Chaos Snakemen - Chaos Battle Part 15

Good Morning everyone, 

Today's journey into the golden age will bring us to a forgotten race amongst those who never came back.

I don't know much about them but would definitely learn and read aboud them with pleasure; One thing is for sure, these are great minis.

I decided to base mine on 40 mm square bases because the minis are quite long and need room. It's also a trick to play them counting as ogres or anything else whose rules would fit.

This article was the occasion for me to experiment new photo techniques (and use the fading blue underground) but I still can't find a way to get rid of the shining aspect which ruins a part of the paintjob...

Chaos snakemen

There are only 5 different minis so I had to get my hands on an extra one and commit the unspeakable : cut in the lead...

Saranth Elf Mangler is my champion for this unit so I decided to use a colourful skin tone to show his rank compared to the more classic colours of his retinue. I also placed him volontarly at the limit of the base to make him stand form the rest of the unit and give the feeling the others are following him.

Saranth Elf Mangler

The second one is S'sirron Fangthrane and is my favourite of the 5. His noble stature and the overall look are a pure delight. He' also got the best sculpted scales imho. There are some kinds of tatoos on his left arm (invisible on the photos below) but I haven't treated them correctly and might have to get back to them with a bluish approach in a celtic way.

S'sirron Fangthrane

Third next is our dear Higgat Dwarf Slicer. Definitely not my favourite. The sculpt is to "flat" though the arlour is quite excellent. The broken shield is here to break the flatness of the mini and to link it with my brettonian army as well.

Higgat Dwarf Slicer

Fourth is S'Lon Life smasher, very sneaky or should I say snaky with his shoulders raised and the fact is seems to be going backwards. This one is the one who looks the nastiest to me. He looks like he's wainting for th eright time to stab the injured or the ones fleeing...

S'Lon Life smasher

 Fith and Sixth are S'Lararet Slintered Fang and S'Liip N'ot Bolt Thrower which are the same miniature, the latter having received a spear from a chaos marauder to make him look different from the former.

S'Lararet Slintered Fang

S'Liip N'ot Bolt Thrower

To finish this post, here is one of the only illustration of a snakeman I could find. It comes from the Slaves to Darkness tome of the Realm of Chaos books.

Disciples of the red redemption - Battle Chaos Part 11

What's better than an Easter lunch with uncles, aunts and cousins? Doing the same and coming back home with pure lead gold in your pockets. Not only are those cousins responsible for my addiction to lead but 20 years after igniting such a passion, they keep it strong by offering me a full set of disciples of the red redemption from the vast collection of minis that is theirs.
 YES A COMPLETE SET ! Full Command + champion + enough soldiers to have a 12 strong unit. (I know I have to foind a way to make it 15...).

Disciples of the Red redmeption

Considering the pure awesomeness of these minis and the price they reach on Ebay, it's almost a miracle I got my hands on them...

The first thing I did when coming back was to strip them from the old paint and to my joy, I realised that  they were very brilliantly sculpted (Is it Jes' work?).
the link to their solegend page is here. The details are stunning considering their age and the cast was almost flawless (except 2 mould joints on 2 of them). The chain on the standard bearer is excessively thin and the face mask are perfect. At the time, minis had not reached yet the "Epic 28 mm" standard we've got now. Weapons and arms were smaller so they tend to look ridiculous but if you forget about now, there's a strong feeling coming from these minis and you don't get distracted by all the details but just by the pose and everything.
I'll have to give my best on these.
 Fluffwise, the story is pretty cool and reminds me somewhat of Lovecrraft's novel, a guy discovers an ancient temple and breaks mad..
The only thing twisting me is the fact I don't really want to paint them black, so I'll guess I'll use the "black with red edges" on some of them to remind the fluff and use alternative black/red devices on the others to make each mini stand from the others...

Now look at these babies and dare tell me their not brilliant :

Though I based them on 20mm bases (25mm bases looked kinda awkward to me) I think I might play them as simple Khornate marauders with weapon/shield and light armour. Maybe  some special rules to play them as flagelants.

More to come sooner, Since I am currently working on Jes' Khornate champions, I guess there will be a black-red and bronze spree for a moment...

At your command (take2) - Battle Chaos part5

To give some extra power to this army, I thought about adding the Chaos lord on daemonic mount since the mini rocks and it's a perfect generic hero since I still want Lothar (cf. part1) as the general in every game size (I'll build versions of him on mounts and all but that's for later...).

Chaos Champion on Daemonic mount

 For this mini as for many others I used a special recipe for metals I use a lot since I find it good looking and very rapid to apply.
It mainly consists of a very generous "tin bits" drybrush followed by a more subtle "boltgun metal" one (feel free to use the equivalents since none of these are produced anymore). And then comes the nice part.
I use a mixture composed of :
- 2 drops of black ink
- 2 drops of brown ink
- 1 drop of PVA glue
- about 10 drops of water
I'm looking for a mixture that does not cover much but will leave a thin layer on big surfaces and drown the holes. I then just need to highlight with boltgun metal on the edges and with mithrill silver on the tips.

I've also recently added some conversions and missing dudes to the rank and file units (ie chaos warriors and marauders) :

The first marauder is a lady I designed because I had the remaining legs of a chaos warriors (you'll see an undamaged version of him in little time) and the torso of a 4th ed daemonette. The three others use parts of minis taken from an old MB game to help me go from a 25 to a 30 men unit. I wanted a drunken marauders because maurauders ravage, kill, rape and drink. I think the weapons leave no doubt for the first two activities. I'll have to work on the remaining one.

The warrior on your left (If you're reading this facing your computer that is) is built from two different Khorne champions and a halberd taken from onf of the new chaos knights (the undamaged champions are also on the painting range right now). The one on the right is a very conventionnal interpretation to match the ones presented before.