Beastmen Barge

Supplies
20"x4"x1/2" balsa
wood sheet
1/2"-wide balsa wood
strip (enough to cover
Chaos is coming this summer with Storm of ~100 square inches)
Chaos, and what better way to gather the
20"-long, 1/4"-wide
attentions of those malicious powers than to
balsa wood strip (no
build them a floating shrine, a Beastmen shrine?
thinner than 1/25")
Yes, even those forest-dwelling Chaos beasties
need boats to raid and pillage the weak 34"x1/8"x1/8" balsa
inhabitants of the Old World. I shall guide you in wood square strip
the ways of Beastmen naval engineering (if there 8"-long, 1/4"-diameter
is such a thing). balsa wood dowel
36"-long, 1/2"-
This project is very different they anything I have ever diameter balsa wood
worked on. I wanted it to be unlike anything ever seen for a dowel
Beastman army. I started with the idea of a river barge that 16"-long, 1/24"-
looked like it had been thrown together. diameter balsa wood
dowel
Construction
1/4" brass finishing
nails
Packing string
Superglue
(1) Warhammer Siege
Tower (Item #64-02)
(2) Chaos Marauder
Shield Sprue (Item
#99360201002)
First, start with the hull. The main hull section is 12" long and (2) Chaos Vehicle
4" wide, while the poopdeck (yeah, you heard me) is the same Accessory Sprue 1
width and 7" long. You'll need a jig saw or circular saw to cut (Item #99390102001)
out these sections. Be very careful – these tools are dangerous
if handled incorrectly. Remember to wear safety glasses Paints
whenever using power tools. Ask an adult for help if you're Chaos Black Spray
under 18. Primer
Now you have to mount the poopdeck on the main hull. Graveyard Earth
Measure in 3" from the aft of the main hull and make a mark. Snakebite Leather
Place the 7"-inch deck perpindicular to the main hull so it Desert Yellow
lines up with the mark you made. The edges should hang over Bestial Brown
the back by 1" and the sides by 1.5". Once you know how it Scorched Brown
should be placed, glue the two pieces together with superglue
Boltgun Metal
(woodglue will work, too).
Bubonic Brown
This next part is where things get a little tricky. The whole Bleached Bone
base of the boat needs to be lined with balsa wood. However,
the original strips are flat and featureless. How do we give Tools
these boring balsa wood strips that loving Beastman touch? (kids, ask your parents
You need to use your sharp hobby knife and whittle the wood for help)
slightly. Simply cut along the edges of each strip to make it
Sharp modeling knife
look like a Beast of Chaos took an axe to it. Make sure you
Circular or jig saw
(kids, ask your parents
for help)
Hammer
Sprue Clippers
 cut away from yourself and watch your
fingers. You don't have to prove your
devotion to Khorne by bleeding on your
boat.

Since these strips need to cover the entire boat, you might find it easer to cut the strips
to fit on the deck and sides before you rough them with the knife. Remember, you
want his boat to have the angry-but-not-so-clever Beastman look, so be loose and
creative when placing the deck boards. Once you have the planks made for the deck
and sides, glue them in place. Finally, hammer multiple brass nails in appropriate
places on the planks, usually around the joints.

After all the decking has been glued and nailed down, it is time to place the railing
were the oars will be mounted. Take the 34"x1/8"x1/8" piece of balsa wood and cut it
into four 8.5" segments. Rough the wood as explained above and then glue them to
the deck so that they are flush and square with the deck's outside edge.

Ramp's Away!

So far, this looks like a nice riverboat where you might find
your grandparents playing bingo. It still needs that hardcore
Beastie look. After talking to my friends and gathering a few
ideas from popular movies, I came up with the idea of a
boarding ramp. This is were the Warhammer Siege Tower
comes in.

