Carnival of Screams - Zombie Circus

[Archean]

Hi guys,

My first post on the forum!!!! I might be making a bit of a hash of things trying to get photo's on here but i've been reading so many WIP's articles that I had to start my own

For my VC's army i'm taking what may seem like an odd approach and making it a cursed circus theme. Not your traditional take at all.
I'm Currently i'm working on some fluff and some getting some core (Zombie clowns) organised as well as some characters.

If all goes well I hope to regularly update my progress on the site, although i've quickly discovered my ambition and concepts hugely outweigh my ability to convert and paint my ideas.

But anyways here goes!

Hopefully the below shows my general, my vampire Ring master

 

[Lynks]

I believe someone here on this forum has done this, or at least for a unit or so. YOu may want to take a look at the "carnival of chaos" models for Mordheim here. The models are rather expensive and they are quite large but they may serve as some inspiration in yourt endeavours. I think the plague cart would make one awesome black coach for your army at least! Welcome to the forums and good luck with your future endeavours!

 

[Archean]

Thanks Lynks, I was guessing that someone would have given the theme a shot somewhere along the way.

I've seen a fantastic Undead Circus blood bowl team before but i've mainly tried to stick to my own take on things,

Hopefully got the hang of hosting images now, so I can start putting up some of my Zombie clowns

 

[gorethumb]

excellent concept I look forward to seeing this army develop
p.s great work on the banner

 

[Archean]

I've started to give this army a little more structure and started to explore model options for each of the elements.
Before even starting this project I knew that I could not limit myself to GW models only, in fact if this project
achieves nothing else, it has opened my eyes completely to the sheer amount of 28mm model content available from other companies

So far I've found the following pro's and cons with the concept:

Con's

This will be a huge time sink, both in research or colours/ patterns and purely green stuffing the hell out of every model

Use of non GW models will restrict my arenas of play.

Ability to achieve the concept to a decent standard


Pro's

Every model has character, right down to the last Zombie clown...

Colourfull theme: People can't complain the army looks like a bunch of clowns when it is meant to be... a bunch of clowns

Fun to play for both players and extremely fluffy unit choices

It actually hasn't been that hard to source model content or achieve the Circus to VC unit balance


So far these are the matches I have come up with and this is what I've started collecting:


Ring master - Vampire Lord (Converted Dracula from reaper minatures)

Ring master on a flying elephant - Vampire lord on Winged nightmare

Dark Jester - BSB ( GW Joules le jongler convert)

Magician, Circus Folk, Tarrot card readers - Necromancers (Lovely miniatures from reaper minatures)

Zombie Clowns - Zombies ( GW's comic like zombies match perfectly and convert easily)

Circus freaks - Ghouls ( GW converts)

Lions - Dire Wolves ( Foundary minatures hit the spot with their african range)

Circus wagons - Black Coach and Corpse carts

If anyone has any miniature sugestions for the above units, feel free to let me know it could be really helpfull. In the mean time i've put some more WIP's up, starting with some more zombie clowns

 

[Kubikajiri]

Great work, such an awesome theme! Have you thought about using outher animals for the wolves, an dnot just the lion? You could have a bear on a ballon, dogs in skirts, zorses, or other 'strange animals form around the world"?

*sorry edit ha: I think you could manage this with only GW minis. Also please paint some more, those zomclows look really interesting.

 

[Ugrush]

I'm really looking forward to see your progress, great choice of theme!

The wolf is gonna be a dire wolf or a unit filler in zombies btw?

PS: love the zombie with the pie!

 

[Archean]

Thanks for the comments guys,

@Kubrikajiri:
I have some good time to paint over the christmas period so hope to get some more pics up of finished Zombies soon, in the mean time heres a pic of some of my "Tester" clowns i made. I plan to use these as raised zombies as I am particulaly fond of the possesed clown desperate to deliver his flower

@UGRUSH:

I plan to have a unit of "Dire Lions" if that makes sense, i've rough assembled 5 already but these are on the back burner till the Zoms are finished and are VERY early WIPs that need chopping into undead:

 

[Vampire Ron]

I absolutely love that clown with the afro. Great concept.

 

[SotF]

Well, the concept does remind me of when I read the Anita Blake series (I still like the earlier parts of the series before Hamilton lost her mind) and the monster circus is awesome as a theme.

 

[Dark Rose]

You need a "clown car".... to take the place of the Black coach....

Make it a ridiculously tiny horse-drawn stagecoach that can vomit forth a ridiculously large number of passengers. Give it a midget driver or something crazy....

Ahhh... and as luck would have it, you can find some more zombie clowns here... on sale for Christmas.

http://www.tengumodels.co.uk/index.htm

 

[Archean]

Thanks for the heads up on reference material guys. Having now read the synopsis for "Circus of the Damned" i believe it might well be worth a read!

And thanks for the link to tengu, i did come across the models when researching the project and they are mighty fine models but if only there were more scuplts it would have saved me alot of green stuffing for 60+ zombies....

With regards to the Black coach, I think i'm settled on this circue wagon concept at the moment depending on what I can model from Januarys VC releases:

But the clown car could make a fantastic unit filler..... any help with sources for the base of that would be an imense help as its a tall order!

 

[MrD]

Dude these are awesome. Love the flower clown and your banner bearer. I've been trying for what feels like ages to really nail down an interesting/unique theme for my vc

 

[Archean]

It's been a good week for painting, time to share some Zombie clowns!

 

[mousekiller]

Pretty sweet concept... and well executed. Looking forward to seeing more like this.

Great conversions as well... just enough to give them that cirque feel.

 

[Archean]

Hi guys,

The Zombie unit continues to go well, no limit on the number of conversion ideas! Here are some recent pics of the next batch:

WS2 with a knife.... deadly

Drag a friend along for the ride....

 

[Mannerheim27]

Haha, this painting log is twisted! Keep up the great work!

Jake

 

[Duke Danse Macabre]

Bloody clowns.......
I love the work that has gone into them but god I hate clowns, something that is irrationally happy just makes me angry for some reason...... :swear:

 

[Archean]

Well, with the new army book and improved zombie base stats as well as a hopefull point reduction, my choice of a horde zombie core seems a tad stronger.

Thanks for all the comments guys, keeps me painting at a good pace and I enjoy hearing what people think about the choice of theme. If anyone has any helpfull suggestions for miniatures they have seen that would fit my theme, I always welcome them.
Struggling a bit with getting a VC/Circus match on a suitable Vargulf/ Grave guard

In the mean time heres the next batch of Zoms...

 

[Garb]

i absolutely love it! they are so cool congrats and continue i wan!t to see finished the army!


saludos

 

[Archean]

Good progress being made on the Zombies now, and with the arrival of the new book, like everyone else, it has given me new energy to crack on and get my army together!

Lots of pics to post today:

The collection of Zoms is in serious danger of resembling a unit now....

 

[jim_of_the_dead]

i was thinking of a theme like this for my army but a bit more understated, i like the idea of the cirque de les muertos /circus of death, something very haunting and sinister about it. games workshops mordheim warband carnival of chaos is a good starting point. the plague coach makes an awesome black coach for your ringmaster.

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCats.jsp?catId=cat490050a&rootCatGameStyle=

 

[jim_of_the_dead]

and heres something else that could inspire you , the guy has nailed it here....

http://www.coolminiornot.com/290215?browseid=160540

 

[Archean]

Thanks Jim,I have never seen that diorama before! That is truely awesome and deffo a cool mini! Puts my lot to shame

 

[Sharkbelly]

Those zombies are just creepy!