AoS28 - The Dark Age of Sigmar

[MegabossChompa]

58 minutes ago, MegabossChompa said:

"Be off with you!" shouted the withered old man. He picked up a bottle of liquid and threw it at the spiders. The vial exploded in a shower of sparks, and the spiders scuttled out of the old man's house in the forest. 

"Those damn spiderfang grots! They're getting closer! I would burn down half the forest with warp fire if it wasn't for those damn Stormcast. The moment they know i'm here they'll burn me as a heretic! " The old man was shouting now. His familiars jumped about and muttered under their breath. He looked at his workbench. Vials and tubes full of bubbling liquid sat on top of of cauldrons and metal stands. "Yes, this'll do." He picked up one of the glass bottles and sniffed it. "Perfect. Just right for killing those devilish spiders. Now, if only i could..." There was acrashing noise as the door was smashed down. In the doorway stood a huge figure clad in black and gold. He held a war hammer in one hand and a shield in the other. "By order from Lord veritant Kylos  Witchbane, i brand you as a heritic and a worshipper of chaotic powers!" 

"I don't know what you mean!" The old man responded with a maddened cackle, as he threw bottles and vials of various liquids at the Stormcast. They ignigted instantly and a blue flashing light burst into the sky as the stormcast died.  "Come! Quick!" The old man shouted at his familiars as he ran out of the hut and into the forest before Sigmar's vengeance could strike.

A sketch of what his shack in the whisperwhile forest might look like. Also, does anyone know how to creat a blog on tga using your account?

Edited February 23, 2017 by MegabossChompa

[Bruticus]

4 hours ago, Hagen said:

Incredibly useful post Bruticus! I will recommend it to my friends who are starting to develop an interest in AoS28. It is great to have a firm set of guidelines providing an indication to what the creators of this initiative had in mind. 

I can see from some of the points you listed that my personal take on AoS28 differs a bit from the grimdark atmosphere you are trying to conceive, as one of the aspects of the new setting that I am interested in is the High Fantasy vibe which reminds me of Moorcock's Elric's Saga. It is not the impossible scale of the main AoS storyline that I am aiming to recreate with my minis though, but rather the whquest/Realm of Chaos of the late 80s which, to me at least, was an original and interesting blend of grimdark and high fantasy: flying ships and dark forests, godly beings and miserable mutants. I personally strive to pull these two aspects of the setting together as the initial fluff for the new setting went too far on the epic side of things and forgot to give a more human and grounded point of view of the action (when I see battles through the eyes of angels/demigods I tend to quickly loose interest).

I am a huge fan of Blanchitsu and the associated style of both painting and storytelling, but looking at some of Blanche's early fantasy works I can see that realism or indeed grittiness are on the background while artistic references and hints to pop culture (and High Fantasy was quite popular back then) are everywhere. I attached some of the images that served as a reference to my recent model efforts. Though I feel that the total grimness and hopelessness of some of Blanche's works fit the 40k universe perfectly (and Inq28 consequently) I would like to point out that, to me,  AoS is a peculiar setting where aspects of both high and dark fantasy cohesist (or at least this is how I envision it) and I feel that both deserve being reflected in AoS28 projects if that happen to be the intention of the author.

I would be very interested in knowing the views of other members of this community and hopefully get to see some of the artworks that inspired the great models that we've seen in the last few weeks.

Hagen

Hi Hagen,

I'm entirely in agreement with you, and I didn't think the FAQ gave the impression that high fantasy was not welcome. Maybe a new FAQ question would be useful. Personally speaking I don't have much interest in a strict low fantasy setting, the best thing about AoS is that it allows for flying ships and walking cities and anything else you can think of. I thought the FAQ helped make it clear about that, and that 'grimdark' and really means exactly what you said about the human and grounded point of view as opposed to the epic and OTT nature of the main AoS narrative.

[MegabossChompa]

To contrast to the forest of Whisperwhile,  the sky ports of chamon are bustling, industrial and busy. Linked to many places across the realms via realmgates like the fogshroud realmgate, the sky ports provide a trading centre across the realms. merchants come from far and wide to trade here, and the skies around these floating islands are always buzzing with air ships, gyrocopters, skycutters and even Aqshyan cargo vessels. The vast network of sky ports and cities harbour dangerous monsters though. As well as the multitude of beasts and monsters being traded (which sometimes escape) there are many gangs, cults and warbands that hide in the dark areas  of the ports. These include arcanite cults, necromancy covens and many other deadly warbands striving to become rich on the trade that goes in and out of the sky ports.

