Derrick asked recently if I would post some photos of a single plaguebearer from the unit I painted. I told him I’d do it that weekend…it is no longer “that weekend”, but it is a weekend, so that counts, right?
Browsing Tag
plaguebearers
Here’s the promised post on the portal. I was once again inspired by Mr. Wappel and his Chaos Portal, but I wanted something a lot more colourful and out there. When you see Patrick’s and my display board (yet to be started…) you’ll understand this unit a bit more.
Sunburst Yellow. I did my best to make sure it’s all yellow, but decided it wasn’t critical.
Mixed that with Blazing Orange, such that there is 3 levels of colour between the orange and the yellow. I mixed this on my palette so I could use all 3 at once. I painted in semi-random circular patterns around the models, making sure not to completely cover a layer underneath. I want to cover a good chunk of the base yellow with these 3 colours.
I mixed Blood Red with the last Blazing Orange and started tightening the circles around the Plaguebearers a bit. Mixed more and more of the red in and making the circles tighter, occasionally going over a previous outer layer slightly. These are still big and casual paint strokes.
I mixed Alaitoc Blue with the Blood Red. This was much to dark, so I mixed some of the Sunburst Yellow back in to lighten it. Now I started to make the circles more deliberate and careful. Near the end of this part, I had very small strokes of the blue and red mix and painted these in smaller areas to “highlight” the more broad blue+red+yellow strokes.
Unfortunately, I had been careless while painting the Plaguebearers green many days ago, and inside the portal circles were shadows of the teal where it had spilled and I hadn’t been able to cover it well enough with the base yellow. I mixed some Sotek Green with the Blood Red and really watered it down, and made a glaze to lightly cover the inside of the circle. In spots this left little bubbles by accident, and I let those remain so they dried to create little dark spots – a happy accident! This layer also served to mask the darker green under layer.
Lastly, I re-did the Sunburst Yellow on the very top edge of the plasticard.
Super happy with how it turned out!
A lot went into this unit.
I haven’t painted a whole new unit in ages, and now I remember why. I always start with the idea that it will be perfect, that I’ll paint everything perfectly. As I start, I get bored…painting 16+unit filler of the same model over and over again is boring. I’m glad that I’m done with the infantry for my daemons now!
I’m also glad that they turned out at all good. These models were second hand, with primer and a base coat on them already when I bought them. They fell apart if I looked at them funny. It’s a miracle that they’re done!
Their Backs
The backs were slightly painful – they have a lot of little dots on their back. I did a messy wet brush of Ushapti Bone onto those dots. Then Lamenters Yellow over it, leaving it pretty yellow with yellow tint to the green skin surrounding. Then I did a drybrush of Ushapti again. Lastly, I mixed 2:1 Water and Secret Weapon Soft Body Black.
It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough.
Swords
I was trying to figure out how to do a glowing white sword. I thought I might do a pink/purple force weapon look similar to my Old Blood. Then I realized that this was not going to get finished…it took an evening to do a single sword, I wasn’t going to do 18 of them.
So I came up with a different scheme that I think looks pretty damn good. I did watered down Camo Green over the white primer. This dried with darker bits in the middle and lighter at the edges, which is a good start.
I painted edge highlights of Rotting Flesh, and did a light feathering of the same colour on the flat of the blade.
Lastly, Skull White on the tips of the spikes and tip of the sword.
The Photos, Already.
Here’s the unit, in all of it’s green glory.
Oh yeah, I painted the portal too. 😛 I’ll have a post devoted to that upcoming in a couple days.
I thought of doing a fancy design on the banner, but in the end the simplicity of this weathered green really appealed to me. Camo Green, Soft Body Black and then I stipled Zamesi Desert with a piece of sponge. I think it looks fantastic.
What’s Next?
On the road to Adepticon, I still have to paint:
- 2-4 Beasts of Nurgle. 2 of them have a base coat and nothing else.
- Skull Cannon. Patrick made me a fantastic conversion for this!
- Deadzone strike force. Playing in the Deadzone “big game”.
- Some reinforcements for my Dreadball rats. Playing in the “league in a night”, so I have to figure out what that means.
