Blackstone Fortress: Chaos Cultists

First things first: let me get my excuses out of the way. This blog has been quiet lately and its probably going to stay that way for the next little while. I’ve not managed to comment on other people’s blogs very much either, although I have been reading them when I got the chance. My wife and I moved house at the start of December (well, I did the moving – she directed) and almost as soon as the last box was carried through the door our daughter was born (mum and baby doing very well thanks). She’s wriggly, healthy, tiring, wonderful and can shout for Scotland.

Needless to say building and painting miniatures just isn’t something I’ve been doing and won’t be for a while either I suspect. However I do have a bunch of models that I painted back in November (which seems like a long, long time ago now) and never got around to posting so prepare to feast your eyes.

Anyway, to no-one’s surprise I’ve gone and joined a cult. Well they all said it would happen one day… In this case it’s the chaos cult that lurks in the twisting halls of the Blackstone Fortress. I actually painted these a while ago but I’m just getting around to posting them now.

Leading the mob of insane faithful we have this cultist firebrand, ready with his flamethrower to give civilisation a helping hand if it doesn’t collapse quickly enough by itself!

I got so carried away painting the cultists from the Blackstone Fortress set that I even painted a couple of new ones from the recently released kit.

Much like the new Ork boys I really like these models but it’s a damn shame they’re not easier to kitbash, or at least come with a couple of alternative builds.

Anyway, with these done I now have a mighty mob ready to harass adventurers and treasure-seekers in the Blackstone Fortress, cause trouble in the Necromundan underhive or catch some bullets for their chaos marine overlords.

Plus, with the addition of the adventurers I painted a while ago, this means the entire Escalation expansion set for Blackstone Fortress is complete.

This will undoubtedly be my last post of the year, although I’ll try to put together a round up, but not a bad place to end things all things considered. Who knows, next year I might even get Blackstone Fortress finished entirely.

Dark Disciples

Time for two downhive lowlifes turned religious fanatics in the service of the Chaos Gods. Amongst the ranks of the Chaos Space Marines the Dark Apostles serve as a priest class, conducting the bloody rituals, preaching the savage creed and interpreting the will of the Gods on behalf of their battle brothers. Of course this is a lot of work for one man and so a Dark Apostle worth his salt soon recruits a few Dark Disciples to assist him. The Disciples are then on hand to waft cursed incense, stab hapless victims at appropriate moments, tidy up afterwards and even be fed to a summoned daemon themselves if no-one else is available. 

Again these are “neglected models” which have been sitting around three quarters painted for at least a year. Together they make a pair of characterful additions to both my Chaos Marines and Necromunda collections. At some point I’ll need to get the Dark Apostle himself painted but he’s not a priority for now. 

Cursed In Eternity – Part 6

It’s been ages since I last painted a chaos marine (in fact, looking back at the archives proves it to be almost exactly a year) – high time I cracked on and painted another one. This time it’s the turn of a chap so enthusiastic about burning his enemies with his flamer he’s been warped by Tzeentchian flame himself. These are the perils of life within the Eye of Terror!

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I’ve got a couple more sitting on the painting desk and finishing them would round out a squad of ten, hopefully it won’t be another year before I get around to them!

Obliterate Them!

It’s been an absolute age since I painted anything for my Chaos space marines and the army continues to sit in the doldrums between my lingering dissatisfaction with the old kits and my as-yet not fully explored enthusiasm for the new. Time to get something painted then, especially with new-40k bringing my attention back to the grim-darkness of the 41st Millennium once again. The real jolt of enthusiasm however came about as a result of the “Sixty Day Miniatures of Magnitude Painting Challenge” being run by Ann’s Immaterium. I’d already painted a Warcry ruin last month but I wanted to tackle something else suitably large and to get something chaotic and power-armour-clad done into the bargain. The challenge calls for painting something big, at least the size of an ogre, so the obvious candidate was one of the Obliterators from last year’s Shadowspear box.

As a long-standing (and at times long suffering!) Chaos fan it was a bit of a thrill to finally be able to paint an Obliterator that didn’t look truly awful. Maybe if I pray to the dark gods really hard they’ll give us some proper models for their cousins the Mutilators  someday too…

Ready To Rock!

Alright 2020, let’s get this party started!

Scream for me Cicatrix Maledictum! I got this amazingly bombastic Noise Marine as a Christmas present to myself back in 2018, got him 90% painted straight away and then ground to a halt, after which he just sat there gathering dust as the months passed. I wasn’t going to let another year pass without getting him finished. He was an absolute joy to paint, I don’t let myself play with gaudy outrageous colour schemes nearly often enough! Insert your best gurning and air-guitar here!

