Azazel, The Impudent Master Of Skulduggery, Beloved Prince Of Slaanesh

EDIT 26.4.2011
Azazel got some colour to his wings. The white wings got some critisism and I decided to repaint them in black and white pattern. Here's the result...

I published this piece also on the Finnish miniature wargaming forum Sotavasara.net and instantly got some great feedback, one of them being the critisism for the blank white wings. I took the hint and I must say, the difference is like between night and day! Now Azazel is bound much tighter to his brothers' colour scheme and the wings are much more life-like. Sometimes it's good thing to give the work to others to look at and pick up the hints they give to you, with of course keeping in mind where you're aiming with your work...

--

Rock and roll brothers, my Emperor's Children Daemon Prince, Azazel, is finally ready! It took me around a month of more and less intensive hobby time to finish him, and must say, I'm quite satisfied with the outcome. I tried couple of new (to me) tricks in here, like dripple effect with hair and gloss varnish, fading cloth freehand etc.

Sneaky Secondary Project Also Getting Attention

At the same time I'm whining about the tight schedule I've with the Gaga project, I've managed to build on my Emperor's Children warband with a "good" pace. It must be one of those rare occasions when I actually have enough motivation to do several projects at the same time. Oh the irony...

Here's Azazel, the ferocious prince of Slaanesh, in a white undercoat waiting for paint brush to caress his grotesque figures. His skin is going to get the same kind of pale white tone as did the beast headed Chaos Space Marine in my previous Emperor's Children update. I'm trying to bind Azazel's colour scheme together with the rest of the gang by painting his robe in fiery purple and maybe using black in his legs, wings and claw hand, don't know yet... There are some mystical runes in his sword that I thought that would look nice if they'd radiate the same tepid blue as is seen in the aspiring champion's plasma pistol and in regular Chaos Space Marine's eye sockets'.

Azazel is going to be "the foreman" of my Emperor's Children and the very centerpiece of this band of chaotic brothers. His angel like feather wings, loosely hanging robe and sword full of unknown runes really make him look ancient, as if he had caused fear and loath in distant worlds for millennia. This should spice up otherwise modern warband a bit and throw in some nice fluff too, don't you think?

This is actually my first bigger metallic multipart miniature that I've build. I must say, pinning didn't become my first favourite thing in the hobby, that's for sure. The figure is quite heavy and I'm not sure what is the best way to paint a miniature this big. Maybe I'll glue a nut in the bottom of the base and put a screw through some sort of wooden stand to hold the whole thing in place, so that I won't rub the undercoat/paintjob off while holding the thing while painting??

In my previous Emperor's Children post - Fabulous Five - I told you that I still need to build the sixth member for my first group of Chaos Space Marines to match up the sacred number of Slaanesh. Well, here he is, the plasma gun dude with couple of minor modifications made with the green stuff.

As you can see I'm elevating all the characters from their bases using either Citadel's basing kit or just by adding blocks of stones along with the green stuff on top of the base. This way all the characters will stand out nicely and give them a bit like showcase feeling - maybe I'll even create a showbase for them!

Now that we're speaking of Slaanesh, here's couple of great looking armies/warbands that I've spotted in the Web while searching for new ideas and tips:

Steve Whitehead's Slaanesh Chaos Space Marines (Games Workshop) and some extra pics can be found from HERE (The Dark Fortress). Heavily inspired by the Slaves to Darkness book from the 80's (browsing the tome at the moment, leeching for vibes...). BTW does anybody know from what kit are those Corvus-kind of helmets?
Mortarion's Heavy Metal themed Slaanesh Army (The Bolter and Chainsword). Simply jaw-dropping and unique... Love the cross-references!
TCLRM's Slaanesh warband (Emperor's Children forum). Colourful and very distinctive style. I adopted my beast head idea from these guys.

