A return to the Death Guard and a new start.

[Aasfresser]

I have to agree with Kraut. That Dread is so damn good, the prince will have to improve I fear to keep up with him. But I believe you will surprise us anyways ;) 

[The Traitor]

That dread is breathtaking, but he looks more like a decimator than a contemptor to me :P. The butcher cannon looks great on him, it gives a little more weight to that side of the dread.

[Augustus b'Raass]

Yeah, that dreadnought is pretty fricking amazing. :yes:

[Mister Feral]

Impressive!

 

I would recommend some sculpted-on trim and pitting for all the main armour plates to tie the conversion together.

 

Butcher Cannon is a solid conversion!

[MagicMan]

That dread is insanely cool!

[GuitaRasmus]

Thanks for the kind words, guys. :) Really appreciate it. 

 

I simply cannot get enough of that Dreadnought! He is one of those conversions that I feel only you can really come up with! He also supports me in the feeling that the DP isn't quite there yet, as the Dreadnought is just on a whole different scale of brilliance, at least for now. Oh, and he does look great with the new Butcher cannon as well, of course.

 

I must admit, at first I was a bit miffed at your initial response to it, but I want to say thanks now - I've actually ripped him apart, in order to rebuild him; it might sound weird, but sometimes an idea might be good, but won't convey my concept, and I don't think his present incarnation was the right one. At the moment I'm waiting on the putty to dry - I'm sculpting a new power armoured torso for him, and will give him some longer, lankier arms ( the previous ones were too muscular for Nurgle). I'm definitely keeping the head and turbines, but the jury is still out on the lower body. We'll see about that. :) Thanks for pushing me to being better than "good enough". :)

 

Impressive!

I would recommend some sculpted-on trim and pitting for all the main armour plates to tie the conversion together.

Butcher Cannon is a solid conversion!

 

Thanks! I actually removed quite a bit of the trims and the chaos stars, since I want a bit less trimming than Chaos usually haves - fits the new DG aesthetic better, I think. :)

[Mister Feral]

I see - that was a conscious choice. Tastes differ and that's why this hobby is so great!

 

Do you have any further work to do on the armour plates? If you've got any of those Poxwalkers horns left - perhaps a couple of those pushing through to "break" up the flatter plates on the shins?

[GuitaRasmus]

I think that when I get to giving the whole armour battle damage, it'll break up the shins nicely, but I'll keep your suggestion in mind. :)

[KrautScientist]

I must admit, at first I was a bit miffed at your initial response to it, (...)

 

Well, if it's any consolation, I did feel rather terrible writing it, too. But then I took another look at your - thankfully reconstructed - project gallery over at the blog, and felt utterly vindicated, both because of the level of awesomness on display there, but also because I finally realised what kept bothering me about the DP: He seemed like a retread of something you had already done - and arguably done better:

 

 

So while I certainly don't want to make your (hobby) life harder than it needs to be, I think you've come to the right conclusion -- and I am excited to see the DP's next incarnation! :)

[GuitaRasmus]

 

I must admit, at first I was a bit miffed at your initial response to it, (...)

 

Well, if it's any consolation, I did feel rather terrible writing it, too. But then I took another look at your - thankfully reconstructed - project gallery over at the blog, and felt utterly vindicated, both because of the level of awesomness on display there, but also because I finally realised what kept bothering me about the DP: He seemed like a retread of something you had already done - and arguably done better:

 

 

So while I certainly don't want to make your (hobby) life harder than it needs to be, I think you've come to the right conclusion -- and I am excited to see the DP's next incarnation!

 

 

 

Thanks for the kind words - and yes, I still think that model is a nice piece. :)

 

It's difficult, because I really want to do a prince with a scythe, and there's only so many ways one can do a "grim reaper type" of model. It will still be a scythe wielding prince, and the pose won't be radically different, but at least now I have a plan, instead of randomly throwing things at a torso. :D

[Pyroclast91]

Absolutely amazing work man I really love your Daemon Prince and all your conversions for that matter. Thanks to the new starter set I've started building my first real traitor force since I started in 3rd ed meaning lots of converting and this thread has been an absolute gold mine of inspiration keep up the awesome work

[GuitaRasmus]

Absolutely amazing work man I really love your Daemon Prince and all your conversions for that matter. Thanks to the new starter set I've started building my first real traitor force since I started in 3rd ed meaning lots of converting and this thread has been an absolute gold mine of inspiration keep up the awesome work

 

Thanks a lot - it always gives me great joy, when I can inspire others.

