Champion Of Nurgle Stage 2 - Robes

Choosing the colour of the robes was not as straightforward as you might think. I had already decided the mutated head and leg would be painted black so even though I was playing with a very dark brown or black robe, I decided against it.

Stubbornly I went with a mid/light green colour. This could potentially cause all kinds of problems due to the risk of the miniature starting to look overly "chalky" with two of the main colours being highlighted up to an off-white tone.
This is a personal bugbear of mine and the main reason why I'm not a fan of the internet favourite "NMM", but more on that later when it's time for the weapon stage.

Painting the robe fairly light would mean to effectively use ink glazes and keep the tone deep while still retaining colour strength and keeping the highlights smooth.
I started with a basecoat of Foundry Forest Green Shade and mixed highlights with Phlegm Green. Deliberately keeping the highlighted areas broad and leaving little of the basecolour showing gave me a solid colour base to add further highlights.

Before highlighting the robes I gave it a quick glaze of of a 50/50 mix of FW Inks Burnt Umber and Emerald Green with Gel Medium added. I basically mixed enough of this on my palette to last me throughout the rest of the stages.

I sometimes make up large amounts of certain ink mixes if I use them a lot and keep them in empty pant pots, like my trusty "Flesh Ink Wash" mentioned in the previous stage. It's a great way to speed up the painting process and is particularly useful if you paint units. When you only paint single figures (like me) it can become a little too easy to just grab the same old trusty colours and you end up repeating the same colour schemes and tones on all your pieces - something I actively try to avoid.

The highlights were applied with a mix of phlegm Green with a dab of white added. At this stage it was imperative that with every consecutive lighter highlight stage a green ink glaze was applied to make sure the miniature didn't end up looking like a chalkboard crayon. The glazes were applied with a size 0 brush and diluted heavily with water.

Diluting inks and paints can be a tricky business, the acrylic binders that hold the paints together can only take so much before the pigment starts to separate from the liquid and you end up with a yucky, unusable mess on your palette.
Unfortunately there isn't a set formula to follow, since all manufacturers of paints and acrylic inks use different pigments and ratios of pigment to binder. Best thing to do is to learn through trial and error. When I buy a new colour or new make of paint I will always do a few tests to see "how far it will go".
A good rule of thumb is that paints which are heavy with pigment such as whites, light greys etc will not be able to be diluted as much as darker colours or colours with a more translucent quality, which tend to be reds, yellows and greens mostly. If I have one colour that cannot be diluted to the amount I might sometimes need I will go out and buy similar tones from a different make in the hope that they will. This leaves me with enough choice to either grab a good opaque paint or the equivalent that can be diluted for glazing. Variety is the spice of life they say.

With the basic skin-tone and robes finished I have started to plan out the rest of the miniature. The head and leg are up next and after that the axe. I will add the dirt, grime, pustules and assorted nastiness as the final stage after I've finished all the detailing.