Plaguebearers part 7 - The Red King

My decision to experiment with a green basecoat, instead of the usual Rackarth Flesh, for my Plaguebearer champion proved to be a mistake. I pride myself on having a good eye for colour but in this case I bungled my choice. As I’ve progressed, it has become increasingly clear that the green I picked has too much blue in it. 

It’s a subtle thing but the green base colour clashes with the yellow/greens and reds I use in my Plaguebearer flesh tones. This means that I’ve had to spend extra time balancing out the colours and correcting the problem. With hindsight a Rakarth flesh base colour would have saved me a lot of time and effort! 

It’s with no small degree of relief that I’ve finally reached a point where the entire base colour is covered up, and I can finally get a feel for the overall colour balance on this mini. 

Colourwise the big difference between the champion and the other Plaguebearers is in the use of red. While all of the Plaguebearers have some red on them, the champion has both a greater area and a more saturated shade of red than on the other minis in the unit. I’m hoping that this will, along with his greater stature, give him prominence without making him look out of place in the unit. It’s on account of his colouring, along with his ‘crown’ of horns, that I’ve started to think of this mini as The Red King. 

As with all of my Plaguebearers I’m adding a few ‘special effects’ to the paint job. I’ve already begun to work a few clusters of microbeads into some of the creases and crevices and I plan to add some slime and drips. How could I not? 

Plaguebearers part 6

Apologies for the lack of recent activity I’ve had flu and been out of action for the last couple of weeks! Prior to that I’d made a really good start on my plaguebearer champion, which is just as well as I’ve not painted at all for the last fortnight.

Thankfully I’m now on the mend and turning my attention back to painting. It’s going to take me a while to get back up to speed and catch up on all the missed messages so please bear with me as I attempt to resume ‘normal service’.

In the mean time here are some pics of the plaguebearer champion as he currently stands.

Plaguebearers part 5

I’ve managed to get a fair amount of painting time under my belt this last week and, as a result, I’ve finished off the third Plaguebearer. It feels good to see another completed mini so soon after re-starting the project, but I think I’ll have to take another look at the Plaguebearers once they are all painted. I’ve a feeling that they will need some final retouching and finesse to pull them together as a finished unit.

I’ve also made a start on the champion. I’m trying a darker base colour for this mini, compared to the others, and I think it cuts down a little on the shading work. The only drawback is that I misjudged the colour. I think I would have had an easier time if the green had been slightly yellower and more desaturated. Having said that, once I got my head around the problem, things went a lot more smoothly. It’s early days but, so far, so good.

Project Nurgle - Plague bearers part 4

Getting to grips with Project Nurgle!

With the Golden Demon painting competition on the horizon I’ve dusted off my plans to paint a unit of plague bearers. Although the project has been on hold, I’ve been giving it some thought; in particular’ the matter of a champion to lead the unit.

At first I planned to make the champion stand out through giving him a predominantly red colour scheme, but as time has passed, I’ve decided that I need to do a bit more. To that effect I’ve customised a champion for the unit. This has enabled me to make him more physically imposing than the other plague bearers in the unit.

Creating a custom champion turned out to be an enjoyable little project, but I was surprised by just how many minis went into this one! The champion includes parts from; Plague bearers, Gutrot Spume, Putrid Blightkings and a mutant from the Chaos Warshrine. In total eight miniatures blended together with plastic glue, green stuff and baking soda! 

Once I gave the mini a coat of primer it became easier to see it as a whole.

At the same time as I’ve been rebooting ‘Project Nurgle’ I’ve been trying out a new miniature holder. It’s the Crazy Grip from CrazyWenky, which I first saw reviewed on Massive Voodoo.

My first impression is extremely positive! Previously I've been using a pin vice but with a mini in place it's top heavy and badly balanced. It can also be uncomfortable to hold for long painting sessions. Straight away the CrazyGrip had a really good feeling of weight and balance to it! For ease of use and comfort alone the GrazyGrip will make an indispensible addition to my painting kit. 

I also appreciate its stability (even without the stand provided) when I put it down on my desk during painting. When I’m not handling a mini for painting I tend to stick it into a cork. Now I can keep my minis on their corks all the time. It’s simply a matter of popping the corked minis in and out of the handle (using the stand) as needed.

Looking back... and forward.

About his time last year I’d reconciled myself to a less productive 2015, at least in terms of the number of minis I’d get finished. I decided to concentrate on quality and enjoy myself obsessing over Gutrot Spume. Gutrot was painted with an eye to entering the Golden Demon competition, whenever that happened; and I’d resolved to quite literally push the boat out for him.

As it turned out 2015 was a far more productive year than I had predicted! After a slow start, Gutrot came together and was finally finished in September. I’d already taken time out to paint Mole, but once Gutrot was done, I switched up in scale to paint Commodore Borgossa, and most recently Abalam Prince of Hell. I also started painting a unit of Plague bearers as part of the preparations for my Weekend Workshop in Cardiff.

And now we finally have a date for the next Warhammer Fest and the 2016 Golden Demons! Sunday, May 15, at the Rico Arena in Coventry. It’s been a long wait!

With Abalam finished, all bar his plinth, I am turning my attention to the next project. I was going to paint another mini for Salute (April 16) and then return to the unit of Plague bearers, but the Golden Demon announcement has changed everything. The Plague bearers have jumped right back up to the top of my painting priorities. Remembering 2014’s last minute Haemonculus, I want to try and complete them without putting too much pressure on myself.

Project Nurgle is all GO….again.