With the recently released Chaos Marauders pillaging their way across Warhammer: The Old World battlefields, several members of the Warhammer Studio have begun raising their own barbarian hordes. We bravely interrupted their dark rituals and asked them to explain the thinking behind their latest hobby efforts.
Dave
I was very excited to add some Marauders to my existing Warriors of Chaos army, affectionately named ‘The Ruination’, and wanted to incorporate their core colours of black and brass while dabbling in the different Chaotic Cults from Arcane Journal: The Razing of Westerland. I used Runelord Brass, washed with Agrax Earthshade and highlighted with Canoptek Alloy, for their armour, and Abaddon Black with a drybrush of Stormvermin for the fur pelts. Other cloth was painted with an assortment of browns and greys to give a motley feel to an otherwise uniform scheme.
I adore the look of the great weapons on the infantry and thought their grim silhouette would be appropriate for acolytes of the Carrion Crow. On these, I used Loren Forest rags to evoke a sense of festering decay. The ferocity of the Bloodied Hound cult seemed a perfect fit for a battle-hungry pack of Horsemen. I used the same colours as on my infantry, but swapped out that green for a dark, stained Gal Vorbak Red to differentiate the two on the battlefield. When painting my banners I referenced Arcane Journal: Beastmen Brayherds to spell out phonetic words in Chaotic runes to help my Marauders invoke the might of the Ruinous Powers.
Until now my army has been focused on heavily-armoured brute-strength units like Chaos Warriors and Chaos Trolls, but I’ve been hooked by these awesomely detailed models and have already started on twenty more Marauders and ten more Horsemen for a truly fearsome horde to herald fun and ruination.
James
My Marauders have sworn themselves to the Bloodied Hound, and I've purposefully used burgundy and reddish tones in their clothing to help reinforce this. I wanted to convey that they all hail from the same location in Norsca, and live by hunting the same kinds of beasts, so I've given the whole unit light-coloured fur pelts. Happily, this also helps to keep the unit coherent.
Connor
When I got hold of the new kits, I chose to add to my existing Wolves of the Sea army by adding two units with flails, both devoted to the Carrion Crow. I found that because the models have so much fur and fabric, they were a treat to use lots of different washes on and really grime up! This also suited the Cult of the Carrion Crow theme to a tee. After this, I plan on adding Frydaal the Chainmaker to give me a hero to lead this contingent of my Warriors of Chaos army.
Aiden
I was so taken by the Chaos Marauders kit that I had to paint one for display. For this hobby project, I decided I wanted my Chosen Warrior to be devoted to the Carrion Crow, and thus I added various crow trophies such as feathers and skulls on his belt and within the fur of his cloak. I also sculpted some diseased areas on the skin around his face and hand to give the impression he has been blessed by the malign spirit he worships. I used a muted green for the main cloth colour, to allude to this dark patron, as well as applying a good amount of rust and verdigris on the metals.
Quinn
The inspiration for my Chaos Marauders dates all the way back to White Dwarf 290, which included artwork and background for an ‘Iron Wolves’ tribe that maps perfectly to the cult of the Fell Raptor. Having wanted to collect an army of the Iron Wolves since childhood, I leant into a very restrained, cold colour scheme when replicating their art. The main component of this is a gradient undercoat, achieved by undercoating the models with Rhinox Hide, followed by successive zenithal sprays of Mechanicus Standard Grey and Grey Seer, finished off with a drybrush of Corax White. This gave me a cold grey with a warm, dark brown in the recesses, perfect for the main cloth areas, over which I used several different Shade and Contrast paints for areas like the fur, cloaks, and roping.
These models form the core of a Battle March army I’m building towards, to which I will add another rank of Marauders, a Sorcerer, and a Chariot to round out the force. When converting my Marauder Tribe Berserkers, I combined some spare hand weapons with the great weapon left arms from the kit, and added some masked heads from the Khorne Blood Bowl team to convey a sense of brutality without having to drastically alter the base models.
Stuart
My tribe’s paint scheme is built on warm, grimy colours that I felt would be appropriate for a band of Marauders carving a harsh existence from the northern wastes. I used the orange hair and beards as the only spot of bright colour almost by accident, as these didn't contrast with the reds and browns, but helped to make the models’ faces stand out. I also wanted to avoid much in the way of "fancy" materials – these aren’t the pampered nobles of the Empire, after all. That’s why almost all of the metal is rusty iron – only the Headman's belt buckle (in the shape of the eight-pointed star) is painted as a mucky bronze.
Jon
I decided to paint my Chaos Marauders in muted, practical tones, suiting the character of these hardened survivors. That meant a lot of tanned leathers and age-darkened metal, topped with a variety of naturalistic pelts. To make this as easy as possible, I began with an undercoat of Zandri Dust, with successive targeted drybrushes of Ushabti Bone and Wraithbone.
Over this, I used every brown, black, and grey Contrast paint I had to hand, applying these and mixing them where I needed to in order to help separate the furs, leathers, robes, belts, and ropes. I was really happy with the colour for the hide parts of their fur cloaks, and the trophies some have on their shields – this was a mix of Guilliman Flesh and Volupus Pink, thinned with Contrast Medium, with a final highlight of Ionrach Skin. To bring some cohesion to this riot of browns and greys, I used red as a unifying spot colour on their shields and the champion’s topknot.
Thanks, guys! The horde is already on its way, and you can pre-order your own Marauders – both on foot and on horseback – this Saturday. We almost feel sorry for the Empire…
