The 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle Slann Army project: Part four: Ribbet' Ribbet and monster friends.

 This is a further continuation of my back log of Slann photographs. I am hoping to get more than one update done this month, so I have started with a few random things to break up the continued updates on Slann infantry regiments. 

Here is Ribbet' Ribbet (well here are three of them). He is a C32 Slann from 1986, sculpted by Trish Carden (Trish Morrison at the time), and is meant to represent a low level Wizard. In 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle any Slann wizards above level 5 had to be carried in a litter carried by lobotomised human slave. So, being on foot, these are Level 5 Wizards.

Sculpting wise they are quite minimal, but lovely, with the Slann's clothing consisting of some sort of scaled outfit, and a skull pendant. He is carrying a staff, with a nicely detailed head to it. I have painted them differing colours to give each of them a different look, which would help on the gaming table, and was just fun to do.  

Enjoy :) 

Ribbet' Ribbet, Ribbet' Ribbet, and Ribbet' Ribbet!

Golden frog Slann. 

Black and white war painted Slann to suggest he is a priest. 

Traditional green Slann. 

Rear view. 

Giant Frogs.
These will be used as part of a summoned Host of creatures. 
They from Citadel's Advanced Dungeons and Dragons boxset of BDD02 Dungeon Monsters. I placed them on the 40mm square bases rather that the recommended 25mm as I think that they just look better. 

Giant Spiders!
These will either be part of the Monstrous Host, or driven into battle by a Slann Animal Handler.
They are both from the Citadel C29 Monsters range. They are lovely miniatures, and I found if you re-position the angles of the legs they can look a lot less static than the release flyers suggest. The legs are prone to breaking even if you don't decide to do re-position them, as one of their legs did! 

C29 Giant Carnivorous Birds (Culchan).
These are lovely miniatures, and are sometimes used as alternative mounts to Cold Ones in Slann armies, although these will probably be used them as stand-in Sabre Tooth Tigers for a Slann Animal Handler. I kind of went a bit mad with the paint scheme, but I had great fun painting them! 

Giant Ticks.
This base is a 100mm round base of Giant Ticks and represents a 'Swarm', which can be summoned as part of a Monstrous Host. I have never put together a Swarm, or used a Swarm in games before, but thought it would be something fun to do. 
The miniatures are part of Citadel's C29 Creepy Crawlies range from 1983. 

A WIP photograph of my 3rd Edition Warhammer Chaos Dwarf Army. 

Next update may be more Slann, or some of the other things which I have been assembling and painting since then. 

The 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle Slann Army project: Part three: Ethelalco'ol 's Bull Slann.

 Oh dear, another rushed blog update. I have been doing a lot of painting, but my blogging is shamefully behind schedule as I have moments time to paint on and off, but not to sit down and blog. 

Anyway, here are some Slann from some of June's painting!!!

These are Ethelalco'ol 's Bull Slann regiment. They are a regiment of Bull Slann, +1 Shock Elite Slann garrison warriors, made up entirely from the C32 Slann miniature Ethelalco'ol. I have converted the leader with a Rogue Trader era Eldar Power Sword, to give the suggestion of the old 2nd Edition Power Swords made by the Old Slann. I have also converted a standard bearer with a frog motive banner, painted in the style of some of Trish Carden's older artwork. 

They were fun and quick to paint. The club looks weird, but they are Slann. As with all the Slann I have been keeping the painting simple as they are often full of details and I don't want to over complicate things. 

Enjoy :) 

Ethelalco'ol 's Bull Slann regiment.

Standard bearer. 
A simple banner really, but I quite like it. 

Ethelalco'ol, the regiment's leader. 

Trooper. 

Rear view of the trooper. 

C32 Slann. 

Next update might be more Slann, after all I have painted a lot. However I have also started some other projects in the meantime. 

The 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle Slann Army project: Part two. The Order of the Fire Alligator.

More Slann.

These are the order of the Fire Alligator, a regiment of 20 Slann Alligator Warriors, +1 Shock Elite in heavy armour, an alligator hide in fact. I have decided to paint them a fiery red (hence the name) as I wanted to have a more colourful regiment than an alligator brown/green. I also have another regiment of these so I can still go for a (brighter?) green look.  

Another reason I chose red is because I wanted to include a lizardman standard bearer and a unit filler/musician Troglodyte drummer for effect. By choosing red (or any other non dull green colour really!) I could link all of them together. Painting them was quick, easy, and fun. I really enjoyed painting the Troglodyte as it was an unusual model, so much so that I have since gone on to paint more of my old C24 Range Troglodytes. 

Enjoy :) 

The Order of the Fire Alligator.

From above.

The rank and file are the C32 Slann miniature 'Pek. 
This is an unusual miniature as there are two variants of him. One has a fin on the back of his alligator skin, whilst the other version doesn't. I used all of my 'finned' ones for this regiment, and added a few 'fin-less' ones to make up the numbers. I reasoned that perhaps the ones with fins could represent male hides, the others being female.

Regimental leader.
This is an unreleased Slann (shaman?), which seems to be based on the Pek miniature, and so I decided that he would make a good fit for use as a hero for the regiment.     

