Paul O'G: Pestigors in the Old World (50 points)

Those who study forbidden tomes know that within the dark forests of the Old World brood the evil  Beastmen, but some are dedicated to specific chaos powers. Those that choose the God of Decay and Pestilence are known as Magic the Gathering players Pestigors.

Pestigors: Baptised in Pus!

Amongst my stash of figs were these models begging for attention. These are metal 6th edition figures from 2003 and it took awhile to amass enough for the units size I desired under the old rules. I suspect that under the new system, small units may be more flexible so I will instead build them as 2 x 10 figure units.

Quite happy with the overall effect of the verdigris and rust effects!

To stand out amongst my Beastmen horde of mostly green and brown figures, I departed from the usual Nurgly greens. Instead, lighter sickly shades make the festering yellow and pink pustules look even lovelier. You're welcome!

Papa Nurgle's "Dream Team" take the field!

Just a small submission from me this week; 10 figs @ 5 points = 50 points. Sadly I've already used the Fantasy and Overdue bonuses but this will take me to my target, representing 8,000 points across the 10 AHPC seasons I've participated in.

And happy Australia Day today to all my fellow Aussies!

From Millsy: Happy Australia Day mate! Hope you avagoodun. Great looking Pestigors Paul, especially the rust effect and khaki shades on the clothing. These guys are properly intimidating. The Old World is getting a lot of existing lead painted up which is a positive if it achieves nothing else. 50 more points for your tally my friend.

From Paul O'G and Reilly OG - Beastie Boys! (25+25 points)

The Old World returns shortly so we are clearing out the unfinished vestiges of my Beastman Army - it just wouldn't feel like AHPC without me doing some Beastmen! Just 19 models remain from >200 I started with a few years ago. These are the last 2 characters which we have painted together in the Dark Forest, under the pale moon while mumbling hateful chants...

Paul's offering to the sacred heardstone is this Beastlord with Great Axe. He is known for his compassionate spirit, high emotional intelligence and tending his rose garden with ample bone and blood offerings. He's an older model cast in metal, and boy does it have good heft!

To accompany this gentle yet frenzied monstrosity, Reilly has delivered unto me a fearsome Wargor with Battle Standard. He promised to do this 3 years ago, but all good things to those who wait patiently, in ambush, biding their time.... - and this was clearly worth waiting for!

The hand painted Chaos symbol and sigils shows he really cares and takes pride in his Banner bearer role. 

An amusing painting moment was Reilly posing the question"So the Elf head atop the Banner - do you want it to be High Elf, Wood Elf or Dark Elf? You've defeated all 3 in Battle". Cleary the Dark Gods must be rewarding me for my efforts! (You Elf Commanders know who you are...)

The lovely banner is made from the flayed skins of defeated enemies, available via Amazon

Points wise:

Paul claims 5 points plus the Fantasy section bonus, and 3 Skullz

Reilly claims 5 points, 6 skullz (sadly another is insufficiently flensed), plus the highly appropriate Overdues section bonus :-), which gets him onto the AHPC XIV tallyboard and off the "Merciless Snowlord's Slaughter List" (as we laughingly call it) just in time!

From Millsy: The rarely seen father/son post rears it's head! Just like always Dad is pulling the lad's chestnuts out of the fire. Seriously, it's like us Dads are responsible or something....

Great work from the pair of you! Just the right amount of gruesomeness to match the ferocity of these beasties. Or should that be gore on there gors? 25 challenge shekels apiece and Reilly dodges the cut for another year.

From Paul O'G: Beastmen! (50 points) (LV426)

Due to work travel its been a good few weeks since I touched a brush. This gave me time to reflect on this year's Challenge and I realised I was missing something - I've painted no Beastmen - for shame! So this week I've rectified that with some characterful Beastmen models from the Underworlds "Grashrak's Despoilers" set.

BFFs Grashrak and Draknar are the bruisers of this warband

Grashrak Fellhook is a magical Bray-Shaman, and his buddies are Gor Draknar the Cruel and the Ungor Hunters Gnarl, Ushkor, Murgoth Half-Horn, and Korsh the Sneak. Together they 'hate all things pure with a bestial vehemence that knows neither reason nor restraint' - nice lads to gatecrash your forrest outing. With the idea that these would be a flavoursome raiding force for WHFB as well as a Warcry Warband, I lavished attention on their lovely details and tried some different flesh tone colours and shades.

