Origin/History of Death Guard Belly Plate?

[GH05T]

Hello -

 

I am looking for details on the armored belly plate the Death Guard use (origins for its use, if it's out there). I am hoping there is more depth to it than just adding it because of their bloated-ness. I have been interested in using the armor for non-Nurgle CSMs but didn't decide to bite the bullet until seeing the new Tech-Priest Manipulus.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Charlo]

Fairly sure back on the day it was just the armour buckling and warping from the taint/ swelling/ blessings of Nurgle.

 

The new models have had it incorporated into their design but I think it's stylistic as opposed to a full on type of armour.

[Draakur]

I don’t know that this has ever been covered in any detail, beyond the basic description of needing to manage the bloating etc, as mentioned above.

[GH05T]

Thanks. Found BoLS's article covering the history of the plague marine models. Looks like the Forgeworld upgrades are the only other ones that incorporate another piece of armor over the belly.

[GH05T]

A little more digging, I find out that the belly plate is called a plackart, and in medieval representations is supposed to go over the breastplate. Maybe Forgeworld used the plague marines as an excuse to make more appropriate looking armor?

[Xenith]

The original plagues had distended chest plastrons that essentially made the whole upper torso a circle, rather than having a defined abdomen.

 

Even mk3 and cataphractii armour that DG are supposed to use has an abdomen cabling section. Models like the PM icon bearer can be seen to be in relatively uncorrupted Mk3, while other DG seem to have replaced this with a gut plate.