 

 

 

Okay... *deep breath*

 

I need you guys to be brutally honest now... I've changed the DP's torso a lot, giving him a power armour torso, trying to echo some mkIII characteristics, and changing the left arm into a semi-bionic arm, with the bionics brutally grafted into his arm stump (the look reminds me of the side effects of the russian drug "krokodil" - google at own risk - trust me on this one)

I also bulked up the turbines with an engine on his back. I'm still not sure what to do with his lower body for now, so there's that... 

 

Anyway, guys, brutally honest comments - but keep in mind that this is a mockup - if this is what I'll keep, he'll get the armour smoothed out, the sculpting will be tighter and there'll be trims and battle damage/corrosion galore. 

 

Fire away! 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 29, 2017 by GuitaRasmus

[KrautScientist]

I think you are definitely on to something now, mostly because there's a greater coherence to the concept now, and it's more original and no longer a retread of that earloer guy. As you said, he needs more work, of course. So, off the top of my head:

 

• I keep thinking that the head, while being awesome from a conceptual standpoint, needs something on either side of the mouth to bulk it out and tie it into the surrounding space a bit more: I'd suggest some hideous cabling/tubing feeding into either side of his jaw (while keeping the mouth as it is now). This would also fit his new, more techy appearance. On a related note, maybe you should try mocking up some horns/blades/spikes to either side of his helmet, above the mouth: It would look a bit like pincers or an insects mandibles. How organic or metallic you would want this to be depends on your taste, of course.
• the left arm is cool and suitably disturbing in concept. The Kastelan hand still has too much of the goofy 50s robot look, however, and needs to be made more clawed/more spiky/more disgusting. Choose one or more of the above. I'm confident you'll figure something out
• You already seem to be headed down this road anyhow, but it might look cool to use the same "metallic struts jammed into living tissue" motif on the lower half of his torso as well -- or rather, push the effect you already have there even further.
• Since both the insect lower body and the worm lower body worked so well before, is there maybe any way to combine both? For instance, you could have parts of that hideous, bulbeous insect body grafted to his back, below the rotors, and then have it all run together into the legged tail you had on there in the last iteration before rebuilding him.
• In fact, touching on that last part, while I totally love the mechanical thrusters and wouldn't change a thing about them, maybe adding some useless, half-formed/atrophied remains of wings to his back below the actual thruster assembly would be a great way of pushing the sickly insect angle even further.
• I stand by my earlier assessment that a combination of tattered cloth/chains/rotted tubing could be a great way of blending together parts of the model and give him the kind of rotten majesty you want for a DP.

The overwhelming feeling with the new Plague Marines and characters from Dark Imperium is that there is something terrible and insectile boiling and gestating right underneath their skin, with their "human" forms barely managing to contain the hideousness that is just waiting to explode outwards. Maybe this guy is what happens when it finally does: A sickly, disgusting kind of imago, a transformation into a hellish insect. But a rotten and malformed one, with atrophied, malformed limbs and hideous pseudopods. Stuff like that. Does this make any sense at all...?

 

 

Just a couple of spontaneous and erratic ideas. Don't mind me

Edited July 29, 2017 by KrautScientist

[GuitaRasmus]

I think you are definitely on to something now, mostly because there's a greater coherence to the concept now, and it's more original and no longer a retread of that earloer guy. As you said, he needs more work, of course. So, off the top of my head:

 

• I keep thinking that the head, while being awesome from a conceptual standpoint, needs something on either side of the mouth to bulk it out and tie it into the surrounding space a bit more: I'd suggest some hideous cabling/tubing feeding into either side of his jaw (while keeping the mouth as it is now). This would also fit his new, more techy appearance. On a related note, maybe you should try mocking up some horns/blades/spikes to either side of his helmet, above the mouth: It would look a bit like pincers or an insects mandibles. How organic or metallic you would want this to be depends on your taste, of course.
• the left arm is cool and suitably disturbing in concept. The Kastelan hand still has too much of the goofy 50s robot look, however, and needs to be made more clawed/more spiky/more disgusting. Choose one or more of the above. I'm confident you'll figure something out
• You already seem to be headed down this road anyhow, but it might look cool to use the same "metallic struts jammed into living tissue" motif on the lower half of his torso as well -- or rather, push the effect you already have there even further.
• Since both the insect lower body and the worm lower body worked so well before, is there maybe any way to combine both? For instance, you could have parts of that hideous, bulbeous insect body grafted to his back, below the rotors, and then have it all run together into the legged tail you had on there in the last iteration before rebuilding him.
• In fact, touching on that last part, while I totally love the mechanical thrusters and wouldn't change a thing about them, maybe adding some useless, half-formed/atrophied remains of wings to his back below the actual thruster assembly would be a great way of pushing the sickly insect angle even further.
• I stand by my earlier assessment that a combination of tattered cloth/chains/rotted tubing could be a great way of blending together parts of the model and give him the kind of rotten majesty you want for a DP.

