Berserker Surgeon? Real or Fake.

[Mr. Oddity]

On 11/3/2025 at 2:37 PM, TheVoidDragon said:

The main thing to me that suggests it's possible real is that you can make out some of the detail on the servo arm. It's vague because it's low quality, but it's in the correct place and broadly matches what's visible on the rumour engine photo. 

 

 

Either it's a fake that just so happens to get details that are in-line with this such as the piston on the back and the canister at the top, or it's real. 

Preface - I have not watched the Auspex video nor seen any discourse on this before this thread. I've been looking at this rumor engine and the image and the level of overlap in the details seems pretty close to exact. If this was a faked image (manual or generative), I don't know if they would be able to properly translate that detail in the shifted perspective. If I remember when I get home from work I can look at it better not on a phone screen though.

[son of the forest]

If legit I would have expected to see it in the preview just gone 

[Pacific81]

I thought the concept of this was just so funny. How is a surgeon with the butcher's nails supposed to work, or at least carry out any medical procedure other than 'hack arms or legs off'? 

[Jukkiz]

It´s not the necromunda reveal one. 
´munda one has bandages around the servoarm and doesn´t seem to have the chaos trim on the shaft.

[Mogger351]

3 hours ago, son of the forest said:

If legit I would have expected to see it in the preview just gone 

Not necessarily, a general chaos themed drop for Huron would be sensible

[Maatith]

5 hours ago, Pacific81 said:

I thought the concept of this was just so funny. How is a surgeon with the butcher's nails supposed to work, or at least carry out any medical procedure other than 'hack arms or legs off'? 

 

The Heresy Era World Eaters already had a handful of Apothecaries who both had the Nails and knowledge of how to implant them in others, having being trained on Bodt. Gahlan Surlak, the Chief Apothecary of the Legion, is probably the clearest example - being the one who figured out the secrets of implanting the Butcher's Nails without killing the host and later (with help from Fabius Bile) mastered the art of creating Inductii at a time when the entire Legion, including him, was slaved to the Nails. Apothecary Kargos of the 8th Company had the Nails, but was not only able to continue to act as an Apothecary but was also often able to calm the rages of his brothers.

In later years / post Heresy there are examples of World Eaters being able to exhibit control to fairly high degrees even after they become Khornate. The World Eaters in some of the Khârn novels are able to hold themselves together long enough to sometimes discuss tactics in battle and to not just murder each other whilst trapped on a ship travelling between warzones. Firefist in ADB's Black Legion novels is able to restrain himself from battle in order to coordinate squads from the bridge of the Vengeful Spirit until the battle gets too close to resist, and is even able to back down from fights sometimes. Arrian Zorzi of the Consortium slaughtered his entire squad on Terra, but now claims (and indeed acts as if) he is completely free of the hunger of the Nails, and is an Apothecary. Fabrikus is a World Eater Apothecary and Chaos Lord who is still capable of dark experiments that lead to bio-mechanical armour and have seen him known by every Apothecarion in the Imperium as a dark legend - and his lore long predates any mention of the specific title of "Berzerker-Surgeon".

[Pacific81]

I think, ladies and gentleman, that is called being schooled! 

 

Thank you 

[Joe]

Would also add, we also recently had the fluff regarding modern World Eaters Recon Companies, which are able to outright suppress the nails. 

[Jscarlos18]

Looking at recent 40k boxes, it seems GW is now putting the faction's icon beside the name of the unit. This one lacks it, so its most likely fake.

 

Examples of what I'm talking about:

 

[ZeroWolf]

Not necessarily, the recently released Lady Malys lacks the drukhari symbol on the front as well (it's on the side).

[Jscarlos18]

31 minutes ago, ZeroWolf said:

Not necessarily, the recently released Lady Malys lacks the drukhari symbol on the front as well (it's on the side).

Hmmm, that's interesting. I wonder why they decided to include the icon in some and others not, seems too arbitrary.

Edited Thursday at 12:54 PM by Jscarlos18

[Mogger351]

32 minutes ago, Jscarlos18 said:

Hmmm, that's interesting. I wonder why they decided to include the icon in some and others not, seems too arbitrary.

Box size, infantry character boxes are a lot smaller.

[Fire Golem]

Yeah character boxes don’t have that (unfortunately…)

 

Edited Thursday at 01:18 PM by Fire Golem

[Jscarlos18]

7 minutes ago, Fire Golem said:

Yeah character boxes don’t have that (unfortunately…)

 

Good catch. Duly noted.

[Orange Knight]

At this point I hope he's real lol.

 

I just hope the model looks better than the potato cam shot makes it look if it exists...

[Jings]

The fact this is still being entertained is mind-blowing to me. 

[Mogger351]

23 minutes ago, Jings said:

The fact this is still being entertained is mind-blowing to me. 

It's in a state of "probably fake but if it's a fake it's such a high effort it deserves scrutiny". There is some evidence to suggest it's a fake, there's also some elements that people don't seem able to debunk.

