Eagle eyed readers will remember my Chaos Ogre models from the sixteen or seventeen articles I did on them a while ago. I’ve spent some time mulling over whether to scrap what I’ve done with my Ogres, and just do an entire army of Nurgle Ogres. Its certainly been a tempting idea, a Bruiser with a Battle Standard has been on my To Do list for a while, as has a Nurgle Bruiser. And perhaps tinkering my Slavegiant, give him those hooves you get, and replace the beergut I crudely carved off him with a huge, weeping gut. But I’ve neither had reason to, nor the money.

The latter problems being sorted by me getting some work recently, and the former… not so sure about. Reading this months White Dwarf, I saw Forge World have brought out some Nurgle-themed Ogryns, mostly with a Traitor Imperial Guard army in mind. In two minds from the pictures I saw in paper, I went to their website to get a better look.

This is what I ended up with.

That paint job utterly ruined that idea for me. They wouldn’t work as Ogres. They certainly don’t work as Ogryns. At best, they might make some interesting Chaos Spawn in a normal Chaos army, or perhaps some unique Gorgers in the aforementioned Nurgle Ogre army, but I wanted Tyrants and Bruisers first, not just shambling monsters.

Ah well, back to the writing block. Thankfully not the writers block, I’ve got plenty of material for my story yet.

Since I don’t seem to have anything to write about, I think I’ll bore all of you, by wittering on about little plastic men again. And by “all of you”, I mean the janitor cleaning the floors of the empty concert hall I appear to be projecting into. Never mind.

But yeah, if you’ve come here by some miracle of Goggle pointing you here, and you actually want to learn about the new Space Marine Codex, halfway there, old bean. As most good Warhammer nerds should know, the new Space Marine Codex is out next Saturday, along with a bunch of new models, none of which I intend to buy. Except maybe the new Land Raider with flamethrower sponsons. And there’s a very good reason.

While I’ve powered through at least three Fantasy armies in my time, in 40K I’ve always stuck with my beloved Salamanders Space Marines. Green armoured, tribal-African* warriors who aren’t particularly swift, but love burning people with many, many flamers/meltas. Also, having their own armylist in Codex: Armageddon. Something just clicked, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

*I know I’m not alone in thinking African-American is a ridiculous term for people of a black persuasion. What if they’re not from America? And are they necessarily African? Its a very silly word used by people who are afraid they’re going to be killed/sued if they call someone black. Anyway.

Then 4th edition swung round. Byebye special rules for Salamanders, replaced by a few Chapter Traits that worked fine enough for me, mainly because I could then take lightning claws again. New Techmarine, new plastic Terminators, improved colour scheme.

Then 5th edition came out, and I acquired a copy of the new Codex. No, its not paper, but it is perfectly legal, of course. And now I’m telling you what the Salamanders have got out of it.

In terms of fluff, they’re sorted. References to them appear all over the place, including hints at their own make of Land Raider. Its all good, coupled with the fact that they’re getting some books written about them by Nick Kyme, former White Dwarfer. By the looks of it, he’s going to do a bloody good job of it too.

The big problem is that Games Workshop seem to have gone a bit funny with the whole “black” thing. Instead of “whatever-word-I-should-use-instead-African-American-now black”, they’re thinking “literally black”. Apparently, “they were always supposed to be jet black with red eyes”. And maybe they were, back in the days of Rogue Trader, when games were played in black and white, but there would be a good reason to get rid of it: it doesn’t make a shred of goddamn sense. Plus, now all my helmetless marines look like I haven’t painted them properly, which is bad, because coupled with the fact that I haven’t painted them properly makes me look even lazier.

Quite a few new special characters in this book as well, including more bloody Ultramarines (I think they’re trying to force people to play them, because, lets be honest, no one wants to). But the Sallies get a new guy*, bringing in a healthy new dose of fluff. Forgefather Vulkan He’stan, former 4th Company Commander, is the latest Forgefather, a title given to whichever lucky/poor sod is sent roaming the galaxy, looking for the nine technological artefacts their Primach, Vulkan, left all over the galaxy. While a wonderful piece of fluff, it does raise some problems, in that as far as I can tell, Vulkan was supposed to have been killed at the Istvaan Massacre.

