Gang warfare in the Old World

[Vermis]

Going through my lead pile, I found a lot of the fantasy bits and pieces I'd gathered could be grouped by some general themes, enough that I could start building a few small skirmish gangs.
I have a lot of GW Chaos minis in particular, that I'd like to start with; only problem was that the tiny roving gang would be made up of a bunch of hulking lords and champions. So I thought I could divide them up to lead different gangs, and that meant I needed a few more grunts. For those I want to do something with the older fluff of cultists and turncoats within the Empire, rather than what it turned into: a solid line above Kislev, with everyone north of it on Chaos' side and everybody below it strictly not-Chaos. (And I don't like those plastic marauders anyway)
I thought it'd be a good excuse to buy my first box of Perry medievals. Those arrived. They're very nice, but miniscule compared the chunky 32-35mm GW minis. I might keep those for the ASoIaF idea in the back of my head, but in the meantime I went and ordered an Empire free company box. Better. In a way. I think I can flesh those out a bit more with a flagellant box, as well as other bits and pieces. And putty, of course.

At the mo I plan to make gangs for all four powers. As with the grunts, I want to try some of their minor themes that might've become more sidelined in all the flanderisation of recent years.

- Nurgle. I want to try a happy-go-lucky, clownish feel, like the Mordheim Carnival of Chaos. Red and yellow motley and heraldry.
- Slaanesh. Rather than a gang of boobs, a gang of gluttons, narcissists, elitists, sadists, anal perfectionists, etc.
- Khorne. Thinking of a Bretonnian knight and his shrinking retinue, seeking honourable combat. It'll mean buying yet more minis, though. What a horrible predicament.
- Tzeentch. Not entirely sure about this one. I might nick the elitist bit from Slaanesh - a scheming younger son of imperial nobility, turned out when it was discovered just where he was willing to find help? Might model him with a baldrick. And a percy.

In addition, I've got a bunch of Heresy goblins, among others; a few Hasslefree dwarfs that could need expanding; some dungeoneers - barbarians, wizards, clerics, thieves etc. (though some of these are kind of slight and might go into the ASoIaF pile) And I might pull some individuals from LR/DR retinues of skaven, ogres and C11 halflings (my preciousesss), high elves, dark elves...

First things first, though. Here are the initial minis for the Nurgle gang, before I attack some of 'em with putty. I still have to figure out how to divvy up the other, more generic Chaos minis.

[Ajsalium]

For the grunts, the Frostgrave soldiers seem to be 99% compatible with GW plastic bits, as seen in many a thread round here. They also have a more thugish look to them than Empire militia, yet without going all out flagellant crazy.

[beefcake]

Cool. Did you get in on the heresy kickstarter? The maggotman Andy is doing would fit the nurgle look very well, not very "happy go lucky" though, hmmm.
Can't wait to see what you do with the cyclops. I really like that mini. I have to agree with ajsalium about the frostgrave troops as well.

[Vermis]

Aj: ah yeah, I looked at the Frostgrave plastics too. Forgot to mention them.

Beefcake: Nope, didn't get in on the Heresy KS. Have the maggotmen appeared yet? Are folks getting antsy for them?

[Faust23]

Hi Vermis,

This thread is EXACTLY why I wrote Brink of Battle and Drew & I slaved over Epic Heroes.  One game with all of the rules you need to be CREATIVE and make your warbands/gangs/forces how YOU want them. Also, to get more Old School Lead on the table!   

Not sure if you saw my Bone Devils and Hornwraiths threads, but I'm doing similar projects with a gob of Citadel chaos, Melnibonean, and Wood Elf/High Elf figures.  Well, I should say up until I jacked up my Hornwraith Wardancers while priming them.....now my soul is cracked in half. Seeing your stuff gets me encouraged!

Noch Weiter Elf!

Bob

[ZeroTwentythree]

Two of my favorite old chaos champions!

[beefcake]

Aj: ah yeah, I looked at the Frostgrave plastics too. Forgot to mention them.

Beefcake: Nope, didn't get in on the Heresy KS. Have the maggotmen appeared yet? Are folks getting antsy for them?

Pics of them are on the facebook and Instagram pages.
https://www.facebook.com/HeresyMiniatures/photos/pb.111400898872256.-2207520000.1437896154./986425111369826/?type=1&theater


People are generally being quite patient.

[Major_Gilbear]

Ah, I had a similar idea a long while ago (but being me, I never go around to it...)!

My brief advice regarding models for making quick and versatile plastic followers is this:

> GW Brettonian foot troops. Cheap, rather derpy, but very versatile. And they mix well with other GW figs, obviously.

> GW Empire Flagellants. As above, plus they are raggedy and have well-muscled arms that don't look like the Catachan/Chaos Marauder roid-ragers'.

> GW Empire State Troopers. A bit of a surprise perhaps, but they have a lot of useful parts, and things like boots and coats are easy to add (since they are pretty skinny models otherwise. Decent selection of poses, useful weapons, and plenty of heads (many of which look supremely dim-witted and inbred). You can get crossbows from the Handgunners box easily enough through a bits-seller, and they fit the bodies well.

> Frostgrave plastic troops. They are GW-scaled, and blend well with all the above.

These plastic kits are all reasonably priced (well, the Flagellants are a bit pricey), and between them will give you pretty much anything you could want followers-wise; especially if you are willing to do a bit of converting and green-stuffing.

