Warhammer 40,000 - Foul Blightspawn & Tallyman
As both of these lovely guys have similar paint schemes it made sense to get them painted together.
Assembly was fairly straight forward, although I did leave the Nurglings that both kits come with on the sprue. For two reasons: firstly the Tallyman and Foul Blightspawn themselves take up a fair amount of space on the base as it is, and secondly because I have been saving the various Nurglings where I can to include them in a daemons army. As far as sub-assemblies go, I left the backpack, head and left arm separate from the Tallyman, and for the Foul Blightspawn I left the front of the torso, the left arm and the armature that comes out of the right-side of his torso separate.
Once all the pieces were cleaned and assembled, I primed all of them with Death Guard Green spray paint. As usual I started with all the metallic details, painting all the trim bronze using Balthasar Gold and all the silver parts with Leadbelcher. A quick change of my painting water and I could crack on with the rest of the details. For the rotted flesh, I gave them a couple of thin coats of Rakarth Flesh and for the tentacles I painted them in Screamer Pink. I always enjoyed the juxtaposition of their mutated flesh having a warmer colour then their original body parts. For any bits of exposed bone, particularly on the various blight grenades, I picked them out with Army Painter Skeleton Bone. The cloth tabards I painted with a Xereus Purple, as it makes a nice contrast to the green armour. For the strips of parchment on the Tallyman I painted them with Wraithbone, and for his little clipboard I painted that with Steel Legion Drab. For the books, I mixed Steel Legion Drab with Vallejo Scarlett Red to create a nice dark leather colour. Lastly, for the Foul Blightspawn I painted the pump and the glass window on his backpack with Corvus Black.
Next up, I cracked out the liquid talent and washed everything that wasn’t flesh or tentacle with Army Painter Strong Tone. The silver parts I then gave an additional wash with Nuln Oil to make them look really dark and grimy. For the flesh and tentacles, they got a wash of Athonian Camoshade. The fleshy hose on the Foul Blightspawn and some of the heads on the blight grenades I washed with Reikland Fleshshade. With the washes done, for now, I could start to pick out a few details; namely the toxic goop with Warpstone Glow and any boils with Averland Sunset.
After that it was time for oil paints, all these mechanical parts on the Foul Blightspawn are just calling out for some Abteilung 502 Engine Grease. I didn’t put it on all the metal components, just the armature assembly that connects the tank on his back to the side of his torso. For the runes on the Tallyman’s armour, I diluted some Violet oil paint and dropped into the recesses; I decided to use an oil paint for this instead of an acrylic because I could easily clean up any spillages with some white spirit. After that I used some Streaking Grime and Rust Streaks on both models, not to the extent that I would on a Death Guard vehicle like a Myphitic Blight-Hauler but enough to add a bit of character. Lastly, I used some Nurgle’s Rot technical paint on the Foul Blightspawn’s fleshy hose (no, not that one) so that it looks suitably disgusting.
The liquid might not be level but I’m quite proud of how it turned out.
All that was left was the last few bits of details. For the Tallyman’s ink, I used some Vallejo Glossy Black which I used in his little inkwell, on the nib of his bone-pen and a few lines of scribble on his clipboard. For the liquid in the Foul Blightspawn’s tank, I blocked out a straight-ish section at the bottom with some Warpstone Glow. Then I mixed it with some Averland Sunset and glazed it along the top of the liquid. I repeated this a few times until there was a nice transition between the top and bottom of the liquid. Finally, I mixed some Averland Sunset and Wraithbone to make a nice pale yellow. I painted a thin line of it across the top of the liquid, and put a few dots of it throughout to make it look like bubbles. Very last bit of detail was to paint the skulls on the abacus. I used Skeleton Horde contrast paint as the details are very small and I was worried about accidentally filling the details in if I used regular paint.
As always the last bit was to the bases. These would be the same as all my Death Guard bases; I picked a couple of the resin Kromlech mushrooms and gave them a couple of thin coats of Wraithbone before super gluing them to the bases. I washed the underside of the fungi with Nuln Oil. The caps I painted with bright colours like Averland Sunset and Talassar Blue contrast paint. For the rest of the bases, I covered them in Stirland Mud and once that was dry I washed it with Athonian Camoshade, before giving it a quick drybrush with Tyrant Skulls. For some toxic pools of goo, I dabbed on some watered down Caliban Green and once that was dry I blobbed on some Nurlge’s Rot. And finally, I painted the rims with a couple of coats of Warboss Green.
He’s making a list and checking it twice…
And with that the dynamic duo was done. These were a lot of fun to paint, I especially had fun with the toxic liquid in the Foul Blightspawn’s tank and doing the books on the Tallyman. The whole Death Guard range to be honest is a lot of fun to paint, and I’m rapidly running out of models to paint! I think I only have the special characters like Mortation and Typhus left. I best get saving the pennies then!