Khorne's Eternal Hunt - KrautScientist's chaotic WIP thread 2024: Baby steps...

[K0rtmer]

OMG, you fixed the Plaguecaster. Thank you. I was already seriously considering to cut off the whole head and replace it with a plaguebearer's or something. But your fix is quite a lot better, and easier too.

 

Please, I must know, where is that rebreather mask from!?

 

Re: your biker lord. Fair call, I hadn't considered the contrast you get automatically from his bare skin against his bike and armor. Certainly alleviates my point. You're right, off-whites against skin won't work too well ...

Edited July 14, 2017 by Brother Kortmer

[KrautScientist]

@ Auggs: Thanks, buddy! That is quite a lovely compliment there! :)

 

@ Brother Kortmer: Cheers! The rebreater mask came from the Cadian command squad kit -- although there's an even easier way: A mask of the exact same design is dangling from the belt of one of the Poxwalkers from the Dark Imperium box ;)

[GuitaRasmus]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, that's more like it! That's a very subtle, yet extremely effective conversion. Why haven't I thought of that? I just dumped mine in the bits box, it being a seemingly hopeless miniature - very well done! 

[BadgersinHills]

The Plaguecaster looks far better with the rebreather, very nice and effective conversion.

[Nemac Vradon]

He looks awesome KS, the staff is great and now I'm gutted I didn't use one similar! The rebreather also works really well. Are you going to go with an open hand or a pistol of some description?

 

Nemac

[Augustus b'Raass]

Yeah I really think Brother Kortmer said it even better: you FIXED the Plague Sorcerer. 

[KrautScientist]

Again, thanks a lot, guys! I think the Malignant Plaguecaster is full of cool ideas - like the creepiness of something insectile breaking through that is only barely contained by the caster's body - but there's maybe just too much going on with the stock model: Too many angles, too many weird shapes, and the composition seems to be all over the place. Which is why I am basically trying to keep the coolness factor while dialing back some of the distracting factors.

 

Speaking of which, I am basically prepared to call the conversion finished at this point:

 

 

 

 

I experimented with the option of giving him some kind of casting hand, but in the end it seemed like he needed some visual counterweight, so to speak, to balance out the staff, and the clunky plasma pistol from the Blightbringer I was already cannibalising for bitz just did the job rather nicely ;)

 

Here's the Plaguecaster next to my (earlier) sorcerer conversion:

 

 

And while it's nowehere near as flashy a conversion as the Plaguecaster, let me just insist that I am really rather pleased with the tweaked hazmat suit Poxwalker:

 

 

 

 

As always, let me know what you think! :)

[Vairocanum]

Loving that Plaguecaster! Some fantastic changes to the model, definitely looking forward to seeing what else you'll create from the new nurgle stuff.

[KrautScientist]

Cheers, mate! From here on out, it's going to be very minor tweaks, I imagine, at least for the Plague Marines, as I basically love them unconditionally ;) I have a few changes in mind, but they should be hardly noticeable.

[Azekai]

I did the same thing with the rebreather mask on the plaguecaster, Krautscientist! Makes ol' babyface look a lot more palatable. The plasma pistol swap looks great and natural too; almost as if it were meant to be that way.

[Aasfresser]

I love what you did with tha plaque caster. The silly babyface is just unjustifiable. The only thing I think should be still done is his staff, there seems something off with its angle over the hand. If it would be moved just a tiny bit to the right (picture right) it would look natural and perfekt.

 

So much great work in general... I just don't know where to praise first. 

[Mister Feral]

I don't mind the original Plaguecaster but yours has certainly given me pause to consider making some slight modifications to mine.

 

It has yet to be primed, so not too late...

 

Also have to agree on the love for Poxwalkers. I've been removing the odd spike here and there, replacing them with pustules and scrap armour plates.

[DuskRaider]

Great job on the Plaguecaster! He'd make a great Necrosius.

[KrautScientist]

Thanks, guys! :)

 

@ Azekai: Cheers! I think what makes the plasma pistol fit so well is that it basically came out of the same kit, so to speak.

 

@ Aasfresser: I paid a lot of attention to graft the new staff on exactly where the stock one used to be -- and even so, I can see where your're coming from -- damn! ;) That being said, I doubt I'll be touching that staff again, now that everything's finally solid and stable. Given the gnarly, twisted nature of the staff, I'd argue the angle still works well enough, though.

 

@ Mister Feral: Thanks, man! :)

 

@ DuskRaider: Yeah, even the stock miniature has more than a few touches in common with FW's model: There's even a weapon in the Blightking kit that looks almost exactly like Necrosius' power weapon -- I would have used it, if I'd had a spare one.

