Undead Army Showcase – July 2016

Undead Army

This is my second “State of the Army” post, this time showing off all of the completed elements of my (Marouda’s) Undead Army at present. Like the Gondor army, I’ve been working on it on and off over the last two or so years, with a recent push during the last 6 months and the painting challenge. I’ve kept Undead on as one of my main options for the second half of 2016, though I’ve opened up my options quite a bit as painting mostly Gondor and Undead got very old by the end. The Undead aren’t so bad though, as there’s actually quite a lot of variety in there, especially when you combine “Vampire Counts”, “Tomb Kings” and even the spectral elements of Lord of the Rings in general and Mordor specifically.

Undead Army

These photographs were taken during the same session as the Gondor Army and 6-month showcase photos, so there has been a little more movement on these undead since then, specifically the unit base I put together for the trio of Nazgûl. I held off publishing (and writing) this post until now as I could see three sets of army showcase posts in a row getting a little tedious. Besides, I wanted to share my Spehss Mahreens.

Undead Army

The Barrow-Wights in the front row need to have a new unit base built for them as Mantic first Squatted them in KoWII before a protest from players (and with myself as one of the first, if not the first in the departed Beta forums) caused them to be reinstated, though now they’re “Large Infantry” with 40mm bases. I’m not going to rebase my LotR SBG figures, so I’ll be making a – hopefully slightly interesting and imposing – multibase for them. My first failed attempt already sits abandoned on my painting desk. 😛

Undead Army

There are a few variables in here. The various Mordor and Army of the Dead/Oathbreaker models will (theoretically) be split off one day to one or two LotR-themed armies of their own, the two units of skeletons with Greek shields and the odd bit of linothorax armour will go into the Mythical Greek army, along with the pair of Brass/Bronze Bulls, units of SpartansTalos, and more besides. Tomb Kings stuff, of which there is little to none right now will become it’s own force; and I’ve got a tub filled with Confrontation prepaint Wolfen, a miniscule 12 of whom are pictured here. Though there’s enough of those to happily stay in the Undead while also making up a Lycan-themed “The Herd” army of their own. Until those things begin to happen, though – they’re all combined to form a mighty undead army, led by Neferata (version 1).

Undead Army

There’s another couple of dozen troops (skeletons and zombies) on the paint desk right now, as well as a couple of more centrepiece-type models on the go. I’ll likely keep knocking out a few more undead units as I paint a variety of other things in the time between now and the New Year.

Neferata and Bastet

Marouda took a few photographs as well, managing to take a much better photograph of Neferata than I did when I posted her here – certainly in terms of her facial details not being nearly as washed out as in my own photos. I’m still learning my way around the new camera, but hopefully getting better!

Undead Army

There are a few not-quite-finished models in this photo. 6 Nazgûl (including a few named) and The Witch King. The Confrontation Wolfen also don’t have any paint on them aside from the retail pre-paint. You can also see some more candidates for scenic multibases besides the Wights. Hopefully between some of that and the centrepiece models I need to complete, I’ll be able to show this force off again at the end of the year in a more impressive light.

Iron Warriors Army Building – Restarting.

Kitbashed Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marines

I’ve slowly been buying Forge World bits and accumulating them for years now. Lots of those bits and kits and models are Space Marine ones. I’ve also bought my fair share of parts from Anvil Industry, Kromlech, Maxmini, etc and more as well. (All awesome guys to deal with, by the way!) I originally started purchasing these many models and components for my nascent Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marines and Crimson Fists Space Marines armies. This started long before Forge World began riding the Horus Heresy money train, and the concept of “30k gaming” wasn’t yet a thing. I wanted MKIII Iron Armour in particular for kitbashing into my IW, and obviously Mark VI “Beakie” armour works for a RT-inspired marine force, some Mk IV and V to mix parts in seemed appropriate as well.

Kitbashed Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marines

Now it’s 10 or more years later, and “30k” is now a thing – with a growing in-depth and generally well-written background. 40k is now a borderline-unplayable clusterfucked ruleset but still a first love, at least in terms of background, and I’m finally restarting on these old Iron Warriors – beginning by rebasing and completing the models I started in the mid-2000’s, paused and then came to a stop on again around 2009.

Kitbashed Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marines

The question for me to ponder right now – much more for the Iron Warriors – is how do I build them? Do I build them as a 40k Chaos force, replete with a mix of chaos armour, scavenged modern and also heresy armour – or do I try to build them as two separate forces – 30k and 40k Iron Warriors. Though to be quite honest I don’t know if I’ll have the painting stamina and interest to build and paint a full army of the massive size that 30k seems to demand.

Kitbashed Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marines

Unlike the three push-fit “starter kit” style Chaos Marines from Execution Force that made up my “proof of concept” models as far as rebasing my IW on the new Citadel bases, every other model of my Iron Warriors is.. well, they’re far from all something one could consider conversions, but they’re at least kitbashes from the CSM kits, Iron Warriors and Iron Hands metal upgrade parts, and of course loyalist marine parts. In this way, pretty much every model will be in some way unique. The Close Combat-oriented squad, which I’ll get to work on after I finish this “Tactical” style squad also features bionic CC parts poached from a variety of sources.

Kitbashed Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marines

I’ll continue to kitbash my CSM Iron Warrior models from all of the previous sources of course, plus parts from the “Horus Heresy” models. The question is on how many do I leave in the “30k pristine” state – looking somewhat like these guys. Because let’s face it, those models linked look bloody awesome as well, without a hint of Chaos in their paint or mixed armour in their modelling. While I’m not averse to using sculpted parts with chaos stars on these guys, I’ll be avoiding the gribbly side of Chaos as much as possible for the Iron Warriors, so No Rogue Trader models, nor any Dark Vengeance-styled ones either.

Kitbashed Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marines

What I (eventually) do with the Imperial Fists models and bits will be a much easier choice. I don’t want no yellow marines in my collection. People like Nerdfest have done some great models in the Imperial Fists livery, and I think they’re great, but still, no yellow Marine armies for me. (ok, maybe one squad integrated into the Crimson Fists, down the line.) The mantle of the hated foe of my Iron Warriors will be taken by both the Crimson Fists and the Black Templars, so pretty much all of the “Imperial Fists” upgrade parts I’ve gotten will be shared between those two venerable loyalist chapters.

Kitbashed Iron Warriors Chaos Space Marines

I guess the other question is whether I drop all three of the Execution Force Iron Warriors into this squad, or whether I try to space them out over multiple (three?) “Tactical” CSM squads to avoid repetition of pose within each unit. Another question to ponder. Then again, I don’t even have a current army list (or anything like it) drawn up, since the last time I used these guys in their semi-painted state was in 3rd or 4th edition using a slightly-modified set of the Combat Patrol rules and based off the Index Astartes Iron Warriors list.

What are the current CSM rules? 6th Edition Codex plus the PDF errata?

Gah. I don’t look forward to writing up an army list for these guys.