Goblin Lee's Miniatures Blog.

I've said it before, but wow!
In the last few weeks the number of views to my blog has increased quite substantially, and as of this afternoon has reached 134,591 views. Thank you for everyone who has taken an interest in my blog. I have noticed looking at the traffic on my blog that people have been looking at all sorts of things I have posted over the years, which is very nice to see.

Now, after posting all the armies from Warhammerr Armies last week, I have got rather distracted with things. So I have decided to finally finish off my pre-slotta Grom's Goblin Guard Regiment of Renown. I had started painting them a while ago, but stopped to paint something else. In keeping with my the rest of my pre-slotta/Fantasy Tribes era Goblins, Great Goblins/Gnolls, and Dwarves, I have based them on 30mm round lipped bases, with attention paid to the bases.

Well, what can be said of Grom's Goblin Guard?
This is the first incarnation of the Goblin and his regiment, released in June 1984. They were released, as the first range of 'human sized' Regiments of Renown miniatures were, in boxes of nine; eight troopers, and one command figure. The troopers are pretty standard Goblins, although the sculpts do suggest a more mean, brutal, and stocky type of Goblin, which is alluded to in the background -"creatures who were half Goblin and half Orc"- . I am not sure who sculpted them, but I suspect it was the Perry Twins. If anyone knows, please let me know.

As for the command, Grom is a lovely sculped Goblin, fat and ugly with that slight Ogre look which is also suggested in his background. The sculpt works well, and he is fat, but not too much as in later interpretations of him.
His second in command, Crud Longbone, is a sculpt true to his name and background, as he is a lanky longnosed Goblin. He was, like several of the Regiments of Renown Champions, added slightly later to the range, and is actually an early slotta based miniature.
The standard bearer is,well a standard standard bearer! He is a slightly different style to the troopers, giving him a little added bit of personality,. The severed hand on top of the standard is a nice touch.
Finally, the muscian has a horn which curves all right around his body and to me look like a cross between a Alpine horn and a Gramophone.

I like this Regiment of Renown. Not just because they are Goblins, but becuase they work well as a unit. The troopers look fine in ranks, and the personalities have a great deal of individuality. I would recommend picking up some if Goblins are your interest. The background is great too, giving them a backstory and history. The background and history of Grom's Goblins can be found here:
http://www.solegends.com/citrr/1rr03groms/index.htm

Incedently, several of the Goblins are also similar Goblins in the C13 Goblin range, which I have commented on further down the blog.

Enjoy :)

Grom's Goblin Guard.
I have a unit of 25 of them, including the eponymous Goblin himself, and the full set of command miniatures.
Simialr to my Great Goblins, but slightly different to the pale green of my C12 Goblins, I have painted the Goblins in a more of a flesh tone, to hint at thier mixed ancestry.

The command group.

Grom.

He a mean, moody,ugly, looking critter, who looks like he could slay Wulfrun Willowhand, King of the Northern Dwarfs in drunken brawl, start a war, and bully all of the Goblins around him!

Rear view.

Crud Longbone.

With my miniature, the end of his left arm had snapped off, something which seems to be a common problem with this model as a lot I have seen on e-bay and around have been damaged. I resculpted the arm and added an old wooden looking shield to strengthen the arm and to be in keeping with the Goblin troopers.

He has a great deal of character to him, and of course, a big nose and long bones!

Rear view.

Standard Bearer.

The writing is in Dwarf runes, from the appendix in the back of the Lord of the Rings, and says 'Grom'.

Rear view.

The severed hand, and close up of the standard.

Musician.

Rear view.

Troopers.

They are a standard looking footslogger. The faces look like that cross of Goblin with Orc/Ogre/Hobgoblin.

The fur jerkin over the armour adds to thier bulk and guard look.

A selection of Goblins, with decorated bases.

Related miniatures.
There are several miniatures from the contemporaneous C13 Night Goblin range. The Goblins from the C13 range were released in August 1984, after Grom's Goblins, so it is reasonable to assume that these Goblins were sculpted from Grom's Regiment, not visa versa.
I have'nt found a a sculpt made from Crud Longbone, but if I do I'll update with it. It might be because many of the Champion miniatures were a later addition to the Regiments of Renown.
Here's the Stuff of Legends link to the C13 Night Goblins ranges:
http://www.solegends.com/citc/c012goblins1/index.htm

Just to note, of my C13 Night Goblin shown here, only the archer is finished, whilst the others are awaiting re/painting and their bases to be completed.

Grom and Goblin with club.
The have the same body but the heads and right arms are different. Also, the Goblin has an added shield.

Rear view.
The Goblin has long hair with discs attacted to the ends, but you can still see Grom's left arm under the shield.

Standard Bearer and archer.
Again, the same body, but the arms have been reposed, and the archer has a bone through his nose.
Incidentally, this C13 Night Goblin archer was produced both in pre-slotta, and slotta form (I have both :) ).

Rear view.
Apart from the addition of extra hair and a quiver, they are the same.

Musician and club wielding Goblin.
Apart from the obvious lack of a trumpet, the Goblin has dramatically repostioned arms and a club. Their faces are similar, but the C13 Goblin has a bigger nose and slightly wider head.

Rear view.
Apart from the trumpet, they are basically the same.

Trooper and archer.
The C13 Night Goblin has different set of arms. The head is the same, but the face is different.

Rear view.
Again, the same, except for the quiver.

Dragon Gate.
I randomly painted an old resin scenery piece made by Scotia Grendel.
I am planning to update the background and scenery for my photographing.
Which brings me onto...

...I have been experimenting with backgrounds.
I saw on someones blog (sorry, I have forgotten whose) a battle using background from the vinyl sleeve of Hawkwinds 'Warrior on the Edge of Time', created by Rodney Matthews.
Now Rodney Matthews is one of my favourite artists, and I have a copy of his artwork book 'In Search of Forever'. The book is named after a piece of artwork of his, and is the one which was used by Hawkwind for their Album cover.
Here I have photographed a 1980's Citadel Dwarf adventurer in front of the waterfall part of the art, very much a fantasy take on the Victorian explorers in 'Darkest Africa' or the Amazon.

Slann in what could be the depths of Lustria (perhaps near Curtis Falls perhaps? ;) ) .

On the subject of Slann, I am pleased to have finally completed my pre slotta Slann Cold One unit. I bought a broken Slann Rider, which will be converted into a standard bearer.

I also have a smaller regiment of Slann Cold One Riders too.

Despite all the fantasy things I have to paint, my next blog update will be on two specific Rogue Trader era miniatures I want to paint up and write a blog post on.

At the very start of Rogue Trader, the first edition of Warhammer 40,000, there were all sorts of aliens and weird and wonderful troops. Some had their own rules and were covered in the rulebook, whilst others were prototypes, or random miniatures, often closely linked to the miniatures in Citadels 'Judge Dredd' range.

In this weeks blog update I have two miniatures from that early era: Dominators.

It is generally thought that they were a proto-type Tyranid control monster, similar to the (much) later Hive Tyrant. According to the 'Stuff of Legends' research website, they were released in March 1988, and were only avaliable, as far as I recall, via mail order. However I am sure that I recall seeing them before that, and one of them is pictured in the 1986 'Heroes for Wargames' book. Perhaps March 1988 was when they were finally released to the public? There were never any rules, and they seemed to have gone out of production quite soon after release. If I was to use them in gaming, I would probably use Zoat hero stats for them as they are also six-limbed, and about the same size, being slightly larger.

There were only two miniatures released, 'Hulendar' and 'Gorgravel'. I am not sure who sculpted them, but they have a Kev Adams look to them to me, but if anyone knows feel free to let me know. Both of them are three part miniatures, with both of them having the same upper torso, but different lower bodies which consist of a left and right half.

They were a challenge to put together. The two lower halves are relatively straight forward to glue together (with help from a little Green Stuff). However attaching the upper torso to the lower halves was trickier as it required holding in place, and filling, with a lot more Green Stuff. Considering this, I can understand why they did'nt make it into wider production as they are not too easy to assemble.

Painting wise I could only find two examples. One was from the 'Heroes for Wargames' book, and the other, featuring both of 'Gorgravel' and 'Hulendar', at the Stuff of Legends website, here:

http://www.solegends.com/citrt2/undominators/index.htm

I wanted to go for the classic red look for them, so I painted them a mid-shade between the two. They were fun and very quick and easy to paint. Whilst they have a lot of detail on them, the detailing is all of the same sort, mainly the Tyranid grown bone harness and guns. I am happy with the way they look, and glad to finally own them both and paint them.

Enjoy :)

Catalogue page.

The ramians of my old March 1988 flyer, which suffered the indignity of having tea split on it about 25 years ago!

Pre-assembly.

'Hulendar' from the 'Heroes for Wargames' book.

'Gorgravel' and 'Hulendar'.

They are mounted on 40mm square bases (as they were in the flyer).

'Hulendar'.

Front of the harness.
I have gone for a bone look for the harness, as the Tyranids use bio-technology.

Right side.
I painted the raised scales orange to add a little difference of colour.

Left side of 'Hulendar'.

Rear view.

The bone harness looks very much like an extrnal pelvis and pair of shoulder blades, linked via something looking akin to spine vertebrae, as befitting Tyranid bio-tech.

'Gorgravel'.

Close up of the front of 'Gorgravel'.

Right side.
On 'Gorgravel' you can see the fringe of fur(?) on the middle arms, which I painted orange to match the scales.

Left view.

Rear view.
Again, is it the same harness design as 'Hulendar'.

Peek-a-boo!!!

Close up of the gun. I am not sure which one is meant to be the bolter, and which the flamer. I think that this is the bolter, as it has a combat blade on it.

The other gun, the flamer (?).

'Hulendar' and 'Gorgravel' ambush a Piscean Warrior.

I have no idea what the next blog update will be on. Apart from the Dominators, I have'nt really been painting recently, but I have a lot of projects I could be starting.

