The Enduring Legacy of the Realms of Chaos

Remember those amazing illustrations from the original Realms of Chaos books, by artists such as Adrian Smith, Paul Campbell etal, the ones that provoked so many ideas and fleshed out some of the possibilities and potential within 3rd Edition Realms of Chaos? I still love looking at them today and often feel inspired to try and convert my own miniatures based on the characters depicted within them. But I don't have to so much anymore because the Games Workshop of today (which has more recently seemed like quite a different beast as to what I grew up with) has released some models that are so obviously steeped in and inspired by some of those very illustrations I alluded to earlier.

I rarely venture onto the GW website, so I am somewhat behind the times, but I saw someone else had painted this model (Sloppity Bilepiper) and assumed it was a conversion, but no, this is a bonefide GW release that is clearly based upon some illustrations from GW of the 80's, specifically the Realms of Chaos. I just had to buy it (and make a bit of an adjustment to make it fit a bit better with those illustrations and lose the, quite frankly, ridiculous staff);

The musical element, the dynamic, dancing poses (especially the Nurgling) are just so evocative of those early illustrations, especially the Dance of Death. The older Nurgling I added to Sloppity's hand is a reference to that era.

I had forgotten about my scenic photography backdrop, so I dusted it off (I actually had to and was surprised by the versatility of static grass) and used it again here:

 Before converting and painting this modern model, I just had to reach for my Lost and Damned book and look for the specific illustrations that I saw the link to in these sculpts. The two images were by Adrian Smith and Paul Campbell from the Nurgle pages in the Lost and Damned Realm of Chaos Tome, specifically the Dance of Death and Nurgle Calvalcade pages. Have a look:

So, as I was researching some of this post, I discovered that GW is releasing a game called the Realm of Chaos. It's not aimed for me, but it is nicely reassuring that my favourite era and output of model miniatures is seeing something of a revival for a new generation of gamers/painters. I'm looking forward to some new plastic models to paint and then sit alongside my original lead ones and hope they all are happy lined up alongside each other.

Bitzbox Warband pt2 - greenstuff (and warband record sheet)

I've been busy with the greenstuff and the sculpting tools in order to complete the next stage of putting this Bitzbox Warband together; prior to the painting stage:

The leader of the warband. I resisted the urge to greenstuff the fuck out of him, or more especially his palanquin. The unsightly gaps between palanquin and nurglings will be hidden by banners (see more below) and I decided to keep the texture of the balsa grain rather than greenstuff rugs/drapery on the surface which would have draped over the sides. I did add some cocktail stick spikes though. I may need to greenstuff some hands and feet onto the Nurglings which are on board the palanquin, as at the moment they are missing from having been clipped from their small plastic base. You can also see the small seeds and beads which I've embedded into the swollen gut of the Champion and on the sides of the throne I've added some textured/organic swirls which show the twisted and contorted figures writhing in the throne.

Here's the beastmen champion, old dog head, pointing into the distance, showing his steed where he would like to go. The only sculpting here (apart from gap filling) was the scorpion like tail of the Chaos steed and a bit of his mane.

The 5 beastmen. Most of the greenstuff here was used to fill gaps and of course create the occasional bloated belly. A flared trouser was added over the hoof of the gunner and a few dried seeds were embedded into the belly of the banner bearer. I have a freehand design in mind for his banner, which is based on an illustration from a, yeah you've guessed it, Fighting Fantasy illustration.

Added a typical fat Nurgle belly (with belly button) and some straps. Only a little bit of filling was needed on the tail join and he's ready to bang his drums. The pages on his flank with have musical scores on them.

I wanted to create an organic appearance to the shield, so kept the sculpting marks which were directed towards the center. Embedded in the center are 3 beads which represent the Mark of Nurgle, which I've repeated on his shoulder.

So next I'll start the painting, probably in the order of these photographs, starting with the palanquin leader - I have a feeling that it will be the most problematic to paint with regards to it's size and awkwardness. Painting all those Nurglings will be a chore and I'll aim to cover the gaps between them and the palanquin by having some banners hanging down from the sides of the wooden edge itself. I'm considering freehanding some of Holbein's "Dance of Death" woodcuts onto these banners, perhaps x5:

I've also created a Warband Record sheet which is pretty much copied direct from the back of the Lost and the Damned book, with a few changes which I found make it a bit more slick and usable. It's a good tool for recording your warband rolls and the adjustments to profiles, armour saves etc as well as future changes as your warband progresses. I've filled in the details of my Bitzbox Warband here: (please let me know if this link hasn't worked):




https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzQY_hXqbv59Y2t1a2hBMUFBcUE/view?usp=sharing


And the blank template if you're interested:


https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzQY_hXqbv59TWI4YVFmRjJ1UU0/view?usp=sharing








Time to start painting this lot up then, if I can avoid the distraction of a myriad of other projects....