Rotbringers For Warcry

A couple of months ago I put together a warband of Nurgle Daemons for Warcry. Since then I’ve had it in mind to make a warband of Nurgle worshipping mortals as well and now the moment has arrived. 

I took a look at the models I had available and decided that two more Blightkings were just what I needed to complete the group. Of course I didn’t actually have any Blightking models to use so it was time to do some kitbashing. 

Plague has made this chap thin and warped rather than bloated like so many of his peers, but he’s more than capable of carrying the banner on behalf of the group. 

I always like to see beastmen as part of Chaos collections so I wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to add a filthy pestigor to the ranks as well. Like the chap with the banner he’s converted from the Nurgle Blood Bowl team.

For the rest of the Warband I’ve used Fecula Flyblown as a Nurgle Sorceress, the two Blightkings I’d already painted and my Death Guard Daemon Prince who once again finds himself moonlighting in a Warcry warband, this time as a Pusgoyle Blightlord.

Speaking of the Death Guard I have one of those filthy power-armoured and plague-infested swines lurking on the desk too so I’ll aim to get him painted shortly. 

Reinventing Nurgle

Nurgle fans may be excused for being a little excited at the moment – and no, I’m not talking about the decay of western society. Whilst there’s been an understandable spike of interest in the Space Marine side of the new 40k starter set the sons of Mortarion are also getting reinforced with series of fantastic plague-ridden models (plus a weird baby with a fart for a hand). Time for me to cast my eye over my old Plague Marines, to decide which are fine as they are, which are too rough around the edges to easily save and which could be redeemed without too much effort. Enter this chap;

Of course, you’ll know by now my feelings about Space Marines holding bolters one handed, especially if they’re doing it awkwardly whilst staring off into the middle distance. What was I thinking? Is he inspecting his knife or trying to remember where he left his keys? Time for a freshen up I think.

By adjusting the angle of the vents on the backpack I was able to create a subtle reflection of Nurgle’s symbol.

Then we have his colleague who, although a little less awkward in the posing of his gun, is still trying to hold a two-handed weapon single handed and looking daft as a result.

I didn’t do as much with the paintjob on this one but hopefully still managed to make some improvements into the bargain.

Then we have this chap who, for the last six months or so, has been waiting patiently for a new base ever since I decided that the little 28mm base he was on was just too small for him.

Upgraded to a 32mm base he already looks considerably more powerful and should be able to hold his head up with pride next to his new brothers soon to arrive with the Dark Imperium boxset.

Of course this means I really must get back to working on the rest of his squad mates – although I’m sure I’ll have plenty of Nurgly enthusiasm to carry me through over the next couple of months. Until then, as ever, your feedback is welcome.

Warhammer World – Part 2

Yesterday I showed you some of my pictures from my recent trip to Warhammer World, today let’s take a proper look at some of the dioramas. The exhibition space features over a dozen of these displays, covering everything from Skaven and Dwarves clashing beneath the mountains of the Old World to Eldar and Tyrands battling over the lava fields of Valedor. Each one is a slice of Game’s Workshop’s universes given life and the chance to get a proper look at them is well worth taking if you happen to be in the Nottingham area. For those of us who’re not however hopefully these next few posts will help to spread the inspiration a little and perhaps spark some fresh ideas – I know they did for me.

I’d also recommend clicking on the pictures for a closer look, these displays are simply jam packed with details, there’s so much to take in  that I’ll admit to spotting things whilst editing these images that I completely missed in person.

First up we have two Age of Sigmar dioramas featuring the warriors of Khorne doing battle with the hosts of the Stormcast Eternals. In the first they’re fighting over a huge flying citadel, in the second the Stormcasts are… erm… storming a chaos fortress with the help of their new chums the Fyreslayers.

