Path of Damnation: Thug Life

I've sold my soul to the ruinous powers and am embarking on a quest that will see me achieve apotheosis or consigned to oblivion.

As with so many who.have tried this treacherous path, my journey begins with the humble Chaos Thugs (Marauders), mere pawns of the dark gods seeking their favour through slaughter.

My personal path of damnation will see me building a Chaos army for Warhammer: The Old World using only what I already own. I've no idea whether this will create an effective force, but that's not really the point.

My main aims are threefold:

1. Use the Chaos miniatures I own in a creative way;
2. Try to be a bit more creative with my painting and modelling;
3. Aim to emulate some of the style of the Realms of Chaos: the Lost and the Damned book, which I feel typifies how I see Chaos in Warhammer.

As such, I've decided to use the excellent cover art, painted by Les Edwards, from the Realms of Chaos: the Lost and the Damned book as my main source of inspiration. I've always believed this piece captures the corruption of Chaos and has a colour palette that would be fun to try to match.

This decision also influences which of the great powers I shall be swearing fealty to, at least in the short term. Grandfather Nurgle, the Fly Lord of Pestilence. 

This means there will be lots of greens and browns in the army, and a few splashes of red here and there. It also means I can potentially make heavy use of some technical paints: Nurgle's Rot (obvs), Typhus Corrosion and Blood for the Blood God.

Five of the Chaos Thugs I painted are from the CH6 range released in 1987 and I remember them appearing in the early issues of White Dwarf I bought. Above we have 'Brain Slammer' and the oddly named 'Punter Dunter'.

I had a bit of a battle with the skin of the Thugs. Initially I used a variation of my zombie recipe, but it turned out too green for what I wanted, more like the head on Punter Dunter's belt (I might save that for some more corrupted champions). So I opted to add a thin coat of Kislev Flesh coloured with a coat of Skeleton Horde contrast paint. This has given them an unhealthy yellowish tinge which I like.

'Pin Head's and 'Stabstab' are both a little smaller than the others, which is useful as I'm planning to bring some Chaos Dwarfs into the unit and these two will bridge the gap between the Dwarfs and the larger models.

They also typify some of the quirkiness of the sculpts with 'Pin Head' having shades of Ram Man from He-Man and 'Stabstab' holding improvised weapon (two daggers strapped to a stick) like a bass guitar. For some reason, he reminds me of Dave Hill from Slade.

'Siclesword' (that is the correct spelling) is the only one of the bunch armed with a shield. I'm not going to be uniform about weapons, but instead will equip the unit with whatever loadout is in the majority. At the moment it looks like thiswill be great weapons, which probably means the Thugs will be killed before they get to attack. If it looks like they will be in the minority, I may add shields to some of the others.

Siclesword's hair and armour typifies what seems to be a design aesthetic for Chaos models of this era. All the models in this range have mismatched boots and incomplete armour similar in style to gladiators.

I like this lack of uniformity as that was lost in that later plastic Chaos ranges and really turned me off collecting a force.

The final model in the group is Ironhand the Mighty from the simply titled Heroes for Dungeonquest expansion Dungeonquest board game released in 1987. I have several others from this set which will be finding their way into my army.

He actually is a gladiator and so fits right in with the other Thugs. I think he was meant to be some sort of half-ogre because the dimensions of his head are even more out of proportion than othe miniatures of this time.

To my mind, he's already begun to receive rewards from Nurgle, his blessing marked out by the massive boil on his buttock.

And so my journey down the dark path has begun. 

I feel that I've done a decent job of capturing the aesthetic of the Les Edwards art work, but I'm not totally pleased with the skin and so will try to work on this as I progress. I'm pleased with the basing scheme as it's effective and easy to do.

This chaotic assault on Lead Mountain is part of a two-pronged attack which has seen me selling on a few more miniatures. This time it was some Empire Halflings who's gate was sealed last year when I conscripted my Advanced Heroquest Men-at-Arms into my Bretonnian army rather than start the Imperial force I've always threatened to begin.

Acquired: -29
Painted: 22
Lead Mountain: 608

Howdah You Do?

Obviously, having painted a Mumakil with a massive howdah, I needed to paint up some guys to ride in it.

