Thursday 22 December 2016

"A Soldier Who Locks Eyes With A Bloodletter Is Often Frozen Stiff With Fear..."

"Their skin is the colour of hot blood, and their angry eyes resemble burning coals."
This 28mm plastic multi-part model of a Slaughter-kin Icon Bearer comes from the “Games Workshop” Daemons of Khorne Bloodletters boxed set, and due to its Gore-drenched standard can allow me to add D6 more Bloodletters to my unit if I "roll a 1 when making a Battleshock Test". Interestingly, this potential bolstering of my daemonic horde as "reality blinks" is actually just one of two special abilities a standard bearer can imbue his unit of Bloodletters with, on account of this “Age Of Sigmar” kit also containing parts enough for the icon to be swapped with a Bloodsoaked Banner; a ‘flag’ “daubed in the blood of champions” which adds a bonus whenever the Bloodletters slay a Hero. For now though, at least until I purchase another box of the Khorne daemons, my unit will only be carrying the Gore-drenched Icon…
"To battle! Let blood flow in his name!"
Having followed the instructions found within the figure’s box, and assembled the icon carrier from his relevant sprues, I treated the scaly red hided creature to a double-dose of “Vallejo” Heavy Red and washed it with "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade. The “ferocious” Khak’akamshy’y was subsequently dry-brushed with some additional “Vallejo” Heavy Red before his horns, “slavering jaws”, hands, hooves, back spines and sword hilt were undercoated with “Citadel” Abaddon Black.

I then used some more Abaddon Black to gently blend the daemon's dark hands and trotters in with the Bloodletter’s red limbs. In addition, his “jagged” Hellblade was primed with "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna before being treated to a double-layer of Gold. The “vicious sword”, said “to be as sharp as Khorne’s own hatred”, was lastly washed with a combination of "The Army painter" Strong Tone Quickshade and more "Vallejo" Gold.
Charcoal WIPs - The super-hero has been primed, washed, dry-brushed and partially detailed
Painting of the Icon itself was predominantly achieved using more Gold (for its metallic plates) and plenty of Heavy Red and Dark Vermilion as base-layers for the coagulated blood. In addition, I used Iraqi Sand and white, along with a wash of "The Army painter" Strong Tone Quickshade to ‘pick out’ the skulls. Once dry, the entire standard was then heavily washed with both “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson and (rather appropriately) Bloodletter.

With Week One of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge now well under way, I have continued to beaver away on a large number of “Heroclix” miniatures which I wish to submit as part of the event. One of the many figures will be Charlie Burlingame’s alter-ego, Charcoal; a youngster seemingly capable of transforming himself into a being composed of charcoal.
"The Horns Of Nimon" WIPs - The intergalactic locusts have been dry-brushed and washed brown
Alongside my plastic “Wizkids” figures I have also started work on a number of “Doctor Who” related metal models. The first batch will comprise of five identically sculpted Nimon by “Black Tree Design”. These ‘infamous’ extra-terrestrials initially promised to bring about the return of “the glory days of the Skonnan Empire” in the December 1979 BBC Television story “The Horns Of Nimon”.

32 comments:

  1. The bloodletter unit look suitably gory and daemonic Simon, love the group shot! Charcoal looks interesting as do the Nimon

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    1. Thanks Andy. Now the Bloodletters are finished I have enough minis for a Khorne vs Nurgle "AoS" skirmish, so hopefully that'll show them off a bit more. Charcoal should also be posted up soon as I've just finished painting him.

      As for the Nimon, well they've turned out to be far more colourful than I recall (as I thought they were all-black with red eyes) as they all need gold loincloths and yellow horns!!

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  2. They look amazing Simon, I love them and who doesn't need an Intergalactic Locust in their life?

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    1. Cheers Sir Awdry. I'm hoping to stick with Khorne models for a bit longer, so there should be some more blodd-red minis coming over the next few months. The Nimon certainly have a good backstory, just a pity about the Seventies costume :-)

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  3. Lovely, gory work Simon. It's been fun seeing these develop on the old paint & chat :)

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    1. Thanks Tamsin. Its been an absolute pleasure nattering with you over Google Chat whilst I've been painting them :-)

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  4. You have captured something haunting in the “glory days of the Skonnan Empire" They look just like the rubber suit guys at the BBC and just as scary!

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    1. Cheers Clint. The Nimon still look suitably dark despite their brown dry-brush and wash. But that should make their yellow horns and red-eyes pop as they did in the Seventies serial!!

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  5. Great work finishing the bloodletters, Charcoal looks perfect, he has a sheen like you see on a pencil tip. Look forward to seeing the Nimon progress

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    1. Thanks Dave. Good to get the Bloodletters finished, and Charcoal has now been completed too. The Nimon are nice and simple poses, so I hope to make some good headway with them over the Christmas holiday.

