A Warhammer Bestiary: Manticore

Ages ago I started a painting project, but like so many others before me, it became lost in the myriad of other projects that I started working on. It was called A Warhammer Bestiary and it was my attempt to paint one model for each entry in the Warhammer Third Edition Bestiary. Clicking on the link will take you through the models I have completed so far, that is the entire 'Intelligent Races' section from the book. I also managed to get a giant painted (the first entry in the 'Giant Races' section, obviously) before McDeath and a couple of other projects took hold. I just checked through my blog and discovered that I first started trying to work through the bestiary over two years ago, and that the last entry I posted was way back in March last year!

Rather by accident, I have started work once again on the project. I had a Jes Goodwin manticore lying around on my workstation for ages and ages, and last night, while I was working on one of this month's entries to A Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers, I slapped on a little colour and inked on the shading. He is way off my chronological list ( minotaurs are next for the project) but we can treat him as a detour like we did the treemen. 

As it was reasonably bright this morning (for winter) I put my entry to one side and cracked on with this beautiful beast. Surprisingly, he painted up rather quickly and I was very pleased with the result, though there are a couple of areas I would like to revisit on the mane and scorpion tail - but he will do for now. 

The background for Manticores can be found on p.256 of WFB3 and it states that these chaotic beasts were created as a side effect of the collapse of the Old Slann warpgates. They generally have a head of a man, and I painted my model to reflect this little nugget of information, the body of a lion, wings and some kind of prehensile tail, in this model's case - the tail of an arachnid, complete with sting! 

I tried out a few new things with this piece. Painting a decent orange was the first and most significant. Usually, my oranges come out either too muddy (looking like a yellow clay) or far too red, so I am really proud of the rich tone I have managed to bring out here. My secret? The Foundry yellow triad, oh and some careful highlighting too. 

Painting black can be tricky, so I was keen to try out highlighting the colour with blue on the tail. Andy Craig mentioned such a technique to me way back when, so I thought it about time I had a crack at it. It was fairly straightforwards- I selected a bright blue, mixed in a fair blob of black and basecoated the tail, slowly, I added a little more and a little more of the blue until I was using just blue as the final highlight. 

Having a read through the rules, Manticores are fearsome creatures on the tabletop and weigh in at an impressive 200 points each, 250 points if winged! So this model is one terrifying beast! Have a look if you are interested..

Right, I have a couple of other projects on the boil at the moment as I have already said, but hopefully it won't be months and months until I have another crack at a model in this one. I shall be returning to task next time, as I am supposed to be attempting to paint all of the models in the order they are listed in the Bestiary - so my next piece will be a minotaur!

Orlygg

The Mysterious Citadel Chaos Agent

Welcome to 2016. I have to say that I am glad we are getting a little more light now as the days are slowly becoming longer. With my will to paint now quite strong (and I have a number of little projects that I am working on at the moment) and with the need to complete fifteen skeletons by the end of the January, I felt its necessary to get going with brush, water and paint something. I chose this rather unusual model from the depths of my collection. 

He was part of a big job lot I bought a couple of years ago, I knew he was something unusual then, just from having collected these models for years, but I knew very little about him beyond him being some kind of follower of chaos. If your observe the detail on the model - and my photograph is too poor for you to do so here - you will see a tiny Khorne symbol on his chest badge. So he was clearly meant to be a follower of the Blood God in some way. 

I am an advocate of speed painting. It really does help strengthen your skills and can help get a greater number of models complete and on the table, if you can cope with the drop in finish (which I can). I set myself of two hours for this model and set to work. Most of my time was spent on the robe, which was built up in stages using layering. To each layer I added a little bit more yellow to slowly draw out the folds of the material. I spent just under an hour on that part of the model, which meant that I had an hour left for the rest of it!

The rope was simple. A brown base coat and wash (dried with a hairdryer) layered over with my Foundry triad for bone. This took all of five minutes to complete and I really cannot recommend Foundry paint and hairdryers enough! The flesh took a little longer to work out, but I ended up with a purply pink. It was at this point I realised that the face and hands were a little mis-cast and much of the fine detail obscured. I just painted the worse affected areas black and highlighted with a little grey. I don't think it looks too bad. 

