Why Nurgle?

Or to be more accurate, why Nurgle, why now, and why plan the army as I have.

After reading what felt like millions of articles on the pros and cons of Age of Sigmar, I decided to start a new army project rather than change my former armies, Dark Elves and Vampire Counts, over. This was partly because I wasn't going to be rebasing hundreds of miniatures, and also because Age of Sigmar is so different to 8th that I think you'll be seeing completely different armies being made.

So looking for a new army, not much grabbed me to be honest, until I looked at Beastmen. Widely regarded as one of the worst performing armies, I had written them off for an 8th edition army but always loved the models. With AoS, I think most if not all units in an army are now viable, as well as there being benefits for taking certain units / heroes with the same keyword. So Beastmen were starting to look alot more feasible.

I began to make a list of what elements of the Beastmen I would include, beginning with the minotaurs, both the Doombull and standard minotaurs, as they are great models, plus being monstrous infantry sized would allow me to develop my painting skills. I then added ungors with bows as I felt these would act as scouts for the army plus give some much needed firepower. I like the centigor models so these were added in, also being used for scouts within the army. Other elements I may include at a later date are a Great Bray Shaman with his ability to summon any monster, and the other monsters in the beastmen range.


I was also looking for a project that would push my painting and modelling skills, and Beastmen with Nurgle allies fit the bill. I could practice using greenstuff on any model in the army, adding in typical Nurgle elements where appropriate. As the Blight Kings are some of my favourite recently released models, I decided to include them.

So I intend everything in the army to have the "mark" of Nurgle to unify it, even though none of the beastmen have the option to do this in the rules. Having begun collecting a number of units that are dedicated Nurgle already, this has allowed me to built up a small collection of Nurgle bits to use in converting the non-Nurgle units. Units will receive some greenstuffing in order to bring them in line with the others.

Plaguebearers Complete!

The unit of Plaguebearers is now complete, the photos below are from just before I added the finishing touches and neatened up the bases etc

I've since done a brown wash then highlighted silver on the metal head of the banner below.

Considering Next Purchase

My next purchase in the army is going to be my first non-Nurgle unit. However I intend to "Nurgle-ise" every unit in the army, one of the main reasons I started the army is for the modelling and painting opportunities in order to push myself (but more on that in a future post).

The two units I am debating on getting next are either a box of Ungors, to begin the Beastmen side (and intended core...) of the army, or a box of Ironguts in order to convert them into Plague Ogres. So below are my thoughts to help me decide.

Ungors 

Cheaper
Give some shooting to the army
Easier to convert, can use spare parts from Plaguebearers

Ironguts/Plague Ogres

4 to a box
Fit in better with the rest of the units I have so far, with Nurgle keyword, similar size to blight kings
Can hopefully use parts from the Blight Kings kit.
Would like to try green stuffing some parts on them.


Whichever way I go, I intend to try my hand at green stuffing for the first time, having found some great tutorials on the subject -

Nurgle 101

Greenstuff 101


Does anyone know how well, if at all, the Blight Kings parts will match up with the unit of Ironguts?

Plaguebearers Almost Complete

Some quick shots of the almost complete Plaguebearer unit tonight, will post better quality photos when they're fully done.

Nurglings Complete

Nurglings complete (apart from a quick paint round the edge of the bases)

Plaguebearer WIP

Tried a bit of wet blending last night, starting with a basecoat of one of the old dark greens, followed by highlighting with warboss green in desired areas. Really enjoyed doing it and hope to continue this with the rest of the unit. Next steps are a wash and another highlight.

Nurgling WIP

Been working on 3 bases of Nurglings this week, using all the Nurglings from the Plaguebearer sprue, plus a couple of egg sacs (?) to round things out. 

Used these as a test for the plaguebearers, although will use washes and hopefully blended layers on the plaguebearers.

I've covered each egg sac with PVA glue in order to give them a wet look, will probably use varnish for this in future but didn't have any to hand...

Overall Nurgle Army Plan

Below is my current buying plan for the whole army, I've decided to complete the daemon side of things first, as I'm already half way towards completing a Cohort of Nurgle, only needing a Herald and GUO to finish it. I've added an extra unit of plague drones in there as the models are sick... (Although I've just seen you need 3 units of plaguebearers for that, so may scrap that idea for now)
















This should hopefully give me a good basis of Nurgle bits for the rest of the army, particularly the Beastmen side, which I will probably do next... although I have some good ideas for using ironguts as chaos ogres.

I've also started to consider a Skaven battalion, only Nurgle units, plus those Plague monks look good on round bases...

Blight Kings Finished Photos

Managed to get some semi decent photos using my camera and bounce flash, really need to sort a background out to shoot against!

Blight Kings Finished!

Finished the unit of Blight Kings tonight after pondering about how to do the bases for much too long! Will post more better photos tomorrow.

Plaguebearers next, but currently more excited about doing the free Nurglings...

Blog Intro

Hello!

Decided to start a blog to document my progress in starting a Beastmen themed Nurgle army for Age of Sigmar.

I have a rough idea of what units I want in the army, spread out across all the chaos armies, excluding Skaven (at the moment). Not sure if I can get down with Skaven being the fourth chaos army just yet. I'll discuss what units I plan on including in a future post.

Fairly early on in the process right now, I've decided to focus on gathering a suitable amount of Nurgle bits from dedicated units such as Blight Kings and Plaguebearers before starting on the main units of the army (beastmen/minotaurs). To this end, I've almost finished a unit of Blight Kings, and have a unit of Plaguebearers + round bases for the Blight Kings on the way.

To whet people's appetite, here's a work in progress shot of the Blight Kings that can stand up without bases!