The Children of Carrion

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Greetings fellow member of the Ordo Hereticus or Ordo Malleus. Or even the Ordo Xenos. The information I present is not one I believe should be kept solely to one order, for the threat it could pose is one with too much potential to become something far more malignant if left unchecked.

This is the report of Inquisitor Theodore Cabello, of the Ordo Hereticus, and my investigation into the forces of one of the many myriad foes of the Imperium of Man. I talk of a warband of the Heretic Astartes that I encountered at the border of the Segmentum Pacificus and the Segmentum Tempestus in 456.M39. Several Inquisitors will be familiar with the Fall of Pontefex Secundus, I am sure, for the loss of a world devoted to the worship of the God Emperor is not something that can go amiss, even if it is our mission to keep such information away from the ignorant masses. I feel, however, that the information about the atrocity’s perpetrators must not be kept solely to myself and those I consider to be close allies.

The threat I talk of is not some mere band of Renegade Astartes; piratical raiders acting on their own whims. This attack shows a coordinated strategy, between many elements of a greater host, led by a leader capable of such planning. Having visited the site and seen the devastation wrought upon the planet, and having gathered what evidence I could before the sub-sector was subjected to exterminatus and quarantine, I can estimate the force that attacked the planet stood at Legion strength, containing a mix of Heretic Astartes, renegade elements of the Astra Militarum and, I hate to even suggest this, but also a Lance of an, as yet, unknown Knightly House.

The destruction I found was total: not a living being was left alive. No human or animal was spared. Nine billion souls, lost. Monuments of the Ecclesiarchy were defaced and destroyed wholesale, from the smallest shrine to the mightiest cathedral. The very earth was tainted and befouled by the foul energy of Chaos, specifically, of the Chaos deity that is known as ‘Nurgle’. While there was no evidence of daemonic manifestation on the planet itself, I have no doubt that such unholy rituals took place.

Through meticulous research through the archives and investigation of the surrounding sub-sectors and systems around Pontefex Secundus, I have found a pattern begin to emerge: minor and frontier worlds were subjected to piratical raids, to capture slaves, or attacked to silence Imperial waystations and posts, before capital worlds in important sub-sectors had the same level of destruction wrought upon them as on Pontefex Secundus in campaigns of rapid dominance and wholesale destruction.

Through my research, and the research of my fellow Inquisitors and Astra Militarum analysts, I have finally placed a name to the force that laid low an Imperial world.

The Children of Carrion.

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So, yes, I've been very much away from this blog (I don't really seem to have any serious followers, but still), and I've got fairly good reason for that. Work and life has been getting in the way, both in a major and minor way.

But I've managed to find some time to actually do some work on my Chaos Space Marine army; the Nurgle dedicated Children of Carrion.

More work will follow. Decided that doing some sort of backstory, or in this case an Inquisitorial report, would be a good way to condense things down.

The Children of Carrion and Chaos Mutants

So, like many people across the world, I bought the Dark Imperium boxed set. Admittedly, it was a spur of the moment thing when I preordered it, and I really only bought it for the Primaris Marines (since I was mainly toying with doing a Raptors Space Marine army, which I still plan to do) and I was just going to paint the Death Guard models in the most basic colours, or perhaps even sell them. I had no idea what to do with them really.

But then I looked at them, and they. Were. Gorgeous! In a rotting, decayed and disgusting way, but still. Needless to say... I got hooked. Hard. What started as a force of the 31 models from the Dark Imperium boxset has now expanded to encapsulate just over 100 models.
It's horrifying.

If my life was bit less lacklustre because of work screwing me over by not giving me a good amount of hours during the week which would give me enough money to buy more stuff as well as enough time off to paint said models, I'd probably be more along the line with how my army stands. But I digress.

For the list of what I currently have (as of February 26th), I have:
[Models from Dark Imperium will be marked as DI]
Lord of Contagion w/Plaguereaper [DI]
Malignant Plaguecaster [DI]
Noxious Blightbringer [DI]
Foetid Bloat-drone [DI]
Lord on Contagion w/Manreaper (Lord Felthius)
Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour
Aspiring Champion
Foul Blightspawn
Biologus Putrifier 
Tallyman of Nurgle
5 Chaos Possessed 
8 Blightlord Terminators
27 Plague Marines total (mix of DI, regular kit and Easy to Build kit)
20 Chaos Space Marines
26 Poxwalkers (mix of DI and Easy to Build kit)
13 Chaos Cultists
Myphitic Blight Hauler
1 Chaos Spawn
1 Beast of Nurgle
5 Chaos Mutants

Ugh... I'm not going to be stopping anytime soon with this. I'm already working on a unit of Chaos Chosen made with the left over bits from the kits used, and that unit of Chaos Mutants is going to need expanding in a massive direction.
Still! No-one else to blame but myself. 

