The Shrine of the Bestial Skull

If we’re going to have beasts that walk on their hind limbs as men, and men who howl and gibber in the darkened forests as beasts, then we’re going to need a dread alter at which they can conduct their foul rituals beneath a ghastly moon. This skull-shaped shrine from MOM Miniatures fits the bill nicely, making a fine herdstone for the beasts of chaos and a good addition to my collection of chaos terrain in general. It also fits in nicely with the new Heart of Ghur terrain from Games Workshop (which I’ll be painting at some point and in which giant skulls feature heavily).

As a size comparison I grabbed a few finished miniatures that were sitting near the desk (providing in a bit of a hint at some of the things I’m planning to paint next!). Really I should have found some warriors of Khorne or a few beastmen but that would have meant digging them out of storage and, frankly, I couldn’t be arsed so instead we have something that looks like the start of a joke; a Khainite elf, an Orlock ganger and a northman sworn to House Stark walk into a bar (pausing only at the giant skull outside)…

Next up – even more terrain!

Bestigor

I’m not entirely sure where this Bestigor came from, I’ve only ever had the one so I can’t have bought a set of them. Anyway he’s another case of a model that’s been waiting a long time for paint and at last I’ve got around to him. I write that a lot don’t I…

Against a goat with a big axe what hope can the forces of civilisation really have? 

Getting My Goat

Nothing fancy today, just a nice, old-fashioned beastman from Knightmare Miniatures. 

To me it looks like he’s shouting “You kids, get off my lawn!”. Or in his case probably “You elves, get out of my woods!”. 

What Next Dark Gods?

Ask any fan of Chaos in the Mortal Realms where the biggest gap in the range was and, if they were honest with themselves, most would probably have agreed it was Slaaneshi mortals. Over the last few years times have been good for those like me who worship the Ruinous Powers. We now have well developed ranges with unique models and a distinctive aesthetic for each of the gods (that’s Khorne; god of war and violence, Nurgle; god of plague and decay, Tzeentch; god of magic and change and Slaanesh; god of decadence and excess). Gone are the days when I differentiated my Khornate troops from your followers of Nurgle because I painted mine red and you painted yours green. For a while there only Slaanesh, the longest neglected of the four gods, was left with a limited range but Games Workshop have turned that around in style, first by bolstering the daemons with some fantastic new recruits and now with a soon to be released wave of mortal followers, the first we’ve seen for Slaanesh in a very long time.

It’s a huge boost to the range and the miniatures are exquisite, but rather than talk about them I’m here to speculate baselessly instead! Once the Dark Prince has his mortal followers in tow where might Games Workshop turn their attention next? Of course they might come up with something wildly different, the Mortal Realms offers a lot of scope and potential as the Warcry warbands proved, and if they went off to stake out new territory with something a bit more unusual I’d be all in favour. Plus there still gaps to be filled in the current ranges, I’d like to see unique looking daemon princes for each god for instance, light infantry for Nurgle and beastmen for both Nurgle and Khorne.

Indeed, speaking of which I just kitbashed a pestigor to join a little Nurgle warband which has been whispering in the corner of my brain lately. Shall we sneak a peek at him before we begin? Oh go on then!

Beastmen

Ah the beastmen, men who have become beasts and beasts who have devolved into something akin to men. The horned ones, the true children of ruin who lurk in the wild places, driven by a hatred of all that is civilised and orderly. I’ve always had a bit of a soft-spot for these shaggy barbarians, being hairy and uncouth myself. In fact, now I think about it it’s strange that I’ve never really painted many of them – something I’ll have to rectify.

This range of models dates back to Warhammer as was, and although there are some excellent models in there it also leans heavily on a lot of older sculpts, bulked out by models borrowed from other ranges like the Tzaangors. Plus there’s the fact that, despite beastmen being traditionally described as an amalgamation of beasts and men, “goatmen” might be a better name for them nowadays. Those of us who are still steeped in the old Realm of Chaos era will recall beastmen which hybridised all kinds of beasts with all kinds of men, but nowadays the braying despoilers of the forests seem to be almost exclusively Pan-like creatures with hooves, horns and long ovine faces. Far be it from me to question their commitment to disorder but a little more chaos in the mix wouldn’t hurt! The birdlike Tzaangors (see below for a couple of them that I’m currently working on) and the lanky, sinuous Slaangors which are soon to be released go to prove that Games Workshop aren’t unwilling to break out of the goat archetype however, and beasts of Khorne and Nurgle don’t seem too much to hope for someday either.

