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I've always liked the Death Guard, their back story, tactics, their "Grim Reaper' looking boss, but I've never been a fan of the 'bloated puss filled Marines' look. I kinda hoped GW was going to tune that down a bit, but that clearly does not seem to be the case, now we are looking at a Sorcerer casting a stream of puss at people. I also think the idea of a plague ridden corpse being all bloated is rather stupid, that's not how a body would decay if it was up and moving around, the gasses that cause that bloat would escape in a number of other ways. Plus, have you ever seen someone suffering from a plague? They aren't all bloated and fat, they are would be emaciated, all thin and bony.

The new release info on the up and coming Death Guard got me to thinking about this project that I've had on the back burner. So I've been wondering if anyone has seen any good Death Guard conversions out there that have the emaciated look as opposed to the bloated, puss filled, hey my intestines are swinging so low I may trip on them look?

I just use a bunch of the older Mk armor from FW. When I eventually get around to painting, I'll be doing a rust kinda thing on different parts for a "decay".

Otherwise just use robotic parts and go with the Iron Hands/Warriors route of that they're tougher from cybernetics.

Not sure how you would look power armour look emaciated...

But, really Death Guard are not rotting corpse, they have been gifted with Nurgle's pestilences and diseases.

They are bloated with corruption

My old Nurgle army was just a bunch of loyalist marines painted green

I mean thats the whole nurgle look. If we get really technical about how rotting corpses look, we can also say that they dont sprout huge horns either

I'm actually of the opinion that the new Plague Marine stuff looks...too clean. Far too clean

Might be the paint job.


That said, one can also do Nurgle stuff in ways that isn't just decayed or rotten flesh and the like. I've seen some themes going very heavy on stuff like rust, frayed wires, skeletonized hands/arms/skulls/etc, more of junkyard type look (though not in an Orky way).

From the grand alliance chaos book on nurgle guys:
'Bodies swell and bloat with corruption, bulking up with layer upon layer of rancid flab and muscle until pitted skin strains and tears. Innards writhe with squealing parasites. Skin turns leprous white or rancid green, becoming tough as cured leather even as it breaks out in noxious boils and buboes that spread infection with every pop and splatter. '

They aren't dead. They're blessed with demon power to be walking disease farms. They don't suffer from their own diseases either, thats just how they look. Why not make a custom chaos chapter that utilizes the archetype you want and customize them accordingly? Its your hobby, do what you like.

In the FW conversion kit there are also some torsos that aren't bloated but rather corroded. As they use MKIII armour they should be a perfect fit for the new DG as well.
If one looks at the history of Plague marine models the metal ones from 5th-7th edition were the actual outliers, all the others being quite mutated and wearing MKIII.

Take Marines and damage their armour. Gouge out their midsection and replace it with parts from a skeleton miniature. Give them zombie heads, or just have bare flesh painted appropriately. Give some hoods that conceal all but their glistening red skinless, toothy mouths. Use other Nurgle devices like gas masks, MkII armour and weird helmets.

It's nothing to do with realism or how bodies really rot. Bloat and pus are just part of the Nurgle aesthetic, but that doesn't mean you have to go that way. I have to say that I don't like Nurgle either, but I do like it those rare times the Nurgle look is taken in that "Grim Reaper"/"dark and ghoulish" direction.

You could use Mk3 dudes with this paint scheme http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/The_Cleaved

I really hate to be that guy, but the bloated pus look is their look.
It may be the wrong faction for you, or maybe look at pre-heresy (30k DG)

This a good way of doing non-bloated, non-pus Plague Marines --

The gardens of nurgle contain a vast menagerie of diseases and his gifts are many and varied. Nurgle is the lord of decay and rust in many forms. I'm sure many warbands have picked up their own strain of contagion to spread across the galaxy.

A long time ago I converted some Nurgle marines from a mix of chaos and loyalists, mostly by having at them with a knife. Deep cracks and holes (triple holes especially) might give that emancipated look you're after.



Now personally I like the bloated look because it changes the over shape but I draw the line at intestines left dangling (it looks more silly than disgusting to me). And if you're mixing plague marines with regular MoN csm that's the best way to distinguish them. Those old models of mine just don't give off the impression of the legendary toughness of the Plague Marines to me. A Plague Marine with cracked and expanded armor from the bloat stage of infection that is now just a shell for a withered corpse and home for a swarm of flies, that might work. Or rip off the Thousand Sons and have a sealed suit of armor with the remains of a marine that has rotted to dust. Maybe not that.

While these aren't plague marines (they're normal Chaos Marines who will be marching alongside my plague marines)- my plague marines will only differ slightly. Scratched up armour and a wash, pretty simple.



When I do plague marines I'll add some more grime, and use some alternate bits - but I've never liked the over-done pus appearance. I prefer the much older model aesthetic which was rust, spiked helms, some wooden guns, and the occasional crack in the armour (and hoofed boots!)

I'm leaving the real plague to the plaguebearers.

The one thing that weirds me out is the teeth everywhere. It seems like new nurgle models grow horns and teeth everywhere for some reason. I think it would look a lot more "putrid" without them.

