Valkyries

These are the amazons I am doing for a friend.

I am pleased with the result, and I consider this my basic level of painting, so nothing too high flying, and no vast sums changing hands either.

I am not a huge fan of the curvy Wagnerian chicks (at least not in 28 mm), but while they are not the very best of sculpts, they are at least dynamic, 28 mm and not gigantic, and there is a decent amount of variation in them as well, though I would of course prefer them all to be different.

I did snow bases as per request and inspired by the snow outside. It's melting snow or slush and the effect came out alright. PVA mixed with water 2:1, snow powder, and that is all. Tufts of grass could be added, but... that'll cost extra.

So here we are. One step closer to all league teams being painted up to a non-adolescent standard this season and in the future.

No goats?

The common Broo, Gor or goatman is not a bad beastman as far as that sort goes, but they do bore me a bit at this point. Fair enough, one might say, but that is your own fault for painting so much Chaos.

And that is perhaps part of the issue. It really is not very chaotic to have such a narrow definition of what a beastman is. Not counting a bit of minor variation such as horns, ram-like, cow-like, but usually not deer or moose (and why the not, one might wonder), there is precious little imagination involved.

Yes, GW once did some wild and awesome beastmen of a different stribe. More chaotic, and with more animals. Birds, canines, felines, and some who seemed a bit mixed. These are now expensive and collectable, and they will not be going under my knife.

Gaspez do a charming blood bowl team of farm animals. I like them, or at least some of them. They will be part of the team with the just completed warriors, I suspect. Some of them are huge, though. Especially the horse. I own the dog, rabbit, horse and ram, and plan to use two or three of them.

Then there are these three. Two rodents who are not skaven, and a wolfman who is not a werewolf. They are obviously conversions, stripped of their weapons and bags, except the wolfman, who is as is.

I plan to use these with the largely excellent Beast Face team. I say 'largely excellent' because the team has a weak minotaur, is incomplete with only six different beastmen and no warriors, and they are all a bit big and pricey. The beastmen may even seem like some regular variety of broo/gor, though they are a bit more burly and indeterminate in terms of animal ancestry.

Nothing is decided at this point, and plans may change still. Input is always welcome. I am well aware that one rodent is badly in need of a new hand or repositioning of the one he has. The other needs minor adjustment to his hand too. It will get done, and pads will be added.

Meet the press

I am actually working on one of the teams for the league at the moment. The idea is to get them done as quickly as possible, twist the arm of the recipient till he pays up, and then return to more fun stuff.

But there is of course time for a little play time as well...

So here are two members of the press corps, ready to interview the surviving stars after the game.

I did very little to these, actually. Store bought, largely. Well, obviously there is the headswap, making the reporter a devotee of The Changer, but the camera man is untouched, not blessed as she is.

Having as many chaos teams as I have, it makes sense to create fans and other spectators with a chaos-feel. These will go on some stands that I have, and I may eventually revisit the notion of building an actual stadium. One mini at a time though at this stage.

Chaos warriors: slugman

Here is a better picture of the slug man to give a sense of how impractical he may be or not be. Not too bad, as he is on a 25 mm base.

The other guy is really just on there for scale.

Current plan is to throw these in with some beastmen who are not your garden variety mix of Gors (aka Broo or goatman). Suggestions are welcome, but no thanks when it comes to safari animals. Northern Old World, please.

Chaos warriors

Happy new year!

Not much has gotten done here over the holidays. I did spend some time on the blitzers for one of my actually active teams, but they are quite boring to look at... for now.

Meanwhile, the girly-legged minotaur cried out for companions, and I went to work on four mighty warriors of a suitably old skool variety.

These - to those who may recognize them - are not just the snipped gang you might expect. Clearly, three of them are easy (!) snips, but the fourth one is a chucker with a sculpted head/helmet that brings him a bit better in line with the others. The fourth original, with his tentacles, came off as a bit too weak and goofy-looking, so I went this way instead.

One issue that may seem fair to point out right away is the size. These are not small as such, but they are not hulking brutes either by far. They are not even that muscular or V-shaped, nor do they look very wide as one might do when holding the line og scrimmage for a chaos team. I think that kinda fits the minotaur, but hey...

Here is a wip-picture. You can't really see that one warrior is part slug in this. He is, and quite icky, but too small to be a beast of Nurgle.