Nurgle Chaos Champion #073167/5

After some brainstorming and assistance from the Oldhammer community on Facebook, I finally managed to finish a banner that I was happy with for my slightly converted fly-guy:

The original idea for the banner image was to do something Ian Milleresque, referring back to his iconic designs found in the RoC books, or failing that, a fly head/fly body. After posting on the Facebook group for some ideas, someone suggested an Ebola design. So after some research I found this:

The image I used for the background (originally the whole banner was going to be in this design, but after some consultation with others in the online community I went for my gut instinct which was to subdue the colours and use it as a background).

I had a go but was not entirely happy (despite some lovely praise), it looked a bit too much like polka dots and really lacked a focus. So I went with my instincts (and a few similar suggestions) and subdued the colours I had used with some darker washes and added a new design over the top. I went for someone else's suggestion; to use Kafka's "Metamorphosis" as inspiration. I found some great images and eventually plumped for a part bug part skull design. Here's a bit more of a close-up of the design:

I tried to get the transparency of the wings by applying very transparent layers of greys/whites over the background using a thinly pointed brush. When I was happy with the design I muddied up the bottom of the banner to show that it may have been dragged through the mud, using some baneblade brown earth washes and some of my Tamiya weathering stick.

For the fly head, I added some pearlescent medium to the greens to give a slightly metallic look to the finish; aiming for a blue-bottle fly appearance. The black areas were highlighted up with blues to add to this idea.

There is another banner bearer within this group, for that one I will definitely be going down the Ian Miller route, it's a much larger banner to try and pay homage to his intricate designs...

Thanks to all who contributed ideas and feedback, hopefully you like the final outcome. Much appreciated!

Retinue Table: D6 Dark Elves

These 6 Elves have taken an age to complete. I can't even remember how long ago the double axe wielding conversion happened, and the same model has been constantly sitting near the front of the painting queue, but something more interesting always jumped in front. But completed they are (after some 1 hour speed painting) and another option from the Lost and the Damned retinue table is completed; ta-da:

So you may recognise the Jes Goodwin wardancers from my speed painting posts, but there's four new elves to make up the six;  I've added two of the lovely witch elves with their wonderful poses and two High Elves whom I've painted to look dark.

The two witch elves:

I've gone for a blue and pink colour scheme over a grey/purple skin tone, with some black to frame and balance these strong colours. The rust on the blades helps unify the disparate elf models (as does the basing obviously). These were a joy to paint and I am now hankering for more.. and perhaps a Dark Elf Ally contingent :)

The other two elves are a bit more unusual, both in terms of the choice of models and the way in which they were painted:

The model on the left was an experimental paint job. For the cape I used a pearlescent medium to create some glazes which gave it a very metallic sheen. I used mostly purples and blues glazes to exaggerate the pearl effect and I'm quite happy with it, but more experiments to follow. I also experimented with applying some mud to the bottom of the cape.

The character on the right is a High Elf model that has undergone a weapon swap (plastic Chaos Warrior axes). Years ago he was going to be a vampire, but he became more useful as a dark elf for this particular project. In terms of painting I restricted myself to a dark palette, using only black, grey and blue for the entire model (and of course some rust):

 And finally the two Jes Goodwin wardancers that I've blogged about before but are here for completion of the D6 Dark Elves:

Many thanks for reading. Up next I've got a tutorial on my skin painting technique that a few people have asked after..