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I'm looking to add a Chaos Lord to my Death Guard army to back up an artillery backline.

I already have the Chaos Lord in Terminator army model and that looks OK. I left the fur cloak off and went for the unarmored head and it seems to fit in pretty well with the rest of the Death Guard. But looking for the Chaos Lord model I seem to be a bit stuck.

GW have these:
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/CSM-Lord-2
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Chaos-Lord

The pictures they offer don't seem right, not keen on the fur and the horns. There are no pictures of the sprues for me to work out if you get some head options. I've never converted miniatures before, to hacking off things like horns and fur might well be beyond me.

So, my questions...

1) Does anyone know if either of those two models come with optional heads that are a bit more "Death Guardy".
2) Forge World offer a CSM Sorcerer (https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-GB/Nurgle-Chaos-Space-Marine-Sorcerer) that looks a much better fit. I presume it's on the "right" sized base so would be OK. I've only just got back into the game, so I don't know the etiquette, but if I turned up to a club and said "this isn't a sorcerer, it's a Lord" would I be being cheeky and is that pushing the limit of what most would see as "acceptable".

I can tell you are new to the hobby.

The first model is around 15 years old and doesn’t have options. It’s also fine cast so you might want to avoid that model. It’s based on an old warhammer fantasy chaos lord with some 40k bits added on. I used to own that model for my Chaos army, it’s a nice sculpt but it also might be very small next to the rest of the new death guard line.

The second chaos lord is only a few years old and it also for warhammer fantasy. It also doesn’t have any options. You could easily convert him up by swapping out the head for a helmet and adding a backpack to his armour. He is also a nice sculpt, I also own him. He’s large enough to use with your death guard probably.

You could convert a chaos lord from your basic death guard plague marine squads too if you want. Converting is not difficult and is actually really fun. I convert quite a bit. If I don’t like a particular model GW made, or I think it can be improved. I just cut it up and glue some stuff together. I think the first most important thing about converting is having the courage to destroy an expensive model.

You could use the forge world model too, he’s nice and should fit the death guard aesthetic much more than the 2 GW chaos lords.

In my experience, most people don’t care about conversions as long as they are roughly equal to the model you are representing. I’m using the lord of contagion from the dark imperium box as my terminator sorcerer for example.

Really the only time you should need to check about your model conversions is if you are entering a tournament. Some tournaments have very strict rules regarding models, but in casual play there should be no problem.

It’s your hobby, money, time. Do what you want with the hobby. Make your army unique.

As long as the model has roughly the right sort of armour and weapons and is about the right size it doesn't really matter what model you use. For power armoured Nurgle marine any of the non-terminator Death Guard marines would be a good starting point, just glue on the right weapons. What sort of gear you want for your lord? (And that FW model is absolutely fine too.)

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
I can tell you are new to the hobby.

Well... New, and old... I dabbled a bit with Rogue Trader when it first came out.

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
The first model is around 15 years old and doesn’t have options. It’s also fine cast so you might want to avoid that model. It’s based on an old warhammer fantasy chaos lord with some 40k bits added on. I used to own that model for my Chaos army, it’s a nice sculpt but it also might be very small next to the rest of the new death guard line.

I've built the fine cast Nurgle Daemon Prince, and I built quite a bit of the old metal stuff, so that alone is not off putting. But the confirmation of lack of options and the query about the size are enough to make me think "no", I'm glad that I asked.

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
You could convert a chaos lord from your basic death guard plague marine squads too if you want. Converting is not difficult and is actually really fun. I convert quite a bit. If I don’t like a particular model GW made, or I think it can be improved. I just cut it up and glue some stuff together. I think the first most important thing about converting is having the courage to destroy an expensive model.

I'm building up my bit box again after dumping my last one many years ago, so I'm approaching the point I'll want to begin playing around with things. But I don't think I've got quite enough stuff yet, nearly though, nearly...

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
In my experience, most people don’t care about conversions as long as they are roughly equal to the model you are representing. I’m using the lord of contagion from the dark imperium box as my terminator sorcerer for example.

Very good to know, thanks.

 Uther wrote:

2) Forge World offer a CSM Sorcerer (https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-GB/Nurgle-Chaos-Space-Marine-Sorcerer) that looks a much better fit. I presume it's on the "right" sized base so would be OK. I've only just got back into the game, so I don't know the etiquette, but if I turned up to a club and said "this isn't a sorcerer, it's a Lord" would I be being cheeky and is that pushing the limit of what most would see as "acceptable".

That sorcerer isn't a good choice, for two reasons. First, he's way smaller than his subordinates - the new plague marines models. Then, it's wargear is odd - some kind of spear and a bolt pistol. You'd have to cut and glue a bit to make it's spear look like a sword, and be stuck with a bolt pistol for shooting which is not nice.

Consider making a lord out of Mr. Noxious Blightbringer from Dark Imperium starter set - he is of the right size, the model is lordy and great in itself. It features a plasma pistol which is great for a lord as it could be shoot in melee with in-build reroll. The only conversion this would take is to cut a bell from his left hand and replace it with a bubotic sword (as this is the only plague weapon available to a DG lord).

This guy looks like a nurgley chaos lord to me.


This guy with the cloak would be good too, and is probably a good starting point if you want to convert, as it is multipart so gluing on different weapon arms is a piece of cake.

 Crimson wrote:
As long as the model has roughly the right sort of armour and weapons and is about the right size it doesn't really matter what model you use. For power armoured Nurgle marine any of the non-terminator Death Guard marines would be a good starting point, just glue on the right weapons. What sort of gear you want for your lord? (And that FW model is absolutely fine too.)

I'm thinking to keep the Lord as cheap as possible, which is why I don't want to use the Terminator equivalent for this role. He's going to be hanging around at the back boosting the artillery with his re-rolls, that's his role. 2 points for a combi-bolter seems about as far as I want to go.

I've not got a spare combi-bolter, but I do have bolters, that would at least be a step in the right direction...

 Uther wrote:


I'm thinking to keep the Lord as cheap as possible, which is why I don't want to use the Terminator equivalent for this role. He's going to be hanging around at the back boosting the artillery with his re-rolls, that's his role. 2 points for a combi-bolter seems about as far as I want to go.

I've not got a spare combi-bolter, but I do have bolters, that would at least be a step in the right direction...

I'd at least give him a power weapon. You might not intend him to end up in CC, but the enemy might have other ideas. The lord has pretty impressive combat stats and four points for a power sword is a bargain.

 Crimson wrote:
This guy looks like a nurgley chaos lord to me.

I was thinking of picking up another box of Plague Marines to give me some melee options anyway, so I could repurpose the champion into a Lord, good plan, thanks.

So, to conclude, a "Plague Marine" sized miniature on a 32mm base would be perfectly fine for most people.

 Uther wrote:


So, to conclude, a "Plague Marine" sized miniature on a 32mm base would be perfectly fine for most people.

Absolutely.

Yep, gotta agree the best choice atm would be just converting and adding on to a standard plague marine or champ. The plague surgeon is also a fairly neutral model if you want to do some mild converting (idk how easy it is to tinker with, haven't bought one yet).

My old solution to this was using vanilla space marine chaplains and converting them a bit. It's honestly refreshing that our model range is getting to the point where using normal SM models and converting them isn't the cheapest and best looking option by default.

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/catalog/product/920x950/60010199015_40KDarkImperiumENG15.jpg

Heck i took the guy that is on the back left row, changed the sword and pistol out for an axe and a plasma pistol and called them done.

The new units are all insanely detailed for a regular infantry unit. (For death guard.)