Enter the Haradrim.

The War Mumak of Harad kit comes with a sprue of Haradrim warriors to act as the crew, as well as an officer figure. Additionally I had a single Haradrim warrior knocking about my bits box (I was sure I had a few more) and one extra special addition to the force.

I was pleased to discover that I could fit all 15 of them in the Howdah, meaning that I don't have to find extra storage space for them and they can live in my display cabinet.

Mind you, they are not exactly models that I am massively proud of. The sculpts (and their moulds) are showing their age.

There was quite a lot of clean up to do on the mould lines and some of the archers have smudged blobs for hams where they are reaching back to their quivers.

Therefore I decided to not get too worried about the paint job and just aim for table ready - like I've done for the other old plastic sculpts in my Rohan and Mordor forces.

I used a red base coat and added the flesh tone, wood, leather and gold before giving the whole model a wash in Agrax Earthshade.

After this I used contrast black to add variation. I actually used images from the films and cosplayers to guide what to paint black on individual models, ensuring that I avoided being too uniform.

I didn't bother with adding any purple (which some paint guide go mad for) as from my research there's only a handful of warriors in the ambush scene from The Two Towers with any purple on them.

The captain model is a bit of an odd duck as he has a bird helm which I can find no reference for in the films. It's one of those designs which would feel more at home in Age of Sigmar and is indicative of what happens when the Games Workshop design team start inventing things - it all gets a bit over the top.

It also seems an odd choice to include in the kit when the Mahud, who are featured relatively heavily in The Return of the King is right there.

Mind you, Games Workshop did turn him into an individual model you can buy (currently at the bargain price of £16.50), so the omission is easily explained.

But why a bird helmet?

Anyway, whilst we're on the subject of models that don't fit in, I've also done this guy. He's the Saracen character from Talisman and was one of my favourite characters to play in the game because his artwork looked cool.

It being the eighties and me being very young meant that I didn't really think about his handy ability to sell people into slavery, something that was changed in the only later iteration of the game he appeared in.

Anyway, with the addition of an old plastic shield which handily features a snake (the emblem of Harad) I've added him to this force as another captain because he's a close enough fit I can't imagine what else I'd do with the model.

There is a bit of a scale issue, but I could argue that he's from Near Harad and the plastic warriors are from Far Harad...sorry.

I'm really pleased to have got this whole kit done so quickly and it's made for a strong start to the year, which has been added to as I've begun another round of selling off some old models.

This time it's some second edition Bloodbowl miniatures that I've decided I'll never get round to. I have kept a couple of teams in case the urge to play Bloodbowl ever returns, but I already have four other painted teams so I should be fine.

Acquired: -18

Painted: 16

Lead Mountain: 625

That Still Only Counts As One!

First post of 2025.

Surely it needs to be something big.

I mean really big.

REALLY, REALLY BIG!

Oh yeah! That's the way to start off the new year.

A Mumakil, or Oliphaunt, from the Lord of the Rings. A war beast that the men of Harad ride into the Battle of the Pelennor Fields to drive back the charge of the Rohirrim.

It's taken me about a week to do, partly because there's a large model to build and a large surface area to paint, but also because it's a bit of a swine of a model kit.

The first step was assembly which appeared fairly straightforward, which was helpful because the instructions are from the 'vague grainy picture with arrows around it' period of Games Workshop instructions.

Two major problems appeared during this section, first were the four struts supporting the main howdah, which were not numbered, didn't have any defined keying and needed to be slotted in with the howdah above them to ensure they went into the right location. Most of the swearing in the whole build happened at this point.

The second issue were the massive straight join lined down the middle of each leg and across the body and head. This is where the age of this kit showed the most.

And so I took to doing the largest greenstuff application I've ever done on a model.

I don't usually bother with filling gaps as usually paint will cover most issues. However, the lines were so visible that I felt I'd need to do something more definite.

I actually have a surprisingly large amount of greenstuff for someone who doesn't use it and so go on with filling the gaps.

I looked at a few videos before trying this step and one guy had use his knife to cut lines to simulate the Mumak's skin into the greenstuff whilst it was still wet. I'm not sure how successful mine were, but it's better than just a smooth surface.

