A Pan Tang undead Merman banner, and a few random miniatures.

I'm currently on holiday, which should in theory mean I could be getting more painting done. However, I have been bimbling about the Sussex countryside, and meeting up with friends in Brighton, and so in fact less painting has been achieved! At least so far anyway, but I still have a few days left.

What I have done is painted two more Pan Tang infantry, including a standard bearer. I read somewhere that the banner of Pan Tang was a Merman (as well as using the Chaos symbol). So I thought I would give the idea a go. After a quick Google search I found several designs for Mermaids and a few for Mermen, including an undead Mermaid. I decided to adapt the Undead Mermaid to a Undead Merman as it seemed fitting for the evil Pan Tang.

I'm not a great painter of banners, but this banner proved to be very quick and easy to do, and I felt with a little more care I can achieve better banners in the future. It's a basic banner, but encouraging that I painted it in about 5-10 mins.

In other painting, I miss the Slann, which I have neglected for some while. So I painted up a spare Slann, who wll be heading to the Spawn Bands. I also painted an old C01 Fighter, whom I intend to use in my upcoming Araby/Haradrim army. Finally I repainted the old C22 Chaos Demon, which I had painted a few years ago, but never liked the finished work. Being odd and naked, the Demon might be NSFW.

Enjoy :)

 Pan Tang Standard Bearer.
He is converted from a broken Citadel SS1-2 Chaos Warrior, Ogroth Darksoul. The banner is a plastic one from the current GW Grave Guard set on brass rod.

 Close up of the banner. I think that the Undead Merman looks fine and was fun to paint. I added some random runic/magical script on the banner to fill up the space. I painted the banner a canvas colour to suggest a ships sail.

 The Pan Tang warrior 'Korven'.

 A Citadel C01 Fighter, 'Klotilde Ironface'.
She is an early slotta based miniature from 1985 and designed by Bob Naismith. She is tiny ! She is actually based on a 20mm base. I have owned her since the 1980's, but paint stripped the dull paint job from then a while ago. She is wearing a full face mask, hence her name I assume.

 Rear view, with a nicely sculpted skirt.

The C32 Slann 'Pintamilkada'.
I used 20 of these as alternative Alligator Warriors, with double handed weapons. I have a few spare, and so they will end up in the Spawn Bands. I am glad I had a few more because I wanted the chance to paint some of them up in a different style to the Alligator Warrior look I gave the others. 

 Rear view, with all the great sculpting details.

 C22 Chaos Demon.
I don't like two headed creatures as a general rule, but I like this miniature. I originally painted this miniature a duller colour, but it never really suited it. So I have opted for a flesh colour to give it a creepier feel. It has no arms, however it does have legs and feet that look like arms and legs, so I am wondering if the legs are really it's arms, and its legs are now it's necks!?

Read view, showing the thick necks.

Next week should be more Pan Tang. I only have nine actual Pan Tang range miniatures left to paint, then onto the Tigers, archers, and maybe a few Chaos Warriors if I include them.

More Pan Tang, and Theleb K'aarna's Bodyguards.

It's been a little busy at work over the last week, but still managed to paint some more Pan Tang infantry.

I have continued keep the scarlet red armour, but have added more sea themed colours to armour and helmets. The Pan Tang infantry often have sea creature shaped helmets, and so I have painted these in sea themed coloured. I also think that this will add more colour to them and break up the block of red look. Using the bold and bright colours is I feel more reminiscent of some of the 1980's art work as well, especially in the Stormbringer rulebook.

In addition I've added two of Theleb K'aarna's bodyguard to the army. They are described as one being obese and having the head of a pig; the other being Snake-headed and long necked. There are several types of miniatures I could have used, but I thought it would be nice keep with the 1980's Citadel Miniatures theme and sculpting look.

So for the pig-headed bodyguard is used a C27 Chaos Beastman named 'Guzgog'. Although more boar looking, I think he works well. For the second bodyguard I used a C27 Snakeman. I think the description suggests he is just Snake-headed and long necked, but I think that the Snakeman in his heavy armour fits the look. There is an old pre-slotta C38 Beastman which also fits the description, named 'Snakeman', but I was'nt too keen on the look or sculpt fitting in with the sculpting of the Pan Tang.

