Book review: Zavant

I managed to get a lot of reading done over the holidays. This is what happens when all you basically do is open presents and digest food. This combines well with reading, and I continued my journey through the old "classics" of GW's fantasy books with Gordon Rennie's "Zavant".

I knew Rennie's work from the excellent 40K novel "Execution Hour" as well as a few short stories here and there. To me he is one of the best writers under the GW banner. I have not read any of his other works, so I do mean specifically under the GW banner, and not in a general sense. This is probably not his best book, however...

Oh. Before we begin properly: What an ugly cover. Zavant looks like he went on to father Beavis, and Vido looks like my friend Martin from Blood Bowl. That latter factoid is of course neither here or there, but... wow.

This is not so much a novel as it is a collection of shortish stories about the character Zavant Konniger, a sort of Sherlock Holmes of The Empire. I had just re-watched the Sherlock Holmes films the other day, so the thought was not far off to begin with, but it is no doubt a deliberate pastiche. Zavant, a sage detective (or was that detective sage?) and his halfling sidekick Vido basically fight crime. Or chaos. Evil. You know, stuff that heroes fight. Because this is perhaps THE thing about these stories: Zavant and his fellows basically fight stuff. While there is some talk of deductive reasoning and a long list of cases mentioned, Zavant basically just kicks ass, and we are not treated to a great deal of mystery as such, and when we are, the answers are pretty obvious, and the plot resolves itself by means of some violence. Is this okay? Well, sure, who would honestly enjoy a book where a "Schierluck Heimers" and "dr. Wassonst" went around Altdorf cracking cases that were rewrites of Conan Doyle's books? Not me. Would I have liked a character who was a little less omnipotent and garnished with silly abilities like "martial arts taught to him by a traveller from Cathay"? Yes, I would.

I am not saying that Rennie couldn't write a true mystery to save his life. I believe he probably could. The writing is excellent in many ways, vivid, evocative and with some really nice touches here and there. I particularly enjoyed the tale with Nurgle-stuff  in it (! Spoiler!), even if that one really is a prime example of stuff just happening to Zavant and co. more so than any actual detective work getting done. So what I am saying, is that a more happy medium could have been found, if the mysteries had been turned a bit more mysterious, Zavant himself had been streamlined a bit and there had been fewer "big brawl"-endings. That may just be my personal preference though.

It is not quite clear to me if this book is conceived with the WHFRP career system and rules in mind, but it does not have any MAJOR battles where thousands die, and that DOES count for something in my book. It sometimes gives you these muddled "adventurer" types - for better or worse - who then require more personality to come to life, but in spite of Zavant Konniger's patchwork character, the cast is overall quite good, and Rennie manages to stay clear of using the same four or five German names that so many of the other books peddle, and there are some very good characters in some of the stories.

Rating? I give it 3,5 stars or skulls or whatever it is that I give these. It is a bit like Christmas dinner with all the trimmings, where some of it is delicious, but other stuff is... not as good as it looked.

Book review: The Enemy Within

Not to be confused with the elaborate (?) campaign for the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game, this book offers good entertainment for the ... thinking young man.

I read somewhere that Warhammer books were at some point written with instructions to write for a mature 18 year old boy reader. As I am now significantly beyond that age, I should perhaps pause and question my reading habits. "Really? Pulp fantasy novels at your age?" There. That's that done. With that troublesome introspection out of the way, I will say that I do not actually believe that to be true. Several books are clearly written for a younger audience (or an immature 18 year old boy, ie someone who is about 14) and I have reviewed some here, and this one is clearly for an older or more intelligent audience. You, dear readers. Of course.

This is the tale of a wizard and his attempt to infiltrate a cult of Tzeentch worshippers in Altdorf. As you can no doubt guess, this involves a struggle to hold on to his sanity and his morals along the way, as he faces all the troubles of the undercover agent, and wrestles with moral issues and psychological issues. This is of course dangerous territory as the pitfalls of clichés are many, and it risks becoming a bit ham fisted with only 250 pages to tie up the plot, throw some personality on the characters and so on. Somewhat surprisingly, it works out okay. No massive surprises or sage wisdom, but a hard tackle on the difficulties that characters in the Warhammer World would no doubt encounter in a brush with Chaos.

