Nurgle, Nurgle, quite horrid purple, how does your Garden grow?

09 Aug 2019: Progress So Far… – OnTableTop – Home of Beasts of War

That was the last time these minis saw any progress. They were received in the Hachette/ GW Conquest partworks magazine from 2019.
It’s time to get them done. It’s also a good opportunity to get some practice in using Greenstuff to convert and modify minis, something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while now. At least if I make anything look wonky it can be explained as chaos-y, Nurgley mutation and corruption.

I dug the minis out and got cutting, pruning and grafting.

I started, as I did last time, with the Plague Zombies. There are two sets of 10 minis. One set I build as standard. These later get greenstuff added to change spikes and spines into giant fungal growths.
The second set get chopped up, mixed around and rebuilt. Then greenstuff fix anything that needs patching.

Part of the set included Typhus, Herald of Nurgle and his Destroyer hive, but I wasn’t interested in having existing named characters in this set.
Two pieces jumped out at me as a potential conversion. Typhus’ front piece and the axe from the other terminator.

I filled in the socket in the end of the arm using shavings from mould line removal and plastic glue. I cut the axe with the hands attached along the red lines, then removed the head of the axe since it wasn’t going to reach as it was. Greenstuff work required!

I cut all the minis off the sprue and ran through cleanup quickly. They were set the pieces out then slowly looked to where I could start making changes, conversions, part swaps etc.

One mini in particular I agonised over was the Chosen with all the bells. I was rather taken with the idea of the Warhammer units of old, with the Command miniatures, Champion, Banner Bearer and Musician.
There’s an Icon bearing mini that would have fit the Banner role, and this piece with all the bells would fit the Musician role…
In the end I decided against it. Which then progressed into removing all the bells from this mini, and any others I could find on the other Marines.

The majority of the cutting and editing has been done. Heads swapped; arms changed; some gaps filled with greenstuff; some embellishment started.
I’d not used the bug swarm on Typhus, so I thought to put it use elsewhere. I started tinkering around with some of the other DG and got some pieces to fit elsewhere.

This mini had a head swap, and the obvious addition of the garden on his back. I’m feeling more confident working with the Greenstuff. Knowing to let the GS sit for some time until it’s ready to work with. Also planning how I’ll add the details to the mini and texture them.

I replaced the lower half of the face with the lower part of Typhus’ helmet. I never liked that smile. Added the expected fungus to the spikes. I’ve been looking up a few other options online for fungus during this project. Research and learning!

Some clearer shots of the new cuffs to go with this guy’s new hands. These were formally Typhus’ hands. Maybe this guy will be the “Hand of Typhus”. I plan to build up some height beneath him, since the scythe hangs down low.

With a break in the recent downpour, I got some priming done. Everything done, or so I thought until I came back in and found some of the plague zombies had been missed for the greenstuff treatment. I’ll get them done then catch them up and move onto the painting phase. Super excited for that!

After fixing the four zombies above, I have spare greenstuff left over. Rather than let it go to waste, I decide to craft something for the bases: more mushrooms!
I used a pin as a wire-frame, and built some shapes around them.

This batch has only added greenstuff fungus. No conversion work done here.

This batch has no fungus, but each one has been converted and modified.

A side-by-side comparison of each of the body types, showing the original and the converted alternative.

I sat down and decided to paint one of the two Spawn this evening. Using just the same colours as the zombies, I threw myself into it.
Originally, I intended just to base coat the mini. But once I got started, I kept going and in just over an hour I got to a point that I was happy to call finished!

I didn’t bother to wait for paint to dry, so I suppose I was kind of wet-blending. I was also using thin coats, so it was drying reasonably well as I went. I also didn’t get too precious about colour mixing and layers. I just wanted it to look like a warped, fleshy being. The back is intended to look tortured and raw.
This was aided by using Citadel Blood for the Blood God technical.

Basing will be done when I complete the rest of the minis.

I probably could’ve gone to town on conversion work… but at this point I just want to get them done. I may add some extra paint/ detail in the future to make it a bit more Nurgle-y… see how it goes.

Getting started on the armour of the Plague Marines.

The grind is real… all the main base colours are down. Same as previously used.

The second Chaos Spawn in the set. This one had all the “fly” and chitinous bug arms and such thrown at it.
Same colour palette as used in the rest of the project.

Five Marines on 40mm bases.

• Tallyman
• Foul Blightspawn
• Biologus Putrifier
• Noxious Blightbringer
• Plague Surgeon

All the base colours are down. Ready for shading a.k.a. adding a layer of grime. The plan here is to get all the shared textures done at the same time in a batch paint, then go in on each one as an individual. They’re not Characters as such, but they have enough unique elements each that I will treat them as such.
Including a bit of freehand on the large mushroom that replaced the large bell on the Noxious Blightbringer.

All of these miniatures bar one is stock, no conversions. The exception is the Noxious Blightbringer. They’re characterful enough as is.

With these four done, I’m down to four minis remaining for this project. Two more lords in Terminator armour, a Bloat Drone and the tank! I’m going to take a short break to shake things up, then push on.

The set included the current plastic Typhus model. I didn’t want any Named Characters in this army, so this piece definitely was up for conversion. Included in this:

• Head swapped for an alternative Plaguemarine head
• Used the hands and the axe head from another Plaguemarine terminator lord
• Destroyer Hive vents changed to greenstuff Fungi
• Two heads from the old plastic Zombie kit
• Extended the axe haft using wire and greenstuff

There’s a couple of details about the axe that I would’ve like to have improved. But overall, the conversion has come out pretty well since it has probably been my most ambitious to date.

