Tag Archives: Slaves to Darkness

Realm of Chaos: Let the Bloodletting Begin!

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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.

Realm of Chaos – “Oldhammer” Part 2

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So after the positive feedback I received for the first batch, I thought I’d put up some more of my old Realm of Chaos models for perusal.

First up is a Champion of Slaanesh. This guy is counterpart to the Champion of Khorne (3rd from the top) posted last time, and like the Khornate fellow, was sculpted by Mark Copplestone. This was one of my early attempts are painting properly pastel armour, and I’m still happy with it to this day. When I rebase this guy I’ll have to paint his mouthparts with gloss, though! His shield has a decal – not freehand on this guy.

This guy isn’t especially amazing, but he’s bloody old – predating the RoC books. I’ve included him here partly because of that, and partly because of the freehand on his shield and tabard/groin protector. Funny – even back then, I’d often rise to a good sculpt with one of my better paintjobs, and just try to get it done when on a lesser sculpt.

Technically, this guy isn’t a chaos model at all. it’s actually the Troll figure from the Talisman series. Given his small size (he’s on a 25mm square base) I painted him with flesh tones and called him a beastman, since they had a lot of flexibility of appearance back then. Goat-heads were just one of many types…

Again, not strictly speaking a Chaos model (well, sometimes but not always, depending on packaging over the years!) This familiar was a quick and easy paintjob. and I still have an affection towards the little blighter all these years later.

I don’t recall exactly which range this guy came from, and until I rebase him down the line I don’t plan to pry him off the base to find out. I suspect that he might be from the old Night Horror line. The Night Horror figures were a Citadel Fantasy figure sub-range that included all of the typical Hammer Horror-type figures – vampires, mummies, werewolves, etc – as well as tombstones and gargoyles and other odds and ends, both scenic and character-based. I drilled into the base of the decapitated guy’s head and left a pin hanging out, which I put some droppy gloss PVA onto, along with some segmented paint to represent spinal column, and of course, some blood.

Aside from all that – he makes a fine beastman!

An actual Beastman this time. I’m still happy with how his face and teeth turned out and still mildly annoyed at how his shield hides it all. The drybrushing on his chest is a little rough, but I’ve never noticed that before posting up this picture. Isn’t it wonderful how large photos magnify all the minor flaws in our painting and make them look huge and hideous?

One of my favourite beastmen of the day. I still really like the figure and sculpt, the paintwork I did, and the freehand on his shield (no decals involved at all here). If I had to criticise my own work here, I’d perhaps point out how the clean and bright shield doesn’t quite gel with the more grungy figure holding onto it.

Lastly for this round, an old Champion of Nurgle, sculpted by Jes. It looks a little shitty in the picture, but the armour is deliberately corroded and messed up looking – and it looks quite decent in person. Note the early version of the symbol of Nurgle on his gutplate and helmet. I always wondered about that, and wasn’t in the slighted bit surprised when it got changed to three circles/flies/etc.