John Blanche – In Memoriam

Posted in 40k, Conversions, Inq28, Inquisitor, miscellaneous, Pointless ramblings, Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 4, 2026 by krautscientist

Today’s update happens for one of the worst possible reasons: I learned yesterday that John Blanche had passed away, and I am honestly heartbroken!

I am not even sure where to begin with this, and I honestly don’t think any post could do John justice. But even an insufficient tribute seems better than saying nothing: After all, his art was a constant companion during all of my hobby years, starting all the way back with his illustrations in the HeroQuest rulebook (or the “Skeleton Horde” on the back of the “Return of the Witch Lord” expansion).

“Fight to the Finish: Law Against Chaos” by John Blanche
“Skeleton Horde” by John Blanche

I marveled over his strange and weirdly compelling visions while thumbing through a friend’s 2nd edition Warhammer 40,000 Codex Imperialis during school break. John’s art was just perfect to give shape to the sheer insanity of the 41st millennium, and his influence on GW’s properties is clearly evident in every corner of their game worlds — once more so in recent times, as the company seems to have begun to incorporate more and more of John’s older concepts and ideas into actual miniatures, and deservedly so:
His illustrations for the 3rd edition Warhammer 40k boxed set and the 2nd edition Codex “Sisters of Battle” are the two definitive pieces of art I would point people to when they ask what the 40k universe is about.


John was also the living, beating heart of the Inquisitor scene: First by creating character concepts for a game that showed an incredibly fascinating and underexplored part of 40k, the world between the cracks, as it were. His Inqusitor sketchbook, as well as the Inquisitor rulebook, are still incredible starting points for hobbyists who want to get a grip on the weird and fascinating cosmos that is Inquisitor, full of unhinged and compelling characters, and a fountain of conversion ideas! But John was also an actual participant in and spiritus rector for the INQ28 scene, taking an interest in events and projects, offering kind words and encouragement and engaging with other hobbyists.

I was lucky enough to get in touch with John a few times: I’m still blushing when I remember actually complimenting one of this models, on the venerable Ammobunker forums, as “looking very much like something John Blanche might have painted”. It took me quite a while to realise my mistake — longer than the rest of the forumites. But John was absolutely lovely about it! I later had the opportunity of building a model for an event attended by John – “Legion”, a demented, fallen Magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus. And the fact that the model made its way into John’s collection, and that he liked it, meant the world to me.

I also got to talk to him via e-mail a couple of times, and he was the kindest person imaginable: Relentlessy curious, always looking for inspiration, always working, giving shape to new ideas. And he would get genuinely excited about other people’s creations, about how they would feed his own idea engine. It was a joy to see him work and live and converse like this, even if it only happened from afar, in my case.

His art was a perfect fit for Games Workshops’s eclectic and insane worlds, obviously, drawing from influences as diverse as baroque paintings and punk rock, and just about everything in between. But he didn’t only massively influence and co-create GW’s universes, his style was so evocative that he managed to forge his own path through this entire hobby, creating things that could be 40k or Trench Crusade or altogether unlabeled — but they were always Blanchitsu! If anything, it’s a momument to his talent and influence, that it’s possibly today to find posts from fresh and hopeful hobbyists that are trying to build or paint something “in the Blanchitsu style” without ever having heard of John Blanche — I think he would have liked that

At the same time, John himself remained very much at large: It was lovely to see new work crop up here and there, whenever it happened: Seeing a new illustration from him in the Trench Crusade rulebook made me smile, because his work seemed completely at home in that setting. I was also happy to receive the miniatures from his “Mörderin” Kickstarter just earlier this year. Even if John no longer worked at Games Workshop, he remained a constant presence and inspiration in the hobby scene, and I guess we all hoped it would last forever.

And here’s the thing: In a way, it will: His body of work is so vast, so endlessly evocative, that it will yet launch another million warbands and crazy character conversions. And it should! Huzzah to that! Huzzah to the thought that whole generations of hobbyists may yet discover his work, marvel at his vision — and end up thinking to themselves: “Huh, that sketch would make for a really cool conversion! Let me just…”

At the same time, however, John’s death still feels like an awful, unfathomable loss to the community. I am aware of the fact that he had been facing health struggles for quite some time, and my heart goes out to his family and loved ones — if this feels as sad as it does for someone who has never even really met the man, I can hardly imagine what it must be like for the people closest to him. My heartfelt condolences!

