The Zealous

 

This month's Odds and Sods Challenge theme is 'lunatics'. "Bum", I thought, "I need to be painting dwarves", not sure being obsessed with ale and gold really makes you a lunatic. But wait! Didn't I have some Slayers on the shelf that needed painting? Could I use that as an excuse to get the rest of my dwarves on the table? Hmm, only one Slayer unpainted. One Slayer doth not a challenge entry make. What else have I got that might fit?

I know... what about those Witch Hunters? They're suitably crazed in their zeal to be applicable.

There certainly is a dwarf among them, probably also a Slayer, just a Vampire Slayer rather than a Troll, Dragon, or Daemon Slayer. His name is Ivan Hellsinga, though I was tempted to give him a big sword instead of his axe to match his long leather coat. On the horse is Raoul Sloier, the worst kind of pedant, with his big tome of decrees. I was tempted to have a go at painting the cover as the 3rd edition Armies Book (where it all started to go wrong in some opinion) but wimped out. I might yet give it a go. The good ol' WHQ Witch Hunter was missing his sword hand. Originally I was going to give him a book or scroll but the band already has a lot of textual props in it so I opted for this ex-Hinchliffe now Broadsword Miniatures skeleton on a cross instead. A recent heretic cleansed of their opinion. The final figure is from the same Foundry pack as Raoul, a mounted and on-foot version of the same mini. 

I also had a bunch of monks, a cardinal and a musketeer type chap in the same box so I thought I would lump them in together. Here is Cardinal Khum Fitcher (with an acute over the e) and his Red Missionaries, including his loyal bodyguard Rich Aloux. The Cardinal is Essex I think? Don't know what the musketeer dude is but he has a very fine wig.

These identical monks must be Old Glory or something like that. Their hands are massive and banana-y so maybe I should have given them purple gloves? They are, after all, the Estalian Inquisition (nobody expected that). The red robes were decided by my already having pale-robed cultists, ecclesial purple cultists and brown-cassocked monks in my collection. I wanted something different but still appropriate. Only after I had started painting them red did I realise they actually look quite a lot like Father Carden from Cursed. Once I had seen it I had to go along with it! I'm not sure how well the crucifixes fit in with a fantasy world, but as a form of torture/execution favoured by a conquering power I imagine it would still be present just without the same religious association. Or perhaps they're stylised axes/hammers.

They join my existing Witch Hunters from various sources. The guy with the sword and big hammer I don't remember where he came from but I wish I did, he's very cool. Perhaps someone can tell me? The musketeer and three fine gentlemen below are 28mm ECW miniatures I collected (they were painted and mounted on small wooden plinths) going around re-enactments and castles as a kid. I think they all came from Basing House and Basingstoke Museum actually, so maybe someone in the Basingstoke area was batch painting and selling them through those outlets? If it was you, thanks! I bought loads and they were proudly displayed in my parents' Dining Room for years. I got rid of my Romans and Medieval figures but kept the ECW ones and decided to repaint them as Witch Hunters so they did get stripped (sorry about that). I think they might be Bicorn but I'm far from sure. The lady in red is from Ral Partha Europe. I had her in mind to be Angua in a Discworld Guards band before I sculpted my own version so the colour choices are a nod to that.

The last two are these chaps from Westfalia. Halfling Witch Hunters, Van Halflings? Already did that pun earlier, sorry. My halfling peasant farmers (from Midlam) are painted in a puritanical, amish kinda colour scheme using a dark green (because halflings still like green even if not as bright as usual!) so I carried that over into their hats and cloaks as opposed to the charcoal grey on the other Witch Hunters.

The Zealous

Reign of the Lichemaster: Macabre Monks of La Maisontaal

What did Kemler do after he had decimated the settlements in the Frugelhorn valley? He went to the abbey of La Maisontaal where he had once enjoyed shelter and learned camaraderie from the brothers. That turned sour when Kemler's studies become more overtly dark and the Lichemaster was cast out to wander gibbering in the wilderness. The reunion was not to be a pleasant one...

