Sunday 24 August 2014

Slann War Altar, Slann Spawn Bands, and a bit of Gnoll-ing about!

It's been a bitty week for painting. I am still working to complete the painting of the odd and ends of the Slann army ready for the 5,000 point encounter in mid September. At the start of the week I managed to paint the converted/scratch built Slann War Altar with Guards.

Mid week painting was slowed due to work, but I re-focused my time on the Gnolls/Great Goblins. With all this business with the Skaven, Nipponese, and Slann, I have'nt forgotten the Goblins. As I have been working a lot of overtime recently, I have been buying some more of the old FTG Fantasy Tribes/C12 Gnolls/ Great Goblins as I really do love the models, and if I see a stray Gnoll/Great Goblin (or two) on e-bay I feel they need a good home. In addition to buying the little critters, mid-week I have also been repairing broken ones I have bought over the years, although restoring them might be a better verb as I have been trying to repair any damage and return them to their original state rather than converting  them.

Later in the week and at the weekend it has been back to the Slann. I have been re/painting Slann Spawn Band models and tidying up thier general appearence. I have done this for 30 of them so far, with only 10 left to do. Concerning the Slann army this means I have 10 Warrior Priests also left to paint, 2 Jaguar Warriors, and then some varnishing and basing. As the battle is mid September I should be fine, and back to painting the Skaven in a couple of weeks at most.
Enjoy :)
 Slann War Altar with Warrior Priest Guards.
 The War Altar itself is a normal Slann Wizard Palaquin with a C39 Treasure Chest placed on the front (I had to remove the little bowl of grapes from the front of the Palaquin), and then with an Outpost Wargames Aztect 'Fire Banner' on the back. 
I painted the Palaquin gold to give the idea of a guilded platform for the chest, which I consider to have the magically charged remians of a long dead Slann Mage inside.
 War Altar banner.
 2 Warrior Priest Guards using the Slann model 'Lumholtz', and with the addition of a shield from Crooked Claw Miniatures Goblin range, complete with a flayed Dwarf face!
 20 Spawn Band Slann.
The Spawn bands are the normal profiled Slann in any army, and the only compulsory part of the Slann army in Warhammer Armies. Background wise they are a miltia, and so I have tried to use a varied selction of models, skin tones, and paint schemes to relfect a greater degree of individuality.
What follows are a selection of a few of them:
 Left to right, Slann standard bearer (made using a fan bearer from the Slann Wizard Palaquin set); the regimental leader using the Slann Warrior from the Magnificent Sven Scenario range; and a Talsiman Toad as a stand-in Musician model.
 Left is an unlisted Slann with club, and centre unlisted Slann with Sword. On the right is 'Allda'. Is it just me or does he remind anyone else of the actor Alan Alda?
 'Cuppacocoa', 'Quinine', and 'Lep'nluni'. I never noticed the casting line on Quinine until the blog update, so I shall fix that asap.
 A 'Lumholtz' model without an added shield, a solid based C32 'Herald', and 'Nanuazin'. 
 The second Regiment of Spawn Band so far. 
 'Huastecan',one of the Lieutenant's from the Magnificent Sven Scenario range, and 'Hacienda'. With a name like Hacienda he should own a club ;) .
 'Toltec', a converted 'Quinine' model, and a bright red unlisted Slann with club.
  Before I get to the Gnolls I manged to buy another one of Tom Meier's awesome CP3 Troglodytes, 'Troglodyte with Halberd'. It is a beautifully detailed model, the runes of the halberd are excellent, as is the lizard grin of the Troglodyte itself.
I only have one left to find now. 
 Gnoll/Great Goblins infantry. 
These are not all of the ones I have aquired from e-bay, only the ones I did'nt have. I have bought about the same again in number of doubles (and triples!). I have managed to bang a few bargins recently, as well as paying a little more for the odd one or two here and there.
It would be insane to try to collect all of them as it is not known how many variants there are, and some of them go for a pretty penny now a days! I am happy to collect the range as I go, and in a way in which I am not paying a crazy amount for each one.
 I love the miniautres range, and that's the reason I collect them. :)