And to you, John, thank you for the creative journey! For a million worlds and characters! Hope you are well, wherever you are! Goodbye, thistle! And may Blanchitsu live on!

7 Comments »

Murders & Acquisitions, pt. 2

Posted in 30k, 40k, Chaos, Conversions, WIP, World Eaters with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 19, 2024 by krautscientist

Just a really quick update for today — but I am committed to keeping this place up and running, so that has to count for something, right? 😉

Not much time for hobbying lately, but I did take a moment to tweak some of my recent conversions, adding detail to them and cleaning up some of the conversion work.

First up on the chopping block were this beautiful pair: The WIP Master of Executions and Gladiatorial Champion from one of my previous posts:

Now the look for the models was already mostly there, so it was all a matter of adding some well-considered detail to them.

On the Master of Executions, one area that obviously needed work was his right hand: That ring is normally attached to the back of a juggernaut of Khorne, suggesting the way the mounted World Eaters Lord gets to somehow steer and control the daemonic beast (or at least has something to hang on to for dear life, as the mountain of daemonic metal and spite keeps barrelling towards its next prey). In this particular case, I wanted to use it as the base for a little trophy collection that the Master of Executions is carrying around with him, fittingly enough, so I chose a few skulls and carefully attached them to the ring bit:

This would have been easy enough to overdo, so I had to stop myself before going over the edge. But I think the – mostly – finished look works pretty well.

The other part that needed some attention was the model’s backside, as it seemed quite barren. Fortunately enough, the Jugger Lord comes with some pretty cool stock bitz that worked really well when I simply stuck to the model’s belt:

I think it’s an excellent match for this character to have his armour festooned in skulls — even moreso than your average World Eater, that is…

I am mostly prepared to call this conversion finished at this point. What do you think?

When it came to the gladiatorial “Arena Champion” archetype, the model had mostly only been tacked together so far, so the first order of the day was to carefully glue together the different parts that made up the arms into one sub-assembly for each arm. While I was doing that, however, I also came up with a cool little detail to tie the arms and the body together even more:

You see, there’s quite a bit of chainmal draped over the Mk. VI Preator’s breastplate, so I thought it would be a cool idea to replicate that effect on the arms: This also had the added benefit of covering up some slightly dodgy areas where the shoulder pads met the arms. So I carefully shaved some chainmal pieces off a couple of AoS Blood Warrior bitz and glued them to the arms:

Oh, and I also got rid of that little, aquila embossed on the gun holster — for obvious reasons 😉

So here’s what the model looks like right now:

I rather like the look of this model as well, but it’ll need a bit more work: As you can see in the pictures above, the entire back of the model is very plain — a consequence of the stock model actually wearing a massive cape that normally covers up all of those unadorned armour pieces. I also want to continue the chain motif a bit by adding chains to the model’s wrists and weapons. But once again, I think the look is already there.

And finally, I couldn’t help myself and add yet another round of detail to that poor Terminator Lord I have been tweaking for ages…

You see, after my last round of changes to the model, I posted this version:

But then fellow hobbyist Knight-Pilgrim pointed out a problem: It looks a bit weird how his right clawed gauntlet is just so flat on the front: That little “ledge” you see on the left fist doesn’t exist here, so the fingers just kinda start out of nowhere, right? Now I was a bit miffed at never having realised this. And once you have seen that, you cannot really unsee it, so I knew I had to fix it.

After much hemming and hawing, I came up with a solution: I cut off the front from one of those “claw shields” wielded by the AoS Blood Warriors. It took some doing to find the right bit, but the gauntlet now actually looks way more like a gauntlet, if you ask me:

HOWEVER, once that was done, it became clear I would basically have to tweak the other gauntlet as well 😦
And this actually took some doing, because none of those “shield gauntlets” really look quite the same, and many of them wouldn’t fit the Terminator’s fist. But I persevered, and here’s what the model looks like now:

Granted, the left gauntlet now looks slightly different from the right one, but since both gauntlets also feature different details on their backs, I don’t think it’s much of an issue. I’m actually happy to have gone back and fixed this.

