Hobby update: Dirty and expensive Oldhammer...

Lately I've been lucky enough to find some Nurgle lead old stuff and that more or less snowballed until I'm prepared to start my ultimate hobby project: Build and paint my first WHFB Chaos army (one that I sold decades ago to a quiet guy named César; I kept exactly zero miniatures although they were totally amazing and my favorites*).

Back in the day it was Nurgle heavy themed just because the first Daemon I bought was a Great Unclean One (and Nurglings were just the best), but it was very colorful: Khorne Chaos Knights, Tzeentch Sorcerer on Disk, Plaguebearers, some Dark Elf Crossbowmen as allies... All the good stuff Chaos used to deploy in the nineties.

My rules on this project are simple:

Rule of Cool over any other stuff.
All the Kevin Adams' sculpts I can get my hands on.
New sculpts** are perfectly fine if they fit the look of the whole army.
Just take the time I need on every model as I fancy them.
No deadlines.
No quick painting (dry brushing or contrast-heavy methods).

At the time of this post going online I've pre-ordered Drew Williams' Plague Bearers and Chaos Warriors (sorry, Sons of Crom). Drew sculpted the dancing daemons drawn by Adrian Smith for the Realm of Chaos supplement, and you can't get something better than that for a project like this. Let's hope Spanish customs don't eviscerate me for this.

Nurgle Caravan by Adrian Smith, 1989, Lost and Damned, pg. 16-17 (from Reddit)

Also, got my hands over some cheap and amazing Nurglings (the ones from 1991, sculpted by Kevin Adams and Aly Morrison) and (brace yourselves) a Chaos Palanquin in its original hard blister from the Realm of Chaos range that didn't cost me a kidney.

So I started painting some nurglings (slow paced, this should be a relaxing task), and here's the first one (you won't see them based almost until the end, because I want to add some to the Palanquin's base and to other big models). If you're wondering what I'm looking for or want to sell me some good old models, click here.

First brownie Nurgling eating his own bowels.

A Palanquin with an extra Nurgling.

The initial list is this one (it's open to modification, but it started with my usual army lists from 1994):

5 Chaos Knights.
10-15 Chaos Warriors on foot.
10-15 Plaguebearers.
1 or 2 Nurgling swarms.
12-16 Beastmen.
10-15 Chaos Dwarves.
1 Minotaur.
1 Dragon Ogre.
1 Great Unclean One.
1 Tzeentch Sorcerer on Disk.

The Chaos Dwarves are going to be the ones sculpted by Mikko Luoma and sold by Knightmare Games (early 2025). On that I'm 100% decided (and they'll fit the army as a "counts as" Chaos Warriors on foot unit).

So now I'm getting used again to file and pin lead models (my fingertips don't like it) and I've even primed some using an Army Painter*** brown can (one of my least preferred methods, but it's the only I had at hand and really wanted to paint the first Nurgling).

See you soon!

*More on this later in this same blog.

**I'm sorry but in the Year of the Lord 2024 the lead miniature speculative market has made a pure lead citadel army impossible to get. Also, new sculpts by new and veteran artists deserve some attention (and may probably end being better than some GW models). No one is better than Kevin but that's another story. I don't like recasts, but I can use them (and decent 3D printed scans) as old models haven't been available for 30 years and I'm not a rich idiot.

***Add some ultra matte varnish to get a nice primer for metal models because that AP shit is glossy and sticky as fuck.