DuskRaider's 40K Nurgle - An Experiment in Flesh and Machine

[Atia]

 

See, as far as fluff I think the new codex kind of fell on it's face a bit. They created all these new Houses without much more than a side reference to House Devine in a tiny little timeline snippet. That's a travesty. It goes beyond my obvious need for validation of Makabius activity in the 41st (or are we in 42nd?) millennium. There's lore established by FW and most importantly Alan Bligh regarding traitorous Knight Households that GW completely ignored. Some have carried the torch into the current timeline, such as Auggy with his Atrax and the other day I did see some pretty cool Devine Chaos Knights.

 

I think it's done to not step onto Forgeworld's toes, just in case they will ever do anything 40k related (or maybe Terra/Scouring where you would see them quite chaosy already!).

Edited August 9, 2019 by Atia

[DuskRaider]

So I figured since I've completed so much in the way of my House Makabius, I should probably go back and do as I have been saying for a while... take some better photos of the individual Knights. This is going to be a hell of a pic dump, so I'm sorry in advance. Enjoy!

 

 

 

A size comparison of Dolorous Knell to a Questoris Knight... pretty big difference.

 

https://i.imgur.com/d2zkWBk.jpg

All three Armigers on the hunt.

 

https://i.imgur.com/YkfkwjQ.jpg

Everything completed thus far. They barely fit!

 

Great news everyone! I'm starting on their bases now. As much as Cap would like them completed before the end of the ETL, I don't see that happening but I will try my best. I've got parts coming from all over the place to do these which is why I don't expect to be done in a couple weeks. I'm also waiting for the Dark Mechanicum kit for my Seneschal... it's coming from Russia, so Nurgle knows when that will arrive.

[Freakshow668]

These are so beautiful I want to cry.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Nurgle Knights. The boils, fungus infections, and mutations are well done.

[Zephaniah Adriyen]

See, I want to be this good. This is the amount of good I want Lord Leviathan to be. DuskRaider, you are consistently a source of inspiration and drive for me, and being on the level of your work is a consistent goal of mine.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Practice, practice, practice. Duskraider has gotten a lot of that working on smaller projects, building up his skill with kitbashing, converting, and painting. 

[DuskRaider]

Thanks folks, I appreciate the kind words! It's been a long time coming for these photos, I wish I had done it sooner.

 

@Zeph: it's just as BCK said, practice. A lot of it. Smaller projects, sometimes ending in failure. Hell, I'm still not happy with the Dark Mechanicum Ravager (the Gallant equivalent?), I think the boils don't look good. Nothing I can do about it now. I've been kitbashing for well over a decade now, so I've out time in. Green stuff is still my weakness, but I'm trying to get better. Nurgle is much more forgiving than something like the insane stuff BCK pumps out but it's a start.

 

Start with a at least a vague idea of what you want the end result to be. Often times I veer off course because I come up with something on the fly, find my vision too difficult to make reality, or whatever. A lot of it really is just... chaos.

[Atia]

Love the look of the whole lance!

 

Any plans for doing a corrupted version of Lord Protector Markan?

[DuskRaider]

Hrotham Markan is not a Makabius. As far as I'm concerned, he was disposed of as soon as Mortarion took command of the Household and Malphas Makabius was given leadership (to an extent).

[Hungry Nostraman Lizard]

Those are beautiful! 

[DuskRaider]

Thank you! I've started working on the bases for the Knights. Nothing crazy yet, just cutting cork to fit and doing basic planning around Knight footprints. I await my order from Puppets War, I bought some corpses to add throughout the bases and I've received my Sector Imperialis ruins. Originally I had planned on having them either stomp throughout trench warfare fields or through a Mechanicus sector, but ultimately it was easier to find urban bits and I really want to get these done.

 

I've also begun building my Titanicus Acastus Knights. It's funny, I've been eagerly awaiting the release of these but between the new Chaos Knight Codex and the ETL, my box has sat untouched for over a month. The plan is to concentrate on my 40K Knights (both models and bases) but also work on these while I wait for parts. The Titanicus Knight House is a long term project anyhow, but is quickly amassing numbers.

[ElDuderino]

Superb knights, i love them all! I'm almost tempted to finish my own after seeing these:)

[BlueBiscuit Raider]

Just came here to say that it was seeing this and your 30k thread doing real justice to my favorite Legion that spurred me to join this community and that while I may not yet have the means and the confidence to replicate it, your conversion work is truly inspiring.

 

So thank you.

