Fligg WIP
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EaterofLives
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Glad to see another DG player here, and I look forward to seeing more of your progress. Still working on nailing down the color scheme for mine, but I'm also going for a bit of a darker feel for mine. As everyone stated, the tentacles are very striking, and I love the veiny look you applied to the back. Also a big fan of the wear on the armor. The issue you had with the fixer is one I'm familiar with. I'm a professional tattoo artist, and the bottles our inks come in use the same delivery system. If you open them up too much or use too much pressure, it shoots out. My inks are thicker than the fixer, so not as much of a mess, but still irritating when it happened and still does on rare occasion.
Fligg
New member
Guawol: Thanks! it can be difficult to use a certain color sometimes because there's the risk of sending a signal of a different cult or faction, but I decided to take the risk because purple and pink is such a useful compliment to the earthy, grimy death guard greens and browns. Dirtying up the more saturated colors on the clothing can sometimes help with reducing any association with Slaanesh, but then there are times when you'd rather not.
Eater: Glad to find another DG player as well, and thank you for your compliments. It almost goes without saying that many players are attracted to the death guard both because of how dark grimy they can be, but also because of the variety in their features. They're not an army you can paint fast if you are also looking to maintain a certain precision - e.g. as you could easily maintain with Necrons, or some space marine chapters. I basically stole most of my color scheme for the plague marine from a member of the site who goes by the moniker "erykey." There are features I got from other artists too, but his work has been the most useful to me by far. Also useful was the work of a youtuber called "Mezgike Miniatures," and "Zatcaskagoon Miniatures." They both have absolutely phenomenal death guard color schemes, for which they also have tutorials.
Eater: Glad to find another DG player as well, and thank you for your compliments. It almost goes without saying that many players are attracted to the death guard both because of how dark grimy they can be, but also because of the variety in their features. They're not an army you can paint fast if you are also looking to maintain a certain precision - e.g. as you could easily maintain with Necrons, or some space marine chapters. I basically stole most of my color scheme for the plague marine from a member of the site who goes by the moniker "erykey." There are features I got from other artists too, but his work has been the most useful to me by far. Also useful was the work of a youtuber called "Mezgike Miniatures," and "Zatcaskagoon Miniatures." They both have absolutely phenomenal death guard color schemes, for which they also have tutorials.
EaterofLives
New member
I'm familiar with Mezgike's work, but I'll have to check the others out. My first couple just turned out a little too light for my tastes, but it's also been a good many years since I've found time for the hobby, and there's a wealth of information out there now. Over the shutdown, I completed a couple of my first full custom mini sculpts. I have a demon prince on deck, with the basic anatomy sculpted, but not exactly sure where I want to go with him yet. I have a pretty extensive narrative to my armies, but my Nightlords/DG are my primary focus atm. Later this year-early next year, I'm doing full conversions on Mortarian and Abbadon, to make two of my lead characters. The demon prince was originally intended to be The Eater of Lives from the 4th company, but he's too small, and I want to go a different direction with him. He was so disturbing looking, that Mortarian had him locked away, until he was needed to go after Typhon, thus creating Typhus when they merged. He later reappeared as a demon prince heading up the 4th company, which is the only company that doesn't have an issue with sorcerers. Given that, I really need to think about how I want to represent him, to do it proper justice. The lore is obviously what sucked me in, but also the grand possibilities.
Fligg
New member
I'm into working on my 2nd and 3rd plague marines now. Here are a few WIP pics from those models.
Here's the 2nd marine after the first round of blending the armor, and then again most recently, respectively. Compared with my last plague marine model, I was much happier with the blending on the bone in this case. I also acheive the contrast I was looking for this time around.
View attachment 80945 --> View attachment 80946
And here's the champion. I haven't gotten to the blending stages yet with him. I may repaint the undercoat on the face to the same purple that's on the mouth gums, and then shade up to a ghoulish white. This might create more uniformity. Also, his tentacles are based in a coat of red to help distinguish him from the other two marines. Some blood on other parts of the model might help to balance such a strong color.
View attachment 80947
I haven't included the subassemblies in this post because its a lot more pics and they're not yet indicative of any techniques or additions which aren't already perceivable here. I'll show them once the models have more detail.
Here's the 2nd marine after the first round of blending the armor, and then again most recently, respectively. Compared with my last plague marine model, I was much happier with the blending on the bone in this case. I also acheive the contrast I was looking for this time around.
View attachment 80945 --> View attachment 80946
And here's the champion. I haven't gotten to the blending stages yet with him. I may repaint the undercoat on the face to the same purple that's on the mouth gums, and then shade up to a ghoulish white. This might create more uniformity. Also, his tentacles are based in a coat of red to help distinguish him from the other two marines. Some blood on other parts of the model might help to balance such a strong color.
View attachment 80947
I haven't included the subassemblies in this post because its a lot more pics and they're not yet indicative of any techniques or additions which aren't already perceivable here. I'll show them once the models have more detail.
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EaterofLives
New member
Coming along great so far, and getting some inspiration toward my current projects. I think the red tentacles work well with the purple face, and it'll look rad when it's done.
Fligg
New member
Thanks for the compliments. The flamish look is in large part to the warm lighting - although there is some warmth to the effect in the midtone. The blending goes in this order from the bottom: Screaming Skull, Ungor Flesh, Plague Brown, Mournfang Brown, Rhinox Hide, Black (for the tips). It's the red in the Mournfang and the yellow in the Plague Brown which grant it warmth. But, again, this is somewhat exaggerated by the lighting and the quality of the photograph.
I say all of this because I actually do not want them to look too warm, mainly because warmth=health, and these are Death Guard.
I say all of this because I actually do not want them to look too warm, mainly because warmth=health, and these are Death Guard.
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EaterofLives
New member
Warmth is definitely not in the Death Guard, but it turns out it is with Nurgle in general. After digging deeper into the lore to further my narrative, I learned that Nurgle isn't just the God of death and decay, but also life and renewal. This is part of the reason many of his incarnations appear so joyous. They revel in the cycle of life and death, so neither really affects their demeanor. It makes for a much more interesting background, and opens up great possibilities.
Fligg
New member
That's interesting to know. I take your meaning. Whatever the details of the lore are, it would seem to me that there are other factions which "revel in the cycle" but place less emphasis on the more virulent aspects of transformation. The little I know about Death Guard lore is that when the pact with Nurgle is first made, the pain of slow death is misguidedly traded for a substantially more painful second chance at "life." It's a kind of typical Faustian trade-off, and the Death Guard become more like a sentient virus than the angelic respite they perhaps had yearned for in their final moments as loyalists.
In other words, I'm strongly agreeing with you, in a sense. I think that the "life and renewal" that Nurgle stands for is always highly ironic; the smiles and joyousness of his incarnations are like a mad jester's smile. I'm not sure how this affects painting them other than they are basically always gross, for lack of a better term. But they are kind of like pigs in shit as well.
EaterofLives
New member
Pigs in shit is a perfect way to describe it. As for the Death Guard themselves, there are those among them who have regrets for choosing the path they did. Those individuals are described as just becoming callous and hateful, wishing to spread their misery to all. The rest take pride in their diseases, and want nothing more than to spread them, in Grandfather's name. Definitely a catch 22 situation, but they've done well to write the different viewpoints. Likewise, I'm trying to be sure I have a solid narrative, that does them justice, as well as their alliance with a Night Lords warband. I've gotten very positive feedback from what little I've shared of it, from other communities more dedicated to 40k in particular. Anywho, looking forward to more from your table.
