Plaguebearers part 8 - Lesions, tentacles and boils … Oh my!

And there we have it, the Plaguebearer champion is finished! Once the severed heads were painted it was a matter of adding the finishing touches to pull everything together. In addition to a little dripping green slime, I added some blood dripping from a few of the wounds. 

It’s very important to keep the blood drips as small as possible. This is mostly to ensure that they look ‘in scale’ but it also prevents them from becoming too cartoonish in appearance. To convey the impression that the slime is thicker than the blood, I’ve made those drips slightly larger. As always it’s all about creating contrasts! 

I’ve used some microbeads to enhance the blood and slime but, further to that, I’ve used them to create additional areas of texture. This is most apparent on the back of the neck. The microbeads are mixed with a little tinted water effects, which gives a glossy finish. Once this has dried, I’ve then washed over the microbeads with diluted paint and ink. By doing this I am able to control the degree of gloss/satin/matt on the microbeads and better integrate them with the rest of the painted miniature. 

I now have one miniature left to convert and paint for my unit, the standard bearer. But I’m also giving a lot of thought about the base for the finished unit. My recent bout of ill health may have some impact on this as my initial plans were to have the unit on a fairly elaborate scenic base. While I would still like to try this, I will need to see what time I have left once the standard bearer is complete and develop my plans appropriately. Past lessons learned also come to mind. A simple basing solution is not necessarily less effective than a complex one, and whatever I do, the miniatures must be the main focus!