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  6. I'd love to see The Incredible Hulk pick up Charcoal and use him to attend an art class. I really like how you've painted the model btw.

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    1. Cheers Roy, much appreciated :-) Charcoal is now finished, so should be posted up early in the New Year, or sooner (if you follow the AHPC blog). I do have plans for a Hulk BatRep ;-)

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  7. I have enjoyed seeing these bloodletters come to fruition, the unit looks excellent.
    Interesing use of the charcoal colour - good luck in the challenge.

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    1. Cheers Joe. The bloodletters have taken considerably longer than I thought, but that's predominantly due to my being distracted by other genres [blush]. Hopefully you'll like the finished Charcoal when he's posted, and thanks for the good luck - 100 x 28 mm models in just three months is pushing things for me!!

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  8. Lovely stuff as always...and the standard looks superb! Have a great Christmas and all the best for the New Year!

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    1. Thanks Gordon, the icon certainly looks as bloody as I hoped. You too have a very merry Christmas and a top New Year!!

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  9. Charcoal is notoriously brittle so I can't see the Charcoal man lasting long in a fight. I do love Roy's idea of getting the Hulk to use Charcoal as a tool in an art class. That was funny.

    I know I watched "The Horns of Nimon" episode of Doctor Who but I can remember nothing at all about it. How strange!

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    1. "Charcoal is notoriously brittle" - I would imagine that's why "Marvel Worldwide" gave the hero the ability to reshape himself into any carbon form, including flaming incendiary or rock-hard diamond then Bryan ;-) As you say, he wouldn't last long otherwise and indeed, was killed off rather early in his crime-fighting career...

      I can't imagine why you'd recall nothing about a Seventies classic like "Horns Of Nimon". Its a four-parter worth watching simply for Graham Crowden's performance as Soldeed if nothing else!! And who can forget those marvelous extra-terrestrial platform shoes!?! You'll be saying Tom Baker was the Third Doctor next ;-)

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    2. Ouch! There are a lot of Doctor Who episodes I can remember with perfect clarity and others I struggle to remember anything at all about. This is one of the latter. Sorry, Simon!

      Being able to turn into any carbon form is a useful ability but why anyone would want to turn into charcoal is beyond me, unless he lost his pencil! No wonder he had a short-lived career!

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    3. "No wonder he had a short-lived career!" - I don't think the ownership of the character's copyright being in question helped Charcoal's survival chances either Bryan ;-)

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  10. Nice stuff Simon, the Bloodletters look suitably gory, I don't remember Charcoal at all to be honest, though he's probably popular at barbeques. I think you can forgive Bryan for not remembering the Nimon story, it's not really a classic, though didn't it have Janet Ellis of blue peter fame in it?

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks Roger. I'm somewhat glad the Bloodletters are done tbh. Charcoal was an incredibly short-lived character on account of copyright issues. But I hope to cover these once I post up the finished model.

      You are spot on Ref "Horns of Nimon" and Janet Ellis, and Bryan is an eminently forgivable chap, so no long-standing grudge is being held :-)

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  11. Nicely done with the Bloodletters as a unit. good stuff. :)

    I have a huge soft spot for Charcoal as a classic Thunderbolts fan. :)

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    1. Cheers Leon. Hopefully you'll like the finished Charcoal mini once I've posted him up then :-)

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  12. Great looking bloodletters, Simon. The skulls on the standard have a gore-coated, freshly-extracted look. Good color choice on the orange tongues.

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    1. Thanks Finch. The icon took a lot of time and effort, but hopefully has turned out to be worth it. I'm glad this batch of Bloodletters is now done though :-)

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  13. Very nice, Simon. Still not overly keen on the Bloodletters, but that's a prrsonal thing rather than your painting.
    Ah, Charcoal...he was a bit pants, wasn't he? I have to admit enjoying the original Thunderbolts title, especially when Hawkeye took over leadership.
    And more Doctor Who as well. Black Tree have currently got 30% off the entire Doctor Who range, so if you need any more figures, might be worth visiting their site.

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    1. Cheers Jez. I've a few more Khorne models to come, so perhaps there's still time to draw you over to the Blood God's side? ;-)

      As a model Charcoal is rather nice, and has painted up well imho, but as a comic book character he does seem a bit... brittle?

      I'm still waiting on an earlier "Black Tree Design" order (start of Dec), so I'll be waiting until I have that one before I order from them again. Otherwise I get lost in my orders from them :-)

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  14. Those Bloodletters look great! The icon-bearer fits in just perfectly and sounds like he's going to make this unit a right pain in the rump to shift in-game.

    Nimon - before my time. They look very Papua New Guinean. But those aren't masks, area they?

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    1. Thanks Dai. The Icon-bearer should indeed cause a lot of problems for my "AOS" opponents. The Nimon are huge space oxen, so no mask for them; just a giant bull-shaped head... oh and high-heeled platform space boots!!

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