Hey all,

I originally built a VC army on a Skaven theme. My banshee was a ratling gunner, my fell bats were fell bat ogres, dire wolves were dire rats, etc. Now, I'm looking to convert what I have into a general "all races" VC army and move a little away from the all skaven theme. I've switched my Grave Guard from Stormvermin to a converted unit of Dark Elf Warriors. My spirit host is a combination of dwarves, empire and beastmen troops. My zombies are a little bit of everything, etc etc.

The problem I'm having is that I love ghouls. I originally had about 30 converted clanrats that I was using for ghouls, but I'd like to move away from the skaven theme. I still have about 14 in my army list, and I'm looking for suggestions as to what models I could convert non-confusing ghouls out of.

Thanks!

James

Well, for starters, if you're using a bit of everything there's no reason you can't keep the skaven aspect somewhere; if these are the models you like above the others, keep them in the list.

Aside from that, you could easily use actual ghoul models...;)

I've experimented with witch elves as ghouls in the past, but my modelling skills weren't up to it.

If you're careful you might be able to combine the zombie sprue with one of the Empire sprues to make Imperial citizens-turned-cannibals. Just got to be careful not to make them look too, well, zombie like!

As Vriish says, there's nought wrong with the ghoul models as they are! If you want a cheap alternative to the quite pricey GW ones, check out Black Tree Design. Their Ghouls Fighter models aren't too bad.

Cheers,
DLJ

Well, if we're going to recommend non-GW models, these should definitely be on the list. :)

When I built my Von Carstein army, I was using a human theme but did not want to spend 60+ dollars on the metal ghoul models. I ended up mixing empire free company with zombie models. As vrish said, I avioded the bodies that had guts hanging out, but the scrawny arms, shruken heads, and bony legs all made for a very characterful and numerous set of ghouls.

Thanks for the input. I was trying to stay GW, simply for the occasional tournament. I was also avoiding the metal ghouls simply because I didn't want to spend 60-70 bucks.

I was thinking of combining zombie heads with some other models to come up with some "human" ghouls. I was considering using brettonian peasentry and zombie heads. All my zombies are old black corpses, so if I painted them with any signs of life they wouldn't get confused. My mordhiem warband has a couple of dregs with zombie heads on militia bodies and the effect is not bad.

I was thinking about skinks, but I wasn't sure how to paint or model them to give them a ghoulish appearance.

Another thing I was thinking of was building a bunch of the dust or bone goblins from one of the annuals. Has anyone put together any of these? They were basically goblins with skeleton torsos. Any luck?

James.