Nurgle Palanquin: paint along with me!

My warhammer "warriors of chaos" Troll army is coming along nicely with a number of cute units ready built and painted. However play-testing has shown that I am missing one essential element... Even with a high leadership general, I still need the ability to re-roll those darn stupidity tests. A standard bearer is required. Which got me to thinking about how to make him safe. I quite like the idea of a nurgle hero. If I go along with this I could add a Palanquin which would double the number of wounds, add one to his armour save and throw in a few magic attacks for good measure. Not bad for 40 points.

Unfortunately GW only have one model with a Palanquin and that is Epidemius . At £30.00 GBP it is a tad too expensive and way too difficult to convert for my taste. So I have had a go at making my own and you can do so too if you would like to build-along with Target...

I started with an off cut of plastic card and a 6mm diameter magnet. The magnet is there because I have magnets in the bases of my figures and this will help the model sit on top of the Palanquin when I am gaming (whilst enabling me to play him without his ride).

I then added three shields left over from the marauder horsemen I made some years ago. This was done to hide the magnet and to copy the nurgle symbol shape of three circles.

I then raised them to shoulder height of the second row of nugles from the GW Nurgling swarm pack. That's £15.00 GBP invested. I based these on a 50mm square base because this mirrors the base used on Epidemus. To lift the shields high enough I used a socket from an old socket set (mainly because it was available and I couldn't bother making something). 

I then cleaned up and assembled the front two rows of the box of nurglings. The back rows will go into my spare box. I painted these GW Deathworld Forest and a wash of Athonian Camoshade. This was mainly because I figured I had no chance of painting the backs of the little guys once they were assembled.

I then squeezed all the components onto the base.

 I tidied up the skin with a coat of Deathworld Forest to all but the recessed areas. Liche Purple was added to mouths, tongues and boils.

Tongues and boils were then painted using pink Horror and Ratskin Flesh. A wash of Carroburg Crimson was used to make them redder, whilst Cadian Fleshtone was added to the highest areas to make them more skin-like.. 

The skin was then coloured up using a highlight of Nurgling green (appropriately) and just the highest areas received a little Screaming skull.. 

The remainder was finished in the normal way. In the next shot you can see the standing area for the character.

In the following shots you can see close-up shots of the nurglings themselves. I would encourage you to click on the picks to see close up what those naughty little chaps are up to.... 

All I need now is a character to ride on it....