In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, There's a Pretty Mixed Bag...

So, the contents of the forthcoming Dark Imperium boxed set for the new Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition was just revealed.

I can't help but notice that the plague-infested mutant hordes that are making up the numbers in the Nurgle-worshipping Death Guard force are called Poxwalkers... the same name as my own shambling demonic hordes. In fairness, a bit of research just now revealed the existence of a Chaos artifact called the Poxwalker Hive that uses insects to create zombies (or something), so I guess Gee-Dub wins this round!

Going from the fluff, a zombie-type creature that's essentially a walking hive for demonic insects would be great... a 40K version of Mushizo from Ninja Scroll. Unfortunately these just look like they've taken the "Nurgle = bone spikes" motif from the Putrid Blightkings (elements I all but removed entirely from my own Plaguetouched), turned it up to 11, and crammed it into human-sized figures. In fact, the whole Death Guard figure range here seems to have gone that same way. Still, the actual Chaos Marines are more ornate anyway, and seem to weather the over-detailed storm better than the mutants (especially the guy with the tentacle-jester-hat and bionic arm, and the one bursting out of his gimp suit).

The flipside to that, in other, more positive, news, is that the new Space Marines have gone the other way! They seem more military and less ornate than many of their predecessors (it helps, not doubt, that the base set will be the 'vanilla' Ultramarines (or whatever other orthodox Chapter one wishes) rather than the more gimmicky Dark/Blood Angels, Space Wolves etc. I'm FINALLY getting the Marines I always wanted: bad asses that actually look like super-soldiers! This guy especially.

So, I guess... in the grim darkness of the far future, there's a pretty mixed bag...

A Morbid Taste For Bones

Having built up a rather hefty flock at this point, I decided that the next addition to the ranks of the Choleric Order of the Yellow Bile would be a couple of shepherds to lead them on their unholy and pestilential crusades.

What I wanted was two models in robes that could pass as vaguely clerical garb. What's more, I really wanted them to look a bit tatty, to reflect their less-than-salubrious existence amongst the faithful of the Order. Beyond that, some deformities to reflect the demonic influence they wield was desirable, but not a deal-breaker. Shopping around for a bit, I found loads of nice-looking necromancers and mages, but none that really hit the nail on the head for me. Then, Nick at North Star sent through some of the new Frostgrave releases for me, including the second pack of Beastcrafters – perfect.

Their fishy, Innsmouth-y look fit nicely into the predominantly Nurgle-inspired line-up of the Order, though I did clip away the existing sickle and club and replaced them with more traditionally wizardly staffs.

Painting was the usual swift combination of the by-now familiar colours, with the addition of a darkish grey for their jackets to contrast with the yellow of the cult robes. The combination works well for me, and means that I can always use them as Confederate cultists as well if I want to!

Currently nameless, and title-less for that matter. Time to hit the books on monastic orders...

Already on the workbench, 5 cult archers to lend a touch of ranged support to the force. They'll be followed, in some order, by 5 cult templars and 10 regular cultists.

• 10 Poxwalkers – pestilence-ridden demons
• 5 Plaguetouched – half-demonic berserkers
• Dirty Frank – blind ghoul king
• 20 Wretches (here and here)– ghoulish troglodytes
• 2 Cult Magisters – corrupt priests

Gribble

A quick post, this one, to catalogue the second batch of Wretches.

As with the first batch, these are Hobbit goblins from GW. Unlike the first ten, I painted these with a different base skin tone, slightly more green than brown, with the intent of mixing the two batches together for a bit more variety. The end result is... negligible!

Also unlike the first ten, I really didn't enjoy painting these at all – and lots of bitty little errors meant that I had to go back and fix more than one of them on more than one occasion. I'm glad they're done!

The Choleric Order of the Yellow Bile currently stands at:

• 10 Poxwalkers – pestilence-ridden demons
• 5 Plaguetouched – half-demonic berserkers
• Dirty Frank – blind ghoul king
• 20 Wretches – ghoulish troglodytes

Next up, a Wizard and his Apprentice in the form of two cult magisters, then the cult faithful.