Tilean Adventurer riding Culchan

 I have continued to make an effort to gradually reduce the pile of half finished figures on my work desk. This latest offering has been kicking about either on the desk in a box of other started projects for about 8 years and I've finally chalked it off the list.

 For many years I have wanted to paint a character riding a culchan after seeing two such examples in the 1988 Golden Demon Fantasy Miniatures book back when I was a kid. They are both radically different styles; a rather typically vivid and chaotic ensemble by Graham Pritchard and a more conventional example from Brian Moore. Both I admire a great deal and have inspired me to produce this piece of mine.

 The character is originally a Lord of the Rings Rohirrim figure which I hope I have managed to detract it from its former identity just by giving him a brighter colour scheme rather than any conversion work. The culchan, a fantastic fig designed by Nick Bibby is, I believe somewhat quite sought after these days. In addition, I have built a fur throw, saddle cloth and saddle bag out of green stuff and added a pair of Orc head trophies (orginally extras from the Elf Mounted Characters range) and an extra spear and bag; I don't even know if they are Citadel or not. I can't even remember where I acquired it.

Tilean Adventurer, Orlando De Chiaro

A close up of the brace of severed Orc heads

Belial, Champion of Khorne

 Whilst plodding on through painting Empire troops, I decided to wander off on a slight tangent and make plans on yet another Chaos Warrior unit.
 After shortlisting several Chaos Champions I opted for this one; he's not my favourite of the range to be honest nor is he the most satisfying paint job I'm ever going churn out - but hey, he'll do.

So here is the first of what will be a fairly small sized unit; Belial the Unruly.

As usual I have gone for one of the classic SH1 metal shield range.

Empire Standard Bearer....but what banner to use?

 Continuing my Empire Halbardiers unit, I have added a standard bearer. Although I am personally happy with the way he is already, I feel he could do with an actual banner.
 I'm a bit undecided on what to go for at the moment. An issue I do have with banners is that they can obscure part of the figure or even large areas of surrounding ones when assembled in a unit when regarding display purposes.

Help!

Empire Marienburg Halberdiers

 Sticking with the Empire theme for the moment, I have made an attempt to start a Halberdier unit. This pair are both sculpts from Aly Morrison; the one on the left being from the Marauder Miniatures MM60 Fighters range and the the fellow on the right from the F2 Dogs of War series.
 The rest of the unit are likely to be Perry sculpts but should all fit in together regardless. I've gone for a Marienburg colour scheme (not blue as such) but keeping with orange and sticking to a generally bright uniform.

Emperor Karl Franz

 It's been exactly a month since my last post. Over the Christmas period, I had intended to get plenty of painting done, especially as I decided to break up from work early as well. It didn't exactly pan out like that, however, with a combination of not having decided on what to work on as I wait on purchasing some more Elves and the usual festive distractions.
 Anyway, I finally decided on having a crack at this guy. I've always been a big fan of this figure and I think his face is one of the best ever sculpted but he is challenging and I have attempted him a few times in the past and not been happy with it.

 I have to say that the griffin was mind numbingly boring to paint. I decided to go for a lot of neutral colours to contrast against Emperor Karl; not that he looks very brightly coloured in these photos.

I also opted out on painting its skin in a tiger pattern like a lot of other painted versions out there as it didn't seem to go with the shade of fur I'd already given it. Well that's my excuse! 

Skarloc, the first of many Elves - I hope!

 I have always admired the wonderful Jes Goodwin Warhammer Elf range but until a week ago never really had the urge to collect them; I guess I have always been absorbed in too many other projects. I did own Skarloc's Elf Archers and the Chariot when I was a kid but they have been long gone from my possession.
 After spying one of the Elf Captains (which I did end up winning) last weekend on ebay I began pouring over catalogue pages of all the other Elves from that range and it went from there really. It's going to be a long term project and something I can collect slowly over time. In recent years my wanted list has been pretty thin as I pushed to finish my collections a long time ago. I definitely miss the thrill of the chase when it comes to collecting miniatures so an Elf army will no doubt rekindle that feeling.
 Anyway, for starters here is Skarloc of said Elf Archers; one of the few Elves I already had kicking around in my boxes. He's not the original one I owned from my childhood but one I bought off ebay a few years ago just because he was going cheap.

  These are the first checked trousers I have painted for quite a few years. Have wimped out a few times recently due to a bit of self doubt but these seem to have come out okay.

Amratha Mangorer - Arch Demon of Chaos

 While I'm in between Beastmen I have decided to focus my attention on a figure that had been sat around basecoated on my desk for months. It's always a shame to see a fig that's been started and not finished just sat around in half painted limbo as I've mentioned on previous posts somewhere. Anyway, new house/painting desk, new regime! I was very glad to have him completed after so long and I plan on getting the build up of others like him finished off in the forthcoming weeks/months.

This fabulous sculpt, Amratha Mangorer from the Citadel C28 Giant Demons range was one of the stand out figures when I turned the pages of the 3rd Citadel Compendium for the very first time, way back. 

A long overdue and most welcome addition to my forces of Chaos.