Putrid Blightkings: Death Guard Terminator Conversion 2 Finished

Their number grows...

After the success of finishing my first Death Guard terminator, I was excited to start working on the others, and see what Nurgle elements I could explore.  For this second Death Guard terminator, I really wanted to show a warrior who has been blessed by Father Nurgle, a bloated and corpulent warrior, nigh on bursting from the seams of his armor. I am happy to report that the 2nd Death Guard terminator is finished and awaiting paint.

The second Death Guard terminator in all his rancid glory!

Like with the previous Death Guard conversion, for this one I went about encasing the Blightking body with fragments of Cataphractii terminator armor. However in the case of this new model I decided to make his armor look much more ragged and torn, revealing his bloated and corpulent body.  To do this, I focused the model around the plastic Blightking’s gaping maw that formed his belly, complete with a long slavering tongue.  This body is one of the most iconic elements of the new Blightking kit, and I did not want to lose it.  The process of cutting up and hollowing out Cataphractii terminator armor and piecing it on top of the Blightking base worked about the same for this model as the last.  In this case, I just had to be more aggressive with the cutting and leave more of the flesh of the model exposed. While the model’s lower back is covered in armor, I left his upper back and neck area exposed. Using greenstuff I made each of the edges of the armor look buckled and twisted (Like his belly mouth eventually just burst out of his armored torso). To add to the ruptured effect I was creating with his armor, I started to incorporate severed cables and wires. The majority of this cabling I used came from  Zinge Industries, who make some very nice poseable cables.

A Reaper Autocannon seemed the prefect weapon for a patron of Father Nurgle.

The bulky, bloated nature of this warrior made me envision him as a heavy weapon specialist.  And when I think of Chaos terminators, the Reaper Autocannon is what comes to mind, and it seemed a suitable weapon for the terminator.  I talked about creating this weapon a while back, but very briefly, I clipped off the rotating barrels of an assault cannon and replaced them with one of the barrels from a Cataphractii autocannon.  While it is a huge weapon, I feel it fits quite well with the aesthetic of the model.

I spent a lot of time trying to make his armor look convincingly ruptured.

When I first started this project, I knew it was going to involve quite extensive conversion work, but I did not quite know what I was getting myself into. All these months later, I am really glad that I stuck with the project, and did not compromise my vision due to apprehension that my skills with green stuff where not up for the task. Just one more to finish before I have a valid unit for 40k (5 would be ideal, but 3 is pretty good)!

- Adam Wier