A bit of make-up and new friends - 40K Chaos part2

My chaos spacemarine leader got some luv' and some make-up with teh help of the incredible guys from Hobby shop in Grenoble. If you ever come here, pay them a visit, they rock.

They helped me get the hang of what I wanted this army to look like.

There still is a lot to paint on this one, but this is the result I'm aiming with this army, black, dark, dark black and black dark. There will only be light touches of red and metal where needed but no gold or shiny bling for these lads.

I also dug in my dead lead box and found these littles guys I massacred when I got them 15 years ago. I had to strip them from their 47 layers of thick paint and repair the damage done by unskilled converting and now I can sing "different strokes" when putting these guys on the table as chosen.

hey hee, hey hoo... Well... Chaos squats

Squats were weird with their drunken biker feeling, chaos squats on the other hand always looked fine to me and though these minis are really tough to paint, i felt like ding them justice...

Since I want this army to have a vintage vibe with the dread and some other pieces, I will also add full units of chaos traitors, but everything in its time... For now it's gonna be TERMIE TIME !
The termie lord is an absolute must-have for any reasonnable chaos player/leadaddict. I wanted to give him an Horus feel and decided to just add him the lightning claws from the termie sprue (though this sprue really sucks compared to lots of others).

Chaos terminator lord with lightning claws

The chaos terminator lord sprue is kinda like the terminator sprue, it sucks. Nonetheless, I took it because I wanted to have as many entries I could and I wanted to use the daemon weapon on a sorcerer. I also like for sorcerrors to have a hand using something else than guns orthings like that, I like them to cast spells or in this case to open a copy af Harry Potter to unleash hell on their foes. I'm currently working on an Arhiman version casting a spell with his free hand.

Chaos terminator sorcerer with daemon sword

Don't know what else to say...

At the dawn of an army - Battle Undead part1

Ok, now

Here's the last army I started for WFB (mimics creepy voice), an UNDEAD army. How cool can it get?, you don't care about your soldiers dying, THEY'RE (un)DEAD !

I'll stick to my rule and start with giving these lads some leaders to go ta battle.
Since the army general is of great importance for such an army, I had to give him everything I could to help him on the field.
Vlad von Karstein is an absolute hit for me, I really love the dark nobility in him and your really feel through the mini this guy isn't here for fun.
I also love the rules for Mannfred von Karstein and the fact he can mount nearly everything attracted me. I chose the Varghulf with an alternative head :

And because everybody needs somebody, I felt like givin't Mr Longteeth here a nice lady. The female vampire GW sells was one of the only options when I started (the new Isabella wasn't released) but her head was just not what I wanted. Though her head kinda sucked, I remembered how great and noble the one from Lucrezia Belladone is and I tried some surgery to mix both minis :

I know what some of you will say and you'll be right, the upper part is nothing more than a copy of the actual mini. I'm not planning on copying minis or anything but I wanted to try to copy parts to be able to reproduce in large numbers some of the conversions I made for large units. It also saved my life for 2 chaos dragon-ogres of mine missing the tail part that I was able to copy this way from a mini I got on Ebay.
Anyways, this is done with an excellent mix called Silligum which consists of two gums which solidify but remain flexible in just 5 minutes, you just pour resin in the mould and 10 minutes later you have an excellent copy of the part you wanted. This method cannot allow to copy whole minis but only parts and it's just fine the way it is...

So now...
We have a fine couple missing something..., undead are not known for being great parents but maybe they can take good care of a pet like a giant werewolf?
Since th Varghulf cannot fly, its mini doesn't need wings, and since I already used its mini as a mount I needed something else. The idea of a giant undead werewolf poped into my mind and turned into this.

Bits from a chaos spawn, legs from archaon's mount and the head from a chaos hound (plus minor green stuff addings).

Since the photos uploaded here aren't the best to show clearly what it's all about, I'll undercoat them or take new ones.

For now...

At your command - Battle Chaos part2

Okay now, we've seen before that we have our Chaos champion and a sorcerer friend of his to lead the chaos band to war. I also decided I wanted to use satanic iconography, not because of any personnal belief but just because I believe it fits a Chaos army as well as any other thing.

