Made to Marauder

I'm aiming to put the big marauder units together fairly quickly. The plan is to have two. One will have with shields and a mark of Tzeentch, the other will sort of have flails and a mark of Khorne. I'm doing the first one at the moment, although I'll probably shuffle a few models around later. 

Here's the ten I've done so far, using spares from the Chaos Warrior set: -

The first two ranks of the Tzeentchian Shield Wall

All ten of these have a conversion somewhere about their person. Most of these are small things, like a different head or the inclusion of a larger, spikier weapon or shield than real Vikings tended to use. 

Shield walls are much easier to form when your shield is as tall as you are.

These two may yet turn to Khorne.
Especially if my wife notices the horns on the left-hand helmet, that's a definite authenticity breach.

This was pretty easy to achieve, on the whole. I probably ought to spend more time making the arms and gloves match up, as the puny Vikings are not really quite as butch as the fully-blown Warriors. In my defence, they're all this guy.

The banner pole isn't well insulated, it heats up a surprising amount in direct sunlight.
Hence safety gloves. 

This means that as I thought, I'll have to be a bit more creative with most of the conversion work than just sticking heads and arms across. I can do it, but it looks a bit like they're playing dress up. 

I told you kids to stay out of my closet.

Too many of those, and my army will resemble 'Bring Your Daughter To Work Day' in the Chaos Wastes. 

I just think it's really great she's showing an interest in what her old man does. 

I'm hopeful the Chaos Marauder set that's in the mail (or crushing the feeble postman somewhere, at least) will give a better fit, but we'll have to see. In the meantime, I had one spare Warrior cloak, and I've used that for the champion: - 

He's clearly trying to compensate for something.
Maybe that's why he turned to Chaos in the first place.  

The gaps between his actual shoulders and his armour are filled in with green stuff, and the strap helps distract from the implausibility of his arms to a certain extent. Paint will have to cover all the other sins in his construction, but overall, I'm pretty pleased. From a distance, and with the rest of the unit to hide in, I think it works. 

I've also spent a bit more time on Spider Head. His many-limbed face is now emerging from the hood of a cloak, which also helps hide the join better.

Spider head, spider head
Bites your face, then you're dead

Now it's a question of keeping going until I've got thirty. Hopefully, I can keep them looking this varied as I go without having to resort to spending any more cash on sprues...