The Unwitting Pawns of Chaos

Following on from some recent great news on behalf of a friend, I have restarted in earnest a project that I had left by the wayside for a time (mostly due to being distracted by other shiny things and mental health issues) so that we might meet on the field of battle for a spectacular clash of awesome miniatures.

Anyway, so I've been recently working on a small mortal contingent of my larger army (which will be using unit rules from the Chaos Grand Alliance lists) and have been mulling over the various background points for them. Given the general theme of my army, I had it in mind that the aesthetics for my mortals would be Brythonic from around 400AD (although my Chaos Lady mounted on a Llamhigyn Y Dwr is based on a 12th Century Welsh heroine) however, I didn't want them to have overtly blatant worship of the Ruinous Powers worn openly upon the miniatures.

When the Dark Age of Sigmar group was started on Facebook, it's chief aim was to explore those corners of the Mortal Realms not yet fleshed out in canon and to ask the question; what became of those mortals who had to survive during the Age of Chaos? The Age of Chaos lasted for centuries, with some areas more affected than others, and some lands saw vicious wars between the hordes of Chaos and the beleaguered mortal warriors before the hordes moved on to other battlefields. Of course, all this changed when the gates of Azyr reopened and the Age of Sigmar began as his chosen warriors, the Stormcast, began to 'liberate' those lands under the sway of Chaos.

This particular event put me in mind of several historical instances where Christians attempted to do the same, by coercion or force of arms (the Crusades and the Post-Christianity Roman era), and 'liberate' the indigenous populous from their 'heathen ways' and supplant their 'old religion'. It made me rethink the nature of worshipping the Ruinous Powers; that whilst some would give in body and soul to full devotion (such as the Bloodreavers and Kairic Acolytes), for others, perhaps in a region less riven with the corrupting influence of Chaos, the worship of the Ruinous Powers is reduced to folk-beliefs and superstitions, with the populous wholly ignorant about the true nature of Chaos or from where the roots of their 'old religion' spring.

This then could open up an interesting contrast on the field of battle, wherein the shining Stormcast are no longer the benevolent liberators, but rather a malevolent invading force bent on subjugating a mortal populous (who really don't know any better) and enforcing a change in worship to Sigmar. A rather delicious shade of grey, no?

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Hobby Goals for 2018

INQ28 - Finish writing up the setting and building/painting the miniatures for the INQ28 game.

AOS28 - Finish building and painting my Huntsman crew for a game in the future. Convert and paint up a warband for Shadespire.

Frostgrave - Finish at least three more of my Elven Exiles.

Necromunda - Paint up my Giger-Spyrers. Paint up both my Beastman Bounty Hunter and my Pit Slave. Convert up the new iteration of my Goliath Gang (Pandemonium Riot). Finish sculpting my special character.

That's it! Nothing too taxing for this year to fit in with my diet and lifestyle changes.....

Musings on Sigourney Weaver

The title is a little random, but it has been a while since I updated this blog and in lieu of available photos of miniatures (as I am waiting for my friends foot to heal in order to borrow her photography skills) I decided to write up a little piece on stuff I am working on right now and Sigourney Weaver.

At the moment I have my Cosmic Horrors nearly completed before I paint them (yes, I will actually do some painting!) and a small contribution to the massive community Pilgrym project. I've also been conversing a lot with Ana from Gardens of Hecate regarding aesthetics in miniature design and have a minor fantasy-based project in the works under the title of 'The Huntsman'.

However in the meanwhile moments, I have been working on my 'Ready Your Retinue' entries (I have February, March and April completed) even though they've yet to be photographed or even painted, but I hope to have some Grime Lights fiction ready to post alongside miniatures once I get pics of them.

Now, what does any of this have to do with Sigourney Weaver?

Well, during my childhood in the 80's, Sigourney Weaver was (and still is) a big name on the silver screen, often portraying strong female leads and was a huge role model for me growing up. Whilst working on Grime Lights the name Mejila Osu crops up as the Inquisitrix/Mistress of the cell/retinue I am building and in the first scene of the fiction piece I am writing, Tsuki Shōgatsu is meeting with Mistress Osu which got me trying to imagine what kind of woman she would be and the first name that popped into my head was Sigourney Weaver; a strong woman with an iron will, gravitas and a little alluring.

With that in mind, I wanted to make my miniature of Mejila Osu utterly unique. When I first started playing 40k, it was already a few years into its second edition and in the center on the of the rulebook, there was a few pages displaying various miniatures, including this one;

This was also at the same point I was reading the original Boxtree edition of the Inquisition War Trilogy, the covers of which depicted the eponymous Jaq Draco in Terminator Armour. So inspired, I decided that Mejila Osu would be one of those rare members of the Inquisition with an ancient set of human-sized Tactical Dreadnought Armour passed down to her. On my desk right now, I have one of those plastic terminators from the second edition of Space Hulk (which stands quite a bit smaller than their current contemporaries) which I am currently bedecking with lots of details to make it more like a unique piece of antiquity.

Now that I got her torso decided, I wanted to sculpt her head to look like Sigourney herself (not sure if I will be successful though) and originally I was thinking about using Ripley as she appeared in in Alien 3 (with the shaved head) to make her appear a little androgynous, but the Runtherd suggested that I use this photo instead;

Please watch this space to see how it all turns out!

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