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Warhammer AoS – By Khorne! Its nearly done.

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Going into this week, I knew what kind of painting I had to work on. Its the not that much fun, grind it out and get something done type of a week. The second flail was a complete repeat of the previous one and I knew that matching some of the colors wasn’t going to be a picnic and I was not disappointed. I had to repaint the gold trip on the flails because they didn’t match. There’s still some small touch ups I need to make but they won’t make a huge difference compared to what you see in these photos. I also brightened up the secondary highlights quite a bit somewhat accidentally. Its entirely possible that I need to dull those done later on but for now, I’ll call them good. I am pleased that you can start to see the nadir lighting pretty well now. It took long enough but and I think I’m on the right track there.

Its a relief to have this miniature mostly done as some of the hardest and most tedious parts came last. Now I can turn my attention towards the base which is exciting. I’ve talked it up quite a bit so I better do a good job on it this upcoming week!

Finally, I was able to finish reading about Ancient Egypt this week and it was certainly an interesting experience. The challenge I had is that this book covers a huge period of history in 500 pages and so most of the time is spent going to over the numerous dynasties which ebb and flow and the territorial gains and losses that occur as a result. There is interesting information about Egyptian culture and religion peppered in there thankfully but I never was able to connect to any of the rulers or find many things to make Ancient Egypt likable. For example, the Egyptians also created at least some racist characterizations of African people, mostly like the Kush empire which was a rival to Egypt at various times. Likability is not a problem with Roman history as there is sure to be a ruler that you can connect with and admire in some capacity and that is a big part that keeps me coming back.

Additionally, the Pharaohs were brutal leaders who tried to equate themselves with being gods to their subjects. And their subjects led hard and thankless lives. Many people didn’t survive childhood. You were lucky to live past 35 and many people who died that historians and archaeologists have found, had brutal injuries. As far as I can gather, the afterlife was your only solace amidst a short and brutal life.

All this is to say, I think Ancient Egypt is a bit like the Wild West. The Egyptian religion and mythology, tombs, and artwork are all interesting and larger than life. Much more so than the personalities or even individual moments in Egyptian history. In the Wild West’s case, the influence it had on writers and in Hollywood made the fictional tales of cowboys much more interesting than the actual history of the American West. Egypt in some ways mirrors that.

Of course, that’s just my opinion after reading one book about it. I wouldn’t mind reading some more about it in the future, but it certainly won’t be on the same level as my interest in all things Roman, WWI, or even Communism in Asia. Reading this book also convinced me that I will also stick to painting the mythological and fantasy side of Ancient Egypt as I find that to be the most appealing. If you have any interest in Ancient Egypt, I’d love to hear your thoughts and of course any book recommendations you might have. For now, I’ve started in on Watchmen which I somehow have never been exposed to. I look forward to sharing my thoughts on it next week.

35 thoughts on “Warhammer AoS – By Khorne! Its nearly done.”

  1. Good progress! That lightning is really coming together, having more of the model there really helps sell it. Keen to see the basing!

    I haven’t read too much about ancient Egypt, barring the periods of overlap with Rome. How did you find the book itself, was it well written and engaging?

    Watchmen is a treat, I really enjoyed it when I read it, hope you do too!

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    1. Thanks, Nic! Its a relief to be this far along with the project for sure.

      I was the same way about only knowing Egyptian history as it intersects with the Roman Empire. The author’s writing is pretty engaging overall and I would read other books of his (he’s written quite a few on Egypt). I have my eyes on a book he wrote about the golden age of finding pyramids and Egyptian tombs and I imagine that would make for pretty lively reading.

      Watchmen is much more “meaty” than I expected and so far, so good!

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  2. I’ve probably have said this before, but that is one nasty individual! Definitely interested in seeing what you do as a base.

    Good point on comparing Egypt and the Wild West as the closest I’ve come to actual Egyptian history is the old SPI game of the chariot battle of Kadesh. Everything else has been in conjunction with Rome or the fictional Wilbur Smith’s Egytian series, not to mention the various renditions of the Mummy.

    By the time I read your previous post, everything that I would have said about your terrain piece had been said. The Nocterra comic did sound interesting and I put a hold on the first compilation at my library.

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    1. Definitely! The bad guys in Warhammer look very bad.

