Warhammer 40,000 - Accursed Cultists
I have my Cultists, I have my Dark Commune, so the only thing I’m missing is the Accursed Cultists. Some heavy hitters for my growing horde of filthy Nurgle worshippers in the form of some Mutant and some Torments.
Making a start on assembling the kit the first thing that I noticed was the atrocious mould lines. My box must have come from a mould nearing the end of its life as the mould lines were so prominent. Regardless I carried on getting everything put together, the models are mono-pose and there’s no options for alternate assembly so things came together fairly swiftly. I tried my best filling in any gaps, but it’s definitely something I need more practice with.
Mutants
As the kit is effectively two in one, I split the painting into two as well. I started with the mutants for no particular reason. Before I could get to the painting however, I first needed to do a couple of minor conversions to give them a bit more of a Nurgle feel. I didn’t do too much as these models already have so much character to them. Plus their rippling mutations don’t leave much in the way of open areas on the skin. In any case, I found a few places that would benefit from a boil, so I drilled a shallow hole with my pin vise drill and used some Ammo Acrylic Arming Putting to seal down a small glass bead. Whilst I had the putty out I also dabbed it on some of the armour plates to give them a rough and corroded look. I then mixed up a small amount of greenstuff and rolled out a short and fat maggot to stick to one of the Mutants’ robes. With the remaining greenstuff I rolled it into a small ball and superglued it to one hapless chap’s back, I then squished it down and poked the middle of it with a tip of a pen to form a small volcano shaped pustule. It was a little on the big side but I was happy with how it turned out. I let the various putties dry completely overnight then primed the models with Colour Forge Standard Grey.
For four of the five Mutants I then blocked in their skin with Army Painter Air Nomad Flesh and for the final Mutant I painted their skin with Vallejo Dark Fleshtone. To distinguish the mutations I mixed the Nomad Flesh still in my airbrush cup about fifty-fifty with Two Thin Coats Sword Hilt Burgundy and carefully sprayed this over the mutations producing some nice transitions between the skin tones. I then picked out the larger bone spikes with Army Painter Skeleton Bone, I needed to tidy them up anyway and from experience using Skeleton Horde contrast paint over a grey undercoat results in a very desaturated colour. Speaking of tidying up, I painted Two Thin Coats Dungeon Stone over any cloth or leather area that I had gotten Nomad Flesh or Sword Hilt Burgundy on. The models were then given a zenithal highlight with Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink through the airbrush. For the model with Dark Fleshtone skin I gave them a zenithal highlight with Nomad Flesh, as using white washes out the skin.
With the preliminary work done I could move onto the main colours of the model. I started by giving the skin and mutations a coat of Kroak Green. This wash tints the skin a sickly green colour without darkening it too much. I then went around the models picking out any boils with Vallejo Heavy Goldbrown, and then to make them seem more swollen and inflamed I gave them a coat of Guilliman Flesh contrast paint. To make the mutation areas stand out a little more I gave them a thin coat of Army Painter Speedpaint Familiar Pink. Some of the tentacles have rows of bone spikes on them, so at this point I picked them out carefully with some Army Painter Skeleton Bone. I additionally used this to paint the teeth of any of them that happen to be grinning like idiots. I finished off the skin by painting a thin coat of Nurgle’s Rot over the mutations to give them a slimy and raw appearance.
With the skin done in all its disgusting glory I could move onto the few clothes that they’re wearing. I started by painting the trousers with Army Painter Desolate Brown, a nice drab olive colour that I’ve used on the rest of my cultists. Likewise, I painted their boots, for those still wearing them, with Black Templar. The skirts, or robes maybe, they have around their waists I painted with Garaghak’s Sewer. Any leather details such as belts, boot chaps and straps I painted with Gore-Grunta Fur.
Any silver details such as belt buckles, chains and studs I painted with Scale75 Thrash Metal. The helmets I painted with Balthasar Gold and the armour plates with Death Guard Green to tie them in with my Death Guard Marines. Like my Plaguemarines, these areas were then given a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone.