*Don’t know why they didn’t just bring back Chaplain Xavier. They actually made a damn model for him, it makes much more sense on considering it. We need that Xavier model! We need Salamander mantles so we can convert our characters! Although that wouldn’t work, considering Games Workshop got rid of their bitz service. Brilliant way to alienate your fanbase there. And why am I doing all these things with asterixes this week?

Coupled with that, how are you supposed to scatter everythig from spears to orbital defense lasers throughout the galaxy without being noticed? If you’re the godlike commander of one of the Emperors Space Marine Legions, you can’t go around hiding things around everywhere without people asking questions. And this is difficult enough with small things like He’stans equipment - a kickass spear, a heavy flamer gauntlet, and an awesome salamander cloak. These are small and easily hideable. The other two artefacts that have been found were a giant forgeship and a giant orbital defense laser. How do you hide one of those? They’re about as big as the moon! You can’t just put a tarp on it and hope nobody notices for ten thousand years!

Inconsistancies aside, He’stan is an awesome warrior, but his inclusion gives Salamanders specialist weapons a boost - all thunder hammers are master crafted, all flamer/melta weapons become twin linked. A very characterful rule which would encourage you to play in a fluff-based way - if they hadn’t buggerd up the special weapons.

Yes, without Chapter Traits anymore, Salamanders can no longer take two flamers in a unit. This completly fucking blows, because I have umpteen flamers, and now I can’t use them. You can still have a meltagun/multimelta in a unit, but that wasn’t something I did very often (not having plastic melta weapons when I assembled my army). Small compensation in that as a nod to the fluff, you can have two flamers - or even heavy flamers - in a Sternguard Veteran squad. Sadly not good enough, but now meaning that in order to have an army that plays in a Salamandery way, I have to take He’stan. Which isn’t good, as my army is themed around the 3rd Company, not around some guys wandering round looking for a kickass hammer, or a pimped out tank, or whatever the last four artefacts are.

Cool thought I’ve just had, and I don’t want you lot stealing (”What lot? Who are you talking to?” hollers the janitor). I might take He’stan, but model him as an Emperors Champion (a la Black Templars, only not in this case). Makes some sense.

So overall, the Salamanders are a lot more fluffed out, but in-game, they kinda suck unless you take a special character every game. I’ve been writing this article for an hour now. Byebye already.

Inexplicably, the short article I did on Nurgle Chaos Ogres has been the most searched-for thing on the site. So people who like me ranting about stuff will have to bother… erm… I’d have said Yahtzee, but he’s too busy talking too bloody fast these days.  (Yeah, like he really needs more people linking to him).

I thought it might be an idea to look at a few less guys this time, and go into more detail. Since that’s more useful. So we’ll have a look at a rank-and-file Ogre, and have another look at the Standard Bearer, mainly because I already took the pictures before realising I’d done him.

I hate Wordpress. Now, have a look at it there, and come back when you’re done. Click on it too, I’m not going to expound on my bad painting if you’re not going to look at it.

Now then, I’m not going to talk about his skin tone. If you’re going to do something like this for either your Ogre army or your Beasts of Chaos army, you just want to paint your Ogre skin normally, just with some green mixed in there (I used Catachan Green), and perhaps an extra highlight with Bleached Bone for that pale, unhealthy look. Nor am I going to talk about the rust effects on the gutplate and banner pole. If you need to know, find White Dwarf 301 and use their tips, or go consult the Internet.

The standard itself was taken from the Pestigor standard bearer, found on eBay after months of searching. The copper effect on it was achieved in two steps. I started with a white undercoat, all the better for brighter colours. I then coated it with a turquoise shade made of Snot Green, Enchanted Blue, and maybe some others. Drybrushed over this with a bronze colour. I used a mixture of Shining Gold and Bestial Brown, because I don’t have much reason to carry bronze paint around with me. Highlight as necessary. The banner itself was basecoated Bleached Bone, and washed in a mix of Dark Green Ink and Ogryn Flesh wash, thus colouring and shading it at the same time.

As an aside note, I’m sad Games Workshop got rid of the range of inks. Sure, the new washes are excellent at what Games Workshop say they’re designed for, but I used Flesh Ink for many things, because of its inky status. Keeping the inks and introducing the washes as well would have made me a much happier bunny.

