James WRR’s Wrap Up: The battle at the end of time

 We are the edge of the sword, the tip of the spear, the hammer of the immaterium and we will suffer not the daemon to exist. The Daemonhunters of the Ordo Malleus are coming for you.

Mighty, Dark-Winged, Avenging Inquisitor, James, with his Might, Avenging Ordo Malleus Army.

That’s it! My second OWAC attempt completed and another (nearly) 4,000 points worth of models painted for Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader.

Now I can try get a game in.

The experience of painting this Ordo Malleus army has been markedly different to that of painting my Emperor’s Children. Not that I’ve not had a great time with the project, just that I’ve found myself a bit less… absorbed in it.

That might be because I’ve been decorating a new flat at the same time as ploughing through this batch, and navigating a whole host of new responsibilities. It might also be because I’m a Chaos guy deep down, and painting “holy” warriors goes against my instincts.

But I am proud of this army, just as I am of every project I manage to complete. It’s not every Warhammer player who can say they’ve painted thousands of points in just a couple months. God knows I’ve got so much more waiting in the wings, but that’s a problem for another day… another OWAC, perhaps. 

Collecting this force was a joy and putting it all together was a real education. I’ve got a whole new appreciation for those who managed to construct and paint armies of RTB-01 marines back before we had so many modern tools and paints. I’ve also been surprised, even blown away, by the quality and charm of many of these models — the Terminators and Daemonhunters being obvious stand outs.

This challenge attempt hasn’t been without its, well, challenges. I’ve been rushed at times, uninspired in others and very distractible. But seeing my challenge companions and friends build such amazing armies of their own has really pushed me towards this success. 

Once again, I'm also impressed at how well deadlines work for my brain and my workflow. Having the structure of monthly quotas and small goals really helps make a big project manageable. If you've got your own major army project to get done, I can't suggest enough following along with the next OWAC, or even just make your own mini challenge to motivate yourself.

I think my next project is going to have to be a colourful one. Painting an all-metallic, largely monochrome force has been great for speed and efficiency, and they do look as mean and brutally efficient as I was hoping they would, but I need a bit of whimsy back in my life.

I think that might call for a Second Edition-era force of some kind. Oh, I know a Death World that’s lovely this time of year! How about we visit Catachan next OWAC?

And with that, I reckon I can close the book on this project. I can’t wait to see these guys on the tabletop, burning away the corruption and naivety of a doomed galaxy. As always, please do join me on my ongoing hobby journey on Instagram at @Illuminator_Hobby.

Until next time, keep watching the skies. 

Army list

Inquisitor Halfthor
Daemonhunter
Tactical Dreadnought Armour, Bio-Scanner, Displacer Field

Plasma Gun, Power Glove, Digital Weapons, Psyk-Out Grenade

Bionic Leg

Psychic Mastery Level 3
201 points

Inquisitor Clavicus
Daemonhunter
Tactical Dreadnought Armour, Bio-Scanner, Displacer Field

Psycannon, Force Rod, Scare Gas

Psychic Mastery Level 4
454 points

Captain Torkamadus
Grey Knight Terminator Captain | Hero
Tactical Dreadnought Armour
Nemesis Force Weapon

Psychic Mastery Level 4
450 points

Techmarine Tarantus
Techmarine
Basic equipment
Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle
97 points

Squad Deza
Grey Knight Terminator Tactical Squad
1 Sergeant and 4 Marines in Tactical Dreadnought Armour

5 Nemesis Force Weapons

Psychic Mastery Level 4
1,200 points

Brother Bethor
Deredeo Dreadnought
Missile Launcher, Heavy Plasma Gun
Standard Sensor Package, 2 Power Fields, Power Field Synchroniser
270 points

Squad Heliod
Tactical Squad
Sergeant with Bolt Gun, Bioscanner and Power Glove
1 Marine with Missile Launcher
1 Marine with Flamer

7 Marines with Bolt Guns
275 points

Bright Sword
Rhino APC with Techmarine Pilot, assigned to Squad Heliod
2 Bolt Guns
387 points

Riot Corps
Adeptus Arbites Squad
1 Magister with Bolt Pistol and basic equipment

5 Judges with Bolt Pistols and basic equipment
102 points

Squad Apollo
Devastator Squad
Sergeant with Bolt Gun
2 Marines with Beamers
2 Marines with Heavy Bolters

5 Marines with Bolt Guns
379 points

Grand Total: 3,815 points

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

This month was once again about Fiends of Slaanesh. I was committed to closing out the Fiend allowance for a Daemonic Legion of Slaanesh, which is twenty-four Fiends. In previous OWAC's I had already painted twelve, and in January I knocked out another group of five. I had intended to get another five of these done in March, but since seven were required, I began batch painting all seven. I had gotten a good way through the seven, but life conspired to prevent actually finishing them. So, due to my own slow pace, I was forced to either mulligan or to accept my partially painted models as complete for March. This was nonsense, of course, and I chose to spend my wildcard month as a mulligan and preserve the standard for painting I held myself thus far. Therefore, while no Fiends were brought forth last month, all seven were this month...and pretty little scuttlers they are too. 

