The third Snakeman hatching, and the 101st (Catachan) Airborne.

In the past week I have painted another six Snakemen. The painting of the Snakemen is going well and I am having fun painting them. I do feel I need to paint more real world Snake colourations, as well as some more brightly coloured Chaos looking ones. My next batch (hatching!) will be a mix of these.

Other than the Snakemen I painted a few Catachans. I had a fair sized plastic Catachan army some time ago, and it had a few metal ones in it. I have seperated and painted stripped most of them, and plan to do a small, veteran force, of metal only Catachans.

I have always liked the Catachans as they are more of a tough and independent army, not so grim and dull as Cadians. So, I have painted a few test miniatures, and rather than the standard Catachan green, I have opted for a variation of the 101st Airborne uniform of the US in World War Two. I am not intending to focus on them as yet, but will do in the near future.

Enjoy :)

 More Snakey fellows!

 A converted Higgat Dwarf Slicer. 

I have replaced his broken sword with one from from the GW Tomb Kings range. 

I have painted his armour in a bone effect, and added an Ox skull from the Tomb Kings Skeleton box set to emphasize the desert look of the bases. 

He will either be the army General, independent hero, or unit leader.

 Rear view.

 The first Saranth Elf Mangler, with Rattlesnake skin.

 Second of the Saranth Elf Mangler, this time in blue.

 Third Saranth Elf Mangler, in a Tree Snake green.

 Rear view of the three.

 S'lon Life Smasher.

 I have noticed a few of the S'lon Life Smashers have miscast shields. Instead of the usual round shield, they are (mis)cast into a teardrop shape. Often, but not in this case, the snake skull can be lacking detail and teardrop shaped as well.

 Higgat Dwarf Slicer.

I have painted him with Vallejo Flourescent green to give look of the more brighter Tree Snakes. 

 Catachans! 

Like the American 101st Airborne in World War Two, I have painted these Catachan in a slightly darker kharki uniform, with russet boots, and wood look rifle. However, they are still Catachans, and so I have painted the bandanas red.

  Close up of on of the riflemen.

 Rear view.

Catachans face off against Snakemen on a distant planet!?

Next update, almost certainly more Snakemen!

The second hatching of Snakemen this year.

Quick update this week.

Over the last week and half I have managed to paint up another half dozen Snakemen. I am really enjoying painting them with their new more colourfully individualistic look. I also converted a Snakeman into a standard bearer.

Apart from Snakemen, I have been paint stripping and tinkering with 40k Squats and came up with an idea for alternative bikers. The 40k Squats won't be started until the Snakemen have been finished. I have also been picking up a mixture of odds and ends from e-bay/Oldhammer Trading site, from 1980's Lord of the Rings Uruk-Hai and Orcs, to the odd AD&D Githyanki!

However I shall not get too distracted, so the Snakemen will be the focus. I have 26 to paint, having already painted 19. I also have a few oddments such as Human Cultists and a Harpy to paint as well. 

Enjoy :)

Six more Snakemen.

S'lararet Splintered Fang. 

I have painted him up as a unit leader by adding runes on his shield and on the black bladed sword. 

Incedently, I have been referring to all the Snakemen as 'he'. However I am sure that some of the Snake'men' may just as well be Snake'women'. I will refer to them as 'he' for the sake of grammatical ease, but assume there may be a mix. I'm not sure how to 'sex' a Snakemen, but I am pretty sure even asking them, let alone any other method, may be fraught with danger! :)

S'Sirron Fangthrane. 

With a slight Chaos Tzeentch or Slaanesh vibe I painted him up purple. I am not sure if there are any purple Snakes in the world, but this is the Warhammer World.

Another S'lararet Splintered Fang.

Unlike the other Snakemen, I have given him a slightly Khornate look with the red shield and bits of armour.  The army won't be Khornate, but it's nice to add a different dash of colour.

Higgat Dwarf Slicer. 

I slightly bent the tail to give the impression he is slithering around the skull. 

I painted the face on the breastplate blue to look like a Troll.

Another S'Sirron Fangthrane, this time in a more straight forward green, based on innumerable real world Snake colourations.

Sarannth Elf Mangler.

 I have painted him up in a stipey paint scheme taken from Jean-Baptiste's Snakemen here:
http://leadplague.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/chaos-snakemen-chaos-battle-part-15.html

 Right hand side of the above Sarannth Elf Mangler.

S'Sirron Fangthrane conversion.
I have converted him into a standard bearer by removing his double handed axe, and drilling though the hands, and adding a piece of bass rod for the shaft. The standard is a slightly trimmed standard from GW's current Grave Guard plastic box set. 

I was tinkering with 40k Squat miniatures when I hit upon the idea that I could mount my spare bikers on Citadel's limited release Space Marine Riding Lizards.
I have been wondering what to do with the Lizards for a while. As I have 10, I will use 8 of them as alternative Squat bikers. I think they fit very well and look great. I will conduct some minor conversions such as re-postioning the Squars arms, adding reins, and slight re-postioning of the Lizards heads and legs. I'll rebase then too.

