The Derelict Paragon

I'm glad to finaly be able to talk about this one, because the fact is that this Knight gave me more trouble than all the ones I did before. It wasn't that the conversion was particularly difficult: he's actually the simplest of my Nurgle Knights. The problem is that I started the project half-cocked and without thinking things through properly. I'm happy that despite this I managed to come up with a fairly decent end result.

Following the Rust Hound and the Hanging Tree, I initially had the idea of going in a different direction with this one: I had this notion that it would have no organic mutations and would instead be leaking pollution and filth. This idea came from the head, which my friend generously donated after he had a different idea for his own Knights (the head is from Shapeways). But the trouble was, I couldn't think of a way to execute it well without boring myself.

I made the fatal mistake of starting the project without having fully squared the ideas in my head. Despite a quarter century in this hobby, I somehow thought that starting without a vision of the end piece was a good idea. I started by using spae Gnarlmaw bells to create a raggedy loin cloth. Before I'd really thought about it, I'd started adding mutations to the legs. I stopped and realised in annoyance that I'd just done the very damned thing I said I wouldn't. Irritated at my own absent-mindedness, I put the legs aside and tried to think of a new idea.

The model was an Ebay rescue, so I had to use the Thunderstrike Gauntlet. I had the idea that maybe I could replace the fingers with scythes for the whole 'reaper' aspect of Nurgle. I cut the fingers at the first joint and used spare scythes and Rot Fly claws to create talons. I was pretty happy with it. For the cannon arm, nothing immediate came to mind, so I went rummaging through my bit boxes. The string of skulls hanging from it was a spare part from a Beastmen Ghorgon, and I thought that it would be fun to have a couple of Nurglings riding on it.

A few skulls added in the Nurgle icon sysmbol was enough to make the cannon seem alright to me. I added a bit of UHU in the barrell gave the impression of oil drooling out. After some thought, I added a spiral of model barbed wire. If I recall correctly, it was because I was starting to think of the head as a World War 1 gas mask and so I thought I'd lean to a sort of nightmare trench warfare feel.

Of course, I then got distracted by something else and put the Knight down for a couple of months. When I went back to it, I couldn't quite remember my previous ideas. The fleshy growths on the back of the hull were added because... well, because that's one of my favourite Nurgle gimmicks. I then did something really dumb I'd found some bits from a Chaos Warshrine and added them to the shoulder pads. It looked kind of rubbish, so I decided to fill in the gaps with glue and sand. It looked worse.

I arrayed the sub-assemblies of my Knight... and got bored again. I couldn't figure out its identity. I lost interest again for a while.

A couple of weeks ago, I kind of flipped. This had been sitting about too long, and even if I couldn't figure out what the central theme was, it was getting finished. Then it occurred to me: what if its theme was that it was exactly what I had made it? A derelict, abandoned on a world after a disastrous campaign, rusting slowly away as its machine spirit goes insane for lack of purpose. Eventually, the monster lurches into unwholesome motion, an aimless and wandering monster with no true identity except resentment, until it ultimatey falls in with more of its own kind.

I added a plague spewer in plague of a meltagun. For the carapace, I added various horns and tusks, as well as the brazier from a Lord of Contagion. I finished the body with a Nurgling from Mortarion riding on top.

 For the base, I decided to go with an abandoned goods yard - I imagine the Derelict Paragon lumbering with dragging footsteps through a desolate, empty world of rusting fences and forgotten cargo. As well as the boxes, barrells and crumbling fence, I added a Sludge Grub for a sense that the vermin have taken over this world. The Nurgling sitting on the barrel is from the Space Marines Heroes series.

Ultimately, I'm happy with him because I made so many mistakes and was so ill-dsicplined, but he Looks pretty decent in the end!