We have been playing Old World at the club recently. Readers may remember I finished off a Night Goblin army recently. (Well, wargaming recently, so like a year ago probably.) I have been enjoying the game, learning not to just charge forward with everything and trying some tactics. Now I have the Old World bug I thought I would fish out my Warriors of Chaos army, an army that you do just charge everything forward. Back in the nineties I had great fun with these models, but I hadn't really painted them well. They were all just painted brown and dry-brushed red. The need to get them on the table quickly meant little regard was made to making them look nice.
The Chaos Champion just needed a bit of tidying up. I had neglected to paint some of the details. It is amazing what I thought I could get away with if I undercoated in black. The belt, skull and horns were all still black. There was no highlighting and the chestplate was still black too. The helmet and the knees had some nice crisp red paint on them though.
These Bloodletters really were just sprayed black and dry-brushed red, that was it. In fact the banner bearer, musician and champion didn't even have painted bases. Its quite a small unit and I have some other Bloodletters rescued from the bits box, but they are all the plastic skinny ones. I would like to expand this unit, although they aren't listed in the Chaos army list anymore and the original metal models seem as rare as hens teeth.
This heavy lump of lead is called Archaon. Difficult to hold without spiking yourself, this model is another that I feel privileged to own. At the time of release it was considered a very dynamic model and I think it still holds up against some modern sculpts. I didn't need to do much to this model, having already paid some attention to it. I did rebase it and tidy up some of the paint where it had got chipped. I also added some red demonic eyes to the steed.
The biggest job was the recovery of a chariot. I have two of these, both were completely broken up into their component parts, the horses were in a completely different box as well. I have found all the components apart from one whip arm and for now just made one of them up. I may fix up the other at a later date, possibly putting a character on the back instead of one of the crew. One of the reasons they had broken apart was because I never put them on a base back in my youth. The horses were on cavalry bases, but that was it. The chariot itself was therefore at the mercy of neglect. A quick order to
warbases ( I needed some converting movement trays anyway to adjust the base sizes of some of the models, I'm not rebasing, no sir.) and I now have some nice 3mm thick 100mm by 60mm bases I have mounted one on.
The rest of the army will get some tidying up and I can easily field a couple of thousand points for a game.
For anyone wondering about the WW2 challenge I have been set by the Illustrious Opponent, it does still continue. I am a little behind as I spent a month doing some commission painting for a paying customer. So, that had to take priority. I am up to date with April and I have started my May's allocation. I might make next month's post a full update. In the meantime, I give you an image of my converted demo charge team. A simple green stuff sculpt for the satchel and a mortar team without the mortar tube for the rest.
And finally, I have spent the last couple of weeks on some grim dark reading. As you may know I am fan of Dan Abnett's work, especially his Gaunts Ghosts saga. I have been re-reading them from the beginning and romping through them, I have got as far as book eleven:
Whilst back in book 8 - Traitor General, I was inspired by the descriptions of the Chaos Daemon Engines, the Wirewolves. Daemonic entities trapped inside animated wire cages. The wirewolves are made into various forms, humanoid or animalistic. Hanging from gibbets, they come to life when the daemon that inhabits them is summoned from the warp at the slightest hint of a disturbance on the occupied world of Gereon.
I thought I would have a go at making one and took the name literally and decided to make mine in the shape of a wolf. (Although it could be said it looks more rat like). In a spot of recycling, most of the model is made from offcuts of sprue with just a couple of chains added I found in my bits box. I then added some painted wire wool to the interior to represent the daemon. I'm not sure it quite works, but I could always remove it and add something else later. I'm not sure the photo shows it well, but I used some texture paint to try and give it a rusted look. For very little cost, I'm quite pleased with the result.
