Just Finished Painting: Catachan Veterans

Another project I'm planning now since many years is an Imperial Guard / Astra Militarum army for Warhammer 40K as I'm a big fan of the 40K background and especially the brave men of the Guard. For many years I was thinking about all those different regiments and which one I would like to field on the tabletop. A force of Vostroyan Firstborn mechanized infantry was my top choice. Then the Valkyrie Assault Carrier came out I was hooked by this great model and the idea of an airborne infantry army. And of course a Vietnam war style airborne Catachan army was the obvious choice reminding on the film Apocalypse Now. I bought some boxes of Catachan infantry and command units, put them into my hobby shelves and forgot them.



A unit of Catachan veterans.

When I tried out the hexless Command & Colours rules with Andi some weeks ago I started thinking about a 40K campaign centering on a Chaos invasion of an Imperial planet. As I already have an Chaos Space Marine army, I was just lacking their Imperial adversaries. So I removed the dust from the Catachan boxes and started  to glue them together.



With three Plasma guns they are specialised in Anti-Marine warfare.



















During the last days I painted the first unit: a unit of ten Catachan veterans with three Plasma guns bearers, 6 regular dudes and a sergeant. The main colour I used was Athonian Camoshade. My plan is to paint 20 more of them, give them either Valkyries or Chimera transports accompanied by a Leman Russ tank. Then I can field them as a 750 point Warhammer 40K army or as the backbone of an Imperial Guard army for the Command & Colours campaign.

Beyond the Pillars of Heracles - About the Harpies of the Islands of Aquarius

Aquarians attacked by a flock of harpies.

From the writings of Pontifex the priest about the Harpies of the Islands of Aquarius:

"And those are known as the Harpies of the islands. Half birds, half witch-women. They live on the wild mountain tops of the Islands of Aquarius. And they rule the skies over the islands With their dreadfull chantings they charm both men and animals to descend on them and to feed themselves on their flesh and blood. They represent the baneful. And they also represent the storms and malign winds.

Once in a year Kelaino, the harpy, comes from the far west. Kelaino who once met Aeneus on the Strofades. Then she flies to Aquarius. And she lies with him. This is Aquarius' punishment. The punishment given him by Zeus for his disobedience once in the Bronzen Age of Men.

This is the punishment for the Sons of Aquarius too. As there is one single egg coming from the joining every year. And from this egg another daughter of Kelaino arises every year. Joining their sisters in the skies.

Often men don't see them for many years. But at times they come down from their mountain ranges in great number."


Just Finished Painting: Harpies

Continuing my Ancient Greek Imagi -Nation project I decided to do something different. As my Imagi-Nation compromises not only of historical but also of fantastical beings I decided to paint up a flock of harpies.

A flock of deadly harpies.

Deciding which miniatures to take wasn't easy. I wanted to use a design that fits into classical mythology rather then into a fantasy setting. Finally I found what I was looking for on the gaming blog of Alex, a very nice guy and superb painter I know for many years now dating back to my study times in Münster. For his Conan style Barbarian army he had painted some very nice old school harpies designed by the extraordinary German miniature designer Werner Klocke. You can find Alex' blog entry here: http://moebiusminiaturemania.blogspot.de/2015/03/the-muscle-mania-barbarian-project.html



Designed by Werner Klocke.

I started to look for them on the internet and found out that they are nowadays sold by two different companies: Excalibur Miniatures (http://www.excalibur-miniatures.com/shop/index.php?cPath=4_14&page=2) and Ral Partha Europe (http://www.ralparthaeurope.co.uk/shop/dsa-the-dark-eye-28mm-fantasy-c-30/creatures-17000-c-30_34/17030-harpy-p-1026.html).



Published by Excalibur Miniatures and Ral Partha Europe.

And funny enough last year when I went to the Bitbox - a small and charming gaming fair in Mülheim an der Ruhr in my home region, the Ruhr valley - I was able to buy the first three of those harpies by Werner Klocke himself. Werner was selling some of his old stuff on this fair. When told him about my plans he was very surprised that somebody was doing research on this old miniature line. I ordered the the other seven online.



Some fantastical beings of the Islands of Aquarius.

When I was visiting the beautiful home village of Bettina last summer I based them on round 25mm bases. During the last weeks I did the paint job using my inking/washing/shading painting method. I plan to field them as an unit of skirmishers with wings for Warhammer Ancient Battles or as some bases of flyers for Hordes of the Things.