The Cult Grows

ManicMan

ManicMan

Lord
Following on from the Rolling up from Realms of Chaos (done in a topic here: https://forum.oldhammer.org/threads/realm-of-confusion.37827/

While starting with a Warband to work as allies, I've been having a bit of fun and stuff has been expanding.. some was already part of the plan where some has come later and seams interesting. I would say I have a playful side so I'm not giving away some details until certain amount is done but here I'll post images and the 'fiction' for my little growing Chaos fantasy Cult. Not everything is original to me, I'll say about bits, but things are expanding from an interesting small start.

First up is ArAr, Chaos Champion.
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I hope to have better images sometime. maybe when I've got some more (also I move remove the name on the base cause I'm sure I normally put them on the back of the base not the front.. so I'll have to redo it..). I'll post her 'bio' backstory in a follow up post under this one, but first talk about the figure.

The main figure is, and I had to look, a Dark Elf Reaper Bolt Thrower loader from about 2003. I had her in a job lot I had a while back without her sword or head. Following on from the rolling up, she has a double handed axe as a weapon, so I found I had a metal axe from.. I don't know what. The very tip which you can't really see in this photo might be a bit of flash but It worked and appeared a bit weird without it so I left it.. might have also been slightly tweaked on the blade part.. I decided to leave it with the Sword Hilt making an interesting weapon. She is more brandishing it then holding it for combat. I didn't see a decent way to remove the bolt without her arm just being weird, So I added a little resin Skull I had, with a more flayed painting style to be decoration then anything else. you can just see a rat peaking out from behind her, this is a 5/6ed plastic rat from a Skaven spue I think.. Got a bunch of loose 5ed Skaven stuff, and some other in a cheap lot and good for some bits. She didn't role a familiar so it's decoration. The head is a plastic Female modern day Zombie from the 'Zombie Vixens' set done by.. oh, I forget. I added a pony tail from a Dark Eldar plastic and since she rolled up large incisors I did a passable job at adding them. The Female head had her mouth wide open, so it works since the teeth are meant to be soo big she can't close her mouth. The Colour scheme (Green, White/grey with Red Triming) is one I came up for for her God, who also gave her the name as part of her gifts. Not too much more to say on the figure I think.. He doesn't have the symbol of her god because.. while I've kinda worked it out, the only places I was happy about putting it wouldn't really show up, making it pointless.
 
A good ol' bitz box raid eh? Lovely stuff. Chortling a bit at the thought of her trying to bark orders to her motley crew through giant gnashers. "Ase eh, ing eh owh" "what boss?" "Agnamit!!!"
 
The Story of ArAr
On a rainy night in a medium sized southern Empire town, a cloaked figure rang from shelter to shelter as he headed towards one of them any Taverns in the town. In his hand was a wrapped bundle. The Assassin had been hired by the landlord of the severed spine and had given him far more information then he wanted. As a rule, he demanded only what the job was and how much the client was willing to pay, but this landlord had just wanted to talk far too much. It appeared that he had been quite busy under his wife's nose, quiet literately it seams as he had been screwing one of his barmaids in the cellar while she was in the tavern. The barmaid had not only become pregnant but had the nerve to stand up to her boss and leave, taking the unborn child with her. He wanted a son, and his wife was baron. This wasn't why he had the affair with the maid, if a one-sided affair would be called such, but when it happened, he knew it was the son he always wanted. So he had decided to hire the assassin. Someone to hunt her down, once she had given birth, kill her, and take his son back to him. He could find a way to explain the child to his wife, maybe as a foundling that he would raise as his own. He even had the name lined up. The same name as Landlords of the severed spine had had for generations, Archibald.

