Nurgle Rhinos: solving the box problem

Space Marine Rhinos bother me a bit. They bother me largely because I get bored painting them. It's a big box. Admittedly, it's a better big box than the original big box model, but it's still not very inspiring. I decided that I had to do something about this.

My first idea was just to madly convert the heck out of them. My first attempt involved adding a bell-ringing tentacle, a bunch of groping zombie hands, a big maw and a Rot Fly's alien-esque tail. It still felt a bit bare, so I drilled some holes in it to have unpleasant liquids oozing out of it. There are some pictures of this first attempt near the bottom (I wanted to show off my cool ones first).

Anyway, it was fine, but it felt like something was missing. I couldn't help the feeling that I wasn't covering enough of the surface to make it either interesting or Nurgly enough. 

My next step was conversion pats. Spellcrow seemed to have the best at an acceptable price, so I ordered some of them. The top and side doors you see on these are the parts in question. And truthfully, they look the part. But I still had a problem: the majority of the models were still looking a bit clear. Now, I know Chaos is all weird and stuff, but it seemed a bit strange to me that Nurgle would possess the doors and ignore the rest of the vehicle. Then I had a couple more ideas.

I added some great buboes to one of the Rhinos - these also came from a Spellcrow bitz pack. Then a once again drilled a few holes. But this time, I glued Woodlands Scenics foliage to be stealthily oozing out of them as fleshy fronds. Some may recall my Nurgle Knights having a similar effect.

Then I decided that I wanted to create an effect where parts of the tanks were beginning to become organic, calcifying and rupturing. For this, I decided on something a wee bit different. I got hold of some Martian Ironearth technical paint and slapped it wildly on the hull. This stuff has to be applied in buckets and left for a good long while, but I wasn't in a hurry. When it had set and cracked, it had very much the effect I'd hoped for: areas of the tanks looked pocked, diseased and organic. More importantly, enough of the hulls were covered to stop it all looking a bit monotonous.

So there we have it. Metal boxes... but EVIIIIIIL!