Avatar of Gork complete.

 Finished the Avatar of Gork after a bit of a lazy streak with painting...

Wanting this to be the Avatar of Gork, I decided to paint it green, as the Orks would probably want it to look as close to their god as possible. I based the green using Waaagh! Flesh and darkened and shaded it with a sepia wash. I then highlighted edges using Moot Green.

The skull on the belly, the spikes and the claws were all based with Zandri Dust. I then washed it with sepia, letting it fully dry before washing it again with Nuln Oil to darken it further and finally highlighting it with Rakarth Flesh.
As a result of my recent Death Guard projects, I developed a new metal technique that I really like, because it gives off a old, oily, well used metal look. I based in Lead Belcher, then hit it with a Sepia wash, giving it time to dry before the Nuln Oil wash and finally highlighting with Lead Belcher again.

 I painted the head of the hammer to look like an engine from a Black Templar Storm Talon, since the Templars are my orks' most common Space Marine foe.

The base I used Stirland Battlemire, for a mud pit look.

Gorkanaut "Avatar of Gork" WIP

 This is probably my third Ork project in the last four years, which having started 40k nearly 10 years ago as an Ork player, has rather bothered me. So, here is my newest addition, a Gorkanaut that I decided to do some conversion work on.

I decided that this one should be the "Avatar of Gork" and thus should be appropriately smashy. Since I gave it a hammer that required both arms, I gave it two Supa Shootas from the Dakkajet kit to serve as its Deffstorm Megashoota. Being unable to find the bits however or a good place to mount it, I'm calling the extended eye piece this model's Skorcha because the hammer prevented me from putting the Skorcha just below the head piece like it should be.

The hammer was, an interesting thing to make. The handle is a piece of metal pipe, as it was the only thing I could find that was light enough yet big enough for the gorkanaut to hold. The head is made from a Space Marine Storm Talon engine and various bits from the ork Trukk and Battlewagon kits to make it more brutal looking. I then wrapped it and part way down the handle in necklace chain for that crude, orky way of attaching the handle to the head of the hammer. 

Lord of Contagion and Foetid Bloat-Drone.

    The Lord of Contagion from the 8th Edition starter kit. This only took about 3 hours to paint and used a lot of the same paints techniques that I did on Mortarion. I did however, use the Blood for the Blood God technical paint on the blade for the bloodied look.
    I also tried out the Stirland Battlemire texture paint for his base, the stuff is rough and grainy, but goes on fairly smoothly, only taking about 3 to 4 mintues to paint the base but the resulting muddy effect turned out well.

 For the Bloat-drone, once again using the same style as on Mortarion and the Lord of Contagion. Though this one had a lot more fleshy bits, which were based with Kislev Flesh and washed with Sepia. The base is a bit more open than the Lord of Contagion's so in addition to using the texture paint for the mud, I did the same effect that I did for Mortarion's base and built a pool using skulls and then poured in Nurgle's Rot. I did do a second pour later after it dried though, which  gave it a little better look in the end.

Primarch Mortarion of the Death Guard.

    Here is Primarch Mortarion of the Death Guard. This was a lengthy project, but a fun one for sure! It took about 3-4 hours to build, including the extra decorations of skulls I added around the base using the Citadel Skulls basing kit. The painting took roughly 18 - 20 hours.

 For the wings I based the limbs and veins with Kislev Flesh and the rest with Rakarth Flesh. I then shaded the limbs with Seraphim Sepia. The rest of the wing was then shaded with Carroburg Crimson to give the irritated flesh look.
   The Plague Smoke that is scattered across the model I wanted a filthy teal look and is based in Lothern Blue, shaded with Sepia and then given a coating of Nurgle's Rot.

 The weapon was probably my most favourite thing to paint on this model as well as the last thing to be based. I was flooded with ideas for this, trying to decide if I should go for a rusted looked, a plagued look or a bone. I finally settled on a bone blade to go along with the rib cages on the back of the scythe. The bone sections are based with Zandri Dust and the metal is based with Leadbelcher. I then went over the whole weapon with the Sepia again, and Nuln Oil over the bone after the Sepia dried. This left the bone looking aged.


The brass look to the decorations of his armour and is based with Fulgurite Copper and shaded with Nuln Oil and finally highlighted with Leadbelcher.

Nurgle's "sacred" number is 7, and I was surprised by the lack of any reference to the number on the model. I decided to do a flat art 7 on his right knee, similar to loyalist marine markings, and then scattered 6 more across the model in various places as an easter egg for anyone who knows the significance to try and find them all.

The base took a lot of thinking. I had yet to come up with a base style for the previous Death Guard models I had done and the over all awesomeness of this model demanded I fully flesh out the base. The model came with the rocks he floats above and the nurglings, but I added the Citadel Skulls around the edges of the base to contain the Plague Pool.

For the plague I poured Nurgle's Rot technical paint using an old unused medicine dropper. The paint is almost goo and almost has a mind of its own (Or Nurgle's!)  which lead to some interesting tricks with a toothpick to force it back into cracks against it's will. Due to the amount I put onto the base I gave it a good 4 hours to dry to be safe. When I went to check on it after it set I discovered it has an interesting desire to "climb" surfaces, it worked its way up the rocks and skulls, and even inside and pouring out the mouth and eyes of some... Which gave an entertaining and cool look I had not expected to get! The down side is that it thinned itself out in the flatter areas and the actual base has shown through just a bit. I decided to leave it as is though, because it gave it a slightly darker look in those areas, and the texture of the base showing through almost gives it a slight bubbling look. There is some advantages to using this stuff as a water effect though, it dries almost like rubber and gripping everything it touches quite well, almost acting like a secondary glue. The test pour I did prior I poked lightly with a tooth pick and was amazed to watch it "heal" the dent I put in it, there is still a slight scar from where the dent was, but its no where near as noticeable .