[Hagen]

3 hours ago, Bruticus said:

Hi Hagen,

I'm entirely in agreement with you, and I didn't think the FAQ gave the impression that high fantasy was not welcome. Maybe a new FAQ question would be useful. Personally speaking I don't have much interest in a strict low fantasy setting, the best thing about AoS is that it allows for flying ships and walking cities and anything else you can think of. I thought the FAQ helped make it clear about that, and that 'grimdark' and really means exactly what you said about the human and grounded point of view as opposed to the epic and OTT nature of the main AoS narrative.

Hey Bruticus! Glad to hear you agree on this! I think I was just mislead by the definition of AoS28 basically being the same thing as Inq28... Of course the two movements are very similar in spirit, but I just thought it was worth mentioning that aesthetically there are some differences between the grimdark of the 41st millennium and the weird fantastical realms of AoS. I would not bother adding anything to the great work you did on the FAQ, it was just me being picky  

No new minis today, but I managed to sketch a concept of the Luminarch Malakia, the leader of my war band which I am currently converting. It is quite time consuming as it uses many kits, Eldar Farseer, Genestealer Magus, light college wizard and various bits and bobs from different 40k bits... I had to purchase 2 Ahriman 30k kits only to use the star symbols hanging from his stole!

I hope it's going to look as the drawing in the end as I am pretty pleased with his aesthetic.

Hagen

Edited February 23, 2017 by Hagen

[MegabossChompa]

26 minutes ago, Hagen said:

Hey Bruticus! Glad to hear you agree on this! I think I was just mislead by the definition of AoS28 basically being the same thing as Inq28... Of course the two movements are very similar in spirit, but I just thought it was worth mentioning that aesthetically there are some differences between the grimdark of the 41st millennium and the weird fantastical realms of AoS. I would not bother adding anything to the great work you did on the FAQ, it was just me being picky  

No new minis today, but I managed to sketch a concept of the Luminarch Malakia, the leader of my war band which I am currently converting. It is quite time consuming as it uses many kits, Eldar Farseer, Genestealer Magus, light college wizard and various bits and bobs from different 40k bits... I had to purchase 2 Ahriman 30k kits only to use the star symbols hanging from his stole!

I hope it's going to look as the drawing in the end as I am pretty pleased with his aesthetic.

Hagen

Amazing! Just amazing

[Hagen]

2 minutes ago, MegabossChompa said:

Amazing! Just amazing

Thanks Megaboss! I was just reading through your bits of fluff... The sky ports of Chamon are incredibly inspiring! I can perfectly picture them, now I want to convert an Aqshyan cargo vessel

Hagen

[MegabossChompa]

Just a link to my lore for possible aos28 settings and warbands. 

 

[MegabossChompa]

17 minutes ago, Hagen said:

Thanks Megaboss! I was just reading through your bits of fluff... The sky ports of Chamon are incredibly inspiring! I can perfectly picture them, now I want to convert an Aqshyan cargo vessel

Hagen

Haha. Im planning to flesh everything out at some point over on my two blogs. Might even do some conversions of my own!

[Toby]

My own view on this - and I'm a very long way from being any sort of expert - is that one of the things that's always made Warhammer different from "standard" fantasy illustration (especially in John Blanche's concept art) is the "twiddlyness" of it all. Even models that aren't gothic in the proper sense carry lots of stuff: the Brettonian questing knights for instance with all their trinkets and baggage, or the complex paintwork on the shields of fairly standard orcs and skeletons in the old Realm of Chaos days.

The pictures Hagen posted have a sort of obsessive detail like those Bosch and Brugel paintings full of grotesque figures. Even the knight on his horse has a complex helmet and a leopardskin cloak. The sky and the ground look full of different bits of colour. That kind of intricate detail feels to me very AoS28, even in patches. At least, that's how I see it.

Edited February 23, 2017 by Toby

[Bruticus]

A few shots of my Aelves now the warband is finished.

The Black Sloth Hell: a drowned, rotting forest in Ghyran. The forest is poisoned from within by a mad god of death and the Aelves that live there are trapped in its recurring nightmare.

There are some more photos and some thoughts about putting together an AoS28 warband here: http://www.exprofundis.com/aelves-black-sloth-hell/

[MegabossChompa]

31 minutes ago, Bruticus said:

A few shots of my Aelves now the warband is finished.

The Black Sloth Hell: a drowned, rotting forest in Ghyran. The forest is poisoned from within by a mad god of death and the Aelves that live there are trapped in its recurring nightmare.

There are some more photos and some thoughts about putting together an AoS28 warband here: http://www.exprofundis.com/aelves-black-sloth-hell/

Wow. Theyre great. Wish i could paint like that. You should enter that beast into golden demon!

