Conversions and goofiness galore

Okay, my girlfriend's daughter has some interest in Warhammer40k, so I'm trying to encourage her to play by teaching her some of the rules and showing her some cool stuff and letting her go at her own pace. I'm also planning a bit of a surprise. She's a big fan of the movie Nightmare Before Christmas, which, if you are unfamiliar, was a claymation movie in a very gothic, yet silly style. I'm trying to put together an army based around some of the characters in the movie. I won't be able to totally follow the movie, of course, but I'll do what I can. I've been interested in doing a Chaos army for a while, and the Chaos codex is pretty versatile, so I'm planning on using it for the base. (Plus, all the creepy stuff makes more sense in a Chaos army, right?)

The characters from Halloweenland are all various spooky or traditionally evil creatures. There are Skeletons and Witches and Werewolves and Zombie-things and ghosts and such. Given that so many of the characters are undead, I thought that an army themed around Nurgle would be a good choice. While Nurgle armies typically feature pus-dripping creatures that still live, I don't think that Nurgle would love a corpse with dry-rot any less. Okay, I've got an Idea, I've got both a general and a specific list to work from, let's get started. Wait, there is one more consideration.

What should I use to represent what? This is intended to be a highly visual and converted army. I don't just want to take a standard Daemon Prince model and call it Jack Skellington, I want people to actually see Jack standing there on the table top. Although my sculpting skills aren't that great, I'm pretty sure I could work up some decent models from wire armatures and clay, but I don't want that either. I would like to use existing models for the base of each character, so that Renee won't have to worry about being allowed to play somewhere because they aren't Citadel models. So then the question is, what do I use for the base models? This is where you come in. While I have some ideas, you can suggest options for the rest. Just email me and I'll take a look at your ideas.

Cast of Characters and other things:
Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King: Unknown, He is very tall and thin, with long arms and legs. I will almost certainly use him as a Daemon Prince, but I don't really have any other plan at the moment.

Oogie Boogie: This is one of the big bad guys, essentially a Ghost inside of a bug-infested Burlap sack. I think he'd make a good Great Unclean One (Greater Daemon of Nurgle)

The Professor: This is an odd, duck-shaped inventor with a metal dome for a skull. He's normally in a wheelchair, but I think he might look good riding a defiler.

Sally: She's a sewed-together, animated corpse, and the love interest in the film. I'm not sure either about what model to use or what role she should play yet.

Zero: Jack's ghostly dog. I will probably simply model him on Jack's base or use him as a messenger or something.

The Mayor of Halloweentown: Like any good politician, he is two-faced, it's just more literal here. I could see him being an Aspiring Champion leading a squad or something.

In addition to Characters, there are also some generic types, that is, groups of similar individuals that fit in with the theme.

Skeletons: I can use some of the undead straight out of the Warhammer Fantasy Vampire Counts list.

Pumpkinheads/Scarecrows: I may just take regular power-armored goons and replace their heads with sculpted pumpkins. Maybe the squad leader will be carrying his head under his arm or something.

Ghouls: The standard eaters of the dead would be good Plaguebearers, and vice versa.

Wights: Ghosties, I could probably use the Vampire Counts models here as well. They'd probably see use as Daemons, such as Plaguebearers.

Witches: I could use Daemonette models as a base, just adding a bit of black dress and black hat to make them more "witchy."

Werewolves: I could use Wulfen models from the Space Wolves 13th Company list. If so, I might use these as Chosen.

Okay, based on the above, I'll have a Daemon Prince and a Greater Daemon, a couple of squads of Plaguebearers and a squad or two of Plaguemarines. I'll also have a unit of Chosen and a Defiler. That sounds like a fairly good, basic list. I've chosen some fairly high-value pieces to make up for the extensive modeling work I'll have to do.

Tactics-wise, It's a little hard to say at the moment, but I think the tactics will be pretty straightforward (a plus for someone who is just beginning to play.) The Defiler will hang back and encourage the enemy to come closer by blowing up their back lines. The Daemons will be summoned to help clog up the enemy lines and the Plaguemarines will help that. Then the Chosen, Daemon Prince and Great Unclean One move from one unit to another, squashing them flat with the scary amount of power these guys can generate.

If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know

Return to Warpstorm!