With time running out, it was a case of a quick layer of dark silver on the blade and gold on the pommel of the dagger, and a quick highlight before work began on the base. I used my usual high speed retro method for the base and took advantage of what little natural light remained to snap this picture. 

All in all, I am pleased with the result but I was left wondering what range the figure really belonged to. So, I headed straight over to Solegends and the collection of Orclord. By my reckoning, the famed collector (who also goes my the strange moniker of Richard Hale) would have a decent painted version of him and I could find out a little more. I was in luck, as it seems he was originally called a Chaos Agent and was released with two zombies - one of whom was the Vietnam dressed example. This rang a bell with me somewhere, and I recalled fairly certainly that I had seen these figures in Rogue Trader packaging at some point - so perhaps they were part of 40k. 

Now as many of you will know, I am a Warhammer-centric painter and collector, and Rogue Trader doesn't really interest me much at all. The figure is still very useful to me as a character model for my Khorne army mind, and it was with such a purpose he was painted. But what did he have to do with Rogue Trader? I certainly don't recall seeing him in a White Dwarf, nor can I recall any associated rules for chaos agents and their zombies!

Luckily, Orclord has already found the answer to this mystery. It seems that they were produced as an expansion of the Chainsaw Warrior miniatures set, but were ultimately released with 40k packaging. More visual material can be found here if you are interested.

So the Chaos Agent has a bit of a strange pedigree. Designed for Chainsaw Warrior, released under the Rogue Trader banner and now serving as part of my old school Khorne army.

An interesting figure to own and paint.

Orlygg

A Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers: December

Published just time time to make my fellow gamer (Warlord Paul's) blog post out of date, points wise at least, I have returned to the business of A Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers after a long absence. Sadly, we have had quite a bit to deal with family and work wise and hobby time has been seriously reduced. My mojo has also been seriously drained by the bleak winter light, but inspired by the glorious output of many a Oldhammerer I have picked up the brush once again and set to work. 

The chaos warrior you see before you is the second model in my new Nurgle army, after the Palanquin of Nurgle I completed last time. If truth be told, I began work on this model in late October, and started work a proper in November. It has taken me just under two months to finish it. No wonder I am languishing at the bottom of our league table!

As with the palanquin model, I used the randomly generated charts in the Lost and the Damned to create the background to this model. There is a handy champion chart on p.209 and I rolled a d1000 to determine what my second character would have in terms of attributes. The dice came in with a lowly 44, so I hastily flicked through the book to find out what fate had in store.

Well, my second character would be a human and have Blood Substitution (maggots) and Agility as their attributes, along with chaos armour. You can field an infinite number of champions as part of your army, each costing 100 points at a base rate, so reaching the target each month shouldn't be too difficult, as if I am in a fix I can just roll off and create a new champion. The trouble is, some of them can turn out to be pretty weak and feeble, a bit like my leader, so there is always a risk. 

The model was pretty straightforwards to paint, if time consuming. As you might have guessed, I have painted A LOT of chaos armour of a variety of hues in my time, so finishing this was no real struggle. I used Foundry's bright green as a base before mixing in a little yellow and bleached bone to achieve the highlights. The shading was added using the same base colour I created with the addition of plenty of black and green ink. 

I quite like using red alongside green, so chose a fairly dark shade to pick out the gloves. I opted for a cheeky blue spot colour too, on the fiendishly faced codpiece! Gold, again Foundry, was used to pick out a few details here and there and silver drubrushing brought out the detail on the chainmail and sword. I used a series of glazes to cut back the brightness of the silver paint and make the figure look a little more dirty. 

The Lost and the Damned has some great ideas for iconography and I wanted to do something a little different on his shield. I chose the plague chalice design and painted it up on a yellow background (chosen to contrast with the green) but used a very similar green for the cup - to help tie the shield back in with the rest of the model. 

If you look at the chaos warrior model, you might notice that it has several maggots or worms wriggling from within. I painted these up using a nice pink created by mixing a dark red with pure white. I repeated the maggot idea on the shield - again to tie the two together. 

