A Squad by any Other Name...

I've finished building the first of my tac squads. The Forge World kits make them look amazing but honestly they look more like plague marines than the GW finecast plague marines. I'm considering using them as plague marines in the future once I've bought and built some regular chaos marines. I might build my second tactical squad without the FW conversion kit.

The fat bellies on most of the torsos mean you can't fit the regular bolter hold arms on either so I've had to build a few holding bolters one-handed (which looks badass!) or build them holding bolt pistols with bolters attached at the hip.

I have now undercoated this squad and am hoping to get a test mini painted this week so watch this space!

It's How I Roll!

I ordered some custom dice a few weeks ago from Dice and Games Ltd (http://www.dice.co.uk). It took a while to get an image on the format they wanted and to agree on a style etc but only a couple of days after it was all settled I got my dice, 40 white D6 with the pre heresy Death Guard livey in place of the 6. I chose the pre heresy logo as I prefer it to the post heresy logo and it's a nice neat symbol. On a white Die it will be perfect if I do build a pre heresy force at some point.

I finally got some minis built this week. Details and pics to follow!

First of Many

I've been struggling for time since my pile of plastic and resin came together but I have managed to build the first model - the Nurgle Daemon Prince. I couldn't resist, this model looks awesome and I'm really happy with how easy it was to build and how cool it looks on the Fat Spider base.

I'm staying in a hotel tomorrow for work and am hoping to finally start building infantry units while I have some time to myself.

Two other bits of progress have been made with the army:

First of all my resin Obliterators from Hitech Miniatures arrived and they look great. I was worried about these as I received no info from the company after my order confirmation, but just as I was about to email they arrived, well packaged and looking really good. From what I've seen so far the sculpts are great and very clean. The minis look like I could build them in 10 minutes and have them looking brilliant (which I may try and do tomorrow). I'll feedback once I've actually made them.

Secondly after a lot of back and forth with a UK dice company I have finally placed an order for 40 custom cut dice. They're green 16mm D6 with the 6 replaced with the Death Guard's pre heresy logo. I chose the pre heresy logo as I love it, it's cleaner than the three skull motif so easier to do well on dice and it means I can use the same dice if I decide to do a Forge world heavy pre heresy Death Guard army, which I may do down the line.

I'm hoping that I'll get enough time over the next month to get more of the army built and finally get a game of 6th ed in with them. I'll keep you posted.

It begins.....

This army project is a first for me - the first army I've ever started in one go like this and the first with this level of Forge World customisation. This pic makes me happier than it should ;)

All Ur Base R Belong to Us!

As always Fat Spider do not disappoint. A day after my order and I have all the bases for my Death guard. I went for the cracked earth motif which looks cool and I think will look quite nurgly once painted - cracked earth where nothing lives.

I ordered 36 x 25mm infantry bases, 5 x 40mm terminator bases and 2 x 60mm dreadnought bases. Shipped I paid £17.50 and I'm very pleased with them.

I soaked them in some detergent solution and now they're clean, dry and ready to go... here's hoping my minis turn up soon!

Let the Galaxy Burn!

I have set up this blog to document the build of my Death Guard Chaos Space Marine army which I am starting to coincide with the launch of Warhammer 40k 6th edition.

I have previously built a Tyranid and an Astral Claws army, both of which are half finished and less than half painted. This time my intention is to stick with one single army for at least the first year of the new edition and make sure the whole thing is painted. I will be starting with a core list of 1500-2000 points which I intend to build and paint between now and the end of the year, After that I will be adding new units to my army, hopefully one at a time and painting them before moving on to other shiny toys. History says I will fail this objective but I may as well start the project with goals!

I have never played CSM before and currently have no models for the army, I'll be starting from scratch and hoping to build, convert and paint every single model myself (no eBay shopping unless it's for stuff on sprues). For the core of my army I'm starting with:

2 x 10 model Chaos Space Marine squad, each with a Rhino

1 x 7 model Plague Marine Squad with a Rhino

5 x Chaos Terminators

1 x Nurgle Demon Prince (because I love the GW model)

1 x Chaos Predator

1 x Chaos Vindicator

I have ordered all these GW kits from www.darksphere.co.uk (my go to online hobby store for GW stuff) and am currently awaiting shipping confirmation. This gives me a 1500 point force but I also found these models as an alternative to the current metal GW Obliterators and had to have a set of three.

This takes my points value closer to 1750 already, a nice core force for the upcoming 6th edition (which I'm hoping to pick up the day after tomorrow at Warhammer World Nottingham!). I have also ordered some resin bases from www.fatspider.co.uk. I discovered this company very recently and have bought bases off them already for Malifaux crews and a Warhammer Fantasy army. They are very reasonably priced, great quality and I've always received mine the day after I ordered them with a few complimentary sample bases thrown in. They're a great company and they also make affordable resin terrain pieces, I urge you to check them out and support them. If only anyone read this blog, I'd feel like I was helping them out! ;)

My intention for this army (as if a whole new army wasn't expensive enough) is to have liberal use of the great Forge World conversion kits for infantry and vehicles to make my army look as bloated and rotting as Grandfather Nurgle deserves. I'm also investigating getting some custom dice made for the army so I'll keep this blog updated with details of my progress.

As a start I did a test paint of an old marine model to try out a colour scheme in advance of my models arriving. I'm unhappy with it, mainly because of the limited colour palette I have in greens and browns. I'll be buying my first pots of the new GW range this weekend to try and get a set I'm happy with. All results to be posted up shortly.

Let the Galaxy Burn!