Lord of Change

"Magnarrr" , the voice purred as the deamon scrutinised it's champion, "you must remember there is nothing I do not know, no-one I do not suspect! No-one, no-one.

The daemon laughed it's mocking laugh once more and Magnar turned his face from that unforgiving stare.

The first painted miniature that wowed me and made me want to not only paint miniatures, but also be good at it, was a Lord of Change on the cover of the "Citadel Painting Guide", a small booklet which Games Workshop sold, at the time, for a buck! 

Lord of Change, upper right

I just loved the vibrant tropical colours and the awesome look of this chaotic beast. I painted one, back in 1991 which for very long stood as the benchmark of my painting abilities. It's still today in my collection, and it has seen a lot of battles over the years (as evidenced by the loss of its tail...).

So for the Monstrous challenge of the The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (Yes, I'm stupidly part of two painting challenges at the same time)  I decided to paint me another one of those! I figured there would be a lot of dark stuff in this challenge, but I would go with a full blown display of colours! I find it a bit sad nowadays seeing people paint their Lord of Changes in mono colours of blue or purple, this is Tzeentch goddammit, the God of Change and mutations, and his servants should be as vibrant and colourful as possible!

At the time, Citadel made three bodies, with randomly available heads and tails. My favourite body was this one, and the two headed was also my favourite head. I waited for a while on Ebay until I found my perfect Lord of Change, and this guy's been in my collection for a few years now. 

So I obviously went with a full tropical colour scheme, inspired by the classic paint jobs of the 80s. I especially like my ultra bright green and the pale blue of the wings. This guy took me a while to paint, what with all the textures and the many details. He was also a pain to hold while painting! But I'm really happy with him, and I believe my 10 year old self would be very happy with his look.

He's going to have a place of honour in my future Tzeentch and Slaanesh allied force I've been collecting and planning in the last few years (my current force is Nurgle, undivided and Khorne). 

Hope you like him, cheers!

The Manticore

A triple row of teeth meeting like the teeth of a comb, the face and ears of a human being, blood-red color eyes, a lion's body, inflicting stings with its tail like a scorpion...with a special appetite for human flesh!

One of the things I love about the old Warhammer editions is the numerous monsters available. It is perfectly acceptable to have in your army a few of them, from good Elementals to various Chaos creatures. As it should be, really, I mean we are talking about a fantasy world goddammit!

Citadel produced a number of monsters in the 80s, and of course Chaos being the favourite child (lets not kid ourselves here) a wide selection of Chaos critters were sculpted. Many of these were stand alone beasts, and not the mandatory heroe's mounts like we see today. They were also often of "normal", as in "human" size. The following Manticore is such a sculpt. It was designed by the master Jes Goodwin in the mid-80s and is probably my favourite Manticore sculpt to this day. A good Manticore should always look like its in a very bad mood and this one fits the bill!

It is smaller than the recent offering by GW, but to me the Manticore was never meant to be a gigantic beast. I was surely influenced in this view in part by the well known cover of "The Shamutanti Hills", from the Sorcery! series of Fighting Fantasy books. A creature doesn't have to be the size of a Dragon to be terrifying!

The Manticore has the body of a lion, a human head with three rows of sharp teeth (like a shark), bat-like wings, and a trumpet-like voice.

I went pretty conventional on the painting, with a classic beige for the lion body and some dark purple for the wings and scorpion tail. I did modify slightly the position of the wings, I just prefer the look. I love the animation of this model, I find Jes Goodwin has really nailed the feline slow and predatory walking stance.

The base was made with cork, accompanied by the remnants of a skeleton to add a little atmosphere to the piece (he is a man eater after all).

Another nice addition to my Chaos bestiary. In my young days, I used to be afraid of painting these creatures, but they are a lot of fun and a great change of pace between unit painting. After painting a Griffon and now a Manticore, I'll probably need to paint a Chimera soon, I figure!

