Sunday 30 March 2014

Awesome painting week!!

For various reasons I have had a a lot of free time this week, and because I have not been painting much recently, I've been in the mood for really getting some painting done. So with focus, time, and my energy levels back to normal after my flu I decided to make a dent in the neverending Slann army project.

This week I have managed to get 73 miniatures painted: 20 Bull Slann, 40 Jungle Braves, 10 Scouts, 2 Culchan Giant Birds, and one random Slann with a Blowpipe need to complete an regiment. In addition I have been basing up and converting Spawn Band Slann, monsters, and random odds and ends.

I wanted to tackle the Scouts, Bull Slann and Jungle Braves because of the painting schemes, and so get the unusual coloured Slann done first and then be clear on thier colourations in relaton to the bulk of the army. As the Scouts, and Jungle Braves are generally from the wild tribal areas of the Slann Empire, and because they from the same tribe, I am giving all those Slann the same flesh colour paint scheme within their own units. In addition, the background states that these tribes are usually very unusually coloured, have bright coloured skins and striping/mottling, so I am giving them more exotic colourings. I have used some of the Poison Frog colourings as inspiration.

The Bull Slann are bred in batches from Imperial spawning pools. So I have reasoned that they will be all the same flesh colour, and whilst not as exotic as tribal troops, they will have distinct colourations, and all be wearing the same uniform. It also helps to differentiate them from the Spawn Bands.

Concerning the rest of the army, I will be changing the approach to the Spawn Band colours scheme. Instead of all the non tribal/Bull Slann Slann being green, I will vary thier flesh colours to give a brighter mix. Just the green looked a little bland, so I will add a few blue, yellow, other green, orange, grey, red and striped/mottled Slann, although not too many, probably about a quarter to a third. I also plan on using darker base colours to make the highlighting contrast more and  to give a greater feel of brightness and luminosity of the skin. For example, using Warpstone Glow instead of Goblin Green as a base for green Spawn Band Slann. I have also reasoned that the Slann would be using some steel/iron/sliver weapons, armour, and equipment as they have been in prolonged contact with the invading 'Dryskins'. So a few non gold items will add some different shineyness to the army.

 I will also be only painting basic shield colours at the moment. I want to get the bulk of the painting done, and not get slowed down by painting a lot of shield devices and icons on the shields. Instead I will paint the basic background colours and then go back later and concentrate on the shields. That way I don't lose momentuem, and I can hone my so-so painting skills when it comes to shields.

Enjoy :) 

 Great week :) 
20 Bull Slann, 40 Jungle Braves, 10 Scouts, and 2 Culchans.
20 Bull Slann. 
I have used the solid based C32 Slann Palace Guard miniature for this regiment, converting up a standard bearer and unit leader.
 Trooper, front and back. 
As I was going for a bright set of colours for the armour and feathers, I chose a slightly darker base flesh tone. I also was looking at the Slann painting by John Blanche in the Warhammer Armies book, and the carboard cut outs and drawings of Slann for the Magnificent Sven Scenario. I based the general paint scheme on those sources, especally with the blue/pink feathered plumes and Iron/silver armour and mace edges, which I thought would make a change from the gold.
Standard bearer and leader.
I based the standard on the one illistrated on the cover of the Magnifcent Sven scenario booklet. It's made from brass rod with the Chaos Familar 'Iron Hawk' on top. 
The back banner for the leader is from an old Tin Soldier range Aztec miniature.
 20 Jungle Braves.
This regiment is made using the C32 Slann miniature 'Mixtecas'. 
I decided to not alter the poses of the individual Slann, unlike the next regiment, as I quite liked the look of them all moving with a purpose.
The colour scheme is loosely based on the blue coloured Dumpy Treefrog.
 Standard bearer and trooper.
 20 more Jungle Braves, this time made using the C32 Slann 'Nahuatl'. 
I will need to add a standard to the standard bearer, I am awaiting a mail order from Outpost Wargame Services for some more banners and shields.
 In order to give the unit a less unified look, I have repostioned a lot of their poses to suggest a less formal mob of tribal braves. I chose the colour scheme based on the Green and Black Poison Frog.
 5 Scouts. 
As a general rule I am basing all the Scout models up with tall reed grasses on thier bases. This is to suggest they are moving through the undergrowth, scouting in fact, as well as to differentiate them from other skirmishers.
 Two solid based C32 Slann 'Brave Leaders'
 Two more scouts, 'Pinacolada' and an 'unlisted Slann with club'.
I ran out of blowpipers, so thought he would look good in the unit.

