Akabylk.

As part of revisiting my fantasy Slann army, I decided to repaint some Slann Blowpipers.

These Slann were orginally organised into two seperate regiments of 15 Jungle Braves, a Slann Levy, armed with Blowpipes. As my Slann collection is (or was, but more on that later) spread over two army lists worth of miniatures, I had two regiments of them. Both were made up of the C32 Slotta based Slann named 'Akabylk. One unit was painted orange, the other blue. Now I was never happy with the paint scheme, and came to releaise that the I wanted to repaint it and so opted to disband the 30 Jungle Braves, sending 20 to the Venom Tribes, and keeping the other 10 for Scouts.

With these 20 Slann I opted to send them to the Venom Tribes, of which the option box from Warhammer Armies is below. The description states that the Slann in these units are small, and coloured red and black, no doubt inspired by some of the the real life jungle dwelling Strawberry Posion Dart Frogs (Oophaga pumilio). The Slann in the army list entry artwork is also very similar to the 'Akabylk' Slann.

Gaming wise, the switch made sense. Slann Levy have BS1, and so are usless in shooting, and only really useful as a skirmish screen, dying in order to screen better Slann behind them. Given that the Slann army has access to 20 Venom tribes, 15 Scouts, and lots of Pygmy Allies who can also skirmish, the army is never short of them.

Another reason for the change is that I am currently splitting up my Slann army into three smaller armies. One army is the maximum options lists, with all of the troops filled out with the correct Totem Warriors ( the Eagle Warriors, Jaguar Warriors, and Aligator Warriors), and the maximum number of other troopers. This part is made up of the later C32 slotta based Slann designed by Trish Morrison (as she was then).

The second army will be made up of the 'leftover' Slann, including three regiments of alternative totem warriors. These alternative regiments are made up from minatures which, whilst are not the released totem warriors, are what I considered interesting alternatives. This army will also be of the later slotta Slann, but both armies will have the occasional non-citadel miniatures which I consider will fit in.

The third army is revisiting an old idea which I abandoned a long time ago, but wanted to re-visit. The army will be led by the Slann hero Gurggl Greenwake of the Magnificent Sven scenario, and consist of solely miniatures both from that scenario range release, and of the old pre-slotta Slann range.
I'm not sure what to do with Kremlo. he might end up leading a Norse army. :)

Incedently, like a lot of Citadel miniatures from the 1980's, especially the C32 Slann, they have comic names which often mean something else. In case you unaware, 'Akabylk' is 'Acker Bilk', a famous Jazz clarinettist and vocalist.

Enjoy :)

The Venom Tribes army list entry in the 'Warhammer Armies book'.

The unit can skirmish, and has a few modest optional upgrades. Being +1BS is a real valuable boon to a Slann army whose normal BS2 is pretty uninspiring.
The blowpipe is, I consider, an underrated weapon. It's difficult to use and short ranged (12 inches), but if deployed well can be nasty to an enemy. The blowpipe has a D6 strength to simulate posion, and so it's possible to end up shooting strength 6 shots and killing monsters.

20 Slann Venom Tribes.

Closer.

Close up.

As they are skirmishers, I decided to a few extra details to some of the bases.

A regiment of 10, skirmishing and looking to use that wonderful BS3!

In addition to the Slann I painted up a Reaper Miniatures Lizardman. I want to use him as a independent high level hero, wondering around causing mayhem.
I have had this miniature for years and never got around to painting him. I like the model, he's very large (he's on a 25mm base). 

Painting wise I actually used Vallejo fluorescent green as a base coat to give a bright jungle lizard look. I toned it down a little later as it looked too much, but I think it works as a basecoat.

Rear view of his crocodile skin cloak. Counts as light armour I think :)

...and then randomly I painted a Dwarf.
He is a Citadel Dwarf adventurer, named 'Hunter', complete with pith helmet and blunderbuss.
I have owned this miniature for a while, and painted him up in a red coat and blue trousers a la Zulu War British. However it looked awful, so I repainted him as an explorer. By the way, he is the 'proper' old metal version, not a horrid recently re-released Finecast one.

Rear view showing a hunted bunny in the forage bag.

Slann ambush the Hunter as he explores an old Slann ruin. 

Next update will propably be more Slann as they are catching my attention at the moment. I might do a series of photographs showing the three Slann armies.