Bloodreavers - Part 2

The puzzle have been solved!  Just a quick post to show off how my various conversions paid off and allowed me to rank up my Bloodreavers in an effort to make them serve as Chaos Marauders.

Certainly these chaps look a bit Chaotic, what with the arms going every which way...

As you can see from the photo, I numbered the bases with a pen, because they really only fit the one way!  

Most of my conversions are head and left arm swaps, with a few weapon or right arm changes too.  Being plastic, the figures were relatively easy to modify, and I fortunately had a bunch of Chaos bits to draw on for the conversion. 

I will show more of these figures later, but I was just excited that I was able to get it done at all. 

Warhammer Marauders from Bloodreavers

Recently I won an Ebay auction for the 20 Bloodreavers in the Age of Sigmar Starter set.  I had been bidding the same low price for approximately eight months, so I was pretty pleased!

The goal for these figures is to make a Khorne marked marauder regiment for Warhammer Fantasy Battle, which will mean some conversions are needed to get them to rank up.  The models actually fit rather well on 25mm squares, but as they were designed to be skirmishers, they have axes and swords and arms swinging around every which way and it will certainly be a puzzle to get them all into the regiment.

Comparison with my converted Reaper Chaos Champion

Speaking of puzzles, the figures are very cleanly cast (as one would expect from contemporary injection molded figures), but as they are designed with computers for molding, they have what seem to be unusual cut lines. For example the unit champion figure (you get two) has three pieces, body, arm, and unusually, a combined head/arm piece.  Receiving the figures stuffed in a small bag as I did made for a challenging cleaning session, as I tried to match up the various parts.

Comparison with a standard Marauder and between "Franz" and "Jean"

As compared to the older Warhammer Chaos Marauders, you can see that these figures are approximately the same height and mass, however, they are proportioned slightly differently, in that the newer figures have slightly shorter legs, smaller heads and hands, and broader chests... all of which makes them seem slightly more "realistic", at least as much as blood crazed cannibal barbarians can be realistic!

As compared to the older Warhammer Chaos Warriors, you can see that they are again around the same height and mass; however, the Bloodreaver is broader in the shoulder (making allowances for the armor and fur cape), and obviously more chaotic in pose!

Anyway, I will post more pictures when I get the regiment built up, and eventually painted.  With all of that skin, these figures seem suited for a cream colored zenithal highlight...

Chaos Champion

First of a series of photos taken this weekend of various finished miniatures.

Converted from a Reaper Bones figure.  I added the shield and replaced the head with a standard Chaos Warrior head.  I then added the right shoulder pad and sliced off the overly large integral base so that he could go on a more standard slotta. Still needs to have his base finished with some static grass and the like, but I will probably wait until I build up that Chaos battalion I got last year. 

I liked painting the Bones material, and it certainly was easy to modify, as a sharp knife sliced away anything unwanted.

Regarding the photography, I used my wife's new camera for this, and as you can see my results were less than stellar.  I need to try again sometime soon (now that she is around to coach me) and perhaps I can replace these pictures with something a bit more true to color and sharper.

Painting Preview

A few preview pictures for your review. I say preview, because I took them on my phone, and because I was not able to get the colors to come out very well, so please assume they are both sharper and more nicely colored! Sometime I will get around to taking better shots. Obviously both set of figures need further base work as well. 

 First up is an INQ28 group, consisting of four members of the Watch, a local police force.  They are built from Empire handgunner bodies, various Cadian arms, and some other bitz.  They were also an experiment in undercoating in a color closer to the final, as you can see from the light blue around their feet.  Unfortunately, the light blue was much harder to cover up than I anticipated, and I would not repeat its use even for mostly blue figures. 

The next figure is a mild conversion of a Reaper Bones figure.  I replaced the head and added a shield, both of which were very easy conversions, as a sharp knife cuts right through the vinyl.  Painted as a somewhat generic chaos champion, with no cult markings so that he can be either undivided, or Nurgle as needed (the armor being green tinted).

Ebay Score

I do not know about you, but there are some items that I "chase" on Ebay, always submitting the same low bids in the hope that someday an item will go unnoticed by others and I will win without having to spend much money. To help me do this, I have my Ebay feed set up to show certain items, like Bretonnians, Rebel Blockade runners, or Revell Gunships etc.

One of those items is the Warhammer Chaos Battalion, which as I have previously mentioned, is a rather good deal at ~$2.34 a figure.  Naturally, I wanted to pay less than full price to make it even more of a deal.

Just before Christmas I noticed a buy-it-now deal for an assembled Chaos battalion "with tons of extras".  I offered less than the asked price on the grounds that "the figures are already assembled, and the shipping is expensive" and they accepted...

I was not entirely sure what I was getting in the mail, but the day after Christmas a large, and extremely well packed box turned up.

Contents:
One Chaos Battalion partly assembled, (12 Warriors, 5 knights, 10 hounds, 20 marauders)
1 painted Nurgle Chaos Lord on a horse
20 6th Edition Empire Handgunners
10 current Empire Handgunners/crossbowmen with all bitz, un-assembled.
10 assorted Horses, primed
1 Empire mortar
2 Battle Master Cannons painted
Beastmen Bitz
Skaven Bitz
Undead Bitz
Bretonnian bitz
40k Chaos Marines Bitz
plus a bunch of truly random things like an Eldar Guardian body, or Gretchen heads.

Assembled Chaos Battalion

Bag of Empire Handgunner/Crossbowman Regiment

Boxes of random bitz

So yeah, I was am a bit excited.

What about you?  Have you ever had an Ebay score like that?