the warhammer hobby is an interesting one it's very very young as far as hobbies go but it has
quite a history to it many models have been through a bunch of different iterations over
the years and i really appreciate the history that old models carry
over the course of warhammer both fantasy and 40k models have gone from oddly lumpy lead
caricatures of judge dread ripoffs to pretty sweet pewter grim dark warriors then crispy plastic
build-a-bear style army men to sweet digitally perfected gaming pieces that are display quality
and really all this happened pretty quick anyhow really this is just a long-winded way of saying
that recently i got a very heavy model in the mail and i'm really excited about it
hey guys jay here welcome to eons of battle i don't really know how it happened but i really get
a kick out of old models when i saw this adorable lump of lead on ebay i snatched it up without a
second thought i didn't even have a plan for what i was going to do with it but just look at him can
you honestly say that you could resist that smile that rockin bod or those big watery eyes don't lie
to me i know you would happily make him a member of your mini family and i think i have the perfect
solution on how to make him a member of mine i have recently begun a small force of chaos space
marine death guard and i love them this army of sticky slimy space marines should give me all the
excuses i need to put together and paint up this beast of nurgle and i certainly have precedent for
including old school models in my modern armies it's something i did even without really noticing
in my super snazzy jean steeler cult army i have this shifty looking metal magus running around
casting spells and commanding troops to spring from the shadows and begin the cult takeover
in my black templar space marine crusade my bikers are led by a rogue trader era chaplain on bike
that might just be one of my favorite paint jobs ever and my necrons are mostly new but eagle-eyed
observers will spot that my scarab swarm bases are made up of piles of bugs from the indominus box
early 2010s and rogue trader by the way i have videos on all these models and you can watch them
here after you finish with this video of course and you can find them linked in the description
below so this beast of nurgle will be in good company in my collection so i don't want to waste
any time i've been sitting on this model for like two weeks and i am dying to get to work on him
so it's time to sit down with my brushes and tools and get him painted and along the way
i'll talk about the history of this model and what i plan to do with it in my army
so it wouldn't be an eob video without taking a crack at some cool basing everything in warhammer
has gotten a lot bigger over the years and this guy was originally supplied with the old
rectangular cavalry base but i think this 50 millimeter round base is gonna be much more
age appropriate first i broke out my cutting mat and then prepared to pick out a rock for
him to sit on i looked through my bag of pine nuggets until i found one that was a good fit
once i found my plague boys glass slipper i took a piece of 60 grit sandpaper
and smoothed the bottom flat so it stuck down better to my base i cleaned off the sanding
dust and then applied some hot glue there is no better glue for bonding wood to plastic
next i added some nice muddy texture by using mud vallejo mud texture i applied a thin layer of this
all over the exposed base when using this stuff a few small layers will dry much faster and better
than one big fat one now i really want to add some skulls to this space and if i can put on
my games workshop shell hat for just a second i really like the citadel skulls box it comes
with like 400 plastic skulls and the really nice thing about being made of plastic is you can use
plastic glue to attach them so you can get a much better bond but for this project i'm pretty sure
i can get away with my green stuffed whirl skulls they're a little bit mushy in terms of detail but
they should work great in clumps on this base i poured out my skulls and picked a few that i liked
then i added more mud and then carefully picked up a skull and then pressed it into the goop then i
put more mud in between the skulls so that they look like they had been there a while and have
begun to sink under the ground well i suppose with the base done it's now time to build this sucker
and in researching this model it really led me down a whole bunch of rabbit holes
this model i'm working on was the first ever beast of nurgle released just over 30 years ago
and i suspect that this artwork was drawn after the model was sculpted but i like to think that
this was the most faithfully recreated model of all time look at that painting it's basically a
photograph of the metal model according to the lost mini's wiki siddell's first edition of the
beast of nurgle was deemed too small which is strange as the original looks really good and is
not that small it seems that this little fellow was only sold from 1990 to 1991 and was quickly
replaced with the second edition beast of nurgle this was the replacement the second edition beast
of nergal and this model lasted a lot longer than the original and please leave a comment
if you think that this was an improvement or not in my opinion it is a step in the wrong direction
the new one might look a little scarier than the first edition but it doesn't have the same charm
this model was the beast of nurgle for a while but it was eventually replaced with a more grim
dark version with the third edition beast this was when warhammer was more finding its image and this
monster is much more john carpenter's the thing and much less this that twisted metal beast model
was the sculpt all the way up until 2018 when it was replaced with the plastic kit and this is the
one that you can buy from games workshop web store right now and it's no longer for warhammer fantasy
battles but aegis sigmar i think this is one of those models that looks better in person and as
cool as games workshop's nurgles scopes are i think they really come alive once they are out
in the wild and people other than games workshops every metal team are taking a crack at them
the beast of nergal has had a surprising number of models for a unit that is not a rank and file
troop or a hero or hq but something that has been inspiring designers for 31 years
