The Saga of Porridge Baby

Bolstered by my recent success in building a Dreadnought for my Death Guard army, I set about turning another idea of mine into reality.

I felt convinced that expanding foam was a great way to build your own Great Unclean One.

Putting down rough shapes onto cardboard was where I started. Not having used expanding foam before, I really had no idea where this was all headed, but hey, if you don’t try new things, or aren’t prepared to fail and chuck stuff in the bin you’ll never discover anything new.

With a big selection of pieces to pick from, some cocktail sticks and some UHU glue, I made the rough shape of what I was after.

But I wasn’t happy.

The head was huge, as were the feet and arms. It all seemed a bit cartoony in its proportions, nothing anyone would be afraid of. So I set about chopping him up.

A bit of a jump in time, so here’s what I’ve done. First I ripped the head off. It was far too big. I used the spare foam to build up his belly and bum, so it hanged between his feet, making him look far more like a Great Unclean One. I did away with the arms too, chopping one in half, and using it for both. I really liked the pose this created, like he was coming in for a hug. I opened up the belly too, it’s something of a trope for Nurgle figures to have a belly-mouth and I knew I’d be able to put something gross or creepy in there. A bat skeleton I’d be holding onto since Halloween helped a lot, as did a doll from Poundland which provided me with hands, toes and a head.

The bat’s wings became the claws coming out of the face. I used a big piece of my left over foam for the Unclean One’s true face, hiding inside the split baby face. Where the foam made contact with the cardboard as I sprayed it, it had a really odd and holey texture, which looked horrible in that good kind of way.

I think from here it’s mostly filling gaps and adding texture where I can before priming and painting. More updates to follow!