Newly bought Boar rider variants which I had'nt owned before. I have also aquired a couple more doubles as well, bringing the total number of Boar riders up to 20.
For the Boars I am using both the 'running open mouthed version', and the 'standing closed mouthed version'.
 FTG1 Gnolls/Great Goblins with Pole Arms.
 FTG2 Gnolls/Great Goblins attacking with hand weapons.
 More  FTG2 Gnolls/Great Goblins attacking with hand weapons.
 ...and yet more  FTG2 Gnolls/Great Goblins attacking with hand weapons.
  FTG7 Gnolls/Great Goblins with hand weapons.
 Rear view of the Gnoll above on the left showing his shield; centre a FTG6 Gnolls/Great Goblins Halberdier, although he is'nt listed on the CMM Wiki page; and a broken  FTG11 Female Gnolls/Great Goblin. I will sculpt an new arm for her, and maybe 'shave her' as I don't like the idea of the Female Gnolls/Great Goblins having whiskers!
  FTG6 Gnolls/Great Goblins on Giant Boars, variations 6 and 3.
FTG6 riders seem to be the pointed eared version of the Gnolls/Great Goblins, whilst FTG9 are the other, more bigger nosed version.
Left an unlisted FTG6 Gnolls/Great Goblin on Giant Boar. On the right a  FTG9 Gnolls/Great Goblin on Giant Boar, variation 6. 
 FTG9 Gnolls/Great Goblin on Giant Boar, variation 2, and is also a one piece casting. 
 Repairing Gnolls/Great Goblins. 
On the left is an undamaged FTG1 Gnolls/Great Goblin with Pole Arm, variation 3. 
Centre is a repaired one.
On the right is a halberd from Wargames Foundry used to repair. I have found that these are nearly identical to the ones used by the Gnolls, and only a little shaping is required. 
Citadel used the same basic weapons for a lot of thier weapons, so the weapons used by the Gnolls/Great Goblins are often used in other ranges.  
 2 More repaired Gnolls/Great Goblins.
 Left is an unbroken Gnoll/Great Goblin with a Pole Arm (a sort of Boat Hook/Bill).
Centre is a Fiend Factory Red Orc/Goblin with the same weapon.
Right is a repaired Gnoll/Great Goblin repaired using a broken off spear from another Red Orc/Goblin. I need to file down the green stuff  little, but it was added as the pole shaft was slightly thicker. I am aware the pole arm is facing the 'wrong way', but it is like that on this actual model. 
The broken, pole arm-less Red Orc/Goblin will be converted into a standard bearer.


Two Gnoll/Great Goblin repaired using Essex Miniatures parts.
Finally a FTG 7 Gnoll/Great Goblin with Hand weapon. 
He's not damaged or repaired, nor is he a model is did'nt have before. 
I just posted him as he's cute, look at those ears :) 

Next week's update should be more on  painting Slann. As I am painted Slann at the moment, I am also considering doing a focused update on the Slann ranges of models, with front and back photographs and a detailed analysis of the design and sculpting.

4 comments:

  1. I must say you have done a pretty amazing job there, congratulations. But oh, man! It looks like you still have tons of pending work! ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, I am pleased with the overall look of the Slann army, and how the War Altar looks now I have painted it.
      I still have boxes of stuff to paint, lots of Slann and Goblins, as well as the three Warhammer Armies forces still to paint so I am going to be busy painting for a while!

      Delete
  2. Wow, such a collection of lead, I'm turning slightly green with envy (ha). It'll be awesome to see that many slann painted, especially since they're all 'old lead'. Did you pull a heist at GW in the 80's or what?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you, before the battle I am going to photograph the army in it's entirety to give people a good idea of what the 5,000 point army will look like. I might resume painting the Slann army as a whole soon, but I want to complete the Skaven after I have painted the Slann needed for the battle.

    No, I did'nt pull a heist LOL. I just collected a large army at the time. I started off buying the Magnificent Sven Scenario deal in 1987 (a few months before 3rd Edition was released), and then bought another Mail Order Customers only deal available when Warhammer Armies was released. After that it was just a case of buying Slann over the years to add to the army.

    ReplyDelete