115 Target Aquired

Any regular reader may have noticed that I am well and truly inside the "slow to paint" group or at the very list the "intermittent painter" group. So it may come as some surprise that I have got round to putting together my Assassins from the (no longer) new Assassinorum box within a year of its release!

I have always been a massive fan of the fluff of the imperial assassins and the original models were, at least for there time quite amazing. Original Assassins!

My photos nor my paint job (!) dont really do the originals justice but they were and to a degree still are great models and the new ones had a lot to live upto but I am quite pleased with them. I dont think they all have quite the same character as the originals but I think they are helped by the rose tint of gaming in my youth!

I have started with the Vindicare and Eversor (the Eversor being my least favourite) so watch this space for more!

041 Imperial Marauders?

I am not sure whether I have slipped in these guys before but if I have these are better pictures!

Sergeant, or is that warlord? of the group with shotgun and chainsword!

Some of the veterans holding on to the old ways with shields and hand weapons, you can see here the mix of marauder, catachan, and i think even some power armour bits!

Feeling horny here, sorry couldnt resist!

These guys were from back when GW still did their bits catalogue and you could buy metal sprues of autoguns, pistols and all sorts

Never go to war without a drummer to sound the beat.

An axe and a hand grenade, do you need anything else?? :-)

Now I wouldnt say the paint scheme was great but it was a quick and easy little set up to churn through these guys as a tester of what could be done. I was quite pleased with them back in the day but  I think I would do them a little different today.

024 A Beastman by any other name?

Why he is an Abhuman obviously!

The idea behind these guys was to be a squad of Abhumans for my Imperial guard so you'll notice alongside the spears, axes and swords are lasguns, stubguns and other little additions!

Looking at these guys always makes me sad to remember that GW no longer supports its massive catalogue of Bitz and all of these lovely little pistols and gear are long gone...

The bigger Gors were intended for a command squad or as squad leaders but didnt get beyond these three. Again you can see autorifles and stubguns from the bits catalogue but the main guy there has a chainsword and plasma pistol curtesy of some chaos marines if I recall correctly.

The other idea I had for them was as part of a Radical Inquisitors Warband and I think they would fit quite well.

016 Bringing Order to Chaos - Thoughts on Chaos Styling

You will have probably noticed that my leanings are towards the Imperial when it comes to GW models, with Guard, Sisters, Inquisitors and the like (and with elements of Empire in the fantasy area) but thats not all there is.

I have a great love of all things chaotic but am turned away by much of the inelegance of the Chaos styling that we currently have. I am turned off by the random blobby horror, for me the mutations, the horrors, the daemons need to still have sex appeal!

I think a good way to explain it is to use a moving franchise as an example "alien" now in alien THE alien is a sexy beast with lots of weird additions to it, "mutations" one might say. It has the weird probe mouth, acid blood, mucus dripping everywhere but it is still beautiful in its way. Now compared that to the weird hybrid alien in Alien Resurrection (the one with winnow ryder thrown in) its ugly, crude and pathetic. Now its still "horrible" but its not cool.

I need my Daemons, mutants and possessed to have a "Wow" factor, clearly I have Slannesh whispering in my ear because I think its that they have to be pleasing to the eye. Now that not to say they are not horrifying or nauseating (I am a big fan of Nurglesk styling) but they need to not be just a random blob of mutant this on the side of a model.

So where am I going with this? Well there are an increasingly good number of Chaos models, and there has been for some time and I am having thoughts of getting a little more Chaotic with some of my painting. To that end I have a box of Daemonettes, who are sexy and horrifying, ready to go but the problem is I am struggling as to what to go with them

I am a Dan Abnett fan and you can't be that without at least a basic liking of some of the Chaos working he styles in his books. The Blood Pact for me are again the type of Chaos I am after. For me these are elite troopers who just happen to have a penchant for barbarity, they are crude in a brutal way rather than crude in an unsophisticated way and this is what I am after. For me they are as they appear in "Blood Pact" elite, motivated, driven soldiers who use everything at their disposal to win, be it lasguns and grenades or witchcraft and daemonic possession.

With my already extensive bits box of Guard items I am thinking with a few small additions it should be easy to get some Blood Pact going and fill in around them with the Chaos elements of my liking.

My goodness have I been turned to Chaos during my sojourn? Ha! Time will tell I guess.