Friday 31 May 2013

The whole Slann Army. 

This is the update of the whole of the Fantasy Battle Slann Army. I usually update the blog on a Sunday or Wednesday, but this time I thought it would be good to update with this particular update at the start of the weekend.

Here is the entire of the Slann collection, painted and unpainted, and organised or not. Most of the photographs are generally regiment shots to give an overall look at the units. I will be returning to the army to finish painting and to tinker with banners, but my plan is to continue with my idea of getting 3,000 point amries up and running for all the other races.
Mind you, taking the photographs of all the Slann does tempt me to focus just on them!

As anyone who has read my blog before knows, I started collecting Slann in 1987, and had a fair sized army at their demise in 4th Edition (I usually gamed 4,000 to 5,000 points). I continued collecting odds and ends of Slann and finishing off regiments (although I did sell 50 Slann in the mid 1990's!), and thanks to e-bay (before the prices went crazy) managed to finish off the warrior totem regiments.

The Organisation and allocation of Slann models over the years has been with the mind to getting the basic totem warrior units composed of the correct model, so for example all Eagle warriors made up of the Eagle Warrior model. As I did other types, such as the Bull Slann or Jungle Braves, I wanted to give them too that uniform appearance to them to in a similar way that the some of the Aztec, Maya, and Inca had uniform regiments or tribal identities, as well as what was suggested in the Slann background.

The idea for the Spawn Bands, the non-levy profile militia, was to have the opposite look, to have them feel like a collection of ordinary Slann pressed into war. Also, after looking at the Slann on Thantsants blog, I will add this variety to a few of the Cold One units. 

I continued, and will continue, this idea with the paint schemes. For the bulk of the Slann warriors, including the totem warriors, they will be green skinned. The totem warriors are Spawn band warrior veterans, so the idea of them having the same skin colour fits. For the exotic jungle troops, scouts, or the specific batch bred Bull Slann, I thought other skin colours would add to the variety.

By doing this over the years I managed to end up having more Slann than I needed for the army list, and so ended up forming spare or alternative Regiments. This meant I have the capacity to field an expanded army list (I think there was an artcle in the design notes that suggested this so that all the maximums/minimums could be increased for larger battles or campaigns).
For other regiments, the lizardmen, and monsters, I collected them on a more or less random basis, and kept non-1980's Citadel miniatures to a minimum.

So, here is the full Army of the Jade Throne, enjoy...

 Slann Wizards on litters
 More Wizards on litters. 
The Slann on the left is one of the few non-citadel miniatures, from Gaspez Arts.
 3 more Wizards awaiting painting.
3 lower level Wizards on foot, and a converted Slann Warrior Priest on a litter. I will paint him up as a Warrior High Priest. 
 10 Warrior Priests, consisting of 10 of the Slann Lumholtz with an added shield from Outpost games. Each Slann is holding a sacrifced heart !
 4 Warrior Priest guards and a converted War Altar.
 30 Eagle Warriors in one Regiment of 20, and another of 10.
  This Regiment is made up of 20 of the Slann Gotlogyr, and I intent to use them Eagle Warrior alternatives with double handed weapons. I think they suit Eagle Warriors due to the feathered headresses.
 30 Jaguar Warrior, again in regiments of 20 and 10.
 Close up.
 20 of the Slann Mylkbotyl. 
Might paint these up in Jaguar print as an extra Jaguar Warrior unit. The drums, like most of the drums, are made from beads with green stuff added for the drum skin and straps.
 30 Aligator Warriors.
 Close up
 A close view of the back. I mentioned this before on the blog, but they made two different version of the Aligator Warrior, one without the back fin and one with. It's not a conversion or sculpt and recast, but a different casting, the same in all other aspects except for that. The smaller regiment is made up of 9 of these an one without (the back banner standard bearer).
 20 alternative Aligator Warriors with double handed weapons made from the Pintamilkada. This is my favourite regiment of the army, it looks great on the table. The back banner on the hero is a spare one from the citadel Temple Dog kit.
 20 Bull Slann, +1 Shock Elite, made from the Slann model Huemal. I might lighten the sword colour to a lighter gold.
 20 Bull Slann, made from Ethelalco'ol.
 20 Bull Slann made up from Huastecan.
 20 More Bull Slann made up from Zipanzuma. It's a great miniature, but tends to self distruct! Usually the weapon snaps off or it breaks at the ankle. Several of these are repaired.
 20 Bull Slann made from the solid based C32 Palace Guard officer.
 The last 20 Bull Slann, made up of Pulque. No, I'm not sure on the red either.
 20 Venom Tribes, +1 Missile Elite (with a Slann's unmodified basic BS 2 they need it!), armed with blowpipes and poisoned attacks.
 Close up. 
They are made up from the Slann Pinacolda, which like the Zupanzuma model has weak casting on the ankles and snaps in a light breeze (well, almost!).
 10 Venom Tribe, made from the solid based Slann Brave.
 The last of the venom Tribes. 10 of the solid based range Brave Leader.
10 Scouts with thowing darts, made from the Solid based Brave Axeman. 
 5 scouts with blowpipes from the unlisted Slann with blowpipe. For all the scouts I intend adding reeds to the bases to  give the impression of them creeping through the undergrowth.
 Two units of 5 scouts, made up fro mthe odds and ends. There are two of the slann with blowpipe from the Manifcent Sven Scenerio, 3 Solid Based Braves (I am sure I had 4!), and a Talisman toad. One unit will be green, the other an exotic colour as yet undecided (not Orange though, maybe grey).
 20 Spawn Band, the basic and only compulsary troops choice in the army. They take ages to paint individually, but look colourful. The standard bearer is the fan bearer from the Slann Palaquin set, the leader is from the Magnificent Sven set.
 2 Regiment of Spawn bands with 2 handed weapons, made up mostly of the Solid Based Spearman. One is 20 strong, the other 16. I have been adding spearman over the years, but plan to add slaves to bulk out the units. The two musicians are converted slotta slaves.
 Close up.
 The one on the left is the old blue/grey paint scheme, which I don't like. To keep with the green Spawn band miltia theme, they will end up green as on the right.
 Two worse for wear solid based slaves for bulking up these two units.
 The rest of the Spawn bands. 
4 regiments of 20, and 8 odds and ends that will form the core of the final regiment. I have a lot of cold one riders to sort out, so I might have enough Slann to get the regiment done.
 The first of the 20 Spawn band led by the unlisted and unknown Slann warrior.
 20 More Spawn band, this time led by the Lieutenant from the Magnifcent Sven Scenario.
 20 Spawn Band with two handed weapons, led by another or the unlisted and unknown Slann.