Over the last week or two I have been concerning myself with a former imperial island, riven with intrigue within it's shores, that is dominated by it's captial city, and run by a mad elite concerned with it's plotting, usurpations, and it's own self interests.

I am of course referring to Melnibone, the city of Imrryr, and the Melniboneans, with their Emperor Elric VIII, from the works of Michael Moorcock.

Back in the 1980's (as many of my blog posts seem to begin!) Citadel Miniatures gained the rights to produce a range of miniatures representing the Melniboneans and Pan Tang, as well as some other personalites, from Michael Moorcock's books. Now I have read several of the Elric books, and I enjoyed them. I love the more open multi-verse, moral ambiguity of the settings, and the epic feel of everything without it being pretenious. Coupled with that, I really love Rodney Matthews artwork, which often depicts and was used to illustrate several of the books.

Now I have owned several of the miniatures which Citadel produced for some time, but it was only until recently I decided to focus on collecting them in a more serious way. I have been lucky to be able to buy someones collection of Melniboneans, as well as pick up all manner of odds and ends, including some more horsemen, via the Oldhammer Trading page.

As an aside, here is a link to the Melnibonean range, and the Pan Tang's:

http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Eternal_Champion

Painting wise I am was unsure what to do. I not sure of any descriptions of Melniboneans armour in the Elric books (and I have lent mine to a friend at the moment). Various Melnibonean inspired artworks also give their own interpretations. Games Workshop's painted examples (below) looked good, but are very late 1980's High Elf in style. I did recall reading somewhere that Melniboneans armour was described as 'yellow', or 'bronze'. So, after looking at how other people painted there's, I opted for a mid gold on a darker gold base, with colourful pastel cloth and clothes remincient of the Towers of Imrryr.

Anyway, here is what I have collected so far. The army is mostly collected, with only the odd warrior required here and there. I have based them up on the 30mm lipped bases as I think they look better, and give the miniatures more room. They looked too cramped on 20mm square bases to me.

If I use them for gaming, I will probably use the 3rd Edition Warhammer High Elf list. However, I am tempted (if I get time) to write my own Melnibonean list using the 3rd Edition rules. I don't think the 30mm bases would be a problem. I would interested to use a skirmish set of rules as well, or even tinker with the Lord of the Rings rules. However my heart really lives in 2nd and 3rd Edition Warhammer (my soul belong in the 'Slaves to Darkness book', but that is another blog entirely!), but maybe this new fangled Frostgrave thing might be worth a look too.

The painted Melniboneans that follow are test models to get a feel for them, and the finished miniatures will probably have a much more brighter palette.
Enjoy :)

Advert in White Dwarf #92.

'Enkar', a Melnibonean with two swords.
I painted the armour Citadel's 'Gehenna's Gold', and then highlighted with with Vallejo's 'Old Gold'. Basically, and base coat of a rich gold colour, with a highlight of a lighter one.
Once finished the armour, and indeed the whole model, was given a very watered down black paint wash.

Rear view.
I am not going for a uniform of colours, but an individual selection of pastels and bright colours for each miniature.

I will paint the bases later, going probably for a grassland/meadow to sugget the 'Plains of Imrryr'.

'Bovar', a Melnibonean archer.
Again the same painting, although on him the colours turned out to be more muted than planned. For others I will go for more of a brighter mix and pastels.

Rear view.

'Dangrim' a spearman, without shield.
I might paint all of the spearstaffs the same colour, otherwise it might look odd and clash too much.
I will add the shields later (see below).

Rear view.

With shield.
I am going to paint a stylised Dragon (which I have seen someone do very well, but alas I cannot recall whom).

Unlike the personal clothing, the shields will be the same for each regiment.

'Zoo D'ann T'kar', Melnibonean cavalry, again without shield for the time being.
Unlike the spearmen, they will have a variety of different coloured lance shafts.

There was a little debate on the Oldhammer Facebook site as if I should base the cavarly on the 40mm lipped round base, but I feel it gives them a certain battlefield presence and room worthy of cavalry.

Right hand side view.

With citadel shield, although a slightly smaller one than the infantry, so it fits.

Emperor Elric of Melnibonean, in his Imperial Armour.
I have him dismounted, as released from the BC5 box set. However I also had a broken version, and so converted him up to ride a 1980's Citadel Elf Hero's Warhorse. I like the dragon armour on it's head, so thought I would suit Elric.

Melnibonean cavalry.
I have a few more to add so I can field three regiments of ten.

I have one in the post as I type this, and I also forgot to add the test painted one from above.
I have, of course, horses for all of these, but did'nt think it was worth photographing them. About 90% of the are horses from the Melnibonean range, with a couple from the 1980's Elf ranges. As they are all sculpted by Jes Goodwin, and all ended up being mixed in with te Elf ranges, I am not too concerned.

In addition, I am considering adding some 1980's mounted Elven Archers, and the two Elven Attack Chariot with slightly different crews, as they fit nicely, but I will consider that at a later date.

Personalites of Melnibonean.
From left to right, Moonglum, Yykroon, Dyvim Tvar, Tanglebones, and Rakhir the Red.

Two other waifs and strays from across the mutli-verse.
On the left is actually a Reaper Miniature, but she fits in so well with the Melnibonean range that I am keeping her in mind for adding somewhere.
On the right, is Jerry Cornelius. He won't be added to the army, but I'll paint him up anyway. :)

Twenty one spearmen (twenty two including the test painted one), including the all four of the different variants. The main differance is that two are bare headed (with one wearing a 'headband'), and two helmeted (one being more ornate than the other).

I will probably do a more detailed update on the sculpting of the range at a later date.

My plan is to have one regiment of speamen, and use any excess spearmen as standard bearers by added pennants to the spear shafts.

Mace wielding infantry.

I have enough for a twenty strong regiment, with some spare to add to the axemen below.

Axemen.

I require another couple of these (or mace men) for a full twenty strong unit.

Dual wielding swordsmen.

I like these sculpts, and when I think of Citadel's Melnibonean range I picture these and the horsemen.

There is however a problem with them...

...they break.

They break quite easily.
I bought these ones 'pre-broken' as it were, but it seems to be a common problem that the left handed sword snaps off. I have considered either added another sword from somewhere, or adding a shield. I might just leave them and mix them in with the unbroken ones.

Archers.

I have thirty three, which makes three units of ten. Adding a couple more will make a nice unit of five Scouts, which are always useful.

Elrics!
I have three of the Elric of Imrryr. I already have a quite nice Elric miniature to use, so save wasting them, I might use them as captains of regiments, and paint them up in the same gold armour as the warriors rather than Elrics black armour.

DRAG 7 Dragon Masters set.

Whilst not actually part of the Eternal Champion range, they are often regarded as such.

I have paint stripped mine ready to paint up as an iridescent Phoorn Dragon.
I have another of these, albiet missing a tail, in the post at the moment. I'll re-sculpt a tail.
I would like to add another one or two t Dragons to the army, and am kicking myself for not buying them when GW was selling them only a few years ago on their website.

Finally I am going to as Citadel's DS6 Serpentine Dragon as it looks to me (see the heads above) like the Dragon Masters Dragon, and I could use it as a magically bound young Phoorn Dragon.

Hopefully I will be able to update as per usual next week. The break for a week in updating has been largely caused by work problems, and that I managed to twist my ankle and spend several day enforced resting (I'm fine now though').

Leaving that aside, I should be able to paint up some more Melniboneans, although I could update with the Pan Tang army instead. I also have been painting random critters from my collection, so I'll see. :)

Just a quick update this week.

Whilst I am assembling my Melniboneans, and sorting out my Pan Tangian army, I decided to paint up a few random odds and ends for no real reason. I have painted up a few EM-4 Aliens, originally produced for Grenadier Miniatures back in the early 1990's, a pair of 1980's Rogue Trader Imperial Army/Guard, and a mutant from Thunder Child Miniatures.

Enjoy :)

Aliens in the orchard!!
These are a pair of 'Cockroach' aliens from EM-4 miniatures. I have gone for a more 'alien' rather than Cockroach paint scheme.

They are quite cheap (£1.80), so buying a batch of them for some 1950's B-Movie scenario or Warhammer 40k planetfall is'nt too out of the question.

Close up, front and rear.
I added a Vallejo metal medium to the green for that shiney bug look.

Here for the bug hunt!
A pair of Rogue Trader era Imperial Army/Guard.
On the left, 'Trooper Chow', and on the right, 'Sniper Lang'.
I wanted to try out the old style 'classic' early Rogue Trader Imperial Army paint scheme. I really like it, and may get some more done at some point, maybe as part of a 'Hylgar's Hellraisers' force from the 'Book of the Astronomican' (1988).

Rear view.
I always liked the backpack and equipment on 'Chow', giving him that 'on campaign' look.

Away from the orchard, in the ruins of the farmhouse, is another EM-4 alien, the 'Feeder'. It is, or course a 'not Alien movie' alien, and fits the idea nicely, although it does'nt have the long Gieger head.
I went for a black paint scheme, and then highlighted with just the Vallejo metal medium. I also added some superglue to the mouth, for that icky saliva look.

Back at the orchard, another alien!

This time it's a resin 'Troglomite Thug' from Thunderchild Miniatures. I really like this miniature. He (or She!?) is meant to be some sort of mutant, but it paints up nicely as a backward alien. I was thinking Rodney Matthews artwork when I painted it.

Rear view.

Next update will be on the Pan Tang army I am also assembling. Hopefully, if I do not melt in the heat, I will painting some Melniboneans sometime too.

Before I start on this weeks blog update concerning the Pan Tang, I should mention that I have somehow reached 210,640 views. I am quite amazed by this!

I have been a little lackadaisical of late concerning my blog. I have not always being able to post every week, due to work commiments, and so my blogging, and painting, output has'nt been as much as I would have liked. This has resulted in a bit of a lack of focus on any one project, although I have been doing a fair bit of shopping recently.