Oh, and there is some (non graphical!) sex too. One of the characters is even a prostitute. This is not something usually handled very elegantly in Warhammer books. Not that I think a lot of the books really need it either, but with a host of literally sex-less creatures in the Warhammer World(s), it is nice to see not all sexuality blotted out from the books, or neatly packaged as "that Slaanesh stuff". Not that I mean to go off on a rant about it it either, but I am sure the "mature 18 year old boy" reading this will appreciate the odd ... bit of sex.

Another good thing is that the plot does not feature large scale warfare. I have talked about this in other reviews too, and I do like it when Chaos is the worm in the Empire's apple, rather than just the sweeping tide of mayhem from the North. This book is full of the former type of action, and that suited me quite well. In fact, I could have played out almost all of the plot in the book with miniatures that I own, and on a small coffee table, so no huge armies or anything for you to wrap your imagination around.

Certain things in the book may happen a little too... smoothly. I think that has to do with the constraints of 250 pages vs 400 as some of the other books offer without having the need for them. It is nit-picking really, but sometimes books suffer from not having any ... non-useful characters. What I mean, is that when there are not enough characters to cover a great many possibilities, then sometimes you can work out the plot a bit too soon. There is nothing to throw you off the scent, you might say.

This book contains less/none of the tongue in cheek humour that blossoms in some of the other books, and you won't find characters whose German names makes your eyes roll back, or quite the poor attempts at wit that some other books tend to have. I kind of liked that, at least in this particular book where it would have felt particularly misplaced.

In conclusion... I really enjoyed it. I do tend to enjoy this TYPE of book/plot though, so the odds were pretty good, as long as nothing went wrong or turned too stupid.

Overall rating: 4 out of 5. Like a nice burger, cooked to perfection and dressed right. Not a culinary wonder, but good eating.

Troll boyfriends

Sticking to the theme for as long as I can, but I am running out of trolls at this point. And not one of them painted... That will come next, at least for some.

This one you may recognize as he is the somewhat strongly converted resin cousin of no less than two other trolls on this page. Same body, three positions, three heads, different hands... They look quite different at this point, and they all worked out to make the troll more dynamic.

Which the stupid git of course won't be...

Troll man river

Sick of these by now?

This is the third "brother" to the previous two, a river troll from GW with a GW plastic head and pad. Unlike his two brothers, he has not gotten away with relatively minor hand surgery... He had a whole arm amputated at the shoulder, and I sculpted a new one. Those effin scales took a while... but I am quite pleased with the result.

Why cut his arm? It holds a club in the most idiotic position. Elbow up, arm folded, fist vertical. I had no use for that and no means of bending it into a better position or salvage any of it really.

This fella is possibly for sale.

Know your troll!

Finished this fish mongering bad boy up for my friend Jonathan who will be painting up a team of gw goblins. The troll may feature here again along with his brother when that happens.

The body is a bended river troll, padded, and with a later edition gw plastic river troll head. Without the vomit.

Keep the troll in mind

Another 90s river troll repaired and fixed up with the addition of a new plastic head and hands.

Sadly the priming makes the replacements look really obvious. I could have stripped him or primed the other parts black first like the body, but I figured I could manage without doing that.

Needs a pad and may sell :-)

Book review: Fell Cargo

I have ploughed through a tonne of these pulp fantasy/space opera books set in the Warhammer universe(s) this year, but I figure I will only read one like this, as it is a genre piece about pirates.

Maybe this was part of some GW strategy at some point to try and sell us their gameswith ships in it. I cannot be bothered to check a timeline for that possibility, but suffice to say, I do not recall there being many other books about Sartosan pirates from Black Library. If there are, then kindly inform me. Or maybe Dan Abnett just gets to write whatever he feels like writing these days? That would suit me just fine. I hate it when you can FEEL that the author would much rather have written something else, or indeed that he DID write something else, but the work was changed to fit into some release schedule or even the setting as a whole.

The book is of course riddled with cliches, or "fixtures" if you will, from pirate tales. It reads like a (better) "Pirates of the Caribbean", and it is neat mix of tall tale, horror story and swashbuckling adventure on the high seas. Sea monsters, pirates of any stripe, villains, heroes... The book seemed to have it all, and it is written with the same quality that Abnett usually provides. The only thing that I do perhaps not like as much as the rest of the details in the book is the joy the author takes in naming various bladed weapons and... firearms. Not that I don't appreciate details, and we are not at a Melville level of educational info about something, but I had to look up several of these along the way just to find out what to visualize in combat situations.

