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.

The menace from Pan Tang.

Whilst I was supposed to painting Catachans, I became somewhat distracted by my 1980's Citadel Eternal Champion collection, especially the Pan Tang. So, I put the Catachans on hold and decided to paint my Pan Tang army. All of the miniatures in this update are finished, but require varnishing and basing, so are WIP.

I always liked the Pan Tang and Melniboneans, even before I read Michael Moorcocks books. The look of Citadel's miniatures captured my imagination, and their odd and 1970's/1980's fantasy look intrigued me. The idea of Tiger Handlers also seemed cool, and they all reminded me of an older style of fantasy from the era of sword and sorcery film of the early 1980's. The complete range can be seen here:

http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Eternal_Champion

and here

http://www.solegends.com/citec/index.htm

Fast forward nearly 30 years and I returned to my interest in the Pan Tang. I had never owned any in the intervening years since GW stopped making the miniatures, apart from a couple of Tigers. So, a year or two ago I decide to build both a Pan Tang army and a Melinbonean one. So far I have three units of 10 actual Pan Tang, and four Tiger Handlers (I have a tiger in the post as I type).  I also have several Citadel miniatures which I feel work with the Pan Tang sculpts which will add to the army.

Army wise, I will base the army on the 3rd edition Warhammer Armies Chaos army list. The thirty Pan Tang collection warriors will make up three units of Chaos Marauders. The other miniatures will be Chaos Thugs and Warriors. The tiger handlers will be Chaos Beastmasters, the tigers themselves being proxy Chaos Hounds. I also have the Theleb K'aarna, and Jagreen Lern miniatures, well as other Sorcerers, to add to the army.

The description of the Pan Tang describes them as clad in red armour. So I have opted for red armour, with some sea based colours for painting cloth and the sea themed helms. I wanted to avoid whites making them look too Middle Eastern, so opted for a mix of sea based colours. I went for a slightly lighter, more orange tone of red to stop them looking too much like a Khornate army, and to give them a lighter feel, almost akin to fantasy artwork.

Skin tone wise they are described in the books and background as being 'Swarthy'. I see this as a middle-eastern/Indian flesh tone. The Persian looking beards of the sculpt lent me to paint them with a darker than European tone. Personally, I think that the tone might be a little too dark, but they do remind me a little of Indian sub-continent warriors, especially Mogul Empire and 19th Century Sikhs.

Enjoy. :)

 The painted army so far.
They need to be varnished, and I do need to decide on a base style for them.

 Jagreen Lern, the Theocrat of Pan Tang, and General of the army.
His armour is described as glowing red as though hot (in 'Stormbringer' I think). So I went for a more brighter, orange look for the armour.

 Theleb K'aarna, Sorcerer of Pan Tang.

 First 'complete' unit.

EC05  Pan Tang officer.

 Rear view, showing also the sea monster helm.

 Standard bearer.
He is made from a broken Citadel pre-slotta SS1-2 Warrior of Chaos Ogroth Darksoul.
The banner is a large resin shield from a company named Ristuls Market. I think it suit the demon summoning Pan Tang quite nicely.

Like many of Citadels ranges in the 1980's many of the individual miniatures were named, including this range. Some of the character models were of course named for themselves, but Citadel seemed often to make up names (in some ranges humourously) for the miniatures. It was fun, but also made mail ordering miniatures in the days when you had to write down the names on paper and post is a bit weird.
Anyway, this is Jarkor. I have given him a current range GW Skeleton Warriors plastic shield give that slight Middle Eastern/Indian feel.

Voorg.
He has a Marauder Miniatures Dark Elf shield...

...which can be seen here. I love the sea monster helm.

Skaar, fish or a dolphin helm.

D'Ath.
He has a Ral Partha Europe Barbarian shield, which can be seen better below. I think his helm is either crab clawed or some sort of sea shell, maybe scollop.

The Pan Tang spearman.
He was never released as part of the Pan Tang range, but has 'Pan Tangian' on his slotta tab, and so it is assumed he can be considered part of the range.
The shield is the Ral Partha Europe one.

Grart, with an Octopus helm.

Krool, with what might be a squid horn helm, although frankly it looks like something else to me.

Krools Marauder Miniatures Dark Elf shield.

Another D'Ath.

Kerim.

Korven.

Drayos Pleth, not a Pan Tang warrior, but part of Citadels 0201 Chaos Warriors range.
I have several Chaos Warriors, for use as unit leaders or as actual Chaos Warriors, in the army which I consider fit in with the Pan Tang miniatures aesthetic.

Jagglespur, another Chaos Warrior, from the C35 range.

WIP.
Theleb K'aarna has two bodyguards, described as a Pig headed one and a Snake-headed one. So I decided use a Citadel Beastman (he's more Boar-headed, but looks good), and a good old C27 Snakeman.

WIP
Second unit of Pang Tang Marauders.

Another converted Citadel pre-slotta SS1-2 Warrior of Chaos Ogroth Darksoul. standard bearer.
The Chaos Warrior is the unit leader, and is another 0201 range miniature, Pestilens one eye.

The third Pan Tang Marauder unit. Four of this unit are already painted in the above update. The Standard bearer is a so to be converted Chaos Thug.

Either an army standard or the standard for the Chaos Warrior unit. He is a named Harrowhound.

