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Just a quick question for everyone-

If I ran a Death Guard army using the Horus Heresy Death Guard color scheme on MK 4 power armored Space Marines and say they're Plague Marines, would that disturb you in any way?

The reason why I ask this is because I'm not too into the 'rot' theme for my army but want to run the Death Guard Vectorium as the concept of solid troops is something of my type.

I like sticking with an army's background while playing.

Would this be too 'un-fluffy'?

If not, how could I say these guys (clean, un-rotted marines) are Death Guard of the current 40k?

I'd have no problem with it. I'm not really into nurgle's rotty look myself tbh unless it's painted really well.

Probably the most fluff-friendly way would be to paint them as pre-heresy death guard as you said. Can't see anyone objecting to a 30K legion painted in its true colours and not allowing it to use its 40K rules.

Plus who know's what kind of horrible disease is going on under that nice clean armour?

Overdose wrote:
Just a quick question for everyone-

If I ran a Death Guard army using the Horus Heresy Death Guard color scheme on MK 4 power armored Space Marines and say they're Plague Marines, would that disturb you in any way?

The reason why I ask this is because I'm not too into the 'rot' theme for my army but want to run the Death Guard Vectorium as the concept of solid troops is something of my type.

I like sticking with an army's background while playing.

Would this be too 'un-fluffy'?

If not, how could I say these guys (clean, un-rotted marines) are Death Guard of the current 40k?

If I played Death Guard, I would do the same thing. I don't care for the rot theme either.

I wouldn't stop you, but I wouldn't feel super comfortable about non-nurglified models being used as Plague Marines. If you wanted a more subdued nurgle look, you could for a very toned version of the leaking ooze the Cleaved have. If you were determined to have a clean look for your DG, maybe extensive bionics for the MoN marines? There would just have to be something to set them apart from "normal" marines.

 nurgle5 wrote:
I wouldn't stop you, but I wouldn't feel super comfortable about non-nurglified models being used as Plague Marines. If you wanted a more subdued nurgle look, you could for a very toned version of the leaking ooze the Cleaved have. If you were determined to have a clean look for your DG, maybe extensive bionics for the MoN marines? There would just have to something to set them apart from "normal" marines.

I was thinking maybe replacing just the helmets/heads of the MK4 models to the current CSM ones or using zombie heads instead?
Or maybe giving them all hoodies to cover their face?
Would that work out?

Sounds awesome to me - I wouldn't be over-influenced by random internet advice though. If it looks cool and makes you happy then do it.

Also people will probably be less likely to care the more cool it looks

Overdose wrote:

I was thinking maybe replacing just the helmets/heads of the MK4 models to the current CSM ones or using zombie heads instead?
Or maybe giving them all hoodies to cover their face?
Would that work out?

The zombie heads could work great with Mk4 models. I'll try and dig up the issue when I get home, but there was White Dwarf aeons ago where a chap made his death guard by putting the WHFB zombie heads on the plastic CSM kit. The entire army was dry-brushed, so it had more a rusted than rotten aesthetic.

At the end of the day, it is your hobby project, I would just recommend that the plague marines are easily recognizable as plague marines on the tabletop.

One of my team mates ran marines with boarding shields to represent "clean" plague marines in the TT at Adepticon a few years back. No complaints from anyone, and very noticeable on the table. The most important part is to make it obvious for your opponent that they are not just regular dudes. Not sure that using a different Mk of armor would do that.

 nurgle5 wrote:

Overdose wrote:

I was thinking maybe replacing just the helmets/heads of the MK4 models to the current CSM ones or using zombie heads instead?
Or maybe giving them all hoodies to cover their face?
Would that work out?

The zombie heads could work great with Mk4 models. I'll try and dig up the issue when I get home, but there was White Dwarf aeons ago where a chap made his death guard by putting the WHFB zombie heads on the plastic CSM kit. The entire army was dry-brushed, so it had more a rusted than rotten aesthetic.

At the end of the day, it is your hobby project, I would just recommend that the plague marines are easily recognizable as plague marines on the tabletop.

I play DG and I would not have an issue with this at all. If you want different heads though, you could just use Plague Marines and paint them a little more clean minus the bloated areas. Plague Marine fluff is pretty solid on how they are made, so not every PM is 10k years old. Could be freshly made PMs put in looted loyalist power armor, or stockpiled armor. Only problem with PM models is they are not easily changeable, just a few pieces and glue them together VS a normal marine which is fully assembled from the sprue.