[DuskRaider]

Oh wow, I'm happy to hear I was able to inspire someone! I really hope to see your work someday. Never be afraid to try and definitely don't be afraid to fail. I've done it so many times with this hobby alone. Going back to my 30K stuff and even some of it on my current stuff *cough* Death Guard Kill Team *cough* failure is part of the hobby in my opinion. Especially when you start doing things out of the norm.

 

If you ever need help with anything or just someone to bounce ideas off of, don't hesitate.

Edited August 16, 2019 by DuskRaider

[rednekkboss]

Oh wow, I'm happy to hear I was able to inspire someone! I really hope to see your work someday. Never be afraid to try and definitely don't be afraid to fail. I've done it so many times with this hobby alone. Going back to my 30K stuff and even some of it on my current stuff *cough* Death Guard Kill Team *cough* failure is part of the hobby in my opinion. Especially when you start doing things out of the norm.

 

If you ever need help with anything or just someone to bounce ideas off of, don't hesitate.

 

Yup, you can always fail. You can strip off the paint later. You never lose anything by trying.

 

Great work, Dusky! Grandfather is proud!! I had the chance recently to get a knight.... but, I decided to use the funds (store credit) to finish out all the minis I needed for my Death Guard army. It could still happen since there's talk of another commission in the air. In the meantime I'm planning some deamon engine level stuff. I know I'll be looking here for inspiration if/when the knight or armigers find their way home.

[DuskRaider]

Thanks bud! I hear ya on the Death Guard, probably best to finish one army before starting another... like I have room to talk, lol.

 

Speaking of the XIVth, I did pre-order the Series 3 Space Marine Heroes, so hopefully they'll be here around my birthday. They'll be the first Death Guard models I've painted in... oh god, I don't even know. I can't even remember if I painted any last year, it was generally all smaller more obscure things like my Beastmen, then Daemons and obviously Knights. Wow... that's crazy.

[Eldrick Shadowblade]

Truly great work DuskRaider!

[helterskelter]

That's one incredible looking knight household! Nurgle is the most fun of the gods

[DuskRaider]

So, an update.

 

*Sigh*

 

I've been waiting for over a month to receive the Dark Mechanicum kit from Legio Models. It sat it Canadian customs for some reason for over two weeks and now it's in the Netherlands, which tells me it's being sent back to Russia. I... I don't even know.

 

So, we're going with Plan B. I'm using the stock Chaos Knight kit and modifying it to make my Seneschal. Work has begun on this today. Also, I finally received my shipment of corpses from Puppet War yesterday which means I can start working on the bases fully. I've been waiting forever for those as well and of course they arrive the day after the ETL is over (sans the holiday).

 

As for what's on the painting table, well... they're definitely something different. And by that I mean not only are they not Nurgle but they're not even Chaos. Just a little diversion I picked up before the ETL on a whim. I hope to have them done by week's end.

[hushrong]

Catching up on your progress and it has been eye candy! Sorry to hear about the shipment delay/situation.

[DuskRaider]

Funny you say that... today it went to the Netherlands and then did a complete 180 and arrived at JFK. I can't make heads or tails of it. I'm mixed on it too. One one hand, I obviously want to use the kit. It's unique and would represent the experimental Knight frame that my Seneschal pilots. On the other hand, it would have been really cool to use the cockpit for my character.

 

I'll probably still have to modify the Dark Mechanicum kit a bit to look more *ahem*... blessed... by Nurgle. I don't think I'll do any real mutations per say, but something.

[Krakendoomcool]

The new set of pics looks great. Looking forward to another (!) knight and bases too.

[DuskRaider]

Well here we are in Call of Chaos season (my favorite!). As I'm sure, most of you have seen my vow up at the top in the CoC thread itself, but I thought I would take some time to post a little more here. Besides, this is where my weekly updates will be.

 

This year I've vowed a Knight Desecrator, a Knight Despoiler and a Death Guard Leviathan. The big one for me is the Desecrator, it's meant to represent my Seneschal and main character of my House Makabius. Originally this was a role I was going to give to my Not-A-Styrix Knight, but ultimately decided to abandon (although he does still sport a Baronial scheme).

 

The Seneschal; or Huntsman in my House (a title used by the first Seneschal after defecting during the Heresy); is the leader and often Lord Protector of the House so this guy had to be different. The Knight Desecrator rules filled that role quite splendidly, at least from a background perspective. It doesn't hurt that my Seneschals historically have hunted big game with packs of Armigers, or their Hounds... something the Desecrator actually (kinda) had rules for. Sure, the rules aren't great but I'm not out to win tournaments.