An additional seven Fiends are 40 points each, thus adding 280 points to the growing Slaaneshi Legion, as well as an adjusted fourteen models to the count for this OWAC.

This influx of Fiends brings the muster to the full two dozen allowed to a Slaaneshi Legion. I could not resist lining up the full contingent for a photo op. What is the collective noun for a large group of Fiends? A Flux of Fiends? A Scuttling of Fiends?

Lastly, to congratulate them, I let a Keeper of Secrets conduct an inaugural "Running of the Fiends" through the streets of Bogenhafen. They look like they are having a fun time...

Frank's Great Task, Building a Daemonic Legion of Slaanesh - February (Leader)

This month I worked on my leader model, which was already destined to be a Keeper of Secrets. In a daemonic legion battle, greater daemons are free of cost to the legion. However, a chaos power can only field up to it’s sacred number of greater daemons in the same place. Players are asked to agree on the number of greater daemons, but, if the players prefer, Slaves to Darkness has a chart to randomly generate the number. This chart can generate five greater daemons at most. Five is quite a lot, even with the amount of combinations available to the old Keeper sculpts. So, I tried to make each of my Keeper of Secrets models visually distinct from each other through the use of colors and conversions. 

This last Keeper was given the theme of ‘brawler’. I wanted him to look brutal and more mutated than his brothers. To this end, I gave him multiples of the one armored claw on the downward hanging upper arm bit. I wanted four of that claw to maximize the amount of armor on the model and because that claw looks 'stronger' than the others too me. It took a while, but I acquired three more of that upper arm piece. I then did a bit of snipping and affixed those claws to create a quartet of heavy armored claws with no human hands at all. I then took a spare tail/body piece from one of the many fiends I rejected after assembling this year's batch. I used this to give him a convincing scorpion tail mutation. I also used a very special eyepatch head. As Keeper of Secrets heads go, this is not one of my favorites, but this head is all that remains of the very first keeper my teenaged self managed to acquire and paint. I did not strip the original badly painted blue but rather used it as a primer coat and pressed on. I think it works well here, making a vicious model look even more brutal.

When I sat down to paint him, I had a couple basic considerations to keep in mind. First off, he was not going to be the same skin color as any of his brethren. That ruled out orange, pink, green, and yellow. Second, most if not all of his cloth would be yellow to tie him into the rest of the legion's models. I considered jet black for a skin tone, but in the end, I went with a deep purple. Mostly because I liked the effect that scheme had on a Fiend, I did a couple years ago. I went ahead and painted right over the original head. I like that this ties the model, and the legion back to the same effort I began so many many years ago.

This Keeper constitutes my effort for Leader month. Although greater daemons are free in a daemonic legion, they are valued at 900 points in the Realm of Chaos Slaves to Darkness army list. Finally, here he is posing with his brethren in the legion’s command group.

Astute readers may have noted that the sacred number of Slaanesh is six, and while I have maxed out the greater daemons the legion chart could require, I yet have only five here. The sixth slot is reserved for a special final model. I speak of the long lost unreleased Keeper of secrets model. It is pictured in Slaves to Darkness and can be known for the distinctive unarmored rounded crab claws, hanging downward, as well as the open hand not balled into a fist. If anyone reading this has such as treasure, please contact me, I would pay handsomely to acquire it.

[Pic courtesy of 'Stuff of Legends'] 

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

As I explained in this my intro post, I am taking a much more paced and measured approach to this year's OWAC, with the specific goal of maxing out the traditional Daemonic portion of the army. My efforts will therefore be applied to the gaps in my existing collection between what I have painted and what the Realm of Chaos Slaves to Darkness army list allows. This meant Fiends, a dozen more Fiends. So, that is where I began, with five Fiends for the month of January. 

For the paint schemes I continued with my method designed to call back to the classic daemonic legion art in Slaves to Darkness, using wild clashing color schemes which lean towards pastel shades or bright colors. However, this time I tried a new technique, for me at least, contrast paints. I chose to give contrasts a try in hopes to have slightly different results on the second batch of a dozen fiends, than the first batch. I watched a few videos and fiddled with contrast on a few bits and shields. Then I gave it a shot on the old lead. 

I have to say the result of the contrast painting was functional, but I didn't love it. I found the shading effect that contrast provides often felt too understated for my purposes. I ended up in most cases giving a drybrush and highlight on them to get the effects I wanted. In several cases I still needed to do dark lining to provide shading in the deepest areas as well. So, my verdict on contrasts is, they are 'fine', but nothing amazing. It's basically a thick ink that requires you prime in a light tone instead of a dark tone. I found the time saved in this process was essentially paid back by having to line or shade due to having to use a light primer color. I think contrasts will let you achieve functional results in a bit less time and with less prior skill than before, but experienced painters probably can do better or will treat them as just another ink pot.

All that said, the first five came out pretty well. The pastel colors let me get some different looks that my first batch. Fiends scuttle about quite a bit, but I did get them to sit still for some close ups...