Plague Marines are not dead. They are bloated with corruption, their bodies coated in filth, disease and decay from some othe diseases they are blessed with. Not all those who pledge allegiance to Nurgle are gifted with bloat. Some are just gifted with disease. You can Nurgle them out with rusted armor and tarnished weapons as those also bear pestilence and disease.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
The one thing that weirds me out is the teeth everywhere. It seems like new nurgle models grow horns and teeth everywhere for some reason. I think it would look a lot more "putrid" without them.

Horns have been a quintessential "Nurgle" mutation. Single horns represent Plaguebearers and the bigger antler horns represent Great Unclean Ones and Tiny Nurglings.

Gases may be able to escape a naked or lightly clothed body, but what if your ass is covered in adamantium plate?

Nurgle marines are basically 10 thousand year old walking nuclear Dutch ovens.

You leave the Dutch out of this!

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
The one thing that weirds me out is the teeth everywhere. It seems like new nurgle models grow horns and teeth everywhere for some reason. I think it would look a lot more "putrid" without them.

Horns have been a quintessential "Nurgle" mutation. Single horns represent Plaguebearers and the bigger antler horns represent Great Unclean Ones and Tiny Nurglings.

One or two horns on the head is fine. But these guys have horns sprouting out of everywhere. And then there's the teeth, which i would more associate with Tzeentch than Nurgle.

I think it would have looked a bit better if they limited the horns to just on the helmets (and the poxwalkers not being covered in them) and heads, and the teeth were replaced with cracked armor instead. When I get them that might just be the conversion I do.

I admit I was really off-put by the new Death Guard models. I had real hope, considering how restrained/attractive the large Tzeentch line release was. Hugely disappointed by the Death Guard approach.

You can do corroded and creepy w/out going high school slasher-flick levels of silliness. They're more of less caricatures of how I'd view a Death Guard - with few exceptions. The one fella with the grenade looks good (if you lose the wrought iron fence impaled on his shoulder).

I'm a little happy I don't feel any need to buy the new models, but I'm also sad since better ones would have meant a lot of cheap eBay reinforcements in a month or so.

I think the only reason gw had not done decay to this magnitude in the past was lack of competition in the high end sculpt market. now with so many options out there they had to step up their game so to speak to match the new mini companies on the block. honestly i think they are hitting the mark on nurgle, exactly as the lore often describes it.

The cleaved a re good suggestion.
If you don't want pus and guts, I'd go fro more of a rusted ghostly look.
Cracked and corroded armour / acid burns a bit like this (chest on the left) or this.
Copious amounts of maggots are always suitable, especially if you combine that with beehives. (google Trypophobia and put a nurgle spin on it...or don't if you want to sleep XD)
Make them stumble a bit as a result perhaps, except for the more lucid members such as champions etc.

You could even go with emaciated husks under the armour, so sort of a rubric marine spin on plague marines. The marines are only half there while their armour/body serves as delivery platform for disease.
They're not simply rotting away after all, they are (literally) magically sustained as their body and mind, to a degree, are wasting away more than would be physically possible.
You gave the example of gas escaping, but didn't account for said gas being generated continuously and their flesh being mended just enough to keep a festering environment for all kinds of nastyness to flourish.
You could think of them as a nurgle version of kirby. They don't quite have a pocket dimension of warp inside of them lol, but papa nurgle still has quite a grip on them.

Besides, metal can rot in a sense. You get rust, which can go as far as tearing holes and paint can form bubbles as well. Add some Oil/rotten blood here and there.
Shredded rags and hoods to hide features. You know, give the impression that there is something more under that hood than "just" a marine.

I kind of like this pic for example. Just imagine it with rusted HH marines.
One marine in a hood looks cool, whole squads of slow-walking hooded marines gives a whole different menacing vibe.

 Elbows wrote:
I admit I was really off-put by the new Death Guard models. I had real hope, considering how restrained/attractive the large Tzeentch line release was. Hugely disappointed by the Death Guard approach.

You can do corroded and creepy w/out going high school slasher-flick levels of silliness. They're more of less caricatures of how I'd view a Death Guard - with few exceptions. The one fella with the grenade looks good (if you lose the wrought iron fence impaled on his shoulder).

The GW paint scheme/presentation is almost certainly doing the miniatures no favours, I fully expect the new DG to look better with a less polished, more gritty and grimy paint job. The studio paint scheme looks cartoonish imho. Having said that, I'm not enthused about the belly mouths, but a mild bit greenstuff would probably sort those easy enough.

I do think the new models look to busy with too much of a random assortment of details just thrown on. I wonder how much potential the kit has for conversion though. How easy it is to trim away the superfluous details. With enough kits you might be able to make squads with a more unified look: one squad all with horns growing, another with gas masks and bells. Save the ones with teef and spilling guts to make possessed. Maybe all it'll take is replacing the shoulder pads with plain mk3 pauldrons will make the models less busy. I love the base mk3 armor and I don't dislike any one detail but taken all together as a squad it just looks like an overdesigned mess

EDIT: I dislike the poxwalkers for similar reasons, I only like 4 of out 10 of them. I like the rifle guy, I was hoping for a whole squad of guys looking like that

I like the new plague models in general. I just think the plague marines champion is perhaps a bit TOO mutated, he could easily pass as possessed. The drone is fine too, but I would have preferred a more insecty look. easily converted thouguh I think.

I really like the new DG models, but not a fan of the paint job. The mark of a good Nurgle paint job is when you look at a photo and can almost smell the model.