Suggestions for ghouls and ghoul knights?

[RoguePanda]

Hi all,

A quick question for those people with better imaginations than me! I am trying to get started again on my 40k and Warhammer Armies. 40k is easy enough, the new Dark Eldar have me sold.

The Vampire Counts, however, are proving difficult The problem is too many ideas!

At one time I was thinking of trying to make a Kislev themed VC army - I might still try that. At the moment though I am trying to get ideas together for ghouls and their cannibalistic nastiness.

First question - has anyone tried converting the Skaven plague monk bodies with head and arm swaps to make Ghouls? I really don't like the new ghouls from GW, and although I like the Mantic ghouls I would like to stay with the GW range simply because of ease of access and use. Would a head swap and arm swap for the current ghouls onto Skaven Plague monk bodies work, if I remove their tails? Anyone tried something similar?

The second question - this is a bit harder. I want a nice solid block of black knights. I don't want to use normal undead "bones" types however. I am toying with the idea of Ghoul Knights - the idea is that these are the remains of a knightly order driven from the Empire proper into Sylvania because of some claims about Chaos taint - ironically they did become tainted when the starving knights fell on each other. Taken in by a Vampire they now induct new members via a competative examination - those that don't do so well are killed and ritually eaten by the victors! It is the consumed souls of their brethren, and the enemy champions they regularly capture and kill, that give them their undead taint.

I was going to model them from Brettonian Knights of the realm, with greenstuff fur instead of cloth arms, some sculpted armour on the horses, and headswaps for some of the spare Dark Eldar heads with hair and bandit masks plus some spare wood elf heads with hoods - the idea is that they look relatively human at first glance, if not for all the grizly trophies, and the purple glow around their eyes. I also want to model up some lanterns hanging from the horse caprisons to add to the unearthly glow Background wise they only have their real power available when their units are together, each ones power bolstering their brothers in arms - when they gather in groups they can even ignore normally mortal wounds, as long as they get someone to eat soon after the battle to regenerate their damaged flesh. I want them to look a bit more like robber knights than a true knightly order.

Does that sound ridiculous, or does it sound do-able? Both modelling and fluff wise any input would be nice. I don't think the issue of Black Knights incorporeal move will be an issue though - I plan to run them with a mounted necro to help them keep going, so they will loose the ethereal move anyway since the necro can't have a skeletal steed.

Any thoughts would be lovely people, have a great New Year to all!

 

[Dogmar]

Ok, with Kislev in mind, you might want to have remainders of fur hats or coats on your models, so prepare for some GS work. I've never seen a plague monk conversion for ghouls and tbh I don't know about their size, but if you remove the rat parts, the monk's clothing could surely do as a winter cloak in Kislev style. I'd wait for the answer of a Skaven player here, as I'm not sure if the ratmen are too small to work fine as ghouls. The idea though is nice, if the size fits.

On your ghoul knight idea, I'm not very fond of it tbh. While I see the possibility to convert some ghoulish looking knights easily with the methods you suggested - and they'd look nice imo - I just think it is not so good for fluff reasons. A ghoul is a human who was driven insane by cannibalism and dark magic, so I don't think they'd be able to restrain themselves enough to wear armor and weapons and to ride a horse. You'd have to stretch the fluff very far to make that happen. Black Knights are supposed to be long dead elite soliders, pretty much mounted Drakenhoff Guard. What's your problem with skeletons anyway? If we know the reason for your dislike it is probably easier to help you. From my point of view there could surely be a Kislev themed skeleton cavalry, too, with the Bret Knights as a basis.

I hope I was able to help you a bit, if you have further questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them for you.

Cheers,

Dogmar

 

[Boo]

For the ghouls I would suggest that you use the empire flagelant bodies with the new ghoul head and arms. It looks very cool. There should be somewhere around this forum where someone has converted it that way, lets see if I can find it. I'll get back to you on that.

About the ghoul knights I agree with Dogmar here, I would have a hard time seeing a ghoul wearing armour, or riding a horse! Why not make them in to ordinary human knights, cursed to forever ride through the night. I'm thinking something in the lines of the undead pirates of Pirates of Caribbean 1. They look human at day, but at night they turn in to skeletons. Or something, might be hard to pull off though...

 

[RoguePanda]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, much appreciate the feedback. I think your right about the ghoul knights idea... I was reading a book about the Knights Templars recently and liked some of the conspiracy theories so I think I was subconciously trying to work some of the ideas in! I'll keep the ideas on a back burner, although your idea of the "cursed company" Boo might be do-able Thanks to both of you! The feedback is a big help

I have seen the flagellant conversions and they are very cool - the only thing was I quite like the more hunched over style of ghoul, just not the furry abhumans we have in the recent plastics, hence the thoughts about Skaven plaguemonks as a base... I might have a chat to the local store staff, I think one is working on some skaven, if they have some sprues around I can have a look at how the pieces will line up or not

 

[Count Lasombra]

Plague monk torsos w/GW ghoul arms and heads mounted on Chaos marauder lower bodies and horses might be very cool.

 

[Ferrum]

You also might want to look into historical models. I personally use a lot of historical range bits for my armies. My ghouls are actually Vikings from Gripping Beast, the company has a lot of different models and I'm pretty sure they'd have something you might be able to use. They are also scaled better and are way way cheaper

 

[Gladius Rex]

Maybe i am thinking of the wrong ghouls, but the arms of my ghouls include the arm and basically the shoulder blade area. not sure how that would work fitting it onto the rat bodies of the Skaven. I have a few Skaven from the Isle of Blood (albeit clan rats) and took an extra Ghoul arm and put it up to a clanrat just to get an idea of how akward this might look. If you cut the shoulder section off clean at the top of the bicep, you could get it to attach... but the arm literally looks too big for the body, at least in my opinion.

maybe that is what you are going for, a more ganglian ghoul?

 

[Lynks]

I thought the arms would be too big for the body, however i didnt say anything as i didnt have any skaven near me i could test with.

 

[Annie]

You also might want to look into historical models. I personally use a lot of historical range bits for my armies. My ghouls are actually Vikings from Gripping Beast, the company has a lot of different models and I'm pretty sure they'd have something you might be able to use. They are also scaled better and are way way cheaper

I have them as grave guard, theyre awesome

 

[Unanswered]

Flagellants with ghoul heads look nice for a more man size look, but i have seen some nice ghouls made out of gnoblars they just kinda threw limbs all over the bases and painted em up with tons of gore

 

[Cuzzy]

I saw someone combining the ghouls with the crypt ghouls to make them look like they are crawling, or make them look hunched over, I thought it looked really cool. This might also be an option.