My preference for the Old World over the Mortal Realms is one I’ve stated several times but it’s hard to deny that the scope for creativity in the Age of Sigmar is hard to beat. For all its qualities the Old World was trapped within the borders imposed upon it by decades of development whilst the Realms can be as bombastically creative as they want. Want to fight the legions of the Blood God in a flying temple? Now you can!It also struck me how the roles have been deliberately reversed in these displays, as compared to the Old World. Like the Imperium the Empire was always on the defensive, with enemy hordes clawing at the fortress walls. In Age of Sigmar however we see the good guys being the aggressors, and Chaos on the defensive – which offers a whole new range of scenarios for the model makers and gamers alike to explore.Whilst the first display is focussed around models from the Age of Sigmar starter set, the Ironwarp Citadel is rather more complex. This time the Sigmarites are fighting their way into a Khornate fortress, backed up by several Star-drakes and everyone’s favourite clothes averse dwarves; the Fyreslayers.The Ironwarp Citadel, features three gates, each with its own opening mechanism. What exactly those are however I’m still not sure, and neither was anyone else I asked. One of them is clearly being dragged open by a pair of chaos giants in a scene inspired by the trolls opening the black gate in the Lord of the Rings film, but as for the other two – not a scooby.Never mind who let the spawn out, or how they did it, these Stormcasts are in a lot of trouble now.I’ll confess I wasn’t entirely sold on the magmadroth when it first appeared but after seeing them in this display I’ve really grown to love them. Like a lot of people I think I fell into the trap of seeing Fyreslayers as equivalent to the dwarves of Warhammer rather than as a race in their own right. If only their flesh had been painted in a similar, slightly tortured style (they do hammer metal into their own bodies after all) to their equally shirt-hating Chaos adversaries I might have been swayed sooner. Mind you, they could always be wearing flowery shirts…If I had to pick a favourite diorama from those displayed this Nurgle fortress would take the crown. Titled “Chaos Musters” it features the forces of the Plague God marching out to conquer the Old World during the End Times. In comparison to the neighbouring displays which look forward into the bright, golden Age of Sigmar, this is firmly rooted in a grubby past. The influence of the seminal Realms of Chaos books are everywhere here and whilst the previous displays primarily showcased models – and even buildings in the case of the Ironwarp Citadel – built straight from the box, this harks back to the convertors’ art with large areas of the Plaguespire appearing to have been either scratchbuilt or extensively kitbashed.Likewise the models themselves have been subject to plenty of conversion from this band of Chaos Warriors……to these trolls with plaguebearers budding hideously from their backs.Or how about this knight whose horse has the head of a plague drone……or this magnificently nasty looking ogre?Plus there’s more Nurglings that you could shake a germ-covered stick at, and that can only be a good thing!Tomorrow we’ll take a look at the rest of the Warhammer/Age of Sigmar displays before getting stuck in about the Grim Darkness of the Far Future.

Realm of Plagues – Part 4

Following the completion of the champion for my squad of Nurgle worshipping terminators I decided to strike whilst the iron was hot and get the squad’s icon bearer finished off as well. You may recall that last time we saw him he looked like this:At the time I felt that he was rather waspish in the waist – all fine and well for Slaanesh’s image-conscious lovers but hardly acceptable for Nurgle, whose followers are rotund and jolly to a man. Before he saw any paint I needed to build up the belly, and give him some appropriately horrible guts into the bargain. All of that brings him to this; finished at last.

Here’s the whole squad (so far) together.Excitingly the squad’s fourth member is now almost finished so I’m going to crack on and see if I can get him done too. As before – watch this space!

Show ’em You’ve Got Guts!

It’s hard to believe but today the Putrid Blightkings are one year old. In that time they’ve become a firm favourite of hobbyists, making their way into Nurgle armies around the world. To celebrate our fat, evil baby’s first birthday I’d like to take a look back at what I’ve managed to do with the kit over the last year. However this isn’t just about reminiscing so let’s set the ball rolling by showing something I’ve actually managed to finish off – the first of my Chosen of Nurgle.

I mentioned when I first built him that I felt I hadn’t been that adventurous in converting him but now he’s finished I’m glad I stuck to my guns (or in his case simply stuck a gun to him). As a model he already stands out as a simply fantastic miniature so any wild or elaborate conversion work just wasn’t needed. And, as we shall see, I have managed to get a few crazy conversions out of the kit.

He’s joined in the squad by this chap (still awaiting paint).

I’m still planning to make two more for a complete squad, and yes it is embarrassing that I’ve only managed to build so few despite having had a year to work on them. Thanks for mentioning that in front of everyone. Jeez!

When the Blightkings were first released I waxed rather enthusiastic about them, rattling off a list of ideas that probably meant next to nothing to anyone beside myself. At one point I claimed that I could foresee using them “or all kinds of Nurgle worshipping characters, ranging from Sorcerers and Dark Apostles up to a Daemon Prince”. Now the Sorcerer remains to appear, and the Dark Apostle ended up looking like this instead, but the Daemon Prince is finished at least.
He’s far and away the biggest and craziest thing I’ve managed to create from the Blightkings so far, as well as one of the most nerve wracking things I’ve ever put together, but the end result remains one of my favourite miniatures in the collection. You can read more about him here.

