When the Nurgle Team was released for Blood Bowl, I was excited at the prospect of hopefully painting them one day. The models are full of character, they looked fun to paint and they’re one of the 2nd ed teams that are fairly well known, but they’ve never really been produced well in miniature form by Games Workshop/Citadel. However, I don’t really care to ever play this team again after one crushing season, but again, Blitz Bowl’s here to make this coach’s gaming dreams a reality.

Some 15-20 years ago, Games Workshop did put out a booster blister of a few rotter and pestigore models that could be supplemented with your Chaos team or whatnot to make a Nurgle squad. Bloaters weren’t a position and there was no rotspawn type big guy model available that I recall. Still, I was a fan of that booster, so tracked down some 2nd edition Chaos Blockers to create the team above, The Herdstone Toxins.

Here’s a better shot of some of the rotter minis. There were only three poses, so I did a bit of converting. Adding helmets from the Bretonnian WFB line with a little greenstuff to be the ear pads hoping to give the team an old school leather helmet look. I really liked creating the model holding his helmet by the straps, and have carried a similar pose to my current BzB Halfling team.

With only two pesigore poses, some more converting was necessary. A top knot on one, but a punch dagger from the Chaos Beastmen on another. For the Big Guy, I grabbed one of those Albion Fen Beasts off eBay but put a minotaur skull head on it. Painted the skull in two colors split down the middle in the same manner as the Houston Texan’s logo.

Here’s those sweet 2nd edition Chaos Blockers and the team banner with that play on the Texan’s logo. I did the Nurgle triple orb thing for the eye which I thought was cleaver. A few of those little metal nurglings for reroll markers, a coach with a headset whipping his rotting lads into form, and a chaos drummer rounded out our coaching staff.

This team, and many others from coaches from around the world during the early ’00 era, can still be found at the Blood Bowl Old Skool Picture Archive – I was going by ‘Bullbear’ online at the time.

Seeing my old team here, long sold off after an abysmal season where I don’t know if I scored a single TD, you may ask yourself…what’s with the new colors on the BzB team? To be honest, I really struggled with an idea for the new nurgle team. I do like the blues and greens I used on my old Toxins team, so much so that I’ve decided to move it over to a team that I’ll most likely keep playing in Blood Bowl. A team still to be painted for the modern era. So, I really didn’t know what to do with the new Nurgle. It wasn’t until all the mentions of the Nurgle models in a recent episode of The Crush podcast, that I knew I had to take a crack at Nurgles…crack.

For inspiration I dove into my 2018 Blood Bowl Almanac, and the tale of Bilerot Vomitflesh’s decent from young rookie Wilhelm von Mitfleish into the rotting debauchery of nurgle gave me a kernel of an idea. My Ironkeep Bloodskins Chaos chosen team, popped it.

As blogged about previously, my Chaos Chosen team was the continuation of an idea and line of Chaos warriors across several GW gaming systems. A line I’ve continued through to the Nurgle team. The Ironkeep Bloodskins are chosen from the toughest of the tough, the roughest of the rough. Their roster is selected from rookies who rise and survive within the GORECHOSEN (always in capital letters – respect to that game!) fighting pits. Those that don’t fare so well are cast beneath the Ironkeep and this is where the tale of my Nurgle team bubbles up from.

The maimed and lame Chaos Blockers and Beastmen Runners who survive their wounds find support and comfort with Papa Nurgle as they stew in their own juices at the bottom of the keep. As my Chaos Chosen team has armour adorned with blessings, these failed servants of Nurgle scrawl prison-like blessings into their skin. Well, an attempt at prison tattoos I did using transfers with a little drybrushing over to give them that faded, uneven look. Chaos Blockers who’s bodies swell up become Bloaters.

Those Chaos Blockers who’s body emaciates, twist down into rotters. I thought the rotter with the single large shoulder spike was a neat perversion of the large spike on the Chaos Blockers. However, in hindsight I think I’d rather have tattooed a ‘6’ on the side of his head instead of the nurgle orbs, as there is no other good place for a number. Oh well.

Only one pestigore model in this squad, but as I’ve gone with a darker, ‘blood clot’ color red for my Beastmen Runners, I continued that theme with this beast being a darker green than the human rotters. This is such a weird model though, and am never satisfied with the proper angle to take a picture of it from, so here’s another below. Not because I like him a lot…he’s my least favorite sculpt on the team, just weird pose or something…

I also trimmed off that large, third horn growing out it’s back. It was just too much for me. And as always, brass and oxide on the team bits.

So, there’s the Nurgle team sorted. Discarded souls from my Chaos Chosen team’s pool of recruits. Using the same team colors, the only available kit pulled off the walls within the Ironkeep, these recent devotees of Nurgle have a boil to pick with my Bloodskins. Rivals if you will in my head cannon. I guess for a name, they’d have to be something like the Ironcell Rotskins? I dunno.