DuskRaider's 40K Nurgle - An Experiment in Flesh and Machine

[DuskRaider]

Thanks everyone! Thanks for the reminder Sgt. Blank, I do need to re-take pics of my Word Bearers... I'll get around to it eventually (as well as finishing my Shadow War Kill Team and INQ28 Coven... eventually). I have no doubts I can get these done well before December 15th or whatever the deadline is. I did notice while painting Typhus that I never removed the Nurgling's hand from his body... oops. Contemplating if I should go back and scrape it off or make it look as though it's coming out of his armour. And this is why you should pay attention to every detail, kids. 

[Marius Perdo]

Great stuff. Very inspirational. Love the colour scheme.

[DuskRaider]

The Herald arrives...

 

What a treat these models were. While their monopose design is a bit of a letdown, one cannot deny that GW absolutely loaded these models with detail. Each one has so much character that it is, in my opinion, the downfall of a Blightwing army... at least from a modelling viewpoint. Typhus himself is a great model as well, he just needed a little reposing to make him perfect. 

 

As you can see, Typhus is a different scheme than the rest of the army. There's reasoning behind this as well as some inspiration. From a fluff stance, Typhus is not only the leader of the First Grand Company, but also has abandoned the Legion-at-large by the 41st millennium. I wanted him to stand out among the other models as well as give a sense that he's not one of them. I took inspiration from an old illustration out of the old Horus Heresy art book which depicts Typhus in dark grey armour with black pauldrons and gold trim and was the scheme I used on my 30K iteration of Typhus a few years back. I had originally intended to copy it verbatim, but decided against it as the dark grey would hide all the wonderful detail. His armour is actually more or less the same as the rest of the Legion, I just went one shade darker with the washes... so instead of Seraphim Sepia, I used multiple layers of Agrax Earthshade followed by paneling in Nuln Oil instead of Agrax. The rest was all the same. The black also differs from the rest of the army as well, using Skavenblight Dinge as the sunburst highlight instead of Vallejo Dark Sea Blue. A simple change results in something much different on the model.

 

I'm a little (very) disappointed in the fly swarms on Typhus' back. The flies themselves just didn't come out right, their wings in particular. I'm now wishing I had skipped those bits.

 

A note on the Blightlords and in particular Fly Dude. Every example I've seen of him thus far (both GW and elsewhere) has his abdomen and helm painted the color of his armour, suggesting it's simply decoration. I wanted to go beyond that and give the feeling that this Astartes is mutated to the point that spawndom is on the horizon. All of the fly parts of the model (head, abdomen, arms) were painted black, given a very light highlight of Runefang Steel, and finally a layer of Windsor & Newton Emerald Ink. The result is these parts look black in normal lighting but have a green sheen when the light hits them, much like a green bottle fly (albeit not as bright).

 

Typhus, Herald of Nurgle

 

Blightlord Terminators

 

Group Photo

Edited October 20, 2017 by DuskRaider

[Sagentus]

Wow ... Amazing job all round, really liking the scythe on typhus and the flames on the blightlord termi. The really stand out. It would be cool if all the swords had that effect ;) 

[DuskRaider]

Thanks! The reason Typhus' Manreaper is like that is due to it more or less being a Force Weapon (see Necrosius a few pages back). The Flail of Corruption is just done to represent Warp Flame or Chem Fumes emitting from the weapon.

[Sagentus]

I see your point, It does give that power weapon feel. And maybe doing it to much would spoil the effect ^^

[Marius Perdo]

A background question I guess.

Are they the 3rd Plague Company in Mortarion's re-ordering post Heresy? Decided which Sepsis Cohort/Maladictum/Colony as yet?

Just curious as I have started pondering that for mine.

[DuskRaider]

I kind of skewed the whole organization of the codex in favor of my own thing. I have it all worked out in my head, it's just finding the time and motivation to put it all down. That may be changing soon... I picked up some bits to male a 40K iteration of my 30K Praetor. Once he's been pieced together, that may all change. I do have to say though, I'm pissed the Lord of Contagion has no ranged option.

