Joe's Compact Chaos Company- Wrap Up

First- the requisite selection of poses:

and a closer shot of the whole army

1 Chaos Sorceror

Grumbulligan of Clothpile, level 20 Soulflayer,

Mounted on Chaos Steed

UNIT TOTAL 272

Mercenary Giant, Poxley the Inconvenient.


UNIT TOTAL 250 points

3 Minotaurs, The Bovril Boys, with light armour and double-handed weapons @ 56 points each

including standard (40 points)

UNIT TOTAL 208 points

5 Marauder Horse @ 45 points each, including a standard (45 points),

led by Pesk the Profane, Margrave of the Salted Marsh

(a Chaos Knight champion with lance and chaos steed - 108 points)

UNIT TOTAL 378 points

11 Beastmen without armour @ 10 points each including standard (10 points),

led by Glod the Mock (level 10 hero- 110 points)

ARMY TOTAL

1338 points

I've had a flippin' great time painting this. Although spare time wasn't as abundant as hoped (Some unexpected homeschooling for two kids ate up a lot of it), and the field of bones threatened a few times, I'm pretty proud that I got it all finished.

With this project I wanted to move away from my usual style of clean and bright simplicity, and evoke some of the strangeness and grit that I've so admired in the pages of Heroes for Wargames, and I do feel I've captured some of that feel if not the quality, obviously!

The other armies have been incredible: both intimidating and inspiring in equal measure.

I'm already full of ideas for next year. and this time I'm going to go for an army for a decent model count!

Thanks to Iannick for all the organisation.

Joe's Compact Chaos Company- June - "Poxley the Inconvenient", Mercenary Giant (250 points)

I found this old Fighting Fantasy plastic troll cheap on eBay ages ago. The FF figures were a larger scale, and the trolls therefore work well as giants, scalewise. One or two of these can be seen in the third ed WFB rulebook used this way, painted in vivid pink fleshtones.

The model has a pleasingly weird pose and proportions, but it was an early foray into plastic for Citadel and it's not the best example of the caster's art to be frank. For such a large model, the detail is sparse- even the fingers are unseparated, rendered as smooth mitts. Attempts to clean mould lines and surface mess were pretty unsuccessful- the PVC-like plastic churning and gouging rather than sanding off nicely. Considering all this I decided to freehand a lot of detail, including separate fingers and fingernails and deeply defined muscle, and leave heavy blackline shading in the recesses to hide a multitude of sins. I added patches of sand here and there as some sort of chaotic skin condition, which helped break up all that flesh, and hide a few bits of really bad cleanup on my part, and I think that worked well.

Joe's Compact Chaos Company - May - Mounted Marauders and Chaos Knight Champion (333 points)

"The wretched, bloody and usurping boar,
That spoiled your summer fields and fruitful vines,
Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his trough in your embowelled bosoms-
This foul swine is now even in the centre of this isle..."

Richard III, Act 5 Scene 2

I really tried to loosen up and make these very dirty and shabby and dark- the opposite of my usual style. The mounted marauders are from Essex Miniatures' old FAN series, and the Champ is a plastic Battle Masters knight. His lance snapped off so he has a new brass one and his steed is a resin rhino from Alternative Armies. The 'mini-knight' sitting in front of one of Marauders is a 25mm Minifigs miniature- perhaps he's the rider's son, or a homunculus-familiar, or something even more sinister and unpleasant. The banner is a departure from my others- after spending a long time on something more high-effort and consciously surreal I decided I didn't like it and I just tried this out instead. I think I really like it. The passage is from Richard III, and I only realised once I'd done it that the figure with the raised mace seems to be based on Richard. I hope this isn't construed as an anti-Richard statement piece; I'm quite fond of the old King of the car-park!

5 Marauder Horse @ 45pts each
led by Pesk the Profane, Margrave of the Salted Marsh
(a Chaos Knight Champion with Lance and Chaos Steed- 108 pts)

UNIT TOTAL- 333pts

Joe's Compact Chaos Company - April - Minotaurs (208 points)

I did fear that I might be on my way to the field of bones this month. I haven't had the weeks of enforced idleness that some have had (thank goodness, as I'm self employed) and I've been teaching the kids most days too, but I did manage to take this evening off and bash these lads out at the eleventh hour.

3 Minotaurs with light armour and double handed weapons @56 points each and a standard for 40 points.

The standard bearer is a relatively recent Bob Olley that I got from Forlorn Hope, the other two are old Citadel. I did a couple of weapon swaps to replace broken parts. To add height to the middle one I stood him on a skull from a kids' anatomical model from a magazine.

I'm blown away by the standard of the entries- some absolutely gorgeous armies taking shape! Keep safe everyone, keep going with your armies and give Nurgle the swerve...

Joe's Compact Chaos Company - March- Chaos Sorceror (272 points)

I gave myself an easy month in the circumstances- just one figure for me this month,  but still the required points value.

1 Chaos Sorceror: Grumbulligan of Clothpile, level 20 Soulflayer, Mounted on Chaos Steed- 272 points.

The base model is an old Citadel wizard. I'm afraid I don't know which one. I think he used to hold a staff with a hand on the end (?), but he's long been drifting around my bits box without a head on his stick. I replaced his staff with a wire spear, and top it with the plastic ball from a large map pin, which  I lightly 'cooked' over the hob for a second or two to give it texture, so I could paint it as a planet.

The Chaos Steed is a Pendragon 'Axe Beak', a sculpt from the distant past, but available today from Wargames Design Workshop. I added the tail with Milliput.

