The Order of Bone

Another job-packed week in sunny Sweden, so the painting bay has been bearing fruit: -

Most of the Chaos Warriors I've seen on GW or other sites have a tendency to go for a dark palette. This makes a lot of sense, and looks good, but I wanted to do something different. I thought I'd go with something to match my Archaon model, just in case he ever gets fielded as an army general. Or we change the WoffBoot to 5000 points, or something.

Haven't tidied the bases yet. But I will! I do that now!

Hold me closer, tiny Viking head

I'm not even sure whether these guys will get fielded in an actual Woffboot - 190 points gets you ten with shields plus command. Perhaps as a bus unit for a general they'd be worth it, or if I go down another route that's suggested itself to me and go for a Chaos War Shrine and lots of champions to take advantage of all the buffing, but otherwise I think a small, expensive unit of slow elite melee troops is probably asking for trouble.

This guy needs a darker chestplate - the cloak claws are blending  in too much

Skeletor never actually wore his armour back in the day. All the steroids made him a bit hyper.

This is no excuse for having a well-painted unit in reserve, plus back story. The relentlessly uniform stance made me think of a highly-drilled squad, perhaps a corrupted knightly order of some kind. Without rushing off to buy a pack of Bretonnian Grail Knights for bits options, I thought I'd go for a scheme that's not overtly playing to any of the big four gods, but without going for Black Legion Black on everything.

He's left the price tag on that shield. Maybe he nicked it.

So these guys are the Order of Bone, a bunch of Empire types set to guard some precious shrine in the far north because [insert proper fluff here]. But they've been forgotten about and turned to dark ways, thanks to preaching from local tribes and the slow drip of uncertainty that comes with being trapped in a howling wasteland with only the company of other armoured men with a serious mindset.

War(pstone)hammer Fantasy Battle! Surely someone's done that gag before now? 

I'm using Bleached Bone, Skull White, Deadly Nightshade, Space Wolves Grey and then a selection of leathery browns to give them a chilly northern look. The shields and have plenty of space for colour and character, which helps distract from the somewhat monotonous weapons and capes. They're done bar shouting - a couple of tiny fixes here and there, and I'll varnish.

He's got M. C. Escher paintings on the wall of his dorm, too.

There's something pleasingly cold about them, something bleak and washed out. The camera flash brightens them up a bit, actually, they look slightly better in these photos than they do in real life! I may yet go back and tweak them here and there before I varnish, I think I went overboard on some of the white drybrushing.

Ominous Shadows - model's own

In other news, an actual real postman turned up with the box of marauders, confirming my suspicions of the carrying abilities of the last one. I've got plenty more options for converting the Norsemen now, the shoulder pads are particularly useful.

Viking Body + Marauder Head = Symptoms of Dwarfism

The ones I put together the other day are almost done, just a few fine details to go - more in a few days, I expect. But here's a preview of the Marauder-enhanced ones, plus a neatly pre-painted flail man sweetly included in the box!

Flail Monkeys - Attack!

What the hell is wrong with the rest of you?
Is it a hormone thing?