Chaos Warband Part 1

Hello! 

I have recently been painting some figures for a band of evil warriors - Chaos in WFB terms - that are now more or less ready for some tabletop action. I've built them around a 24 point Dragon Rampant list, but with WFB 2nd or 3rd edition in mind too. Once we have all had Covid vaccinations of course. 

In the meantime, I will share some photos of the boys with you, starting with the leader and his retinue of villainous knights.

Above is the leader of the warband. He is one of the classic Jes Goodwin Slaanesh champions, as shown below in the 1991 Red Catalogue. I'm calling him Lord Snakehips for now and the name feels like it's going to stick. He is a minor sorcerer with some obvious physical gifts from his patron (and I'm not sticking strictly to the Warhammer material - could be Arioch for all we know, or something else) and a veteran warband leader with years of villainous deeds behind him.

This model is the only one in the warband that I didn't paint. I got him off Ebay with the intention of stripping him and painting him but the previous owner's paintjob is fantastic so I didn't bother. I just changed his base to fit in with the rest of his gang. 

I did, however, paint his ghostly bodyguard. These two ghoulish fellows came from the excellent Kickstarter project from Ana Polanscak. It is well worth having a good deep dive into Ana's blog. Her models are fantastic and she has a pretty unique vision for her fantasy world. You can get the models from Harwood Hobbies, which is in Canada so a bit of a pain, but at least they're available.

Next up is Lord Snakehips's loyal retinue starting with 2 models from Essex miniatures and another classic Citadel figure. The Citadel model is also in the '91 Red Catalogue, shown as a Knight of the Empire. He fits in nicely with my lads and is the leader of this unit, with his magnificently coloured armour and furry hat. The shield was rattling around the bitz box and clearly marks him out as a baddie.

The two Essex models come from their fantasy range and appear to be conversions of models in their medieval range. The models a pretty small by modern standards but I'm quite fond of them. The guy with the skull head has had a head replacement. His original head was awful - it appeared to be a badly sculpted cow or bull - so I chopped it off and replaced it with one of the skulls that came with the Ana Polanscak figures. Much better!

This next pair are also from Essex. The big guy on the left is a gnoll and the guy on the right is another one of their altered medieval figures that has made the move to the fantasy range. I'm really fond of him, he has an excellent face with tongue sticking out and wild facial hair. A couple of solid members of the unit here, both eager to get stuck in!

To round of the unit we have 2 more Essex figures and another from the Ana Polanscak range. The bearded landsknecht type is one of Essex's adventurers. He is pretty small and I was unsure how well he fit in at first but I've given him a little backstory which I'm happy with. He's a mercenary soldier who joined the warband not realising their chaotic allegiance until it was too late. Now he is stuck with the company and has to pretend to be into sacrifices and heavy metal, whilst hoping no one realises that he's is just a normal norman who accidentally joined the wrong warband.

Over on the right is a zombie from Essex's undead range, with that trademark Bob Olley mug. Not everyone's cup of tea but I quite like it. His patron has gifted him with a rotten decaying body, which is also not everyone's cup of tea but he seems happy. 

In the middle is the unit's musician. No one know where he came from. He seems to have sprung into existence one night and now accompanies the warriors wherever they go tooting on his facehorn. The warband assume he is a gift from their demonic patron and consider him to be the unit mascot. The model is another from the Ana Polanscak range and is characteristic of her weird and wonderful style.

Here is the group photo then. Lord Snakehips and his most loyal companions. The warband also contains some marauding barbarians, monstrous cavalry and a terrifying two headed giant but I'll leave it there for now and save them for a later post.

Cheers!

http://www.solegends.com/

http://gardensofhecate.blogspot.com/

https://gardensofhecate.com/

http://www.harwoodhobbies.com/

https://www.essexminiatures.co.uk/