"Nor It Is Unbelieved... That A Troubled Ghost Haunts The Old Trunk..."

"...Lamenting deeds of which the flowery ground is conscious."

This incredibly characterful 28mm scale pre-painted plastic “Wizkids” Tree Of The Damned is one of the exclusive figures found within the “Horrorclix” Starter Set. An impressive 70mm in height the twisted perennial plant is a ‘special object’ which apparently allows the active player to get one extra action to use that turn “if a victim is slain while adjacent” to the Tree.

However as I didn’t want to simply use the impressive-looking model as either an objective marker or a piece of scenery, I fixed it to a “Games Workshop” 60mm circular base and undercoated it with “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna. I then heavily washed the warped plant with plenty of “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade, and began a series of ever-lighter dry-brushes using a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna and White. Lastly I gave the ghoulish figure a haphazard dry-brush with some “Citadel” Adeptus Battlegrey, and followed this old OOP Foundation paint up with some “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey around the monster’s eyes, nose and teeth as a final highlight.

Plaguebearer WIPs - Plaguebearers in various stages of painting and washing

In-between finishing off my Tree Of The Damned I have been making some quite considerable progress on my current painting project; a small Host of Nurgle for “Age Of Sigmar” by “Games Workshop”. I’ve essentially just been concentrating on one Plaguebearer for now, and using the vile plaguesword-wielding demon as something of a test piece for my putrid paint scheme.

Having settled upon a fairly generic light(ish) green base colour using “Vallejo” Heavy Khaki, I have slowly been trying to build up the creature’s festering sores, boils and putrescent pimples with a variety of “Citadel” washes, and believe I’m now in the position where I can hopefully start to ‘batch’ paint them using a sort of factory line-up.

Plaguebearer WIPs - Plaguebearers with Nurglings and the Piper all-drybrushed

 I’ve certainly managed to not only undercoat my ten-strong unit of Plaguebearers. But wash and dry-brush them too, so I can now pick out all their puss-filled wounds with a mixture of white, pink and red. These can then be somewhat ‘blended’ in with the rest of the model using a second dry-brushing phase before I ‘pick out’ all their zits with yellow and give the stomach-churning horrors a final wash here and there.

In addition to the ‘run of the mill’ followers of Nurgle I have additionally made a little headway with the unit’s Plagueridden (leader) and Piper (Musician). Ultimately I might leave these ‘command figures’ until last as they’ll take the greatest time to finish. But there’s something awfully seductive about painting a three-eyed demon who is holding a bunch of severed heads. Praise be to Nurgle…