Typhus conversion

[GuitaRasmus]

Like a lot of other Nurgle fans, I had been looking forward to the new plastic Typhus, and was somewhat... Underwhelmed when I first saw it. It suffers the same malady as a lot of GW's recent offerings - incredible detail (perhaps to the point of being overdone) but a poor pose. However, when I got a chance to look at the sprues last saturday when Typhus got on preorder, I saw that the things I disliked about were pretty easy to fix - for me that is the Nurgling on his side (I HATE nurglings - I don't want silly, I want scary!) and his "Whoah, Nelly!" pose.

 

As soon as I got home from my plastic pusher today, I started cutting him apart. The conversion isn't very complicated, and doesn't require any additional bits other than what's in the box, but it does require some very careful cutting of his left leg, and reposing both of them, so he's not leaning back - he's almost doing the limbo on the original. Then I cut off the tab on his neck, allowing the head to be reposed. Lastly, the right arm is carefully cut off, cut down a bit, and reposed into another position. And of course, the stupid nurgling is cut and scraped off. ;)

 

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the transformation - he has gone from "meh" to "pretty darn intimidating" IMO. Let me hear what you think. :) Not quite sure if I like the top photos casting spell pose of the left hand, or the bottom "come at me bro" hand - opinions?

 

Anyway, I hope he can inspire some of you to give the model another change - there are awesome details all over, he just needs a little help. ;)

 

If you want to see more of my stuff, check out my thread here: 

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/336619-a-return-to-the-death-guard-and-a-new-start/

[DeadFingers]

Hey mate, that's pretty damn goo-

I HATE nurglings

*gaaaaaaaaaasp* HOW DARE YOU! 

Edited September 30, 2017 by DeadFingers

[Plaguecaster]

What kind of heresy is this??? Grandfather Nurgle would be displeased :(

 

Love the conversion though (even if it's missing one of the most important parts ;) ) your work is always amazing and I wish I was a just as good converter as you :D

Edited September 30, 2017 by Plaguecaster

[Cryptix]

Hey mate, that's pretty damn goo-

 

I HATE nurglings

*gaaaaaaaaaasp* HOW DARE YOU!

BURN THE WI-er-HERE-give me a second *looks in dictionary*-LOYALIST.

[Arkhanist]

Hmm. I'm normally a HUGE fan of your conversions and I'm no fan of the limbo warmup pose. And it's definitely an improvement.

 

But being brutally honest, with the wide spread arms, the top one looks less intimidating and more like he's startled. Like the nurgling has just disappeared somewhere very uncomfortable? The hand-up pose looks a bit better, but also kinda 'come here darlin', I have some bells for you!' with the manspreading - just mentally pop him on a bar stool.

 

I'd be tempted to try the head looking in the same direction as the knee and scythe, and potentially bring the head of the scythe up a touch with the angle at the wrist.

 

Feel free to ignore, it's probably just me!

[Bryan Blaire]

I personally would have left the Nurgling, but if you hate them, the removal is understandable. I think the hand down pose is much better than the "Come At Me" hand.

 

If there is one thing I think would look better, I think the upper back plate stacks should fuse down into the rest of the back better. Right now, it doesn't look very much like a solid piece of armor.

 

Overall the conversion looks GREAT!

[Kastor Krieg]

The Bitzbox dudes did this:

[Marshal Loss]

Nice work - really impressive stuff, fixes the model right up. Sculptor, take notes...

[K0rtmer]

Fantastic job there, inspired and very well executed. I was going to pick up one myself, hoping there'd be a way to fix up the appalling pose. I guess you lead the way there. 

 

I'm wondering if there's any way to describe in more detail the exact cuts and twists you made? Because I'm loving what you did there and am wanting to do the same, obviously with as little risk as possible of cutting up an expensive single model.

[GuitaRasmus]

Thanks a lot guys! :)

 

Sorry about the nurglings - I've just never liked them. Won't use them as bases either. From the fluff they're cool, but the models have always seemed silly or "cute" - which I don't want at all. 

 

 

Hmm. I'm normally a HUGE fan of your conversions and I'm no fan of the limbo warmup pose. And it's definitely an improvement.

 

But being brutally honest, with the wide spread arms, the top one looks less intimidating and more like he's startled. Like the nurgling has just disappeared somewhere very uncomfortable? The hand-up pose looks a bit better, but also kinda 'come here darlin', I have some bells for you!' with the manspreading - just mentally pop him on a bar stool.

