arms, add new heads and features, mutations and more.

Not sure what I’ll run it as, but I have a few things in mind, regardless though, I will be supplementing my troops with him, drawing fire as he slowly makes his way into battle. I do have another Hellbrute on the way, heavily converted from a Reaper Bones Graveyard Golem, but I’m not finished with him yet. Here’s a quick preview.

This one is more normal sized for a Hellbrute, but I’d say much more converted. I may make one from scratch to complete my trinity, as I have an idea, but I need more suitable parts before I start as I don’t want to just make a start, only then to stop because I am missing bits to finish it!

Hope you liked the pics, I’ll be back next time with more finished pieces and pics of the rest of my lads. Suggestions, comments and so on are welcomed, let me know what you think!

40K 8th Ed: Deathguard Army: Chaos Spawn models part 1: Scibor Chaos Snails.

As an alternative to the standard GW Chaos Spawn models for my Deathguard lot, I wanted some old skool weirdness and something that would be sticky and icky, with a Nurgle-esque vibe.

Scibor has some lovely models from their Chaos Dwarves range, and I’ve been eyeing them up for ages. The price was a prohibitor, so when I saw a couple of lots on Ebay, I had to get my grubby mits on them.

This first lot are now finished, bar the other two I have, which I need to finish. Plus I need to add some slimy sticky gloss varnish to add to their yuck factor!

The last two need finishing, but I’ve added a few CP Models 15mm snail things for more detail and fill up space on the 40mm bases.

Next up, will be my next unit of Chaos Spawn, which are Worm/Maggot based creatures and some other models taken from CMON’s The Others: 7 Sins.

Anyway, as ever let me know what you think, and give us a like or share!

I want that F*%cking Miniature: Fighting Fantasy Miniatures from Pure Evil Miniatures.

If you remember these critters, I need not remind you what they are from, but for those of you unfamiliar with them let me give you heads up and some background.

Scant few images of this elusive line exist, so these are some of the best ones I could find, my apologies for posting them without proper attribution to the source, email me and I’ll sort it!

These are Pure Evil Miniatures officially licensed Fighting Fantasy Miniatures. Back in the 80’s there existed a book series that ignited the imaginations of tons of young minds to the worlds of fantasy and adventure. These books were not just a story, it was an interactive foray into a dangerous realm where we were the hero, in which every choice we made changed the outcome, and for us 80’s fantasy kids, we were hooked.

The source of inspiration, The cover of Deathtrap Dungeon!

No idea if these are on general release yet, but I’d love one for my collection! If you can point me in the direction of getting one of these, let me know, and I’ll get one, put it together and stick some paint on it so you can see it in it’s glory!

Grim!

Grim’s Dungeons of Doom: You’ve made your bed, now stick it in your dungeon! Making 28mm beds!

Welcome to another Dungeons of Doom article, my attempt to cover pretty much every aspect of a modular dungeon build for 28mm dungeon crawling skirmishes and RPG. Further along with the furnishings of my dungeon build, as promised I’m taking on the subject of more 28mm furniture this time in the form of beds. Every mini dungeon should have some, don’t you think? it can easily set you back a fair few quid buying metal or resin versions, so why not just make some? These are easy compared to other stuff you might come to make for a project like this, so lets get cracking!

The build starts with our friend, the humble lollystick. As you can see above, I cut two pieces for the single bed, and three for a double version (just in case any of the dungeon denziens ever want to get jiggy!) Affix the pieces together to form the base. I used contact adhesive, but you could do as the tables tutorial, with a piece of card underneath if you prefer (whatever works for what materials you have) Measure if you want, I usually do as much as I can by eye, as I am lazy!

Next, cut a further two pieces that’ll form the head and foot boards. (They should be slightly smaller than the width of the bed frame) Glue them on.

Take some thin skewer type sticks and cut four lengths per bed to form the legs. Glue them on. Also don’t worry too much about how they sit flat, you can trim them later when everything is dry.

On the single, I added a small piece of EVA foam to simulate a mattress, and a small square for a pillow. (So that it’d bulk out the next bit.)

The Double bed skipped this step and I added a thick blanket instead. This blanket was made from some scraps of material taken from an old ripped sock (A clean one, not a smelly old one!) Most people I’ve seen doing similar beds have used toilet paper, but I opted for real material so I could capture some detail in the weave. The material was saturated in neat PVA before adding. Add more PVA if required to tidy up the scrawny edges. Leave to dry.

On the single I added a blanket in the same way using the material in PVA. Make it form creases by manipulating the piece as it starts to dry.

Form pillows by taking small rolled up scraps of the same material and adding PVA. Material soaked in white glue will be pliable and soft, so to some degree can be shaped, so go ahead and add your stuff, blankets and coverings and be as creative as you like.

When the PVA has mostly dried, to achieve a proper resin feel hardness, I used really thin, cheap superglue to plasticise the pieces, by allowing it to absorb into the PVA cloth. you’ll notice a strange chemical reaction between the glues, but don’t worry, this way will achieve a rock hard finish to the cloth. Who ever said cheap superglue was no good for anything?

Once dried, glue them onto a piece of card for basing, leave them to dry before cutting them out to your desired base sizes.

Undercoat black in your preferred method (or whichever undercoating style you usually use) then proceed to paint up as you would any other miniature or model.

I opted for a dirty scruffy sort, since these beds were destined for use in my dungeon, it made sense they were not clean and tidy (although, if yours are going in a castle or tavern type place, then you could make them as neat as you like) I also paid homage to the beds in Minecraft by making the single one red (since my kids play the hell out of it, it made sense since they’d be playing in the dungeon games too)

That’s all there is to it. Easy. You can elaborate as much as you’d like on the design, add a bigger headboard, chunkier legs, different material used will give a different effect with the textures etc.

Next time, I’ll be back with adventures in expanding foam, to show you how I make modular cavern walls….

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Crowdfunding Spotlight: Magmod Scenics’ Fortified Farmstead Kickstarter

I do like terrain and scenics for wargaming possibly more than any other aspect of wargaming, and I can really appreciate a good set piece on the gaming table like this KS from Magmod Scenics, their fortified dark age farmstead, thats running right now.

Things like this make me want to create whole new projects around these lovely looking resin terrain bits and accessories. Even so they are really designed to be used for historical gaming, I can’t help but think there’s a whole lot of potential other than that in other genres. My Oggum would be right at home with these buildings, how they are back to basics and made from the oggam staple of bricks, sticks and straw!

Also, what I like about this is the various accessory add ons, which will add more interest on the table, and again be very useful in a plethora of other games. This is Magmod Scenics first kickstarter offering, and personally I think they are on for a winner, with some nice options for snap on magnetic parts for damaged and burnt rooftops and haybails, providing the project hits their stretchgoals (although it’s not clear what these are exactly)

Nice stuff for their maiden effort, I do hope that Magmod are a name that we’ll come to know well for their scenics in the future. Good luck guys!

If they look like something you’d like your Celts or Romans fighting over, check out the project page for a closer look!

The Fortified Farmstead by Magmod Scenics — Kickstarter.

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