Classic Chaos Beastmen (150pts).

This blog was originally set up, some years ago, to chart my progress in creating a Nurgle army from the classic Lost and the Damned tome. Along the way I have been easily, inevitably and enjoyably sidetracked by a plethora of new ideas, miniatures, games systems and competitions, but for now I've decided to come back to the project and try and complete it! Ive finished my Warhammer 3rd Edition Chaos Allies Contingent, which have the same basing, so I looked back at my many incomplete Lost and the Damned units and decided to tackle the unit which needed the least amount of work.

I had painted half of these classic Chaos Beastmen some time ago, and I remembered collecting them so that they were a disparate, ragtag bunch (certainly not just goats), of different shapes, sizes and races and of course choosing some of my favourite sculpts from this era along the way.

Here’s the now completed unit:

I've painted their skin with a variety of tones, trying to unify them slighlty by keeping the colours slightly drab and pastel like, and as always allowing the basing to tie them together further. 

The banner is painted from an image in Fighting Fantasy's Army of Death and is held by a Beastman that was regularly headswapped in Dale Hurst's iconic Tzeentch warband from White Dwarf 135, something I had always wanted to do since I first saw the article in 1991 and here I've done so with a new, plastic plaguebearer head added to the Citadel lead body. 

Here’s the original illustration  by Nick Williams, as found in Fighting Fantasy: Armies of Death:

The last part was to construct a movement tray, which is really more of a display tray to hold the unit together. More on how I do this in a future post.

So then that’s 14 Beastmen, with standard, making a total of 150pts.

The Minotaur and a tale of butchery and salvation.

During the last month I've had some hobby time out partly enforced by work commitments and partly lack of motivation. So to get out of my slump I painted up a conversion I completed some time ago. Now I have realised recently that I've always subconsciously divided my work into two distinct camps; convert the fuck out of new plastic or carefully collect and paint old lead. I give no value to plastic but hold the lead in a high regard, mostly because of nostalgia and of course the fact that it is oop (certainly from Citadel anyway). So I thought it was time to change that, I'd always been inspired by the lead conversions from White Dwarf back in the day, so let it be my turn to return to something I thought nothing of as a teenager in the 80's. Time to break out the jewellers saw and the pliers and get to work...

Now I didn't approach this willy-nilly, I chose a lead model that I wanted to paint up (i.e. it is one of my complete collection of the Citadel Minotaur Lords) but one in which the sculpt is a bit shit and could be improved upon by me. With this sculpt I always felt that the head looked odd without a neck and that the arms were disproportionate (i.e. Too short) and strangely tethered to the sides of the body (no doubt due to casting constraints) so I chopped it all off and ended up with this:

A new pointing arm from an Ork was added to give him the look of a leader and a mid-hammer minotaur head that had a bit more menace about it:

Now I didn't want to completely discard the chopped off pieces and decided to re-use them on the conversion. With the head I thought that it would be fun to make a three headed minotaur with the new head in the middle and the old one (and a re-mould of it) on the other. I'm a sucker for symmetry. So I used the Instamould to get a cast of the head:

And filled it with milliput initially:

Which really didn't work so went with greenstuff the second time around which really worked surprisingly well: 

I also re-used the club which I had earlier cut off; attaching it the belt behind him:

And re-sculpting the haft with some milliput:

Here with the two heads re-attached and banner pole inserted:

And some additional work on the pole, garden wire wrapped around the paper clip to help me sculpt a gnarly old tree and a plastic vulture perched atop:

The final greenstuffing on the banner pole and some old-school mushrooms on the base:

And then decided to add some plastic horns and a bell to add some more detail:

Now of course there was another source of inspiration with this build; John Blanche's esteemed minotaur banner bearer which also has multiple heads and a myriad of other conversions:

So I too went to town on the banner design, following a more obvious route of Greek Mythology for the banner image:

I think it's an improvement on the original.

Now onto the rest of my collection of Minotaur Lords...

BitzBox Warband Champion on Palanquin

This BitzBox warband project had been on hold (and forever pushed further down the painting queue) largely due to this fella. It was great fun to kitbash and convert; delving into my box of bits to create a new palanquin and leader, but the thought of painting the bastard was daunting to say the least.

But I've done it and as usual it was never as bad as I had expected or built it up (a bit like public speaking). 

So here he is; Seth Spawnbloat. Level 10 Human. Champion of Nurgle. Infestation of Nurlings. Atrophied Arm, Enormously Fat. Palanquin, Shield, Warhammer

I primed the whole thing black (to make sure it was dark in-between all the nurglings) and then used a zenithal application of white from above. I much prefer using my ink washes/glazes over a white undercoat and then building up the subsequent highlights over the top of that.

