Continuing our deep dive into using Warhammer Underworlds sets for kitbashing material in Necromunda and the broader 40k universe, we’re going to look through the 12 warbands representing the Death Grand Alliance.
The structure of the game produces some excellent and unique “hero” models that really shine in this particular grouping, and a whole box at retail price will often run you about the same as a single character blister across the core games. At best, you’re scoring extra models to convert into civilians, hive scum, muties, or in this particular case, zombies. At worst, you’ll end up with some undead to chop up for basing purposes.
The two flavors of skeletons are inherently limited (being, you know, very dead), and our various ghosts will take some creative tinkering. But the zombies? The necromancers? The vampires? Yes, please.
Crimson Court
Our only “fleshed-up” Soulblight offering, but it’s a good one. Four beautiful vampire sculpts with a nice spread of poses. They’re all in intricate archaic armor with some obvious vampire motifs, which is the main challenge in recontextualizing this crew. If you’re looking for some non-Helmawr family nobles, these could be a great place to start.
The sole female model has two ornate rapiers, one of which is sculpted through her hair and would be tricky to remove. I’d personally keep the head, trim or hide the fangs, sand off a few of the blood-drop jewels, round out some of the armor plates and edges, swap in a needle or plasma pistol, slap on one of those animal-skull-and-dagger accessory bits and a chem-synth (don’t forget to roll for it!), and call her Escher. You could also lop off her head and both hands to open up substantially more options, but be prepared to trim up a few loose hair bits.
Prince Duvalle, our official leader model, has an amazing “come at me, bro” pose with one foot resting on a classic hero rock statue head. You could keep the statue and again give the body a few light “de-vampire-ification” passes with a sanding stick or clippers to straighten out the bottom of his cloak and some of the more wing-like armor design elements. Another beautiful sword in hand which could be switched up for just about anything, especially with the forearm bracer making for an ideal swap joint. His ears are visible and pointy and his entire face reads as vampiric, but it’s plenty workable or swappable.
Our third model is posing with a humongous two-handed mace, which could be shifted into any large melee weapon (and the mace head is HOT to boot). Another case of rounding the armor and sanding down some details, which I can say I personally did on this model! The armor is excellent, and the pose is fierce. Our last pal is the one winged unit, with a more standard-sized mace. The wings could help make for a nice mutie champion, though they are removable if that’s not of interest. He’s the least armored up, with more visible skin and some leather boots. The hairdo is rather Necromundan, if I do say so myself. Just excellent stuff all around.
8 out of 10. Killer models with a lot of potential if you’re willing to put some work in. A 10 out of 10 if you’re specifically interested in far-future vampires? Few sets from GW pop out multiple true character options like this.
Deepur’s Wrathcreepers
Our first of two Nighthaunt starter set ports. Four wraiths draped in long robes ending in the standard spirit tendrils wrapped around scenic base elements, with horse-skull heads and heavily arched spines. I don’t find these particularly useful, as only one has a largely uncovered skull you could cleanly snip off to swap something else in, and the scenic bases are far more “cemetery” than what you’d find on most far-future planets. There is one spectral drummer, which I would simply leave on the sprue, and three glaive wielders with at least some utility.
I don’t think they’re terrible models, but this feels like another case of “you’d have an easier time doing something cooler with a standard Age of Sigmar kit” from the Nighthaunt line such as the wonderful Bladegheist Revenants or Grimghast Reapers. So yeah, just do that.
2 out of 10, with there being far more useful Nighthaunt kits for just a few bucks more.
Headsman’s Curse
Our second Nighthaunt warband. These are likely the best ghostly sculpts you’ll find in Underworlds, and the Headsman himself is a pretty spectacular figure. Do I know what to use all four of them for? No. No I do not. You could swap in some bits to make these into spectral psykers or the malignant souls of experiments gone wrong, but I personally would skip the whole group in favor of something more grounded. The Pyregheists from Warcry have a similar feel with a lot more kitbashing utility.
3 out of 10. Too limited for my money.
Kainan’s Reapers
Our one Ossiarch entry. If you’re not down for some freaky Xenos hijinks, these will have extremely narrow utility. The leader, Kainan, is an impressive model and my favorite sculpt across the entire faction, but all five troops bring over the dreaded Bonereaper chunkiness. When a spooky mace head is the most viable bit in here, most folks will be better off looking elsewhere.
