Frank's Great Task, Building a Daemonic Legion of Slaanesh (Wrap-up)

 Well, half a year come and gone, and another Old World Army Challenge met. My plans for this year were more humble than in the past, and yet, I barely met the challenge. Only 38 models were completed, although some of those were quite large. However, on the WFB3/ROC points scale it is still quite an addition to the overall Legion...

Keeper of Secrets/900, Daemon Prince/810, Familiar/0, Fiends of Slaanesh x12/480, Daemonettes x3/300, Skeleton Archers x12/240, Liche/345, Spectre/200, Slaaneshi Legionaires x6/168

A grand total of 3,443 points added to the legion. So, I may not have managed to finish the number of models I had intended, but there are some accomplishments to be proud of regardless.

First and foremost, the maximum numbers of daemons available to the Legion were reached. This added up to being a new Keeper of Secrets, a new Daemon Prince, another three Daemonettes, and a dozen new Fiends of Slaanesh. There is a little bit of wiggle room to add to that total, but not much. In the case of the Daemonettes, extra Daemonettes can be used to lead packs of Slaaneshi Spawn. But these would be part of the Legion's auxiliaries rather than the Legion proper. In addition, the random chart provided in Slaves to Darkness, allows for a maximum of five Greater Daemons in a daemonic legion. This is a practical limitation, but not an absolute one. The daemonic legion rules indicate that players may agree on any total of greater daemons, but that the maximum greater daemons that can appear in a single legion is the chaos God's sacred number. For Slaanesh, this is six, and thus one more Keeper of Secrets could yet join the ranks. For me, this possible sixth slot is reserved for the elusive unreleased keeper of secrets, who if ever acquired will be my last. 

The second accomplishment is the completion of the Undead auxiliary contingent. There are now 48 models in the contingent. This is after adding 12 more skeleton archers, a ghost, and a liche as the contingent commander. 

Lastly, I am particularly pleased with my final Daemon Prince which was sculpted by Satyr Art Studios as an homage to the John Blanche art of Slaanesh 'themself'. Throw in the unit of chaos legionary Beastmen and it was a succesful OWAC in total. 

Of course, at this point I couldn't resist getting the entire legion out for a parade of horrors. I discovered that they do look quite 'Realm of Chaos' all out together now, a veritable riot of colors and forms. A total points estimate, including this year's additions, would put them at over 10,000 points now, depending on various magical items, chaos weapons, and gifts. And keep in mind that the five Keepers of Secrets are free in a daemonic legion! 

Does this indicate then end of this project? Is the great work complete? There is room for a few more units here and there. Some mortals and monsters could still be added and not break the maximums laid out in Slaves to Darkness. Perhaps, there will be one final push, or maybe I should accept victory here with the daemons fully painted now. What do you think? Is enough, enough?

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

I got a late start on the month's batch of models due to a new puppy in the house. He's charming, but exhausting. I had planned to finish off the last of the Legion's Daemonettes, but I wasn't feeling them for whatever reason, and time was growing short. Therefore, I pivoted to completing the Legion's undead auxiliary contingent. 

Now in Realm of Chaos - Slaves to Darkness, an undead contingent can be quite large. I wanted mine to still adhere to the "rule of six" in some capacity, but keeping the chaos god's number in unit sizes is optional in an auxiliary contingent. Also, a lot of the draw of these undead units in a legion is to get some larger units than are available in the rest of the Legion. I already had painted 20 skeleton warriors, 12 skeleton archers, and a pair of undead champions of Slannesh (here). I decided to bulk the contingent out to 48 models (a multiple of six seemed appropriate here). To get there, this month I painted another dozen skeleton archers, a liche as the contingent commander, and I rebased a spirit model to be a spectre.

For the skeletons, I followed the same color scheme I used for the rest of the skeletons, with a lot of contrasting red and naked bones. The archers are pretty hopeless on the daemonic battlefield, but one can give any models armed with them missile weapons and magic ammo. At the cost of another 10 points (also what the skeletons cost) they can all have bows which are magical (and can hurt daemons) and never miss. 20 points per model is still comically cheap on a daemonic battlefield, so that is the plan. Like my skeletons who came before, these were Crooked Dice sculpts. That is also where I found the sculpt for the Liche. I gave her a 3D printed Slaaneshi icon on her staff, but otherwise I left her unchanged. Her wardrobe is already somewhat Slaaneshi, so no changes were needed here. I gave her a pallid skin tone and dark eye sockets to emphasize her almost skeletal and undead appearance. I am really quite pleased with how she came out, and kudos to Crooked Dice on a great sculpt.

The Spectre came from a Reaper sculpt I decided to remove from a Keeper of Secrets diorama base, which I painted years ago. She will hide in a skeleton unit until she gets a chance to make a nuisance of herself. 

All told, this month I added 13 models to the Legion. I am not counting the spectre in this count as she was just a rebasing job.  Her paint job was another attempt at using Citadel Contrast paints. I think this effort came out a lot better than when I tried it on the fiends. The lighter tones do succeed in giving her a 'ghostly' feel.  Simple but effective in my mind.