The overwhelming feeling with the new Plague Marines and characters from Dark Imperium is that there is something terrible and insectile boiling and gestating right underneath their skin, with their "human" forms barely managing to contain the hideousness that is just waiting to explode outwards. Maybe this guy is what happens when it finally does: A sickly, disgusting kind of imago, a transformation into a hellish insect. But a rotten and malformed one, with atrophied, malformed limbs and hideous pseudopods. Stuff like that. Does this make any sense at all...?

 

 

Just a couple of spontaneous and erratic ideas. Don't mind me

 

Thanks a lot for the thorough response - it means a lot. :) Definitely some things to think about. I'm a bit at a loss regarding the right arm, and the "goofy" left fist though - I'm running out of hands to try... :D Any ideas about some parts that could work? I'd be more than willing to buy the right parts, I just don't know what to look for. 

[KrautScientist]

Hmm, the right arm from the Skaven Hellpit abomination comes to mind: It has the exact same look you already have on the left arm, and tapers down into a hideous mechanical claw: Having both forearms crudely grafted on could probably look even more disturbing

 

EDIT: OR you could always splice together some kind of insectile claw: From the segmented insect leg parts that come with the chaos spawn kit. Or, to go for something more mechanical, from the smaller "toes" from the Heldrake's feet.

Edited July 29, 2017 by KrautScientist

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

This second take is much better but the head is really what kills it for me; in comparison to the rest of the figure it looks too plain and has a completely different aesthetic from the rest of it.

[The Traitor]

Well, he does look better now. I do actually like the kastelan fist, it makes it seem like the bionic was carelessly built to simply stab into the stump and allow the prince to use his scythe, however maybe adding pointy tips via greenstuff to make it look more claw-like would be more in line with the rest of the model. Also I searched the "krokodril".... Bad idea, seriously other readers if you feel curious read the Wikipedia description, but DON'T look for images, too much Nurgle-like to be seen in real life :P!

[Naryn]

I'm not sold on the kastelan hand. Maybe with a lot of trim it could be made to fit, but it looks simply too bulky for his forearm as-is. It gives him a sort of Mickey Mouse glove effect, which i'm sure isn't what you're going for. I think a power fist or lightning claw bit might work better, or even one of the weird kataphron claws. Failing that, bulking up the left forearm by adding tubing or another forearm "bone" could make the fist seem more appropriately sized.

 

How sold are you on the vertical grip for the right hand? I can't help but feel that it looks silly on a weapon, and that having the right hand palm-up gripping the shaft directly might be more impactful.

[Teetengee]

Very different looking, I like it! I would try moving the head further down and more recessed to give a more hunched look to the model. In addition, I would add an element to one side of the head (left would be my choice) that perhaps feeds back up and over the shoulder to a device on that shoulder, to again create a hunchbacked type figure.

[GuitaRasmus]

Hmm, the right arm from the Skaven Hellpit abomination comes to mind: It has the exact same look you already have on the left arm, and tapers down into a hideous mechanical claw: Having both forearms crudely grafted on could probably look even more disturbing

 

EDIT: OR you could always splice together some kind of insectile claw: From the segmented insect leg parts that come with the chaos spawn kit. Or, to go for something more mechanical, from the smaller "toes" from the Heldrake's feet.

 

Actually, that IS the arm I used for his left arm - I just turned it around. I have another one lying about, maybe I should experiment. 

 

This second take is much better but the head is really what kills it for me; in comparison to the rest of the figure it looks too plain and has a completely different aesthetic from the rest of it.

 

That's a tough one - I am really really sold on the head - its one of my favourite things I've done (Actually I usually feel that way about all my latest conversions. )

 

Well, he does look better now. I do actually like the kastelan fist, it makes it seem like the bionic was carelessly built to simply stab into the stump and allow the prince to use his scythe, however maybe adding pointy tips via greenstuff to make it look more claw-like would be more in line with the rest of the model. Also I searched the "krokodril".... Bad idea, seriously other readers if you feel curious read the Wikipedia description, but DON'T look for images, too much Nurgle-like to be seen in real life !

