In my work building a Nurgle-themed Chaos Space Marine army, I’ve been looking for a uniquely-Nurgle way to have heavy support options for my list. Reading the Codex, and all the meta-game information on-line, there’s a real value in having Obliterators in one’s list. I wasn’t originally a big fan of obliterators from a fluff perspective, but they have certainly grown on me to the point that I’m actually a really big fan now of the concept behind them. To add to my oblit-fickleness, and something that I’ve been torn for some time, is that I’m not a huge fan of the Games Workshop Obliterator models. I’ve decided to take the plunge and make a bunch of scratch built ones for a variety of reasons:
- I’m not a fan of the official models
- I really love converting my own
- I want to make something original and uniquely my own
- I’ve never done a modeling/converting/sculpting project this ambitious before
So I’m off to eBay to look for parts. I’ve seen many folks on-line who’ve done several different types of conversions; some are pretty amazing. I’ll be looking into this and deciding on how I want to go.
This is my post as a running commentary on the building of several Nurgle-themed Obliterators for my Nurgle Chaos Space Marine army.
Inspiration:
I scoured the net for ideas and eBay for the parts I would need. I found several good examples of modified Games Workshop obliterators, but the ones that really caught my eye were the ones completely kit-based with lots of green stuff work. So I decided to get ambitious and try my hand at something along those lines. So I got the base concept in my head and started getting the parts.
Parts:
Here’s what I got in terms of parts for 9 custom Nurgle Obliterators:
- 2x sets Assault on Black Reach Terminators w/ bases (10 terminator bodies in total)
- 10x Chaos Terminator torso fronts for some of the models
- 10x Chaos Terminator Lord heads (bare heads) – not all of these will be used
- 3x Plasma Cannons
- 3x Lascannons (varied Imperial, mostly vehicle ones because they were cheaper)
- 2x Multi-meltas
- 6x Chaos Flamers
- 10x Melta Guns (Games Workshop pewter)
- 10x Plasma Guns (Games Workshop plastic)
- Random chaos power fist and posessed chaos marine arms I had leftover
- ABS Plasticard for backing of the arms/shoulders
- ABS Plastic tube for thighs
- 0.042 gauge guitar string for cabling/tubing, etc.
- Small paper clips for pinning
- Zap a gap glue
- Green stuff for conversion and sculpting
- Sculpting tools (metal)
- Mixed ballast for bases
I didn’t use all these parts on my first prototype, but this is the list I use for the majority of the 9 Obliterators I plan on building. I’m sure I’m not saving any money, but I’m hoping what I end up with is unique and instantly recognizable as Obliterators.
Prototype:
So here’s my prototype obliterator next to a Games Workshop obliterator:
Here he is just by himself, front view. He’s essentially an AoBR terminator with a mountain of green stuff on him. Head is a Khorne Berzerker head, carved down quite a bit and with a pin in his forehead with a green stuff horn coming out. I actually will later show that I removed this head and put a regular bare “Chaos Lord” terminator head in it’s place, I think it makes them look more like the iconic obliterators. Shoulder pads as you’ll see in other views are Forgeworld Chaos Nurgle shoulder pads, but I’ve built them up with a lot of green stuff. The torso is built up considerably with green stuff, which I’ll do with all of my obliterators in this project. Weapon arm on his right on this particular guy is a Lascannon, plasma gun, and melta gun. In a later pic I’ll show how I built up this arm to have some nasty daemon-y tentacle flesh with the guns morphing out of them.
Side shot, showing the lascannon and the other guns, which later will get built up with green stuff flesh mutating into the guns.
Other side, this is the power fist, later it will have flesh on it so that it looks like the flamer is morphing out of the fist.
Rear view.
Rear view, showing some of the detail on the shoulder. Not super-happy with the shoulder pads; I think I went a little over-board with the depth of the detail layers. I’ll probably tone it down in future incarnations. Hey, it’s a prototype.
Close up of the torso. I think the codpiece is actually a bit inspired. I was looking at this dude before I built up the thighs and addeded the codpiece and said, “He’s kinda got Incredible Hulk syndrome”, (the vast amount of green on him didn’t help); where everything is huge except his, um, center region. So I was thinking of what to do and saw this shoulder pad just laying on my bench. Inspiration hit, and it became his codpiece. Seems to be perfect size.
Top view. Later on he’ll have 4 horns sprouting out on top.
More side view but with high angle. Again, shoulder detail seems too deep. Will correct in future versions.
So here he is with the right side more fleshed out. Tried to go for a “cthulhu” type of tentacly-flesh stuff coming out as his arm/fingers. Seemed appropriately Nurgl-y. Also, with the build-up of the boots, he looked a little like he was on platforms, so I used some cup-up square-cross-section of ABS plastic to make lugs on the side of his boots, seems to have turned out; we’ll see after the paint job some time in the future.
Nurgle Obliterator – WIP #2
After continuing to work on my custom obliterators, I’m ready to show my 2nd incarnation:
Here he is sitting next to my prototype. I think he’s significantly more polished than the first. He did turn out pretty “bulky”, which at the end of the day is ok by me, in my mind these things are hulking monsters; just fine and dandy if he’s almost as wide as he is tall.
