Chaos Thug Life 2

The Citadel Miniatures Chaos Thug range is melting pot of influences and ideas.  Unlike Games Workshop’s modern Chaos Marauders, who are uniformly bearded barbarians, the classic Thug range had odd chaps with mullets, Saracen-flavoured archers and even stray ninjas.

Hot as thuggery.

It makes the individual Thugs fun to paint, as they’re each full of unique details. The mullet man has a pair of horns poking out his hairstyle.  The archer has a leering face kneepad.  All three have plumped for asymmetrical trousers.

The ninja has a ninja throwing knife for stealth kills, but today he’s chosen to fight with the less subtle morning star.  Maybe he wields that stealthily too, assassinating targets with a silent swing of the massive spiky ball.

Pazyryk Banefire’s Thugs sacking the town of Æbbe’s Hill.

Having a single archer in the otherwise-melee unit slightly bothers me, but given the chaotic appearance of the the unit I can cope with it in games of Age of Sigmar and Dragon Rampant.  The mix of troop types also gives me a nice selection of models to pick for Frostgrave.  In time he will split off to found a Chaos Thug mob with bows, made up of a mix of the Battle Masters plastic Chaos Thug and the chunky punky Marauder Chaos Thug range from the early 1990s.

Curis

Curis has painted for Games Workshop, Forge World, Warlord Games, Mantic Games, Avatars of War, Wargames Foundry, Studio McVey and many others. He's won at Golden Demon and Salute. He publishes monthly painting tutorials on Patreon.

12 thoughts on “Chaos Thug Life 2

  • November 17, 2017 at 1:00 pm
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    Man your painting really brings these old skool miniatures to life.

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    • November 17, 2017 at 3:08 pm
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      Thanks Riot! It is nice seeing this ragtag collection of miniature that have slowly built up over the years becoming a semi-coherent collection of painted miniatures.

      Reply
  • November 17, 2017 at 1:54 pm
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    More sexy thugs. There you go internet, have fun with that sentence.

    I love the chaos thugs for the same reason. The only thing I like more than a chaos thug is a chaos thug given a splendid paint job, as is the case here. Bonus points for the spotty mushroom. Legit.

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    • November 17, 2017 at 3:09 pm
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      Thanks! I had that mushroom leftover from some Hobbit miniatures and thought “why not”. I must do more in the future to break up the 32mm bases a tad more.

      Reply
  • November 17, 2017 at 2:30 pm
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    You really do make these look their very best Curis.

    The rich red and blue-black always impress.

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    • November 17, 2017 at 3:12 pm
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      Glad you think so! I still feel I rushed these to get ready to take to the table against you. I think when I get to doing the standard bearer for the unit I’ll feel a bit more comfortable presenting them as a display unit.

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  • November 17, 2017 at 3:39 pm
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    Wow Curis…this force just get’s better and better! I imagine the Ninja perched above door frames and then whack right in the face. LOL

    As for the archer, I think it works and gives you a bit of ranged attack lacking with most chaotic forces. Hunkered down behind the shield wall popping up when there is an opening saving the champion from losing his last wound. ;)

    I would love to team up with these one day with Black Vasken’s horde. We would sack so many towns.

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    • November 17, 2017 at 4:49 pm
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      Thanks! Black Vasken’s horde is colossal compared to mine, it’ll be a while longer before it even begins to look like an even partnership.

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  • November 17, 2017 at 4:20 pm
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    Is that DOOMLORD (from the comics) on the left with the lovely shield?

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    • November 17, 2017 at 4:49 pm
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      He’s certainly ugly enough to be a man in a rubbermask.

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  • March 8, 2018 at 9:13 pm
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    These guys are great! Whenever I see the old Thugs painted to this kind of quality it makes me sad that I never got any of them back in the day, but then funds were limited then and it was a choice for me between thugs and champions. Still, your rather amazing paint is still managing to make me jealous. I really love how that archer has turned out especially!

    Reply

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