Other than that I have received my other Pan Tang Tiger in the post from e-bay, and another Pan Tang Infantryman. This means I now have four Tiger teams, two with actual handlers, and two with Pan Tang infantryman handlers.

Enjoy :)

 This weeks batch.
I still need to do the bases, which in retrospect I might do for all of them in one go, once I have painted the army.

 Daarg.
I painted the scale armour skirt blue-green to look more aquatic.

 Voorg.
The shield is an old Hasslefree one, painted as a metal buckler.

 Krool.
His helmet is some sort of squid and so again is went for a more aqautic colour rather than just red.

 Tashim.
He has an Octopus looking helm, which I painted a brighter orange.

 The Chaos Warrior range 'Pan-Tangian' spearman.
I made use of a big Marauder Miniatures plastic shield, and painted the sea-monster on the helm in a contrasting green to the red armour.

 Vandar.
I am using another one of these miniatures as a Tiger Handler.

 The first Theleb K'aarna's Bodyguards. 

I have used S'sirron Fangthrane, one of my favourite C27 Snakemen miniatures (although they are are fantastic). The background in the Strombringer rulebook described the Snake-headed bodyguard as having a 'Lormyrian axe', so I chose a miniature with that theme.

 The second of Theleb K'aarna's Bodyguards, C27 Slotta based Beastman, Guzgog.
In his description in the Stormbringer rulebook he is mentioned aswielding a simitar and target. Although the miniature has a sickle, it's close enough for me.

Reverse view showing he spikey armour and sickle.

The two of them guarding Theleb K'aarna's.
Gaming terms they will have to be taken as independent heroes, but this does'nt stop them from guarding Theleb K'aarna.

The four tiger teams.
They're greea..., well you get the idea, but they do look fun. I am a little daunted when it comes to painting them, but willing to give painting Tigers a try. The handlers will also have tiger themed armour to tie in with their charges.

Next update, more of the Pan Tang.

The menace from Pan Tang.

Whilst I was supposed to painting Catachans, I became somewhat distracted by my 1980's Citadel Eternal Champion collection, especially the Pan Tang. So, I put the Catachans on hold and decided to paint my Pan Tang army. All of the miniatures in this update are finished, but require varnishing and basing, so are WIP.

I always liked the Pan Tang and Melniboneans, even before I read Michael Moorcocks books. The look of Citadel's miniatures captured my imagination, and their odd and 1970's/1980's fantasy look intrigued me. The idea of Tiger Handlers also seemed cool, and they all reminded me of an older style of fantasy from the era of sword and sorcery film of the early 1980's. The complete range can be seen here:

http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Eternal_Champion

and here

http://www.solegends.com/citec/index.htm

Fast forward nearly 30 years and I returned to my interest in the Pan Tang. I had never owned any in the intervening years since GW stopped making the miniatures, apart from a couple of Tigers. So, a year or two ago I decide to build both a Pan Tang army and a Melinbonean one. So far I have three units of 10 actual Pan Tang, and four Tiger Handlers (I have a tiger in the post as I type).  I also have several Citadel miniatures which I feel work with the Pan Tang sculpts which will add to the army.

Army wise, I will base the army on the 3rd edition Warhammer Armies Chaos army list. The thirty Pan Tang collection warriors will make up three units of Chaos Marauders. The other miniatures will be Chaos Thugs and Warriors. The tiger handlers will be Chaos Beastmasters, the tigers themselves being proxy Chaos Hounds. I also have the Theleb K'aarna, and Jagreen Lern miniatures, well as other Sorcerers, to add to the army.

The description of the Pan Tang describes them as clad in red armour. So I have opted for red armour, with some sea based colours for painting cloth and the sea themed helms. I wanted to avoid whites making them look too Middle Eastern, so opted for a mix of sea based colours. I went for a slightly lighter, more orange tone of red to stop them looking too much like a Khornate army, and to give them a lighter feel, almost akin to fantasy artwork.

