From GeoffreyT: Champions of Chaos (Challenge XII Star)(60 points)

Finally we reach the Challenge XII star, where I must paint Champions of chaos, and add 'tasteful' photographs of their escapades. 

This has been a challenge in more than one way, my brushes are wrecked and it becomes incrementally harder to make a point on one, or find a half decent corner of brush to use, let alone think of a tasteful story.

I tend to wreck my brushes, so use cheap Taklon ones and replace them regularly.  This is the dirty dozen I am currently working with.  The liner brush is the only one usable anymore.  Stuck with doing terrain only until I venture out for some more.

I also do other nefarious things like use unthinned paint on a dry palette, I probably would do better if I practiced correct technique, but hey its a hobby, so I do it how I like it.

Oops, perhaps this photo just crossed the line on 'tasteful'

Here is the group of miniatures that the mangled brushes produced.  This range of figures is my all time favourite.  I should have done these first when my brushes and motivation was good.  But then that would not be a challenge then would it.  All from Citadel miniatures "Realm of Chaos" range circa 1987.

Back in the day, I loved the chaos warband rules released for realms of Chaos.  They came with the books 'Slaves to Darkness' and 'Lost and the Damned'.  At the time they were quite unique, with greatly unbalanced forces derived from random rolls for Chaos Champion and warband generation, and equally random advancements.  There was a mini campaign system where you could progress until you became a demon prince, a chaos spawn, be dead or even undead, with death or the chaos spawn option most likely.   You also had the option of using your randomly generated warbands as a unit in a full scale army.  It was really innovative stuff and brimming with depth.  

First we have two Champions of Khorne (the god of blood and gore), in their traditional black, red and bronze.   They had pointy ears, I was going to use them for planet Vulcan until I found a different option.  All these chaos minis are based in the old style, so I can add them to the 100 odd I already have collected this range over the last 35 years.

Next is a bug-like Champion of Slaanesh (the god of pleasure and pain).  Back in 1987 these guys were painted in pastel pink and blue combos.   This bug-man is a bit brighter than the old school style.

Next is a Champion of Nurgle (the god of disease and decay), in rotted browns and green.  I find this combo hard as I like bright colours, and it is hard to get a good contrast between areas in murky colours.  Nevertheless I was most happy with how this one came out of the bunch.

Finally a Champion of Tzeentch (the god of change) on a flying disc.  I have based him like cavalry as I have a bunch of these I run as a unit when the need for WFB arises.  I don't like see-thru flying stands, so I use a rock pile or dead tree sculpt to lift it up from the base.

Tzeentch is usually done in big colour contrasts.  I like contrasting colour areas as it makes delineation between areas possible without black-lining or deep shading.

This one has a bit of sci-fi action on this back.  The realm of Chaos characters had a bit of crossover between fantasy and scifi.  The fully sci-fi 'chaos marine' ones from '87 are great too, but rare as hens teeth.

Now for the escapades.

***

Once upon a time, there was a powerful wizard, Simon the wise.

Simon delved deeply into magic, and used an ancient artefact to commune with great powers.  Unfortunately the powers were too great, and Simon was turned evil, and transformed into Simon the many-coloured.

War was coming, and the great daemon Sore Ron commanded Simon to his side.

Ron: "Build me an army worthy of the Snowlord"

Simon worked like a demon (sic) and turned goodly creatures into evil

"Have at you longshanks"

"What !!?, longshanks ???, I have no legs you idiots.."

                                        KAZAAAAM !!!!

He turned unpainted into painted...

                                           PA-CHOW *

The wise and goodly peoples held council.  The Grey Wizard informed the council of the corruption of Simon the Wise.

Half Elf: "Our list of allies grows thin"

Man: "You have my sword"

Dwarf: "...and my axe"

The gibbering horde grew, and none could withstand them.

The goodly people retreated to Realms Keep for a final last stand.

"so it begins"

All seemed lost, until dawn on the third month, when a bright light appeared on the horizon, and a new power appeared, turning the tide of the battle.

"Hello Darlings..."

                                                                    FIN

***

4 Champions on foot = 20 points

1 mounted champion = 10 points

Bonus for Challenge XII Star = 30 points?

A Squirrel for 'Realms of Chaos'

Veni Vedi Blogi

Geoff.

*hard core painting nerd reference

I have judged your entry... and found it worthy. Congratulations on achieving your Challenge! You've done a great job on these doomed warriors, each a different style. I enjoyed your story, which was a nice retrospective, and hope there is a sequel! Your labours have calmed the Snowlord's savage heart until next winter.

Barks

PS Your brushes look like mine... I was worried I was going to have to surrender my nerd card, but I got the reference. Phew!

From TeemuL: Great Old One and Old Beastmen (65 points)

Nurgle seems to be strong this year, there has been lots of Nurgle posts on this Challenge on various Warhammer battlefields. As I mentioned earlier, I'm joining in a Age of Sigmar Firestorm campaign with my mixed Chaos army. I painted some Beastmen before the challenge and the puppet master (Tzeentch Sorcerer) at the start of the challenge. Now I present some additional forces. Behold for the Great (Old) Unclean One, the metal sculpt that you can use to kill people for real. It's not my intention, do not worry.

I started stripping paint from this one before the new Nurgle models were announced during the Christmas period. This is of course much smaller than the new plastic sculpt, probably the size of new Nurgle Beast. I have plans in the future to give him a bigger base and something to make him stand taller to better match the new model. But that will have to wait for the inspiration and time.

I aimed for a pretty simple and basic green paint job, with hints of yellow and blue. I could have (or should have) used much more time on this nice sculpt, but then it would probably never be ready nor the way I would imagine it to be.

