DIEHARD MINIATURES: CHAOTIC FACTION

Hello again followers of a Realm of Chaos 80s. I have another update about the forthcoming DIEHARD miniatures Kickstarter, coming this autumn. Today the subject is very much a chaotic one and some of the figures on show may be familiar to long term readers, for the miniature above, the Son of Slomm, was originally part of the the abandoned Antiquis Malleum range. Speaking of that aborted project, you will know that SOME of the sculpts made it into DIEHARD, I heard news this week that the final greens have been sold on to someone else and may very well see the light of day soon. 

I will bring you some more news about that as I get it. 

Back to business, this post concerns itself with the three initial models in the chaotic faction for DIEHARD. As we all know, chaos is one of the most popular themes in fantasy modelling and one of the hardest to get 'right' as opinions vary so much. 

Looking at these greens (or should they be greys?) the sculpting skill on show is as excellent as you'd expect from someone like Tim Prow. The theme of 'old/new' style ebbs through the three models I have to show you here, with many inspirations coming directly from the 1980s imagery from the Realm of Chaos books, as well as more recent trends.

As always, let's have a listen to what Tim has to say about this range of figures and the planned funding goals.

TP: "Chaotic Faction: those without remorse, honour, or morality.

A brief background.

Chaotic fighters are a law unto themselves, they live outside of society. To be of chaos you truly have to have stripped yourself of your humanity, you have seen and done such deeds that there is no coming back, your soul is damned, and you are beyond caring. Life is cheap, to hell with it all!

Chaotic followers come in all shapes and sizes, all races feel the touch of chaos and none but the dead can resist.

1 Darias Black Blood - Chaotic Warrior.

TP: "This battle veteran has seen enough blood and carnage to unhinge the strongest mind. He will never see his homeland or family again, would he even recognise them even if he did? Lost to war, death is all he sees, blood for the dark gods and an abyssal ending."

2 Zabann Darkfire - Chaotic Wizard.

TP: "Just like in Event Horizon, this guy has gone places he should never have wondered, and he has not returned alone. A symbiosis of original owner and demon are now at home in his skull."

3 Chaos Ogre (Son of Slomm).

TP "Slomm looked at his offspring, there was only one left now, the two headed whelp was getting stronger by the day, having eaten most of his siblings (the ones Slomm hadn’t already consumed), chaos he thought has plans for this creature…. They say two heads are better than one, but getting Son of Slomm to agree on this fact may be hard to achieve as they frequently disagree, but get them in a fight and they become a dangerous killing machine!

Funding goal level figures. 1 Darias Black Blood - Chaotic Warrior 30mm tall. 2 Zabann Darkfire - Chaotic Wizard 30mm tall.

3 Son of Slomm - Chaos Ogre 50mm tall."

Mr Prow went on to explain in a little more detail about how the Kickstarter should run:

TP: "Our Kickstarter will have 9 factions: Goblinoid, Human, Eru-Kin, Undead, Dark Elf, Dwarf, Wood Elf, Bestiary, and Chaotic.

The different tiers will work as follows.

Starter level

Spend £xx and buy any 1 of the basic factions (starter level includes two figures from chosen faction, fighter and caster).

Monster Level

Spend £xx and buy any factions monster (this is the ogre sized monster an example would be the Troglodyte for the Eru-Kin faction).

Collector level

Spend £xx and buy any 1 of the basic factions (fighter, caster and ogre sized monster). 3 figures total.

Gamer level

Spend £xxx and buy all 9 basic factions (includes all 9 faction fighters and casters), 18 figures total.

Advanced Level

Spend £xxx and buy all 9 factions and their monsters (includes all 9 faction fighters, casters and ogre sized monsters), 27 figures total.

Add ons.

Buy in on the ‘Starter’ and ‘Monster’ level (mix and match factions is allowed, so you could buy in on the Dwarf starter and an Undead monster level), or the ‘Collector’ level and this opens the option to ‘Add Ons’. A full list of Add On creatures will be shown next month.

