From the start, the concept for my Muties stemmed from some of the campaign background written by the organiser. On this cut-off planet, an ancient garison of Imperial Fists had dwindled through attrition and old age over the course of centuries and, led by one of their number called “Gorth”, eventually resorted to the creation of debased “proto-marines” using simplified gene-sculpting and whatever debased gene seed could be retained and maintained by the remaining Apothecaries. The campaign was set hundreds of years after this, and I was quite taken with the idea of using one of “Gorth’s Genesculpted” as my leader, a proto-marine I named “Gregemnal Tyron”.
Once a zealous persecutor of mutants and upholder of the Imperial Faith, it wasn’t long before Tyron himself began to exhibit signs of mutation. A fugitive from the garrison, Tyron’s debased gene seed and unpredictable gene sculpting, a body sustained by a concoction of chemicals and suffering constant radiation from the wastes of the planet, has left him. After decades of wandering the wastes, and quite mad, Tyron has forgotten his origins, now known only as “Gregor the Shredder”, a wasteland warlord who champions the mutie cause and aims for nothing other than a full blown mutant rebellion.
I had a lot of fun making the model and also creating the rules for Gregor, using Necromunda’s super flexible character creation rules.
I started the conversion using an AOS Slaughterpriest. Although I think this version had potential, the model was much bigger than I thought when I bought it online, and was coming across as far too powerful. Gorth’s Genesculpted were supposed to be debased and relatively weak by Space Marine standards, whereas this guy looked like he could single handedly take on whole Marine squads.
I eventually went back to an old stand by of the Inq28 converting community – Nurgle warriors. In particular, I dug out an old start I’d made to converting Bull Gorg some time around 2010. This old conversion featured lots of sculpting work building on the Nurgle warrior base and a power plant integrated into the back, with the legs, torso, neck, shoulders and head all basically finished. I just added some rags under the chainmail to tie Gregor in with his warband, some armour plating to the power plant, an over-shoulder rotary cannon mounted on the side of the power plant and the arms.
In the above initial sketch I was using the forearm from the Slaughterpriest I originally planned to use, but ended up swapping this for a more shrivelled one from the poxwalkers, reaching into a pouch for something. I’m a big fan of the tentacle gripping the chainsword.
Here’s Gregor’s fighter card. I like how the combination of the first four “abilities” meant I was able to pretty faithfully represent the background I put together for him. Unfortunately, we only played two games of this campaign before it all fizzled out, but Gregor the Shredder lived up to his name (though in the event mostly due to the rotary cannon represented by the Ironhead Autogun, rather than his Chainsword).
Part list:
- Legs & torso (underneath putty work) – Nurgle Warrior
- Sculpted torso, hoses, arms
- Power plant – kataphron servitors (I think)
- Power plant armour – I think a Land Raider part
- Rotary cannon – UR 025 robot from Blackstone Fortress
- Cannon ammo hopper – Deathwatch Heavy Bolter
- Cannon ammo link – Zinge Industries part
- Right arm (tentacle) – ???
- Left arm – Poxwalkers
- Chainsword – Space Marines
- Holsters & pouches – Ash Wastes Nomads, Marines