I have largely completed my Melenibonean army, requiring only a few infantry here and there. I have made a strong start with the Pan Tang, as we'll see later. I have also been collecting odds and ends which I wanted, and have decided to upgrade a small collection of Chaos miniatures into another fully fledged army, based around the Chaos Snakemen range, but more on that next week.

Anyway, I would like to say thank you to everyone who has visited my blog. :)

The Pan Tang.Following on from my collecting and building my Melenibonean army, I decided, at the same, to build an army of Melenibone's seaborne enemy: the Pan Tang.

I have been lucky in e-bay auctions, as well as very lucky to buy someones Pan Tang Collection from them (the same stroke of luck which helped with the Meleniboneans). Now the Pan Tang army is far from completed, although I probably have enough of the actual Pan Tang Warriors which were produced by Citadel in the 1980's. I plan to use the Warhammer Armies Chaos army list as a basis, with Pan Tang warrior miniatures as Chaos Marauders and Chaos Warriors, with other miniatures in support as Chaos Thugs.

I do have one and a half sets of the Pan Tang Tigers, but will not (unless lucky) be trying to buy anymore of them. This is mainly due to their rarity and high cost. So I am looking around for good substitutes, and want to have a lot of them as they are very iconic of the Pan Tang.

The 1980's Citadel Pan Tang range can be viewed here:

http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Eternal_Champion#EC02_Pan_Tangian_Infantry

Painting wise I am going to go for a slightly different look to the look Citadel went for. Given their seaborne feel, with sea creatures on their breastplate and helmets, I will go for a mix of aquatic blues and greens. As for the armour, I am sure I recall that the Pan Tang had bronze armour, which might make sense given their seafaring. I might go for a mix of painting armour and bronze/verde gris.

Of course there is an irony to this blog update. I am not planning to paint the Pan Tang for a while. I still have to buy some (well, lots maybe!) Tigers. I also would like to paint the Meleniboneans first. However before them, I have another Chaos army I want to paint first.
...I also want to get a few Goblins painted too!!!

Enjoy. :)

The personalities of Pan Tang:
from left to right, Theleb K'Aarn; Jagreen Lern; and Pan Tangian Officer.

Warriors of Pan Tang.
I have managed to collect twenty five in total, fourteen of the fifteen different ones produced. In additional I have two of the unlisted/Chaos Warrior Pan Tang spearman.
If I can, I'll try to buy the last Pan Tang Warrior I don't have (Nisthta).

Vandar and Maktar.

Krool and D'Ath.

Voorg and Daarg.

Skaar and Levek.

Grart and Korven.

Tashim and Kerim.

Pashlar and Jarkor.

This is the 'Pan Tang' spearman (front and rear), who was not part of the range, but has Pan Tang on the slotta tab.

Close up of a couple of the aquatic helms.

Chaos Warriors.

Axiom, on his blog 'Magpie and Old Lead, had done a small Pan Tang army, and he has included several old 1980's Citadel Chaos Warriors/Thugs in the army. I think that was a great idea, and so plan to add several of the miniatures he used, and in addition others which I think may fit.
Here is a link to Axiom's blog:
http://magpieandoldlead.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-rise-of-pan-tang.html

Some C35 Warriors/Champions/Knights of Chaos.

More Chaos warriors.

Chaos Thug archers.

Close up.

In addition to the C35 Chaos warriors, I plan to add some of the 1980's Citadel Lord of the Rings range Corsairs, as they have that sea raider feel to them. I'll use them as Chaos thugs.

Tigers of Pan Tang.
I only have a set and half, but one each of the Tigers and Handlers.

Possible alternative Tigers.
These are Smiladons from Steve Barber models, and are quite large. I might use these, although I have not 100% set on them. The ex-Grenadier Barbarian Tiger riders Tigers are also an option.

Lesser Pan Tang Warriors.

These are ex-Harlequin Miniatures, now Black Tree Designs, Saracen warriors, and I plan to bulk out the army (and provide food for the sword Stormbringer!) using about thirty of these I have. To me, they look similar to the Pan Tang.

Next week will be a totally different Chaos army. I have been sorting out my Snakemen into an army of their own, and plan to repaint them. This is a project I am really set on, and so over the next couple of weeks I will be focusing on this.

Sometime over the last 30 odd years of collecting I bought some of the C27 Chaos Snakemen range produced by Citadel in the 1980's. Now I never did anything with them, despite always liking the miniatures, until about three years ago. I bought a few more, by then making 16, and then painted them up to be a stand-in proxy for a Fimir ally contingent for my Dark Elves.

Earlier this year I decided that I did'nt like my slotta based, late 1980's Dark Elf army, and switched to collecting a pre-slotta Dark Elf army. This left the Snakemen a little redundant. So I decided to paint strip them, and use them as a core for a solely Snakeman Chaos army.

Now as I mentioned the Snakemen never had any rules made for them, and never had any background written for them. That was until Chaz Elliot (who designed them) was interviewed on the 'Funky Wenis Rodeo' blog, here:
http://funkywenisrodeo.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/the-pure-untold-story-of-chaz-elliotts.html

Although there were no rules given, Chaz Elliot stated that the Snakemen were a failed gentic breeding programme of the Slann (the Slann did a lot of that sort of thing, and ever seemed to get it right!). The Snakemen escaped and fled to the frozen north, close to the Chaos wastes it would seem. There they plot their revenge on the Slann.

Now all this got me thinking. As an owner of a large Slann army, and someone who is interested in the 1st to 3rd Edition Slann era background, I liked the idea of an enemy of the Slann. I did'nt like the idea of my Snakemen stuck in the frozen north of what must be by definition of their flight from the Slann, to be the New World (the fantasy equivelent of North America). The concept of probably cold blooded Snakemen in the snow seemed a bit wrong. Also, if the Snakemen were planning to attack the Slann, they probably should be a bit closer to them.

Considering all this, and also that I wanted to give them a New World and different flavour, I decide to base them in a fantasy American South West. I would go for a non-African desert look, adding some model Cactii I have from an old kit. I also thought that given that humans are mentioned as being in the New World, I would add a couple of the 1980's Citadel Native American miniatures for use as Chaos Sorcerers/Shamans.

Painting wise, I wanted to keep the South West American theme by painting the Snakemen up in Rattle Snake colouration. I have tried this before, and I did'nt really crack it, and again when I tried it I did'nt really get on with it. It also did'nt quite look right. So, given that the Snakemen are serpents, and are adversaries of the Slann, I decided to paint them up in the colour of the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl. This both linked into the Slann and the Aztec myths of the returning God Quetzalcoatl, who will return to the civilisation from whence he fled to have revenge on being forced into exile. The Aztecs (strictly speaking they were called the 'Mexica'), came from supposed mythical 'Aztlan', which was meant to be in the American South West/Mexican North West area, in common with the other Chichimec peoples. So to me it adds another layer of connection.

Finally this left what rules to use. If I had acces to unlimited numbers of Snakemen perhaps using them as Beastmen would have been logical. However, despite collecting 32 of them, it would only make a couple of core regiment at best. I would have to pad out the army with other stuff, and I though that would dilute the concept too much.

In the Warhammer Armies Chaos army list, this left Minotaurs, Chaos Thugs, Mauraders, and Warriors as options. The Minotaurs did'nt have the option for shields, which many of the miniatures have, and Chaos Thugs were too weak and had the same lack of number problem that using them as Beastmen had. Marauders, whilst a good idea, have a minimum unit size of 10, which would lead to a three regiment army, and again they did'nt seem to have that battlefield presence to me.

So I opted to use them as Chaos Warrior Proxies. This means that the army will be small, and expensive in points (74 points per model!!) but I felt that it represents the Snakemen well. To me they look the equal of any Warrior of Chaos, and with 32, I can have 20 Chaos Warriors from the list, and 10 from a Chaos Ally Contingent. Of course, at 74 points per model, plus heroes, sorcerers, magical weapon, etc, I might not be able to use more than 25 Chaos Warrior Snakemen in a 3,000 point army. Finally, despite being supplied 25mm Square bases, and 25mm being the suggested size of Chaos Warriors, I opted for 40mm bases. This is because it think that the Snakemen look better on 40mm bases, and too cramped on the 25mm bases.

Enjoy :)

The C27 Snakemen range.
Only five miniatures were sculpted, but they are lovely models. The armour and details on them are wonderful, and still stand up to modern sculpted miniatures today in my view.
As an aside, as someone who is left handed, I am pleased to say three of the five Snakemen are left handed.

Quetzalcoatl, the god of the Aztecs (and other Meso-Americans) who was set to return to claim what was his (taken from the Aztec Codex Telleriano-Remensis).
I took the green and yellow-ish colour for the Snakemen paint scheme.

Snakemen in the desert, near an ancient Snakeman monolith.

S'Sirron Fangthrane.
I decided to keep the old bronze armour colour from when I painted the snakemen previously. I opted for the Quetzalcoatl colours, but toned down the yellow to a darker tone.

Side view, with cactii!

Higgat Dwarf Slicer.
He has a lovely armoured breastplate with a fanged face on it. It is similar in design to the faces on the Chaos Battering Ram, which I think Chaz Elliot also designed.

Rear view.
To keep some red from Quetzalcoatl in the codex, I painted the shield red.
Another, smaller cactii is on the base.

S'lararent Slintered Fang.

Rear view.

Snakemen ambush Slann in the furthest northern desert reaches of the Slann Empire.

The rest of the Snakemen.

Army leader, S'lon Life Smasher.
I have slightly re-postioned his tail and leg...

...and added a bow and sheath of arrows.
The idea is to equip him with a bow and a 'Hail of Doom' arrow. Nasty suprise for someone! :)

Snakemen Standard bearers.

Another Snakeman standard bearer.
If I expand the army, he might become the army standard bearer.

Left hand side view.
The conversion uses a broken Saranth Elf Mangler with a straightened Elf Horn (which looked snake-like) placed where the halberd/double handed weapon blade was.

