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Hi, Dakkaites,

Something hit me, out of the blue, just now. I wanted a 'Themed Force', but not something already determined or stated in the Warhammer Universe. Instead, I wanted my own little strand of contraversial, debate-trigerring Fluff, around which to base this 'Themed Force'.

After many useless, somewhat stupid ideas, I hit upon something which I liked; Undead Space Marines. I say 'Undead' in terms of their appearance, but for the Fluff Line, I was thinking something along the lines of, 'One of the Missing Chapters, whose identity remains unknown, has emerged from the Warp after being lost almost since their very creation. Defying the murderous, chaotic powers within, they are now neither Loyalist nor Renegade; they are their own fighting force, and their motives or objectives are unknown'. Therefore, there can be speculation as to whether they have been driven mad, whether they still fight for the Emperor, or whether they have been truly and fully consumed by the Gods of Chaos.

As for the Models, after much consideration, I've decided that a Basic, but Clean and Accurate, Paint Scheme and Modelling Style is what I'm after. Basically, I intend to combine mostly Loyalist Power Armour, with some Chaos Bits smattered throughout, with VC Skeleton Warriors. I considered the VC Zombie Horde, but it looks less rotten and wasted, whereas the Skeleton Warriors give the impression that the Marines have been 'Lost in the Worp' for an immense length of time. I also briefly looked at TK Skeleton Warriors, but decided against them immediately, as instead of looking worn and torn, they look strangely ornate and decorated.

Now, after thinking all this through, I wondered if anybody had attempted something similar, mainly in terms of Modelling; this was to see if the Kits would splosh together without much adjustment and conversion, or whether I would be investing in some GS and Plasticard. To my surprise, and delight, I came across this. It's not exactly what I had in mind, but in particular, the Tactical Squads there capture my imagination, or match what I had imagined previously. In particular, the Marine with the Skeletal Left Arm and Leg; am I right in thinking those are VC Skeleton Warrior Bits?

So, after a somewhat long-winded and picture-devoid Post, I'd like your Thoughts, Advice, Experience, Suggestions, and General Fluff Purist Bashing, as it's inevitably going to come sooner or later!

Thanks,

Martin
Aka. Popsicle

All I can say is that I love the idea and that I demand pics after you are done with it.

DOOOO EEEET!

do it.....

I quite agree; go for it. The pics from the Warseer site look great. When you're done post some pics of your stuff.

A friend of mine, who doesn't even plays WH will love this.

Am I missing something. Isn't this the Legion of the Damned?



Even the fluff matches.

Or are you just fluffing and want the appearance of the legion of the damned without rules? Which is completely acceptable.

We don't know if they're undead. And they look well conserved and perhaps even too fresh to be zombies xD

I think the half blown off helmet with the skull pretty much says it all. No? I know it's not glaring like shriveled arm but they are in full power armor. A little weathering will make them look not so fresh.

There are some better examples without the helmet on. They are also as expensive as sin! Yeah just make your own. Just saying fluff wise they already exist, but you could still use them as LOTD or vanilla marines or any of the other marine codexes you wanted if you wanted. Just saying the fluff is almost word for word LOTD.

Andrew1975 wrote:I think the half blown off helmet with the skull pretty much says it all. No? I know it's not glaring like shriveled arm but they are in full power armor. A little weathering will make them look not so fresh.

There are some better examples without the helmet on. They are also as expensive as sin! Yeah just make your own. Just saying fluff wise they already exist, but you could still use them as LOTD or vanilla marines if you wanted.

You realize that they haven't half blown-off helmets, right? It's just adornment (or else, it seems that wearing a beakie helmet distorts the shape of your skull xD). If that's so, you can also say that Chaplains are undead as well.

You realize that they haven't half blown-off helmets, right? It's just adornment (or else, it seems that wearing a beakie helmet distorts the shape of your skull xD). If that's so, you can also say that Chaplains are undead as well.

No actually if you look half of the guy on the left his helmet has been blown off and that is his skull. Legion of the damned have been around forever, i mean 1st edition old, I have the giant sized white dwarf. That had always been their theme. The ones without helmets on have withered zombie or skull heads.

