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.

Chaos Allies - Chaos Centaurs

This is (I believe) the first time I have shown all 5 of my Chaos Centaurs together and certainly the first time I've photographed them with the rest of the Chaos Allies. They're actually pretty weedy in game terms, but the conversions here make them look more like they have the power of Chaos Knights.

Here you can see them without the distraction of the Beserkers in the background:

And here a sense of depth to them, with the plastic cold one bodies visible:

I used a range of different Chaotic bodies for these; plaguebearer, horror, warrior, beastman and orc. They are undeniable influenced by Tim Prow's Nurgle warband from an early WD:

BitzBox Warband - the troll and the centaur

Just over a year ago, I started on a Bitzbox Warband which followed these simple rules:

1. Every model must be converted / kitbashed to hell (and therefore unique)
2. I must use only currently owned bitz (no buying more stuff!)
3. I must not use more than two parts from the same kit on one model
4. If using Realm of Chaos, then rolls must be adhered to or complete the conversion and then find attributes to match (I did the latter here).

And as a reminder (to me and you) that this is what I "rolled up" on the Lost and the Damned retinue table:

• Seth Spawnbloat. Level 10 Human. Champion of Nurgle. Infestation of Nurlings. Atrophied Arm, Enormously Fat. Palanquin, Shield, Warhammer
• Darn the Veiled. Chaos Marauder. Mark of Nurgle, Horns, Heavy Armour Shield.
• 5 Beastmen. Standard. I decided to create a Beastman champion to lead these; 
• Araf. Level 5 Beastman. Mark of Nurgle. Bestial Face (Dog), Limb Loss (leg), Demonic Steed (Skull Face, Horn)
• Chaos Centaur. 

The last model on the list is shown here and whilst working on it, I also found a partly converted stone troll from my old bitz box that was just screaming at me to be completed - I've painted a lot of stone trolls in my time and they always provide a treat for the brush. So I've added him to the group and in doing so have broken my own rule 4, but for completions sake, here's the new addition:

• Troll. Pinhead, Horns

Hands up like you just don't care. The score sheet is based upon "When The Saints Go Marching In". Imagine him banging that out on his drums as the warband approaches....

The parts used for the conversion are pretty diverse, Orc drums, Horror torso and arms, flagellant boards, plastic dragons(?) tail, plastic cold one body. I deliberately painted him pretty Tzeentch like with yellows, blues and purples, but the addition of a greenstuffed gut, gave him a slightly Nurgle look.

The troll is a very straightforward conversion; a plastic chaos warrior head applied and greenstuffed around the neck and a ForgeWorld GUO horn added to his shoulder with some sculpted flesh around it. I wanted to create an albino feel to this chap, working with cool pinks and a cool blue for the scales, contrasting with the more solid colours of the wood, metal, axe and base. Always a pleasure to paint these though.

Moving onto the 4 Beastmen next, maybe.

The Bitzbox Warband Challenge

I've got too many bitz and kitz, so to try and use them up and to test my imagination, problem solving and creativity I've decided to set myself a challenge (and you can join in if you like!)

Let me introduce the inaugural "Bitzbox Warband Challenge"

Here are my self-imposed rules (feel free to change as you wish):

1. Every model must be converted / kitbashed to hell (and therefore unique)
2. I must use only currently owned bitz (no buying more stuff!)
3. I must not use more than two parts from the same kit on one model
4. If using Realm of Chaos, then rolls must be adhered to or complete the conversion and then find attributes to match (I did the latter here).

This is what I "rolled up" on the Lost and the Damned retinue table:

• Seth Spawnbloat. Level 10 Human. Champion of Nurgle. Infestation of Nurlings. Atrophied Arm, Enormously Fat. Palanquin, Shield, Warhammer

• Darn the Veiled. Chaos Marauder. Mark of Nurgle, Horns, Heavy Armour Shield.

• 5 Beastmen. Standard. I decided to create a Beastman champion to lead these; 
• Araf. Level 5 Beastman. Mark of Nurgle. Bestial Face (Dog), Limb Loss (leg), Demonic Steed (Skull Face, Horn)

• Chaos Centaur. 

So over the last couple of evenings I have been busy with my imagination, bitzboxes, scalpel, clippers, pin vice, paper clips, plastic and super glue to create the first bitzbox warband.
Here it is in the pre-greenstuffing stage:

Seth Spawnbloat atop of his Nurgling Infested Palanquin.

Note the writhing torsos emerging from the throne

Lots of plastic Nurglings. The bitz range from a wizard's head, ogre torso, chaos knight shield, chaos warrior hammer, skaven banners, blightkings icon and shoulderpad, skeleton torsos, ghoul heads, zombie heads, corpse cart flames, orc legs, plaguebearer arms

Darn the Veiled. A Chaos Champion body with the knight of Nurgle head. Plastic shield.

Chaos Centaur musician

A cold one body, some flagelant boards, orc drums, horror head and arms and a dragon's tail.

The beastmen led by Araf.

Cow man: the standard bearer.

Made from the giant's cow body, a fanatic's hat for the tail, chaos warrior head, skeleton spear, skaven pole and head, plaguebearer arms.

Griffon man: Beastman body, zombie guts, cold one claw, orc shield, plaguebearer arms, flagellant mace, empire (?) griffin head

Grumpy Arquebusier: Free company body/legs/arms/gun, beastman foot and head. This one did not quite fulfil my initial criteria, but I love him as it is.

Lizard man: Cold one head, beastman body, plagubearer torse, chaos warrior mutation arm, cold one tail, metal palanquin rider leg, orc arm, black orc axe, plaguebearer trophy.

Fly Boy: OOp Savage orc body, chaos warrior sword, plaguebearer head, random shield,

Araf, Beastman Level 5. 

Wood Elf horse, oop Bretonnian horse neck, skeleton horse head, vampire arm, nurgle knight sword and shield, zombie torso, flagellant banner, catachan fighter arm, random horn, oop chaos knight legs, mordheim dog head.

You may recognise the steed, it is based upon Tony Ackland's illustration from the Lost and the Damned, see below:

So there we go, it was loads of fun to make this warband over a few long evenings. It made me use my imagination and creativity in how I searched, combined and then positioned all the bitz (I always try and go for dynamic poses if I can) and it was quite a nice sense of satisfaction that all these bitz were lying unused and unwanted from previous projects. I realise that I have enough to do many, many warbands if the desire returns.... but i must get on with some greenstuffing and then painting before I do any more bitzbox converting.


Thanks for reading and I'd love to see other people have a go for whatever race or faction they want and indeed in whatever quantities. If you do please post a link here so I can see your efforts.

 Go be creative and use up some of those bitz from your boxes!

Retinue Table: D4 Centaurs

The original aim of this blog was to help motivate me to complete a project which I've wanted to do for many years, namely create models to represent every option listed in the Lost and the Damned Retinue table.

I want to be able to create my own Chaos Champions as normal (rolling up attributes etc) and then converting a model to represent him; and then be able to immediately have his rolled up retinue join him in his warband.

Well this project has taken a bit of a backseat recently, although you can see what I have currently finished on the list to the right of this post. So it is with some joy that I can add to the completed to do list with the completion of a final centaur to add to the three that I had finished a while ago:

Here's the four of them together:

And here you can see how I was inspired by Tim Prow's Centaurs which were showcased in a White Dwarf of which I cannot recall the issue :