The Magnificent Sven

[Thantsants]

Hi all - finally got these fellows finished - Unfortunately work has rather dominated things recently and sapped all energy and motivation - 11 hour days haven't exactly been conducive for spending a few happy hours of quiet concentration in the evening, but I'm done now  

... apart from some jungly bits to add to the bases at some point in the future...

As you may have noticed I've added a few Aztec bits and bobs to this glorious remnant of the flower of the Imperial Slann Armies of Mazdamundi. Many thanks go to Lead Asbestos and Mason for supplying various feathers and other accoutrements. Extra special thanks must also go to Lead Asbestos for flogging me loads of Aztec minis who will eventually become a subjugated tribe in thrall to the Gurgyll Greenwake's private army.



I went with the classic green skin for these Imperial Bull Slann - no multi-coloured Venom tribe peasants here! A small(ish) selection of blues, reds, yellows and whites were used to pick out the large amounts of detail and decoration on these minis - almost as fiddly as the Perry Samurai I painted a couple of years ago!


 
On to the characters that make up this little unit, which I think deserves a little Regiments of Renown style narrative.

Huit-Thabotyl sat up and blinked his large jet-black eyes, which felt as though they were bulging slightly more than usual. With a world weary croak, the Bull Slann heaved himself to his feet and stumbled over to the great mound of scale and muscle that was his slumbering riding beast. Ignoring the shooting pains that stabbed at his temples and the backs of his eyes, the Slann fumbled for one of the flasks that hung about his saddle. The stopper resisted momentarily, but soon enough the soothing warmth of Takilya, a particularly potent brew made from the sap of the finest Spine trees, was coursing down Huit-Thabotyl's voluminous throat.

As the pain receded and his mind was freed from the fog of sobriety, Huit-Thabotyl reflected on the events of the past week. Loud and long had been the fanfares that accompanied the equally long and colourful column of soldiery that had left the Imperial capital of Cotec, with Mazdamuni, himself's blessings. Such had been the multitude of hues and colours, and so great had been the gaiety of the crowds that thronged the Imperial highway, that Ziiii-Thuap, the irredescent Mosquito God would have looked on with envious eyes.

Off they had marched, Spawn Band and Totem Warrior alike, to see off the pathetic incursions of the Dryskins. All had gone well until they had reached the first village that had been plundered by the invaders. The temple shrines had been desecrated and this along with the lack of any survivors shook many of the Spawn Bands to the core. Discipline became a concern within the ranks. Then the invaders struck - not with sword but with a terrible wasting sickness that spread like wild fire through the Slann encampment.

The few survivors of the plague were hastily formed into scouting parties and sent to track down the Humans who had wrought such destruction on the Emperor's finest - many did not return. Those who did spoke of wild apes who were capable of great violence and although a number of skirmishes were won, the Slann ranks were becoming even more dangerously depleted.

The final straw came when the sickness reached the high command. With General Gotta-lotta Bottyl incapacitated the command structure of the Imperial army crumbled. The remnants of the spawn bands melted away into the jungles while the various castes of totem warriors threw their lives away in desperate attacks on the enemy, as honour dictated.

Others, however, went renegade. Huit-Thabotyl had never been one to shirk his duty or walk away from a fight. Nor was he one to squander his life for the abstract notion of honour. Thus it came to be that he and his unit of Cold One Riders did not return to camp as normal after their patrol had been completed. Thus it came to be that Huit-Thabotyl's services were enlisted by the renegade captain, Gurgyll Greenwake. Thus it came to be that a cohort of Imperial cavalry became man-hunters...
 
Huit-Thabotyl - Leader of 'Botyl's Throttlers (A very rough Norse translation of the Slann - Riders of the Great Beasts, Closers and Openers of throats and keepers of the Golden Hibiscus)



I picked a rather fetching Death's Head motif for his shield design from some of the copious painting guides for historical Aztec forces - you'll see it repeated on the standard and standard bearer's shield too -



Nuathen-Petyl - a strange character from Northern Lustria, chosen to be Standard Bearer for his fortitude and bloody-mindedness. Although the rest of the unit don't often understand his "quaint" Northern dialect, he is well respected for his martial abilities.









Pican-Mixtli - a trooper with a sweet tooth...





Popoca-Fez - terrible singer, dancer and gambler. Quite good at lancing humans though...


 


And finally - Getmicoatl - the unit's "joker"... and sole possessor of a coat - obviously a South Lustrian and not used to subtropical temperatures.




 
http://s591.beta.photobucket.com/user/thantsants/media/Slann/100_1009.jpg.html

So what's next?

Well I'm really keen to tackle some of the many lizardmen I've acquired for this project - particularly Karnac's Lizardmen Raiders. However, I'm still missing the champion -  



Also I have now received the minis my fellow LAF'er,TheBinman, has sent me by way of a small painting commission (doesn't that sound grand!). These chaps, including a couple of Elves, a Gnome and a Snotling,  will be my priority for the next week or two - more on which later, including the rather nice couple of minis I've received in payment...

[aggro84]

Lovely stuff Thantsants.
Those old Slann were pretty cool! 

[phreedh]

Nice little croakers! The leopard hides turned out really good!