There are few surprises in this book, but there probably should not be a great deal of surprises either, if this was to be the pirate yarn it set out to be. While other authors, desperate for a tiny twist, kill off some characters that you might have expected to live or make someone a surprise traitor, Abnett manages to kill off the right ones and at the right time which is something of an accomplishment at this point. Added bonus? No characters who'll annoy the piss out of you as some other books might eagerly provide. The "young lad" who comes of age in this book is not so young or so naive that it becomes painful, and there are no talking parrots or monkeys or what have you to add comedy. The worst? A few one liners that you see coming a mile away.

The books is only 250 pages. Could it have been 400? I doubt it could without getting boring or requiring more meaty subplots.

Over all I give it 4,5 stars. A seafood platter with everything on it.

Troll model

This guy was done ages ago, but primed recently.

The little surreal element of him holding a goblin who in turn holds a teddy bear... it is not really intended to be some higher form of symbolic commentary on anything, but it does still work.

Fine. You WANT deeper meaning? This troll combines Foundry, GW metal and GW plastic. Make of that what you will.

I went with green, not blue. Liking it more trolls these days.

Like a trollin stone

I call this troll 'touchdown!' Even if he is not terribly likely to score one.

This is another one for the challenge from my friend Jonathan. A troll that runs. This one ups the ante by holding a ball! I picture him running for the endzone, ready to spike it. They call that wishful thinking, I believe.

The conversion is more extensive than most of the others. Two hands, head, leg repositioned. Not terribly difficult work, but a little sculpting.

Tro-lolo-lolo...

Trolls can be any colour. I mean... Green for river trolls, blue-grey for stone trolls, and if you want to be old skool "lool at the damn boxes" in a blood bowl way, then dark green... The chaos trolls in Warhammer were often blue as well.

Elsewhere trolls are often brown or blue as well, but let us not stray too far here.

I think they can be any colour. That said, black or white may not work well, and there is always clashes with team/uniform colours to take into consideration as well.

So... this chaos troll is almost pink. Though not in this light.

Head like a troll

This one is another simple conversion on the old chaos troll bodies. The head here is river as well.

The idea for this 'blitzing' troll is not mine so much as it is my friend Jonathan's. He planted the seed at least by stating how sad it was that there are so few trolls running. Well... this was my first attempt. He is almost in the elf blitzer-pose, even if he's no more likely to perform like one for that reason.

There are two more runners in the works as I continue to give my accumulated minis an overhaul.

For whom the bells troll

Aaaaand another one! A fairly extensive conversion, as he has new feet, and of course head.

He is clearly the skinniest troll in my "collection" and a bit of an oddball.

I think the body is Reaper, and the head is of course GW.

Trolls in the pantry!

Here is the surgically enhanced troll from the other day, back to... look more static, as well as creepy.

His two friends I think are much better, actually. Conversion is of course minimal, as both have really just had a head swap.

This larger one is of course the Willy troll which I thought... well, he seemed stupid, and lacked evil.

The other one sees use of the GW head from the stone troll with arm surgery. Why this head swapping? For the hell of it. I THINK it worked well though.

It leaves a head, as you may have noticed, and more trolls will be forthcoming.

Primed blue. Classic. Though I am not sure why.

Trollin on the river

The troll from yesterday who was raising the roof has undergone surgery and is currently healing up. He got cut, glued and pinned, and he ended up quite creepy, and that worked quite well.

Creepy is one thing, but there is something to be said for the mean troll. Like this one. A chaos-river troll, if you want to get technical. I figure he will work well in green, nurgle-ish skin.

Troll with it

The awesome thing about converting trolls is that they have irregular bodies and ugly features with big noses, crooked teeth and so on. Ugly is good. You can have orangutang arms, a big head... it just has to come together and have character, because a bland troll is not worth having.

This one is of course a stone troll from GW. Awesome trolls. Lean, mean and... blue. I stuck with that for the priming. The hands holding a stone were removed, and I recreated bit of the foot which was broken.

The hands are of course added. It is not that easy to find suitable hands for big guys, and I am not even all that happy with these.

Then there is the head. I have used the head elsewhere. You will see, soon. This means I could switch it up and use a Willy head. I am less fond of these than the GW ones, but it still worked well. It is actually the second head he has been seen with, but hey.

They see me trollin...

I have gone on a bit about the feckin ginormous miniatures put out there these days, and I have come up with several ways to combat this...

