~~The Vaxhallian Genocides~~ Feral's The Purge (Death Guard)

[Mister Feral]

Like many, as soon as I saw the Death Guard half of the Dark Imperium, I knew I wanted them all!

As a pretext, if you're expecting completed models thick and fast, that isn't going to happen. I'm more a tinkerer with miniatures and I'm more interested in the conversion and sculpting side of the hobby. Even though I really like the stock Dark Imperium models but there were still lots of little conversions and changes I wanted to play around with - especially for those duplicates!

Let's start with my WIP Malignant Plaguecaster, which is all rebuild / kit bash from the legs up;

Initially, I only wanted to make a few slight changes to the original model after seeing a couple posters on here do the same. It went a bit further than that so I ended up completely rebuilding the torso from a chopped-up MkIII torso and Milliput (to build the proportions back up to the upsized Death Guard plastics). I'm currently having a blast sculpting on the really cracked and battered ceramite armour plates! The left arm will be a standard outstretched MkIII arm with the original staff, but I'm not too sure about the other arm yet - any suggestions?

~

I've got some other bits to post, but I'll wait for some feedback and thoughts from people before so.

Question though - picture sizes OK? I have them quite large so you can see the details!

Edited July 27, 2017 by Mister Feral

[MikhalLeNoir]

Inspiring start. Should I ever come to my dark.imperium death guard i know where to look for inspiration.

[Chandrian]

Ooo very nice! I specially like the cracked armour around the guts!!!

[ElDuderino]

That looks really good actually. Is the head from the pox walkers or did I miss some other kit? I'm looking forward to see more!

 

And the picture size seems fine to me but I'm on the phone atm so can't speak for the full version

[GuitaRasmus]

Very inspiring and a great start! I'll look forward to more. 

 

Very crisp and precise sculpting too - just out of curiosity, since I'm always trying to improve my own sculpting - what makes you choose milliput for some of the parts over green stuff for the others? 

 

I usually default to green stuff/milliput mix, since it seems to have the best of both worlds - but your work here looks great. :)

[Olis]

Cool rebuild. I'm interested to see what else you're going to do. :tu:

[Aasfresser]

That's a very promising start! I like your choice of bits and that cool sculpted broken armor. 

[Vairocanum]

Oh my, that Plaguecaster is looking phenomenal. Love the cracked armor you've sculpted! For the other arm, I think a mutated one would look great. Definitely looking forward to seeing what you create out of the Dark Imperium box!

[Mister Feral]

Inspiring start. Should I ever come to my dark.imperium death guard i know where to look for inspiration.

There's a good couple projects on here that encouraged me to join in!

Ooo very nice! I specially like the cracked armour around the guts!!!

Glad you like it! I had to cut away some of the original maw so it's partly there to cover that up.

That looks really good actually. Is the head from the pox walkers or did I miss some other kit? I'm looking forward to see more!

And the picture size seems fine to me but I'm on the phone atm so can't speak for the full version

The head is actually from the Plague Champion from the "Easy to Build" range - I purchased that little box for that particular head although the rest of the models are being converted to add to my other Plague Marines.

Very inspiring and a great start! I'll look forward to more.

Very crisp and precise sculpting too - just out of curiosity, since I'm always trying to improve my own sculpting - what makes you choose milliput for some of the parts over green stuff for the others?

I usually default to green stuff/milliput mix, since it seems to have the best of both worlds - but your work here looks great.

Depends on what I'm sculpting. Milliput I use for rebuilding large gaps in models and general smoothing over rough patches. For the Plaguecaster, there was a load used to slowly rebuild the torso - the MKIII torso I used to replace the old one is notably smaller than the one it replaced. Once thats all dried, I can cut and file it to the right shape, making a solid foundation for the Green Stuff next sculpting session.

Green Stuff I mainly use for additional details and finer details. I find it really good for organic details (pustules, stretched muscles) that can hold a lot of detail. Having a greater amount of yellow-to-blue allows for a longer period to really work with its elasticity, I can work with it in really thing layers to do armour cracks.

Cool rebuild. I'm interested to see what else you're going to do.

Thanks!

That's a very promising start! I like your choice of bits and that cool sculpted broken armor.

