Question:What is a good stand in for Norse Marauders.
Been looking at getting the models together to field a couple units and am trying to figure out what models to use. Everything that comes to mind though either doesn't fit perfectly or is old and extremely difficult to get ahold of. Particularly something wielding Great Weapons.
My thoughts thus far have been:
- Plastic Chaos Marauders. Naturally this was my first thought; but other than being too big and designed for a 25mm base I just don't like the look of them.
- 4th or 5th edition Metal Chaos Marauders. Very barbarian looking; also very hard to get ahold of and or expensive.
- Kislev Kossars. Also fit the bill as far as looks go; not quite as barbarian as I'd like but the real dropper here is they all have bows which just doesn't fit theme of barbarian with great weapon; also very hard to get ahold of and or expensive.
- Bearmen of Ursulo. These look very much barbarian, but unfortunately suffer from being both hard to get ahold of and wielding hand weapon/shield combination; also very hard to get ahold of and or expensive.
I've only got 1 idea left and that is the current plastic flagellant box for the Empire. They are mostly bear chested and bearded; with some work and swap outs of some of the smaller flails I believe they could look like Great Weapon wielding barbarians.
Does anybody else have recommendations for Norse Marauder stand ins?
If you don't mind using non-GW minis, check out Red Box Games range of Norsemen, really cool. Otherwise I would use the plastic marauders. Swap the heads with those from the marauder cavalry box, and put axeheads on top of the flail shaft. Also, they can fit on 20mm bases, it just takes some serious assembly. Works for me.
You could take a look at wargames factory's ancient german and viking sets. I think you could get both to fit in nicely, and they are sold for a good price too!
I'm having the 25mm->20mm issue with my Bearmen I'm converting. They fit... but just. You will really have to make sure they line up nicely when plonking them on their bases. I would even consider going as far as at first, blu-tacking them to their bases, and when you know everything is all pretty and lines up, only then do you glue them in. It's fairly important because not only side to side, but front and back can interfere with each other as well.
That, and probably allow a bit of leniency per rank. I don't think the game of warhammer is enough to get rattled over if my unit is like 5-10mm larger than it should be.
In my Cult of Ulric army I have made use of the plastic marauders, but since I was going for a more historical look, I didn't use any of the helmeted heads. What I did make use of was the "Hairy Head" sprue for Knights of the White Wolf and some heads from the Empire Militia.
I didn't have any trouble getting them to rank up on 20mm bases or converting some great weapons out of the flails.
Having found 20 odd Citidel 'barbarian/tribesmen' from the '80s in the loft with my other Dogs of War figs, mixed GW and HW/Sh, I have spent the last couple of weeks scouring ebay and have picked up enough of each (once they arrive) to make two units of 20+, with the extras costing about £2.50 each overall, so not 'too' expensive, fit well on 20mm bases and keeps my army-to-be metal vintage figures only!
These would be your best bet if you do not want to use the plastic marauders. Alternatively, as suggested, ancient German figs would fit the bill -Wargames Foundry do some good ones, but maybe too small?
The only problem is that I cannot find any std bearer or musician figures made for them at that time,so will either have to use plastic marauder figs on 20mm bases, or find later marauder equivalents unless anyone knows of suitable figs?
The background I will use for these is that they are from Skeggi, the Norse settlement in Lustria, which is a mecca for treasure hunters, mercs etc.
This should allow me to build up some unusual units if I want (albeit in plastic!) - Empire/Tilean mercs with Norse/Lustrian slant/bitz, or light/heavy horse from marauders and cold ones for instance as I have noted stats for the latter in an old WD which included the background on Skeggi as well as conversion tips for these riders and, as a bonus, the original stats and conversion tips for Rhinox Riders.
The 'Skeggians' are also noted for raiding Naggaroth which would allow for more variety in trophies, slaves etc for fillers!
The new Wargames Factory box is insanely tempting. I mean, seriously, 32 minis for $20?!
Between that and the announced Gripping Beast plastic Vikings, I'm already thinking of beefing up my Marauder units to 20+ just because I can.
The Wargames Foundry box is sweeeet. I have their Ancient British Warband and it comes with some really decent models. They are slightly smaller in scale than GW's infantry (looking at them next to a kossar musician and a Bret Archer ATM), but the detail is comparable and is closer to a true scale, than GW's heroic scale.
As for using the '85 pattern GW norse, GW did make a single musician model (with a horn), but he can be hard to find. However it is easy to make greenstuff hunting horns, or to get the small hunting horns from the Bret Peasant sprues to convert a rank and file barbarian to a musician. Some of the minis in that range can be readily converted to standard bearers with the addition of a brass rod banner pole (available at your local model trainn store). Foundry miniatures has some very nice viking style flags on their website for download and printing
Do you mean the Wargames FACTORY box or the Wargames FOUNDRY box?
I'm not sure the former could have picked a more confusing name...
The topic of scale is one that I've been grappling with, especially with the Norse. Eventually I decided that since I prefer true 28mm, I'm going to make an army I like and I'm not going to worry about whether or not they match my opponents', who are rarely human anyway. Now, with the exception of some hand-me-down crossbowmen, the only heroic scale miniatures I need are non-human anyway, so it doesn't really matter if the ogres or dragon have heroic-scale limbs.
My error - the Ancient British Warband that I bought was by WARLORD Games. It is true 28 mm scale
You could always just use greatswords. As long as people understand what a unit has people generally don't mind what mini you use. But people in a tourney can be a bit annoying.
Dwarf wars norsca have a unit of great weapons and they are the right size
Jon
West Wind Productions - Dwarf Wars line has some fantastic heroic scale viking models. I have loads of them, and they are the absolute best fantasy Norse models around.
http://www.westwindproductions.co.uk/cat...d3b5561a08
I also have Wargames Factory models, which are also very nice. They are smaller but as long as you don't mix heroic and true scale into one unit, its hardly noticeable.
P.S: If you visit West Wind Productions - Dwarf Wars, check out the Dwarf War-Mammoth
I'm using dwarfs slayers, played as norsedawi marauder berserkers