 

So nothing too interesting for today: I finally built my first "official" Plague Marine, mostly because I finally wanted to have a conclusive size comparison. As it turns out, the new Plague Marines are still ever so slightly taller than my kitbashed guys:

 

 

I think the main reason for this is that the Dark Imperium Plague Marines seem to be based on Mk. III parts that have been significantly upscaled, whereas my conversion uses the smaller standard Mk. III parts. They still work pretty well together, I'd say.

 

However, the real surprise came when I compared the new Plague Marine with one of the Putrid Blightking-based models I converted a while ago: The latter were originally conceived as true-scalish and ended up being about the size of standard Terminators. But now...

 

 

...it turns out they would actually work very well as standard Plague Marines: Sure, they are slightly more bloated and a bit more medieval, but that can be explained away as a bit of variation between squads. Seems I have five more Plague Marines now ;)

 

 

As always, let me know what you think! :)

[Mechanist]

So you have a full death guard army now?

Some great work, the pox walker is going to look super creepy painted up, some nice little tweaks on him.

And yes an easy solution to that hideous baby face si going to steal that.

[Midnightmare]

Loving your take on the Death Gaurd bud, great conversions (as always! :P ) and i really like the palette used.

 

Got to admit though, Be'Lakor in red really rocks! Yum

[hushrong]

Looking Nasty-good! Loving what I see and now I know what I will do when I get around to that burgle sorcerer. His puffy cheeks look too comical but that rebreather covers it up nice.

[KrautScientist]

Thanks a lot, guys! :)

 

One more kitbash, and then I should really get some paint on that biker lord ;)

 

Anyway, I still had that extra Blightbringer model, and the poor fellow was already missing a few parts by this point, so I wanted to make something cool with the piece. My original idea was mostly to just swap in a power fist and call it a day, but with a master converter like GuitaRasmus also on the case, it felt like I needed to step up my game a bit, so I also carefully cut away the head (keeping it mostly undamaged so it can still be used for a future project was quite a challenge) and made some additonal tweaks to what is now another Plague Marine champion or even a Nurglite Lord on foot:

 

 

 

 

 

So here are the two converted Dark Imperium Death Guard characters I have so far:

 

 

As always, let me know what you think! :)

[Pyroclast91]

WOW Krautscientist those plague marines are fantastic I really do love how if you cut judiciously each plague marine in the kit has enough extra nurgley nick nacks to make at least one or two more marines into plague marines. But as always you have an almost supernatural ability to bring out the most possible character in any model I'll definitely be following intently for fresh ideas to borrow (I already sorta did with the pox walkers ;) good thinking with trimming off the horns to add variety )

[Teetengee]

I really like the backpack!

[Sagentus]

Wow, certainly got some great stuff coming on here Kraut ... really like the Blightbringer looks ace!

[GuitaRasmus]

I really like the head and the sword, but I think the power fist somehow needs tweaking - I can't figure out if it's the pose or the part, but it seems a tiny bit "off"...?

[KrautScientist]

Thanks a lot, guys! :)

 

@ Pyroclast01: Wow, mate, thanks a lot! That is very nice of you to say! :)

 

@ GuitaRasmus: Hmm, while the fist may have been a bit of a compromise - it was the only suitably chaotic power fist I had - the angle I have now is pretty much the best possible one, at least if you still want it to look anatomically sound from different angles as well. Plus I wanted to keep the rotten looking cabling on the back of the fist, so there was that to take into account as well. I can definitely live with the outcome, though.

 

So I know I said just one last conversion, and then it was off to painting, right? Welll... I do have one "last last" conversion -- although this time it's more a redesign of an existing model:

 

All the way back when the Putrid Blightkings were released, I used some Blightking bitz and an AOBR plastic Terminator to make a conversion. However, the model ended up in a strange place between a regular Plague Marine and a Terminator in the end. Pretty cool, but also slightly confusing. Now with the very real scale creep of the new Death Guard models, and with the help of the last leftover parts of my extra Blightbringer, I was able to turn this guy into something that nicely fits the theme of the models I have built so far. An alternate Blightbringer, if you will:

 

 

 

 

 

 

So while the model started out as a slightly goofy proof of concept, at least now he can be used alongside the rest of my Death Guard models.

 

Here are the three characters I've converted so far:

 

 

As always, let me know what you think! :)

[Dragonlover]

I'm kinda starting to wish I hadn't had to get my Dark Imperium built for work so it's all stock builds. Might have to pick up another set at some point...

 

One thing I did notice is that if you want to just tweak a few guys to break up identical silhouettes, the backpacks look pretty easy to swap round.

 

Dragonlover

[Sagentus]

Really like all you have hear Kraut! I find some of the DG from the dark imperium looks a bit cartoon like for my liking, but your conversions make them look a lot better!! looking forward to seeing them painted :)