Two Native American Chaos Sorcerers/Shamans.
I wanted to add these to save converting (for now) some Snakemen into Chaos Sorcerers wearing Chaos Armour. Also I wanted to emphsis the American South West/New World feel of the army.
Both miniatures are 1980's Citadel miniatures. On the left is the C07 Ranger range 'Scout'. On the right is Citadel C03 Cleric 'Sacred Bull', both based on 25mm bases.

Snakemen, mint in blister.
I have'nt had the heart to open them yet.

Next week, more Snakemen!!!

Despite a busy and stressful time at work, I have managed to paint and base another four Snakemen, as well as a C03 Cleric 'Sacred Bull this week.

I have themed the Snakemen army around the Southwestern USA, and am using the Cleric (and another two other miniatures) as 'New World' Native American looking Wizards/Shamans as Shaman/Guides for the Snakemen.
As for the Snakemen themselves, I have kept the same style as the last batch, but added a few Native American details which I will carry on adding as I paint more. I am keeping the armour bronze/gold, to keep some uniformity, but also will add some other details to add variety.

Enjoy :)

Four more of Citadel's C27 Snakemen!

S'lararet Splintered Fang.
I have based the shield design on my 'Native American' design Converse shoes, below.

My Converse shoes :)

Higgat Dwarf Slicer.
I painted the eyes and fangs another colour on the breastplate to pick out the details. I might paint further Higgat Dwarf Slicers breasplates another colour to bring out the faces. I might do this for some of the other Snakemen's armour details, but still keep the bulk of the armour gold to provide some uniformity.

Rear view.

Saranth Elf Slicer.
The Halberd/Double handed weapon looks a little like a power axe to me!

Left hand side.

S'lon Life Smasher.

Right hand side showing his Native American beaded bag.

Close up on his shoulder armour. A lot of the details on the Snakeman armour is wonderful. The next S'lon Life Smasher I will paint will probably have a bone coloured shoulder pad.

Sacred Bull.
He is a Citadel C03 Cleric from the mid 1980's.
As he looks more of a Plains Tribesman, so I have painted him up as a Sioux. He is based on a 25mm square base, as per Chaos Sorcerers.

The painted Chaos Snakemen army so far!

I need to do some hatching!
More Snakemen in blister packs which I have picked up from e-bay.
With these, the Snakeman army is now over forty models. This will make eight units of five Snakemen (Chaos Warriors), with twenty from the main Chaos army list, and twenty from the Chaos Ally list. I can also have several independent Heroes, including an Army General and an Army Standard Bearer.
I am also looking to convert one of the S'Sirron Fangthrane's into a high level Chaos Sorcerer in Chaos Armour.

I never noticed (or I just forgot) that the Chaos Star in the centre is actually an 'o' of an 'of'.

Next week, more Snakemen!!!

A very quick and a slightly tongue-in-cheek update this week.

Last week I posted on my blog the five unopened packs of Snakemen which I have bought from e-bay recently. Today, I have finally got around to ~~hatching~~ opening them. It always feels a little wrong opening packs of miniatures from the 1980's. They have been left undisturbed for all that time, so who am I to open them? Still another part of me thinks why not? They should be free to be opened and painted, otherwise what is their purpose?

The purpose of these particular critters is to act as stand-in's, or perhaps more correctly, alternative Chaos Warriors. With the packs added below, I now have 44 Snakemen. The idea is to build a Chaos Army using the Warhammer Armies Chaos Army list. This only allows for a maximum of 20 Chaos Warriors, but you can have up to half the point of the army as Chaos Allies, and so this allows another 20 Chaos Warriors.

This means that 40 of the 44 Snakemen will be split down into eight units of 5 Chaos Warriors. I think this has a nice symmetry to it, with eight units for each of the points of the Chaos star. Of the last four 'Spare' Snakemen, one is the Army Standard, one the Army General , and the third another independent hero. The last one, a S'Sirron Fangthrane, I am going to convert into a Chaos Sorcerer who is wearing Chaos Armour.

Anyway, at the moment I am part of the way through painting more Snakemen, so for the time being, here is the hatching, and a few photographs of the army WIP. I will be doing a proper blog update after the weekend where I want to do an examination of the C27 Snakeman range as I have done with previous ranges in the past.
Enjoy :)

Five packs of Snakemen MIB. :)

Part way through the 'hatching', ahh, I swear I could smell that late 1980's air!

Out they come!!!

All done!
Left to right, five S'lon Life Smasher; five S'Sirron Fangthrane; and five Saranth Elf Mangler's.

All forty-four of the Snakemen.

Close up of the left...

...and right, including both WIP, and the few finished Snakemen.

Keeping with the Southwestern North American theme, I managed to buy the last of the three Native American miniatures Citadel produced in the 1980's.
These are to be used as Chaos Sorcerers, basically Native Chaos Shamans.
Citadel did also produce a Wizard which looked 'Incan', but I will not include him as I am keeping a 'New World/North American' feel.

WIP standard bearer.
I am not a great artist but plan to add a little more details to the Chaos Standard.

Next update will be some more painted Snakemen, and a look at the five miniatures of the C27 Snakeman range in greater detail.

This week I have painted a few more Snakemen, including two converted Standard Bearers. I am really enjoying painting them, and think that the 40mm square bases do give them the room they need. I also repainted and rebased an old Citadel 'Night Horror' ranges 'Medusa with sword'. I have added her as I plan to add her to the army as part of a bound Chaos Host.

I have also been thinking about the composition of the Snakeman army, and how they can be best represented. Originally I decided to use the Snakemen as a stand-ins for Chaos Warriors. However this would make them really expensive in points, and also crowd out any other of the options avalible to support the Snakemen. In a 3,000 point army, I would end up with 20 Snakemen/Chaos Warriors, plus a couple of Sorcerers and an Army General. Five Snakemen/Chaos Warriors, including a Magical Standard (Warbanner) and Magical Musican (Battlecall), works out at 568 points.

So, I have been considering the following two options. Apart from the Chaos Warrior only option, I could either go for a mix of Chaos Warriors and Chaos Marauders, or Beastmen:

The Beastman option, while seeming a natural idea, means that the Snakemen would be constrained to light armour and shields, and not have the option of any Magical Standards or Musicians. This would also mean for close combat I would require larger units than the minimum 10 to stop the Snakemen from being just brushed aside in combat, a minimum of 14 at least. In addition, a unit of 14 or so, or anything on 40mm bases, takes up a lot of room on a battlefield, and is very unwieldy. Also, to make it work, I might also have to spend (a lot) more money on more Snakemen.

On the Plus side, Beastmen do have W2 and T4, and their heroes are pretty nasty in close combat, unlike the Human Chaos Marauders and Chaos Warriors with T3. They are also very cheap in points compared to Chaos Warriors and Marauders.

The mix of Chaos Warriors and Marauders does mean I can keep the heavy armour. It also allows for Magical Standards and/or Musicians, and also the option of bows and crossbows for the Marauders if I feel the urge to convert up some Snakemen. I also think this allows for the retention of the 'feel' of the army which I wanted: a small, focused, elite army, rather than the usual hordes I favour.

The drawbacks to this are the point values again and size of the units. The minimum size for Marauders is 10, so a basic unit with magical Standard and Musician, and Chaos Warrior leader is 552 points. However in a four wide and two deep formation with two at the back, you end up with a +4 to the units combat resolution (1 for rank bonus, 1 for the standard, 1 for the magic standard, 1 for the Magical Instrument). As I have 44 Snakemen, I can have the maximum 30 Marauders, plus some Chaos Warriors, and independent Snakemen heroes, and allows for increasing the army's points value above 3,000 points.

I might go for the mixed Chaos Warrior/Maruder option, so I can field a more workable 3,000 army, and have room for the 'add-ons', such as a Medusa, more Sorcerers, and maybe some Chaos Trolls.I will work on an army list for a future update.
Enjoy :)

More critters!!!
I mananged to paint six more Snakemen, and a Medusa, despite being in a very lazy mood! :/

Standard Bearer.
I had a broken version of S'lararet Splintered Fang, he was missing his hand and sword. So, a simple cross-bar made from brass rods, and a green stuff banner, with a green stuff hand, was added.

I painted the banner simply. I have been reading some Moorcock recently, and read a description of a Pang Tang banner that had a star of Chaos in amber. So I thought a simple glowing Chaos star, which looked like it belonged more to another plane and was hovering on the banner would look good.

The second standard bearer.
Again I had a broken miniature to use, this time a Higgat Dwarf Slicer.
The standard is a simple old Marauder miniatures shield, filled with green stuuf, stuck on a brass rod pole, with a skull on top.

Rear view.

S'Sorron Fangthrane.

Saranth Elf Mangler.

S'lon Life Smasher.
I painted the shoulder pad as a skull. I want to add a little more colour and Chaos to the standard bronze/gold armour.

S'lararet Splintered Fang.

Again, I painted the should pad up a different colour.

Medusa: 1980's Night Horrors range 'Gorgon with sword'.
The Chaos army is the only army in Warhammer Armies to have the option of a Gorgon, and then only one. They are handy at turning creatures into stone. I recall doing that to a Treeman once. :)

The Snakemen so far.

Next week will be more Snakemen. I'll see if I can sort out an army list as well. I will also add some of the conversions and old Trolls I have for the army as well.

I have taken a little break from blogging and painting over the last couple of weeks. Work and other late Summer distractions had led to a spectacular lack of focus on my part. I had also been distracted by several other projects, including re-visiting at my old Tomb Kings army.

Whilst shopping on e-bay I also buoght one of the most devisive of the 'Middlehammer' era minatures: Nagash. Now, I never really got on with 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle onwards, and it was'nt until 2002 and the release of the Tomb Kings that I was drawn back into mainstream/ contemporary Warhammer. As a consequence I did'nt buy many 1990's fantasy miniatures.

