Rechgrundle - Warrior Maiden of Dim Ponn...

The last miniature of Speciality Set 3 - Knights of Chaos for a little while, this time a female Chaos Knight, the delightfully named Rechgundle!

I've always liked this model and she did prove fun to paint, especially her unusual costume that seems to owe more to an S&M party than it does a battlefield (not that I've been to either!!!).

The design on this shield is nicely done and was easy enough to paint using a wash and some odd highlights. As I've said previously I am not a fan of engraved shields but I do like this one with its vaguely Japanese demon design.

With seven of the set now painted I have begun to rethink my initial Band of Brigands plan and am pondering using them as a special kick ass unit in small scenario driven games- The Malnificent Seven perhaps?

Tomar Spogh - Warrior of the Divine Tuluk...

I managed to hunt down a couple more of the Knights of Chaos from 1984's Speciality Set 3 and have just finished Tomar Spogh - Warrior of the Divine Tuluk.

As you can see he is considerably different from the current Chaos look, much more Middle Eastern in look.

Initially I painted him up in a red coat but was not happy with the end result. I then tried blue which was better but I was still not 100% satisfied. In the end I added some "lightning stripes" effect to break up the solid colour, I'm not quite sure if it works but it will do until I have a better idea.

Just got the Warrior Maiden of Dim Ponn to finish from the set (until I find the AWOL Agrad), in the meantime I have started some prep work on a unit of Fantasy Tribe Gnolls, some of who have sat in Lead Mountain since 1980...

Three Fighters Walk Into a Bar...

I found a few Citadel CO1 Fighters from 1985 that are shown in the Third Citadel Compendium and decided to paint them up. Compared to earlier Perry sculpted miniatures these are distinctly below par and demonstrate that not everything that is old is necessarily any good... :-(

First off is Beowulf the Bezerk, an unusual barbarian type wearing a breast plate of armour with a G-string and posing pouch. You have to wonder what the sculptor was smoking...

Next is Angus Hardheart a reasonable enough Dark Ages type fighter with a ridiculously overscale spear (I thought these telegraph pole spears had died out with Minifigs in the seventies). Perhaps we could be generous and say it is a dragon hunting spear?

Finally a female fighter, called Erlic in the Compendium. A very bland average figure...

Doomed Ratchragged - Priest of Wenwoch the Waylayer...

I'm not sure who Wenwoch the Waylayer is but his priests have an "interesting" line in cut away chainmail, clearly a bit of air conditioning on the battlefield!

Doomed Ratchragged is another nearly thirty year old miniature from the Knights of Chaos Speciality Set.

A bit of a weird model with his cut away chainmail leggings, I decided to paint the chainmail up using brass to provide some relief from the steel plate.

The model had a poorly scratched star shield design, I did consider painting this over with some Liquid Green Stuff but decided to go with the original design, despite the fact it is not up to the same standard as the rest of the model.

A rummage in Lead Mountain today has led to the discovery of two more from the set so I have based and primed them, I just need to hunt down Agrad - Champion of the Laughing Jokkie and the set will be complete.

Cursed Doomhandle - Apostate of Heinus Suth...

Yet another Citadel miniature from 1984's Speciality Set 3 - Knights of Chaos, this time Cursed Doomhandle - Apostate of Heinus Suth (I can see him getting the proverbial taken out of him and being called Cursed Broomhandle!)

He is a pretty heavily armoured chap with a lot of chainmail which sped up the painting process no end.

The shield had and embossed flaming bull head design. I'm not a fan of this sort of thing but decided to run with it rather than sand it down. I've kept with the red and black approach to provide a unit coherency to a non-uniform unit.

I have one more of the set left to paint and three AWOL somewhere in Lead Mountain which need hunting down...

Buoophut Bane-Arrow - Devotee of Alaman...

Another chaos knight from Citadel's 1984 Speciality Set 3 - Knights of Chaos, this time Buoophut Bane-Arrow - Devotee of Alaman.

Again a model I really like, the only thing I am not keen on is the pigs snout face but hey most of it is covered by his wonderful bird helmet.

It will be a bit odd having an archer in a unit of troops with melee weapons but that's what "olde skool" is all about! :-)

Sir Palomides Pureheart...

Sir Palomides is from Citadel's Speciality Set 5 - Warrior Knights of Law, another pre-slotta base 1984 release.

 I can't recall buying the box set so I'm not sure how I ended up with him and he has always flummuxed me as to how to paint him due to the unusual look of the miniature (what's with the bloody hat?!).

Anyhow I had another crack at him with the view to sticking him in the band of brigands hence the red and black shield scheme (with a boar head decal from Veni Vidi Vici).

Overall, fairly pleased with him...

Thel - Knight of Gorth the Great Obesity...

Before Nurgle there was Gorth the Great Obesity...

This is another miniature from Citadel's Speciality Set 3 - Knights of Chaos released in 1984 and my favourite figure from the set. I would love a unit of troops kitted out like this.

I especially like the dragonhide shield - very swords and sorcery.

I have tried to keep the paint scheme quite plain so not to distract from the detail on the miniature, which is excellent.

 

So the Band of Brigands grows and is starting to look pretty good...

Red Dulmoon - Dark Saint of Insane Gotd...

