Spooky Ghosts and Scruffy Rats

 Another day, another group of models finished off and ready for battle.

I've managed to clear two small groups of models off my painting table in the last couple of days. The first are the Nighthaunt miniatures from the first two issues of the Mortal Realms magazine. The first issue provides you with 10 Chainrasps, and the second with 4 Myrmourn Banshees.

Spooky ghosts, haunting some ancient ruins.

While I could have gone for one of the suggested ways to paint ghosts, starting with a light base coat, and following up with washes or glazes of things like Nihilakh Oxide, or the ghost themed technical paints (or contrast), I instead decided to start with a black undercoat, and build up the colours quickly by drybrushing Incubi Darkness, Kabalite Green and Sybarite Green, with the lighter colours being focused slightly more towards the bottom of the models. An edge highlight of Sybarite green was used to bring the colours together. The "skin" was painted by basecoating Ionrach Skin, followed by a contrast wash of 1:2 Warplightning and Contrast Medium. Ionrach skin was used to neaten up again.

Metals are just Leadbelcher or Balthasar Gold, with a wash of Agrax Earthshade. The candles are Screamer Pink with a Pink Horror highlight.

Not convinced that those Stormcasts are having a good time. They are a little outnumbered!

So, that's all the models with the first delivery of Mortal Reams painted - so far so good. Let's see if I can keep up with the models as they arrive.

The second group of models are the first few Skaven units for the Clan Pestilens force. Clan Pestilens crops up quite a lot in the early AoS Battleplans, either as allies to various Nurgle forces or on their own, so having a reasonable number of plague ratties painted is quite useful.

Given that a Verminlord Corruptor is part of the main storyline in the Realm of Ghyran, I decided to get both this model, as well as some Plague Priests and basic Plague Monks painted up first.

 Progress on the Clan Pestilens force.

I've been fairly lazy with these models, mainly because there are quite a few to finish, and I'd like to make sure they do get done! All the models were sprayed a light grey initially (this was a can from Wilkos, since getting spray paint during the COVID-19 lockdown isn't exactly easy). The robes are a coat of Iyanden Yellow contrast paint, with an edge highlight of Flash Gits Yellow. I've used a variety of different shades for the hoods and cowls - all a contrast paint, and then a suitable edge highlight picked out that seems to work. Each unit is going to have a different colour, so they can be distinguished easily on the battlefield. 

The flesh was based with Kislev Flesh, the fur with Deathclaw Brown, and the bone or parchment pieces with Zamesi Desert. These areas all received a wash with Guilliman Flesh contrast paint, before a highlight of Kislev Flesh on the flesh areas, and Ushabti Bone on the bone or parchment areas. The fur was left as is, except for some light drybrushing with Bestigor Flesh on the Verminlord.

All the wooden parts were given a coat of Gore Grunta Fur. Swords, chains and staff ends were painted with Leadbelcher, followed by a Nuln Oil wash and a edge highlight with Ironbreaker. The verdigris covered copper or brass was painted with a basecoat of Retributor Armour, followed by a coat of Nihilakh Oxide and a wash of thinned down wash of Coelia Greenshade, which matches how I've done it on the Nurgle models. And that's pretty much it, aside from the odd specific item (like the Warpstone Tipped Staves the Plague Priests have, or the smoke on the brazier).

Given that I already have a few old metal Grey Seers, I decided to convert the one that came in the Corrupting War Swarm box. This is mainly because I suspect that we'll need a few Priests, and I'd prefer not to have a bunch of identical clones running around. This was a very basic conversion - the Grey Seer's head was replaced with a random head from the Plague Monk kit (after a bit of filing down with a knife). The top of his staff was chopped off, and the end of the flail from the Plague Monks box was added. Finally, the outstretched hand was replaced with the Warpstone Tipped Staff from the Plague Furnace kit (I intend to use one as a Plague Furnace, and the other as a Screaming Bell).

The only differences for painting the Verminlord Corruptor were drybrushing the fur with Bestigor Flesh, the skin with Kislev Flesh before a few edge highlights of the same, and using a bit of Pallid Wych Flesh to lighten the bone further.

So, that's the first bunch of Clan Pestilens painted up, what's next? Well, the next thing to be finished is a group of Prosecutors for the Celestial Vindicators (currently being based). I may move onto some of the Skaven War Machines, some more Stormcast, or some Slaves to Darkness after that.