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Grok

Ghoul
Sep 8, 2014
124
Hello Fellow VC generals. With the ability to take VC and TK units in the Undead Legion lists, beyond the mechanical benefits and negatives something I have been wondering about are how do you all plan to deal with the modeling aspects of the Undead Legion?

I know some people will be content just buying VC and TK models, giving them a cohesive color scheme and call it a day, but I can't help but look at the models for both ranges a feel there is a massive difference in the feel and look for the armies. Vampires have a much more "traditional" undead look, blood, guts, decay, bats, and an overall ragtag look. Tomb Kings on the other hand have very strong themes of bone, bronze, and sort of ancient military.

In my mind these are just too different basic model wise to work together and not look sort of thrown in.

How do you plan on integrating these different ranges together? Is a cohesive color scheme enough, or are conversions necessary? I sort of thought this would be an interesting discussion, and wanted to see what everyone else thinks. Please feel free to link/ post pics of what you have been working on for the UL to help you points (warhammer is after all a visual game :) ).

From my perspective I think when working with just the GW range extensive conversion is needed to really make the models work together. Basic zombies clash way too much with TOmb King Skeletons. The characters for the VC could be integrated into the TK, but I don't see the units looking too great alongside each other. The ornate nature of Tomb King models give the army a very cool unique feel that would jar with most other armies (which is ironic since I think there is a ton of possibility to make other armies undead VC with some clever kit bashing).

Alternative ranges offer some nice chances to work some Tomb King choices in, with Mantics bow skeletons and catapults potentially working in a VC army. There are definitely some cool conversion oppurtunities for a casket of souls, necromantic ritual piece for example, but most of the really cool stuff the TOmb Kings could add to the VC , would require some pretty creative conversions or alternative model usage.
 

John Rainbow

Crypt Horror
Mar 7, 2013
596
PA, USA
I would go for conversions myself. There are a ton of opportunities here and the GW plastic kits are super easy to work with. I don't like the same colour scheme idea from a fluff view as the TK and Vamps have always had different colours in the stories.
 

Markond

Skeleton
Apr 10, 2014
86
I fully expect to see a slew of gothic tomb kings conversions and egyptian vampires in the next few days. I've already converted up a unit of skeleton archers from VC skeletons and wood elf bows, and a tomb (lich) prince from a chaos sorcerer and a few misc parts. The hierotitan and casket are giving me issue.

For the casket im thinking of using the main body of a mortis engine without the spirit horde. Where the artifact would usually be will be a throne with a skeleton sorcerer upon it, the idea being a sort of lesser variation of a coven throne ferrying a lich into battle where he can sit and snipe at people with his magic. When i get the mortarch kit i might use arkhan as a base for him. Only problem is it doesn't much resemble a casket of souls.

The hierotitan is an awkward one to deal with; without an official model i have nothing to try matching the dimensions to. My only thought thus far is using a morghast torso on a tyranid mawloc tail to give it height, use the glaive as the basis of a staff and in its other hand give it something suitably arcane like a chunk of crystal of a really long ream of parchment covered in runes. A good paintjob and stuffing some skulls into the holes in the 'nid parts should make it vaguely cohesive as a bone construct. No actual idea how well that would work, only vague plans.

Going the other direction from VC to TK i think ghouls could be converted to more suitable TK zombies, or kept as ghouls. A little greenstuff to straighten the hunched pose, trim off the hair spikes and file doen the claws to more human scale, swap the head for a skull and use a drop of greenstuff to blend the parts together, add a black-brown paint job, and you have a dried up corpse from the ill preserved citizen rabble of nehekhara.
 

Melle

Sir Larpsalot, champion of larpers
True Blood
Apr 7, 2012
1,141
Sweden
Ill proabably use the old skeleton chariots for TK chariots and skeleton horsemen as the light cav units.
Wight kings will counts as tomb princes for chariot mount etc. Old stuff has a ton of possibilities. If you have them or can get them that is.

Funny thing is...just a few weeks ago i pondered what to build of those old chariotsprues and what to use them as....then end times hit...just glad i didnt sell'emxD
 
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Grok

Ghoul
Sep 8, 2014
124
cool thanks for the input. The opportunity definitely lends itself to potential interesting conversion chances, though most of them will probably take a good deal of effort.
 

