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.