I almost painted my whole legion white and washed in light green, so I think a white DG heresy era paint scheme would rock. Just make sure the PMs and the normal marines are easy to tell apart.

nurgle5 wrote:

Overdose wrote:

I was thinking maybe replacing just the helmets/heads of the MK4 models to the current CSM ones or using zombie heads instead?
Or maybe giving them all hoodies to cover their face?
Would that work out?

The zombie heads could work great with Mk4 models. I'll try and dig up the issue when I get home, but there was White Dwarf aeons ago where a chap made his death guard by putting the WHFB zombie heads on the plastic CSM kit. The entire army was dry-brushed, so it had more a rusted than rotten aesthetic.

At the end of the day, it is your hobby project, I would just recommend that the plague marines are easily recognizable as plague marines on the tabletop.

That sounds great, if you could possibly dig that up that'd be really awesome.

whalemusic360 wrote:One of my team mates ran marines with boarding shields to represent "clean" plague marines in the TT at Adepticon a few years back. No complaints from anyone, and very noticeable on the table. The most important part is to make it obvious for your opponent that they are not just regular dudes. Not sure that using a different Mk of armor would do that.

What do you mean by 'boarding shields'? Do you mean the FW ones?

I was actually considering doing a clean 40k DG army in pre heresy colors. But then my son stole the Mk3 dudes and autocannons for his army. Meh... I think it would look good. Like others have said I dont like the rotted/rusty look and would be happy to play against an army like that.

I have 2 Death Guard armies.

One's my primarily 40k based Plague Army.

The other's my 30k Death Guard, with muddied up armour. I treat them in 40k as 'War Ghosts' of a sort....perhaps a contingent that got lost or perhaps just the warp mocking them with memories of their former glory. Still run them as Death Guard.

And to be fair, don't really run Plague Marines anymore. For 6 points less per model I get CSM doing virtually everything the same. Sure, I lose blight grenades and poisoned weapons - but wait, stick a Blight Grenade carrying IC in the unit - problem solved. Poisoned's not an issue as their job is to sit on an objective, not chase after MCs and the like. Other units do that better.

Overdose wrote:

whalemusic360 wrote:One of my team mates ran marines with boarding shields to represent "clean" plague marines in the TT at Adepticon a few years back. No complaints from anyone, and very noticeable on the table. The most important part is to make it obvious for your opponent that they are not just regular dudes. Not sure that using a different Mk of armor would do that.

What do you mean by 'boarding shields'? Do you mean the FW ones?

Yeah, sorry. Was to lazy to dig up a link.

I run my 30k DG as normal 40k DG and no one has ever raised a concern. I keep my "plaugie" models to my demon allies.

Nobody should care. I've only ever used regular Marines for any role because I hate bling and flesh.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
Nobody should care. I've only ever used regular Marines for any role because I hate bling and flesh.

Yeah, there's no reason to not use regular Space Marines for CSM in many/most cases.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:Nobody should care. I've only ever used regular Marines for any role because I hate bling and flesh.

John Prins wrote:Yeah, there's no reason to not use regular Space Marines for CSM in many/most cases.

IMHO units should be easily identifiable on the tabletop. There's nothing wrong with proxying normal marines/chaos marines as Plague Marines per se, (and without something to denote them as Plague Marines it is proxying) but it'd be an issue if you were running Plague Marines, CSM with the MoN and non-marked units that all looked the same.

Overdose wrote:
That sounds great, if you could possibly dig that up that'd be really awesome.

Found the pic, attached below. The conversion isn't too extreme, but they're very clearly not 'normal' marines.

 nurgle5 wrote:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:Nobody should care. I've only ever used regular Marines for any role because I hate bling and flesh.

John Prins wrote:Yeah, there's no reason to not use regular Space Marines for CSM in many/most cases.

IMHO units should be easily identifiable on the tabletop. There's nothing wrong with proxying normal marines/chaos marines as Plague Marines per se, (and without something to denote them as Plague Marines it is proxying) but it'd be an issue if you were running Plague Marines, CSM with the MoN and non-marked units that all looked the same.

Overdose wrote:
That sounds great, if you could possibly dig that up that'd be really awesome.

Found the pic, attached below. The conversion isn't too extreme, but they're very clearly not 'normal' marines.

Thanks for going through the trouble to post that up! They look very nurgly indeed without going over the top, just like how I want to do them. (except they'll be in MK4 armor)
I guess the key thing is distinguishing the Plague Marines and CSM apart.

