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.

 

Frank's Great Task, Building a Daemonic Legion of Slaanesh

Welcome dear readers. This is my third OWAC, and, as always, it shall be focused on my Oldhammer obsession, the creation of a Realm of Chaos era Daemonic Legion of Slaanesh. I thought I would start this year's challenge with a quick look at what has come before. This pic shows the fruits of my two previous OWACs, as well as a handful of models done in the intervening year.

This is enough for a proper Legion with appropriate proportions of lesser and greater daemons as well as a few mortals and even undead auxiliaries. My method for planning and building this to date has largely been one of "follow your dreams". Meaning, I collected whatever felt right and spoke to me. This year's OWAC effort is going to be more targeted.

My goal this time around is to max out the daemon portion of the Legion within the limits laid out in the Realm of Chaos Slaves to Darkness. These limits are as follows...48 Daemonettes, 24 Fiends, 4 Daemon Princes, and then the Keepers of Secrets. In a daemonic legion battle a chaos power may field up to its sacred number of greater daemons; so, six for Slaanesh. In daemonic legion games players field an agreed number of greater daemons at no points cost. Slaves to Darkness provides a chart to randomly generate this number if players can't agree or want to leave the number to chance. The most possible on the chart is five greater daemons. 

I currently have four Keepers of Secrets, one (or perhaps two in a pinch) Daemon Princes, twelve Fiends, and 42 Daemonettes. So, doing a bit of math, I want to produce 6 more Daemonettes, 12 Fiends, 2 Daemon Princes, and 1 more Keeper. I shall leave the sixth Keeper of Secrets slot open for the ever-elusive unreleased Keeper of Secrets model (pic from Stuff of Legends), should I ever get the chance to acquire one.

I have been gathering the models for this effort for the past six months. The most difficult portion of which was finding twelve more Fiends in a good enough condition to be brought back to life. I did eventually get them, although this generated some beat up spares I sold along and traded.

Earlier this past year, the fabulous sculptor at Satyr Arts Studio made a set of three mounted Daemonettes. I have managed to aquire a pair of the unreleased Daemonette riders and converted another ten of these from standard Daemonettes. That effort is documented in OWAC6 here. I bought two sets of these and did some minor conversion to mix up the riders. They will fill out the Daemonette allotment of six more nicely. 

Next up were the big boys (and girls). I wanted a different look for the Keeper of Secrets. In order to make him stand out from his brothers I went all in on claws. Then Satyr Arts impressed me once again with a large model with a stunning resemblance to the John Blanche depiction of the Dark Prince. This "guy" was perfect for one of the Daemon Princes.

Taken all together, this OAWC will see me producing the following addition to my glorious Slaaneshi Legion...

    Keeper of Secrets x1            Free         Leader Model

    Daemon Prince x1                810          2 or 4 models

    Daemonettes w/ Steeds x6   720         12 models

    Fiends of Slaanesh x12        480          24 models

    Daemonette x1                     100          1 model

    Chaos Familiar                     Free         1 model

The whole effort will meet the minimum model count requirements, while still adding a whopping 2,110 points. This is the baseline for what I will be painting. If I do more, you can expect some interesting Champions, another Daemon Prince, or maybe some spawn.

Frank's Great Work Continued, A Daemonic Legion of Slaanesh - Leaders - June

 Last month was a bit of a hobby letdown. I was forced to burn my Wild Card month to mulligan as I sliced through the tip of my finger in a freak accident. It took several weeks for the stitches to come out and for me to be able to get back to work. But, with such trivial issues pushed aside, I got down to June being my Leader month. 

I have only three models this month, but all are conversions, two of which were on the complicated side. 

First off we have what I have taken to calling the Golden Pair. I wanted an Exaulted Champion to ride with the mounted Daemonettes in the Legion. I took a classic Slaaneshi champion and removed his legs. To this 'rump' champion model I added the legs from the two piece Chaos knight. This was just about right to fit on the Mount of Slaanesh 'seat' where a saddle would go. This was not a pretty adjustment though, and some belt accoutrements and a slung shield were needed to hide the worst of the sins on display here.

I have searched for many years to find the unreleased Mount of Slaanesh to include in my Slaaneshi Legion. It was clear from 'Stuff of Legends' that a key difference between the unreleased model and the Realm of Chaos era Mount of Slaanesh was that it was a single piece sculpt. What I did not realize until I hand one in my mortal hand was the reason it was never sold. It is about 60% the size of the released model. Any normal sized rider, daemonette or otherwise, was going to look comical riding it. But what if the rider was not 'normal' sized, I wondered to myself...  

I decided that my mighty champion would have a familiar. Since he was carrying some dread spell tome it seemed only appropriate. I had a tiny armored combat familiar, and decided he would ride the tiny steed.  To get him on to the Steed, his poor legs had to come off and get reposed to allow something like sitting on the steed. Unlike like his larger master, this was not as messy a conversion and only a tiny shield and some junk to give the impression of a saddle was needed to hide the scars. Lastly I printed him a tiny slaanesh icon to go on his helmet because there was no Slaanesh icon on the model anywhere otherwise.

 

The urge to make these two look as closely linked as possible was too good to miss. I'm sure there is a "mini-me" joke here somewhere. Both got a gold color scheme for their armor with pink lacquered shields. The steeds are mirrors of each other's colors, purple and green. Lastly the Champion got a fancy paint job on his daemon weapon.

 

My next leader character is specifically for the undead contingent. In theory the undead Minotaur Champion could lead the undead troops but as I now had a unit of combat skeletons and a unit of skeleton archers, I wanted a proper leader to provide some sorcerous support. I went with a liche. I decided this model was likely not part of the fallen cult who made up the Legions undead fodder, but rather a fallen necromancer who made a deal with a slaaneshi daemon to extend her life. The result was losing her soul, which is now carried as a jewel in the armor of the Legion's commanding Keeper of Secrets. She is indeed immortal, having cheated death, but has to serve forever at the head of a cohort of doomed fools for her new master's entertainment. For the model, I noticed two of the old Chaos Sorcerers clearly had been made from the same manikin. One was a generic Sorceress, the other a Slaaneshi spellcaster. I simply took the arm with the slaanesh icon wand from one and put it on the other. The result was a convincing sorceress. She got the same red paint scheme that her minions were given.

 

The Mighty Champion of Slaanesh with his mount and his mounted familiar, have a variable cost depending on the number of rewards the champion has. I wanted the Golden Pair to be cream of the crop so I opted for the full 360 points. I didn't buy him the Mount extra, but safely assume it will turn up in all those reward rolls. The Liche I opted for a level 3 caster, which meant a "Liche 20". She costs 345 points and has no optional extras built in. This brings has me adding 1,005 points to the Legion this month. The total models and points for OWAC VIII will be totaled up and shown off next month, as well as totals for the entire Legion beyond just this OWAC.