Advice Needed: Converting Chaos Warriors To Undead (Long)

[Viking]

Too Long, Didn't Read: How do I make Chaos Warriors look "undead" in my VC Army?

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Sorry, this is kind of longwinded!

When it comes to my army, I am totally stoked right now. I just got my book + battalion in the mail, and my special order minis from Reaper arrived earlier last week. I collected a few pieces I might not need but they look good for what I want (a chaosy Necro, bone armored warrior, ghast, that sort of thing.)

So. I have some 1000+ points of models to work with as a buddy of mine gave me about 36 Chaos Warrior bits (still on the sprews) and 5 chaos knights to work into my army. I had the idea for VC - Chaos theme when he gave me the pieces, but now that I read the timeline (somewhere in the 2500's a Chaos army disappears in Sylvania and breathes new life into the Vampire Counts dwindling numbers!) and it actually fits I could not be more eager to get started.

I've almost got all my supplies and I took inventory of ALL my bits so I could see what potential combinations I could make for the skeletons, zombies and graveguard.

So now I am just trying to find some green stuff, extra stuff for base flocking and fix up a good ol' folding table to make my space for the painting and converting. I've got a plan for a color scheme (that may need to be reworked based on what I decide to do with the Chaos bits I have) but the issue facing me now is: How do I make the heavily armored Chaos Warriors work as VC Troops?

I know there are many ways for me to achieve this and make it look great:

• Paint Scheme
• Extra Zombie, Skeleton or Ghoul Heads + Bits
• Green Stuff Wounds

I have no experience with the green stuff modelling yet, and I still have to find / order some. I don't want ALL of my troops to look too hodge-podgey, so I hope to make a Uniform undead Chaos regiment. Whether they would work best as Skeletons, Zombies (Extra Unit of Grave Guard? Spirit Hosts / Cavalry of some sort is almost a given) I am just not sure where to begin just yet.

The problem with skellies is: They are supposed to be light armored and the new models are freaking awesome in their own right. I don't want to water down their new design by tossing random skelly heads on Chaos torsos.

The Zombies is a great possibility given they're simply expected to be animated corpses from a great battle, but part of the Chaos look are those distinctive helmets, so I don't want to simply swap zombie heads off of each Chaos Warrior model. Simply stated, I do not know how I can paint the Heavy Armor of the Chaos Warriors to look DEAD. Since I've already got 36 of the warriors I don't really WANT To buy a unit of Marauders, but they might be easier to convert to Zombies given they are mostly skin and beards.

But then what would I do with all these warriors? Spirit Hosts is a definitely something I plan on doing. I could create a second unit of Chaos Warrior Grave Guard since they are armored for it, but Wights are usually considered a bit more ancient, right?

The Chaos Knights I had originally planned on turning into Black Knights, but I may just go ahead and retool them for Blood Knights after I read more of the fluff books (Liber Chaotica and Necris, I think they are called.) Again, I kind of want to stay closer to canon fluff but I guess a certain level of artisitic liberty may be called for.

Secondly: The colors of my army. I know it is almost becoming cliche around here to use purple, but it is such a great complimentary color to the style and theme of Undeath/royalty it is hard to pass up. That, combined with the fact that I am a Minnesota Vikings Fan (American Football team for everyone in Europe) Their colors are purple and gold, and I think they're just great for a VC army.

I had been planning on using purple as an accent to my Vampire's capes, and shields. Armor was going to be a metallic black.

What are the other colors of Chaos? Khorne is obviously red (and one of the focuses I was going to make because I figured if I wanted to make any Chaos Vampires the followers of a Blood God would probably be the best fit!) Is there a chance my army could clash? Is that something I should not be as concerned with considereing I am only talking about shambling corpses?

Where can I read more about Chaos' color theories? I believe Nurgle is green, Tzeench is blue or Purple or something, what is Chaos Undivided? Black? This is about all I've surmised looking at pics, hehe.
I haven't read all of the Liber Chaotica yet. I'm halfway done with Liber-Necris and I've only had a chance to leaf thru the new VC book.

Edit: The Four Colors of Chaos has all the tutorials I will need RE: Chaos armor color choices. I'll be able to decide later what is best (probably Undivided given it's toned down look.)

If you've read all this: Thank you! If you have any ideas to discuss to a new player (First army!), I'd truly appreciate hearing them!

 

[lord marcus]

i have an idea for zombies, buy a box of maruaders, chop your warriors legs from the torso (assuming these are the newer warriors)

stick a maruader torso onto the legs, use greenstuff to fill in the gaps but be creative, distended guts and all that stuff.

then stick a zombie head on, and whatever arms you choose, and there you go, a perfect, lightly armoured zombie maruader that looks good!

 

[Viking]

I really am leaning towards that, I think it would make for some very viable and good looking zombies.

I think what has me worried most right now is painting the Chaos Warriors that I have in some sort of a manner that indicates that they are in fact dead. I know I will be fine with the number I use as a spirit host with a monochrome paintjob, so that takes care of some (though I do have to figure out how many to use there.)