That's 6 beastmen figs for 30 points plus the LV426 planetary bonus because its a really, really bad idea to wander into the Drakwald Forrest while these guys are lurking about..., for a total of 50 points.

From Millsy:

I knew something was missing from your efforts this year Paul, and now I know what it was! I have to say these are some of the best beastmen sculpts GW have ever produced IMHO and for an Oldhammer aficionado that's not an easy admission to make.

These are wonderfully painted mate, some of your best brushwork in all the challenges you have participated in from my POV. The palette is muted, and the contrast low-key but you have sacrificed nothing in terms of detail, character or interest. The bases are really top notch too and the lack of tufts or other staples we all use with impunity now really enhances your brushwork.

Smashing stuff all round!

The oubliette - Beastmen from old tat, Mark Backhouse, (30 points)

 For the oubliette I was looking for old figures I could convert. In my old school Realms of Chaos project I needed figures to represent Beastmen and frankly the 5 figures I had weren’t sufficient. I decided I wanted to make some more from other figures as I couldn’t be bothered to pay eBay scalping prices. I rummaged through my big box of spare figures from old projects and came across some Black Tree Saxon figures that I’d last seen when I was making a Shieldwall army in about 2007. These would be a perfect way to use some long forgotten and unloved figures. The figures were not too bad but the heads didn’t look beastly enough.

The heads were swiftly removed and replaced with Greenstuff beast heads. I used a Bluestuff press mould of some older figures I had, and then grafted them onto the Saxon bodies adding extra hair. They look pretty monstrous, but I suppose that’s the whole point. The goat one had extra wire horns that I then used Greenstuff to sculpt into something more ornate. I had a spare dog head then I sculpted onto a shield - as a 3D face of Khorne bursting out to bark at any attackers to terrify them!

The other shields originally had a slogan on it but it looked naff, so I repainted it as a grimacing red dog beast face. In the box I also found some Foundry Vikings. These were also converted into something crazy, but the results are best saved for the laboratory on the next floor of the dungeon I think! I’ve the last one still to paint as well.

While maybe not quite Oldhammer for a purist collector these Black Tree conversions tick the box nicely for me. The simple and understated sculpting is much more to my preference then the outrageously dynamic and over detailed figures that GW produce these days!

So a simple 28mm x 2 figures = 10 points

Oubliette challenge completed = 20 points

Grand total = 30 points

From ReillyOG: The Aquifer and Curtgeld - Swamp Trolls and Khazrak One-Eye!(93 points)

Here lies the end of my painting dryspell. After dredging through a solid 70 goblins(of 200) I quickly burnt myself and only just managed to break it with some fun stuff. 

First, I've finally decided to enter the Snow Lord's Dungeon through the Aquifer, and who better to help me in than this merry band of River/Marsh Trolls! A unit of 6, this unit is made up of trolls who have made a habit of camouflaging themselves with all sorts of vegetation in the deep of the river waiting for passers by to provide a lovely lunchtime snack. These were a tonne of fun to do, especially returning to joyous muscle blending after the sea of boring hoods and cloaks that are night goblins. This was also the first time experimenting with some water basing, and while I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, im not keen to figure out water features that are a little more extreme than the humble puddle.

Had to get a close up of my favourite of the bunch.  Once upon a time this Gurrogg here was sent to raid the holiday home of a Empire noble, he came across the exotic Koi pond in the yard. After eating most of the fish (cause what else is there to do with a fish), he noticed that the fish here were a lot shinier and prettier than the boring brown fish in the rivers of the Drakwald. So, from that day forth, Gurrogg has carried around the fish as both a trophy and a friend. He's even named the fish "Gwub". Some of the goblins swear that there is something else in the river chasing this prized fish but the troll barely seems to care(or notice).

