21 Pestigor (220pts)

 This unit has taken me a little longer than expected to complete, even though half of the models were already painted. The other half needed to either have their conversions completed or, started from scratch, so it was quite the involved process. But it had reminded me of of how much fun it is is to make multiple, themed kitbashes, as I always prefer this to the painting stage. 

The theme here is clearly a Nurgle Pestigor unit, so I've rotted these models up by including elements of plaguebearer models and also through adding the usual green-stuffed bloated bellies, sores and postules from water filter beads. Adding lots of additional horns was important too. But I also wanted to explore the part beast part man aspect more deeply and not just go down the goatman route that GW has developed. Therefore I've really tried to use a wide range of bestial parts from my bitzbox to make each of these chaotic creatures; from horse heads, to spiders legs, to cow torsos there's quite an eclectic mix. I've generally used the regular beastman torso to have some unity to the conversions and also because I had a load of them to use. Here's the completed unit:

And now you'll have to excuse my exhaustive photos, as (for me) it's quite nice to see each of my creations individually:

This was one of the first conversions for the project and is more man than beast. I like the idea that some have evolved less fully from man to beast, or the other way round in that the beast has only started showing more human physiognomy. This one has a zombie torso and flagellant head and of course some extra horns and a belly.

A Lizardman is a beast man. A cold one head and tail merged with a plaguebearer body and a clawed hand. The legs are left over from the classic Palanquin rider

Flyman. One of the Nurgle sprues includes this fly head and it's been added to an old metal savage orc torso. Nice big sword. I considered adding wings to enhance the fly aspect.

More of a traditional GW beastman, here I wanted to play with a more dynamic pose. The plaguebearer body, zombie arm and extra horns help create a mutated character.

Ratman. of course a Skaven head was added to the plaguebearer torso and a foot to the beastman legs. He's a musician (of sorts)

Again a traditional beastman where I was focusing on pose and creating that Nurgle appearance through mixing familiar kits.

More man than beast, I thought he might have the skill to use a blunderbuss. His hat hints at a former life as a soldier before mutation changed his facial features and his gut.

Here I wanted to experiment with a different type of head, I think its a Mantic ghouls(?) and a different pose with the raised spear. A grisly collection of heads and a Nurgling friend are present.

I've had this troll torso in my box for a while and quite liked the idea of using it as the basis for an enlarged beastman to add some height and bulk. To contrast with that a small warrior's head was simply added and of course an additional horn.

Birdman. The usual combo of legs and torso, but the head I believe os from an old Bretonnian helmet. In retrospect I'm not so keen on the shield, I prefer the simplicity of a wooden shield for these creatures.

The banner bearer. The creature is mostly cow from the Giant sprue, with a zombie torso and a warriors head. The banner design is one that I freehanded from a Fighting Fantasy book.

This one I actually rolled up on the Lost and the Damned attributes table for some competition some years ago. Extra arm, sorcerer and flaming skull head were three such attributes and here's my response to that. I do love the scythe and hour glass combo.

The leader. Simply because the conversion gives such an imposing presence. Beastman, zombie, deamonette and chaos warrior bits were used and quite a bit of greenstuff to bulk him up. I like horns and scythes it would seem.

The next few are the more recent conversions that I made from scratch to complete the unit:

A metal horror's legs, beastman torso and some Mantic ghoul pieces make this little fella.

Mostly beastman bits, but I wanted him to be a skull collector, you can see his collection around his waist.

Orc, Gnoblar and Kroot bits fused together makes a pretty unique character. Extra hand weapon always seem to equate to extra cool.

I think the base of this model is from the Foresaken sprue and I've just added a plaguebearer arm and some horns. This one is more spawn like but I do like the contortion of change that he seems to be showing.

Horse man. Why not use a horse head, especially when I seem to have more than I need. I've tried to blend it into the model by green-stuffing decaying skin over part of it's face and into the torso. The arm is a metal orcs.

A personal favourite - cowman. Using the head pointing up from the banner bearers body and then creating a double handed weapon stance I can almost hear the braying.

An old minotaur head with a tentacle and extra horns, chaos does let you experiment with different scale when kitbashing, so the enlarged head is an option.

The kroot head makes an appearance as does a spider leg for an arm. This one has quite the dynamic pose.

So the army continues to grow, here's a current group shot. If I add the 220pts of this unit to the army, we're now looking at 4625 points. 

Some chariots next (although there will be a short Orctober interlude)

2 Chaos Spawn (50pts)

From the largest pointed unit (1200 for the Plaguebearers) to the smallest, a couple of Spawn at 25pts each. In the LatD these are described more as a pack as can (and probably should) be led by a Champion of Chaos, so eventually I'd like to do a converted spawn made up of lots of bits from my box and add him to these two and add a leader to marshall them around the battlefield.