As for other figures, I'd suggest another look at Heresy Miniatures (since they are having a sale right now). The following would be worth considering:

> Blights. With some GS hoods (perhaps long conical ones, with the peak drooped over a little and cascabel on the end?) would make a couple of good followers for your Nurgle warband.

> Cultists. There are brilliant figures, and are easy enough to convert into whichever warband you want.I'd go for the bare bald heads personally, as it's easy to add anyhing later if youo want.

> Ghouls. Again, possibly for your Nurgle warband. The "specials" and runners are probly my faves, and I think would fit your theme.

> The Barbarian dungeoneer. A surprisingly good model all-round, and a great fit for GW models too. I think that with a little effort, he could easily fit either your Khorne or Slaaneshi warbands. Probably needs a weapon-swap either way though.

Finally, if you want some suitable helmets that will fit with the plastics, there are some great ones here from Mirliton.

Anyway, aside from providing you with a shopping list (!), I look forward to seeing what you come up and how you progress.

[Vermis]

Ta Major Gilbear, though I don't want to go overboard with too many plastic kits that might not be used. Still, I'm waiting on a couple of the suggested boxes to arrive. And do you mean the latest version of Heresy's Mullet? Already gottim! He's in the adventurers pile. His 'brother' might end up in the Tzeentch or Slaanesh band, though. Watch this space.

In the meantime, I think the nurgle band might have too many big gribbly things (two mutant champions and a pestigor), especially if I need to push some dung-eating villagers in there. And I've had ideas about that plastic Nurgle lord mini for a while; so he's being converted, in a couple of ways.

[Major_Gilbear]

No worries; totally understand about buying complete kits just to rob three models from them. I was more thinking that you could maybe grab a few bits from re-sellers or ebay here or there really - as you're doing warbands, I didn't get the impression you were especially after another 80 or so models either! 

[...] that plastic Nurgle lord mini [...]

Ah, one of my all-time favourite GW minis.

[Vermis]

No worries; totally understand about buying complete kits just to rob three models from them. I was more thinking that you could maybe grab a few bits from re-sellers or ebay here or there really - as you're doing warbands, I didn't get the impression you were especially after another 80 or so models either! 

Ah, okay. Already done with some ungor and bret bits. (Before I get more for that Khorne idea, and before they go for good...) I dunno if there are any bits resellers of non-GW bits, though?

Ah, one of my all-time favourite GW minis.

I have to say, it did sting to buy it at full retail, but not as much as with some other GW minis. It's pretty good, innit?

[Major_Gilbear]

I dunno if there are any bits resellers of non-GW bits, though?

There are, but they are obviously less popular sales-wise (I suspect because they are more affordable to begin with...). Hoard-o-bits does non-GW for example, but I've seen others too.

[Faust23]

Bullet Bits, Bits World, and Bits Barn I've done business with in the past and recently and they have a good selection for decent prices.

[Vermis]

I think I'll move my Warhammery Dragon Rampant efforts here, rather than have two separate threads. Especially since the line between my skirmish gang and DR ideas is starting to blur. I have boxloads of metal questing knights, Fireforge foot sergeants, and Frostgrave mercs to cater for the Khornate Bretonnian retinue, for instance. So, cut 'n' paste from the other topic:

*     *     *

The LR epidemic has got to me. It's one of those rare games that gets me itching to do some army building, and I'm going to show it off. So this'll be like my gang warfare topic, only bigger. The forces will also be more uniform, being less random minis from my lead pile, and more small armies I'd already started to collect for Warhammer and other battle games. They include...

- Skaven. I've had three aborted army-building attempts with these, so far. The last time I'd decided to go with one of the minor clans in the official fluff, Clan Grutnik. Owners of large warpstone mines which means they can afford lots of Clan Moulder and Skryre goodies, and also means lots of mutant slaves! Sounds good to me. Though there's another official clan I'm tempted by...

- High Elves. Relatively convenient thanks to the eighth edition starter set; a 28mm counterpart to one of my Warmaster armies; and a bit of a change from the grungy armies I usually go for.

- Dark Elves. A counterpoint to the high elves. Also an excuse to get those Jes Goodwin cold ones, before they disappear.

- Ogres and Halflings. This is an old project, started back when Ogre Kingdoms showed up in Warhammer 6th ed. I thought the plastics were okay but preferred the old imperial, less obese look. I dunno why, but I also got a kick out of their affinity with halflings, so I took the fluff of migration and culture assimilation and transplanted a tribe beside the Moot. Bodyguards and militia, well-paid with halfling cuisine.
Problem is it meant a lot of conversion and use of gnoblar rules that I wasn't satisfied with, so it fizzled out. It almost got started again with God of Battles (ogres and halflings in the mercs list) and Mayhem (whip up your own stats), but I think Dragon Rampant will be a good fit. For one thing, I don't know if I can afford or even get many more old C11 halflings to fill out the mass-battle ranks. Other halfling ranges just don't appeal as much...

The bits and pieces of the old O&H project can be seen here. I'm going to scrape some of the putty back and strip the paint, and see where I go from there.

Though before that, I'm going to do a little high elf modelling. To begin with, take a bunch of spearmen legs...



*     *     *

... chuck them out, and redo them.



Didn't take too long, did it?  

That was an interesting thing to try, though to end up with at least 24 pairs of legs, I think I'd have to cast a few rather than sculpt them all. And since I want to redo the spears with attached ham-hands, and I'd end up using just the plastic heads and torsos (and I'm not over-fond of the torsos either) I think it'd be far more simple just to scrape the seaweed off some IoB sea guard.

[Elbows]

Excellent work on the legs!