DuskRaider's 40K Nurgle - An Experiment in Flesh and Machine

[Gederas]

It's actually grey not black. I know my black doesn't look very black either, lol. I followed FW's recipe... for the base color, which is Vallejo German Grey. Then I give it an undiluted wash of Drakenhof Nightshade and mix 50/50 German Grey with Citadel Administratum Grey and apply it in my usual technique. After that, another wash. Then a mix of 75/25 Administratum Grey / German Grey applied in my technique, then finally a mix of about 90/10 Admin Grey / German Grey and do the drybrush swirl. There were some comments on the Armiger that it didn't look highlighted and I agree, so I rectified the issue with the big guys.

 

Ah okay. I got a feeling it was some kind of really dark grey, almost black. Good to know my guess was right :lol:

[Shovellovin]

Holy smokes! Your Dark Mechanicum Kill Team is fantastic! I love them!!!! Excellent combination of the Cawdor and Ad Mech models. 

[betrayer41]

Stunning stuff out of everything youve done i think this dark mechanicum is my favorite.

[DuskRaider]

I'm just beginning, brother...

 

 

I'm finishing up a small squad of... things I can't even begin to imagine how I'd use them in any game. But they're cool and that's all that matters.

 

Oh boy, I can't wait to have a large collection of models I can't even use!

Edited August 20, 2018 by DuskRaider

[Atia]

Love your Dark Mechanicus guys! From where are the cool bare heads?

[DuskRaider]

Thank you, Lady. They're Zombie heads from Puppets War.

[DuskRaider]

Nekrotek Slave Servitors... Crudely constructed from Forge World Volgan's native mutant population, they're fielded en masse as Titan guard. They hang to traitor Knights and Titans like mites, repelling enemy foot units with massive power klaws and the occasional firearm. Greatly feared are those armed with long forgotten arcane tech, though quite rare.

 

While individually quite easily dispatched, they are often seen in the hundreds or even thousands, latching to plodding hulls of twisted machines.

 

 

Protean: Fabricator Locum Zal'gesh's assistant and Abominable Intelligence Construct. The first of many created by the Flesh Magos' hands, Protean is unique from the other constructs in that it has its own consciousness. It does not bend to the will of it's father, it chooses to serve by his side.

 

 

And the collection of Dark Mechanicum Hereteks currently.

 

 

I was going to save these for another day, after I did the green stuff work on them... But I'm not feeling that right now. So here I am, blowing my Dark Mechanicum surprises in the thread.

 

Really though, if you're in the Inquisitorium group on FB you would have seen these months ago. I'm horrible at keeping secrets.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Awesome job yet again on these kitbashes! I have one little quibble though with this guy:

 

 

That gun just looks way too big, even for 40k standards. 

[DuskRaider]

Yeah they're supposed to be large and cumbersome. I had even flirted with the idea of amputating the left arm of the heavy weapons Servitors so they are literally just a means of locomotion for the weapons. 

[Pearson73]

Nekrotek Slave Servitors... Crudely constructed from Forge World Volgan's native mutant population, they're fielded en masse as Titan guard. They hang to traitor Knights and Titans like mites, repelling enemy foot units with massive power klaws and the occasional firearm. Greatly feared are those armed with long forgotten arcane tech, though quite rare.

 

 

 

 

 

Protean: Fabricator Locum Zal'gesh's assistant and Abominable Intelligence Construct. The first of many created by the Flesh Magos' hands, Protean is unique from the other constructs in that it has its own consciousness. It does not bend to the will of it's father, it chooses to serve by his side.

 

 

Damn, this is an absolute monstrosity, what a fantastic creation! I'm assuming there are a lot of Tyranid parts involved?

[DuskRaider]

Thanks! The body is a Mucolid Spore but other than that the only 'Nid bits are a couple Genestealer (or Abberation, I can't remember) hands. Everything else is Foetid Bloat Drone, Dark Eldar Talos or Nurgle Plague Drone with a few other bits and bobs thrown in from the bits box. 

 

I've had the temptation to pick up some FW Meiotic Spores to turn into larger versions of this guy but I don't know if I'm willing to commit to that at this point. I still have some other things I need to craft up.