You are going to use most of the sprues from the boxed set to make the ramp and
bridge canopy. For the ramp itself, you are going to need the base of the Siege Tower,
as well as the ramp and mid-level deck that leads to the ramp (see the photo to the
left). Cut off two of the three wheel axles on each side of the tower base, leaving the
axle farthest from the "teeth" intact. This remaining axle will serve as the pin for the
ramp hinge.
Now it's time to put the ramp together. Glue the decking pieces to the bottom of the
tower base to cover up the exposed rafters. Make sure the grain side is facing out and
visible. You will have to to cut off a few deck planks to make it fit over the tower
base piece.

Next are the hinge brackets. Simply cut up the top hoarding (that's the castle-like wall
stuff) so you have two pieces that are three planks wide. Use your hobby knife (or
drill if you have one) to make the hole through the center plank. The hole doesn't have
to be neat – it will be covered in a second. Check the fit to make sure the ramp pin can
fit through the hinge bracket.

To finish the ramp, put the hinge brackets in place and glue two Chaos Marauder
shields on the pin (do NOT let the glue run down into the hinge assembly). These
shields will keep the hinges in place. Now, glue four more shields on the side of the
ramp where the axles used to be before you cut them off. Attach the ramp to the prow
of the barge by the hinges (see the photo below).

While you're at it, use a few more plank sections from the Siege Tower sprues to
make stairs leading up to the bridge. Also add the railing around the bridge using bitz
from the Chaos Vehicle sprues. Leave a 1/2" gap on the outside edge of the bridge,
and make sure not to place rails along the aft of the deck since the canopy base will go
here. See the picture to the left to see how I did it.

It is time to add the outrigger struts. Cut the 20"-long, 1/4"-wide balsa wood strip into
two pieces that are each 10" long. Then center each strip so that there is a 3" overhang
on both sides of the boat. Glue both pieces to the underside of the boat. Make sure to
glue them in several places, since these struts will bear the weight of the boat full o'
Beastmen.
 Time to add the canopy and other finishing touches. The
canopy is fairly easy to assemble. To make the back wall of the canopy, use the
leftovers from the hull and cut out a 2"-wide, 5.5"-long piece. Add balsa strips to this
back board like you did to the hull and glue the whole thing to the bridge deck. Now,
take the 8"-long, 1/4"-diameter balsa wood dowel and cut it into two 4" sections with
a saw. Measure 3.5" in from the back wall and 1.5" from the side of the poopdeck and
make a mark (one on each side). Glue the dowels you just cut on these marks to form
the canopy support struts. From the Siege Tower boxed set, take the large bit with the
skins on it from the front of the tower and place it on the back wall and supporting
dowels. With a little trimming with your hobby knife, you should be able to get this to
fit. Glue this down, add a few Beastmen and Chaos bitz and your canopy is complete.

Okay, here's the final stretch. To make the pontoons, take the 36" dowel and cut it in
half to make two 18"-long, 1/2"-diameter pieces. Whittle this down so it looks rough
and is tapered at both ends. Glue the pontoons to the outrigger struts and then lash
them with the string. For the oar rests on the side rails, measure back 2.75" from the
bow (not the ramp) and make a mark. Measure back another 1" and make a series of
four marks in total. With your hobby knife, make four small indentations for the oar
rests. Cut the 32"-long dowel into eight 4" sections for the oars and glue them in place
on the oar rests. Add a few hoarding and ladder bitz from the Siege Tower to the
pontoons and you're done!

The boat has been assembled and now comes the real fun: painting!

Painting

Time to paint this beast! In a well ventilated area, prime the entire thing with Chaos
Black Spray Primer. Basecoat the entire barge with Graveyard Earth. This step will
take a while, but it's worth it for the water-aged look it gives. Next, drybrush the
whole thing with Snakebite Leather followed by Desert Yellow.

Paint the deck nails with Boltgun Metal to finish off the decking. While you're at it,
paint the spikey bitz on the bridge with Boltgun, too. To finish the spikes, paint the
skulls in any manner you like and wash the metal with watered-down Black Ink.

As for all the Chaos Marauder shields, I painted them with a basecoat of Scab Red
highlighted with Gore Red and then Blood Red. Next, I painted the metal areas with
Tin Bitz followed by a highlight of Dwarf Bronze. However, you can paint your
sheilds to match your army theme as you see fit.

