Katsina Miniatures Crystal Spider Swarms

Working on my TOW Lizardmen army recently I went all in for some Spider Swarms using our very own spider models. They were sculpted by Doti and they are available here if you are interested in purchasing a swarm.

I wanted to have lots of bases of swarm but have a colour scheme to allow me to split them into units and so painted the legs in 4 different colours.

These spiders are Crystal Spiders and bear the crystal control implants to allow their Bizaza masters to direct them in battle and generally stop them from eating each other.

They were quick to paint up and should provide me with some interesting skirmish troops for Warhammer TOW as well as being useful for any future swarm or insects needs.

Cockatrice / Basilisk

Known as cockatrice or basilisk depending on the origins, this one was sculpted by Aly Morrison for Citadel.

The model I had was damaged, chopped in places and missing a foot so I did a bit of conversion work to fix the deficiencies.

Being made of soft old lead the design is very ambitious that it will stay together so I have mounted it on a wire frame disguised in the perch.

I painted it generically snake-reptilian-chicken so it’s clear what the model is supposed to represent on the tabletop. I chose very bright cheerfully lurid colours to better see it on the tabletop where it will be part of my growing Beasts of Chaos army.

Human Slaves

The Warhammer Armies entry for Human Slaves

As the inset text says, these are lobotomised eunochs used as auxiliary troops for the Slann. I stuck to earthy tones for these guys with a contrasting bright blue for the woad style markings. I either used wooden style shield sculpts or painted on wood grain effect on the old citadel shields.

Labotomised Human Slaves Led by a Slave
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The Human Slaves were assembled from a combination of Perry Mahdist Ansar plastics, old citadel thug and a couple of Katsina miniatures. The Slaver boss is called Grandpa and is one of Doti’s sculpts. The grisly totem is from an old Kroot Carnivore squad.

Forward you pink brutes!

In games these can be used an inexpensive reserve unit or simply to catch cannon balls.

Dog Helmeted Chaos Warrior

This one is a metal chaos warrior which has had hand/weapon swap as the original sword bearing hand was no aligned to the far too small blade. The fact that it looks so off makes me suspect it was broken and repaired during the mould making process by an inexpert hand.

Dog Helmeted Chaos Warrior

I chopped off the offending hand at the wrist and replaced it with one cut from the 5th Edition plastic multi part chaos warriors. They are quite close in form to the old metal chaos warriors even if the poses are a bit rigid, they are actually good pieces for converting the old metal chaos warriors.

Dog Helmeted Chaos Warrior – Rear

I painted this one quicker than any other yet, refining the approach to streamline it so that I get the look I want with the minimum of work.

I am finding that using a very pale blue as the base colour for the thinned contrast paint wash seems to get most of the look I want the quickest. I think I am confident now that I can paint a small batch of them to completion without loosing focus due to burnout.

The Tzeentch Warband

The team is growing slowly and satisfactorily. They should make for a striking force on the tabletop once I increase the numbers of warriors.

Plastic Chaos Warrior of Tzeentch

Next up is this plastic Chaos Warrior.

He is a chunky plastic sculpt from Citadel, made during the middle-ish period of Warhammer.

Chaos Warrior

He was quite fun to paint. I used a combination of contrast paint and traditional highlighting to paint him fairly quickly.

These guys came monopose, in plastic boxed sets. I have added a more modern plastic shield from a later edition of plastic chaos warrior.

He makes for the 3rd member of the warband. Looking forward to adding some more knights to this lot.

Chaos Knight of Tzeentch

Mounted Chaos Warrior

This classic Citadel chaos knight is mounted on an original plastic Citadel white horse with some extra green stuff modification. They are pretty basic designs but make for a good base for some additional embellishment.

Chaos Knight – Right

Chaos Knight – Left

I have kept the colours to match with an earlier Chaos Warrior with plans to build a small warband out of them as I go.

My mighty horde of chaos

Sea Reiver Raid, Rivers Run Red

Recently I have made some new additions to my growing 3rd Edition Warhammer Slann army project.

I managed to paint up many copies of my own Bizaza blowpipe trooper sculpt and added in a couple of the vintage Perry Twins sculpted Citadel Slann models to break the monopose up a bit.

The colour scheme is straight outta Warhammer Armies ;P

I got the enthusiasm to finally finish off 5 Bob Naismith sculpted cold one riders. The riders themselves are Trish Carden sculpts, although I think the leader, who is a 40k Slann, might be a Perry.

Bull Slann Riders

I have heavily modified the basic cold one by adding on a fur saddle, an idea coming from Steve Beales blog. This helps me to fit the rather oddly posed riders on convincingly. That era of Slann were designed with wide open leg stances to be used as either riders or foot infantry. I also added a banner pole onto the back using brass tubing and brass wire to detail. Finished by sculpting a feather onto the top. The banner bearer is done similarly. Shields have had feathers sculpted on also. I made the long spears using brass rod, with some green stuff to simulate bamboo. The spear head is from an old Slann spear top.

Here we see our lady elf from the recent #makeatrish painting competition recently on one of the popular Oldhammer friendly Facebook groups.

Dark Elves are expert sea raiders, marching up the beach in a tight protective armoured formation, supported by fast firing repeater crossbowmen who use the main block for cover

Fast moving armoured missile cavalry

Dark Elf beach head

Cold ones surge forth in a frenzy

Bull Slann Rider Champion

Bull Slann Riders with Standard

Citadel Perry Slann

Jungle Warfare

The Venom Tribe

El Jefe waits for his moment….

….and strikes

Hail to the King Baby!

The Great Narwhal

I have another one of Doti’s sculpts to show you today from her forthcoming project, Terrors from the Deep.

The Great Narwhal is also known as the Narwhale and at times called the unicorn of the sea. It is one of the largest of the whale species, being at least 5 to 10 times as large as other whales. It is a largely benign species but will aggressively defend itself if anything is foolish enough to attack it when it surfaces to breathe.

The spiral horn, which grows magically from a tooth, measures several meters in length and is said to possess many wondrous transformative properties by alchemists. It is said to be worth more than 100 times it’s weight in gold which has tempted many a foolish whaler, and many a foolish whaler has been sent to the bottom of the drink, ships hull pierced with the mighty horn. The ancient high sea kings of the north were said to sit on thrones carved from the horn of Great Narwhals.

Frogcats

A Frogcat

Dark Elf Warband

It’s high time I took some pics of the Dark Elf Army Progress.  The force has been bolstered with the addition of some repeating crossbows and a Dark Elf Hydra.

Dark Elf Warband

The Hydra is a Grenadier model (and still available) but as my one had lost it’s tail I sculpted a stubby twin tail to replace it.

It will be fun to add some Witch Elves and more cavalry to this lot along with a sorceress to accompany the Witch Elves.