So runs the tale in Vengeance of the Lichemaster (Citadel Journal Spring 86) which introduced the villainous Skaven for the first time. It's also featured as part of the Lichemaster WFRP campaign, adopting different names once again. La Maisontaal existed before the concept of the nature god Taal had been thoroughly explored so its resident brothers as described and shown in the painting by John Blanche (above) for the cover of the Journal don't immediately conjure up images of what a modern WFRP player might expect from Taal-ites. But that's just as well because I never was orthodox in my interpretation of Warhammer fluff. My brethren have adopted the red robes and yellow trimmings of the Blanche painting. 

There are two 'types' of monk described in the campaigns. The 'Warrior Monks' are the 'younger' initiates... yes, they are kung fu monks. There aren't this many in the WFB scenario (indeterminate number in the WFRP campaign) but this doesn't seem an unreasonable amount for a decent-sized abbey. In the WFRP campaign there's a small village adjacent to the abbey and those villagers are porbably among these ranks now as well, plus of course there would be some extra recruits already in the graveyard... Since he's pissed off with the monks I reckon Kemler would find it amusing to arm former followers of Taal with agricultural tools. They are lead by Bagrian (the Master of La Maisontaal in the Journal) and Jean-Louis Dintrans who succeeds the dying Master at the start of the WFRP campaign.  

Fir Bolg Shadow Lord from Celtoc (Brigade Models). He straddles two bases!

An assortment- Citadel, Ral Partha, North Star, Zealot?

Gary Morley Wraiths and standard

Marauder/Night Horrors/Citadel

Harlequin (Black tree Designs)

Then there are the 'Wizard Monks' (magical monks of La Maisontaal), older brothers who have made a study of the mystical arts. Again there are more of these than in the WFB scenario, the extensive crypt of old Masters has been raided for the purpose! I've given these more decorative trim to their robes to show their status. They are lead by Rene de Muscadet, the Master who dies at the beginning of the WFRP campaign and who was responsible for driving out the Lichemaster, mortally wounding him in the process. The former Master is forced to carry his skull, a ram's head being placed on his neck as form of humiliation by Kemler.

Past Masters- Ral Partha, Chronopia and RAFM

Alternative Armies

Citadel, gotta love those old barrow wights

Later LotR... Ringwraiths more colourful than they've ever been before

Alternative Armies, Citadel and ?

Of course the monks aren't the only asset residing at La Maisontaal. Thanks to Bagrian (in the Journal scenario) or de Muscadet (in the WFRP campaign) the abbey is also the current resting place of the Black Ark, a powerful chunk of Warpstone, and the Mechanical Warrior. The Skaven of the original scenario have been repulsed and Kemler has retained possession of the Ark which he is using to increase his power. The Mechanical Warrior he has kept in service as a novelty. In the original scenario the warrior is a Dalek (Citadel released their licensed Daleks in the same Journal issue) but I have gone with a more tin-man style animated suit of armour... until I find a Dalek model that is. The Black Ark is being stored in an ox-drawn casket so Kemler can take it with him should he need to tap its power whilst out and about. The Skaven will not have forgotten where it lies...

The Ark is a repurposed Black Coach with the original coachman now an outrider, dethroned by the Plague Cart driver. I never liked the Black Coach model, it always felt rather too silly, even for a fantasy wargame. The oxen are from the Fenryll chariot.

Next week- the defeated forces of Bretonnia!

Reign of the Lichemaster: Macabre Monks of La Maisontaal

Barbaric reinforcements

September is the usual kick-off time for new year-long army projects after the lull of summer and passing of BOYL. However I have so many odd bits and pieces to add to existing armies I had already decided that 2022-23 should be the year of 'finishing' (such as is ever possible) those forces. I am approaching a significant birthday and am feeling a bit of pressure to get things I want to do done before my eyesight fails completely, then I can just enjoy playing with them knowing the figures are painted as well as I possibly could. Imagine my delight therefore when Dave of Snickit's Tail  announced that this year's challenge was going to be odds and sods, perfect! The rules are no two concurrent months can be from the same army (can definitely manage that) and each will have a theme. This month's is 'Rank and File' so I have used it as an excuse to get some barbarians added to my barbarian horde. 

Ral Partha Europe Savage Skirmishers from their Barbarian Clans.

