The Strange World of Axel Fendersson

Almost a year ago, I posted that I’d got a few models from Spyglass Miniatures. They weren’t for any particular game, just really nice models to paint for the fun of it. One of them I painted up fairly soon after getting them, but the other two I left untouched, distracted by other painting projects, until the end of last week, when I finally got around to starting another.

It was seeing a picture of this model, the 28mm version of ‘Shae’, the half-elven archer, that first drew me to check out Spyglass. I was struck by how nicely posed and simply but beautifully sculpted it was. Eventually, I bought this model, along with the 54mm version of the same character, and another 54mm model, ‘Anastasia’, which I painted last year. I have yet to paint the 54mm Shae, but the other Spyglass models are two of the best paint jobs I’ve done, and count among my favourite models.

So here they are. Firstly Anastasia, which was painted last October:

And here’s Shae, mostly painted on Monday, but with some stuff done on Friday and Sunday.

Spyglass Miniatures, incidentally, no longer exists under that name. The man behind Spyglass, Steve Buddle, has switched from making metal models to resin ones, which he now does under the name of Eolith Miniatures instead. Happily, several of the old Spyglass sculpts are now available in resin from there.

So recently, I’ve been thinking about Necromunda. In particular, I wondered whether I ought to dig out and paint my old Orlock gang. I do have a painted Necromunda gang in the form of my Spyrers, but they’re a bit odd, and it would be good to have a regular house gang painted as well. I also considered doing another gang, in which case House Escher would be pretty much the only option. Most of the models for Necromunda were sculpted by Gary Morley and Michael and Alan Perry (with a few contributions by Aly Morrison and Colin Dixon), but House Escher was sculpted by Jes Goodwin and, although I also love Michael Perry’s Orlocks, I think the Eschers are probably the best-looking sculpts of the range. They’ve got a cool, vaguely cyberpunky look to them. In addition, the Escher weapon lists and skill tables give them a significant bias towards close combat, which would make them quite different from the Orlocks, who lean more towards shooting.

Unfortunately, GW don’t sell the complete range of models for Necromunda any more. The basic boxed gangs are still available, and you can get extra gangers (although you can’t order individual gangers, just three selected at random) for some gangs, but the alternative heavies and leaders aren’t available at all any more. This is annoying even if I don’t start a new gang, as I could really do with an Orlock with flamer to round out my starting gang. I used to use a guy with a converted melta gun, but I put that together quite some time ago, and it’s not really up to standard any more.

So, off to eBay. I now have on order an Orlock heavy with a flamer and an Escher with Heavy Plasma Gun.

Of course, painting priority still goes to my Epic Titans. I have 3,775 points done so far, and I hope to get up to 4875 by the end of the month. Eventually, I hope to get the army up to 8,500, but it probably won’t be until some time in the new year that I get it to that stage. That said, it would be good to get some Necromunda stuff done in between the Titans, if only for a bit of variety.

Following my post on my Epic Chaos Space Marines, I went back and had a look at the photos I took of my Eldar army (which I posted here), and, as I suspected, some of them were quite shockingly awful. So this afternoon, I took the models and re-photographed them all (although I didn’t bother re-doing the whole-army shots). The pics in that post should now do some kind of justice to the models they depict.

Well, my long-delayed Reaver Titans have arrived at last. One is now assembled in the standard configuration of Rocket Launcher and two turbolasers. From the other, I took the turbolasers and put them on my Warlord Titan. Originally I was planning to equip this Reaver with a pair of Quake Cannons that I scratch-built a few weeks ago, but unfortunately, upon trying them this morning, I found that the scratch-builds are far too big. Not only are they about 30% too long, the bore is much too large, and they don’t even fit properly under the shoulder mounts. Consequently, I’ve had to re-think this Titan’s armament. I’ve given it a Rocket Launcher, Volcano Cannon and a Gatling Blaster (in the style of the Forge World Epic Reaver) instead, which still leaves the turbolasers free to put on the Warlord. I was planning on putting together a Titan with this weapons fit eventually anyway, so it’s not a big problem. Just annoying that I wasted my time (not to mention some perfectly good parts) on the Quake Cannon scratchbuilds that I can’t now use. It also means that I don’t yet have a spare Rocket Launcher for my second Warlord. I’m now scouring eBay for proper QC models instead.

I decided, incidentally, to stick with old-school, Mars-pattern Titans throughout this army. Although I love the current Lucius-pattern Warlord model, I do quite like the old beetle-back model too, and it fits in much better with all the other Titans in the army. I still plan to get a metal Warlord eventually, but it’ll be for my Chaos army, where it’ll fit in well with the (Lucius-pattern) Ravager I already have. If Forge World ever bring back their Lucius-pattern Warhounds, I may add them to the Chaos army as well.

Anyone remember this army? Well, back in July I decided to dig them out and finish them off. After just shy of eight weeks, I have indeed now finished them. Which means it’s time to post lots of pictures of them on here.