Slaves To Darkness

Take a look at the Slaves to Darkness range (that’s humans sworn to serve Chaos undivided rather than dedicated to just one of the gods) and at first glance it looks pretty healthy, packed with lots of kits, many of which were released in the last year or so. Dig a little deeper however and you start to release that most of the range comes either from the Warriors of Chaos from the WHFB era or, in the case of the newer models, are borrowed from Warcry. Now personally I love Warcry, in fact I tend to take things from Age of Sigmar to make Warcry warbands rather than the other way around, but I’m glad to see the Warcry warbands given a home in AoS armies all the same. Likewise I was a big fan of the Warriors of Chaos and that range has some great miniatures that I’m pleased to see are still available.

However there are some models in there which are undoubtedly past their best, like the Chosen and the Marauders. Plus there’s the fact that, before the End Times, the Warriors of Chaos made use of all kinds of troops dedicated to specific gods, all of which have since been split off to form new factions of their own. With them gone the range has been left looking a little thin. Time to give it a bit of a boost. Thanks to Warcry we know what the warbands seeking to join the Everchosen’s legions look like, but what about those legions themselves. Time to bring the warriors Sigmar abandoned into the modern era – after all we don’t want that weakling thunder god to think he’s getting everything his own way now do we?

Darkoath Tribesmen

In the old days, when the heavily armoured warriors of chaos marched south to attack the Old World they did so surrounded by hordes of barbarian tribesmen, clothes-phobic folk who’s hardiness and bitterness against the weakling southerners may be partially explained by the fact that they lived in a frozen wasteland but nobody seemed to own a shirt. In this regard people from the British Isles will recognise them as being essentially Geordies.

There are a few contenders for the title of “Worst Model in the GW Stable”, the Zombies and Skaven Plague Monks spring to mind, but the Chaos Marauders really have made a spirited attempt to claim that throne. Just a quick glance is enough to tell you that they’re past their best, if indeed there was ever a time when they looked anything other than awful.

 For a while there was a persistent rumour (and we all know how reliable those are eh!) from those who claimed to be “in the know” that Games Workshop were planning a new faction based around a range of new Marauder kits. Nothing has ever come of it, although we have seen a range of new Marauder equivalents in the form of the Warcry warbands, as well as troops dedicated to specific gods like the Bloodreavers of Khorne, the Kairic Acolytes of Tzeentch and the forthcoming Blissbarb Archers of Slaanesh, each of which is close to the Marauder archetype of old, and the Godsworn Hunt from Warhammer Underworlds. The rumour may have proved to be either a case of mistaken identity or wishful thinking but it’s still a good idea so who knows, perhaps someday we shall see the Slaves to Darkness split into two factions, the grim heavily armoured foot soldiers of the gods and the shirtless savages of the tribes?

Skaven

I know I sound like a stuck record here so I’ll keep it brief. The perfidious ratmen were my favourite faction from WHFB and over recent years I’ve painted up quite an army of them. Shall we remind ourselves of how they look? How could I ever pass up the opportunity!

Of course being a fan of the Skaven means being a glutton for punishment. Despite their ongoing popularity the range hasn’t seen much love in a long time and many of them models are so old they came off the Ark, and so rough they look like they were sculpted by the animals therein (and not the ones with opposable thumbs) rather than Noah himself. Get the finger out GW, give my rats some love!

Chaos Dwarfs

An industrious race of slavers and daemonsmiths the Chaos Dwarfs were the Old World’s finest bull-appreciators and big hat wearers, famed for putting Nagash to shame when it came to outsized headgear. They were also wearing big cow horns on their hats long before Johnny-come-latelys like the Lumineth Realmlords rocked up.

By the later era of WHFB however they were almost extinct, their range of models long out of production and their sole surviving representatives the crew of the Hellcannon.

With the Hellcannon going the way of all things when AoS was launched the Chaos Dwarves passed into history, in the main Games Workshop range at least. Forge World however have done their bit to keep them alive in the form of the Legion of Azgorh.  

