Khorne Warband - Bloodletter

It's been about thirty years since I last painted a bloodletter. In fact, THIS bloodletter. He was sent back to the realm of chaos when the shelf he was on collapsed decades ago. Eventually the sad remnants were stripped and sent back to storage. Now though, he rises once more to garner skulls anew. Gorewhelp joins the warband.

I wanted to add a little variation to the red skin on this guy. After using the effect on a couple of models previously, I blended his hands and feet to purple. I used the same effect on the slaughterpriest's claw, and I think I'll use it on any mutations or wiggly bits for the rest of the models in the force. I blackened the horns to draw the eye back from the purple hand and feet to the face. After messing about with the verdigris on the sword I eventually settled on the bronzey green to set it off against the red skin. The claws got a coat of gloss as I'd used this on my Yaoguai and liked it.

With this daemon done I have another four models left to finish the starting warband. (The statue at the back is a possessed statue of Khorne, a walking shrine if you will and will act as a Bloodsecrator) Getting there!

Khorne Warband - More Chaos Thugs

Two more chaos thugs, the musician and champion, join the warband today, bringing the compliment of thugs for the warband to five. That's all I need for now, but I very much doubt I'm done painting Khorne flavoured thugs.

Are here is the champion for the group of thugs. I've had this mini for a while, and I'm glad I found a project for him. I love this model, he's super cool with that massive spear and skull helmet, and incredibly dynamic. His spear is perfect for Age of Sigmar, it's bleedin' huge. It is Ares' dream to run that spear clear through one of those stuck up stormcast, hence his nickname. I look forward to realising Ares' dream on the gaming table.

I painted Ares' cloak similarly to the undercity werewolf I did a couple of years ago. I know the skull isn't a wolf skull, but who cares. Not I sir!

Gorn here is a later release, the only Khorne thug musician I know of. He has a haunted drumstick. What, you thought only axes, swords and armour get possessed by daemons? Gorn used his big skull drum to work up his buddies into a frenzy in a manner similar to a guy hammering out a brutal guitar solo at a death metal concert. That's what daemon drumsticks do for you.

With these lads done the warband is half way there. Next up, a geriatric bloodletter.

Khorne Warband - Chaos Thugs

I've been perusing Age of Sigmar again lately, especially the skirmish variant. My early reticence gave way to curiousity about how it holds up as a skirmish ruleset, and as supplements like the General's Handbook and Skirmish were released this built up into an idea it might be something worth trying. I still have fond memories of the Realms of Chaos warbands, and the Paths to Glory rules looked good for assembling some cool warbands once again. Added to that others such as Cheetor were going to give it a go, so what the hell, I was in.

Up until last week I hadn't actually played it though.We were somewhat spoiled, playing on Cheetor's wonderful new AoS terrain (more on his blog). We tried a skirmish scenario and then a Triumph and Treachery one. Both offered plenty of action and laughs, which ticks my boxes for a game. After popping my AoS skirmish cherry I've decided it's just the kind of ruleset that I can get behind for these kinds of casual games. Added to this there's a pretty big toolbox for gaming you can draw on.

So, thus committed, I've decided to give my Gorechosen slaughterpriest some mates, and build me a warband for the blood God. I started with some chaos thugs.

Chaos Thugs. I can't tell you how much I love chaos thugs. I collect as many as I can. I rummaged through my tubs and found some semi-naked/insane nutters that might compliment the huge haemo-erotic (not my invention, good though eh?) Khorne boys from the Age of Sigmar range.

This guy above, well. You know how you only REALLY look at the detail on a miniature as you begin painting it? You notice things, especially on chaos models. I shant forget spying the assless plate mail on that Slaanesh warrior in a hurry. Anyway, this guy, he looked, well, old. An old thug. Like a snowflake in death valley. He has a corset and what looks like an adult nappy on. I imagined him at the thug reunion. All his mates are: A:Dead B:Warlords or C:Daemon princes. Awkward. Good enough to stay alive, but not good enough to get granted the extended lifespan the chaos Gods seem to dole out like candy. He also, as was spotted by a mate, looks like the guy from UP. So he got painted as an old bloke. He'll provide much hilarity in games I imagine.

This lad is more straightforward. I picked him for the axe and the gurning madness in his face. He probably pees in that armour. While looking you right in the eyes.

So, I am having fun with these. Models I've had sequestered away for decades are suddenly primed and ready for paint. Bloodletters, flesh hounds, Khornegor (proper dog-faced Khornegor, none of that goat stuff) as well as the fat bloke with the whip from the AoS range. If it pleases Mr Blood, I may expand the warband to a Paths to Glory force. Or I may see what Tzeentch offers. Such is the fun of the tiered rules for Age of Sigmar. Who knew?

Now, hold on. I know what you're thinking. 'Look at that HUGE bastard! Scale creeporama!' Well, (pushes glasses up nose) ACTUALLY the slaughterpriests are meant to be larger than other mortals. So there. The plastic reavers are only about a head taller than the old thugs, which means balls to me. Once they are propped up on a bit of cork there's nothing in it. So I wouldn't be overly worried about scale. Humans come in all sizes etc.

Slaughterpriest - Markus Scissorfist

Another Khorne follower has snuck onto my painting table. This time the Slaughterpriest given away with White Dwarf some time back. I'm quite a fan of Gorechosen and Silver Tower, so I thought this lad would kill two birds with one stone. He needed more Khorne though, so I replaced his head with a Khorne head from the chaos spawn kit. I like my chaos pretty mutated too, so I gave him a big old claw from the Forsaken kit. (I LOVE the Forsaken kit. It was panned pretty badly, but I think it's full of super bits and pieces) With a giant KHORNE symbol on his head and a hand made out of knives, all subtlety was now banished and painting could begin.

I decided to avoid brass, as I'm a contrarian. I still went full red on some armour though, I'm not a total douche. I painted him in three sections with the left leg and big old belt buckle seperate. It was the only way to get at the back of his left leg and underpants and such. What? I'd know, and that's what matters. I gotta say though, gluing painted sections together never fails to make me super nervous. One false move...

I took some painting cues from a Khorne thug I painted a while back, and they served me well enough. The pale cloth lifts the model's palette out of brown town a bit. I decided to paint his flail as if it was some manner of brazier, even though I was almost too scared to paint it it's so delicate. New technology makes super fine models a reality, but they can be fragile. I have 80s plastic orcs you could drive over and they'd be fine, but this guy's flail, yikes.

Markus here will be my champion in both Silver Tower and Gorechosen, as well as possibly heading up a delegation of nutters for Paths to Glory in Age of Sigmar. Utility, that's the ticket.

Anyhow, just for laughs, look at the size of this guy next to a Realm of Chaos thug:

He's HUAGE. That's a 40mm base. Okay, slaughterpriests are meant to be bigger than most dudes anyway, but bloody hell. I'm still going to use them in the same warband though. 'AW, HE'S SO CUTE, LOOKIT HIS ICKLE FLAIL.' Markus will say.