Riders on the storm

It's another classic-rock-inspired blog title today, because I've been furiously at work digging out, chopping up and putting together all my Chaos cavalry. And I'm pretty sure if Chaos dudes listened to any kind of music, it would, of course, be rock.

When searching them out I was slightly surprised to find there was a grand total of 22 unpainted horsemen in this collection, representing quite the mass of spikey, fast-moving, armoured killers.*

The first three are probably my favourite of this batch. Incredible metal models, that were an awful struggle to glue together – my fingers are pocked, pierced and sore, and possibly even suffering from some kind of lead poisoning – but their fearsomeness to construct is more than made up for by the fearsomeness of their appearance. Especially when you factor in that Archaon, the middle one, is roughly 18 years old now.

Then there are these guys (above). They're the contents of the plastic boxset released around 2008, where the knights all seemed a little too big, and which (some might say, inexplicably) replaced the not-long released metal boxset below (from around 2003).

Then these four miniatures above are all old, unpainted conversions of mine, that were based on classic metal Chaos Knights, released around the early to mid 90s. As such they're probably not as cool as some of the other models here, but I think it's still worth painting them.

And then these guys have all been constructed using the contents of the Chaos Marauder Horsemen boxset. A fantastic kit that gives you a tonne of good-looking options. I borrowed one of their original horses for one of my metal knights, so that's been replaced by a repaired metal horse from an earlier release.

So that's all the cavalry that I'll be adding to my collection. But there's actually a few more models that I'll be removing. These are some of the very first Chaos Warrior miniatures that I owned – probably released about the same time as the first instalment of Kaleb Daark that I showed in the the previous post. The miniatures originally included both foot and mounted versions of the characters, and had simple names like Chaos Champion, Chaos Knight and Chaos General. I think I've repainted them about 5 times since my original effort, and judging from the lack of visible sculpted detail on their present condition, it's clear I've never bothered to strip their previous paint jobs. And, its too late now anyway, as these fellas have been well and truly consigned to my hall of fame.

There are no newly finished miniatures here, so my Addiction Challenge score remains the same. Coincidentally there are 22 miniatures left to paint in the challenge, and I just happen to have exactly the same number of unpainted miniatures here. If this weren't all about Chaos that would sound very much like the beginning of a plan.

ADDICTION CHALLENGE
REMAINING: 22

*In fact you could say 'killers on the road', to further borrow from The Doors song referenced in the title.**
**According to Wikipedia, psychedelic rock song, Riders on the Storm (released in 1971) had portions of its lyrics allegedly inspired by real-life killer Billy Cook, who murdered six people during a 22 day rampage while hitchhiking to California in the early 1950s. It may also have been the last song Jim Morrison recorded before his death.***
***These probably aren't suitable subjects to discuss while talking about children's toy soldiers.

Black and white, and Daark all over

I'm going to keep my comments brief on this one. That's because I want to share, in full, one of the other reasons for my fascination with Chaos Warriors. As a result there are quite a few images to get through. 

Back in the mid eighties the first Games Workshop publication I ever picked up was The Third Citadel Compendium. Not only was this magazine full of pictures of the most inspiring toys I had ever seen, but the final ten pages had something my young self was particularly blown away by.

It was a specially commissioned story, by some of the top creative talent from the galaxy's greatest comic: 2000AD (home of Judge Dredd, ABC Warriors, Rogue Trooper and a tonne of other fantastic science-fiction stories, too numerous to mention).

Writers John Wagner and Alan Grant had taken Games Workshop's fantasy Warhammer setting and infused it with everything that made 2000AD so popular: action, comedy, anarchy, a spot of vulgarity and even a lone antihero (in the style of early Dredd strips). And the whole package was beautifully, masterfully, illustrated by Brett Ewins and Jim McCarthy, working as a team to create some of the very best pages of their already high-quality, signature art style. Even Steve Potter's lettering perfectly captured the tone of the piece.

Sadly, due to a dispute over ownership rights, the story was never finished and has therefore never been reprinted or collected. So, partly as a reference for my Chaos Warrior project, and partly as the act of an adoring fan, I've decided to put all the pages together in one place.

If you were involved with this, and have a claim on the ownership, please don't sue me, it's a wonderful body of work and deserves not to be lost.

For everyone else, read on to see The Quest Of Kaleb Daark.