That being said, I honestly don’t think I can make any more tweaks on this guy: I keep knocking off bitz and pieces whenever I go back in to change something — I have been tweaking and re-tweaking the poor fellow for many years at this point, if you can believe it, and it has been quite a journey for him…

Talk about the Ship of Theseus, eh? 😉

So anyway, that basically wraps up this short update. Here’s our three candidates for today, all together in one picture:

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!

6 Comments »

State of the Hunt, Week 38/2024: The Colours of Decay

Posted in 40k, Chaos, Conversions, state of the hunt, WIP with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 21, 2024 by krautscientist

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:

DISCLAIMER: Not my paintjob!

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!

4 Comments »

Murders & Acquisitions

Posted in 30k, 40k, Chaos, Conversions, WIP, World Eaters with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 4, 2024 by krautscientist

A quick detour from my recent Nurglite shenanigans for today, as we jump back to the XII legion for a bit: because I have a couple of kitbashes/conversions that I would love to share with you:

Ever since the release of Codex World Eaters, I have been searching for an excuse to convert a Master of Executions for the 4th assault company — mind you, there has been an executioner in my army background longer than this has been a thing in the official fluff. This gentleman here, dear Huntmaster Torus:

But as long time readers of this blog will know, I will always jump at even the flimsiest excuse for creating yet more characters, right? And a sinister headtaker seemed like the kind of project any self-respecting World Eaters aficionado could get behind.

After all, there were quite a few cool modeling options available to me: The actual Master of Executions model from GW, the fantastic World Eaters lord bitz that come with the Lord Invocatus kit — or, indeed, a particular Mk. VI Legion Praetor with a massive, two-handed axe from the Horus Heresy line of models who seemed like he had been made for the job. So I slowly managed to get my hands on all of those models, but then…did absolutely nothing with them.

You see, the stock Master of Executions is serviceable, but also very cookie cutter. The Chaos Lord bitz from the Lord Invocatus kit are awesome, but they alone were not enough to come up with the right kind of model? And that Mk. VI Legion Praetor? Suffice it to say that A LOT of people have been using him as their Master of Executions. In fact, kitbashing a Master of Executions itself has almost become a bit of an in-joke, and it seemed like every hobbyist in the world already had one, and all the cool ideas were already taken: Everybody and their cousin were coming up with all of these sweet conversion ideas while I was floundering.The various possibilities just canceled each other out in my mind, and I ended up doing nothing with them…

Well, no longer! Because the other night, I had an idea: I dug into my bitzbox, and after a short while, I had this:

I really wanted to put my own spin on the character archetype, and I am pretty happy with what I have so far: The torso, arms and backpack are all from the Lord Invocatus/Lord on Juggernaut kit (they are all from the “lord” side of the kit). I combined them with legs from the AoS Khorgos Khul model (marketed as a vanilla “Mighty Lord of Khorne” these days, it seems): I love how the leg armour has that little round indentation that just seemed perfect for the World Eaters belt buckle!

The helmet, meanwhile, came from the AoS Skullgrinder — I really like that helmet and had been waiting for ages to put it to good use!

As you can see, I went for a sword over an axe. It’s because I really fell in love with the massive chainsword — it also gives the model a very particular look, almost like a dark knight or paladin, which I really enjoy. Also, the ring on his right hand is just a placeholder for now. I imagine he’ll be holding a clutch of dangling skulls before long…

But wait, there’s more: With the Master of Executions out of the way, I was free to use some of the leftover kits/bitz to make this gentleman:

Now to give credit where credit is due: I did not come up with this idea myself, but it’s rather a recipe that I’d seen at least once or twice on the internet. So it was mostly a matter of adapting it for my own use. But I loved the idea of a very gladiatorial World Eaters officer, and one with a decidedly Heresy-era look to his armour. The body is from the aforementioned Mk. VI Legion Praetor kit, while the arms are chaos Terminator arms. The twin Lacerator swords came from the Eightbound. And a berzerker backpas adds a certain “je ne sais quoi” to the model.

