Nurglings

Nurglings

Nurgling Swarm

Nurglings featured in my Sin Eater Chaos Space Marine army from day one.  For some reason which I cant put my finger on I have liked (if that is the right word) them since I first read about them in 1989.  Its probably the fart and other biological function jokes.

Tide of Decay

Tide of Decay

I spent way more time painting these than they really required.  I like them though.   They variety and character in the figures made them painting them more entertaining than it would normally be.  They were originally based on large GW titan bases, in preference to the horrible square WHFB bases that they were supplied with.  Once the large, circular 40k base was released I rebased them (and turned four bases into eight in the process).  Go me.

Sin Eater Tactical Squad Rico: Pt 2

Missile Launcher and Bolter Marines

Missile Launcher and Bolter

Part 1 is HERE.

Although Marine squads usually max out at ten men I have painted up a few extra for Squad Rico.  They are marines with different heavy weapons, giving me more flexibility when picking a force.  That sort of extra flexibility is always something that is on my mind when preparing miniatures for games, but it rarely works out as comprehensively as it did with Squad Rico.

The Missile Launcher above comes from an old (’89 or so) GW Chaos Heavy Weapon sprue.  It is probably most familiar from its inclusion in the Space Hulk: Genestealer expansion.  The Hybrids had a few.

Plasma Gun and Bolter Marines

Plasma Gun and Bolter Marines

Bolter Marine and Sergeant Rico

Bolter Marine and Sergeant Rico

Rico7

Heavy Bolter and Bolter Marines

The Heavy Bolter armament above is pretty cool looking (and would be all the more so only for that annoying shine…): its a cool model.   The hand painted insignia is easily visible on the right hand guys shoulder pad.

Sin Eater Tactical Squad Rico: Pt1

Banner Bearer

Squad Rico Banner Bearer

Squad Rico was one of the first squads that I painted for my Sin Eaters Chaos Marine army, over a decade ago.  They have seen a lot of tabletop action including some 3rd Edition Space Hulk and Advanced Space Crusade.  I quite like their look.
Bolters

A Pair of Bolter Armed Tactical Marines

Squad Rico uses a lot fewer Chaos components than most of the other squads in the army.  When assembling the force I wanted to distinguish each unit by their armour configuration as much as insignia, to aid with recognition on the tabletop.  To this end Squad Rico is distinguished by the Imperial armour configuration, Imperial weaponry plus the then brand new plastic zombie heads.
Lascannon and Bolter

Lascannon and Bolter armed Tactical Marines

Rico5

Topdown View of the Huge Lascannon

 

Part two to follow.

Sin Eater Chaos Dreadnought – Brother Tankorr

Brother Tankorr

Brother Tankorr

As early playtesting went on using my Sin Eaters (way back in 1999) it looked like getting a second Dreadnought on the table would be fun.  While Brother Rhinox was made more or less exclusively from the basic metal chaos Dreadnought kit, Tankorr was made from a metal Imperial Dreadnought, albeit an Imperial Dreadnought with loads of spiky death metal type junk stuck on.  Examples above include the spiky panels on the main housing and the tombstone-for-a-face.

Tankorrs huge and ludicrous close combat arm.

Tankorrs huge and ludicrous close combat arm.

Tankorrs arms were made from spares from the kit that was used to make Rhinox.  The left arm above had an Ork Choppa and two Necromunda Pit Slave weapon arms attached.  I also added another pit slave chainsaw bit to the front of the body on that side for good measure. 

In the above shot you can make out bits where some of the many spikes attached to the figure used to be attached, only to have broken off at various points over the years.  The lesson here is simply not to bother sticking those things on in the first place.  If Tankorr gets away with it it is simply because of the zombie-like, dilapidated look.

Rear view.

Rear view.

Plasma Cannon

Plasma Cannon

I like the combi-bolter mounted on Tankorrs shoulder for some reason that I cant put my finger on.   I also like the silly zombie hands bursting out of the ground, “Thriller” style.

Sin Eater Terminator Lord Zarak

Lord Zarak

Lord Zarak

Lord Zarak is pretty ridiculous looking really, but I like him all the same.  I had had a chaos terminator captain figure for a while but hadnt got around to painting him.  He was an older figure than those used in Squad Romero and was a little more slight.  I wanted to give him something that would make him stand out dramatically from the other Terminators, but didnt know what.

It dawned on me to use parts of the whip arm thing (cant remember what it is called) from the parts left over  from the Brother Rhinox kit to make the inner “thumbs” of his scorpion-like Lightning Claws.  The larger, totally OTT parts of the claws are made from bits of a plastic dozer blade from some Imperial tank bit or another.

3/4 view showing some arm detail.

3/4 view showing some arm detail.

The piping coming hanging below his arms is a bit crude but whatever.  It was simply made from bent paper clip.  The Nurgle logo on the shoulder was made from bits of styrene rod and strip.  The trophy pole is a bit taller than the poles on Squad Romero which helps to identify Zarak as the boss while simultaneously making him that much more ridiculous looking.