Brother-Thunder wrote:All I can say is that I love the idea and that I demand pics after you are done with it.

DOOOO EEEET!

Nothing else you can do now but Doooooeeeeet!

it seems that wearing a beakie helmet distorts the shape of your skull

Its not as apparent on this guy but there is a crack in his helmet..you can see his teeth and some jaw bone. The other one that is definitely his skull.

Ho yeah, do it. They look f ing cool. I have a squad I built out of the old RTB01's sprues 15 years ago.

Throne! You're right!

It just doesn't looks like a broken helmet on the pic on that angle, but if it was modeled like that.

I did this awhile back for my Chaos Space Marines. The story was that a Great Company of the Space Wolves chapter was over run and destroyed while fighting against a daemonic incursion of Nurgle.

As the bodies started to decay due to the putrid effect of the Plaguebearers Nurgle had an idea which he found quiet humorous and so he commanded his daemons to posses the bodies of the fallen Space Wolves.

Over time the flesh continued to decay but the bones remained creating a company of undead space vikings. I had them be chaos marines with the mark of Nurgle. I figure since their nothing but possessed bones in armour they didn't need any excuse as to why their tougher and hard to kill

For the models I just combined SW and VC models. Admitidly the older skeleton parts work a little better as their blockyness is closer to the right size for a Space Marine while the new ones are more in line with Imperial Guard. BUT it can work and looks good if done right, I really like how the skeleton shields look vikingish so they went with my undead vikings I also used Dire Wolves as spawn to represent undead Fenrisian Wolves.

I'll try and find my pics for you

yeah just look up the fluff, they are undead marines, really word for word the above fluff. There have been at least 2 ranges made for LOTD. It's hard to show a zombie in power armor. They are wicked expensive, but beautiful miniatures. However yeah they don't look that undead just ornate. If you want really want them to look zombified you better do it yourself.

i think you shoudl do it! i know someone else who did a similar army on dakka with UM. ill look it up, unsure who

Idea sounds like Death Guard (Nurgle Space Marines), fluff sounds like Legion of the Damned.
Personally I would go for Nurgle, not the bloated but the dry dead flavour. See "Flight of the Eisenstein" novel for inspiration.

BTW I made some test versions: The Vampire Count Skeleton heads fit nicely into the terminator armour, they even have the Death Guard spike on top.

Ooh, Test Versions, you say? Pictures, or it didn't happen!

BBBRRRAAAIIINNSSSS.

DO IT.

Space Marine revenants? Yes please!

PEER PRESSURE!!!
DO IT!

You could do nurgle marines but do them in mixed colour scheme to represent enemy dead being reanimated i did it with some old nurgle termies WH zombie heads with loyalist termie armour ( all beat to hell ) then painted 2 ultras 2 imp fists 2 space wolves 1 black templar etc ,etc looked really effective at squad level , The shambling horde look looks very good with a huge missmatch of colours and armour styles .


good luck with the project

Popsicle wrote:Ooh, Test Versions, you say? Pictures, or it didn't happen!

Okay, but the models are WIP and pausing ATM:

Nice work with those

Heres a Question. I know technically he's still alive but wouldn't from some perspective, the Chaplain, Cassius of Ultramarines kinda be in the undead department? He's quite bashed to nothing isn't he?

The Corpse-Cart Rhino looks amazing! What's the huge Spikey Part on the Top Hatch? Or are those all individual spikes?

It is basically a whole Vampire Count Corpse cart on top of a Rhino. The pile of corpses fits nicely, if you add some of the zombies and single corpses to fill gaps. Back door is open to show more corpses, two rats on top, FW driver, sides and front and a cow from the Giant kit. Oh, and all my Terminators of this squad will have the captain's cape and a loin cloth to make them more menacing and filthy looking .

Kroothawk wrote:It is basically a whole Vampire Count Corpse cart on top of a Rhino. The pile of corpses fits nicely, if you add some of the zombies and single corpses to fill gaps. Back door is open to show more corpses, two rats on top, FW driver, sides and front and a cow from the Giant kit.

That poor cow...

I like it. In fact, I like it lots. I may copy it.

However, I'm not sure about the Driver; any suggestions as to how I might change him about a bit? He doesn't really fit, IMO...