Then, I think I am leaning toward tuning the Chaos Warriors into another Grave Guard unit. I am planning on studying as many paint styles so I can give them a solid Undead feel so they don't just look like I am fielding Warriors in my VC army.

 

[vonBerlichingen]

Simply stated, I do not know how I can paint the Heavy Armor of the Chaos Warriors to look DEAD.

This is an interesting project. First of all, it is not so much the armo(u)r, but the wearer of that armo(u)r, that needs to look dead, since most armo(u)rs cannot be killed in the first place. That is the key to modelling them. So, you should begin by thinking about how the Chaos Warriors would have died.

They probably would not have died in their sleep, but in battle. However, given their legendary fighting ability, armo(u)r, and toughness, you'd expect them to have been very difficult to take down. Indeed, most of the fluff (e.g. Black Library books) suggests that it would have taken several small-w wounds or a couple of very serious wounds to defeat and kill a Chaos Warrior.

That should provide some ideas - hacked-off limbs, split breastplates, cracked helmets, or missing heads, any of which could show protruding or exposed bone bits, or impaling swords or artillery bolts, etc., ...

You could also repose some, to show the effects of their leg wounds on their mobility ...

P.S.: Yes, Grave Guard would be a fitting undeath for Chaos Warriors. The ranks of Zombies and Skeletons could be filled with a mix of Chaos Marauders and others. Indeed, why not include two foes united in undeath, i.e. the slain of two rival armies who have since been raised from a battlefield into one, undead army?

 

[Viking]

Right, good post VonBerlichingen. I had been trying to think about what kind of paint scheme to give the Chaos Warrior armor to make it appear damaged enough to be slain, but it seems it will come down to green stuffing extra wounds in addition to an interesting paint scheme (I was thinking rust or some kind of drowned-water look to go with a swampish base to show a passage of time.)

 

[vonBerlichingen]

In sorting through some old 1980s and 1990s metal undead that I had once bought second-hand, I noticed that one armo(u)red skeleton actually was designed with a broken spear piercing his torso from side to side - the shaft enters under his right arm, and the spear tip exits from his chest!

 

[Kaptain Von]

You're going to have one big problem. Well, not big, just 25mm across. Which is 5mm more than it should be.

Bases, dude. All the Undead infantry are on 20mm bases as standard, while Chaos Warriors are on 25mm, and it does make a difference. Bigger bases mean more enemies in contact with less of your dudes, larger footprints on units, and to cap it all off you're going to encounter someone with a Base Size Chart and a mad gleam in his eye who tells you your army's illegal.

With that in mind, I wouldn't go nuts on the Chaos Warrior conversions, because you're going to want to fit those suckers on small bases. Plus, they're heavily armoured... my gut instinct would be to use Chaos Warriors and Knights as Grave Guard and Black Knights and convert Marauders into the Core units. Marauder Ghouls might look quite awesome, actually.

And as far as having 36 of the Warriors goes, that's one unit of twenty Grave Guard and one unit of sixteen (well, fifteen, since one can always become a Wight King waving a Battle Standard around). One unit for taking the punishment and one for dishing it out, possibly with a Banner of the Dead Legion...

 

[vonBerlichingen]

The need to rebase them onto 20mm bases goes without saying, and the related bulk question is a great point.

For the newer Chaos Warriors, most of the bulk comes from the cloaks, and some from the shields. Shorten the cloaks into waist-length tattered rags, and they'll occupy less room. Replace or trim the shields (Chaos Warrior models did not used to have such huge shields) and they'll use even less.

Lastly, depending on how picky the locals are, and how big your units are going to be, you could consider multiple basing for some of your figures, e.g. putting four to a 40mm square base. Mounds and rocks can be used to play with elevation, so that projecting bits do not collide with other models.

 

[Viking]

Wow! I had no idea the bases were different sizes. I will definitely have to get more undead size bases then, or as suggested work with larger bases 4 to a base. The models in question are several years old that my friend never got around to working with, so I think they may be the "older" style. I think they are from '02 actually.

I am glad I have waited so I can fix these issues before they start by prepping for them!

Yeah, based on what I've learned here, I've decided dto use the Chaos Warriors as the Grave Guard; Knights as Black Knights. I am going to buy a set of Marauders to mix in with the core.

So all I have yet to do is purchase extra 20mm bases and pose the Knights / Marauders in a ways that will allow them to rank up.

I really appreciate everybody's comments and ideas here, it is really going to help me out as I begin this process. Thank you a ton for your input.

 

[Kaptain Von]

Lastly, depending on how picky the locals are, and how big your units are going to be, you could consider multiple basing for some of your figures, e.g. putting four to a 40mm square base. Mounds and rocks can be used to play with elevation, so that projecting bits do not collide with other models.

That's a neat idea. As long as your front and back ranks are on 20mm square bases, what's in between doesn't really matter. You could do quite a nice unit deployed 6x4 with two of those bases in the middle and models on 20mms round the edges...

Another option is the 80x20mm regiment bases - again, you could play with elevation and angles to ensure they don't bump and grind so much.