Cowabunga VI
”The 40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge VI” (lovingly known as the ”Cowabunga Challenge”) was a Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition painting challenge hosted by Wachtmeister over at The Wachtmeister's Patrol. This page details my endeavours during the 2025 edition (the 6th iteration) of the challenge.
Hi there! Ted from Sweden here. I took part in Cowabunga III and IV, but not V, so I thought it was high time to make my return! I painted Night Lords Chaos Space Marines in my two previous outings, and this time I’m looking to add a bit of daemons and cult troops to the army in the form of an unholy alliance between Nurgle and Slaanesh! The army is based around two greater daemons and their retinues of lesser daemons and Chaos Space Marines.
The air shimmered and tore as a warp portal disgorged two titanic forms onto the surface of Khardasian Prime. One was a bloated monstrosity, its corpulent flesh dripping with noxious ichor. Next to it, in sharp contrast, a lithe and serpentine figure emerged, its sleek form wreathed in a haze of warp-fueled glamour. They regarded each other with mutual disdain. The Great Unclean One, whose essence embodied decay and despair, found the shimmering beauty of his companion offensive. The Keeper of Secrets, in turn, loathed the stench and vulgarity of the plague-ridden hulk. Yet, they were bound by a common purpose: aiding the Night Lords in their brutal campaign to bring the planet to its knees.
Characters:
1 Great Unclean One – 275 points
1 Keeper of Secrets – 280 points
Squads:
5 Plague Marines – 175 points
4 Noise Marines (3x Sonic Blaster, 1x Blastmaster) – 195 points
1 Aspiring Champion (Mark of Slaanesh, Blastmaster) – 80 points
Daemons:
5 Daemonettes – 175
Total:
1180 points
With a roar, the Plague Marines surged forward. Gorath crashed through the barbed wire with contemptuous ease, his rusted armor deflecting the pitiful lasfire that greeted him. He fell upon the nearest PDF trooper, his plague knife sinking into the man’s chest. The trooper’s flesh blackened and sloughed away, even as he screamed.
Malgor waded into the fray, his bolter roaring as it spat shells filled with virulent toxins. Each impact reduced an enemy to dissolving piles of ichor. Beside him, another Plague Marine threw a blight grenade at a squad of troopers, their bodies convulsing and mutating into grotesque forms before collapsing into heaps of putrid flesh.
The trench was soon a charnel house. The few surviving PDF troopers fled, their screams fading into the night. Malgor stood amidst the carnage, his breath steaming in the cold night air. He turned to his squad, their armor slick with the filth of battle. “The Grandfather is pleased,” he said. “His gifts have been delivered.”
My first slice consists of a squad of six Plague Marines. I was originally only going to paint five, but I threw in another one while I was at it!
I didn’t know exactly how I would paint these when I started out, but I knew I wanted a fairly bright look to suit the 2nd edition aesthetic. After some testing I settled on Elysian Green (from GW) as the main colour of the armour, and a dark red for the cables and tubes. The bolters were painted bright red (what else!) in the same way as for my Night Lords.
In the game Plague Marines cost 35 points each, and that’s 10 points more than a regular Chaos Space Marine. However, they do come with toughness 5, and they’re equipped with a Boltgun (which you have to buy for your normal Chaos Space Marine for 3 points more, bringing him to 28 points) and a Plague Knife. The knife will kill a model wounded by the blade on a roll of ‘6’. Not terribly useful, but nice to have nonetheless. They also come with the awesome Blight Grenades that will inflict a S D6 hit on any non-Nurgle model that comes into contact with it. The cloud of nastiness will also remain in place, so with some good placement of the templates you can force the enemy to move through the miasma of death if they want to come get you. All in all, not a bad deal!
A shimmering tear in reality, no larger than a whisper, appeared in the shadow cast by a towering holo-display. From this portal, a pack of Daemonettes of Slaanesh slithered into existence, their forms both alluring and terrifying. Their leader, a Daemonette named L’yssara, with her serpentine grace and eyes that promised both ecstasy and doom, surveyed the room. Her pack was small but perfectly suited for their task: to corrupt from within, to sow discord and pleasure where discipline and duty reigned.
As the night deepened, the command center became a place of revelry and corruption. Data terminals began to display not battle strategies but scenes of debauchery and excess. The Daemonettes danced, their movements a hypnotic blend of beauty and horror, drawing more and more into their deadly embrace. The once-clear lines of command blurred, replaced by chaos, pleasure, and the dark worship of Slaanesh.
My second slice consists of a squad of seven Daemonettes. I had originally pledged to paint five, but I added another two along the way.