      There were definitely some big battles in Egyptian history, especially with their neighbors at various times though I think the details of those is even more limited than in Roman times. I think Hail Caesar is definitely the go-to game for battles in that era though I don’t know how much written content it has (like with scenarios and things like that).

      No worries! I’m glad to hear that Nocterra piqued your interest. I’ll be curious to see what you think of it and if you do like it, you’ll hopefully get to read the next couple volumes quicker than me. I’m going to wait until they get put on a sale before I pick them up.

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  3. Great work on the Khornate chap, I would hold off doing anymore tweaks until he’s on the base or you have the base painted, as that could influence where the light is coming from.
    As for the history, as with all of ancient history, the human species is very cruel, and those in power saw the lower classes as there to make their lives better, and unfortunately racism is prevalent throughout history as well

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    1. Thanks for the kind words and I know what you mean on adjustments. I was going to try and fix a couple areas that aren’t consistently painted but no major changes on the miniature from here on out (hopefully).

      I couldn’t agree more with your thoughts on racism and history. Within the last year, the Egyptian government was complaining that Netflix made a documentary on Cleopatra where she is depicted as black (which is better than white as she’s been depicted in the past). It seemed like a lot of nothing to me but such is the world we live in.

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    1. Thank you, John! I’m obviously completely biased and barely trustworthy but I think Ancient History is fascinating and would highly recommend reading about it. I’m sure there is something in there that will catch your interest. I suppose the same could be said about comics 🙂

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  6. Wow, that little chap is looking amazing now. The skin texture is particularly good (though maybe he should consider seeing a doctor) with its gradations from purple to pink. I can’t wait to see how the base affects the overall composition.

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  7. Looking great mate, almost there. Imagine the sense of satisfaction when it is done.

    I really do not know as much Egyptian history as I should. Mrs. GG watches more documentaries than I do and she often corrects me or fills in gaps in my knowledge in discussions with Little GG. He loves Egypt. I am more of a Rome kind of guy I guess.

    It really surprises me that ancient warfare skirmish gaming is not really doing great right now.

    A great ancients wargame, PC though, is the DEI mod for Total War. Check out some videos on YouTube about it if you are unfamiliar with it. I played hundreds of hours of it back in the day.

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    1. You just gotta keep your head down on these long projects, for sure. I’m just glad that people don’t mind seeing them slowly take shape week after week.

      There are definitely tons of documentaries on Egypt out there and many focus on the “fun” parts like pyramids/tombs and understandably so. I think that part of Ancient Egypt’s appeal will always be strong.

      I think Rome is much more interesting overall too. There is a lot more moral ambiguity there than Egypt. I unfortunately agree on ancient warfare skirmish games. I don’t know why there isn’t more. Gangs of Rome 2.0 has been going through the Kickstarter process so I’m keeping my eyes on that to see if it improves on the first version of the game. While I have Broken Legions, I’m not sure if the game system is that great (it has middling reviews from what I’ve seen) so I’d love to see someone create a high quality game one of these days. We Ancients fans deserve it! It would probably get me painting something Roman finally after wanting to do so for a number of years…

      I’ve never played Total War even though I’d probably enjoy it. I was always worried it would be too difficult to pick up for some reason. I’ll do some research and see if I can’t pick up a copy one of these days. I don’t play as many PC games these days because there are so many great ones on Nintendo Switch and Playstation, but I do miss them!

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      1. The downside to Total War is that it is not at it’s best as a casual game. It really shines with mods and in the depth of play…. which requires something of a time sink. But less than painting minis!

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      2. That makes sense and that is a bit of why I’ve stayed away too. I’ll give it some thought and see if I want to give it a go. The list of video games I want to play never seems to get much shorter these days!

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      3. I seem to have managed to stave off my “need” to play Starfield. It was touch and go there for a bit but the spoiled main mission really put me off.

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      4. I’ve seen some reviews and am still on the fence as to whether I will get it. Nothing from the game has been spoiled for me though at the same time. Video games are longer than they used to be and there are so many RPGs being made these days that even with the free time that I have (which is more than most working adults), I’m having trouble keeping up.

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  8. Oh I have read the watchmen comic. It’s pretty good. The move is alright as well.

