Godric sat in his tent, enjoying the feast before him, all of it freshly prepared. Boar, hen, baked bread made by the servants given to him by his new master, even some roots that had been foraged and prepared, mixed with spices and honey. He nodded gratefully to one of the marauders, whose family would have brought down the boar and enjoyed the reaction it elicited, a strange hand gesture mixed with an almost bow, the smile creasing her painted face as she returned to her own meal.
It was strange being here, he considered. In a warm tent as the wind howled outside, surrounded by people his former comrades might have called barbarians. They would laugh at them inside their castles far to the south, assuming anyone up here would be simpletons resorting to base violence. And true, it had taken him a while to get used to the idea of having servants he owned rather than simply employed. Or how frequently he talked to demons and Godlings as if they were any other comrade. But he had found a common purpose with these warriors, now seeing them as trurer friends than any knight he might have once fought alongside.
The wind howled once more as the flap opened, a trio of armoured figures joining them. Two of them, Musongo and Kazour, bowed and headed to their usual seats while the third came to kneel beside his seat, her hair pulled up into a topknot, the side of her head shaved and marked with tattoos.
“My Lord…” His Seneschal started, but Godric merely placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to pause.
“Rhazgra, my dear, come sit, you must be famished. I had worried the Templars had caught you.” He smiled down at her, spotting the confusion in her face slowly turning to relief.
“I… thank you my lord.” She seemed to relax, taking her seat and quickly biting into the food that Kazour had passed her. Godric smiled at the way the Embalmer had served his superior before himself and wondered idly if the older warrior had once served some general in the South. Musongo, as she always seemed to, had already started talking animatedly to Kraureth and his Queen, the hearty laughter of the trio soon filling the silence as the Wanderer started up her story.
Godrivr leaned closer to Rhazgra. “I assume you encountered our mutual enemy?”
His Seneschal took a moment to swallow but then answered him, a childhood of manners the northern chill hadn’t pulled out of her. She answered, matching his quieter tone. “They did My Lord. And as you predicted they were far too easy to trap. The undead did our dirty work.”
“And I assume that your sister gave them a parting gift?” He smiled, already picturing the younger of the two girls casting down green fire upon their common foe. As much as he may dislike the Templars and their ways, Rhalar had a hatred for them that lit a fire in the young woman. He didn’t press her on it, but the Templars were not kind to those with knowledge of the arcane and the scars on her face were the sort of wounds an Inquisitor would inflict.
“She did.” Rhazgra smiled in response.
Godric couldn’t help but smile back. “Good girl. And the artefact?”
“Already presented to The Speaker, as you requested.” She bowed her head slightly, the candle light catching the golden ring through her eyebrow. “It was an honour to serve you this day, my lord.”
He smiled at her again. The two of them were not so different – both had fled the Empire for their own reasons, and turned their talents to thriving in the north. They may have travelled different paths to be sat in the tent in their pitch black plate armour but there was a connection there. She and her sister served him admirably and in return he rewarded them based on merit – a far cry from snivelling lords buying themselves commands in the south.
Tearing a leg from a cooked game hen, he pointed the exposed bone at her. “The honour comes to you because of your skills, not because I grant it. But for now eat. Rest. Tomorrow we return to our Lord and see what his next command is.”
I thought I was done with painting Chaos Warriors. I thought I’d had my fill of the black armoured bastards, the fridge sized units that are one of the best designed things Games Workshop have come up with. I’ve painted the Underworlds band, I painted both the classic design and the newer one (that still needs a separate release) and I even painted a limited edition one after doing mod work to it. Sure, there were some Chaos Warriors I had missed out – the Exalted Heroes which are made of finecast and probably not worth my time preparing or even painting for how much bullshit I’ll have to deal with (even if the Crom the Conqueror model does give me some massive flashbacks to seeing his figure being released in White Dwarf all those years ago) and the limited edition Slambo figure already has a call back from the Underworld’s band that does it better and more in keeping with the current range.
And then while walking around Warhammer World, I spotted… Him
Oh dear, another Chaos Warrior character. From 2012, this guy is actually in plastic which surprised me. He comes from that era just before Age of Sigmar, where characters were often sold with moulded plastic square bases – I also have two models from the Dark Elf range (the Assassin and the Sorceress) which are similarly equipped. As someone who never really into Warhammer Fantasy Battle, square bases always feel archaic. Buying models with them on, especially these sculpted ones, always is a pain. It just adds some additional work that needs to be done to clear them up, trimming down the plastic edges so they can be placed onto the regular bases.
However, there was another thing I’d need to do. As mentioned before, I’m using the Chaos Warriors to represent the armoured warriors of the Northern Kingdoms, realms beyond the control of the central Empire of the setting. For these reason, these characters are not the heavily mutated warriors of fantasy (we’ll get to those guys later) but instead highly trained warriors clad in well made armour. For this reason, I’d need a headswap to something more human. Luckily, one advantage of having a 3d printer is that it opens some doors in terms of spare heads. Looking through the collection of Mercenaries from Reptilian Overlords (which are basically a collection of parts for making Mordhiem mercenaries), I had an idea.
With how my world is setup, it’s very possible (and more common than the Swordmasters would like to admit) for an Imperial Knight to leave his posting and head into the north. Perhaps they grow tired of the Empire’s constant wars, maybe some betrayal on the field of battle leaves them alone and far from home. Once they arrive in the north, these Knights will need to prove themselves to their new liege lords (and their fellow warriors) but bring with them knowledge that the locals may lack – especially when the Northern Kingdoms head south to raid the coast or push back any Imperial advance across the Sea of Storms.
To apply this, I went through and found a suitable head, eventually settling on the classic veteran look of horseshoe moustache and eyepatch. Running it through a quick printjob, installing just required trimming the bulk of the head off the neck piece from the kit before filing down the joint. I also tweaked the head position – where as the original was glaring down an opponent, the new heading is a touch more relaxed, a little more posed.
Painting wise, the model is the same style as I’ve used through all my Chaos warriors. the nice thing about this scheme is that it’s simple but provide the effect I’m going for with ease. I’m still really happy with the black contrast on metal look, as well as how the purple stands out against it, really catching the eye. The main additions for this model was adding some bone colours to the snarling face and horns – I like the idea that this guy is a touch more ornate with his armour, the snarling skull probably something he slew back when he first arrived. I also played around with adding a touch of hexwraith to the spear to fill in some of the cracks with green. You can see just a touch of it which give an effect but I might need to rethink it for next time.
I think at this point I’m safe from future chaos warrior plans. As mentioned at the top, I’m really not interested in painting anything Finecast in this range, as the moulds are more trouble than they are worth in the clean up stage. I think my Chaos Warriors force is now going to look elsewhere for additions – I still need to paint up the knights and associated “Lord on Crocodile” but that will be a project I have to drag myself through (because painting horses). There are also some other Chaos forces to paint up – I now have three Chaos Warcry bands waiting for paint and some extra figures to accompany the big boss. Turns out I may not have bought anything at Warhammer World but the trip did give me some ideas…