Warhammer 40,000 - Chaos Cultists

Having completed the Cultist Warband’s transition to the service of Grandfather Nurgle I felt that I had a good handle on the process.So I felt pretty confident going into the box of Chaos Cultists. Being that these guys shared the same aesthetic as the Warband guys the converting and painting process was pretty similar, but there were a couple of differences that I will get into. 

For the basic assembly there isn’t much to say, the models are effectively mono-pose.The only choice you get is whether to have your Cultist Champion being some guy with a spiked helmet or some gal with a tentacle coming out of their armpit. I chose the latter. 

For the conversion work I mostly left them as is, unlike the Warband I didn’t need to alter them to avoid duplicate sculpts in my collection so no weapon swaps were required. Once that was done I set about chopping off hands here and there ready to receive a replacement tentacle. I mixed up some greenstuff and rolled it into tentacles, then so that it wasn’t too soft to work with I left it to cure a little for about an hour. Once it was sufficiently firm but still soft enough to mould I added a dot of superglue to the stump and stuck the tentacle in place, blending it as best as I could. Admittedly I didn’t do as good a job blending on some as I could have, but practice makes perfect. Moving onto the boils I started by using my pin vise to drill small holes in the skin. I then used some Ammo Acrylic Arming Putty to seal a 1mm ball bearing in the hole. By varying the depth of the hole I could make anything from a  sunken abscess to a prominent boil. Whilst I had the Arming Putty out, I used it and other texture paints such as Typhus Corrosion and Vallejo Red Oxide to add splotches of texture to the metallic details of the model such as weapons or armour, to give them a corroded look. Lastly, I had picked up a texture gel pen that I wanted to test. Unlike a regular pen this leaves a thicker layer of ink, giving the writing an embossed look. I meanwhile used it to create raised areas on the skin giving the impression of scar tissue or inflammation. 

Once everything had dried or cured fully I primed the models with Colour Forge Standard Grey. To start things off I basecoated some of the cultists’ skin with Vallejo Dark Fleshtone, I then used the airbrush to block in the remaining cultists’ flesh with Army Painter Air Nomad Flesh, tidying up with Two Thin Coats Dungeon Stone. From previous experience I knew that using white ink to give the Dark Fleshtone a zenithal highlight resulted in a very washed out skin. So instead, I used Nomad Flesh for the zenithal highlight to try to maintain the warmth of the skin. The remaining cultists then got a zenithal highlight with Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink. Regardless of whether I used white ink or Nomad Flesh, the zenithal highlight brought out the texture of the models. 

With the groundwork laid I could break out the Speedpaint and Contrast paints, and start slapping colours down. The first step however was to give the skin a wash of Kroak Green, giving it a sickly tint as befitting servants of the Plague God. From there I painted a ring of Guilliman Flesh around any of the boils and the boils themselves I painted with a dot of Vallejo Heavy Goldbrown. The tentacles I gave a coat of Army Painter Speedpaint Familiar Pink, it’s quite a punchy colour but also thin enough that I had no trouble wet blending it with the rest of the model. 

Moving onto the clothing this was largely the same as the Cultist Warband; Army Painter Speedpaint Desolate Brown for the trousers, Garaghak’s Sewer for the robes, Snakebite Leather for any bandages, Black Templar for the boots and Gore-Grunta Fur for any leather straps and belts. For anyone wearing a tank top I painted that with either Garaghak’s Sewer or Desolate Brown. And for anyone that has a topknot I painted them with either Militarum Green or Army Painter Speedpaint Burnished Red. I painted all the weapons with Army Painter Speedpaint Broadsword Silver. The armour plates I picked out with Death Guard Green, the trim of the armour plates, the masks and any cult medallions I then painted with Balthasar Gold. These areas were then washed with Army Painter Strong Tone.

With the basic colours down I could then move onto some weathering effects on the armour and weapons. First I heavily thinned some Skrag Brown and dabbed it on the silver areas to give the appearance of rust. Next I added verdigris to bronze areas by running thin lines of Nihilakh Oxide in recesses and around the edges. One of the cultists has a bionic arm and shoulder so I shook up a bottle of Dirty Down Rust and applied a liberal layer to the model. Pretty pleased with how it turned out but I imagine it would look a little better with a drybrush of silver. Lastly, I applied a thin layer of Nurgle’s Rot to the tentacles to give them a slightly slimy appearance.

The models were now complete and I could move onto the bases. As these are Nurgle miniatures, they would join the rest of my filthy horde standing in foetid swamps. I started off by applying a nice thick layer of Vallejo Thick Brown Mud to the base, and once it had dried I then gave it a wash of Athonian Camoshade followed by a drybrush of Tyrant Skull. I then thinned down some Caliban Green and dabbed on small patches to look like toxic pools of filth. To further sell the effect I also added some Nurgle’s Rot technical paint, being sure to leave a thin border of Caliban Green around the edge of each pool. Next I applied some PVA glue in select areas then sprinkled on Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready Forest Floor, once that was dry I repeated the process with some static grass. Lastly, I painted the rims of the base with a couple thin coats of Warboss Green. 

Pretty happy with how these turned out, some of the tentacles could have been blended to the rest of the body a little better but overall they look good. Switching to using Nomad Flesh to zenithal highlight the models with dark skin also worked out well, although next time I might use a lighter primer so the contrast paints on the clothing doesn’t end up quite so dark.