His name comes from the binary bonded nebulan partner of the Transformer Scorponok.  Scorponok himself invariably has big scorpion claws for hands in all of his iterations, so obviously that is where that comes from.  The original G1 Scorponok also had a sunglasses type look that I crudely emulated with a green stuff “visor” over Zaraks eyes.

I painted Zarak about a year or so after I painted the other Sin Eater terminators.  By then the painting method I was using to get the base colours was slightly different.  In the context of the grubby look that I was looking for it doesnt really make much difference.  I have always found that when painting a large number of miniatures with the same scheme that the style changes as I progress, usually in an effort to speed the process up.

Sin Eater Chaos Dreadnought – Brother Rhinox

 

Sin Eater Dreadhought: Brother Rhinox

Sin Eater Dreadnought: Brother Rhinox

Like many geeks, I like robots and power suits.  Dreadnoughts and Titans  have always been a big 40k draw for me.  As a result one of the earliest miniatures that I painted for my Sin Eaters Chaos Space Marine Nurgle army was Rhinox.

Portside Power Claw

Power Claw

Rear Shot. Just greasy looking metal really.

Rear Shot. Just greasy looking metal really.

Twin-Linked Lascannon

Twin-Linked Lascannon

There was only one weapon fit appropriate for a Dreadnought in those days: Twin Lascannon & Power Fist/Claw (I have no idea what, if anything makes Dreadnoughts competitive in the current 40k tournament climate, nor do I wish to know).  There wasnt a twin-lascannon model available for Chaos Dreads then so I chopped up the twin-autocannon in the box and replaced it with two weapons cut from a Space Crusade dreadnought (I think). 

Possibly I should have added more detail to the muzzles of the cannon while I was adding the trim that had been removed when cutting the autocannon off.  On the other hand it does give the gun a pretty primitive and brutal look that is very suitable.

Other than the Lascannon arm the figure is unconverted apart from the added scuffs and dents etc.

Sin Eater Chaos Terminator Squad Romero

Sin Eater Terminator with Combi-melta and Lightning Claw

Sin Eater Terminator with Combi-melta and Lightning Claw

 

Squad Romero was painted in late 1999 as the ongoing development of my 40k Nurgle Chaos army, the Sin Eaters.  At the time I was playing a lot of 40k but even then, Terminators were never really that competitive a choice for the tournament games that I was playing.  I couldnt resist painting these guys up however: they are cool figures.

Sin Eater terminators armed with Heavy Flamer, combi-Bolter and Lightning Claws.

Sin Eater terminators armed with Heavy Flamer, combi-Bolter and Lightning Claws.

I bought the figures even further back than that: in 1993 or 1994.  The zombie heads from the GW sprue obviously came later than that (was that sprue released in 1999?).

Side view of a colossal Chaos Terminator weapon (Combi-Melta).

Side view of a colossal Chaos Terminator weapon (Combi-Melta).

Sin Eater Terminator with Combi-Flamer and Sergeant Romero armed with Combi-Bolter and Chainfist

Sin Eater Terminator with Combi-Flamer and Sergeant Romero armed with Combi-Bolter and Chainfist.

Sgt. Romero is the only figure here with its original head… in case anyone was wondering.

Warlord Titan and Imperial Navy

Traitor Warlord Titan of the ? Legion

Traitor Warlord Titan of the ? Legion

Rounding up the shots of my Epic scale stuff (for a while) are my titan and navy support units for my traitor Sin Eater space marines.  The titan and attendant navy units colour scheme is more or less an inversion of the Sin Eaters in a effort to tie them together pallete wise at least.  I never named either my traitor titan legion or this particular Warlord: I really should come up with something…

Warlord rear view. Note the Sin Eater Marines at its feet.

Warlord rear view. Note the Sin Eater Marines at its feet.

The navy units have the same scheme as the legion as they are intended to represent Praetorian or Skitarii titan legion support troopers.  The fighters and bombers are EM4 miniatures rather than “official” GW stuff, not that it matters.

Lightning Fighters

Lightning Fighters

Marauder Bombers

Marauder Bombers

Thunderbolt Fighters

Thunderbolt Fighters

Marauder Bombers

Marauder Bombers

Epic Sin Eaters Chaos Space Marines: Recon

 

Sin Eater Space Marine Bikes

Sin Eater Space Marine Bikes

Sin Eaters Space Marine Land Speeders

Sin Eaters Space Marine Land Speeders

Sin Eaters Space Marine Land Speeders

Sin Eaters Space Marine Land Speeders

 

 

 

Epic Sin Eaters Chaos Space Marines: Elites

Sin Eater Space Marines in Tactical Dreadnought Terminator Armour

Sin Eater Space Marines in Tactical Dreadnought Terminator Armour

In the WH40k universe it doesnt get much more elite than these guys.  Even in this scale Terminators are fun to play simply because of the disproportionate presence that they have on the battlefield.

Sin Eater Land Raider Battle Tanks

Sin Eater Land Raider Battle Tanks

Sin Eater Land Raider Battle Tanks

Sin Eater Land Raider Battle Tanks

Sin Eater Space Marine Dreadnoughts

Sin Eater Space Marine Dreadnoughts