Death Guard

[Dr_Boomstick]

Hey all,

 

I chucked up one or two test pieces I did for some plague marines a couple of years ago, but was unable to continue with the project for quite a while. I've finally got the time to start on some 40k, so after years and years (I first bought a box of CSMs in 2005) I will be able to get an army together rather than just fiddling around with other peoples' models.

 

I'm awaiting the release of the Chaos Codex, so right now I'm just working on a couple of squads of plague marines and a daemon prince. The modelling is in it's very early stages, as I am pedantic and want to try and get this as good as I can, despite it being my first army.

 

The first thing I wanted was some decent Nurgly looking helmetss. I don't like the FW plague marine heads, plus the point of going Nurgle in the first place for me was to keep the cost down and to give me some great modelling and painting oppotunities. I'v clipped the horns off off several chaos head, drilled holes in the foreheads and socketed little pieces of horn to get the whole 'single horn of Nurgle' theme going on:

 

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb333/Dr_Boomstick/DSCF2191.jpg

 

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb333/Dr_Boomstick/Untitled.jpg

 

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb333/Dr_Boomstick/DSCF2184.jpg

 

I've also started drilling out barrels, as well as replacing cabling on a few things. Call it pedantic, but I didn't like the fact that every single chaos melta has the same little horn/claw fetish hanging from the cable, so I replaced that on my first melta.

 

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb333/Dr_Boomstick/DSCF0789.jpg

 

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb333/Dr_Boomstick/DSCF0788.jpg

 

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb333/Dr_Boomstick/DSCF0786.jpg

 

I wanted at least one pauldron on each guy that shows a Nurgle/Death Guard insignia. After looking around, I realised that the triple circle/skull insignia of nurgle looks great on shoulders, and can be make easily with green stuff into some really rotten pauldrons. These are my first attempts at greenstuff and they're a bit bulky when I place them on a model. I may have to redo most of these, but this gives you the general idea:

 

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb333/Dr_Boomstick/DSCF0794.jpg

 

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb333/Dr_Boomstick/DSCF0790.jpg

 

Although I'm going to have the army led by a lord and a sorceror, I've always envisioned a huge, bloated demon prince as well. He'll probably see use in bigger games, or as my second HQ besides my lord sometimes. I wanted to use the warhammer giant's body, because of the huge bloated belly, but the model is really tall and the lanky arms and legs along with how dimmed witted the heads are don't really convey much menace. I decided to use the arms and legs from a plastic DP, with the thick meaty hands and the hooved feet from the giant, along with a head that has a single horn and a custome gas mask.

 

I started work on the head by sawing off the horns on either side of the chaos giant head (which, funnily enough, has a single good eye making it great for a nurgle model). I made a little rebreather thing for the gas mask, which I've fixed in place by filing the teeth down and gluing it into the mouth. The end is all chewed up right now because I tried to drill holes in the end of the tube, but it was still soft from the glue and turned into a mess. I'll figure out a way later of making that work better. Eventually I'll sculpe a mask around the tube and lower face, cover over the horn stumps and add the new horn to the forehead.

 

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb333/Dr_Boomstick/DSCF0784.jpg

 

Getting the demon prince legs onto the body was a real challenge. After I'd glued the giant body together, I sawed bits away from the legs and shoulders, but the gap where the thighs started was huge - much too big to just glue the DP legs in there. I ended up pinning the hooves onto the legs, then getting a ball of tamiya epoxy and sticking it to the top of the thigh and pressing that into the socket. I spread the edges out over the back and front of the model to give it some more grip and then sat it on it's base so that it would cure in a correct standing position.

 

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb333/Dr_Boomstick/DSCF0778.jpg

 

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb333/Dr_Boomstick/DSCF0780.jpg

 

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb333/Dr_Boomstick/DSCF0781.jpg

 

The result is really ugly as you can see (and not in a good way) , but it go the job done. It was fine to work with for my first time with the material. The gap in the crotch is where I realised that the giant model's protruding junk was going to mess with the model later, when I extend the belly and little and add a loin cloth, so I had to saw that away. Sawing genitals off a daemon prince is an unnerving experience ;)

 

A couple of days later I came back and sculped a butt and thighs over the mess left behind which turned out pretty smooth. Later on I''m going to go over it and detail it with rot, wounds, etc using greenstuff, but for now I just wanted the musculature going. Here's the daemon-butt!

 

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb333/Dr_Boomstick/Untitled-1.jpg

 

It looks strange from the front right now (I dub this stage the "Diaper Prince"), but it's coming along.

 

http://i1200.photobucket.com/albums/bb333/Dr_Boomstick/DSCF2180.jpg

 

So there's what's done for the moment - let me know what you think, give critique as I go ahead, etc! Hopefully I keep on it this time ;)

[Kizzdougs]

Great looking minis! Some bits from the new Plague Bearers set (released tomorrow) would look awesome on the Nurgle marines.

The DP is looking suitably repulsive :)

[Biohazard]

Really like the theme and look of your Plague Marines so far and as Kizzdougs says there looks to be a lot of great bits on the daemon kits. The DP I'm not so sure about yet but it may just be that at this stage I'm not sure where you're going with it. Looking forward to seeing progress.

[Wing Wong]

Can't wait to see the giant and the DG look great; especially the pads. I can't help thinking the giant is just about the go grab some waves too so doubly awesome.

[firestorm40k]

Nice conversions, looking forward to seeing this Nurgle army come together! :)