The Army of Fire

We return to the realms of Mantic and their new Kings of War miniatures.  I have been working on a number of them, especially the Salamanders.

I have done a number of posts about them, showing what the sprues look like, etc., as well as different color schemes.

Some have been more "traditional" theme, and with lots of jungle vegetation.  This time around, I wanted to show the "Army of Ash" color set that I was visualizing for my own army.

The plan was to have a unit of the Salamanders advancing through a jungle, scorching it as they moved.

The weapons they carry really lend themselves to that firey theme, so I gave that a test run.  I really enjoyed this guy!  It was a classic contrast of the super warm and intense fluorescent oranges next to the very muted cooler colors... mostly grays.

I think this could make quite an interesting movement tray of 22-25 figures!!

Chop Chop!

For this Mantic Games Salamander, I thought it would be fun to use the traditional turquoise color scheme that we have all seen on the GW Lizards for many years.

Ironically enough, I only painted one Skink/Kroxigor unit in that turquoise color scheme.

I have been trying to come up with a very different set of colors on each of these Salamanders, to show how the same figures can look radically different with a simple change in palette!

Stay tuned for the last of the two handed weapon versions... this guy will have some nice OSL on him!

Among the Monuments

Now that more of the Mantic Salamanders are getting some paint on them, I thought it would be fun to set them up with some of the scratch built objective markers and swarms.

I think I have at least a few units of swarms written into my test lists.  The only time I ever used these swarms was years ago in a special four part campaign that was designed around the Temple of Blood display board.

We divided a 4 x 4 table into 16 12 inch squares.  You could advance each of your units ten times, from one square to another.  With each new square you entered, you had to roll on some charts to see what kind of terrain and what sort of nasty critters were waiting for you!

I ended up being attacked many times by angry Carnosaurs and tons of swarms.  At least 12 stands of swarms were created for that phase of the campaign.

And now the three Salamanders alone with the standing monuments.

I will have to make a few more small statues such as these, since at least 3 of the scenarios call for objectives.

It is far more interesting to contest something as substantial as these, as opposed to some coins or other flat, printed markers.

The Golden Salamander

Here's another color take on the Kings of War Salamanders.

I started with a much more traditional greenish color, moved to a red, and now it's time for some gold/amber.

This was going to be a very fun color contrast to the rocks and the weapon, since I knew there would be more teal and purple there.  Reflecting a tiny bit of the amber onto that blade was going to create some dramatic shapes to be sure!

Still, I wanted to incorporate some reddish hues, so that the golds would be tinted towards amber.  You might see in the right hand image that the yellow is more of a green hue.  Again, it's all about creating as many different subtle color transitions as possible to make it more interesting to look at.

That was also going to tie in the 'skin' colors with the weapon and the rocks, even the shoulder armor.

One last view to show the overall scene.  While I have also painted entire units of lizards the same color, it is a lot more fun to experiment and play around with those colors!

Running on a strong platform

I thought it might be fun to see some of the new Salamander figures with my old scratch sculpted Engine of the Gods, which will now be my Ankylodon battle platform!

The portal section can be removed from the howdah if I am doing the blowpipe version.  I don't know where I have the two pipes that I made for this machine, but they are somewhere.

There are two stands set up for them right behind the head crest.

The Dino is made from sculpey, Apoxy sculpt and green stuff.

It was very fun painting each side of the portal!!!

Here are some images of the scratch builds!!!

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/06/before-they-were-finished-wip-images-of.html

I used some of the older Skink archer figures as crew, since I had to fit five of them in the howdah, as well as the Skink Priest.

Now for some closer views to see what this looks like next to the heftier Mantic Salamanders.

My original Lizardman army had no Saurus in it at all, as it was meant to be a Temple Restoration crew.  Lots of Skinks, Kroxigors, and the Engines.  Some moved the heavy stuff, while the Skinks restored all the glyphs, etc.

It should be quite the Monster Mash once I have the second Fire Drake finished!  Having three big beasties backing up large Salamander units should be fun.

Of course, I still must find a way to include Stikki Wikkit!

Here's his story:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-legend-of-stikki-wikkit-came-to.html

I am quite sure at this stage that I will be using the Firebolt version of the platform, at least to start.

I'll be showing more of the old Lizzies that will be moving on to become part of the Salamander army, so stay tuned!!

Jungle Warrior

Let's take another look at the new Salamander figures from Mantic Games!  As I build up the brand new army for Kings of War, I'll be exploring a few different color schemes.

The first was a more standard warm green, but I thought I would try out something in the deep red range.

The Salamander fluff stresses fire... fire breathing dragons, etc.  I wanted to contrast those deep reds with a blueish gray obsidian blade.

As with the first figure, the foliage is from a set of paper jungle foliage.

Stay tuned for more examples of the two handed Salamanders, followed by a unit (horde on a multibase) of single handed weapons!

How to train your Fire Drake

I was hoping to include a few Clan Lords on Fire Drakes in the Salamanders army, since the primary theme appears to be fire!

I already have one ridden carnosaur figure painted on a lava style base, so why not give him a buddy?

I believe this is the Ork Wyvern from the Azhag set.  Since it really looked like a fire breathing dragon to me, I was hoping that I might be able to add the plastic carnosaur rider to it.

I had to do a lot of green stuff work anyway during the assembly process, so I tried to build up the area that would hold the throne.  I made a simple chain mail texture to fill it out.

There were some additional head pieces in the set, so I chipped away and modified one to fit the rather flat, squarish head.

Lo and behold, that rider and throne fit on here better than the original figure!  I have some additional straps and other decorative pieces to apply, so I will try to get some images once those are placed and it's been primed.

This is going to be very fun to paint!!  I will probably have glowing wings on this one, just as I did with the original years ago.

A fire in the Jungle

Something new emerges from the Jungle... fierce and brimming with fire.  That is the Salamanders from Kings of War by Mantic!

The Salamanders join the Trident Realms as the two new lines of miniatures added to the range.  Here are some views of the sprues, which come with a number of options.

You can create a hand weapon with shield, or a two handed Salamander for additional crushing strength.  There are also some extras on the sprue, such as little flames and a flaming banner.

There are enough heads and arms to create lots of variation.

This package contains the leg/torso base, as well as more weapon options.  Most of these are the two handed variety.

Here's one more look at the bodies and the arms.

Now for a look at the first painted Salamander!!  He's on a 25mm base.

I went with more of a traditional color scheme on this first figure, but many others are planned!

I am rendering the shoulder pads as a tortoise shell, so they will be a slightly different color from the rest of the scales.

The views from above show the base and the paper foliage.  When I start doing the multibased units, I will try to have them advancing across a jungle landscape which has been partially burned.  I will also paint some of the weapons glowing orange as well.

I'm really looking forward to creating a Salamander army based around these figures!  I already have a number of the beasties from my old army.  More are on the way, so stay tuned!