The Nurgly Hillbillies
Michael Kontraros resin kit with support from Games Workshop plastic figures
Painted in 2024
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Some projects just seem to take a while to get done.
This one os a case in point, being started in 2016 and not getting finished until the beginning of 2024.
I’m not complaining, because it’s only because other projects take precedence for some reason – commissions, enthusiasm, or the initial idea isn’t working….. or boredom with the concept necessitating a period of re-evaluation.
The main figure, an 80mm tall Plague Marine produced by Michael Kontraros Miniatures has all his hallmark detail and quality that you’d associate with him if you’ve ever had a hold of one of his kits.
I started painting it, because I was enthusiastic about a large scale Plague Marine figure, with little or no thought behind how he would be displayed. It was a case of “This is COOL” and getting it out of the tin – yes, the model arrived in a small tin box similar to the type Edwardian Ladies stored tealeaves in – was a priority.
Photo #1 shows the main casting. Yes, that all came out of a mould in one piece apart from the head.
And for all it’s complexity I went and added some horns to the head…… Um…… Because. ( no further explanation can be made. )
Whilst in recent years the Nurgle colours have mutated from the grungy, festering dark greens that they were, to the bright, clean looking renditions they seem to be now. I’m firmly in the camp of “filth”.
Something corpulent, diseased and putrid is unlikely to be nice and clean.
Well, lets be honest, is it ?
Photo #2 shows the painting having moved along quite a way with a mix of green and brown areas thrown together to colour the flesh and armour areas.
I wanted this to be a mix in such a way that the distinct areas could be either armour that has taken on the properties of skin, or skin that has taken on the properties of armour, so there isn’t actually a distinct rule for the colours to follow.
The green areas are Olive Green oils with Buff Titanium and Titanium White additions for bring out mid-tones and highlights, and the brown areas are Mars Brown with additions of the same two pale colours, again to bring out mid-tones and highlights.
The wounds and viscera have been painted with a white acrylic and then Carmine oils used as the main colour with some slight highlighting from Titanium White.
Photo #3 shows the back of the figure with the upper torso receiving a lot less detail, simply because the backpack will cover this completely. The legs have had lots of work lavished on them though.
Photo #4, and the eyes have it. There’s lots of little spheres dotted around his body and legs, and I painted them to look like eyes - all sorts of different colours, all looking in different directions, and lots of fun to paint.
Photo #5 doesn’t really look all that different, but I’ve been right round the model adding deeper shadows to all the recesses of detail to make them stand out more. I used a very dark green oils on the green sections and some Vandyke Brown oils on the flesh coloured areas.
It’s a case of thinning the paint with an equal amount of White Spirit, and then using a fine brush to apply it to the recesses.
It’s a long drawn out procedure, but the whole model looks a lot better for it in the end.
The arms still retain the Space Marine armour, albeit rather cracked and diseased. In photo #6 I’ve got the left arm almost finished, using the same green paints on the main area on the shoulder pad, arm section and glove, and then used a dark brass colour from the Darkstar range of metallic acrylics to paint the outer rim of the shoulder pad.
With a little highlighting from a pale gold from the same range, and after allowing the acrylics to dry fully, I used a wash of Viridian oils mixed with just a touch of Titanium White to add verdigris to the brass sections.
The colours were repeated on the elbow pad too.
The two pale spots on the forearm will be more eyes eventually.
Photo #7 shows both arms completed, the horns began as a pale cream acrylic undercoat, adding Vandyke Brown oils to the base of each of them, then a little mars Brown and finally Buff Titanium working to Titanium White at the tip.
The trick is to use and old brush once the four areas of oils are on the horn and use the old brush ( one that’s got the bristles splitting away from any notion of a point ) and beginning at the base of the horn to gently stroke up towards the point. This will drag the darker paints up towards the point and make a lined effect.
It might take a few goes to get it to look right, but with practice the method works well to make the horn look natural.