[Bruticus]

14 minutes ago, MegabossChompa said:

Wow. Theyre great. Wish i could paint like that. You should enter that beast into golden demon!

I appreciate the compliment but really it is nothing like Golden Demon level, it's painted quickly but in quite a dramatic style.

[Hagen]

3 hours ago, Bruticus said:

A few shots of my Aelves now the warband is finished.

The Black Sloth Hell: a drowned, rotting forest in Ghyran. The forest is poisoned from within by a mad god of death and the Aelves that live there are trapped in its recurring nightmare.

There are some more photos and some thoughts about putting together an AoS28 warband here: http://www.exprofundis.com/aelves-black-sloth-hell/

OH...MY ... GOD.

This is the most inspiring bunch of minis that I've seen on a long while Bruticus, a true masterpiece that sets the bar of this AoS project so high that we will all have to struggle to keep a similar standard!

They certainly deserve some detailed comments:

- The beast is the one of the most impressive conversions/paintjobs that I have seen recently. I can literally feel its disgusting smell in my nostrils. The colours of the leaves and moss is just perfect and I am left speechless by the colour blends on the skull, so realistic and different from the usual polished bone look... It really feels like it spent a long time rotting at the bottom of a swamp. Unbelievable, seriously...

- The same goes for the leader and the warriors, so alive, I can hear the sound of rotten wood creaking while I look at them! The colour scheme pulls them together so nicely. I like the subtle addition of some reddish brown spots that make a great contrast with the predominantly green palette.

- Finally the Wild Rider did not disappoint, he is the best looking conversion of the bunch (though it's seriously tough to pick one) and the paint job just does hi justice. Love the green fading tattoos/marks on the steed, really appropriate.

All in all an amazing job, I am in awe at your skills and vision.

Hagen

[Paul G]

To say you weren't going to add those greens to them, it really makes them for me, so good!


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[elfhead]

I'm really excited to join this AoS28 thing. And I realized I already had some models that are perfect as a starting point for a warband. feeling inspired (and having nothing to do during a long trainride) I came up with some fluff for a city (which is a continuation of the story for my elven cult of Slaanesh) and short backstories for two characters.

 

The City of Casand’ora

In the realm of light, a palace of jade sits on top of a mountain. Surrounding the palace a sprawling city covers the slopes. Artists, poets and artisans from every realm are drawn to the city, where their craft is held in the highest regards. The city is controlled by the Oneiroi, followers of the golden demi-god by the name of Morh’ euz, giver of dreams, who holds his court in the palace of jade. It is said that even a mediocre artist will rise to great heights if they only venerate the divine lord of the jade palace.

 

Jade district: The district surrounding the palace of Jade houses the wealthiest citizens of the city. Most citizens of wealth are elves, who seem to be favored over the other races by the Oneiroi. The richest families sponsor many artists an artisans who reside in the city. True wealth in the city is not measured by gold or coin, but by the size and splendor of your art collection.

District of Or: At the centre of the artisan district stands an enormous statue of an ox with six horns. The golden statue is decorated with intricate patterns and numerous gems and other precious stones. It is believed that the ox visits the dreams of those who offer him enough gold and jewellery. Those visited by the ox experience a steep prise in skill of their craft. Allthough the ox is laden with gold and gems, it is a rare occasion these treasures are stolen. The Sons of the ox guard the statue at all times. They consider it their right to torture and execute thiefs and blasphemers in the most painful way possible

The wall: Taking advantage of the higher ground the mountain offers, a giant curtain wall surrounds the city. The warriors guarding the wall are highly skilled warriors clad in exotic and ornamental armor. They are said to have travelled to the city in search of a god now lost and all but forgotten.

District of Nohr: Oily dark clouds roll out of a large crevice in the mountainside, a realmgate leading to the realm of shadows. Surrounding the gate are numerous statues of monsters and shadow daemons carved into the rock by the many artisans of the city. The district is known for harbouring shops and establishments where the darker pleasures in life can be found, hidden by a thick black fog that always hangs in the air.

the marquis: the man simple known as the marquis is always plotting to increase his own wealth and stature, trying to penetrate the highest circles of wealthy families of the city. Trading the highly sought after ‘wine of dreams’ the marquis is a ruthless man of trade with a very questionable morale.

