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!

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! 

Zarshia Bittersoul

So far most of the models I’ve painted for Fembruary have been what you might call “neglected models” – miniatures that have been sitting around unfinished for months or, in a number of cases, years. Either I bought them some time ago and then never got around to painting them, or I started them and then, for one reason or another, never finished them. This one however is very new, in fact she was only released at the start of last month and made her way to me just a few days ago. Did I leave her to gather dust before finally getting around to painting her? No, in a break with tradition I most certainly did not!

This is the scheming Chaos Sorceress Zarshia Bittersoul from the Khagra’s Ravagers set. She alone would have been enough to convince me to buy the set although the other three models are very nice as well (and of course I’ll paint those in due course too, although they might get the standard few months minimum spent dust gathering, just to ensure tradition is maintained!).

And there we have it, Fembruary is over for another year. I’ve painted so many models for it this year that a round-up is definitely in order so I’ll get that written up and posted at some point in the next few days. Of course I’ve still got plenty more female miniatures I’d like to paint so expect the usual mix of boys, girls, daemonic entities and soulless robots over the coming weeks and months.

Need We Change? – Part 3

For my Tzeentchian cult I want a proper mix of Chaos monstrosities and other dubious characters. Those that have been following me for a while will know that alongside humans and daemons a few beastmen are an absolute must in my book. Plus I’ve been wanting to paint some of the new Tzaangors since they were first released back in November of 2016 (which I guess means they’re not exactly new are they? Time I got on with it then eh!). I really like these models but they are hellishly fiddly to paint, you’ve got to be in the mood for all the little details if you’re going to do them justice. The other thing which delayed me has been trying to choose a suitable colour scheme, I’m not overly enamoured of the blue skin used by the Games Workshop studio team, despite weird colours being very much part of Tzeentch’s repertoire I want something a little more natural for mine. Of course when it comes to Tzeentch natural is a relative term…

However that doesn’t mean I’ve packed the blue paints away – in fact they’ve been hard at work as I powered through a few more Blue Horrors.

Some readers may recall this partly-pink Blue Horror which I showed recently.

He got quite a good response from everyone who saw him and I enjoyed painting him so much that I took the idea even further with this one. Don’t worry though, it’s not a trick I’m planning to overuse until it descends into cliché, I’ll keep the others relatively normal looking and blue from now on.

Lastly I painted up a few more Brimstone Horrors, so that should those Blue Horrors meet their unnatural end they too can divide into malevolent magical sprites. I painted the first one as living flame in the same style as the studio models but with these I decided to go for a range of different colours. That way in the middle of a game it’s easier to point out exactly which one you’re talking about “I’ll attack the green one” rather than “No the one on the left, no my left, no not that one… etc”. Who could have guessed that someday I’d use gaming rather than purely aesthetic reasons for choosing a paint scheme – it seems we live in strange and interesting times indeed! That said I reckon the range of bright colours look great, they were fun to do and they add to the Tzeentchian aesthetic so it’s all to the good.

Anyway, that’s it for the moment, I’ve still got various other Tzeentchian oddballs sitting around on the desk and at the moment I’m not sure which I’ll tackle next, but I’ll aim to have something else finished for the Changer of Ways by the end of the week.

Iron Golem – Part 5

With the winter nights drawing in I’m taking advantage of spending more time indoors and making a concerted effort to finish some of the backlog of partly painted miniatures which are currently cluttering up the painting desk. After all, whilst a well painted, or even just competently painted collection is a sight to behold displayed on the shelf or marching across the gaming table, no-one has ever stopped to admire a load of miniatures with the base coats half-done. 

Today it’s the turn of the Signifer from my Iron Golem warband. As an optional extra that wasn’t included in my initial warband, he was somewhat left behind when I painted up the rest of them back in the spring.

The kit provides enough parts to build either a Signifer or a Prefector and, after considerable thought, I decided in the end to build the Prefector to begin with. However it was a close run thing and I was still keen to add the Signifer at some stage. Rather than buy a whole other box I hunted down the model individually, by which time the rest of the warband was almost finished.  The Signifer was built by the time I finished the warband but he’s lingered unfinished ever since. Time to do something about that! 

