Descent: Journeys in the Dark 1st Edition – Hellhounds

Descent 1.0 Hellhounds

Today’s models come from Descent: Journeys in the Dark 1st Edition. I picked it up secondhand several years ago, when I heard about how great a game it was, blurring the lines between RPG and miniatures boardgame. Shortly afterwards, the Second Edition came out, though I did pick up the official conversion kit, I’ve never gotten around to playing either of the things yet.

A month or so I got the idea to paint the Giant Spiders out of the 1e box. While I was poking around in there, I found these Hellhounds. Figuring that they’d paint up pretty quickly, I ended up putting the Spiders back and working on these instead. They didn’t take too long to get done, and being pretty rough figures I wan’t going to knock myself out over getting the absolute best paintjobs on them, either. Tabletop is good enough!

Descent 1.0 Hellhounds

Descent uses two different “types” of each monster: “White” ones, which are normal, or trooper-types and “Red” ones which are champion-level and tougher. So the sculpts come in two colours of plastic – Red and White (actually, more of a cream, but I digress). In order to be able to identify the two types, I painted the “White” ones with brighter orangey-red and red-to-yellow flame-fur, while the “Red” ones were painted in a slightly deeper, darker red and have yellow-to-black flame-fur. Enough to distinguish them when needed, but close enough that they still work in a pack for other games.

Descent 1.0 Hellhounds

Descent 1.0 Hellhounds

Speaking of other games, I knocked up a multi-base for them so that they can be used as a regiment in Kings of War. They’d be used as Proxy Hellhounds in my Khorne Chaos Daemons army, which in turn will be using the Forces of the Abyss/Hellhounds entry. Which I’ve just noticed while looking it up to write this only come in units of 5. And naturally, this base is made for a nominal unit of 10. Feck. That’s annoying, especially as they’re actual Hellhounds. Though the Mantic models also come on pissy little 25mm bases from Dungeon Saga, so perhaps the more appropriate proxy entry for these models will actually be a regiment of Abyssal Horsemen.

Realm of Chaos: Let the Bloodletting Begin!

The next few posts will feature a few callbacks to older figures I’ve painted and shown off here in the past. Don’t worry, there’s a point and context to it all, though.

Oldhammer 1988 Realm of Chaos Bloodletters of Khorne

Original 1988 Realm of Chaos Bloodletters of Khorne.

These were some of the very early figures I got. Bloodletters of Khorne from the original Slaves to Darkness volume of Realm of Chaos. Painted back in the day and touched up several times over the years. Pulled out of a storage case a couple of weeks ago to be rebased and lightly touched up again.

Oldhammer 1988 Realm of Chaos Bloodletters of Khorne

Bloodletters of Khorne in a Conga line.

The middle guy looks a bit odd in the front-on photo, but the profile shot helps him to make more sense. These early figures might not have been the greatest of sculpts, but they had a twisted physiology that made them work really well as Daemons. I’m glad that GW has returned to a design close to the original with the recent plastics after their iterations as cosplaying budybuilders and spiky beastmen in the interim.

Oldhammer 1988 Realm of Chaos Bloodletters of Khorne, C18 Night Horror Demon

C18 Night Horror, Bloodletter Conversion, Original Bloodletter.

I never had many of the original Bloodletters, and still don’t. Getting them up to an even 8 (or 10, or 12) is “on the list” but they’re not cheap or easily found on eBay. Back in the day, a C18 Night Horror Demon (I guess he could be a gargoyle, but the trident is telling) got roped into the gang and has been a part of the small unit ever since. I somehow ended up with a broken Bloodletter torso, and so ended up grafting it to a spare pair of Chaos Warrior legs I had lying around after an uninspired Bear Centaur conversion. The arm is off an early Jugger rider.

Oldhammer Realm of Chaos Bloodletters, Flesh Hounds of Khorne

A small warband of Khorne Daemons.

At some point these guys will hit the table again. I’ll use Abyssal rules for KoW, though it’s doubtful that I’ll run a full daemonic army, and instead ally them with “The Herd” (Beastmen) and whatever Non De Plume that Warriors of Chaos end up with. They might be willing to ally with Nurgle, but not with the hated Slannesh or the duplicitous Magicians of Nurgle. I’m sure they’ll also end up on a 40k table, after I get some more forces up to scratch and work out which version or combination of the rules my group will play with.