My Latest Moment of Weakness: A Demon Army

Or is it supposed to be spelled Daemon (so that I don’t offend someone)?  Since I grew up in an era where they were without the superfluous A, I’m going to refer to them as demons, but hopefully that doesn’t offend anyone…

Anywho, I recently picked up a Demon army from a guy here locally.  One thing you should know about me is that I have an addiction to “good deals.” I’m quite certain that had I been born with different genitalia, that I’d be one of those annoying women who comes home with a ton of worthless crap simply because “it was on sale.”

Luckily, my wife is man enough to forgive my gluttonous tendencies.

So, on a local forum, a guy mentioned that he was selling some chaos stuff.  He started filtering out small posts over time, which lead to me starting an email conversation with him.  He opened with a few Nurgle conversion sets from forgeworld, at a little under half of retail costs.  Since I do have an attraction to the classic rogue-trader era Nurgle marines, these were enticing, despite me having no real need for them, but knowing that I’d never see them again at this price, I jumped at the chance.  Well, he used that to bait me into to see his entire collection.  He offered up a Forgeworld Bloodthirster, Lord of Change, and Demon prince, along with a slew of painted fantasy demons.  He agreed to let me buy things piecemail, and it became quickly apparent that I couldn’t afford to buy all of the stuff I wanted, even with the good prices he was charging.  His interest was really in getting rid of the stuff though, so after I made an offer for the stuff I did want, he threw the rest in at an even better discount.

And I bit.

What can I say?  I’m weak.  It does mean though that I have a ton of demons that I don’t really need.  I’d love to keep them all, but I’m not sure that I can afford to, so I’ll probably be looking to sell off some of these guys to lessen the hit on my pocketbook.   Anyone out there interested in picking some up?    If so, right now I’m officially at the “Make offer” stage to see what an acceptable price would be—and determine whether it’s worth trying to get rid of them at all.  Maybe I should just get a second job to pay for my addiction.

Pictures of most of the stuff I picked up can be found below (click on any of the thumbnails to expand them).  I manage to sell off a small portion of stuff to a friend (basically at cost) including the Khorne Demon prince, and some of the Nurgle conversion kits, but for the most part, I still have the rest of it.

  

 

 

 

P.S. I just learned that I’ve been using the wrong form of “slew” (slough) all these years… who’d’ve thunk?

A Small Status Update

Though I only pledged to make 100 posts this year, I still feel like I need to contribute two to three posts per week to keep myself interested in blogging.  Sadly, I missed last week and only snuck out a single mediocre offering. 

I s’pose after spending a month in DC, I just needed some time to decompress, but I’m renewing my interest again, so here’s some status updates.

My free time has been spent doing some yard work, achieving personal goals, and what time I have left over for entertainment has been spent mostly playing board games.  I picked up a copy of Dungeon Lords (at the recommendation of the D6 Generation), and love the game, but we’ve also got some games of Catan (the card game and the board game), as well as another game of Ultra Marine (at which I was trounced abysmally).

I also got in my first game of 40k this summer, courtesy of Jerm™.  Sadly, this was intended to be an Apocalypse game, but I wasn’t able to focus on my work in DC and plan an Apoc  game for the day after I got back, so that had to be postponed.  I did get to talking with my friend Blaine though, who’s agreed to host a game in September, so stay tuned for updates there.  I’m also hoping to get a quick battle report of my game with Jerm up on the blog sometime this week.

You may have also noticed that B-Smoove over at A Gentleman’s Ones is working on some of my chaos renegades (see above picture).  Smooth is a great painter who’s super easy to work with, and an inspiring blogger to boot.  When I saw he was toying with the idea of taking commissions, I started thinking about a neglected chaos force I’ve had for a long time.  You see, I’ve been collecting/playing this game for nearly 20 years, and have a variety of some of the older models.  My chaos army is almost exclusively classic models including Khorne and Nurgle renegades, and a slough of the chaos cultists thrown in for good measure.  I dreamed of having a painted force of them, but know it just won’t happen for years if I don’t get some help, so I pinged him, and we worked out a deal for some test models.  Hopefully we can parlay that into a deal for the entire force.  In the meantime, I plan to put up some of his WIP shots on my page (assuming he lets me), and maybe some army shots of the raw models I have that are awaiting color…

Lastly, I did get a speck of painting of my own done this week in the form of space marine jump packs.  They’re nothing special, but they at least get me back on the wagon.  Naturally, I magnetized them, because… well, why not?  Now, I just have to paint the marines to match!

   

McFarlane’s Chaos SPAWN

Are you one of those guys that refuses to use any model unless it was produced by GW?  If that’s the case, this post most certainly isn’t for you.

I don’t mean any disrespect.  In fact, I used to be of the same mindset–brainwashed by GW’s propaganda that the model would not be usable in sanctioned tournaments, or for casual play in GW stores.  Lucky for me, we have neither of those things in Alaska, so I’m fortunate enough to be able to use any model I’d like. 

Which brings me to the line of toys by Todd McFarlane, mastermind behind the comic book: Spawn.  I remember some fifteen years ago, I had a friend named Dogknot who really loved these creepy looking figures, and I thought it was weird that a grown man would collect toys (while having my own collection of warhammer figures, mind you.  Yeah, I know…).  Anywho, he collected the spawn series of toys, and while they were kind of nifty, I never saw much purpose in them.

