Warhammer 40,000 - Nurgle Cultist Lieutenants

This article will be a little different from most so far. I usually focus on the painting side of things but this time I want to talk about characters and narrative a little more. Warhammer 40,000 is at the end of the day a character driven setting and there is a big emphasis on creating ‘your dudes’ to inhabit the world. So let’s create some Cultist Lieutenants to grub around in my games. 

As I’ll jump on any opportunity to increase my horde of Nurgle cultists with new models, I recently picked up the Necromunda Hive Scum box. Firstly, this box is what I was expecting from the Cawdor Gang box; all unique poses and enough weapon options to arm everyone twice. I do appreciate that it’s easier to do with four models than ten but come on Games Workshop, I know you can do it.

For the models themselves, the torso and legs are assembled from two parts then you are free to choose whatever arms and head options you want. I find this to be the perfect blend of giving me a starting point to jump off from then the freedom to make what I want. 

Grol 

An ugly and spiteful little man even before pledging his loyalty to the Grandfather, Grol has only gotten uglier and more spiteful as the rot takes hold within his flesh. If anything his skin is now as cancerous and blighted as his soul. Grol is determined to push this fact as far as possible, believing that the more hateful he is the more gifts the Grandfather will bestow upon him. 

I had used a Plaguebearer arm for the cultists I built out of the Cawdor box and liked how the oversized and diseased arm looked on the human-sized models. Plus this Hive Scum model has shoulder pads that make it easier to hide the transition between the shoulder and arm, so it was a no brainer really. Grol’s head comes from the Frostgrave Cultist box and unlike Warhammer models, Frostgrave heads have less neck on them. So putting his ugly little head on a model with a deep neck recess and shoulder pads gives the impression of someone with much shorter stature. The model isn’t actually any shorter than the others but he looks like he is. 

From there his backstory pretty much just fell into place. He’s an ugly man, he’s probably been relentlessly bullied all his life and he hates himself and the way he looks. Along comes Nurgle promising power and all it costs is covering your body, that you already hate, in boils and sores? Of course Grol jumped at the chance. 

Mauger

Mauger was always slow of mind and more often than not let his fists do the talking. Perhaps it is a cruel irony then that one of his arms has become withered and limp from disease. Not that Mauger minds, in his eyes Father Nurgle has marked him for greater things. The loss of his fightin’ arm is a test and Mauger is determined not to be found wanting. 

By contrast Mauger was pretty light on custom bits as I found a head in the Hive Scum box with a couple of boils on it which was perfect for Nurgle. The fact that the face looked like a stereotypical 1920’s bruiser from a gangster film just sold it as well. I can well imagine Mauger looming out of the shadows and saying something like ‘Eh boss these guys botherin’ yous?’ before cracking his knuckles. I finished the model off by giving him an Anvil Industry zombie arm, one of which I had also used for the Cawdor cultists. 

By way of backstory I definitely wanted to lean into the slow-witted bruiser stereotype, and giving him a wasting disease is exactly the kind of thing that Nurgle would do. Mauger probably doesn’t even realise he’s being tormented. Will he work it out before whatever foul blight Nurgle has given him finally takes his life? Only time will tell. 

Probator Aubra  

Once a Probator of the law, Aubra worked to apprehend evil but after she lost her arm to gangrene Aubra pledged herself to the disease god. He answered her prayers and gifted her a new appendage, once with which to spread his unholy ailments. 

I’ll be the first to admit it, that’s not my finest tentacle. It’s a bit too thick for such a small model. It doesn’t look terrible in my opinion though. None of the female heads in the Hive Scum box particularly appealed to me so instead I used an Anvil Industry Female Cultist Head. To finish things off I gave her the saw-off double-barrelled shotgun, because it looks badass.

For her backstory her long coat gave off noir detective vibes so it was only logic to make her the Warhammer equivalent. From there it was pretty easy to imagine her being shot in the line of duty and losing her arm. Losing it ultimately to gangrene was just the disgusting icing on the cake. 

Enforcer Rashkak 

Rashkak has always been a thug and petty criminal, it’s little wonder then that he turned from the Emperor’s Light. With his skills of intimidation he has quickly come into his own as an Enforcer for the cult. With his two handed mace Rashkak is quick to cave the head in of any cult member that falls out of line. 

For the weapon I decided on a two-handed mace from the Frostgrave Cultist set, unfortunately Rashkak is a bit of a wide boy so it slightly deformed the mace. But it wasn’t too noticeable. I finished him off by giving him a Cawdor gang head. 

Rashkak’s backstory was the hardest to write. I knew I wanted him to be someone that wasn’t a true believer, someone that had joined the cult purely for personal gain. I was tempted to make him an Enforcer before joining the cult, a kind of bad cop unshackled. But I already had Aubra as my law enforcement gone bad, so in the end I straight up made him a criminal from the get go. 

Painting

As mentioned I’m not going to go into a huge amount of detail on the painting, I want to focus on the narrative side of things. And given they are painted in exactly the same way that I have done for the Cawdor gang there really isn’t anything to add. The bases are exactly the same as well.