One of the main inspiration I used for the devices on the flags and even the choice of colors comes from the comics "Requiem" and the tatoos and spiritual drawings you can find in here. If you don't know this comic by Pat Millls and Olivier Ledroit, I highly suggest you to read if you don't mind about violence, moral deviance and superb drawings.

The first units to come were with no surprise 2 blocks of 15 (well 16 since it started a few editions ago) Chaos warriors. I'm going for a black armour with a bleached bone cape. The aim is to use as few colours as I can to keep a strong link between the units :

Weapon and shield unit command

Weapon and shield unit command

A few pets to follow my men and keep them warm at night would be pretty nice too not to mention they are absolutely brilliant as cannon fodder or to be a pain in the ass (a flank can do just as good).

Chaos pets

I will develop the army's background and fluff but the idea so far is that it doesn't come from the wastes as chaos warbands usually do but rather from some Imperial province or somewhere in Bretonnia. These Chaos warriors are disciplined, they are well equiped and they follow military strategies rather than just running towards the ennemy. All this discipline vanishes when in close combat where their rage explodes and they just become maniacal butchers.
The talent of Lothar, the champion mentionned in part1, is to have added to this discipline the raw and brutal force of bands he has encountered in his path. I've added units with a less refined look which was a good occasion for using these incredibles Jes Goodwin Chaos warriors :

The rank and file of the plastic warriors is less interesting so I only showed the champion, musician and banner. For the old wariors, each of them is a wonder to paint. I'll update with more of these guys, and the champion I converted for them with the musician and the standard bearer.

Then we'll see the other elements Lothar has gathered around him like beastmen, snakemen and so much more...

More to come...

At the dawn of an army - 40K Chaos part1

Since I'm showing the fondations of my latest armies, here is a special one.
I've been collecting minis for more than 20 yeras now and I began with loads of Jes Goodwin chaos champions, warriors and 2nd ed eldars. I then started collecting chaos space marine with the release of the 2nd ed Codex. The army I began at that time had a weird color device which made it look like Christmax trees because I was very fond of Khorne and Nurgle and had the idea a Dark angel green and blood red army would be über-awesome. Though a lot of my mates told me it looked like shit at the time I never changed a thing.

Until I faced the truth and admitted I neede a serious army. I will probably show some of the old stuff later on but for the time being I will give the start to the mk2 version.
My will for this one was to convert an army of chaos marines a short ime after the Horus Heresy or after it has turned Chaos.
... And I wanted no horns, I mean NO HORNS.
 I don't know why the guys in Nottingham decided that space marines gone bad would want to wear horns like barbarians of old time but I don't like them. Maybe for a few Khornate legionaires maybe.  I decided to give chaotic backpacks only to champions and heroes (the first to get the attention of their new gods).
The new style GW have given to the dark vengeance is for me a crowning achievemnt, a very good compilation of th old look and a nice futurist style with awesome sculpt.
But this army was begun 2 years ago, it's why you won't see dark vengeance stuff right now (we see metabrutus everywhere anyway).

Tis is the leader of the army :

The photo is not clear but I'll updat ewith clearer pics. The thing is he is a good combo of sorcerer/lieutenant/chaplain styles that allow me to play him in the role I want. I only used plastic components and nothing more than glue in an attempt to do like Aly Morrison or Jes Goodwin in some of their articles. The use of this body on a ruin gives the impression he is going to take of to jump on some poor soul.

From the back, you can see how I managed to grow him some sort of Twisted fly wings on the backpack :

A great addition for a retro feel (and now a good metabrutus) : The chaos dreadnought.
This one will be painted in a near future as I want to link him with the new version.

For those who lurk on ebay, chasing for antic stuff and and remnants from the golden era, you can quite easily find old heavy weapon chaos sprues. I bought a fair load of them to equip as many people I could. You can find a missile launcher, an autocannon and a conversion beamer. The conversion beamer being just for thecmarines nowadays, i found mine a good place in the hands of... Well, I'll tell you later.
The missile launchers were for the marines since it's a quite versatile weapon to give them.

They fit so nicely on a normal missile launcher they seem to have been made fo this exact purpose. At the moment I glued the back packs, I realised it was a blessing to have chosen to give the "rank and file" marines a simple imperial pack since it wouldn't have fitted with chaotic ones... :D

The autocannon also fits very nicely on the Termies but you'll have to wait for pics of them.