Joe's Compact Chaos Company- January- Beastmen (230 points)

11 Beastmen without armour @ 10 points each including standard (10 points),
led by Glod the Mock (level 10 hero- 110 points)

Unit total 230 points

I've taken the Stewart Parkinson book from 1986, Heroes for Wargames, as my inspiration here. I can't come close to the painting quality, but I've tried to echo the darkness and weirdness of the stuff in that book. All these figures are 1970s sculpts by Barry Minot, from his Pendragon range. They're available again from Wargames Design Workshop. I'm happy with the colour scheme I'm used- flesh tones, dull purples and oranges- not colours I usually use at all. Painting these was great fun- can't wait for month 2!

Joe’s Compact Chaos Company

This is my first go at the OWAC. I usually paint things very simply in bright colours, and it’s usually chunky plastic stuff from the 90s, so I wanted to try something very different for this. I’ve used the Chaos army list in the 3rd edition Warhammer Armies book to write my list. Partly this is because I don’t have the RoC books or the 4th ed Chaos book, but also because I really like the undefined feeling of earlier Chaos stuff.

Here’s my list. If there are any glaring errors, please excuse me, and don’t hesitate to correct me. I haven’t played 3rd, and this is my first time crunching through the army creation rules.

11 Beastmen without armour @ 10 points each including standard (10 points),

led by Glod the Mock (level 10 hero- 110 points)

UNIT TOTAL 230 points

3 Minotaurs with light armour and double-handed weapons @ 56 points each

including standard (40 points)

UNIT TOTAL 208 points

5 Marauder Horse @ 45 points each, including a standard (45 points),

led by Pesk the Profane, Margrave of the Salted Marsh

(a Chaos Knight champion with lance and chaos steed - 108 points)

UNIT TOTAL 378 points

1 Chaos Sorceror

Grumbulligan of Clothpile, level 20 Soulflayer,

Mounted on Chaos Steed

UNIT TOTAL 272

Mercenary Giant, Poxley the Inconvenient.

UNIT TOTAL 250 points

Baggage train

UNIT TOTAL 0 points (I think?)

ARMY TOTAL

1338 points

I’m aware that choosing Chaos is playing on easy mode as far as army size is concerned. I’ve tried to allay that a bit by choosing the beastmen, and Marauders rather than Knights. However, I don’t want to set myself an unrealistic goal on my first OWAC, especially as I intend to push my painting a bit further than normal, so a smaller army suits that.

Stylistically, one of the main things inspiring me at the moment is the 1986 book by Stewart Parkinson, Heroes for Wargames. The colour schemes are dark and strange and there is a fantastic weirdness about them. I also want to capture that pre-4th edition ‘pathetic aesthetic’ thing- my army will mostly be wonky weirdos rather than bicep bulging barbarians.
My miniature choice is party governed by what’s already in my leadpile, and by what ranges of minis I like the look of. I’m not really too bothered about minis being aesthetically consistent- if a chaos army can’t look chaotic…

JANUARY - BEASTMEN

This unit is really an excuse to use a lot of my favourite sculpts from Barry Minot’s Pendragon range from the 1970s. These are reeeaaally bizarre and pretty lumpen and crude, even by the standards of the time, but they are full of surreal character. Happily, they are still for sale, now from Wargames Design Workshop.

FEBRUARY - MOUNTED MARAUDERS and CHAOS KNIGHT CHAMPION

These are from Essex miniatures’ FAN series (before Bob Olley’s work for them I think). I’m not sure who sculpted them. They are weird and wonky and have brilliant cartoony faces. The Chaos Knight champ on a Chaos Steed is a plastic one from Battle Masters. His lance snapped off, so he’s got a new metal one. His steed is a resin rhino from Alternative Armies, supplied as a mount for an ogre (who's currently steering the baggage train from atop the quadroped, but he might not stay)

MARCH - MINOTAURS

These are three bovine beefcakes that were banging around the bottom of a box. Not very consistent it has to be said. The standard bearer is a Bob Olley sculpt, a fairly recent one for Forlorn Hope. The weapon had broken off, so the standard pole replaces it, made from a bamboo skewer. The other two are old Citadel. I've added some height to one of the shorter minis with an old plastic 'giant' skull from a kids' anatomical model.

APRIL - GIANT

I found an original plastic Fighting Fantasy plastic troll figure cheap on eBay. Being made for a larger scale, it’ll make a fine giant in 28mm. Indeed, a couple can be spotted in the third ed WFB rulebook being used for just this purpose. In the flesh he’s a bit rough around the edges. If I decide he’s not going to bear the scrutiny he’ll get as an inevitable centrepiece, I may find an alternative model. Maybe even a scratchbuilt one.

MAY - SORCEROR ON STEED

This is an old and broken Citadel wizard. His steed will be a converted something or other- maybe the beaky beast he's currently sitting on with some extra conversion.

JUNE - BAGGAGE TRAIN

According to the rules, I can’t hire my mercenary giant without a baggage train, so this is a necessity for the army. It’s also a chance to use a really odd model I came across in the Irregular Miniatures catalogue- the Hero of the Skull Cult on Giant Quadroped- although I’ll just be using the lanky quadroped as a draft beast. It’ll be pulling a magical cart/wagon of some description. possibly a sort of mobile home for my sorceror. I may need to add some troops to attend the baggage train if I'm being strict about rules.

and that's that. Good luck everybody!