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 - 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.

Bondage and wrap-up with Slaaneshchild - Wrap up post !!

 So here it comes, the final bondage, the cherry on the cake, the wrap-up post !

As complained, I (really) tried to make some nice banners as I am supposed to be not so bad at drawing, but it was a huge fail. Not really about the drawing in itself, but the paper I used was to hard, the painting was ugly too, and the banners were really too big compared to the miniatures.

So unfortunately, I cancelled this "project" and decided to make my wrap-up pictures with the help of my girlfriend.

I am pretty happy with the result, it seems so much in less than six months ! And the terrains were painted in the same time, I surprise myself :D

The horde is so big it was hard to capture in one picture,  but of course I made detailed pictures too.

Behold my mignons !!!

Speaking of army list and points :

2 daemon Princes : 555 pts

1 princess on palanquin : 160 pts

23 dark elves witches : 276 pts

6 chaos knights : 480 pts

6 centaurs (marauders horsemen) : 198 pts

18 chaos marauders with additionnal weapon : 234 pts

12 dark elf scouts : 156 pts

4 dark elf assassins : 224 pts

1 heroïne on war hydra : 357 pts

1 heroïne on cold one : 142 pts

3 chaos trolls : 135 pts

3 dragon ogres : 264 pts

12 mounted daemonettes : 720 pts

6 fiends of slaanesh : 180 pts

12 bestigors : 192 pts

for a grand total of..... 4273 pts !

Plus trees, temples, hills etc.... 

More pictures !! 

Beware the attack of the dachshund of Slaanesh

True Evil Wrap-Up Posture 

Princess on Palanquin and followers

And... As this project is the same army I started in OWAC IV, I decided to picture as well "the complete army", with the miniatures from OWAC IV (yeah I am very jealous of Mariano so I try to do the same !)

Remember this horror ? MOUahahaha

Legionnaires on Slaanesh steeds

chaos warriors and beastmen

the mighty Kegoxx

the altar of flesh

My precious !!

I hope you like them !! Next year, I am struggling with different projects: 

- continuing this one (I have tons of miniatures to paint)

- painting a Nurgle army (they are waiting in my boxes)

- painting a renegade imperial guard dedicated to Slaanesh (but I think I will paint them this year this semester)

- building a renegade for of random miniatures for Warhammer. Like one sorcerer with skeletons, some goblins, some humans... could be fun too ! 

Cheers !! 

Slaaneshchild.

Brace yourself for Slaaneshchild's naughty leader month

 

So last but not least as one says, I keep my leader month for the end as I wanted to have the time to think about my leaderS.

I was sure to have 2 daemon princes. One "middlehammer" and one contemporary. But I needed something special for my mortals/dark elves. 

Something big with slaves, worshipers, prestige.

But before I started anything, as I was organizing the "Warhammer 5th edition day in Paris, I had to paint for terrain for it. I wanted to build a deep "dark wood".

I've bought Frostgrave's trees, one tree of despair from Reaper miniatures and some resin scenery and I tried to make a nice little wood.

On this picture you have all the trees I made, for this OWAC, not only this month

Then I made my daemon Prince. I started with Zal'Guldugh, The Master of Flesh. He will be leading the fiends of Slaanesh. I already have 6, and I made 6 more fiends for this month. A full herd !

Since the beginning,  I wanted to make him the army standard bearer. I love the idea of a daemon prince bearing in combat the personal banner of its god.

I love the contrast between the image of gruesome torture on the banner and the expression of calm of the other girl at his feet.

I also painted 6 fiends to build up his herd

Then I made another daemon prince, he is made with the modern miniature of Syll'Esske, which I don't really like, so I added wings to him. They are from an old Ral Partha Dragon.

Some succubus, some servant... et voilà !

Then I thought about the leader I needed for my mortals/dark elves. I love the idea of the palanquin. It is alway a fantastic miniature to play and paint. I recently noticed the palanquin of the Emperor Dragon from LotR, a forge world model. So I ordered it, and I used an Artel Miniature for my leader. It is a slave master (count as dark eldar) with a head of the daemonette and a shield of a Slaanesh choosen.

I also changed the heads of the warrior bearing the palanquin to make them more Slaaneshi. I wanted to put some slaves and servants on it but it was a bit to small and I think with this kind of miniature it is good to choose the focus. To me the focus should stay on my lord, Daevna, the majestic one.

The banner is made by the godlike hands of Roberth Beresus.

But what king of lord of Slaanesh would she be without a horde of servants and warriors ready to die for her ?

So I decided to make dark elves witch elves. I had another regiment to paint and one week left... so I decided to make them part of this army.

And then...

Finaly....

The entire month !!!!! Behold the horde :)

Next month, I will do the banners, I am going to draw them and paint them... will see if I can manage that !!