Written by With the Beast of Nurgle finished I’ve now completed my 16 players for my Kitbash Nurgle Blood Bowl team. I’ve been on the look out for potential parts to make a Beast of Nurgle for a while. In the meantime GW has released an official model now called a Rotspawn.
The Rotspawn fits with the team they released but I wanted a model to fit in with the team I had made. Plus I’d converted the rest of the team so why stop there.
I’d considered the Beast of Nurgle model from AoS/40k to use as a base, but like the Rotspawn it is a challenge to make what is essentially a slug look like they are playing Blood Bowl.
This is where the Gellerpox Writher from the Rogue Trader Kill Team game caught my eye.
He’s unarmed (open hands are like gold dust for BB conversions), in a running pose, has a tentacle, foul appearance and looks like he has regeneration. He fits the bill so, so, well. He’s not a slug type like a Beast of Nurgle but as a ‘counts as’ is spot on to the rules he has in the game. Basically a Nurlged up Ogre with a tentacle. There really isn’t even any 40k undoing to do. He really has no 40k parts on him at all. The model is covered in sea references, which actually could be ok to use ‘as is’ given that Nurgle Blood Bowl teams travel by plague ship. A quick google told me I was by no means the first to have this idea. Wudagast from Convert or Die talks about using the Writher as a Rotspawn in his review of the Rogue Trader game. So with the words ‘convert or die’ in mind, I had to convert the Writher into a Blood Bowl Player.
Armour is what I thought would make this guy a better Blod Bowl player and fit in with my existing team. I found a Blight King torso would make a good helmet if it was upside down. It has a mark of Nurgle, I could drill out eye holes and put a single horn on the top (Nurgle style). The eyes would then match my Pestigor and FW had just released a Minotaur with the same eyes too, so I felt I was on the right lines.
The shoulder pad with a large blade added, are both from the Maggoth Lord kit. The eyes on the other shoulder were ripe for adding horns to (adding horns is becoming my ‘go to’ for Nurgle models now). I switched the thin horn I’d put on the helmet to the shoulder and put a thicker one in it’s place. The blade on one side and horn on the other gave the model a pleasing choatic symmetry.
The belly armour is Blight Kings, trimmed right down (slightly too much, butter fingers). I’d been considering whether to keep the man trapped inside. In the end I decided it would fit with his role in Blood Bowl as a trapping monster. I wanted to keep the stitches too, he basically looks like he’s stitched up like a Blood Bowl ball. So the armour then acts as a sort of giant staple to help keep him altogether. Green stuff repairs and stretched skin were necessary for this piece to work.
Here he is painted up. I tried to match the rest of the team. The Rotters, Nurgle Warriors and the Beast/Rotspawn and like scaled up versions of each other.
This picture is to show how pleased I was with the Writher’s existing pose, as I’d basically been making poses like this to represent my BB players!
So that’s the team complete with 16 players. I’ve got some hangers on planned but I’ll have to see if I do those straight away or get too excited by the next thing.
The Nurgle Warrior now has a greenish tongue/tentacle in response to a good suggestion in the comments (thanks Krautscientist).
Cheers,
Krakendoomcool
Painting In The Dark 
You’ve nailed it, great work! I’ll be looking at this very closely when I get back to doing my own Nurgle BB team 🙂 Lovely work on the tentacle arm as well, that almost looks real!
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Thank you, I’m glad you like it as you had the same idea. I look forward to your Nurgle team. The tentacles are so nice on this model I tried to make the most of them.
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I have to fully agree with Wudu – the model looks great, and the extra details and patterning on the tentacle(s) really look fantastic.
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Thank you Azazel, I tried to make it look like a squid so did a bit of googling. It’s just a shame it’s not neglected…
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Very awesome man. I remember when we were discussing what you wanted to do about the Beast and what kit you should use. So glad you went for this guy from the Rogue Trader set. It looks really cool. I love you flavourful and unique your team looks. One of those rare situations where you start working on a project and then GW release their own official version of what you were working on… But yours holds up to theirs or looks even better! Maximum effort! Glad to see your posts coming again. What’s next in the pipeline?
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Thank you dude. I think I’m drawn to the projects that either don’t have models or have bad existing models. They don’t really have stuff without models anymore.
I know what you want. I’ve got about 9 days before a Chaos Dwarf frenzy takes me over so we shall see.
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Oh!I genuinely wasn’t fishing for that 😂… In fact I know another interested party if you would rather abandon that project?
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Give me a bit longer and we shall see.
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No rush, it’s been 8 months, what’s another 8 days or weeks…
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Fantastic work mate – great choice of mini, subtle & clever converting, and all topped off with some lovely paint work. That tentacle is disgusting… i.e. awesome!
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Thank you Alex. This is exactly what I was aiming for. Subtle, clever, disgusting. Ha. So I’m pleased.
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Great! Works really, really well
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Cheers buddy, I appreciate it.
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Always glad to be of help! 😉
I think your kitbashed Rotspawn is a massive improvement over the very awkward official model. That’s a fantastic way to use what is one of the sillier Gellarpox Infected models. That added helmet is an ingenious bit of kitbashing. I love it!
What a wonderfully disgusting team! Fantastic work! 🙂
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Thank you!
The writher is an odd one for the 40k setting but seems to be perfect for Blood Bowl. When I discovered the carapace fit as a helmet I was quite pleased with myself, although I thought it might not be to everyone’s taste. To me he looks a bit more stupid and a bit more friendly/enthusiastic with the helmet on. This would fit with the fluff of a beast of Nurgle being like a big puppy and trying to cuddle everyone with his tentacles (also befitting of his role on the playing field).
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I agree, the model seems like a perfect transplant into the world of Blood Bowl. The masked face is just evil enough to look suitably imposing, but also carries that tiny bit of Blood Bowl-style humour — excellent work!
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I have just seen this team on Dakka Dakka and came here, they are just wonderfully amazing in their Nurgliness, awesome work all around! I especially like the mask on that Rotspawn, makes it both more interesting and connects it with the rest of the players 🙂 I’m working on a similar team myself and this is giving me some new ideas!
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Hello Borgnine, thanks for visiting and commenting. Will you be posting your team anywhere? On dakka? I’d be interested to see what you come up with.
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I will show it primarily on my blog, but also on reddit/bloodbowl. I have the rotters and pestigors and I am working right now, similarly to you, on turning Blightkings into Bloaters/Warriors – and it’s a lot of fun!
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Great blog! I’ll be commenting as soon as I figure out how. Your team is awesome and I’ll be following your progress.
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Just looking at this because I want a Rotspawn for my team. Highly unlikely now these models are no longer available 😦 He looks amazing though and I love the xtra conversion. I’d probably just use him as is [if I could get one] but this definitely makes me want to convert if I was lucky enough to get one. I may just go with a Chaos Spawn instead…
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I got mine on eBay. It does just seem to fit so well in BB. Wouldn’t have to convert it either, it’s great as is. Hope you manage to get one.
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