Emeric Sadoul: A seer of little talent, working in the service of the marquis. A frail and sickly boy, Emeric grew up as an orphan on the streets. Trying to survive, the young Emeric offered a stolen necklace to the Ox of Or. When the Ox appeared in his dreams it told the boy he would be gifted with the sight, being able to see into the future, if he would simply remove his eyes.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 24, 2017 by elfhead

[MegabossChompa]

My first (unpainted) wip. A mercinary of the sky ports of chamon

[Hagen]

44 minutes ago, elfhead said:

I'm really excited to join this AoS28 thing. And I realized I already had some models that are perfect as a starting point for a warband. feeling inspired (and having nothing to do during a long trainride) I came up with some fluff for a city (which is a continuation of the story for my elven cult of Slaanesh) and short backstories for two characters.

 

The City of Casand’ora

In the realm of light, a palace of jade sits on top of a mountain. Surrounding the palace a sprawling city covers the slopes. Artists, poets and artisans from every realm are drawn to the city, where their craft is held in the highest regards. The city is controlled by the Oneiroi, followers of the golden demi-god by the name of Morh’ euz, giver of dreams, who holds his court in the palace of jade. It is said that even a mediocre artist will rise to great heights if they only venerate the divine lord of the jade palace.

 

Jade district: The district surrounding the palace of Jade houses the wealthiest citizens of the city. Most citizens of wealth are elves, who seem to be favored over the other races by the Oneiroi. The richest families sponsor many artists an artisans who reside in the city. True wealth in the city is not measured by gold or coin, but by the size and splendor of your art collection.

District of Or: At the centre of the artisan district stands an enormous statue of an ox with six horns. The golden statue is decorated with intricate patterns and numerous gems and other precious stones. It is believed that the ox visits the dreams of those who offer him enough gold and jewellery. Those visited by the ox experience a steep prise in skill of their craft. Allthough the ox is laden with gold and gems, it is a rare occasion these treasures are stolen. The Sons of the ox guard the statue at all times. They consider it their right to torture and execute thiefs and blasphemers in the most painful way possible

The wall: Taking advantage of the higher ground the mountain offers, a giant curtain wall surrounds the city. The warriors guarding the wall are highly skilled warriors clad in exotic and ornamental armor. They are said to have travelled to the city in search of a god now lost and all but forgotten.

District of Nohr: Oily dark clouds roll out of a large crevice in the mountainside, a realmgate leading to the realm of shadows. Surrounding the gate are numerous statues of monsters and shadow daemons carved into the rock by the many artisans of the city. The district is known for harbouring shops and establishments where the darker pleasures in life can be found, hidden by a thick black fog that always hangs in the air.

the marquis: the man simple known as the marquis is always plotting to increase his own wealth and stature, trying to penetrate the highest circles of wealthy families of the city. Trading the highly sought after ‘wine of dreams’ the marquis is a ruthless man of trade with a very questionable morale.

Emeric Sadoul: A seer of little talent, working in the service of the marquis. A frail and sickly boy, Emeric grew up as an orphan on the streets. Trying to survive, the young Emeric offered a stolen necklace to the Ox of Or. When the Ox appeared in his dreams it told the boy he would be gifted with the sight, being able to see into the future, if he would simply remove his eyes.

 

 

 

 

YES! elfhead is joining the fray, now I can sit back, grab some pop corns and watch this turning into something fantastic!

Great start on these models, and the fluff is great and well written, allowing for some great conversions! I am very curious to see some Sons of the Ox in the future! I hope the Ox will visit my dreams tonight, I am sure I have some bling-blings to offer him.

Hagen

[Turragor]

7 hours ago, Bruticus said:

A few shots of my Aelves now the warband is finished.

The Black Sloth Hell: a drowned, rotting forest in Ghyran. The forest is poisoned from within by a mad god of death and the Aelves that live there are trapped in its recurring nightmare.

There are some more photos and some thoughts about putting together an AoS28 warband here: http://www.exprofundis.com/aelves-black-sloth-hell/

Greatest themed bunch of minis I've ever seen. The theme, the design, the colour choices.

AoS28 lands with a bang with these.

You should organise a warband of the year contest but you will win it.

Edited February 24, 2017 by Turragor

[Kramer]

11 hours ago, Bruticus said:

A few shots of my Aelves now the warband is finished.

The Black Sloth Hell: a drowned, rotting forest in Ghyran. The forest is poisoned from within by a mad god of death and the Aelves that live there are trapped in its recurring nightmare.

There are some more photos and some thoughts about putting together an AoS28 warband here: http://www.exprofundis.com/aelves-black-sloth-hell/

Those are creepy/ amazing/ and some of the best conversions I have seen in a long while. 

[Toby]

Bruticus, those models are great. The treeman is like something from Slaine. Terrific painting and converting.

[swiftmus]

Some really cool models in this thread! I've been looking to improve my painting skills and so I think focusing on a small warband would be the perfect place to learn some new techniques (and start yet another project!). I've got the beginnings of an idea for a death themed warband which I think will fit AoS28 quite well.