This piece was entered in the recent Analogue Painting Challenge Bonus Theme Round. This round's theme was "myth", so the Manticore, originally a myth of Persian origin, where its name was "man-eater", fitted perfectly. If you like him, you can encourage one of your fellow Oldhammerer by voting on the page previously linked. You'll also get to see a bunch of fantastic entries.

Chaos Spawn, Grenadier style

Stronger men than he had dashed themselves to pieces in the services of Chaos and a weaker creature would have ended its own existence rather than face Lothar's fate with the Chaos Spawn. Yet Lothar had a strength of his own; as he fell, his purpose in following Chaos was reborn, and in his changed nature loyalty flowered again like a rank week. Even as he was changed into a monstrous creature, Lothar shrieked eternal allegiance to his dark lord.

When I found this figure in my pile of old unpainted lead, I figured I had to use him.  It didn't take very long for me to realize he would made a great chaos spawn, and so I decided to paint him. I didn't know what figure it was and forgot to look underneath the base before basing him. After asking over on the Old School miniature Facebook page, I found out he was a Grenadier figure, originally a "Vegetation Beast" released in 1983 as part of "The horrors of the Marsh" set. Almost as old as me!

There is a feeling of accomplishment that comes from painting some of your really old miniatures, and even more so when the sculpt is not one of those sought after classic (although those are also fun to paint!).

So here he is. I think he will blend perfectly with the style of my Chaos Army, I'm happy with the result. Definitely weird looking, and spawn creepy.

Chaos Trolls

Never underestimate the unpredictability of stupidity

I like Trolls in general, but I really like the Stone Troll figures released in 1992 and sculpted by Michael Perry. They really look the part, don't they? I actually prefer them to the earlier Marauder Trolls (which are still great). As a bonus, they can be a real pain to your enemy on the battlefield, not to mention often a good source of entertainment for you and your foe!

So I just had to include a few in my project. Ideally I'd like to add another 2 to make a unit of 6. Which works well enough because I'm missing two models to complete the set.

Traditionally, the stone trolls were painted in a electric blue and white colour scheme, but I went with a green colour scheme to match the rest of my army but also to give them a more Chaotic look. I find the green colour scheme works really well with these guys.

 

I also added a tail and some bone spikes as chaos attributes but mostly I avoided conversions as I just like those figures as they are. 

I got my first 1000 hits this morning, very small milestone for sure, but a nice start for a blog barely 2 weeks old. Thanks to all who visit, and especially my 28 first followers. I'll do my best to keep this place interesting for y'all!

The Jabberwock

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!  
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun  
The frumious Bandersnatch

The Jabberwock was always one of my favourite Chaos monsters. I mean, just the name "Jabberwock" is awesome and for some strange reason fits perfectly with the beast's appearance. I remember seeing a picture of one in the Warhammer 3rd edition bestiary and thinking I needed one of those! It was just...so...bizarre! 

The Citadel Jabberwock...ugh

The figure I used was released in the early 80s, 1982 I believe, by Ral Partha, and was sculpted by the great Tom Meier. While not a Citadel figure per se, it was sold in Europe by Citadel under license. I bought that figure, actually sold in the Citadel packaging if my memory serves me right, in the late eighties, in a now long defunct hobby shop "bargain bin". I undercoated it, lost interest and the poor fellow spent more than 20 years in the bottom of my lead box. The figure has aged remarkably well I find. In this instance, the Ral Partha figure is really head and shoulders above the Citadel model released a few years later, which is frankly awful. 

The Ral Partha sculpt is still today imho the best looking Jabberwock available on the market. Few sculpts of the Jabberwock have been made in 28mm; one by Ral Partha, one by Citadel and a recent one from Reaper (I'll admit the Reaper one is also pretty good). The lack of proper sculpts available enhances the beast's mystique, as it is very rarely seen on a battlefield. So here he is...my version of the Jabberwock! 

The great thing with this creature is that you can truly let your imagination run wild as there is no "accepted" reference, and most pics are black & white. I went mostly with a striking green to match the colour scheme of my chaos force.
He's one of many weird monsters I would like to paint and he will have a place of honour among my Chaos monsters.