Vintage Chaos Champion in Bone Armour in w40k

Another comparatively old citadel miniature provides the basis for a chaos champion. In 40k, it is perhaps a unique lesser daemon or feral world leader.

Aims & Model.
Despite being an old model, this one is a relatively new additional to my collection. It was bought on the basis that it was one that I had wanted when I was much younger in age, but could never get hold of. Its utility to Warhammer fantasy battle is straight-forward in the guise of a chaos sorcerer or champion. But what use can it be put to in the Warhammer 40,000 setting? I have a number of ideas in mind. Firstly, it can be used in a lost & the damned army as a mutant leader. It may also have a role in some traitor imperial guard armies. Neither of those options are the ones that I have specifically in mind for this model's future. To me, it has three prime uses. Firstly, as a character model (psyker perhaps) in a feral world setting, perhaps helping to lead local resistance to invasion from imperial forces. Secondly, and potentially more interestingly, I see this model as a unique lesser daemon for use in exploring an idea that has been brewing at the back of my mind for some while: a Daemon Worlds supplement / minidex. More on that specific idea at a later date. Lastly, I'm considering using this model as The Changeling from Codex: Daemons. (Edit: Surely any model could be used for The Changeling?!)

The general aim for this model was to attempt to make it look slightly other-worldly, but still suitable for use as a feral world model. Therefore, I wanted to make it look like it had a sword that was similar in style and appearance to the hellblades that I've painted on my modern bloodletters. I chose blue as the general colour theme for the vestment, and an aged looking bone colour for the armoured parts.

Painting.
The robes were tackled first, using a deep blue basecoat on top of a black undercoat. After inking with a mix of 1 part black to 4 parts blue, the robe was drybrushed to progressively lighter shades of blue. Highlighting of the robe was accomplished with small, delicate lines of light blue and white along the raised portions to give the illusion of a flowing, once-silken vestment.

For the armoured portions, a cream basecoat was applied and inked in a wash of brown. These parts were progressively highlighted, primarily through drybrushing, to lighter shades of bone.

The blade was painted in the colours that I use on my bloodletters. This is done by starting with a dark red toward the hilt of the blade and mixing it with bolder reds, through orange and yellow to white at the very tip. The blending of the colours doesn't have to be precise - the aim was for was a heated lava-like blade. Specks of yellow in an odd place are therefore locally hotter parts of the blade. I also like the idea of the sword's tip being the hottest part, rather than nearer to the hilt as suggested in some of the painting to be found in codex: daemons.

To finish the painting off, final detailing was made on the hilt and handle of the blade, the side satchel, rivets in the bone armour and green gemstones embedded in the hilt of the blade. Basing was done in a very simplistic manner using green scatter and no additional detail to detract from the model.

Evaluation.
Positives: Unlike other models where the general aim might be to draw attention to the facial region, this model's face is hidden inside an imposing bone mask. The real highlight and attention grabber is therefore the bright blade that the miniature is holding. The colours of the blade are in stark contrast to the blue robes which make the model stand out very well. In my mind, the narrative is that this character has stolen a hellblade from a bloodletter - no mean feat and one that is bound to have grave repercussions at a later date.
Negatives: The robe was likely sculpted to look old and moth-eaten. This really has not come across very well for me since the robes look relatively fresh. To achieve a more worn look, I should have painted the lower part of the robes in a more dirty shade to represent mud (etc.) staining the parts that are dragging along the floor and hence picking up the muck.

A Screamer made from Magma and Lava

Screamers of Tzeentch can be painted in multiple styles and present an appealing look. The typical style and paint scheme is orientated toward a manta-ray. As usual, I wanted something a bit different. This screamer was therefore chosen to be painted in a lava or magma style and will complement the previous water-like one.

Aims and Model.
Why bother painting a screamer in this style? I had a couple of reasons including (1) wanting a screamer that stands out from the crowd so that within a game I can assign it a strength bonus (unholy might) and I don't have to look carefully to figure out which screamer has the bonus; (2) exploring different painting approaches on large "blank canvas" areas of miniatures; (3) I simply thought it'd look cool if I could pull it off. As with other deamons, the rationale behind such a manifestation might be that the screamer made itself from lava (perhaps the only abundant nearby form of matter?) when breaking through to the material plane. Or it could be as simple a reason as Tzeentch being fickle and changing its creations for the hell of it. I guess that is the beauty of working with Tzeentch miniatures: almost any paint scheme, and oftentimes conversion work, can be justified in that manner.

