The Ironshod - a WIP besticentigor

Hoihoihoi, how are we all doing? This is a little something I put together earlier today. He's not finished yet, but he's nearly complete.

Anyway, some of you may have noticed, I like to go abit nuts when it comes to modelling. This idea was floating around when I first started thinking about my plastic centigors and I began looking at chaos horses.

I really like the chaos knight steeds, their barding looks so feral and chaotic. However, centigors only get a 4+ save and the huge hulking knight mounts are a bit too powerful. But I still wanted to give him a go, so I decided to make him as a unit filler for my bestigors.

My original idea was a complicated one. Originally the centigor was going to have a bestigor rider, and a chain to his mouth. I was going to say the bestigor had bested the centigor and had him under his control. I had several permutations on this idea (the centigor was protecting a magic weapon that the bestigor had, so followed him around; He was possessed by a bloodletter who was etherically on his back tormenting him, riding him around etc) but, in the end, I just left him as a centigor in huge armour. Why? Well, he's a unit filler - the whole point is to represent 4 figures in one base - adding a rider means the unit filler's efficiency is reduced by one! Plus, centigors don't like being ridden much, and cutting the legs on a second bestigor would just be an addition ball ache.

So, I cut a bestigor diagonally between the thigh and stomach armour. This left a triangle in the groin which fit in the neck hole of the steed. I put an ork shoulder pad on the saddle to protect the upper torso's back. I put the spare marauder shields on the horse's flanks to add more bulk. I used the Gor command arm and head, to add a bit of individuality to the centigor from the rank and file bestigors.

Here he is, I'm quite please with him. I wanted to use as little greenstuff as possible - I'm good at fur, but crap at armour and chainmail!

I put him diagonally on his base, to maximise his footprint. I imagine the other bestigors would give him some person space. He's got a gap on the left that needs covering, but other than that he's pretty complete. His body looks quite far back, but the armour of the horse sticks out quite a way and the upper body is actually in line with the front of the horse and his legs.

So, let me know what you think! Have a happy new year!!

There will be blood(letters) - more count as shenanigans and A unit filling WIP.

I took the plunge and got some old school Daemonettes to add to my army as count as bloodletters. There's actually quite a bit of variety, and I've got about 20 or so with a unit filler to be going on with. I'll be keeping an eye out on ebay for any more going cheap in the near future.

I actually quite like these models! I know some people hate the S&M crab look, but I think they're a nice homage to the older chaos that I grew up with.

Well, here are my first two testers to give me a good feel for how the unit is going to come out. I've tried some new photography techniques as well, but you get te idea.

I used the foundation paint Adeptus battlegrey for the skin. It's not as dark as my charcoal grey mix I've used for bloodletters in the past, but darker than the lighter shadow grey I use for the rest of my daemonettes. The black wash darkens it further, making the skin tones different to help aid my opponent differentiate the units.

I've also put red about the model to again help single them out as bloodletters. Huge hulking claws, and gold and red liberally chucked around on the model should hopefully remind people they're not daemonettes but something else.

They more muscular and squat than the modern daemonettes, so  I'm happy a unit of these will stand out sufficiently without looking out of place.

I've also included a picture of my unit filler that I discussed in my previous post. Enjoy!

Editorial - Another filler post. Unit fillers, that is.

Hi guys, I've had this post ready to go for about two weeks, but with things in real life getting on top I've not had chance to go back and tweak it before I posted it. UNTIL NOW!

Editorial: Unit Fillers

So, what does everyone think about unit fillers?

For those who don't know, live under a rock, or play more childish games like 40K (ooooh snapz!), Unit Fillers are basically models which are used in lieu for the actual models which should make up the unit. They are generally based on a larger base which ranks with the rest of the unit, so if a unit is 20mm, unit fillers are often put on 40mm square bases. Game wise, they have no additional affect, but the equivelant base space they occupy represents the number of models that should be there - so the earlier example would take up four spaces, and count as four models for wound purposes. Confused? Good, I'm terrible at explaining.

There are several different kinds of unit fillers, and several reasons why people do them.

The first is a simple money saving, and time saving, reasons. For larger units, people will spare themselves the monotony of painting more identicle zombies or goblins and instead choose to put a dioroma or terrain piece in.

