Converting and painting Nurgling beast handlers and riders

This is a conversion I started years ago. Never finished it due to having lost interest in Nurglings after the first 6 painted bases. I have no idea what sort of creatures the Tyranid-looking things are. I bought them second hand at a discount.

Initial work (2018-ish)

They're not Tyranids, but they sure look the part. Start by stripping off the paint. I wasn't completely successful, but they'll be Nurgle models anyway, so tidiness is not very important.

First, I glued on the Nurgling riders. These are the extra Nurglings found in the Chaos Daemons Battalion/Battleforce, in the Nurglings and Plaguebearers kit. Four of them have a wide enough stance to ride the little beasties:

This proved to be a pretty bad solution, as the beasts are made of definitely-not-GW-plastic (so plastic glue doesn't hold), and the riders kept breaking off. So here's some square-shaped pieces of green stuff  that double as saddle, glue and mask

Note that they were initially glued on washers and given extra height with pieces of sprue.

Conversions (current)

I had to break everything off whatever bases I originally glued them on, then glue to 40mm plastic bases. I had one rider which did not break off, and some beast handlers which required no conversions before painting.

Here's a beastie up close.

Some riders broke off. So I decided to pin them.

Here's the crew. The riders assure appropriate height, while the others fill out the bases.

Painting

The miniatures are way too flimsy and close to each other to properly apply the slapchop method. I just sprayed them Wraithbone instead, and used Contrast paints as the gods of GW intended me to. Well, almost.

Start by coating the nurglings in Plaguebearer Flesh and the beasties in Striking Scorpion.

Darken down the nurglings using diluted Militarum Green on the undersides. Shade the beasties using diluted Ork Flesh around the recesses.

Still too bright, so why not accentuate by lining Dark Angels Green.

Sigh, a bit overboard. Drybrush them using Dead Flesh.

Once happy with the skintones, paint the horns and claws, as well as the tongues (Volupus Pink, Squid Pink).

Paint the buboes, eyes and riding cloths (Flesh Tearers Red, Agrax Earthshade, highlight). Do simple wasteland bases and 3d toxic puddles.

Finally, use some thin copper wire as leashes on the beasties being led by their handlers. Use hands, tweezers and a lot of gumption to put them in place. Curl them around the beastie necks, and fix them to the handlers' hands using small bits of superglue applied with a needle.

Finished!