The Death Guard Experiment

The first of the Rotten Many. 

All this "modern plague" couldn't keep my thoughts away from Papa Nurgle. So much so that I decided to finally paint a Deathguard miniature. The miniature of choice was one of a pair that was released as the first plastic Plague Marines way back in '96. These guys are virtually mono-posed (you can adjust the elevation of the gun arm, so technically their duo-posed I guess?) in that simple pushfit style that GW was pumping out in the early to mid '90s. Anyway, I have at least three of these boxed sets and I decided a few years back to finally do something with them. Since that point however the Deathguard were released as a range and they are not only amazingly more detailed but exceptionally bigger.

These two* Plague Marines had their bases extended using ring extenders, primed white, and... neglected for three years. I think my focused changed from Chaos back to Orks and Wolves or something as I haven't done too much modeling and painting since 8th edition launched. But, they are still fine when grouped up I think and a perfect canvas for conducting my painting experiments on.

Extended base with new basing grit.

Enter Contrast Paints. Particularly the Plaguebearer color.

Just Plaguebearer Contrast Paint.

I love this paint! I liked how this turned out to the point that I had an attitude of, "well this is done, isn't it?" in regards to the way the green armor turned out.

After setting it aside for a few months (everything above this paragraph was written in April, it's now September) I began tickering with it again. I lightly washed Agrax Earthshade into the groves to give the model a little more depth. I was still so pleased with that I almost left it at that, but desire to sate my curiosity to give this thing a bit more highlight was irresistible. I used Ogryn Camo to give this a highlight. It looks good, but I dunno, I think I like it the other way... I will probably do another one up to compare the two. Not that it matters since I think no two of the my Deathguard are going to look alike.

Highlight of Ogryn Camo. 

The guts were done using steps found in the Know No Fear book. Screaming Pink, a wash of Druchii Violet, a brushing of Pink Horror and a wash of Reikland Flesh shade. Pretty simple really, and it looks good when finished.

Red Metallic trim. 

Following the Know No Fear book's direction on painting Death Guard, I used Krieg Kaki for the final highlight. And,, suddenly I like the way it turned out! This was the kick I think it needed.

I always liked the red trim that the 'eavy Metal team used on the original Death Guard back in the Realm Of Chaos: Lost And The Damned era (circa 1989) but I also like the current look of painting the trims and spikes a copper/brass metallic color. I decided to go with a best of both worlds approach. What I did was paint Hashut Copper over the Ral Partha Copper Metallic base coat. I next applied a Red Ink over that, and presto, I now have an interesting red metal color.

And sticking to the tradition I started years ago based off of a joke from Archer, I had to make one of the wires blue with white stripes. Or white with blue stripes. Whatever.

Finished!

I contemplated decals, but decided to hold off until I have at least a unit of these guys done. Finally I applied the grass tufts. I may seek out some tufts in red or orange colors just to add a bit more contrast to any more Death Guard I paint. And I do have a lot more to paint!

To sum up, this experiment was a success, even though it felt like it took ages for me to finish this one miniature. The Contrast paint was a huge boon as it allowed me skip a lot of stages. This was a successful experiment for sure and I am excited to finally work on an army that I started way back in 1994!




*For some reason I lost the photo that had the two miniatures side-by-side, but trust me there were two at this point.