Fantastic those these models are, a range which leans heavily on large and complicated daemon engines such as the Dreadquake Mortar (below) is going to be tricky in resin, and much easier for the average hobbyist to manage in plastic. Time to bring the bearded ones back I say!

Chaos Gargants

From one end of the scale to the other, if we’re going to have Chaos Dwarves then why not Chaos Gargants? It’s not much of a leap really, there are already Chaos Giants and the new Mega Gargant kit contains a variant, the Warstomper, which can be taken by Chaos forces. Already I’ve seen plenty of them converted to be even more chaotic just as when the Imperial Knight kit was released many of us started welding on spikes to turn them into engines of the gods. After a few years of this GW yielded to the inevitable and produced a dedicated Chaos Knight kit, so it doesn’t seem beyond the realms of possibility that the same thing might happen with the Gargants.

Ogres and Trolls

Back in the old days all kinds of trolls and ogres shambled to war alongside the Warriors of Chaos. These days however such creatures exist almost exclusively under the remit of the Destruction faction (those who are particularly long in the tooth will recall Chaos orcs but let’s not go that far back!). There’s no reason not to bring these brutes back though, perhaps under the banner of the Slaves to Darkness or the Beastmen, or even as a faction of their own. Alternatively there could be versions of each of these incorporated into the four armies of the gods, each tainted and twisted by the favour of their particular patron, just like the Bile Trolls and Plague Ogres that formed part of Tamurkhan’s Horde in the latter days of WHFB. Regardless of which route was taken these brutes have plenty of potential, after all, as the Trogherds of the Gloomspite Gits demonstrated, people love big ugly monsters. 

Those are my picks for the future development of Chaos in the Mortal Realms but what about you? Are there any of the candidates above you think are particularly deserving, or any that you would have preferred to see abandoned to the history books? Is there a faction in waiting that I’ve overlooked? As ever the comments section is all yours. 

Blackstone Fortress: Beastmen

With the Negavolt Cultists out of the way the next step for my Blackstone Fortress project was to turn my attention to the fearsome beastmen. In Games Workshop’s fantasy universes, beastmen are uniformly savage and chaotic – indeed the name “beast man” derives from “best man” and refers to their hedonistic, untamed nature combined with their tendency to consume alcohol in quantity and instigate shenanigans. In the 41st Millennium beastmen enjoy a greater range of personalities and many are loyal to the Imperium, serving in Imperial Guard regiments and even appearing as one of Necromunda’s most famous faces. Despite this they are generally abused, looked down upon and used as cannon fodder with the result that many choose to throw in their lot with the servants of the Ruinous Powers, who also tend to abuse them, look down upon them and use them as cannon fodder. The models from Blackstone Fortress, it should be noted, fall firmly into the latter camp.

Being crude and hairy myself I’ve always had a soft spot for these rowdy creatures and often planned, usually without much actual progress, to model some of my own during the long years in which they vanished from 40k almost entirely. Thus finding them in the Blackstone Fortress set was a real thrill and I’ve been looking forward to tackling them ever since.

It took me a while to get the colours right on these but I’m definitely pleased with the outcome. What more they’ve left me so enthused about all things bestial that I’ve already started working on some more, this time destined to rampage around the Mortal Realms instead.  All being well I’ll have them ready to show you all soon.

See You Later Alligator

Just a quick one today but this reptilian beastman (as opposed to a lizardman) has been sitting on my desk waiting to be finished for what seems like absolutely ages. A couple of days ago I realised that despite work on him stalling completely he really only needed another twenty minutes or so to be completed – and thus inspired I knuckled down.

Amongst the various projects I have planned – but which are as yet untouched – I’d like to paint up an old school chaos warband based around the Knightmare Miniatures range, and so this cantankerous looking crocodile will hopefully be joined in due course by a savage brotherhood. Probably not for a while though as I’m trying to tame my spirit animal, the hobby butterfly, and focus on a few key projects for the time being.

War Eternal – Part 1

I’ve been toying with the idea of making some Age of Sigmar warbands for a while now but until recently I’ve not really done anything about it. That changes now however. The push came when Alex of Leadballoony published his plans for working on AoS Skirmish and the idea took root in my brain. Alex, accompanied by fellow blogger Ross of Classic Chaos Daemons, set out a series of guidelines for the project and invited anyone else who fancied it to join in. Naturally this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get one of my own warbands up and running so I nailed my colours to the metaphorical mast and sallied forth.