Good luck finding that Karnac's champion though! The champions are usually bastards to find as they were released much later (they're all slotta models) and not as widely circulated. Which is a pity cause I have several RoR missing one or two command models. =(

[Thantsants]

Cheers fellas!

Phreedh - Yeah I've been searching a while for Huris now which is a pain because I keep seeing lots of other nice old citadel goodness on ebay.

[LeadAsbestos]

The slann look great! Nice work.

[DeafNala]

VERY WELL DONE! The old Frog Boys definitely have more charm than the new Lizard Lads; AND they certainly painted up to their potential...I love their eyes & the jaguar (former Teddy Bear) saddle clothes.

[Mason]

Lovely work, Thatman!
The Slann and their reptilian ponies look great!
 

The names, on the other hand are just naught.
'Getmicoatl' nearly killed me!
 

Well done, sir.
It has been a while, but well worth the wait...

[Spooktalker]

Love the new additions and the evocative photo shoot setting. One of the finest Warhammer forces shown on the web.

[Thantsants]

Thanks again - glad they pass muster LeadAsbestos. Just need to make time for all those Aztecs.

Totally agree with that Deafnala - mind you I've got some characterful old Lizards waiting in the wing too...

Cheers Mason - sorry its been a while and glad you liked the names. I figured Getmicoatl would be appropriate in view of some of the terrible puns I've inflicted on the world in the past 

Wow - thanks Spooktalker - praise indeed! I hope to get them in action some time next year...

Mind you I said that about Orc's Drift too!

[Jonas]

This thread just keeps getting better! I totally love the new additions.

This army is going to be an amazing sight to behold when finished (Well it already is, but you know what I mean )

[Thantsants]

Belated thanks Jonas!

Here's the next little job for this project -

 ... a temple of epic proportions!



Well its a start anyway!

So Christmas proved fruitful in Wargaming terms as my family kindly clubbed together to get me 8 molds from the fantastic Hirst Arts.



As you can see I've had a go at casting my first blocks and they came out rather well. Might have to track down a local source of Cristacal R (the high strength plaster I'm using) though as the postage cost me about the same as the 5kg bag I bought...

The molds I went for include the Egyptian Tower Mold #93, Wood Shingle Roof Mold #240, Wooden Plank Mold #220, Wizard's Tower Mold #50, Cracked Floor Tiles Mold #203, Octagon Tower Mould  #63, Dragon's Inn Mold #51 and the Wall Builder Mold #200.

Other than the Egyptian Tower Mold (more of which later) I figured they'd give me lots of flexibility in building Old World style buildings from cottages and Inns to Towers and additional fortifications for my Mighty Fortress, and maybe even some dungeon tiles...



The blocks I've cast up are from the aforesaid Egyptian Tower mold and the Cracked Floor Tiles mold because I want to build this...



...to include the Rigg's Shrine scenario from the Second Citadel Compendium in my Return of the Magnificent Sven campaign.


Spot the similarities?



This is going to be a rather massive build as I intend on constructing all six floors that are detailed in the floor plans included in the scenario.



The Ground floor may prove a little tricky as it is actually below ground level...

The instructions for the Egyptian tower say you need to make 18 castings of the mold to have enough bricks - judging by the picture it looks like this might just about comprise the top couple of floors of the four towers of the shrine! Guess what I'll be doing in between waiting for paint to dry on whatever minis I'll tackling over the next month or so.

I've yet to work out dimensions for each floor but the idea will be for it to comprise most of the playable area on the table. I'll be constructing each floor as separate pieces with some way of allowing miniatures to be placed on different floors simultaneously. It'd be great to do this with each floor stacked up to form the whole building but I haven't really planned out how I'd do this as yet. The alternative of course is to make the floors stackable but lay each floor out side by side on the table during play so on multiple levels can be used at the same time - not as visually striking but a lot easier to build.

Suggestions and any experiences you have had with similar projects would be most welcome!

I may attempt something a little smaller like the Wizard's Tower while I'm casting up enough blocks and assembling sufficient slaves to allow building on the Shrine to commence, as a way of familiarising myself with working with this new medium...

[DeafNala]

LOOKIN' GOOD! This will be a GREAT Project to follow...lots of potential as long as you don't snort the plaster.

[Damien]

Shit! How did I miss this thread? 9 pages and I have never seen it before. All the minis are outrageously good, classic Citadel with fantastic paint jobs. I really like all the free hand on the minis, the shields, the loin cloths, the tattoos, the skirts, the list goes on. The real gems (for me) are all the Slann, I never liked them when I used to read White Dwarf but you have made me want to buy some; all those vibrant colours, just fantastic.


Great stuff,
 Damien

[Faust23]

Shit! How did I miss this thread? 9 pages and I have never seen it before. All the minis are outrageously good, classic Citadel with fantastic paint jobs. I really like all the free hand on the minis, the shields, the loin cloths, the tattoos, the skirts, the list goes on. The real gems (for me) are all the Slann, I never liked them when I used to read White Dwarf but you have made me want to buy some; all those vibrant colours, just fantastic.


Great stuff,
 Damien

What D said!  Great thread and I can't wait to see the temple built!

[phreedh]

We need to switch families mate. I got a nose hair trimmer for christmas... I haven't gotten anything hobby related in several years. "You're always buying that stuff yourself!"

Look forward to seeing the shrine grow!