In my review of the kit I went on to suggest turning the Blightkings into Plague Ogrens or Nurgle Obliterators although once I had them in hand my suspicion that they were far too small was confirmed. I went on to suggest however: “Another possibility, and one which serves to balance out the size issue, would be to have one or two Blightkings wired or grafted into a motile, semi-sentient weapons platform.” My idea was for something not dissimilar to this demented contraption (and if you want to know more about it the place to look is here) but with the pilot physically wired in as with a Dreadnaught.
Anyway, this idea stuck with me and, although the original (fairly weird) concept has yet to see fruition, it did lead to the evolution of this rotund gentleman. You can find the story of how he came to be here and here.

Having discounted using them as Obliterators for the moment (and by the way Games Workshop, one year on we still don’t have decent models for them) I started thinking about what else they could be turned to. I already had the feeling they’d be too big to use as normal Plague Marines and so I started considering making Nurgle Possessed instead. As it was this idea evolved into the Nurgle Chosen you see above.

One thing that’s worth mentioning about the Blightkings, and makes them quite unusual, is the diversity in size of the heads. It’s worth noting here that there are 17 of them (I‘ve not counted them, Games Workshop’s advertising blurb told me so and they would never lie to me). These range from chunky bonces that look big on a Terminator, to little pin-heads that fit a guardsman. This is rather handy and allows the heads in the middle to be used on Plague Marines like the ones below. However it’s also worth being aware, especially if you’re buying a specific head separate from the rest of the kit through one of the third party bits sites.

I also said that I didn’t expect Gutrot Spume to be nearly as popular with convertors and, in my experience, this has proved to be correct. Having said that I’d still be curious to see what can be done with the model if it was brought into the 41st Millennium so if you know of any good conversions put a link in the box below.

The one thing I’ve not talked about much here are Nurgle Terminators, although many of the Blightking parts are a neat fit for this. My reticence is, in part, because my own efforts to make Nurgle Terminators based on the Blightkings hit the wall in short order and have yet to really bounce back. However I am starting to feel inspired in this direction once more so let’s give it some time and see what happens.

In the meantime hopefully you’ve enjoyed this look back at the Blightkings one year on and, as usual, if you have any comments or suggestions, know of any conversions based on this kit you think should be showcased or just want to be congratulated for having bothered to read this far, let me know in the comments box below.

Destined to Fester – Part 2

Earlier in the week I showed off a couple of Plague Marines and promised that, if you were patient and stuck with me, there’d be a couple more on their way. Now here they are. See I keep my promises, not like those other filthy, lying blogs you’ve been seeing behind my back!

First up here’s the squad’s standard bearer. Absolutely love this head from the Putrid Blighkings kit so I had to find somewhere suitably imposing to show it off.

And here’s another plague marine with a bolter, rounding out the squad.

For now my plan is to get paint on this little lot and then think about adding to the squad further, although of course I’m easily distracted so who knows what’ll happen!

Destined to Fester – Part 1

I said last week I was working on some more Plague Marines to start a second squad. The first I completed a while ago and proved to be the inspiration behind the project. Here he is again for those who, like me, can’t get tired of seeing him.
As I’ve mentioned he’s quite a bit taller than his squad mates, I’m almost tempted to refer to him as ‘true scale’. In the haphazard world of chaos marines this isn’t the end of the world but, as a tall person living in a world made for short folk myself, I’m sure he gets tired of dunting his head every time he gets into the dropship so it’s time to make him some equally tall squad mates. If I wasn’t already working on a squad of Nurgle Chosen based on the Putrid Blightkings then I’d make these Chosen. As it is they’ll just be Plague Marine squad number 2.
For the squad’s champion I wanted someone really evil looking but also with the vibe of a debased preacher or dark apostle. I wanted someone who’s pact with the God of Life and Death hadn’t come from necessity, or been forced upon them by the horror of their circumstances, but who has chosen their path willingly and has absolute faith in their part in Nurgle’s inevitable design for the universe. Let’s take a look at him:

I’ve also finished off another of the rank and file (rank eh? You see what I did there…) ; a stoic and stubborn acolyte ready to trudge through any hell in the Plague God’s name.

