After my previous update saw me working on two new officers for the World Eaters’ 4th assault company, today it’s back to Nurgle for a spell, as I find myself messing around with a potpourri, as it were, of smaller Death Guard related projects:
I. Swelling the Ranks
First up, there was still some kitbashing to be had with my remaining Death Guard bitz. And for the most part, this involved some touchups on older models. For instance, back when the box of three snapfit Plague Marines were released, I ended up converting one of them into a model wielding a Plague Launcher:
The spliced-together weapon was indeed the most clever thing about this conversion, as this particular weapons option wasn’t really available anywhere else before the release of the multipart Plague Marines, and only one of the weapons featured in the snapfit box. So I made my own version. Beyond that, however, the model was hampered by my not having access to any more Death Guard conversion bitz back then, so the poor chap ended up with an Iron Warriors helmet (which is an awesome piece, in and of itself, but its use here never sat quite right with me). So as part of my recent Plague Marine shenanigans, I thought I might as well spruce up the model a bit:
I’d say the “official” Plague Marine head is a much better fit for the model! And while I was at it, I also replaced the Plague Knife (the original one was held at this weird, rigid angle).
I am also still pretty pleased with the Plague Launcher conversion, if I do say so myself, even if these are now a far less valuable resource than they used to be 
And while we are on the matter of snapfit Plague Marines, there was actually one more old model in my bitz box, waiting for its day in the limelight: The original plan was for the guy to be wielding a two-handed Plague Cleaver, but the model never quite came together the way I wanted it to.
And then I realised that I would still need another icon bearer for my Plague Marines, so I re-tweaked that same model into this:
I wanted to achieve two things with this model: Make it look both quite medieval and baroque (hence the choice of bitz and the use of an old Chaos Knight standard) AND subtly forest-themed, hence the twisted wooden branches atop the icon. You could almost say that I was going for a twisted take on a “Green Knight”-like character archetype. And I really like how brooding and massive he seems.
Looking at his shoulder pad, backpack and helmet, someone over at “The Bolter & Chainsword” pointed out how they felt reminded of a Cordyceps infection (that ghastly fungus that will hollow-out ants and control them from within until they have moved to an ideal location, then burst out of their shells in the most opportune spot), and I rather liked that remark because it all really matches the overall theme of these guys as keepers of Nurgle’s One True Garden.
Of course I will have to come up with something cool to put on that banner of his, once the time for painting comes — which takes me to my next segment for today:
II. Actually painting something again — holy heck!
Believe it or not, but more than a year after my last small painting session – and actually four years after my last complete painted model – I have actually managed to pick up those brushes again and put them to use. I figured that Nurgle is always fun to paint, so I chose two lowly, already undercoated Poxwalkers for this little exercise:
Here’s a picture of a the first model, mostly painted. Unfortunately, it turned out that a few rather crucial paints from my collection were too gummed-up to use, so I was only able to get the models to a mostly finished stage at first, with some crucial additions still missing:
Fortunately enough, I was able to swing by the local Warhammer store and get some replacements, so that gave me the tools I needed to tweak the paintjobs and finish the two models. Take a look:
My idea for these, as outlined in one of my earlier posts on the matter, is that they started out as the staff of an agricultural laboratry, trying to genetically tweak plants so they would end up being far more fruitful, in an attempt to boost production on an Imperial agri-world. Then Grandfather Nurgle took an interest, and the whole thing went to hell– but I like the idea that you can still see their origins on some of these models. At the same time, they are all at different points of transformation, with horns and, ultimately, brambles erupting from their mutating bodies. In this particular case, the model on the right is still fairly close to the “human” end of the scale, still wearing most of a hazmat suit. The other poor guy, however, has been fully claimed by Nurgle’s Garden…
As you can see, one element that really stands out on these are the disgusting boils — some thinned-down Blood for the Blood God is the most important ingredient here. It’s such a small detail, really, but it adds some visual punch to the models and also draws the eye: These poor creatures basically ARE their disease at this point, so it makes sense that your attention gets drawn towards the gribbly, disgusting parts of the models. Also, I do realise that these are just some throwaway Poxwalkers, but hey: They are the first proper paintjobs I have pulled off in quite a while, so bear with me here, okay?
Here’s the entire group of Poxwalkers I have so far:
Again, the overarching idea is that these creatures are former denizens of a research lab on an Imperial agri-world , so you can still see the remains of their former stations in life on them (white lab coats and orange hazmat suits used during their experimentation). And since their backstory includes agricultural experiments gone awry, their mutations seem treelike and plant-based.
Here they are, together with a bloated member of the Death Guard:
Please ignore the completely unfinished bases for now: My ultimate plan for them is to try and channel something like the “Sea of Corruption” from Nausicäa, but I am still in the concept stage on this particular detail, so the bases will have to remain ugly for a bit
An ambitious goal, to be sure! For now, I am mostly happy about having managed to dip a toe into painting again after all these years…
III. Supply Drop
As our last item for today, let me share some recent arrivals to my collection. First up, I was aching to get my hands on some more of those sweet, Death Guard-specific Mk. 3 helmets, as I think they make for the perfect, classic Jes Goodwin look. But shopping for bitz has become a bit of a nightmare in my neck of the woods, with awfully inflated ebay prices and many bitz simply not available to begin with. So imagine my delight when this little collection arrived:
Thanks to fellow hobbyist beetlemeier, I now have all the spiky Death Guard helmets I’ll be needing for a good long while! Thanks so much for your generosity!
Also, I couldn’t help myself and had to pull the trigger on an ebay auction recently: When GW originally put out a Death Guard-branded line of models as part of their, somewhat Gacha-inspired, Space Marine Heroes line, I did take an interest, but the element of chance scared me off. But I recently found an ebay listing that had quite a few of those Death Guard models — with one caveat: They were already built, painted and based. This is what I got for my trouble:
Now these pose an interesting conundrum: My original plan was to just strip the paint off them right away. But they don’t look half-bad in that picture, right? So maybe it would be better to just tweak the paintjobs?
And yet, the problem is that their previous owner has painted them to a standard that I would call “almost decent”: Lots of washes, contrast paints, weathering powder and slime — which is great. But it’s all been caked on with such abandon that it’s, frankly, a bit much:
With just a bit more restraint, these could have been quite stunning. But I keep going back and forth on whether or not I want to tweak their paintjobs or strip them altogether. There’s also that idea with filling the bigger holes in their bases – originally intended for Nurglings – with these cat’s eyes. A cool idea, but it does look a bit tacky…
I think the “maximalism” at play here is what bothers me the most: LOTS of washes, LOTS of weathering powder, LOTS of texture buildup. Them not matching my painting style isn’t even the main issue here, as a slightly different scheme can always be explained away on a single squad or a killteam — it’s more that the special effects get in the way of the actual sculpts so much. I’m currently feeling more inclined to strip them, but we’ll see…
And that’s it for today’s update. It goes without saying that I would love to hear any thoughts and suggestions you might have. And, as always, thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!