    I think the miniature is coming along great. Waiting to see the base. 😀

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    1. Its nice to hear that people like Watchmen. I somehow let the movie pass me by when it came out so its interesting to go back and see what its all about.

      Thanks for the kind words on the miniature! The base is taking longer than I thought to get up and running so we’ll see if I have enough to show off by this weekend or not.

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  9. The Khorneboy is coming along very nicely here – I like the differnt skin tones and how you’ve painted the bumps and splotches on his skin – carries the work of the sculpt well in showing his (presumed) path to daemonhood.

    I don’t know that I’d especially hold racism “against” the Egyptians especially in context – we know that all cultures have been the same towards those that are “the other” through all of history. It’s a part of human nature that goes back to simple tribalism when you competed with your neighbours for resources and land.

    It happens today with Russians referring to Ukranians as hohol/khokhol and Ukranians referring to Russians as “Orcs” – but then, Ukrainians and Russians were basically the same thing to most of us in the west a recently as 2013. It’s the same as “gooks, krauts, japs” etc through the 20th century as names for “the enemy”. It’s all about dehumanising the enemy to make it mentally easier to fight and kill them. Not saying it’s a “good” thing, but that the Egyptians were simply one of pretty much all empires and nations that did this with it continuing to be a thing in many cultures (especially outside the English-speaking West) today.

    Of course, we’ve replaced that tribalistic, racist behaviour entirely, right? Even with those who are past racism, we’ve still got nationalism on a large scale (f— Russia, f— Iran, f— China, amirite?), and on a small scale we’ve got your local sports team. Sports riots after a loss, FC “firms” having a rumble before or after the matches down to simple “I hate Collingwood supporters”.

    As for my own opinion on Egypt – I find it mildly interesting but I also find it hard to absorb – mostly since the actual history extends for such an incredibly long period that makes it hard to fathom mentally. The fact that WE are closer to the time of Cleopatra, Marc Antony and the Romans than Cleoppatra is/was to the building of the Pyramids is a bit of a surprise when you find out about it.

    The Netflix thing is actually pretty much a modern reimagining with recorded facts pushed off to the side for a modern “woke” American agenda if you look into the history of Cleopatra (and the people making the show). She was of Greek ancestry, not sub-Saharan African. Though she was likely mixed, there are also contemporary coins with her likeness on them. They should have simply used an acress of Greek, North African or Arabic descent. It’s the sort of thing that does more harm than good, and undermines the Netflix show’s claims to be a serious documentary series and makes it just feel like the latest race or gender swap from a Marvel film which doesn’t work as well for a doco.

    Mentally I think modern people (from outside Egypt, anyway) just tend to categorise all of Egypt’s thousands of years of history in the same sort of bucket of “simultaneous happenings” that we do with the 300 years of Vikings or even the 1000 years of Romans (and we usually don’t count the Eastern Roman Empire/Byzantines for some reason…)

    So a long-widned way of saying – Egypt is kinda interesting but it doesn’t resonate with me the same way as the Romans, Greeks or many other empires and peoples.

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    1. I agree with what you’re saying on the last part. Egypt is hard to connect with ultimately. The Pharaohs were egotistical and brutal and the entire society catered to their whims in many ways. That is true in some ways of any dictatorship but there’s something even less appealing about it in Ancient Egypt for me anyway.

      I appreciate your perspective on Egypt and agree with a lot of the other things you said like how far back it is to the Ptolemaic era versus the early Egyptian dynasties. That is really hard to wrap your mind around but it demonstrates how long the empire lasted overall. It probably also makes Ancient Egypt harder to appreciate and get into because that is such a large passage of time to learn about too.

      I think you’re right that the racism was motivated by tribalism too. From what I read, the Egyptians viewed the Kush Empire as rivals and looked for any way to put them down. The fact that they looked differently only made the tribalism worse. I was surprised to read that they relied on the age old (said sarcastically) monkey trope in their racism but I probably shouldn’t be. It is an unfortunate truth that tribalism is something we all fall prey to. There are mostly harmless versions like with most casual sports fans but it can be much worse and sinister than that. I try to stick to the harmless side as much as I can myself!

      Thanks for the kind words on the painting too 🙂

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  10. You know, if that guy misses his target he’s just gonna end up wrapping those blocks around himself LOL!

