Warriors of Chaos: A Myth Is As Good As A Mile

Here's where the big points are tallied!

After all the rank-and-file were completed, I only had the big monsters left. First up was the Chimera, which was an easy win, because I'd had the foresight to attach magnets to the feet for its round base. So this was just a case of magnetising a 60x100mm base and I had a Chimera for all seasons!

I was planning to repaint this model somewhat, since I think my monster-painting techniques have come on since I first painted him. But then I thought it would be nice to leave a record of my former painting, so I could look back and appreciate my hobby journey. Also, I ran out of time.

The model carrying a lot of herohammer heft would be my Chaos Lord on a Dragon. It was the realisation that I actually had one of these that kicked off the inspiration for this whole army, since even a modestly-equipped Lord can eat up most of an army's character allowance (which is great when you're building a minimal army in a hurry).

Several years ago, my son had taken a shine to the box of Stormdrake Guard (a pair of Stormcast riding dragons). As they were out of his price range, we agreed to split the box and my half of dragon and rider went off to the 'maybe someday' pile.

A bit of light conversion on the dragon (covering his wretched Sigmarite symbols with good, honest Chaos ones) and a bit more on the rider (Blightking torso, Chaos Knight weapons, Chaos Warrior head and - bizarrely - Giant loincloth for a cape). Painting was done with drybrushes and washes, and pretty much done in a day.

And finally, the Giant! This was a refugee from the Ironjawz battleforce box, but I always wanted him for Chaos. I also always planned for him to be a Cyclops (a strange omission in GW's mythological pilfering - and no, a Cygor doesn't count), so I had to gouge out his eyes, replace the hollowed-out centre with an eyeball from a Chaos Spawn and made good with greenstuff (you can see the rough work - I'm no StrangerComeKnockin' - but it gives the idea).

Painting him was both a delight and a stress - because I left him until last, and I was racing up to a self-imposed deadline to have it all done by Christmas (with family time, there would be no hobby until the new year). 

Despite the ticking clock, working on the skin layers, getting his patchwork trousers right, adding all the little details, was all a lovely way to hobby. I mean, no-one was forcing me to add tartan patchwork, so it was my own fault I was sweating all the way up to zero hour but, by the skin of my teeth, I got there.

And so we have it - 2,250pts of Warriors of Chaos achieved in six weeks (not bad when most of my hobby nights were given over to Crisis Protocol games and write-ups). 

I'd always planned to max-out their allowance of allies (that's the Beastmen - we'll see them next year), so that brings me neatly to 3,000pts in time for battle!