Rear view.

Lizardman standard bearer. 
He counts as a Slann for gaming purposes, but adds a little variety to the regiment. 

C34 Troglodyte 'Drummer.
I like this quirky range of miniatures, sculpted by Trish Carden (at the time Trish Morrison). The drummer miniature was sculpted with two tails, obviously a blessing from the Fire Alligator god! I can use him either as just a unit filler, a musician, or musician with a magical instrument. 

The next update will be Slann. I have painted a lot of them over the summer! I have also been painting 4th Edition Chaos Dwarfs, and been basing up 3rd Edition miniatures from lots of different armies. I just never have the time or room in the house to blog at the moment! 

The 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle Slann Army project: Part one- the WIP so far.

I've been very busy of late, and this project has been a long time coming, so a bit of personal history. 

In 1987, in the last few months of 2nd Edition I sent off for the Magnificent Sven Slann army offer, unaware that 3rd Edition was around the corner. After 28 days or so (it was how things happened in the 1980's!) arrived a big box of slotta-based Slann (to complement the one pre-slotta Cold One rider I possessed), all made up of Trish Carden's slotta-based C32 range, but none of the old miniatures from the scenario. I did pick up a few, including Gurggl Greenwake about a year later from someone selling second hand stuff. 

This started my Slann journey over the years. I painted the initial batch of Slann, and then added to it over the years, with a re-vamp of the painting around 1991, and used them happily for gaming during the 'Golden Age, so much so that at my local GW (Brighton) I was known as the 'Slann man' (which was going to initially be the name of this blog)!

Then, with the advent 4th Edition, the Slann army vanished to be replaced by the Lizardmen, which I never collected, and the Slann stayed boxed throughout the 1990's. In the 2000's I re-visited them as Justin and I were returning to playing 3rd Edition. I paint stripped them, added some historical Aztec stuff, and made a couple of attempts to re-paint them, but I never really got the look I wanted, all the time adding odds and ends from e-bay. 

Anyway, a couple of years ago I resolved to make a final re-start on them. I split the army into two separate armies of pre-slotta and slotta-based. I did this because I felt that I wanted to separate the two different looks of the the ranges, and because I have more than enough to do so. After seeing other peoples Slann online over the last couple of years I thought it was time I really focused on getting my considerable Slann army back up and running. 

I am organising the army according to the Slann list in Warhammer Armies, but due to the number of Slann miniatures I have, I am working with a doubled up list with regards to minimums and maximums of troops. I am only using Citadel C32 Slann from the slotta-based era, although there are a few of the Magnificent Sven miniatures and TSF-18 Space Slann in there too. Some of the C19 Lizardmen are pre-slotta.

Now this blog update is concerning my WIP. None of the following miniatures are 100% finished as some require standards, other basing, and others a lot more, or even just a little more detailing. I have also gone for an old 1980s style of basing with sand bases painted different colours rather than flock or tufts.  The idea of this post is to give and idea of what I have been doing, and where I am up to. I would have liked to have blogged as I went along painting, but time and other life practicalities have dictated otherwise. Once completed, each regiment or group will get their own blog update. This is about a third of the army. 

Enjoy :) 

These are largely finished. At the back there's a regiment Alligator warriors, a regiment of Spawn Band, and a regiment of Jungle Braves. In the middle is a Regiment of C24 Troglodytes. To the fore are two regiments of Venom Tribes (who were already painted, but just needed re-basing). There are some  Scouts to the side. 

Again these are largely completed. There are a mix of Cold One war hounds, two groups of Scouts, and two Giant Spiders. The big round base at the back is a swarm, with C29 Creepy Crawlies (Giant Ticks). 

Bull Slann. 
One regiment requires basing, both require standards. 

More WIP Spawn Bands. 

Nearly completed Jungle Braves. 

The cult of Quetzalcoatl.
 This consists of a regiment of Warrior Priests, a War Altar with guards and a Slann High Priest (Slann Mage) on a palanquin.  

Animal Handlers and low level Slann wizards. 

A mix of monsters. 
There's a small dragon, two Culchans (to be used as alterative Sabre Tooth Tigers), and a pair of Giant Frogs.
As the back are five ADD 76 Stirges, which I am going to use as giant bats!

Two regiments of Eagle Warriors.
 There's a reason why one of them has a dwarf miniature in it. He is representing Guzunda Wallrattler from Itzibitzi's Slann expedition, as detailed in the White Dwarf #96 article Slann 'o War.  

Next update, and many more to come, will be Slann. 

Elan Merch / Heritage Miniatures Ralph Bakshi Lord of the Rings Orcs.

Something a bit older for this blog update. 

I have always loved the Ralph Bakshi Lord of the Rings animation film, especially the Orcs. Now an American company, long out of business now, used to produce some miniatures based on the style from the film. Elan Merch was the company which owned the licence for the production of Lord of the Rings merchandise, but he the actual miniatures were produced by Heritage Miniatures, from 1977. Heritage went out of business  in 1983, and so I assume that the miniatures were produced in that time period. The Lost Minis Wiki site has more details on this here:

https://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Elan_Merch

and

https://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Heritage

All this was before I started collecting (I started in 1986), but I always wanted some Orcs in the film style. I have toyed with the idea of converting some from other miniatures, but I never really got around to it. Anyway, some months ago I managed to buy, very inexpensively, a set of six Heritage Miniatures Orcs. A couple were broken, with missing weapons replaced. So I purchased them, and set about a mini miniature project.