when building models like this there is always some sloppy connections so i mixed myself up
some green stuff which should help me get a better glue bond between the lumpy metal parts to fix the
awful seam running all the way around him i took a tiny roll of green stuff and shoved it in the gap
i used a combination of my fingers hobby knife and silicone brush to crush the putty into the hole
and scuff it up so that it looks seamless well it's time to work on the top head tentacles and
this stuff looks pretty rough and hilariously i was sent two back rows and one middle row and
considering that this is a 30 year old model i can't imagine i'm going to be able to get a hold
of a proper piece but i'm not too worried i don't think it'll matter much anyway this guy is pretty
lumpy i'm pretty sure i can make do i carefully destroyed the resale value of this model by
grinding away at the tabs as not all three pieces would fit in the head together i also widened
the gap for the tentacles too basically i ground away everything i could to give myself more room
i put some green stuff in the gap and then stuck on my first back layer of tentacles
the green stuff gives me more surface area for the glue to stick to then for the real back
row i did the same a little green stuff and then lots of force to really squish it down
and then there was just enough room for the top tentacles to slide in the remaining space for his
little flippers i super glued in a small ball of green stuff and then squished the metal into place
and there he is a cute little fella well he's on there and all of his parts are attached
hopefully they stay attached and now i have to position his tentacles and boy oh boy
are they long spindly delicate pieces of pewter so i'm hoping a little bit
of selective heat will help me get them into position i hope so heat can definitely make metal
a lot more pliable but it might also make it more brittle so wish me luck i blasted the models with
a hair dryer on high heat for a while and it did seem to do something it certainly got things hot
i ever so gently pulled bent and twisted the long tentacles into position and it was fun but it was
also super scary if one broke off it would be a huge pain in the butt to get it back on
well i got everything attached and you know i think the hair dryer did do something a
heat gun probably would have worked a little bit better although the hair dryer did a good job of
making the metal uncomfortable to work with and my fingers feel a little singed but you
know it's all in the effort of getting him built and he is now built so it is time to paint him
i prepared my surface for painting this guy is too big and too heavy for my normal cubes of wood
so i found this piece of 2x4 and used two pieces of 3m double stick tape to keep him attached then
it was time to prime i gave him a coat of style res black primer through my airbrush although
a rattle can would work too then i put some white ink into my brush and sprayed this from a directly
above in a xenothon highlights the xenothon looks lovely as it always does and is a xenothon and
effective strategy to improve your mini painting and the answer is a simple drum roll please
it depends if it's a model i've never painted before like this guy i find it super helpful
if only to see the model from a new perspective to see my raised areas in a crisp white and
my recesses in a dark black i think it is super helpful to really understand the model and working
up in small transparent layers i find that i make smaller mistakes slower than if i just went right
in with proper opaque paint i make large mistakes very fast but if it's model i painted a lot
previously and i already kind of have a routine planned i usually skip the xenothon and go right
for my normal strategy but on a model like this i think a xanathal is a great step one looking
at my little plague army i paint my marines with mostly greens and blues and my pox walkers with
mostly pink and i think my beast of nurgle will lean more pox walker than plague marine
for colors i went with a green an orangey brown a yellow a pink a black wash and a dark blue and
of course like all projects a generous dollop of white and black i thinned my colors a lot so that
i could take full advantage of my xenothol and i decided to first go with paint i put this on his
weird snail skirt ridges and on his tentacles and his friendly smile next up some super thin green
i just slap this down wherever there is a certain freedom with nurgle models you can be a little
sloppy after the green then came blue which i continued applying by filling in more of the white
prime parts and i let my colors overlap so it all just added to the messy style then came yellow
this is the most different color and i used plenty of water to blend it into the blues and greens
and last but not least some watery orange brown this blends really nicely with my other colors and
creates some weird values and textures so at this point you're probably thinking jay you've lost me
that looks like a muddled mess and you're right but it is right where i like my death card to be
i just slap on all the colors and then take a look at it and that's the great thing about painting is
it's an additive process and so if i go too much with something i can put on more paint to bring it
down and if something's a little too subtle i can add more paint to bring it up whereas something
like woodworking if i cut a table leg two inches too short uh oh it's the whole project's ruins but
with painting you can always fix it another thing i really find helpful with painting is knowing
a little bit of the history and the lore of a miniature and this guy has some really really
fun lore behind them and let me talk about it while i wait for this guy to dry the beast of
nurgle also known as the ghana gyron by weirdos and also known as the slime hounds of nurgle or
nurgle's lapdogs are demons of nurgle the beast has a soft mushy sticky body that is described
like a slug although the first edition was really the only time it really looked like a slug
it's just a walking rolling slithering squirming pile of plague but they are cute in a way beasts
of nergal exemplify the god nurgle's endless enthusiasm and excitement for life and death so
even though these are horrible monsters that can kill you just by standing near you they have the
temperament of a puppy all they want is to give you a lick and that is the absolute last thing
