The Fell Host of The Swan Knight - updated 6th Oct 2017

Mister Rab

Member
A while back I painted up a chaos knight on a giant evil swan for Asslessman's Knight Project. He formed the nucleus of a very small chaos warband, more or less Tzeentchian, which I've added to fitfully since then. Now, however, I've decided it's time to turn this into a proper 3,000 point army according to the Big Orange Book, with the simplified equipment costings of Warhammer Armies, and the flying disc from LatD.

Here is The Plan;

The Swan Knight (536 points)
Chaos knight mounted on Giant Evil Swan (counts as flightless manticore), wearing Galvorn Armour, and carrying a shield and his mace, Souldrinker (counts as parasitic blade).

the%2Bboss.jpg


Skathis Warprider (235 points)
Level 15 sorcerer on flying disc, wearing Chaos armour and bearing the Staff of Yttheris (counts as hellhoned blade)

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Duke Elvon Skullsplitter's Dark Saints (550 points)
Five chaos warriors with heavy armour and shields, mounted on barded steeds of chaos

Athon Harrowstone's retinue (470 points)
Chaos warrior (Athon himself) and 9 marauders, all in heavy armour and two-handed weapons, one with a banner

warrior%2Bunit%2B01.jpg


Daethor Wulfbite's thugs (189 points)
Daethor (a marauder) and seventeen thugs in light armour, one with a banner

Braxis Vilehand's herd (326 points)
Eighteen beastmen in light armour (one with a Hellfire banner, one a level 5 champion - Braxis himself)

beastmen.jpg


Gorric Hardhoof's herd (175 points)
Five chaos centaurs with light armour and shields

centaur%2B1.jpg


Barrick Hollowtooth's Headcleavers (257 points)
Barrick (level 5 champion) and his honour guard of thirteen chaos dwarves with heavy armour and two-handed weapons. Barrick carries the Old Hammer (counts as having enchanted strike)

Yarlreach the Cunning (90 points)
Level 5 beastman sorcerer

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The Bulls of Jatir (126 points)
Three minotaurs with two-handed weapons

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The Hounds of Tramier (46 points)
Two chaos hounds

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This all comes to exactly 3,000 points and gives me plenty to be getting on with. By my calculation, the status of the army (18th Aug 2017) is as follows:

Painted - Knight on swan, sorcerer on disc, sorcerer on foot, 2 hounds, 1 minotaur, 1 centaur, 6 warriors, 13 beastmen, 1 thug, 1 knight, 2 dwarves
Partly painted - 1 minotaur, 3 beastmen
Undercoated - 4 warriors, 3 centaurs, 12 dwarves, 1 beastman
Prepped and based - 1 minotaur, 15 thugs, 1 beastman
Still needs to be converted - 1 centaur
Banners - zero done out of three

This then gives me a painting target of forty-three figures (including four mounted and four centaurs), far more than I've ever painted in a year, and three banners. I've only painted one banner before, and it was a per pale heraldic one, not a chaotic one.

I may have bitten off more than I can chew! Wish me luck...
 

Mister Rab

Member
Re: The Fell Host of The Swan Knight

Double posting, I know, but this gets me up to date.

So far I have units/individual characters painted to a total of 907 points. There are also several figures painted for other units, but I'll only count them when the whole unit is done, including bases, shields, and banners. I'm going to be strict!

The next unit up for sharing (although you'll soon see that they are bare metal/plastic/putty) are the most expensive, points-wise, and therefore I wanted to do something special with them - the knights. I have them as "chaos warriors" mounted on "chaos steeds" so my bitzbox was brought into play. In the end I left the riders as they came, but I didn't want a full unit mounted on normal horses, it didn't seem fitting.

Duke Elvon Skullsplitter's Dark Saints (550pts)

The Duke - classic two-part Perry sculpt mounted on a Grenadier dragon-lizard, minus its wings.

knight%2B01.jpg


This knight might be Marauder, also on a Grenadier now-flightless-dragon-lizard

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The most normal of the bunch; knight (citadel Perry, I think) on a Battlemaster board game barded horse with a bit of surgery to attach an 80s chaos steed head.

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Another de-winged monster as mount. This one an early griffon with yet another Perry knight astride

knight%2B04a.jpg

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And finally the fifth member of the bunch who has been enhanced with bits from a sprue of chaos bits I had, possibly the late 90s early 2000s chaos warrior box that I think I got for bloodbowl conversions originally when it was still for general sale.

knight%2B05a.jpg

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So, what does this lot look like on the charge? Like this:

the%2Bknights.jpg


You'll notice they don't fit side-by-side very well (and that's before I add shields), but a slightly over-deep movement tray will sort that. I think I'll fill in the tray so that there are specific slots for them to go in, but that's not a priority! I've had it suggested that I use a wider tray and bring them all in line, but I've two concerns with that. First, the ragged frontage feels more likely for such a mishmash of beasts. Second, it changes the frontage which might make things awkward for combats (although probably not with fine, upstanding gamers like yourselves 8-) )

Comments and criticism welcome :grin:
 

symphonicpoet

Moderator
Re: The Fell Host of The Swan Knight

Oh my! Very nice. Love the "swan" in particular. I've . . . never pictured Lohengrin quite like that.
 

