The Doctor of Damnation is back

Well, it hath been a while.

For the last few months, I’ve been caught up in my Warhammer Fantasy revival project, Age of Rebuilding. This is working out nicely and getting some feedback, but the other day I found myself hankering for some skanky body horror (very festive, I know). I think it’s because I’d just painted a bunch of models for elves and Lizardmen, neither of which have much in the way of gross-factor. So I decided that it was time to get back to one of my favourite projects, the Death Guard Plague Company known as the Synod of Suffering.

There are a bunch of reasons why I chose the Plague Surgeon: for a start, he was one of the more interesting unpainted models in my Death Guard case. For another, I liked the characterization of the Plague Surgeon in Lords of Silence. Thirdly, there’s a feeling of cyclical synchronicity: at the beginning of the year, I started this blog with a converted Plague Surgeon. I thought it would be nice to come full circle and restart the Death Guard with one of his brethren.

The thing which I probably like most about this model is how simple it is: He didn’t take more than a couple of hours in total, and there aren’t many fiddly areas. 

In an era of sometimes absurdist sculpts (Stormcasts etc), the Death Guard have generally done very well, and the Plague Surgeon is no exception. There's a nice sense of deadly restraint to him, and his slight height advantage gives him a lean, reaper-like quality. 

All in all, a really nice, quick model to paint. I've got a cold since starting on him, by the way. I'm taking it as Grandfather's blessing to paint more Nurgle during the Christmas holiday.

Back on the Warpath with the Synod of Suffering!

Erm, yeah. This seems like as good a place as any to start. Eighth edition 40k, what a time to be alive. Never thought I'd be playing the round-based madness again, but here we are. Worth mentioning: any model I post on here works on the idea that it's early M42, the terrible wars of 999.M41 have eased off or been contained and it's business as usual in the 40k universe. I got no time for bigly Space Marines, holes through the middle of the galaxy or loyal primarchs waking up.

This is my first offering for the Synod of Suffering, a Plague Company of the Death Guard. I actually love the Plague Surgeon Model, but I'm also feeling pretty skinflint at the moment and have a huuuuuuuge bits box.

So, pretty obviously I started with a spare Noxious Blightbringer. When Dark Imperium came out, I swapped the loyalist half (see above, re: bigly Marines) for a double dose of Death Guard delight. I made one of the Blightbringers as... well... a Blightbringer... and then later decided this one would make a decent Plague Surgeon. The main trunk of this model is really solid, with good bulk and a striking, slow-striding pose. The tabard thing would make a good filthy surgeon's apron (with an unpleasant suggestion of butcher).

The Blightbringer is pretty striking, so I knew I'd have to do a fair bit of work. Firstly, I took off all the censers and most of the bells. Most important was taking off the epic horn with the Nurgling on the backpack. Waaaaay too distinctively 'Blightbringer'. Next came the arms: I had this idea about converting the existing arms, but in my head, it kept looking daft. I wanted his posture to be restrained, stalking and sinister. So I took the right arm off and removed the bell-hand from the left hand. The right arm was a bit of a fiddle: it's one of the more restrained plague knife arms from the multipart Plague Marine kit. I removed the knife hand and replaced it with the clenched fist from the grenade-pulling hands, again from Plague Marines kit. I then pinned and glued the fist onto the arm, which was all kinds of fun. His dodgy narthecium is actually a spare bit from a Dunecrawler which I'm hacking up to feed a dismayingly complex Defiler conversion. This bit was one of the easiest aspects of the model: there was plenty of contact area to glue it onto the arm. The arm then went to the shoulder pad without much difficulty. For the Bilesword, I used a spare Blightking (which was a surprising amount of fuss to pin to the hand).

I chose the bare head from the Plague Marines kit because Plague Surgeons are among the darker, nastier characters in the new Codex. A glimmer of humanity would, I was sure, make him seem more vile and cruel.

I finished up by attaching spare feeler-claw-things from the multipart Bloat Drone to the backpack. They give the model that bit of extra size and the slightest Fabius Bile-esque vibe. I envision them as long surgical blades prying apart victims to inspect the progress of diseases.

Given the parts I've listed, I know this isn't exactly the cheap alternative to the official model. But hey, if you have an expansive bits box, maybe it'll help to inspire you!