 

Good idea about the claw - I'll try some things out.

 

I'm not sold on the kastelan hand. Maybe with a lot of trim it could be made to fit, but it looks simply too bulky for his forearm as-is. It gives him a sort of Mickey Mouse glove effect, which i'm sure isn't what you're going for. I think a power fist or lightning claw bit might work better, or even one of the weird kataphron claws. Failing that, bulking up the left forearm by adding tubing or another forearm "bone" could make the fist seem more appropriately sized.

 

How sold are you on the vertical grip for the right hand? I can't help but feel that it looks silly on a weapon, and that having the right hand palm-up gripping the shaft directly might be more impactful.

 

I think the grip gives it something different than what you usually see, and regular powerfists/kataphron claws would be much too small, but I'll definitely see if I can make it more evilier.

 

Very different looking, I like it! I would try moving the head further down and more recessed to give a more hunched look to the model. In addition, I would add an element to one side of the head (left would be my choice) that perhaps feeds back up and over the shoulder to a device on that shoulder, to again create a hunchbacked type figure.

 

Another idea worth trying out - thanks!

 

 

 

Regarding the lower torso - after scouring through the GW website, I've found out that there's really nothing that looks exactly like the idea I have for legs - so I've decided to do my first ever scratch build, and build them from the bottom up with wireframe, green stuff and milliput. I've just layed the foundations 10 min ago, and will update as soon as they're beginning to bulk up - wish me luck!

Edited July 29, 2017 by GuitaRasmus

[GuitaRasmus]

I've made a sketch here, where the concept and wireframe with green stuff can be seen:

 

[Aasfresser]

I knew you will surprise us :)

That sketch looks so much cooler than the first incarnation. Those insectile legs will be the perfect addition to the whole prince.  I really like this more slender approach to nurglite princes.

[Augustus b'Raass]

Yeah, that sketch looks great. I really think you should try out Kraut's usggestion of the Skaven Hell Pit abonination's left claw - it'd look wicked. 

[Xin Ceithan]

First of all, I am popping in here to say it`s great to have back and on the dark biomechanical alley! Good to see you still have that touch.

Absolutely loving the Dread.

I like the Prince as well but, for my two pence,the head is...too clean? It`s hard to pin down. The whole chrysalidae thing is great and I love the idea how that insect thing / theme is shaping the Champion from within, which makes both the head very stylish on it`s own but it doesn`t feel right to me. The sculpt is great on it´s own. It kind of stands apart from the rest to me at least. It`s too much "happy face" and not enough "Thing- I-would-not-want-to-meet-in-a-dark-alley". I know the the happy thing is quite nurgly but your other works are less..cheerful? Maybe it makes more sense when I put in into the thing with the castellan hand...the hand is fine IMO but seems to need  some sharp edges or a least a sickly flesh tone and outgrowth to convey the feeling that ot is either a fused part or / and pretty painful on it`s own. An orc augmentation should look and feel like you toss it onto a junk pile once you cut it off.  Heck, old Yarrick kept one as a trophy and uses it himself . A nurgle bionic should be something you let a sevitor crew brush up the place where you plasma burned the area where it dropped for the next decade or so and force you to burn several crews of servitors in the process of cleaning up afterwards. No sane human being should look at that and consider using it a replacement. The hand alone should be something you have nightmares about coming after you in the dark even years , decades later. And that´s just the hand / bionic. The Face of such a thing should be even worse. Does that make any sense?

[DuskRaider]

I like that you're designing a Daemon Prince that's skeletal and not bloated and boring. The leg sketch looks great, I'm wondering if you'd be able to blend them with the Plague Drone abdomen to keep the insect theme while still making him have an obvious humanoid shape. Perhaps make it assymetrical and have one thigh be a mess of pistons and bionic. I'd also suggest having maggots crawling within the cabling and bionic bits.

 

I do have to echo the thoughts on the fist... but it's definitely doable, the base form is a Power Fist and can work well with your green stuff skill. Make it twisted, perhaps replace the fingers with claws of some sort... spikes breaking through the ceramite and whatnot.

 

By the way, your Dreadnought is the absolute best I have ever seen, hands down no lie.

Edited July 29, 2017 by DuskRaider