Instead of a usual army showcase I will attempt a project blog this time.

After many many years of hiatus (I played back in third edition) I had decided to pick up Warhammer Fantasy again. And since I have always been a fan of the works of Frank Frazetta, Simmon Bisley and Richard Corben I decided to go for a Warriors of Chaos army.

To start the army I got two battalions, two boxes of Marauder Horsemen, one box of Knights (for the mounted characters) and a Giant. I also added some old 3rd Ed. WHFB Chaos Warriors as Characters on foot (that I still had lying around). The idea was to have a big block of warriors with a sorcerer and two units of marauders in a “V” formation as my center. Two units of knights supported by Marauders on horse were to serve as the mobile element with Chaos Hounds to harass the flanks and limit marching moves. The Giant could support either the center or the mobile elements, depending on situation. The mobile elements were to be either set up in a pincer formation or form a refused flank.

I tried to keep the color scheme for the army very simple. The chaos army offered a variety of units and models, but to have a unified look I needed to limit the palette. The main theme of the army was to keep most of the metallic parts in Boltgun Metal and offset that with Gnarloc Green shields, cloaks and banners. The whole theme was inspired by the armies of the black moon in the “chronicles of the black moon” comic. After having painted a few units I realized I should have probably chosen Goblin green instead of the Gnarloc Green, but too late now.

Personally I don’t play with unpainted models (if they are my own). People sometimes ask me “how I find the time” or how I manage to “output so many painted minis”. The trick is to find ways to motivate yourself and to keep the painting going. So over the years I have developed a few tricks to do that, I have listed them at the end of the article.

So I started with building the core choices first. After a bit of research the best option seemed to have the Warriors with shields and halberds. The marauders would have shields and hand weapons.

The Warriors’ halberds came from the official bits pack. Two packs gave me almost enough for the whole unit. With the banner bearer and musician not having a halberd I was still two short. These remaining ones were converted from the axes that come with the warriors as standard. The Champion had his pointing axe arm converted to hold a halberd instead and the arm slightly repositioned. The warrior models are fairly static, so that was the only conversion.

For the Marauders I decided to distinguish the two units by making one “Viking” looking and the other more “chaotic” looking. This was largely done by choosing different styles of heads/helmets on the rank and file and converting the Unit Champion.  The first unit champion was turned into a Viking warrior by adding a mane of hair, adding to the beard and giving him a big fur cloak. His unit got the Viking looking helmets with curved horns and the bare, bearded heads from the marauder sprue.

The second unit champion was converted to have a pig/boar hood. He is based on an illustration of a warrior in an old RPG I played a long time ago. I always wanted to convert a guy like him and this gave me the perfect opportunity. Most of the guys from his unit received heads and helmets from the marauders horsemen sprue. These look very “Chaotic”. I also added 4 guys with mutations from the old mutation sprue, again to emphasize the chaos look. On both units I used left over horns from the warriors to equip the unit musician, since I didn’t like the drums.

Cheers, Lamenter.

Next up: Horses, horses and more horses. And some characters on Horses, too.

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Lamenters motivational tricks for painting armies:

1. I only ever assemble what I can paint. Having a large mass of unpainted miniatures sitting on my desk seems to somehow make it such a big deal. Keeping them inside the boxes and on the sprue keeps them out of my sight and I “forget” that there is still a lot to do.
2. I start with units of rank-and-file  or cavalry (which nobody seems to like to paint) and intersperse them with the heroes or other unique models as a reward. In addition I try to put small conversions into the rank and file, that no-one will ever notice on a table but they help me to break up the monotony. For 40k armies I do the troop transports (since I don’t like painting tanks) first, then the troops that go in them afterward.
3. Large groups or units get broken up into groups of 5 men, which is a group I can do in one evening. I then try to do the Unit Champion/Leader model last.
4. In addition I find painting rank-and-file models very “meditative”. The constant repetition of colors and techniques makes it very easy. So painting is a way of “winding down” and relaxing for me. (maybe it is also a sign of my increasing madness).
5. And lastly - I think it is important to find a level of painting that is suitable for table top war gaming. That means the models I paint are not perfectly painted. They look good and are shaded and highlighted (and are probably on a high standard for the gaming table). But I wouldn’t enter them in a painting competition. If you try to achieve perfection while painting 100+ models you will never succeed.

Filed under: Galleries - Project Blogs, Lamenters Chaos Warriors by Lamenter