So let's get cracking with this.
First, I want to show off my Chaos Mutants. Lorewise, my Chaos army, which I realised I should have given the name which is The Children of Carrion, is made up of several segments, ranging from Long War Veterans of the Death Guard at the top to the lowest dregs being made up of mutants, beastmen and Spawn. And here I'll show some of the mutants!

First up is the 'leader' of the group. Since I imagined that in a mutant rabble, then they would most likely follow a 'might makes right' mentality. So their leader is a large, imposing beastman armed with a chainaxe and a plasma pistol. 
The torso and head are obviously from a GW Beastman (a Gor specifically) while the arms and holster are from Victoria Miniatures Broolian Beast Guard Officer sprue, with some extras added from some left over Guard bits. The arms are a bit skinny compared to the torso, but it does look better in person, I swear. I just need to do some greenstuffing to cover up the shoulder joints.

Next up is mutant #2. Made using a GW Flagellant as the base (since I just like the look of it) with a pistol arm from Victoria Miniatures Bare Close Combat Arms Male and a clawed tentacle from the Maxmini Mutation Set. This guy is kind of the more bogstandard concept of a Chaos Mutant I feel. (Boy I wish GW hadn't discontinued their Chaos Mutation sprue. Man I should have brought that when I had a chance)

Just a little size comparison between the two models. The beastman is definitely an imposing figure.

Mutant #3. Again, practically the same fair as before, but with a switch between the arm holding the pistol and more of claw mutation than just a tentacle. I like how this guy looks just that bit much wilder than the last guy. It's definitely the beard.

Mutant #4. Went with the fly head from the Maxmini Mutation Set this time, while the arms and lasgun are from the Victoria Miniatures Penal Guard 5 man squad. I like the look of the lasgun and arms since it says two things: that this guy was recently released from Imperial detention and and was given probably THE SHODDIEST rifle that exists in the armory. Perfect for Chaos Mutants.

Mutant #5. Bits wise, this guy had more going for him, since he was made up from a leftover Cadian Shock Troop torso with the Aquila scraped off, a head from the Genestealer Cult Upgrade kit, and arms and legs from the Victoria Miniatures Penal Guard kit. The model I feel kind of tells a small story, since he's wearing a scrappy penal outfit and still has his chains on shows that he's been recently freed from Imperial detention, given the same shoddy lasrifle as the mutant above, then has killed an Imperial trooper and looted his flak armor for his own protection. The arms and legs are a little bit skinny compared to the Cadian kit, but I feel that it make him seem undernourished/underfed, which kind of fits with the narrative I feel.

And now a group-shot. Ready to bring death and destruction to the Imperium, for the Dark Gods!

Stay tuned for more pics of this work in progress army.

Frostgrave Chaos Cultist

Now, I know that I'm not alone in the wide world of wargaming to think when the Frostgrave Cultists were released that they'd make brilliant Chaos Cultists.

I bought one of the single frames from North Star a little while back for a Game of Thrones project I'm working on (that will appear later on, trust me), but I only used two of the bodies, so that left me with three left over bodies, and I also had a box of Cadian Shock Troops lying around too, so I put two and two together.

Sizewise, the Cultist bodies are close enough in scale to the Cadian bodies, although the body I chose is a bit lower because of his posing. The arms fit up nicely to create a nice dynamic pose for him. The body is plain enough that you can really paint the clothing as belonging to nearly any sort of environment/group/whatever you can think of, and I do like the capirote since it will always have that unknowable vibe to it. If I had planned it better in advance (or had more money earlier in the year), I would have ordered some of the heads from tabletop-art.de with the gasmasks. Hindsight, eh?

If I do any more, I'll either use the arms from the Genestealer cultists kits, or the arms and guns from the Renegade Militia Weapons kit, or the arms and guns from Victoria Miniatures or Mad Robot Miniatures to create a seriously disparate force.

My only real critique, and it's mainly because of my own folly, is that I could only attach the ammo pouches and grenade to the model instead of them and the other accouterments I had in mind.