+ inload: Death Guard resurgence +

+ Something wicked this way comes +

+ Ah, a new(ish) year – time for a return to the squamous delights of the Death Guard. The new Plague Marines kit is complex, but full of fantastic detail. I can't rate it as highly as the new Warlord Titan for Adeptus Titanicus, which I think is quite the best kit GW have ever produced in terms of engineering, but the Plague Marines have clearly been the recipient of some very enthuastic designers. +

A mix of parts from the main kit, Dark Imperium and easy-builds. Some – like the champion here – are so distinctive that kitbashing will never hide their origin. You can either go more ambitious with conversion, or just accept a little homogeneity. Personally, I don't mind a little duplication: you can do a lot to make things distinct with painting.

+ The Plague Marine box is packed with options and variation, but at the same time the figures you build out of the box are quite limited. In creating ways to have such wonderfully detailed figures, the flat sprue technology has been pushed to its limits. Two-part shoulder pads, optional torso fronts built to fit around spalling flesh and rot... it's a kit that couldn't realsitically have existed prior to computer assisted design. +

As I built the Plague Marine kit, I incorporated pats of the Dark Imperium easy-build versions, too. It's a quick way to create more variety – particularly useful for a kit with such fixed poses. Head swaps and trimming extraneous details goes a long way to making models more individual and preventing duplication.

+ In many ways it's an odd kit, and the more I built from it, the more I wonder if it was a case of the designers producing too many bits to fit, or perhaps a compromise driven by the sales team. Even the in-game rules seem a bit of a kludge, with far more options than equivalent units; allowing for an assault variant, a shooty option, or a mix of the two. I quite like this flexibility, but I wonder if the original plan was to have two distinct unit types – a 'standard' Plague Marine squad, and a more close-in assault version, or veteran type? +

The three-man easy builds have flooded the second-hand market, and you can buy them very cheaply. With just a few tweaks, you can make some models that hide the origin nicely. My favourite conversion here is the chap on the right. I think the base model, from the Dark Imperium set, looks great, but is very distinctive. Changing his arms gives a very different feel.

+ That would go some way to explaining the odd number of models in the box (although we ought to remember that seven is the Plague God's holy number in the lore), the unusually large amount of weapon variety, and also explain why the release was accompanied by the odd accompanying mini-releases – the three-man easy build version; the limited three-man 'Plague Brethren' version; and the separate icon bearer and champion... +

Some more specialist models here. Two with plasma guns, one with a flail. Note the scattering of green easy-build parts alongside the standard kit. I've aimed to slightly tone down the spikiness – I've used quite a few 'plain' parts from the Mark III kit, too – but chaos isn't chaos if you completely clean it up. By leaving some more flamboyant parts, you improve the look of the force en-masse.

+ Of course, we'll likely never know, but I think a ten-man 'standard' kit, with the regular upgrade weapons (plasma gun, melta gun, flamer) might have been on the cards, alongside a five-man 'elite' kit containing the plague spewers, flails and the like. Who knows? In the end, when the kit's as good as this, it doesn't really matter :) +

+++

+ A Realm of Chaos-era classic. Snippets of colour text at the bottom really help to spark your imagination, and the artwork provides some great inspiration for colour palette and freehand designs. +

+ The Queenking of Cockroaches +

+ A very cool third-party sorcerer; this'll join my force as... er... something. Haven't decided what, yet! Sometimes a model is just strong enough to demand a place. +

+ Nurglings, poxwalkers and support +