1. Conversion of said minis into something useful. More on this later... Much more.

2. One upping. Like with snow troll here that I am throwing on my forthcoming norse team to make all other trolls seem puny. Taste your own medicine!

Book review: Curse of the Necrarch

It is that time again... I have been reading.

This book was obviously titled wrong. It should have been called "Wait... WTF?" or something along those lines.

Necrarchs are of course (or were?) the sort of scholarly nosferatu-types in Warhammer vampire lore, and as I tend to like that type a bit better than the Bela Lugosi-type, I felt that this book had promise. You'll see one of the necrarchs there on the cover, and hey, here's one of those covers that seemingly actually relates to the actual plot in the book. Not all Warhammer books can boast about that, so ... so far so good, right?

To sum up the plot real quick: Theres this part of the Empire where an old bloodline (yes...) of knights protect some peasants and the lands on which said peasants toil, seemingly primarily from the eeeevil of a coterie of necrarchs who come back to bother the good people every now and then. This is one of those times, and there's some drama and a fight.

It is really hard not to give away spoilers as I attempt to point out what is wrong with this book. So stop reading unless you want a few surprises ruined.

Some of the characters are quite good, while others really aren't. They range from stock characters to fairly interesting ones with quirks and actual personalities. I have seen both better and worse as a veteran reader of these books, and this is not where the problem lies. Allow me to attempt to illustrate the problem through a tale, a parable if you will.

Imagine a spider. A big, hairy and ugly one. The kind with a nasty "face" and multiple eyes and all that. Imagine the web it weaves. Strands of webbing, lots of them, long and in an intricate pattern. Imagine insects now. Flies, butterflies, perhaps a moth or two. You see where this is going, right? No. You don't. A large, wet dog walks by and straight into the intricate web. It rams right through it, tears it, and it's all gone. Story... done. A big... wet... dog. Or another big animal. That's not the point here.

See, in this book there are numerous characters who are introduced, talked up, explored... and then never "put to rest". Not just in a literal sense. No, there are several people whose fate is just... unknown. That goes for plot elements too. A few examples off the top of my head: One necrarch (there are several in the book) spend a great deal of time building a nine-souled monster-machine ... and it never gets to do anything. There is a bone dragon that they take great pains to revive... and it eventually just dies again. There is a mystical, fancy hand of Nagash, an undead super warrior, a werewolf, a perhaps dead older necrach, some freaks... A series of anti-climaxes at best, and the "grand finale" that one feels lead towards is not grand at all. 

I liked the necrarchs with their treacheries and magical bent, but the plot just never came together, and the whole book just seems like a patchwork, or like a brainstorm of some sort. The author may have focused on creating some horror scenes that one could picture vividly, but it is just not coherent enough, and I was left with the image of a child who had emptied out all his toys on the floor.

2 stars out of 5. What the hell was this?

Human team: human nature

Slightly improved or at least different pictures of the various positionals.

I AM going to do coloured rings for ease of play, but there are others differences.

Catchers have only one pad and no helmet.

Throwers have the same helmets as blitzers, but only one pad.

Blitzers have modern helmets like the tvrowers, but two pads.

Linemen have two pads as well, but their numbers go on the opposite shoulder, and their helmets are old skool.

So there you have it.

Human team: oh the humanity

Done!

Converted with brutality and not much attention to detail, sprayed Milka purple as an experiment with primer, and then given a quick paint using fast techniques and a hastened hand. They have several minor errors if you look carefully, and they are not here because I am proud of them per se, but because they were a practice run for some paints and techniques, and also an attempt to see how little it is possible to do and still get a fairly decent team out of it.

Fotos are awful. I need to make a new lightbox.

Human team: more human than human

After a long hiatus my "studio" is recreated, and thus I am back in action. True to form, I am working on a team that I have no current intention of playing...

I am working on this team for several reasons...

1. I like the idea of teams in shorts/uniforms. Football, rugby, Aussie rules or soccer? I like a nod to all of the above, though not always at the same time.

2. I am testing some new primer sprays.

3. It is a simple team. Fast and easy? Lets see...

4. While I have loads of orcs, I had no humans gor them to face in that epic, classic struggle.

As usual, comments welcome. This is very much wip and just a dummy really.

Size matters

I have recently been a proud supporter of no less than two Blood Bowl related crowdfunding projects.

I'll reserve my general opinion on crowdfunded BB-projects for another post, and just focus on the issue of size.