The Assassin did his job well and the pay was good enough, even for the long story. Who knows, maybe it would pay off later if he needed to blackmail the landlord. Blackmail wasn't his normal line of work but it could pay off pretty nicely if how much he was being paid was any judge. He delivered the child and took his leave. The landlord introduced little Archibald to his wife and arranged for it to be official. He never thought for a second to check under the child's nappy. When his wife explained it to him, it was too late. Little Archibald was clearly a girl to them, but surely he could hide it from others. When the child finally started to grow, he became less and less interested in it as he came to the conclusion that even if he treated her as a son, she would never be one. She was banished to the Cellar, working as unpaid labour. She had been raised as a boy and as still stuck wearing the clothes of one, encase anyone saw her, which few did. At times, she would look out of the cellar window at the children who would play in the nearby alleys and her hatred of her 'parents' grew more and more.

One day, while she was allowed in the bar to help with a particularly rowdy crowd of adventurers, she had an idea and it didn't much to get the group into a fight. The Dwarf threw his axe at the elf, the Wizard cast a fireball towards the advancing barbarian, who was swinging his sword through the air. Alcohol, fire and wood don't mix well and it wasn't long before the tavern was aflame. The landlord and his wife had somehow become trapped inside while the fire raged and by the time anyone came to help put out the fire, they were found dead, apparently from the smoke and fire. No-one looked close enough to notice the knife slits.

Homeless but now free, Archibald wandered the streets, trying to figure out what to do next. She had revenge she wanted but he wanted more. She hungered for battle and the feeling she had watching the fight and killing her so-called parents. Still under the guise of being male for reasons of safety and rank, she ended up joining a local regiment of the army. The smell of the battle and the feeling of combat drove her on in greater and greater conflicts as she rose up the ranks, becoming a Graf. She enjoyed the battles but it wasn't enough for her.

Finally, her regiment was sent to battle at the world's end mountains when they were ambushed. A rival had set up her to die, in order to get her out of the way. Her regiment was heavily outnumbered as they were picked off, leaving her in a pool of mud and blood. She could feel the life leaving her, but she didn't want it to end. She had fought too much for too long for it to end before she was able to find what she truly wanted. Revenge hadn't brought it to her, and fighting for her country and showed her it wasn't enough and in the end, had lead to betrayal and death.

She closed her eyes and was able to give up when she heard a squeak. Among the corpses of her former allies, a swarm of rats gathered. So, her final end would not come from blood loss, but from the teeth of these vermin. It was not the ending she wanted, but then she had never planned on any ending. As the group came closer, a form appeared behind them. Much too large for a rat, or even a human, the giant appeared. But it wasn't a giant. The outline showed horns and wings..., clearly some chaos beast was approaching, but from where? they were some days ride from the Chaos wastes and there enemy had been hired Orcs, nor any pawn of Chaos. As her mind started to drift and slow, she heard it talk to her in a stuttered high pitched voice. It promised vengeance, it promised life, it promised hope. She had heard of the promises of Chaos, how it would find anyway to twist a person to it's own unknown goals with promises rarely delivered on, but why should she care? the Taint of chaos had always been in her breast since the moment of birth, when the Assassins blade had killed her mother, from who she was only just removed, as she screamed for a mercy which was denied her as much as it was when she was first raped by the landlord. No human had treated her well, why should she owe any loyalty to them? she had only been rewarded with rank because it suited the purpose of the lords to do so, as a tool to get them what they desire with no fought for her own will. If she swore loyalty to him, service until death and beyond, she would at least be better off then she was now. As long as she did not defy the will of her god, she would be free to peruse her own goals as never before, and find what truly would give her life meaning.