The second is to add a bit of character to units. A well done diorama (the squabbling animosity orcs model GW produces), or the odd characterful model (again, see the Empire Bear mascot GW produces) can add alot of personality to a unit. And I've seen alot of people using Ogres to bolster their puny ranks at the back, and why not? Many people have older, antique models from over the years which no longer have a place in their front line, so why not add them as a cheeky auxilliary to the back of your squads?


There seems to be alot of debate regarding unit fillers across several forums. Some people love them, and rightly so. If alot of effort has been put into them and they match and enhance the feel of the unit then I'm all for them. A few people dislike them, however, thinking they look out of place and are lazily alternatives to buying and painting models. Again, I kinda agree on this point too, some terrain pieces look out of place in huge units and detract from the "fluid" movement of the group of models, making them look static and stationary as they stand by a huge piece of gothic masonry.
So, coming back round to the topic I want to talk about, are unit fillers worth it? Does my slaanesh army need them?

Well, no, I don't need them. Building my second unit of daemonettes, I have more than enough to make up two full 30 strong units of core. However, I've got a unit filler in the form of a faithful daemonic hound to go alongside my banner bearers. The banners both intrude the model to their right hand sides personal space (the blue flag actually intrudes the one behind it too!), so I've added an OOP Dark Edlar warp beast to my front line.

And, secondly, I've plans for a unit of old OOP metal daemonettes. These guys are pretty pricey, so a few shrewd investments on ebay should help bulk up my unit. But alas, I may need help to fuller fill out the unit to a substsantial size. I got a bargain on eBay for 7 old daemonettes (including command).I found an old daemon prince from that era in my bits box, painted a sexy shade of scoprion green in the same scheme as my Death Guard from around the year 2000. Old school! So after a 10 year slumber in the bits box, I gave him a proper strip, and touched him up. As he's about the same size as a current day chaos spawn, I'm going to make him into a unit filler. As he takes up four spaces in the ranks, and the old crab claw daemonettes cost about £3 each before postage, that should save me around £12.


Unfortunastely, terrain pieces will not be finding their way into my unit. I find them far too static within my fast army, and would look out of place within my ranks.

So, here's a few unit fillers I found trawling the internet. They arn't mine, and look really cool, so I thought you'd like to see them. If any of these are yours, feel free to drop a comment and I'll happily drop your name and website details in either this post or a future post. You are obviously someone who deserve adulation and celebration and if you really want, I'll come round and give you a kiss.
No tongue though.

This is a terrain piece done well, as the bloodletters are on the terrain piece, making it look as if they're moving through the terrain.

I'm not sure why, but I approve of this terrain filler.

The Kislevite is being seduced by three daemonettes. It takes up four models, and uses 3 daemonettes, a net gain of one daemonette! Since they are the rare-as-donkey-shit diaz daemonettes this is a saving of about £100.

Screaming bell masonry, tenticles, and cool blues.

I think this filler is really cool! It's alot of character and the balls and chains are really well executed.

This is nice, except it's skaven, so I automatically have to hate it. If I didn't loathe the Skaven, I may like it...

I hope you enjoyed this blatent display of other people's work! I'd love to be able to make fillers like this, so keep an eye out for future updates!

Azazel, Prince of Damnation...

...or should I say, patron saint of cursing "damnation!" at a particular chunk of metal.

Cheesus Cripes, this was a labour of love, without the love. So, a labour. A long, hard damn labour.

Everyone's favourite special character daemon prince of slaanesh (by purely being the "only" one) has been unlovingly created by myself. There's a story behind this so-and-so, so please allow me to vent before I press on with my out of focus photos of my kitchen, that sometimes include war toys in the foreground.

This model seems to go for silly money on eBay. Which is weird. I like him, I've seriously got a hard on for quirky old minis that games workshop made aeons ago. This cheeky chappy generally goes for about £40, and a new plastic daemon prince goes for £20.

I picked him up from a trader for just over a tenner. Bargain. He needed stripping and was missing a tail, but so what?

So he came with two right wings. The photo was made so it looked like he had two wings either side, but one was just back to front. So I got a bit of a refund (I decided I'd rather keep the majority of a good model who just needed stripping) and search for a spare wing on ebay.