Having now completed two character models I am going to opt for a proper unit for January. As I love the old plastic GW skeletons, I am going to do a unit of them. In the Nurgle list, they are known as plague skeletons - and will need an undead hero or chaos champion to lead them. If I plan to paint 14 models - this will take me up to 140 points for the skellies plus whatever the leader of the unit will cost. Of course, If I upgrade the unit further I can probably reach 200 points, which would make up for the month of November that I missed. 

Right, I am off to finish a couple of other painting projects. 

Happy New Year!

Orlygg

Acceptable in the '80s: Marauder Mounted Chaos Knights and Dark Elf Shadow Scouts

Welcome back to Realm of Chaos 80s! If you are anything like me, you are probably thoroughly sated by the excess of the Christmas period and ready to settled down once again into something that resembles a routine. I am quite lucky as I still have well over a week off before the return to school and I always use this time to get a good bit of painting done, usually finishing off some of those projects that never quite made it through the rest of the year. 

Before I dust off the paint brushes and get started, let's discuss the next installment of Acceptable in the '80s: my history of the Warhammer Third Edition. By now we have reached December 1990 and things are really beginning to change at Games Workshop. Bryan Ansell, for so long the visionary behind the Warhammer Mythos, had been spending more and more time overseas expanding the company in the USA. The sale of the company was only months away. The first signs of the future of Warhammer and 40K can be seen... The beginning of the phasing out of RPGs, streamlining the rulesets and a major shift towards a much younger market. 

The Golden Age of Games Workshop was drawing to a close. 

Still, Citadel and Marauder still had plenty of gems to share with us as we shall see. 

Marauder Mounted Chaos Warriors

Now the first thing you notice about these models is how closely they resemble the 'on-foot' versions we talked about in September. If you are not sure what I mean by this then pop over to this article on the Marauder Chaos Warriors. They are obviously conversions based on the original models, with changes to the weapons (most notably the lance) and legs. I have always found it curious that Marauder didn't put out any more chaos warrior models, especially when you consider how popular the figures are, but there you go.

These models are now highly sought after with the collectors and the horse can often sell for £10 each! Personally, I much prefer the Citadel warriors myself but I can appreciate why these models still prove very popular with people today.

Its the painting that interests me the most though, especially those shields. The tree bough example (bottom left) we have spoken about before on this blog and is one of my favourite freehand shields. Like all great designs for shields and banners, its really quite simple but the orange background creates a great sense of brooding atmosphere. The second freehand design (bottom right) has always reminded me of a Tzeentchian chilli pepper but continues the theme of using a bright background with darker foreground detail.

A very effective combination.

The other two models sport the new plastic Marauder shields and these, though they paint up very well, spell the beginning of what we would come to expect, shields and banners with all the detail provided. The age of the freehand design being actively encouraged by 'Eavy Metal and Games Workshop generally was passing with the shift to a younger market.

Dark Elf Shadow Scouts 

Now I must admit to not really having taken notice of this little set of models before writing this article. Looking at the models now, I find that I really, really like them. They share some elements with Bob Naismith's original sculpts but that have a strong nautical flavour that makes them seem all the more piratical.

Again, the paint jobs on these models really bring out the feeling that these menacing chaps are reavers of the sea. Brought up on saltwater and slaughter. They are a worthy contribution to any Dark Elf force in my opinion. 

Orlygg's Commissions: Chaos Champion (Slambo)

Now that I have got my painter's block well and truly subdued, I have cracked on with another project I have had on the go for a while. That of the commission that Steve 'Citadel Collector' Casey made in return for a rare Alpine Dwarf model - which long term readers will know I have been after for a while. 

He was after a classic Citadel Chaos Warrior and a shield (one of the ogre face jobs that many of my chaos units have) and we spoke about suitable models. Eventually, we settled on Slambo and instead of just doing another shield, I suggested having a go at something I had been wanting to do for a while - painting chaotic little faces on the armour itself! 

Well that project is complete... As you can see here. 

I think Steve is happy with it. Hopefully, over the next few days I shall have a spare moment to wrap him up and send him off.