[K0rtmer]

These are amazing. Absolutely fantastic work, very inspired. I can't wait to see this progress.

 

Any idea about how you'll be painting them?

[DuskRaider]

Thank you, sir. I'll probably do my usual flesh scheme on them, it's how I tie all of my Nurgle aligned armies together. Otherwise, I'll most likely go with the German Grey of my House Makabius for the robes on my Skitarii while I do black with red trim on the Fabricator Locum. I'm tempted to do him the same scheme, but he's not seconded to the House, it's the other way around.

 

I could always come out of left field and do his robes a dingy white.

 

Now does anyone know what a Sacristan would look like? Magos Dominus size? Tech Priest?

[DuskRaider]

Well I answered my own question because I'm impatient and remembered I had these lying around, so one thing led to another and...

 

I introduce to you Sacristan Chaerog of House Makabius. A stocky creature, he's been the primary Sacristan on Volgan so long no one seems to know his origins. When asked if his loyalties lie with HelForge Volgan or House Makabius, his answer is simply, 'I serve the Undying God'. 

 

 

It was an easy decision to utilize the Apostate Preacher as my Sacristan. He already has the look of both a devout Nurgle worshipper and that of a Mechanicum priest of some sort. I didn't want to go too overboard with him since the base model is already wonderfully detailed so I simply removed his loudspeaker and replaced it with a Mechanicum Cog Axe. Originally I had used the axe from one of the Cultists from Dark Vengeance since it looked vaguely Tech Priest-y but I wanted a little more grandeur so a Magos bit was used instead. At one point he also had more bionic limbs to aid him in repair but it looked too cluttered so I settled for one on his power cell and his stump of a right arm diverging into a bionic arm and smaller limb. I figured having his singular stump branch into two separate limbs would also give him a unique look. 

 

But he isn't working alone. Along with what I'm sure would be countless menial servitors he has his personal assistant / bodyguard, Ualac. Much like the Nekrotek Slaves, Ualac was once a mutant native to the ash wastes of Volgan. Big Mutants are a rarity on Volgan as most are poached for slavery or killed by the daemonic fauna, so when the creature arrived for servitor augmentation protocol, Chaerog seized the opportunity. 

 

Modified primarily to assist the Sacristan with Titan maintenance and repair, Ualac also serves well as a combat unit in the field. 

 

 

Ahh, the Nurgle Lord model... a classic. I think I've seen this model used more for modification (especially for INQ28) than I have in it's stock design. I wasn't really sure where to go with this one but I knew I wanted to create a "helper" for my Sacristan and I wanted it to be a massive creature. Obviously he'll join the green stuff queue as he'll need some work, especially integrating the belly armour in. I wanted his limbs to look like they could be used as tools first and foremost but could also aid him in combat if need be. I really like his head.

 

Lastly, we have Banner Bearer Malphas Makabius. A Priest of Nurgle by all accounts, he holds an important position in House Makabius. Before battle it is Malphas who blesses the hull of each war machine under the Makabius banner. When the Household marches to war, its behind Malphas and his ancient Makabius banner. He leads the Knight House from their gantries and into the field of battle, often accompanied by the House's Skitarii cohorts. Once an accomplished pilot himself, he has forsaken battle for a higher calling and ensures the House, their Septs and the Troops who flock to the Banner all feel the touch of Nurgle. 

 

 

I literally had no work to do with this one other than adding the loudspeaker I cut from the Sacristan. The model is perfect for this role and his Banner will be decorated with the House Makabius Shield. 

 

All three together:

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

They're all good, but Ualac is a standout.

[Cryptix]

Man, these characters are awesome, and between you and the new dark mechanicus guys by freakshow you're making it real hard not to do a Heretek Magos' warband in INQ28...

[DuskRaider]

Thanks, guys! That's kind of funny BCK, considering Ualac was an afterthought. 

 

Do it, man... c'mon you know you want to. Funny thing is, I have so many minis and war bands I've created for INQ28 but I can't get any of my friends to commit to it. 

Edited August 22, 2018 by DuskRaider

[Cryptix]

I feel like whatever I put together would just be either derivative of other works I've seen unconsciously or just not work  . I do have a custodes that I kept from a trade with a friend that I want to convert into a servant of my Dark Magos.