Through the stretch goals there will also be freebies, these will be faction sensitive, so someone having bought the ‘Collector Level’ for dwarves for instance, will only receive dwarf stretch goal freebies. People buying the ‘Advanced Level’ will receive all the stretch faction freebies."

As always, here is the link to the DIEHARD Facebook group if you are interested in seeing more or speaking with Tim directly about this exciting project.

DIEHARD Miniatures on Facebook

DIEHARD MINIATURES: Undead Faction Concepts via Tim Prow

Two weeks back I shared some of the forthcoming greens for the new Oldhammer inspired DIEHARD MINIATURES project. I you recall, some of the models came from the aborted Antiquis Malleum line while others were brand new designs. Today, Tim Prow has been kind enough to send us a range of undead creatures for your delectation - if you find the sight of rotting, shambling husks that were once living, breathing being delectable that is! 

First up is this undead knight. I remember being really impressed when I first saw this model at Salute this year. For me, it has everything that a good old school style skeleton needs. Twisted gait, rusting armour and the blank, grinning face of a skull. Perfect. I can see him painted in faded glory as part of my undead force already. 

As before, I have selected the best photographs from the promotional materials Tim has sent me and I can show the all important rear shots as well as the concept art. 

I will hand over to Tim again now and he will explain a little bit of the background behind these models

"Undead Faction.

Undead, the Restless, Hungry Ghosts, The Damned.

A brief background.

The undead have arisen, but who binds them to their will? The Liche and Necromancer rule these fell lands. ‘Necromancers’, or lesser Liche and the dark evil wizards that dabble where they shouldn’t. Their one goal of controlling the undead will eventually lead them to their ultimate sacrifice, to join their ranks as a Liche. The Necromancer has power over the newly dead and those preserved in some way (mummies etc), to truly control the dead, they have to become it. The Liche despises necromancers for their dabbling in the arts, a true lord of the dead, must be undead. The ‘Liche’ are born of dark spells and rituals designed to rid the life force from their form while retaining thought and motion. 

The Liche control the long dead, both humanoid and creature. Skeletons are automatons, they fight or defend, they do not think. Zombies and the newly dead still have some vestigial control from their time as living beings. Undead Knights and Lords have an aura of their past, a muscle memory of who they had been, their training and desires, revenge rules them. They will have their armour and to some extent their earlier fighting skills. They lead the armies the Liche commands.

Many creatures fill the ranks of the dead, not just humans. Gromm Durr, the rotting Minotaur, a once proud beast now shackled in death to the bidding of the Liche, towering over his fellow humanoid undead. Armed and armoured with whatever he died using, this beast is more formidable than when alive!

Funding goal level figures.

1 Sir Basil Rathbone of Black Mere - Undead Knight 30mm tall.

2 Balthazar Reed – Necromancer 30mm tall.

3 Grom Durr - Rotting Minotaur 50mm tall."

I like this necromancer model too. Perhaps its the Cassandra from Dr Who style stretched face or the subtle use of skulls? He's menacing without being overblown, like many later Warhammer models were.

Finally, the undead minotaur! Certainly something I have never seen before and something can can recall Tim discussing with me. Why don't we ever see zombie elves, or orcs or even skaven? Surely they must be possible? I am pleased to see that Tim hasn't forgotten this exciting prospect.  

 

Remember that what you are seeing are all work in progress and the Kickstarter is not planned to begin until October or November of this year. Of course, as soon as things go live you will hear about it here. There will also be other factions beyond what you have seen so far. 

If you want to know more, have a visit to the DIEHARD FAcebook Group. 

Orlygg

DIEHARD MINIATURES: Eru-Kin Concepts via Tim Prow

Whenever a miniature range pops into existence (if indeed they can 'pop') and it looks to be of great interest to readers of this blog I like to share the news. If truth be told, I have been sitting on this piece of news for a while. You might remember a while back, I did a fair old bit of work for the Antiquis Malleum range. Sadly, that project has been mothballed but some of the miniatures produced for it have made their way back to us through another, unrelated, project.

Diehard Miniatures. 