My next commission is something a bit bigger in scale!

A dragon!!

Orlygg

Orlygg's First Commission: Chaos Champion of Nurgle for Stuart Klatcheff

Stuart recently asked me to paint a miniature for him, as part of a trade deal and I was more than happy to do so. He had selected the famous 'pointy skeleton' example from his collection, with strict instructions to Nurglify him up. He wanted something a bit different for the shoulder pad and I suggested red, knowing from experience that a dark crimson works wonders with the plague lord. 

I used my now normal method to prepare the model for painting. A white undercoat followed by the base colours. Over this I liberally covered with my own homebrew ink wash, which is made up from chestnut, dark brown and a little red, and set aside to dry. This was the day before BOYL and I have spent the last couple of evenings working on him. The model was a bit of a departure for me as it was the first time I had used Foundry paints as I have to say, they are easily the best paints I have ever used. Gradually, I intend to move over to their system as my older pots run low. 

I bought the bone triad of colours and used them to work up the detail on the top half of the model. I found the paint to be quite fluid and didn't have to include as much water as I normally do to get the control I was after. Using each shade in sequence made things easy and the bone was soon worked up nicely. 

The shoulderpad was base coated in a red/brown ink mix and them highlighted up through adding additional blobs of red paint to the mix. The final highlights are pure yellow though, and I find that adding yellow in this way gives a very striking colour indeed. 

The cloak was an exact copy of the technique I used on my recent evil sorcerer model, only I used a different shade of green as my basis and worked up the highlight by adding the brightest bone shade in the Foundry triad. 

The sword was easy too, just a gold and silver basecoat washed over with a couple of layers of brown ink. I drushbrushed over the blade with progressively brighetr shades of silver but chose to leave the gold untouched, save for a fine bright silver highlight on the hilt. Over this I added my homemade verdigris wash to help age the weapon and give it that Nurgle look.  I added a couple of gemstones to the pommel using the standard method for such things. 

I wasn't sure whether to do just my standard base or to add static grass or flock, so in the end I opted to do both. Overall, I am very pleased with the result and I hope that Stuart is too. I have a section commission to do shortly, as soon as a suitable figure can be found, for Steve 'Citadel Collector' Casey, which will be a little more ambitious and involves something I have wanted to do for sometime. Keep your eyes peeled for that when it comes! 

Orlygg

Showcasing My Realm of Chaos Armies for the Oldhammer Weekend

With the packing complete, all I have left to do is write up the armylists Stuart and I will be using in our Realm of Chaos game. I am planning on including as many models as possible, but it will ultimately depend on balance. I don't want one force more powerful than the other so we have a fair game. Personally, unbalanced games are neither thrilling nor rewarding to play. Though, of course, balance isn't really the point of a RoC game. As you can see, my new wargames table is just the right size to accommodate forces of this size, though its plain to see why next year's board will need to be twice this size! 

In preparing these shots, its was the first time I had actually fielded everything from the Khorne and Slaanesh armies at once and the sight was indeed satisfying. One questions I get asked a lot is 'how long did  it take to collect and paint two old school armies'? Well, I worked on the two armies here and there over period of about three years. At the basis of both armies are the small warbands that Dan and I used during our Realm of Chaos campaign in 2010-11. Back then, we had about twelve models a side. Now, the armies consist of much larger numbers. The Khorne army has about sixty models in it while the Slaanesh one has about forty. 

I am so pleased with the 'look' of my board that I shall be using exactly the same method and resources to build by larger table next year. With this in mind, I shall at some point start adding flock and grass to my miniature bases to help things blend in a little better. Not that its a huge problem, as you can see the old school style of basing I use fits in perfectly with the board at the moment. 

One thing I am in two mind about is the use of gradients on a wargaming table. The slight hills I build using polystyrene and plaster look great but can be a bit annoying when it come to ranking up models. I will have to play a few games before deciding whether or not to include such things next year. 

Onwards anyway, this blog is not about my wonderful new wargaming table but about the models themselves. What will follow is a comprehensive look at each of the units I intend to use in the game tomorrow. Let's start off with Slaanesh shall we!

