The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Bases and banners

 I did manage to get to the end of the challenge before the end of July, honest, just... but I have been ill with Covid over the last week and so haven't been able to photograph and post. Previously I had imagined that if I got Covid I would just have a nice clear 10 days to do a bit of painting, sculpting and some blog posts... but no, that's really not how it panned out. Trust me, this is not a thing you want to have. Be safe, get vaccinated, wear a mask. Still not quite back to normal but well enough to take photos and post them so here goes...

Several years ago I painted a bunch of civilians for a big sandbox game. I left of all the basing thinking I would do that quickly at the end... big mistake! It's time consuming and booooooring doing so many bases all at once. With this challenge I got the groundwork on the bases done as I went, just leaving the applying of greenery until the end. Also a mistake! Hours and hours of dabbing foam and static grass... thank goodness for YouTube.

I also left the banners until the very end. When I was a kid I would leave shields and banners and usually not get to them. I didn't want that to be the case here so dedicated some time to getting the banners (only three after all) painted with their variations on renaissance Italian, Spanish and Papal heraldry. I must confess there is one piece not done- the banner top for the main army banner. I had planned for this to be a big bull's head, but I don't have one to hand and didn't feel up to sculpting one so it has remained unfinished. I do have a spare cross from the top of a Warmachine model I'm not using so may swap that in instead.

I needed something relatively quick but interesting to break up the monotony of the bases so knocked out a couple of extras to join the force. A dark elf courtly lady to round out the unit to 10 and a chariot I sculpted based on an unpublished Tony Ackland drawing. Mr Paul Douglas painted another as a gift to the great man himself which he handed over at BOYL. I think Tony was pleased with how it came out.

So that's it. Army done. Right, what's next...

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Bases and banners

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Top-Ups

 

June's been busy, but I did manage to sneak in my points/unit complement top up for June... if you allow the last weekend to count as June!

This is a couple of bullish warriors to take the Countess' unit up to the sacred Slaaneshi number of 6, two acolytes to take their number up to 10 and another 10 beastmen to join the Psychopomp's guard. The banner pole isn't finished of course... banners and basing are my task for July to round everything off.

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Top-Ups

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Beasts

It's the penultimate month for the 333 3rd ed challenge... well kinda. Technically I think there's June and July to go but since the last two months' chaos warrior units have munched through so many points I only really have a months' worth of figures left to do. July is going to be a month of finishing the basing and doing banners I think.

Anyhow, here's May's submission thanks to the early May bank holiday. As far as the challenge goes this is a unit of twelve beastmen with hand weapons and shields, plus two armoured beastmen with hand weapons and shields to join Luxetia's non-goat beastmen and another (don't have a) cow-man to join the Countess. No room in the remaining points for a shaman but I had the model so it made sense to paint him up at the same time.

Continuing the colour scheme from the rest of the army (black and white with pink accents)I adopted the same black for the skin/fur as with the first unit of beastmen but decided to differentiate the leader and shaman by giving them white fur. I'd actually already painted these beastmen for a Path to Glory campaign a few years ago but stripped them as I wasn't happy with the quick paint job I had done to get them ready for the table between weekly games. That warband had been "The Black Goats of the Woods" and their tribal paint had been based on KISS makeup so I wanted to continue to nod to this past in their new role.

There's not a lot of clothing on these models, but where there is some I have tried to suggest the remnants of clerical garb, using the same colours as the robes of the acolytes and the sorcerers but with a bit more distressing. Possibly these are devolved and mutated clerics fallen from (or perhaps exalted to) grace through their worship of dark powers. They now march with Chezatro in his regional campaigning.

The standard pole is topped with the head of a Troll Soup Miniatures Bog Troll. You get so many spare heads for these guys! It will also have a flag if I find time in July.

Three misfists even within the ranks of the beasts. Bob Olley beastmen and a Blood Bowl player come to join the fight.

I think the right two here are chariot crew originally? The whip-goat's right arm was missing so needed a bit of rebuilding.

Here are the three joining other bands already painted. I didn't realise until painting him that the minotaur guy has the same head as the bull-headed chaos champion already in the Countess' retinue. It's fun finding bits of miniatures that were re-used to make up others, would be an interesting project to develop a chronology based on where body parts reappear! 

 

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Beasts

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Chaos Warriors 2

 

And here's the second of the warrior units, with bonus sorcerer of course. I was definite at the start of this project I didn't want to do Slaanesh in pastel colours, especially not pastel pink, but I had already done black armour, gold armour, white armour and sections of the bolder pink armour so if I was to preserve coherency yet mark this unit out as separate I didn't have a lot of choice... my hand was forced! I think with the gold/cream and black it doesn't look too insipid.