 

I'd be tempted to try the head looking in the same direction as the knee and scythe, and potentially bring the head of the scythe up a touch with the angle at the wrist.

 

Feel free to ignore, it's probably just me!

 

I've tried it with the head in the other direction, but I'm not a big fan of models that only have "one direction" - I like the limbs to move in different directions, the other way seems a bit 2 dimensional to me. That said, your critique is definitely appreciated - I'll see if I can tweak the pose a bit. 

 

Fantastic job there, inspired and very well executed. I was going to pick up one myself, hoping there'd be a way to fix up the appalling pose. I guess you lead the way there. 

 

I'm wondering if there's any way to describe in more detail the exact cuts and twists you made? Because I'm loving what you did there and am wanting to do the same, obviously with as little risk as possible of cutting up an expensive single model.

 

Sure. The left leg is cut right at the groin (and so is the cabling), and the other leg is already separate. I've pinned them so he's hunched more forward, as opposed to the original leaning back. That's pretty much it. A good guidance point is the tube coming from his groin to his right leg shin - that tube should be on the back side of the shin, right where it meets the legs rear armour, instead of on the shin. Glue that into this position. Then the other leg is pinned and glued into position, so the soles of the feet match when he stands on the base. That should be it. :)

 

 

I'm at a point where I'm considering reviving my old "counts as Typhus" character - Pandemion, Scourge of Life. I have this thing about named characters, and that I would seem unlikely for them to take part in every single small skirmish across the galaxy, plus I like making my own background. Therefore I'm considering converting this model into him - now that the basic pose is done, I can go to down, GR-style. ;) I need to think about it. 

[GuitaRasmus]

Here's a more comprehensive guide to the conversion. The left leg is cut right at the groin (and so is the cabling) (2), and the other leg is already separate. I've pinned them so he's hunched more forward, as opposed to the original leaning back. That's pretty much it. A good guidance point is the tube coming from his groin to his right leg shin - that tube should be on the back side of the shin, right where it meets the legs rear armour, instead of on the shin. Glue that into this position. Then the other leg is pinned and glued into position, so the soles of the feet match when he stands on the base. That should be it. The arms are cut at 1, 3 and 4, and carefully cleaned up, pinned and reposed into position. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

 
I've gotten a bit further on the Typhus conversion. I've tweaked his pose a bit, thanks to some suggestions I've gotten - his stance is changed a tiny bit, and his right arm is a bit more relaxed, while his left arm has gotten reposed quite a bit, making it more forward pointing - a major improvement to me.
While I disliked the cloud of flies, not having them left him a bit bare - so I'm experimenting with adding some creepy insect legs, to make him seem more of a living insects nest, waiting to burst open.
 

 
I'm still contemplating if I should make him completely my own character, an old favourite known as Pandemion.
I've also made some progress on the Blight Lord terminators. I wanted to love the kit, I really did, since I adored the blight kings kit - but I don't.
A few of my dislikes;
 
1) There's not enough weapons. Only 3 axes, 3 swords, and 1 of each type of combi weapon. Come on, GW.
 
2) There's next to no options regarding torsos, arms, poseability, etc. I really disliked the "fly" while the rest of the DG community seem to adore him, and I hated the flabby fat guy. I had to do some pretty heavy conversions to get rid of them.
 
The kit really needed another sprue. They're more expensive than the blight kings, but with far less options.
 
Anyway, here they are - very WIP, but getting there. The champion with the flail is made with combining parts from the Lord of Contagion and the BL bits, and the lower pic is showing some conversions I'm doing for combiplasmas, and making the Blight Launcher a bit more impressive, by combining it with the plague spewer:
 

 

[K0rtmer]

Thanks, much appreciated. I'll come back to this when I pick him up in the hopefully not-too-distant future. 

 

Your terminators are coming along very well. Disappointed to learn there's not enough options to satisfy an inspired converter of models. I, too, was expecting something similar to the Blight King kit (which was spectacular on a number of levels). Anyway, you seem to make the most of it. They're coming along well, the heavy blight launcher looks great, and your posing seems to be more dynamical than what I anticipated for the stock builds. I hence suspect some subtle re-posing there?

 

Unsure if the middle one, with the big flail, isn't a bit too static in comparison? - In saying that, though, I'm entirely ignorant of the limitations of the kit and the flail bits in particular. Might be just what you can do with it.