As with the Plague Marines I didn’t have an exact colour scheme ready when I started with the Daemonettes, but I knew I wanted them to look similar to the Keeper of Secrets released early in 3rd edition 40K. I ended up settling on a fairly simple recipe for the skin. I began with a Wraithbone basecoat followed by a thin wash of Cadian Flesh. I continued by layering on Flayed One Flesh and Wraithbone for the highlights. I finished off by thinning down Screamer Pink and applying it to the recesses. The claws were based with Barak-Nar Burgundy, washed with Druchii Violet and drybrushed with Screamer Pink and finally Pink Horror.
Daemonettes cost 35 points each in the game, and you have to spend two summoning points for each daemon (a minimum of three must be summoned each time). Slaanesh summoning points are gained every time an enemy unit is forced to take a Leadership test for any reason. The Daemonettes are rather good in close combat with WS6, S5 (S4 base but they get +1 for their huge claws!) and A3. As with all Daemons they have a 4+ save form their daemonic aura (not modified by strength) which is pretty neat! Their main weakness is their slow speed (M4), but if they can be summoned into a favourable position close to the enemy this could be somewhat negated.
The Velvet Claws
The air shimmered as the Night Lords’ sorcerers completed their ritual. A rift tore open before the cathedral’s gates, spilling iridescent mist and the keening wail of tortured souls. From it emerged a Keeper of Secrets, her form a vision of perverse beauty—silks flowing like liquid night, four arms weaving patterns of hypnotic light, her blue eyes aglow with cruel delight. The Night Lords stepped back, their skull-helmed leader barking a command: “Unmake their faith, daemon. Feast on their hope.”
The third slice consists of a Keeper of Secrets, a greater daemon of Slaanesh. This is the 3rd edition version with the “cow head” released in 1999. There was another version released a few years later with an alternative (worse IMO) head.
I more or less painted it the same way as the GW Studio model, and I used the same methods as on the Daemonettes from last month.
The Keeper of Secrets weighs in at a respectable 280 points (taken from the character allowance) in the game, and it must be summoned onto the board or possess a model (a cheap Aspiring Champion preferably). The daemon causes terror, comes with a psychic mastery level of 4 and has the Aura of Slaanesh special rule (opponents must make a Ld test on 3D6 to be able to attack the daemon in hand-to-hand combat). It has a massive WS9, S7 and A6 so it’s quite the beast up close and personal (just where Slaaneshi daemons want to be)!
Lirathene the Soulweaver
1x Keeper of Secrets (280)
Total: 280 points
The earth quaked as the cultists’ chant reached its zenith. A festering rift split the air, belching rancid fog and the drone of bloated flies. From it shambled a Great Unclean One, its form a grotesque mound of oozing sores and sagging green flesh, entrails trailing like garlands, its red eyes twinkling with jovial malice. The cultists knelt as the daemon spoke in a rasping voice. “Tremble mortals. Grul’gath has come.”
My fourth slice consists of a Great Unclean One, a greater daemon of Nurgle. This model was released during the later part of 2nd edition (March 1997), and was sculpted by Trish Morrison. There was another version released in the early 00’s with an alternative head lacking the horns and the monstrous tongue.
I used the same techniques as on my Plaguebearers from a previous Cowabunga challenge for the colour of the skin, namely a mix of Orc Brown and Bilious Green for a sickly green tone. Overall I’m very happy with how the paint job turned out!
The Great Unclean one will cost you 275 points in the game, making it the cheapest of the greater daemons (by 5 points). The Great Unclean One unsurprisingly causes terror, comes with a psychic mastery level of 4 and has the Stream of Corruption special attack. This uses the flamer template and inflicts S7 hits, and it can even be used in close combat! The Great Unclean One’s main drawback is its slow Movement of 4, but at the same time it is very resilient with T8 and 10 Wounds (and the standard 4+ Daemonic save).
Grul’gath the Foul
1x Great Unclean One (275)
Total: 275 points
My fifth and final slice consists of a unit of the 1997 Noise Marines! You don’t tend to see these minis a lot out in the wild, so it was great to finally get to work on them.
I decided to go with black armour and pink trim for that Emperor’s Children vibe. Using a very dark colour and a very bright colour together comes with some difficulties (if you make a mistake and get black paint on the pink you’re screwed!), but I managed to get through it without any major mishaps. It just took a long time!
