Blackstone Fortress: Chaos Cultists

First things first: let me get my excuses out of the way. This blog has been quiet lately and its probably going to stay that way for the next little while. I’ve not managed to comment on other people’s blogs very much either, although I have been reading them when I got the chance. My wife and I moved house at the start of December (well, I did the moving – she directed) and almost as soon as the last box was carried through the door our daughter was born (mum and baby doing very well thanks). She’s wriggly, healthy, tiring, wonderful and can shout for Scotland.

Needless to say building and painting miniatures just isn’t something I’ve been doing and won’t be for a while either I suspect. However I do have a bunch of models that I painted back in November (which seems like a long, long time ago now) and never got around to posting so prepare to feast your eyes.

Anyway, to no-one’s surprise I’ve gone and joined a cult. Well they all said it would happen one day… In this case it’s the chaos cult that lurks in the twisting halls of the Blackstone Fortress. I actually painted these a while ago but I’m just getting around to posting them now.

Leading the mob of insane faithful we have this cultist firebrand, ready with his flamethrower to give civilisation a helping hand if it doesn’t collapse quickly enough by itself!

I got so carried away painting the cultists from the Blackstone Fortress set that I even painted a couple of new ones from the recently released kit.

Much like the new Ork boys I really like these models but it’s a damn shame they’re not easier to kitbash, or at least come with a couple of alternative builds.

Anyway, with these done I now have a mighty mob ready to harass adventurers and treasure-seekers in the Blackstone Fortress, cause trouble in the Necromundan underhive or catch some bullets for their chaos marine overlords.

Plus, with the addition of the adventurers I painted a while ago, this means the entire Escalation expansion set for Blackstone Fortress is complete.

This will undoubtedly be my last post of the year, although I’ll try to put together a round up, but not a bad place to end things all things considered. Who knows, next year I might even get Blackstone Fortress finished entirely.

Barbarian Wrath – Part 5

Time to make another visit to the grim and barbaric world of Hate. This time I’ve tackled one of the largest models in the set, a prince from the primitive tribe of Um’Kator.

He’s a big lad, towering over most of the other models – it’s easy to see why, in a world where might makes right, the practical people of Um’Kator have put him in charge.

I also completed these two gents from the tribe of Sarrassa; creatures which combine all the best bits of barbarian warriors, shambling zombies and… erm… trees into one dread form.

Anyway, that’s all the Hate we have time for today but rest assured – there’ll be more dirty barbarians in the future!

Dread Legions

You may recall that earlier in the year I painted up Khagra’s Ravagers, the Warriors of Chaos warband from Warhammer Underworlds. I’ve had a plan to use them as the basis for a Warcry warband and so, with the middle of the year almost upon us, I decided to knuckle down and get this objective ticked off the list – starting with this angry man and his rather fashionable cloak. 

In case you were concerned that painting a few elves last year had changed me fear not, this champion of the Dark Gods reminds us of the fate that all pointy-eared scum deserve! 

I like to include as wide a variety of models as possible in my Warcry warbands so I decided my next recruit for my Chaos Warriors should be welding a double handed axe. At first I looked at ways of converting one but, as I was raking through the bits box, I spotted this guy lurking shame-faced after failing to make the cut for a long forgotten project. Originally he served as the charioteer for the Chaos Chariot and to be honest I’ve never particularly liked him. However as I looked at him I started to realise he was perfect for the job, and that I’d probably like him a lot more if he was painted. I’m still not entirely sure about him but he does the job and having paid something for him all those years ago I’m pleased to have found a use for him at last.

I also wanted a Chaos Warrior with a halberd to round out the warband. Leaked images that are doing the rounds online suggest that we’ll be getting an official kit for these before the year is out but I’m not going to wait around for that when I can convert one of my own by adding a Skaven halberd to one of the warriors from the “Start Collecting…” set.

Finally I’ve had this Chaos Chosen sitting around for a while, since I kitbashed him back in September of 2020 in fact (which was not “just a few months ago” despite what my warped sense of time is currently telling me). I’ve been wanting to get him painted up and working on my Warriors of Chaos warband turned out to be the perfect spur to do just that.

Put them all together and we have a generously sized warband, with a range of options and a choice of either an Aspiring Champion, Exalted (Chosen) Champion or a Sorcerer Lord to act as the leader.

For now I’m calling this project done but in time I’d like to come back to them, as I’ve got loads of other ideas I’d like to try building and kitbashing. I really like the idea of an all mounted warband, a party of twisted knights and their followers. In the meantime however these dark champions are ready to set foot on the path to glory!