I used the classic Goblin Green and green sawdust on the base with couple of Middenheim tufts to give him an old school look.

Then some really quick paintjobs, this is basically my personal lowest possible tabletop (not far from the highest, though:)). Then old beastmen from the Battle Masters game. It was a co-operation of GW and MB, if I remember correctly, similar to HeroQuest and Space Crusade. I have never actually played the game, but years ago I bought a box of miniatures and there were quite a lot from that game as well.

The paint scheme is quite simple and in the end everything was covered in flesh wash. Only the horns and hairy parts got a light drybrush from Ushbati Bone. Being all identical, I made some freehand arrows to their shields, very crude and not worth of extra points. Some green sawdust, tuft and goblin green was enough for the base. They have 32mm bases, I plan to use them in my Chaos army as Gors.

Great Unclean One fits nicely to the monster theme of this Challenge (although Curt is not the biggest Nurgle fan here), but I have no idea about the point value. 54mm figure, 10 points? 28mm vehicle, 15 points? 28mm monster, xx points? The beastmen are 28mm, and kind of monsters as well, so they score for 50 points.

Here are all them

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Wonderful Teemu and who doesn't like a big scary monster, especially with this year's theme?  He certainly is a big fella and so I am going to score him as a vehicle giving you a total of 65 points to your tally.

From IannickM: Lorhal Kuvax, Nurgle Sorcerer (10 points)

A very small entry this week, but I've been trying to submit at least something every week, and to this point I've been successfull so let's keep this going!

I haven't painted a lot of Oldhammer this challenge, contrarily to the last few years, mostly because I've been working on my LeafGrave and Epic project, both requiring figures to play. My Chaos army has reached a good size (3000pts+) and so I feel a bit less urgency in painting figures. Which will surely change next year, when I start my second Oldhammer army...

Anyways, last saturday after a family dinner I felt like painting a single and so I settled on a nice Old School Citadel Nurgle sorcerer. I enjoy painting Nurgle figures since I like all things disgusting and horror and I especially like the hooded ones; I find they look super creepy. This one is no exception. This sculpt, released in 1989 for the Realm of Chaos line, was used, with a few modification, as the basis for two Nurgle Sorcerers; one with a staff and one with a sword. Those familiar with Citadel figures of the mid-80s know this was something often done in all their ranges; it allowed them to produce a lot of variety while keeping costs down, and apparently gamers loved variety! Stunning, I know.

You can see the two very similar Sorcerers; top right and middle of third row

The one I painted today is the sword version; I also have the staff one but him I keep for something special. So I present to you Lorhal Kuvax, Nurgle Sorcerer.

Since my Chaos undivided core force is black and poison green (a bright green), I've been trying to avoid green for my Nurgle contingent, and rather go with browns, beiges, yellow and even pinks. So for this one I went with a dirty beige, with pink details. I used just a tad of my poison green, to tie it with the rest of the force.

Of course, this being Oldhammer, a sorcerer needs a familiar! So I also painted a little freak to accompany him. One of the weirdest familiar model from the era, it's basically a gigantic mouth, but he does fit nicely stylewise with Papa Nurgle's children.

So that makes it 5 pts for the sorcerer, and I guess 3 pts for the Familiar? I'll let our Wednesday minion make the final call.

ByronM: Well, one last entry for Wednesday, thank you Iannick.  I really like these soft Nurgle colours that you used, very different than the normal darker dirtier colours normally used for them.  It works very well though and actually fits the old school nature of this figure.  Great work, and even though the familiar is small, I am counting it as a regular figure, after all the halflings were counted that way, so why not this little pustule.

From IannickM : Oldhammer Nurgle Champions (10 Points)

I figured I'd get a first submission in fast, as I find getting on the board early, even if for just a few points, is a big psychological boost! So I spent the last two evenings furiously working on two Chaos Champions. Yes, 2 figures in two days is a furious pace for me!

So what we have here are two classic Nurgle Champions from the old Citadel Realm of Chaos range, both released in 1990 to accompany the magnificent Realm of Chaos The Lost & the Damned. I've mentioned a few times how in my humble opinion this is apex of Warhammer Fantasy, and the style and composition of those Chaos Champions figures is unrivaled to this day. Of course, it does help they are surrounded by a healthy dose of Nostalgia awesomeness, and that every time I paint one of those Old School wonders I go back in time to the late 80s!

First up we have Vustix Moritus, Chosen of Nurgle, one of my all-time favourite Nurgle Champion. I went with a yellow ochre palette on the armour and I'm so glad I did! Nurgle is often painted in muted greens and browns, but some yellow just gives him a dash of colour while still keeping a sickly look! I loved painting him, there's no other way to say it.

And second we have Puzar Tuphus, Champion of Nurgle. I gave him a more classic brown look. He's a fun model but I'll admit he's far from being my favourite Nurgle Champion; he's a bit more subdued than what the Citadel gang of the time accustomed us to. But he did paint much faster than good ol' Vustix above, who has more details than a French Grenadier! 

My plan is to one day have a complete Nurgle unit made-up of Champions, like I did with my Khorne regiment, but it might take a while as I intend to paint each one individually. They deserve as much, poor bastards waiting for almost 30 years for someone to give them a proper paint job!

So a good 10 pts and I'm on the board! Yeah!

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These guys are absolutely terrific Iannick! I particularly like the yellow armour and green skin that you've come up for them. All of which is wonderfully counterpointed by those wondrously icky pink tentacles. 

I hope we get to see a few more from this new contingent of OldHammer goodness over the course of the Challenge.