Foundry / Warmonger Miniatures Elven Nymphs. NSFW

Whilst I am still painting my Pan Tang army, I decided to paint up a few miniatures as an aside which I have had for a long time. Please note that this post is NSFW due to the scantly clad nature of the Nymphs.

A fairly long time ago (about 2001) I bought some Nymphs which were at the time produced by Wargames Foundry. The range are a selection of female Nymphs which I think have been sculpted to look like a cross between Victorian Nymphs/Fairies, and the Fey drawn by Alan Lee and Brian Froud in their wonderful book: Fairies. Some of the range are dressed in garlands of flowers, and twee dresses slightly remincent of what some people considered 'Pagan' looking in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. Think 'Rites of Spring' or Greek Classical revival. Others have Classical looking or 'Pagan' looking armour, whilst other are naked or semi nude.

The miniatures themselves are lovely and fun to paint. However the ones I purchased had terrible mould lines, and the solid metal bases of some of them are tiny, making them tricky to afix to the bases without using Milliput. I cannot comment if this is still the case or I had a duff batch.
They can still be bought from Warmonger Miniatures here:

https://warmongerminiatures.myshopify.com/collections/nymphs

I purchased the Nymphs with an idea of assembling an alternative Wood Elf army. I bought a few, painted a couple badly, and then shelved the idea. The main problem I had at the time was that being scantly clad, an army of them seemed a little sleazy. However now I decided to paint strip the ones I had painted before and revisit the idea.

The miniatures fit an idea I have for my Elven armies. I want to have one army for each of the seasons, and painted as such. The Nymphs, with their rites of Spring look, will suit the Season of Spring. I have the High Elf army consisting mostly of Elwings Regiment of Renown for Summer. The Wood Elf army I have already painted will stand for Autumn; and the Dark Elves, with their cold hearts, for Winter.

Painting wise I wanted the army not to be just scantly clad Elves, but an army of Elves that are at one with the forests and are actually Tree Nymphs. So I opted for a palette of greens, to give them that forest look. For the metal I will only use gold, being the metal used for collecting Mistletoe by Druids, and also that the Fey don't like iron. They were very quick to paint, all five taking little more than an hour.

I intend at some point collecting a full army. Apart from the five here I have another seven, plus some of Wargames Foundrys / Warmongers Revenant Elves to add. Considering that they are from £4 each, it won't be a miniature heavy army, but I am sure I can sort out another 3,000 point 3rd Edition army, based on the Wood Elf army list. I also painted a huge Treeman for the army, which I have totally forgotten who produced it.

Enjoy :)

 Nymphs.
They are mounted on 20mm square bases.

 Nymph heroine.
I think that she was a limited edition miniature, and was meant to be an African Nymph. 

 Archer.

 Another archer.

 Third archer.

Short Sword.
She also has a wooden axe, but it is out of shot.

 Huuuge Treeman!
The Goblin is there for scale. I have no idea who made this 'miniature', but I bought him at Salute about 10 to 15 years ago. He is metal, and came in three parts; body, and the arms.

 Close up of the face.
He was easy to paint, but time consuming.

The Four Seasons of Elves.
From left to right:
Foundry Nymph for Spring; Elwing for Summer; Wood Elves for Autumn, Dark Elves for Winter.
For the Summer Elves I plan to add lots of flowers to the bases to suggest Summer meadows.

Next update will be Pan Tang. I have nearly finished the archers, and will be starting the Tigers very soon.

Pang Tang, Praetorians, and Easterlings.

I have finished painting all of my EC02 Pan Tang Infantry, the basing excluded. This means that the bulk of the army has been now finished, and that three Marauder Warrior units of the 3rd Edition army list army are now completed. I only have the Tiger Teams, Chaos Thug archers, a Chaos Warrior Unit, and a Sorcerer to finish.

Other than that I have been preparing for the new Astra Militarium Codex, which has been released over this weekend, by sorting out my Praetorian army. I need to buy the codex, but I do have a fair idea of what will be needed in the army. I have sorted a lot of the army into specificly posed squads. For example, some squads of ten comprise one sergeant, one greneade launcher, one two-man heavy bolter team, three standing and firing troopers, and three kneeling and firing troopers. I did paint up a pair of Praetorians to fill in a gap in a squad as well.