With the Nurglings I used a limited palette of just yellow, green and orange inks (some mixed together) to keep all of the nurglings unified in colour. After the various washes were dry I highlighted up, which was a pretty tiresome effort.

The wooden areas were washed and glazed with a variety of greys and pale browns for the baser colour and then highlighted up with pale greys to try and create a weathered and old looking wood effect. A final addition of some subtle green glazes were applied to give a slightly mossy look to the wood. The idea being that a slightly green tinge to the wood would be complemented by the orangy/red rust colour on the metal areas.

The writhing mass of bodies on the throne (which was fun to make) created a few challenges. I wanted to make them look like they were the same colour as the wood, so that they were actually part of the throne, but this time highlighted up with a little Elf Flesh so as to give them a bit of a warmer skin tone.

You may have noticed the tattered awning surrounding the palanquin. This was an addtition that I expected to make as there was a slightly annoying gap between nurglings and palanquin that ruined the illusion of the mass of nurglings lifting the dais. To mask this I added this decoration and deliberately made it look tatty, both by ripping the paper and washing several layers of grungy sepias, browns and greens.

The images on the awning are taken directly from the page borders found in the Lost and the Damned.

Likewise the banner behind the champion. My first idea was to use a crow illustration from the Fighting Fantasy books but it looked a bit lost on amongst so much else. The black lining could not really compete with the busy-ness of the model. So I painted over it with the most iconic Nurgle image possible, Les Edward's original illustration for the Lost and the Damned itself - just on a tiny scale!

It actually wasn't as hard to do as I though it might be. Once I had added some thin layers of background colour, I went about sketching the outline of the GUO onto the background with diluted black and then added the shadows with Rhinox brown, before building up successive highlights with a range of pale greens and yellows. I then re-emphasised the shadows and added some spots of pinky/red for the sores.

The champion himself needed to stand out amongst the colours I'd already used and I'd already decided that I wanted him to look quite pale. I ended up going a bit pinker than expected, only to make him pop from all the other colours. 

Writing this all out does always make me realise just how much internal thinking occurs when painting models, an ongoing internal monologue.

The final element to complete was the shield and again I wanted to create a nice contrast with the warmer colours of the champ, so I hit the demonic shield with the baby-blue treatment and a bit of subtle purple on the tongue and yellow on the horn to mimic the warmth of the flames higher up in the composition.

So has the painted version lived up to my expectations? Those expectations were pretty damn high after being so proud of the actual build of this model and I have to say that I think the paint job does the model justice. I'm certainly happy with all the decisions I made and the composition and balance of the whole piece holds up. I know I'll never be the best painter around, but this is up there with my very best.

Hope you enjoy it too. I'll post up some photos of the finished bitzbox warband later..

Nurgle Chaos Champions #'s 073167/7 and 073167/9 (converted)

The last two original Nurgle Champions to complete the collection are done! Now the eagle eyes amongst you will notice that these are now not original as I have converted them, on the one hand to add a large standard and on the other to (I think) improve the weapon on the original miniature (which was a bit small and pathetic in my opinion).


So after the conversions were complete I had to make some decisions regarding the painting. I decided for the banner bearer to work in a purely brown palette, relying on a range of brown hues which I have collected over the years. The same holds true for the banner. I then wanted to highlight the fun loving nature of the Nurglings (I imagine he has an Infestation of Nurglings) by painting them in bright, vibrant colours:

For the banner I decided to use some Ian Miller imagery, from the LatD tome. Combing three of his heads into a vaguely Nurglesque icon, using lots of sketchy brush marks to add to the decaying nature of the browned banner. I tried to have a few different expressions in the faces, from mirth to malignity. I then added a realistic fly at the top in a compositional whim. The painting style was borrowed from the inspirational Nico's blog:

The final Champion of Nurgle proved to be a bit more of a challenge in terms of colour schemes.

I wanted to add some vibrancy to the group and realised I hadn't used any purple on the previous models. During the painting of this model I realised that it needed a second colour and decided that yellow would work pretty well to complement the purple; this type of organic planning is pretty much my approach to painting. It was only half way through that I realised he looked suspiscously Tzeentchian in his appearance. Rather than scrap the colour scheme (especially as the painting was going well) I decided that he could be a Tzeentch deserter or possibly a Nurgle minion who intends to spy on his enemies warbands. It may not be the best narrative but it beats me having to repaint the bastard! In fact now the collection is complete (photos to come) I will write up a piece of narrative to accompany them....