This completes my daemonic legion's Undead contingent, and a merry bunch they are too...

These models add another 785 points to the Legion.

            Skeletons w/ magic bows x12     240

            Spectre                                         200

            Liche (Wizard 20)                        345

For next month's wrap up, I will go over which portions of the Legion have been completed with this year's effort. I will also provide some updated pics and list of the Legion as it stands today. Till next month...

Nicolas' Daemon Legion of Khorne - Month 5 - Rank & File (550pts)

 The Devils' Rejects

This month is a weird month. I am getting a bit further away from classic Citadel metal miniatures, and I realy hope I do not break up the little cohesion that exist in my eclectic army. I ended up with 4 very distinc miniatures, all falling under the umbrella of "monsters drawn to this army by sheer anger and thirst for revenge". And also 2 more bloodletters in a hurry to match my month requirement! I'll keep up Scyla for the last month, he is still not to my taste and that is not a miniature I want to rush.

3 Demon Princes - 300pts

1 Chaos spawn - 100pts

2 Bloodletters - 150pts

The Spider from Birthright - spider chaos spawn (100pts)

This one got me searching for a while... until I ended up taking a picture and doing a reversed image search. A 1993 release from Ral Partha, which I got as part of a great metal D&D lot. As the fluff goes, this guy would be a a goblin mutant, and his description very much matches the idea of a chaos spawn! 

"Along with Rhuobhe and the Gorgon, the Spider is probably one of the most "signature" villains of Birthright. He's basically a crazy goblin Awnshleighen that rules a huge tract of forest, word has it that he became crazy after a guy named Endier engaged him in a riddling contest for part of his domain. The final riddle was so brain-twisting that the Spider became progressively more and more goddamn insane until now he's basically completely unintelligible to anyone but his closest lieutenants and the giant spiders that obey him."

Anyway, if you want to know more, follow this link;  https://writeups.letsyouandhimfight.com/purplexvi/birthright/

Gur'Dakan the Gargoyle Master - Demon Prince (100pts)

Reaper Miniatures released this miniature as a gargoyle leader. The guy was supposed to be a leftover demon prince if I had the time on the project... turned out that once primed, it struck me, he lines up pretty efficiently with my harpies!

Czosgol the Balrog - Khorne Demon Prince (100pts)

That guy is the runt of my deamons' collection! He is the big Balrog from 1980 Grenadier Monster box 5002.  He looks like a crossbreed between Alf and a 1995 beachclub bloodletter. So yeah, not my favorite sculpt at all! Therefore a great challenge to make it look decent, I have not found much good paintjob done on him while searching the internet... and yes, yet, a candidate as a Khorne demon prince.

Khusrai Rageheart - Demon Prince (100pts)

Another Balrog Miniature by Grenadier, released in 1985 as part of the Lord of the Rings boxset 7502 - Sauron's Dark Ones. This guy is a much better sculpt that is way more convincing as a threat! I had a lot of fun mixing colors on this guy, trying to bind him thus actual project but keeping in mind I will certainly use him in any other chaos themed army as an independant figure.

Nicolas' Daemon Legion of Khorne - Month 4 - Hero (0pts)

 Blood Thirster incoming!

He has arrived, the big, the strong, the magnificient one! So far in my life, I have completed only one other Bloodthirster. Something I can't really square in my head since I always played chaos and Khorne was regularly a go to. I remember as a 11 years old kid going back and forth through the book of armies from 4th edition... obsessing about the Bloodthirster and his "all 10 stat line".  Always refering to it, comparing what it would be against an elf, a goblin, a treeman, etc on the dice throw.  (Young me was not yet an engineer and statistics were like voodoo 🤣) Building army lists of all sort with miniatures I did not have and could not afford anyway, and lining up dominos to get a sence of that flying over ranked units would do. Now enough nostalgia, back to grown up hobby!   

Bloodthirster - 0 pts

At some point in the process of preparing for this month, I ended up with a real lead buffet. Both intimidating and very satisfying! I ended up going for that weird alien like head in the perspective matching the bloodletters, and it really works! 

Also, going through my bit box, I figured it would be a great time to use that extra Harry the Hammer metal base. A bit of realingment, pining, extra chains and skulls... with the idea of only partialy obstructing the Bloodthirster view from behind. The result is quite dynamic for such a stiff sculpt... and very heavy! I love it! 

...and just for the  kick of it, i found my first bloodthirster, painted with Testor enemal and stones built out of polistyren...  my methods have changed! 

Nicolas' Daemon Legion of Khorne - Month 2 - rank & file (1085pts)

- The month of love -

This month has been so satisfying on a miniature collector perspective! And yes, for those following the Facebook thread, I will repeat myself again; I loooove this hobby!

I got to work on amazing models that I have hold on to for many years, with this idea to somehow tie them together in a demon themed project.

