Khorne Warband Update - Citadel CM1 Chimera

 This week, continuing with the Khorne warband followers, I've been working on my roll from the Other table which I always give myself when rolling up a chaos warband, which gives me the excuse to paint something a potentially out of the ordinary plus adds some uniqueness to the retinue. I was delighted to have rolled a chimera.

 It was never in doubt that I would use the classic Nicky Bibby chimera sculpt which came with numerous head and tail options.

 I've had a couple of these kicking about since my early teens and decided to pool my resources and use all of my favourite heads and tail on the one model. Well, maybe apart from the sabre toothed tiger head but it's a little too close to the lion head so I've excluded it. The joins where the heads meet the body are quite gappy so it required a fair amount of green stuff to pack it out and then sculpted into fur with a cocktail stick.

 I've gone for a fairly muted palette on this one; opting for a more classical look over a khorne red appearance. Unfortunately, as I feared, it's been an absolute bastard to photograph and I'm not particularly happy with the end results there but it'll have to do.

The Khorne warband grows with some more aerial presence 

 So now there's just the six beastmen to go. I've nearly finished two of them so hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll have the lot completed and will be able to present a finished warband.

Khorne Warband Update - Harpies

 Continuing with the Khorne warband followers, the next up are a pair of harpies that I'd rolled. Now having already owned the set of the Citadel C48 Gargoyles range and not having any actual harpies, I've gone for two that look non stone like.

 The gargoyle range sculpted by Aly Morrison was small (only 6 figures) and overlooked but quite varied.  You don't see many painted examples of them unfortunately.

Image courtesy of The Stuff of Legends 

 I've decided to go for a khorne colour scheme with mine over a more classical approach. This pair didn't receive any of the dominant chaos attributes.

 So there's six beastmen to go plus the follower from the Other table which is what's up next which I'm really looking forward to!

Khorne Warband Update - Citadel C23 Chaos Ogre

 Continuing with the Khorne warband, I've gone for my favourite (arguably) of the Jes Goodwin ogres. I'd painted one over 20 years ago SEEN HERE and this time decided to go for a different flavour of armour, although maybe I should have gone for red, in keeping with his master.

 He'll be accompanied by six beastmen, two harpies plus something exciting from the Other table from the Slaves to Darkness followers lists which I'll reveal when it's painted. I've always included a roll on the Other table just to add a bit of potential jazz to my warband generating.

 I'll probably hit the beastmen next, although they'll be scattered among a few other works in progress, there's quite a lot on the desk at the moment that I want to wrap up plus there's plenty going on in the old noggin that I need to get into production.

Citadel Champion of Khorne with unreleased Chaos Hound

 Over the last few weeks I've been amassing a lot of ideas for chaos projects which is a subject I've been absent from for a fair old while now (apart from a chaos knight early last year) and a resurgence is long overdue.

 So the two remaining samurai for the Nippon warband are going to have to wait for now. I've been planning on a converted Champion of Khorne for some weeks and had spent a lot of time scouring my collection and catalogue pages for a suitable head. After a lot of unsuccessful candidates I finally went closer to home and from one of his own.

 The champion is made up of two figures; the head and sword come from Armed with sword and attributed with horns, whereas the body belongs to the equally elongated titled Sword and bestial face, tail and mane of hair. See below:

Image from Stuff of Legends

 The removal of the head of 'Horns' is a real bastard of an operation and took well over an hour to cut and file down enough for it to sit on the shoulders of the other fig. Thinking about it, cutting off the other head ain't no picnic either. There was then a bit of sculpting to bulk out the great mane of hair.

 The hound itself is something rather special. It's from the unreleased Chaos range, dated on the base 1987. I've had it a fair while now and have been meaning to associate it with the right figure at some point but until now hadn't found the right combination.

 The champion himself is based on the leader of a Khorne warband I rolled up sometime last year but never came to anything as my time was taken up with other painting commitments.

 Something I am particularly happy about is the fact I've managed to a) paint a Jes Goodwin champion and be pleased with the result, which has been a bit of a monkey on my back over the last few years and b) salvage a couple of figures from previous failed attempts. I've cut up a lot of Goodwin champs in my time and many of them have ended up in the bits box.

 I'm already working on the first member of the retinue so expect to see something on that very soon.

Citadel C23 Oriental Ogre

 As this Nippon warband has grown, it's been essential that I include the classic Jes Goodwin  oriental ogre as one of the stand out figures.

 He's actually a recent purchase (big thanks to Steve Casey there!) and I can't believe it's taken 30 odd years to finally get around to adding him to the collection.

 It goes without saying that's he's an incredible sculpt; plenty of lovely detail there. I particularly like the skull pommelled sword.

The warband gain some brute muscle in the form of an ogre

 So I've just got three figures to go to complete the warband. Well two actually as I've got one of them squared off already.

Citadel Samurai on Temple Dog

 I've decided to stick with the Nippon theme after thoroughly enjoying the three Oriental Heroes that I painted the other week. Up next is a Samurai riding Temple Dog.

Samurai armed with Yari, riding Temple Dog 

 This wonderful sculpt was, as far as I know, only available on the GW 1989 Easter sale flyer. The samurai was one of three possible riders, the other two being a hobgoblin and a dark elf.

To quote Warhammer Armies:

Temple Dogs are stone statues found guarding temple entrances in the lands on Nippon and Cathay. They resemble nothing so much as a cross between a giant pekinese and a lion. In times of war, the power of the temple gods is channelled into these statues to animate them. It is a great honour to mount this divine animal, indicating that the rider has found great favour with the gods.

The growing Nippon warband 

 Another figure that has been sat in a box for over 10 years, it's pleasing to finally get it painted up. I was unsure whether to paint the creature entirely as stone but in the end opted for a red skin to avoid it coming across as too drab.
 There doesn't seem to be many other painted examples around. I've seen a couple of the hobgoblin variants that have come out really nice but the samurai rider seems a bit aloof.

 I've plans for a small Nippon warband now I've a few painted so I'll stick with the Oriental Heroes while the enthusiasm is still there.

Citadel Oriental Heroes - Wu Jen and Samurai

 I'm all Empired out! There, I've said it. After over a year of pretty much nothing else, it's hit me that I need a change. Over the Christmas period I managed to do little but stare at various Empire figs with zero enthusiasm. I've therefore decided that 2019 will be more based around a 'I'll paint whatever shit that takes my fancy and less themed' procedure. And that's how it should be anyway, right?

 Something I've been wanting to paint for a long time now are some of the brilliant classic Oriental Heroes. I've finally managed to knock a few out; a Wu Jen and a pair of samurai.

 I won't go into all the history of this range as all you need to know and more is over at The Lead Pile where Colin aka Whiskey Priest posted a marvellous piece last year telling you all about them.

http://theleadpile.blogspot.com/2018/07/far-flung-cathay.html?m=1

 I think what has always put me off painting them is the challenging palette that comes with them. I have always found samurai armour very daunting to paint. Most of the ones I own were bought quite a few ago and have spent too long in a box.

Wu Jen with fan

Samurai with katana and wakizashi

Samurai with yumi

 The Wu Jen figure had been a target of mine for quite a while. I'd seen the odd one for sale on ebay for ridiculous prices (40 quid springs to mind) but finally managed to grab one for about a tenner. Then he too joined the others in a box until now. I can't think of a figure I've enjoyed painting so much in recent years.

 I'm really getting a kick out of painting these fellas so I may run with it for a little while longer.