Putting the Fantasy into Warhammer Battle Miniatures

They're called Mini Monsters and they bring a heck of a lot to the Warhammer battlefield in the way of superbly painted and converted Fantasy Battle miniatures and imaginative terrain and scenery.

I've been looking forward to writing this because I haven't posted anything wholly Fantasy Battle related for a while I really wanted to share a new painting and modeling site I stumbled across. If you're wondering why I'm so excited then you'll get a clue by taking a close look at the Ogre on the right... or should I say Von Ogre.

I discovered Mini Monsters' miniatures on Facebook and they kindly granted me permission to show off some of their Fantasy Battle offerings. I'm not in anyway connected to their company, this is just my review of their miniatures and I get to add some great model and unit pics to my blog ! :)

Mini Monsters run a website (click above logo to see their miniatures gallery where you can find stacks more mini photos) and they are available for commission work.

They also have a presence on coolminiornot and eBay (Mini Monsters) and are well worth a look*.

* Note: I checked out some of their eBay completed listings to see what their miniatures go for and I was pleasantly surprised because in some cases they are a lot cheaper than their competitors (the Buy It Now prices on many of the lots also looks very reasonable).

---

Anyway, enough of the free advertising, here's what I think of the miniatures...

What I really like about their miniatures is that they make them look "fantasy-like" and unique. They're not drab but colourful and they're inventive with bases, banners and conversions to the models. The banners are distinctive, large and nicely styled and they don't make the mistake of adding too much detail which can lessen their appearance on the battlefield where intricacies are lost in the massed ranks.

When someone like myself tries to achieve this kind of result the miniatures can all too often come out looking "over-modeled" and generally overdone if you get my meaning (hopefully, you know where I'm coming from). Mini Monster's (Dargo000 seems to the the painter) seem to have been able to avoid this and don't go over the top and make them look, for want of a better word, silly. They make them look just right. Bright and original enough to stand out on the battlefield but not so glaring that your opponent dons his Miami Vice shades and complains that eye strain caused him to lose the battle.

In the range of miniatures on their Gallery there is more focus on the baddies than the goodies, hence you'll see mainly Chaos, Vampires, Dark Elves and Skaven below but I don't think they're limited to evil races. There are other armies on their site but in fewer numbers. I suspect most of the commissions (and thus pics) come from the more lazy, evil minded gamers who have embraced sloth and become greedy for painted miniatures without having to lift a brush of their own - just like me :)

Check out this miniature, it looks like a GW one but I certainly can't find it on their website under the Warriors of Chaos section because it definitely looks like it could be Valkia The Bloody (it's been based on the picture in the army book that's for sure).   It looks like a conversion to me, maybe some wings from an old Vampire model and possibly some 40k bitz. I shall ask Mini Monsters.

How about this Vampire Counts banner, a simple design (albeit applied very skillfully) and all the more striking for it.... The contrast between the moon and the wolf should ensure that even the stunty cannon crew cowering on the top of the hill have a decent target to aim for ;-)

Below is another example of a mini I don't think I've seen before. This is Malekith on a Cold One. I could be wrong (I usually am and I'm ready to be corrected if you want to leave a comment) but this doesn't looks like your regular cold one to me. The "gills" or whatever they're named around the mouth and the tail set this apart from any Dark Elf cold one I've seen and it's certainly not a Lizardmen cold one or a Carnosaur (although it's big enough - "tip to toe").

Anyway, that's not the point I was going to make with this model. What I'm impressed with here is the colouring and the base.  This model will definitely make an impact because it's err.... almost pink !  Not what you'd expect from Malekith, I was thinking more black on black but that's why I like this model. Let's face it, if Malekith wants to ride a pink Cold One who's going to whisper kind advice in his ear ?!  (maybe Tyrion, a Blood Thirster or a very drunk giant but that's about it I think). Bold and superb - nice work.

BTW, I didn't mention the excellent gold effect. It's very difficult to make gold work on miniatures but they've done the job nicely here. It's also nice to see the extra work that's been done to the base, this is afterall a Lord character and thus should be worth that extra time and effort because he's likely to be "showing off" on the battlefield a lot longer than a mere harpy - or at least that's what the Dark elf player will be hoping.

Now, how about this for an excellent idea, flagellant ghosts ! I guess they could also be used as Cairn Wraiths (although their weapons of choice aren't quite right, actually forget that idea !)

These are, in my opinion, frankly... awesome. Let's face it, not all of those flagellants who reckon that they have appeased their god by whipping themselves for a decade are going to make the grade at the pearly gates (if you have to whip yourself that much you really have been a bad boy!). So, if you're not in heaven but you managed to edge yourself up from the flaming pits then I guess there is only one vocation left - a ghost.