Here he is next to his alternative build, the Prefector.

And of course here’s the entire warband, completed at last. 

For the moment I don’t plan to add anything else to this particular warband although I do enjoy unleashing them in the Bloodwind Spoil so who knows? In the meantime though there are plenty of other warbands vying for my attention!

The Chosen One

For a while I’ve been kicking around the idea of making some chaos chosen for Age of Sigmar/WHFB/Warcry (the latter winning out when it came to deciding what shape of base to use!). I like the idea of chosen but the current miniatures are a funny-looking bunch, not bad all-in-all, but not half as good as I remember them being from my youth either, and certainly not worth the hefty price-tag that comes with them. I’ve tried out a few ideas over the last few months and finally found something I’m fairly happy with.

He’s not a direct attempt to copy the official chosen champion but I do rather like that model so there’s a few references in there, particularly the mutated hand and arm (swiped from a very, very old, ill-conceived and horribly painted conversions, which even when I first made it – well over a decade ago, I knew was probably only fit for the bin). Here’s the official chosen champion from Games Workshop for reference.

Without any official chosen to hand it’s hard to be sure but if I recall correctly, they don’t look all that big these days. Not something that this guy can be accused of, he looks suitably imposing next to a normal chaos warrior (one who’s yet to catch the eye of the gods).

For reference his legs are from a stormcast eternals liberator, his head and axe are from the chaos knights, his torso the Khorne bloodwarriors, his shoulderpads from the bloodcrushers and his mutated arm from the chaos space marines possessed. The hideous mould-line down his arm, which I’m sure you all spotted and were repelled and disgusted by, will be dealt with ASAP (now that I’ve stopped being blind to it and it’s become glaringly and horribly obvious).

Iron Golem – Part 4

Time to tackle the final two members of the current Iron Golem gang; the Drillmaster and Prefector. I’ve also managed to rustle up a Signifer (more on him below) but we’ll need to wait to see him painted. The other two however are complete, and with that the warband is ready to take on the violent world of the Bloodwind Spoil.

First up, the Drillmaster. If I can offer a criticism of Warcry it’s the lack of background fiction for the individuals that make up the each warband. I can see that the Iron Legionaries are the rank and file, the professional soldiers which guard the artisans (if such a word can be used) that make up the rest of the gang. The Armator is clearly a dwarf, and therefore most likely a skilled metalworker who brings his talents to the rest of the group as they ply their trade as smiths. The Breacher is an Ogre that the others have “convinced” to join them, before welding hammers to his hands and pointing him at the enemy. So far so good. But what about the Drillmaster? Is she the commander of the Iron Legionaries, fulfilling a role similar to a sergeant perhaps? Does she have some kind of specialist function away from the battlefield that I’ve yet to fathom? Is she a dab hand at dentistry? These are the aspects I’d love to know just a little more about but alas, so far, Warcry has tended to skim over them, and that’s a real pity.

Again, it’s not immediately obvious what the Prefector’s role is, but I presume they’re some kind of champion, acting as a second in command to the Dominar. Whatever his job is for my money he’s the coolest looking model in the warband, packed with attitude from top to toe.

The alternative build to the Prefector is the Signifer. Usually you can only get one or the other from a set but I scrounged around online and managed to nab myself a second one. Although I’ve built him I suspect it’ll be a while before I manage to get him painted.

In the meantime however here’s the whole warband as they stand currently.

We even managed to get a game in over the weekend, which proved to be great fun. The Untamed Beasts, commanded by my partner, romped home to victory (turns out paying attention to the rules and remembering the objectives pays dividends, although it would have been handy if a run of bad dice rolls hadn’t seen my Ogre Breacher waving his fists ineffectually at all and sundry). Of course in the cut and thrust of high-stakes combat we only remembered to take one picture!

As for what comes next I really want to get the rest of the Warcry terrain painted up, and then probably start another warband knowing me, and naturally I’m feeling the pull of Necromunda as strongly as ever, and I want to get back to my Blackstone Fortress heroes, and a dozen or so other projects as well. Watch this space!