Duke Danse Macabre

The Duke
True Blood
Sep 16, 2010
3,696
Sunderland, United Kingdom
Melle has the right idea. ;)

To be honest with the way undead are I would would finally convert our skeletons to bowmen and make the gothic monsters of my dreams to act as the tomb kings or else mix the units together like how they would be in a undead force, tomb guard and GG marching side by side.
In regards to colours however I would keep them themed to their own armies, weathered the same but different colours so it looks like they are ill matched forces which is what undead are all about, all the different uniforms coming together in a horrifying faceless blob. :thumbsup:
 

Banat

Varghulf
Jul 13, 2014
790
I'm both looking forward to and dreading robing up my skeleton archers with green stuff. When done they'll look like awesome skeleton monks with bows, but its going to be nightmarish doing it. I've got 16 to do atm, want another 16 really for two units.

Light Horsemen will be the same, although I could concievably bits order the Black Knight base horses at least...

Necropolis Knights could be done from Demigryphs.

My Heirotitan is a giant converted to a zombie giant with the Corpse Cart balefire construct on his back.

Chariots and Sepulchral Stalkers are the ones giving me the most issues... Chariots will need similar horses to the light horses, or empire/chaos steeds, always add some billowy robes for added gothicness... I'm wondering if I can greenstuff some dragon/wolf like relief onto the plain parts of the chariots main body. Wheels will need replacing too, they look to classical.
 

najo

Mortarch of the Dark Soul
True Blood
Dec 23, 2012
2,046
Oregon
I think the idea of Egyptian vampires or Gothic skeletons with cloaks, western armor pieces and weapons is the way to go. The tricky part is the scale difference of the skeletons. I'd like to get all the skeletons into the scale of the VC ones. That's not easy!
 

Blutsauger

Vampire Count
Apr 10, 2013
1,089
Back in the day, the OLD plastic skeletons came with bows. Or maybe it was the skeleton horsemen? I don't remember, but either way they were much more slender than the TK ones, more along the size of the current VC ones, so you could try hunting them down on eBay and see how you go?
 

Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Mantic skeletons are closer in scale/style to the vamp counts skeletons that TK are. You wouldn't want to mix them in the same unit, but having units of mantic archers in the same army as VC skeleton warriors shouldn't look too out of place.

The trickier units are the chariots and the units that incorporate tomb guard. Not the tomb guard themselves - why would you ever field them over grave guard? - but necro knights and war sphynxes. The grave guard riders don't really gel in a vamp based UL army, not because of their decorations, but because of the size and style of the skeletons. Unfortunately, the particular lock step, forward leaning, robe-legged poses of the grave guard make it difficult to just substitute them. I don't have a solid answer for the GG units.

While the chariots themselves are ok with a bit of a gothic paint job, the outdated horses and skeleton riders not so much. Unfortunately, the best solutions aren't too cheap, but they are workable: replace the horses with hex wraith mounts, and the skeletons with mantic skelly riders (VC skellies lean a bit to far forward for chariot riders, and lack bows or decent conversion options to add them with). But black knight horses are not particularly cheap (or sometimes even available at all) on the secondary market, so that's far from an ideal solution.
 

Banat

Varghulf
Jul 13, 2014
790
I intend to use zombie paintjob demigryphs with Black Knight-esque riders for my Necro Knights. With a dark/gorified paintjob and pale dead flesh for the riders, maybe balefire in their eyes, no actual physical conversion really would be required.
 
Nov 13, 2013
927
Vancouver, Canada
I plan to post my WiP pictures at some point this week, but I've actually been working on a "Tomb Counts" army for a while before the book came out, involving extensive conversions to bring VC units in line with my TK theme. Some of the conversions I've made:

1) vargheists got masks from the sepulchral stalker champ to make them look more Egyptian

2) dogs were going to be skeleton horsemen centaurs. Not sure what I'll do now. Thinking my horsemen will be tomb guard riders converted from some extra war sphinx riders I have.

3) terrorgheist has been...substantially converted. Making it into a cobra dragon.

4) vampire lord is a converted enigma winged vampire with a pharaoh hood.

5) crypt horrors are mummies. Still in the process of largely scratch-building them. Just wrapping crypt horrors in bandages would be fine, using strips of green stuff

6) use TK priest models for necromancers, and differentiate with color scheme where necessary

7) I have plans for a corpse cart made from a war sphinx howdah.
 

Corpse Gatherer

Skeleton
Dec 8, 2010
64
Manchester
I'm looking at converting corpse carts frames with black knight horses to make chariots, the unused zombies can be added to my horde. I think flipping the carriage from the CC so the wider end is at the front and using the spines horizontally to build up a chassis. I'll post pics once done.

