Tuesday 16 September 2014

ChaosThurauder Horse and Friends

Yeah, that's not a typo. I just made up a word. I suspect it will have limited value to humankind's ever growing dictionary, however. The Oxford people haven't replied to my letter, at any rate.

A long long time ago, I fantasised about Chaos Thug Horse. As best as I can recall, the first figures that were actually released as some sort of human light cavalry for chaos were as late as 6th edition - Thugs had stopped being and Marauders became what Thugs once were. Perhaps you remember the figures - this was when GW decided that Marauders were large, muscular, topless (with shaved and likely oiled chests) and wore tight trousers. All a bit YMCA, in my opinion. I think the cavalry were less over the top, by virtue of having horses, but I digress. 

The point is, if you want Thug Horse, you'll have to make your own.

To my simple mind, the solution, therefore, was to use normal foot Thugs and put them on horses. I mean, duh! Right? 

Hmmm...I'm not so sure. I believe the place I fell over on this one was that for whatever reason, most of my Thugs have a lot of armour. Curiously, those that would fit on horses are also carry the heaviest armour. It's almost like they knew the best way to get on a horse would be to have lots of armour.  

So at this point, I was going to put pictures up to explain and then move onto some further commentary. But I see that I've stuffed up my picture numbering, so that I would have to work harder than any returned value to change that into anything like how I pictured this post. 

And at the end of the day, I want you to see all the pictures, so I'm okay with that. 

But, by way of explanation, when I was taking pictures of the Thurauders, I thought I'd position them with a small chaos army. Just chaos, this time - not the extra friends that I typically use. It is a small army, but beautifully proportioned, as some would say. And not any cheaper (points wise, if that's of interest to you) for it either. 

Ultimately, everything else is self evident and warrants little explanation. We'll discuss the term Thurauder after the pictures...

Anyway, the army:








And then some closeups:









Actual close ups of the Thurauders:















The Thurauders are all mounted on Marauder metal chaos steeds - from what I can see, Marauder pretty much cloned the Citadel equivalents, but made them substantially smaller. I presume this was a cost thing, as the Citadel horses were colossal compared to the other mounts of the time. Below are some comparison shots of a Marauder and equivalent Citadel steed:





So, Thurauder. I'm hoping the term makes sense now, but essentially, right up until I had painted them, they looked like Thugs. Once painted, they looked a lot more like Marauder Horse. There was nothing 'light' about them as cavalry.

Now, of course, no one can argue they're not Chaos Thug horse - said troops can wear heavy armour. Once I've painted up the Citadel Chaos Warrior Horse, there will be quite a solid visual distinction between the two that I could capitalise on as I shift between Thug -> Marauder -> Warrior as I need to. Ultimately, I had planned to have the warriors on Juggernauts of Khorne as the Warrior Horse on Chaos Steeds, with the ones on steeds as the Marauders. Perhaps one day, when I get there, we can have the debate again. The point is, with the smaller horses, these guys are only likely to ever occupy the two lower slots...

Anyhow, must dash - see you soon!

34 comments:

  1. Your Chaos Thug horse are amazing I will definitely be coping this I have loads spare, superb :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers, Mr Jason - that's much appreciated! You are lucky to have loads spare as well!

      Delete
  2. Impressive, Sir, most impressive!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! Could well imagine that army being featured in an old copy of WD. The converted thug-knights are simply wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, Mr Gareth - that's quite a compliment. Very happy they carry 'the look' :)

      Delete
  4. excellent. I always thought it odd that the chaos army lists allowed you to have thugs on horses yet citadel didn't actually make any minis for them. Normally it was the other way around (citadel came up with a figure then the GW guys wrote rules for it)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes - it is interesting that nothing came forward from the Citadel / Foundry historical ranges either. I get the impression most chaos players were taken with the awesome power available in the other troop types and didn't have enough points or desire to field light cavalry...

      Delete
  5. Damn ! An d there I was wanting to make Maraudugs for my chaos army and now I feel thugauders are way better.

    I love thos conversions and I adore the way evryone ties well with his neighbour and all. It may not be the cheapest solution to get those entries but man they look good this way.

    The use of decals here and there is really intersting as the motives are subtle and not too eye-catching. I really like that.

    Now, which one is it going to be? Thurauders or Maraudugs ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh no - Thurauders is definitely what you want. All the cool kids are getting them.

      The decals were mainly about getting ready for BOYL in time :) All taken from 40k chaos marine transfers...