[DuskRaider]

So what? If you think something looks cool, try to do it yourself. A lot of my stuff takes inspiration from others' works, some here and some elsewhere on the intarwebz. My Abonimable Intelligence Construct? I got the base idea of it from Ex Profundis. Obviously they share visual cues but I took it in my own direction and made it my own. My mutated Knight? I saw someone try to blend Nurgle Daemon bits into a Knight's leg (I don't know the source of the bits), so I took the idea and went a step further and made it my own. Same with my Dark Mechanicum Skitarii, someone on FB used Cawdor to make their Feral World Mechanicus so I grabbed the idea and ran with it in the opposite direction. There's nothing wrong with taking ideas from others and using them to flesh out your own.

 

I own up to nabbing ideas from others in the community, it's nothing to be ashamed of and in the end even if I copied that guy's Feral Mechanicus part for part when I paint mine it will look different than his. We all have our own style, even if you don't notice it. Like I know that when I'm modifying models I tend to make the left-hand side more busy or have the mini looking to the left, it's usually a subconscious thing but I believe it's because I'm also left-handed. 

[Pearson73]

You're definitely right about that Nurgle Lord, I very rarely see it as stock.

 

Ualac is a real stand out, there's such a great range of bits in there, is that a Kataphron torso? Where is his head/skull sourced from?

[Subtle Discord]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I can't speak for others, but I show all of my work to show off, entertain, encourage, and inspire. While the ego boost is nice, it's when people say that I inspired them that really reminds me why I put the effort in. Take the ideas, and run!

 

On that note, count me inspired, and itching more-and-more to start turning the corner into the Darker places where monsters dwell. So many nice combinations it's hard to single things out, just all-around awesome.

[DuskRaider]

You're definitely right about that Nurgle Lord, I very rarely see it as stock.

 

Ualac is a real stand out, there's such a great range of bits in there, is that a Kataphron torso? Where is his head/skull sourced from?

 

That's a Kataphron armour bit on his gut. I was scouring my bins for the other armour pieces but they seem to have vanished so I just stuck with this one. The head is a splicing of one of the Beastmen skulls from the Citadel Skull Kit (same ones I used on my Pestigor War Band) and the bionic bits from one of the Kataphron heads. Originally I was just going to use a Kataphron head, but it just didn't look twisted enough and I figure this way he seems more like a "sub-species" of the Nekrotek Slave Servitors while also having a distant relation appearance-wise to my Beastmen. 

 

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I can't speak for others, but I show all of my work to show off, entertain, encourage, and inspire. While the ego boost is nice, it's when people say that I inspired them that really reminds me why I put the effort in. Take the ideas, and run!

 

On that note, count me inspired, and itching more-and-more to start turning the corner into the Darker places where monsters dwell. So many nice combinations it's hard to single things out, just all-around awesome.

 

Exactly! I love inspiring others to use their creativity. I encourage anyone to use my ideas and make it their own, it's awesome to see what someone else's imagination can do with it.

 

I really want to see you do Dark Mechanicum kits, Discord. I'd snatch anything up in a heartbeat, I'm addicted to building on my completely unplayable army right now 

[PowerHungryMonkey]

DuskRaider! I am loving these guys. Great use of bitz (the Cawdor models are perfect) and they have a truley horrific aspect to them. They really put me in mind of the film Virus. If somehow you haven't seen it, DO! You will gain a wealth of horrendous ideas from it.

[hushrong]

Awesome, awesome, and awesome!

 

Seriously great conversions and backstories. I love how you have the knights modeled and painted now you are going in depth by making those who support them! That is an awesome way to tie in your projects!

[DuskRaider]

@Monkey: Thanks bud, appreciate it. Yeah, I've seen Virus. Great for techno-virus visualization, horrible for plot or anything else really, haha.

 

@hush: Thank you very much, friendo. I'm really determined to flesh out not only my House Makabius but HelForge Volgan in general. I have a lot of ideas about what happened to Forge World M'Pandex after the Heresy and what brought them to what they are now. Or technically the 35th Millennia, this all takes place between the 4th and 5th Black Crusades.