Realm of Chaos: Warrior-Champion of Slaanesh

Back in the early 1990’s, shortly after the release of Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned, a small set of Chaos models was released. At least one for each of the four Chaos Powers, and seemingly Khorne got a few extras. These particular models aren’t seen a whole lot, as they weren’t sculpted by Jes Goodwin, but by Mark Copplestone – and so had a much shorter production life. They’re not the equal of Jes’ classic sculpts, but they do have an interesting character (there I bloody go) of their own. Objectively, they’re not amazing models compared to what has gone before or since, but I still like them.

Realm of Chaos Oldhammer Chaos Warrior Champion of Slaanesh.

Chaos Warrior-Champion of Slaanesh.

I haven’t managed to find them in Stuff of Legends nor in the old issues of White Dwarf, but I seem to recall seeing them named both as “Chaos Champions” and as “Chaos Warriors” at different times – which also happened with more than a few of Jes’ champions. They’re that “in-between” style of model that could reasonably fit into either category. These days at least, my thoughts on Chaos Warriors tend towards the more generic models as used in more recent years, so I’ll call these guys “Champions” in my own collection – especially as the more generic “foot knight”-style armoured Chaos Warriors were a thing as far back as the pre-slotta days.

Realm of Chaos Oldhammer Chaos Warrior Champion of Slaanesh.

Side view of the Fiend-headed one.

This guy is Slaanesh’s entry. He features all-original paint from the 1990’s as well. Amazingly there were no touch-ups needed whatsoever, nor any embarrassingly garish colour combinations that needed correction. All I needed to do to “renovate” him to 2016 standard was to rebase him – onto a 32mm round in this case since he overhung the 25mm square pretty badly. This way I can legit use him should I ever try Age of Sigmar as well. It doesn’t matter in Kings of War as the game uses regimental bases, so as long as the footprint is sound, this guy and whatever other heavy, psychotic bastards he hangs out with can wreak havoc just as effectively once I actually start on them properly.

Realm of Chaos Oldhammer Chaos Warrior Champion of Slaanesh.

Shield View.

I’ve added flowers to his base not because I see Slaanesh as effeminate, but as followers of Chaos that can appreciate beauty as well as debauchery – just as they were back in the RoC days. The shield is NOT freehand, I should point out. It’s a decal. It had some silvering but a coat of satin over the top fixed that up well enough.

Realm of Chaos Oldhammer Chaos Warrior Champion of Slaanesh.

A cheeky grin?

A rather “cheeky” (hur hur) shot to finish up. It’s more than a little silly, but such was life in Nottingham back in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s and it’s pretty well known that the studio didn’t take themselves so seriously back then, and took the piss out of everything including themselves (and they liked to sneak stuff past management) so I’m willing to give it a pass while if such a thing were released today, the implications would be a lot more disturbing.

I’ve got a Khorne Warrior-Champion from the same release who I’ll show shortly. He just needs a bit of updating, and I’ve been putting all of my energy into a big clean-up of the house and (especially) the war room, which has slowly become a dumping ground for boxes and random junk. So as soon as I can manage!

RTB09 Blood Angels Terminator Captain – An Oldhammer Blast from the past. (1989)

I haven’t been posting much lately. Notsomuch from lack of painting or lack of wanting to – I just haven’t had any new content for awhile. I’m working on a bunch of skeletons for KoW and I’ve been finishing them, but it’s been quite the slog. I’m also working on more Gondor guys, Minotaurs Space Marines – even some Skaven who I finished stripping the other week. But nothing ready to show.

So I’m revisiting a model from the deep past. This guy is the original Terminator Space Marine Captain from the original Terminator Squad boxed set. This one was painted for a relative in the early 1990’s and eventually found its way back to me about a decade ago.

RTB09 Blood Angels Terminator Captain

Clearly, it was painted during that transition period between Rogue Trader and 2nd edition. I can tell by my overly-colourful paint scheme (too much bright blue and yellow) combined with the use of personal heraldry on his shoulder pad. So most likely around ’93-’94. The only thing that’s been done to him since I got him back was a rebasing to my own style as opposed to the green flock that he originally had.

RTB09 Blood Angels Terminator Captain (1989)

Personal Heraldry on show.

The BA symbol is a decal. The rest is freehand. I believe that there was a full article with B&W illustrations on Marine Personal Heraldry, but I may be misremembering. Either way, the ‘eavy Metal page shown below was a huge influence and remains in the back of my mind even today when painting Marine heroes.

White Dwarf 123: ‘eavy Metal – Space Marine Heraldry. Copyright Games Workshop May 1990

On “Character”. I know the popular thing to say about old, oldhammer and metal models is that they have “character” that new models somehow lack. I do think the old models often have “character” but to imply that newer models somehow lack character across the board is just silly. Now to say that some of the newer models lack a je ne sais quoi is fine and accurate – things like the IoB skaven troopers and Poison Wind Mortars are sloppy sculpts, but it doesn’t mean that everything does – The IoB skaven hero is actually quite nice. This model is a nice one, but it is dated and very static compared to the newer sculpts. I still like it, but I’m as aware as anyone else that the rose-tinted glasses are in effect when dealing with many of the miniatures from my youth. Having said that, I still love metal models and that won’t be changing anytime soon, however nice the newest plastics are (I can love both!)

RTB09 Blood Angels Terminator Captain (1989)

Auxiliary Grenade Launcher for the win!

Now, putting together a Blood Angels army has been on my list of Armies to Put Together for quite a few years, and I’ve been gathering the kits to do so for years on and off – as well as buying the odd pre-owned collection to use as well (Hi Damo!) I’d certainly like to use this guy when I do get to properly building my BAs. So that leaves me with a few questions to ponder – what to change and what to leave the same?

Rogue Trader Marine iconography. Copyright GW 1987

Now, I’m ashamed to admit that a few years ago, I stripped a whole lot of my original metal beakies in order to have them fresh for my Rogue Trader Crimson Fists project (that I still haven’t started). I didn’t even photograph them. I had several models in particular where I’d managed to paint the finely detailed Rogue Trader-era captain markings, sergeant and veteran sergeant insignia onto their shoulder pads, as well as weapon designations. I later picked up an unpainted copy of the “captain” model from ebay for about ten bucks, rendering the regret in stripping him to even harsher levels. Because of this, I’m hesitant to fuck with my old models too much. But I do like to tone things down that are too garish – as I’ve shown with my Beastmen and other Realm of Chaos-era models.

RTB09 Blood Angels Terminator Captain (1989)

Rear View of RT-era Blood Angel Terminator Captain.

So the elements I’m considering:

  1. Rebase to a 40mm round.
  2. Repaint most/all of the blue. Mostly to black or brass/bronze, depending on the location (not to Khorne levels!)
  3. Repaint the AGL entirely.
  4. Repaint the cables from a fleshy colour to a dark metallic colour.
  5. Tone down the yellow on the chest eagle.
  6. Tone down the yellow on the bolter – or repaint to a black casing.
  7. Brighten the “bone” colour on the Crux Terminatus & touch up the Captain flash on his shoulder.
  8. General neatening up, but not changing the red or the black. (Or his head).

Any thoughts or feedback?