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Nice buildings and chaos thugs!

Missed the vote but I think the things are really coming along well.

They look like an excellent group of crazies Josh, it's great to see a whole group of unique sculpts together like that.

Looking good as usual. I really like the way you painted the back of the shields to dress them up a bit. They are so flat!

I hear you about feeling like a creep painting boobs and such. I was feeling similarly when wrapping up the dark elf sorceress recently.

GrimDork wrote:Nice buildings and chaos thugs!

Missed the vote but I think the things are really coming along well.

Thanks. Don't worry about missing the vote, Chaos won by a landslide, and since there's no electoral college to game, that's the direction I went.

Nick Ellingworth wrote:They look like an excellent group of crazies Josh, it's great to see a whole group of unique sculpts together like that.

Cheers, Nick. Not having any repeated sculpts has really slown me down, but as you say they look nifty all grouped together.

bbb wrote:Looking good as usual. I really like the way you painted the back of the shields to dress them up a bit. They are so flat!

I hear you about feeling like a creep painting boobs and such. I was feeling similarly when wrapping up the dark elf sorceress recently.

I started doing Citadel shields like this long ago for just that reason. It's really pretty simple-- just stripes of brown in three different colors.

They look like a right motley bunch of goons. The wild mix of colors and weapons really helps the unit seam cohesive with its incohesiveness.

They look spot on matey, funny how these old models look better than the newer stuff, I know it was way off on the proportions and very cartoony, but that was the point, that's why we love caricatures so much, it reminds us of someone, the modern are so bland and samey.

Theophony wrote:They look like a right motley bunch of goons. The wild mix of colors and weapons really helps the unit seam cohesive with its incohesiveness.

This statement is more than a little incoherent, which is to say totally appropriate for Chaos.

Camkierhi wrote:They look spot on matey, funny how these old models look better than the newer stuff, I know it was way off on the proportions and very cartoony, but that was the point, that's why we love caricatures so much, it reminds us of someone, the modern are so bland and samey.

While there is a lot to be said for blandness and sameyness when building regiments, I totally agree that the wild variation in this (very old) series really makes it work.

Awesome stuff, Josh. As well versed as I generally am with much of the Oldhammer stuff, I didn't have the money at the time to collect and explore the whole Chaos range, so Beastmen and Warriors and Champions won over the Thugs and Marauders for me back in the day - so in the stuff you're painting up right now seeing a bunch of models that I've rarely and never seen before - which as I'm sure you can appreciate - is very cool.

I really like the Chaos Thugs, I kind of wish GW had gone that way with them instead of the Not-Conans and the current ultra beefy dudes.

The Chaos Thugs managed to capture both evil and pathetic, which is what chaos worshipers should be. I think the latest Chaos cultists do that too.

And your paint job really give does them justice.

Azazelx wrote:Awesome stuff, Josh. As well versed as I generally am with much of the Oldhammer stuff, I didn't have the money at the time to collect and explore the whole Chaos range, so Beastmen and Warriors and Champions won over the Thugs and Marauders for me back in the day - so in the stuff you're painting up right now seeing a bunch of models that I've rarely and never seen before - which as I'm sure you can appreciate - is very cool.

I didn't have much money, either, which is one of the reasons I collected Chaos back in the day-- even Thugs and Beastmen cost more than, say, Empire troops, so I could field a fairly large army with relatively few models.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:I really like the Chaos Thugs, I kind of wish GW had gone that way with them instead of the Not-Conans and the current ultra beefy dudes.

The Chaos Thugs managed to capture both evil and pathetic, which is what chaos worshipers should be. I think the latest Chaos cultists do that too.

And your paint job really give does them justice.

I was (and still am) disappointed with the plastic Chaos Marauder kit. It suffers from all the limitations of multi-pose plastic kits-- static poses and mismatched joints-- exacerbated by their nakedness. Much like Catachans, their humongous deltoids never line up with their massive pecs. "Evil and pathetic" sums up Chaos troops quite nicely.

Having cranked out some low-level cannon fodder, I felt like (re)painting some elite troops for a change:



This Chaos steed is my favorite from this line, so of course I only have one. The lack of eyes and the little horn make me think it's a corrupted unicorn or something. All of these guys are mounted on Lo5R Clan War bases. The top of the base is 25mmx50mm, but the bottoms is closer to 30x60. Visually, they fit a lot better on these than on the older, smaller bases they game with.
I used an Arcane Armorial transfer for the shield. The ink is translucent, so I had to very painstakingly repaint the whole thing. It works well enough, I suppose. Also, I like how his daemon weapon turned out.




