Lt. Varras and Dr. Diana

A bit of a sci-fi diversion today. Two of the figures that have been taking up space on my desk and in a figure case for years are this pair. Lt. Varras from the Warhammer 40k 4th Edition “Battle for Macraggae” starter set. He’s also often simply known as “Imperial Pilot”. In any case, he’s been kicking around here for 11 years – and had his boots black and greatcoat grey for much of that time.

Lt. Varras, Imperial Pilot. Dr. Diana, Cybertronic Medic. Warhammer 40k, WarZone

Lt. Varras, Imperial Pilot. Dr. Diana, Cybertronic Medic.

Dr. Diana is a cloned doctor from the Cybertronic MegaCorp faction in WarZone (1st Edition, though she’s apparently still a thing now in WarZone resurrection.) She used to have a black top and bare legs as part of my nWo sub-faction for Cybertronic, back when we used to play regularly in the mid-1990’s, but after the campaign expired, she just sat in a case and never got finished. Several years ago, I decided to pair her with Varras as a fellow Imperial Navy Officer and paint her outfit in a matching grey, and again – like Varras, she’s been sitting around part painted for the years since. It’s a pretty safe bet that she’s a Werner Klocke sculpt, since she shares the same female face that almost all of his models have. Yes, she’s been part-painted for going on 20 years. God I feel old. I was going to paint a red or green cross on Diana’a Med-kit, but I decided against it in order to keep her a little more generic.

Lt. Varras, Imperial Pilot. Dr. Diana, Cybertronic Medic. Warhammer 40k, WarZone

Now, a pair of Imperial Flight Crew.

So anyway, the story ends a week or two ago when I was looking for stuff to make myself finish as part of the desk-clearing project I’ve been on for the past several months and spied these two. Always easy to overlook, I finally forced myself to knuckle down and got them done. Aside from using them as potential 40k objective markers and such, they’ll also easily fit into my RPG games of Rogue Trader (once I get it off the ground) and both are generic enough to work for many other Sci-Fi/skirmish games from Inq28 to Judge Dredd. And now I’m actually quite happy with the pair of them. They make a nice pair of Imperial Flight crew!

Realm of Chaos: Nurgle’s Lost & Damned #7 – Great Unclean One & Devout Tormented

These guys provide the final set of newly-shared figures (for now) of my Nurgle Lost & Damned force. With a bit of luck, I’ll be able to get a fair few more painted up before too long.

The Original Great Unclean One of Nurgle.

Oldhammer Great Unclean One of Nurgle

I want YOU! For Papa Nurgle.

I bought this figure back in the Realm of Chaos days, and started painting him not long after in the browny green olive tone above. Unfortunately, I stalled out for whatever reason and it took over a decade before I’d get back to him to finish off. I did so about 4-5 years ago now, and did so with a combination of The Dip and normal highlighting and shading. Basically, I wanted him to look properly disgusting, which seems to have worked decently well.

Oldhammer Great Unclean One of Nurgle

Nurgle’s Twerk! And some dripping behind him.

Oldhammer Great Unclean One of Nurgle

Big hands, hungry tongue.

The nice thing about these models was the fact that you could essentially build your own unique Greater Daemon – as there were multiples of all of the main components, so you could really put together a series of unique models, and your Greater Daemon was unlikely to be identical to your friends’. Something replicated somewhat these days with the new plastics, but still not to the extent of old (without a bunch of kitbashing, anyway!)

Oldhammer Great Unclean One of Nurgle

Lower angle shot.

I might have another one of these somewhere with different components – I’m not 100% sure. I do have the later one that came out in the mid-90’s, though I have the early version with the horns and prehensile tail. I also have a FW one here as well, though neither are painted, and it’ll probably be at least a while before their numbers come up.

Chronopia’s Devout Tormented – As a Daemon Prince of Nurgle.

This big dude is probably unfamiliar to most readers. It’s a Devout Tormented from the Chronopia line of the mid-late 1990’s. Chronopia was essentially Heartbreaker’s take on Fantasy Skirmish following on from the Success of WarZone. Unfortunately, with the fall of Heartbreaker, both games fell. WarZone has had several resurrections over the years, but Chronopia has sunk into the dust, mostly forgotten.

Chronopia's Devout Tormented - As a Daemon Prince of Nurgle

Tormented Daemon Prince of Nurgle.

I had this model sitting around for quite some time before I decided to use him as part of The Lost and The Damned. As is often the case, the idea behind him is for multiple use. He can play the part of a Chaos Spawn when needed, but also fill the role of a Daemon Prince of Nurgle. He’s a good size, and is much more of a unique model than the usual Daemon wearing Space Marine armour. I’ve got a couple of those to build one day as well, but it’s nice to have something very different as well.

Chronopia's Devout Tormented - As a Daemon Prince of Nurgle

Tormented Daemon Prince of Nurgle.

Obviously the sculpt has some Nurgle-friendly elements. Being torn in half and still draging himself along the ground like a Zombie Crawler is one thing, and the large mono-horn ties in strongly with the Plaguebearers. As such, he can also fit in with my eventual “proper” 40k Daemon army, and in my Kings of War Abyssal (Daemon) Army (of Nurgle). The two will be mostly the same figures dual-purposed, as you do.

Chronopia's Devout Tormented - As a Daemon Prince of Nurgle

Tormented Daemon Prince of Nurgle – Dismembered!

Shortly after painting the “Gym Cultists”, I painted this guy. I used a similar palette to tie him in with them, and used “The Dip” via brush on his exposed viscera and dismembered sections, to tie him in with the Great Unclean One. It hasn;t come out well in the photo above, but the back of the base shows a trail of blood and general disgustingness behind him.

Chronopia Devout Tormented & Damned box.

This is the boxed set he came from. Along with a very Dragon Ogre kind of model – the Damned. Both are mostly resin with metal detail accessories. Unfortunately, they’re the resin of the time, so don’t expect something like McVey or Mierce’s stuff here. The resin is “drop-cast”, like Scotia Grendel’s scenery and while the Tormented here is fine due to his design, but all of the space underneath the Damned’s torso is filled, and you’re kinda expected to paint it black etc and try not to notice it. I suspect that the resin components of this kit might have even been outsource-cast by Grendel.

Oldhammer Great Unclean One, Plague Marine, Chronopia Devout Tormented

Great Unclean One, Plague Marine, Devout Tormented Daemon Prince.

A group shot with the Plague Marine Sergeant shown recently, to give a sense of scale for the two models. Not huge by today’s standards and more recent models, but they were both big for their time, and I think retain a lot of their presence simply by being cool models.

Nurgle Lost and the Damned – Army Shot! – Click to embiggen.

The whole army for the time being. It’s probably not a legal force, with a tiny points value with all of the zombies and cultists – and there’s obviously more to come, but this was the first time I ever managed to get the whole lot of them together on the table. So it’s nice. Marouda also took some photos at the time, so I’ll have to get hold of her photos and if they’re any good add one final update (for now) of close-ups of the force…