Renegade Reinforcements pt. 9 – Septic Infantry

I came across the term “Septic Infantry” several years ago while reading Henry Zou’s Blood Gorgons, a Warhammer 40,000 novel about the eponymous Chaos Space Marine Chapter. In it, the Blood Gorgons square off against the plague-blessed Death Guard, who are supported by several companies of Septic Infantry. No description of these allies is given, but the name and a conjured image stuck with me.

I’ve mentioned my own Septic Infantry models in a few blog posts, but up to this point, I had never attempted to paint them.

Full disclosure: I’m often terrified to try to paint my models, for a few reasons:

(1) I spend a lot of time working to customize each mini I have. I’ve built hundreds of Chaos Space Marines, Orks, Imperial Guard, and INQ28 figures, and I take a lot of pride in the fact that no two models in my collection are the same, even when they’ve come in multiples from the same mono-pose kits.

(2) I’m also never quite sure when I’m done tinkering with a model. Does the greenstuff need to be smoothed a little better? Does the model need another pouch or grenade or fetish or skull? I’ll come back to a model months or even years later and discover some inspiration that will make it complete. Painting just feels so final, like I won’t be able to continue to tinker with the model after the paint is on.

(3) I’m just not a very good painter. My eyes aren’t great and my hands aren’t steady and I take shitty care of my brushes and paints. And because of numbers one and two above, I have rarely regularly practiced miniature painting.

But I’m pushing myself to paint more. I’ve been slowly painting my models a unit at a time. I don’t know if I’m getting better but I’ve told myself I am going to start posting more painted minis on this blog.

So here go some painting-in-progress pics.

Lacking a description from the novel, my Septic Infantry are based visually on the color scheme of the Vraksian Traitor Militia:

Here’s the first squad. I’d call ’em 75% the way there. They still need bases, some details picked out, probably another wash or two.

Each trooper bears a red mark, allowing me to play them as subservient cultists to both my Red Corsairs Chaos Space Marines and my Death Guard, who still wear the “Red Right Hand” markings of the Dusk Raiders Legion.

I’ve been painting off and on all week. Took a break tonight to start assembling the second squad. I’ll show them off soon.

C&C most welcome.

Thanks for visiting the Temple.