Let’s start by taking a look at those guidelines:

Build & paint 100ish ‘renown’ points in Feb (to include our Generals), and 25ish renown per month thereafter, up to 250 pts.

This seems a sensible and manageable way to do things so I’ll be trying to stick to it to. Conveniently my general also comes to exactly 100 renown so getting him painted this month will tick this box nicely.

The warband must be from a faction we don’t currently collect. Ross and I chose the faction for each other…

As I don’t really have anything for AoS, beyond some unpainted Nighthaunt and perhaps the odd squig, the world is my oyster here. I did consider inviting suggestions from my readers or starting a poll but in the end my deep and abiding rage combined with my need to harvest people’s heads to manufacture an uncomfortable seating solution won out and I pledged my soul to Khorne.

Set in a common realm, (realm tbd), based & modelled accordingly

Naturally this sounds like a fine idea for a group project but as I’m not part of the core team on this I can follow my own path. Of course I may yet end up being inspired by them.

Push the modelling & painting – AoS28 style, crazy conversions, grim-dark, etc.

Well naturally. Is there any other way?

Lowest cost possible – beg/borrow/steal, freebees, scratch build, re-use, etc.

I really like this idea it adds an extra layer of creative challenge to the project and saves money into the bargain. When I first got into this hobby I couldn’t afford to buy many miniatures so finding ways to make models cheaply was the name of the game. Actual miniatures may have been out with my budget but other people’s left over bits were much more affordable, bulked out by donations from friends. It was this as much as anything else that lead me to take up converting and kitbashing so by following this rule I feel like I’ll be going back to my roots, albeit with a far more extensive bits box to draw upon. My goal is to use only models I already own for this warband and, as much as possible, use bits that I gathered for other projects which then failed to reach fruition. My general meanwhile will be based on a model given away free on the cover of White Dwarf. We’ll take a look at him shortly.

Narrative rather than competitive warbands – named characters, backstories, etc.

Frankly I wouldn’t know where to begin guessing what’s competitive and what isn’t so there’s no danger of that with me (unless, of course, it happens by pure chance!). I’m interested in cool looking models and an engaging narrative, and a warband of this type is a golden opportunity really pursue that.

Anyway, that wall of text has been more than enough for anyone to endure so let’s take a look at the as yet unnamed leader of my warband, a priest of the bloodthirsty god Khorne.

Until I assembled him I didn’t realise what a big lad he is, he certainly towers over this Blood Warrior (who may end up incorporated into the warband himself).

Indeed, for those who’re curious, here he is next to those perennials of the size-comparison photograph; an Imperial Guardsman and a Primaris Space Marine.

As you can see I stuck fairly closely to the original design of the Slaughter Priest model just swapping out the head for what may (or may not!) be a masked visage befitting such a fearsome character. I did consider tweaking the model a little more but it’s one of my favourite Khornate miniature’s in the range and I didn’t want to do anything that would take away from that. As for his missing head it ended up on this Bloodgor. The Blades of Khorne book doesn’t actually contain Bloodgor, nor are there any in GW’s current range, but I wasn’t about to compound their mistakes by failing to include at least one of my own. Indeed rather than stick religiously to one army book I’ve decided to incorporate a mixture of daemons, beasts and mortals of all kinds, united in their dedication to the blood god.

Indeed, I was so excited about making Bloodgor after finishing the first one that I abandoned my original plans and immediately made a second one.

Not all of the warband is built yet but I have been having a lot of fun assembling the first few recruits. These ragged blood reavers have been looking for a home since the first edition of AoS was released so it’s high time I did something with them.

There’s also a fairly high chance this chap will sneak into the ranks as I’ve been keen to get him painted since I got my paws on him.

Obviously now I just need to bash on with getting the Slaughter Priest painted up, as well as starting to explore his backstory and discovering how he came to be leading a ragtag band out of the Chaos wastes. Watch this space, and expect to see the priest at least finished by the end of the month.

