Warhammer Quest: Darkwater - Cankerborn

I was fairly keen to get to the Cankerborn, I always find that painting Nurgle daemons is a blast. And these tall boys had some extra gribbly textures on them that looked like they would be fun to paint. Honestly, more daemon factions need a beefed-up elite choice to bridge the gap between the foot soldiers and greater daemons.

Backdrop by Jon Hodgson Backdrops

Getting started they more or less followed the same process that I used for my other Nurgle daemons. Once I got them assembled, using liberal amounts of sprue goo to fill the gaps, I primed them with Army Painter Angel Green. From there I gave the models a zenithal highlight of Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink. The white ink was necessary as the next colour, Army Painter Jungle Green, has terrible coverage over the much darker Angel Green. Plus, the white gives the Jungle Green a luminescence making the models look otherworldly, which daemons are to be honest. For some contrast I then used the airbrush to spray some Army Painter Violet Volt onto the hands and feet. Ordinarily for my daemons I also do this on the bellies, but these guys don’t have much of a gut. To tie everything together I then gave the model an all over wash of Reikland Fleshshade followed by a drybrush of Niblet Green.

With the main bodies more or less done I could move onto the remaining details. The two biggest areas left where the hair and the cankerous growths on their backs. For the latter, I gave it a coat of Creed Camo, which is a transparent paint, so I was able to take advantage of the gradient between Angel Green and Jungle Green. Keeping it green also helped to make it look part of them, rather than something that had been stuck to them. For the hair I adopted a similar, albeit less effective paint in Black Templar. It has some greenish hues to it, but a lot of the hair is in the more shadowed areas of the models. I may have to touch it up with some highlights later.

Next up were the weapons. Normally for Plaguebearers I just basecoat them a near black like Two Thin Coats Death Reaper and give them a drybrush of Necron Compound. But the Cankerborn’s weapons are more detailed, so I needed a different approach. To get things started I painted the blades and pommels of the weapons with Scale75 Black Metal. The sword has some wrappings on the handle, and I picked these out with Vallejo Khaki. Both weapons have fleshy growths on, which in the case of the axe, extend down to become the handle. I painted these areas with Two Thin Coats Griffon Claw before giving them a coat of Reikland Fleshshade. For the axe handle, I painted the lower half with Wyldwood contrast paint and then feathered it out near the head.

Backdrop by Jon Hodgson Backdrops

For the rest of the details, I painted any bone details like skulls, the horns and teeth, with Army Painter Skeleton Bone. The wooden, or perhaps stone, that they have upon them I painted with Army Painter Tainted Garden, again keeping with the green theme. Lastly, I picked out any leather straps with Two Thin Coats Dry Rust Brown. I washed all these areas, and the wraps on the sword handle, with Army Painter Strong Tone.

The next step was the fun part: fluorescent paints. Army Painter Violet Volt, it turns out is already a fluorescent paint, which is partly why I do this. And because one of my unspoken painting rules is that physic/warp miniatures get some UV reactive paint to represent the power of the warp. The first step, however, was painting everything that I wanted to glow with a base coat of white. For the boils and eyes, it was a simple case of picking them out with Army Painter Matt White. For the sword and swirling design on the wood I used Liquitex Titanium White which flowed easily into the recesses.

From there I broke out the Greenstuff World Fluor range. I used Yellow for the boils, although the coverage wasn’t great. I then ran a line of the Lime Fluor paint into the cracks in the weapons and Violet for the swirling patterns on the wood blocks. Lastly, I filled in the eyes with Red, although like the boils the coverage wasn’t ideal. They turned out more pink than anything else. In fact I decided I didn’t like it, so I went back and picked out the boils with Vallejo Heavy Goldbrown and the eyes with Army Painter Fiery Vermillion. I then put their respective Fluor colours back on top of them.

Backdrop by Jon Hodgson Backdrops

For the base, I kept things similar to the rest of the Darkwater miniatures. Firstly, though, I painted the skull and the rock on the bases with Army Painter Skeleton Bone and Two Thin Coats Dungeon Stone respectively. I then gave them both a coat of Army Painter Strong Tone. Once that was done, I painted the remaining flat areas of the base with Two Thin Coats Scorched Earth. I then slathered the base in PVA glue and sprinkled on some Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready Forest Floor, once the glue was dry, I locked it in place with Geek Gaming Scenics Sealant. I then dabbed on some patches of AK Interactive Swamp Water Gel and finished things off by painting the rims of the bases with Warboss Green.

As the bases are quite wide and the stick legs of the Cankerborn don’t take up too much room, the bases end up looking rather flat. So with that in mind, I did end up sticking down a few Army Painter tufts and a couple pinches of static grass.