For this set, I painted all the horses black. I was inspired by a half-remembered line from Tolkien about orcs stealing black horses from Rohan. In keeping with almost every other Chaos model I've revisited, I kept this one rather drab. I'm not sure they manufacture a lot of textiles in the Chaos Wastes, so I'm keeping these guys businesslike. The rider has a weird head-- he has tentacles coming out of the bottom of his helmet, and his skull looks like some sort of grub or something. I had painted those details as beard and metal originally, but opted to acknowledge the mutation this time around.




This third Chaos steed got a little more color, but I tried not to cover up the browns under the red and yellow. I tried to give him goat-like eyes with those weird pupils, but I'm not sure it worked. His shield also has an Arcane Armorial, but without touch-ups. I may go back and do something with it, but for now I'm calling it done.

Finally, my son wanted me to share these:




These models came from the "Frostgrave Starter Set" I gave him last Christmas. You probably recognize them from the first Reaper Bones kickstarter. It still feels a little stingy to me, but they were just sitting there and would quite probably never get used. He has about ten more waiting for his attention. Finally, here are some group shots:




As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

Oh how I love the old chaos horseman with the comically long toes .

The shields are great .

I too did chaos because of point costs, that was after skaven though , so I did learn my lesson. I still have a bunch of the plastic chaos archers from battlemaster game along with the ogres and minotaurs.

I love those old metal chaos steeds, and the riders are great too.

You've really given them some charm with your choice of colours, and I love the arcane armorials.

Josh Jr. seems to be doing well too - Paint in the right places is a very good start

They look great as usual. I would love to eventually get some of those old metal chaos steeds. I have a few of the riders, but only plastic horses.

@Theo: Thanks! I think the pointy boots are supposed to be easier to slide into stirrups, but since the models don't have any, they just look fabulous. Chaos archers? What heresy is this?!

@Slinky: I told my son what you said, and he was so excited to get feedback that he insisted that we work on his half-finished Space Marines that have been cluttering my painting area for a couple of months. He lasted about twenty minutes before he got bored/distracted, which is pretty good for an eight year-old.

@bbb: I have a few of those as well. The heads are pretty nifty, but the plastic bodies are a little too plain, I think.

LINk to s site with one painted up. These are from back when chaos was more than just a punch them force.
http://blackredstudio.blogspot.com/2009/06/who-remembers-battle-masters.html

I love those old Chaos Knights. Well, I love the old one-piece mounts. I'm less enamoured of most of the 2-part riders except for the first one. I had those (the ones I don't like) and they never managed to really grow on me. You've done a great job on them however.

Your son has also done a really fine job on those Bones models. I don't recall how old he is but he's already doing a lot better than many people. Helps to have dad as a teacher as I can see he's using multiple washes on the same model as well as drybrushing. The paladin's flaming sword looks exceptionally nice - the deep metallic red gives it a palpable look of heat. Now he needs to fix the tabard on the paladin that he left silver and get someone (dad!) to show/help him to do the bases.

Let's see if you can get him to have a semi-regular guest spot here on your painting blog.

Fantastic work by you both. Apple has not fallen far from the tree, me thinks. Chaos are just magnificent sir.

Thanks, guys. 0

@Theophony: I have absolutely no memory of that Chaos archer dude. I never, ever fielded any ranged units in my Chaos armies-- it just seems out of character.
@Azazelx: The Chaos Knights stand out to me as being vastly better than what came before, which is to say nothing. In particular, I liked that at least one of them came with a lance so I could argue that my units were WYSIWYG.
@Camkierhi: My son liked hearing that so much that we spent a whole five minutes on his Ultramarines before he decided that it was time to play with Legos instead. Ah, well, a little bit at a time...

Love the Chaos Knights. The horses are really awesome, far more character and detail than the horses get these days.

@Archer: I was really disappointed with the second generation of these models. There was a little more variation in the riders, but the horses were the generic armored horses with metal heads.

Here are the last models for ChaoSeptember:



This guy is my favorite of this series, entirely because of the helmet with the Joker grin. I painted his armor in my standard Chaos armor pattern-- VGC Tinny Tin, SP gunmetal, Payne's Grey glaze-- with an additional layer of Mr. Color clear red over the top. He was too shiny like that, so I hit the whole thing with matte varnish to tone him down.




This model is identical to one from the last batch, so I hit him with some GW Asurmen Blue ink. His shield is an Arcane Armorial, with some touch up work by me to mask the low-res printing.




These two were sold together as "Evil Fighters" as part of the Collector's Series of blister packs. They are based on the same sculpt, but with enough variation in accessories that you can't really tell. The guy with the coffin shield has another Arcane Armorial, again with touch ups. I tried one with the other guy, but the only one i had with a hole for a shield boss looked derpy, so I painted over it with a Chaos star. The shield boss is supposed to be the Eye of Agamotto as designed by Steve Ditko, a design I've used repeatedly in this set.



