Let’s start our deep dive into the grimdark world of repurposing various GW plastics with a look at one of Games Workshop’s most inventive product lines for sourcing models: Warhammer Underworlds.
The beauty of an Underworlds warband is that they are a strict one-and-done group, allowing GW to explore wilder themes and concepts in a bite-sized manner without committing to supporting the models beyond their self-contained blister. The models themselves both suffer and benefit from a known sticky design issue: they are monopose. Dynamic and exciting poses? Hell yes! Odd to assemble, and just as odd to cleanly split apart for kitbashing? Also a big yes. I tend to find the juice worth the squeeze if you’re prepared with sharp clippers and photo-etched saw blades. Do be warned: you’re going to have to liberate many feet from the sculpted bases if you do go down the Underworlds rabbithole, though it’s nothing a little basing gravel can’t fix.
Which of the 58 warbands are we going to cover? Well, all of them! Let’s kick things off with the 20 representing the combined forces of Order in the Mortal Realms. Be prepared that the closer we get to and then past “S” on the list, the less enticing our options tend to be. “S” as in “Storm.” Huh.
Order
On one hand, you find a lot of living humans and humanoids within the Order Grand Alliance. On the other, a third of the warbands are Stormcast Eternals models, which are often limited in their usefulness. Throw in a couple of lizardmen and a few fish, and we’ve got the full spectrum of bashability.
Brethren of the Bolt
Yes! This group of five freaky little lightning buds are quintessential Underworlds, showcasing something interesting from the mortal realms that would likely never make it as a core unit for either the Cities of Sigmar or Stormcast Eternals factions.
The bodies themselves scream pure Cawdor or hive scum, and the lightning rod headgear could easily be trimmed or swapped for something a bit more 40k. The weapons with their attached chains are fun and unique while still being easily swappable. I like every model in this group, though the three troops are going to be the easiest to port over, while the bruiser could make a fine champion of some sort. The most unique of the bunch, being the two faithful crammed into one trenchcoat, brings serious big leader energy. My only gripe is the largely static poses, but the details wholly offset that.
9 out of 10. Too fun to pass up.
Cyreni’s Razors
We can’t all be winners, though. The Idoneth aesthetic is strong here, and not the easiest to break away from. We love the floating psychic octo-squid, perfect for any budding Delaque or Piscean-themed gang and an excellent exotic beast to boot. The leader has a nice pose and could be repurposed fairly easily. The pair of troops? Not so much. I’d leave them on the sprue entirely, though again, they have the potential to join your local Water Guild if you’ve got the patience and vision for it.
5 out of 10. Mostly for the seafood psyker.
Domitan’s Stormcoven
They are Stormcasts, which is not ideal. Two of the three models *do* have neat little sculpted magic effects, which is handy and workable. I am also a sucker for cloaks, and the one masked head is rather cool. Some target clipping and sanding could yield at least two nice sanctioned psykers from offworld or the upper hive, though I’d pass on these if you’re hoping to build anything else.
4 out of 10 as I do love the floating elements, but not much beyond that.
Elathain’s Soulraid
To address the crustacean in the room, yes, the crab is a real winner and bears primary responsibility for the “you get a pet and you get a pet!” kit trend since 2021. The flying fish is an interesting bugger as well, but nowhere near as iconic. The three Idoneth are much less malleable than the sea elves of Cyreni’s Razors, with more heavily themed armor and weaponry. I would pass on this one unless you’re just deadset on that crab.
3 out of 10. It’s crab or bust.
Gryselle’s Arenai
Our favorite cult of Sigmar-era witches found some pants! At long last! This gang of five ladies are all easy wins for another notable gang of *many* ladies: House Escher. The poses are nice, the leader looks excellent, and a few quick hand and head swaps would have them poisoning Goliath scum before you can say “chem synth” (don’t forget to roll for it, either). One of the easiest sets to make good use across all of the Underworlds range.
8 out of 10. A solid group of models more limited by 41st millennium gender roles than anything else.
Hexbane’s Hunters
I think this is as good as it’s going to get. Tailor made for some far future inquiring, with great poses across the board. The four humans are all excellent, with Hexbane himself making for a perfect bounty hunter or inquisitor. The big boy is able to function as a beefy brute in many settings. Our female gunner has arguably the best pose in the whole of Underworlds, and I had a blast cleaning off some details to fit her in as a bounty hunter. The masked crossbow wielder has a great scrappy armor quality to him, and is a weapon swap away from 40k. Also: two dogs! Two cute, non-cybernetic dogs. Who doesn’t love bonus dogs?
12 out of 10. You should already own two copies of these. Inspired sculpts.
Ironsoul’s Condemners
Another trio of Stormcasts, the first of which you almost certainly have sitting around somewhere already. I don’t like them. The hefty amount of cloth draping over the armor has them looking like beefy Sisters of Battle at a scale only Marines will match. I like Ironsoul’s head, and that’s it.
