New Project: Nurgle Plague Marine Rhino

With all the recent rumours about the end of Specialist Games (denied by local GW staff) I've been in more of a nostalgic mood than usual. After starting to emerge from the forced sabbatical from gaming etc. I'm starting to want to back into the run of things. I wanted to get a fully painted 2000pt army on the table before the end of the year, that's my challenge. The Mawdryn army has become something of a stumbling block . as I can never quite decide how I want them to look exactly and spend more time worrying about that than actually doing anything. They're definitely not being abandoned, certainly not (neither have the Navy chaps).

 

I take an approach similar to the writer Geoff Dyer, who said the following as part of a piece on writing advice: "Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will always choose the latter. It's only if I have an idea for two books that I choose one rather than the other. I ­always have to feel that I'm bunking off from something."

So I wanted something, a new fresh project to boot me out of my apathy and infect a little enthusiasm back into my hobbying. This is where the nostalgia comes in. I've often said that I'm a Chaos player at heart. They were my first, albeit spiky, love. The very first miniatures I bought in the mid-90s were those mono-pose Nurgle Plaguemarines.They look pretty naff by modern standards, but there was something about them that clearly stood out at the time, I didn't buy Space Marines, Eldar or anything else. It was those. That's where it all began, and I've been tempted to go back more than once.

The first plastic Plague Marines, courtesy of Andy at Fully Painted 40k

I realised that all of my little mini projects, whether fluff, modelling, aesthetics, theme etc. could all be done in a single Nurgle army. My "Garbage World" of Vullis Prime and their PDF - all that could go into my Cultists (who should look suitably like be-ragged medieval lepers). The aquatic decay of the Heralds of Kephis, the weathered bronze of Mawdryn, biochemical warfare specialists, hordes of zombies and my general love of "urban decay" / urban exploration, old sewers and general entropy - all could be rolled into one army. It would also be a chance to get into the swing of painting, with Mawdryn I'm always concerned that it'll never be quite right, with a Nurgle army any painting slip-ups can easily be turned into a plus...  And I wouldn't need to worry about how they should look, the general look is already well defined, I just had to decide how I'd make them mine.

In my first proper weekend off in a while, I decided I'd build my old Space Marine Rhino with a good dose of Nurglification. The plan was to use what I already had in my bitz box - making it an "unofficial bitz box challenge." Here's the work-in-progress thus far, I wanted to save the post until I'd finished, but thought it'd be a good chance to get into the swing of blogging again.

The joys of rust, credits below

 I wanted to get the urban decay look here. The idea being that it should look like and old forgotten car (or tank) left in the middle of nowhere, slowly rusting to nothing as vegetation consumes it. Similarly, fitting in with the Nurgle theme, I wanted it to look like an old carcass in the shadow of carrion birds. I started running with that idea, that carcasses in wildlife documentaries (and case studies form my old forensics courses) can seeming look animated and alive, covered with gribbly insects and larvae etc. Life and Death rolled into one, that seemed suitably Nurgle-esque to me.

Following that line of inspiration, I thought it would be good to emulate the carcass aesthetics. I though a rusted away section showing struts / frame inside the hull would look suitable like a zombie's exposed rib cage (you know, the line of thought that all normal people have). I also thought a similar section showing a bundle of wires would look suitably like the typical "zombie holding intestines."
 

Guitar strings have so many uses. Well, a couple.

Rather than giving my APC pustules and pox on the outside (nothing wrong with that look, I just didn't want to go for it myself), I wanted it to seem like all the teeming Nurgley life was inside the carcass of the Rhino and emerging from the seams. I thought a few maggots crawling in and out of various gaps would finish the approach and be suitable Nurglish and grim.

Maggots emerge from "rib cage."

With this intention, I cut away the inset plastic sections towards the back and replaced them with a metal gauze - this could be damaged to allow maggots out, or to have a bit of "Nurgle ooze" running from it. It also looks a little like the older Rhino miniature. I did the same with the windscreen guard, making a single slot in it (like a variant of the old Rhino) an expanding it slightly and adding a little of the gauze. I thought this would help the industrial decay look a little. Incidentally the gauze is from a frying pan cover, £1.49 from Boyes - bargain.

With the paint work, the plan is a few sections of heavy textured rust, particularly around the worn away sections. As the for the general scheme, I'll try a general mix of bleahced bone, light greys and browns - the same with the Marines themselve. That's all for now folks, thanks for reading. 

Obligatory Nurgle icon, hewn from a Defiler piece. Plus some Chaos-y hooks.

 Montage Image Credits:

1. Unknown
2. cainpascoe.deviantart.com
3. erezmarom.com