Converting Plague Marines

Introduction

I have a squad of old metal Plague Marines. They are exactly 7, with one Plasma Gun. With the current Death Guard rules, that setup sucks. I decided to convert 3 more, to make 2 squads of 5. I shall also have the maximum number of plasma weaponry - 6 Plasma Guns in total.

Preparation

Start by gathering the required bits. I found a couple of Scout bolter arms (and a bolt pistol), which I have no other use for.

For the bodies, I'll use 3 regular Chaos Space Marines. For the Champion, I used the Nurgle-y head from the Chaos Space Marine box.

I have some plasma and combi-plasma bits. So I sawed off the top of the bolters and glued these in place.

I also realized that I need some left arms, and I found a Scout arm holding a combat knife - soon to be a plague knife.

I magnetized the bodies, as well as the weapon arms - nothing new. I made sure that the polarities are fine with the old Plague Marine squad.

Green stuffing

First, I masked the haphazadly glued together nature of the weapons, by filling out the underside with green stuff. I tried to emulate the wooden handles, not very successfully.

After that, it's just a matter of working with green stuff. I mostly sculpted rot on and around the arms and weapons, but I did create some rather unique elements as well. Mostly inspired from this.

This arm does not have a shoulder pad due to the position of the gun, so I sculpted a large patch of rot tying the shoulder to the weapon. I later added a skull on the elbow.

A particularly bad cast received a skull on the firing end.

Cover the shoulder pad with green stuff, and use the butt end of the brush to create the 3-pockmarked symbol of Nurgle.

This shoulder pad has a large pustule on the middle of a patch of rot.

The scout knife hand received this rather corny grinning skull.

So I sculpted some more rot around it, as well as masked the arm without power armor.

More green stuffing

At this point I had to pause the project, as I had no more left-hand bits. That is until I received 3 more Scout blades.

After magnetizing, I realized that he's holding the blade too close to his chest. The plasma arm won't fit.

So I chopped off the arm below the shoulder pad, and glued it back on after repositioning.

Much better!

Also sculpt rot on it to mask the lack of power armor.

Another arm which does not fit a shoulder pad. A large patch of rot with the 3 pockmarks in the middle should mask that.

More masking rot on the 3rd guy.

Always drill your gunbarrels

Finished!