Swarms – Rats, Cats and Bats – Model recommendations, please!

[robert 22515xp 0]

King of War 3rd Edition has a new unit for Undead called Deathswarms. They have the keyword Beasts,  so looking for model recommendations and suggestions for swarms of small beasts that would fit in with an Undead army – hence rats, cats and bats.  The unit footprint will be 120×40 or 120×80 so looking value for money as want them to be quite packed bases.

Also killer ducks would be welcomed!  Thanks in advance.

[somegeezer 10701xp 1]

Sticking with companies familiar to us wargamers, there’s Warbases’ animals range https://warbases.co.uk/product-category/figurines/animals/

You’ll be able to add O gauge animals, no idea on price but there could be some bargains from China around.

[maledrakh 9700xp 2]

Northstar has some very good resin (maybe spuncast) bats and crows:

http://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=268&page=1

 

reaper also has some good swarms, both in bones and in metal:

https://www.reapermini.com/search/swarm

If you can get hold of it, zombicide green horde the “rat king and swamp troll” set has some spiffing rat swarms, but I suspect it might cost a pretty penny these days.

However:

bears head miniatures have some excellent metal undead animals…also rhinos and sharks (the dog to the left is an old Mage knight mini)

https://www.bearsheadminis.com/store/c2/Fantasy_Undead_Miniatures_.html

 

 

[avernosKeymaster 18758xp 2]

https://www.base-x-of-war.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=33_84&sort=p.model&order=ASC

I’m ordering these for my ratkin at some point, because why buy rats and bases and put them together, when I can skip a step.

for an added touch silicon bait maggots and worms from china

[evilstu 12670xp 1]

As an alternative approach, given you can sculpt quite handily why not carve out a couple of rats and then use Green Stuff World’s ‘Blue Stuff’ to cast as many as you need?

[spacefrog 422xp 1]

The cheapest answer would probably be reaper bones.
They do rats, bats, scarabs, beetles and spiders, in bones and have crows and beetles with victim in metal.

Another favourite of mine, is black cat bases, who have several small animals to choose from, although most of them come individually so you have to assemble your own swarm.
But that makes them great to fill in between the complete swarms.
Also I want to see an opponents face when they face a swarm of undead chickens. 🙂

[ced1106Participant 3095xp 1]

Besides swarms, search on bats and cats in the Reaper database.

Reaper plastic Bone’s familiars, which has a bat and a cat. $3. : https://www.reapermini.com/search/bat/latest/77176

Reaper’s metal Crazy Cat Lady, actually has a good number of domestically posed cats. Maybe you could convert and repaint her as witch with a broom or something. $9. : https://www.reapermini.com/search/cat/latest/50235

[robert 22515xp 0]

Cheers all for the suggestions.  Much appreciated.

@somegeezer I searched for O gauge stuff but it is not the cheapest, if it had of been OO scale, a few bargains could have been had but they are just a bit too small.

@maledrakh I have the Undead Rhino and a few others from Bear Head, I might use it (if I can find what box it is in)

@avernos think that is the second time you have shown me those… I am very forgetful!

@evilstu you have made me blush again!

@spacefrog never heard of Black Cat Bases before, some great little items there.  Bookmarked for the future.

 

Currently I have ordered a few Reaper bat swarms and going to attempt to sculpt some rats.  Add a few gravestones here and there and my Undead are on a dark basing, so it should look ok.

 

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