Citadel Unreleased Chaos General and Counter Collect Chaos Warrior

 

 I've been meaning to make a start on a chaos warrior regiment but wanted a couple of ranks of broo finished first. The first pair are done and I've gone for two rarities to kick off.

 On the left we have a very rare model indeed. In fact, I only purchased this a couple of weeks ago and had never even seen it before, other than the image in the unreleased section of the Collecting Citadel Miniatures wiki page. I think it had been in my ebay watch list for about 12 years and was stunned to see it come up. I'm delighted to have been able to add it to the army and to be honest, never expected to ever get my hands on one. 

 On the right is the fairly scarce chaos warrior from the Counter Collect range from 1984. Basically, you would collect counters from blister packs that would form the image of a particular miniature; Wizard, Barbarian, Ogre etc, then send them off to claim the figure. This particular model is one of my favourite chaos warriors. I just love that armour and his elaborate mace. The shield is very unique also. 

 I don't always take photos of the backs of my miniatures these days but seeing how scarce these boys are, it makes sense to.

 There are more chaos warriors to come and should hopefully have another two or three ready next week, one being a converted standard bearer.

Citadel C33 Adventure Pack - Chaos General

 

 So with my broo regiment at a point where I can take a break, I've opted for the overall commander of my chaos army, the foot and mounted Chaos General from the C33 Adventure Pack series.

 Also doubling up as Dart, Earl of Harkness from the McDeath scenario, the Chaos General is one of four foot and mounted Chaos models from the C33 range. I've painted them all before in the past but he is the first to be repainted. All four are some of my favourite models of all time, for their style and unique design and were highly sought after by myself for many a long year, back in the pre Ebay days and took a lot of effort to finally land them. 

 The horses for this range are wonderfully detailed but they're damned time consuming to work on and I certainly won't be doing the other three in one hit. One a month may sound a little more realistic. 

 So the plan is to carry on with the chaos theme but I haven't decided to work on the third rank of the Broo regiment or Chaos Warriors yet. Or maybe something else.

 

Citadel Runequest Broo Regiment - second row finished

 So I've managed to get another row of five Runequest Broo wrapped up, featuring more of my personal favourites from the range.

Two of these favourites are One Leg and Tentacles. Both took a while to track down. They're both perfect as stand out individuals in the regiment.

 Unicorn is also a perfect example of the diversity this fantastic range offers. The small baboon-like creature just oozes that sinister weirdness. Exactly the sort of feel I'm after for this regiment. 

 I've mixed up the new with the first phase lot and the plan is to get another five done soon. I'm going to take a break from them for a short while to work on what will be the supreme commander of my chaos army.

 

2024 - Review Time!

 

 It's that time again, the annual review. 2024 for me, was dominated by the diorama remake which took up most of the year with a break thrown in halfway through.

 There's not much more I can say on it that I haven't already included in its completion post but it's satisfying to have it sat in the cabinet to a standard that I'm very happy with, rather than its previous incarnation that was looking very much tired and outdated.

 Taking a much needed break from the diorama around May, saw me attempt a few small projects but I couldn't manage to get anything finished so there were several weeks of frustration but I did manage to finally get something completed, a classic original Nick Bibby dragon ogre.

 Then it was back to the diorama and an intense and disciplined couple of months to get it all done so I could take on a smaller project before the end of the year, completing in November. 

 So, to see out the remainder of the year, I began working on a regiment of classic Runequest Broo, which is part of a plan to develop my old chaos army, which will include redoing a good deal of previously painted stuff, mainly chaos warriors that were done 25+ years ago. 

 Hopefully 2025 will see me take on smaller projects and will be able to post considerably more variety than this year. Apart from plenty of classic chaos models, I plan to work on a Rogue Trader Space Pirate gang plus maybe a small vignette but at the moment a definite theme hasn't been confirmed. 

 

Citadel Runequest Broo and Beastmen Update

 

 So I've been continuing with the Runequest broo but I've also included a rather rare treat into the mix: a Citadel pre slotta two-headed centaur beastman. 

 As far as I know, he wasn't part of the Citadel C38 pre slotta beastmen range, nor the C34 beastmen raiders. There's very little info out there on him from what I can see and I've certainly never seen any other painted examples of him either. I don't think I've even seen him listed on ebay since I bought this one and that must have been around 2017. 

 He's definitely quite a bizarre looking sculpt but he more than fits the broo aesthetic and just about squeezes onto a 25mm square base so ranks up nicely in the regiment. Also, he's armed with some rather contrasting weaponry; an oriental katana and a primitive, brutish club. Weird! Any more info on this fellow would be appreciated so please feel free to comment.

The ever-growing front rank of Broo 

 His comrade in arms is a classic Runequest Broo; one of the more extreme looking ones and definitely one of my favourites. I've currently got more on the go as well, plus another chaos personality, which should be wrapped up this weekend.

 

Citadel Runequest Broo

 

 So, after finishing the diorama, I took a good week or so to decide what's next. I've plenty of ideas lined up but ultimately, decided on some classic Runequest Broo miniatures. 

 I've been collecting Broo for a number of years now but have never felt it's the right time to actually crack on with them. Originally released back in 1983 (I think!), a lot of these guys featured prominently in Bryan Ansell's legendary chaos army. There are plenty of bizarre looking variants in the range and the two headed guy above is my favourite so I had to paint him first.

 The main thing that I had to think about was what skin colour I was going to opt for. I won't be painting all of them in the same skin tone but I decided on a greenish grey for the first few. 

 Some time back, I painted a classic Asgard Half Troll which will be represented as a beastlord and regiment commander. The plan is to paint a few of the broo and see how I go. Ideally, I'd like to get two or three ranks painted and now I've found a skin recipe, I feel this is pretty doable. I'm already working on more, so expect to see another broo post in a week or so.

Citadel Undead Diorama Remake - Completed

  Well, after the best part of a year, with a four month break during the summer, my diorama remake is finally complete. 

 I have to admit, the last month was a bit of a slog and I can't see myself painting anymore zombies anytime soon! There were one or two zombie new additions this time and one or two that missed out, mainly due to the smaller base size and I ran out of room.

 Another new feature is the tree which is a 3D print from the excellent Critical Terrain. Its presence against the skyline gives the whole piece an extra dynamic. It's the first time I've actually ever painted a tree and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. 

 Ultimately, I'm so glad I went for this, after a long time seeing the old version in the cabinet and feeling it wasn't up to scratch.

 So, I've spent the last few days wondering what will be next. I think the upcoming weeks will be spent working on single miniatures and keeping it simple, rather than any specific projects.