The model is a standard screamer of Tzeentch with only one item of conversion work applied: I turned it upside-down! This may seem completely superfluous. I did this to give the miniature a different flowing shape since screamers are only produced in a few different poses. This simple change makes it look like there are more sculpts in use than there really are. On an assembly note, I personally found the tail a little fiddly to glue into place and I had to work around the seam with a little milliput (green stuff) as a consequence.

Painting.

Here, I wasn't sure which way to go: black undercoat or white undercoat? I have a maxim that is something along the lines of: if in doubt, work the colours of a miniature up from darker shades to lighter shades. Sometimes this isn't always appropriate (e.g. the burnt-out Herald of Tzeentch), but I could come up with no good reason to start from a white undercoat in this instance.

The basecoat for the miniature was a solid red. I reasoned that if I started from a "central" colour, I could work lighter in some regions and go darker in others. At least that was the plan that I used and sticked to. Looking at a blank canvas (the "wings" of the screamer) I got a little stuck for what to do next. In the end, I choose a bright, livid orange colour and started to gently outline small, irregular circles on the wings. This was to prove the decisive move! With the circular features sketched in place, it was much easier to identify where other colours must necessarily follow and what shades to use. In areas away from the sketched lines, darker colours were applied and blended: orange through red, and down to black. The lines themselves were thickened up and yellows & whites were added to the mixture to create local hot-spots. Only some of the sketched outlines were heated up in this manner since I wanted an irregular pattern on the surface suggestive of molten rocks.

With the magma effect looking good, I finished the model off by applying some highlights to the raised portions of the body. The raised areas toward the front were painted in cream with a dark centre to attempt to resemble condensing and cooling rocks on its surface. The tusks and spikes along the body were painted in solid black given that they stand out from the screamer's main body and logically might have cooled off quicker.

Evaluation.
Positives: I am very pleased with the outcome here! I wasn't certain that the idea could work, but I think the paint scheme is enough to convey the idea I had in mind at the outset.
Negatives: The miniature took a comparatively long time to paint. I was repeatedly touching up small portions of the wings to get the look as I'd intended it. I'm also thinking that pure black for the tusks and spikes might not have been the best option, but they do stand out from the miniature without detracting from the main scene: the body.

I still need to get the third screamer finished so I can place it alongside this one and the previous one to see how they look in a pack / shoal.

Nurglesque Rhino Number One

Here is the first of two rhinos that went to GT2008 with me.

Aims and Model.
The idea with this model was simply to make it look more nurgly than a standard rhino. The conversion work was not major: it mainly consisted of subtle additions of milliput to the surfaces to create some fungoid-looking growths and pustules.

In addition, bits and parts from the plastic Warhammer zombie boxed set were added in a couple of places around the model including the gunner, and even an entire zombie was inserted inside the starboard side door, leering outward. The only game-affecting upgrade to be modelled was the havoc launcher.

Painting.
For the paint scheme, I followed the overall trend started with the dreadnought: a rusty and old feeling, using a mottled undercoat. For the obviously rusted areas (frontal area), I used a bleached bone coat followed by an application of chestnut ink to create the streaked, water damaged look.

The green fungi was basecoated in goblin green and inked dark green. Drybrushing progressively lighter greens gives it the decaying appearance. Other milliput pieces were basecoated in read and worked up from red, through orange to a yellow to be reminiscent of pustules bursting (or about to be bursting).
Evaluation.
Positives: The model got a good reception, at least as good as its other rhino counterpart that was modelled to have an open maw at the front (yet to be posted). The zombie parts really helped accentuate the Nurglesque appearance.
Negatives: some of the inking work meant that this model was very hard to photograph well! Indeed, the bottom photo looks very reflective on the front.

Khorne Berzerkers: Dante Darkheart and Squad

To round off the previous posting on painting Khorne Berzerkers in a rush, I thought I'd share with you the final squad as fielded in Grand Tournament 2007 (Australia).

I won't go over the painting style again, but I will note that the squad has a skull champion (who goes by the name of Dante Darkheart) equipped with a power fist, one member carries an icon (Khorne symbol from a chaos vehicle sprue atop a wooden pole), and two squad members are lead from the 1980's Realm of Chaos era.



