The Psychiatrist

In the gloomy streets of the Underhive, a lonely Psychiatrist is wandering.

Splashing steps of some slimy feet echo in the abandoned halls of an old refinery.

The Psychiatrist picks up the pace and straightens his collar...

The splashing sounds increase. More legs, bigger legs...

The Psychiatrist starts to feel he's not alone.

And at last, they've come to him! The ritual has been succesful.

All the small offerings, all the flues he's been infecting on his patients,

all the helpful syringes for their ailments...

The God of disease and decay has finally answered the Psychiatrists prayers.

Now here is a miniature I really like, it's from the Chronoscope series of Reaper Miniatures. The soft white plastic used in this Bones range is quite iffy however. In case of any spears shafts, big wings, outstretched limbs or such I don't really appreciate the litheness of the material, and it's a bit hard to clean up and convert too. BUT this guy (among so many others from Reaper Bones) is so cool that it didn't even cross my mind to go converting him.

As far as I remember, the model was basecoated with Game Color Off White, and given a few layers of very light grey washes/glazes, concentrating on the recess. Forgot the names of the greys though, maybe Blue Grey Pale and Ash Grey or Sky Grey (from Vallejo)? Then propably watered down Smokey Ink was added to the greys as well to define deepest shadows. For highlights some thinned down Off White. It's very rare I thin down any paints exept for washes/glazes. Supposedly the skin was Elf Flesh, few careful layers of Red Tone and then up to Off White highlights again. Some Citadel copper and wash for the buttons and goggles? Looks like Gun Metal, Soft & Dark Tones, Game Color Flesh Wash were used for metals, and final higlights done with drybrushed Necron Compound?


For the base I used the same method I  have based most of my 40K Iron Warriors army with:

1) Hot glue a pile of little sharp rocks and interesting bits (cogs, pipes, skulls, shrapnel) to the base.

2) Hot glue (or super glue if there's a nice flat spot available) the miniature on top of that.

3) PVA sand on some spots. I use sand with very random sized grains. There's some static grass, flock and plastic scrap in there as well. The sand is mostly used to cover any ugly droplets of hot glue, hide  joints and provide general sturdiness.

4) Paint with some mid brown all over the base, Gun Metal on the metallic looking bits if there are any. Wash with Soft Tone (maybe add Dark or Strong Tone around feet or in some darkest holes. Generous blobs of GC Flesh Wash on any areas that should be rusty, then tiny drops of Army Painters Dry Rust on top while the washes are still partly wet, so the paints will mix up a little. Maybe even some Citadels' Fire Dragon Crimson or Ryza Rust on spots? Finally drybrush with Game Color Khaki, two or three light layers and concentrating towards the edges.

Painting the Plaguebearers

More pictures from the last year... I tried some spray primer and zenithal highlight on this batch of Plaguebearers. Looks like there's some Citadel technical paint (such as Agrellan Earth) under those layers. Haphazard jets of green acrylic art spray were also applied to create some stains. Bright green, even brighter green and off white for some shading, tinting and highlighting. Inks, washes, drybrushes and a few edge/dot highlights here and there. Business as usual. Looks like they need only a couple of finishing touches, such as rust (the lovely Game Color Flesh Wash maybe?) on the weapons and varnish.

Plaguebearers on budget (building a second batch of 15 models)

It was so much fun to make the initial 5 Plaguebearers from toys, that I decided to do another set of 15 at once. Not many toys were employed this time though: only a big hand of some unknown giant, a sheep, and a rear section of a pig whose front half got to become a Chaos Spawn / Beast of Nurgle.

There's also a pile of different seashells, papier-mâché mushrooms, glass & wooden beads, coctail sticks, pistachio nut shells, plastic pellets (from toy gun), molten Hama beads, guitar strings and a few bits from plastic Blaguebearers, Bloodletters, Skaven, Dryads, Chaos Warriors & Hounds, Orc, Saurus, Poxwalkrer, Ghoul, Empire Wizard and Tzaangor. A little melting & deforming of the plastic toys here and there, and some hot glue & PVA for slimy textures and blending the bits together.