This particular figure was one of those subjects that got started and then stalled, got a bit more paint, then stalled again, and to be honest, that happened more times than I can count. Whilst it might seem that I was tired of the model, or in some way frustrated, that wouldn’t actually be true.
Other models were bought, started and finished while this was hanging around the back of the bench, lurking in the drying cabinet or skulking on the “to be continued” shelf.
In this time, whilst glancing at it, or picking it up for a better look, ideas formed, mutates and solidified regarding how he was going to end up looking.
Lots of ideas, lots of possibilities, and a total lack of any planning related to the initial thoughts of “lets paint this kit”
In all that time I managed to snap the handle of the axe-like weapon, fortunately where it joined to the hand, so it wasn’t a problem to drill out a little of the hand and fasten the shaft back into place.
Photo #8 shows the painted axe, matching the colours used on the edges of the shoulder pad.
Photo #9 shows he arms temporarily fastened in place. What I had noticed early on was that the stance of the figure is kind of bent backwards. I’m not sure if this was intended by the sculptor, or if perhaps over the time he’s been standing in certain areas of my painting room, he’s just got too warm and the resin has become bent. Either way I’d have to have him standing on a bit of a slope so that he didn’t look unbalanced.
Photo #10 shows the back of the figure, the backpack is a model all on it’s own and is a superb bit of sculpting and casting. I painted it to match the flesh / green colour combination as the rest of the figure, adding a few touches of the brass / gold colouration to some of the valves and fittings.
In photos #11 and #12 I’ve painted the long scarf-like scripts to look like aging paper or possibly human skin ( it’s going to be the latter of those options really, isn’t it ? ).
It’s looking pretty complete now, although the arms are still only held on with blu-tac.
The small details keep on getting added now, trickles of blood-tinted ichor that are seeping from small wounds are painted on with thinned Alizarin Crimson oils, some cracking to the edges of the flesh coloured areas with Burnt Umber oils for the crack, and titanium White oils to highlight the edges of them.
All these and other little additions might not be instantly noticed, but they add to the look of the model as a whole.
Photos #13 through to #20 show different views of the Michael Kontraros figure painted up and finished, he’s also been added to the final base, but I’ll get to that in a little while.
The setting and final idea for the model took a good long while to take root and flourish in my mind, and it was the release of the Games Workshop Primarchs – well me noticing them having been released, truth to tell – that gave me the idea.
The GW Primarchs are really nice individual figures, costly I know, and larger in size compared to normal space marines.
This gave me the idea that this large scale Nurgle-like figure could be one of the chaos Primarchs, having developed his chaotic look and infestations over hundreds of years, and now appearing more like a Nurgle Demon than the human that he began life as.
Maybe he’d grown even taller in stature too……
I’d got the GW Nurgle Plague Marines on a shelf, and like a lot of the plastic models that GW have replaced the old White Metal with, these are excellent little diseased fellows.
Initially I thought of adding two to a ( as yet unbuilt ) base with the much larger MK figure, but the set is so good I decided to make three of them.
Photo #21 shows the first of these at the beginning of painting. I constructed the bodies but left the arms separate, and used a similar green mix – Mars Black and Chrome Green oils over an Olive Green acrylic undercoat, then adding a very small amount of Mars Yellow and Buff Titanium oils to the mix to build up the mid-tones and highlights.
At this point I’ve let those colours dry and also added the colours on the mail – some Dark Steel acrylic from the Darkstar Metallic acrylics range with pin washes of Light Red oils to make the metallic colours appear rusty.
Photo #22 shows the back of the same figure where I’ve started adding washes of a much darker green mix, thinned with White Spirit and painted into the deepest recesses of detail, or areas that I want to appear a lot deeper than they actually are.
This can be seen best on the scale armour on the lower legs, and I’ll continue this upwards on the body and head.
Photos #23 and #24 show the arms going through the same process of painting.
There’s a lot of details that can be brought out with forced highlighting and deepening of the shadows, and like the much larger MK figure, it takes time to do but pays dividends in the end.
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