A great idea by Mini Monsters and very well implemented. Copy it !

Here's a small but effective example of attention to detail. This, I presume, is likely to be The Empire players Battle Standard Bearer so it should stand out and look larger and of course higher than your every day grunt unit standard so... put the model on a higher base. Simple right ? I bet not many people think of it and even less people actually do it.

Now, what about this... I mean, I have no idea what it is (it's incomparable with the GW models) but it's perfect for a Skaven monster "thing". I love it and it makes a perfect Hell Pit Abomination. Afterall, the Abomination has the Regenerate, Shambling Horror and Too Horrible to Die special rules and if any Skaven model deserves those then this is it.

Mini Monsters deserve a lot of credit, they're injecting imagination into their miniatures and bringing us something slightly different and yet in keeping with what we know and love. These guys think before they paint and they think what they're going to paint.

How about this one, it makes a perfect Abyssal Terror but I don't recognize the model - do you ? I'm not an expert in the miniatures out there but I think I would have remembered this one because I was looking for one when the the last Vampire Counts army book was released.

I could go on and on but I need to finish before it gets too long and before match of the day starts. So just a few more to whet your appetite...

An Ogre in a Dragon / Cold One cloak... (another one I don't recognize so presume it's custom made)

Here's a very proud Ogre Battle Standard Bearer who is basically saying "I am the Man (read: 'Ogre')". It looks like his tribe have put it to the Dwarfs, High Elves, Bretonnia, The Empire and lopped off the head of a Dragon for the hell of it. Personally, I wouldn't take this model into battle because I'd be too scared of having to take him off the table !

They also do Warmachines... how about something completely different, a Chaos Warshrine pulled by giant forest spiders !

And just to prove that they don't just paint baddies, check this one out. A proper Red Dragon (as far as I'm concerned they should all be red or green - don't hold it against me Joel [private joke]) with a good High Elf Lord atop - although I suspect he probably has a bad side to him on a "bad hair" day ;-)

I was going to talk a bit about their terrain and scenery but I'll have to put that in another post, this one is already too long, here's just a taster of what you can expect, some gothic ruins...

I suspect this has sounded like one long advert for Mini Monsters, I didn't mean it to I just got carried away. I know they're in it for the money but given the quality of their ideas and that what they're producing craftily breaks the mold of what we're used to, I think they deserve the credit.

Anyway, enough said, you know where to look. Thanks for reading and enjoy their gallery.

Warhammer Conversions - Chaos Armies

Let your imagination run wild in your Fantasy Battle miniature modeling.

I'm not a big Chaos fan really (except for maybe Beastmen which I'm thinking about collecting). Sometimes though I think I might be missing a trick.

My main armies are High Elves, Vampires and my custom designed Nautican army. None of these offers the same kind of imaginative customization that you can experiment with when putting a Chaos army together.

Daemons are the primary candidate for messing around with your bitz bag and things you find in old Tamiya, Airfix boxes, the garden shed or back of the sofa. Next up in the customizable are are probably Warriors of Chaos thanks to them being almost as twisted as their soul less masters :)

Anyway, I stumbled across some brilliant Chaos conversions on Xenite's Wordpress blog ("Little Green Monsters"). Xenite is going to end up with one awesome, very unique and beautifully modelled Chaos army.

(Xenite has kindly granted me permission to show his pics, see the original Chaos photos here).

Both chariots pulled by Chaos Spawn - just looking at the fellow below makes me wonder how he actually moves (without bumping the crew out of the chariot !) Check out the detail, like the taught chains - superb.

Chaos Manticore conversion

I have added Xenite's blog to the WFB Allies blogroll (which must have about 30 blogs on now). If you want your blog added just leave a post anywhere on one of my blogs. You'll need to update it fairly regularly with stuff my readers will be interested in and I'd be grateful if you linked back here and/or the Fantasy Battle Reporter blog.

Personalise your Warhammer Army by customizing (or "customixing") the fluff

Have you spent hours modeling and painting your fantasy army trying to make it stand out from the crowd ? Well, you can always go that one step further...

Elazar The Glorified (one of the Battle Reporter forum members with the popular and inspiring painting blog:- Elazar's Glorious Works) has brought his army to life by not only naming his characters, as I guess many of us do, but by creating a background for his army with Chaos Gods, tribes and accompanying stories for his very own custom special characters.