Looking at the joins now it's painted, I could definitely improve this process, but importantly the joins don't draw the eye, which was my goal, so I'm happy with how I did.

Meanwhile, I started on painting with the base, which is pretty much the equivalent of an entire unit's worth of painting: our dead Rohirrim, two dead Orcs and three dead horses, along with sundry weapons and shields.

I really like the base and decided to go with clumps of grass and flowers rather than using the basing material I usually put on my LotR models because of the level of detail involved, which include horseshoe prints, that I didn't want to cover up.

Next up was the howdah, which was a much simpler affair and done with just four contrast paints, although waiting for each stage to dry was a bit of a pain.

I will say that my top tip if you are going to paint one of these monsters is to keep the base and howdah separate for painting, because otherwise thing will get really awkward.

And finally we got to painting the Oliphaunt itself.

I again mainly used contrast paints, but added some dry brushing of the skin and the tusks to enhance the texture of the skin and deepen the shadows, whilst smoothing out the appearance of the tusks.

I suppose I could have done something to add spikes to the tusks or painted designs to the skin, and I may still do that, but for now my goal was to get it done and on the table.

And so there we have it.

I have to admit that this beast has been one of my white whales of gaming ever since I saw the first model. That's the reason I went for the somewhat frustrating plastic kit (that I had been warned about) rather than exploring 3d printed options.

Given that the scenarios that involve these creatures all included at least two, if and when I get another, I will look at alternatives as this was frustrating at times.

However, I'm really pleased to get it done and it's a great way to start the new year. I now just need to paint a regiment of troops to ride it.

Acquired: 0

Painted: 1

Lead Mountain: 640

Big Fat Review Of The Year

I first set wargaming New Year's resolutions in 2013 and it has become probably the most consistent feature of this blog.

So I see no reason to stop this year. However, I am going to endeavour to be a bit more concise this year.

Let's start, as is tradition, by having a look at how I did with last year's targets:

1. Decrease The Lead Mountain - Success

As ever I set my first goal as ploughing through the backlog, and this has been a resounding success. I began the year with 890 models in the pile and finished with 641. Get in!

2. Play More Narrative Games - Success

In the last year I have:

• Finished of the Lurkers from the Deep feature pack for 7TV (and started Vlad's Army);
• Taken the Fellowship from Lothlorien to failure in the Dead Marshes in the Quest of the Ringbearer;
• Continued Hawk the Slayer's adventures in Five Leagues from the Borderlands;
• Got two gangs involved in scuffles in Necromunda;
• Played through a tutorial campaign in Fallout Wasteland Warfare.
• Played through a tutorial campaign for Judge Dredd: I am the Law!

3. The Tale of Four Armies - Success

I set out to finish and tidy up my Vampire Counts, Bretonnians and Wood Elves (these need rebasing as well) and paint up 1000 points of Skaven for use in Warhammer: The Old World.

I was successful in most of this but actually only painted 500 points of Skaven for Age of Sigmar. However, I did paint 1000 points of Astral Claws for the Badab War in 40k, so that's four and a half armies.

I think I have been surprisingly successful in 2024. Let's carry this positive energy forward into 2025:

1. Decrease the Lead Mountain

Same old, same old. Paint more than I acquire.

Over time this has become less about guilt and making space and more about getting some very old models painted that deserve better than sitting in a cupboard.

2. Get Out More

I've become quite insular in recent times, making me reliant on my regular gaming group for almost all of my games. I can't expect them to always be enthusiastic as I jump about between different systems. I've also, in the past, made some very good friends by getting out of my comfort zone and going to events.

Therefore I'm going to get back to going to events and spreading my gaming net a little wider. I've already signed up for a 40k event in February and I will look at events for other systems I'd like to play more.

3. The Path of Damnation

I have a good number of very old metal Chaos models in the Lead Mountain. Therefore I'm going to create a Chaos army which evokes the more creative style found in the Realms of Chaos books that I reacquired for my birthday.

I'm hoping that this commitment will not only help to work through the Lead Mountain, but stretch my painting and conversion skills. The aim here is more to create something I'm proud of rather than just get models on the table.

So there we have it. 2024 has been a good one for me on the gaming and painting front, and I'm hoping 2025 will be even better.

