Paul's Gribbly Beasts of Nurgle - Month One (200pts)

Well month one was a challenge and no mistake. I knew work was going to be a nightmare for the first couple of months of the year and in the end I had to take a very worthwhile and well spent day of annual leave to get some painting done and finish my entry for this month. I’m sure both hobby and professional work benefited from the time well spent.

But that was over a week ago and it has taken me almost as long to get this post written as it did to get them painted, but here it is by the skin of my teeth!

2 x Beasts of Nurgle 75 pts each = 150 pts

5 x Beastmen 10 pts each = 50 pts

Total for the Month = 200 pts

Bosh! Get in!

As always my fantasy models are going to need to (at least) double duty in both Warhammer and Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, and that’s partly why I’ve gone for a colour scheme that is not immediately obvious as Nurgle inspired. However I’m hoping it is sufficiently lurid and gross to meet with approval regardless.

More than that, my two proxy Beasts of Nurgle (more on those choices of models below) will serve D&D duty as a mated pair of Otyughs (Sewage Beasts, a bit like the thing that get’s Luke in the garbage compactor) – I’ll leave the question of which is the male and which is the female, or whether they are even bothered, to your imaginations. With so much cross over with the models I thought why not weave that into my background too?

The sickly wisp of incense wormed it’s way through the sickly miasma of the warp and tickled the Grandfathers nostrils. His mighty sneeze of oozing ectoplasm breached the boundaries of reality and transformed into a vortex of greasy unlight torn between worlds. A doorway to another place blessed by Nurgle’s touch even if it was known by another name.

  

The Watcher urged a small raiding party of his bestial minions through the portal, ignoring their nervous braying and bleating, rubbing his clawed hands together as the two-headed vulture on his shoulder flapped it’s scabrous wings in anticipation…

The town of Hogswallow, sausage production hub for the region, was famous for two things. The industry of it’s abattoirs and the stench of its slurry pits. Of late people had been going missing near the foul offal-lake, well more people than usual. Rumours had spread of something large lurking in the slimy depths. “Otyugh!” they called them, although that may have just been the sound of someone wretching from the smell just before they got snatched by one of the beasts’ many tentacles. The Beastmen knew them for what they were, daemonic Beasts of Nurgle beyond the ken of the mortals of this plane of existence.

“They have been starved of the worshipful adoration they deserved” thought Phlegm Greyhorn, leader of the Beastman pack. It was a simple matter to tempt them from their rest in the morass of congealing blood with a ritual of worship of the Grandfather. Having heard the unholy prayers the beasts willingly followed the pack away from the lake to a place called Goathill, leaving a slimy trail behind them…

Five Chaos Beastmen - Phlegm Greyhorn is in the middle of the pack

I'm hoping the rusty weapons and mouldy green cloth will add an air of Nurgle like decay

 The Beastmen are obviously the much derided WFB 5^th edition plastic monopose Ram-headed body builders. Along with many others I’ve never been a huge fan of these sculpts but I needed a lot of beastmen in a hurry so I decided they were a necessary compromise. However, now I’ve worked on them I don’t hate them nearly as much and I’m actually really looking forward to converting some for my WH40k Chaos Warband.

The ‘Beasts of Nurgle’ on the other hand are a bit more interesting. Those of you steeped in the arcane and esoteric knowledge of the elder gods will recognise them as being from the 1983 Grenadier Call of Cuthulu range, namely the Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath and the Great Race of Yith.

Look at the sphincters on that!

My vintage pot of worm purple got an appropriate outing on this beast

I decided against putting in any pupils on the eyes, imagining them instead as milky pus filled orbs

I couldn't get a decent shot of them but the sculpt has dozens and dozens of tiny little feet which I've picked out in the same fleshy pink. Gross!

These just screamed beasts of Nurgle to me although as I began to really consider them for painting I began to see their potential to cross boundaries with Slaanesh too. Having considered some more lurid colours I went with worm like tentacles and grey, rhino like, hide hoping that this will please both Chaotic deities and disgust opponents in equal measure.

Next month promises to be even more brutal work wise so I’m planning an easy month and painting my leader for a cool 200pts. I’m really hoping I don’t have to use my Mulligan in the second month!