Five Fiends is not a full unit. One more Fiend is required before they are a complete unit, but five is a good start, nonetheless. In terms of points, five Fiends weigh in at 200 points, and this is where I stand at the end of January. 

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.

ChrisH' Chaos Dwarfs - Complete Army - 3002 points

Another army challenge completed, 127 miniatures painted and 3002 points based on 3rd edition.

 

The overall army looks great and I'm very pleased with them.  I had several older units painted in about 1980s and always wanted to add more.  

Here is the completed army

Here is the whole army together, old and new!  Additions are another 20 warriors, more artillery and two war engines.  I still have a juggernaut on the painting table and a pre-slotta hobgoblin contingent, no projects are ever finished, just abandoned.....

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.

Chris Pridmore's Rank and File Month 2 - The Grandfather's Clockwinders

 10 Plaguebearers = 350pts

Ended up spending a lot longer on these guys than intended. There's so much character to each model, I really wanted them to look their revolting best.

Frank's: The Great Work - A Daemonic Legion of Slaanesh, Slaves to Darkness Style, "Rank & File", March 2023

This month I was beset by work & life stuff but still the Great Work continued at a decent pace. I worked on bulking out the rank and file portion of the Daemonic Legion. First and foremost this meant more Daemonettes. There are a maximum of forty eight Daemonettes in a Slaaneshi Legion, and all are accounted for in my planning. As before, I wanted these to be wildly colorful but still (barely) coherent enough to look like an army. I finished ten new ladies, who joined their two sisters, who were already painted from before this project was undertaken. That pair got new bases to match their comrades, and wallah, two more packs for the Legion. 

After the eighteen Daemonettes I painted in January, there are only repeated poses to work with. For these I selected those I could convert in small ways, such as more fabulous hair, and some minor reposing. One was cut from two of her sisters and reassembled entirely. I think she worked pretty well. But conversions not withstanding, the devil-red succubus with the green hair is my favorite.

These represent the last of the 'ordinary' Daemonette infantry that I will be including. After this month, the rest of the Daemonettes will be specialized in some way, either with gifts and equipment, or steeds. 

My next undertaking of the month was a second pack of Fiends. The 1988 Fiends of Slaanesh are some of the most problematic models to assemble Games Workshop ever produced. The sculptor made well defined indentations for the leg bits to slot into parallel with the Fiend's body. Unfortunately, these grooves are in the wrong places, and if you were to assemble as indicated, the orientation of the legs makes our Fiends look like dead arachnids, if they can stand up at all. I think that perhaps Games Workshop intended the hobbyist to bend the Fiends legs outward so the grooves would be serviceable and the feet still oriented down. Honestly though, this is an incredibly difficult thing to pull off without tearing up the detail on the legs themselves, while playing about with one's pliers. How did I assemble these and the other dozen yet to come, you ask? 

Well, dear reader, here is the secret...I ignore the grooves almost entirely, and simply glue the legs into place, more or less above the groove, allowing the feet to orient down correctly. I then fill resulting gap with chunks from the slotta-tabs left over from the Fiends leg assemblies. I tend to paint the Fiends in darker palettes than their anthropomorphic allies, the Daemonettes. This is to provide some contrast between the model types in general and to give me a palette for some added detail on the, mostly, flat metal Fiend bodies.

Lastly this month, I began working on a unit of Slaaneshi Legionaries. The are an interesting troop type which never received dedicated models in the range. Slaves to Darkness describes Legionaries as a body of immortal but ultimately trapped and damned soldiers, who could be from any race. The army list entry for Legionaries gives them a human-ish profile and provides them with a standard chaos weapon and chaos armor. It is a lot of freedom, and I wanted to come up with something distinctive for the Legion. In Slaves to Darkness, the mortal Slaanesh army has several Dark Elf units. Although, Games Workshop stripped them out of the list in fourth edition WFB, I still like the idea as the presence of some fallen elves ties into Slaanesh's lore nicely. Therefore, I decided to model a couple units of Legionaries from elves. The standard dark elves of the era are decent models but they are very distinctively Warhammer 'dark elves'. I wanted something more chaotic, and looking less like a transplant from another army. I noted that a few of the old Wardancer models had studded leather body suits and crazy hair. This was just the sort of thing I was looking for. Then I remembered the Blood Bowl elves. Studded leather, crazy hear and the addition of elaborate masks made them perfect for this job. In order for mine to bring something to the legion, other than being cheaper expendable Daemonettes, I purchased them longbows and seeking arrows, which is a legal option in a Daemonic Legion. This way they can jog along with the rest of army while tossing arrows down range, which will never fail to hit, and can actually harm their likely daemonic foes. For these I used, what I think are High Elf charioteer bows, but they are hard to source and more will be required. What you see painted here is a half unit.

So that is my effort for March; ten Daemonettes, six Fiends, and three Legionaries with magic arrows. They value in at 1,354 points and add another 25 models (by the OWAC's valuing for bigger based models). This puts the total (adjusted) model count at 57, and the total points value at 4,904. The Great Work shall continue next month. I have a special treat in the works.