Nurgle Chaos Champion #073167/5

After some brainstorming and assistance from the Oldhammer community on Facebook, I finally managed to finish a banner that I was happy with for my slightly converted fly-guy:

The original idea for the banner image was to do something Ian Milleresque, referring back to his iconic designs found in the RoC books, or failing that, a fly head/fly body. After posting on the Facebook group for some ideas, someone suggested an Ebola design. So after some research I found this:

The image I used for the background (originally the whole banner was going to be in this design, but after some consultation with others in the online community I went for my gut instinct which was to subdue the colours and use it as a background).

I had a go but was not entirely happy (despite some lovely praise), it looked a bit too much like polka dots and really lacked a focus. So I went with my instincts (and a few similar suggestions) and subdued the colours I had used with some darker washes and added a new design over the top. I went for someone else's suggestion; to use Kafka's "Metamorphosis" as inspiration. I found some great images and eventually plumped for a part bug part skull design. Here's a bit more of a close-up of the design:

I tried to get the transparency of the wings by applying very transparent layers of greys/whites over the background using a thinly pointed brush. When I was happy with the design I muddied up the bottom of the banner to show that it may have been dragged through the mud, using some baneblade brown earth washes and some of my Tamiya weathering stick.

For the fly head, I added some pearlescent medium to the greens to give a slightly metallic look to the finish; aiming for a blue-bottle fly appearance. The black areas were highlighted up with blues to add to this idea.

There is another banner bearer within this group, for that one I will definitely be going down the Ian Miller route, it's a much larger banner to try and pay homage to his intricate designs...

Thanks to all who contributed ideas and feedback, hopefully you like the final outcome. Much appreciated!

Freehand banners, my collection so far (plus a tutorial)

Here's my latest freehand banner, the first model for my Bitzbox Warband, a cowman, carrying an image borrowed directly from Fighting Fantasy's Trial of Champions (Illustrated by Brian Williams):

Here's the illustration which I copied, I found it quite appropriate for a beastman unit and this standard bearer also has a Skaven head at the top of the pole to re-emphasise the rat-theme.

So here's a short step-by-step of how I created this banner, which is pretty much the same technique I use for all my freehand banners:

The piece of cartridge paper was drawn to size (based on the size of the space on the banner pole) and two lengths kept at the banner end for attachment. This was then cut to size with a scalpel. It was painted with bleached bone on both sides and washed with a sepia mix to exaggerate the creases I had already added.

At this point you can see a very fine ink outline being applied, taking care to ensure accuracy.

Most of the outline has now been applied and some detail and tone can be added.

By adding a touch less water to the ink, it becomes more opaque and I can build up some darker tones and marks, while still leaving the lighter mars as they are.

At least three tones have been added. dark, medium and light.  The composition/placement of the image was a bit unsatisfactory as it left too much space at the top of the banner, so I decided to add some lettering. Partly inspired by the banners of Bryan Ansell's Chaos Army from Warhammer Armies and from the Beastman description in the Lost and the Damned, I decided upon "Children of Chaos".

Here you can see how I worked out the spacing for the lettering, 17 digits (including spaces) were drawn onto the paper next to the banner and then the letters were painted on within that space. I wish I had placed them a few millimeters lower..

The final stage was to add a frame around the banner to give it a bold edge and keep the image grounded and then some red to the eyes of the rat, a yellow Nurgle emblem in the space to the left of the design and finally some very pale white washes in the areas of highlight on the rat and skull. I just find this helps make it "pop".

So there you go. All that was left was to attach the banner to the pole with some superglue and when dried I then tweaked, teased, bent the banner to give it a sense of movement. Ideally the banner should have come off the pole at a greater angle, closer to horizonal, to capture the sense of movement as the beastman runs, but I had to settle for the appearance of it being caught in a breeze across the model.

Having completed this model I realised that I was quite proud of the numerous freehand banners I have created in my collection, so I thought I'd put them all into one post for you to see (and for me to do some sort of geeky cataloging):

From my small Chaos Cultist warband, based on an illustration by Bob Harvey.

From my Rensburg (wip) army 

My deamonic banner for the plaguebearers, Very similar to my cultist banner I realised as I documented these!

The banner for my mercenary ogres, the Rusty Flails. This illustration was from the Warhammer Armies book

For my small Orc Warband I used this illustration by John Blanche which I found in the 3rd Edition rulebook.

I wonder which your favourite is?

And here's the next standard bearer which I'll attempt, for my Beastman unit, but I'd like one of you to suggest an image for me to use here, ideally based upon oldschool gaming, so from one of GW's early (3rd edition or earlier) publications or from the Fighting Fantasy oeuvre:

Please post your ideas below, thanks in advance!