Another one for the Band of Brigands, a lovely miniature from a boxed set of Knights of Chaos bought in 1984. Red Dulmoon - Dark Saint of Insane Gotd (as he is called on the box, who is Gotd?) predates Realm of Chaos and has a distinctly non-GW canon Chaos look.

There were nine miniatures in the box, three more are on the workbench, the other five hiding on Lead Mountain and need hunting down...

Band of Brigands...

A rummage through Lead Mountain has shown that I bought a lot of miniatures in the Eighties without any rhyme or reason apparently! Over the decade I seem to have bought a lot of fighters and adventurers which, whilst being nice figures, aren't part of any planned army. These two fighters were released by Citadel as part of their Collectors Series in the late Eighties, one previously having been released as a Chaos warrior!

1113 Evil Fighters

I have been pondering what to do with them (and their colleagues hiding in boxes and carrier bags around the house) and have decided on a plan. Rather than worry about the lack of a common theme equipment wise I am going to embrace it and paint them up as a small mercenary or brigand band which can fight with pretty much any army.

Paint schemes are fairly downbeat and weathered with rusty weapons and armour, though I am thinking of sticking to a red and/or black shield colouring to give some kind of unit coherency with such a mixed bag of miniatures.

Several more (some pre-Slotta) are current sat on the workbench having just been undercoated and will be added to these two as and when time permits...

In the Northlands...

Unfortunately I have not had too much time for my Olde Skool Warhammer project this year but I have kept it in mind when working on other projects, most notably with my Dux Bellorum Arthurian army. Dark Ages miniature warriors are equally at home whether beating each other up or laying into Orcs and Goblins so when it came to Dux Bellorum I have made sure that the miniatures can be used for both the Dark Ages wargame and WHFB2!

The background to WHFB2 is not as detailed as in later editions which allows for the some interpretation in what can be used. The Old World is largely dominated by humans but all we know is that the ones who live in the north are "technically and socially primitive (11th to 13th century Europe)". Using Dark Ages figures may be pushing the early edge of this time period though there is little difference between a 6th century Saxon and a 11th century one and we are talking fantasy wargaming here...

Consequently my Dux Bellorum Romano-British will form part of a Northern Old World force, possibly allied with other good or neutral races. The miniatures here are shown in their Dux Bellorum sabot bases and comprise of Old Glory, West Wind and a couple of Gripping Beast cavalry.

Turning Nipponese...

This cursed unseasonal warm weather has seen 'She Who Must be Obeyed' cracking the whip and forcing me into the garden on various horticultural duties. This has had a negative impact pretty much any painting though I have discovered a unit of GW plastic Black Orcs that Saul and I painted up a couple of years back. I must confess I didn't like them, too much silver armour so I am taking the opportunity to rust it up and they are looking much better and I need to finish off the tomato puree to purloin the foil tube to make a standard! :-)

Wargames Factory Samurai (photo Wargames Factory)

In the meantime my mind has been pondering other armies and despite a lifetime fear of painting samurai I have become increasing intrigued with the idea of a small Nipponese army based on the Imperial Cathan list in WHFB2 and bits from the Warhammer Armies project Nippon sourcebook. The idea of Samurai, Ninja and Vimto Warior Monks on the tabletop does have a certain appeal and to this end I did a little ebaying, picking up a box of the new(ish) Wargames Factory plastic Samurai and a couple of boxes of their Ashigaru for £13 a box, slightly over 50p a figure which is pretty good value.

Wargames Factory Ashigaru with spear (photo Wargames Factory)

Whilst painting efforts will have to concentrate on the Goblinoids for the planned summer gaming project, planning out both the Undead and Nipponese for later in the year will, I hope, provide encouragement if I start to flag and suffer from Orc fatigue!

Doing Double Duty...

One of the great things in Warhammer II is the diversity of human types from Old Worlders to Norse, Arabians to Nomads, Orientals to Southrons. The Bestiary also included army lists for Old World Imperialists, Old World Southern City States and Imperial Cathan (complete with Samurai and Vimto Monks!)

Burgundian Command (Citadel with Grenadier Musician)

Back in the Eighties I developed a growing fascination with the medieval Burgundian army of Charles the Bold that was defeated in a series of decisive battles in the 1470's and decided that I would kill two birds with one stone and raise a Burgundian army in 28mm using the Citadel Wars of the Roses range, with odd bits sourced from other manufacturers.I had an idea that it would fight both the Swiss and Orcs (as an Old World City State) but unfortunately this project did not get very far. However, over the last year and a bit I have started painting up the models bought at the time as well as buying lead and plastic to fill the gaps.

Burgundian Pike (Corvus Miniatures)

The miniatures have been based on multi-figure bases to use with Terry Gore's Medieval Warfare rules but this is not a major problem with Warhammer as I can use counters to represent casualties before removing troop blocks.

Burgundian Pike element (Corvus Miniatures)

Burgundian Mounted Archers (Citadel)

I am not sure whether I will go down the route of using the Burgundians in this project as I also have some Dark Ages figures I would like to paint up and use but it gives me an option to consider although I will need to come up with some decent pike rules...

Burgundian Handgunners (Grenadier)

Burgundian Artillery (Grenadier)