2 out of 10. Throw them back in your “Stormcasts from starter sets” bin.
Morgwaeth’s Blade Coven
This group of Khainites are back to the “no pants” thing. Scantily clad enough to make an Escher blush, you pick up four women and a snake…woman. The masked witch’s pose is fantastic, and her three sisters are solid as well. The hair and crowns are too AoS for my taste, but this is wonderfully remedied by some easy Escher or Drukhari Wytch swaps. Mrs. Snake has great potential as a Xenos model if you’re down to chop off everything from the waist up. I like them.
7 out of 10. Great models with dynamic poses.
Myari’s Purifiers
High elves with a “we are very dressed up for AoS” problem. The leader has a nice unique pose and could make for an interesting spire noble or monk if you get it off that clean rock. We also like the owl. The other three models are too visually chained to AoS to be worth the trouble.
3 out of 10 on the strength of Myari alone.
Shadeborn
These are also tricky for me. I like the poses on all four models, but the shadow magic would be hard to sell as anything else. The cloaks and brooches would also be tough to alter or remove. The leader could make an excellent outcast psyker, but I’d ultimately rather put that time and effort into something else.
4 out of 10. Too much shade for me.
Skaeth’s Wild Hunt
They are unique and they are interesting. I’m a Wood Elves Glade Guard loyalist, so I do find the hair on all four humanoids a bit silly. The three satyrs could work as the basis for some abhumans, though I’d rather do so with beastmen. The centaur is a more unique model, but that doesn’t mean I want to use it for anything. The big cat looks like it was plucked out of a direct-to-video sequel for that famous animation about a king of lions, which is not a compliment.
3 out of 10. Neat but not necessarily useful.
Starblood Stalkers
Ah! Something weird again! You don’t see a ton of Seraphon crossing the Rubicon 40k-ris, but I think Kroxigor have some real brute potential. These, however, are not Kroxigor. Of the six models, I find five of them too dressed up and strictly worse alternatives than their respective AoS kit siblings. The sixth is a chameleon, and though he is cute, I’d rather pull from the Warcry warband full of them for any Xenos builds.
2 out of 10. Great models that are better kept in their native system.
Steelheart’s Champions
Ah yes, another Stormcast warband. In their defense, this trio is from the original Underworlds starter set. That does not, however, make them any more useful or less ugly.
1 out of 10. Too chunky and much too static. Don’t bother.
Storm of Celestus
Chances are you already have these four models kicking around from AoS starter boxes of editions past. Too generic, too many crossbows, and the Gryph-hound is too clean cut for anything beyond an Inquisitor’s retinue. You’re safe to let these continue collecting dust in your plastic hoard.
1 out of 10. Please, GW, no more Stormcasts. Please.
Stormsire’s Cursebreakers
Anyway, here are some more Stormcasts. Yet another AoS 2nd edition port over to Underworlds. Stormsire has a great pose and we love to see magic effects, but I can’t imagine these being worth the effort to liberate or build around them. You might have to actually go out and buy these ones, too.
3 out of 10. One of the better Sigmarine options, but still not worth it.
The Chosen Axes
If you wanted some Squats running around in their undies, here you go. I like the beards just fine, but not with those helmets. The axes could be interesting for your preferred flavor of space dwarf, though that’s not worth chopping this kit up.
2 out of 10. Stay with the AoS models if you need any of these bits.
The Farstriders
Anyway, here are some more Stormcasts. These ones have the chunky, ugly AoS 1st edition armor and some handheld crossbows. They are standing on logs. The poses are bland. There is a strange peacock.
1 out of 10. No thank you.
Thundrik’s Profiteers
Full disclosure: I do not care for the steampunk aesthetic, and I rank Kharadron at the bottom of GW’s “Dwarves without calling them Dwarves” stack of factions across their systems. That said, folks have made some killer conversions from specific Kharadron torsos, and I use their little back tanks on Slave Free Ogryns all the time. The difference? None of those are from monopose kits. These are yet another group of chunky nightmares. Keep them in the AoS setting.
1 out of 10. Stick with the multipart plastics.
Xandire’s Truthseekers
Three Stormcasts and a bird. The ornate armor is going to be a challenge to recontextualize, and only the hammerer is a simple weapon swap. The leader’s lantern pose is nice, but again, I’d rather invest my time into something else. Stormcasts bring a lot of visual baggage and are closer to Space Marine scale, so they need to be doing something special to warrant the purchase and effort.
3 out of 10. Nice bird, though.
Ylthari’s Guardians
This group of four woodland spirits are pretty limited to being woodland spirits. Anything I’d want to do with them would be easier and better to do with Nighthaunt models. I suppose you could lop off Ylthari’s torso to use her vine tentacles as the bottom half of a biomancy psyker, but that’s the best I’ve got here.
1 out of 10. If you need spirits, dig into the wide range of Nighthaunt kits.
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.