I'm proud of it - probably be a prominent theme going forward!

Oh my, that Plaguecaster is looking phenomenal. Love the cracked armor you've sculpted! For the other arm, I think a mutated one would look great. Definitely looking forward to seeing what you create out of the Dark Imperium box!

I'll have a dig through my bits and see if I can come up with anything. Ideally, I would like the right arm in a more relaxed - perhaps an open hand conducting up some sorcerous filth?

~

I promised a few more bits, nothing as involved as the Plaguecaster but still may be of some inspiration for some;

I wanted to nab one of the heads for my Helbrute conversion, hence needing a suitable replacement. I wanted to give a MkIII hemet a go to match the rest of the armour - it did take a couple of attempts but the final result was worth it.

As well as chopping of a few (but not all) of the horns on my duplicate Poxwalkers and adding back details, I've also added some ramshackle armour plating - nailed in or perhaps even welded on. I did it mainly to break up all the flesh as well as because of this illustration from Black Crusade.

~

Thanks for all the comments everyone, I'll be back with more soon.

[Olis]

Good stuff, brother. Like it. ^_^

[Sagentus]

Really liking your work thus far. Brilliant conversions and inspiring too, looking forward to seeing the plague caster as it's built.

 

As for the other arm on the plague caster, maybe got for a traditional boltgun? Nurglfied of course ;)

[GuitaRasmus]

 

 

Very inspiring and a great start! I'll look forward to more. 

 

Very crisp and precise sculpting too - just out of curiosity, since I'm always trying to improve my own sculpting - what makes you choose milliput for some of the parts over green stuff for the others? 

 

I usually default to green stuff/milliput mix, since it seems to have the best of both worlds - but your work here looks great.

 

Depends on what I'm sculpting. Milliput I use for rebuilding large gaps in models and general smoothing over rough patches. For the Plaguecaster, there was a load used to slowly rebuild the torso - the MKIII torso I used to replace the old one is notably smaller than the one it replaced. Once thats all dried, I can cut and file it to the right shape, making a solid foundation for the Green Stuff next sculpting session.

 

Green Stuff I mainly use for additional details and finer details. I find it really good for organic details (pustules, stretched muscles) that can hold a lot of detail. Having a greater amount of yellow-to-blue allows for a longer period to really work with its elasticity, I can work with it in really thing layers to do armour cracks.

 

 

 

Great stuff this time as well. :)

 

I would really urge you to try green stuff/milliput mixed together - 1/3 green stuff, 2/3 milliput - it is great to work with and can hold very nice details - to me it really is the best of both worlds. :)

[Pyroclast91]

Wow amazing GS work man I think you're really done a great job improving GWs sculpts and done so almost seamlessly I'll definitely be following for ideas to borrow ;)

[KrautScientist]

Those are some very promising sculpts and conversions! Looking forward to seeing more! :)

[brettfp]

Very nice work, can't wait to see more!

[Mister Feral]

Good stuff, brother. Like it.

Thanks!

Really liking your work thus far. Brilliant conversions and inspiring too, looking forward to seeing the plague caster as it's built.

As for the other arm on the plague caster, maybe got for a traditional boltgun? Nurglfied of course

Unfortunately, the Plaguecaster has no options to swap out the Corrupted Staff and Bolt Pistol, and the latter is already holstered on his hip. I'll have to keep digging through my bits and see what I can come up with.

Very inspiring and a great start! I'll look forward to more.

Very crisp and precise sculpting too - just out of curiosity, since I'm always trying to improve my own sculpting - what makes you choose milliput for some of the parts over green stuff for the others?

I usually default to green stuff/milliput mix, since it seems to have the best of both worlds - but your work here looks great.

Depends on what I'm sculpting. Milliput I use for rebuilding large gaps in models and general smoothing over rough patches. For the Plaguecaster, there was a load used to slowly rebuild the torso - the MKIII torso I used to replace the old one is notably smaller than the one it replaced. Once thats all dried, I can cut and file it to the right shape, making a solid foundation for the Green Stuff next sculpting session.