Cheers everybody.

At the dawn of an army - Battle Bretonnia part1

Today is gonna be the presentation of how I began my Bretonnian army.

Bretonnia is the only army I've ever collected that can be considered in the "good guys" box. There will be Eldar in some time but I don't really consider them good but more on the "I don't give a shit, I do what I want" style like Honey badgers.
So why Bretonnians?
- Well because they have plenty of knightys and we all agree that Knights are cool,
- because they have hot chicks and that can be considered cool too
- because they rely a lot on medieval France and though I'm no nationalist, I kinda like the idea to relate them to real places.
- last but not least, I had had an idea of doing a "holy grail" themed army for a time.

As I said, Bretonnia is strongly linked to France and most of its name come from real french places.
It's with this idea in mind I began my army.
Since I come from a great region called "Bresse"


I decided I would have this region as a start for my army. With a bit of imagination you could place my region in the vicinity of Quenelles :

Bretonnian map

And as you may or may not know, Quenelles (in french)  just happen to be a special recipe of my region :

Quenelles are a delicious specialty - They feel so right in my mouth gaaawd

I believe this is no coincidence since you can find many easter eggs like this one in all the Bretonnian fluff.

But let's get to point, I mean minis !

Just like I do as usual, I always pick up a Champion or a hero to get the feeling I want for my army.
But just before that I had to choose a device for my army and I obviously chose that of my region : Bresse to fit the purpose:

The device is perfect fo me since it's a common one for which you can easily find decals and it's the one on Louen Leoncoeur's shield and gear. But since I had no will to paint a lion on all the minis, I decided that blue would be the color given to the Duke to all his knights with his own device and that the white lion on blue device would only be carried by him, his heroes and unit leaders (you'll undestand better with the pics).

And there came this guy :

I guess you can all feel the good "holy grail" vibe from him...
I had the idea to do the whole army like this and then a whole unit and then I realised I would go lacking different minis to do it easily and I just decided this guy would be a champion.

Since no Brettonian army can exist without a hero and a great banner bearer I made these :

The standard bearer is supposed to have the armory from Normandy (where my wife comes from) and I did from the memory I had of it.

EPIC FAIL, .... BIG TIME


The lions on the shield are facing THE OTHER WAY MORON.
Like in here :

Too bad for me, guess I'll just have to hide this one from all my friends in Normandy and to all of my step family...

At the dawn of an army - Battle Chaos part1

As I'm beginning this blog with the intention to share my vision and love for old lead and even recent plastic, I'm fully aware that there are already numerous and brillant people who are already doing an amazing  like Delaney King, Nico or Three Nurgle Flies to name a few.

I believe love of minis is like the others and is even stronger when shared.

Though my intention is to show some old lead, i fell like starting this blog with the start of armies.

I've always collected armies for the coolness of their minis and the opportunities they bring when it comes to conversion and painting. This should explain why a lot of what you'll see in these pages is chaotic and strongly linked to the two bibles that the realm of chaos books are.

But let's get to the point.

When I'm thinking about a new army, I want it to be lead by a badass motherfucker. Nobody wants to have an army that took years to paint lead by a quiche-eater who will shit his pants at the first enemy.

It's why a few years ago I decided to make an army of my collection of chaos champions and  various chaotic stuff.

And it came out I had a pretty good Idea of what I expected to be my leader from memories of Frazetta and Bisley drawings. My poor modelling skills gave birth to this guy :

His name is Lothar Mc Heix and I will tell you his story in a near future. He is a sort of chaos wanderer that would unite all the crazy ass champions he would encounter in the wastes. With him as a start I can build an army and make him grow stronger as time goes by. (some of you will remember the heavy weapon/helmet of thousand eyes was a cool thing a few years back and it kinda oriented the vision I had of him...)

Immediately after this lad, I had to give him magical support and there came these two :

Some of you will have recognised our dear 073130/11 aka "Warrior with sword and bone armour 1" or "Jeff" and his fellow skeletal companion. The little magical flames on the sword were a test which turned out to be a bit disapointing to my taste.

The rest of the army should expand from these guys and from the idea I had to make a chaos army inspired by satanic iconography and by listening to too much metal.

More to come...