Warhammer 40k Space Marines are some of the toughest warriors in all sci-fi, but even they might not be a match for the body-stealing cordyceps fungus from The Last of Us. Or at least, that’s the premise of this diorama by hobbyist Sébastien, aka Morose.Miniatures, who posted a finished conversion to their Instagram on Tuesday of a Space Marine utterly consumed within a fungal growth.
Sébastien comments on Instagram that the conversion is inspired by “The Last of Us and Annihilation”. Anyone who played the Naughty Dog adventure game, or has been watching the recent The Last Of Us TV series starring Pedro Pascal, will immediately see the connection with the fungus-possessed cordyceps zombies.
You might have missed Annihilation, the story of a team of doomed expedition into an inexplicably altered ‘Zone X’, but it’s one of the best alien movies for really capturing the feeling of encountering something totaly inhuman. Both the Netflix movie, and original book by Jeff Vandermeer, are well worth a look – they’re full of mind-bending imagery straight out of the Warhammer 40k Chaos realms.
Sébastien’s Instagram is full of Warhammer conversions that are split almost 50/50 between the whimsical and the grotesque: how about a blood slicked Eldar wraithlord, or a Space Marine holding an ice lolly?
While Sébastien admits to being inspired by outside media, his fungal diorama is totally in-keeping with Warhammer 40k – the sort of thing you’d expect to happen when a starship’s Gellar fields fail and it’s overtaken by the Neverborn.
The plague god Nurgle is particularly fond of fungus. You’ll find cordyceps growths all over the Death Guard miniature range, especially the grinning Poxwalker zombies. For scenes of strange, biological transformation, we highly recommend the novel ‘Lords of Silence’ by Chris Wraight which takes place on board a Death Guard spaceship – it’s one of the best Warhammer 40k books, if you can stomach it!