There’s also a couple more that I was hoping to have ready to show off but time hasn’t been on my side this week so we’ll have to be patient – after all whilst the other gods may pass us by Nurgle comes for us all in the end.

I Am Disease

I’ve confessed in previous posts that, when it comes to the larger models in my collection, I tend to develop a kind of ‘painter’s anxiety’ and either not apply paint to them or do so at a spectacularly snail-like pace. As a result I’m sure most of you who saw this post about my work-in-progress Nurgle-infested Helbrute probably didn’t expect to see the finished piece within our lifetimes. However sometimes I’ll surprise you (or if not you then at least me) by accelerating and actually getting on with things. Being rather pleased with this Helbrute I decided to strike whilst the iron was hot rather than leaving him to languish like his Khornate battle-brother. Take a look:

I took the chance to practice my freehand with the symbol of Nurgle on his shoulder (in case there was any doubt as to who he serves) and a few chaotic sigils further back.

Here’s a couple of shots of the rear of the model. As seems to be becoming a theme I couldn’t resist adding some big, grotty tanks of toxic sludge (although for once I didn’t have them open to the air – denying me the chance to paint more lurid green slime).

I also like to come up with a little bit of background to accompany each character or squad in my collection but often I don’t actually write it down, beyond a quick note of the name and major details. However on this occasion I actually put together something I thought was worth sharing:

Igorin Rotbringer – Infector of the Kadatheron Seventh Guard

Amongst the legions of traitor astartes interment in a dreadnaught is not an honour but a curse to be feared and shunned. It is rare indeed that one would choose it willingly yet the one known as Igorin Rotbringer is such a rarity. Cut down by the guns of the Kadatheron Seventh Guard he was dragged to safety by his battle-brothers amongst Golothess’s squad, a half-forgotten warrior-code compelling their actions. The plague acolytes prepared to sacrifice their crippled squadmate, atomising his flesh and pumping it into the atmosphere of the world they besieged so that even in death he might continue to spread his contagions. The wounded Igorin, however, begged for another path to be chosen. Such was his dedication to the God of Life and Death that he would accept the agony of dreadnaught imprisonment in exchange for continuing to spread Nurgle’s plagues beneath Ghisguth’s banner. Chilled and horrified by his declaration his battle-brothers still knew better than the question what they saw as a manifestation of the Dark Will. They did as Igorin asked and in the wake of his rebirth the Kadatheron Seventh Guard were the first to be blessed…

…And yes, this does mean I’m planning some plague zombies!

No Guts, No Glory – Part 3

Update: June 2021. Unfortunately, somewhere between writing this post back in 2015 and now I’ve managed to screw up and loose the accompanying pictures . In the case of this post – focusing as it does on work in progress images of a model I’ve since gone on to paint – it isn’t possible to simply take new ones. However I’ve kept the text below mostly unaltered, although to be honest I’m not sure how much sense it makes without the accompanying pictures. If you want to see the finished article though you can find it here.

I do love a dreadnaught. Most of the time ‘walkers’ in science-fiction leave me cold. Most likely it’s a result of growing up in Britain but there’s something about a handsome, cultured and well-groomed hero piloting a sleek and stylish mech that I find fairly irritating. More exciting to me by far is a heavily-armed walking life-support machine with all the aerodynamic grace of a perambulatory refrigerator, grimly laying down the law in the name of some neo-medieval Thatcherite hell. Probably in the rain.
Add to this the fact that Nurgle and Helbrutes seem to work well in combination. Both tend towards being outsize, lumbering and ugly. Both should by rights be dead but have somehow managed to live on, albeit not in a form that most would actually choose. I even wonder if the resistance to pain with which Nurgle is known to bless his followers make interment in a Helbrute a less miserable experience? As a result one of the first things I wanted to do with the Putrid Blightkings kit was create a Nurgle infested Helbrute. Never mind that I find big kits a bit of a chore to paint, or that I’ve already got two Helbrutes, plus another I need to get some paint on, let’s focus on my avaricious desire to add another!
At the moment he’s only tacked together but this should give you some idea of where I’m going with this. I armed him with a missile launcher as I see him trudging along at the back, a bloated, disease-ridden walking shrine to the Plague God, launching salvos of toxic warheads over the putrescent ranks so that the gifts of Nurgle are already well established when they get there.

So what do you think? Should I have taken that rash to the apothecary or was I right to bath my ironform in a soup of decay? As always your comments are welcome in the box below.