 

I'll say this... there's some happy coincidences with the fluff for the Third Plague Company and my army, which aligns with my 30K fluff. My Praetor is the former Siege Breaker of the 23rd Battalion 5th Grand Company, he killed his brother on the surface of Isstvan III to take command of the 3rd Great Company. He's a Terran but gained Mortarion's favor through the act and still favors siege warfare. The Grand Company formerly focused on heavy infantry, mainly Terminators and Contemptor Dreadnoughts. Post-Heresy they lost much of this so are more infantry focused. They're now based on the Plague Planet as Mortarion's emissaries and only leave the Warp on his orders. They've scrubbed all green from their armour after the destruction of Barbarus and have replaced it with black.

Edited October 20, 2017 by DuskRaider

[Pearson73]

The more reddish tint is unusual to see on plague warriors, however it's worked really well and sets your men out from all the other worshipers of Nurgle out there.

 

Liking the idea of the green being recast as black after the loss of Barbarus.

[DuskRaider]

Here's another little update...

 

   So I've pretty much finished the flesh on the Plaguebearers. They've obviously a ways to go, but getting over this hurdle was significant. Otherwise, they should finish up quite quickly and I may have completed photos posted by the end of the week. Obviously they are in similar vain to the Daemon Princes, Plague Hulk and other creatures I've painted thus far but with a very VERY watered down Athonian Camoshade wash over the otherwise pale areas of the models, and not over every area either. It gives a bit of a moldered feel to them and it helps transition from the red of the raw / infected flesh to the pale white. Everything else will be the same as the others. 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

[Corswain]

Typhus and the Blightlords look great. I really like how you’ve used the fly swarm on Typhus but not the whole piece, tones it down perfectly.

[betrayer41]

These guys are ace, i absolutely love the fire. One of my fav DG schemes very different but in the best way possible.

[DuskRaider]

Thanks guys! 

 

@ Corswain: Yeah, the swarms I was hesitant with in the first place, but I used them on the Deathshroud and they actually make more sense on Typhus so I figured I really had no choice. I wanted to skip the one with the smiling fly (what?) and with the re-pose it wasn't really possible to use it anyhow. As I said previously, I'm not too happy with how the swarms look in the end, mainly the fly wings. I had done them in Pallid Wych Flesh with a very very thinned down blue, but I think with all of the surrounding green it ended up looking like hey're a crappy coat of white with the green bleeding through or something. I may go back and redo the white, but give them a wash of Sepia or something.

 

@ Betrayer: Thanks bud, I appreciate it! Every time I look at them I go from being really please to wondering if I should have weathered them ala my 30K Death Guard. The only thing I'd be afraid of is losing all of the wonderful detail in these models, they're just so nice. Which reminds me as well...

 

There's now an add-on for Firefox and Chrome to have the ability to view Photobucket linked pictures, in this thread HERE. I'd highly recommend it and with the use of that you can finally view my old threads as well... including my 30K Death Guard which I had abruptly stopped painting to concentrate on Word Bearers. Something I still kind of regret at times.

[Marius Perdo]

Thanks for that link. I will now spend hours looking through older threads :) The Photobucket message was starting to make me sigh when looking at various older threads, wondering what I wasn't getting to see.

 

Like the plaguebearer recipe. I may have to nick that for some of mine :)

[DuskRaider]

Yeah... about that Plaguebearer recipe... 

 

I may be starting over. I'm actually pretty disappointed in how uhh... bland? muted? they are. I suppose that's my fault, I decided to start washes over the Corax White base since I had achieved a zenithal prime on them accidentally (when I stripped them, the black primer stayed). I feel I should have just based them in Pallid Wych Flesh like I usually do... Thankfully if I DO decide to go through with it, they've mainly only been painted with washes so there's no need to strip them. Who knows, I'll sleep on it and decide. 

[Marius Perdo]

It might just be because they are all the same recipe. I haven't done mine yet (or my poxwalkers) but my intent is to do 25% of each squad a certain way, so a spectrum of colours is throughout each unit, like all the shades of a changing bruise, or the progression of rot and decay over time.

 

As you have used inks you should be able to easily hue shift them with different inks/washes as a glaze.

 

Unless I miscount you have 25 there with the same skin tone, it might be that was is causing the blandness you perceive.

 

Possibly some Blood For the Blood God in wounds, or Tamiya clear red with some brown ink? Tamiya clear green and yellow mixed is quite good for pus. It'll contrast and glisten.