Well, a month or so passed, with no luck, so I bit the bullet and bought great eagle wings from GW themselves - they were pretty much the same ones and just needed some work to make fit on Azazel's back. Alot of damn work. Alot of greenstuffing, cutting, filing and drilling and 3 pins worth (two on both wings and one between the two wing holding them together) and they were fixed in. Phew.

The sword was a bit piddly, so I decided to give him one of the swords from the plastic daemon prince. I also put the top of a slaanesh  icon on the hilt, to extend it and also make it a weapon befitting Slaanesh's right hand.

Finally, with the legs I was happy to angle the left foot so the back leg was in contact with the base. It gives the model more support, and makes him look like he's moving more naturally than the prancy version if hes stood upright. I also put a spare loincloth from the daemon prince kit to cover up his missing tail (and Azazel's particularly pert man-bottom.

So, without further ado, here's some piccielicks.

He still needs a bit of greenstuffing on his back to make the joint betwixt the wings less noticeable, but other than that he's a done deal.

And if I never hear the name "Azazel" again it'll be too soon.

In game...I dunno what to do with him! I'll perhaps use him a generic daemon prince, with no mark of slaanesh (shocking!) and wings (obv), unnatural swiftness (I7 WS8 always strike first with rerolls? Yummy) and Immortal Fury (St5 rerolling to wounds). All this for 375 points. He then gets a tad expensive when you start adding wizard levels to him...so I'd probably just use him as a monstrous battering ram.

Other possible alternative were using him as a bloodthirster, and adapting his old rules for campaign games (which can be found here: http://www.angelfire.com/co4/thedarkgods/characters.pdf).

So let me know what you all think! I've also editted the settings so anyone can comment, so post away!

Count as - how far is too far?

Hi guys, how we all doing? Today is another slim update day, in the last week I've had no real chance to get any modelling done (although I did get a game in midweek, which was a hard fought reverse versus those pesky unkilleable warriors of chaos of Mal).

But I thought I'd share with you all an interesting topic I started on Warseer regarding "count as". Opinions were well and truly split regarding my proposed count-as unit.

Basically, with my army, the only models that get in are Slaanesh figures, or close friends with one. I like to theme my armies so they have a theme running throughout. Of course, I don't deny that alliances with daemons exist and happen regularly, but these are temporary, fickle agreements. Not something that happen every game, without fail.

But again, it states that daemons come in various forms and guises, and vary wildly in their shape and appearance, and the rules are for the most common servants of chaos.

So, as I've pretty much set out, I want a themed army that is aesthetically Slaanesh. However, with reasonable modelling, I am willing to include as many of the different units from the chaos armylist as possible. And my target for this is a full 5000point army for storm of magic - 4000 from my army book, and 1000 in monsters/pacts.

So, this blurb out of the way, I wanted to include another unit. Now, I saw these cheeky chappies on a certain auction website:

I love adding old school daemons to my armies. One of these units would really add character to a large army. But looking at them, their claws are huge and unwieldly, not like the current daemonettes. I've found a nice comparison picture to show you the differences. 

Ignore the middle daemonettes, they're the beautifully famous 6 tittied "diaz" sculpts that are a pain to find and cost literally hundreds of pounds per unit.

The older daemonettes are more masculine, squatter, and completely bald. I thought they would suit the profile of bloodletters much more than daemonette.

I was thinking of painting them a darker shade of grey, and saying they were older, embittered daemonettes whose beauty has left them. Their claws are now gargantuan, and they've lost their heightened senses, so to get any feeling from the kill they have to bludgeon them (hence strength 5).  They've also spent their entire existence fighting the elves and lizardmen, causing them to have a heightened resistance to magic (MR 1).

I think it's a cool idea, and I'd only be using them in higher pointed games. Some people disagree though, and despite their physical appearance they would still cause confusion as they ARE old school daemonettes, so will confuse my opponents.

Another person said that since I have count as bloodcrushers already in the army, they lobsternettes should be riding them rather than converted current edition daemonettes (although it is worth pointing out, the bloodletter and juggernaut bloodletters have different stats!).

I can see where they're coming from, but I've played all sorts of count as in the past and, once the paint's on and they're lined up with the army, the differences will be apparent, and they will look and play the part.

And, to be honest, I doubt I'll be going to a tournament anytime soon!

