Showing posts with label Slann. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Slann. Show all posts

Monday, 20 October 2014

A Warhammer Bestiary: Slann



Ahh, proper Slann. Nothing says old school Warhammer like proper Slann. You may well be wondering what I mean by this, as the Slann have been a stalwart of the game for a great many years. Its because these days the slann are relegated to fat frog spell casters. But there was a wild time when an entire army of the frogmen could be fielded en mass. 

Unlike some of the other races in the WFB3 rulebook, the Slann background section is very well fleshed out, and this is most likely due to their appearance in previous supplements, most notably - the Magnificent Sven. After reading the entry I realised that I had erred in my paint job, as I had included gold metallic parts on my Slann and it seems use of metals is very rare. 


Clearly inspired by Aztecs, the Slann are suffering the same decimation of their society thanks to the coughs and colds of Old Worlders. Though unlike the ancient dwellers of the Americas, the slann are descended from a far more powerful and scientific civilisation.  With this in mind, I went on a little internet stroll to pick up some inspiration to paint up this model - which is of course on of the earlier pre-slotta slann models. After sticking the solid base on the plastic base, and building up the ground under foot with greenstuff and sand I opted to go with a yellow skin colour, largely becuase I wanted to work on my technique using this colour. 


I don't think I was totally successful. But I am happy with the way the model came out for this project. Its clear to me that the slann and I have some unfinished business and would dearly like to produce a vividly painted force at some point in the future. 

Sunday, 21 October 2012

Acceptable in the 80s: Slann o' War! Third Edition Slann models and early Army List

Hello and welcome back to our ongoing series of articles that tracks the history of Third Edition Warhammer through the articles, releases and miniatures GW put out between 1987 and 1992. 

Today, its the last few items from WD 96. The Slann models and the subsequent army list published alongside. 

SLANN 


INFANTRY AND COLD ONES
Originally I hated the Slann. I thought the models looked gawkish and naff. But the years have tempered my views and now I really rather like them. To begin with, we have the standard Slann foot soldiers in all their Aztec inspired glory. The sculpting has a lot to be desired but then again what was the concept? Frog men! No wonder that in later years, they were largely abandoned in favour of the lizard man. Still, the set of sculpts are varied and interesting. I'd imagine painting them must be fun (though collecting them would require deep, deep pockets) . The cold ones are also basic but in character with the infantry that I'd still not mind fielding them in small quantities. Of particular note would be the lobotomised human slaves. Only two sculpts but a fun concept nonetheless.

SLANN COLD ONE WARHOUNDS 
A brilliant sculpt and one I have never see on eBay. Loads of character in the handler and the hounds, if indeed that is the best noun to describe them, are positively chomping at the bit to get stuck in!

SLANN WIZARD AND BEARERS
What can I say? I WANT THIS MODEL. I have lost time and time again on this one. £50 or more is a reasonable price for this rare set. Not only do the models look great as a diorama but they'd also make a fantastic centre piece of any army. Though not as obese as the later GW versions, this wizard packs a characterful punch, especially considering that he is being carried by more labotomised slaves. One day my friends... One day...

ARMY LIST
To support the release of the models, WD published a slightly difference version of the armylist, this time reflecting an mercenary force of Slann roaming the Old World looking for, well, who knows? Funny thing is, they can ally with anyone but the Bretonnians. This raises a really interesting concept of a small Slann force, perhaps a leader and a few units rather than a grand third edition army.

 Certainly achievable for a few hundred quid!


Anyway, for the interested here is the link to the scanned pdf of the armylist.

Slann Armylist

ORLYGG'S OPUS

I love to blog. Especially as I have a job that sees me spending long hours in front of a computer, it only takes a second to load up Blogger and you're away for those five minutes you need to rest your mind until you are ready to get back to the planning or report writing. In the interest of keeping things tidy I have a separate blog for my Rogue Trader and Dark Future work.

I am please to say that after a week of inactivity, I have a new update about Dark Future Supplements here.

http://route666darkfuture.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/spin-off-city-dark-futures-supplements.html



And after months of inactivity with Rogue Trader, a discussion about the very first article from the legendary 'Chapter Approved' here.

http://warhammer40000roguetrader.blogspot.co.uk/


Enjoy.

Orlygg.