On the Painting Table: A Beastmen Lord... with a Difference!

As you may have noticed I tend to get very excited about new projects.

I'm sure you'd agree I am right to get excited about this one.

How cool is this guy!?!?!?!?

This monstrous fiend is the new Special Character Lord for my Beastmen army who will, when the time comes and the story catches up with modern times, get a hefty chunk of storyline in the Tale of Years.

For now I don't have a name for him yet or even much thought on his stats.

I'll be looking at those for the War Mammoth for a starting point but I don't want him to be quite as powerful as that (mainly as I want to maintain my incentive to buy one one day).

Scale-wise here's how he matches up to the Beastmen and Giant I have already. This guy is all about being a centrepiece and he fits that role perfectly.

Painting-wise I started on very dark grey and worked my way up. The tusks were Graveyard Earth | Kommando Khaki | Bleached Bone. I wanted to keep these subdued so scrimped on the lighter colours.

His pose is a tad static for battle but he does look like the regal head of his army, coldly directing his slavering troops before wading into battle himself. Which is how his character will develop.

For those interested, he's the Poacher model from McFarlane toys - still available on eBay. If you get him as well you'll find that the sword is more posable than it looks. Mine snapped at the hilt though which limited me to the down angle.

The only real downside to this model is that weird skull he's holding. I don't like models holding decapitated heads and such. The image created is too much of a snapshot. Surely he doesn't ALWAYS carry his lucky skull into battle.

Or maybe he does.

Perhaps I should write rules for him and his lucky skull!

Alternative Exalted Greater Daemon of Slaanesh

Well look at this beauty!

Approve or disapprove the use of toys and action figures as proxies - and I've been laughed out of more than one GW veteran's nights by nerdy guys with one half painted army (he said bitterly) - but I like them!

Obviously there is an element of money-savingness but also I've come across and developed what, to me, make lovely centre pieces.

Let's look at the model. 

This was originally the McFarlane figure, Lucidique, from his Tortured Souls range. With a repaint and basing, I'm using her to represent an Exalted Keeper of Secrets - Greater Daemon of Slaanesh.

More specifically she represents the special character in my campaign and ongoing Tale of Years, K'syarta, the instigator of the corruption of the Elves and a key influence on the turning days of the Warhammer World.

Painting-wise, I used Dwarf Flesh | Flesh Wash | Dwarf Flesh | Elf Flesh on her skin and dark red | black wash | dark red | lighter red on her skirt.

Her hair was drybrushed very dark and then lighter grey.

The base was cut from foamboard to the same dimensions as the Araknarok Spider base.

Scale-wise, she's big - and unlike a lot of the other big models I've done, quite slender.

Here's a shot of the proportion to other models - which I'm pleased with. She's huge and scary but there's still an element where you're not sure whetehr you would or wouldn't want to meet her on a dark night.

And of course she is the leader of the Slaanesh element of my Daemon army - and can be used in 40k!!!

Finally, here she is with her eternal lover, Prospertine. If you've started to follow my Tale of Years you'll know that this pair are pivotal and have been mixing it up since just about the dawn of time.

In the present day campaign they command the northern and southern wings of the Daemonic Incursion from the Pernicious Gate.

Time will tell how they fair on the field of battle....

Ogre Kingdoms Sabre Tooth Tiger!

Continuing my exploration of doing cool things in my campaign because they're cool and not getting too hung up on rules and such, may I present The Great Khan!

Here he is next to his masters in the Kingdom of the Great Maw!

This beautiful Sabre-Toothed Tiger was originally a PAPO toy that I've based and repainted.

The paint job is quite subtle - a blend of cream, khaki and bleached bone.

He's too long for a chariot base so I made an extended one from foam board.

This happy chappy is going to be part of my Ogre Kingdoms army - brought down from the mountains to fight alongside them. I'll come up with some kind of justification someday if I get round to it.

Rules wise, I went through Storm of Magic and looked at all the monsters arrayed there to get an idea of what proxy rules I could use. I went in the end with the rules for the Chaos Spined Best thingy without Regeneration or the spike attack for 180 points.

I looked for a while at the Rhinox and Lions as comparison but this dude is probably twice their size. He's actually bulkier than a dragon - so I felt I was justified on the choice.

Let's see how he plays out. I'm using him in my final game of the campaign turn - hopefully later this week!