Of Strange Creatures, Large and Small
Over the last few months, I haven't played any game or done much hobby. Let's just say real life interfered with it. Nevertheless, back in January, I rummaged through my pile of shame thinking about realising some strange creatures coming from the remote corners of the Mortal Realms. The sort of thing mentioned in the AoS lore but never seen in illustrations or models.
I spent a few good hours dry fitting bits and working out ideas based on mythological creatures from different traditions.
In the end, I settled for some large creature based on the Greek-Roman myth of the Blemmyes. These were humanoids lacking a head, with their facial features on their chest, that lurked in the wilds at the edge of the known world. The idea for them came from dry fitting old Glutton heads onto the chest cavity of Kurnoth Hunters bodies and imagining how various Ogor weapons would look onto the Kurnoth Hunters.
I started by making one model with two hand weapons. I filed down the Kurnoth Hunter neck joint, clipped away the hands and the Lamentiri from inside the chest, and then glued the Ogors bits in place. To further alter the shape of the Kurnoth Hunter, I didn't glue the shoulder pads on.
Finally, I filled all the gaps and covered the filed area with Green Stuff, followed by a texture paint made of PVA glue and dried coffee grounds.
I was really happy with it and decided to make two more, one with a great weapon, the other with hand weapon and shield.
The shield is made with an Ogor ironfist and Kurnoth Hunter shoulder pads glued all around it. You can also see them primed in a 3-stage zenithal going from dark brown to pearl white through grey.
Another idea that came up as I was dry fitting TOW Night Goblin bodies with Plague Mok heads, was that of some small, mischievious but at times helpful creature, like the Kobold from Germanic traditions.
Of these, I made four: two with bows from the Empire Militia, two with spear (Plague Monk staff with Plague Monk blade glued on top) and shield (TOW Goblin shield on Plague Monk arm).
I also clipped away the skaven snouts and replaced them with carefully shaved off Gnoblar noses, looking like hooked beaks pocking out of the cowl. Finally, to hide the skaven hears, I glued horns from the TOW Khemri Skeletons over them.
I've already painted all of the Kobold-inspired models and the test Blemmyes-inspired model, but let's not make this post too long. As soon as the other two large models are painted, I'll share them.
Underguts Ironblaster
Ironblasters are titanic artillery pieces that dwarf conventional cannons. Ogors have found that loading them with conventional cannonballs – by the dozen, if possible – yields impressive results, with pillars of flame shooting out as heavy metal shot thunders in a devastating column of destruction.
And with the Ironblaster done, I've finally finished assembling and painting the content of Feast of Bones. It only took me nearly 7 years and now I have an AoS army clocking at around 950 points... that is until the new annoying point change!
This was the first time I've painted a large model in years and the very first time I've decided to paint in sub-assemblies. The chariot was assembled straight out of the box, only living out some cosmetic bits which I'm planning to use in other projects.
The gunner, on the other hand, needed converting, as I'd used its body to convert Tulok Marrowbreath. For that, I'd saved a Mournfang Cavalry rider from the good old Manchester commonal bits box and a chest from the Empire Great Cannon. They worked perfectly together to represent a gunner sat astride the loot on the chariot.
As I'd used the gunner heads on the Leadbelcher and Ironguts champions, I grabbed a Leadbelcher head and, as a I was at it, the bag with cannonballs and club to hide the ugly gap that was left between the chest and ogor's legs.
Paintingwise, there isn't much to tell as I've simply replicated the same palette used on all the other Underguts.
Now, will I play them as an army in games of AoS? Honestly, I've no idea. I've finally found a gaming group in Palermo, so there is hope.
But honestly, what mattered most was finishing the model and reducing the size of my pile of shame!
The Swordsmen
As the Sunset Guard fought through the Soul Wars and more and more warriors were Reforged, the Flaw manifested first in a physical affliction. All those that emerged from the Anvil of the Apotheosis did so as albinos, their skin and hair white as many of the gheists they battled. By the time the Era of the Beast was closing, the physical effects of the Flaw had intesified and actinic light leaked from the eyes of every member of the Stormhost. Unable to remove that affliction, the Sunset Guard had embraced it and more and more warriors started to take to the field of battle without wearing their masks, to better strike fear in the hearts of their enemies.
Here comes the second set of Ironsoul's Condemnors, fully converted to make sure they look different from the others.
What I did was repositioning the arms, replacing the heads with Vindictors' ones and the maces with blades from the Vindictor spears and a sword from the Cities of Sigmar Battlemage kit.
Ironsoul's shield ended up on another warrior so I gave her a Vindictor shield.
Finally, I clipped the pegs from underneath the models' feet so that I was able to swap bases around. All these combined completely altered the sense of motion in every model, making them look completely distinct from the uncoverted counterpart.
