Saturday, March 6, 2010

Plaguebearer Evolution

Over the years, the not so humble plaguebearer has undergone a minor evolution. Below is a picture of several plaguebearer models over the past 2 and a bit decades.Going from the left, the first two models are both from the golden rogue trader / realms of chaos era. The leftmost is "Maggotgut" (see solegends) and shows an almost hunched over and diminutive plaguebearer with a nurgling close to its right foot. The second realms of chaos one is "Wormrot". Both of these two show a different variety of plaguesword: one that is somewhat ornate, but decaying and the second that is fairly plain and smooth, albeit with a slight curve.

The next two along are the marauder style plaguebearers. These are readily picked out by the swirls featured on their blades. I'm not entirely sure why they were cast this way as the blades certainly don't fit in with the regular theme of rust (etc.). Regardless, I do like these plaguebearers a lot -- the "herald" in the middle is one of my favourite sculpts simply due to the animal horns that are growing out of the sides of his head in addition to the traditional central horn that all plaguebearers feature.

The next one is a more modern era plaguebearer. By now, it is possible to see that the plaguebearer has grown in both stature and bulk since the realms of chaos era (although I do admit that this point is accentuated by having maggotgut hunched over at the far left). Although there are a few skinnier models of plaguebearer still around, I have mixed feelings about the heroically proportioned plaguebearer. I like some of the models to be bulky, but I think I miss a lot of the more traditional open sores on the newer models.

Finally on the right hand side there is the new herald of Nurgle that is sold along with the icon bearer and the instrument player in the command boxed set. He is by far the largest plaguebearer (apart from Epidemius) that I've seen in recent times. He's easily picked out (more so than the marauder version) on the battlefield and looks highly intimidating and dynamic.

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