Mining for Warpstone Chaos Demons/Deamons Part 4 Giddy up!

Part 4 of this series stays with the lesser demons and gets them some wheels, or better put, hooves.  I read about the Bloodcrusher unit in ROC but I honestly don?t remember every seeing Juggernaut models packaged with anything other than chaos warrior riders.  

The 1989 Orange Catalogue has the ROC Juggernauts of Khorne listing but doesn't show any Bloodletter riders.

The 1991 Red Catalogue has a different listing titled Chaos Juggernauts.  As you can see from the picture a different mix, one less head, one less banner pole, and three Bloodletter rider bodies.  To be honest these look very similar to the regular bodies but I do have to say the stock numbers are different.  And surprisingly enough, no listing for the upper torso's for the chaos warriors!  Not sure if anyone can confirm that they were packaged together here in the US.  Regardless I had to have some so I set about collecting Juggernauts over the years and grabbing the odd bloodletter or two as riders.  Eventually I ended up with the requisite eight to form a unit.

I went a bit over the top with the conversions on these guys.  The leader is actually a conversion with the head from a 2nd version leader.  I still have some work to do on them like adding pennants and flags but these are one of my favorite units that I've ever worked on.  

One thing I would like to ask the community about.  I have all the possible combinations of Juggernaut parts except for this head from the Orange 88 catalogue.

Again, not sure if it was ever released in the US but I'd like to get my hands on one.  If you have one or a whole model I would love to discuss a possible trade just let me know!

Mining for Warpstone Chaos Demons/Deamons Part 3 Little Guys

Deamons Part 3 is about the little guys, the rank and file lesser demons and deity aligned beasts.  As a devout flower of Khorne I liked the dichotomy of the Bloodletters.  They had a skinny, frail, distorted look to them in their initial release yet their deity was all about violence.  They are almost Geiger-esque with the elongated heads like everyone's favorite killer alien! I snatched up a few blisters and ended up with a unit of 16.

 

 
These are very early paint jobs by me in my late teens/early 20’s.

Not bad given the state of paint and inks, or lack thereof, at the time.  These figures were re-worked for their 2nd iteration into what I refer to as the “Arnoldletters”, muscle bound brutes.

The 3rd version was a departure in a couple of directions.

The “Goatletters” took on a goat head like look and they swapped out their swords for axes, they are still interesting figures but they don't hold quite the same appeal for me as the originals.

With the 4th version they reverted back to the big headed, skinny body model and they got upgraded (or downgraded depending on your opinion) to plastic models.   I’m an original type of guy and prefer the first version, they were some of the first multi-part metal models released and provided you with a ton of combinations.  My goal is to have at least an 8 man squad of each type in the future.  The 1st and 4th edition are taken care of now for the versions in between.

Mining for Warpstone Chaos Demons/Deamons Part 2 Pride and Joy

I broke this chap out on his own.  He is one of the half a dozen or so miniatures that I am proudest of over my years of collecting, converting and painting.  This is the 2nd version of the Bloodthirster model and my pride and joy.

He has the distinction of being the only miniature that I have ever entered into a Golden Demon contest.  It was back when they held them in Chicago, I managed to coordinate attending with a visit to my brother-in-law in the area.  I even left the ID sticker on the bottom of it!

I was incredibly proud of this beast,  and still am, but I was quickly humbled as I registered it and got to look at it beside the competition.  I don’t think he made it past the first cut, but I’m still glad I had the nerve to enter him.  I did some minor conversion work on him and re-positioned the arms, added a 2nd ax, and worked up the base.   

I'm most proud of the veins that I did on him.  Based up the skintone, then highlighted them light blue, then did some more skintone layering on top to blend them in.   

Here are some additional figures, 1st versions of Scyla Anfingrimm that I intended to represent his flesh hound pets.  I’d like to attach them via chains as if he is taking them for a walk but haven’t gotten around to working that out yet.  I hope you enjoy him.

Mining for Warpstone Chaos Demons/Deamons Part 1 Big Dogs

Well this troop type is certainly the most entertaining of the miniatures lines and the one for me that has the most paint.  When ROC came out I was floored and fascinated by their look and design.  I quickly fell to the sway of the chaotic powers!  In this part I will present some of the big dogs (all puns intended), the greater demons of Khorne.  First up is the guy that started it all for me, one of the original ROC Bloodthirsters.

In my most humble opinion this is the iconic image for Khorne.  The design with this helmet has been illustrated numerous times in countless publications around the ROC era.  A similar, smaller plastic version appeared in a Heroquest expansion.  With the ROC releases GWS started to get into the multi part metal kits with a variety of bodies, heads, weapons, etc… allowing you to customize figures without the pain of hacking into them or in my case getting totally frustrated by your utter lack of sculpting skills.   