Really great sources of inspirations! Looking (or staring with your eyes wide open) at the other hobbyist's spectacular work can really spice your own visions and encourage you to try something new. For me, well, I'm so going to add some slashing-long haired guitar players in my Noise Marine squad! ;)

Utter Nonsense And Emperor's Children

I must admit, I'm a bit of a nostalgia junkie. I have four Commodore 64's with couple of floppy drives and a punch of TAC-2's. Me and couple of my good friends enjoy playing retro games in our every-now-and-then arranged Retro Evenings, which also include some beer to go with the old classics, of course. I happen to like, surprisingly, 80's and early 90's heavy metal. Those old thrash bands really had that something. Too bad I was just a kid when that kind of music was "the pop".

I'm also a huge fan of 80's Games Workshop stuff, especially the classic Citadel miniatures range (just visit The Stuff of the Legends and you'll know what I'm talking about) and the (real) Old World, the one that is introduced properly in the 1st edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and, in generally, in the 3rd edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. Those two first Realm of Chaos books, Slaves to Darkness and The Lost And The Damned, are just something you simply need to read to fully understand what's the real potential of the Warhammer universe. Even the smell of those old tomes gives me damn good vibes to start painting.

Speaking of the grim and unforgiving world of Warhammer, place where death visits often and widely. I happened to stumble in the Internet and found out that the upcoming The Witcher 2 is going to have very interesting feature - Insane difficulty. In Insane mode you're not able to load your saved games after you die. Now that, if something, is like straight from the good old WFRP, where only couple of critical hits could sever your limbs off and end your adventure in that bloody spot. Yeah, sounds like a harsh way to play the game but the enjoyment of surviving the events is plenty in my opinion.

--

Back to business... Usually my projects are heavily inspired by the 80's and early 90's 'Eavy Metal team's outputs. I wade the old White Dwarfs, which are perfect source of inspiration for my kind of projects.

Collecting and painting an entire playable forces has always fascinated me. Seeing fully painted armies in show case standard is something outrageously beautiful, something to envy. I have many old school armies under work, dwarfs, orcs, chaos warriors and wood elves. Well, my current ambitious project, a small warband of Emperor's Children, is a bit of a side quest...

Once again I was dragged by the irresistible need to collect an army. I was planning to start playing Warhammer 40.000 and I was thinking of which army I'd like to play. Space Marines have always fascinated me, but I wanted to play the evil side. Therefor I chose the Chaos Space Marines.

Then it was a time to choose which God of Chaos would it be. I know that you can take worshipers of different Gods and mix them to suit your playing style, but I wanted to make just one chapter warband. I've read about Emperor's Children and their background really inspired me, so I decided to choose them. I dug some resent White Dwarfs and ended up browsing the one that included the new Chaos Space Marines plastics and their new Codex. The same WD had also an article about the new Apocalypse and some pictures of the studio armies. Christian Byrne's huge Chaos Space Marines army caught my eye, especially his Slaanesh posse. I decided to emulate his colour scheme for my army as it looked so bad ass.

Here's the first three of the Children that I've managed to mod and paint in past six (seven or eight?) months...

I still have two of these on the painting stage and punch of more in bits. I'm planning to have one squad of 5-10 Children armed with bolters, plasma pistol (Champion, in the middle) and one with the bigger plasma gun. Second squad of 5 Children is going to consist of bolt pistols and close combat weapons (chainsaw swords and power swords). These two squads will have nicely freehanded Rhinos as their personal transport, just to give them enough rapid deployment if needed.

Of course Slaanesh warband is nothing without couple of Noise Marines. I think I'm going to have 5 of those gigsters. Daemon Prince is a must too, so I thought to have the Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, Azazel, to be leading my band of brothers. Azazel's pose, feather wings and daemonic claw make him just perfect for my plans.

I'm not sure how much that all is in gaming points, enough to start playing maybe? So that's it for now. Maybe I'll finish my next couple of Children within 3-4 months ;) In any case, have a merry Christmas and mind blowing New Year!