Pestilent Quandary

Although I've still got my Bloodletters to get through (So help me Khorne I won't let these become the next Horrors) I've been pondering my Plague Drones and what I'm going to do with them. You'd think this would be an easy choice because I've done a lot of Nurgle models (a Great Unclean One, 3 Nurgling bases and 10 Plaguebearers) but there are two reasons that this is different:
1) I want the flies to be distinct from their riders who will obviously be painted like the others.
2) I've never done a wash over the spray paint I'm currently using so I'm worried how it will turn out.



Owing to the fact that GW spray paint is rather expensive for not a lot I've been using Rust-oleum Craft and Hobby Enamel (it's cheap and I get a discount on it through work) and it's been great for everything so far but I did actually use GW spray paint for all my Nurgle units to date. The spray paint has a gloss look to it and it was worrying me that it wouldn't hold the colour of the wash or that it would affect it and it would look terrible. Given that these are large models any bad parts will be very much visible so I've run a few tests and (as you can see below) they've worked quite well so far. The colour has held and there hasn't really been an issue with the colours themselves.

Now assuming the picture placement is as I hope, the first model should be the musician and his sword (which will be painted over at a later date) was painted with Agrax Earthshade. The second should be the Standard Bearer who has a sword washed with Reikland Fleshshade and the standard is done in Seraphim Sepia. Finally it should be the Plaguebringer who was washed with a 50/50 mix of Nuln oil and Agrax Earthshade.

Looking at these I can categorically say that I don't like RF or SS for the flesh of the flies, it doesn't feel like there's the depth I'm looking for in the colour for this particular project. I do like the AE and the mix because they're both quite dark, they contrast with the green hue of the Plaguebearers without being overly offensive to the eye (that's the job of my Tzeentch units) and it still fits into the feel of that quarter of the army.

In order to really get a feel for the right contrasts I've gone and done the Athonian Camoshade on the two with the colours I like and immediately there is one that jumps out as being better and that's the mix. I've taken two pictures of each; one with and one without the flash so that the colours are seen in a couple of different lights. The mixed shade is darker (obviously) and really stands out against the green but still fits really well so it looks like I'll be going with the mixed shade for the bodies.

I plan to incorporate some sort of very dark colour for the carapace, possibly even black but I haven't thought that far ahead yet. The only problem I have with the wash method is that if I make a single mistake I can't just go over it and try again I'm stuck with it. It does make me slightly more nervous as I paint but the end result looks fantastic so I'll just suck it up and go for it. Once I've finished the Bloodletters I plan on having a Nurgle attack so I'll do the Herald and the Plague Drones so stay tuned for more updates from the Garden of Nurgle.