Another 'free' accompanying cultist.

The fetish bridage with their whips and things.

And the fighting 'brutes, who do most of the actual fighting under the lashes from the rear rank!

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Chaos Warriors 2

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Chaos Warriors unit 1

Here's March's offering for the 333 3rd Ed challenge. 

Actually 450pts (Chaos Warriors are EX-PEN-SIVE, but worth every point!) plus a 'free' non-challenge sorcerer. This is more the number of models I was expecting per month for a Chaos army! It's also the reason for choosing Chaos for the challenge in the first place as these beautiful models have been sat unpainted on shelves for far too long. If you're following the video series on rolling/picking the army these are featured in the final part which you can find HERE.

That 'free' sorcerer. I don't have the points (or bravado) to take it in the army but didn't want it to be left out. Maybe it's just a cultist hanger-on carrying a sword for their master.

There's a Nurgly interloper in the ranks... At the time I was collecting these I was just going for the models I liked best. The fact that most of them ended up being the Slaaneshi champions is just one of those things. Anyway, I don't think he looks too out of place. Especially next to Mr Boney here. Who knows what strange kinks these warriors have?

And here's the trio of spread-body midriff champions! I was thinking of painting each warrior up separately to make them look like a randomly thrown-together bunch of individuals but decided in the end that the pseudo-clerical look placed them within the corrupt pontiff's inner circle so went for a very gilded inquisitorial scheme. They were surprisingly quick to paint, I guess because of the simple scheme, which was a little disappointing given how long I had waited to put colour on them. But I'm pleased with how they turned out so am not going to grumble about being able to pull it off in a couple of sittings.

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Chaos Warriors unit 1

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

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Retinue of Luxetia Bourgeoia

 

So far so good... managing to keep up the first 3 months of the 333pt 3rd ed challenge!

Following the 3 theme here is the third Realm of Chaos warbands- that of the half-elf sorceress Luxetia Bourgeoia. You can see the live roll HERE.

Luxetia herself is a Foundry Revenant Elf that I picked up at BOYL. I love this range and would have a lot more of them if they weren't, um, rather expensive! Anyhow, she paints up well. This was the mini I didn't want to hack up for last month's random champion since I had an idea how I wanted her to look and chose the model accordingly.

She has a quartet of chaos goblin attendants to look after her various magical accoutrements. These fun fellows are by Aaron Howdle, from his Iron Hammer Miniatures range.

She also has an elite bodyguard of beastmen. For this little unit I picked out all the 'random' animal beastmen in my collection- two pigs, a fox (or more likely intended as a wolf) and a sea horse. The idea being that they are victims of her magical experiments. Were they originally human or originally animal? Only Luxetia (and possibly the unfortunate victim) knows. The fox man is Citadel, the piggy dude on the left is a random Akheton miniature (I think intended as a pig-faced orc?) and the other two are from Knightmare Miniatures' first Pantheon of Chaos KS. I have to say I'm not generally a fan of the range and had difficulty picking figures to fill out my pledge having gone in for the one model based on the Tony Ackland nurgle champion from The Lost And The Damned, but I think these painted up nicely.

Now to the dragon ogres... "Dragon OgreS? I thought there was only one" you cry. Well, yes. I did roll one dragon ogre. But see a couple of years back I was commissioned to sculpt a dragon ogre to complement the Nick Bibby original and provide the other poses seen in the Tony Ackland drawing from the book.

So you see, having had a couple of these sat alongside the Bibby sculpt in my cabinet for some time I couldn't only do one of them could I? They needed to be painted up as a trio. And, of course, it gets me ahead for those months where I struggle to find the time...

Onwards to January!

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Retinue of Luxetia Bourgeoia

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Retinue of the Crimson Countess

 

This was originally going to be the warband of Luxetia Bourgeoia, a half-elf sorceress and daughter of Vitolio. However, having rolled the warband (you can see it for yourself on YouTube) I decided that the attributes I had rolled better suited the strange, desiccated sorceress I picked up in the original Diehard Miniature Kickstarter. I therefore decided to save Luxetia for December and give this warband to a previously un-envisaged character.

The Crimson Countess is the great, great Grandmother of Vitolio Bourgeoia. For half a decade she has been believed to lie interred in the family crypt. In fact she had sold her soul to Slaanesh many years before her offspring took the same path. Having attained semi-daemonhood she was summoned by Vitolio to help with his rise to Psychopomp and now she reigns behind the scenes 'advising' her descendants on how to hold onto power as firmly as she did.