I was a huge fan of the Bloodthirsters and lived by the adage of “if one is good two must be better!” and I ended up buying several of the Bloodthirsters over the years until I had every combination of parts. 

They only ever released 6 heads for the models and well that just didn’t sit well with me given Khorne’s sacred number of 8 so I did a couple of conversions.

Now there might be a few purists that cringe with my mixture of ROC era and later parts but I’m sure they will get over it!  I also have the head and ruff from Arbaal the Undefeated's fleshhound mount that I can use if I ever pick up an additional body.  My future plans are to have each of these bad boys painted up with their own unit of underling Bloodletters as well some secondary units like flesh hounds, warriors, thugs or beastmen.  Up next will be another Bloodthirster that I am particularly proud of!

Mining for Warpstone-My venture into the chaotic!

This series of Mining for Lead features my chaos forces.  I fell under the sway of chaos at an early age due to once again the Citadel Collector Range of miniatures.  These were my first real exposure to Citadel miniatures, I did have access to the pre slotta base figures via the Ral Partha distribution but to be honest they never caught my eye much.  The local hobby shop, the Tin Soldier in Dayton Ohio, began to carry the Collector series and as mentioned in the Goblin and Orc mining posts I was quickly attracted to the goblin blister with the archer and spear toting wolf rider.  As they expanded the line so did my collecting interests.  I happened to stumble upon the 1200 series of blisters, specifically the 1208 Chaos Knights.  What a great package of miniatures.  Big,  bulky, armored giants with great design and flair.  My favorite is Ulfhedhnar the Destroyer with the animal skull on his head and pelt on his back.  First off, great name!  Second great character in the sculpting of this figure. 

His blister mate is Utokh Vilespike with the halberd.  Here are my 1980's painted versions. I'm guessing i was 16 ish when I painted these.  Note the old Arcane Armorials water slide transfers.  Might be time for a strip and update!

 

After these guys I was was in a tug of war between buying up greenskins and dabbling in the taint of chaos.  Then I made the full leap and committed to the Four Powers with the release of Realm of Chaos (RoC) Slaves to Darkness (StD).

The cover drew me in.  Being a football player, that is real football as in American Football,  I was immediately drawn to violence of the Khorne the Blood God.  

This is my beloved tome, with a custom book cover for protection!

I mean how could you not just run out and buy these miniatures with spreads and imagery like this!

 


























I decided to break my army up into smaller groups to make it more manageable.  I'll start off with the demonic forces first since they are my most painted units.  Then some warriors and beastmen.  Until the next post!

Wahoo! Or maybe Ribbit!

The 2nd Diehard Miniatures Kickstarter mins arrived the other day.  

I picked up more of the frog boys to complete a warband sized group of miniatures.  

These are a real joy to paint.  Good amount of detail, not so much to drive you crazy but enough to make the figures unique.  I’ll paint these swampers up in the same NASA inspired color scheme as the first group.  

I haven’t landed on what to do with bases.  Any suggestions on “Lustria” type jungle vegetation would be greatly appreciated!

Model and Product Review-Proxie Models Bases

I haven't done a product review yet so lets give it a go.  I  had a post where I lamented about my dilemma in choosing bases for the new Space Raiders mins I recently received from a couple of different kickstarter campaigns.  As I searched I found several great options and was about to purchase a coupe packs of pre-sculpted bases when I stumbled upon these bases from Proxie Models.

They were very reasonably priced and most importantly they were hexes!  In multiple sizes to boot!  I grabbed packs of 30mm, 40mm, and 50mm, hexes and a 6 pack of chariot bases or 50mm x 100mm.  I had noticed while photographing my Goblins that that several of the bases for my chariots were in very poor shape so why not throw them in as well.  Best part was the price, $22.80 delivered!  Let's see how they compare.

  

This picture has a Citadel Round to the left of the Proxie 30mm Hex and a vintage Citadel Hex to the right along with the 40 and 50mm Proxie's in the back.  Overall I like the look.

Here we have an old GWS hex base from the era along with a 30mm Proxie Model.  As you can see there is a thickness difference.  The Proxie is about 3.5 mm and the GWS model is 4-4.5mm thick.  The larger bases are a bit thinner more like 3 mm.  I would have like a little more thickness to work with pins but I think they will work.

Here are a couple of the Space Raider Picsean Warriors based up, I did not pin them I just directly glued them on.  The fit is good and looks like I have a winner.  I'll have to check the larger models once I get them painted up.