The miniatures themselves turned out to be from two different packs. Two of them were from 1808 Saruman's Urak-Hai Orcs of the White Hand Spearman, whilst the other four were from 1820.Saruman's Guards - Guard Orcs with Two-Handed Axes. Of the two broken miniatures, both from the 1820 pack, one had had his axe replaced with a nice looking halberd, and whilst the other had a wire pike. I kept the halberd conversion, and swapped the pike for a Essex Miniatures bill. 

As for painting, I wanted to get as close to the animation look as possible. I kept the paining very simple with a drab earth tone for the clothing, grey for the weapons, grey/black for the skin tone, bright red eyes, and white(!) fangs/teeth. Basing (on 25mm square bases) I wanted to keep them drab and dark, and so went for a drab, rocky look, again similar to parts of the film.  

I am very happy with how they turned out. I was a true joy to be able to paint some miniatures based on the films style of Orcs, and from an earlier era of wargaming and miniatures. I would probably buy more if they were still in production (I believe someone does own the rights, but rarely casts), and I will probably try to pick up any odd and ends on e-bay over time, although it's not a high priority. 

Enjoy :) 

Ralph Bakshi Lord of the Rings animation film on DVD, and a 'Foto Novel' of the film. 

Orcs from the film. 

More Orcs. 

More Orcs again. 

Orcs! 

My little group of six Orcs. 

1808 Saruman's Urak-Hai Orcs of the White Hand Spearman.
(1808a, vertical spear).

Rear view.

1808 Saruman's Urak-Hai Orcs of the White Hand Spearman.
(1808b diagonal spear). 

Rear view.

1820.Saruman's Guards - Guard Orcs with Two-Handed Axes.
(1820b)

Rear view. 

1820.Saruman's Guards - Guard Orcs with Two-Handed Axes.
(1820b, converted with unknown halberd). 

1820.Saruman's Guards - Guard Orcs with Two-Handed Axes.
(1820a)

Rear view.

1820.Saruman's Guards - Guard Orcs with Two-Handed Axes.
(1820a converted with Essex Miniatures bill). 

The next update, and many more in the near future, will be on 3rd Edition Warhammer slotta based Slann. I have been painting quite a few over the last few weeks with an aim to finally finishing the slotta based collection.

Citadel 1980's Lord of the Rings: The Last March of Ents (completed).

I have finished my 'March of the Ents' army. 

As mentioned in an earlier blog post, the army in organised and based according to the Midgard rules set, and comprised of miniatures only from Citadel's 1980's Lord of the Rings (ME) range. The army itself is comprised of five Ents and two Hobbits (Merry and Pippin), and works out to be 384 points. All of my Midgard Lord of the Rings armies are around 400 points.  

Each of the Ents are classed as Monstrosities (Giant). I have retained the boulder throwing option (of course!), increased the armour value to 5, gave them Aura of Dread, and made them Relentless. They are quite powerful units, but the Ents were. They are expensive in points (66 points), and will be outnumbered, but that was the fate of the Ents in the book. The idea was to create some huge, scary, and terrifying monsters which, again, the Ents were.  

In Midgard you can't have a Monstrosity as a hero model. So in order to have some heroes I added Merry and Pippin to the army as they were present! At this stage of the Lord of the Rings they have not gained the experience of being with the Rohirrim or Gondorians, and so I kept them as quite mid range heroes, at Level 2 (although I do have spare points to increase them). Both have reduced armour, Hold Fast, Inspiring, Non-Combatant (I might change this) and Today We Fight to Win. Merry is classed as the Army General. 

Overall I'm happy with the army. It was fun to paint, and I enjoyed painting the Ents as they were easy and straight forward to do. Merry and Pippin are enjoyably characterful sculpts, full of that 1980's fantasy vibe. I have collected the army and painted it more for the enjoyment and quirkiness of having an Ent army, especially from the 1980's era. 

Enjoy :) 

Merry and Pippin lead the last March of the Ents. 

Pippin and Merry.
These are from the BME-1 The Fellowship of the Ring boxset. Basing them on 40mm round bases (as I do with heroes for Midgard) really works well. 

Treebeard. 
As mentioned before,I have already updated on the first batch of Ents which I have painted. However, I can't  remember which ones they were, so here they are all are! This one is Treebeard, recognisable because of his greying beard as described in the book. 

Ent.

Ent.

Ent.

Ent. 

Ents marching! 

I have been very busy of late painting 1980's Slann, and so forthcoming blog updates will be on them. I do however have a lot of other things I have been doing, such as assembling and basing 1980's Citadel Lord of the Rings armies, as well as my 1980's Regiments of Renown, amongst other things. The main thing I am short of is time at the moment, but I shall try to make more blogging time!