Tournament Gamers Painting Masterclass 5: James Clarke – Plague Marines/Daemons

Tournament Gamers Painting Masterclass 5: James Clarke – Plague Marines/Daemons

Happy Christmas and welcome to a festive Masterclass! In this series so far we’ve already seen Paul Scott’s fantastic Plague Marine army. So after having a look round for armies to focus on I asked on the Warhammer forum who had won the best painted army at the warlords GT. To my surprise the winner was yet another Plague marine army (with some daemon allies ofc!) This time James Clarke put his paintbrush to models and came up with a brilliant army and it is here for you! Enjoy James story and his beautiful models

1. Tell me about yourself and how you got into Warhammer?

Hi my name is James Clarke and I have been gaming and collecting for around 14 years or so. I hail from Warrington, Cheshire and am part of the Northern Warlords Gaming Club. I originally started out with my friend in high school playing necromunda and BFG but later went on to collect 40k. I have a few Fantasy armies including Skaven and Chaos but 40k has been my calling and I have my fingers on pretty much every army available in 40k.

 

 

I first started going tournaments in 2009 originally Games Workshop ones but later when I joined Warlords, I've been going to tournaments up and down the country. My biggest and most successful tournament to date was the 2012 Warlords GT In which I used this army. As I've played and competed in tournaments my game and skills have developed significantly. Regardless of whether you lose or win, you always learn something new and valuable that you can take away and apply to your next tournament or army. For me going to tournaments and meeting new people allows you to make new friends, share ideas and most importantly have a good weekends gaming.

2. Why Chaos Daemons/Space marines?

I’ve always been attracted to the bad guys and for me Chaos is the ultimate example. Corruption and temptation are rife through the entire background and history of the Chaos space marines. The story of how mighty heroes fall and turn their backs on that they once protected all for personal glory and power, well that sounds pretty good to me. The models in the range before the re-release were not very adaptable. For starters they are essentially marines so customisation was difficult and mostly limited to how you painted them to reflect what allegiance they were affiliated to.

This as well as the background is what made Nurgle my god of choice. You can really go wild with how you want your followers of Nurgle to look. Bloated guts, crusty scabs, cuts and bruises, any and all are great. The more disgusting the better. Once more I felt that my marines needed more variety in the army so I included an allied detachment of Nurgle daemons included Epidimius to give all my followers a reward for good hunting. I also love the flexibility and options a chaos alliance has available to it. You can max out troops and go for a horde or have loads of Daemon princes and war engines to ground your enemies to dust. My army is a combination of both somewhere in the middle that gives me a bit more flexibility.

 

 

3. What drives you to continue painting?

After a hard day’s work coming home and taking a few hours out to paint while listening to music is a great way to relax for me. Painting a little at a time like this means I don't find painting stressful or let it become boring. As I've been going to tournaments more often they give me a further drive to get that army list painted in time and they significantly boost my productivity.

4. Do you find that taking armies to tournaments restricts what you can do with your army painting wise?

Yes and no in a way. Yes because you are limited to what you can take and you have to include what units will make your army most competitive so you don't always get to include some cool models that would be fun to play with but on the other hand tournaments give you that drive to get the job done and get your models painted. For me tournaments focus my time better ensuring my armies is good to go on the day. I'm a really slow painter and take ages to get things done but when a tournaments around the corner my painting comes together and I get my armies finished at lot quicker, for me it’s probably a good thing more than a bad one.

5. What was your toughest challenge in this army?

For me it was Epidimius and the converted Plaguebearers. I'm a much better painter than I am at converting and this was the first time I really had a go at it. One of my friends is great at converting so taught me what I needed to know. I’ve never much liked the Epidimius model and at the time there wasn't plastic Plaguebearers so I decided to have a go making them instead. I used forge world parts for Epidimius and converted plastic bloodletters for the plaguebeares. I was really pleased with the end results.

 

 

6. What’s your favourite model?

That has to be Epidimius. It’s the best model by far in my collection of chaos and I am so pleased with how it’s turned out. The conversion and paint job make for a great alternative to the standard model though slightly more expensive having forge world components.

 

 

7. What’s next for you?

Once I've finished my chaos I think I'm gonna concentrate on my larger collection of blood angels. As they were the first army I started collecting in 40k I think it’s time they were finally completed. After that I have a couple of armies that are due attention. I have an unbuilt Ork army that I'm dying to get built and painted up. It’s one of the first armies I've purchased after writing an army list for them so I'm dying to see how it plays on the table top. Then I have a horde Space wolf army that I'm making just for fun. So all in all I have a lot to keep me busy in the next few years, maybe more.