Age of Sigmar - Putrid Blightkings painting

Having assembled these gruesome guys in a previous article, it was now time to get some colour on them. At first, I was going to paint them exactly how I do my Death Guard but in the end I decided I wanted to do something a little different for them. Specifically, I decided that I want to do chipping on their armour plates. I’ve done this before on various vehicles but chipping the smaller armour plates would provide an interesting challenge. 

With that in mind, I primed them with Army Painter Uniform Grey then used Vallejo’s German Red Brown Primer on all the weapon blades and armour plates. I left them to cure for at least twenty-four hours as they would be getting rather battered by the weathering processes that I would subject them to. Once cured, I then used a bit of Vallejo Camouflage Medium Brown through the airbrush to create some shadows in the recesses of the rust areas. Finally I drybrushed the raised areas with Ryza Rust. This meant that any rust that did show through chips wouldn’t be a flat red but would have some tonal variety. With the rust layer done it was time to cover it up, starting with a thin layer of Vallejo Chipping Medium. Do not forget this step, you will be hard pressed to get chips without it. For the top layer of the armour I used Scale 75 Peridot Alchemy, which is a yellow-green metallic paint. It was a bit of a pain to get through the airbrush but I’ve used worse. For the weapon blades, I used Vallejo Metal Colour Magnesium. I let the paints cure for about half an hour before wetting the metallic areas with water. I let it sit for a minute or two to reactivate the Chipping Medium, then used a stiff paint brush or toothbrush to lightly chip the top layer of paint away. Once I was happy with the level of chipping, I sealed the areas with a thin layer of Matt Varnish. This would stop any subsequent layers inadvertently reactivating the Chipping Medium and also it would take some of the shine off the Peridot Alchemy, as I was going for a more grimdark look for the armour. 

With the armour and weapon blades done it was time to carefully start filling in the rest of the base colours. For most of the models the largest areas would be the skin, which I painted with a couple of thin coats of Rakarth Flesh. The sores and wounds on the flesh I painted with Screamer Pink. The various boils, and there were a lot, I painted with a small dot of Averland Sunset. 

For the various cloth wraps on the weapon handles and even one guy’s foot, I used Vallejo Khaki. For the weapon handles themselves I used Dryad Bark. Any leather pouches or straps I basecoated with Mournfang Brown. Ordinarily for my Death Guard I do any tabards or loincloths with Xereus Purple as it makes a nice contrast with the Death Guard Green armour, but I had other plans for these Blightkings so I used Vallejo Yellow Ochre instead, which is a nice desaturated yellow. A few of the models had severed heads on belts or held aloft. Normally, I would use Rakarth Flesh for the dead and decaying skin, but I had already used that for the Blightking’s skin. So instead I decided to use Ionrach Skin which is a pale flesh colour with a hint of green, perfect for rotting skin. And finally for any trim, bells or Nurgle motifs I used Scale 75 Old Copper. Unfortunately, said colour is a bit brighter than I would have liked, which is not an issue for these guys as I’m going to dull everything down with washes, but I had hoped to use Old Copper as a replacement for Balthasar Gold. Not the end of the world however. For the guy that is mutating into a giant fly, I couldn’t quite get the mutations right. I first basecoated them with Corvus Black but that was too dark and distracted from the rest of the model. I then tried glazing Corvus Black over Rakarth Flesh to build up a transition along the limb. But that just ended up looking like the poor guy had burnt his fly-parts. In the end I glazed on some Screamer Pink as best I could, no easy task as it is a very strong colour.

Usually for Nurgle models I’ll wash the skin with Athonian Camoshade to produce a nice sickly green. However, for the Blightkings I wanted to produce some contrast between the armour and skin. So I decided to have the skin look more inflamed with reds and purples. In essence I wanted to achieve the same look as I had done for my Foetid Bloat Drone. 

So with that in mind I washed all the skin areas with Reikland Fleshshade then used Army Painter Red and Purple Tones to make select areas look more inflamed and sore. Particularly in areas around the bellies and around any mutations. I was a bit worried that the skin would turn out more sunburnt than sore but it turned out alright in the end. Additionally, the slight glossy finish of Red and Purple helped with the gross and slimy feel. To that end, I also used thin amounts of Nurgle’s Rot technical paint in some areas to really drive home that slimy look. The silver parts I then washed with Nuln Oil and once that was dry I then washed everything that wasn't flesh with Army Painter Strong Tone.  

With the models done I could finish them off with the bases. As is tradition I started by slapping down some Stirland Mud texture paint before washing it with Athonian Camoshade.Once that was dry I then drybrushed the base with Tyrant Skull to really bring out the texture. Where the texture paint had formed dips, I painted in some Caliban Green before dabbing on some Nurgle’s Rot technical paint. Last but not least I stuck down some tufts and static grass with some PVA glue. 

I’m pleased to have finally completed these guys, they’ve sat on my painting desk for a long time now. I intended to go all out on them, with oil and enamel washes, a bunch of highlights, etc. In the end, I think it was all a bit too much. Going above and beyond on one figure is one thing, a whole squad is quite something else. And that huge amount of time and effort that would be required for all ten models just killed my enthusiasm really. In any case, I’m really pleased with how they turned out, they look almost grimdark with the ruddy skin and dark armour.

Fun though it was to get these guys done, they certainly aren’t boardgame miniatures so there’s unfortunately no change in the numbers. 

Boardgame miniatures left to paint: 588

Boardgame miniatures painted this year: 178