artel w – Twitchy Bristles

“Hierophant Abraxxazz” – More Nightmare Fuel by Artel W

Sister Pestilencia has some serious competition, for the coveted honor of being my favorite third-party model. For a Malignant Plaguecaster proxy, Hierophant Abraxxazz sports a tremendous amount of bulk and presence, in some contrast to the small-but-mighty Sister Pestilencia. While I went with the Plaguecaster build, I have to say that Artel W includes a ton of alternate bits with this kit, and makes it worth it if for nothing but the spares. Those bits are going to be really handy down the road putting together other monstrosities. But we’re not here to talk about other monstrosities, let’s talk about Hierophant Abraxxazz.

Pictured: The two Artel W proxies I’m running in my Death Guard, looking on point.

The overall bulk of the model is on par with Lords of Contagion or similar “Terminator” armor models, and you can see that in addition to his trusty staff he’s carrying a pistol in one hand, and what looks to be a tiny flamer or plague spewer of some sort over the shoulder, with a drill and lots of other sharp pointy bits scattered all over the model. The mix of armour, bone, misc. mechanical and cloth that makes up this model is fantastic, and this thing is absolutely covered in detail. This, paired with all the alternate configurations mean that whether you run Death Guard or classic Chaos, you’re gonna have a good time building this one.

Pictured: Another life ruined by the Great Varnish Disaster of Christmas 2021, RIP.

Unfortunately, Abraxxazz is yet another model scarred by the Great Varnish Disaster of Christmas 2021, but even with some of the issues that caused in some of the more detailed bits I’m overall very happy with how this turned out. Since I’m not a big fan of the regular Malignant Plaguecaster sculpt, this is something I can put down in my Crusade games to make my psyker support look and feel a whole lot more imposing, and I couldn’t be more excited.

“Sister Pestilencia” – My New Favorite Proxy

If I had doubts or misgivings about the way that my Lord of Contagion turned out, oh boy, is this model ever the opposite – but that might be just because of what a fantastic sculpt Artel W put together for this third-party model. KinpatsuSamurai picked me up one for Christmas and I was thrilled; from the moment I saw the concept art on the company’s Facebook I knew this was going to be one that I’d have to add to my Death Guard. (And it’s totally not like I’m also putting together a Sisters of Battle army with an emphasis on third-party miniatures. Definitely not that, too.)

Pictured: Lord Felthius and his soon-to-be replacement in one if not both of my Crusade games. No hard feelings here, it’s all in the service of Nurgle.

Sister Pestilencia did not disappoint in the least. The main sculpt is great and the model comes with some fantastic alternate head sculpts and an alternate weapon (which I worked into the Plague Marines I’ll be posting here down the road). The detail is great, the sculpt is clean, and the only drawback if there’s one to be found at all is that the model’s a little bit short for a Lord of Contagion, and the Nurgling is a little out of scale with other Nurgling models, but that’s not a dealbreaker for me. Both Sister Pestilencia and her Nurgling can be small but mighty.

Pictured: The world’s tiniest Nurgling. Truly, Artel W knows what we’re about here in the Plague God’s service.

Out of the color changes I made from my first Death Guard batch, changing from brownish cloth colors to a bright, bold red was absolutely the right choice, and it fits this model in particular brilliantly. While I’m still iffy on my other Lord of Contagion, this model will absolutely be on the tabletop as a new HQ proxy and fluff character, either in my running Crusade games with friends at my FLGS or in floorhammer games with my roommate – varnishing issues notwithstanding.

*Sister Pestilencia swore an oath of loyalty to the forces of Decay, Death and Infection. Now she is the Reaper of Souls, carrying the unholy gifts of her Master to the doomed worlds.*

Merry Christmas from the Death Guard!

What could be more 2020 than finding Plague Marines of all things under the Christmas tree? When I started this batch I was going for an old Horus Heresy look but the longer I kept at it the more I felt like they were taking on a festive life of their own. I’m happy with how this batch turned out, though (in typical fashion) I tripped over the finish line and applied the varnish way too thick on the last couple steps and had to go back and fix a few resulting defects.

Pictured: You get an HQ, and you get an HQ, and look under your chair – it’s another HQ!

I wanted to post this to give a taste of what’s coming in 2021 for individual galleries – Death Guard, Death Guard, and lots of Death Guard, with battle reports and comparisons as well between what I’ve painted before and what I accomplished with this batch. All things considered I’m very happy with how they turned out and I’m very much looking forward to seeing how they do on the tabletop – and I’m very happy with my new Artel W proxy units, including a Sister Pestilencia model from kinpatsusamurai!

Pictured: Sister Pestilencia, who is…*definitely* the only Battle Sister I’ll own in the new year. Yup. Nothing to see here…

2020 has been…it’s been a year, alright. And while I think I weathered it okay, it leaves me in a pretty iffy space heading into the next year. My funding runs out at the end of this month, my Master’s is still incomplete, and I don’t have a stable job at the moment, but…all the same thankful for the friends, family, and all the other good things in my life. Here’s hoping that 2021 is a more gracious year than the one now past!

*We wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a very happy New Year!*

Alucard – Artel W’s “Gunfighter”

Hellsing Abridged is one of my all-time guilty pleasures on Youtube, so naturally when I saw that Artel W has a fantastic sculpt of Alucard from the series listed as “The Gunfighter,” I had to get my hands on it and try painting it up. This one turned into a sort of “color study” like my Bone Devil and Imp previously, while I tried to get myself back up to speed. I would like to thank Alucard for teaching me how to “red” again!

*“When hope is gone, undo this lock, and send me forth on a moonlit walk.”*

The model itself was easy to assemble, and packaged brilliantly as Artel W’s products always are. The wax seal adds a special touch every time I get a mini from them. The detail was exquisite on this – my paint job doesn’t do it justice, and the extra bits that came with the kit are going to be much appreciated down the road by some of my Eldar. I opted to keep the regular head but went with the “demon” coat piece because I thought it made the model look so much more imposing, dynamic, and – most of all – cool!

*“That was a 70-inch plasma screen TV. (inhales deeply) So, how can I help you?”*

If you’re a miniatures painter and fan of the Hellsing series in any of its incarnations I would strongly recommend this miniature. If you want to find it (or any of Artel W’s awesome projects) you can find this on their webpage: https://artelw.com/The-Gunfighter-p98213242. The shipping can take a while since everything’s shipped out of Russia, but I’ve always found that Artel W is well worth the wait. I have a couple Death Guard projects coming up from them, and one of these days I’ll cave and pick up their not-Fire-Dragons.