 

I would say go look at photos of different stages of corpses but that sort of thing is unsettling and probably triggers an alert somewhere ;)

 

I personally think they are a great start but that is just my opinion.

[DuskRaider]

I guess... I mean, take a look at my Poxwalkers and then look at the Plaguebearers. The Poxwalkers are much more vibrant and that's something the Daemons sorely lack. That vibrancy is something that's become a bit of a theme for my Nurgle army this time around, focusing at that aspect of the God. 

[Marius Perdo]

Well I downloaded both your photos and flicked between them till I was dizzy.

 

I think the poxwalker look sharper and crisper because being more recent models they are actually more finely detailed and thus picked up washes better. Also they are more clearly delineated, as in the pinker parts tend to be the wormy tentacles, which contrasts more.

The plaguebearer models themselves aren't really distinct like that. i own both like you, and looking at them, the poxwalkers are far more detailed and have sharper detailing..

 

Also, unless I misread, when you stripped them back the black undercoat didn't come off. So I am not sure what that would do to the white undercoat afterwards, but if you zenitalled it was probably more grey than white. That would change the tone, so that is probably why they are looking drab to you compared to the poxwalkers. The white bits I can see look pretty white to me though. Those two coats might have lost some detail, even with you going with inks to keep the layers thin, the base details get filled with the undercoats. Also stripping can soften plastic even when paint stays on, and sort of blurs details.

 

That said I still think they look great, drab is also despair and I don't think they look drab but obviously you have them in front of you with the naked eye.

 

However if you aren't happy then back to stripping I guess.

[DuskRaider]

I summon thee, Bearers of Grandfather's Gifts!

 

Well the Plaguebearers are done. As I stated prior, I wasn't too fond of their skin but it's kinda grown on me, especially after I did another light highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh. It really drew out the colors and if you look closely (and probably not in the pics because FML) you can see a myriad of shades in their skin, from red to purple to yellow and green. It's pretty interesting. 

 

I've also begun work on the Daemon Prince and Bloat Drone (#3). The damned wing on my Daemon Prince keeps breaking and I'll most likely need to pin it... which I dread. I will start on the Nurglings as well soon enough, I just hate those models. I hate Nurglings. It's the one thing I think GW really screwed up with the new models. The old metal ones were great, they had an air of vague cuteness I suppose, but mostly they were just grotesque disease ridden gribblies. Hell, they even have AWESOME artwork in the codex of what they SHOULD be, not this "sassy Nurgling" garbage. Oh well... in any case, here you go:

 

[Marius Perdo]

Those plaguebearers are looking great.

[betrayer41]

Those plaggue bearers are absolutely disgusting in the best way possible

[DuskRaider]

A Prince of Plagues steps forth from the ether...

 

It's that time... the weekly update. This week I bring you the winged Daemon Prince of Nurgle, now complete. This guy was a real treat to paint, I had a lot of fun doing the flesh and rust on him. He joins two other Daemon Princes for the Death Guard / Nurgle Daemons force. Besides him, I've also made much more progress on Bloat Drone #3, which you can... kinda see in the picture. Sorry it's so blurry, these pics were taken at home and I was attempting to block some of the overhead light while also focus and take the picture. Anyhow, I'll post completed pics when the Bloat Drone is done and then it's on to those stupid goddamn Nurglings... god, GW screwed the design on those so bad. 

 

 

Edited November 29, 2017 by DuskRaider

[DuskRaider]

Well, I had an extremely productive weekend. I was able to finished Bloat Drone #3, my last 3 Plaguebearers, and my 3 FW Dreadnoughts as well as start on the Nurglings. I should be receiving Mortarion in the mail today and will immediately begin assembly and priming. I cannot wait!! 

 

I'm pretty pleased with how everything has come together, especially when seeing the Bloat Drones and Dreadnoughts all together. I will eventually begin the bases... some day. To be quite honest, it's the least of my worries. So anyhow, here we go. Enjoy!

 

[Sagentus]

Dam your stuff is persistently disgusting, lord n7rgle would be proud!

 

Seriously though great work all round DR, look forward to seeing what you do with morty ;-)

[ShotgunFacelift]

Great necrosis conversion