I'm interested to hear more input from you guys regarding this topic. I've not yet bought the lobsternettes, but I will be soon. If the differences are too small, I can always just field them as another daemonette unit - it is the models I want, not the bloodletter stats.

Take it easy

Storm of magic preperation - Herald of Tzeentch

Salut! Ca va? Bon? Bon! Moi, aaaaaw, je suis c'etait super! Merci merci!

So, la storm d' magique (aka the Harry Potter cash in) is upon us, and I acquired the book on wednesday. It was available for "pre order for delivery on the day of release" from my local gaming store, which meant "buy it today and take it home and promise not to read it until saturday".

So, it looks absolutely bonkers! I've definately got a few ideas how to make a nice, fluffy Slaaneshi list...the lamassu especially, and I've got some ideas for a giant conversion.

But to be honest, I'd had a few ideas floating around about what to do for some count as wizards. One of the main sore spots of mono slaaneshi lists, particularly competitively, is that their magic could use a couple of the main lores from the rule book to help it. So one way of addressing this is by including a single herald of tzeentch. With master of sorcery and spellbreaker he could help keep my augment's/hexes up, whilst dispelling particularly nast spells such as dwellers. It makes sence that some daemons of slaanesh have specialised in magic casting, especially in certain lores (like shadow).

I decided to use the new plastic tzeentch sorceror from the storm of magic as a base. Those chicken legs suited the legs of daemonettes. I decided to make im a little different from the stock plastic model, but changed certain parts to add a slaaneshi tone. A claw from the top of the plastic daemonette banner pole on the staff did this perfectly. The flagellant plastics had a great caged up face that screamed slaanesh, and I decided to add some pony tails. I added two hands from the empire wizards kit (the book and the hand making the horns with a particularly camp dagger). I'm hoping the model is so unique that he'd stand out as a high level wizard, whilst not betraying my slaaneshi theme.

So, here's Noface, Shadow Scholar of Slaanesh (suggestion for better names welcome).

Also, here's another Soulcrusher conversion. I'm particularly fond of her whopping scythe hammer thing.

Keep following guys.

Soulcrushers WHIPs

In keeping with my newly found energy to keep updating this blog, I bring you some more count as rediculousity (check me out, making up words).

So...before you go all nuts...

Soulcrushers of Slaanesh

Chaos is capricious by nature, and never falls into predictable patterns. Each of the four powers have their own daemons who are recognisable and "common", but each also have their daemonic followers who are less recognisable. These usually are followers who have been warped beyond their original form, either sporadically gifted by their dark master on a whim, or to serve a specific purpose. Some are bred, again through either wicked desire to create something new or to serve a greater purpose. Others are just rare beast who rarely venture from deep in the Chaos Wastes, or have started mortal and been granted daemonhood.

Although Tzeentch is the greatest practitioner of creating new denizens and playthings, the other gods have trifled too. Slaanesh is no exception.

Seekers of Slaanesh are a graceful beast that are often tamed by daemonettes and ridden as a steed. Seekers ave, however, a much larger cousin. They oft go by other names; pleasureseekers, serpentines or soulcrushers, to name a few. These destriers are much hardier and larger, standing twice the size of a daemonette just on it's belly. Having the head of a seeker, and the body of a serpent, a favoured beast of Slaanesh, and the features of a human, they are truly children of chaos. No one knows their origin, but thankfully they are a rare sight indeed.

Daemonettes much first master their seeker steeds before they may attempt the pilgrimage to tame a serpentine. The serpentine has a foul temper, and to seduce it to ones will is truly a feat slaanesh would value in it's follower. Once tamed, the master will affix perfectly fashioned armour on their steeds head and shoulders, and adorn themselves in armour, almost in mocking of the knightly orders of the empire. The riders will also take great weapons, forged with fine blades and hooks.

In battle, the soulcrushers ride as a unit, their massive steeds slithering at incomprehensible speeds into the lines of their enemies. Between the lashing tail of their beast, and the finely honed weapons and artful approach to dispatching an enemy, the unit can provide a hammer blow rarely seen in an army who prides themselves on finesse.

So, there, I explained it. Stop accusing me of being cheesy!

