Nurgle Chaos Renegade Nurgle Chaos Renegade Nurgle Chaos Renegade Death Guard Marine Forgotten Plague Marines Original Plastic Plague Marine Modern Plague Marine Champion Modern Nurgle Icon Bearer Conversion Modern Plague Marine Modern Flamer Conversion New Metal Plague Marine Plague Marine with Spike Fist Plague Marine with Tenticle Arm Plague Marine with Icon Converted Chaos Lord of Nurgle Plague Marine Havoc with Plasma Gun Plague Champion made with Forgeworld bitz

Visual History of Plague Marines

Nurgle Chaos Renegades

Back in the Day there weren't any plastic Plague Marines, nor were Nurgle's finest even called Plague Marines. All the models were made of lead and were referred to as Chaos Renegades or Nurgle Chaos Renegades. You weren't forced to use knifes and bolters, there were even Nurgle heavy weapon models. I really like these models. They were a bit smaller and with a lot less spikes and exaggerated proportions than today's models. There were just so many different models, I don't have them all, nor have I even seen them all. GW wasn't the corporate juggernaught it is today, so getting ahold of models required drastic measures, loyalists were easier to find so most of my original army was converted loyalists.

Jes Goodwin's Death Guard

At some point, prior to the release of second edition if I had to guess, Jes Goodwin sculpted one model for each of the four major Chaos Chapters. (Possibly doing an extra model or two later for some powers.) These models established the new look for Chaos Space Marines and visually set apart the four powers. Previously the Renegades were so warped and demented it could be difficult to quickly determined which power a model followed.

Forgotten Plague Marines

I've dubbed the fifth model down, part of the forgotten Plague Marine series of models. I believe there were at least two different models that were released after the Death Guard look had been established but before the Chaos Codex for the second edition was released. This dark time is best forgotten, Chaos players had next to no models in print nor any special rules with which to use them, I don't mind the Nurgle models that were released from this period.

Plastic Plague Marines

With the release of the first Chaos Codex, came the first plastic chaos marines and they were Plague Marines. It was around this time, that Plague Marines became restricted to using primarily: knifes, bolters, and grenades. This along with the staticly posed plastic models lead to some visually uninspiring Nurgle forces. I was lucky in that I only used a few of these models to add bulk to my forces, not as the basis of my whole army.

Modern Plague Marines

The modern Plague Marines came in a variety of poses, including three champions, two special weapons troopers, and an Icon Bearer. I own all of these models, some of them I have two or three painted examples in my collection. After the plastic Plague Marines went out of print, which was sometime around when the third chaos codex was released, these were the only Plague Marine models you could buy. I went to two Grand Tournaments with the Diseased Sons when you had to scrounge to find Plague Marines. I converted even more loyalists. I've become particularly fond of the armless models, as now Nurgle's finest can use bolt pistols and other close combat weapons. This allows for a more visually varied force. However I'd previously converted numerous models to be armed with a Plague Knife. In the third Chaos Codex, the Plague Knife has been phased out.

Poseable Plastic Plague Marines

The latest codex, supposedly showed preproduction plastic Plague Marine models. It turns out that the new models are not plastic and not poseable, instead they are armless and metal. All the other major powers now had multipart, poseable plastic models except Nurgle. Unaligned Chaos Space Marines, have had several different sets of poseable plastics, not to mention all the loyalists that can be quickly converted. This is all supposed to sort itself out during "The Summer of Chaos". Examples of these models as painted by me can be seen to the right, the 11th, 12th, and 13th models down from the top.

Plague Marine Havocs

I bought a box of these when they came out. I don't really need more plague marines, but I thought I'd find a use for them eventually. The first one I assembled was the champion, I planed to use him as cheap HQ choice in 4th edition. This model isn't in the Gallery of Plague Marines.

I keep painting and converting Nurgle Renegade models. Forgeworld released upgrade kits for Plague Marines and Nurgle Terminators, of course I weakened and bought them. I had planned on converting some Nurgle Raptors and bike troopers eventually, but in the latest Death Guard rules you can't have them, but perhaps in the other Chaos Codex. I did repaint a bunch of my old OOP models in the last few years, I put up photos of them.

I've since painted a half dozen more purple models that use bits from the Havoc box set. Here are some pictures. I've almost used up all the bitz that came in that boxset, which means despite the cost of the Plague Marine Havoc box it was worth buying. I have lots of unpainted GW models, but unlike most I have no unpainted armies, I just have large never finished armies, the Diseased Sons being the most famous.

Forgeworld Conversion Bitz

Reflecting the love Nurgle has for his followers and the love sculpters and painters have for Nurgle, Forgeworld released Death Guard upgrade bitz, both for power armor and terminator armor. Even though I didn't need more models, I bought these. I have too much stuff. I finally painted one as a champion for the 2009 Astronomi-con Vancouver. It looks quite good but I never got his face the skintone I wanted. I'm slowly painting a model here or there for Nurgle as much for attractiveness on the table as effectiveness. I've been working on some non-Nurgle chaos stuff, but I decided to update this page and direct people my miniature painting blog, particularly this post where I pick my top plague marines of all time.

New Plaugue Marines and Death Guard models

The Death Guard actually appeared in one of the starter sets, but not the most recent one for 9th Edition. So Games Workshop has released a lot of new Nurgle Chaos Space Marines, they even have their own tanks, demon engines, and a heavy weapon. It is some sort of giant flamer and from my reading of the rules there seem to be several slight variants of it depending on if it is wielded by a demon prince, a Chaos Lord, a lesser character, or a plague marine. There is even a relic version, I will run my Diseased Sons as this sept so I expect I'll paint a number of them.

Even more surprisingly the Death Guard got limited edition models, including one that is only available in Japan! I don't have that model but I have the rest of the set. I plan to get painting Plague Marines in the new year. I did manage to get in a single game of Warhammer 40,000 Ninth Edition, so far I am undefeated. There are more pictures and of a higher resolution like the one below on Flickr. In 2022, I'll have to take more photos of all my painted miniatures.

Now in 2023 I am updating old squads this time for 10th Edition. The limited edition models got re-released but the set I pre-ordered never made it to the Sentry Box. The Bell of Lost Souls decided to copy my idea, but unlike them I did collect and paint if not all, then most Death Guard/Plague Marines/Nurgle Renegades ever released by Games Workshop and I converted many of them. I don't know why the last picture is so dark. I really need to photograph my miniatures better and upload like a hundred or more photos to Flickr since I pay for it.

Purple Plague Marines
Syphilis Squad
Purple Plague Marine
Words and Images © Andrew "Muskie" McKay.
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