Slann Lieutenant with blowpipe from the Magnificent Sven range.
 5 more scouts.
 Two unlisted Slann with blowpipes. I like the way this Slann miniature looks like he is sneeking throught the undergrowth.
Another Slann Lieutenant with blowpipe from the Magnificent Sven range, and 'Lep'nluni' filling in the blowpipe gap in this unit.
 Culchans: Great flightless birds from the plains of Lustria. 
They were in 2nd Edition Warhammer, but never made it into 3rd Edition, and were avaliable in the C29 Large Monsters range as 'Giant Carnivorous Bird'. 
To give an idea of their size, they are mounted on 40mm Square bases.
Left hand side.
I plan to use them as stand-in models for Sabre Tooth Tigers for my Animal Handlers.
When I paint the Animal Handler for these two I plan to paint a little Culchan on the shield. :)


This coming week might not be a productive, however I will continue to keep working my way through the Slann army. I have giant monsters (Spiders, Scorpions) and the Spawn Band Slann on my painting table. I am also going back over some of the older regiments and lightening up some of the paintwork and replacing banners and shields.

Sunday 23 March 2014

Welcome to the Jungle.

I have had my computer repaired and back to Blogging :)

In order to give the Slann (and other things) a slightly better backdrop I went shopping at the 99p shop and the local pet store and bought some scenery. I wanted a jungle backdrop for the Slann photographs and picked up five packs of plastic aquatic plants for 99p a pack, and an awesome looking plastic Venus Fly Trap for £5.49.

Other than that, I have been mainly adding extra details to the Slann/Pygmy scouts bases. The idea is to made the scouts look like they are moving through the undergrowth, and it also helps to differentiate the scouts from the other skirmishers. I have also been converting up a few of of the Slann, some unit leaders, some more Cold One Riders, and repairing a few Spawn Band Slann.
Some of them needed repairing for three reasons. Firstly, I had a converted Slann Blood Bowl team which required the snipping off of weapons, which I have been replacing. Second reason was I had converted some Slann and Human Slaves to act as a baggage train. A nice idea for the time, but with the current army would require far too many Slann! Thirdly, I did convert up some for the 40k army, which I have now reduced to just the actual 40k Slann. I decided that all three groups of Slann would serve better in a Warhammer army.

Painting wise I have re-painted up a few of the banners for units to give them a little more colour. The orginal idea was to have all round 'Maya style banners', with each different unit designated with a different colour. For example the Spawn Bands were blue, Venom Tribes red, etc, but it seemed to look a little dull. So I am painting up each banner in individual colours, and replacing some with new banners. I will also be mail ordering a few Aztec shields to add more variety to the Totem warriors.
I have also started painting a regiment of Jungle Braves and some more Slann Scouts this weekend. Still WIP, but I am really enjoying painting the Slann.

Enjoy :)

 Slann in the jungle!
  99p plastic plants.
 They come with a white base, left, but I will eventually paint them up all brown like the test model on the right.
 Giant plastic VenusFly Trap! 
It came with the flock scenic base, apprently they are for Lizards/snakes rather than fish tanks. Great for Lustria, or for Death Worlds.
 Slann Scouts with the new style bases, using the solid based C32 Slann Brave Axemen.
 
 More Scouts, this time lurking through the jungle. The Reed are made from railway models grass set. The flowers are from an old kit I had which has a big square of green fibre mesh and flower coloured flock.
 Pygmy Scouts.
 Slann scouts, scouting!
 ...or hunting Catachans!
 New paint jobs for the banners to give more colour.
 Converted leaders for the Eagle Warriors. 
I will be tinkering with the paintwork.
Close up of the sword. I adapted an idea from theottovonbismark 's blog and used a Rogue Trader era Eldar Power Sword. The idea is to suggest an Old Slann High Age Weapon, and represent a magical sword rules wise. In 2nd Edition there were 'Power Swords' which were part of the background, on page 28 of the Battle Magic book in the 2nd Edition Rules.

I will be continuing painting the batch of Slann Scouts and Jungle Braves, and will do a small mail order (to Outpost Games) for more shields and banners. 

Sunday 16 March 2014

No blog this week! :(

Due to computer problems (it needs a new motherboard fitting) I will not be able to do any proper blog update this week. I'm typing this from an internet cafe! :(

 I might be able to update later in the week or otherwise it will be next weekend.

I have been painting up a few of the Slann, and also adding some extra details to the bases of the Slann Scout models. The idea is to give the Scouts the feel of scouting through the undergrowth. I will add pictures of them when I update the blog.