Slake-Sin's Throng of Exquisite Pleasure

Slake-Sin and his honour guard. His seer, Jesterspite, can be seen to the left. 

Slake-Sin lie span twists back before the founding of the Empire. Born an elf, he found himself loathing the subtle ways of his people and found joy in the hedonistic pleasure cults that existed openly in Elven culture in those days. Eventually, his desire for sensation lead him to the Northern Wastes were he learnt to serve a new master, Slaanesh. Serving in the Court of the Twisted Sodomite for millennia, Slake-Sin fought in the aeon long struggles that rage in the Realm of Chaos, caring little for the candleflame lives of mortals in the world to the South. This has changed in recent years, with his patron concerned about the influence a major rival of his is having over the Khornate champion, Ulthur Deathfist. Slake-Sin has been ordered south in pursuit of the Deathfist, and to end his reign of slaughter. 

Slake-Sin is armed with a flail and is a level 20 sorcerer to boot. He is fielded alongside 9 of his most decadent Chaos warriors and marches beneath his magical banner. 

To his left can be seen one of his chaos sorcerers, the level 15 sorcerer, Jesterspite, Slake-Sin's personal valet and seer. 

Bullnip the Wailing leads his centaur followers. These troops act as Slake-Sin's advance guard and scouts, bringing his information about his enemies. They ride ahead and torture those they find in the most depraved and hideous fashion. 

Veteran of his Realm of Chaos campaigns, these centaur have followed Slake-Sin for many years. Originally a great herb, but endless combat has whithered their numbers to a mere five. Insane and violent, these creatures exist solely to destroy their hated foe - followers of Khorne! They are lead by their champion, Bullnip the Wailing. 

Susak Lee's Slaves to Sensation- a chaos thug unit ten strong.

Susak Lee began life in Cathay. After a long career as a pirate around the Oriental coasts he fell beneath the sway of Slaanesh. Converting his crew to view his inhuman delights as the only true way of serving any god, they set sail to the North and found themselves involved in the skirmishing that rages between warbands around the boarders of the Realm of Chaos. Not long in the service of Slake-Sin, Susak Lee's original champion was Slain by Jesterspite during a small battle in Troll country. With the champion dead the carnage ceased, and Slake-Sin's seer offered Susak and his followers a position in their force. Armed with a magical weapon, Susak is a Level 10 champion.

To the left, Balndidir can be seen. She has worked tirelessly as Slake-Sin's agent among the people and lands of Empire, and his been instrumental in located the Deathfist. She lost a large part of his warband during a recent skirmish with Grimgrunt, the Deathfist's second in command, and has subsequently slipped down the rankings. She is still a powerful sorcerer, though somewhere inside her soul she suspects that she is on the slow decline of spawnhood. This is something he hopes to chaneg in the coming battle. If Slake-Sin won't notice here, then she will make sure her patron will! 

Much of Slake-Sin's force is made of of beastmen, most of which have marched with him from the Realm of Chaos. Slitherlimb, one of Slake-Sin's lesser champions, has been rewarded with charge of their lustful filthy ways. 

Sliktherlimb is one of those champions content to serve another, happy to accept the scraps or treasures that are passed down to loyal followers. He leads the large beastmen unit of 15 souls against the enemies of Slake-Sin. Level 15 and armed with a magical weapon, he sings of the joy of killing the hated foe. The unit is armed with a magical banner. 

Throgg the troll, lurks to the right of this unit. A longstanding follower of Slake-Sin and a member of his force since the very early days. Utter and totally stupid, but devoted to his master and the pleasures he offers. 

Jaketh. Sorcerer for pay. He delights in gathering chaos items and exploiting them for his own advancement. 

Jaketh is a level 20 sorcerer and in pay of Slake-Sin. Though devoted to the power that chaos can provide, Jaketh worships chaos as a whole and cares little for the whims of individual powers. He is happy to serve all, as long as the price is right, and brings with him considerable knowledge of the monsters that lurk in the dark forests. he has gone as far as to bewitch one of the giant spiders that live in the Forest of Shadows to serve his paymaster's needs. 