      Delete
  6. These really are a great idea and I love the models you chose to covert to horseback. What a fantastic looking chaos army you have at your disposal now!

    And I just love that homemade banner!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers, Mr Orlygg! Slowly they grow...

      Of course, my banners are hardly a patch on your banners, but as mentioned above - a lot of this was to get ready for BOYL in time :)

      Delete
  7. Nice solution to the problem, I'm painting up unit myself but I went for Foundry ancient german cavalry and converted them up. I just need to paint an army to go with them and see how they perform on the battlefield.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I'm watching with interest - you're the only other person I've seen who has expressed an interest in Thug Horse. Yours will be the true light cavalry, of course. Mine are just cheap knights :)

      Delete
  8. That's a very nice new unit you have there!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers, Mr Marcus - looking forward to moving onto the next one.

      Delete
  9. Very nice unit and a lovely little army to boot. I might end up having to chop the legs off some of my infantry as my infantry slots are starting to fill up.

    Those moody grim paintjobs are excellent as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you sir - I am most pleased with them. You've actually got quite a fair chunk of cavalry across your forces - I was impressed with your commitment to your mounted options - most of us only have a few tiny elite horse units, but yours are great - I'm not sure how much more you need :O

      Delete
  10. I just chopped up a spare thug to add to a Centaur body so I suppose that makes him a Centhug. Or is he a Thugtaur?

    Anyway - very nice work. The Thug Horse are excellent and I really like the technicolour hounds!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah - I really enjoyed painting the hounds. I'm keen to introduce some brighter colours to the army. I'm definitely in the Centhug camp ;)

      Delete
  11. Yeah, I was always a little pissed off that they never made mounted thugs.

    I reckon using the footsloggers as mounted guys is a great idea, I've seen it used many a time & think they look great. They even did it as far back as in one of the old ROC tomes too, a Khorne champion converted into a mounted Nurgle champion. But never thugs.

    I've mounted chaos champions on chaos steeds, but never thought to use the thugs.......probably due to the minuscule collection I had of them :)

    My solution was to use the modern plastic maruader horse with grenadier barbarians as thugs. They've been in a half painted state for quite some time now though.......one day.

    Just a quick question, the guy in the last pic beside the palanquin rider, was he deliberately mounted off centre to make him rank up better?

    Always good to see chaos guys painted up well!

    Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Again - very interested to see your take on the Thug Horse - not many options out there at all.

      I might end up crossing this bridge again with a true light cavalry option, but that'll have to wait.

      As for the mount - yes, I did mount him off centre. There is a unit champion that didn't get painted in time. I'd like to say he'll be included soon, but I'll probably drift off in another direction. Also, now that I've committed to Lichemaster for BOYL 2015, I must get that project done!

      Delete
  12. That's a neat idea, and very well executed. They look great!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Great looking force, all enjoying the sun, and not an oily bare chest among them! Very nice Gaj/Weazil The Wise

    ReplyDelete
  14. Ah - you noted the table outside - all inspired by your good self! It was a lovely day and far too nice to have the poor chaps languish inside. And, like you, very pleased there are no greasy YMCA groupies around!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Looking good Gaj, lovely setup. I especially like your choice of colors. They match well with their horses. Now, if you would just paint the bases of those trees, all would be perfect ;)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Od's Fish! Fantastic work on your Chaos Thorse (see I have shortened it for you) :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Love the look if your expanding army, would love to face off against it one day with my own...

    ReplyDelete
  18. Your chaos hounds are amazing too -- I love how distinct you've made each one; and especially the red-with-blue-spots. He looks like he's just leapt out of a kennel from another dimension... a very nice chaos effect.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Lovely looking force and a great idea to use the Marauder cavalry as the mounts for thugs. I think I will have to do likewise, if an idea is good then it is worth repeating!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Gaj, I was just enjoying and admiring this super army again (for about the 10th time!), what a beautiful force! Such a beautiful force that it DEMANDS to see some action!! Hope you are doing well, Gaj.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, Private - I certainly would like to get it out there. I have been slowly (oh, so slowly) building up a small imperial force for the Lichemaster scenarios, which I'd love to face off against these fine chaos warriors. Oh for a time machine!

      Delete
  21. HI all - apologies for not responding to any of the comments on this thread. I changed my email address in google - thinking, y'know, that the email address would change for comments. Cos its google, and they're clever, right?

    Well...not so much. Anyhow, just by fluke, I happened to check the old account (as I am about to delete it) when I noticed all these comments - so...very sorry all - not trying to be rude!

    Thanks for the comments!

    ReplyDelete