I haven’t decided yet whether he’ll be 30k or 40k — he does have a Heresy-style look to him, but I’m pretty sure he’d also look terrific in 40k red and brass. I can already say that I’ll be adding some chains to his wrists, both to attach them to his weapons and to blend the arms and hands together a bit better (on top of covering up a bit of shaving I have had to do on one of the lacerators).

Now my favourite part about these two characters is how they almost embody opposite interpretations of the consumate warrior archetype:

Sinister but weirdly regal swordsman on the left, bulky, menacing pitfighter on the right. Quite a pair, aren’t they?

But wait, that’s still not all: Before we tune out for today, I still have one more piece of bonus content for you all:

Maybe you’ll remember my long-suffering Terminator Lord wielding twin lightning claws? He started out like this:

Then I gave him quite the workover after my last longer hobby hiatus, using some new World Eaters bitz and a leg swap to turn him into this:

This poor chap has been tweaked and re-tweaked to within an inch of his life, and yet it looked like I still wasn’t done with him:

You see, my one gripe with his latest incarnation was how the old Terminator chestpiece was quite a bit too narrow. I tried to distract from it with some dangling chains, which worked pretty well… — but then I found myself wondering whether one of my leftover Eightbound breastplates might fit — and it slid right over the chest piece!

Seriously, it was almost ridiculous how well the bit fit over the existing torso piece. The most complicated thing was to take off and reattach those chains and tilting plates I had added to the model.

The new breastplate adds a lot of bulk to his torso and makes him look bulky and overmuscled — which, I would say, is a perfect look for a genetically engineered XII legion madman 😉 What do you guys think?

So, once again, that’s it for today. Three massive, bulky XII legion slaughterers, all converted-up and ready to fine-tune for another year or so 😉

Seriously, though: 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!

8 Comments »

State of the Hunt, Week 33/2024: Suddenly, Grandfather Nurgle…

Posted in 40k, Chaos, Conversions, state of the hunt, WIP with tags , , , , , , , , , , on August 17, 2024 by krautscientist

No sooner did I manage to get back into the swing of things – a bit, at least – than my hobby butterfly affliction reared its ugly head again. And the insectile simile seems quite apt here, as I have been sidetracked by Grandfather Nurgle and his flyblown followers — but it’s ultimately all part of the Great Work, innit? So let me at least share what I have been up to:

The important thing to tell you before we tuck in is that I bought a box of the – then brand-new -plastic Plague Marines a couple of years ago. And I’ve been fiddling with the kit ever since, dryfitting and assembling these models, then taking them apart again – almost as a meditation, if you will – never settling on a finished build — in that sense, I’ve been getting A TON of bang for my buck out of the kit 😉

Now what provoked me into working on them again was the compulsion to build a Death Guard icon bearer, after seeing a fantastic inspiration on Death of a Rubricist (one of my favourite hobby blogs, itmust be said).

I’ve always chafed at the fact that you actually have to pick up a separate (and not too cheap) model if you want a Plague Marine icon bearer, for one. And I loved how Apologist came up with a cool idea that uses both one of the more awkward Plague Marine heads AND one of the SUPER-awkward snapfit Plague Marines. So I used his conversion as a starting point and made some adjustments, based on the bitz I had:

What I like about the model is that this guy looks as though he’s barely holding it together: At any moment now, something vile and monstrous could crack his armoured shell and emerge from it. Or he could have been teetering on the age of change for millennia, never quite succumbing — we will never know. But there’s a crookedness to the character that I quite enjoy. I will have to adjust some elements, like the little bells, though, putting them at a more correct angle — the icon itself has just been tacked together for now.

Now with that model mostly assembled, things started to cascade: I started browsing through Chris Wraight’s “The Lords of Silence” again — one of my favourite CSM Black Library books, and definitely an indispensable resource for those interested in the Death Guard, for the fascinating and believable way it characterises the members of that legion.