And as for him? He welcomed her with open arms, for a human with such a hatred for their fellow man was a worthy servant of the underground. He blessed her with many gifts and even a new name. Archibald had died and ArAr, servant of the Vermin, would glide through the undertunnels spread out over the world, no-longer needing to hide behind the guise of a male, and bring the humans to there knees.
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In the Service of her God, ArAr has gathered followers to their cause. Among the lowest ranks, the Beastmen, is Ashok. This rhino-beast man Is known for his strength in battle, forgoing the normal sword or axe in lieu of any lump of rock that comes to hand. He hardly needs such a tool when he can crush the enemy with his bare hands, but he was told he needed a hand weapon and was too stupid to know any better. When given a shield, he just bolted it to his arm. It wouldn't make much difference as he doesn't know how to use it and his thick skin does the same job.
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Well, finally the first of the 11 beast men (that's gonna be a bugger for a movement tray.. 11 isn't a great number) is this figure which I'm pretty sure is from oldschool miniatures.. I think it's in there wasteman range, or was, more then more fantasy due his armour being a bit more.. like padded armour but that doesn't really matter, and even less so with Chaos ^_^. I must say while WFB has a thing for Goat/Ram beastmen as pretty much what they all look like, I like a weird range for mine.. and I've almost got 11 figures for this unit and yep, a wide mix). Anyway, I do so enjoy some miniature makers 'mystery boxes'.. Not 100% sure on which figures to get? get a random set from a range which gives a nice look at the range and type of figures they have. They don't do them now, but Knightmare miniatures in spain do mystery boxes (some of there stuff appears in this beastman unit).. Might be wrong though.. The shield is a generic round circle from Knightmare though.. pretty sure.. maybe.. Which I've been toying like mad for a 'symbol' for the Dæmon Prince but.. nothing has been good.. even been going though Ars Goetia but they are pretty.. complex.. So I just painted a old fantasy Moorcock Chaos symbol. Its a big clearer to see in real life..

Anyway, Following the warbands colours, I also had a little bit of fun with the scheme here which I doubt many (or anyone) will understand..
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Well, Since no-one will understand, I'll explain. In 1994, the third 'main' Megadrive Sonic the Hedgehog game came out. Sonic the Hedgehog 3. In the first level 'Angel Island', is the Rhinobot. It is silver/grey with a black tire mono-wheel, silver horns and a red/Orange face which is trimed with some of the silver, It also has a red/orange strip through the middle. So this is a grey rhino, with darker grey legs (for the black wheels), the belt is the strip, the horn is a more realistic boney colour, and I've given him a half patch of warpaint for the face. It's a reference which you would probebly need to be told and shown to get, but that's fine with me ^_^ helped with giving a nice idea for the look.

I did wonder about just going more chaos-like colours instead of more rhino like colours but decided this was better. It wasn't until after I glued the shield onto his arm like a buckler, that I thought "mm.. maybe should have made up a little belt/strap first".. So.. thick skin rhino, so he bolted it on ^_^
 
I also thought this was Rocksteady after realizing his career was going nowhere and finding himself new employer.

ManicMan said:
I must say while WFB has a thing for Goat/Ram beastmen as pretty much what they all look like, I like a weird range for mine..
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Absolutely! Variety only adds to the chaotic aspect and wacky stuff like carrion man and ostrich man were just awesome.
 
Little is known of the Beastman known as Prateek, or he is one who speaks little. He is known to be from the tropical lands of Lustria but what he was before he was twisted into his chaos form, either man or beast, is not known nor does he answer much about it, not that many care to ask. There are some rumours that he once worked with some evil horde, but in whose service is equality unknown as almost everything else about him.
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Haven't varnished him yet but Prateek is another Knightmare figure (If in deed the first was knightmare.. not sure). I like some of these Chaos stuff as they can be quite a good mixture of things, though I do wonder how much of there models aren't for sale now, because If you go by things like the Beastmen numbers (as most of the 'standard Beastmen are called 'Beastman #XX', they start at 20.. mm.. some of them might have gotten names since but I don't think it adds up.. might do.
Anyway, this one was "Coa'tla Demonflesh" and appears to be a frog man. As it was one I got in a random batch, I'm not quite sure if the shield in the pre-painted display version is what comes with him but I didn't want to put it with him, and Didn't have many shields for this chaos group (I got some on the way) I decided to do an old fashion drawing pin shield so I got a nice surface to paint. Might need to tweak some of it though.. and it does sit a little far away from the hand but.. that's fine I think..