Plaguebearers on budget (first batch of 5 models)

Just found some pics from the micro sd of my old swollen & broken smartphone (R.I.P.). 

So, last spring I thought my Nurgle hordes for 40K & AoS needed some big unit(s) of Plaguebearers. I had a box of the new plastic ones and a few older metallics, but decided to build a much bigger group from scratch, with not spending huge amounts of money on them. Found some toys from local flea markets & my own stash of old stuff. Some melting, cutting and adding of a few choice miniature bits, jewellery chain, pearls & beads, guitar strings, wire, static grass and sand. The models were glued on approximately right sized buttons. Dirt cheap!

I base coated the models with cheap & bright green acrylic paint, and put puddles of Citadel technical paints on top. I drybrushed them with few coats of successively even brighter and cheaper greens. Final drybrush and dot highlights were done with Off White. Amarillo Yellow and Green Tone for glazing, and some heavy Game Color Flesh Wash spots on specific details. Now that's one of my absolute favorite paints! When applied gently, it just slightly dulls/warms up the colour underneath, but a thick layer will cover up even black. So I think it's very useful in blending things together, or as a rust/dirt effect. 

More drybrushing and highlights with Barbarian Flesh, Khaki and Off White again. Gun Metal and Flesh Wash to the chains and swords. Then Amarillo Yellow ink was used to glaze the green and yellow parts in multiple careful layers, a little Fuegan Orange on the horns/metals/edges/holes, and Nurgles Rot to glaze/shade and blend different coloured areas together. Green Tone for more shading and definition, plus another long time favorite for highlighting: Titillating Pink! I actually found a half used/half dry Monster Paint Set from the flea market just last spring for 0.5€, with that pink paint still intact!

Even more contrast was created with Red/Soft/Green Tones, Necron Compound, Titillating Pink and Fuegan Orange. Castellan Green for the base edges, and this first batch of Plaguebearers was almost ready. I decided to make 15 more of them, before putting any final touches and varnish on them...

WIP big Necromunda building (pt.6)

More mess to be made. Thick goo mixed from PVA, paint, toilet paper, fine sand and a few drops of dirty water. The burnt sienna coloured version of the goo is just the components mixed togehter and painted on with an old brush. For burnt umber (=darker) parts I left the toilet paper out of the mix, but instead drenched sheets of paper in the mix to create kinds of roots or veins. Shaping and molding them was a bit tricky, so next time I'll try to use more glue and paper to thicken up the mix.

Found some pearl clay from a pound shop, and it's absolutely great stuff! Easy to shape and attach, plus it dries quick. It might not stick well to completely flat surfaces, but works just fine in nooks & corners. I'll propably paint these little pearly eggs pink.

WIP big Necromunda building (pt.5)

Time to put some textured paint on! I mixed some PVA, paint (black, green and browns propably), fine sand and dirty water. Tried to avoid the more detailed bits and concentrated on covering the polystyrene parts, in case I decided to spray paint those pieces later.

More organic elements were being added here. Seashells from pound shop, wiring, papier-mâché balls and board game tokens for mushrooms. Spackle was used to blend things together. Think I applied it with just fingers and shaped with some stick to match the surface textures of the seashells.  Definitely nodding towards H. R. Giger, Tyranid organisms and Nurglesque lifestyle here.

WIP big Necromunda building (pt.4)

Again more bits, pieces and wall filler have been added. There's textured plasticard, soap dispenser mechanism, cardboard and plastic tubing, letter holder from Alfapet (Scrabble equivalent) and computer connector parts.

I usually just grab a pile of interesting random bits on the table and start hot gluing staff wherever it first seems to fit best. This way I don't have to do much (or any) measuring and very little cutting. The results are very haphazard, but I feel this is appropriate for structures supposedly located in places like Underhive. Built thousands of years ago, suffered from many hive quakes and constantly being rebuild and fought over. Actually the buildings might need some more melting, hammering and other rough-handed treatments...