Nurgle has his claws firmly set in me as I follow up my Festus conversion from last week with the master gardener himself, Horticulus Slimux. He's one of my favorite models from the Nurgle range and a true centerpiece for any collection.
Even though I finally finished painting Slimux last week, I've actually had the model assembled and primed since around the time of the Maggotkin of Nurgle Battletome release. I originally bought the Blightwar boxset to get the cool Wheel of Contagion and to round out my Plaguebearers and Plague Drones with Horticulus as a nice bonus. After looking at the model close up though my plans changed. I needed to have this guy in my force. After Adepticon that year, where I took my Nurgle stuff for the Teams and Vanguard tournament, I set about planning out the next expansion to bring them up to a full 2,000 points. After over a year of the models sitting around primed I finally decided to complete that task.
Even with my Nurgle painting back in full swing I ended up leaving Slimux for last. Honestly, all I have left to paint now is an Endless Spell, then some extra Plaguebearers for summoning if I feel like it. Like I said, I love the model, but I was a little bit intimidated by him. He's not large or anything, but compared to the other Nurgle demon models he has a lot going on. It's not that I didn't think I could do him justice, it was more me being worried he would take a long time to paint. Well, when it's all said and done he only took me about a week and a half to paint, so not very long at all!
I started him off in subassemblies of Mulch, Horticulus, and the Nurgling on a stick. I did this for ease of painting and also so I could prime them all in the best color. Horticulus was primed Zandri Dust like all of my other Nurgle demons, while the Nurgling on a stick was primed Rhinox Hide (they used to have this in a spray can and I still have one). For Mulch I decided to go for a Mechanicum Grey primer. This gave me a nice neutral color to work from considering he had so many unique colors on him.
I decided to start by painting Mulch first since he was the largest part of the model and also the most complicated. I find it's best to start with the parts you think will be the most challenging or take the longest first. This way you get it out of the way at the start and then it's smooth sailing afterward. Otherwise you end up with the hardest part last, which can be discouraging and may lead you to shelving the project for awhile. For the shell I literally just followed Duncan's painting guide video for it step by step. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. This is a combination of colors and layers that I never would've thought to do on my own and they work wonderfully.
I painted his skin the same way I painted my Plague Drones to tie them all together. It's a basecoat of Death Guard Green followed by an Athonian Camoshade wash and then a drybrush of Death Guard Green again. Before I do any highlights I glaze in all of my red and purple tones using diluted washes. Once this is dry I highlighted it with Nurgling Green followed by Krieg Khaki on more prominent areas. This is actually one more highlight layer than what I did on my flies, but I wanted him to stand out more since it's a character model.
The rest of him was painted in various tones. For his tongue, teeth, and eyes I followed what I did for my Plaguebearers, just with a bit more care. The cloth was painted the same way as on my Chaos Warriors. The tree was actually a lot of fun to paint. I started out by painting it the same way as the wood on all the rest of my models, like on the Blightking, but with a bit more care and time put in. I then used successive layers of Nuln Oil to blend the curled up tips of the tree to black. This was highlighted with Dawnstone, which I decided was too bright, so I knocked it back darker with another layer of Nuln Oil. I then used Dawnstone again to pick out prominent areas. The boils and such were painted in the same way as how I did my Great Unclean One's boils. For the moss I just did Death Guard Green with a wash of Camoshade and a quick layer of Ogryn Camo. I tried to match his vial of liquid to how I painted the vials on Festus. I imagine that maybe it was a gift from the good doctor, or maybe a form of payment for their pact.
Horticulus himself was painted in the same manner as my Plaguebearers but with an extra highlight layer of Pallid Wych Flesh. I also took more care with everything, and did a bit of blending and cleanup where needed. Clean up on a model like this is tricky, since the skin tone isn't a paint out of a pot, but a series of drybrushes and washes. To get as close as I could to it I did a mix of Zandri Dust and Ogryn Camo and watered it down with Seraphim Sepia. This ended up being a pretty close match, or at least close enough that it doesn't stand out. The main area I used this on was the top of his head, since I wanted a bit smoother of a look than what the drybrush gave me.
I'm really happy with how he turned out and I'm excited to use him in my games. He's actually been central to the lore for my force since the beginning since I painted my demons to look like the Befouling Host. Their little bit of lore says they're seen with Horticulus amongst their ranks more often than not since they're trying to bring Nurgle's garden to the Mortal Realms.
Now with Horticulus done the only Herald of Nurgle left to paint is Epidemius. I actually have that model painted up in an older color scheme from 10+ years ago, but I think it's time for a bit of an update on him. I plan on keeping as much of the original model as I can, but replacing some stuff with more recent parts, like his sword and maybe the Nurglings carrying him.
Will I have more Nurgle to show off between now and Adepticon? Maybe! I still need to decide on my Team Tournament army and if I do Nurgle I'd want to have some variety in the list from my 2,000 point list...
Until next time,
Tyler M.
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