The Nagash miniature is greatly disliked because of the over the top 1990's stylings (I never liked it at the time), and I have heard that the designer, Gary Morley (no relation!) had designed as a joke or annoyance although, this could be just heresay! I bought Nagash for the pure reason of a challange to see if I could make a decent paint job of him. I'll do an update of just him sometime in the future.

Other than that, I have been tinkering with my Tomb Kings army, and looking to purchase a few current Age of Sigmar Death Grand Alliance models, and give them a slight 'Tomb Kings' twist. I already had some to which I added some spare Tomb Kings bits. I don't have the verment dislike of Age of Sigmar that some people have, but I also am not really drawn heavily into it. A few models here and there might make an interesting diversion, but I am not going to get drawn into the money pit of current gaming.

Of course I still have the Snakemen to finish, so am going to focus on those first. And maybe some Goblins, I miss painting Goblins :)

In other news there is an art exhibition of the artist Ian Miller's artwork in my home city of Brighton and Hove, where he now lives. A local gallery, 'The Corridor Gallery', is showing and selling some of his artwork, prints, and sketches. As many long term gamers know Ian Miller provded quite a body of distinctive artwork for Games Workshop publications during the 1980's, as well as a lot of artworks before and since.
I got chatting to one of the curators of the gallery, himself an artist by the name of Aaron Howdle, and he stated that the exhibition starts on 5th October, and there will be works for sale and are going to be quite reasonablly priced. On friday 7th October Ian Miller will be at the gallery from 19:30pm, although rather nicely I have been invited to meet Ian Miller at the preview at 18:30pm. So I will update on how I get on! :)

Here is the gallery web link:
http://corridorgallery.co.uk/index.php/event/an-exhibition-of-art-by-ian-miller/

...and the website of Aaron Howdle (he also has work exhibited in a Steampunk bar to which I occsionally frequent named 'The Yellow Book') :
http://www.aaronhowdle.com/

Enjoy :)

Snakemen!
I have been reviewing the army list for the Snakemen, and will probably have a mix of Chaos Warriors and Marauders. So above it a 10 strong unit of Chaos Marauder-Snakemen with two-handed weapons.

Unit leader: Saranth Elf Mangler (WIP), complete with a mangled Elf!

Army General (WIP).

I have been recently re-reading some of Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion books. I like the idea of an inter-dimesnional aspect of an Eternal Champion across alternative realities. So, I decided to paint up the army general as an albino in black armour and with a black bladed Chaos sword.

Trolls!!
I bought a couple of Trolls from e-bay quite cheaply (£15 for the both). One was broken, so I gave him a spare Snakeman blade , and the other I gave a stone headed axe.
I own these two old C-Series pre-slotta Trolls already, so it was nice to have the opportunity to convert up these two. I will add them to the Chaos army to give some extra muscle (mainly between their ears!)

Nagash: my foray into Middlehammer.

Age of Sigmar Death Grand Alliance Skeletons.

I have just added Tomb Kings shields, a Kopesh for the leader, and a Tomb King standard. They fit nicely, despite the old Vampire Counts Skeletons being smaller than the Tomb Kings Skeletons. I think they look slightly Assyrians or ancient Babylonians and give a different vibe to the Eygptian-esque Tomb Kings.

I also bought a t-shirt in a shopping spree in Brighton, full of Goblin houses. :)

Next update should be Snakemen if I get around to painting them!

On Friday last (7th October 2016) I lucky enough to attend a viewing of the current art exhibition of the work of the artist Ian Miller, held at the Corridor Gallery in Brighton (East Sussex, UK), at which Ian Miller himself attended.

For those of you unaware, Ian Miller is an artist who contributed a body of work to many of the GW publications during the 1980's, very notablity Slaves to Darkness. In addition, he provided work for the Tolkien Bestiary (in the late 1970's), and a wealth of art since.

It was a great evening. The gallery was very busy, and had quite a lot of Ian Miller's artwork on show, with signed prints to buy, of with I bought two, as well as most of the artwork itself for sale as well. I chatted to Ian Miller about his current art, and the art which he did for GW in the 1980's. I did take a photograph of the general crowds in the gallery, which included Ian Miller, but I did'nt publish it on my blog out of respect for his privacy.

He mentioned that he no longer owned a lot of the art he did for GW, and that during the 1980's he was given 'boxes' of miniatures from at the time, which he recently sold! I had taken my old copy of Slaves to Darkness with me, and as I was showing other people at the show Ian Miller offered (and did) sign and dedicate it. All in all he is a very pleasant and interesting man to chat to, and after liking his art for the last 30 years, it was great to finally meet him and see his new work.

Here are the links for Ian Millers and the Corridor Gallery websites. Both are well worth a visit, and the exhibition is on until 31st October 2016 (closed Mondays), and worth a trip to Brighton if you are able:

http://www.ian-miller.org/

http://corridorgallery.co.uk/

Enjoy. :)

The front of the Corridor Gallery (it's not for sale by the way! LOL)

The two prints which I bought. They are signed and numbered, about A3 sized, and were £20 each.

Both of the originals are on show, and for sale.

Print entitled 'Mote 1'.

Print entitled 'The Dragon Tree'.

Ian Millers signing and deidcation in my copy of Slaves to Darkness.

Next update will be probably either Snakemen, or Tomb Kings, or maybe both. :)

A little while ago I decided to buy and paint up the original Nagash miniature from about 1994. Now, I never liked this miniature at the time, and to make a generalisation, many other people never liked him either. For some it is considered one of the worst miniatures ever made, and is the epitome the over the top designing and over-sized weapons from the mid 1990's/'Middlehammer' period.

I did hear a story which might be true about Gary Morley who sculpted Nagash. Apparently he sculpted a lovely miniature with a human type face, full of character and evil looking, but the GW studio wanted Nagash to be skull faced and more in line with the rest of their line at the time. So, in annoyance, Gary Morley sculpted this version of Nagash, which GW liked and put into production!

So why buy and paint this miniature?
Well I wanted the see if I could take the old Nagash miniature and make him look better in my eyes, and more evil as befitting his reputation. Previous paint schemes suffered from the 1990's predilection to clean and bright (often red) painting, and I wanted to avoid the bright colour schemes of the 1990's and give him a dark look, with a a hint of his Khemri past.

To do this I decided to go for a dark paint scheme, painting the robes black. To hint at Nagash's Khemri background I painted the armour and staff gold-bronze, with some turquoise on the staff. I wanted to keep a very simple paint scheme with a limited palette of colours to contrast with the GW painting. In line with the Khemri feel, I gave him a desert base. Overall I am happy with how he looks and the darker look.

Apart from Nagash I have also had a foray into Age of Sigmar. I have played a demonstration game some time ago, and quite enjoyed it, but my main interest at the moment is wanting to return to painting and rebasing my Tomb Kings army. Now I am aware that Tomb Kings are no longer part of the Age of Sigmar canon but they can still be used for gaming. In addition, the Vampire Counts are still used in the form of the 'Grand Alliance of Death', and so I have been painting up some of the range and adding new items. I have decided to give them a Tomb Kings aspect, giving them Tomb Kings shields and weapons, and going for bronze weapons and armour. More on those, and the Snakemen which I have not forgotten about, in later updates.

To finish I would like to mention that I have reached 260,346 views on my blog. Considering the slightly less frequent updating of late, I am very pleased and flattered that people have been taking such an interest in my blog. Thank you to everyone who has.

Enjoy :)

The old Nagash from the 1990's.

My darker version of Nagash.
I slightly repositioned his body and arms to give the impression of him walking forward and slightly to the right as his legs suggest.

Close up of the 'face'.

In conversations with people on the Oldhammer Facebook group it was suggested that Nagashs face might be better painted more a flesh colour than bone white. So I opted for a pallid looking flesh tone.

Nagash's staff top: gold, turquoise, and bone colours, reminiscent of Khemri.

Nagash's sword, Zefet-nebtar, the Mortis blade. It is actually a lot more blue in real life, but the photograph doesn't quite capture it.

Rear view.

Scale photograph of old Nagash and a Tomb Kings Tomb Guard.

Morghast Archai.
These are quite newly produced miniatures, 2015, and are part of the Age of Sigmar 'Grand Alliance of Death'. I have painted them up more Khemri in look to match my Tomb King-equse 'Death' army.

I had fun painting these, but found that they were a pain to assemble beforehand.

Front view.
I like the armour plates, which whilst are meant to be painted black/dark, I painted gold.

Rear view of the wings and the lost spirits conecting the Morghast to the base. I do like the screaming souls on it, nice idea.

Close up.

The other Morghast.

More screaming spirit wings.

Skull face and armour.

Scale shot with the Tomb Guard again.
The Morghasts are quite large miniatures and look quite impressive.

Cairn Wraith.

To keep with the Tomb King feel I added a death mask from the Tomb Guard set (minus the eagle on top) and painted the robes as a shroud. I did intent to add Egyptian Hieroglyphics to the robes, but I think it looks fine as it is.

Close up.

Next week might be on any number things I am currently doing, probably Tomb Kings or Death Miniatures, but I do have the Snakemen still to finish.

...but I have been very distracted of late, and not been painting at all.

Work has gotten in the way, as well as a lack of focus, and a weird two weeks of being ill after a spider bite left me very tired and unwell and in need of antibiotics (and I live in Southern England, hardly replete with deadly arachnids). I have also been buying stuff, but not really painting any of it. So as a consequence I have'nt really updated my blog in the last four (yes four!) weeks, which is quite terrible.

However I have been part-focusing on three things:

First are the Snakemen. I want to finish these critters off as they are wonderful miniatures and deserve the time and attention. I also bought yet another one, making a total of 45, to convert into an army standard bearer. I also purchased some Dark Fable Miniatures to complement them but more of that once they are painted.