The claw hand was taken from the Chaos Mutations spruce, painted Snot Green, and inked Dark Green. Nothig too exciting. The tentacle arm was sinply Green Stuff wrapped round the banner pole. The original hand had to be cur right back, and even now I’m not 100% sure on it.

Gotta love this guy. He’s the first one I made, and sadly still the best. His main feature is his big swelling eye, a wonderful mark of the Plague God. A simple orb of Green Stuff, almost painted the same as the skin surrounding it, just with a bit more Ogryn Flesh and Bleached Bone. Oh, and a slit like pupil for good measure. His other prominant feature, his giant hand, is taken from the Giant spruce. Works quite well as an ironfist, methinks.

His gutplate is mostly covered in sand. The three blobs, in the shape of the Mark of Nurgle, are of course Green Stuff. They’re also shaded up from the rusted metal to Bleached Bone, to look sort of like spots or boils.

His pet Nurgling is a Nurgling.

I’ve been ruminating on this idea since I started collecting Ogres. The idea being that the Chaos Ogres in the Beastman army no longer look like the Ogres Kingdoms ogres. So I decided to make them meet somewhere in the middle. I’ve always liked Nurgle, the god of decay, so that’s where I went with that. Here’s the guys in the front rank.

This guy is the units Bellower, who’s supposed to be the guy who shouts the orders for the unit. Amusingly enough, his jaw is hanging off, his eyes are missing and bleeding eyesockets. See his tounge hanging out (done in Green Stuff). He’s got a little beard and mohawk done in static grass. Not too much else to say.

Marginally more complicated, this guy is the unit leader, and has a bit more work done on him. Most obviously, he has three heads (three for each orb in the Mark of Nurgle), neck holes filled out with Green Stuff and stuck on. He’s got a club from the Giant Spruce, simply because it was crying out to be used by someone. See also, skin diseases on his shoulders, done with Green Stuff, hot pins, and purple ink.

Finally, the guy carrying the units standard. The story behind the unit is that they found this standard, and it corrupted them. So therefore, the guy carrying the standard is basically dribbling with diseases. See the tentacle hand, crab claw, tentacle tounge, sculpted pustules, and anything else I missed. Also the sort of copper effect on the standard.

If I feel like it, I’ll put up the rank and file later.

OK, one of the other things I wanted to do with the new Less Is More is stick things I’ve modelled and painted in there. So while my usual target audience (ie, people who know me and will at elast pretend I’m amusing) will be a bit lost, people who like Warhammer models will at least have fun going “you can’t Green Stuff”.

So, without further adieu…

So yes,  in a world where man is 28mm tall and made of grey polystyrene, these guys are Ogres that have wandered all over the world, beaten up most other sentient races, been paid, and come home.

The guy on the right was the first one I made, and has been either to the continent of Lustria, or the depths of the Southlands. Not sure. Either way, he’s spent his years fighting with and/or against the Lizardmen who live in both places. He’s taken/been given a sword by a Lizardman warrior (taken from the new Saurus spruce), a great golden plaque for a gutplate (the thing on his tummy, an old Saurus shield) and to decorate his ironfist (the thing on his other hand, the snake thing I sculpted). The lizardscale robe was done by pushing balls of Green Stuff (a type of modelling putty) into the model. It looks crap now, so I might well redo it if I can.

The guy on the left is a more recent effort, and has been living with the Dwarfs. And everyone knows what Dwarfs like - armour. I had started him with a puny beard and only a helmet (made in Green Stuff, with horns from the old Dwarf spruce), but that looked crap, and after goading from  the folks of /tg/, I coated him in Green Stuff and poked dots in it to represent chainmail. And its not too bad. His gutplate is just a Dwarf shield, his axe is an old Dwarf axe. Just for good measure, that pistol he’s waving around is a handgun from the new plastic Dwarf Thunderers. He also has a splendid beard in Green Stuff. You sadly can’t see his pegleg (I needed his foot for another model), made from a steam drill (a drill used by Dwarf Miners), or his barrel of beer made from a metal Dwarf barrel.

I want to make another to have a unit of three, each with one of the Maneater weapons (Longsword, brace of handguns, and double handed weapon). However, I’ve got more important modelling things, let alone other life things, before I do that. Possibly an Ogre who’s spent some time with the Orcs, but I’m not sure what great weapon would work (note that the Dwarf-Ogres axe is a slightly bigger double handed axe itself!)