Warhammer 40,000 - Foetid Bloat Drone
The first vehicle for my Death Guard army, so I was quite keen to put this cute little fella together. Also, I finally got around to ordering some button magnets and I was excited to give them a try.
As for weapon choices, the flesh mower was a no brainer really. What could be more hilarious than mincing your enemies into a fine paste? Plus it would mean that I’d have an excuse to literally throw blood splatters at this miniature. I did however, leave the flesh mower and one of the armatures separate to make painting a little easier. To magnetise the rotors, the 5mm magnets I got fit almost perfectly into the recesses for the rotors and onto the arms of the rotors themselves. The hardest part of this process was keeping track of the magnet's polarity, which I did with a few dots of a permanent marker. Then the Bloat-Drone itself and the armature were primed in Death Guard Green, whilst the flesh mower and the rotors were primed in black as they would be metalic in the end.
In keeping with my usual practices; firstly starting with the largest areas that I need to paint and secondly, painting on all the base colours before I move onto washes: I gave all the flesh areas a couple of thin coats of Rakarth Flesh and the metal areas a coat of Leadbelcher, and picking out the bronze details with Balthasar Gold. After that, I picked out all the bony protrusions with Skeleton Bone and all the tentacles with Screamer Pink. Finally, the two giant flies were given a couple of coats of Ulthuan Grey ready for some contrast paints.
The washes are where the fun begins; the metal and bone areas were washed with Strong Tone and once dry the silver parts were given a second wash this time with Nuln Oil. The metals were then very lightly drybrushed with Necron Compound, I wanted to give them a highlight but not make them look too clean, this is a Nurgle model after all and disgust is the name of the game. The fleshy areas and fleshy tentacles were washed with Reikland Fleshade.
Normally, for Death Guard armour I would just give it a wash with Strong Tone but whilst this might be fine for infantry I was worried about pooling on the larger armoured sections of the Bloat-Drone. So I cracked out the Streaking Grime enamel wash, I’ve used this previously to dirty up a Miasmic Malignifier and I was very pleased with the results. Being an enamel wash it meant that I could apply it in select areas, in this case around the “mouth” where the “teeth” are, then come back a couple of hours later with a brush damp with enamel thinner to blend the wash across the armour panel. It can be a bit slow but I feel that it is well worth it. It takes some getting used to and I certainly spent most of a day pushing and pulling the paint across the carapace trying to get it just right. But that’s the beauty of enamel paints, their long curing time allows me to play with it long after an acrylic paint would have dried and set. I’m not sure that I got the carapace to look exactly how I wanted, but it is grimey. And streaky. And I’m happy with it. Maybe I will have to pick up another Bloat-Drone to practice on.
The keen-eyed among you might spot that one of the flies has unfortunately snapped off.
With the washing done I could make a start on the detailing. First of all I used a bit of Red and Purple Tone washes to make the flesh around the metal bands look more inflamed. Sticking with the flesh I picked out the boils and pustules with Averland Sunset before putting a bit of Guilliman Flesh contrast paint around them to help blend them into the rest of the flesh. In hindsight, I should have used Athonian Camoshade instead of Reikland Fleshshade because it ended up looking very inflamed rather than diseased and rotting. If I ever get round to painting followers of Khorne then I will have to remember this recipe because it looks very angry!
All the goopy slime I painted with Caliban Green before blobbing on a bit of Nurgle’s Rot to give it a slimy sheen. Similarly, for the blood drops on the Flesh Mower, I gave them a coat of Mephiston Red before blobbing on a bit of Blood For The Blood God to make it, well, bloody. I also applied a bit to the end of the spikes and used some Red Tone to blend it in. As a final bit of fun, I got some Blood For The Blood God on my brush and used a toothpick to flick blobs of it over the front of the Bloat-Drone.
For my Death Guard bases I like to go for a rotted forest feel. So I started by slathering it with Stirland Mud and once it was dry I washed it with Athonian Camoshade, followed by a drybrush of Tyrant Skull. I painted on a few patches of Caliban Green and blobbed a bit of Nurgle’s Rot into the middle of them to make them look like toxic puddles of goodness knows what. By way of accessories, I have some tree stumps and mushrooms from Kromlech so I picked one of each and painted them with Ulthuan Grey. For the tree stump I painted it with Wyldwood contrast paint, which is in my opinion, a fantastic paint for getting a quick wood effect. For the mushroom I painted the stalk and gills with Nuln Oil and the cap with Talassar Blue contrast paint. After painting the rim with a couple of coats of Warboss Green I stuck on a Lowland Shrub from the Army Painter. I only had one left so it looks like I’ll need to get some more.