Frank's: The Great Work - A Daemonic Legion of Slaanesh, Slaves to Darkness Style, "Wildcard", June 2023

 

Due to user error on my part, when I planned out what I would paint for this OWAC I completely disregarded the Wildcard month. Therefore, when I had to divide up the Daemonette cavalry over April and May, I really had very little lead left in my ammo-can to do something with for June. So, rather than add random models with a less than well thought out plan or high quality old-lead components, I opted  to keep my expectations reasonable and just finish up loose ends. Therefore, I decided to finish the unit of Slaaneshi Legionaries I started in March. Besides this, fate presented an opportunity to make a characterful addition to the Legion’s commanders with an unexpected greater daemon model.

For the unit of Legionaries, I built the first two from a pair of Blood Bowl elves which I converted to carry bows and arrows as well as some sort of wicked blade. I also converted an elven Wardancer model whose studded leather leotard let him fit right in with the crazy outfits of the Blood Bowl models. One, I gave a plastic Slaaneshi icon from the modern GW Daemonette kit. The hair on this guy is straight out of the 80’s, and it’s fabulous. The other elf, a Blood Bowl elf catcher, I converted to be the unit’s leader. His model was clearly intended to be wearing skin tight leather pants, but I chose to ignore this and painted him wearing just a cod-piece. I also changed his catching hand to an arrogant gesture as he showboats trying to catch the gaze of the pleasure-god. 

 

These models have a number of nice fat jewels sculpted on their gear, which was the fashion with elf models from this era. I took the opportunity to paint these using the 90s style technique, which I think I got the hang of now. 

 

Overall, I am quite pleased with the full unit now that it is done. They give the Legion some much needed non-spell ranged capability, and the leather clad dark elves look like they belong amongst the horde of Daemonettes.

At the tail end of May Satyr Art Studios offered an alternate sculpt of a Keeper of Secrets based on Tony Ackland’s art. Only 200 of these were cast. Clearly, this was the hand of Slaanesh themself providing me with an entirely thematic superb Keeper of Secrets model, which was different from the other three already in the Legion. Page 176 of Realm of Chaos Slaves to Darkness, gives a chart to determine the number of greater daemons in a daemonic legion battle, five being the most that one can roll. It also puts a hard limit on greater daemons as being equal to the god’s sacred number. This, of course, means six is the hard limit for a Slaaneshi Legion. 

 

The Satyr Art Studio’s Keeper of Secrets is very different than the Citadel Minatures sculpt not only in proportions, but also in texture. The strange proportions and pose (based on Ackland's art) cause the daemon to be leaning forward and down to the left if based as it was cast. Instead, I decided to convert him slightly by placing him on a stepped 40mm base. This made his pose much more upright. I then gave him a nasty looking club and a buckler shield. Last, I added a streamer of bejeweled hair, which I painted in the 90s jewel technique again. Because the hide of this daemon is covered in bumps, crevices, and short fur, I primed it in off-white and used a contrast yellow paint for the bulk of the model. Having painted the daemon yellow I avoided further use of the color when painting his items and boots, mostly leaning on pinks to tie the model together. For the eyes, I tried to give them an unsettling evil jaundiced look. Then I painted his club as a chunk of warpstone strapped on a stout log. I would assume those he ‘taps’ with it enjoy wondrous new mutations.

This month adds another 1,014 points to the legion with a mere four models. This brings the total effort to 7,358 points and an adjusted model count of 86. Next will be a wrap up and display of the entire Legion to date.