Chronopia Maidens of the Blade and a shaman from Alternative Armies that was a free giveaway last year... or was it the year before?

More RPE Barbarians

The month's entry complete. 15 barbarians to join the throng of the Horny King.
 

Barbaric reinforcements

Dungeon Gobbos

 

Recently I have been continuing to add some miniatures to my Heroquest sets because you can never have enough general dungeon minions. 

First some bowgobbos as I am running a game in December that will require the little green grots to have some ranged capabilities. The Fantasy Regiments plastics fit in pretty well with the HQ plastics. I did have to rescue these a bit as they came with shields polystyrene cemented onto their right arms and daubed liberally over the bodies. A bit of cutting and some putty work and I don't think you can tell.

These forest gobbos are some of the few miniatures I kept from my yoof but I wasn't all that happy with the painting on them so I defied my rule that 'life's to short to repaint' and stripped them for another go. I imagine them herding packs of giant spiders through the tunnels...

I have acquired models for a decent-sized Night Gobbo army but had some common goblins in the mix that I thought would serve better in the dungeon. I wanted to go really bright and colourful with them as Night Goblins tend to be more drab and my Angus McBride not-greenskin force is also really muted. Goblins in dungeons should be fun!

These gobbo hoodies are from the Goblin Hood range formerly from Macrocosm but now with CP Models. They are the unruly yoofs that run around the dungeon spray painting crude slogans and refusing to do proper goblinny work like dying horribly so the boss can run away.

I also added a few more orcs to the mix. Some more elite Fantasy Regiments orcs (well, elite compared to their unarmoured HQ versions anyway) and a Heartbreaker (now with Ral Partha Europe) boss by Kev Adams that I have long admired but didn't fit with the Angus McBride style force. He works well as a Ulag or Grak son of Ulag.

I have a couple more HQ updates coming as I have finally got around to working on a very special furniture set and am waiting for a package in the post with two quite exciting models in it.... watch this space!

Dungeon Gobbos

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Retinue of Chezatro Bourgeoia

Another month, another RoC warband as rolled on YouTube! This is going to be the final random-rolled warband, from here on in I'll be pointing up from the army list based on models I have to hand. These fine fellows are the retinue of Chezatro, son of Vitolio and brother to Luxetia. Chezatro's merry band are in charge of maintaining the borders of the city state and do so with great vigour, bringing back with them spoils from those they have seen off. In this case they have a few captives in their ranks which they are forcing to do a bit of fighting alongside the state troops.

I have had these RAFM Regiments of Blood miniatures for a while, unsure of what to do with them. I think they're meant to be vampire troops, but I had half an idea of using them as dark elves. I knew I wanted to use the Kaleb Daark model as Chezatro so these skull-armoured dudes with their pointy shoulders made a suitable accompaniment for him. For rules purposes they are Chaos Thugs.

I put my small handful of 'more modern' witch elves into the unit too, figuring their pointy shoulders fitted in fine. These ladies are the handlers of the captive beasts driven to fight in the front rank.

I still need to work on leopard print, not quite there yet.

This is a Krakon Games not-Fimir 'Wanderer' that I have needed to paint up for some time. I decided to go slightly differently skin-toned compared to the rest of my Fimir as he won't be joining them for battle. Slaanesh+Fimir=something very predictable so I decided not to go down that road. Instead I figure this chappie now acts as an advisor to Chezatro, putting his knowledge of terrain to good use in planning ambushes and battles. He may wear chains still but I doubt he's running anywhere, his handler has a grizzly reminder of the last of his kind who refused their hospitality.

The orcs are a little more recalcitrant but their handlers know how to yank their chains. I still have to do the banner on this dude- the remnant of his tribe's banner now daubed with cult victory symbols.

These Ral Partha Europe (ex Heartbreaker?) orcs were really fast to paint. Mostly washes over a zenithal undercoat and inks on silver armour. I should definitely have done my orc army that way, they'd have been so much quicker to finish!

 

And, of course, Chezatro himself. Looking slightly more pink than the model is usually depicted, but with enough black and white to remind him of his heritage.