Thank you for that once again

One thing I've always wanted to try (but it's on a long list) is a Nurgle army with an emaciated look.

Sickness doesn't always produce bloat and pus and sores. Sometimes it just ravages people and makes them look like emaciated husks.

Always thought that'd be a cool take on something Nurgly...

I'm finding the thread title particularly amusing because the pre-Heresy Death Guard paint scheme isn't known for being 'clean' at all; it's unpainted (grey-white) ceramite stained in mud/dust and subtly trimmed in green (take Nurgle5's picture and imagine it with a sort of dull muddy green on the raised armour rims and you'll be pretty close, I'd post a picture but mine are still unassembled for painting).

The primary issue with any proxy of one power-armoured unit for another is making sure you can tell which models are which quickly and easily, you don't want to do subtle variations that you have to sit down and think about. If you're running exclusively Plague Marines or exclusively Mark of Nurgle CSM squads in Troops I'd say you don't really have much to worry about using Heresy models, but if you want to use both you're going to need to differentiate them. You might, for instance, use Heresy models for your Marines and Havocs, but then use regular CSM with the spiky armour trim, horned helmets, and wider Mk.5 backpacks as your Plague Marines, with a full green scheme to further differentiate them from the dirty white on the rest of the models.

My number one thing for Plague Marines is to model them with knives drawn. Pistol gripping a bolt gun is even better.

Wielding a knife as their weapon really helps distinguish them from regular nurgle marines.

If you can't do this, then at least do something to make it clear which are the plagueies.

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
One thing I've always wanted to try (but it's on a long list) is a Nurgle army with an emaciated look.

Sickness doesn't always produce bloat and pus and sores. Sometimes it just ravages people and makes them look like emaciated husks.

Always thought that'd be a cool take on something Nurgly...

Power armour, only with skeleton heads painted in flesh tones. Take the phrase "he was just skin and bones..." to the logical extreme.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
One thing I've always wanted to try (but it's on a long list) is a Nurgle army with an emaciated look.

Sickness doesn't always produce bloat and pus and sores. Sometimes it just ravages people and makes them look like emaciated husks.

Always thought that'd be a cool take on something Nurgly...

Power armour, only with skeleton heads painted in flesh tones. Take the phrase "he was just skin and bones..." to the logical extreme.

Awesome

I'm thinking you could do something truly disturbing with Plaguebearers as well...

Complete opposite of clean death guard army, but I couldn't resist sharing my work with the mention of 1 hand wielding, knives and plaguebearers. I've made greenstuff casts of their bellies to use on my DG I'm trying to go for no chain weaponry, and more lazily posed marines. This army will take a good while, but no one said nurgle was quick.

Originally I was going to run a clean armor, with a nasty paint job, like the earlier posted image. I it out time and time again and just was never satisfied and couldn't make it look how I imagined. I ended up going full corrosion instead.

Those are awesome! Love me a bit of belly on a filthgod superhuman killing machine. Good choices of helmets, too. Somehow the regular horns just don't look right on DG. Where did you get the horns for the second one?

Edit: 2 year old says he likes the fourth one, and I have to agree. I love the use of the berserker helmets for Nurgle marines*. He ask's whats his name? He says your DG are 'poo robot man', so I guess that means you did a good job!

* here is my ex DG Black Legionnaire with such a helmet, but no cables sadly.



I was working on a chosen squad with one of each cult legion and one undivided that had head hunted them.



I never used them as it annoys me that I didn't model all of them with 1) bolter, ccw plus bolt pistol, and 2) the ex-EC has two power swords and that itches my WYSIWYG sense. Never really finished painting them either cos of this irk.

OP I hope you are inspired to post your clean models, as it is obvious most people like to gribble their DG/Nurgle/Plagueies. Show us we all did it wrong!

I am going to have to add more effects to get them to pass as Plague Marines, but I am very happy for them to be mark of nurgle marines.

If you want to go clean, there are many other suitable factions.

 Rippy wrote:
If you want to go clean, there are many other suitable factions.

Would love to hear suggestions

It's mainly because I love the DG rules/formations.

 nurgle5 wrote:
Found the pic, attached below. The conversion isn't too extreme, but they're very clearly not 'normal' marines.

I like how shocked the guy is by his chainsword (probably surprised it works or something) while the guys behind him are very obviously annoyed by it.