Cursed In Eternity – Part 5

Some readers may recall that amongst my various hobby plans I’m trying to reclaim my favourite models from my old chaos space marine army and recreate them using the new kits released this year.  Thus those of you familiar with the deepest recesses of this blog’s archives (you poor souls!) may recognise this chap from his previous incarnation.

For those who need a reminder however here’s version 1.0 – now broken up to provide the bits needed to complete his rebirth.

Whilst I was working on him I convinced myself (against all logic) that it would be just as easy to paint two models as one – it’s all the same colour scheme right? With a second model already assembled and sitting close at hand it was easy enough to hitch him up to the enthusiasm I’d already built up and power through him as well.

All this is very good and worthy of me and I was feeling suitably pleased with myself when, halfway through painting them, Azazel announced his latest monthly challenge “Squaddie September“. The goal of the challenge is to paint squads of models (this being a fairly rough number – with a suggested minimum of three models – check out Azazel’s original post for a full explanation, especially if you’re thinking of joining in yourself). Although I’m not a gamer by any means I am aware that a squad of chaos space marines need between 5 and 20 miniatures – one of whom has to be an aspiring champion. Why not use this opportunity, I found myself thinking, to paint up a champion as well? Somehow the will of the dark gods carried the day and rather than seeing all three stall as a result I built up a feedback loop of enthusiasm that saw them all over the finish line.

With these three done I’ll allow myself a small pat on the back (the dark gods being generally in favour of hubris amongst their champions after all). However once again thanks are owed to Azazel for running his challenges, I’m not sure when I would have got around to tackling all three of these otherwise so I really can’t recommend them enough as a way of getting things done.

What’s more, with three new recruits added the squad is starting to look more like a millennia old warband of hardened killers – how could I say no when they demanded a group shot?

For now I think that’s scratched the itch for power-armoured chaos but the eye of the warp never closes so I’ll undoubtedly be drawn back to the worship of the thirsting gods soon enough.

Gnasher-Screamer

Another model that’s been sitting around close to completion for far too long is this Nightmare Hulk from the Kill Team: Rogue Trader box released late last year, the appropriately named Gnasher-Screamer. Readers who remember my review will recall that I rather liked the model but thought that the faces on his arms, not to mention the silly head, rather detracted from it. In the review I showed a mock-up of the model with a few improvements – and even started painting him straight away. And then I promptly left him untouched for almost a year…

Now, however, seemed like a fine opportunity to do something about it and get him off the painting desk at last.

And for those wondering how big this chap is here he is next to the downtrodden but ever helpful size-comparison-guardsman.

Undoubtedly its just a result of removing his bulk but the painting desk is looking tidier already!

Blackstone Fortress: Obsidius Mallex

With many of the rank-and-file Blackstone Fortress baddies now complete it’s time to turn my attention to the big boss himself; Obsidius Mallex. Lord of the Chaos forces present in the fortress and the architect behind their villainous schemes, Mallex is an imposing presence in the game. Even though we never encountered him when we played I think we were all faintly terrified that he might put in an appearance and wreak terrible havoc on our beleaguered band of explorers, who already had to contend with all of the other hostile creatures present and our often shaky grasp of the rules.

When it came to painting him I stalled for a little while trying to decide whether to go with the colour scheme of my Beasts of Ruin Chaos Marine army or paint him in the black and gold of the Black Legion. in the end, despite using the former scheme for the games’ other Chaos Space Marines, I decided that the latter option was the way to go. After all, I didn’t want him to represent just any old generic Chaos Lord (something for which the model is now also available) but Obsidius Mallex himself. To me he isn’t “just” a chaos lord in the same way that Janus Draik isn’t just a rogue trader. Plus I wanted to practice painting the Black Legion colour scheme before I tackled what remains for me the best miniature released this year, Abaddon the Despoiler. And anyway – just look at that face! There’s no denying he’s a son of Horus!

As for why two of the Beasts would be fighting under the command of a Black Legion lord my reasoning is that my Beasts of Ruin are allied with Abaddon’s legion and some were fighting alongside Mallex when his ship was snatched from the triumph at the Cadian Gate and swallowed up by the Blackstone Fortress. I suspect that Chaos Marines often move from one warband to another in this way, and they would eventually adopt the Black Legion colours, unless of course they manage to rejoin their old warband in the meantime. At some point I’d like to paint a few more Black Legion marines to accompany Abaddon (when I finally pluck up the courage to tackle painting the true Warmaster himself!).