Then a few years back I stumbled upon his Dragons series, and thought what a great models to use for Warhammer.  In particular, I’m quite fond of the Scavenger Dragon from Series 6, but really any of those stylized dragons seems superior to GW’s base model.  Since I don’t play WHFB, I just made a note of it, and didn’t bother to buy it.  Periodically, I like to thumb through the available figures though to see any other nifty offerings.

Enter the  “Warriors of the Zodiac” series of toys, which were apparently released in 2008.  There are just four: Aries,Taurus, Gemini, & Cancer, all of which would be perfectly suitable for chaos models (most representing demon princes), but the one that finally got me to break down and buy a toy is the Gemini.

It’s a perfect rendition of a chaos spawn, so I ordered one off ebay for $7 (plus shipping) and it arrived yesterday.  I have to say, I’m even more pleased with it in person.  The level of detail is amazing, and the paint job is better than I expected.  Granted, it’s not going to win any Golden Demons, and it could be improved with some simple washes and drybrushes, but I’d say this is more than table-top quality, right out of the package.  Now the size is really too big for a normal chaos spawn (see comparisons with Deathwing Terminator), but that does leave me with a few options for Apocalypse games:

• Demon Prince
• Ku’gath (Codex: Chaos Demons)
• Jibberjaw (Imperial Armor)
• Gorefeaster (Imperial Armor)

Or, I could use it as a “counts as” model for many of the Gargantuan creatures in the game (Great Knarloc, Tyranid Exocrine, Malefactor, etc.).  Considering that any of the equivalent models generally comes in resin only for around $100 each, I’d say $7 + shipping is an absolute steal.  I can definitely see myself investing in a few extra toys.  Next on the hit list:

• Ogre (Guard Class) – for another Nurgle Demon
• Aries -who just screams Khorne to me

And I may even go back and buy that dragon I’ve been eyeing all these years.  Anywho, the point is, these are good looking, affordable alternatives to GW models–especially if you’re just talking about fun games.  You’ll definitely want to go look around and see what else is available. 

By the way, for Tyranid players interested in some suitable alternatives, see my post on using Privateer Press models for Tyranids.

McFarlane's Chaos SPAWN

Are you one of those guys that refuses to use any model unless it was produced by GW?  If that’s the case, this post most certainly isn’t for you.

I don’t mean any disrespect.  In fact, I used to be of the same mindset–brainwashed by GW’s propaganda that the model would not be usable in sanctioned tournaments, or for casual play in GW stores.  Lucky for me, we have neither of those things in Alaska, so I’m fortunate enough to be able to use any model I’d like. 

Which brings me to the line of toys by Todd McFarlane, mastermind behind the comic book: Spawn.  I remember some fifteen years ago, I had a friend named Dogknot who really loved these creepy looking figures, and I thought it was weird that a grown man would collect toys (while having my own collection of warhammer figures, mind you.  Yeah, I know…).  Anywho, he collected the spawn series of toys, and while they were kind of nifty, I never saw much purpose in them.

Then a few years back I stumbled upon his Dragons series, and thought what a great models to use for Warhammer.  In particular, I’m quite fond of the Scavenger Dragon from Series 6, but really any of those stylized dragons seems superior to GW’s base model.  Since I don’t play WHFB, I just made a note of it, and didn’t bother to buy it.  Periodically, I like to thumb through the available figures though to see any other nifty offerings.

Enter the  “Warriors of the Zodiac” series of toys, which were apparently released in 2008.  There are just four: Aries,Taurus, Gemini, & Cancer, all of which would be perfectly suitable for chaos models (most representing demon princes), but the one that finally got me to break down and buy a toy is the Gemini.

It’s a perfect rendition of a chaos spawn, so I ordered one off ebay for $7 (plus shipping) and it arrived yesterday.  I have to say, I’m even more pleased with it in person.  The level of detail is amazing, and the paint job is better than I expected.  Granted, it’s not going to win any Golden Demons, and it could be improved with some simple washes and drybrushes, but I’d say this is more than table-top quality, right out of the package.  Now the size is really too big for a normal chaos spawn (see comparisons with Deathwing Terminator), but that does leave me with a few options for Apocalypse games:

• Demon Prince
• Ku’gath (Codex: Chaos Demons)
• Jibberjaw (Imperial Armor)
• Gorefeaster (Imperial Armor)

Or, I could use it as a “counts as” model for many of the Gargantuan creatures in the game (Great Knarloc, Tyranid Exocrine, Malefactor, etc.).  Considering that any of the equivalent models generally comes in resin only for around $100 each, I’d say $7 + shipping is an absolute steal.  I can definitely see myself investing in a few extra toys.  Next on the hit list:

• Ogre (Guard Class) – for another Nurgle Demon
• Aries -who just screams Khorne to me

And I may even go back and buy that dragon I’ve been eyeing all these years.  Anywho, the point is, these are good looking, affordable alternatives to GW models–especially if you’re just talking about fun games.  You’ll definitely want to go look around and see what else is available. 

By the way, for Tyranid players interested in some suitable alternatives, see my post on using Privateer Press models for Tyranids.