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We've found it - the most cursed Warhammer 40k conversion ever

Master monster maker Barbarus has channelled a love for practical horror SFX into a truly grotesque conversion for Warhammer 40,000.

The large word "NOPE" over a blurry image of a mysterious but unsettling Warhammer 40k model conversion.

Reader, the censored photograph at the top of this article isn't just bait - if we put an unblurred image of the hideous conversion that European model maker Barbarus has created, we'd genuinely risk getting this article shadow-banned from search engines and social media. If you like your Warhammer 40,000 as grim and dark as possible, read on to find out how he created it.

Barbarus has been working on a converted Death Guard Helbrute for Warhammer 40k for a very, very long time - he thinks he began work in 2003 or 2004. He says: "[I work] on the project that currently interests me until I'm feeling bored", but that he will "never abandon a project… it might just take a decade or two" to finally finish.

Barbarus' cursed Nurgle Dreadnought for Warhammer 40k, a vile amalgam of machine, flesh, eyeballs, guts, and hair

At the core of this revolting specimen, "some parts are metal and from the old [Space Marine] Dreadnought while others are resin and from the Nurgle Dreadnought that Forge World used to sell". The upper torso is "pretty much all sculpted" with "green stuff, glue mixed with various things, and filler mixed with sand and static grass" giving it its hideous bulk.

It's a true chimaera of parts from many Warhammer 40k factions and other kits, "including the old Chaos Space Marines Possessed Kit, the Chaos Spawn kit, the banner from the Beastman Gors". Barbarus started the final phase of work on the monster in 2019, and he worked on it in sprints in 2022, 2023, 2024, "and those first few months in 2025".

Barbarus' cursed Nurgle Dreadnought for Warhammer 40k, a vile amalgam of machine, flesh, eyeballs, guts, and hair - rear view showing its mechanical components

You'll find more pics of the Helbrute, and the other gruesome children of Barbarus' imagination, on his Instagram. They're born from a lifelong love of all things horrifying and transgressive.

"As a kid I was obsessed with comics and practical effects… I used to rewind the tapes and watch those scenes where eyes popped or faces melted countless times", Barbarus recalls. He "watched a lot of documentaries" about the "old masters of SFX" and how they'd created their video nasties, which helped him learn "it is okay to think outside the box".

It's a great lesson for any model maker. "You want a result and it doesn't matter how you get there as long as you get there", Barbarus says. "Some of these guys doing horror movies in the 70s and 80s had a tiny budget to work with and they found creative ways to make do", he continues, adding: "If people think you're 'doing it wrong', let them think that, and throw the result in their face".

Barbarus' cursed Nurgle Dreadnought for Warhammer 40k, a vile amalgam of machine, flesh, eyeballs, guts, and hair - the side view showing off its protruding front hose and insect-clawed hand

If you want to make a creature that looks as deeply wrong as this Helbrute, Barbarus has some advice: "Look at the core emotions humans have, and then try to turn them on their head". He adds: "There are patterns in nature and we are used to these patterns - as soon as something deviates from those patterns it becomes very, very unsettling".

If you've got your own truly atrocious monster conversions, we'd love to see them in the official Wargamer Discord community. Or if your models are the complete opposite, share them, too! We celebrate all kinds of model-making creativity, including the pretty stuff.

With all the Chaos books on the Warhammer 40k Codex release schedule out (or near enough out) for this edition of the game, we expect there to be an uptick of ghastly conversions on social media. If you fancy playing with an army of similarly gruesome monsters, check out editor Alex's exhaustive Death Guard Codex review. For something at the complete opposite end of the style spectrum, check out this conversion which is painted so crisply, the members of one subreddit literally didn't believe their eyes.