This kind of approach has many benefits if you think about it. It adds an extra dimension to your army which, of course, you can use to spice up battles by "getting into character". Also, it provides motivation for your modeling, painting and will inspire you onwards. After all, it's much more fun to be painting Grizball Strongarm Goblin Nutcracker than, say, an Empire Captain.

The most satisfying aspect I suspect is creating an army with it's very own unique character, agenda and prejudices (let's face it, nearly all armies seem to hate another one somewhere in the Warhammer World). Or, if you're Dark Elves your army probably hates everyone else - I don't believe they reserve the honor for High Elves alone ;)

If you create your own army's background you can of course really mix things up. What about an Orcs and Goblins host that does some paid contract work for Dwarfs or vice-versa !?!

Anyway, here's some of Elazar's ideas and pics that he posted on the Battle Reporter Forum...

---

The Devotees of Elazar

Elazar The Glorified is a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, worshipped as a proxy for his patron by the Diatchi Tribes. The Diatchi are of Kurgan stock and a number of small tribes make up this people. The Tribes live in a state of conflict with one another and each answer to competing Zars. However, their duty to their immortal idol supercedes all other matters and the Diatchi warhost is an intimidating sight indeed when unified in purpose and marching under the watchful gaze of Elazar himself.

Some of Elazar's notes:-

The Devotees of Elazar are a Slaaneshi Warriors of Chaos force. I wanted to create a host dedicated to Slaanesh that didn't focus on the lust aspect of this particular god but instead on the vanity and pride aspects more. I also wanted to avoid the common pink/purple colour schemes used by Games Workshop and do something a little more original. I had always wanted to try a chaos army with a bone coloured armour as I thought this would give it a very unique look instead of the traditional cult colours or undivided black that Games Workshop use.


Hellcannon Aral'vakran

Such is the vanity of Elazar that trophies are taken from all his victories, no matter their size or manner.


Aral'vakran was a rival Daemon Prince of Slaanesh who competed with Elazar for their god's favour. The Daemons' respective followers waged war upon one another and once the Devotees of Elazar had establish the upper hand the two immortal beings clashed in combat. Elazar bested Aral'vakran and bound the Daemon within a small trinket box.


Decades passed by and Elazar, courting the Dwarven Daemonsmith Vogner Ungart, gave the bound Daemon Prince as a gift in exchange for the dwarf's servitude.


Once more Aral'vakran marches at the head of armies but now, instead, as a bound slave. Deep inside the cannon bearing his name lies the same trinket box striving to contain its prisoners rage within the warmachine, all the while Elazar watches in amusement.


Vela The Performer (pictured with the hell cannon above)

Once a great performer in the Altdorf theatre, his true name since forgotten. He possessed some magical talent that charmed the minds of his audience in a harmless way, indeed he knew not of this gift of his. Like all performers he had many patrons in the nobility, it was the way of the rich to try and enhance their standing by supporting the arts. This one performer though had a patron of a different nature altogether.

One night after a grandiose performance of a play entitled ‘The Merchant of Marienburg’ the performer returned to his quarters to find all the usual lavish gifts left for him by his supporters. Amongst them was a curious glass case within which stood a scarecrow marionette. Intrigued the performer reached into the case and picked out the strange puppet.

The next day he did not show up for the play and when the angry theatre owner went to his quarters to rebuke the performer he found a scene of devastation. Untouched in the destruction of the quarters was a glass case and next to it a card signed ‘Elazar’.

The performer next turned up deep in the northern wastes where he’d wandered aimlessly until he was picked up by a Diatchi raiding party who took him captive. As is the way of the Diatchi and most of the other Kurgan races they made some of their captives fight to the death. Those they deemed blessed by the gods were spared and given a new life amongst the tribes. So it would be for this man as Elazar had developed a great love of his star performer and would see no harm come to him. He slaughtered a number of stronger slaves, showing a startling sorcerous ability that earned him the fear and respect of the tribesmen. They spared his life and he took the name Vela. It soon became clear that he was inseparable from the strange marionette that he carried with him. He spoke to the puppet and often fought with it. Worse for the tribesmen he often embarked upon strange performances for their ‘enjoyment’ sharing the lead roles with the being of wood and string that accompanied him. However, when at war he proved to be an invaluable ally. The puppet seemingly a focus for his power and his sorcery. Capable of controlling the minds of his enemies and making them do his bidding; his brand of warfare has proven invaluable in the wastes. An insane megalomaniac and egoist, Vela is now a favoured servant of Elazar and his presence can be found alongside the champions that his daemonic patron favours at that time.



Vela The Performer - 195pts (left click & roll your mouse over him to spin him round !)