Noise Marines cost 30 points per model and come in units of 3-5 (+ the option of having an Aspiring Champion). Any model can have a Sonic Blaster, while a single model may take the heavier Blastmaster for a whopping 45 points. One model in the squad may also take a Doom Siren. The Aspiring Champion can take Noise Marine weapons as well, so you could have two Blastmasters in your squad if you wanted to. They come with the Mark of Slaanesh (naturally) and the Psychic Cacophony rule which makes life harder for psykers within 16″!
The Cacophonic Reavers*
5x Noise Marines (150), 3x Sonic Blaster (30), 2x Blastmaster (90) (270)
1x Aspiring Champion (30), Mark of Slaanesh (5), 1x Doom Siren (15), 1x Powerfist (10), 1x Chainsword (2) (62)
Total: 332 points
*This isn’t a strictly legal squad since you can’t have two Blastmasters, but I did it this way for the purpose of adding up the points.
Beneath a sky choked with sickly green clouds, the Pestilent Ecstasy gathers, their rotting banners fluttering alongside silken standards dripping with perfumed ichor. Nurgle’s minions shamble forward, oozing pestilence, while Slaanesh’s devotees dance with frenzied grace, their laughter mingling with the drone of flies. United in blasphemous revelry, they march to spread decay and indulgence, a grotesque symphony of war.
Here's the photo of the finished army in all its glory! Behold the warband of Pestilent Ecstasy!
Thanks to all the Cowabungites for the moral support and inspiration on this awesome painting journey!
Starting point
The air shimmered and tore as a warp portal disgorged two titanic forms onto the surface of Khardasian Prime. One was a bloated monstrosity, its corpulent flesh dripping with noxious ichor. Next to it, in sharp contrast, a lithe and serpentine figure emerged, its sleek form wreathed in a haze of warp-fueled glamour. They regarded each other with mutual disdain. The Great Unclean One, whose essence embodied decay and despair, found the shimmering beauty of his companion offensive. The Keeper of Secrets, in turn, loathed the stench and vulgarity of the plague-ridden hulk. Yet, they were bound by a common purpose: aiding the Night Lords in their brutal campaign to bring the planet to its knees.
The List
1 Great Unclean One – 275 points
1 Keeper of Secrets – 280 points
Squads:
5 Plague Marines – 175 points
4 Noise Marines (3x Sonic Blaster, 1x Blastmaster) – 195 points
1 Aspiring Champion (Mark of Slaanesh, Blastmaster) – 80 points
Daemons:
5 Daemonettes – 175
Total:
1180 points
Month 1 (January)
Malgor waded into the fray, his bolter roaring as it spat shells filled with virulent toxins. Each impact reduced an enemy to dissolving piles of ichor. Beside him, another Plague Marine threw a blight grenade at a squad of troopers, their bodies convulsing and mutating into grotesque forms before collapsing into heaps of putrid flesh.
The trench was soon a charnel house. The few surviving PDF troopers fled, their screams fading into the night. Malgor stood amidst the carnage, his breath steaming in the cold night air. He turned to his squad, their armor slick with the filth of battle. “The Grandfather is pleased,” he said. “His gifts have been delivered.”
My first slice consists of a squad of six Plague Marines. I was originally only going to paint five, but I threw in another one while I was at it!
I didn’t know exactly how I would paint these when I started out, but I knew I wanted a fairly bright look to suit the 2nd edition aesthetic. After some testing I settled on Elysian Green (from GW) as the main colour of the armour, and a dark red for the cables and tubes. The bolters were painted bright red (what else!) in the same way as for my Night Lords.
In the game Plague Marines cost 35 points each, and that’s 10 points more than a regular Chaos Space Marine. However, they do come with toughness 5, and they’re equipped with a Boltgun (which you have to buy for your normal Chaos Space Marine for 3 points more, bringing him to 28 points) and a Plague Knife. The knife will kill a model wounded by the blade on a roll of ‘6’. Not terribly useful, but nice to have nonetheless. They also come with the awesome Blight Grenades that will inflict a S D6 hit on any non-Nurgle model that comes into contact with it. The cloud of nastiness will also remain in place, so with some good placement of the templates you can force the enemy to move through the miasma of death if they want to come get you. All in all, not a bad deal!
Squad Malgor
6x Plague Marines with Boltguns, Plague knives and Blight grenades (210)
Total: 210 points
Month 2 (February)
As the night deepened, the command center became a place of revelry and corruption. Data terminals began to display not battle strategies but scenes of debauchery and excess. The Daemonettes danced, their movements a hypnotic blend of beauty and horror, drawing more and more into their deadly embrace. The once-clear lines of command blurred, replaced by chaos, pleasure, and the dark worship of Slaanesh.
My second slice consists of a squad of seven Daemonettes. I had originally pledged to paint five, but I added another two along the way.