It is not really a secret to anyone with a decent pair of eyes that size has changed as the years have passed. Ironically, perhaps, as we often hear how materials have gotten more expensive (metal at least) and the level of detailing improved. By "changed", I mean of course that minis are an awful lot bigger than they used to be.

What is the correct size? Well, hobbyists seem rather content with the elitist terminology that has sprung up: "True" this and that scale, "heroic" and so on and so on. All this sort of cool, "he knows his stuff"-talk that sets you, the elite collector, apart from the poor consumer cattle who goes to Games Workshop. I think it's safe to say at this point that those of us who play in even the smallest BB-club/group of mates encounter minis of differing sizes who range from 28 mm to 32 mm (if not bigger at this point) and with hands/feet that are anywhere from proportional to their bodies to Goofy-esque and idiotic (Thank you, Gary Morley for your wonderful dark elves. What DID Bob Naismith say when he saw those?). Frankly, it looks silly. It is one thing that it is nice to be able to tell at a glance if a player has more ST than others, but there's practical and there's ridiculous, and the whole thing is undermined when the scale difference is a whopping 4 mm, ie that all members of a team are 1/7 bigger than their opponents. It makes mixing and matching impossible, making it seem odd or stupid if you mix players from different companies in your team. Sure, maybe you can get away with a few "large blokes" in your team, but ... well, you try it and see. It gets stupid when your opponent plays his classic Olley ogres, and you play humans who are the same size... Anyway, back to my point question, what IS the best size? I tend to favour a smallish 30 myself, and I don't like hands that seem inflated.

Now, here is my problem. Pretend for a second that I am hopelessly naive, ignorant of anything except what is right in front of my eyes and bereft of friends who might cry out in warning. How exactly do I order the minis I see online either in stores or in crowdfunded projects and have any chance of knowing what I am getting? Crowdfunded projects are particularly bad because the minis have rarely (hey, you tell me) been created already, and all you can do is look at some drawings, or at best some greens and figure out if you want to take a chance on them. Sometimes, usually very late in the process, there are greens and even some cast minis and size compares and you then go either "yay!" or "oh." and then... wait to receive your minis.

You've guessed it at this point, no doubt. My two crowdfunded teams are not even remotely compatible. Hell, one of the teams is so huge that I am kicking myself for even buying it and consider myself unlikely to jump on any more campaigns from that particular company. Not unless they put a nifty little ruler with mm next to the drawings of their minis and I like what that tells me.

(To be fair, yes, I had figured it might be on the larger side, and I did already plan for other uses for some of the minis when I bought it. See, one company's average ST3 player can be a muscled SOB for another team...)

So in closing... Maybe you people could sort of try to meet half way? Instead of this "oh, this is how WE do it"-shite, then maybe you could all try and go for, say, that 30 mm which is between 28 and 32 instead of creeping ever upwards or staunchly rejecting all progress and going old skool and back to the small side of 28. I am sure your fancy 3D-drawing can work to scale anyway, right?

Book review: The Burning Shore

Recently both my painting and converting has been on a forced hiatus (redecorating my "studio"), but I have been reading a bit... 

I picked up "The Burning Shore" because it had a few things going for it, obviously. It seemingly had enough quality to spawn two sequels, and I THINK I recall there being miniatures for the pair of (dubious) heroes? Perhaps my old mind plays tricks on me, but nevertheless, I picked up the book (for a song, of course) with expectations... somewhat above average.

As mentioned in other reviews, I like a bit of exotic info in my Warhammer fiction. That is to say, I like a bit of pulpy tourist lit where I as reader can learn about exotic corners of a fictive globe and/or about exotic races and creatures. However, as the sayings go... "Be careful what you wish for..." and "too much of a good thing..." That is perhaps the major problem here: The book is basically a stack of cliches and it offers no surprise what so ever in terms of plot. We have a coming of age story where our hero Florin D'artaud is uprooted from his native Bretonnia with his friend/servant Lorenzo and travels to Lustria. Gradually he matures into a capable mercenary leader and the pairs adventures are as predictable as they are colourful. That is to say, there is nothing MISSING in terms of plot, but the plot is just not that satisfying. Like... Given the elements a seasoned reader would easily come up with something along the lines of what the book contains.