Odds and ends of Slann Spawn bands, inluding a lizardman musician that I might use as a alternaitve stand-in Slann musician.

 20 Jungle Braves: Slann levy. Composed of the Slann Potzalco.
 15 Jungle Brave with blowpipes. 
With a BS of 1 and 12" range of the blowpipe (-1 to hit over 6 ") they are'nt exactly Wood Elves with Lornalim long bows! They can skirmish and get in the way, and at close range pepper the flank of a regiment with D6 strength hits.
The miniature is the Slann Akabylk.
 20 Jungle Braves made from the strangest Slann model made, Lep'nluni. The muscians drum is an old spare Grenadier undead horsemans drum.
 20 Jungle Braves composed of Naxlatl. 
The old colour scheme was the orange, the new one will be as the test figure on the right hand side, looking like the Red-Eyed Treefrog.
 20 Jungle Braves composed of the Slann Mixtecas. Might paint them up anew as like the brown-ish test model on the corner.
 15 Jungle Braves with blowpipes.
 8 Slann animal handlers. 
The one at the right rear broke, and so I am converting him to wield a goad.
 14 Cold One Warhounds, with both head variants.
 2 Giant Spiders and a giant Scorpion. I am not happy with the Scorpion colour, might re-paint it.
 60 Human Slaves, including 4 Solid Based Slann Slave Masters.
 20 of them have a wooden club, the rest have a mace. It took ages to get 56 of all the same shields.
 Slann Slave Master, and both versions of the Slotta based Human Slave.
 20 Bull Slann Cold One Riders.
 Side view. 
20 of the Slann Quinenz riding Cold Ones.
 10 Cold One Riders composed of Atlatl. I painted lots of the Cold Ones blue, but I am thinking that perhaps a mix of different colours for each regiment might add colour.
 The rest of the Cold Ones. 
29 Cold Ones, including the two solid based Slann riders, and 4 Dark Elf Cold Ones.
 A pile of Slann that will end up as Bull Slann Cold Ones riders, the remainder going back into the ranks of Spawn Bands.
 10 of the Slann Nanuazin with Outpost Games shields attached, mounted on the old Rogue Trader Space Marine Riding Lizard.
 How it will look when assembled. They do give the unit a different look, Aztec frogs riding raptors, and are very tall and imposing on the table!
 All the Cold Ones in one go.
 5  C24 Troglodytes on 40mm bases. 
 3 more Citadel Troglodytes. The two on the right are Reaper Miniautres Lizardmen, which I added to the army as they are huge and awsome, althuogh I have other Citadel Troglodytes to replace them if needed....
...and here they are. I based them upon 25mm to use them as Lizardmen. The last four from the left are Tom Meier sculpts from a box set.
 2 sets of 10 of RR11 Karnac's Lizardmen raiders.
 I need to repair a couple of the bows. 20 Lizardmen with Longbows would be nice to field, but it would have to be as the Regiment of Renown itself as Slann Army Lizardmen don't get bows.
 A couple of unusual Lizardman; a Wizard (which you can't use in the army list either), and an alternative longbowmen. The other miniature is another tom Meier Troglodyte.
C 19 Lizardmen. 
Some are solid based and others are early slotta. I need to sort them out into 2 regiments of 20 , with some of the Troglodtyes,and some grenadier/metalmagic/alternative armies (which I forgot to photo) .
 6 Tom Meier Lizardmen. I have the complete boxset these are spare ones. They are quite dinky.
 Gurgll Greenwake, the Sven Scenario warhound, Kremlo (still not looking happy!), and a lizardman with a blowpipe.

A Coatl, 2 Giant Carnivous Birds (Culchan), and a smaller Runequest one. Not sure what to do with these, might use the Culchan's as alternative sabre tooth tigers or giant spiders. 
I was thinking of using the 40k Ambulls photographed in an earlier post as alternative giant scorpions ripped by magic from another dimension! 
The Coatl could be another Wizard.
 Pond Dragon and 4 giant frogs!
You can bind 2 Dragons in a host, and I have other Dragons which I photographed in a previous blog update.
 On the left is a Sabre Tooth Tiger (via the Pang Tang Range). Centre is a Grenadier miniatures bat swarm. On the right is another Gaspez Arts Mage.
 Pygmy Ally Contingent. 
Consisting of :  A Pygmy Chieftain, Pygmy Contingent Standard Bearer, Pygmy Shaman, 15 Pygmy Impis, 40 Pygmy Warriors, 18 Pygmy Scouts.
 Close up of 20 of the Warriors.

Close of 6 of the Scouts.