Cult of Decay

With Nurgle being the hot-topic of the moment this week I found myself infected with enthusiasm (see what I did there…? Yeah, you loved it really) and decided to build this Plague Marine. It was a fairly quick conversion built using mostly Chaos Marine parts, with the Nurgle head from the Warhammer Chaos Chariot and the legs from the Avatars of War Corruptors of the Apocalypse. It only took me a few hours to build and paint him but I’m rather pleased with the results.

Quite by accident the Corruptor legs make him slightly taller than his squadmates, although not so much that he looks completely out of place.

As another example here he is towering over a newly finished cultist (more on them soon I hope). Now that’s how a Space Marine should look when standing next to a mere human (yes, I know the cultist is running, it makes him a little shorter. Never mind eh?).

The reason for this surge of enthusiasm for the plague god is that someone clever over at Games Workshop just came up with a way to sell the well-loved Nurgle Chaos Lord by the box. The result is Gutrot Spume and the Putrid Blightkings (a winning name for a teenage grindcore band if ever there was one). Obviously this is exciting news for fans of Chaos in Warhammer but what about those of us fighting the long war in the far future? The good news is that with such a profusion of heads and weapons (a whopping 17 heads and 21 weapon arms) there’s enough to add a Nurgly touch wherever it’s required. Off the top of my head I’m already considering using the extras from the Blightkings for all kinds of Nurgle worshipping characters, ranging from Sorcerers and Dark Apostles up to a Daemon Prince.

As for the models as a whole my first thoughts ran along the lines of Plague Ogrens or Nurgle Obliterators although on a second glance I think they’re far too small to serve as the base models for these hulking brutes. Having said that I like the image of a Blightking with a reaper auto-cannon strapped to one arm, mowing down ranks of Imperial infantry with a throaty chuckle (yes – I’m aware that this says nothing good about my mental health!). Another possibility, and one which serves to balance out the size issue, would be to have one or two Blightkings wired or grafted into a motile, semi-sentient weapons platform. Alternatively a fairly simple possibility would be to turn them into Nurgle Possessed by adding Chaos Marine backpacks and other sundries.

Some might think I’m getting rather over-excited about these, or buying too heavily into the marketing, but I reckon as an introduction to the Chaos wave of the End Times this has been fantastic. Even the name “Blightkings” sounds cool (not so true in the case of “Gutrot Spume” but we can’t have it all) and the lashing tongue erupting from one of the stomachs is pure old-school chaos! Even if there’s nothing else to come, or it’s all awful, I’ll still be fairly happy. It may well be that these will be criticised for the cartoon-like, over-the-top nature of their mutations but to my eye it works well here (Nurgle being the one Chaos God where too much realism isn’t always a good thing).

Whilst the strength of the Blightkings is the ability to covert and customise to your heart’s content Gutrot Spume looks to be a trickier proposition. Whilst the generic Nurgle chaos lord has been converted by pretty much everyone in the world (including myself) Gutrot is likely to be a lot more limited in this regard, the lashing tentacles and kraken mouth hidden in his armpit acting as a significant barrier to simple conversions. No doubt it’s a spectacular model though and, with a little tweaking, could make a smashing Nurgle Lord for a Chaos Marines warband, or perhaps a Herald of Nurgle. If you don’t want the tentacles however you’re either in for a lot of work or you need to look elsewhere so I suspect that many of the conversions based off this model may end up being rather similar.

This release also means that Chaos Marine fans are now well served with Warrior’s of Chaos kits to loot for two of the gods. Nurgle has the Blightkings whilst Khorne has the treasure trove that is the Skullcrushers. Slaanesh and Tzeentch however remain a little undeveloped. Slaanesh at least has the Hellstriders although their slight forms don’t offer a lot for a Chaos Marine fan to get to grips with (mind you, there’s mileage there for Traitor Guard). Poor old Tzeentch however is languishing at the back of the pack. His daemons are fairly solid (give or take the Pink Horrors which I can’t claim to love) but his mortal followers are distinctly lacking. Unfortunately Forgeworld, in spite of producing some cracking kits for Khorne and Nurgle have so far offered Tzeentch and Slaanesh little in the way of support. Still the End Times are but young yet, so who knows what’s on the cards for the weeks to come?

Anyway, what are your thoughts? Have I bought into the hype? Do you have any great conversion ideas you’d like to share? If so, as always, the comments box below is the place to do it.
Cheers!