Hobby Update: Varangur Thegns on Skullcrusher Frostfangs

Up now are some hefty Thegns on Frostfangs for the Varangur! 

I was browsing online, and stumbled across this fun-looking bundle. After a week or two, they were still available, and so I decided to treat myself for my birthday over the summer. The trio of blocky models will be Thegns, and the more modern model will be ignobly chucked into storage for now.

The models I’m interested in are older GW metal minis with some existing, if slightly wonky conversions. None of the riders actually fit into the saddles, and were connected with heaps of rubber cement, and some of the arm swaps are loose or messy as well. Still, I liked their paint scheme generally and their look overall, so I wanted to preserve what I can here, rebasing but just touching them up to make them my own.

The new trio, now with snowy bases.

They were on old GW bases, which I was thankfully able to just slowly pry off. New 50mm squares were primed, pasted, primed, and then painted up to match the rest of the Varangur. Ground was black, a dark grey overbrush, and then a light grey drybrush, with a snow effect added at the end.

Again, I quite liked the look of the minis overall, and wanted to preserve them. So, instead of stripping and starting from scratch, the aim was to just repair them and touch them up. The skullcrushers all already looked great, so I just added some small washes and highlights to each. Very minor stuff.

The riders needed some extra attention though. They had been attached with gobs of rubber cement, which needed to be peeled off. The previous owner had done a number of conversions, but the majority of these changes were clumsy, and also used a lot of rubber cement. I broke the various weapon swaps off, and then got to work.

The fashionable Thegn.

The rider with the necklace had a sword bit with a forearm and a hand, instead of just a hand. I put him into storage and grabbed the second necklace-wearer from the bundle, whose modification was just a shield (looks like an GW Ogre gutplate). This mini was far nicer, and just got touchups.

The bone-headed Thegn.

The skull-headed rider had an arm-swap, I believe from an older GW Chaos Warrior kit. It has been attached with gobs of rubber cement, so these were peeled and scraped off, and then the weapon and rider got touchups, with the weapon getting most of the attention. I didn't hate the Skull head, so I decided to touch it up with a light dry-brush and kept it.

The axe-wielding Thegn.

The lance-wielder had a very rough connection for both the weapon and shield, using some kind of putty. The lance was pretty bent-up, and so pried both objects away, and repainted the rider. I collected a ton of warriors back in the day, and have a number of weapon hands still. Raiding my bits box, I grabbed some weapon-hands, and then swapped axe-heads from what should be the Frostgrave Demons kit, using plastic cement to get a strong connection. The arms have weird sockets, which were trimmed back to fit the connection, and then super-glued on.

I try to be a connoisseur of models whenever I can, but these are a bit before my time. As I understand it, the mounts are very old Khorne Juggers, and the riders very old Chaos Knights, intended to fit on old GW barded horses. As-such, the Juggers have a high saddle that messes with a snug fit here, hence the original owner's use of rubber cement. I liked how high the riders sat, and don't mind the weird overhand of the cloaks, so just added super glue to the to edges of the saddle, and slightly wedged the mini in. It's not as pretty if you are viewing the mini from behind, but looks fine from every other angle, so I'm content.

We've seen a lot of my Varangur and Trevor's Northern Alliance in the blog over the years. Lords are powerful, and can do good work, but both of us have gravitated towards Thegns instead Lords, since you get a very similarly-performing unit at a discount. 

More recently, Jeff Schiltgen of Minnesota made splashes at Adepticon and the US Masters (you can see him in action at the top table in both Game 5 and Game 6, I believe) with a Varangur list overloaded with Thegns and Snow Troll Primes, aiming to flood the board with tons of disrupting angles and unit strength. Jeff's approach is obviously strong, and it has some aspects that I am long overdue to explore with my own Varangur, but not something I want to ape entirely, so am not too likely to run both trios myself. Still, the approach highlights how good and versatile the Thegns are on the table, able to disrupt and interdict with Strider, play scenarios with Unit Strength, and fight with good stats and a respectable number of possible attacks if you take the upgrade. They are a wonderful unit for any Northern Alliance or Varangur army to grab, and I look forward to getting mine on the table sometime soon!