[Magos Takatus]

On 11/10/2025 at 9:26 PM, Mogger351 said:

Not necessarily, a general chaos themed drop for Huron would be sensible

 

Where can I sign?

[Iron Father Ferrum]

5 hours ago, Mogger351 said:

It's in a state of "probably fake but if it's a fake it's such a high effort it deserves scrutiny". There is some evidence to suggest it's a fake, there's also some elements that people don't seem able to debunk.

 

I still remember that first picture of a Primaris Intercessor we all saw.  There was lots of nit-picking on details as "proof" it was real or fake (depending on the commentator).  I was convinced it was a kitbash because there was a slip bend or angle in the sculpt of the bolter.  Obviously I was wrong.

 

By all means, keep speculating but imperfections are not definitive proof it's a fake.

[Jings]

5 hours ago, Mogger351 said:

It's in a state of "probably fake but if it's a fake it's such a high effort it deserves scrutiny". There is some evidence to suggest it's a fake, there's also some elements that people don't seem able to debunk.

 

Is it really though? It's covered in 3E-style bits, I swear that skull is from the Chaos Vehicle Sprue, and the paint job, while good, is hardly 'Eavy Metal standard. The only thing that indicates that this is anything other than a kitbash is that it's been put on a box. The straps on the holster, that bloody skull (compare it to the one on the base for crying out loud), the artifacting around the entire model on the box that isn't present in the rest of the image. It genuinely wrinkles my brain. There's plenty evidence to suggest it's fake, and not being able to debunk a few elements does not a case make. It's a cool kitbash, but it would be a notably poor quality model. 

 

 

36 minutes ago, Iron Father Ferrum said:

 

I still remember that first picture of a Primaris Intercessor we all saw.  There was lots of nit-picking on details as "proof" it was real or fake (depending on the commentator).  I was convinced it was a kitbash because there was a slip bend or angle in the sculpt of the bolter.  Obviously I was wrong.

 

By all means, keep speculating but imperfections are not definitive proof it's a fake.

 

That's a very, very generous comparison and not one I would make with this particular rumour. The original Lt leak was almost universally accepted as a "yup they're upscaling marines then" and a very vocal minority of people saying it was fake because of the flanges on the knees. 

[Mogger351]

19 minutes ago, Jings said:

 

Is it really though? It's covered in 3E-style bits, I swear that skull is from the Chaos Vehicle Sprue, and the paint job, while good, is hardly 'Eavy Metal standard. The only thing that indicates that this is anything other than a kitbash is that it's been put on a box. The straps on the holster, that bloody skull (compare it to the one on the base for crying out loud), the artifacting around the entire model on the box that isn't present in the rest of the image. It genuinely wrinkles my brain. There's plenty evidence to suggest it's fake, and not being able to debunk a few elements does not a case make. It's a cool kitbash, but it would be a notably poor quality model. 

 

 

 

That's a very, very generous comparison and not one I would make with this particular rumour. The original Lt leak was almost universally accepted as a "yup they're upscaling marines then" and a very vocal minority of people saying it was fake because of the flanges on the knees. 

If you can identify exact 1:1 where all the bits are from then you'd be doing well I think.

 

The biggest one is the apothecary arm over the backpack being an exact match for the rumour engine one, but it's at a different angle, not just squashed, it looks to be a physical 3d item at a different angle. Thats not something that is easy to knock up in a few minutes.

 

It not being "good" isn't evidence it's fake. Evidence: inquisitor "the wrong trousers" Coteaz.

[Orange Knight]

2 hours ago, Iron Father Ferrum said:

 

I still remember that first picture of a Primaris Intercessor we all saw.  There was lots of nit-picking on details as "proof" it was real or fake (depending on the commentator).  I was convinced it was a kitbash because there was a slip bend or angle in the sculpt of the bolter.  Obviously I was wrong.

 

 

To this day, I believe that leaked Intercessor was some genius viral marketing.

 

From what I remember, It was a really, really weird model. He was holding a bolt rifle in one hand and a bolt pistol in the other. He didn't have a helmet, the image was lit in a funny way and black and white.

 

There were things so off about it, that despite being real and also a very safe "upgrade" on the classic Marine design, we could openly doubt it and argue over it.

[Fire Golem]

7 hours ago, Orange Knight said:

 

To this day, I believe that leaked Intercessor was some genius viral marketing.

 

From what I remember, It was a really, really weird model. He was holding a bolt rifle in one hand and a bolt pistol in the other. He didn't have a helmet, the image was lit in a funny way and black and white.

 

There were things so off about it, that despite being real and also a very safe "upgrade" on the classic Marine design, we could openly doubt it and argue over it.

 

[Blindhamster]

no idea if we still have the thread, but I was very vocal that it was real from the start and very excited for the updated design lol. I just remember people insisting it was a conversion and trying to specify where parts "clearly" came from. 

[ZeroWolf]

I wonder what happened to that model as it was clearly put together for the purpose of looking down at other miniatures (like it's doing there). Was it disposed of, or is it just living in someone's drawer right now.