2 out of 10. Visually anchored to AoS. Check out the basic Necron Warriors kit if you’re looking for more plug-and-play future skeleton action.
Lady Harrow’s Mournflight
The other shoehorned in AoS starter set group from Nighthaunt. I like all four models just fine, but once again, they are ghosts in a cemetery. As with all ghosts, you do have some psyker potential and you can of course use them as spirits in any context. The limiting factor for me is the wispy arms and hands, making it trickier to bring other bits in. I did clip off a head/cloak section of one of these and cleaned it up enough to use as a mask and cloak for a different model, though that took quite a bit of effort. If you insist on using them, they’re also packaged as Myrmourn Banshees for just under $20. The Dreadscythe Harridans are the closest multipart plastic core game sibling, and they bring a more workable “spirit” body while shedding any potential for spooky cloaks.
3 out of 10 on account of the long cloaks being repurposable.
Sepulchral Guard
You can instantly tell these seven skeletons are from the first season of Underworlds. That is not a good thing. The skeleton actively emerging from the ground is the most interesting element among all six troopers, though I’m not sure it’s particularly useful in our far-future games.
The leader has a decent pose with a cape caught in a windstorm, and he’s at least armored up enough to bring back to life with some basic head and arm swaps. You’re better off investing in a box of AoS Barrow Guards or Deathrattle Skeletons if you’re simply after bony bodies, and there’s little else left to justify picking these up.
2 out of 10 with a full point for the strong cape game.
The Exiled Dead
You’re getting a whopping seven full-sized humanoids here, which is a good start. Four of these are basic enough zombies, three of which have some bonus (and clippable) electrical coils protruding from their backs.
Zombies are zombies no matter the setting, yet these are less aggressively decayed than many of your other AoS options which makes them additionally workable for muties or ever scummers on the brink of total starvation. A fifth is armored up, with only the weapon free of heavy AoS visual ties.
Our final two minis are the most interesting of the bunch. We’ve got a Frankenstein’d up zombie, with one massively muscled arm slapped on an otherwise mundane zombie body. With a little clean up, you’ve got an excellent base for a melee mutie or chaos-infused warrior.
Our star of the show, however, is Deintalos the Exile. A thin lurching figure with stitched-together robes looking every inch the part of a Delaque outfit from Temu, with a beautifully posed open hand and a lengthy wooden staff with a perfect clip point to pin on any topper of your choosing. There are a few hands strung from a waistband as trophies, which feels perfectly at home in the depths of Necromunda, and another pair of hands repurposed as pauldrons that could be trimmed as needed. The head is a spooky flesh mask in the tradition of “Buffalo Bill”, so that’s an easy win wherever you might choose to glue it. The figure screams rogue doc (possibly too rogue for most gangs), psyker, scientist, or even a nemesis build with a nice minimal style allowing you to port over all sorts of detail bits and swap out some nice ones as well to spruce up other models.
7 out of 10. A useful crew with a standout leader.
The Grymwatch
Six ghouls and a double bat model. The bearded leader stands in the classic “foot on hero rock while pointing into the distance” pose, and as often as we see it, it still looks plenty good here. Excellent base for a mutie or zombie leader. He does have the “very long pubes” loin cloth situation going on down there for better and for worse. While we’re on the topic of interesting modeling decisions, we also get the singular topless female ghoul holding a bone dagger and decapitated head. Neat! Both of these have some extra bone armor going on, which you could choose to clean off or leave, depending.
Of specific note from the other ghouls are three selling a unique little theme: cannibalism. We’ve got one buddy actively chomping on a victim’s arm, another with meat hooks piercing his own body and wielded in each hand, and a third wearing half a skull as a mask, with a cartoonish animal split-rib cage as back armor. All three have something cool going for them, and you could honestly saw through each of the ghouls at the waist to ditch the pube coverage and swap onto more standard human legs. The final ghoul in the set is just a lil’ guy charging forward with a big bone as a club. He’s cute.
