Last week I read a post over on Hobgoblin Orange that reminded me of a project that I’d started and actually managed to finish back in the late 2000’s. A couple of units kitbashed from Chaos Marauders, plastic Catachans, and whatever other bits I found to suit (plastic Goliaths, bits from the Kroot Sprue, Mordheim guys, etc). I couldn’t even remember why I’d put them together at first, and it took digging them out and looking at some of the other figures near them for me to realise/remember why I’d started them – they were to be a part of a smallish Lost and the Damned force from Codex: Eye of Terror.

Kitbashed Chaos Cultists – Lost and the Damned

The idea was that they were to be vaguely Nurgle-themed, but without the specific pustulence and decay that we typically see on Nurgle models. This was to keep them a little generic and flexible for potential use in other games, forces and scenarios. Besides, every cult needs some cleanskins …right?

Rear View of Chaos Cultists.

I went with US Desert 3-colour camo and a military green for the armoured plates for a few reasons – I wanted to keep to the general colours of Nurgle, but also retain a kind of Military (or Paramilitary) feel to the models. Brass fixings because Chaos (and it looks good against the green) with red spot colours for leg wraps and headbands. As well as that, I enjoy painting real-world camo patterns, and the 3-colour desert both looks good and is also pretty easy to replicate.

Riflemen and a flamer.

I also chose to paint them with plastic-looking pseudo-wooden furniture on their weapons in imitation to the garish look of those AKs we all saw plenty of throughout the ’80s and ’90s. The flamer guy naturally got the cigar-chomping head from the Sentinel kit. And flames on his bandanna.

Rear View of Kitbashed Chaos Cultists

By keeping the “Chaos” on them slightly subtle (and even moreso compared to recent kits!), I figured I could also use them for various techno-barbarians, space pirates, deserters or even a militarised Body builder’s club-cum-Citi-Def/PDF unit (which is more of a weird Judge Dredd vibe kinda thing – but then, pseudo-Dredd has always been a core part of my 40k ethos going right back to Rogue Trader.)

The Viking Muscle Power Gym Militia, ready for hot, buff, sweaty, oiled-up action. Or Nurgle Cultists. Whatever floats ya goat!

These guys are the Ranged “squad”. There’s also the Close Combat-themed “squad” which I’ll get a post up for soon. I’ve got to say that even now I remember how much I enjoyed building and painting these guys. Aside from the choice of kits and “one special weapon, one heavy weapon” IG squad thing, it was really liberating to just have a bunch of kits and bits, and to give myself free reign over how I put them together.