Pollution of the Soul

I have a long standing affection for this Nurgle sorcerer so picked one up to paint just before the release of the Maggotkin for AoS, reasoning – wrongly as it turned out – that as a resin model he might be about to be replaced or retired. Thankfully he’s lived to fight other day, and well deservedly too.

The text on his scroll is just a couple of squiggly lines, accompanied by the symbol of Nurgle, but from this angle it appears to read “1208”. What exactly happened in that year to draw the plague god’s attention remains unclear…

He proved to be as much fun to paint as I’d hoped – packed with character (just look at that grumpy face!) and not too heavy on the gross-out, gory horror elements common to a lot of his peers – goes to show you can have Nurgle without guts hanging everywhere! Not that I mind some guts from time to time but variety is the spice of life.

That said, despite the fact that on the whole I enjoyed working on him I won’t pretend it was an entirely painless experience. When GW launched “finecast” resin they went overboard with the advertising, in a desperate attempt to convince us it really was the greatest thing to happen to miniatures since the Prussian army first started pushing little blocks around as a training exercise. Needless to say, although the fan feedback that greeted this announcement strayed towards hyperbolic temper tantrums, the complaints weren’t entirely wrong either and the medium itself fell a long way short of GW’s claims. This little chap was no exception and I certainly spent more time trimming off bits of flash than I have in many years. Trimming off flash, for the kids out there who’ve never experienced it, was a tiresome process that used to form a cornerstone of assembling a newly purchased miniature. If you were in luck there were just a few trailing bits of metal or resin left over from the mould which needed to be cleaned away. If you were unlucky you were handed a lump which you chiselled away at like Rodin. (The things you don’t miss eh – cleaning off flash, carving down mould-lines the size of the Himalayas, filling gaps with greenstuff, pinning arms on only to drop the model and have it shatter anyway, kids nowadays don’t know they’re born I tell you!)

Of course every sorcerer needs a familiar to keep them company and I needed no second bidding when I spotted an opportunity to get this little dude painted up.

Between them these two made for a fine pallet cleanser and a break from the mean streets of Necromunda, but I’ll be heading back there shortly to work on another of my various gangs. With the Eschers done it’s time to turn my attention to the long awaited Chaos cult.

War Eternal – Part 2

Just a quick post today, but I just assembled this angry young man and couldn’t resist taking the chance to show him off.

Inspired by my recent forays into the realm of Khorne I found myself idly perusing the range of followers available to the Blood God’s devotees and stumbled upon the Exalted Deathbringer. The followers of Khorne are blessed with a number of heroes and champions, all themed around the concept of chopping people up – whether that’s praying whilst chopping people up, masterfully chopping people up, being exulted for chopping people up or merely aspiring to chop people up. We even have the Skullgrinder, who isn’t the subject of today’s post, but still merits a mention for having one of the silliest weapon choices outside of a gobbo. Back in the early days of Age Of Sigmar GW’s designers must have realised that the restrictions placed upon them by the Old World were lifted and they could do whatever they liked. Unfortunately this went to their heads somewhat and the result was a man who hits people with an anvil.

Anyway, today we’ll be looking at an Exalted Deathbringer. For those who still struggle to navigate the soup-like naming conventions of the Khornate range, a gory morass of death, blood and skulls in various arrangements like a teenage Thrash Metal band, the Exalted Deathbringer is essentially an old-fashioned champion of Khorne who does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin; he brings death to people and the god of bloodshed has exalted him for it.

It’s worth noting as well that the Exalted Deathbringer has quite the assortment of models to represent them, from the slightly odd looking Impaling Spear version to the impressively imposing Ruinous Axe version. This time, however, we’re looking at the Bloodbite Axe version. Here’s the studio model that first inspired me.

As I looked at him I found myself thinking, somewhat arrogantly, “I could make that” – or at the very least I could make a decent facsimile – out of plastic bits. Truth be told the end result turned out looking rather different to the official piece, but I think it still does a nice job of capturing the look of a hardened, and heavily armoured, barbarian on the lookout for, to quote the official blurb, “worthy foes to butcher”.

Not sure when I’ll find the time to paint him but I’m feeling very inspired about all things Khornate at the moment so I’m sure he’ll find his moment sooner or later.