character – Twitchy Bristles

“Hierophant Abraxxazz” – More Nightmare Fuel by Artel W

Sister Pestilencia has some serious competition, for the coveted honor of being my favorite third-party model. For a Malignant Plaguecaster proxy, Hierophant Abraxxazz sports a tremendous amount of bulk and presence, in some contrast to the small-but-mighty Sister Pestilencia. While I went with the Plaguecaster build, I have to say that Artel W includes a ton of alternate bits with this kit, and makes it worth it if for nothing but the spares. Those bits are going to be really handy down the road putting together other monstrosities. But we’re not here to talk about other monstrosities, let’s talk about Hierophant Abraxxazz.

Pictured: The two Artel W proxies I’m running in my Death Guard, looking on point.

The overall bulk of the model is on par with Lords of Contagion or similar “Terminator” armor models, and you can see that in addition to his trusty staff he’s carrying a pistol in one hand, and what looks to be a tiny flamer or plague spewer of some sort over the shoulder, with a drill and lots of other sharp pointy bits scattered all over the model. The mix of armour, bone, misc. mechanical and cloth that makes up this model is fantastic, and this thing is absolutely covered in detail. This, paired with all the alternate configurations mean that whether you run Death Guard or classic Chaos, you’re gonna have a good time building this one.

Pictured: Another life ruined by the Great Varnish Disaster of Christmas 2021, RIP.

Unfortunately, Abraxxazz is yet another model scarred by the Great Varnish Disaster of Christmas 2021, but even with some of the issues that caused in some of the more detailed bits I’m overall very happy with how this turned out. Since I’m not a big fan of the regular Malignant Plaguecaster sculpt, this is something I can put down in my Crusade games to make my psyker support look and feel a whole lot more imposing, and I couldn’t be more excited.

Malignant Plaguecaster

And with this, ladies and gentlemen, I’ve painted all the Death Guard characters out of the 2017 starter sets! Not that I’m keeping track or anything. Out of the three, admittedly, the Malignant Plaguecaster was my least favorite sculpt but I think out of the three they’re probably the one that turned out the best, and that I got to have the most fun with. Models with lots of flame, smoke, or cloth bits are fun like that, and a nice break from doing the armor colors over and over.

Pictured: Just a couple Death Guard characters, being characters.

As much as I like how this model turned out, the Great Varnish Disaster of Christmas 2020 still muted out a little more detail than I’m happy with, especially in areas like the staff. That being said, I still think this is an improvement from earlier work in Nurgle’s service, and makes me look forward to how much better my next batch of anything Death Guard-related is going to turn out. And in terms of Crusade games, this is finally going to provide my Death Guard some much-needed psychic support and shenanigans.

“Sister Pestilencia” – My New Favorite Proxy

If I had doubts or misgivings about the way that my Lord of Contagion turned out, oh boy, is this model ever the opposite – but that might be just because of what a fantastic sculpt Artel W put together for this third-party model. KinpatsuSamurai picked me up one for Christmas and I was thrilled; from the moment I saw the concept art on the company’s Facebook I knew this was going to be one that I’d have to add to my Death Guard. (And it’s totally not like I’m also putting together a Sisters of Battle army with an emphasis on third-party miniatures. Definitely not that, too.)

Pictured: Lord Felthius and his soon-to-be replacement in one if not both of my Crusade games. No hard feelings here, it’s all in the service of Nurgle.

Sister Pestilencia did not disappoint in the least. The main sculpt is great and the model comes with some fantastic alternate head sculpts and an alternate weapon (which I worked into the Plague Marines I’ll be posting here down the road). The detail is great, the sculpt is clean, and the only drawback if there’s one to be found at all is that the model’s a little bit short for a Lord of Contagion, and the Nurgling is a little out of scale with other Nurgling models, but that’s not a dealbreaker for me. Both Sister Pestilencia and her Nurgling can be small but mighty.

Pictured: The world’s tiniest Nurgling. Truly, Artel W knows what we’re about here in the Plague God’s service.

Out of the color changes I made from my first Death Guard batch, changing from brownish cloth colors to a bright, bold red was absolutely the right choice, and it fits this model in particular brilliantly. While I’m still iffy on my other Lord of Contagion, this model will absolutely be on the tabletop as a new HQ proxy and fluff character, either in my running Crusade games with friends at my FLGS or in floorhammer games with my roommate – varnishing issues notwithstanding.

*Sister Pestilencia swore an oath of loyalty to the forces of Decay, Death and Infection. Now she is the Reaper of Souls, carrying the unholy gifts of her Master to the doomed worlds.*

Lord of Contagion

Starting my Death Guard galleries in 2021 off with a classic! Does the Lord of Contagion count as a classic? I mean, it’s been four years since 8th Edition, and the Know No Fear box set, so…maybe? Regardless, this is the first part of my Know No Fear batch of Plague Marines and I went into this with a goal in mind: to try and unseat Lord Felthius. For whatever strange reason, Lord Felthius and the Tainted Cohort have become the most clicked gallery on my website. As cool as that is, I wanted to see if I could finally throw together a Lord of Contagion that would unseat him from that spot on the website, or maybe in my Crusade Army.

Pictured: Cruelty to Nurglings, shameful since Nurglings are my favorite part of any Death Guard army.

The model itself came together brilliantly, and everything went great on the process work up until the eleventh hour when I sloshed way too much varnish on. As always, a big shout-out to Spekd for the “sponge” method that’s become the bread and butter of my Death Guard army. I will say in terms of the comparisons between models that I like the overall color balance, palette, and scheme better from this batch of Plague Marines than the last, but have I succeeded in a model that will unseat Lord Felthius? The varnish issue puts a damper on that from a Crusade and visual perspective, I think, and as for the website we’ll just have to wait and see.

Pictured: The Lords of Contagion, side by side.

This week my galleries will be all Lord of Contagion stuff, and probably with my Malignant Plague Caster stuff the week after, then my Plague Marines the week after, and I have some other fun stuff planned down the pipeline. Might be slow for a while after these galleries all the same, where my funding as a grad student has run out and I am working on finding new work. But hopefully, somewhere in there, I’ll still be able to make time for painting and posting! (Especially since I want to get in on that new year’s contest Ann’s Immaterium suggested to kick off 2021.)