Since I've got a Triumvirate of Ynnead set on the way for doing some AoS conversions my AoS28 idea is based around the lady with the fan.

The lady 'leading' the warband was a mortal living in the realm of Shyish, a noble in a human city that largely managed to avoid the attentions of the wandering dead (perhaps through tributes to surrounding vampire lords). The lady was to be married to a man who was a fellow noble from a far off city. A beggar stabs the bride and steals her necklace (most mortals of Shysih being desperate and poor). The lord chases the beggar and kills him, only to return to find his love dead.

The lady wells up with rage and despair in her dying moments and the darkness now staining her spirit consumes the church and all the guests, turning them into a shambling procession of the dead. The lord, terrified as all mortals are of the walking dead of Shyish, sees only a monster and flees. The newly risen bride cannot understand why her love would abandon her and sets off after him. The dead procession now wanders the realm of Shyish, ceaselessly pursuing the fleeing lord. Without realising it, the lord dies from exhaustion during the endless chase. Now he too is one of the monsters he always feared yet his terror at the bride consumes all his faculties. If he were but to realise what he now is, perhaps the couple could be happy together in undeath. Yet still the lord runs and the bride follows in an endless, stagnant cycle of death.

So I would be converting the Eldar with the fan into the undead bride. I will also need to find a model to use as a base for the groom. The group would then be fleshed out with some of the wedding guests. 

[curnow]

So i felt my warband needed a little brimstone flavour . Now i couldn't just go with a normal demon model as it would be dwarfed buy my chosen so i decided to make a bloodletter out of a box of crypt fiends i got cheap . To contrast with the other guys he is completely unarmoured as i don't see warp creatures needing it .  next up i want to do ether some kind of spawn or maybe a strong belwas from g o.t style of fighter ie fat and sleepy who is the opposite to the normal rabid followers of khorne who saves all his energy for that one fatal stroke .

Other idea is a kind of bound deamon i know khorne hates magic but im sure his followers wouldn't be adverse to totting around a mage in a cage who brings them "luck"

 

 

Harry the hammer and a of topic isobella for scale.

[Toby]

Well, it's hard to answer to such great work, but here goes...

Count Dirge has been the lord and master of Fort Dirge ever since the death of his father Beauregard at the nasty little hands of a skaven raiding party, fourteen years ago. Since then, Clovis has held back the marsh and its worst inhabitants, patrolled the main roadways and maintained some level of sanity in the place: considerable achivements, in the circumstances.

Fort Dirge belongs to him: the galleries of mouldering tapestries, the collection of ornate and broken clocks, the battlements and stones themselves. Through the hovel-towns inhabited by marsh-sifters and froglodytes, to the reeking wetlands themselves, Count Dirge's word is law. At least, in theory: outside the endless hallways of the castle, the wild creatures of the marsh are ruled by their own hunger and fear. Most lethal of them all is the sly and vicious marsh-dragon, which has claimed innumerable skaven and, at their only meeting, Clovis' right leg.

Count Dirge is a massive, brooding man, still strong and shrewd, resplendent in his brazen armour. No longer able to dash into battle, he has grown fond of his collection of firearms, which he has used to deadly effect on the hordes of Clan Pestilens on several occasions. On warm nights, he sits in the cupola at the top of the North Quadrangle, his musket by his side, watching for ratmen and the bursts of burning marsh-gas that show that his nemesis has returned.

 

I've also made some progress on the dragon. While it's not incredibly grimdark, I think the low, crawling pose suits the style of old Warhammer (before the dragons became very serpentine). I bought a terradon head to use for its head, but it was too narrow. Luckily, I had a spare and ended up filing them down and sticking them together, and filling the gaps with green stuff, to make one large head. The "ears" were old bat wings, and the horns came off a chaos cart. His base is nearly finished.

 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2017 by Toby
better pictures

[Payce]

@curnow Oh, wow, that model is beyond fantastic. Absolutely gorgeous. Is it too much to ask for a bits list?

[curnow]

6 minutes ago, Payce said:

@curnow Oh, wow, that model is beyond fantastic. Absolutely gorgeous. Is it too much to ask for a bits list?

Yeah sure its pretty simple legs/body/left arm are standard crypt horror but with the spikes trimmed off . Right arm is crypt horror cut and rotated at the elbow and giant bone in its hand cut away and the hand drilled .  tail is from one of the everchosen steeds . Head is from the a.o.s box set flesh hound with the ruff removed . Horns are the ones from the slaughter priest with the 2 handed axe . Weapon haft is from a everchosen spear and the axe is from the everchosen as well .