Making Death Guard Great Again: A Challenge

“I shall reap a terrible bounty from the death that I sow in your name, Father Nurgle…”

In our last episode of Dragged into Turbolasers we had a lot of critical things to say about the majority of the new Death Guard models. In recent years, we have become increasingly concerned with scale and anatomical accuracy of Games Workshop’s models, and were thrilled when they released the Primaris Space Marines that corrected many of traditional Space Marines’ egregious errors. Unfortunately, aside from Mortarion, the vast majority of the new Death Guard models have not benefited from the Primaris’ improved anatomy, and instead are plagued by massive thigh gaps between their legs and a veritable lack of abdomens, making the range looks awkward and seem like a step backwards. Now, I know that it could be argued that the blessing of Grandfather Nurgle and the passage of thousands of years would have vastly changed their anatomy, so it does not need to make sense. I can accept this to some extent, but I am still doubtful that their proportions were purposefully left wonky to fit with their patron god. But maybe Grandfather Nurgle blesses all of his followers with kyphosis as their first rite of passage? But, I digress… Upon the suggestion from the talented and prolific bigbossredskullz, we decided that we should try to convert a Death Guard model using some of the new models, trying to live up to their storied legacy, instead of simply criticizing. Spiralling from the discussion with bigbossredskullz, together we decided it would be fun to start up a challenge, reminiscent to our Kingdom Death multipart kit Challenge, but open it up to anyone interested in participating.

Although the belly plate and loin cloth attempt to hide the terminator’s odd proportions, if you look from multiple angles, it is clear he hardly has a torso.

On the left, we have an illustration of a well-muscled man, the sort that I would expect out of a Space Marine. On the right, I have tried to draw in the same on a Death Guard Terminator, and ran into some trouble.

The rules are for the challenge are simple: build a Death Guard infantry model, partially based on one of the new Death Guard models (from the Dark Imperium starter box set or any of the newer sets), that attempts to correct some of the questionable anatomy present on the new Death Guard. Afterwards, you can post pictures of your creation on any social media platform of your choice with the tag: #makingdeathguardgreatagain. You can also email pictures to our blog email address (betweenthebolterandme@gmail.com) so that we can feature everyone’s creations on Between the Bolter and Me, showing the world that we still love Grandfather Nurgle! This challenge is open to anyone willing to participate and is simply for the fun of converting models. It is not intended to be a contest, but just an excuse to build some awesome Death Guard models! We do not have a strict timeline for the contest, partially because not all the Death Guard models are even released yet, and because we want to give as many people as possible to get involved. With this in mind, we will likely post everyone’s entries on the blog sometime in December, or depending on the popularity, possibly sooner and in multiple posts.

The Plague Marine suffers from similar anatomical abnormalities as the terminators, although they are not quite as alarming.

The first three Death Guard Terminators Adam built a few years back.

We at Between the Bolter and Me are not complete strangers to the Death Guard, and when the Nurgle Putrid Blightkings were released, converted a series of three terminators, based heavily on the Blightkings. These models were built before we really started to get serious about anatomical concerns, so they are not perfect. However, since they based around the Blightkings, which are fairly well-proportioned, they largely more plausible than the new Death Guard models. At the very least, they do not have their shoulders attached by their ears. With this challenge, however, we hope to revisit the Death Guard and do an even better job of creating truly terrifying Nurgle warriors!

- Adam, Eric, and Greg Wier