 

The Cult of Ruin – Part 1

Given my love of all things Chaos it’s actually a little bit surprising that it’s taken me this long to get started on a band of unruly gangers to bring the worship of the Ruinous Powers to the depths of the Necromundan Underhive. Never mind eh brothers and sisters, now is the time to throw off the shackles imposed upon us by the great houses, etc, distant, uncaring Emperor, etc etc, reject the rule of Terra and so on and so forth.

Now some of you may be thinking “steady on, how many gangs is he starting?” but the nice thing about chaos, for me at least, is that I already have most of the models ready to go. Having poured over the chaos gang rules in White Dwarf I’ve pulled together this disreputable mob which makes up most, if not quite all, of the gangers I’ll need.

There’s still a couple of gaps to fill but those places will be taken by models I’ve been meaning to get around to painting anyway so this should serve to encourage me. Of course I can’t seem to let any opportunity to make new models pass me by, especially when those models are beastmen, so I ended up assembling this pair as well. The one on the left will be squeezing his way into the gang itself, whilst the one on the right will be joining the Brayhorn Boys (an all beastmen gang mentioned in White Dwarf that I haven’t been able to resist planning).

When it came to choosing a leader for the gang I was already spoilt for options, and indeed any one of these five could have done the business.

However a new gang needs a new boss, and really it wouldn’t have been right not to come up with someone unique to lead the helots into the clutches of the Dark Gods. Enter Skaverghast the Pit Dweller, hated demagogue and enemy of the Imperium.

This leaves me with just two more models to build for the gang, a witch and a spawn, both of which should hopefully emerge soonish.

The True King Of Beasts

Behold the noble unicorn! Wild and untameable, glorious to look upon, ferocious in battle and irresistible to the opposite sex – no wonder we Scots hold it in such high regard! All too often however they’re portrayed as fey, shy and ever so slightly sparkly creatures, gentle, elegant and fairly harmless, with an intimate knowledge of rainbows and not a hint of the savage sexuality that has been inspiring artists from Albrecht Dürer to the Gardens of Hecate (and before you click on either link it’s safe to assume they’re probably not safe for work).

This model however is less a unicorn and more a beastman, also notoriously wild and sexual creatures. Somehow, however, he comes across as just on the right side of noble, albeit still with a healthy dose of independence and feral ferocity.

The model originates from the Pantheon of Chaos range by Knightmare Miniatures, which makes him a natural pair up for this clothes-phobic barbarian.

Deep within the forest two beastmen, one foul, one noble, battle for territory.

Bretonnian Week: The Beast

In the most recent edition of the Beastmen army book for Warhammer there was a little snippet of text describing the Warherd of Khorok Manripper which roams the Forest of Arden. As the Forest of Arden was obliterated alongside the rest of Bretonnia during the End Times, I’m sure Games Workshop will have no issues with me showing it here.It’s such a wonderfully “Warhammer” concept, full of the setting’s trademark blend of grubby eccentricity. Moreover it’s one of my favourite bits of Bretonnian fiction and as soon as I sat down to write a list of concepts to cover in this week I knew I had to include a beastman from Khorok’s herd.

I’ve enjoyed all of this week’s models a great deal, and I’d be hard pressed to pick a favourite. If you put a gun to my head and forced me to choose however I’d probably plump for this one*. Perhaps it’s because he’s a conversion, and thus uniquely mine, whilst the others were built pretty much as intended, or perhaps it’s because he’s chaotic and evil whilst the others have been honourable goody-two-shoes.

*Or in my panic just name whichever I thought of first and blub a lot. So please don’t, there’s really no need for violence here…

I tried to match his heraldry to that of the other Bretonnians I’ve painted (with the exception of the Green Knight of course) in order to create the impression that it was the cousin or brother of one of the other knights that he looted the armour from. Of course, there is the darker possibility that this knight was never killed at all but was simply corrupted and mutated by the forces of Chaos until he found himself roaming the forest in bestial form, becoming a braying warrior of the very herd he once set out to slay…

Although I aimed to repeat similar heraldry on all of the knights you may have noticed that I avoiding repeating it exactly. The aim was to reflect the idea that each knight is a hero in his own right and, although he proudly wears the colours of his house, he also puts his own spin on it so he can be recognised in battle and his deeds celebrated.