Happy New Year!

Fallout From Christmas

No, this post isn't about arguing with relatives. It's about me revisiting Fallout Wasteland Warfare and busying myself with a few games (well, a campaign) to re-familiarise myself with the game and especially the solo rules.

In order to do this, I revisited the tutorial campaign from the boxed set as it slowly introduced rules and limits the amount of variables involved.

Each scenario has fixed forces and pre-selected equipment (some of which are odd choices) and from game to game the only impact of who won or lost would be narrative.

I'm not going to get too detail as this will already be a fairly chunky post. Also, there are lots of tokens in the pictures, this is because in the solo game you really need the to keep track of what is happening and I didn't want to faff about moving them all the time.

1. Troubled Beginnings 

Having woken up in Vault 111, Nora heads out into the wasteland. Joining a group of Settlers, they come across a group of Super Mutants checking their traps with a dog caught in one of their snares.

Nora decides to act...

Hearing the Settlers approaching, the Super Mutants leave their traps and come charging through the ruins to attack.

Nora takes the opportunity to rush to the aid of the captured dog.

However she is spotted and attacked by a huge Brute armed with a sledgehammer.

She twists away from the hulking creature and runs to free the dog whilst the Settlers lay down a hail of fire that drops on of the Super Mutants.

The dog bares its teeth and leaps snarling for the Super Mutant Brute.

The Settlers gun down the second Super Mutant heading their way and move up to help Nora. However, the dog is knocking flying by the Brute and lies whimpering in a heap.

In a rage, Nora empties her clip into the Brute, ending its miserable life.

The dog survived and joined Nora, who names it Dogmeat. The Settlers lead the lair to their encampment, staying wary now the knew that there were Super Mutants in the area.

2. Fort Davis

Nora decides to stay with the Settlers for a while and joins an expedition to the ruins of Fort Davis to search for a rumoured weapons cache.

However, upon arrival, the group sees the lumbering forms of Super Mutants moving amongst the wreckage.

Nora and Dogmeat try to get closer, but the creatures are alerted and rush to attack Dogmeat.

Meanwhile, Settlers root around amongst the ruins. They turn up a few weapons, but nothing worth dying for. 

Outnumbered and with bullets whipping through the air around him, Dogmeat takes fright and flees.

As the Super Mutants burst towards Nora, she fires off a few parting shots before retreating with the Settlers and their meagre haul.

3. Water Treatment Plant

The few weapons retrieved from Fort Davis had helped a little with providing security in the camp, but there were other concerns, such as a water shortage.

An expedition, included a Free Tech, was launched to head to an old water treatment plant to see in the mechanisms could be repurposed to pump water to the camp.

However, almost as soon as the work had been started, a group of Super Mutants and their pet Hound attacked. Almost as if they had been waiting for the Settlers to be distracted.

Nora, Dogmeat and one of the Settlers tried to hold off the attack, to give the Free Tech time to complete his work.

However, their line was broken and a Hugh Brute charged the Free Tech.

Meanwhile, one of the Settlers had located the ancient generator controls, and managed to get it working.

Managing to slip away from his attacker, the Free Tech made the final alterations that would ensure that the encampment would be provided with enough water to not only survive, but flourish.

With the job finished, and embattled Nora broke free and retreated with the rest of the Settlers.

4. The Lost Journal

Returning to camp, the group learn that an injured member of the Brotherhood of Steel, Aspirant Goddard, had been taken in after searching for information on a compound that would reverse the effects of the F.E.V. and destroy the Super Mutants.

Realising that this could ensure the settlement:s safety, Nora dons the man's power armour and leads a party to the junkyard to locate the safe containing the lost journal.

The only problem: the junkyard is Super Mutant territory.

Realising they needed to move quickly before more Super Mutants arrived, the party split up to search for the safe and its keys.

Nora, clomping along in her T-60 Power Armour, located one set of keys and also sought to draw the attention of the Super Mutants.

However, the creatures seemed to know what the intruders were after (perhaps because the last person to wear that armour had been after the same thing) and when one of the Settlers located the safe hidden in a Phoenix Fizz machine, all she could do was shout its location to Nora before she was cut down in an ambush.

