Creatures of Chaos- Part II

As fall starts giving way to winter you know what that means for my Warhammer and hobby activity: it begins to increase, or at least my blogging about it does. I have a lot of stuff that I have been completing in terms of Warhammer and a lot already photographed. In particular I have been hard at work on the repaint of my Wood Elf army which is now quite respectable in size. But enough of the heads up on where I'm at, onto the point of this blog entry: Creatures of Chaos.

As outlined in my previous entry on the matter here I purchased all three of the Creatures of Chaos from Langley Miniatures by Andrew Taylor. To recap, these are great sculpts and I was happy to support them; they also have a fair amount of other minis I'm keeping my eyes on for down the road. The minis are created very much in the vein of the miniatures that Citadel/Games Workshop/Marauder created back in the heyday of 3rd Edition Warhammer.

The minis themselves were a pleasure to paint with very few awkward areas. You know the kind I mean: some minis have areas, usually the undersides that are a pain to try and contort the hand and brush to reach to apply adequate paint coverage.

I decided to mount these minis on 50mm by 50mm bases as that would also allow me a fair amount of space to create some decorative bases in the style of 3rd edition Warhammer. By this I mean the look and feel of the 3rd Edition rule book and White Dwarfs at the time with their crazy painted mushrooms, simulated rushes/weeds and the like.

The only real "issues" I had revolved around the paint job of the cockatrice and the chimaera's lion head. In the case of the cockatrice the issue was trying to get the color right so it didn't look muddy or like a dark mustard. As with most photos its kinda hard to see as it shows a shade darker than it actually is. A cockatrice in terms of overall colors isn't quite as simple as it seems to begin with. To help with painting guidance, I did look at the Bestiary in the rule book, the 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monstrous Manual and the painted examples from the Langley Miniatures site,

With the chimera, the issue was trying to find the right balance of the lighter colors.

In the end rather than go with a tawny color as one might expect from a lion, I went with one that was more cream/ivory in terms of the shade making it more of a "white lion" (no, not the hair band from the 80s). At first it was a bit of a pain and was not coming out well. Part of this is because I undercoat in black rather than white. But in the end, like plenty of minis that I have done in the past that I thought would not turn out well I kept at it. And sure enough I got it to a point where it came together. This happens time and again and the best advice is to press on and keep painting!

In terms of use they have two primary uses for  armies in Warhammer. The ones that can make use of these minis in their army list are ones that have, imagine that! Thus they make appearances in my 3rd Edition Dark Elf and Chaos forces as a matter of course.

A few bonus pictures of the project.

For my next post I'll be turning back to my Wood Elf host for the first time in quite a while. Right now the army has expanded quite a bit including the fact that I now have over 80 painted Wood Elf Archers. In fact looking at the plans for the army, I have probably only four more units to go: Elven Lords (Calvary), another Treeman, 3 more wardancers for the second unit of 10 and a few packs of Animal Handlers aka Beastmasters. For these guys my plan is to use animals from the excellent Wargames Foundy Bears and Big Cats.

As to timing of these purchases? Yet to be determined...

Oh Yeah, that other area of Wargaming- Terrain

(Grrrrrr.... Once again my love/hate relationship with Blogger continues as this hosting platform ate a large portions of my changes to this post and for whatever reason auto-save did not work....)

As summer turns to early Fall here in North America I take a pause from my intensive construction of my Warhammer Nippon Castle and the start of Castle Von Wittgenstein. (as well as numerous Warhammer Fantasy Battle units for various armies) I got to thinking about the overall amount of time that I and I suspect others engage in when it comes to terrain. It is my contention that there probably isn't as much compared to actual painting and assembly of miniatures which is to be expected.This in a way is a sad thing because one of the most rewarding areas of the game in my mind and in way one of the cheapest is terrain. Certainly when one considers the cost of Oldhammer; i.e that almost any miniatures have to be purchased off of eBay and not so nice prices, terrain is cheap in comparison.

When I say lack of terrain, I'm not saying there was none in our games, but rather a decided lack of attention to it  to a large degree. By this I mean buildings, forests/woods, rivers etc,were present, but not large scale projects I mentioned above. Even back in the day when 3rd Edition was the current edition of the game, I don't recall creating as much terrain compared to the gold standard of what we saw in White White Dwarf. Sure, in my gaming group we had the main board (cut into 12x12 sections for ease of transport), some trees, hedges and fences but not much else. Buildings were taken care of by the Warhammer Townscape book, but none of us attempted to create more elaborate pieces.