That, in turn, made me mess around with those Plague Marine bit more — only this time, I ended up with a configuration that I felt I could commit to. So here’s the squad I made, a mix of older and newer models, incidentally:

The overarching theme with them was to get them really close to the “classic” Jes Goodwin Death Guard concepts from the 2nd edition of 40k: Bloated, faceless and heavily armoured figures with an almost WWI-Trencher like brutality to them:

That’s why I used all of the spiked “Pickelhaube” helmets for the models, with a heavy focus on the classic early-to-mid 90s Death Guard template. I also dialed back the excess of the models in many bigger and smaller ways: The Plague Marines parts are so covered in gribbly detail that it gets a bit much at times. As I’ve done with my starter box Plague Marines before, I carefully shaved off a tentacle here or a horn there, or chose the less flashy parts for a more grounded, if still clearly Nurglite, look.

Let’s take a closer look at the models in turn:

First up, the champion and the aforementioned icon bearer. The icon bearer is new, as you know. The champion is a slightly older conversion, and was assembled to closely resemble an actual Jes Goodwin sketch from the early 90s (and the seminal Jes Goodwin metal Plague Marine shown further up in this post). My favourite part of the model is the area where I removed lots of tiny tentacles and replaced them with a cluster of ribbed pipes and cables — that makes the model far less goofy and brings it closer to the dilapidated horror of the Death Guard for me! It’s also a perfect match for the champions warped facemask.

The Plague Spewer guy on the left is an older conversion, based on one of the – rather dodgy – snapfit Plague Marines. I’ve recently replaced his head, though. The guy on the right was assembled using stock parts, but really channels the trench warfare look I mentioned above. He even has a raggedy half-cape, which I love.

Two more stock models. My proudest achievement on these is how the Plague Belcher and bloated breastplate shouldn’t quite fit together, but I managed to pull it off. That means the chest piece’s high gorget can work together really beautifully with the blunt Mk. II-ish helm. I am often to reluctant Astartes wielding two-handed guns, preferring to go for a CC weapon and sidearm (probably my World Eaters heritage), but for once, I have created a model that I really like! Regarding the guy on the right, I was debating with myself whether or not to turn his flail into an axe, but the flail seems so quintessentially Nurglite that I wanted it to stay. The only problem is that I didn’t use the body “intended” for these arms (more recent GW multipart kits can be pretty weird that way), so I’ll have to figure out the base (extend it a bit or use a bigger one). But I really like the overall look of the model!

Now the final model took ages to come together — mostly because, quite frankly, most of the coolest parts had already been used up, and the legs I had left had a slightly pidgeon-toed look. But in the end, I have found a cool angle, I believe: The final model for today works REALLY well as a re-imagination of the ancient easy-to-build plastic Plague Marines from the early 90s! Take a look:

Also, check out the amount of scale creep here — it is quite something, isn’t it? 😉

And seeing how I was already working away, I also started improvising on a different Nurglite model:

As some of you will probably realise, this model is one of the smaller brothers from the WFB/AoS Glottkin kit. It was a pickup from a bitz exchange or an ebay lot (the details escape me at the moment), and felt like a great match for an older – pre new Death Guard – conversion project of mine that used the AoS Putrid Blightkings (old photo):

All of these look very bloated and more fantasy than 40k, obviously, so my common visual idea for them was to make them look as though they had all grown so bloated over the millennia that most of their armour had been cast off or distended beyond recognisability — but I wanted to feature hints of Astartes armour here and there, to hint at their origins as Death Guard Marines. So the new guy should make for a pretty cool addition to this squad, maybe even as its leader.

I am still thinking about adding a few more cracked piece of armour, broken cabling — stuff like that. In any case, he and his brethren will always look decidedly different from “standard” Plague Marines, but that is kind of their thing, seeing how the squad was originally assembled long before the new 40k Nurgle plastics were released.

As you can see, I’ve added the shroud/insect wing bit from the Malignant Plague Caster, and I think it makes for a cool little addition.

And here’s how the model looks with its – prospective – squadmates:

As I’ve said, the idea with these is that they should almost read like an entity unto themselves: These huge, bloated Leviathans, far removed from the Astartes they once were.

I may yet have a few more Nurglite bits and bobs to share with you in an upcoming update — as long as the fancy has taken me, that is.

Until then, 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!

17 Comments »

« Older Entries
Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started