The Countess' retinue is made up of the Crimson Bulls of the Bourgeoias. These terrifying fiery beasts and sent to quash any rebellion against the house. 

These minotaurs were converted many, many years ago using Ogre Kingdom bits to fill in missing weapons and puttying some rough flames to hide damage to the heads and make it look as if they were stepping out of fiery portals... to disguise the fact that none of them had their other legs! My original intention was to use them in a Chaos Dwarf army around the time of Tamurkhan, but that never happened and they languished unpainted for ages. My early sculpting work was too stubborn to be undone so I just had to paint it and hope for the best! 

I only rolled two minotaurs and failed the roll to make one a hero, but as I was painting minotaurs I thought for consistency I would paint all the ones I had. Including my absolute favourite, this Trish Morrison minotaur lord, he's a beast! When the points are totted up at the end and extra units recruited I'm sure I'll find some allowance to add the extra mino and a hero to the warband.

The three beastmen I decided should continue the bullish flavour so I picked out three lesser minotaurs to represent them. I have since found a fourth lurking on the shelf who may have to join them! The one in the middle is one of my absolute favourite Chaos models (two in one band!) so I really enjoyed painting her/him/it(?) up at long last.

I also topped up the points with part of Vitolio's warband I didn't have last month. As previously mentioned these are the Choir of Menoth Warmachine figures, nice ecclesial-looking acolytes for the dark pontiff. There are actually only two poses in here, I bent the scroll arms a bit for variety. Unfortunately they really don't rank up so well on 20mm bases...

The scrolls read corrupted versions of some of the 10 commandments. In true Slaaneshi style they seem like they are promoting proud liberal values but taken at face value they can all be twisted to serve sadistic purposes.

And here's the whole force so far. Definitely getting somewhere at 20% of the completed army and still having a nice cohesion thanks to a deliberate choice of three colours used in various mixes throughout.

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Retinue of the Crimson Countess

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Retinue of Vitolio Bourgeoia

A bit later than planned due to Salute prep, here is the first month's offering for the 333 3rd Ed Challenge ahead of next year's BOYL. This is the warband of the general, Arch Psychopomp Vitolio Bourgeoia. Vitolio is the patriarch of an influential Tilean family and governs the independent city state of Castello Capezzo. Isolated as a self-contained mountainous principality the state has proved fertile soil for the rise of a Slaaneshi cult headed and given respectability by the sponsorship of the governing family. Beastman mercenaries are employed and equipped by the Bourgeoias as a personal guard and Dark Elves have settled in the city, both are treated with absolute normality by its citizens who enjoy peace, prosperity and a doctrine of pleasure.

As a Slaaneshi warband the dominant colour had to be pink, right? I wanted something a bit more vibrant than the RoC pastels though, and also more 'uniform' as an official city state military. Since 'debased pope' was very much the starting point I decided to take the colour scheme from the Swiss Guard, shifting the reds into pinks to align with the cult. Bases aren't quite finished yet, I need to do greenery on them.

The ex-Grenadier dark elves by Mark Copplestone fit perfectly with the 15th Century Italian theme. They are, however, a bit wide in their stance and don't easily fit on a 20mm base so I have had to do a bit of cutting and bending. Theoretically this is a squad of 8 dark elves with crossbows, but there are a couple of the sword-wielding models that don't have crossbows slung from their belts. Most do. You'll also notice there are 9... I fully intend to add a hero to this unit out of remaining points once the core warbands are sorted and thought I may as well paint him now. He's the guy with the mask and cool ruff.

The beastman unit is converted from the regular 4th ed plastics. I felt they looked too regimented for a wild beastman band but give them slashed sleeves and breastplates and they make a perfect mercenary/imperial beastman contingent. I experimented putting a tellerberet on one but it didn't really sit well with their mohawks so didn't take it any further. I went for black rather than the 'official' white for Slaangors as I thought it would make for a bolder unit. If I end up adding subsequent bestman units the heroes will be marked out by white hair.  

The corrupt pontiff himself is a Foundry Swashbuckler Dwarf on a Foundry Darkest Africa donkey. I resculpted his nose, added a mitre and gave him legs. I also reposed the donkey's legs a bit to make it look like he was splayed under the weight of his burden.

On to month 2! I'll be rolling up November's warband from Realm of Chaos on my YouTube channel so do take a look. :)

The 333 3rd Ed Challenge- Retinue of Vitolio Bourgeoia