Of Strange Creatures, Large and Small - Continued
Among the many creatures native to the Realms were the Blemmoths. Massive, stoneskinned and headless, their facial features rested on their bellies. Peaceful and somehow attuned to the magic of the Realms, they were prone to long periods of slumber in the groves growing closer to the Realms' Edges. There, they squatted in peaceful glades, arms wrapping the knees close to their faces, hiding them from view. To most travellers, they looked like boulders, shrubs growing out of their cracked surfaces.
It is unknown why, but their presence attracted tribes of Koboloids, diminuitive creatures with stubby horns and tough beaks. Not malevolent but capricious, they could as easily help or hinder travellers and nobody could quite understand why they did one or the other. They built their nests in the trees around the slumbering Blemmoths, leaving offerings of fruit and fresh water for them.
As Sigmar and his pantheon settled the Realms with their followers, the Blemmoths retreated deeper and deeper into their forests, slumbering for ever longer periods. The Koboloids always followed them, and both the folks of Order and Destruction largely ignored them. When the turmoil of the Age of Chaos engulfed the Realms, they were forgotten, and so they remained for the first century of the Age of Sigmar.
But during the Hour of Ruin mysterious strangers approached the Koboloids' nests. They introduced themselves as Emissaries of a Dark Lord, bringing the means to protect Koboloids and Blemmoths from the skaven hordes. All the Koboloids had to do, was feeding the meat and blood of slain enemies to the Blemmoths, and they would have raised from their slumber to protect the groves.
The Koboloids fell under their sway and hunted down any trespasser with spear and bow, piling bloody offerings around the slumbering Blemmoths. Slowly, the leaves on the shrubs covering them turned fleshy and blood red, and when the Blemmoth finally woke up they hungered for more.
They now stalk those cursed forests that have come to be known as Fellgroves, the Dark Emissaries leading both large and small creatures into ever extreme acts of slaughter and cannibalism.
So, I painted the Blemmoths in a simple slapchop job: GW Contrast paints over a 3-stage zenithal primer (dark brown, grey, pearl white), followed by a drybrush using GW Dry paints, plus a touch of Blood for the Blood God and a Moot Green wash on the runes carved on their skin.
I went green for the runes to tie the Blemmoths to the Dark Emissaries I painted years ago and which I just touched up to act as the leader of a Warcry warband.
Finally, I've replicated the Dark Emissary's black-brown-yellow scheme on the Koboloids (again a slapcho job), and the warband was done.
If I'll get to play some games, I can use them as Beasts of Chaos (Brayshaman, Bullgors, Ungors) or Skaven (Grey Seer, Ratogors, Clanrats, Gutter Runners). At a a push, I might even play them as Seraphon (Skink Starpriest, Kroxigors, Skins). We'll see...
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!