I might as well start with the Ravager Titan, which was the first thing I painted for this army. I think the Epic models I’m most proud of are this, the Obliterators (see below) and the Revenant Titans from my Eldar army.

Most of the vehicles in the army I painted back in 2007. They included this Armoured Company of six Chaos Land Raiders. In theory, I’d like to have the maximum of eight, but I haven’t missed the other two that much.

Also painted back in 2007 were these Tzeentch Daemon Knights. As there were no models available for Defilers in Epic, and I felt that converting a model that actually looked like a Defiler was beyond my ability, I converted these from Imperial Knights Paladin to use as proxies.

The only other Armoured Vehicles (not War Engines or Aircraft) in the army were Rhino APCs. I’ve included photos of them alongside the troops they accompany. Most were painted in a distinctive colour scheme depending on whom they were transporting.

I did paint some infantry back in ’07. I think the first formation I painted were these Raptors. They’re just Imperial Assault Marines, painted in the livery of my Chaos army to reflect their allegiance. The formation only consists of six stands rather than eight because that was all I had, and buying a whole box of Space Marines just to get two stands of Raptors was more than I could afford. I’ve identified the Lord by giving him a fancier colour scheme than his underlings.

Also painted in ’07 were these Obliterators. They’re converted from Imperial Colossus class robots, and are based on Audrey Ewing’s Obliterator conversions. Unfortunately, I was only able to scrape together enough Colossus robots to make two stands, but these have mostly proved to be enough. I did also try making a couple of stands out of some Castellan robots, but I’ve never been very happy with them, and they remain unpainted and have never been used.

As I mentioned at the time, I had at one stage been planning to get some of the Chaos plastics and then put together stands of CSMs that combined the Chaos models with the Imperial ones I already had for a more ‘chaotic’ feel. When these new Chaos models arrived, however, I quickly had to abandon that plan, as the difference in size was too great. Consequently, I have one Chaos Space Marine retinue made up of Imperial Space Marine models, and two made from the Chaos models. Of these, I only got around to painting the Imperial models before I ran out of steam.

One of the last models I put together in ’07 was this Chaos Warlord stand. Since the Warlord is a character, it’s technically a stand of Chaos Space Marines with a Chaos Warlord character upgrade. But anyway, here it is. The banner is the back banner from a W40K Space Marine.

The only other models I painted before I stopped were two Decimator Super-heavy tanks (more on them later) and a bike company. Here it is as it was then. Note the Chaos Lord with fancy paint-job, and the Icon Bearer with banner made from blue/yellow kneadatite (a.k.a. ‘green stuff’).

However, I had increasingly become dissatisfied in the intervening time with the models’ bases, especially after achieving good results putting my Eldar Jetbikes on 25mm round bases (i.e. W40k infantry bases). So one of the first things I did when I resumed working on the army was to take the models off their bases and put them on new ones. While I was at it, I painted the bikes’ headlights as well. They definitely look a lot better now.

Also a priority was getting some more basic Chaos Space Marines done. The Rhinos for this formation were painted in ’07, the infantry were done in July.

Here’s another retinue, led by a Lord rather than a Sorcerer Lord. These Rhinos were not painted in 2007; they were painted partly on Thursday and partly yesterday. They are part of a lot of Rhinos that I got from eBay a couple of weeks ago for 99p, as there were no other bidders. After a bath in brake fluid and a good scrub they were good as new.

The other models that particularly needed painting since they get used quite often were some Chaos Terminators. Both of these formations are eight-strong, though the maximum size allowed in the army list is six. This is so that the Champion and Icon Bearer can be swapped in or out as I choose.

When I first started putting this army together, I got a pack of Imperial Terminators along with the Chaos infantry boxes, as that would provide enough models to field the maximum number of Terminators/Chosen allowed by the army list (two formations of six), with the Chaos Lord stands clearly identifiable even when unpainted by the fact that all the models on the stand were the Chaos models. When I got some more boxes of Chaos infantry, I then added stands for champions and Icon Bearers, chopping the spikes off the top of all but the centre model to differentiate them from the Lord.

Presumably, the more important the champion, the more impressively his henchmen are armoured. Low-level sergeants lead most squads. Aspiring champions lead squads of beefier guys while the Lord’s retinue are as well-equipped as the sergeants.

In addition, the Champions are identified by the flames on their shoulder pads, while the Lords sport similar flames and a red helmet.

The published list refers to these units as ‘Chosen’. The proposed revisions on EpiComms recommend changing the name to ‘Chaos Terminators’, since they no longer correspond to what are known as ‘Chosen’ in Warhammer 40k. The Red Corsairs list even goes so far as to re-use the name ‘Chosen’ for a formation that resembles a six-strong forlorn hope, making it rather more like the current W40k unit. But regardless of what they’re called, they’re teleporting badasses in Terminator Armour.

