How to paint The Grandfather's Gardeners

As has become fairly evident on this blog, I will buy almost anything Nurgle related. And a Nurge daemon warband for Warhammer Underworlds was certainly no exception. As they are a set warband there are no choices or options in the kit so I got them assembled, leaving them separate from the bases for ease of painting. The Rotfly was primed with Colour Forge Standard Grey but everything else was primed with Army Painter Angel Green.

Skin

The plan is to paint these guys in a similar scheme to the Plaguebearers and Nurglings I painted a while back. So the first step was to give them a zenithal highlight with Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink through my airbrush. It is necessary so that the next paint, Army Painter Air Jungle Green actually shows up without needing a million layers. The bright, almost fluorescent, Jungle Green makes the daemons look suitably otherworldly. To add a secondary colour I carefully sprayed Army Painter Air Violet Volt on the bellies and sores. I then blended everything together with a wash of Reikland Fleshshade followed up by a drybrush of Niblet Green.

Rotfly

Before I could make a start on the rest of the base coats I first needed to sort out Squort the Rotfly. I could have used the same colour scheme as the rest of the daemons, they are daemonic afterall, but I wanted to do a bit of future proofing. You see Squort is the baby version of the giant mounts used by Plague Drones and Pusgoyle Blightlords, so I wanted something that would work with both Plaguebearer and Blightlord riders. Eventually, I settled on a basecoat of Vallejo Dark Slate Grey. A quite drab colour that would work, in theory, with the vibrant Plaguebearers and more grounded Blightlords colour schemes. I guess I will have to buy some Pusgoyle Blightlords and Plague Drones to find out for sure!

The wings I carefully painted with a coat of Two Thin Coats Carcharodon Grey, if only because tidying up any mistakes with Dark Slate Grey would not be easy. I suspect it was by design, but the proboscis does look extremely phallic. I therefore had no choice but to paint it with Two Thin Coats Dwarven Skin. Like the other daemons I then gave the model an all over wash of Reikland Fleshshade. As a final step before pivoting back to general basecoats I painted the legs with Garaghak’s Sewer to add a touch more variety to the model.

Basecoats

Next was to base coat all the smaller details. I started by picking out the numerous boils with Vallejo Heavy Goldbrown and any sores in the skin I painted with Screamer Pink. Any guts that were showing I painted with Two Thin Coats Runic Purple. I wanted the ticks to stand out from the vibrant daemons so I painted them with a couple thin coats of Army Painter Skeleton Bone, which I also used for any bone and teeth. The off white stands out nicely against the deep green and purple skin. Any wooden details such as the staves, I painted with Vallejo Khaki and then gave them a coat of Wyldwood contrast paint. The weapon details and the mouth parts on the ticks I painted with Two Thin Coats Death Reaper. Any leather straps I picked out with Mournfang Brown. A few of the models have various maggots about their person so I picked them out with a couple thin layers of Ulthuan Grey. Any bells I painted with Balthasar Gold and any drips of sludge and toxic goo I painted with Warpstone Glow. To bring out the texture of the weapons I gave them a quick drybrush with Necron Compound.

Phleghmus

Being a characterful warband some of the models had some unique details that needed to be painted. Phleghmus, for example, has a cauldron in their belly. Gives a new meaning to the phrase pot belly I suppose? In any case I painted the cauldron with Scale75 Black Metal followed by a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone. For the book that they’re holding I painted the pages with Two Thin Coats Griffon Claw and the cover with Rhinox Hide. Usually for a daemon, Phleghmus is also wearing clothes in the form of some rags around their waist. Like Squort I leaned on my drab historical colours and painted the rags with Vallejo English Uniform. The rags and book were then given a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone.

Dripterus

Even by the standards of Nurgle daemons Dripterus is not looking great. In fact I’m not sure what’s worse; the tick that seems to have munched right through their skull and out the mouth, or the traumatically birthing a giant beetle of some kind.

The proboscis of the tick I painted with Two Thin Coats Griffon Claw, I didn’t want to stand out too much, and gave it a wash of Reikland Fleshshade. The Nurgle icon I painted with Balthasar Gold and the beetle, or whatever it is, making its way out of Dripterus’ abdomen I painted with Two Thin Coats Death Reaper.

Washes

Strewg and Slunge didn’t need any extra base coats as they’re pretty much basic Plaguebearers. Strewg might have a belly full of maggots but we had already covered that in the other base coats. So with that in mind I moved onto any remaining washes that I needed to do. The ticks’ bodies were given a wash of Seraphim Sepia, whilst their head and legs were given a coat of Army Painter Dark Tone. Lastly any bronze and leather details were given a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone.

Bases

There were a few more bits I wanted to do on the models for the moment I switched focus to the bases. To start with, I painted the earth with Two Thin Coats Scorched Earth and the rocks with Two Thin Coats Dungeon Stone. Like the staves, I painted any wood first with Vallejo Khaki and then with Wyldwood contrast paint. Likewise some of the bases have details I had already painted before, like maggots or book pages, these were painted in the same way as they were on the models.

The next step was to tidy up the water with Caliban Green and then give the bases a wash of Athonian Camoshade. I then added a thick layer of Nurgle’s Rot onto the water to mirror how I did the toxic pools on my other Nurgle models. To further tie things together, I dabbed some PVA glue onto the dirt areas and sprinkled on some Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready Forest Floor. Once that was dry I repeated the process with some static grass. Lastly for the bases I painted the rims with a couple coats of Warboss Green.

Effects

While I was painting my Plaguebearers some years back I discovered that, unbeknownst to me, Army Painter Air Violet Volt is a fluorescent paint. Naturally, I took the opportunity to add a bunch more fluorescent effects with Greenstuff World’s Fluor range. I used Violet on the guts, Green on the weapons and maggots and Yellow on the boils. Back in the day I didn’t have the Fluor Red for the eyes but I do now. And while I was at it I went back and did the eyes for the Plaguebearers.

To finish things off I added some spots of Nihilakh Oxide to the bronze area and some Greenstuff World Liquid Pigment Medium Rust to Pleghmus’ cauldron.

Warhammer Underworlds - The Grandfather's Gardeners