I met up with Tim Prow at Salute in April to have a look at the concepts behind this new project and was lucky enough to have a look at a lot of the greens in person. Since then, DIEHARD have created a Facebook page to keep wargamers interested in the project up to date and appeared on Beasts of War! 

If asked to explain the whole project, Tim goes into full business mode and has this to say:

TP: I guess it’s time we introduced ourselves and gave a brief background of our aims.

There are three sculptors and a great artist. The sculptors are myself, Chaz Elliott and Drew Williams, and the artist is Richard Luong (most recently known for his awesome work on Cthulhu Wars). 

We are Diehard Miniatures.

Our aim is to give you high quality sculpts with more than a nod to the past. I have hundreds of old metal based figures, I love them for what they mean to me, and for reminding me of when I first got into gaming. Looking at them now and comparing them to modern figures, well let’s just say skills and techniques have come a long way. We would like to bring out a range of figures merging the old feel with the new look.

More information will be forth coming in the following months leading to our KS launch towards the end of Autumn.

If pressed on the scale of the miniatures, Tim goes on to say: 

TP: These will be 28-30mm scale figures. All the humanoids are between 28mm to 32mm (Eru-Kin starting at 28mm and Orcs at the top end at 32mm). Next size up are the snakemen at 40mm, they are slightly larger creatures and do 40mm well. Next are the ogre sized monsters they are roughly 50mm tall (Troglodyte, Troll, and Chaos Ogre as examples). Gnomes are 20mm, Dwarf and Goblins 25mm.

As you will now be aware, this isn't a small scale project. There are plans for a great number of different fantasy races from gigantic trolls to tiny gnomes. The DIEHARD boys hope to have the crowdfunder live in the Autumn, with October being the most likely start date.

Let's get one thing clear though, this is a project being handled by professionals with many, many years experience in the toy soldier business. The plan is to produce a large number of sculpts first and get them cast up before any Kickstarter begins. Depending on how the crowdfund goes, there may be additional sculpts produced and cast up as stretch goals. I can tell you that the first batch of castings will be with the team in mid to late July.

So you need to have no worries about delivery dates if you do choose to support this project. 

Realm of Chaos 80s will be following the project in great detail in the coming months and I hope to be able to bring you a fair bit of detail about each faction. To begin with, we shall have a look at the 'frogmen' of the project: The Eru-Kin.

I spoke to Tim about the proposed background to these models.

TP: Eru-Kin, the forgotten, the rejected, the lost tribe.

A brief background: Eru-Kin are the stranded race of a space faring empire. Eru-Kin consist of the ‘Pure Bloods/Pure Born’ (nobles and the elite, still armoured to a certain extent with space gear, none of the space tech still works but semi full suits remain, these are patched up and prized amongst the highest ranks for its status), perhaps only 10% still remain of these the original survivors that crash landed on the planet, they still remember the old ways, but their tech has failed them, and they have come to the conclusion that they are stranded, and must make the best of a bad situation. The ‘Tech Mage’ derive from the Engineers of their space brethren. Smarter and more industrious than the nobles, the Techs forge the new world armour and weapons, also using their gene tech knowledge to breed adapted species to their allotted jobs.

‘The Breed’ are the Eru-Kin that have been born since their exile, armoured by their masters the Pure Born, they wear whatever scraps of old tech they can find, plus what their forge masters can construct from the raw materials of their new home.

'The Trog’s’ (Troglodytes) are originally of a breed of medium sized lizard men, through selective breeding the Eru-Kin have bred a stronger, larger, more aggressive creature, hardly recognisable from their original form. The brutes wear basic armour and charms given to them by the overlord masters. Weapons are larger cruder versions of the Eru-Kins.

Funding goal level figures.

1 Yaotl, Eru-Kin Warrior 28-29mm

2 Meztli, Eru-Kin Tech Mage 28-29mm

3 Krug, Troglodyte 50mm

I will leave you with a gallery of the Eru-Kin models we have discussed so far. These have been posted around Facebook for sometime, but of you are not a regular user of Social Media you may not have yet had a chance to see them.

Enjoy.