2 Chaos Spawn (50pts)

From the largest pointed unit (1200 for the Plaguebearers) to the smallest, a couple of Spawn at 25pts each. In the LatD these are described more as a pack as can (and probably should) be led by a Champion of Chaos, so eventually I'd like to do a converted spawn made up of lots of bits from my box and add him to these two and add a leader to marshall them around the battlefield.

Obviously these two are both classic Citadel miniatures, the left model being an old Plague Elemental and the right one being a Spawn of Nurgle, the latter having a slight conversion in removing the funny legs that came with it and sculpting some tentacles there instead. Both these old models though suffer from the perpendicular restraints of sculpting from that time, so when faced from the front both models look quite flat and symmetrical (although with the slug spawn you can reposition the tentacles on it's head to create more dynamic movement) and hence why I've photographed them both on the angle.

For this Beast of Nurgle I did a little research on slugs to get the correct colour scheme and used a little gloss varnish to capture the slimy nature of it's body. You will notice the basing on both models is slightly different from the rest of the army, in that there are a collection of organic shapes molded into the landscape, the idea behind this is based on the premise that:

 "the very proximity of a Beast is sufficient to kill small animals and plant.... or may age and decay perceptibly in their presence" (LatD p.20)

So a collection of small bitz from the box were impressed into some milliput and sculpted into the base to give the appearance of a dying, organic mass surrounding the model as it moves forward.

With the Plague Elemental I also experimented further with some skin painting techniques. Over a white undercoat I painted all the pinks with Contrast paints and highlights. Over this I then mixed some crackle medium into the pale green colouring of the skin and dabbed this onto areas where I wanted to create a peeling, cracking skin effect over the pink, exposed areas.

And to finish here's a group shot of the army including the most recent units for a cumulative total of 4405pts

Next up are some kitbashed Nurgle Beastmen, using mostly plastic kits...

14 Plaguebearers (1200pts)

The Lost and the Damned tome allows for a Nurgle Daemonic Army to have any number of troops from the Chaos Army list, but not vice versa (aside from Nurglings) so strictly speaking this unit of 14 Plaguebearers shouldn't be allowed in a 3rd Edition army of this type. Unless I get a Great Unclean One to lead them.... But for me they fit perfectly into what I'm building here, basically a huge Chaos Nurgle Army of all my favourite miniatures, lumped together in units. This unit comes in at a whopping 1200pts (600pts per 7 Plaguebearers). The high points expense per Plaguebearer is clear; these guys have 1 Nurgle spell per model (!), save of 6 and -1 to hit on combat and comes equipped with a Plaguesword which if wounds, can induce Nurgle's Rot on a character or unit. As always all these additional rules help create such character for the models themselves which in turn helps me when I come to model and paint them. So here's the unit of 14:

In creating this unit, the task was about creating some unique Plaguebearers, based often on the illustrations I have been inspired by, but also a task in combining new and old sculpts together. With some subtle conversions and a range of pastel like skin tones, I hope I have achieved that. 

The skin tones, whilst variable in colour, were the same in process. From a white undercoat a wash of colour was added (sometimes using the new Contrast paints, sometimes an old ink) and I deliberately appplied several colours together whilst wet, so they bled into each other. When dry, subsequent layers of whiter highlights were applied. To stop the skin from looking too chalky, several glazes were then added over the top, usually a combination of reds, purples and greens to represent the various plague that these models should be bearing.

The main character in this unit is the standard bearer, which is a ForgeWorld resin model, that I believe was some kind of Daemon Prince in 40k (I made this model many years ago). I cut off his left arm, which was quite robotic I recall and added a tentacle to carry the banner. The central image on the triptych of the banner is a copy straight from a Fighting Fantasy illustration (more examples here) and the outermost banners from the Lost and the Damned itself. I decided to add a physical head to the main image and banner itself because I had mis-calculated the positioning of the robed figure and couldn't fit in the top of his head!

Here you can see him escorting a couple of Nurglings and you can see the slug like shape of his body, which I like. His base takes up the equivalent of 4 plaguebearers, hence why there is only 10 models after this one to create the 14 man unit.

Next up are a batch of the older Plaguebearer sculpts, some of my favourites. They've been tinkered with a bit to make them a bit more imposing and unique. First up this smiley lad has had a large scythe added to his left hand whilst his right hand keeps his guts in place:

The next fellow came to me a bit battered. Missing his weapon and his face was a bit smashed in. The latter was corrected with a bit of greenstuff and the former with a paper clip bent and then covered in greenstuff and sculpted to look like wood. Hanging from this branch was a large bell, from one of the modern Nurgle plastic kits. A nice combo of old lead and new plastic:

This guy also arrived in a sorry state. He had lost his nose and his weapon was all bent and ruined. So it was the perfect opportunity to recreate the dancing, beating drummer from the Adrian Smith illustration on p.17 of the LatD. A nose cone, a bone and an orc drum were added:

This old plaguebearer, just had a weapon swap, a nicely corroded sword to hint at the Plaguesword that I mentioned above. You can see the purple skin colouring here, which was one of my favourite colour schemes.

The final old model, is this wide mouthed boy, with his attendant Nurgling having a little tug on his innards. 

From here I move onto the newer versions, which have a very different style and in my opinion are slightly less interesting sculpts. Some of them are very angular and blocky in comparison and lack the clarity and detail of the ones above, yet have a darker and less comic appearance. I certainly felt that the models were less interesting to paint, but having less attachment to them, I was much more open to converting them!

First up is this fella, actually one of the nicer sculpts. He has just been given some wings; a flying plaguebearer wielding a dark sword would not be a pleasant vision on the battlefield. 

This bearer of plagues had his sword painted to look as rusty as possible and had the bottom of his legs clipped off, to give the appearance of him sinking into the swamp. Quite a classic facial sculpt though:

For the bulging, foggy eye plaguebearer, a whip was provided with rusty spikes on the end. I actually really like this sculpt too:

This is probably the weakest sculpt in the group, but I quite liked his contemplative chin stroking pose. What else could he be contemplating but the genitalia of a Nurgling?

And finally a pitchfork wielding, long tentacled tongued plaguebearer. I'm never really a fan of the "wave your weapon in the air" type pose, but made the most of it here, by giving him an interesting choice of arms. The tongue is just a plastic Skaven tail poking out of his gob.

These guys total 1200pts as a unit, which gives a running total of 4355pts. A couple of spawn next...