Sunday 10 May 2020

Classic Chaos Beastmen (150pts).

This blog was originally set up, some years ago, to chart my progress in creating a Nurgle army from the classic Lost and the Damned tome. Along the way I have been easily, inevitably and enjoyably sidetracked by a plethora of new ideas, miniatures, games systems and competitions, but for now I've decided to come back to the project and try and complete it! Ive finished my Warhammer 3rd Edition Chaos Allies Contingent, which have the same basing, so I looked back at my many incomplete Lost and the Damned units and decided to tackle the unit which needed the least amount of work.

I had painted half of these classic Chaos Beastmen some time ago, and I remembered collecting them so that they were a disparate, ragtag bunch (certainly not just goats), of different shapes, sizes and races and of course choosing some of my favourite sculpts from this era along the way.

Here’s the now completed unit:






I've painted their skin with a variety of tones, trying to unify them slighlty by keeping the colours slightly drab and pastel like, and as always allowing the basing to tie them together further. 

The banner is painted from an image in Fighting Fantasy's Army of Death and is held by a Beastman that was regularly headswapped in Dale Hurst's iconic Tzeentch warband from White Dwarf 135, something I had always wanted to do since I first saw the article in 1991 and here I've done so with a new, plastic plaguebearer head added to the Citadel lead body. 


Here’s the original illustration  by Nick Williams, as found in Fighting Fantasy: Armies of Death:



The last part was to construct a movement tray, which is really more of a display tray to hold the unit together. More on how I do this in a future post.

So then that’s 14 Beastmen, with standard, making a total of 150pts.



13 comments:

  1. I like your banner bearer conversion and the banner, nice to see the return of your realm of chaos army. I've got a small unit of mixed beastmen too, made from various night horror werebeasts and other lycanthropes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've always liked how a variety of disparate creatures can be coherently shepherded together to form a fighting unit. Chaos is perfect for this, but it can be applied to any fantasy race. I'd like to see your versions, do you have a blog or Instagram to showcase your models?

      Delete
    2. Thanks for the interest, I don't have a blog or anything. My werebeast miniatures, or weregors as I like to think of them, are made up of - Citadel preslotta werecat, Citadel 1985 C22 Creatures werewolf (favourite mini), Citadel 1986 C18 Night Horrors wolfman & wereman, Alternative Armies dwarven weremole, Dark Horse Miniatures TMNT wererat (looks like a possum to me), Grenadier werefish barracuda & wereboar & wererat. The Otherworld weretiger and Dead Mans Hand buffulo-man are next on my list.

      Delete
  2. Love them but the banner bearer is just ubercool!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I'm starting to realise that converting older models with some new elements is the direction for my hobby style.

      Delete
  3. Wondrous results. Oh, that banner!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers! It's always a fun distraction to do a bit of freehand on some paper!

      Delete
  4. I didn't realise the new plastic range had such a handsome, multi-eyed head. Now I want some.

    I think my favourite part is actually the striking zebra minotaur, but that banner is incredible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's a great head isn't it, I'll say it quietly but the current GW plastics are pretty good and I'm starting to buy more and more of them. The zebrataur is indeed a classic inspired by white dwarfs from my youth.

      Delete
  5. I really love the lush, exuberant movement tray (and base work). It really adds to the idea of these chaos baddies emerging from an over-fecund forest in the Old World. BEAUTIFUL!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Matthew, the basing takes a little too long when applied to an entire army, but does look good and I think adds a bit of background to the context of where all these worshippers of Nurgle are marching to/from

      Delete
  6. Awesome to see you return to this army, absolutely gorgeous work. That plastic Plaguebearer head really fits well with the lead body. Still absolutely love your basing, can't wait to see how you go about your trays when you get around to it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I'll put together a post about the movement trays, I've got photos of the process. I think I'm kidding myself calling them movement trays as I game so infrequently. Currently they move from storage to photoshoot. Perhaps display trays is more appropriate!

      Delete