Is this the way to A-a-altdorf? Every night I've been hugging my pet Dwarf

"Dreaming dreams of A-a-a-altdorf, and sweet Marie who waits for me." My apologies, occasionally the result of a slightly extended paint project makes me break out in a ghastly song and dance routing. The Glottkin fits that bill for me. You could say this is one of the last Warhammer Fantasy models ever produced as the Nurgle aligned triplet was in part responsible for the destruction of the Old World. I can't hold it against them. For one: the End Times' source books are just too cool (the novels...that's another story). Second the background on Glottkin is quite interesting, and third they make for extremely entertaining bad guys in the current AoS stories. Anyway let's start with a shot of the model.

"Brother three shall bring low the Empire of Man," you can say that again!

Ah there's a fourth reason to love the Glottkin, the model is crazy (in a good way). This (modern) Greater Daemon sized model, portrays a triplet. Otto, the one with the scythe, is the leader and a champion of Nurgle. Number two, Ethrac, is the wizard sitting in front of Otto and number three is Ghurek, currently going by Ghurk, a humongous chaos spawn that serves as the mount for the other two brothers. Between the three of them, they sacked Altdorf, giving the human inhabitants of the Old World a very definitive clue that things were going quite wrong indeed. 

This model is peak Warhammer as far as I'm concerned, you can almost see the two brothers swaying as they ride number three into battle. Also there's skulls on it (of course).

I've been meaning to add this centerpiece to my collection. Most likely it'll take a nice place in my display case as fielding this kind of overpowered monstrosity on a friendly Friday night war is not really my thing. As I put the finishing touches on the monster I realized I also have a painted version of modern Nagash (and the old one) as well as Thanquol on Boneripper (and the older one). I should look into getting something to represent an avatar of Khaine (or Malekith (and the older one)) and modern Archeon (and the old one) to complete the quintet of destruction. Now I also want an 'old one' for some odd reason, perhaps a Great Old One?

I get a very odd sort of satisfaction out of painting off-white going to brown cloth on Nurgle models. Let's not speak of it again.

As much as I love the design, I have to admit that sticking the monster together was a bit harder than I expected. I had to use plenty of plastic putty to full gaps and mistakes and I still noticed lines when I was laying finishing highlights on him. Perhaps my patented excessive impatience (glue should dry when I tell it to) didn't helpt the process ;).

When it came to painting all those damn Nurglings I came to regret the decision to add so many to the base. I may have cut some corners when it came to painting them (erase the 'may' in that sentence).  

I spent quite a bit of time worrying about the base. How do you decorate the greatest champion of Nurgle (well the one on par with Tamurkhan at the very least (now there's another model for the wish list))? In the end I splashed out on a bunch of printable 'we do not call them Nurglings'-Nurglings. I think there's near on thirty of the little cretins dancing around the champion. I also printed a bunch of mushrooms for added effect. When the decoration dried, I added some random tufts to fill out the base and make it come to life. It was a bit over the top perhaps (investment-wise), but I promised myself I'd just paint more Nurgle in the future to spread out the cost over more models (true, I am no financial genius). 

I did not cut corners where the assorted buckles and belts on Ghurk where concerned. I'm quite chuffed with how this belt turned out. 

Painting the Glottkin itself was a joy. I gave him a zentihal prime of white over a red-brown primer. I then airbrushed a light layer of Ogryn Camo (I found a forgotten pot of Citadel Air in a box). On top of this I went to town airbrushing contrast paints. Let's find a WIP picture.

If you've never airbrushed with Contrast Paints you should give it a go. It's a wonderful experience.

The base paint I used was Plaguebearer Flesh (of course), but I also added patches of Militarum Green, Prismatic Blue, Volupos Pink, Shyish Purple and Nazdreg Yellow. To quote the Eldar war cry: Taste the Rainbow! Spraying contrast on thickly and allowing the colors to run through each other is a joyous painting experience I heartily recommend. 

"You've got red on you."

With the base tone of the skin set, I went over (almost) every cluster of pimples and skin distortion with Blood Angel's Red contrast through the airbrush. After this dried I worried a bit (by that time the model was quite red). I went back in with Ogryn Camo and re-established some rotten greens, neatly (at least to my thinking) tying the purple tentacle in with the rest of the model. 

One of the ultimate tests of a painter's nerve: covering a nicely painted model in a thick layer of enamel smelling gunk (don't forget to spray on a layer of gloss varnish first).

At that point I gave it the 'ol Streaking Grime treatment, wiping the excess off a day later after it dried with white spirit. A long, long time was spent painting every pustule I could find yellow and then going back to give them all a Dorn Yellow 'white head', yummy! 

Painting eyes is hard. I keep practicing, but it's still a challenge every time.

I took the time to paint the lower eyelid on Ghurk and gave him an actual functioning eye too (well, a painted on one at least). I painted the horns sprouting from his back off-white at first, but it looked terrible. I went back in with contrast paints, building up from yellow to a dark brown at the top. I think that was the right choice. 

The pose of this model. I can't get over with how awesome it is. (still doesn't hold a candle to the classic RoC champions though, I have to remain properly biased there). 

With the big guy painted and the base complete, I spent a night each on the two brothers riding on the back. This was after spending about a week-and-a-half stressing over the right skin tone to make them contrast with Ghurk. I finally found an old GW painting tutorial for (of all things) a Blood Bowl Nurgling and decided the white/pink would work like a charm. With that, I finished the model, sticking the two non-spawn brothers on the back of the very much spawn third one. All in all, this past month I spent quite a few nights and a lot of hours of my 'hobby Sundays' on the Glottkin. I think it shows, I'm quite proud of this Technological Triumvate Terror I created. On to more painting (and back to 3D printing, I have some projects on the back burner there too). But fist: the song and dance routine continues: 

When the day is dawning

On a Old World Sunday morning

How I long to be there

With Marie who's waiting for me there

Is this the way to A-a-altdorf?
Every night I've been hugging my pet Dwarf
Bla bla bla, cetera, tra, la, la, la, la la lala...

+++ update: added a few extra pictures in reply to a question in the comments +++

Here's Ghurk in an Red Brown, Ogryn Camo (and maybe a bit of Dead Flesh) basic layer of paints.

After going crazy airbrushing contrast paints you can see layers of gloop on the model, especially on the face. That would kill a model's detail with regular paints...

...but contrasts dry flatter than regular paints so all is well in the end.