The Death Guard are starting to come along pretty well, which is a good thing as I've got a bunch of games lined up this coming Saturday...

Papa Nurgle's Group Shot

Front to back, left to right:

Nurgling/Plague Infestation, two Plaguereapers and a Defiler, Beasts of Nurgle.

Defiler formation, Death Guard Retinue, (rest of Plaguereaper formation), eight Plaguebearers and Mortation who's standing in as a Great Unclean One.

Contagion Engine formation including a couple of Basilisk stand-ins, Predator formation, Death Guard Retinue with Defiler.

Two objective markers, Warhound/Plaguehound Scout Titan, Death Guard Retinue with Plague Tower (Capital Imperialis) and three Land Raiders, third objective marker.

Following on from the previous blog post, I've managed to get a bunch more models assembled and undercoated, as seen above. ;-) First were some Death Guard Havoc stands to give the Retinues some much-needed ranged firepower. They were put together using a wide variety of models and even include some conversions.

All six Havoc stands. Squat ML and CSM-Havoc conversion. Squat & CSM conversion - other side. Mk 6 Marine with Land Speeder Plasma. Plasma - other side.

The second of the two Plaguereapers took a slightly different direction from the first:

Plaguereaper 2. Plaguereaper 2. Plaguereaper 2. Plaguereaper 2. Plaguereaper 2. 

The sixth Defiler was also contructed. This is the chassis of a wheeled GZG drone with the body of an SM Teleport Homer stuck on top. The front slope was cut down and a shiled added plus a Nurgle icon. Tentacles where then added to the sides of the homer and the gun turret from the drone added where the bulb had been on the homer.

This one reminds me a bit of the old Khorne Daemon Engines. As it's going to be accompanyng the Plaguereapers most of the time the differences from the six-legged Defilers doesn't matter too much.

Defiler 6. Defiler 6. Defiler 6. All Defilers all the time.

Not needed for the army (due to Mortarion being partially painted) was this Great Unclean One but he got magnetised while doing some of the other models. First came a 5mm hole in the ply disc, a 5x5mm magnet and then a big hole in the bottom of the GUC to fit over the magnet. As you can imagine, with that size magnet on the bottom it doesn't move around in the case much. No paint going on him just yet, though, and he needs some cleaning and base texture first anyway.

GUC and base. Hole in the bottom of the GUC. GUC glued onto base.

On the subject of base texture, here's my current basing process:

1. Drill holes in the ply disc.
2. Glue in magnets.
3. Glue cleaned model onto disc.
4. Build up the surroundings of the model with Plasticine to hide any built-in base.
5. Paint with Vallejo Sandy Paste.

On the whole it works pretty well but the paste is so fine that you need to be a bit careful when priming and painting.

Basing in progress.

Almost all the remaining models were then undercoated and most of the bases given a thick wash of greeny-browny-grey.

All that lovely white surface...

Then, painting occured! The gribblies so far had a base coat of Rotting Flesh but for the war engines and Death Guard I wanted something with a bit more zing, as a closer match to the older paint jobs. After some digging around I eventually found a carefully hoarded pot of round-pot-white-lid era Bilious Green. Perfect!

I'd forgotten what a fantastic consistency and neon yellow-green colour Bilious Green had over a good white undercoat. The photos below don't really capture the subtlety of the colour, it's more reminiscent of pistachios.

Bilious, green be thy name!

The bronze areas were then base-coated using about equal parts Brazen Bronze (same as as the green), Chestnut ink (modern Coat d'Arms) and Brown Wash (hex-pot-blue-lid) while the tracks etc. got a mix of Mithril Silver (round-white), Armour Wash (hex-blue) and Chestnut again. This gave a very good even coverage ready for future washes and weathering.

Looking for colours to go with the green/yellow, I went with purple detailing with some orange areas. The 'liquid' in the bowl has just had some glazes to stop it looking white.

Technicolor Plaguereaper. Technicolor Plaguereaper.

Some of the Defilers got areas of Bilious Green, this one also had the bronze and purple. The white areas on the legs are where gloop (plastic putty) was added. Meanwhile, several of the Plaguebearers and gribblies got assorted washes.

The future's so bright... Except when it isn't...

Finally, some more photos under better lighting:

The colours on the Plaguereapers still aren't coming out totally right (I might have to dig out the dSLR) but they're better than the photos ealier:

Still to do:

• Base-coat the rest of the second Plaguereaper.
• Base-coat four and a half Defilers.
• Base coat five and a half stands of Havocs.
• Base coat four Contagion Engines.
• Finish basing a Beast of Nurgle, Mortarion, four Plaguebearers and the Warhound.

If there's any time left over, a bit of colour will go on the objectives.

Here's the progress report from a day or so ago.

Army List/Progress Report

Long may you slime,

Ian