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:
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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.
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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
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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.
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| 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. |
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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)
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Again a traditional beastman where I was focusing on pose and creating that Nurgle appearance through mixing familiar kits.
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The next few are the more recent conversions that I made from scratch to complete the unit:
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A metal horror's legs, beastman torso and some Mantic ghoul pieces make this little fella.
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Mostly beastman bits, but I wanted him to be a skull collector, you can see his collection around his waist.
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| Orc, Gnoblar and Kroot bits fused together makes a pretty unique character. Extra hand weapon always seem to equate to extra cool. |
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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.
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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.
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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.
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| 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. |
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The kroot head makes an appearance as does a spider leg for an arm. This one has quite the dynamic pose.
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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)