    Fantastic painting on him, Jeff, he really does look like your classic Khorne nutcase. I love his skintones and the muscle definition, and the way you’ve kept the bronze shades darker so they don’t overwhelm the reds. Awesome stuff and I can’t wait to see the base!

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    1. Oh yeah, he’s got a real problem there with those cinder blocks flailing around! Thanks for the kind words and I’m glad you like how the colors came out on the armor. Its hard with Khorne to do anything a bit different but I think I just about accomplished that here 🙂

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  11. I can kind of see the lighting, but I can see how tricky that is to achieve. Probably because we’re so used to seeing minis from above (with the lighting from above). I’d almost expect the top of the mini to be black. But you probably have some lighting from the top too. Hats off to you for even attempting this, as I’m sure I’d just give up. At least I get to see how this all progresses step by step! 😃
    Ancient Egypt…I took several ancient history courses at University, but I’m not going to claim to be anywhere near an expert. For one thing,
    people specialize in those areas because there’s so much knowledge there. I will say, Egyptian Mythology melts my brain. One God would morph into another and it was so hard to make sense of it. I think Greek mythology (or maybe just the translations I read) were much easier to digest. I think lives of all people back then were pretty brutal, but maybe more so for Egypt because of the slavery.
    Watchmen…regarded as one of the best comics of all time…but I think it was a product of its time. I’ve heard from younger readers or people who read it later on, that they didn’t think it was that great. The main issue is that all the best parts of the comic have been stolen and regurgitated over and over since. Hell, even Incredibles stole from Watchmen. Hopefully you find some enjoyment in it, but you have to remember that comics at the time were very different at the time. Comics were still regarded as mostly kids stuff. And Batman was still not far from the Adam West treatment. Moore’s work on Watchmen and Miller’s work on Dark Knight Returns would turn comics on their head. Ushering in the ‘dark wave’, where comics would become more violent, grim, and gritty. Usually for no good reason other than sales.

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    1. Cheers, the lighting definitely took a while to get right. I do think the struggle was worth it in the end, thankfully!

      That is very true about Egypt. From what I read, the dominant god for rulers changed over time and the gods were used for propaganda purposes in away that is less tasteful than Greeks and Romans. The Pharaohs did not respect their subjects very much or that was my feeling from reading that particular book.

      That is well said on Watchmen. I can definitely see its greatness and the fact that I read and enjoyed it at all is high praise. I’ve never liked going back to any comics pre-1990’s (though perhaps that is a bit unfair of me). I can’t explain exactly why I don’t like going back very far. Maybe it is because Watchmen made the stories that followed that much better.

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      1. I think with most media there is a certain part where it’s really difficult to go back to. Partially because the culture has changed so much. I love old movies, but if I watch a movie from say the 50s, I know there is a lot I’m not understanding. Dialogue and social cues change over time, and it starts to feel like I’m trying to translate Shakespeare at times. Movies from the 60s and 70s are easier for me, but I’m likely missing some small stuff there at times.
        With comics, I can’t say I’m that fond of the material before Marvels Fantastic Four arrived in the scene. Art was much simpler and the stories were very different with very little characterization. I’ll sometimes check something out because a later artist might reference an event from the past. Anyways, long story short, just as I’m not crazy about pre-Marvel books, I can see why you would not be as keen on pre-Watchmen books.

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      2. That’s very true. It is hard to go back to try and put yourself in the mindset of those times. When you watch or read things that were made during a time when you were alive, you have a much better appreciation for things. Aren’t older comics pretty wordy and with omniscient narrators? That is my perception but I might be incorrect on that. I may have to challenge myself to read some older books when I get Marvel Unlimited again. I think reading Frank Miller Daredevil and Chris Claremont X-Men could be interesting and maybe win me over. We’ll see!

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      3. Oh yea, at some point they decided to get rid of narration. I think that was a mistake as it can be used to set the mood of a scene. Miller did that pretty well. Claremont, not so much.
        Also, older comics were mostly written for kids. So you had some really goofy stories like Zebra Batman, etc.

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      4. Zebra Batman? That doesn’t sound half bad! 🙂 That makes sense. It will certainly be interesting to go back and see if any of it resonates with me. I’ll report in when I do get around to it.

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