As an aside: over time I purchased another Warhammer Townscapes Book years ago and since I inherited our old terrain as a gaming group I reckon I have about 1.5 sets of buildings from the two books. I say 1.5 because despite this I don't have all of the buildings due to various moves and some being destroyed over said time-frame.For those not in the know, Warhammer Townscape was a book of card-stock buildings that one folded and glued, looking like this =>

For me the lack of terrain is odd when you consider the totality of the hobby. Even though I saw some of the excellent buildings created by Dave Andrews in various White Dwarf articles, it wasn't until after the heyday of 3rd that I really started constructing my own buildings. But a funny thing happened when I did I start creating them, I did so in a style very akin to 3rd Edition. This is probably not as "funny" when I think about it, for example (Willmark's Homemade Warhammer terrain)

Now, I posted these years ago on Chaos Dwarfs Online and are a slection of some of my terrain and the the style is distinctive, atat the same time familiar. But even with these I still wasn't doing anything too new, as a lot of the pieces were right from White Dwarf (not that its a bad thing).

I guess when you put it all together, terrain is one of the most under represented parts of the hobby (to a degree) but one of the most universally praised? Or put another way, gamers love terrain, but usually the last thing created. This in and of itself is surprising for another reason when one considers terrain is actually one of the cheaper areas of the hobby.

Nippon Samurai Unit Complete – 25 Ashigaru/Ronin for Warhammer

Once again I've been working on again/off again Nippon mercenary force. I have got a lot of stuff on the bench right now but as we are in the waning month of summer here in North America my thoughts turn back to painting. So with that I finally finished up a unit for the Warband of Nippon: a unit of 25 samurai.

As with all of the units of this army I am making them flexible enough to be used in varying editions of Warhammer via the 2nd Edition Ravening Hordes to using the 6th Edition Dogs of War rules for later versions/

• When used in 2nd Edition they will be fielded as ashigaru with hand weapons.
• In 3rd Edition they fall under Empire as a "Count As" force. From that list they use the stat line for Eratzsoldier with light armor and hand weapons.
• For a true 5th/6th Edition Dogs of War force? Well they do not really fit at all unless I used them as Norse Marauders but the base sizes do not really work. With that said I do not really think I can use them as is in any form really as the Core choices for Dogs of War are pikemen and crossbowmen. The only thing that comes close for the 20mm bases in the Special Choices are dwarfs. Not really helpful there GW.

So without further delay here are the ashigaru/ronin/lower class samurai as promised. They are not the best unit I have ever painted but considering the stop start nature of them at least they are complete. I tried to keep the colors somewhat muted for most of the warriors as some later units will really stand out. These guys I wanted less flash but still painted a few brighter colors.

Anyone else with a Dogs of War or Nippon army force? I know of this very cool army here. 

Old Worlder Ally or Old Worlder Mercenaries?

As the title notes... but not really much of conundrum. The reality is these guys I just finished up could be used for one of three things in 3rd Edition Warhammer.

• Part of a small force of Bretonnians; unlikely as they are by far my least favorite army.
• Or as a Old Worlder Mercenary unit
• Or as a Old Worlder Ally unit.

As I outlined here these minis are from my very first army, Bretonnians... which lasted all of one battle before converting them to Empire. (see I disliked them even back then!) Through the years they saw a few different configurations, even buying 5th edition Bretonnian warhorses and repainting them. Fortunately for me I did save the horses they came with and had a vague idea of making them into a terrain piece: horses around a paddock. But as in my previous post I noted I wanted to bring them back to 3rd Edition. They were mostly in good shape but a fair number of the horse tails were missing so green-stuff to the rescue.

Regardless of how they are used there is still a further plan with them. I still have 10 more horses that I will expand to another unit. Once I have the riders for them I will split out the Templar painted knights for their own unit... Dues Vult! (Note- nothing more implied by that other then the Templars themselves.) These are left overs from my Imperial Knights who were rebased on armored horses and fit perfectly.

Like the rest of the mercenary forces I've used brown bases for them and added a few half-buried shields and mushrooms to give them that 3rd edition look and feel.

Anyways, here is the finished unit. Of special note is the Templar in the front row on the right of the standard bearer. He represents the first Warhammer minis that I ever painted. I've since repainted him a number of times and hopefully this is the last.

Part VII- Repainting the Wood Elf Force

I now turn back to a army that I haven't worked on in several months, my Wood Elves. As I last left the army it was at the state of adding my converted Wood Elf Dragon Rider. (Part VI described here).