you want because a lick is certain death this guy is not john carpenter's the thing it's mac and me
it's a friendly fun-lovin alien that just like the alien mac you will do anything to keep it
away from you let me demonstrate exactly how i take my base coat and finish it on his tail
i started with a dark color in this case my blue mixed with black and then i exaggerated
the shadows the line between the ridges and tail and the inside of these little ruffles
then i began mixing my pink with white paint and highlighting the pink ridges and i mixed
some blues with whites and highlighted the weird hair things that make up his sluggy body
i highlighted with blue over the yellow areas to bring these patches together and make a gradient
i did the same with my yellow mixing it with white and then using it to highlight the raised parts
i went back and forth with light blue light green light yellow and light pink bringing the
raised portions of the model to be brighter and brighter these highlights are going to be what
makes it look like it was done on purpose and less like the sloppy base coat i started with this was
tricky but one way to make it easier is to let the paint be a little thick and wipe away most
of it until it's not flowing as much as being left behind when the bristles are dragged over details
then i used watery colors to re-emphasize the base colors and here i am working on a transition from
green and blue to red and yellow lastly i took some pure white paint and dotted this here and
there to finish my value this will make the model pop as pure black and pure white are represented
i repeated the process across the whole sluggy body and it was really fun
well i'm particularly happy with that sluggy body and now now i guess it's time to tackle that
big ol head of tentacles here we go i want his tentacles to match the tentacles on my pox walkers
so that means pink but it's not a complete waste i had to see them in green so that i could know
what i didn't want but you know what i always want to do that's right our patreon if you like
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over there you'll gain access on behind the scenes voting role models i paint live here
on youtube a live hobby hangout every week some terrain stls and more with that said let's get
those tentacles sorted out i rebase coated them all with pink then i watered down my red brown
and mixed it with water and spread this over top of the tentacles this shades them with a brown so
that the tentacles are nice and separated then i mixed pink with white and highlighted everything
i let this be a looser highlight than i might do on a more modern model because the details
just are softer in general and there are so many tentacles that no one should ever examine any one
super closely once i was happy with my white pink highlights i used pure white and did a
final highlight only on the most raised areas and spots i wanted to highlight like the little mouths
the only thing left to work on is his face his money maker and i think i finally figured out how
i'm gonna make a warhammer fantasy battles beast of nurgle fit into a modern 40k death guard army
so i have this old knurkle beast and what can i do with it i don't collect magic kind of nurgle
for age of sigmar and there's no beast of nurgle in the death guard codex so what can i do with
this guy well i think i can make him an excellent chaos spawn the death guard are an awesome army
with some of the best scalps games your trap has ever made but their army lists are a bit
inconsistent with great made for nurgle kits like the plague burst crawler and the fetid bloat drone
these look the part because they were designed for nurgle and only nurgle but for the units available
to nergal that come from the chaos space marine line like the chaos land raider chaos predator
and the great deffy they kind of exist in a very different design aesthetic and the chaos spawn are
no different are they cool hell yes they're cool do they look nerdly well not particularly these
guys look lean spiky and fast which is great for corn slaanesh and zinch but not so much
for nurgle nurgle is all about being slow tanky and a little sticky and these guys just won't do
that is where this slug walrus medusa comes in he will make the perfect chaos spawn count
as particularly as spawn stand on the 50mm round base which is a perfect fit for this guy he might
be on the small side but he is surprisingly long on his pretty little face i mixed some red and
green and put this on his skin and then i mixed my orange with water and glazed this over his lips
i put blue on the inside of his mouth then i took some pink on my brush and gave his lips
some stripes to give it a warm-like texture and then i used pure white to highlight this i used
yellow to brighten up his teeth and boy does he look like a rick and morty character those
eyes have held up really really well just the old cloudy xenothon looks great but i wonder if weird
creepy pupils would look even better remember how i talked about painting as an additive process
well i think i'm just going to go ahead and paint one of those eyes and if i don't like it
i'll fix it i took a brush and carefully took some black paint and made a pupil
i started with a tiny dot and then made it bigger then i went in with some white paint
on my brush and filled in the black with white yep that was definitely the right choice pale
spooky eyes definitely looked cooler but weird walleyed pupils looks hilarious and i love it
the only thing left to do was the base and for my death card i just use whatever is left on
my palette i slobbed on some of my red brown some green some yellow some blue and i let it all just
mix together a few swipes of the brush and this beast of nurgle was ready to become a chaos spawn
man what kind of a noise do you think this thing makes it looks like it may be like like a
okay time to paint the room the base black
what i love about having old models like this is that i feel like it comes with a certain amount
of clout i'm probably one of the very small number of people with one of these models
mine is almost certainly one of the best painted because it was painted today
and not 30 years ago and it is perhaps the last of its kind to see tabletop time
not in the game of warhammer fantasy battles but in a modern game of warhammer 40k
and it really jingles my spurs to have a living piece of warhammer history