Marauders of Chaos warband (painted by Admin Tom)

Marauders of Chaos warband

Maybe you have read the rules for playing Marauders of Chaos warbands in the current issue of Letters of the Damned (#2). I recently started to build such a warband myself (after we've been playing with crappy models for over 3 years) and thought I'd share it with you folks. So here we go!

First I built a few marauder henchmen. I tried to give them some dynamic poses and an individual feel. I also gave them some additional bags and pockets because I think the members of a Mordheim warband are like wandering adventurers and they will always have their possessions with them. The marauders are no exception from this.





This marauder is the typical close combat warrior, ducking behind his shield as he advances to the cowardly enemy shooters.








On to the heroes!

I was thinking for quite a long time how I wanted to build my Chieftain. I was considering the Warhammer model for Crom but then found it to be too boring. Also I wanted all of my models to look like Marauders so a mere Chaos Warrior model didn't seem very fitting. He is a marauder chieftain after all. So I went through the GW Online Store and finally found what I needed: The chest + mantle piece of Archaon



Then I needed an apropriate weapon. As the warband rules introduce the great Chaos battle axe I chose to look for something like that. And I found it in the Champion of Khorne Axe:



What I also needed was the Champion of Khorne base as the mantle of the Archaon body is really huge.



So finally I had all the bits to assembly my perfect Marauder Chieftain model:



ps: I was running out of 25mm bases so I had to use one of my remaining unfortunately painted ones. But oh well, whatever..

Next I needed an apropriate model for the Condemned. This had to be a really tortured and twisted poor fella. I searched the GW store for approriate heads but couldn't find anything that really satisfied me. Then I went to check the Warhammer 40k Chaos models where I did find two good pieces:

1. The daemon prince of nurgle head


2. The CSM daeomon prince head


Finally I opted for the second one because - although the first did have a better SPawn of Chaos feel, which is what the Condemned is all about - I found the second head to be much more impressive when put on a human body (at least that's what I imagined).

When I received the CSM daemon head I was a bit surprised. It was even bigger than I expected. Because of its size I couldn't just put it on top of a marauder body. I had to model a longer (and thick) throat for the model. So I was forced to use Green stuff for the first time ever.
Next thing the Condemned needed were arms that represented an apropriate pose. As I envision the Condemned as a really cursed and tortured model I wanted to have it raise its arms to the sky. Showing the pain it is going through. This required me to organise other hands than the weapon-wielding ones the maruders have. I found these in my bits box: Zombie hands and arms. So after a bit more cutting, rasping and gluing I finally had my Condemned!

Oops, wait! I almost forgot one thing: The model was still appearing a bit "empty". Therefore I added a horn to his back. My favourite resource for horns is the goblin bow arms from my bits box. So that was some more cutting and gluing but then I had my Condemned at last.









So what I still need are a few Champion models and a Shaman. I don't like any of the Chaos Sorcerer models for a Shaman so we'll see what I do. Until next time, enjoy the pics!


UPDATE: The finished warband can be seen starting with this post on page three. Enjoy!

Cool idea's! I'm still deciding wich Warband i want..

Cool poses, espacially the last ones are great!
Well, I have to say that I don't like the look of the chaos marauders in general, simply to comic-like for my taste with their over-sized weapons, horn-helmets and mountains of muscles(You know what I mean- Conan, Thrud and so on ).

But anyway, you did a great job, hope I can see them painted soon

Erkwin wrote:

Cool poses, espacially the last ones are great!
Well, I have to say that I don't like the look of the chaos marauders in general, simply to comic-like for my taste with their over-sized weapons, horn-helmets and mountains of muscles(You know what I mean- Conan, Thrud and so on ).

But anyway, you did a great job, hope I can see them painted soon

I know what you mean. But I'm fine with them. The weapons are not THAT big. :-)

I'm afraid it'll take some time until I begin the paint job as I have a lot to do. Moreover, I want to collect the whole warband before starting it.