Horsemen should be fairly simple, normal skellies on unarmoured BK horses, the legs may need repositioning but this should be minor.

Same with skelly archers, wood elf or bretonnian bows seem to be the smallest so shouldnt look massive on the skellies.

I think if you planned on using TK skeleton warriors and VC skeleton warriors you could have a problem differentiating but I'll be using VC skeleton warriors throughout so I haven't given it much thought.

Tomb Guard I'm looking at the scale armoured skeleton body, head, legs from the standard box and wondering if the investment will be worth it to try and source 20+ of them individually, but I reckon it would look snazzy! Converting halberds should be easy enough.

Ushabti are giving me some trouble. My original idea was morghasts minus wings gives you GW ushabti but looking at them now I have some I suspect theyre going to be too big. So not sure.

Screaming Skull Catapult again I'm looking at the corpse cart for the main frame of it. The Balefire upgrade should make a good basket for it. I need to decide if I want it catapult, trebuchet or mangonel style. The other option would be to hack up a couple of bone giants to make the frame if you wanted it bony.

Sphynx, the abyssal stupids that the mortarchs are riding might be a good start, if I can make it so it isnt standing on its tail like some kind of mental pokemon. Not sure on the necrosphynx, again the mortarchs might be a good base but its finding an upper torso that will fit to make it centaur ish.

Casket should be buildable from the mortis engine kit, hopefully out of the left overs from building a coven throne.

Tomb Stalkers/Sepulchre Knights/Tomb Scorpions/Heirotitans I have no idea!
 

Caillum

Zombie
Oct 28, 2012
40
Australia
I can't believe I never thought of using Corpse Carts and Black Knights as VC Skeleton Chariots! That would be a cool unit to convert! :)
 

Macarian

Vampire Insomniac
Jan 19, 2014
153
Netherlands
I just started an Undead Legion army plog which will include many models from both books. I decided to go for completely different models instead of bashing TK and VC models together. My Grave Guard for example are Chaos Warriors with Bretonnian Knight Helmets. Most of the Characters (Vampires and Liche Priests) will be based on Warriors of Chaos with Bretonnian elements. I am also going to use Skeleton Warriors but I haven't decided upon them just yet, maybe just GW Grave Guard with the silly bat wings clipped off. The Skeleton Archers will be Wood Elf Glade guard with all the fleshy bits cut and drilled out so they look like ghosts archers.

For the Casket of Souls Reaper makes an excellent model which I will definitely be getting:
02990_G.jpg
In my opinion the vampire model just screams Egyptian vampire.

And as for the Hierotitan, I just picked up this guy from Ebay:
$_57.JPG
Also bought an Eye of Horus hanger and antique scales, so he should look the part.

Can't wait to get him delivered :D
 
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Alastor

Black Knight
Aug 24, 2011
311
I like the idea if creating a new style rather than combining the TK and VC styles. I might do something similar.
 

Corpse Gatherer

Skeleton
Dec 8, 2010
64
Manchester
10440672_10203720119221422_183149214387734275_n_zps7b243fd0.jpg


Heres my first mock up of a chariot made from a corpse cart. still needs gap filing and tidy up but seems to work!
 

Mad 'At

Dumb enough to work
Staff member
True Blood
Apr 2, 2011
2,378
Grödinge
Cheers for the mention Adam :)

It is true, I have a few spirit hosts made from WE Glade Guards, with the fleshy parts cut away. If you haven't found your way to them already you can check them out in my plog here, link will take you straight to them.

Cool looking chariot too, you gonna use it as a normal TK chariot? And is that lego chains I spot? I've seen them used before and must say that they look pretty nice.
 

Tullaris07

Zombie
Oct 22, 2014
1
That chariot looks really nice!
I have been liking some of the ideas thrown around here to make a more 'gothic' feel to the Tomb King models. But for Sepulchral Stalkers I am still left thinking. I was contemplating getting some K'Daai Fireborn from Forgeworld and sticking them on a chariot base and painting them like ghostly spirits. I was, however; worried that this model would be too small. I was thinking, if it was too small, I'd try to make a trail of fire out of green stuff, maybe add some Spirit Host ghosts coming out of the fire and/or some scenery to beef up the perceived size of the model. Anyone have any thoughts? Anyone know the size comparison between a Sepulchral Stalker and K'Daai Fireborn?
 

Kappu

Ghoul
Sep 20, 2012
131
May I see other picks from that chariot Corpse Gatherer? even without horses. I wanna see how those "ribs" fit :) ? Looking awesome btw.
 

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