Since I was at it, I've also used small gryphons from the TOW Emipre Mansion and Empire General to make Dagger, Shield and Hammer deployment markers for Warcry games. The weapons come again from the Vindictors (blade), the TOW Empire General (hammer) and the TOW Empire State Troops (shield).
Teandra Honouris
Teandra not only venerates Sigmar, but the maker Grugni as well, an act of gratitude for all the smith-god has sacrificed for the cause of order.
Namestes Thunderheart
Tales are told and songs are sung throughout Azyrheim of Namestes' exploits.
Sannus Swiftsteel
Sannus dispenses sage advice to his younger companions even in the heat of battle.
I've painted the deployment markers as statuary, matching the grey and green scheme I've used on my Stormvault terrain set and on the bases of the Stormcast.
With them done, Lightiningfist's Last Survivors are worth 990 points in games of Warcry and I'll probably take them to an event I'm attending later in October.
Lightiningfist's Last Survivors
The Sunset Guard was one of the smallest and latest Stormhosts of the First Striking. Comprised of those who had died while wielding the magic of the Realms against Chaos, the majority of its warriors hailed from its Sacrocanct Chamber. Because of their connection with the Realms, during the late years of the Era of the Beast, the Sunset Guard mages felt that something was amiss with the fabric of reality. Determined to correct this imbalance, they led the entire Stormhost deep into the eastern Great Parch. And there they were as Skavenblight erupted into Aqshy. In a single instant, only a handful of warriors remained.
It fell to Knight-Incantor Lestia Lightiningfist to lead the survivors in a gruelling flight from the Gnaw, and by the end of it only a single Sequitor retinue was with her as they reached the relative safety of the Adamantine Chain. There, they discovered the Sacrosanct Chambers had been recalled to Azyr. But with the souls of their comrades lost forever, their presence at the Anvil of the Apotheosis was pointless. So it was they swore to remain in the Realms and avenge their Stormhost.
I finally got to paint Xandria Azurebolt and one of the Ironsoul's Condemnors sets I had since I attended Warhammer Fest back in 2023.
I decided not to convert them as I might use Ironsoul's Condemnors in games of Warhammer: Underworlds, while Xandria Azurebolt is a rather cool model and I didn't feel like converting her, except for giving her a sculpted base from Ironsoul's Condemnors. Still, I've painted them in the same colours as my Silver Tower Knight-Questor, only adding some blue for the more arcane bits.
And of course, I've given them new names and a a different background to use them in games of Warcry.
Lestia Lightiningfist
The Knight-Incantor has proven many times over that she would risk everything to safeguard those under her command.
Sequitor-Prime Kelena Fulmor
Kelena is a a reserved and melancholic soul, not given to zealous oratory.
Kallean Brightmace
Kallean battles the enemies of Azyr with a savage ferocity.
Balian Pharos
The agonies of Reforging have left their mark upon Balian, yet although striken by spiritual torment, he fights on.
I have another sprue of Ironsoul's Condemnors and a few bits to convert them and bring Lightiningfist's Last Survivors to a full 1000 points Warcry warband.
The Bloodworks
On its way from the Sanguinal Refineries to the Cranic Furnaces the mixture of promethium, blood and daemonic ichor travels and is stored and stabilised in a network of Haematic Plasma Regulators and Condutis. Much like the other Belochian structures claimed by the servants of Khorne, this machinery is slowly turning into organic structures, the conduits ever more resembling blood vessels while the plasma coils contract and beat like cardiac muscles. The tanks and heat vents' sides bleed from never-healing wounds on their flanks and skulls are tossed around, often piled into impromptu altars to the Red God. The reek of blood clings to the air, as does the faint echo of a laughter coming from the Skull Throne.
Recently I've started playing Kill Team relatively regularly and that motivated me to get back to this terrain project. These are all relatively small pieces made with a combination of bits from the Sector Mechanicus kits I assembled in the past, plastic piping and even a plastic container for toothpicks.
The strainght pipes are cut to the same length as the gantries of the Hanging Ways, just like the original Thermic Plasma Conduits. The curved one is only a few centimetres smaller than the angled walkways I stil have to assemble, but I couldn't find anything of the exact same size. The veins crisscrossing them are sculpted with greenstuff.
The ladder going up the vent is made using cleaned up sprues.
The Thermic Plasm Regulator is converted exactly like the Sanguinal Refinery, with bone spurs from the Ogor Mawtribes range, Khornate symbols and trophies and also the horns with dangling skulls from the Black Orcs banner.
Finally I had the hatches from the STC Ryza-pattern Ruins to which I simply glued some skulls. They're the only pieces that have not been smeared with my home-made texture (coffe grounds and PVA) to represent the wounds on the sides of the structures.
The palette is essentially the same as the other pieces. However, this time I've used an iron mica effect enamel spray for the undercoat rather than Leadbelcher spray, resulting in slightly darker tones.
As always, every piece is perfectly sized to match the others, either to join at ground level or to sit on top of larger pieces.