Next update will be yet more Snakemen!

Newly painted Citadel C27 Snakemen.

My first post of the New Year and I have been a busy Goblin! I have managed over the Xmas/New Year period to have re/painted 13 Snakemen. I am very happy with the output, and I am enjoying painting them much more.

As I outlined in my last blog update, I had ground to a halt with painting the Snakemen as I was'nt happy with my chosen paint scheme. So I have chosen to go for a different paint scheme, that of mixed skin colours. Instead of just one colour, I have chosen a mix of real life snake colours, and some bright random colours to suggest their Chaos origins. I want each of the Snakemen to have an individual look to them as regards their skin colour, most of their equipment and shields.

However to keep some coherence, and because I like the look, I kept their plate armour gold. As the Snakemen plate armour has some beautifully sculpted shoulder pads, in the form of faces, I have occasionally painted some of them in different colours. This brings out their detail, breaks up the gold plate, and adds that Chaos individuality. I feel it also gives them their 1980's feel, linking in with the mid/late 1980's Chaos/Goblinoid aesthetic.

With the basing I went for the same approach as before. The bulk of the base is Citadel's Agrellan Earth (although I do have some of their thicker Agrellan Badlands to use too), with dead looking grasses and the occasional rock or tufts of long grass. I may add the odd skull or creature to some of my Snakemen in the pipeline. The bigger lipped 40mm round bases seem to work well with them. I have painted edges black to both give definition and to allow me to add names to their bases later on. I think it's going to fun thinking up names for 40+ Snakemen!

Finally, despite my slowing up in blog updates recently, I am close to 300k views. As of today I have had 298,771 views, which is amazing! :)

Enjoy :)

 13 Snakemen.
(Sorry about the blurry photograph).

S'lon Life Smasher.
I painted the face on his shoulder pad green, as well as the face on his sword hilt.

S'Sirron Fangthrane, painted as a 'Banded Krait' Snake.

Another S'Sirron Fangthrane, this time orange.

Another S'lon Life Smasher, loosely based on a 'Rattle Snake'.

Higgat Dwarf Slicer, based on a 'Milk Snake'.

Purple coloured S'lon Life Smasher. To my knowlage there are no purple snakes, so I painted this one up as a Chaos influenced Snakeman.

A repainted and converted S'lararet Splintered Fang standard bearer.

 I painted him with some of the bright green tropical snakes in mind, and used Vallejo Fluorescent Green. Some of the green snakes can be quite bright, but this Snakeman could also be influenced by the glow of Warpstone.

A third S'Sirron Fangthrane. 

I will be using him as a unit leader, and have painted him up using Citadel's 'Warpfiend Grey, normally used on Slaaneshi miniautres, to suggest a Slaaneshi allegiance to this Snakeman. I have also used a purple-pink on the axe and the fur cape on his back (see further below), and a pale blue on the shoulder pad and axe shaft. 
I don't want the Snakemen to have a specific Chaos allegiance, but consider them leaning of mine more towards Slaanesh and Tzeench.

Another S'lon Life Smasher. 

I originally converted him to use him as an independent hero. I repostioned his tail, and added a bow and quiver to his back. I have an idea to have two of the Snakemen to be aspects of Michael Moorcocks Eternal Champion concept. One of the Snakemen I am going to paint as an albino in black armour (as this Snakeman was orginally). The second, which is this Snakeman, is to be an representation of Rakhir the Red, the archer who adventured with Elric on occasion.

Yet another S'lon Life Smasher!
He is painted up to be a generic brownish snake. I did twist his tail so he stands more at an angle. I also painted his shoulder pad up as a bone skull.

A second Higgat Dwarf Slicer.

He is painted similar to Corn Snake as I wanted a nice and bright colour. I kept the armour, even the lovely sculpted faced breastplate, gold. However several of the other Higgat Dwarf Slicer Snakemen on my painting table will have different colored breastplates.

The final S'Sirron Fangthrane.

 I wanted a plain, muted brown, to give depth and offset the bright axe shaft. 

I like him as he is understated.

Rear views of the Slaaneshi S'Sirron Fangthrane unit leader on the left, show his purple-pinkish fur cape. Higgat Dwarf Slicer on the right shows off his snake skulled shield. 

I took these photographs as you cannot see the backs of the Snakemen in catalogue pages. Unless you own the miniatures you can't appreciate the sculpting at the back. 

S'lon Life Smasher, looking like you're his next lunch! 

He is also showing off his skull face shoulder pad.

S'Sirron Fangthrane with a screaming faced shoulder pad.

S'lon Life Smasher other shoulder pad, with grinning shoulder pad.

The shoulder pad of S'lararet Splintered Fan.

Next update will be more Snakemen!!