Realm of Chaos – Nurgle’s Children 2018 #3: Trish Morrison’s Great Unclean One (1996-8) Painting Decemb-uary 2017-18: Part 5

Trish Morrison's Great Unclean One of Nurgle (1996-8)

This post is doing double-duty. I’d mocked up a draft post for a couple of WIP shots from the same series I took last week, but I’ve been working on the Great Unclean one pretty constantly whenever I have some hobby time, so the model’s been changing apace from the shots I was going to post about.

Trish Morrison's Great Unclean One of Nurgle (1996-8)

I had also planned to post a more general Painting Decembuary update this weekend, but there’s only been one update from the participants regarding it in past week, a rather lovely dreadnought from Tinpotrevolutionary, (go check it out!) so given that, I’m making this post about my own model, and hold off until late next week for the wrap-up Decembuary post.

Trish Morrison's Great Unclean One of Nurgle (1996-8)

So the double duty is for my own Nurgle Daemon army build, and my own entry to Decembuary. You’ll notice the odd years up above. The model has 1996 carved into one foot, yet the model doesn’t show up until the 1998 Citadel catalogue, so my best guess is that it came out in late 1997. I could check old White Dwarves for the exact year/month, but ain’t nobody got time for dat right now.

Trish Morrison's Great Unclean One of Nurgle (1996-8)

The model is fucking busy. There are SO many little buboes, maggots, rot-worms, rents in the skin, pustules and whatnot, and I was determined to do a job on it that I’d be satisfied with – unlike my fast job on the original GUO that’s always bothered me a little (he’s getting renovated now with a new base). This meant no “wash and done” since I knew it’d just bother me later on.

Trish Morrison's Great Unclean One of Nurgle (1996-8)

Given that I really didn’t get much done in December at all because of what happened, I really thought I’d fail to get anything finished this year – let alone this guy, plus my overly-optimistic “stretch goals” of Mamon, maybe Cor’Bax, then onto completing Be’Lakor and maybe even the Marauder Giant. But yeah. Under the circumstances, I managed to finish this guy, and I’m happy with that.

Trish Morrison's Great Unclean One of Nurgle (1996-8)

Mounting him raised up on some slate has given his Flail of Skulls the effect of being sort-of swung behind him, off the ground. Anyone familiar with the original model will also notice that his tongue has been swapped out. I hated the original head-on-a-tongue sculpt – not conceptually, but the execution – so I replaced it entirely with a metal tentacle from the original Chaos Spawn model from the 1990s’. I bought a few of them just for the bits, back in the day.

Yeah. This guy was a lot of work, but I’m quite pleased with the final result.

Trish Morrison's Great Unclean One of Nurgle (1996-8)

Happy, but not satisfied. Therefore I’ve also restarted work on Mamon, and I’m hoping to have him completed before the end of the month. It’ll be close, either way. I also seem to have misplaced all of my Nurglings. Once they’re located, I’ll paint some up and place them on appropriate models – this model for example, will only get 2nd-gen metal Nurglings.

Oh, there’s now also THIS guy on the horizon. Not for awhile though, as I want to finish all my Nurgle metal and resin before starting on the plastic. When this guy becomes a thing, this old Great Unclean One will probably have to be demoted to Daemon Prince of Nurgle – just as the OG Realm of Chaos GUO will be once he’s rebased. The size discrepancy will just be way too much.

For now, I’m happy to let him lord it over his minions…

Realm of Chaos – Nurgle’s Children 2018 #1: Kev Adams Plaguebearers (1991)

Realm of Chaos Lost and the Damned Original Oldhammer Plaguebearers Kev Adams

These Plaguebearer models were released as part of the initial “proper” waves of Nurgle models back in 1991, alongside the seminal Warhammer rulebook – Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned. If you’re at all interested in the background and artwork that got us to where we are today in terms of Chaos and how it fits in with Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40,000, I strongly suggest getting hold of both Slaves to Darkness and The Lost and the Damned. Obviously the books are hard to get hold of – especially on eBay, but they’re worth it. I believe that Forge World is reprinting them for some special events this year, and of course, with this being the internet, .pdf files of them exist. Though of course, I’m sure that if you picked up a copy in this manner, you’d be careful to ensure that you already owned them in book form first.

Anyway, these five are all I have of the initial release. There are 11 sculpts, counting variations and not counting the “Combat Card” Plaguebearer that was never officially released. I’d love to pick up the others, but with Oldhammer being the cool, trendy-retro thing that it’s become, it has gotten much harder to pick up older models in the last few years. I always especially wanted Woundlicker, Snotsprayer and Wormrot, so we’ll see if I manage to get hold of them one day…

Realm of Chaos Lost and the Damned Original Oldhammer Plaguebearers Kev Adams

Many aspects of Nurgle that remain to this day can be seen on these figures, from the Nurglings capering around their bigger cousins’ legs to the overall appearance. The “joy” that followers of Nurgle hold so strongly is evident in several of their faces, though the dour expressions that have come to typify Plaguebearers specifically can be seen on Vomitrot, who just looks like a miserable bastard.

Of course, the faces of these old Plaguebearers have a striking similarity to those of the Orcs (and Orks) of the day, in that they’re very clearly Kev Adams sculpts, and he seems to have simply given them pretty standard Kev Adams Ork faces and maws, albeit with a cyclopean eye, mono-horn and a more human-ish nose. The similarity also extends across to the work he did for Heartbreaker on a good amount of WarZone’s range, including the Necromutants that will also be (re)drafted into one of my 8th edition 40k forces. Poxwalkers, perhaps?

These figures will be paired with other Plaguebearers from later range refreshes and have a lot of potential use across a number of games. In 40k they fit into the Nurgle Daemons or more general Daemonic army, they’re used as troops in the Death Guard Legion force, they can be used in Age of Sigmar and even in Kings of War in an Abyssal force. And those are just the obvious used for wargames