Frank's Great Task, Building a Daemonic Legion of Slaanesh - May (Rank & File)

 

This month's efforts were a bit less focused but had some real gems. The pride of place, without question, goes to the 'Consort of Slaanesh', but we will get round to 'them' in a bit. First off there are a few more daemonettes. 

I painted three more daemonettes not to be another unit, but to be handlers for the Legion's packs of chaos spawn. The Realm of Chaos Slaves to Darkness daemonic legion of Slaanesh army list requires a champion or a daemonette to be included as a handler for each pack of spawn. A Slaaneshi legion can field up to four packs of spawn. I have one champion converted up to lead a spawn pack. In fact, he is almost a spawn himself. But, for the other three packs these three new daemonettes will serve. None of these are original citadel sculpts. The two on the flanks here are Satyr Art Studios sculpts. His offerings are always great at keeping that oldhammer style and fit in nicely with the legacy sculpts. These came from a pack of six the rest of which were retained for another idea. You will, of course, have noticed that one of them is quite different. This model began as a Hasslefree Miniatures sculpt, which was clearly an homage to the "Kinky Chaosette" classic citadel sculpt. 

I conducted some minor conversions to make her a special daemonette model. I clipped one of the hands and replaced that hand with an extra daemonette claw. I then used a whip from another Slaaneshi champion to give her a barbed tail. She was made because there is a slight chance that any individual daemonette comes with a random magic item. In a legion, a player can always buy a model chaos armor as well. This model was intended to allow for either possibility, as well as a daemonette who gained the "chaos lord" chaos attribute. 

The next model added is a familiar. She is an odd little creature who somewhat resembles a daemonette. She was painted with no 'parent' model intended, rather she can server as a familiar whenever one is called for from the random generation of characters. I'm not quite sure where the sculpt came from, maybe Reaper Miniatures. 

This next unit is a bit of a departure from theme as they are mortals (more or less). In a daemonic legion mortal units can be included in the form of units Legionnaires. These models can be of any roughly man-sized race and their profiles are always the same. For my first unit of Legionnaires (The Old World Army Challenge: Frank's: The Great Work - A Daemonic Legion of Slaanesh, Slaves to Darkness Style, "Wildcard", June 2023), I made fallen elves. This time I wanted some 'children of chaos' and opted for classic beastmen. I have had several of these models, in various states of repair knocking around my collection for many years. They were dusted off, rebased, and prepped. One was too thick with old paint so he got stripped, the others just got a clean up and I painted right over them. I also added Slaanesh icons for their weapons whereever that seemed practical.

You will notice that these models are all roughly in the same pose. I believe that they were all created form the same 'dolly', with different armor sculpted on and different mutations. As I had five, I still needed a sixth model, as all units in a Slaaneshi legion have six models. I found another one with a Fiend's head and a snazzy armored corset. I converted him with bits from a champion to make him more of a mutant and to up the armor on him to being proper chaos armor. Now he has two crab claws and chaos armor. He is my sixth legionnaire, but he could be another chaos champion if I needed those mutations, or even a very mutated daemonette. 

Now for the main event, what I'm calling the "Consort of Slaanesh". This model probably should have been in my Wildcard or Leader months, but events conspired to prevent me completing 'her' until this month. This model was sculpted by Satyr Art Studios and is a loving homage to this John Blanche depiction of Slaanesh him/herself from Realm of Chaos Slaves to Darkness. 

I, of course, had to make a few additions of my own. This pose on this model seemed very agile and athletic, and I wanted to depict 'her' as some sort of deadly fast, although still huge duelist. 'She' will serve in the legion as the third and final daemon prince allowed. But, 'she' could also be the sixth Keeper if I so desired. In fact, modern rules for Slanneshi daemons now have a named daemon prince who is a hunter of other greater daemons and some such. So, I gave 'her' a nasty pointy wall-shield, which is really a buckler on 'her'. I also changed her scepter into a full-blown icon of Slannesh. With the new toys, 'She' could stand in for the names Keeper model nicely, and it gave 'her' a distinct look from the other Keepers in my legion.

So, that's all for May. In total, have ten 'normal' models and one 'large', granting an adjusted score of twelve. As to points, well... the Daemon Princess/Keeper of Secrets weighs in at 810, the trio of Daemonettes are 100 each, the unit of legionnaires (without magic items or spell upgrades) cost 168, and finally the familiar costs nothing, as she only appears as a random gift for another model. Total points for May then are 1,278. And as far as my own goals go, this month sees the Daemon Princes for the Legion maxed out. Here they are together looking fabulous.