Painted Horsemen of Apocalpse: Khorne

What feels like a long time ago, I assembled a collection of chaos marines riding on horseback with the intent to field them as Chaos Lords or in games of Apocalypse.  This is the first painted horseman: the Khorne Lord.

Khorne colours are straight forward to paint, if nothing else.  Basecoat in mechrite red, followed by a few dark washes and gradual lifting of the red tone using blood red and hints of oranges does the main regions very well.  The gold is pure shining gold with very subtle highlights across the washed tones.  The horse itself was picked out in shades of grey, bleached bone and silver (as appropriate) and makes for a moody complement to the red and gold of the rider. 

Wargames Gallery: In the Shadow of Vindication

The Death Guard secure the objective and allow their nicely rusting vindicator to trundle forward to take shots at the loyalist dogs.

Full Battle report on this one will follow next month (as soon as I sort through the images!).

Warpath Release

For those who are looking for something different to Warhammer 40,000 (etc.), Mantic Games have released their new miniature range for the Warpath game to pre-order.

The miniatures cover the "forge father" range which at first glance appear a subtle blend of the old 40k squats and large power armoured marines.  I personally think they look very cool.  I wonder if Warpath will be a long-term rival game for 40k?

Ode to a Dead Paintbrush

There once was a large-headed brush;

Whose fibres were to begin with lush;

It has now seen better days;

Too much undercoating has made it laze;

And drybrushing has turned the tip into a maze;

Tis time we parted ways;

Old faithful paintbrush under my gaze.

Review: Liber Chaotica V (Undivided)

Included in the "complete" compilation of the previous four volumes comes a fifth, free volume based on the undivided nature of chaos.

This volume is not as extensive as any of the preceeding volumes and seems a bit more of an afterthought (or easter egg even) than the others.  That's not to say that is isn't well considered or written: it is.  It just doesn't do as much justice to the material as Slaanesh or Nurgle does.  

Commencing with a discourse on the Ever-Chosen, the book descends rapidly in to an un-targeted review of the pantheons of the races of the Warhammer world.  I think Tzeentch could have done this in a much more (shall we say) "insidious" manner.  Its not that the material doesn't fit, but I just wonder if it should have been shuffled elsewhere and with a different "accent"?

The volume is rounded out with an essay on the "unaligned powers" (but where is Malal? ha!) that aligns well with material from the Lost and the Damned and terminates with Be'lakor.  

Given the brevity of the volume, this one is the weakest of the series -- it could have been made much better.  More could have been made of it through greater exploration of the nature of chaos (perhaps even shifting the ideas of souls given in the Tzeentch volume to here) and giving greater emphasis to the independents rather than the Warhammer pantheons.  A brief vision of even Horus could (nay: should!) have also been added, let alone the Black Legion.  

"Quality Issues"

So, I was planning on making my first citadel finecast purchase this weekend (and yes -- I've waited a while to do so).  My intent was to get hold of the new Tzeentch Herald on the Disc.  And, yes, I was even willing to pay GW Australia prices (61 AUD, to be precise) to get hold of it on the release date. 

In store, they didn't have any on the shelves.  I asked whether I'd got the realease date right.  One bloke said he wasn't sure, so I spoke to another staff member.  It turned out that there were "quality issues" with the Tzeentch herald (in their own words).  But moreover, this wasn't just affecting the herald.  The Bloodthirster of Khorne was not on the shelves either ... same reason given.  Expected delivery date: next weekend. 

Sigh.