 

To represent this character, I wanted a more experimental feel. This is the head honcho, he gets all the new toys. It was something I played with a bit when I built the Styrix Despoiler. Less mutations, more mechanical horror. I still think my greatest failure with that one is the boils. I had contemplated using another Styrix body for this, but thankfully Legio Models released a Dark Mechanicum kit just as I had started gathering parts for this model. It fit what I wanted perfectly and thus that is the base of this Knight.

 

However, I couldn't stop there. The kit itself definitely lends to the "experimental" feel, but I needed more unique bits to really push the idea. Ultimately all of my Knights are pretty unique, in a force where you're typically fielding only 6 or so models you're really doing yourself and the army itself a disservice by not making each a character. Obviously I was going to add dangling cables all about the model, it's just something that screams "prototype" to me. The goal however was to build this Knight without ANY mutations. It's something I have actually done before with the Gnarlnaw Knight of all things. Sans the massive tree attached to the carapace, the model is void of any physical mutations. It's just something you don't really notice because giant monster tree.

 

The premise is this frame is relatively new. It has corrosion and damage which is part for the course with any Knight dedicated to Nurgle, but it hasn't had time to start sprouting horns and limbs or spontaneously grow organs. Instead, it has a massive tentacle-like arm, courtesy of Blood and Skull Industry. This represents a Thunderstrike Gauntlet, but looks more cyclopean and menacing than a simple fist. With the addition of impaling stakes on the carapace (complete with a flayed victim) and some snaking Mechadendrites, it still has a horror aspect to it. There's just something about the flailing tentacles, Mechadendrites, and jumbled cabling that feels unnerving to me.

 

Finally, the head. It's a FW Cerastus variant. Originally I hadn't noticed it was a Cerastus piece when I purchased it and I feared it would be too large for a Questoris Knight, but I think it works quite well. It juts out further than a Questor head, but that's okay. It gives a more alien look to the model. This, along with the giant blade prominently rising from the forehead and the large gasmask-like hosing on the front give it a Nurgle feel without actually being physically mutated.

 

 

Sorry for being so long-winded and there's probably so much more I could write on this, but I always like to include you in the process and what's going through my mind when creating these things.

 

Next up is fairly straightforward. This is my first Death Guard model in... what? Almost two years (March 2018 from what I saw)?? Jesus... can you believe that? I started this thread specifically for Death Guard back in June 2017 and look where it is now. Crazy.

 

I'm usually not a fan of recast or bootleg models but this caught my eye. I had seen some other ones the seller had made over the years and while perplexed I always held off. It usually felt too busy to me (not that this one isn't, it's quite busy) or I wasn't happy with some of the selected bits. But this Leviathan was too cool to pass on, especially since I had stalled on the one I was converting a while back.

 

The best part about this model is that it incorporates parts from other FW models. I don't just mean a skull here or an arm there. Molded into the Dreadnought's carapace are tumors and wounds from the Great Unclean One or portions of the arm from Mamon. There's a lot taken from the now defunct Nurgle Dreadnought. It's such a wonderful mix of parts that I broke down and had to get it.

 

I'm not sure how my scheme will work on this, the model is quite porous and I fear my scheme won't do well with it but we will see!

 

 

Unfortunately, I do not have the Despoiler yet. I'm still figuring out how I want to equip it. I did see that Kromlech is releasing some absolutely bonkers looking Avenger Gatling Cannons specifically for Chaos so this may be the route I go even though I already have an AGC Knight and I'm not sold on their usefulness against other Knights. We'll see.

 

Thanks for reading and I should be posting and update next Sunday which at this point may be the completed Desecrator.

Edited September 18, 2019 by DuskRaider

[Mechanist]

As always that is a wonderful creation and I can't wait to see more updates. 

 

The Dread looks really solid and as a rule I don't post on threads with recasts but I think here it's a cast of someones detailed conversion. Because they have put their own creativity into making it and then make copies from that it stand up on it's own.

Sure it's very derivative because it has a lot of bits from GW's line and I don't know how much of it is original sculpting but as a piece of work it is created by the 3rd party and I think it has enough in to definitely push into the gray area.

[DuskRaider]

Thanks Mech!

 

And I agree. I'm not usually very keen on recasts, but to me this model falls into another category I think. What that category is I cannot say, but it really sets itself apart from Chinacast garbage. It's either going to be a blast to paint or an absolute nightmare. We'll see soon enough...

Edited September 18, 2019 by DuskRaider