Nurgle Biker Lord to Lead My Death Guard Built

Hello, Folks.

Well, what I initially thought would be a major setback has once again turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  I'm talking about how at the 10th hour it turned out that I wouldn't be able to go to Blue Table Painting's Valhalla in August; however, I was able to secure a spot for October, although just by the hair on my chin.  What that did was allow me more time to get everything I wanted to get finished built and painted so that I would have 2,000 points of Chaos Space Marines and 2,000 points of Chaos Daemons.  As it turns out, there's no way I would've finished all 2,000 points of Daemons in time to leave this Sunday, August 25th, to get to the August Valhalla, which starts next Monday, the 26th.  As it stands with what I've completed, I'd be short probably 6 Plague Drones and one Plague Hulk (aka Soul Grinder).  And I'd be in even more hot water with the missus than I already am now, as I'd have had to spend more time away from my family than I actually have in the last few weeks.

However, having the extra time will allow me to get all of my Daemons finished.  But just as importantly, it will allow me to complete some "stretch goals", the first of which is actually very important.  You see, I already have a Night Lords Biker that I was using as my Biker Lord with the Mark of Nurgle in games with my CSMs.

The spiked mace I modeled up for him 10 years ago worked out great as a representation of The Black Mace.  The problem is, my CSMs have evolved into primarily a Death Guard force with other Nurgle supporting units, and I only run Nurgle Daemons as their allies.  So, it seemed a bit inappropriate for a Night Lord Biker Lord to be leading my Nurgle army, but I was willing to settle for that to get everything else I needed to get done completed in time for the August Valhalla.

But with the extra time at hand, I've been able to convert up a more appropriate Nurgle Biker Lord, and will (should) have ample time to get him painted (er, washed) up in time to take him to Utah for Valhalla in October.

The picture at the beginning of this post shows the basic conversion of the bike, with a kind of Shrine to Nurgle affixed to the back of the bike.  The bike model is a 2nd Edition Chaos Space Marine Bike, so it's a bit different than modern day CSM Bikes, and I've been saving it for a special character, so that worked out great.  Josh Howery did the kit-bashing of all the Nurgly bitz onto the back portion of the bike, using a variety of bitz that I had on hand from all the Nurgle kits that I've collected over the past 10 months.  Here are a few more shots of the bike from different angles:

What you don't see very well in these picture, unfortunately, is the slight conversion to the front of the bike.  Thanks to a suggestion by Jimmy at Empire Games, I cut off the front wheel at the point where it connects to the handlebars, and extended the front out with about 1/2 and inch or so of plasticard tubing.  (You can just make out the tubing in the second to last picture in the series above.)  When I showed Jimmy what the bike looked like after Josh's kit bashing ministrations, and what the front piece would look like, he said, "Dude, that screams Orange County Choppers!", and suggested I make the extension.  Fortunately I already had a supply of plasticard tubing of the right dimension, so with some careful cutting and trimming, and two small lengths of brass rod to run down the middle of the tubes and anchor into the handlebars and front wheel, I was able to turn this old 2nd Edition CSM Bike into a proper chopper.

I already knew that I was going to use the Aspiring Champion body-and-head from the Forge World Death Guard upgrade kit as the body and head of my Nurgle Biker Lord, so with the help of a little Green Stuff, I was able to attach him to the legs that came with the bike and get him set up and posed properly.  I've left him off the bike for the time being so that I can paint him and the bike properly, but otherwise he's ready to go.  Oh, yeah, I also used the backpack from the new CSM Sorcerer Finecast kit for my Nugle Biker Lord, as it's just such an awesome backpack.

The final bit of pre-painting conversion that I needed to do was to make another spiked mace on a chain like I had done for the Night Lords biker all those years ago to represent The Black Mace.  For that I used the following materials:

• A length of plasticard tubing that would fit in the biker's left hand (cut and re-positioned) and allow the spiked ball to hang from the chain without (hopefully) interfering with all the stuff that was now on the back of the bike.
• The chain from a pair of nail clippers.
• A length of brass rod that would fit in the center of the tubing, cut long enough to extend up from the top of the tube into the "connector" of the nail clipper's chain, and also extend down the other end long enough to anchor the "tassle" that I'd be putting there.
• 4 toothpicks with the ends cut to the appropriate length.
• The large topknot off the head of a regular CSM to be used as the "tassle" at the bottom end of the haft of The Black Mace.
• Green Stuff.
• Superglue.

Here's a shot of the biker body with the arms appropriately posed, and The Black Mace in mid-construction:

And here's a shot of the biker body on the bike, showing the handle of The Black Mace in what I hoped would be the proper position, with enough chain to work with to attach the spiked ball:

I ended up having to break the left arm off and re-position it to get a better, more upward angle on the haft of TBM, but having used superglue, that was easy enough.  Here's a few shots of the biker with the finished Black Mace mounted on the bike (the bottom foot plate of the bike is not attached at this point, which is why it looks a little out of alignment; it's just sitting on the ground to help keep the bike upright for the pictures, and to give the full impression of what the bike will ultimately look like after it has been painted and the final assembly of all the parts completed):

In this final shot you can see the tubing used to extend the front wheel out for the chopper effect.  Also, I'm really happy with the way the spiked ball turned out; my first one, on my Night Lords biker, was my first attempt at using Green Stuff, and it shows.  I worked on this ball for quite a while to make it appear as round as possible, with the spikes as evenly distributed as I could.  All in all, I like the effect.

So, what do you think?  Please leave a comment and let me know what  you think of this guy.

At the moment I'm finishing up the last batch of 15 Plaguebearers so that I will have four units of 10 plus another 10 to emerge from the portaglyph that I intend to use in games with just the Daemons.  After I'm finished with the "chore" of getting these 15 Plaguebearers finished (gotta have the Troops), I'm going to "treat" myself to painting this Nurgle Biker Lord, then I'll face down the "chore" of getting the 6 Plague Drones painted up, and finally "reward" myself with painting up the second and last of the Forge World Plague Hulks.  Then I will be DONE with everything that I HAVE to have to take with me to Valhalla, but there are a few more stretch goals that I'd like to get done, too.  Looking at my schedule and the time available to me, I think I'll get everything done that I need to get done, as well as a few things that I want to get done, like painting up four Night Lords Havocs with missile launchers and a few Havoc Aspiring Champions to go with them.

In the meantime, please opine on this guy.  I'll post pictures of him once I've finished painting him and he's finally assembled and based...