The Bilious Vomitings of an Infectious Hobby – Now with added Vomit.

In an offshoot of the tunnels beneath the Lead Mountain, there is a place where the walls drip with mucus, flies buzz, and corpulent little daemons chitter and giggle in the darkness. Here, it is Grandfather Nurgle who holds court. Long days past, the suppurating hordes of the Plague God would shamble out across the tabletop, to greater or lesser effect. In recent years though, the Chuckling Master of Disease has been somewhat neglected, and his minions (those that remain) gather dust, not poxes and agues.

But no longer. A recent attempt to interest the various tiny Scribelings that inhabit the mountain involved a trip to that most contentious of destinations: A Games workshop store. Naturally, the offspring are only mildly interested, but the Scribe was immediately infected. An outbreak of purchasing occurred, (but they don’t count because they are made of plastic?) and here is the first completed example: 

A plague marine champion. Like all individual characters, this bloaty fellow came in a clam-pack with optional head, in the apparently now standard ‘flat-pack’ arrangement. The jury is out on whether this is a good or bad thing, as the flat-pack phenomenon, whilst clever, does potentially restrict what can be done with the miniatures. At the very least, it makes conversion work just a tad more complicated (but not impossible). Some slight additions to the standard miniature include the spear/trophy rack and the punch-dagger blade, both of which are parts cadged from a box of Death Rattle Skeleton Warriors garnered in trade, with an orc skull from the ridiculously self-aware/completely oblivious-to-the-irony ‘Skulls‘ box. Crafty scalpel work would probably allow weapon-swaps from other kits (such as the Plague Marine squad box.)

Painting-wise, the champion is mostly a product of controlled washes with various browny/grey/sepia inks over a white undercoat, following a relatively traditional Death Guard colour scheme, with a little (apparently successful) experiment using the new Hexwraith Flame technical paint over a yellow/orange base on the gaseous emission.

Luckily, painting took less than a day, so this stalwart pox-spreader can slide discreetly into the collection without much fuss. However, he was such a joy to paint, that it was only a matter of time before this happened: 

Nurgle is pleased. The Widow, less so.

Further immersion in the fresh feculent bile of the Grandfather, and a nostalgic delving into the older. more stagnant bowels of the Lead Mountain archives have seen a renewed interest in the workings of all things Nurgle. Older miniatures such as the original Great Unclean One have been dusted off and touched up. The constant work on the Banner Archive means that Wayne England’s glorious Nurgle spread is ever in eyesight. It’s right here, at the top, for those who have not witnessed it’s glory. Finally, the completion of the ‘standard’ Death Guard (and accompanying infected) in ‘Chapter-Approved’ paint scheme for our recent First Strike commission for Bake, Battle and Roll has forced this boil-encrusted Paint-bearer to return to his own fledgling Plague Marine force.

‘Eavy Metal style

The pustules haunt our dreams…

The second Plague Marine in the Lead Mountain Vectorum

The Plague Champion above sports a Pre-Heresy Death Guard Legion paint-scheme, albeit much befouled by several millennia of war-fare and blessings from the Pox-Lord. Rather than repeat this, or the standard scheme, the next recruit to the Vectorum sports a lurid green scheme, produced mostly by repeated application of a variety of green inks, and careful edging with Gauss Blaster Green, a particularly virulent highlight paint.

We imagine this was intended to do the glowy bits on Gauss Blasters, probably in green.

This was greatly facilitated by the original white undercoat, which lends itself to a brighter colour, more in line with the cover art of the Heretic Astartes Death Guard Codex than the more drab (in the olive sense, not the dull sense) studio scheme.

Slab-sided battle-axe, otherwise known as Great Plague Cleaver.

The Death Guard Codex cover, by Mark ‘Brush’* Holmes. (Because LMW gives credit where it is due.) His miniatures are just as good, y’know. You can get this gloriously repulsive tome here and feast your bilious, swollen seeing-spheres on more of Brush’s work here

Coming soon: Some variety from standard infantry, perhaps a vehicle is in order….

*You may blame the regulars of Games Workshop Doncaster of the early 2nd Millenium for that uninspired but accurate cognomen.

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