This being a Tzeentchian army, I had to take some Thousand Sons allies. These are converted from Imperial Space Marine models by adding a little card trapezium to the helmet of each marine for a head-dress. Two of the stands have only four models on, making for two squads of nine including two Aspiring Sorcerers. One of these stands (and both Rhinos) I painted back in ’07, the other three are new.

Another handy formation upgrade are these Havocs. I’ve never much liked that term, incidentally. ‘Havoc Squads’ would be fine, but I’ve never liked to speak of ‘a Havoc’ or ‘some Havocs’. Still, here they are. As usual, the Rhinos are old, but the infantry are new. The top-knots are black, incidentally, so that they are easier to distinguish at a glance from ordinary CSMs. Otherwise, the stands need to be examined fairly carefully to work out which is which (the difference being that the Havoc stands have two heavy weapons rather than just the one).

The last set of upgrades for retinues I painted were some character stands. Firstly, a Champion, Sorcerer Lord (to swap in for the Lord) and Icon Bearer for the models based on Imperial Marines.

The Champion’s cloak is not really visible from the front, so here’s a rear view:

I’ve also done characters for the other two retinues, along with special Rhinos for them. The Rhinos with the skull on the front and the Tzeentch rune on the top (and all the infantry) are new, but the other two Rhinos were painted back in ’07. The Champions are conversions based on Imperial Space Marine Chaplains with the Crozius Arcanum replaced with the sword from a Bloodletter.

Next up is a Forlorn Hope. Since they’re a scouting formation, I decided to attempt some sort of camouflage for these guys, so the Marines are painted in a mix of green and brown, with only their shoulder pads displaying the army’s usual colours. I painted two Rhinos for this formation in ’07, but I have whisked one of them away and re-painted it (to transport a Thousand Sons Lord, which I intend to convert and paint in the future), so one of these Rhinos is new.

Finishing off the infantry, here are twelve stands of Lesser Daemons, Flamers, to be exact.

When I first started planning out this army, I noticed that the Decimator super-heavy tank was quite similar in some respects to an Imperial Stormsword, and so I decided to use some as a basis for some converted ones. While looking for Obliterator conversions, I discovered that I wasn’t the first person to think of that, and so I pinched a few ideas about how to go about the conversion. I converted a company of three SHTs at the time, but only painted two of them, and was never entirely happy with the paint job. One of the last things I painted for this army was the third Decimator, and since it came out looking significantly better, I went back and touched up the others a bit, adding a bit more highlighting and re-doing the flames up the sides. Although the improvements were fairly subtle, they made all the difference, and now I’m much happier with all three vehicles.

That’s all of the ground-based forces in the army, but I also have some Chaos Navy support. First a pair of Hell Talon Fighter-bombers. I’ve found these to be a little disappointing in-game. In theory they can be very dangerous, but they’re quite expensive, and flimsy enough that neutralising them as a threat isn’t all that hard, at least as bombers. They can just about get away with attempting intercept missions, but they aren’t good enough at it to justify their points cost on that alone. I think, overall, I’d rather have a squadron of cheaper interceptors instead. Still, they’re really cool models.

Finally, there’s this Devastation Class Cruiser. I painted it primarily for my Chaos fleet in Battlefleet Gothic, but it’s usable with this army as well.

And that’s everything. So here are some shots of the whole army (not including the spaceship, which would be in orbit overhead):

All of which comes to just over 6,000 points. Using the Black Legion army list with the NetEA suggested modifications for tournaments:

To be honest, the Daemonic pacts are distributed fairly arbitrarily, and aren’t necessarily where I’d put them in a game.

With this army done, I intend to leave them largely alone for the next few months — except possibly for a couple of small additions — to concentrate instead on my Titan Legions army. Once that is done, I’ll hopefully start on an Imperial Guard force, although I might first make some small additions to both this Chaos army and to my Eldar. At present, I’m not sure whether to base my Guard army on the Steel Legion army from the E:A rulebook, or on the Skitarii. The latter would allow the use of a wider variety of Titans, and does have some other tempting formations, but it lacks some of the other nice units from the Steel Legion list (like Stormtroopers, for example). It’d also be nice to put together one of the standard core armies from the Rulebook, rather than just the more obscure, unusual and/or unofficial ones. Fortunately, there’s enough overlap between the two army lists (at least if Guardsmen and Hypaspists can be represented by the same models) that I could probably put together an army most of which was usable with either list.

When I do revisit this army, my first priority will be to make it more compatible with the Red Corsairs list: some extra Thousand Sons including a Lord (for the Cult Marines formation), two more Forlorn Hopes (for a total of twelve units, which would also make two formations of Chosen), some more Daemon Engines such as Desecrators and Silver Towers, a Chaos Thunderhawk, etc. Additionally, I’d be keen to add some Hellblade interceptors, another retinue and some more Titans. But it’ll do for now.

EDIT, 2009-10-21: Shortly after declaring this army done, I picked up this Lord of Change model on eBay. Since every other model I had for this army was painted, it seemed a shame to leave just one model not done, so I painted it up on Monday.