Secondly, I have been pursuing my interest of Ancient Egypt, ancient civilsations, and the Undead, by revisiting my old Tomb Kings, and looking into an Age of Sigmar 'Death' army. With the coming of the Age of Sigmar the Tomb Kings have been removed from sale and reduced to a niche aspect. However they can be still be used, with no need for re-basing, and so I have been buying a few more odds and ends, mainly Tomb Guards. The main advantages of Age of Sigmar Tomb Kings is the lack of reliance on a Hierophant, and no limitiations on army list restrictions.

I like Age of Sigmar, and I liked the idea of having an actual Age of Sigmar Army rather than just the Tomb Kings. I have some Ogres, but I am not really that fussed with them. So I turned to Death. The Death army is very similar to the Tomb Kings in many respects, with the Skeletons et al. So I have been intermittently collecting current Death miniatures to create an army with a Tomb Kings twist. This involves basically taking the Death miniatures and adding Tomb Kings parts, such as Tomb Kings shields, banners, and arms to Skeletons and Black Riders, and other items to a Zombie Dragon. As an extra addition I plan to use an old metal Tomb King's King as a Wight King.

Thirdly, I have looked again at the 40k Squats. I like the Squats but have felt my past efforts with them have'nt quite done them justice. So the plan is to paint strip them all and start again, something easier to do now I have discovered that Dettol strips plastic. I will also slightly break my own rule with some of my old armies in that everything should be as it was at the time, by re-basing some of the bikes on modern bases, and adding a few more contemporary items.

The plan with the Squats has been to break them down into their component types. By that I mean have formed seperate forces of original 40k metal Squats the 1987/8 metal Squats designed by the Perry's, the RT301 and RT302 ranges; the Bob Olley Squat range; the 1989 plastic and plastic armed range; and finally a Guild Expeditionary force. For the most part I have done this, and plan to paint each of the forces with their own, or mix of their own, paint schemes. I will also have enough spare for a small force of Chaos Squats, something I have wanted to do since 1989.
Someday I would like to assemble a 'Squat' army consisting of Hasslefree Grymn and Tau hardwear, all painted in Tau colours, but that will have to wait a while.

On a releated topic from the Tomb Kings I bought and am reading a history of Ancient Egypt, 'The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt, by Toby Wilkinson. This inspired me to go shopping for something in an Ancient Eygptian vein. With that in mind I ended up buying (with provenance) an actual Ancient Egyptian Scarab from an antiquites dealer in Mayfair. It's made from from Blue Frit. It is dated from the 18th to 19th Dynasty, approximately 1570-1185 B.C.
I just thought I would include it on my blog as something of interest as I really like it, and it feels strange to own something over 3,000 years old.

Enjoy. :)

Vampire on Zombie Dragon.
I have removed the saddle from the Dragon's back, and added the howdah from the Tomb Kings War Sphinx. For the Vampire Lord I am going to use a spare plastic Tomb King, although I will add a more Vampire looking head.

Close up of the howdah.

A few of the Skeleton Warriors.
All I have done is rebased them onto 25mm round bases, and added Tomb King shields, a sword, and banner. I have about 60 of these to assemble and paint.

Black Knights.
Like the Skeletons I've added some Tomb King parts, and also a few head swaps as well. I plan to have a couple of units of these as an hard hitting mobile alternative to the Chariots which the Death army does not possess. I see them as a slight homage to ancient cavalry, such as Assyrians or Sarmations, but with a Tomb Kings slant.

Leader.

Musician and Standard Bearer.

Troopers.

Box of Tomb King bit to be sorted out!

I also picked up some Halloween ornaments of giant Skeletal hands for the Tomb Kings. They were only about £4 each, and there seem to be lots on e-bay, so I might get some more.

Squat bikes in need of paint stripping.
I also have another five for the Exo-Armoured Squats.

Snakemen, which I need to finish!

Beware Goblins!!
A friend of mine had this made for me a little while ago, but I kept forgetting to photograph it.
Goblin shown for scale, and mischief purposes, only. ;)

Blue Scarab.
It is 13.6mm x 9.74mm x 6.49mm and made of Blue Frit.
I absolutely love this, the detail is great and it is really charming.
The Scarab has a hole drilled through it (in antiquity), so it could be worn as a pendant.

The underside, showing a Scarab flanked by a pair of Maat feathers.

To keep it in I had a custom made box made from a box seller in Brighton, taken from the underside decoration of the Scarab.

Next week, I not only intend to update the blog, but also to have painted some Snakemen too!! :)

My progress on the Snakemen has recently ground to halt. I tried to figure out why, and concluded that despite them being wonderful miniatures, I had chosen the wrong route for them. Although the paint scheme and approach was fine, I became bored with painting them. So I had left them be for a while, concentrating on assembling my Age of Sigmar 'Death' army, as well as concerned with work and other things. In short, as my lack of blog updates shows, I hit a doldrum in painting.

However all that changed with me looking again at my copy of Rodney Mathews art book 'In Search of Eternity'. The colours and style of art inspired my to looked again at the Snakemen, and to consider a much more brighter colour scheme, with a broader palette. Less dull colours. Also, I don't want to have a mono paint scheme for the army, with all green skinned Snakemen but a mix of vibrant colours. I will probably keep the gold colour for the armour, with a couple of exceptions, as it looks nice.

"Chase the Dragon" (1980).

"Sanctuary" (1981).

"Tanelorn" (1976).

(All pictures property of Rodney Matthews, or something else legal here that shows it's his stuff. Check out his website and/or buy the book! :) )
http://www.rodneymatthews.com/main.htm

So the plan is to give the Snakemen more individual skin tones, brighter, with more blues, bright greens, purples, yellows, and as well as more convertional snake colourings. Afterall they are also creatures of Chaos, and suggestive of Slaanesh in the Warhammer setting, and so bright colours and pastels seems more appropriate. It will be more fun too!

I have also rebased them, putting them on my first choice of base, a 40mm lipped round base. I like these bases, and have based many Goblins on the 30mm version. The Snakemen can still be used for Warhammer Fantasy Battle, but they also feel more open if I ever decide to use them for Rogue Trader or skirmish gaming. I'll probably keep the desert basing effect though. Also, I have broken a little with the '1980's only' and added several parts from plastic kits from the 1990s' and 2000's. I have abandoned the purest appraoch for the Snakemen to add a little more different details to them.

In addition, I have also picked up a few more Snakemen from e-bay, bring the total to 45. This works out to four units of 10, one army General, one Army Standard, and two heroes. The last remaining Snakeman I might convert into a Chaos Sorcerer in Chaos Armour. But I'm not above expanding the army.

Enjoy :)

All 45 of the critters
(please excuse the state of the painting desk!).

First unit of Snakemen, armed with hand weapons, shields, and wearing heavy armour. They are a mix of the C27 Snakeman miniatures: Higgat Dwarf Slicer; S'lon Life Smasher; S'lararet Splintered Fang. The standard bearer is a converted S'lararet Splintered Fang with a green stuff banner and Vampire Counts plastic Ox head on top.

The second unit of Snakemen largely as above, but with a converted Higgat Dwarf Slicer standard bearer.

The third unit is made up of ten of the Saranth Elf Mangler, with a converted standard bearer.

The fourth and final unit is of ten S'Sirron Fangthrane Snakemen. I need to convert up a standard bearer for this unit.

The Characters.
From left to right are the Army Standard Bearer; a 'spare' S'Sirron Fangthrane who will probably end up as a Chaos Sorcerer; the Army General; and two Chaos heroes.

The Army Standard bearer.

I converted him up from a broken Saranth Elf Mangler by adding a standard top from the Warhammer Tomb Kings Necropolis Knight set. It reminds me of the standard top of Thulsa Doom, from the film Conan (1982). I have a wonderful Thulsa Doom miniature to paint as well, but more on that in a later update.

Two unit standard bearers. The one on the right is made using an old Citadel Elf horn.

Another unit standard bearer. I added a little greenstuff banner below the shield, otherwise it looked a little like a lollipop sign!

To add a little variation to the S'lon Life Smasher miniature (and some of the others) I have re-positioned the tails and head angles on some of them. On the left is the original pose, on the right one of the variants. I have repostioned a few of the heads previously, but I stook the idea of moving the the tails and bodies more from a fellow bloggers blog here:
http://leadplague.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/chaos-snakemen-again.html

Another two repostioned S'lon Life Smashers.

The Army General.
He was a Higgat Dwarf Slicer who had seen better days, with a damaged midriff and broken off sword. However with a little green stuff and the addition of a another Tomb Kings item, this a plastic Khopesh, he looks a lot better. I think that the sword give a slightly more exotic and perhaps travelled look to him.

Two Chaos heroes.
After reading some of the Elric books I thought it would be fun to have one of the Snakemen as an alien aspect of Eternal Champion concept. Orignally this was going to be the Snakeman on the right, but I decided to convert up a S'lararet Splintered Fang with an old 2nd Edition 40k Chaos Marine sword which to me looks a little like a kin of Stombringer. I will paint up this miniature Albino skinned.
The other Snakeman I converted to have a bow. Now I am going to repaint him in red armour and have him as a sort of Rakhir the Red.

The next update will be on some painted Snakemen!! :)

My first post of the New Year and I have been a busy Goblin! I have managed over the Xmas/New Year period to have re/painted 13 Snakemen. I am very happy with the output, and I am enjoying painting them much more.

As I outlined in my last blog update, I had ground to a halt with painting the Snakemen as I was'nt happy with my chosen paint scheme. So I have chosen to go for a different paint scheme, that of mixed skin colours. Instead of just one colour, I have chosen a mix of real life snake colours, and some bright random colours to suggest their Chaos origins. I want each of the Snakemen to have an individual look to them as regards their skin colour, most of their equipment and shields.

However to keep some coherence, and because I like the look, I kept their plate armour gold. As the Snakemen plate armour has some beautifully sculpted shoulder pads, in the form of faces, I have occasionally painted some of them in different colours. This brings out their detail, breaks up the gold plate, and adds that Chaos individuality. I feel it also gives them their 1980's feel, linking in with the mid/late 1980's Chaos/Goblinoid aesthetic.

