Project Hellworm: Scratchbuilding a Nurgle HellDrake Part 1

Old School Terminator here with my latest project for the Chaos Marines: The Hellworm, or Maggot Dragon or whatever it eventually gets called. Having a healthy amount of Death Guard and other Nurgle-themed Chaos stuff, I naturally thought of how I would convert a Helldrake to fit in with my Death Guard ... but then I could really see it working out. I started to imagine something much fouler in my mind and with my maggot themed bases, I started to develop an idea ...

Do the Death Guard have Drakes? Hell no, they have worms"

With this in mind, I started my most ambitious project to date. I grabbed some Milliput, one of my favorite sculpting materials, some small Styrofoam balls, green stuff from GF9, my sculpting tools and a cheap Moray Eel from Michaels.

I used a Dremel to carve most of the fins off of the eel and also grinded the face off. I then turned it sideways and started gluing half-balls of Styrofoam onto what will become the underbelly of the Daemon Engine into place. After that, I took the Milliput and started creating a shell over the Styrofoam in order to turn the eel into an armature for what will become the worm.

I started digging through my bits box and found a set of Mawlok jaws to cut up and use as a mouth. I then grabbed a strange bit that I think comes from the Hellpit abomination that I got during a bits trading night and set it up as the eyes. I worked some green stuff in to see if it was to my liking ... and it was.

So, I broke into my other bits from Dark Eldar bits from the raider to Tyranid venom cannon bits and glued them into places where I wanted them and started laying in more green stuff. I then tool a wedge tool and started to sculpt the skin by pulling and poking the green stuff to fit the look of rotted and torn skin and flesh.

I liked where it was going, so I added more. I also added some vestigial little leg bits as you would see in an inchworm or grub. I also took care to sculpt the flesh into winkles and ridges to fit the bent position of the worm. The underbelly started to get some bits added as well, but I haven't photographed that yet.

At the end of the first session, this is where I am at and I plan to finish the lower end of the head face area tonight.

The idea behind it comes from the idea that the Daemon engine is a simple machine that has been corrupted and sacrificed the flesh of the citizens of an invaded world and then given life by being bonded to a powerful warp entity by a Warpsmith. I read a lot about how the daemons "wore men as somebody would wear a mask" in Fear to Tread and I wanted to run with that idea, so he blend of Machine, Daemon and the flesh of the dead is what I am hoping to achieve in this project.

As time goes on, the body will be finished, it will receive a cool base (covered in foul things of course) and it will also receive wings or some other manner of flight!

That is it for now, but be on the look out for Project Hellworm posts as they will be popping up as time goes on.

I would Love to here what you think and your feedback as this project progresses, so please hit me with your comments! Now, enjoy your next meal with this thing in mind!