Warhammer Quest Darkwater (Pt. 3, small nurgly guys)

 Back to the Darkwater project again! Now that I’m working hard for Nurgle, it was time to make some progress on his flock. I know many people start projects like this with the larger models, but I was really keen on the little guys. I like the way they look and thought they would make a nice challenge (keep in mind that I’m painting two sets at once, so that means doing everything twice!).

I started with the Mire Kelpies. I love how eerie they look, spooky yet so cute in their own way.

Rising puddles of evil

I went for the most straightforward paint job imaginable: a mix of green, blue and black, with subtle highlights. After that, I used Vallejo water effects as a gloss varnish. Then I just painted the autumn leaves and added a few of my own. Evil creatures keeping up the fine tradition of antlers, you see.

Next up were the Treasure and Living Rot tokens. I can’t say I did anything particularly adventurous or original with these, but I think they do the job:

You may have to guess which of them are considered "treasure"

They were fun to do, my favourite one is the head with the Excalibur sword, it reminds me so much of the classic Beast of Nurgle.

But now it was time for the real challenge. The pox wretches. Having finished them, I have to say I’m impressed by how well thought out these models are. Each body comes with two torso options, so you don’t have to build two identical models from the box. In a few cases, you can even swap the heads around, giving you up to four variations on the same basic model.

There’s not much else to say, apart from one detail: I took the plunge and tried GW’s “Typhus Corrosion” technical paint. It’s a textured dark brown that looks simply great on these models. My original plan was to use it as a textured base and paint over it afterwards, but I was so pleased with how it looked that I only added small patches of orange rust here and there. In some places it looks like actual corroded iron, and I think it really suits the Nurgle theme.

I’ll let you judge. Here they are, shown in matching pairs. I tried to introduce small colour variations while sticking to a limited palette, so no two minis are identical:

Finally, the whole bunch:

Enough to populate two dungeons!

Well, this has been quite a challenge, if only because of the sheer number of minis! I guess they won’t be the toughest foes in the game, but they should certainly make their presence felt and provide some nice, tense moments.

The real revelation for me has been the Typhus Corrosion thing. I’m honestly impressed by the texture and what you can do with it. Covering an entire suit of Nurgle armour in the stuff might be a bit much, but my mind is already filling up with gruesome images of Plague Marines in ridiculously rusty power armour. I don’t think the same approach would work for the other Nurgle knights in Darkwater, but I’ll definitely be using this paint a lot more in future!

I think I’ll take a break from Nurgle before making any actual decisions, but hopefully I’ll have more stuff to show you soon...