Bloodmaster of Khorne

The Bloodmaster (Game’s Workshop’s fancy new name for the – admittedly rather dull sounding – Herald of Khorne on foot) is one of my favourite models from the Khorne range. To use a phrase that will be very familiar to all my regular readers by now it’s one that (say it with me) I’ve been meaning to get around to for ages, so the other night I cleared my schedule and my desk and cracked on with it.

Not much more to be said really – he’s a very angry daemon and he’s ready to carve up all of the Blood God’s enemies which, at the last count, was everybody.

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? 

Dark Disciples

Time for two downhive lowlifes turned religious fanatics in the service of the Chaos Gods. Amongst the ranks of the Chaos Space Marines the Dark Apostles serve as a priest class, conducting the bloody rituals, preaching the savage creed and interpreting the will of the Gods on behalf of their battle brothers. Of course this is a lot of work for one man and so a Dark Apostle worth his salt soon recruits a few Dark Disciples to assist him. The Disciples are then on hand to waft cursed incense, stab hapless victims at appropriate moments, tidy up afterwards and even be fed to a summoned daemon themselves if no-one else is available. 

Again these are “neglected models” which have been sitting around three quarters painted for at least a year. Together they make a pair of characterful additions to both my Chaos Marines and Necromunda collections. At some point I’ll need to get the Dark Apostle himself painted but he’s not a priority for now. 

Barbarian Wrath – Part 4

Back to the dark and violent world of Hate for a couple more angry barbarians. This first chap looks particularly imposing and animalistic, as if he’s about to charge like a bull and do some unfortunate soul a lot of damage with that big axe.

Meanwhile his smaller sidekick (and/or rival – I’m loosing track of who belongs to which tribe with these at the moment) still looks more than capable of causing all kinds of mayhem with that battered old sword.

This isn’t a project I’m feeling the need to dedicate myself to at the moment but I am enjoying having a few of these around and picking up the odd model here and there whenever the fancy takes me. Expect to see more of them popping up here and there over the months ahead.

Khagra’s Ravagers

Last Fembruary one of the models I painted was the Chaos Sorceress Zarshia Bittersoul, who forms part of the Khagra’s Ravagers warband from Warhammer Underworlds. In case you’ve forgotten her here she is again. 

A year on however I still hadn’t touched the rest of the warband, but with the leader of the group being another lady (not that you’d really know under all that armour) Fembruary once again proved the perfect time to return to the project. 

What’s more I decided that this year I wasn’t going to leave the boys behind either. 

I did ponder long and hard over converting this one to be wielding twin axes like the legendary Slambo model of Warhammer’s early years but in the end I refrained – I just think he looks really cool the way he is. 

That said it’s clear that Slambo shares a lot aesthetically with this Chaos Warrior from Heroquest so I couldn’t resist digging him out of storage for a picture with his new big buddy. 

And of course here’s the group shot of Khagra’s Ravagers fully assembled at last. 

These aren’t the only models I’ve got to show you either, tomorrow we’ll have a lady who really, really likes the Emperor. Something for you to look forward to eh! 

Glitchlings

Continuing the Nurgle theme, the last models to be painted in January were this brood of malevolent little Glitchlings. Glitchlings are essentially bio-mechanical Nurglings, little daemons which infest machines and cause them to malfunction in evil and dementing manners. I think there’s probably one in every printer…

As well as these three I painted another one ages ago, but there’s no harm in reminding ourselves of how he looks as well. 

These models first appeared as part of the Kill Team: Rogue Trader set (a box of models that I enthused over a great deal but, in a story that most readers will find very familiar, still need to paint most of). 

Anyway, with these nasty little mites out of the way I’ll be turning my attention to Fembruary for the next few weeks. 

Khornate Marauder Lineman

Blood for the Blood God! Bowls for the Bowl Throne!

I know I’ve got unfinished Blood Bowl teams left, right and centre at the moment but here’s another one! I liked the look of the Khorne team as soon as I saw them so I picked them up on release, assuring myself that I would save them until I finished something I’d already started. However I’m a strong believer in riding any wave of creativity that comes along on the grounds that a model painted today is one step closer to completing the team. Plus I just fancied painting something in the traditional Khornate colours of red and brass, rather than the various alternative schemes I’ve tried over the years, and who better than this Marauder Lineman? 

The real problem I’m having is coming up with a suitably silly team name. I’ve been scratching my head over this for weeks and as yet drawn a blank, which is where you, dear reader, come in. Help a slaughter-brother out, I need suggestions please for a good team name. It should be something suitable for a sports team, reference something to do with the god Khorne and the various attributes associated with him (so things like blood, skulls, gore, violence, war, rage, you get the idea) and preferably it should be silly/funny/a pun. Any ideas? Get them in the comments box and win my gratitude!