This time around, I've churned out twenty 4th Edition spear-men for my 3rd Edition Wood Elf Force... Obviously they fill out the role of Warrior Kinbands in the 3rd Edition Army list.

Couple of points:

• I went with the 4th Edition range for several reasons, one being cost: the 4th edition range is not that hard to come by and the prices to round them out were fairly cheap. When compared to the 3rd edition elves they were significantly cheaper.
• Availability- Not to hard to find on eBay.the 3rd Edition elves with spears on eBay are bit more and usually in smaller groups. I was able to assemble the unit fairly quickly.
• Most importantly, I like the minis. I'm not sure the reasoning, but I've always liked these pointy ears.

So I started with 12 that I had bought years ago; stripped the old paint off and started at square one. Got eight more off eBay last fall and just got around to painting them. So without further delay the next unit to come off the bench.

As you can see I continued the autumnal feel with the basing. I also continued the green shields with the white swirl pattern to tie them into the rest of the army thus far.

Next up for this army is... I'm not sure. I have another unit of wardancers currently standing at 7 out of 10, and two units of 20 archers formed from metal command/hero minis and miniatures from the plastic Warhammer Fantasy Regiment box set.

3rd Edition Warhammer Chaos Dwarf Army list

Special thanks to orlygg for the scan and the ones that appear in the "army book" below.

Being the Mad Hatter that I am I decided a while back to post my "back-port" of a Chaos Dwarf Army list to 3rd Edition rules. I've been on the periphery of the Oldhammer movement, but felt compelled to give back by standing on the shoulders of those who got the ball rolling as it were.

For those not in the know, back in the 3rd Edition days the Chaos Dwarfs only appeared in two sections in terms of armies in the game and then not even in their own army. They appeared in Warhammer Armies: as part of the Chaos Ally contingent and as part of the Khornate army listed in Realm of Chaos- Slaves to Darkness. Even then, the Chaos Dwarfs were different than what would appear in the 4th Edition rules in their own "Army Book". From there there, the uncertainly of 5th through 7th editions until Chaos Dwarfs Online spearheaded a resurgence and brought them back from the brink of disappearing.

So with this in mind I attempted to create an army listing in the same vein as how they were presented in 3rd Edition, but using the organizing concepts of 4th Edition and beyond. That is to say I combined orcs and goblins into the list, even though in 3rd Edition they are listed as hating all dwarfs including Chaos Dwarfs. Oldhammer is what you make it and I'm not too worried about the 3rd Edition Warhammer police breaking down my door by breaking a rule. Then again, with Games Workshop Legal? Who knows...

Knowing a fair amount about graphic design and having produced both the Word of Hashut and Gold and Glory ezines it was a fairly easy task to replicate the look at feel of Warhammer Armies. The problem wasn't the design but rather it is my illustration skills which have atrophied over the years. Sot it was a lot of scans were in order, namely from White Dwarf, Realms of Chaos- Slaves to Darkness and Warhammer Armies.

Be warned, this has NOT been play tested so who knows how it will work! You'll also note that there is space for adding rules for the Chaos Dwarf Juggernaut. Strangely, Games Workshop created the model back in the 80s, but never created rules for it. The production run of the mini was limited and goes for quite a bit on eBay. At some point I'll add rules for the miniature and its accompanying crew.

For more details on Chaos Dwarfs in the 80s and early 90s, be sure to check the excellent site Realm of Chaos, a leading light in the Oldhammer movement.

The 3rd Edition Chaos Dwarf Army list can be downloaded here, let me know what you think.

Creatues of Chaos Incoming!

As if I don't have enough to paint already and adding to the fact that my painting desk is groaning under the weight of copious amounts of unpainted lead. What do I do? Of course, I purchase more minis. I've been eying the excellent range of Creatures of Chaos by Andrew Taylor for several months now and finally got around to pulling the trigger. Suffice to say I'm eagerly awaiting these guys from the UK.

My purchase was of the cockatrice, chimera and manticore with a toss-up between the chimera and manticore as to which one I want to paint first! NOTE: these are not my paint jobs:

If you are in the market for these guys, whether for role-playing games or for war-gaming you could do a lot worse. These guys look excellent and cant wait to get my grubby mits on them. Link to Langley Miniatures. I'll just have to remember to post my progress here as my various projects underway are scattered across multiple sites.

Lastly, more Old School miniatures in thesame vein goodness can also be found here, great stuff really.