Green Stuff I mainly use for additional details and finer details. I find it really good for organic details (pustules, stretched muscles) that can hold a lot of detail. Having a greater amount of yellow-to-blue allows for a longer period to really work with its elasticity, I can work with it in really thing layers to do armour cracks.

Great stuff this time as well.

I would really urge you to try green stuff/milliput mixed together - 1/3 green stuff, 2/3 milliput - it is great to work with and can hold very nice details - to me it really is the best of both worlds.

I'll certainly give it a go, I can see it being good for scratch-building.

Wow amazing GS work man I think you're really done a great job improving GWs sculpts and done so almost seamlessly I'll definitely be following for ideas to borrow

Borrow away! That's what I'm here for (and to borrow other people's ideas too!).

Those are some very promising sculpts and conversions! Looking forward to seeing more!

Glad you approve! You current Death Guard projects is one of the main reasons I eventually decided to start posting mine, so thanks for the inspiration.

Very nice work, can't wait to see more!

You won't have to wait long!

~

Beginnings of my own attempt at a Blight Launcher, inspired mostly by KrautScientist's.

The conversion is fairly simple; MkIV Heavy Bolter with barrel replaced with a Cadian Grenade Launcher, with a backwards and cut-down scope on top, a Helbrute canister and a spare Death Guard fly symbol. The top part of the heavy Bolter was cut off and shined forward and the wrist support is a cut-down part from a Chaos Terminator Heavy Flamer (although I will be building that back up). I'm also going to sculpting in armour / wooden panels to fill up those blank spaces.

Even though my go is a bit different from the "official" one, I like to think Blight Launchers are more a general class of weapon than a particular manufacturing pattern like the Imperium does it.

Less exciting, but a couple more corrupted MkIII parts to sprinkle amongst my Plague Marines. All those spines and horns people have been lopping off their Poxwalkers can come in dead handy!

I had a Helbrute I started to convert earlier on this year, swapping the arms out on a Dark Vengeance stock model a friend donated to me - gone for a Fist and Hammer combo. More recently I've swapped the head out for a Plague Marine one and added the Lord of Contagion's banner-thing as well. I'm also slowly adding lots of little sculpted detail to break up all those blank areas across the arms, legs and back.

The big fly symbol was because originally going to do these as Apostles of Contagion, but I've switched to The Purge. I'll probably add a couple smaller flies around the big one.

~

That'll do for now. Thanks for your kind words and thoughts.

[GuitaRasmus]

Great stuff so far - great idea with the detailing around the Helbrute. 

 

Now, I don't know if this matters to you at all, but I'd go for a fist/power scourge combo instead - I think it looks better than the hammer (def. personal taste), but fist/scourge is so much better in the game, that it's not even funny; 5 attacks with either fist (str 12)  or scourge (str 8) (you choose) + 3 additional attacks with the scourge. That can definitely put out some hurt on units and vehicles alike. 

[Gabocius]

Wow those are some damn good conversions ! I think the addition of the metabrutus canister on the blight launchers is especially efficient to make them more alike looking.

 

Looking forward to see them painted :)

[Vairocanum]

Brilliant work! Excellent conversion of the blight launcher, and the corrupted MKIII parts are looking fantastic as well! That hellbrute is looking awesome, all the little details you've added work so well! Looking forward to seeing more!

[Mister Feral]

Great stuff so far - great idea with the detailing around the Helbrute.

Now, I don't know if this matters to you at all, but I'd go for a fist/power scourge combo instead - I think it looks better than the hammer (def. personal taste), but fist/scourge is so much better in the game, that it's not even funny; 5 attacks with either fist (str 12) or scourge (str 8) (you choose) + 3 additional attacks with the scourge. That can definitely put out some hurt on units and vehicles alike.

The weapon arms were done months before 8th was announced - luckily I've finally managed to find the Power Scourge bitz and have started to graft them onto the Helbrute's left arm. I can't find one of the bladed tips so I've got to build a replacement first.

Wow those are some damn good conversions ! I think the addition of the metabrutus canister on the blight launchers is especially efficient to make them more alike looking.

Looking forward to see them painted

There's loads of those little canisters in the kit, very useful!