- Ever more Malifaux. I have a handful of toolbox models I want to add to my crew for the 2-day Malifaux tournament! December Acolyte, The Firestarter, maybe some of the Kaeris crew. Taelor…Oiran…Johan…
Work-in-progress
Slightly delayed posting…building the plaguebearer portal.
Posted on January 1, 2014Found some photos in my upload folder…turns out these are a few steps back in my plaguebearer work.
You’ll have noticed last post that I own a Dremel. I originally bought it so that I could cut up plasticard and MDF board easily, and that’s how I used it on this project.
The portal is just two pieces of fairly thick plasticard.
To give the vertical piece some stability and strength, I pinned it three times across it’s length. I glued the base to 2 pieces of 50mm bases, which is how many plaguebearers it is supposed to represent.
This part was scary. I mean…I have a lot of bloodletter models kicking around my bitz box, but if this hadn’t worked I wasn’t certain what else I would do to get the effect properly! I used an old GW hand saw down the center of this model to split it into two.
Glue both sides of the model appropriately on either side of the portal, and you have one model entering and exiting from a portal!
I’ll have some more photos of these guys…finished…in a day or two!
Today I spent most of the afternoon applying layer after layer of paint to my plaguebearers.
I started with a Sotek Green base, then highlighted up3-4 layers up with Sotek+Ushapti Bone. This was really pastelly in the end.
I had a Secret Weapon gift certificate, so I picked up a few items, including 4 of their washes to try out. I mixed the Soft Body Black 1:1 with water and applied it liberally across the models. This stuff you have to be slightly more carefully with than the GW washes, as it will create tide marks more easily. It’s also slightly glossy at the end, which isn’t great.
On 3 of the models I mixed more water in, such that when you pulled your brush through it, it was transparent. This looked great on the model while it was wet, but didn’t look like anything after it dried. If I wasn’t doing a unit of 24, this probably would have been the right way to use this stuff – just with a lot more layers.
I wanted something else…so I mixed the Soft Body with some water and Fortress Grey and painted that into the crevasses of the models. This is just a slight tint of grey in some areas, which I like. Part of the inspiration for the colours of this unit is the bases that I’ve been painting – they are on completely different coloured bases – and I wanted to have that similar colour between units.
After that step, I went back and re-highlighted the tops of the muscles. Sotek Green, then Sotek+Fortress Grey, then Sotek+Fortress+Ushapti.
Right now, I’m feeling like there is just a single colour on these models…which there is. I’m thinking about bright orange swords…anything to make the unit more bright!
Painting these today, I’m going to be glad when they’re done. I remember now why I haven’t done a new army in years – painting model after model of the exact same thing is incredibly boring. I’m driven to finish it, and painting in a factory-line is the most efficient, but I just want it done, so I start getting sloppy at the end of the assembly line.
It’s been a few weeks since I wrote. I haven’t felt the muse tug at me to write, but have instead been working on actually getting some damn progress on these damn models. I felt as though the plaguebearers would never be started, let alone finished, so I hunkered down and I now have some middling progress to report on.
Considering that these same models inspired me to write a 3-part series on glue, I’m pretty stoked at where they’re at. Just some Rhinox Hide on the back bases, a black base border and some Sotek Green, really, but it’s more than that. They look harmonized. They look like the heads belong on the bodies, where that wasn’t the case before priming. They look like they might be Plaguebearers, and that’s all the difference. I played a game of Triumph and Treachery last week, and one of my many opponents said after deployment “Oh, those are plaguebearers? Oh, no.” even though I had mentioned their religious choices earlier in the evening. Muskie told me in the comments, months ago, that my worshippers of Nurgle looked a little Khorny. Now, in a slightly more greenish hue than mostly red and some metal, these could be plaguebearers.
I’m overjoyed at making progress.
In the meantime, Adepticon moved my cheese. I had a perfect 1200 point list written. When it was done, the Chaos Gods themselves would join hands and circle round it in song and praise. Then Adepticon threw a wrench in my plans by making my tournaments a mere 1000 points. The same perfection is no longer possible. I will have to make do. But know this – the Gods will have their due.