Flies in the Ointment

You know what? I don't like these.

Several times now, I've painted things I wasn't that keen on when I saw them in the store or on the website. By the time I'd finished, though, I kind of had an affection for them. Probably just the self-indulgent sort of affection where I secretly rate my own paint scheme over the official studio ones, in fairness, but even so.

But for these Plague Drones? Nope, not a fan. The wings don't quite convince me somehow, nor the dangling mosquito legs, nor the ragged elephant trunks or the jagged scimitar blade feet. They're supposed to be repulsive, sure, I get that, and probably a bit cartoony in the way that Nurgle stuff often is. These just really don't work for me, even if you put a nice Putrid Blightking on top to try and mitigate it. Bleh.

Leofa has very sensibly super-magnetised these, so all the spindly bits don't snap off in transit. So the wings, the riders and the swappable heads can all be taken off. They aren't glued to their bases either (and the bases aren't glued to the flight stand), so they pack amazingly flat for something so spiky.

I need to rant further, though! Because I looked at the stats, assuming that there would be mitigation in there for a ropey model as incentive to buy. Nope - fast for Death Guard, sure, and as hard to shift as any of their other models. But pretty tame in both short ranged shooting and close combat, at least without buffs. To my eye, you'd need a lot of them do be good for anything other than squatting on objectives, and they're so damn expensive I reckon there are other more effective picks you could take instead.

And they're ugly. Did I say that? Even Mrs Kraken stopped by the table to remark on how ugly they are. She wouldn't usually bother to remark on models as a general rule, so these are doing their jobs really well or really badly depending on your taste.

Painting Guide:

• Riders - See previous posts for Plaguebearers
• Abdomen: Death Guard Green, Athonian Camoshade, Elysian Green, Rotting Flesh drybrush. Rakarth Flesh for the bellies, Athonian Camoshade, Flayed One Flesh drybrush
• Carapace - Incubi Darkness, Nuln Oil Gloss, Glistening Green or Amethyst drybrush with an eye to get a bit of iridescence in there, a very light Runefang Silver drybrush for edges, then Waystone Green feathering after the varnish spray later
• Buboes - Warpfiend Grey, Druchii Violet, Ulthuan Grey dots
• Eyes - Either Averland Sunset with Bad Moons Yellow or Wazdakka Red with Wild Rider Red, Black pupils
• Wings - Corax White undercoat, Nuln Oil, Longbeard Grey and Praxeti White drybrush, struts done as for the carapaces
• Claws - Rakarth Flesh, Agrax Earthshade, Karak Stone and Terminatus Stone drybrushes

And that's the Death Guard sorted!