As with the Plague Marines I didn’t have an exact colour scheme ready when I started with the Daemonettes, but I knew I wanted them to look similar to the Keeper of Secrets released early in 3rd edition 40K. I ended up settling on a fairly simple recipe for the skin. I began with a Wraithbone basecoat followed by a thin wash of Cadian Flesh. I continued by layering on Flayed One Flesh and Wraithbone for the highlights. I finished off by thinning down Screamer Pink and applying it to the recesses. The claws were based with Barak-Nar Burgundy, washed with Druchii Violet and drybrushed with Screamer Pink and finally Pink Horror.
Daemonettes cost 35 points each in the game, and you have to spend two summoning points for each daemon (a minimum of three must be summoned each time). Slaanesh summoning points are gained every time an enemy unit is forced to take a Leadership test for any reason. The Daemonettes are rather good in close combat with WS6, S5 (S4 base but they get +1 for their huge claws!) and A3. As with all Daemons they have a 4+ save form their daemonic aura (not modified by strength) which is pretty neat! Their main weakness is their slow speed (M4), but if they can be summoned into a favourable position close to the enemy this could be somewhat negated.
The Velvet Claws
7x Daemonettes of Slaanesh (245)
Total: 245 points
Month 3 (March)
The third slice consists of a Keeper of Secrets, a greater daemon of Slaanesh. This is the 3rd edition version with the “cow head” released in 1999. There was another version released a few years later with an alternative (worse IMO) head.
I more or less painted it the same way as the GW Studio model, and I used the same methods as on the Daemonettes from last month.
The Keeper of Secrets weighs in at a respectable 280 points (taken from the character allowance) in the game, and it must be summoned onto the board or possess a model (a cheap Aspiring Champion preferably). The daemon causes terror, comes with a psychic mastery level of 4 and has the Aura of Slaanesh special rule (opponents must make a Ld test on 3D6 to be able to attack the daemon in hand-to-hand combat). It has a massive WS9, S7 and A6 so it’s quite the beast up close and personal (just where Slaaneshi daemons want to be)!
Lirathene the Soulweaver
1x Keeper of Secrets (280)
Total: 280 points
Month 4 (April)
My fourth slice consists of a Great Unclean One, a greater daemon of Nurgle. This model was released during the later part of 2nd edition (March 1997), and was sculpted by Trish Morrison. There was another version released in the early 00’s with an alternative head lacking the horns and the monstrous tongue.
I used the same techniques as on my Plaguebearers from a previous Cowabunga challenge for the colour of the skin, namely a mix of Orc Brown and Bilious Green for a sickly green tone. Overall I’m very happy with how the paint job turned out!
The Great Unclean one will cost you 275 points in the game, making it the cheapest of the greater daemons (by 5 points). The Great Unclean One unsurprisingly causes terror, comes with a psychic mastery level of 4 and has the Stream of Corruption special attack. This uses the flamer template and inflicts S7 hits, and it can even be used in close combat! The Great Unclean One’s main drawback is its slow Movement of 4, but at the same time it is very resilient with T8 and 10 Wounds (and the standard 4+ Daemonic save).
Grul’gath the Foul
1x Great Unclean One (275)
Total: 275 points
Month 6 (June)
I decided to go with black armour and pink trim for that Emperor’s Children vibe. Using a very dark colour and a very bright colour together comes with some difficulties (if you make a mistake and get black paint on the pink you’re screwed!), but I managed to get through it without any major mishaps. It just took a long time!
Noise Marines cost 30 points per model and come in units of 3-5 (+ the option of having an Aspiring Champion). Any model can have a Sonic Blaster, while a single model may take the heavier Blastmaster for a whopping 45 points. One model in the squad may also take a Doom Siren. The Aspiring Champion can take Noise Marine weapons as well, so you could have two Blastmasters in your squad if you wanted to. They come with the Mark of Slaanesh (naturally) and the Psychic Cacophony rule which makes life harder for psykers within 16″!
The Cacophonic Reavers*
5x Noise Marines (150), 3x Sonic Blaster (30), 2x Blastmaster (90) (270)
1x Aspiring Champion (30), Mark of Slaanesh (5), 1x Doom Siren (15), 1x Powerfist (10), 1x Chainsword (2) (62)
Total: 332 points
*This isn’t a strictly legal squad since you can’t have two Blastmasters, but I did it this way for the purpose of adding up the points.
Finished Army
Here's the photo of the finished army in all its glory! Behold the warband of Pestilent Ecstasy!
Thanks to all the Cowabungites for the moral support and inspiration on this awesome painting journey!
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