Grubshat. The ensorcelled giant spider. 

Grubshat is a giant spider. Jesterspite discovered this beast wounded near the Old Forest Road after it had been hunted by goblins. Healing it with perverse magic, the spider now blindly followers it master, chittering happily when ever there is flesh to be rendered from bone.

Gluttonspoor and his minotaurs. Fickle in their allegiance, these beasts could easily end up on either side. For now, they serve Slake-Sin, as long a fresh meat is provided daily. 

Finally, Guttonspoor and his minotaur killers. Like Jaketh, this beast of chaos fight for money and do not care which God they align themselves too. Having fought for and against all the major powers over these years, this terrifying beasts could even switch sides mid battle to best suit their depraved needs. 

The Host of Ulthur Deathfist

The Deathfist and his chaos retinue. Level 25 and armed with a chaos weapon and a magical axe that can destroy undead, he is a fearsome sight. Expect to see this unit in the thick of the action. 

The Deathfist is feared across the forests and scrublands of the Old World. The most successful chaos leader in one hundred years is slowly building his influence, having spent the best part of three years fighting against rivals within the chaotic community. Shamed by his defeat by the undead, Ulthar hates all undead creatures with a passion, though his hate of the feeble minded followers of Slaanesh runs deeper still. Ulthur has little interest in reaving souls amongst the weak mortal humans and elves that live around his area of operations, preferring the challenge of his own kind. He plans to crush Slke-Sin once and for all, before marching north to carve himself a kingdom in the Chaos Wastes. 

Chaos marauders and Chaos thugs. The units are unnamed but are lead by Ulthur's up and coming champions. Axelicker the Bound leads the thugs, while Jon Flamehaired leads the marauders. Both are dangerous fighters. and level 15.

Following a strict heirarchy, the youngest warriors must serve amongst the thug units in his retinue. Once they have proved their worth they move up into the heavily armoured ranks of the Marauders. The lifespan of these fighters is often short and brutal, but the glory in violence which they aspire to is welcome reward. Ulthur hopes to expand on this units in future and is always on the look out for magical artefacts to construct banners for his followers. 

Brune, a level 15 champion, and a veteran of many skirmishes. 

Few beastmen remain in the Deathfist's ranks. The psychopathic rage these creatures display is almost suicidal and they live only to bath themselves in the blood of their enemies in the service of Khorne. Their leader, Brune, is the sole remaining beastman from Blandidir's host. 

Ubba Axesplit in his chariot, a gift from his brother. Borak Splinteraxe looms on the right. His orders are to maintain the chariot and preserve the missile units.

Borak Splinteraxe is a successful chaos champion in his own right, but like all dwarfs seek a lord to serve. Borak brings with him ranks of missile weapons and maintains the chaos chariot bequeathed to Ulthur's brother, the vile Ubba Axesplit. He has his own retinue of chaos warriors. More thoughtful than meany of his companions, the dwarfs serve Ulthur to serve themselves. One day a stronger more successful lord may arise, and on that day Borak will depart and make a new contract in chaos. 

Ulthur is no fool and knows from experience that the magical fire his forces take needs to be countered. Hence he has employed a unit of dwarf projectile weapons. Their targets will be lightly armoured throops and wizards. The bazooka team also specialises in taking down gigantic creatures. 

Borak's Meatmanglers are a crack unit of projectile specialists. They prefer to kill at a distance and delight in the carnage they can create. Two small a unit to make a difference in the battle line, this troops have often been battlewinners for Ulthur. If faced by overwhelming odds, Borak will retreat. In his view, Khorne can be better served by fighting another day than dying needlessly. 

The World Famous mange is lead to battle by Ogpog from the East.

Finally, Ogpog of Mourngal, Ulthur's beastmaster. he is in charge of the chaos hounds, including Ulthur's beloved hound, Mange. This hobgoblin from the far east, specialises in finding gaps in the enemy line for his dogs to exploit. Creeping around the enemy's flanks is another favourite of this creature. 

Well, there you have it....

I am off to finish off my armylists and ensure that Stuart and I have everything that we need for tomorrow. If you have a chaos warband and you want to join the fight, please side either with the Deathfist or Slake-Sin.