The Tigers of Pan Tang.
I have three complete teams, although I am missing one of the handlers, which I have replaced with a Pan Tang warrior Vandar.

I have an extra Pan Tang Tiger, and another in the post, the makings of a fourth team. As I don't have a handler I might use this Chaos Thug as a stand in until I can.

Archers.
These will be Chaos Thug archers. The Pan Tang range never had any archers, so I thought I needed some. The miniature is from Citadels 0211 range. I borrowed the idea from Axioms wonderful blog, and his update on his Pan Tang here:
http://magpieandoldlead.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-rise-of-pan-tang.html#more

Front and rear views.

Some of the Citadel Chaos Warriors which may end up in the Pan Tang army.

Pre-Slotta Chaos Sorcerer.
You can have too many sorcerers in a Pan Tang army!

Next update will be more Pan Tang.

The 101st Catachans, a Dwarf army of renown, Hobgoblins, and a very old carrier bag.

I have embarked on an 'Middlehammer' and new 8th Edition Warhammer 40k project: Catachan Astra Militarum army.

Although I already have an Imperial Guard/ Astra Militarum army in the form of the Praetorians, I wanted to do something with the metal Catachans (I was never too taken with the plastic versions) I owned. I also wanted an army that was more 'run of the mill' and less rare than the Praetorians. So, I have embarked on painting Catachans.

I like the Catachans. I like their independent nature (killing Commisars is fine by me, I never liked them or the idea) and they are a constrast to the spit and polish Praetorians. Most Catachan armies are, by virtue of the design style of the miniatures, Vietnam war era American themed. Instead of Jungle Warriors, with green combats, I have opted for a slightly different approach. As some of the Catachan miniatures have mohawk haircuts, which reminded me of the American 101st Airbourne of World War Two. So I have chosen them as a template for my Catachans.

I am painting this army, for the gaming table. I am not going to spend too much time and effort on details, but get them ready for a return to 40k gaming. I will return to them once the army is painted to add details such as eyes, and the 101st warpaint.

In addition, I have been sorting out my 3rd edition Warhammer Fantasy Dwarf army. I already have a completed army, but I wanted to do something different. I wanted to base my Dwarf army more on the Regiments of Renown, especially Prince Ulther's Dragon Company. So I have added two more regiments to the two I already owned, and in addition added and expanded Bugmans Dwarves, padded out with several interesting 1980's crossbowmen.

During a conversation on the Oldhammer Facebook group about Pygmies, I was asked how many Hobgoblins I had. So, I have added the photographs of the Hobgoblins I also added to those.

Finally, for those who are interested in fantasy art of the 1970's/80's I discovered an interesting piece of artwork by Roger Dean. On my way to Brighton, I spotted an old 1970's Virgin Record Store carrier bag for sale in a shop in Hove. Brighton had one of the first Virgin Record stores, and the carrier bag has the old Virgin logo, and an interesting artwork.

Enjoy :)

 The 101st Airbourne.
I found the artwork via a google search. It looks like an Osprey piece, but whosever it is, it belongs to them.

 An evenings worth of painting.

 Las gun armed troopers.
I have painted the combats Vallejo US Field Drab. They are basically painted, as I want to get them done. I will go back and added other details once the bulk of the painting is done.

 More Troopers.

 Troopers. 
The one on the left has the 101st Airbourne mohawk. I will add warpaint at a later date.

 Trooper and Sniper.

 Flamer and Plasma gun.
I have opted for the go old 1990's red look of the flamer. It seems to suit them, and will be easy to find on the gaming table. I did'nt go the the same red for the lasguns as I always thought it wasa little too much.

I have some gluing to do!!

 The Dwarf army of Renown.
It consists of for Regiments of Prince Ulther's Dragon Company, and the Prince himself as General; 20 Bugmans; two regiments of 10 crossbowmen mixed with Bugman Troopers; the Goblobber; two cannons; and a Wizard.

 Prince Ulther's Dragon Companies.

 First two, already painted.

 Second two.
I have given the regiment on the right a different type of shield in order to use them as an elite.

 Bugmans.
Like the Dragon Company, I have expanded the regiment. The main regiment will be a normal warrior unit with crossbows, th other two will be crossbowmen unit in support. 

The additional miniatures added to Bugmans for variety.

Goblobber, cannons, and Wizard. I have the rest ofthe Goblobber crew, I just need to find where I put them! :)

 1980's Hoblgoblins.
They are a mix of Citadel C36 pre-slotta and slotta Hobgoblins. They are all either badly painted, or unpainted, but one day I hope to paintstrip them and repaint them.

 The RR15 Despoiling Hobgoblins of the Darklands Regiment of Renown.

 Two regiments of 20 Mourngul Raiders.

 20 Mourngul Raiders, and five archers.

20 Mourngul Raiders, including one Alternative Armies Eastern Orc.

 Hobhounds and handlers.

 Hobgoblin rocket launchers, Army General, hero, and Shaman.

 On the left is Gyokurinti the Strangler.
On the right Manic Hobgoblin Hero from the BC 2 Monster start set, mounted on a Temple Dog.

Chronicle N12 Range Hobgoblins.

 Virgin Record carrier bag.

 Close up of the front, with the old Virgin logo, drawn by Roger Dean.

The rear view of the carrier bag, with a fairy riding a frog.

Next update will probably be more Catachans, although I am relly keen to sort out my Slann and paint the Melniboneans.