1 x Independent daemon prince - 810 pts

2 x Khornate chaos spawn - 200 pts

5 x Harpies - 75 pts

My harpies are actually Dragonmen by Grenadier 1985. These are magnific sculpts, note how even the back of the miniatures are unique! I got these 5 out of 3 different lots of mixed lead miniatures I bought from old D&D players. Overall, I never intended to built a unit of these, but I have to say that their design matches any demon or chaos army I can imagine. That is also why I painted their skin balor brown, a color I tend to use on many details across my chaos miniatures.

The Independant Daemon Prince is such an iconic miniature from these old chaos daemon series from Citadel; C29 Winged Fire Demon. The posture, and that face! I struggled a bit with the fire weapons, it really got me out of my confort zone. But now I want to try that effect again; c'est en forgeant qu'on ddvient forgeron!

As for the Khornate spawns, let me reassure, Scyla is next on the list as center piece of this unit, and after a quick review of the rules, I will need at least one handler to deal with these guys.  So, here is the Clawed Fiend from the Dark Eldar range, it was an instant buy for me back in the days when it was released. In my mind it always screamed Khorne, I simply needed to add brass bracelets to give him a "heavier" look.

And finaly, an ogre gorger with added metal collar from the modern juggernauts. Once again, no extensive modification, the posture and the aggressive look were matching the theme, but the paint choice was important to tie these big guys together... and it is the actual colors I plan to use on the flesh hounds, simply to have them match the beasts of the same rank.

Nicolas' Daemon Legion of Khorne - Month 1 - rank & file (700pts)

January, month of all hopes and promesses!

    For this first month, I decided to go simple, initially. But why keep a safe path when you can venture in the wild and treacherous fields of miniature hobbying!? The plan was sample, start with a first unit of 8 bloodletters to confirm my base color scheme for my new daemonic legion, and paint a first spidery spawn to break the monotony of repeat painting.   So right after new years eve, I was franticly unpainting and cleaning old lead… and assembling flesh hounds… and jumped to stripping all chosen warriors and monsters in the project… and remembered I had an offering to produce and ship… and ended up with 2 weeks left like a real planification champion!

8 Bloodletters unit - 600pts

1 Chaos spawn - 100pts

  

    But here they are; my first 8 bloodletters in flesh tones, skinny, thirsty, freshly out of the warp after centuries of torments in suspended cells for disappointing Khorne. They are back, ready to replenish their physical form with the blood of countless enemies and retrieve the favor of their master. 

    As for the spawns... I began with the one that sparked the idea of this regiment of spidery creatures, straight out from a single line of stats in the random list of Tzeetch champions of the Realm of Chaos - Lost and the Damned;

Tzeentch_095 --- Beastman --- Tentacles - all arms, rotting flesh, crossbreed with giant spider, manic fighter, evil eye, FP4

Sculpting this guy was so much fun! I let you guess the origin of the 4 kits involved 😉

Obviously, I will play him as en unaligned chaos creature, whether a champion or a simple spawn, which really drove my color choice in avoiding blue and pink, the 2 main colors of my Tzeentch deamons... Yet the shape of his horns reveal his true nature 😈

Here is the tale of this creature, as described by its former Lord many years ago;

''The thing was called Garan’hga and whatever that creature once was, troops now call it “The Tamer”.  As my battalion progressed through badlands and dead forests, I gave order to seize any creature of form or size startling enough to break any of the soft southlanders. Three herds were formed over a month of progression. I could already foresee the handlers releasing a wave of flesh, fur, claws and teeth in front of my men. Breaking and disrupting ranks of shiny halberdier, those expendable beasts leaving the enemy disorganised and weak for my warriors to crush.

The Hand of the general visited my camps two days before the final march to reach the front line. Some fortified city was causing the complete army to stop progression. We could see columns of smoke from our position, hear the sound of their artillery and the flashes of magic bolts. My men were immersed in delirious toughs of the massacres and glories to come. I gave order to form the ranks to focus the troops and show The Hand the quality of the fighters under my command. It is only then that I first felt the presence of Garan’hga. His only eye was looking straight throught me, filled with sheer anger and hatred, and for a split second I could see this eye right in front of me.

What began as a distant clamor within the ranks rapidly became the distinct cheers of my men watching Garan’hga freeing himself of its chains and attacking its handlers. What they thought a clumsy mindless beast proved to be swift, deadly and particularly wise. It leaped several yards to reach the closest man, the one who had used the whip too many times. The spidery legs pierced through his body in several places under the impact and even before the body hit the ground, Garan’hga had jumped sideways to the other beast master. Nailing him to the ground, it plunged its dart through the armor of the petrified warrior, releasing a magical plague into his body.

As we all watched the warrior convulse, violently morph and inflate into a hideous spawn, Garan’hga looked back at me. He made me see through its yellow eye its place as the leader of the beasts, “the tamer” of any creature who would not follow my command. Although what he did not show me, was his renown to come, and my place by his side as favoured pet since he gave me a taste of his venom.''

...And before I forget, I present to you my tribute to this year Overlords, the emissary of my Khorne deamonic legion, a grotesque metamorph deamon, cursing aggressively at people and collecting bribes from the ones that think they can bargain with Khorne!