Wednesday 31 August 2016

"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.

21 comments:

  1. Patience is a virtue, they say. But whoever said that obviously never painted or sculpted minatures! considering we do this hobby as a form of relaxation it's amazing just how blooming frustrating it can be sometimes!!!

    I feel your pain mate.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks ROger. The Icon bearer is now finished, varnished and simply awaiting for his base to be flocked. Good riddance too ;-)

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  2. Definitely brilliant those finished models.
    You've more patience than me with the head problem, as if I'd not nailed it first time I'd have just painted differently and said 'sod it'. It's that small, anyway, it has taken me an age to spot the stitches you were on about, so you've done a good job in resolving the issue.

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    1. Cheers Roy. Much appreciated. I'm especially pleased with fly-face as I loved his head just as soon as I saw it. Glad you couldn't spot the mistake readily, it means "The Army Painter" has done its job!! :-)

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  3. The icon bearer is looking brilliant

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    1. Thanks Martin. I am mightily glad I've now just got to flock his base, and have him behind me. He took quite an effort I can assure you :-)

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  4. Great work on these loathsome creatures, Simon. You've certainly got the hang of painting them now. My brother has a great saying (and attitude) whenever I have a problem with my computer. He'll say, "it's not a problem, it's a challenge!" You could just as easily apply motto that to your Icon Bearer. :-)

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    1. I meant to say "that motto."

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    2. Cheers Bryan. The Icon Bearer was indeed something of a challenge, although the plaguebearer himself wasn't anything special. Anyway he's finished now and soon to be posted, although I have a few articles in the pipeline first ;-)

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  5. You must have a veritable horde of these now, Simon. When you first started painting these, there was a sense of familiarity about them, which I thought was just due to the fact they were Nurgle's chosen. It wasn't - they remind me of the medieval depictions of demons, so would probably work as such in games like Witchfinder General or alternative Abominations in Black Plague. You know me - I like multi-use models. ;-)

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    1. I'm sure you won't be surprised to know that I already have a few games in mind for this particular Unclean Host, Jez, for as you say they have a multitude of uses :-)

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  6. A thoroughly disgusting lot they are too.....

    Group shot, now their finished? Please ;-)

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    1. Thanks Andy. Just the Icon Bearer to flock and post, and then they'll be a group shot my friend.

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  7. Excellent gribbliness on the piper and final trooper. :) Superb stuff. :)

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    1. Cheers Leon. The end is well and truly in sight, for the Plaguebearers at least :-)

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  8. Repellent (in the best sense). The verdigris on the icon looks terrific.

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    1. Many thanks Finch. Its my first attempt at verdigris, so I'm rather happy with it; especially as that'll be one of the themes of my Nurgle Host - as you'll see from my Lord of Plagues and Blightkings in future posts.

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  9. Your frustrations are quite understood my dear fellow. I don't think I spent a lot of effort after becoming likewise annoyed at not being able to get "just the right" effect on my own set of shrunken heads from that kit (That I consequently ended up using on a large anthropomorphised snail-man). Lots of washes certainly help during these moments in hobby-dom. :)

    Still very much enjoying watching these all come together.

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    1. Cheers Dai. Fortunately this particular mini is now finished and based, and I've been able to move on. But as you say, its a very demotivating experience which at the time took the wind right out of my sails.

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