This is a Champion of Khorne, released with the first Realm of Chaos book. Being sort of a centerpiece model, I did everything with traditional layering rather than relying on glazes as I've done with almost everthing else this month. This guy is the only model this month without a flower tuft on his base-- I can't see a Champion of the Blood God having anything to do with floral decorations.



Finally, a Slaaneshi wizard, also from the RoC:StD era. Her tab reads "Chaos Witch," but I that sort of gendered descriptor seems dated to me. In this post-LatD era, the fly face seems like it should be on a Nurgle model, but her rod/wand/thing has a Slaaneshi symbol. I guess the Prince of Pleasure has a sense of humor. This is one of maybe a half-dozen explicitly Slaaneshi models in my collection. In the 2010's, Slaanesh is supposed to be about sensation and/or the drive to excel, but back in the 80's s/he was decidedly sexual. As I've stated in the past, I don't really see a place for that on the battlefield.

Finally, a groups shot for September:



In the background, you can see a couple of nearly-finished ruins. The crumbling stone works well enough, but I want to make them look ancient. You can see the "vines" (which are actually rows of vegetable for very small train layouts), but the ivy I ordered hasn't arrived yet. Once I have that in place, these ruins should give the impression of age that I want. Also, there are a couple of Battlefield In A Box swamps that I'm in the middle of decorating.

For the time being, my October models will be 80's era beastmen. Watch this space.

I think the fly head your speaking about was meant to be more of the older slaaneshi demon beast head look, but either way it all looks good .

Looking forward to the 80s beastmen as I have a whole shoebox full of them myself.

 Theophony wrote:
I think the fly head your speaking about was meant to be more of the older slaaneshi demon beast head look, but either way it all looks good .

Looking forward to the 80s beastmen as I have a whole shoebox full of them myself.

I'm pretty sure it's a fly head. The Slaaneshi beasties had long pointed snouts and anteater tongues.

When you're ready for a break from the Samurai, you should get those beastmen out.

Love them all. I've been packing up our house for a few weeks and haven't had time to paint. Now all my paints are packed away and won't be back out for about another month. Really looking forward to getting back to it.

 JoshInJapan wrote:

 Theophony wrote:
I think the fly head your speaking about was meant to be more of the older slaaneshi demon beast head look, but either way it all looks good .

Looking forward to the 80s beastmen as I have a whole shoebox full of them myself.

I'm pretty sure it's a fly head. The Slaaneshi beasties had long pointed snouts and anteater tongues.

When you're ready for a break from the Samurai, you should get those beastmen out.

when I need a palette cleanse from samurai then it will be my werewolves army.

 Theophony wrote:

 JoshInJapan wrote:

 Theophony wrote:
I think the fly head your speaking about was meant to be more of the older slaaneshi demon beast head look, but either way it all looks good .

Looking forward to the 80s beastmen as I have a whole shoebox full of them myself.

I'm pretty sure it's a fly head. The Slaaneshi beasties had long pointed snouts and anteater tongues.

When you're ready for a break from the Samurai, you should get those beastmen out.

when I need a palette cleanse from samurai then it will be my werewolves army.

Old lead corrodes slowly (if at all), so they should be waiting for you when you retire.

Nice work to round off the month - Love the chaos champion in particular - All the champions and renegade models from that era had so much character!

That Bloodletter looking Champion is pretty cool. I missed out on so many characterful sculpts back in the day (though my brothers had a bunch of Chaos looking Ral Partha guys). Does that Champion have a Bloodletter head on his tail?

Slinky wrote:Nice work to round off the month - Love the chaos champion in particular - All the champions and renegade models from that era had so much character!

Indeed. All of them were unique, so the sculptors could go wild.

Barzam wrote:That Bloodletter looking Champion is pretty cool. I missed out on so many characterful sculpts back in the day (though my brothers had a bunch of Chaos looking Ral Partha guys). Does that Champion have a Bloodletter head on his tail?

He does, indeed, have a Bloodletter on his tail. Also, his helmet is elongated and horned like a Bloodletter, and he has claw feet like at least some of the Bloodletter sculpts from that era. He may, in fact, be an up-armored Bloodletter now that I think about it.

Love that Champion of Khorne. I like to think of him as half way to daemon so shares a lot of characteristics with the daemons. But still holds on to his old armour.

I completely missed your sons models. They look great. I may pick your brain on how to encourage a child to adopt the hobby (read force in the nicest possible way :-))

Hm. I think the best ways to engage kids are a) accept their short attention spans, and b) let them win.

a) My son gets bored after about 30 minutes of actual play (not including set up), and about ten minutes of painting modelling. Short, manageable bursts are key.
b) As much as I hate GW's "Forging The Narrative" BS, it works pretty well with my eight year-old. My bad guys push him to the wall, and then his heroes rally, just like his Super Sentai programs. He can learn a few rules along the way and hopefully learn how to lose gracefully sometime in the future.