There were a few things I needed to do to finish off the Mutants. Firstly where I had painted their teeth with Skeleton Bone it made them look a bit bright like they had been using whitening strips. Naturally this wouldn’t do for the disciples of decay so I ran a little bit of Athonian Camoshade into the mouth to darken it and make them look like they’ve never flossed in their life. Next I dotted a small amount of Ulthuan Grey onto their eyes and then washed the surrounding area with Scale75 Instant Colours Arcane Purple to make the eyes look sunken and sickly.
Torments
Moving onto the Torments, there wasn’t much in the way of conversion work that I needed to do. Mostly just adding some boils here and there using the same method that I used for the Mutants. I also tried my hand at sculpting a few more pustules out of green stuff, these turned out alright but they were mainly to cover up the Chaos Undivided symbols with something more… pestilent.
Once everything had completely dried I primed them with Colour Forge Standard Grey. It was then that I realised that I intended to paint the daemonic parts of these Torments in the same way that I painted my Plaguebearer daemons, so it would make more sense to prime them dark green. So I applied palm to face and then applied a second prime of Army Painter Angel Green to the Torments.
The next step was to block in the skin of the ragged remains of the cultists. For the two of them that still appear to be alive and kicking this meant basecoating the skin with Army Painter Air Nomad Flesh. And for the lucky person whose daemonic possession seems to have killed them I basecoated their skin with Two Thin Coats Griffon Claw. The robes and parchment meanwhile I painted with Two Thin Coats Dungeon Stone. Before moving on the zenithal highlights I tidied up the daemon skin with Caliban Green.
With that done I gave the models a zenithal highlight by spraying Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink through my airbrush at a forty-five degree angle. The white ink catches on all the upper surfaces, leaving the undersides in shadow. To make the daemonic skin look otherworldly I carefully sprayed over the white areas with Army Painter Air Jungle Green, trying my best not to get it on the human skin. To add some variety to the daemons I sprayed Army Painter Air Violet Volt on various places such as the webbing of the wings or on pustules.As with the Mutants I washed the cultists’ skin with Kroak Green to give it a sickly green hue. Conversely, to make the daemonic skin look more alive I washed that with Reikland Fleshshade.The latter wash really darkened the daemonic skin so to brighten it up again I gave it a drybrush of Niblet Green.
From there I could start picking out details, such as painting the bone spikes and any teeth with Army Painter Skeleton Bone. The tongues I painted with Two Thin Coats Sword Hilt Burgundy. Any boils and pustules I picked out with Vallejo Heavy Goldbrown, and then gave them a wash of Guilliman Flesh. For the daemon with half formed wings, I painted the claws with Black Templar so that they stand out a little. I finished the daemons off by putting a dot of Ulthuan Grey in the eyes and then washing around the eye sockets with Blood Angels Red contrast paint to give them a slight glowing effect.
The cultists, or what’s left of them, didn’t need much in the way of painting. As a lot of the miniatures already had a lot of green tones in them I decided to paint the robes with Garaghak’s Sewer, a rich dark brown. Which was also a nice callback to the Mindwitch host of the Dark Commune having a Garaghak’s Sewer robe for the “honour” of having their life force syphoned off to feed a severed psyker’s head.The rolls of parchment meanwhile I painted with Skeleton Horde. I did the same washes for the eyes and mouth that I did for the Mutants.
For the metallics I painted the nails attaching the parchment to the cultist and the chains around their waists with Scale75 Thrash Metal. The cult symbols and medallions I painted with Balthasar Gold. Any small leather straps for the medallions I painted with Skrag Brown. These areas were then given a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone.
Bases
To match the rest of my Nurgle forces I based them in the same way. I started by slapping down some Vallejo Thick Mud texture paste all over the bases. Once that was fully dry I then gave the whole base a wash with Athonian Camoshade to give it a dank and rotted feel, and then to bring out the texture I drybrushed the bases with Tyrant Skull. Next I dabbed on some PVA glue and sprinkled Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready Forest Floor over the bases. Once that was dry I repeated the process with some static grass. For some variety I then stuck down some Army Painter Lowland Shrubs and Meadow Flower tufts.
To create some toxic pools of goo I painted some thinned Caliban Green in areas where the texture paste had created some natural recesses. Once that was dry I then dabbed on some Nurgle’s Rot in the middle of each pool leaving a small amount of Caliban Green around the edges. Lastly I painted the rims of the bases with a couple coats of Warboss Green.