On to the skins on the canopy. Basecoat them with Scorched Brown followed by a
heavy drybrush of Bestial Brown (click the image to the left for a larger version). To
add contrast, make sure to hit the nails with Boltgun Metal if you missed them from
before.

Here she is – one finished Beastman Barge! This project was a lot of fun. Working
with Chaos always seems to give you the freedom to really do something wild. I think
this boat captures the mentality of the Beastmen: just ram, board, kill, and then
hopefully set something on fire.

So, happy sailing and remember to pillage before you burn because it just doesn't
work the other way around.
 Beastmen Barge Rules

The Beasts of Chaos are not known for being a seafaring race, but occasionally, some
of the more clever Gors and Bestigors will cobble together a crude barge and force the
Ungors to pull the oars. While these Beastmen craft are not vessels that more
intelligent races would consider particularly seaworthy, the barges sail well enough
for shoreline raids and coastline boarding actions.

Beastmen Barges are Rowed Ships and, except where noted below, follow the rules
for Rowed Ships as described on p. 136 of The General’s Compendium. The
following rules apply only to Small, Medium, and Large Beastmen Barges. Dinghy-
sized Barges follow the normal rules for Rowed Dinghies.

Crew & Speed. Per normal rules for Rowed Ships.

Beastmen Barge Special Rules

Boarding Ramp. Though the Beasts of Chaos are worse engineers than they are
shipwrights, they have effected one nautical innovation: the boarding ramp. This
crude ramp is mounted on the bow of the ship and swings down for easy boarding of
enemy vessels and rapid disembarking during shoreline raids. Whenever a Beastmen
Barge makes contact with an enemy vessel or the shore, the boarding ramp is dropped
into place.

In a boarding action, models using the boarding ramp may leap to any spot on an
enemy vessel within 3” of the ramp and need not jump straight across per the normal
rules for Leaping Aboard. Models using the boarding ramp can even leap over the
heads of enemy models, which makes Blocking Actions difficult and defending the
ship from boarders a challenge. Models using the boarding ramp always pass Leaping
Aboard Tests. Enemy models never get the Difference in Deck Heights bonus when
attacking a model on a Barge equipped with a boarding ramp.

On the shoreline, any model that uses the boarding ramp can move its full Movement
distance to disembark (and may double this distance to March or Charge, if it
normally could do so), regardless of how far the Barge moved in the Movement
Phase.
No Cannon. The Beast of Chaos are not a technologically adept army. They can just
about understand the Stone Thrower and the Bolt Thrower, but the secrets of black
powder elude them. Thus, Beastmen Barges cannot be equipped with Cannon per the
rules on p. 139 of The General’s Compendium.

Maneuvering a Beastmen Barge. Per normal rules for Rowed Ships.

Damage & Specialty Target Areas. Beastmen Barges have the following target
areas: Crew, Hull, and Specialty Targets (war machines, rudders, oars, and pontoons).
Except for the pontoons, all of these target areas function exactly like those of other
Rowed Ships.

The pontoons stabilize the ship. Without them, the ship has difficulty moving and
turning. When a hit is scored against a pontoon, roll a D6 and consult the Pontoon
Chart to determine what has occurred. Each pontoon has a Toughness of 7 and 3
Damage Points. If one or both pontoons are reduced to 0 Damage Points, the ship’s
maximum movement is reduced by 1”, and the ship can only make a single turn of up
to 45 degrees in the Movement Phase.

Pontoon Chart

The shot falls harmlessly into the water between the

1
pontoon and the hull.
The shot hits the hull instead of the pontoon. Roll to
2
wound the hull as normal.
3-5 The shot strikes the pontoon. Roll to wound as normal.
The shot strikes the pontoon. Roll to wound as normal. If 1
6 or more Damage Points are caused, the resulting flying
splinters and shrapnel cause D3 S4 hits on the crew.