With the basing I went for the same approach as before. The bulk of the base is Citadel's Agrellan Earth (although I do have some of their thicker Agrellan Badlands to use too), with dead looking grasses and the occasional rock or tufts of long grass. I may add the odd skull or creature to some of my Snakemen in the pipeline. The bigger lipped 40mm round bases seem to work well with them. I have painted edges black to both give definition and to allow me to add names to their bases later on. I think it's going to fun thinking up names for 40+ Snakemen!

Finally, despite my slowing up in blog updates recently, I am close to 300k views. As of today I have had 298,771 views, which is amazing! :)

Enjoy :)

13 Snakemen.
(Sorry about the blurry photograph).

S'lon Life Smasher.
I painted the face on his shoulder pad green, as well as the face on his sword hilt.

S'Sirron Fangthrane, painted as a 'Banded Krait' Snake.

Another S'Sirron Fangthrane, this time orange.

Another S'lon Life Smasher, loosely based on a 'Rattle Snake'.

Higgat Dwarf Slicer, based on a 'Milk Snake'.

Purple coloured S'lon Life Smasher. To my knowlage there are no purple snakes, so I painted this one up as a Chaos influenced Snakeman.

A repainted and converted S'lararet Splintered Fang standard bearer.

I painted him with some of the bright green tropical snakes in mind, and used Vallejo Fluorescent Green. Some of the green snakes can be quite bright, but this Snakeman could also be influenced by the glow of Warpstone.

A third S'Sirron Fangthrane.

I will be using him as a unit leader, and have painted him up using Citadel's 'Warpfiend Grey, normally used on Slaaneshi miniautres, to suggest a Slaaneshi allegiance to this Snakeman. I have also used a purple-pink on the axe and the fur cape on his back (see further below), and a pale blue on the shoulder pad and axe shaft.
I don't want the Snakemen to have a specific Chaos allegiance, but consider them leaning of mine more towards Slaanesh and Tzeench.

Another S'lon Life Smasher.

I originally converted him to use him as an independent hero. I repostioned his tail, and added a bow and quiver to his back. I have an idea to have two of the Snakemen to be aspects of Michael Moorcocks Eternal Champion concept. One of the Snakemen I am going to paint as an albino in black armour (as this Snakeman was orginally). The second, which is this Snakeman, is to be an representation of Rakhir the Red, the archer who adventured with Elric on occasion.

Yet another S'lon Life Smasher!
He is painted up to be a generic brownish snake. I did twist his tail so he stands more at an angle. I also painted his shoulder pad up as a bone skull.

A second Higgat Dwarf Slicer.

He is painted similar to Corn Snake as I wanted a nice and bright colour. I kept the armour, even the lovely sculpted faced breastplate, gold. However several of the other Higgat Dwarf Slicer Snakemen on my painting table will have different colored breastplates.

The final S'Sirron Fangthrane.

I wanted a plain, muted brown, to give depth and offset the bright axe shaft.

I like him as he is understated.

Rear views of the Slaaneshi S'Sirron Fangthrane unit leader on the left, show his purple-pinkish fur cape. Higgat Dwarf Slicer on the right shows off his snake skulled shield.

I took these photographs as you cannot see the backs of the Snakemen in catalogue pages. Unless you own the miniatures you can't appreciate the sculpting at the back.

S'lon Life Smasher, looking like you're his next lunch!

He is also showing off his skull face shoulder pad.

S'Sirron Fangthrane with a screaming faced shoulder pad.

S'lon Life Smasher other shoulder pad, with grinning shoulder pad.

The shoulder pad of S'lararet Splintered Fan.

Next update will be more Snakemen!!

Quick update this week.

Over the last week and half I have managed to paint up another half dozen Snakemen. I am really enjoying painting them with their new more colourfully individualistic look. I also converted a Snakeman into a standard bearer.

Apart from Snakemen, I have been paint stripping and tinkering with 40k Squats and came up with an idea for alternative bikers. The 40k Squats won't be started until the Snakemen have been finished. I have also been picking up a mixture of odds and ends from e-bay/Oldhammer Trading site, from 1980's Lord of the Rings Uruk-Hai and Orcs, to the odd AD&D Githyanki!

However I shall not get too distracted, so the Snakemen will be the focus. I have 26 to paint, having already painted 19. I also have a few oddments such as Human Cultists and a Harpy to paint as well.

Enjoy :)

Six more Snakemen.

S'lararet Splintered Fang.

I have painted him up as a unit leader by adding runes on his shield and on the black bladed sword.

Incedently, I have been referring to all the Snakemen as 'he'. However I am sure that some of the Snake'men' may just as well be Snake'women'. I will refer to them as 'he' for the sake of grammatical ease, but assume there may be a mix. I'm not sure how to 'sex' a Snakemen, but I am pretty sure even asking them, let alone any other method, may be fraught with danger! :)

S'Sirron Fangthrane.

With a slight Chaos Tzeentch or Slaanesh vibe I painted him up purple. I am not sure if there are any purple Snakes in the world, but this is the Warhammer World.

Another S'lararet Splintered Fang.

Unlike the other Snakemen, I have given him a slightly Khornate look with the red shield and bits of armour. The army won't be Khornate, but it's nice to add a different dash of colour.

Higgat Dwarf Slicer.

I slightly bent the tail to give the impression he is slithering around the skull.

I painted the face on the breastplate blue to look like a Troll.

Another S'Sirron Fangthrane, this time in a more straight forward green, based on innumerable real world Snake colourations.

Sarannth Elf Mangler.

I have painted him up in a stipey paint scheme taken from Jean-Baptiste's Snakemen here:
http://leadplague.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/chaos-snakemen-chaos-battle-part-15.html

Right hand side of the above Sarannth Elf Mangler.

S'Sirron Fangthrane conversion.
I have converted him into a standard bearer by removing his double handed axe, and drilling though the hands, and adding a piece of bass rod for the shaft. The standard is a slightly trimmed standard from GW's current Grave Guard plastic box set.

I was tinkering with 40k Squat miniatures when I hit upon the idea that I could mount my spare bikers on Citadel's limited release Space Marine Riding Lizards.
I have been wondering what to do with the Lizards for a while. As I have 10, I will use 8 of them as alternative Squat bikers. I think they fit very well and look great. I will conduct some minor conversions such as re-postioning the Squars arms, adding reins, and slight re-postioning of the Lizards heads and legs. I'll rebase then too.

Next update will be yet more Snakemen!

In the past week I have painted another six Snakemen. The painting of the Snakemen is going well and I am having fun painting them. I do feel I need to paint more real world Snake colourations, as well as some more brightly coloured Chaos looking ones. My next batch (hatching!) will be a mix of these.

Other than the Snakemen I painted a few Catachans. I had a fair sized plastic Catachan army some time ago, and it had a few metal ones in it. I have seperated and painted stripped most of them, and plan to do a small, veteran force, of metal only Catachans.

I have always liked the Catachans as they are more of a tough and independent army, not so grim and dull as Cadians. So, I have painted a few test miniatures, and rather than the standard Catachan green, I have opted for a variation of the 101st Airborne uniform of the US in World War Two. I am not intending to focus on them as yet, but will do in the near future.

Enjoy :)

More Snakey fellows!

A converted Higgat Dwarf Slicer.

I have replaced his broken sword with one from from the GW Tomb Kings range.

I have painted his armour in a bone effect, and added an Ox skull from the Tomb Kings Skeleton box set to emphasize the desert look of the bases.

He will either be the army General, independent hero, or unit leader.

Rear view.

The first Saranth Elf Mangler, with Rattlesnake skin.

Second of the Saranth Elf Mangler, this time in blue.

Third Saranth Elf Mangler, in a Tree Snake green.

Rear view of the three.

S'lon Life Smasher.

I have noticed a few of the S'lon Life Smashers have miscast shields. Instead of the usual round shield, they are (mis)cast into a teardrop shape. Often, but not in this case, the snake skull can be lacking detail and teardrop shaped as well.

Higgat Dwarf Slicer.

I have painted him with Vallejo Flourescent green to give look of the more brighter Tree Snakes.

Catachans!

Like the American 101st Airborne in World War Two, I have painted these Catachan in a slightly darker kharki uniform, with russet boots, and wood look rifle. However, they are still Catachans, and so I have painted the bandanas red.

Close up of on of the riflemen.

Rear view.

Catachans face off against Snakemen on a distant planet!?

Next update, almost certainly more Snakemen!

Yes, it's already February (Happy Imbolc), and I have painted, yes, more Snakemen!

Only five painted this week, but I am steadily working my way through them. I have sixteen left to paint, and so am well over halfway through, and I am halfway through another batch (or hatch?) on my painting table. I also have a few other odds and ends that are to go with the army, such as Wizards, a couple of Trolls, a Harpy, and a Chaos Warrior. I reckon that they will be finish in about three or four weeks.

After the Snakemen, I have a mind to return to paint a few of the Fantasy Tribes Goblins, as I miss painting Goblins. I also might paint up a few more Slann as they need to be finished, and am wondering if I should re-base them on 30mm round bases as I have seen some based up in that manner and the look rather nice.

Yesterday I finally got around to sending off my order for the 'Diehard Miniatures' Kickstarter. For the record I have ordered five of Tom Prow's wonderful Skeletal Snakemen to add to the Snakeman army. I have also ordered enough Eru-Kin to build the Slann army in the 'Magnificent Sven' scenario, with enough spare to convert that force into a proper 3rd Edition Edition Warhammer Armies Slann army.

Enjoy :)

Five Snakemen; two S'lon Life Smasher's, and three S'Sirron Fangthrane's.

The first of the S'Sirron Fangthrane's, painted in a standard Snakey green, with yellow underbelly. I did paint the axe shaft brighter to offset that, and in keeping with the North American vibe, the fur pelt as raccoon.