I will also see if I can get my printer fixed too so I can scan things again. As an additional feature to my blog I would like to be able to scan and add artwork/rules/photographs from my old White Dwarf magazines and other books that may be of interest and relevance to people. I am not too sure on the IP legal status of this so if anyone can let me know I would be grateful, as I only intend doing it for informational purposes rather  than any challange to copyright.

At least no computer means I have less distractions and more time for painting!  :)

Sunday 9 March 2014

Tom Meier's Lizard Warriors box set.

For this weeks blog update I thought I would focus on Tom Meier's Box set of Lizardmen.

The sorting out of my Slann army is still carrying on, but due to having the flu for most of the last few days I have'nt been in the mood nor had the energy to do anymore converting or painting. So last night I was idley sorting out the C series Lizardmen and Troglodytes into units for the army, and wondering what to do for the blog update. It occurred to my to do an update on the box set of Lizardmen I am not using for the army, from the 'Citadel Presents' range, CP4 Tom Meier's Lizard Warriors box set.

This set was released by Citadel in 1984, and also licensed to Ral Partha,  and sculpted by Tom Meier who also did a range of Troglodytes and Elves amongst other things. He is still sculpting for his own company Thunderbolt Mountain:  http://www.thunderboltmountain.com/pages/tom-meier-bio

I always liked the style of his Lizardmen, they have a more of a Lizard looking face, with a Lizard grin. It's very different look to the crocodile looking C19 series, which I like, but are better suited for a Slann army. Tom Meier's Lizardmen have the look and feel of the 1st Edition Warhammer and have similar markings to the artwork in the Forces of Fantasy supplement. They are also a lot smaller than the the C series ones, a truer 25mm like his C37 Elves range of the same era, and so would'nt quite look right together.

I shall be using some of Tom Meier's Troglodytes in the Slann army as they fit in better, plus a couple of them will be great to use as independent Lizardman heroes for the army. Both sets of models do have that nice baroque/fantasy feel with thier armour, weapons and shield designs that really links them to the early 1980's era. Considering they are 30 years old, the sculpting, detail, and the lack of mould lines or mistakes is excellent.
Enjoy :)
 Front of the box, with the lovely artwork used in the 1st Edition of Warhammer.
 Rear of the box.
 They used the same box for several of the box sets and the selotaped the relevent infomation on the back.
 Lizardmen in situ. 
The plasitc insert for the box has been specifically made to hold these particular miniatures.
1. Warrior charging with Axe.
As I have noted before, like many Citadel miniautres of the time there are often several miniatures that are variations on the basic sculpt of others in thier range.
Based on the scultping of the legs, I think numbers 1, 2, and 5 are related: 3, 6, and 9 are related: numbers 4, 7, and 8 are releated.
 Rear view showing the cloak which would make a great canvas for painting.
 2. Warrior with Thrusting Spear.
Nice over the head sculpt, and I like the style of the speartip.
 Rear view (a little blurred :(  )
 3. Warrior with Mace and Shield.
Great mace that looks like it could do damge without having to be oversized.
I like the creeping feel that many of the Lizardmen of this range have.
 Rear view.
He has a mace on the end of his tail too.
 4. Warrior Advancing with Halberd.
 Rear view showing the head/neck armour.
5. Warrior Advancing with Sword and Shield. 
A very dynamic pose.
Close up of the shield details and shoulder armour. 
 6. Warrior advancing with Serrated Katana.
I love the look of this weapon, to me it is very evocative of early 1980's unsual fanatsy design.
 Rear view, another cloak that would benefit from a great paint job.

 7. Warrior with Hooked Sword. 
Another wicked and evil looking weapon. :)
Close up of the shield, which looks to me like the pagan Triple Moon/Goddess symbol.
I like the way the Lizardman is peeking his head over the shield and grinning.
 8. warrior with Throwning Spear. 
Excellent sculpting on the helmet.
Close up of the shield. 
 9. Warrior with Gutting Pole.
I have'nt ever come across this as a description for a weapon type, but looking at it it looks like it is aptly named.
 Rear view.
 Another mace tail.
 Scale shot. 
On the left a UK Penny (about the same as a USA 'Cent'), and a 10 Euro piece.
 Second Scale shot.
Warrior 2. resting on a 25mm square base next to the C19 Lizardman 'Sss Yrl'.
Postscript.
As I was finishing off the blog it occured to me that I had'nt mentioned the raffle ticket. 
The box sets of this era had a raffle ticket in the bottom of the box. I think it was to designate the number of the box produced. 
If anyone knows any better please let me know! :)
 
I will, flu allowing, carry on with the Slann army. I am eager to get painting and also to add some more details to those already done and their bases.