Auto-cast pict-capts have been received from an extraction facility on Ancora Prime. The disturbing images show the mining compound being overrun by dishevelled warriors in heavily-adapted Astartes battle plate – their disordered appearance belying their precise teamwork and accurate marksmanship. Although most likely human, many of the warriors appear to be hideously mutated. In some instances they are not so much wearing their armour as biologically fused with it.
The new WH40K boxset (along with the Addiction Challenge) has rekindled my interest in the Death Guard and their fellow Plague Marines. This is a squad leader – my first finished model for this potential new faction. I've only just finished painting him, even though I did most of the conversion work quite a few years ago. Back then I vaguely remember wanting to see if I could cram some kind of narrative on to one of the smaller 25mm bases (the newer, 32mm base he's on now came later). I was taken by the idea that a Plague Knife would inflict some real nastiness on its victims, sucking out life and causing almost instant decay. The dismembered Marine on the base has been partially modelled into the ground to represent this.*
The Death Guard's head was taken from an out-of-print metal Chaos Champion of Nurgle, while his torso started life as part of the plastic Chaos Marauders sprue. There was a fair bit of green-stuffing involved to build up the rolls of flesh, so I used the larger shoulders from the Ork Boyz sprue to match the bulk. Both the Power Fists started life somewhere in the loyalist Marine arsenal – with one of them, I think, coming from the original RTB01 box. The legs are nearly as old, originally belonging to the push-fit, static-posed Space Marines that came in the 2nd edition WH40K boxset. I chopped them up and reposed them a bit, and gave them extra detail wherever possible. As far as I can tell, the only orthodox Chaos Space Marine part is the backpack.
When starting a new army or project, especially one involving a lot of conversion work, I usually begin by sketching out a few of the ideas that interest me. It's a quick way of collecting my thoughts and means some of the experimenting can be done on paper, much faster than trying it all on the actual model.
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| Yet equally as shoddy |
A lot of the ideas that are blurted on to paper will never see fruition. But that's no bad thing. Far better to discard a five minute sketch than a model that's sucked up hours of work.
Anyway, another complete miniature means I am officially one twentieth of the way through my painting challenge. That's pretty good going for me and my sloth-like pace as we're only about a month in. It's almost cause for celebration.
Especially if that celebration involves painting the remaining ninety-five miniatures.
REMAINING: 95
*The dead Marine is painted in the colours of my old homegrown chapter, the Storm Guard, nodding to the fact that I'm thinking of retiring them now.
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