Equipment: Hand Weapon, Chaos Armour

Special Rules
Eye of the Gods

Sorcerer of Elazar: Vela is a Level 2 Sorcerer who chooses his spells as normal from the Lore of Slaanesh. His Mark makes him Immune to Psychology.

Daemonic Patron: Elazar still watches over Vela, taking great interest in his career and keeping him from harm. Vela is immune to Killing Blow and Poisoned Attacks.

Insane Puppeteer: The Northmen respect Vela's power and know that he is truly loved by Elazar but an insane southman with a puppet doesn't inspire their confidence. Friendly models can never take advantage of Vela's leadership even if he is the army general.

Magic Items
The Marionette: This scarecrow marionette was given to Vela as a gift by his patron Elazar. The marionette is a focus for Vela's sorcerous power and a tool for his power of manipulation. The marionette has its own cruel intentions though and longs to break free of its controller. Indeed, at times the puppets will wrestles with Vela's, trying to reverse their roles and trap Vela within the confines of wood and strings. The puppet allows Vela to add D3 to his casting roll once per turn. This cannot cause a miscast or irresistible force. However the malevolent spirit of the marionette attempts to assume control and Vela must test for stupidity in his next turn whilst puppet and master battle wits.

The puppet also allows Vela to modify any rolls on the miscast table made by any wizard on the battlefield. Vela can modify the result up or down by up to the result of D3. This doesn't cause Vela to have to test for stupidity in his next turn.

A ball of fire flew past Amador and impacted the ground a few metres behind him. It burned itself out in an instant and dust and ash were strewn everywhere by the force of its landing. Amador turned to see where Vela was. He’d mounted a rocky outcrop and to the bemusement of the tribesmen around him was reciting lines from a play. The marionette he carried was ‘acting’ along too.


Amador didn’t dare even mutter a curse under his breath. He knew the Performer was a favourite of his daemonic patron, privileged over even himself in that respect.


The wizard ally of the southmen hurled another fireball across the battlefield, this time it whooshed clean over the Mad Puppeteer’s head. Vela’s attention was snapped from his recital for a moment and he glared across the battlefield with contempt for the weakling wizard. He concentrated his gaze for just a few moments as the wizard summoned the raw energies for another spell. Suddenly the focus of power back lashed on the southman and he exploded in a sphere of bright light, the energy of which seared the skin of the men who’d been acting as his bodyguards.


Vela switched his attention then to a large group of heavily armoured cavalrymen charging towards Amador’s silently marching Warriors. With a violent jerk of the marionette the legs of the steeds became tangled and they fell sending their riders hurtling to the ground with jarring force. Another movement of the scarecrow marionette and the Knights leapt upon each other, blades drawn. They slaughtered one another in a screaming orgy of violence.


Then Vela was locked in a bitter argument with the silent marionette and paid no further heed to the enveloping battle around him.


Amador made a silent promise to his patron that the souls he reaped today would be in his honour. With that he ordered the charge…

Check out some of Elazar's modeling and painting projects in his Battle Reporter forum thread.

---

It would be rude of me not to mention that Elazar is offering his painting services to anyone interested (for a reasonable fee). If you'd like him to paint some of your minis, you can see the quality of his work in more detail in the slideshow below and contact him through his blog (see top of this post).

Beastmen Foe Render & Dark Emissary - expertly painted


PS. Not all posts will be as long as this, I guess I was just feeling in the posting mood tonight ;)

Choosing a colour scheme to paint your Fantasy Battle Army

Just because Warriors of Chaos always seem to be black and red and High Elves always blue and white and Dark Elves always purple it doesn't mean your miniatures have to look the same.

Painting by Noeste from the Warhammer Fantasy Battle Reporter forum

I chose this army as a great example of a bold theme which can look quite striking on the battlefield and set your army apart from the norm.

These miniatures look good both up close and from a distance across the tabletop because of their consistent, uncomplicated appearance. If you're painting an army to game with then you're often better off keeping it simple because so much of the detail can get lost in the distance or maybe we can call it... the "fog of war" ;)

The Slaanesh worshippers look like they've traveled down from the Frozen Wastes through the Troll Country and are charging into battle with Kislevites on the frontiers of the northern Empire. The impression is also partly thanks to the model bases which can also tell a part of the story when it comes to your army theme.

I know I'm probably over emphasizing the theme of these miniatures but I'm just trying to get the point across that you can use whatever theme you like when painting your army - just use your imagination and have fun.

click to greatly enlarge photos in a new window

Miniatures © Games Workshop 2010. All rights reserved. Used without permission. Models painted by Noeste