Citadel Finecast Announced; Grandfather Nurgle pays us a visit.

Games Workshop's quest to create the best quality miniatures in the world is about to take a huge step forward...

On 28th May we are launching Citadel Finecast miniatures to the world.

Don't miss the full announcement on games-workshop.com on the 23rd May to find out more.

Be sure to be at your local Hobby Centre to experience this unique, once-in-a-lifetime launch day! This will be your first chance to see, touch and buy Citadel Finecast miniatures.

In the meantime, there's only one question you need to ask yourself:

"What will my first Citadel Finecast miniature be?"

Ah ha, so that's what they've been up to in the Studio. I had wondered why, when I walked in there, people kept hiding models under their desk. From what I've seen of the new miniatures (I accidentally picked one of them up without realising what it was) they look absolutely stunning. So stay tuned, because next Monday you'll all get to find out a whole lot more about them.

Until then, there's still plenty of hobby going on and today we've got an absolutely stunning Warriors of Chaos army to show off. Most of you have probably scrolled far enough down the page to see some of the units by now and you may recognise the unit of Chaos Chosen from a previous post during Elite's Week. We had quite a few emails asking us to show close-ups of the unit as well as more pictures so, being the lovely guy that I am; I got in touch with Damien to get some more pictures. Here he is to tell you more about his army:

Damien: The army you see here is just a small part of what I plan to be a large and very unique army that will include all things Chaos. My plan is to have four fully-functioning single-god-themed mini armies that can function effectively and independently on their own, or all together as one giant Horde of Chaos.

The army was inspired by the artwork on the cover of the old Lost and the Damned book that I loved as a 10-year-old. I even have the Forge World Great Unclean One converted for the very purpose of making the army look just like the picture when it sits in my display cabinet. I also got loads of ideas from Liber Chaotica, which is such a beautiful book and full of such inspiring artwork.

I've only been back in the hobby and painting (after a 15 year hiatus) for just under three years. I have a drive to always improve my painting by trying new techniques and always pushing my boundaries - I want to win something at Golden Demon one day. I've got a couple of entries lined up for this year that I'm currently working on, but I'm also planning to enter (and win!) the regional heat of Armies on Parade with this army.

• 
  

  When people look at my regiment of Chaos Chosen, the comments tend to run along the lines of: 'What the hell are those? Those are amazing! How have you done those?' I like that I can inspire others to try and think outside the box and think of how every miniature, no matter what army it is actually for, can be used for their army. That's part of the reason why I didn't use the existing Chaos Chosen models. While they are awesome figures they didn't scream 'mine' and I needed something more personal to represent my favourite unit. I knew I wanted them to look like a phalanx of troops, with the front ranks ready to fight and the rear ranks more at ease.

• 
  

  I also wanted to put a little story into the unit. If you look at the Standard Bearer and the Champion, the Champion has the head of a sacrifice, the body of which is being pulled into the banner by the hand of Grandfather Nurgle ripping through the very fabric of reality. They were made using a MASSIVE amount of bits, and all things considered, they probably work out slightly more expensive than metal Chosen, but what price can you put on something being unique? All the models in the unit are built around Chaos Warrior legs and Chaos Knight torsos. I use the lances from the same kit, though nearly every arm had to be chopped and rotated or pinned to other arms to make them look natural. Some that are converted to hold the halberd in two hands also required the shield carrying arm to be converted using a Space Marine bolter support arm (the left one) and certain armour plates had to be re-sculpted.

• 
  

  Festus the Leechlord. Now this guy was pretty much scratch-built. There are a few bits that come from standard models though, the icon on his staff is from the Marauder Horsemen, there's a few Skeleton bones and skulls from the Vampire Counts range, there is a knife on his belt from the Night Goblins box and actually, his mouth is a Goblin mouth (that toothy smile Goblins have was just perfect). Underneath all the Green Stuff is an Orc boy body and legs that acted as more of a clotheshorse than anything else. There's not a lot that I can say about the sculpting other than I just took my time, making sure each bit was hard before working on the next layer so as not to ruin what I'd already done.

• 
  

  I love the Warhound models and most of them were built straight out of the box, though I made sure that the fur on each of them was painted slightly different to make them all stand out (rather than just painting them all brown). The skin was base-coated Dark Flesh, layered up with Tallarn Flesh and then layered up with a 1:1 mix of Dwarf Flesh and Elf Flesh. I decided to make the unit gorier by the inclusion of the poor Empire soldier being eaten by them, which I made out of spare Zombie bits [It's probably one of my favourite models in the entire army, I just love the bloody mess that was once a noble warrior. The more blood the better, I say. - Dan]

• 
  

  The Marauder Horsemen were made almost straight out the box, although there is a slight amount of conversion work. There are the odd weapon/hand swaps, a couple of Beastmen Gor arms - the axe-wielding arms they have are beyond awesome. The Champion with the scythe even has a Flagellant head and a Zombie scythe. The painting is what really makes the Marauder Horsemen units. The skin areas were painted with a base of Tallarn flesh before adding in a mix of Bleached Bone and Sunburst Yellow. It gives the skin a yellow tinge, an almost jaundiced look similar to the look of the human body slowly freezing (you won't believe some of the horrendous stuff I looked at whilst researching disease for this army). The growths and boils on the skin and armour are done by applying Scab Red to an area slightly smaller than the entire growth, then adding more and more Elf Flesh until it turns pink. Then I washed the entire growth with a watered down Leviathan Purple and Baal Red.

• 
  

  The green armour was done by base-coating the armour with Catachan Green mixed with a little Chaos Black. I then glazed the armour several times with a mix of Catachan Green and an ever-increasing amount of Camo Green until I got to an extreme highlight of pure Camo Green. The tarnished metal was done by base-coating the area with Vermin Brown, overbrushing it with Boltgun Metal and then washing the whole area with a 1:1 mix of Badab Black and Devlan Mud. Once that was dry I applied a further wash of Gryphonne Sepia wash. It's as easy as that really. The snow was done by making a mix of PVA glue, water, bicarbonate of soda and Snow Flock. I then sprinkled a little bicarbonate on top to represent fresh snow.

• 

  I use this as the turn counter for my army. The half-dead guy on top can spin round to point at the numbered skulls to remind me how many turns I have left to kill things.

• 
  

  When I met Dan I was actually taking part in a Doubles Tournament at Warhammer World. My mate decided to take a Skaven army and, being the nice guy that I am, I painted and converted this model to represent his Battle Standard Bearer.