I also have done a little prep work for my Araby/Haradrim Warhammer army. I have collected a little unit of five of the 1980's Citadel Lord of the Rings range ME54 Easterling Raider. As I only had four riders, I converted one of the foot Easterlings into a unit leader. I will probably use the Bretonnian army list for the army.

Enjoy :)

 Pan Tang!

 The first of the Pan Tang, is'nt!
He is an old 0201 Chaos Warrior from 1988 Pestilens One Eye whom I shall be using as a unit leader. I think he looks similar to the Pan Tang, and fitis in nicely. He's a great miniature, and I have been wanting to paint him for a while. I have added a little Skeletal Merman and runes to the shield.

 Nisthta.
I only bought this miniature a few weeks ago, and was the only one of the EC02 range I require to complete the set. I will do a blog update on the whole range soon.

 Levek.

 Krool.

 Pashlar, sporting a great looking sea monster helm.

 Another Krool.

 Maktar.

 Tashim.

 Skaar.

 Converted unit standard bearer, converted from an old Citadel Chaos Thug. The standard itself is an old metal part from a resin set of a Lesser Goblin horde model from the 1990's.
The big beard makes him fit in well with the rest of the Pan Tang. He looks a little 'Hipster' too! :)

 The painted army so far.

 First unit, led my the EC05 Pan Tangian Officer.

 Second unit lead by Pestilens One Eye.

 Unit three led by Nisthta.

 WIP
Archer unit comprising ten archers from Citadel's 0211 Chaos Thug range (021114 in the 1988 Catalogue). Also in the background is an armoured giant owl from Oathsworn Miniatures.

 Praetorian Imperial Guard/Astra Militarium.

 A couple of Praetorian Troopers. The first I have painted in about 7 years!
Quick paint job for the tabletop.

 1980's Citadel Lord of the Rings range ME54 Easterling Raider.
I first took the foot miniature and a spare Easterling horse.

 Secondly I removed the tab, and bend the legs slightly more apart. Then using a scalpel I shaved the boots, boot fur, and parts of the rather voluminous trousers. I also cut of some of the fur on the horses saddle.

Final outcome.
The converted leader flanked by his other Easterling raiders.

The next update should be the finished Tan Tang Archers. I might make a start on the Tigers as well.

A Pan Tang undead Merman banner, and a few random miniatures.

I'm currently on holiday, which should in theory mean I could be getting more painting done. However, I have been bimbling about the Sussex countryside, and meeting up with friends in Brighton, and so in fact less painting has been achieved! At least so far anyway, but I still have a few days left.

What I have done is painted two more Pan Tang infantry, including a standard bearer. I read somewhere that the banner of Pan Tang was a Merman (as well as using the Chaos symbol). So I thought I would give the idea a go. After a quick Google search I found several designs for Mermaids and a few for Mermen, including an undead Mermaid. I decided to adapt the Undead Mermaid to a Undead Merman as it seemed fitting for the evil Pan Tang.

I'm not a great painter of banners, but this banner proved to be very quick and easy to do, and I felt with a little more care I can achieve better banners in the future. It's a basic banner, but encouraging that I painted it in about 5-10 mins.

In other painting, I miss the Slann, which I have neglected for some while. So I painted up a spare Slann, who wll be heading to the Spawn Bands. I also painted an old C01 Fighter, whom I intend to use in my upcoming Araby/Haradrim army. Finally I repainted the old C22 Chaos Demon, which I had painted a few years ago, but never liked the finished work. Being odd and naked, the Demon might be NSFW.

Enjoy :)

 Pan Tang Standard Bearer.
He is converted from a broken Citadel SS1-2 Chaos Warrior, Ogroth Darksoul. The banner is a plastic one from the current GW Grave Guard set on brass rod.

 Close up of the banner. I think that the Undead Merman looks fine and was fun to paint. I added some random runic/magical script on the banner to fill up the space. I painted the banner a canvas colour to suggest a ships sail.

 The Pan Tang warrior 'Korven'.

 A Citadel C01 Fighter, 'Klotilde Ironface'.
She is an early slotta based miniature from 1985 and designed by Bob Naismith. She is tiny ! She is actually based on a 20mm base. I have owned her since the 1980's, but paint stripped the dull paint job from then a while ago. She is wearing a full face mask, hence her name I assume.