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Retinue of Chezatro Bourgeoia

Ba ba ba, barbarians

 Ba ba ba, bar-bar-ia-a-ans, painted by ha-a-and, barbari-a-a-ans, they got me rockin' and a reelin', rockin' and a reelin' barbarians.... ba ba....

A host of barbarians has been slowly amassing on my to-paint shelf for some time now. The past couple of months has given me a bit of space to get them battle-ready. After all, we don't want a critical mass of butch fighters hanging around with nothing to do now!

My initial foray into barbarianism was a few years ago when Foundry stopped their 2000AD license and re-released some ex-Citadel fighters at Bring Out Your Lead. I'm pretty sure I documented it on the blog but can't find it... maybe they went off marauding? Anyhow my intention was to create a small Slaine-influenced raiding party to accompany the Horned God. This was made up of the ex-Citadels and a handful of ex-Grenadier Mark Copplestone barbarians (Copplestone is the epitome of barbarianism to me, if it ain't a Copplestone it's an imitation!). It stayed a small force for about 18 months...

The next muscle-bound, fur-clad raiders to join the ranks were miniatures from the RPE barbarian kingdoms range. I had been carrying these around game shows (Oakbound represents RPE on the show front in the South of England) for a few months and fancied picking some up for myself. Several of them remained on foot but others...

...others ended up in a Scotia Grendel howdah on the back of a Heroes of the Dark Age mammoth. Harry got one of these at Salute a couple of years back and I regretted not joining him so when I was there trading last year I sent him to find me one. It's so much more animated than most mammoths out there and I think definitely suitably Slaine-influenced. Although the original chieftain's throne is much closer to the Slaine art I wanted more of a horde on top to rain spears down upon their foes.

On the subject of Scotia Grendel, the other beasties in the force are these wonderful giant warthoggy things from SG. I'm calling them the Shoggy Beasts. The small ones come with integral resin riders which are much bigger in scale than the rest of the barbarians and, I'm afraid to say, pretty crude, lumpy sculpts. Cutting and grinding them off was not a pleasant task, but the beasts look much better with their new riders. The bigger one had kilted legs attached but a separate rider from the torso up so swapping him out for the Copplestone banner bearer was simple enough.

Last year at BOYL Kev Adams was once again doing his "heads for charity" sculpting session. It's been a few years since I had one done so fancied having another for the collection and decided on a barbarian hero as it's so completely not what my fantasy type would be! For the job I picked up these from Foundry but unfortunately (or fortunately) Kev was inundated and I had a game to run so didn't manage to sneak into the queue. Nevertheless they still got added to the horde. They remind me of other characters from Slaine...

I said I love Copplestone barbarians, right? So I picked up a few more... It's so great these are still available from Moonraker/Forlorn Hope (and, I think, Mirliton?). Very cheap too! There are some identifiable Slaine figures in here. The knife-toting shaman is straight out of The Horned God.

To further reinforce the horniness (ooer) of the horde I picked up these Celtos miniatures by Kev White (now with Brigade Models and also very good value). The good, evil, male and female aspects along with a more 'normal' human-sized but definitely still Slaine figure. I love the Celtos range and now have pretty much every figure in one army or another. They're satisfyingly 'chunky' figures and nicely dynamic without being in poses that look ridiculous on the table. Might have to get some duplicates though...

Mike (of Broadswords and Beasts) and Jon Boyce very kindly sent me some original Citadel miniatures to 'legitimise' the force, plus a couple I don't recognise. The guy in front with the axe- looks like a Bryan Ansell sculpt? I also got a few of the former Asgard barbarians, available from Alternative Armies though I actually ordered these from The Viking Forge along with some other former-Asgard miniatures. Funny how you don't always spot things until you photograph them, I missed a shield! 

Lastest and greatest is a figure I wanted/needed to have at the forefront of the horde. Microarts' Discworld characters are every bit of 35mm tall and far too big to fit with most 'standard' sized wargames miniatures, sadly. I do have a Nobby Nobbs in my Empire force, but he's "shorter than mist dwarfs" so fits in fine. I managed to make Cohen not stand out too much by bending his legs a little (not too much, thin and a very brittle metal) so he's stooped to the level of the others. Beats me why they picked such an odd size. A pricey addition but one I just had to have,

Ba ba ba, barbarians