Is it well written then? Yes and no. The details are many, the descriptions are just fine, but it is not riveting at any point really. I was left with the feeling that had the plot been better, then Robert Earl could have treated us to something better, as it seems he had the tools, but did perhaps work to boring specs. "Write us an extended bromance with Old World mercenaries and lizardmen for when the new army list comes out." Something like that.

Another thing that may annoy the piss out of not just me: The Tilean mercenary captain. Why? Well, I have seen "Allo Allo"... Laughing at national stereotypes and pidgin English is just not my bag, bay-by. Well, other than in that whole Warhammer World way that we of course all buy in to it, but still. Ham-fisted.

The book was not packed with nuggets of info, but it was fiiiine in that sense, I guess. I learned that Lustria is a jungle hellhole full of insects, lizardmen, more lizardmen, predators and more lizardmen. It is hot and humid too, and a bitch to get to. All duly noted.

What is perhaps most frustrating is the fact that Florin and Lorenzo both seem like they have virtually no depth at all. Their bromance is not quite explained in any way or made all that believable, and neither have much of a personality. They are both supposed to be quite rogue-ish, but this just does not hit home to a point where you love it, hate it or love to hate it, and the book would have been vastly more interesting if this had been probed a bit better and somehow gotten further.

Over all rating: 2 out of 5.

Downtime

My studio is packed up at the moment, so I have not been doing anything in... a while. That does not mean I have not been reading and collecting stuff, planning, if you will...

I am invested in the heroquest classic campaign and hope the rules will be as good as the heap of stuff they come with. Otherwise... sad times, but cool stuff awaits in any case.

I am toying with the idea of a heroquest made of... better minis than ye olde MB plastics. Is that not what Classic is? Hopefully. But also for the classic set/rules.

For that, I liked this awesome dwarf.

deep cut studio pitch review

I splashed some cash for this interesting looking pitch, thinking it will go well with my stands full of rowdy fans sometime this autumn. It arrived today.

The print is nice. Good colour, detail, depth... All as it should be, and as I had hoped.

There is no texture at all. The pitch is smooth, and it can probably be wiped off easily if your friends slobber or spill their drinks, or if puss weeps from their... I digress. The feel is not rubbery at all, smooth like a tent or something. The other side is white, but who cares.

Then to the negatives. The thing arrived rolled up. That is hardly a surprise, but I am currently waiting for it to flatten. Have I not got stuff to weigh down the corners? Sure, but it would be nice to not have to. The mat is perhaps too thin? I dont doubt that it is sturdy and hard to rip or wear out, but it seems like it might be possible to crease it, say if you rolled it up carelessly...

It sells for a fairly high price for what it is. It ships from Lithuania, and there is money to be saved if you abd your friends order together.

I may use mine if I am bringing a pitch to a friends house, or I may glue it to some foamboard or mdf at home. We will see if it straightens out first.

Primed and rotten

This is the awful phase that often follows the phase of loathing and dissatisfaction... the phase where the minis have grown on me and I start thinking I might sell some other nurgle minis instead. Alas, it is not to be, but I must say I am pleased with them.

Learning still, but does Nurgle not reward those who endure, and like I said earlier today, some boils or a bad rash can cover a lot.

Rotters return

Last three done.

Went for the easy choice and used some plaguebearer heads to make them proper nurgley.

One leg swap, one tricky weapon snip, two head swaps, one hand swap... There is still greenstuffing to be done, but not far to go!

I am VERY pleased with the third one.

Rotters are gonna rot

Four out of the required seven to make it to a full team of 16 players.

Two have marauder legs, one had his hooves cut and replaced, and one is barely touched at all. Mostly legwork on these, but one got an arm. They need green stuff, some more than others, but they are getting there!

Another beast of nurgle

After I nurgled my own hand in a glue accident, I am glad to see thos fat slob finished for paint.

He is a fat conversion, though I am not entirely sure why tried it in the first place.

There are quite a few tentacles on him and a deadly spike-limb that I am sure can be his "claw"...

Pestigors galore

The basis of the conversion is so simple that I am surprised I had not thought of it before: plaguebearers and gors. It is almost in the name... so yeah.

There is some work involved, primarily sawing, but I am quite happy with the result, though more gs is needed.

Nurgle warriors

"But weren't you working on... Oh." Yes, I was working on entirely different teams, but you know how hard it is for me to shake the disease...

Grandfather inspired me, and I created these kitbashed and somewhat heavily greenstuffed warriors for a team that I (currently) plan to paint up quickly and sell. I have so much Nurgle stuff...