The real story behind this is that I got the steed of slaanesh that the old chaos champion came with for a herald. Making it, I thought "Yunno, a unit of these would look cool!" So I bought another. I decided, since they needed monster bases, I'd use them as Bloodcrushers. Absolutely no cheesy malice was intended!

So here are the painting in progress pictures. Please, excuse the paint jobs, they're still in process of being made look right. The riders are just seeker riders given a bit of knife-and-glue love.

Here's the two I have so far ranked together.

Ah, Kiki, my rank and file. She used to be a japanese school girl, until a Kipper of secrets came to her with an oversized tentacle and...I'll leave the rest of that story for another time. She has pigtails. Yeah, I know, pretty cute! It's an army of hair fashion faux pas. She's got a hellion blade from 40k, I chopped her shoulders off and plopped some hellion shoulder pads on. I've given her steed a club tail, because their tails are a bit wimpy and I wanted some variation (and justify their huge strength).

My "bloodreaper", but I'll probably just use her as a normal grunt too. It's a standard arm with a corsair sword on the tip. This steed has a claw tail, for added clawpla finishing moves.

I've bought another steed, who will be a banner bearer taking the Banner of Endless Lust (war). It helps negate the pain us mono lists have trying to take multiples of our magic banners (laaame).

Comments encouraged!

The deprived...Flamers of slaanesh conversion

So, here's my conversions for my flamers of tzeentch.

The basic gumfph of these guys is that they're exiled Elven mages. Dabbling too deeply in the Lores of fire, they're experimentation led to a massive disaster of some description I havn't decided yet, killing loads of the pointy ears, dogs and kittens.  The leading elder mages cursed them, to forever have their hands wreathed in burning flame, unable to feel or touch anything without it being burnt to a cinder.

Slaanesh, ever his eye watching Elven kind, found potential in their dabbling. He sent a herald to them, deep in the forests, to offer them a deal - their worship and servitude, for the ability to lift the curse and exact their revenge.

They accepted, and Slaanesh blessed them. However, the curse was only partially lifted. Their right hands were no longed sheathed in baleflame, but instead of their hands returning, Slaanesh chose to mark them as his own. He gave them sharp, bladed claws much like his favoured daemonettes. They could feel sensation again, but at another price - what they touched would be cut, their claws not deft enough to caress without leaving a bladed mark.

They took their revenge, burnt stuff down, kittens and puppies merged, then they ran off back to the woods, ever so often popping out to help add some shooting to my list. I will, honestly, write this up properly, but it's 11 at night, and I'm watching Sirens.

Here are some pictures, enjoy!

So, finecast minis. Hmmm. I've basecoated these guys and alot of the detail has vanished, the hair on my pyrocasters got quite a few bubbles I didn't notice at first. Ho hum.

I've had today off work, and got quite alot of work son my army done today. A good day. Bear with me, I'll be updating again very soon...



Furious fallen angels - WIP furies

O hai! I'm back, with some more wippy WIPs. This time, I've brought you my furies!

I decided to make some furies, just for variation for my list, and also for a bit of speed. Are they any good? Who knows, but I had the idea a while ago, and wanted to see if I could make it work. Hopefully, you'll let me know if they have!

I've seen harpy conversions for dark elf armies that convert daemonettes with wings on their backs, which I don't think really worked. Yeah, they're lithe little things, but you'll need a decent pair of wings to fly! So I had the idea of putting tyranid harpy wings on the shoulders of daemonettes. I was also going to put tyranid genestealer claws on their feet, but decided against it - too much faffing, and feet looked ok as they were.

The models came out much better than I thought they would!

So, here are the 6 furies (if you're going to do a themed list, you might as well do it right!).

I got chance tonight to test paint one of the furies as well. 

I've gone for a dark grey (50/50 chaos black and shadow grey - just like my bloodletters of old). I've kept the skin in the wings the grey my daemonettes will have as their skin, just to help visually tie them in, whilst showing they're not [i]actually[/i] slaaneshi on the table top.
I've gone for a darker look all together, avoiding using the bright pink that is warlock purple (lets face it, it IS pink).
The wings I've tried to paint on some veins, just for extra creepiness. It's quite shiny because I've badab black washed it all.

I've tried to get a view with a standard daemonette and some decent views of the wings. Let me know what you all think!