Mister Rab

Member
Re: The Fell Host of The Swan Knight

symphonicpoet":2fcxiqfd said:
Oh my! Very nice. Love the "swan" in particular. I've . . . never pictured Lohengrin quite like that.

Thanks - I guess he's more like Lohengrin's evil twin :lol: I chose the swan because our nearest big town is Bedford which has the swan as its symbol.
 
Re: The Fell Host of The Swan Knight

Hey Rab,

That was me that suggested spreading them out. I get what you mean with the change in frontage width being against the rules, but I say stuff that! :lol:

I've had the same issue before with minis not ranking up, tis a real pain in the arse!

Either way, they'll still look mighty fine once their painted up.
 

Mister Rab

Member
Re: The Fell Host of The Swan Knight

optimus":1dfzzli0 said:
Hey Rab,

That was me that suggested spreading them out. I get what you mean with the change in frontage width being against the rules, but I say stuff that! :lol:

I've had the same issue before with minis not ranking up, tis a real pain in the arse!

Either way, they'll still look mighty fine once their painted up.

I can't keep track of all your pseudonyms! :lol: My initial plan was to spread them, and I may yet. That's all a long way down the road; I have to paint the buggers first!
 

Cassarus

Member
Re: The Fell Host of The Swan Knight

Such an great project, I wish you the best of luck!
And so far everything looks great, so you are of to a good start :grin:
 

Gallivantes

Member
Re: The Fell Host of The Swan Knight

Ah man, you are nailing it so far. That knights unit has that variety that works so well for a chaos force.

And credits for exposing swans for being evil, not wonderful and serene like what Walt Disney will have you believe. In real life they hiss and bull rush you
 
Re: The Fell Host of The Swan Knight

Mister Rab":3iymzy92 said:
I can't keep track of all your pseudonyms! :lol: My initial plan was to spread them, and I may yet. That's all a long way down the road; I have to paint the buggers first!

Yeah, sorry about that Rab. When I started this online bisso I didn't really think long and hard about the moniker I should use. That's why their all so bloody different. I'm not sure I can change them either? I'd like to unify them into one username if I can.

In case I can't change them, here's a list of them all.....for future reference ;)

Optimus
Mr Papafakis
Head Head
The One

Too bloody many!
 

Mister Rab

Member
Re: The Fell Host of The Swan Knight - updated 8th Feb

Thanks for the encouragement, chaps :grin:

Here's the first knight painted:

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I rather liked the idea that the horn/crest/growth on top of the knight's head was actually a part of him protruding through the helmet so coloured it the same as the tentacles sticking out underneath. I'm not sure I'll do another one with coloured metallic armour as I find it a real pain to do and it nearly made me give up early on. Contrasting it with the almost pastel blue and pink saved it, to my mind, and the lizard was fun to do. I shall do the base foliage for a whole bunch at a time so until then (as he has no shield), he's finished!
 

symphonicpoet

Moderator
Re: The Fell Host of The Swan Knight - updated 8th Feb

I hadn't even noticed the tentacles! :grin: He came out well. Yeah, the contrast really helps to bring off the metallic armor. And I can see where you had to get a little creative to get that purpley color. What did you do? Purple ink on gunmetal and silver highlights? That's the way I think I might have done it. Maybe.
 

Subedai

Member
Re: The Fell Host of The Swan Knight - updated 8th Feb

That's an excellent idea, I love lots of monsters in a Chaos army. The first pairing are looking great together. Now that you mentioned his horn being part of his head, I'm shuddering trying to imagine what's still hidden under the helmet.
 

Grumdril

Member
Re: The Fell Host of The Swan Knight - updated 8th Feb

Lovely work. The lizard looks fantastic and I really like the spots of colour that draw attention to the rider while letting the lizard take centre stage. And as Subedai said, a nicely monstrous warband.


Paul / Grumdril
 

Mister Rab

Member
Re: The Fell Host of The Swan Knight - updated 8th Feb

Thanks chaps!

Symhonicpoet - The armour was blue ink directly onto a grey undercoat, drybrushed up to silver and then given a blue wash.

Subedai - No-one but Tzeentch himself may ever know what is under the helmet...

Paul - thanks! Shifting to have lizard as the main focus helped me pull it together. I do like the pink bits, though ;)
 

Mister Rab

Member
Re: The Fell Host of The Swan Knight - updated 18th Aug 2017

Well, six months later, there is little progress to report in terms of finished models, but quite a lot of the grunt work of filing and basing and converting has gone on when the mood has taken me. I'll have to work out exactly what needs posting here, but for now this is the most recent monster, an Asgard (Nick Bibby, I think) Giant Armoured Troll that I got from Viking Forge an will be the beastlord of my horde of beastmen, Braxis Vilehand.

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He fit pretty well on a 25mm base, so not exactly giant, but noticeably larger than the rest of the beastmen which fits nicely with my idea of "bigger is better" for the furry/scaly/slimy savages.
 
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