Quit your Jibber Jabberslythe

In my first Skype battle I fielded Nurgle daemons against Kraken's Tyrannids. I experimented with a Giant Chaos Spawn as I loved the look of all the random rolls and it was indeed great fun to use.



Given that I didn't particularly like the Forgeworld model for this (which has since disappeared), I therefore promised myself that I'd find a model to represent it. I was quite tempted by the mount for Orghotts Daemonspew (or one of its variants) but I was quite taken by the Jabberslythe model as:

• It already looked quite Nurgly - and I am fully committed to Nurgle;
• It looks mutated enough to pass for a Giant Chaos Spawn, and it's certainly large enough;
• Whilst a little on the large side, it's also a feasible proxy for a Nurgle Daemon Prince (and in fact, that's how it's first been fielded).

I base coated the underside of the model and lower limbs with Zandri Dust, the mid areas with Steel Legion Drab and the upper areas with Castellan Green.

I then started layering those colours onto each other to blur the boundaries, adding some Death Guard Green into the boundary between Steel Legion Drab and Castellan Green to help blend it in. I finished this off with a little Tallarn Sand drybrushed onto the lower parts of the model to start showing the highlights off. This was because I knew that the various washes I was going to add would darken the model significantly and I wanted the graduated colours to show through.

The wings, claw, tongue and bone were all Rakarth Flesh, with a rough drybrush of Flayed One Flesh for the same reason as above.

The fur was half Dryad Bark (at the roots) and Mournfang Brown (at the ends), blended roughly together, though I wasn't too worried as the washes would help this.

I then followed the same multiple washes technique that worked so well on my Death Guard:

• Wash with Nuln Oil
• Wash with Agrax Earthshade
• Wash with Seraphim Sepia
• Carroburg Crimson wash for the tongue

I then added highlights with Straken Green and Warboss Green on the top (not very much of this as I wanted the dark green skin to contrast with the lighter green scales), Tallarn Sand on the middle and Karak Stone (with a very light Ushabti Bone) on the bottom.

The wings, claws, teeth and horns got Ushabti Bone and (for everything except the wings) I then continued with Screaming Skull.

The fur was drybrushed with Gorthor Brown and a bit of Skrag Brown.

I picked out the scales individually with Death Guard Green, then highlighted them with a little  Skarsnik Green.

I do love doing bases. I start with a layer of very slightly diluted PVA glue and dip into sand. When that's dry I add more PVA and dip into sawdust and then add more, longer bits of sawdust in strategic places to represent larger plants and leaves. For this model I also stuck a few clumps of dried grass cuttings around the pool and larger fronds to help graduate the scale a bit. They looked a bit trampled on, but that's OK as this beast has just moved across them.

Because this base was so big, I decided I wanted a small pool of stagnant water at the back. Therefore I didn't put any glue on that bit so the base was built up around it. Once the rest of the base was dry I added a layer of diluted PVA to the water area (there was a bit of sand on this area, but the thick layer of PVA masked that and made the water look a bit choppy).

When everything was dry I add a generous amount of superglue on the longer fronds as otherwise they don't have the rigidity to survive.

I started by painting a very dilute wash of Mournfang Brown over everything, followed by Waaagh Flesh on the vegetation and Abaddon Black on the rocks. The mud is drybrushed first with Skrag Brown, then the vegetation with Loren Forest and Elysian Green. I put a layer of Skavenblight Dinge on the rocks, followed by Stormvermin Fur and then a drybrush of Administratum Grey.

The pool of water was painted Chaos Black first, then streaks of Dryad Bark over most (but not all of it) and a drybrush of Castellan Green to give an overall greeny-brown feel to the water. I added a light drybrush of Nurgling Green on the surface, particularly around the tail to show where the water had been disturbed. This was all then covered by a generous layer of 'Ardcoat.