See you at BOYL!

Orlygg

Inspirational Chaos Army by Edward George Gladdis Part 3

Good morning, well its morning here, and welcome to a final stroll through the Chaos army of Edward George Gladdis. As we have seen previously, he has quite a large force made up from models take from the Citadel ranges from the early to mid '80s, with a few later '80s models thrown in too. In this first photograph we have models that fall into that criteria. These are all single piece castings from the mid '80s that didn't make it into the later famous Realm of Chaos ranges. They may not look like the traditional chaos warrior but these models are varied and imaginative even if the sculpting is less precise in places. 

Here we have the on foot versions of the models we discussed in a previous post. In fact, I have really grown to like the idea behind them. One purchase gives you two versions of the same model, one mounted and the other on foot. Its shame that this concept didn't continue as I would love to have some mounted versions of some of the later chaos champions. 

Slambo drops in to say hello before getting stuck in with his matching axes. Probably the definitive chaos warrior in my opinion and a fantastic model. The other two chaos warriors in this image are also of note as they are some of the few that suggest a more oriental origin. Chaos samurai on the left and a chaos ninja on the right? These models seem to have a slightly different colour scheme. The metal effects seem much more precise and smooth but are simple enough to match the previous tones. It is worth reminding you here that Edward has been working on this army for some 17 years so some inconsistencies are going to occur. Not that this ever actually matters when models are based and fielded of course. 

This chaos sorcerer makes a welcome change from all the chaos warriors. He is accompanied on his chaotic travels with one of the more common famous familiars sculpted by Jes Goodwin. Many of these were still available up until recently and are a joy to behold for their imagination and variety. These models are very well executed and I particularly like the green, yellow and pink scheme on the sorcerer himself. Though the red tone on the familiar is very rich and just goes to show what can be achieved with a dark basecoat. The white start on the model's forehead adds super detail that helps bring the smaller model to life. An idea well worth copying in my opinion. 

What follows are a series of photographs that show off the chaos warriors in Edward's collection. They are a mixture of slotta and preslotta much like the models we have seen previously. 

And to finish this review off a final single piece. None other than a Jes Goodwin Chaos Champion from 1987. This is a fantastic model and has really been well presented here. Two motiefs well worth stealing here are the chequers (very John Blanche) and the gorgeous flames on the boots. The yellow face with the pink lips create a good contrast with the red and black of the rest of the model and help draw attention to the facial features of this model. 

Do you have an old school army that you think we would be interested in seeing? Just let me know and I will gladly share your collection here in a future post. 

Big thanks to Edward for taking the time to post up these shots of his collection. i have really enjoyed putting these posts together and have been inspired to try some new ideas in my own work. I hope you dear readers feel the same. 

Orlygg

Inspirational Painted Chaos Army by Edward George Gladdis Part 2

No sooner do I publish a little article about the work of Edward George Gladdis than he posts more lovely models on the Facebook group. So I am going to have to do a second post to have a closer look at his chaos cavalry. As you will have noted in the picture above, these models follow the now familiar scheme of colour we discussed earlier with a little variation created with different coloured tassels. I like this idea and its a useful one for anyone trying to produce a lot of models for a unit in s small amount of time. 

Again all the models here are preslotta chaos warriors and the spectacular command model (with the mutated mouth) is one of those mid '80s mounted chaos warriors that came with a foot version. You can see Edward's painted version of this model in the previous post of his work. Of note here are the shields Edward has used to finish off these models. They are the rare metal ones produced by Citadel before the adoption of the plastic sprues that came in the later '80s. They are very collectible and can be quite pricy, especially the ones with the sculpted faces. For more information about this range look here. 

Okay, lets have a closer look at each of the models.

Well, I hoped that was as inspirational for you as it was for me. Considering that I have a bunch of (albeit later) chaos knights on the work bench in front of me, these images couldn't have come at a more useful time. With three weeks to go to the Oldhammer Weekend (BOYL) and holidays commencing there is plenty of time for me to get stuck into the lead pile and get some lovely models of my own completed.

Orlygg