My Death Guard army progress slows as we look at the Malign Portents which are being seen across the eight Mortal Realms, my focus has shifted from Warhammer 40k to Age of Sigmar. I’m painting up some Nurgle Daemons for AoS, happy in the knowledge that I can also use them in 40k as part of my Death Guard force. Thankfully as they can be used in 40k, I can count the points in March to War 2018! Hoorah!
With this post I wanted to cover Nurglings from start to finish. As a stand contains ten of them all stuck together plus any additional ones you might want, they’re best being painted while separate as the gap between the two rows is pretty thin. This can also lead to issues when basing because whatever is under their feet will be a total pain to paint when glued.
After playing around with a stand, I worked out a way to get them looking great (and gross) without having to go mad with details and highlighting. The miniatures have that many small details, that even with a basic paint job they look superb, as the details take the eye away from what might otherwise be a slightly streaky section of skin.
Drakenhof Nightshade, Athonian Camoshade, Fuegan Orange (you can also use: Druchii Violet, Carroburg Crimson and Casandora Yellow for extra variety).
Once dried, the tongues and innards were painted using Emperor’s Children, Mephiston Red was used for the insides of mouths and wounds, and Horns were painted with Rakarth Flesh.
Next I applied shades, with Druchii Violet used on all the red areas, Carroburg Crimson on the tongues and innards, and Seraphim Sepia on the horns.
Nurgling Green was applied to all the skin, being sure to leave some areas of the shade visible in the skin’s creases. Averland Sunset was mixed with white and applied to all of the boils and pustules, while the teeth were painted with Rakarth Flesh.
Although a few had been done in the previous set, Ushabti Bone was used for the very tips of their horns in this stage. Pure white was used for their eyes, something which gives them a very beady look, with a Abaddon Black spot being used for the pupil.
Finally, the Nurglings were painted with a matt varnish, then the innards, mouths, wounds and tongues were painted with a layer of Citadel ‘Ardcoat gloss varnish to give them a shine.
Basing the Nurglings is a little different from most models, as the final miniature is made up of three individual rows. The best way I’ve found, is to start basing from the back row, then work your way forward. For this part I refer to the ridge of plastic under their feet as their mount, just for ease. The bases on the Daemons of Nurgle army are going to be lush and green on the front, with swampy mud behind, as though their corruption is ruining the land around them as they advance.
The first thing for me to do was to glue the rearmost row to the base, then apply Stirland Battlemire to the rear leaving recesses for stagnant puddles. Battlemire was also applied to the front of the Nurglings’ mount ensuring that the section where the rows glues together was kept clear of grit.
The middle row had their the rear of their mount painted with Battlemire before being glued into place. Once the glue was dried I used Battlemire to fill any gapes and obvious joins.
The same process was repeated for the front row, with a little extra Battlemire spread around the front of them.
On the very front of the base I applied Lustrian Undergrowth for the green fields which have yet to be corrupted. On the rear, I used AK Puddles to fill in the gams in the Battlmire. It’s the first time I’ve used it, so it’s not as great as it should be, but that’s down to user error rather than the product.
I added a few more thin layers of AK Puddles, then two tufts of Army Painter static grass, which I superglued to the front of the base. Once that was dry, the miniatures were finished.