The second S'Sirron Fangthrane.

I went for a much brighter, tropical look for this one, with a dash of red armour. He reminds me of the 1990's Lizardmen.

A plain, drab, desert looking Snakeman, great for hiding and ambushing unwary travellers!

The first of the two S'lon Life Smasher's.

Again, as I have in this batch, gone for a few basic green and drab Snakemen. I did'nt want too many of the Snakemen to be too bright, to avoid the 'explosion in a paint factory' look.

A dark brown and converted S'lon Life Smasher.
I have twisted his neck to make it look like he is looking at something or tasting the air. I also twisted his body 90 degress to emphise this, and to give him a slightly different look.

Close up of the armour. I went for mostly green armour to make it look like a Goblin, as well as offset the dark brown of the skin.

Rear view of two of the S'Sirron Fangthrane's, just to show PETA that some Snakemen prefer fake fur! ;)

WIP S'Sirron Fangthrane.

Given GW's recent release of their lovely looking Tzeentch miniatures, I thought I would borrow one of their paint schemes for the standard bearer.

WIP of one of four of the Grenadier Serpentmen (from their Cthulu range I think) I have.

I was'nt going to use them, as they are a lot smaller than the C27 Snakemen, unarmoured, and not very well armed. However I have decided to use them as Chaos Sorcerers. Also, I want to keep the Snakemen Warriors all C27 range, to keep a consistent look, only having the Grenadier Snakemen as Sorcerers, and the Diehard Miniatures as an ally contingent.

Because they are smaller, I have built up the (40mm lipped) bases a little with Milliput, and added items to the bases (in this case part of a Skeleton Horde box set horse).

A possible army General?

With what I have stated above, having only C27 Snakemen as Warriors, having a serpentine Chaos Hero as an independent Hero or Army General, seperate from the rank and file, might work.

Looking at him/her/hermaphrodite, it could easily be a Snakemen with the Rewards and Personal Attributes of 'Face of a Demonette', 'Hermaphrodite', 'Multiple Arms', and maybe more!

It saves me buying another Snakeman, and adds a bit more Chaos fun! :)

Next update will be more Snakemen!!!

Mid-Febuary and the painting of snakemen is progressing nicely.

Apart from five C27 Snakemen, I have painted three Grenadier Miniatures Cthulu range Serpentmen, and a 'Realm of Chaos' era Chaos Champion from 1988.

Enjoy :)

Five C27 Snakemen, and Chaos Champion.

The first of the S'lararet Splintered Fang's.

I have converted and painted this Snakeman up to be either a unit hero or independent hero, and framed him to be an aspect of Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion. I liked the idea that the Eternal Champion can be an aspect that can be throughout space, time, and alternative universes, and so thought I would have a Snakeman 'Eternal Champion'. I swapped his sword for an old plastic Chaos Marine one, to look like a sibling of Stormbringer, and painted him albino and in black armour.

Another S'lararet Splintered Fang, painted up as a grey Snake.

Third and final S'lararet Splintered Fang.

I painted a S'Sirron Fangthrane a while ago with predominantly red armour, and so thuoght I would paint one with predominantly green armour as well.

A converted S'Sirron Fangthrane, converted into a standard bearer.

I snipped off the axe and axe sharft, and the drilled through the hands, adding a brass rod. I then added a plastic standard from GW's current Grave Guard set.

With GW's current Tzeentch releases, I have borrowed the look and painted this Snakeman in a flow of colours, blending pink, to red/purple, to blue/s, to grey, to give a Tzeentchian magic feel.

Rear view.

Close up of the standard.

As the Snakeman is quite colourful, I went for a darker, more muted standard. The runes are from the 1st Edition Warhammer supplement 'Forces of Fantasy'. It reads S'nethen, the name Chaz Elliot gave the Snakemen in the background he gave them.

The runes from the Forces of Fantasy supplement. They are in the Dark Elf section.

Higgat Dwarf Slicer, painted with dark green armour, and bright red skin.

Rear view.

Slaaneshi Champion.

Now the Snakeman army is'nt Slaaneshi, however being serpentine I thought that this Chaos Champion might fit in nicely. I think of him (or her, or Hermophrotite?) as a Snakeman who has mutated into this form, rather than a humaniod who has mutated with serpentine features.

Close up.

I went for a green skin to suggest a Snakemen origin, and painted snake-like eyes. Streotypically, I painted the male rune on the sword blue, the femal one pink. I kept with the gold armour colour to tie in with the rest of the Snakemen.

Rear view.

Grenadier Miniatures Cthulu range Serpentmen.

These critters are a lot smaller than the Citadel C27 Snakeman range. However to overcome this I have built up the bases with Milliput and added stuff to the bases to make them look less small.

I will use these as Chaos Sorcerers as they are smaller than the warriors, unarmoured, and less armed.

There are three sculpts: an unarmed; armed with a dagger; armed with a stone axe.

Unarmed with part of the skeleton of a plastic horde horse on the base.

Right hand side.

I painted a few random magical runes from the Force of Fantasy artwork of a Goblin Mage.

Serpentman with dagger.

I painted him up with Rattle Snake skin.

I have noticed that the superglue I use on the base has turned a little white, and so will fix this later. I thought that the long grasses make the Serpent Man appear to be emerging from long grass with a dagger, ready in ambush.

Right hand side.

Axe armed Serpent man. He is armed with a stone axe, and I went for a dark brown robe to contrast with the bright red skin.

Right hand side.

More Snakemen from e-bay!!

Next update will be more Snakemen and other add-ons of the army.

I was on holiday last week, and so, bizarrely, I actually never got around to doing any painting, despite the extra free time!

However, in the last week I have painted six more Snakemen, and a Bob Olley Iron Claw range Harpy. I have put the NSFW up because she is naked. As for the Snakemen, who are also, in theory, scantily clad, I have finally painted three of the standards for the units I have already painted. In addition I painted three more warriors. I ended up painting five Saranth Elf Mangler's, and one Higgat Dwarf Slicer.

In addition, I have been sorting out a lot other parts of my collections. Once the Snakemen are finished, I want to return to sorting out an army for each of the entries in the Warhammer Armies book. Although I did orignally have a painted army for most of the entires, I have removed some of the miniatures from them, mainly solid based ones and 1980's Lord of the Rings range, as I wanted them to be in seperate collections. So I still have some painting to do on some of the older armies.

Also, I have been on and off collecting 1980's Lord of the Rings miniatures (since the 1980's in fact!), with an eye to having a couple of little skirmish forces. I did a blog update a few years ago on this, and also would like to re-visit the idea. In the last few months I have picked up some more of the old 1980's Uruk-Hai models designed by Jes Goodwin, and would like to paint these up as Uruk-Hai of Saruman.

Enjoy :)

Snakemen!

Bob Olley Harpy.

I wanted a magically bound Harpy in the army to fly around and annoy people. I have had her in a box for years, and painted her up on a whim. I thought purples might make a change and make her look more magical (not in a Disney way of course!), although the brightness of the colours does'nt seem to have come out in the photograph.

A conversion of Higgat Dwarf Slicer.

The conversion was very simple. The blade of his sword had snapped off, so I clipped the rest of the sword off, drilled a hole through the hand, added brass rod, a skull, an old Maruader Miniatures shield. I then green stuffed a little banner under the shield to make it look less like a lollipop.

The magical symbols are are copied from 1st Edition Warhammer's forces of Fantasy supplement.

I painted him light purple after I found out there is a purple snake in real life; the Lavander Corn Snake. It looks suitably Chaotic as well.

Rear view.

I green stuffed the back of the shield on the standard to make it look more substantial.

The first of five Saranth Elf Mangler's.

This one has been converted into a standard bearer but cutting off the remains of his broken halberd, and drilling down into the shaft. I then added a straightened Elf horn from Jes Goodwin's Citadel Elven Heroes range. I thought the poking out tongue seemed appropiate for the Snakemen, as if magically tasting the air.

Left side view.

The second Saranth Elf Mangler converted standard bearer, again from a broken Snakeman from e-bay.

I added a long piece of brass rod, and then on the top I added the standard top from Citadels Tomb Kings Necropolis Knights set. To give it all more substance, I green stuffed the shaft to add thickness.

Close up of the standard head.

It reminds me of the standand of Thulsa Doom in the film 'Conan the Barbarian' (the 1982 version, of course!).

Right hand view.

I am quite pleased with how the grey skin came out. I also matched the colours of the shield to the standard as well.

Three more Saranth Elf Mangler's, this time warriors.

A green skinned Saranth Elf Mangler.

A mottled green Saranth Elf Mangler.

Another grey Saranth Elf Mangler.

I painted this one Warpfiend grey to give a slight Slaaneshi look.

I found a box of Orcs whilst sorting out stuff. There's about 100 or so solid based Orcs in there. I will sort them out properly and photograph them at some point.

Next update will be more Snakemen. Whilst I had almost got to the end of painting them all, I ended up buying some more. So, more to paint!!!

134,591 views, and pre-slotta RR3 Grom's Goblin Guard Regiment of Renown.

Rogue Trader era 40k Dominators.

Melniboneans

A quick post on critters in the orchard!

The Pan Tang, and also 210,640 views!!!

Chaos Snakemen of Quetzalcoatl.

More Snakemen, Sacred Bull, and time for some hatching!

They hatched!

More Snakemen, and a Gorgon.

Some Oldhammer, some Middlehammer, and some Newhammer (and Ian Miller too!).

Meeting Ian Miller at the Corridor Gallery, Brighton.

Nagash (old version), and 'friends'.

Well, I'm not dead...

Snakeman redux.

Newly painted Citadel C27 Snakemen.

The second hatching of Snakemen this year.

The third Snakeman hatching, and the 101st (Catachan) Airborne.

Yet more C27 Snakemen!!!

Slaaneshi Champion, Serpentmen, and more C27 Snakemen.

Snakeman Standards, and a Bob Olley Harpy (NSFW?).