Obviously these two are both classic Citadel miniatures, the left model being an old Plague Elemental and the right one being a Spawn of Nurgle, the latter having a slight conversion in removing the funny legs that came with it and sculpting some tentacles there instead. Both these old models though suffer from the perpendicular restraints of sculpting from that time, so when faced from the front both models look quite flat and symmetrical (although with the slug spawn you can reposition the tentacles on it's head to create more dynamic movement) and hence why I've photographed them both on the angle.

For this Beast of Nurgle I did a little research on slugs to get the correct colour scheme and used a little gloss varnish to capture the slimy nature of it's body. You will notice the basing on both models is slightly different from the rest of the army, in that there are a collection of organic shapes molded into the landscape, the idea behind this is based on the premise that:

 "the very proximity of a Beast is sufficient to kill small animals and plant.... or may age and decay perceptibly in their presence" (LatD p.20)

So a collection of small bitz from the box were impressed into some milliput and sculpted into the base to give the appearance of a dying, organic mass surrounding the model as it moves forward.

With the Plague Elemental I also experimented further with some skin painting techniques. Over a white undercoat I painted all the pinks with Contrast paints and highlights. Over this I then mixed some crackle medium into the pale green colouring of the skin and dabbed this onto areas where I wanted to create a peeling, cracking skin effect over the pink, exposed areas.

And to finish here's a group shot of the army including the most recent units for a cumulative total of 4405pts

Next up are some kitbashed Nurgle Beastmen, using mostly plastic kits...

The Bestiary of the Exalted and the Unfortunate

Quite a while ago, over at the Oldhammer Forum, I signed up for a community project to create a conversion for each of the entries from the list of random Champions found in the Lost and the Damned book - a serious undertaking! There are already a host of excellent and imaginative conversions and paint jobs on that thread, so the standard is set pretty high.

I chose this particular entry with a host on interesting attributes to create, for my first go:


160 --- Dwarf --- Horrible stench, all arms tentacles, multiple heads (3), bestial face on 2 heads (goat) and featureless head on 3rd

I had an unwanted Marauder Dwarf troll-slayer lying around ready to be mutilated! Only recently I was reminded of my participation and so therefore bought my conversion out of the depths of my "to paint" tray and, well painted him:

I went for a realistic skin tone and alternative blonde/ginger hair for the beards and hairstyles so as to not make the model too busy with lots of bold and vibrant colours. The cool blue of the trousers were deliberately chosen to counter the other warm colours used.

The conversion was pretty simple really; some careful snipping off of his arms, some delicate gouging of his eyes and nose followed by some wire pinned into position for where the tentacles would go. The two beastmen heads were glued in place and some greenstuff used to sculpt the tentacles around the wire armature. The weapons were finally added and then all the gaps were filled and some additional hair sculpted to hide some of the unsightly gaps between the multiple heads.

His backstory?:

From a young age Bromni eschewed all contact with his kin; their mundane conversations, lowly ambitions and monotony of routine angered him. As soon as was possible he up and left, leaving his family without even a goodbye. He had decided to go on grand adventures, explore the world and live life to the full. It was of course destiny that he should eventually join up with a cult of dwarfs known as Trollslayers; those destructive warriors that look to defeat their enemies or face certain death. Working alone with just their axe as company. This was perfect for Bromni.

And he was good at it. Trolls were slain and his reputation as a fierceome slayer grew. He hated the adulation that he started to receive - other adventurers seeking him out, wealthy Dwarves looking to offer him money to fight their enemies, so it was unsurprising that Bromni withdrew further from civilisation and wandered further north into the chaos wastes looking for a true fight. 

Everything changed for him one fateful day. He had tracked down a group of trolls to a marsh somewhere in the realm of chaos. But, unbeknownst to Bromni these trolls were led by a powerful sorcerer. Bromni slayed the seven trolls after a fierce fight and was cleaning his axe when the sorcerer returned from an errand. He feigned ignorance of the trolls and instead showed Bromni exaggerated respect and offered the young dwarf an ale. Over the ale the sorcerer skillfully asked questions of Bromni and discovered his desire to fight bigger foes and his disdain for company. The sorcerer saw his opportunity to punish the Dwarf, casting a multiple head spell, where the heads of the next two enemies slain by the dwarf would begin to grow next to his own head. It was not long after this chance meeting that Bromni slayed a warband of beastmen and of course the heads of two of these beasts began to appear from his shoulder. The horror of this situation broke the young dwarf and he wandered for days with the constant chatter and braying of the beastmen always accompanying his every waking moment. It was of course no surprise when the sorcerer re-appeared and offered Bromni salvation as a follower of his chaos god. The path to damnation was set....