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Not the best shot of the shield but I decided when I was painting him that I couldn't go with a Green, as that is a Core colour for the armour.. while I guess I could still use a different shade, I just don't like too much of the same colour like that (which is one reason I paused painting up my Time Bandits set.. cause most of there outfits are shades of brown.. need to get back to them someday but I got SOO many things I need to get back to anyway). After a little bit of work I decided on pinky-purple.. and then later decided on yellow for scale/spots he seams to have.. and It just seam to shout Lustria to me.. So I based the shield design on a Slann one from the 3ED armies book.
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one problem when you do photos too big or in focus, any small problems can be much easier to see.. even if I tried to deal with them ¬_¬ also.. while it's not quite right.. that armour bat.. Just reminded me of the Evil Horde from the Masters of the Universe (I'm a fan of the toys and the original story but not so much the Filmation cartoon changes and alot of later stuff.. though the 90s New Adventures Cartoon was pretty good though with more of a Sci-if bent then the original Post apocalyptic Fantasy (yes, the original toy range was set after a large war had pretty much destroyed civilisation and things had gone back to the days of Barbarians, where some people like Man-at-arms, were able to recover and work some of the old tech of the past. This is before they decided that He-man wasn't He-man, leader of one of the Barbarian tribes, but Prince Adam.. sigh.. I'll try not to get distracted ^_^)
 
Caradoc has served many Gods in his time and his fickle nature will probably be his end some day as Chaos Gods are not known to be open to their servants defecting at a whim. However, He has never been known to be anything but Loyal during battle, often being one of the first to pile into any battle which offers a subject who he can turn into a pulpy mess.
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This is another Knightmare (alot of my chaos beastmen are Knightmare.. nice prices, nice range. This one is 'Zangor Bloodhorns' with one of there Chaos Shields attached to his arm which seams in the right pose for a shield, though this one is a tiny bit weak connection cause the shield is a bit big for the area.. not too bad though.. probebly should add a drop of glue to his shoulder pad to attach it there too..

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While I'm not big on having ALOT of Goat/ram beastmen, the odd ones isn't a problem. Wonder if Citadel got stuck after doing all them Broo figures for Runequest or whatever it was.. I think Runequest.. Anyway.. This is quite a basic and standard figure.. Goat legs, the Arms are more human (no fur texture) but decided to go with the same as the fur.. maybe he just trims his arm hair. I went for a Yellow for the Shield face cause I wanted it to really stand out with the Green and yellow worked fine.
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ugh.. a bit of chipping on the back.. anyway, the outfit was fairly basic but has some nice details without being crazy, so.. yeah, standard Beast man with cult colours. I was also trying out a couple of things with the Horns.. never been happen when I tried to do gradients, even if it's only basic, So I was trying out a couple of bits with this. Painted it just red, then did a darker red wash from the bottom up a bit but not going all to the way to the top, and then doing a black wash on the base and going even less as high as the red wash did. I know I'm probably telling people what they know but it looks a bit better then the photos and isn't too bad a gradient.. kinda reminds me of some gummy sweets.. like them shaped ones.. they don't do licensed versions now but semi-transparent gummy shapes with 2 colours mostly.. not as flavourful as they used to be but oh well, still a bit of a nice treat. side tracking again..
 
If little is known about some of the Beastmen, even less is known about Ervin. They don't even know his name, Ervin is just want someone decided to call him and as he responses, it seamed to stick. He is often found in the company of Prateek, who like him, little is known. Both appear aquatic in some way but as Ervin doesn't speak a word, nothing can be confirmed. All that is known is that anyone who has tried to touch the scrolls he carries on his chain, have come to regret it
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This is in fact, a Brigade familiar that goes with a water based Shaman. I just felt he made a suitability weird beastman but this came with it's own problems. I had to bend the back legs a bit to get him to fit on a 20mm base but he is still a tight fit. Since he didn't appear to have any armour that he should have, maybe his skin is pretty thick?

