Friday, September 3, 2010

Warhammer 40,000 - It Was Nothing of This Earth, But a Peice of the Great Outside

For those that don't know, the title of this post is a quote taken from H.P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space. To give you a little history lesson on the background on the lore of Warhammer, it takes many pieces from Lovecraft's Cthulhu-mythos: the Great Old Ones in 40K are the same as Lovecraft's, but simply shoehorned into Games Workshop's intellectual property. But what does this all have to do with my painting blog? Well, look at the creatures I've painted below if you dare tempt the cosmic horror that awaits....


Yes, the first 5 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch out of the old 10-piece box. I've had these guys sitting around for a few years now in my treasure-box of yet-to-be-started projects. I felt I need to take a break from painting Terra Novan war machines, and these have hit the spot. What led me back to them was the release of the new plastic Horrors GW produces; while nicely sculpted models, I don't think they have the Cthulhu-like randomness to them that they've always been linked to in the fluff. Nor are the new ones pink, but flesh-coloured. So I thought, "hey, lets paint some models GW no longer produces (metal Horrors) with a paint GW no longer produces (Citadel Tentacle Pink)." Talk about your throwback mini!

So, while I don't play Chaos Daemons, I do play Chaos Space Marines, and daemons do have a role to play in their armies. So what do I think about them game-wise? Well, looking at their stats, they're marines in most respects, but with an invulnerable 5+ save, no guns, and quicker initiative. I think they're best used to bolster the troops in this objective-holding edition of 40K. Drop them where you're fighting a contested objective to help clear out your enemies with increased numbers, or have them hold ground(they are a troops choice and thus a game-winning unit) while your more elite units head to their next fight.

Thanks for reading, and now I'm off to enjoy the last week of summer vacationing at the cottage! Stay tuned to see how the next 5 Horrors turn out!

1 comment:

  1. Love the HPL quote! Definitely one of his best stories.

    I recently visited GW's homepage and checked out a bunch of stuff I hadn't seen, and I agree that a lot of it doesn't look as good as the last "generation".

    I like working with plastic since it's much easier to make conversions and stuff, but these old(er) Horrors look so much better!

    Same thing with the new flagellants. I was looking to get a few for my Witch Hunter warband and I think the last ones they had were prettu much perfect! The new ones though... meh...

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