With Mallex done that’s the main cast of villains out of the way apart from the ranks of the traitor guard. Until now I’ve been content to leave these and draw upon the collection I’d already painted for my old Chaos army. Now however their moment has arrived so expect to see the dregs of the Great Eye putting in an appearance soon.

Cursed In Eternity – Part 4

Since the release of the Chaos Marines back in April I’ve been feeling enthused about painting some more of these murderous power-armoured warriors. However having also set myself the task of painting up the contents of Blackstone Fortress I don’t want to allow myself to become too distracted by other projects just yet. Luckily there is a way to combine the two, by painting the pair of Chaos Marines who serve as henchman to Obsidius Mallex, the terrifying chaos lord who dwells in the heart of the fortress and serves as the games primary bad guy. Thus I’m able to kill two birds with one stone – and they say men can’t multitask!

Rather than paint the second Blackstone Fortress Marine I decided to add some visual interest and paint one, suitably armed with a bolter of course, that I’d kitbashed based around the new plastic kit. Sooner or later I’ll get around to painting the second Blackstone Fortress chaos marine but for now this guy will do nicely.

With these two done I’m another step closer to being able to play a game of Blackstone Fortress using only painted models, rather than the shameful display of bare plastic that I inflicted on my (very polite and tolerant) friends last time we played.

What’s more, when I add them to the two I’ve already painted I have the beginnings of a squad which only needs a champion to be ready for action.

Hopefully these two will scratch the chaos marine itch for a little while longer, allowing me to focus my attentions on the other inhabitants of the Blackstone fortress. Of course given the lure of Chaos its almost inevitable that, even with numerous mortal servants of the ruinous powers lurking in the fortress, I’ll find myself painting another power armoured giant or two  before long…

Cursed In Eternity – Part 3

Time for painting has been thin on the ground lately but over the last few days I have at least managed to squeeze in a bit of kitbashing and assembling models. Back when I reviewed the latest Chaos Space Marine releases I theorised that both the Master of Executions and the Dark Apostle would be greatly improved by a few judicious tweaks and adjustments. Time to put my money (or my foot) where my mouth was.

First off let’s take a look at the Master of Executions. For anyone who needs a reminder here’s the official studio model in all his gristly glory.

My hypothesis was that this model would be a lot more inspiring, for me at least, if he was wearing an imposing Khornate helm, as opposed to either of the standard heads included in the kit. Did it work? Well I’m happy with it, although of course you’re welcome to draw your own conclusions…

The only other major change I made was snipping away the helm of the Primaris marine impaled on the top of his backpack – it was making that part of the model rather busy and its impact was lost behind the Khornate crest. I’ll find a use for it somewhere else though – you can always use more spiked loyalists in a Chaos army!

The Dark Apostle was a little more complex, whilst the Master of Executions just needed a little added visual interest this one had some elements I thought were genuinely bad, which – combined with a general overabundance of details – made for a model in dire need of improvement. Again, let’s remind ourselves of how the studio model looks.

…And that was the last time he was allowed in the library…

Given my often-expressed dislike of sculpted flame that was the first thing that had to go, followed by a lot of careful scraping and cleaning to hide the resultant damage. Some slight greenstuff touch-ups will undoubtedly follow before he’s completely ready for paint. The flames on the backpack also went although I kept the hideous drool emerging from the book. I also swapped out the head for something more reminiscent of a Space Marine chaplain – of which the Dark Apostles are very much the dark reflection. I’ve always thought the reaver heads would work nicely on Chaos models but so far I’ve only been using them for loyalists so this should be a fine chance to do something a little more grim and twisted with this particular component when it comes time for painting.

Again any thoughts or suggestions are more than welcome, I feel he still needs a little extra before he’s ready to paint.

Whilst I was about it I also took the chance to explore more of what can be done with the new Chaos Marine kit, including making the champion for my first new squad.

In turn this led to knocking together a few new plague marines. My love of Nurgle has drifted a bit lately but I felt pulled back to the plague god’s side whilst I worked on these so who knows, sooner or later I’ll give the Grandfather’s Legion the love they deserve.

There’s certainly a lot of fun to be had by mixing parts from the plague marines and chaos marines kits together, something I’ll definitely explore more as I go on.

Rather pleased with the choice of head on this one – anyone want to hazard a guess as to where it’s from? It’s not too obscure but I’ve not seen anyone else use it yet and I’m smugly proud of the fact (indeed the same goes for the head on the Plague Champion above).

Anyway, that’s all for now but the weekend is almost upon us – who knows, I might even find an hour or two for painting!