Here he is by himself. Lascannon/melta combo this time. I think in future iterations, I’m going to tone down the “number of guns at once” aspect of these guys; not entirely necessary to have them ridiculously bristling with weaponry.
This guy’s right shoulder pad is completely made of green stuff. I actually made it too big, and had to carve it down. I shaved it down a bit (that’s why it appears a little bit lighter green), and made it corroded and pock-marked by adding some shallow drilling with pin vices with various sized drill bits. Have a green-stuff ridge on the armor plate. This turned out ok, not as good as I wanted. Gun arm is fleshy with some Nurgly-bits in there.
Back view. Gives a good shot of the left shoulder pad, which I think turned out nice. I really like how the ABS plastic rod nubbins glued on there made for some nice armor studs, seems to have turned out well.
Left side view here. The left “power fist arm” is actually a Chaos possessed arm; I think these look like really good power fists that have been daemoned/warped a bit, so I think in the future I’ll use these a lot as the base for my oblit powerfists.
Nurgle Obliterator – WIP #3
Ok, making solid progress on these guys. Here is my 3rd work in progress oblit:
Front view. This guy has a melta gun kinda sprouting out of his palm, and a plasma cannon in his left hand morphing out of his left arm. Tried to make a more dynamic pose with him looking like he’s standing, looking one way, with his right arm blasting forwards, and in a more action-oriented stance.
Side view, looking down the business end of a melta gun. “Reach for the sky Imperial Lapdog!”
Back view – I put a few more of the boils and pustules on this guy than the last few, I think it turns out good. I am walking a bit of a fine line – I know oblits aren’t “supposed” to be aligned to any god or have any markings, but I guess I can make them my own as I see fit.
Rear, side veiw. The shoulder pads on this guy are a touch toned down from the last guy, I don’t think they’re out of proportion.
Side with left arm, plasma cannon shot. I made the left shoulder pad have two areas where Nurgly horns were erupting from the armor. Seems to have turned out ok.
Nurgle Obliterator – WIP #4
In my continuing journey of creating kit-bashed, custom Nurgle Obliterators, I have a mostly finished 4th obliterator shown here. I am having a blast and learning so much and extending my abilities with big swaths of green stuff.
I think this guy has a very striking pose – like he’s really aiming / shooting at something down-range. The morphed multi-melta and flamer on the right arm has a fair amount of green stuff flesh melding them together. The left arm is again an arm from the Chaos Possessed sprues that I’ve repurposed into a power fist with a plasma gun morphing out of the back of the hand/arm. I think I’ve started to get a good hang of the texture/tone of the rust/corrosion thing on the shoulder pads – much more subtle and believeable than on the prototype. I used a dental tool with a fine tip and gentle poking to create the corrosion but leave a smooth ring around the edge for the banding around the armor.
Front view. He’s aiming for you!
Side view. You can get a good view of the fleshy morphing I did between the multi melta and the flamer. I think it turned out pretty good – there are some spots I’m not super happy with but overall I think it turned out ok.
Back view. With this guy I had to saw the base torso away from the groin/leg areas so I could rotate it, so it looks like he’s looking down the barrel of the multi-melta, which is pointing at an angle from the legs. Also, you can see some detail of the ridge of armor I tried to create around the right shoulder. It turned out ok, I was overall happy with it. It was a fun and challenging opportunity to make this shoulder pad look different from the others I’ve done to date. The rock behind his uplifted right leg / foot is just a big ball of leftover green stuff that had hardened, and I carved down with an xacto knife to look like a rock.
Left side view. You can see the green stuff work to get the plasma gun to look like it’s erupting from the back of this dude’s daemonic power fist.
Close-up of the front view. I used the same technique on the grieves as I did the shoulder pads, turned out ok.
Top view. Kind of bad picture, but you get the idea.
Nurgle Obliterator – WIP #5
Here we go with the 5th installment of Nurgle obliterators – only 4 more to go (total).
Nurgle Obliterator – WIP #6
Here we go with the 6th installment of Nurgle obliterators – only 3 more to go now.
Nurgle Obliterator – WIP #7
Here we go with the 7th installment of Nurgle obliterators. This guy is the basis of my tutorial on how to make these style of Nurgle Obliterators, which you can find here.
Nurgle Obliterator – WIP #8
My 8th Nurlge-themed obliterator. This guy has a bit of iconography on the shoulder that I tried out. He turned out ok – not my favorite but he’s not too shabby. My fine skills seem to be getting better and better with each installment.
Nurgle Obliterator – WIP #9
My 9th and final Nurlge-themed obliterator. I actually think this guy might be my favorite – he’s got a lot of the items I’ve worked into each other obliterator with some new stuff (especially the hark-back to the old 2nd edition chaos-type pictures – his right arm is kind of a morphed chaos monster with a gaping mouth for a vicious claw). Anyways, he was kinda fun. Glad to be done with the project and overall happy with the results.
More to come, including more obliterators and a step-by-step construction guide.
