"Countless Mortals Worship Nurgle..."

"Despite Nurgle's generosity, it is no easy feat to join the ranks for the Rotbringers."

This 28mm plastic multi-part model of a ‘loathsome Lesser Daemon’ Piper comes from the “Games Workshop” Plaguebearers of Nurgle boxed set, and whilst on the tabletop will force my “Age of Sigmar” opponent to “re-roll Battleshock Tests of 1 for units that are within 6” of my ten-miniature strong Nurgle unit.

Having followed the well-illustrated instructions found within the figure’s box, and assembled the antler-header musician from its relevant sprues, I treated the postulant creature to a double-helping of “Vallejo” Heavy Khaki and washed it with “Citadel” Thrakka Green. The wretched one-eyed daemon was then dry-brushed with more “Vallejo” Heavy Khaki before his horn, bloated stomach and sores were ‘picked’ out with “Citadel” Abaddon Black. With all the base colouring now finished I spent a little time applying a coat of either “Vallejo” Heavy Red or Heavy Warmgrey to the Piper’s infectious innards, and heavily washed them all with a combination of “Citadel” Thrakka Green, Agrax Earthshade and Carroburg Crimson.

"...Only a fraction of those truly impress the Plague God and are marked as his chosen."

 As I wanted the musician to appear especially blessed with Nurgle’s Rot, I subsequently dolloped a spot of “Vallejo” Heavy Ochre over every one of the creature’s pimples and once dry, gave them a generous coat of “Citadel” Reikland Fleshshade. As a final touch the Plaguebearer’s pipes were painted with “Vallejo” Heavy Brown and its leather straps Heavy Sienna. The entire wind instrument was then washed with “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade before I gently drybrushed over the pipe’s tone holes with more “Vallejo” Heavy Brown.

In addition to so musical a Tallyman of Nurgle, I have also finished painting the last of my unit’s foot soldiers. This particular insect-influenced Plaguebearer is the literal embodiment of the daemon’s’ “Cloud of Flies” ability, and I must confess to being sorely tempted to buy some more of the bug-eyed heads from a ‘Bitz Store’ in order to help me field more of the ‘droning’ warriors. Unsurprisingly the model was painted using the same colour combinations as I have for his Host’s Piper, although I did spend a bit more time on his intestines in order to illustrate the fiend’s “Locus of Fecundity” ability; which allows me to “re-roll save rolls of 1 for this unit if it is within 7” of any [of my army’s] Plaguebearer Heroes…”

Icon Bearer WIPS - This plaguebearer  just needs to be washed and have his pimples 'picked out' with yellow

 With the end of my Plaguebearer Unit now very much in sight I have been focussing quite a bit of my hobby time on its final figure, the daemon’s Icon Bearer. As models go, the actual plaguesword-wielding horror is pretty unremarkable-looking and is proving reasonably straightforward to paint. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for its standard, which has ‘gobbled up’ a considerable amount of my patience due to the eye and mouth stitches found on its ‘tasteful’ severed head.

Despite plenty of attempts I just haven’t been able to ‘pick out’ the stitching as clearly as I was able on the Plagueridden model, and as a result have had to leave the model well alone on more than one occasion, or else it would have been badly mistreated during a fit of pique. Ultimately I’ve settled on a bit of a botched mess comprising of “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade and some ‘distracting’ red face boils, in order to simply allow myself to move on and finish the model.