I have always loved the model of Typhus and the original artwork of him but the two never really meshed for me. The model lost so much of the dynamism of the drawing. Well over the last 2 months I have worked to bring the model more into line with the original concept.
When I heard that Typhus was finally getting the Finecast treatment I knew it was the perfect opportunity to bring my vision to life. It would have been feasible in metal but would have taken a lot more effort, sawing and sculpting.
The artwork for Typhus.
Typhus as he comes in the blister.
As you can see the model and the drawing differ quite a bit in pose as well as detail. I wanted to emulate that pose as closely as possible as well as include some of the cooler details such as the mouth on the shoulder pad. I knew my first step would be to cut the model apart.
All the parts separated and cleaned.
I always try and use as much of the original model as possible. Although I am a competent sculptor the professionally done parts are always going to look better then mine. You can see I cut the feet out. I did this so I could repose him stepping down from an object. I knew from the get go that I wasn’t going to be able to have him toting that dead guardsman around due to scale issues. Lucky for me I had the Plaguebearer kit which has some wonderful severed heads for the champion to hold. A little bit of cutting and they now belonged to Typhus.
I stuck it all together with sticky tack before I did any gluing to nail down the pose I wanted.
I pinned every part of him except for his feet and head. You can see that I already have positioned the scythe, that will happen a few more times before I am done.
The majority of the sculpting work was on his left arm. I had to completely re-sculpt his arm from the elbow to the shoulder as well as the screaming daemon mouth on his shoulder pad. At this point I have only laid the groundwork for it. I decided to put a simple grill inside the mouth, figuring that noxious gases leak from it though out battle. The horns and teeth are all from the Plaguebearer kit, and at this point are all actually Plagebearer horns.
The finished daemon mouth, which I think pretty closely resembles the artwork. I’ll give you one guess what kit I got all of the smaller teeth from. I really don’t know what I would have done without the PB kit.
I sculpted the base to fit in with my army but also give Typhus a little more character and left him up above some of my other models height wise. The majority of it is built up with Milliput with the details done in green stuff.
The finished model ready to be primed. You can see that I had to do a little gap filling here and there as well as re-sculpt some of the detail that was lost when I sawed off his left arm. I also pinned him to his base to make sure he was extra stable.
Sadly this is the only painting in progress shot I got. I got a little carried away with him after this and forgot to take any pictures. When I started him I only intended him to be a gaming model but after investing all of that time into the build I decided I might as well paint him as well as I can. Lately I have become a fan of zenith shading, which the light source is above the model. On Typhus I decided to combine this with a more traditional miniature painting style.
After painting him in chunks in over a little under a month I was finally done.
Advertisement
I also decided to photograph him against a black background, which is something I see quite often on Cool Mini of Not. I feel like it makes the colors pop more, the only downside is a few more shadows.
I am very pleased with how this model came out and I think offers a much more dynamic take on the Herald of Nurgle.
Be sure to check out my blog, Mengel Miniatures, for the full 6 part series on the creation of this model and an even more in depth look into the process.
What do you think, does this model do justice to the original artwork? What are some other characters you would like to see a more dynamic take on?
Tyler is a life long painter and hobbyist and took home his first Golden Demon award at the 2012 Chicago Games Day. More of his work can be found at his blog, Mengel Miniatures.
Tyler Mengel, the man behind Mengel Miniatures. He is a well-known tabletop miniatures hobby and painting enthusiast. Tyler's work has appeared on Warhammer-Community.com on multiple occasions. He began writing for BoLS in 2012.