Meanwhile, the search for the keys continued to no avail. Nora was growing frustrated, but another issue also buzzed round her head.

Where was Dogmeat? Was he glitching and stuck on a rock again?

As Nora prepared to try to burst through the gathered Super Mutants, she suddenly heard a barking.

Dogmeat ran up with a set of keys in his mouth, dropped them in front of Nora and then leapt at one of the Super Mutants.

This gave Nora the space she needed and she shouldered her way through to the safe, retrieving the journal just as more Super Mutants appeared at the edge of the junkyard and thunder could be heard in the distance.

There was a storm coming. It was time to get under cover.

5. The Coming Storm

The journal was revealed to be worthless, but Aspirant Goddard was grateful for the help and offered his assistance to the Settlers.

A huge rad-storm was on the horizon and the group had decided to move their encampment to some nearby caves to wait it out.

Nora, Goddard and a few others would go on ahead to clear the caves of any threats before the rest of the caravan arrived.

The Settlers made directly for the caves, staying together. The storm had begun and there were fell noises on the air.

A group of Super Mutants had clearly had the same idea and were making for the very same caves. However, upon seeing the Settlers, several of the creatures snarled in fury and made directly for them.

However, the attack was interrupted by a ravenous Deathclaw leaping to attack the Mutant Hounds.

Super Mutants don't run from a fight, even against such a fearsome beast, the pack master and his hounds sought to bring down the Deathclaw.

Meanwhile, the Settlers took advantage of this distraction to make directly for the caves, exchanging sporadic fire with those Super Mutants that had managed to get ahead of them.

One Super Mutant leapt in amongst them, striking down Dogmeat but taking heavy damage from an enraged Aspirant Goddard.

Meanwhile, the pack master and Hounds struggled to subdued the Deathclaw, which equally was making heavy weather of them.

One of the Super Mutants, seeing its compatriot surrounded, a Deathclaw on the loose and a storm about to hit in full force, assessed the situation, decided to leave everyone else to their fate and ran into the caves.

The Super Mutant that had slain Dogmeat was brought down and Nora and another Settler headed into the caves to deal with the one that had gone inside.

Meanwhile, the Deathclaw finally got the upper hand (with a little help from a lightning strike), ripping aport the two Hounds and hurling the pack master into a heap.

The Super Mutant lay there groaning as the terrifying beast closed in on him.

Aspirant Goddard faced the last member of the Super Mutant gang, an Enslaved Tech. He offered the man a chance to join the Settlers, or even come to work for the Brotherhood.

With his captors dead, the man eagerly agreed and he was welcomed into the group. The rest of the settlement arrived just in time to avoid the storm which Nora watched from the cave mouth, musing on the death of Dogmeat.

Fortunately she knew that, once the storm had passed, she could head up into the hills near Vault 111 and find another dog without any problems. She had no idea why this was the way the world worked now, it just did.

***

All in all I've really enjoyed playing through the campaign and I'm going to play some more linked games of Fallout Wasteland Warfare, either another pre-written campaign or having a go at Settlement Mode. I'm not sure which.

There were a couple of issues which probably stem from the tutorial games not specifically being written with solo play in mind. Sometimes the objectives in the scenarios were unclear and quite hard for A.I. controlled Super Mutants to achieve. Also, some of the weapon loadouts made no sense for the Super Mutants (e.g. the Brute never makes ranged attacked under A.I. control, but was given a plasma rifle in the last scenario). These are issues I need to consider if I start designing my own forces.

***

Other than playing a LOT of Fallout Wasteland Warfare over the past few days, I also, predictably was given a few wargaming bits and pieces for Christmas.

Not too much, but enough to keep me happy;

• A Mumakil for MESBG (including 13 Haradrim);
• 5 Foreign Delegates for my Carnevale Patricians;
• 2 Lesser Ugdru for my Carnevale Rashaar!
• A book of fantasy backgrounds by John Hodgson;
• A wet palette (finally).

I still have a massive Lead Mountain to work through, so not adding too much to it is healthy. I am very keen to get my teeth into the Mumakil, mainly because the post title writes itself.

I think there might be another post before the weekend, but I've also got my review of the year to come.

Acquired: -37

Painted: 396

Lead Mountain: 641