To be honest, they didn't perform very well in GT2007. They were typically the first troop unit to get targeted and hence they didn't last long or get in to melee often. Not surprising given the lack of rhino transportation and their reputation for destroying other troop units in close combat!

Khorne Berzerkers in a Rush

When GT2007 was quickly approaching, I needed to come up with a painted unit of Khorne Berzerkers in a rush. This posting details the quick and dirty method that I employed to achieve a tabletop ready quality on my berzerkers. It's most certainly not award-winning stuff - it uses as few colours as possible with the prime directive being to get them ready as soon as possible!

Aims and Model.
The aim here is clear: get a world eaters squad painted up in a rush! The models are standard Khorne Berzerkers with no conversion work applied.

Khorne miniatures have a very well-known colour combination: red, black and brass. These three colours were therefore selected to be the most prominent on the miniatures. In addition, white was used for highlights and silver on some weaponry and recessed areas. That's a paltry five colours.

Painting.
Here's the run down on the rushed paintwork.
Step 1. Apply a solid black undercoat and make sure that it dries before moving on.
Step 2. Drybrush the joints and weaponry in silver -- paying particular attention to the recessed areas.
Step 3. Select red next. Paint the legs, chest, gloves, and shoulder pads. The only trick to the red stage is to leave a small black boarder showing between the edge of the red and the outer (raised) portion of the shoulder pads.
Step 4. Brass. Paint the raised areas of the shoulder pads and other rimmed areas.
Step 5. White. Use for highlights and anything that requires the Khorne symbol, skulls and so forth. The work is now done. Repeat these steps on the next world eater!

For variation within the squad, I choose brass or black as the prime colour (rather than red) in various locations as can be seen from examining the differences between the two miniatures shown.

Evaluation.
These are table ready Khorne berzerkers painted up in a short amount of time: objective fulfilled! They look acceptable on the tabletop with the bold, solid regions of colour being very noticeable. They are certainly Khorne's minions. On closer inspection they clearly lack details that other miniatures in my collection have.

FtW November Challenge Development

An update concerning where I'm up to in creating a scenario for the FtW group's November challenge.

In the previous posting, I outlined that I wanted my creation to represent a small scale action that was a significant part of a larger scale campaign. It basically amounts to a small strike team trying to get away with some vital artifact or piece of information.

From the start, I'll say that this idea is not a rare or unusual one: Ranillon's most excellent discourse on how hard it is to come up with something truly original without changing the fundamental rules is spot on and resonates with me as an old-timer. This idea has been done before and will be done again no doubt.

After talking with Gamers World and reading his posts on an idea similar to this one (see Within Enemy Lines), I wanted to differentiate my Gauntlet idea significantly in order to create something relatively new that people may not have seen before and something that attempts to be balanced, general and accessible.

So, what are the twists that this scenario will have on this classic idea?
(1) The loot will be carried by one miniature that the protagonist's player will choose in secret. The identity of this loot-carrying miniature will only be revealed at the end of the game. This'll add a tactical aspect: do the interceptors think that the fast attack squad has the loot, or is that far too obvious?
(2) Gauntlet will have no option to be drawn: there will be two shades of win and two shades of loss, depending on whether the loot carrier got away or not and the degree of survival of each side.
(3) The mission will be non-standard. It makes little sense to have heavy support choices among a team of lightning fast raiders: they should concentrate on fast attack and troops choices. On the other hand, the interceptors player will effectively control two lots of force organization charts. This is to represent two disparate aspects of the local militia reacting to news of the theft. They'll enter play at different points.
(4) The game will only end once there are no miniatures belonging to the raiders player left on the board.
(5) Miniatures can only be moved off the board at the start of the protagonist's turn. This means they have to move into contact the board edge in their previous turn, hence the opposition gets at least one last chance to engage them.

The final bit of progress that I've made is in sketching up the map for this scenario. As can be seen, it'll be played on a (relatively) small board. This implies that a small(ish) points value should be used by both players. A small points value will also mean that this scenario is accessible to starting players and more experienced players alike. As well, it should give the feeling that the Gauntlet scenario is a small-scale skirmish between the lighting fast raiders player and the interceptors player. The scenario is sufficiently general that I reckon that any faction / codex could take on the role of the raiders or the interceptors - this was an important consideration for my selecting this scenario over more precise / narrow scenarios I considered. Lastly, I hope it is obvious why I'm calling this one Gauntlet: the raiders are having to dash between two lots of interceptors down a narrow corridor across the board.