Kudos Cianty! This is an excellent conversion/modellism report! I read it with great delight!

I like your conversions too, and actually i don't really have a problem with the Conan look... I think it's ok. I mean the skaven look a bit caricaturesque too, don't they? And they are still cool models.

Could you maybe post a linkt to the warband rules for marauders? I would like to read them (have never heard of it...). Thanks!

I simply prefer barbarians in fur and not in fantasy-skull-whatever-armoures
But still, they are great models, that's for sure.

And I think the axes are really big- espacially the chieftain's axe could be difficult to lift for an average, not so hardened, wimpy human warrior

Admin Tom wrote:

Kudos Cianty! This is an excellent conversion/modellism report! I read it with great delight!

I like your conversions too, and actually i don't really have a problem with the Conan look... I think it's ok. I mean the skaven look a bit caricaturesque too, don't they? And they are still cool models.

Could you maybe post a linkt to the warband rules for marauders? I would like to read them (have never heard of it...). Thanks!

Seems like you don't read the Mordheim ezine Letters of the Damned. The rules are published in the current issue (#2). Well, you might as well download them from the Border Town Burning website since that version is a bit more 'readable'. I know you won't bother to check out the site so here is the direct link: http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~cianty/btb/pdf/marauders.pdf

Erkwin wrote:

I simply prefer barbarians in fur and not in fantasy-skull-whatever-armoures
But still, they are great models, that's for sure.

And I think the axes are really big- espacially the chieftain's axe could be difficult to lift for an average, not so hardened, wimpy human warrior

Yes, but the Chieftain is no wimpy human warrior. He's more like Conan after drinking Asterix' magic potion. Get the picture?

cianty wrote:

Yes, but the Chieftain is no wimpy human warrior. He's more like Conan after drinking Asterix' magic potion. Get the picture?

That's what I mean

Thanks Cianty!

Admin Tom wrote:

Thanks Cianty!

You're welcome! Please don't hold back with any comments/ideas/whatever that come to mind.

I know some of you may look down on it but I could not resist! I just bought these two amazing conversions on ebay. Soon they will complement my warband. *drool*










EDIT: Sorry for the broken links. You can see the models in the updated initial post or on the BTB website gallery.

Although I DO look down on buying conversions on ebay (just kidding!!! ) I have to say they look really great! Especially the first one!

Wow, they look cool!
What are they made of, it looks like plastic?

No, he uses a grey coating after converting. He does use plastic, metal and green stuff but you can't tell from them afterwards.

Ah ok, I was wondering because of the colour.

these conversions are wonderfull!.. thanks for sharing

Beautiful warband i must say, can't wait to see them painted

Jupp i can't wait either

yay, we can't wait together

lol yupss we all can't wait I think

I am thinking about what I could use a Shaman model. The Warhammer range of Chaos Sorcerers doesn't have an adequate model. Even among all the older models from Citadel I can't find anything I like. Does anyone of you have any suggestions how to make a good conversion for a marauder shaman? What model should I start with? How can I give it a more shaman-like look?

So far, I don't have a better idea than just using a normal plastic marauder, giving him a staff with a skull or something and trying to use green stuff to give him a fur for his head... if you get what I mean. Any ideas?

Although I have no idea what model to use, I would suggest to give the shaman a wolf-fur, so that he uses the wolf's head as a hood.

How about using the "Valten, champion of Sigmar" model?

You could, as Erkwin suggested, add a fur coat and replace the hammer with axes.



What do you think?

Erkwin wrote:

Although I have no idea what model to use, I would suggest to give the shaman a wolf-fur, so that he uses the wolf's head as a hood.

Yes, I was also thinking of something like this. I don't know if my green stuff skills are ready for something this difficult.

I like the Valten model. But I don't know if it is really appropriate because the marauders are way bigger than normal humans.

I think Valten should work, he looks very muscular.