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being that he is on all fours, It also proved a bit interesting how I was going to deal with the shield and weapon.. Well, the shield is kinda just attached to the arm, which is fine and I have no real problem with that.. for the weapon... I decided that what is probably very long bottle on his chain is probebly a blackjack (an old form of Baton for those that for some reason don't know the term), which he just wasn't using right now. Seams to work. Being a thrall to Chaos, you are gonna lose your mind in the end and I figure this guy is pretty close to being there.. So he needs all his stuff chained to him.. and that fact he doesn't appear to have a mouth is fine..
 
The background is great. What a character. I think you've done a nice job on him. I line the contrasting red on the scrolls and the shield in particular looks very good.
 
When he was younger, Mason was a explorer sailing the seas but one dark and stormy night, he was caught off guard and ended up in the Sea of Chaos. There he and his crew were attacked by a Giant Chaos Squid and during the fierce battle, his ship was sunk and all aboard believed drowned. But this wasn't quite right as Mason awoke in the Chaos Wastes, but he had been changed by the land. Mason had mutated into a new half goat, half squid form and his mind twisted by the lure of chaos. Taking up the name of Nemo, he travelled the wastes until he ended up joining ArAr's band of Chaos beastmen.
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I get the feeling so far, only one of my Beastmen isn't by Knightmare... that's no problem ^_^ anyway, This was the first (and so far only) one I didn't use a random name Generator to come up with ideas for names.. the others I keep generating until one which I liked the sound of and appeared to fit the character.. but.. Squidman.. Of course I'm calling him Nemo.. If you haven't noticed, his original name of 'Mason' and the dark and stormy battle with the giant Squid is a reference to an old film.. boy, I don't think I've seen that film in years..

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Anyway, pretty basic job. The figure has Goat legs, with the top clearly squid man. Standard Green for the armour to fit in with the band, as with the offwhite cloth. He has a squid shield cause.. why not? It's hard to tell but he is in fact, Red with a purple wash. I wondered how that would come off and not bad.. doesn't give a major purple tint but does give a different shading then if I used a red shade. also some highlighting and under side of his tentacles with a more orange. Quite a basic job really, and another one which is far from the goat/ram men that Beastmen appeared to get stuck as.


That marks.. not quite the half way mark on the Beastmen.. but.. kinda.. 5 done, one started, 5 to go (out of 11) so.. I guess I'm half way on them ^_^
 
Guillem was a former Champion who's unit was defended in battle against a band of High Elves. While having her Minions scavenge the former battle field, ArAr came across the Beast in a weak state. Despite his wounds, he was still able to stand and attempted to attack, believing the battle still going. While he was no Match for her, ArAr saw some potential and he was willing to take up a new god in exchange for survival. However, the sting of such a defeat and demotion to the ranks is a consent trouble to him and he hopes to raise again to be the Champion he believes he is.
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Guillem yet another Knightmare miniatures Chaos figure, this one being 'Brattus' with a Knightmare Chaos Shield attached to his arm. I think the figure might have been designed as a Chaos Beastman Champion with the large sword and wings so I decided that would be part of his story ^_^

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The name is Spanish, I believe (Catalan) for William, which like normal was a random name generator. Being a spanish name, fits a Knightmare Model, since they are a Spanish company. But.. erm.. I don't believe Cintruénigo is in Catalonia and.. it's a place that slightly confuses me as to if it's technically Spain or not.. anyway.. photo came out a bit dark but the main thing i'm happy with on this is probebly the shield.. Most of the figure himself is.. well, it's a nice figure, but a bit plain and I felt happier doing a even colour for him like that. That's now 6 of the 11 Chaos Beastmen Unit done. so.. clearly 50% now
 
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