 Rear view, with a nicely sculpted skirt.

The C32 Slann 'Pintamilkada'.
I used 20 of these as alternative Alligator Warriors, with double handed weapons. I have a few spare, and so they will end up in the Spawn Bands. I am glad I had a few more because I wanted the chance to paint some of them up in a different style to the Alligator Warrior look I gave the others. 

 Rear view, with all the great sculpting details.

 C22 Chaos Demon.
I don't like two headed creatures as a general rule, but I like this miniature. I originally painted this miniature a duller colour, but it never really suited it. So I have opted for a flesh colour to give it a creepier feel. It has no arms, however it does have legs and feet that look like arms and legs, so I am wondering if the legs are really it's arms, and its legs are now it's necks!?

Read view, showing the thick necks.

Next week should be more Pan Tang. I only have nine actual Pan Tang range miniatures left to paint, then onto the Tigers, archers, and maybe a few Chaos Warriors if I include them.

More Pan Tang, and Theleb K'aarna's Bodyguards.

It's been a little busy at work over the last week, but still managed to paint some more Pan Tang infantry.

I have continued keep the scarlet red armour, but have added more sea themed colours to armour and helmets. The Pan Tang infantry often have sea creature shaped helmets, and so I have painted these in sea themed coloured. I also think that this will add more colour to them and break up the block of red look. Using the bold and bright colours is I feel more reminiscent of some of the 1980's art work as well, especially in the Stormbringer rulebook.

In addition I've added two of Theleb K'aarna's bodyguard to the army. They are described as one being obese and having the head of a pig; the other being Snake-headed and long necked. There are several types of miniatures I could have used, but I thought it would be nice keep with the 1980's Citadel Miniatures theme and sculpting look.

So for the pig-headed bodyguard is used a C27 Chaos Beastman named 'Guzgog'. Although more boar looking, I think he works well. For the second bodyguard I used a C27 Snakeman. I think the description suggests he is just Snake-headed and long necked, but I think that the Snakeman in his heavy armour fits the look. There is an old pre-slotta C38 Beastman which also fits the description, named 'Snakeman', but I was'nt too keen on the look or sculpt fitting in with the sculpting of the Pan Tang.

Other than that I have received my other Pan Tang Tiger in the post from e-bay, and another Pan Tang Infantryman. This means I now have four Tiger teams, two with actual handlers, and two with Pan Tang infantryman handlers.

Enjoy :)

 This weeks batch.
I still need to do the bases, which in retrospect I might do for all of them in one go, once I have painted the army.

 Daarg.
I painted the scale armour skirt blue-green to look more aquatic.

 Voorg.
The shield is an old Hasslefree one, painted as a metal buckler.

 Krool.
His helmet is some sort of squid and so again is went for a more aqautic colour rather than just red.

 Tashim.
He has an Octopus looking helm, which I painted a brighter orange.

 The Chaos Warrior range 'Pan-Tangian' spearman.
I made use of a big Marauder Miniatures plastic shield, and painted the sea-monster on the helm in a contrasting green to the red armour.

 Vandar.
I am using another one of these miniatures as a Tiger Handler.

 The first Theleb K'aarna's Bodyguards. 

I have used S'sirron Fangthrane, one of my favourite C27 Snakemen miniatures (although they are are fantastic). The background in the Strombringer rulebook described the Snake-headed bodyguard as having a 'Lormyrian axe', so I chose a miniature with that theme.

 The second of Theleb K'aarna's Bodyguards, C27 Slotta based Beastman, Guzgog.
In his description in the Stormbringer rulebook he is mentioned aswielding a simitar and target. Although the miniature has a sickle, it's close enough for me.

Reverse view showing he spikey armour and sickle.

The two of them guarding Theleb K'aarna's.
Gaming terms they will have to be taken as independent heroes, but this does'nt stop them from guarding Theleb K'aarna.

The four tiger teams.
They're greea..., well you get the idea, but they do look fun. I am a little daunted when it comes to painting them, but willing to give painting Tigers a try. The handlers will also have tiger themed armour to tie in with their charges.

Next update, more of the Pan Tang.