Skin tone wise they are described in the books and background as being 'Swarthy'. I see this as a middle-eastern/Indian flesh tone. The Persian looking beards of the sculpt lent me to paint them with a darker than European tone. Personally, I think that the tone might be a little too dark, but they do remind me a little of Indian sub-continent warriors, especially Mogul Empire and 19th Century Sikhs.

Enjoy. :)

 The painted army so far.
They need to be varnished, and I do need to decide on a base style for them.

 Jagreen Lern, the Theocrat of Pan Tang, and General of the army.
His armour is described as glowing red as though hot (in 'Stormbringer' I think). So I went for a more brighter, orange look for the armour.

 Theleb K'aarna, Sorcerer of Pan Tang.

 First 'complete' unit.

EC05  Pan Tang officer.

 Rear view, showing also the sea monster helm.

 Standard bearer.
He is made from a broken Citadel pre-slotta SS1-2 Warrior of Chaos Ogroth Darksoul.
The banner is a large resin shield from a company named Ristuls Market. I think it suit the demon summoning Pan Tang quite nicely.

Like many of Citadels ranges in the 1980's many of the individual miniatures were named, including this range. Some of the character models were of course named for themselves, but Citadel seemed often to make up names (in some ranges humourously) for the miniatures. It was fun, but also made mail ordering miniatures in the days when you had to write down the names on paper and post is a bit weird.
Anyway, this is Jarkor. I have given him a current range GW Skeleton Warriors plastic shield give that slight Middle Eastern/Indian feel.

Voorg.
He has a Marauder Miniatures Dark Elf shield...

...which can be seen here. I love the sea monster helm.

Skaar, fish or a dolphin helm.

D'Ath.
He has a Ral Partha Europe Barbarian shield, which can be seen better below. I think his helm is either crab clawed or some sort of sea shell, maybe scollop.

The Pan Tang spearman.
He was never released as part of the Pan Tang range, but has 'Pan Tangian' on his slotta tab, and so it is assumed he can be considered part of the range.
The shield is the Ral Partha Europe one.

Grart, with an Octopus helm.

Krool, with what might be a squid horn helm, although frankly it looks like something else to me.

Krools Marauder Miniatures Dark Elf shield.

Another D'Ath.

Kerim.

Korven.

Drayos Pleth, not a Pan Tang warrior, but part of Citadels 0201 Chaos Warriors range.
I have several Chaos Warriors, for use as unit leaders or as actual Chaos Warriors, in the army which I consider fit in with the Pan Tang miniatures aesthetic.

Jagglespur, another Chaos Warrior, from the C35 range.

WIP.
Theleb K'aarna has two bodyguards, described as a Pig headed one and a Snake-headed one. So I decided use a Citadel Beastman (he's more Boar-headed, but looks good), and a good old C27 Snakeman.

WIP
Second unit of Pang Tang Marauders.

Another converted Citadel pre-slotta SS1-2 Warrior of Chaos Ogroth Darksoul. standard bearer.
The Chaos Warrior is the unit leader, and is another 0201 range miniature, Pestilens one eye.

The third Pan Tang Marauder unit. Four of this unit are already painted in the above update. The Standard bearer is a so to be converted Chaos Thug.

Either an army standard or the standard for the Chaos Warrior unit. He is a named Harrowhound.

The Tigers of Pan Tang.
I have three complete teams, although I am missing one of the handlers, which I have replaced with a Pan Tang warrior Vandar.

I have an extra Pan Tang Tiger, and another in the post, the makings of a fourth team. As I don't have a handler I might use this Chaos Thug as a stand in until I can.

Archers.
These will be Chaos Thug archers. The Pan Tang range never had any archers, so I thought I needed some. The miniature is from Citadels 0211 range. I borrowed the idea from Axioms wonderful blog, and his update on his Pan Tang here:
http://magpieandoldlead.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-rise-of-pan-tang.html#more

Front and rear views.

Some of the Citadel Chaos Warriors which may end up in the Pan Tang army.

Pre-Slotta Chaos Sorcerer.
You can have too many sorcerers in a Pan Tang army!

Next update will be more Pan Tang.