Age of Sigmar - Lord of Plagues

I was recently surveying my Nurgle forces and realised whilst I had a plethora of line troops, from Blightkings, to the Rotmire Creed, to daemons, I didn’t have anything in the way of leadership. I chose a Lord of Plagues for the simple reason that he is the cheapest. I have no idea why that might be. 

I got the model assembled and for ease of painting left him separate from the base and then I got things started by priming him with Colour Forge Standard Grey. As he needed to match my existing Blightkings I needed to do the same chipping on the armour and weapons that they have. To do this I first needed to paint these areas in a rust colour, for which I chose Vallejo German Red-Brown Primer. It’s a nice deep rust tone and being a primer it should be a little tougher than regular acrylic paint. Next was a layer of Vallejo Chipping medium, it’s a bit thick so it takes a fair amount of thinner to get it through the airbrush. After which was a layer of Scale75 Peridot Alchemy, which is more of a pain to get through an airbrush than the chipping medium but thankfully for the Lord of Plagues only has little armoured booties and a shoulderpad. Lastly, I sprayed the helmet and axe head with Vallejo Metal Colours Magnesium, which as always goes through the airbrush like a dream. The next step was to wet these areas with water to reactivate the chipping medium and use a stiff brush to scuff in some chips. Admittedly, I didn’t leave it long enough for the silver to cure a little so the chips on the head and axe are a little lacklustre. To prevent any further chipping, the armour and axe were given a coat of AK Interactive Ultra Matt Varnish. Whilst this did also dull down the shiny metallics, it’s not a big deal for the drab followers of Nurgle. 

From there I could make a start on the remaining base coats. The largest area was the skin which I painted with Two Thin Coats Griffon Claw, a decaying and grey flesh colour. The guts spilling over the handle of his axe I painted with Two Thin Coats Runic Purple and numerous open sores on the skin I carefully painted with Screamer Pink. 

The Lord of Plagues has some chain under, what I can only assume, his filth encrusted loincloth. I painted these with Scale75 Thrash Metal. I didn’t chip these areas as they wouldn’t show up all too well on the highly textured surface. And I can always add rust effects at a later date. For the bronze details, such as the horn on the helmet and the Nurgle marks on the chainmail I painted with Scale75 Old Copper. 

The aforementioned filthy loincloth I painted with a couple thin coats of Vallejo Yellow Ochre. The handle of the axe I painted with Two Thin Coats Scorched Earth and the strap across the chest and back I carefully painted with Rhinox Hide. Lastly for the base coats I painted the skulls and bone spikes with Army Painter Skeleton Bone.

Moving onto the washes, I started by giving the skin a coat of Reikland Fleshshade. The silver details I gave a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone, the armour, cloth and bone meanwhile was given a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone. 

From there I could move onto the layering, highlights and final details. The wash had darkened the skin quite a lot so to brighten it back up I painted a thin layer of Two Thin Coats Griffon Claw on the raised areas, leaving the wash in the recesses. I repeated this process with Army Painter Skeleton Bone on the skulls and again with Vallejo Yellow Ochre on the loincloth. As with all Nurgle miniatures I picked out all the boils with Vallejo Heavy Goldbrown. To make them look sore I then painted a ring of Guilliman Flesh around them. The dribble of ooze I painted with Warpstone Glow, I then painted some Nurgle’s Rot over the ooze and the guts to make them nice and slimy. 

For the weapons and helmet, I started by giving them an edge highlight of Scale75 Thrash Metal. As the chipping was a bit poor, I enhanced the rust effects with Greenstuff World Liquid Pigments Light and Medium Rust paints. I also use these paints on the chainmail. To finish things off I dropped some Army Painter Matt White into the holes in the helmet. I then carefully used the airbrush to spray some Warp Lightening onto the helmet to make it look like the eye sockets were glowing. 

With the model complete I could move onto the base. One thing I’ve noticed about Maggotkin models is that due to their large bellies and little feeties, there is a lot of space on their bases. And as this is my Lord of Plagues I figured that his base deserved a little embellishment. I’m not usually a fan of tactical rocks either but for him I made an exception and found a suitable piece of pine bark for him to stand on. From the Citadel Skulls box I picked out a beastman’s skull to rest against the bark. I also grabbed an impaled hand from Pete the Wargamer’s Dead Animal Bits set and drilled a hole in the bark to insert the base of it in. I finished things off with some mushrooms from Epic Basing. At this point I primed the base with Colour Forge Standard Grey. 

By way of basecoats I painted the stems of the Mushrooms with Two Thin Coats Carcharodon Grey and the caps with Evil Sunz Scarlet. The skull I painted with a coupe thin coats of Army Painter Skeleton Bone, as it was the only thing that needed a brown wash at this point I gave the skull a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone. The impaled hand I painted with Two Thin Coats Griffon Claw and the pole with Scale75 Thrash Metal. Although I did then more or less immediately cover up the Thrash Metal by painting the pole with Typhus Corrosion.

The next step was to cover the remaining areas on the base with Vallejo Thick Brown Mud, I also used a bit of around the base of the pole just to help secure it in place. Once the mud was dry, it and the impaled hand were given a wash of Athonian Camoshade. The mud was then drybrushed with Tyrant Skull to bring out its texture. To finish things off I dabbed on some PVA glue and sprinkled on Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready Forest Floor. Once that was dry I repeated the process, this time with some static grass. To gross things up a bit I dabbed a thin layer of AK Interactive Swamp Water Gel on the base and gave the mushrooms a thin coat of Nurgle’s Rot, just enough to make them look slimy. Last but not least, I painted the rim of the base with a couple thin coats of Warboss Green.