Gonzo History: Gaming Edition: Armies on Parade wrap-up

So, my great Armies on Parade project is finally done. I say "great" -- by the standards of a lot of people's armies mine wasn't all that large. Still, I'm pretty pleased with it.

This project completes something I've been collecting for a long time. These Nurgle models include some of the earliest figures I ever bought. While on a trip to the UK as a kid, my brother bought the Plaguebearers in the now-long-defunct Games and Puzzles in Cambridge. One of the early spikey-helmet Plague Marines was bought on a contemporary or slightly later trip to Ireland, and many of the others are from the 2nd edition Chaos era, which occurred when I was in high school.

Ever since then, off and on, I've been acquiring Chaos models for this project: just a guy or two here and there when I see them at affordable prices. I still have a good number unpainted, but this made enough to display and I'm happy with it.

It was a very satisfying moment -- to take these models, some of which were among the first I ever owned (or, more accurately, "swiped from my brother"), and get them painted and ready to display and play with. The project seems to have really resonated with people, which was tremendously gratifying.

The army included:

28 plague marines in four squads of 7
7 poxwalkers
7 cultists
7 plaguebearers
1 sorcerer on foot
2 spawn
1 sorcerer on palanquin, with 4 plague marines as bearers
1 dreadnought
1 bloat drone
1 predator
1 Great Unclean One

Total: 61 models. I've shown photos of most of these in previous posts.

I also created a scenic board to hold the army, depicting a shrine of Nurgle on a former Imperial world. It included my first lighting effect: I popped the plastic "flame" off an LED tealight and replaced it with a bead from Hobbycraft, then slathered everything in hot glue to give it a foul wet shine. It looked pretty good and I'm definitely going to do it with future techno-gubbins.

The base itself was made from EVA foam. This stuff is cheap, lightweight, portable, and you can paint or print on it. Texturing is a little more difficult, but six 24 by 24 inch panels cost £10 at B&Q, so I can overlook it. I'm going to use this as the base for my Shadow War Armageddon terrain, and it's gonna look pretty great. I have ideas.

Anyway, the shrine itself is made from scrap polystyrene; the big skull is a foam Halloween ornament I bought for 50p. The spikes and other decorations are either from the bits box or are beads and junk; the wall texture is just polyfilla mixed with PVA glue and slathered on, with some sand sprinkled on in places while it was still drying. The diamond panes in the windows are auto body mesh. All the slime and ooze is just hot glue, which is ideal for the purpose.

Anyway, enough talk; here are some photos!