The last human-ish sized mini for this project is another Terminator Lord. This was a much more-straight forward conversion. Essentially, a hand swap with the Typhus conversion. Some greenstuff work to rebuild the wrists, that’s about it.

The scythe blade height meant that I had to prop it up higher on something, so wood chips from the garden will become rocks when I do the basing.
One thing I should have paid more attention to was how the feet were placed: there were gaps left that don’t look good.

I used some chunky sand-grit and glue to fill in the gap under the foot, and an excess of PVA with Citadel Death Guard Green mixed in. The intention was to fill the gap with the sand to look like stone and gravel, but also a slick of slime from the pile of Nurglings under his foot.

The slime look kind of worked, so I bulked it up with more PVA and topped it off with Citadel Nurgle’s Rot technical.

One Bloat-Drone and one Plagueburst Crawler vehicle to go.

Second last mini to do in this project is a Bloat-Drone. Similar in design to the Myphitic Blight-hauler, it’s a demon possessed machine of dubious origin.

It was painted using the same colours as the rest of the army, with the exception of the shading/ grime-up step. I used an artist-type Sepia ink, mixed with Flow Improver and water to create the wash. It was something new for me, and I’ll likely use it again in the future.

The final piece of this project! A Plagueburst Crawler. A big, chunky vehicle type thing.

It has been ages since I painted any vehicles, but I approached this the same way as the rest of the army, just with larger brushes, mostly.

Again, all done in the same colour arrangement as the rest of the army.

I’m so close to finishing this project, and I just don’t want to look at it.

I want to get on with other projects, something more interesting. Im also getting distracted playing old video games, I’m back on Oblivion again. But I just have to knuckle down and get this done. Then the basing. Then I’m done

Just the basing to go across all the minis, and it’ll be dooooooone!

These Poxwalkers are the down-trodden, the menial, the labourers of the worlds the Brotherhood visit. The Brotherhood spread ideas of paradise, of lush green worlds, of what this world could be, if not for the crushingly oppressive military-industrial complex of the Imperium of Man.

The ideas take seed in the working class. Ideas of a world where they may stroll through a garden of peace and tranquility. Ideas of not having to toil endlessly under the yoke and lash of their overseers. If these ideas of joy take hold of their heart, they become the Composters. A blissful smile pulls at their face, never to leave again. Their only thoughts are of the beautiful landscape their home shall become. They begin to eat though the layers of society and start breaking down the wretched, stale old state-body to make way for the new to growth that is soon to come.

1. Thirty-two Plague Zombies of Nurgle. I should’ve gone for 28 or 35. If I had to do another seven of these zombies, I might become one myself.

The basing scheme was worked out back in 2019: Citadel Martian Ironcrust across the surface. Randomly, some have pinebark chips as rock to stand on. Others have chunks of greenstuff which I painted as rusty metal scrap to break up the surface.
Actually, on that: I’d bought what I thought was a fresh batch of greenstuff for this project. Turned out not to be so fresh at all. Good chunks of the Yellow had already set, which is where most of these chunks came from. I was pretty disappointed, until I decided to not let anything go to waste, one way or another.
In the future, I’m really going to have to source version sold in separate strips.

The “rocks” were brown from the base coat spray of AP Leather Brown. 
They got a wash of very watered-down Vallejo Black.

The metal was also already brown from the undercoat spray.
I went over this with well-thinned Citadel Leadbelcher.
It then got an application of Citadel Typhus Corrosion. I apply this with a brush then dab it back with a cotton-bud so it’s really only left in the creases.

I decided that the basing elements needed to be brought together a little better, so I went over the rocks and metal with the Martian Ironcrust. Then I used a wet, ratty, old brush to wash it back again. I used another cotton-bud to wipe excess off the surface and edges.
The idea is that it leaves the red on the particular element, but the colour is visible underneath. It kind of looks like it’s been sitting in the red dusty surface for a while and has the red dirt of the surround surface over it?

The Brotherhood of the Garden, (or the Gardeners for short) are a warband dedicated to spreading the gifts of Nurgle, and the fruits of Lord Nurgle’s labour through their own works.
They prefer to target industrial worlds: Hive Worlds, Factory planets and Logistics hubs, anywhere that the Imperium has covered the surface with their ugly structures.

They work to bring them back to a glorious, green state, reminiscent of their visions of Papa Nurgle’s own domain. When the Gardeners achieve their goals, they lovingly craft gardens of fungus and putrescence fed by the blood and bone of the former inhabitants.

The colour of their armour was once a bright yellow. Time spent working in the dirt and the earth and the ash has somewhat diminished the brightness. Nevertheless, they retain their yellow so that they can be seen. Not for them dark or gloomy colours. Visibility is important: all must know that the Gardeners are at work.

The brothers constantly exude a fecund slime, in this trail sprout fungi, moss, algaes. As they dismantle the structures of industry, the slime is infused into the ruins. When the Brotherhood moves on, the wild growth grows and feeds on the the corpses, becoming a little extension of Nurgle’s Garden on another world. So, does Nurgle’s influence extend ever further.

The Senior Gardeners bring their specialist knowledge to bear where required.

The Brothers of this rank work at the most stubborn of points to remove the obstacles to the new garden.

These once-Brothers were blessed to have been able to visit Father Nurgle’s great garden in the Warp and returned… changed.