Painting progress: first quarter 2018

Blimey, I can't believe it's been 4 months since my last post. Being the hobby butterfly that I am, I'm currently back in the fantasy/scifi vibe with my historicals taking a bit of a break...go with the flow, eh?

So here's a roundup of what I've been upto so far this year.

Unreleased HQ

Back in 2014 I reported (here and here) on some unreleased figures that I'd found in Bryan Ansell's collection, which we believe may have been unreleased prototypes for Heroquest. I've been very lucky to acquire a set of these, which I've started to paint. So far I've completed the wizard and the elf:

Citadel box set scenarios: useful Oldhammer inspiration

Back in the early 1980s Citadel Miniatures produced a number of box sets of figures, several of which came with insert sheets detailing specific scenarios and/or character stats designed for use with the associated boxed figures. This post presents, to my knowledge, all of the inserts together with a review and a discussion of their use in Oldhammer. If you do have any inserts which I have not covered I would love to hear from you.

There are quite a few inserts and it might take a little time to read them all in detail. If you are an Oldhammer devotee and are short for time I would recommend you read the Chaos Marauders insert first, which is a great example of the ethos of what it meant to play Warhammer at that time.

The Oldhammer ethos permeates many of the inserts, which I've tried to highlight in my introduction to each, and I've also picked out some of my favourite features of the various scenarios and character profiles provided. I've been deliberately vague about the details of the various scenarios, in case those reading wish to play them for themselves. The inserts can be seen in detail on a Scribd link I have provided at the end of this post.

(Note that "Toughness"  in early Warhammer was designated by letter, and not number, in case you get confused).

The  inserts are from the following sets (the contents of each box can be see on the excellent Stuff of Legends):

Bryan's cabinets of chaos 3

Time to ramp-up nostalgia to the max and take another peek into Bryan's cabinets. Some more chaosy delights for you today. I still have to pinch myself at times to remind myself that these are the actual figures I used to drool over as a spotty teenager in the likes of White Dwarf and the ROC books.

First up some Khorne, and a front row that again demonstrates how an overall red/black/brass colour scheme can actually be quite varied:

Paint your beastman

Over in the B.L.O.O.D. forum and across the bloggosphere, ascendent chaos captains are beginning to nail their colours to the mast for the forthcoming Oldhammer Weekend over at Wargames Foundry. Will it be Khorne? Will it be Slaanesh? Or will you - ahem - swing both ways? In true chaos style you may choose to rebel and align yourself to one of the other Great Powers - some putrescent Nurgle perhaps? Or if you really can't decide then Tzeentch may be the one for you... Whatever chaos god you choose to align with, a staple troop choice of many a chaos warband will be the humble beastman. There's a 30% chance you'll acquire some beastmen each time you roll on the retinue table, if that's the route you decide to take in generating your warband.

OK, let's assume you've decided to stick with convention in this Slaves To Darkness anniversary year and go for Khorne and/or Slaanesh. What will be your colour scheme? According to John Blanche (and let's face it, he's the man in the know):

"A livery mainly composed of the martial colours (red, black and brass) suits the followers of Khorne perfectly, whereas Slaanesh has pale skinned followers bedecked in pastel shades, offset by shiny black leather and studs."

If you decide against these colour schemes, then good for you - your place in the pantheon of chaos will be assured. If, however, you decide to follow tradition and John's suggestions you'll be following in the footsteps of the great and the good. Let's take a look at some of the colour schemes evident in Bryan Ansell's collection.

First up is Khorne:

Kill, kill, kill, kill...