Beastie Boys

100% oldhammer in the flesh.

I am not sure if muted is the right word, but they look a medieval wood etching brought to life.
As if Hans Holbein painted them.

The colours are just enough to attract the eye without them detracting from the overall feel of the unit.
It is very cohesive and genuinely a thing to be admired.
 
This is the kind of painting I really like. Subtle, muted tones that gives them this grounded/ low fantasy look of creatures skulking in the shadows of the forest, blending in just like more natural animals do. I second what Michael Stockin said about them.
Fantastic stuff and seeing many of these miniatures painted for the first time is a bonus - they're such cool sculpts.
 
Thank you for the kind words. I'm not a technically skilled painter and these have been a real challenge. Folks who have followed the thread will know I have had my doubts , but I'm actually pleased with how they look en masse.

The choice of muted colours was in part influenced by the early depictions of warpstone dust, which read like an analogy for radioactive fallout, and mutation, which seems to spread like an invasive disease. I wanted the beastmen to look sick. The grey skin tones are trying to suggest mutation eating away at them physically, mentally and spiritually. If they aren't violently killed then they'll likely end up a gibbering, insane spawn, and they are damned either way. I think some of the horror of Oldhammer beastmen and mutants comes from how pointlessly tragic their existence is and I feel a lot of the '80s sculpts are channeling something similar. Modern sculpts may be more technically proficient, but the buff goat boys lack the existential dread of their forebears.

I have plenty more weirdos to go. Next target is to have completed 50, enough for two decent sized units. May take a while...
 
Old Hob said:
think some of the horror of Oldhammer beastmen and mutants comes from how pointlessly tragic their existence is
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Yeah, you've got it to a tee. Lovely crafting and colouring. Me, an 'optimistic' pessimist always bought into the idea that little goat-footed baby born to shame of the woodsman & his wife was probably secretly loved, doted on, then abandoned to the mysterious, forgiving and (mutated) deep forest dwellers. Later, they just got in with a crowd of teenage wrong 'uns. :)
 
You both describe things that are much more interesting to me than the later beastmen became. Even the RoC era ones are a bit too much for me and better deployed in warbands or armies in the chaos wastes.

I want varied and poorly-armed beastmen who hang out with mutants and cavort with covert human cultists in the deep, dark woods in occasional bacchanalian orgies. Their gods would not share the names of the main chaos ones and the humans among them might well believe they're worshipping the old gods.
 
Citizen Sade said:
You both describe things that are much more interesting to me than the later beastmen became. Even the RoC era ones are a bit too much for me and better deployed in warbands or armies in the chaos wastes.

I want varied and poorly-armed beastmen who hang out with mutants and cavort with covert human cultists in the deep, dark woods in occasional bacchanalian orgies. Their gods would not share the names of the main chaos ones and the humans among them might well believe they're worshipping the old gods.
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EXACTLY THIS.

Praise be The Mother for good crops and fertility.
 
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@Fighelm The old fluff around foundlings is quite sweet really (until you remember they're now being raised by chaos worshiping murder-beasts and may come back to eat Ma and Pa). It seems less horrific than the disabled kids historically identified as changelings and left in the woods for the fairies. In Warhammer, at least the poor kid has a chance.

@Citizen Sade I agree that the high fantasy RoC beastmen feel like a different proposition, and possibly less interesting (the narrative focus being squarely on the Chaos Champions rather than their followers). I do enjoy the RoC setting, but beastmen seem at their best as a folk horror baddie.

@Michael Stockin "And now for our more terrible sacrifice."

Right then, it's a lovely afternoon so I best head off to the woods for a quick cavort.
 
Brother Meredith said:
Is my memory playing tricks on me? I was sure the the beastmen described in Lost and the Dammed goes into the background of mutant children being left in the woods and picked up by the tribes of beastmen?
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That's right. They were called 'Gaves'. There's also a couple of lines in the bestiary in WFB 3rd ed:
"Following the recent renewal of the Incursions, there has been a considerable increase in mutant and bestial births amongst the human population of the Old World. Cast into the forests, these 'foundlings' are reared by the Beastmen, swelling their ranks as a result." (p.211)
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There was a short story somewhere, about a lass who gets pregnant by a guy who's started to alter. He leaves for the forest but later comes back for the mutant child. Can't for the life of me remember if that was in one of the anthologies or in a rulebook. Ring any bells with anyone?
 
Ok, maybe I am misunderstanding earlier comments about RoC period beastmen…? That book does introduce the hierarchy of beastmen clans which makes sense to me without dispensing with the concept of woodland mutants.
 
Could be. I was talking about the models which are often pretty well equipped with weapons & armour which doesn't appear scavenged. It seems like they have their own smiths & armourers albeit ones who don't like to make the same thing twice.
 
Hierarchy + Chaos = confusion ^_^
On the practical side, hierarchy and stuff makes sense.. on the whole Chaos side though... yeah.. Chaos always has strict order
 
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