Lastly, there’s the double bat. To their credit, the lower bat is ripping a human body apart. I would either roll this duo out as-is or not at all, with a colony of other bat model options between AoS and Cursed City.
8 out of 10 with the great leader, nice looking ghoul models, and rampant cannibalism.
The Skinnerkin
A solid set of flesh-starved ghouls, though they bring a lot more body hair than their Grymwatch cousins. The four classic ghouls are a back shave away from making some excellent muties for your underhive shenanigans, and they’re nicely flavored for that already. The butcher? Excellent.
The three troops are sporting wonderfully scrappy weapons, and play the part of desperate cannibals as-is and are primed for some easy mixing with Cawdor gangers for a more down-on-their-luck-faithful aesthetic. The big bat ghoul is more of a wildcard, but could make for a great winged mutant after a leg and head swap. Also: another back shave.
7 out of 10. Awesome models with some clear utility.
The Sons of Velmorn
The best-looking skeletons in Underworlds. The detailed and decrepit armor is quite nice, and King Velmorn himself is striking a great cinematic pose with the flowing cloak as a bonus. They are, however, still skeletons.
I think all five models are worthy of head and arm swaps if you’d like to return them to the land of the living, though the inherently archaic armor will take a little fluffing to fit into the far-future. I don’t know where I would sneak these in from a lore standpoint even if they were revivified, but what they’ve got going on is worthwhile. Until the recently released Barrow Guard, these were easily the nicest skeletons out there.
6 out of 10. If only they still had their skin on.
Thorns of the Briar Queen
The only Nighthaunt group to cross the four-model line, bringing a whopping seven ghosts to play. I’m admittedly torn here. On one hand, I do think they are the most workable of all the Nighthaunt options with reasonably neutral bases, some very cool characterful elements, and the most “regular humanoid” bodies of the bunch. On the other, they are still monopose ghosts. Far from ideal.
The Briar Queen herself has a nice ghastly pose, a fully revealed skull face, a crown, and a minimal amount of armor with a sheathed dagger. A cool model that could make for an interesting Death Maiden, psyker, or anything tied to the warp. She also has a (surprise!) thorny strand of roses shooting out from around her waist, which is neat and thematic, but probably not particularly underhive-y for most of us. Easily clippable.
Of her six “thorns”, the two standouts for me are the noosed up option and the very headless buddy carrying a skull. The built-in narrative is nice if you can bend the models or your own fluff to fit with it.
We also have what I presume is an innkeeper with the classic chamberstick and keys combo, a smaller “iron mask” wearer with an axe, and then two additional basic melee ghosts. These four are fine, though they cross into “you could just be using a multipart plastic model instead” territory with something like the Chainrasp Hordes set.
3 out of 10. The Queen is worth a look and these are the most usable of all the ghost options, but again, they’re still limited by being ghosts.
Zondara’s Gravebreakers
So we’re just breaking graves now, you say? Zondara herself is, for my money, the best Necromancer GW has put out in decades. She’s even literate! A perfect base for a corrupted Cawdor or unsanctioned psyker, with potential for a number of other fun conversions. The creepy-crawly werewolf is a nice sculpt, though I’m at a loss for where I would want to sneak it in. A Xenos creature of some sort? The three zombie troopers are fine, but nothing you wouldn’t find in the 20-count Dreadwalker AoS set at a substantially better value. You know, for your Brainleaf Zombies gang or NPC force.
6 out of 10 on the awesomeness of Zondara alone. I think she’s worth the whole set if you’ve got a fun idea she makes work.
In all, another mixed bag of a Grand Alliance. I do find the various Nighthaunt groups to have more use than, say, just about any of the Stormcast Eternals warbands from Order. We are a bit more penned in, with all of Death only comprising four factions vs. a whopping nine across Order.
For me, the winners here are warbands with ideal leader, champion, or character material capitalizing on the niche faction exploration and dynamic possibilities with monopose models. If you’re looking for basic bodies, you’re better off sticking to the core game kits for easier bash-ability, more options, and higher model counts.
That’s all for round one of Can We Bash It? Warhammer Underworlds Edition. We’ll be back next time with a feature on the warbands from the Death Grand Alliance. Got a cool kitbash using some Warhammer Underworlds bits that you want us to put in an article? Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