Brilliant work! Excellent conversion of the blight launcher, and the corrupted MKIII parts are looking fantastic as well! That hellbrute is looking awesome, all the little details you've added work so well! Looking forward to seeing more!

Thanks! I really like the mish-mash nature of Chaos Power Armour, so chucking in my own corrupted parts is all part of the fun!

~

I've since built up the wrist brace on the Blight Launcher, grafting it to a corrupted MkIV arm and shoulder pad. I know Plague Marines usually stick to the bulkier MkII and MkIII armour types, but I figured adding in more slight MKIV parts would be neat. Scavenged from spoils of war perhaps?

I've also swapped out the hand holding the Plague Knife for an open hand (cutting the fingers down the middle and splitting them a bit). I did that to remove some of the additional "visual bulk" that the Blight Launcher had added to the overall figured. Makes the Plague Marines look more like he is striding forward.

I've worked on this a little more since the photos; the shoulder pad buboes have gone and the Launcher's canister has been stuck back on.

On similar news, anyone else see the leaks for the updated Plague Marine weapon options in the Chaos 'dex? Looks like a couple of Plague-based flamer types as well as some new mean melee options. I look forward to seeing more on that!

[Isolia]

I saw some pages of the weapons choices in a review video linked on Atia's War of Sigmar but I gave up trying to stop it so it's not blurred, maybe you'll have more luck .

 

Lovely conversions, I especially like the fly insignia sculpt , looks just like the one from the marines or the blightkings !

 

You gave me some great inspiration for my second set of Dark Imperium nurgle sprues, thank the Papa I intended my blightkings for Bloodbowl because there won't be many bits left on those kits to equip them for any combat :D

Edited August 6, 2017 by Isolia

[Mister Feral]

From what I can gather, the Plague Belcher and Plague Spewer are both (unsurprisingly) equivalents of the Flamer and Heavy Flamer respectively. The stats match up from what I can see, with the addition of the standard Plague rule (re-roll those 1's!).

 

That's great for me, as I was hoping to be able to convert up some nasty forbidden chemical weapons that the Purge are so fond of. Reminiscent of the special Detachment they had from 7th edition.

 

Following your comment on Blight Kings, surprisingly I haven't actually used many parts from that set (if at all). It's all mainly MkIII / MkIV plastics with odd bits chopped off from Poxwalkers and the like!

[Mister Feral]

My hobby progress has slumped a little, but GuitaRasmus would be happy to see I took his suggestion;

 

-EDIT- removed picture

 

One of the tendrils isn't stuck on yet and another needs pinning back on, but you get the idea!

 

At least I've managed to get my hands on the new Chaos Space Marine Codex, although that's left me scratching my head in the direction to take this project forward.

 

I'm certain I'll have to split what I have down / want down into pure Death Guard and normal Nurgle-marked Heretic Astartes. I've already got things like the Foetid Bloat-Drone and Poxwalkers which are DG-only, whereas there's other conversions I'd like to do down the line like Obliterators / Mutilators and standard Chaos Marines (neither which can be Death Guard).

 

Hence, without the Death Guard codex out yet, I'm stumped. Whilst I still love the idea of The Purge, even that I'm starting to doubt. If I had knowledge that they'd have rules in the upcoming Death Guard codex, I'd be all set but I'm convinced that they won't be (since they are featured in the renegades section of the CSM 'dex).

 

It also doesn't help that the fuse for my hobby desk lamp needs replacing, and I don't remember where I left the spares!

 

Any suggestions on this would be thoroughly appreciated!

Edited August 17, 2017 by Mister Feral

[KrautScientist]

Cheers for the shout out! I think you've improved the Blight launcher concept quite a bit, and seamlessly added it to that Plague Marine from the starter box! Excellent stuff!

 

Also really looking forward to seeing that Helbrute take shape -- I might have to steal an idea or two when building my own DG Dread ;)

[Mister Feral]

Thanks KS, I think its safe to say a number of us here are inspiring each other to do our own takes on Helbrutes - any visual similarities would be purely and wholly coincidental.

 

I really want to get back into things but trying to get my hobby lamp sorted is starting to become a bit of a saga - hopefully I get that sorted out as soon as possible. I managed to stick the Helbrute onto a base and it seems to be really coming together now.