Enough with that nonsense, on to the star of the show and my entry for the Curtgeld, Khazrak One-Eye! This feller here is one of the most famous beastlords to grace the Empire with his unholiness due to the fact that Khazrak possesses a ruthless cunning far above his more bestial kin. Kharak and his relentless herds spare no one and have consistently been a major pain in the backside for the populous of Middenland. (Only now do I realise I'm a tad late with the Curtgeld entry, apologies)

He possesses the Scourge whip which is described as: "Scourge is a lethal whip, wrapped in the bitter curses of many generations of Bray-shamans. Its cruel barbs can tear out great chunks of flesh, causing the victim tremendous agony." In order to reflect how cruel he can be, this model totes a hefty 9 skullz all on its own.

All up, points total should be 105 93 points:

River Trolls: 6x10 8 points

Aquifer: 20 points

Khazrak One-Eye: 5 points(and 9 skullz)

Kurtgeld: 20 points

Happy painting all!

from Paul O'G: Ungor Raiders (100 points)

Despite another busy week in Man Cave central, I have managed to finished these 20 Ungor Raiders for my Beastman Army.

Ungors are the lowest class in Beastman society, brutalised (an often eaten) by the larger Gors. Nevertheless, they are used in scouting and raiding roles in the army. They form the skirmisher elements (though not very good ones) and provide some (though poor) bow units. 

So why bother taking them? They are useful in an ambushing role to take out enemy warmachines from behind, as well as screening the main Gor warrior units.

Even better, I got to put them into action today in a Warhammer game against High Elves. They did very well (for Ungors) but I did like seeing this:

which reminded me of this :-)

20 x 28mm figs should net me 100 points (but only 11 skullz) for this submission, and this unit takes my Beastman Army past 200 foot figures - most painted in the past year during AHPCs X and XI

From Mike W - Warhammer Beastmen Herd (100 Points)

So after completing work on the Lizardmen and Skeletons in my last posts, I fully intended to return to something more historical. How wrong I was!

Figures waiting to be painted, can you see the red one?

Work turned out to be much busier than expected and so I reached out for a bunch of pre-primed Beastmen figures that were lurking in the same box and the Lizardmen I'd just completed.

Finished figures 

I'd put these to one side as they were primed in black with an over spray of grey, not my current preference but when I finally had time to devote to some painting the chore of cleaning up flash and priming 20-30 figures wasn't very appealing...

Unit from their Right Flank

Thus, I decided to work with the Beastmen, despite the fact that, many years ago,  I'd for some reason painted one of them red, my guess is that they were going to be some sort of Chaos Beastmen horde but this time round I decided to go for some more 'natural' colours.

And the same unit form the Left Flank

Not knowing what the natural colour of a Beastman was, I opted for the obvious, Army Painter Monster Brown!

Monster Brown is a fairly light coloured brown so I also used a bark brown to do all the Beastman fur  and hair. I drybrushed the monster brown with bronzed flesh to give the creatures a kind of semi-human effect,

The eight smaller, thrusting spear armed Beastmen

I opted for a dull red colour for all weapon handles, with steel blades and a brighter red loincloth on each figure.

Some of the larger 'Front Rank' Beastmen

Other details were added as required before using a flesh was on body parts, strong wash on fur and wood etc and dark wash on the weapons.

Close-up of Musician and a couple of the larger Beastmen

The banner was done to represent a Beastman hide with a red logo added. Shields were painted on the sprue and then superglued into place before matt varnishing all.

Command Figures (L to R), Standard Bearer and Champion, plus one other

By wat of change I pre-mixed some fine sand, electrostatic grass, died sawdust ad sponge fragments to apply to the figure bases.

Oddly the set seems to have been marketed as a Beastmen Horde / Herd, this seems t explain why 8 of the 20 figures are significantly smaller than the others. I took this to imply they were 'youths' and I have placed them in the back ranks of the unit armed with small shields and long thrusting spears, so they can join in the fighting from a distance whilst the big guys get in close with two hand weapons each.

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it...

POINTS

20 x 28mm Figures @5Pts ea.   =  100 Points

from Paul O'G: Khorngors for the Blood God! (101 points)

After some solid Challenge productivity in quarantine, progress slowed when Mrs Man Cave checked for secret doors in the Chambers of Challenge. A mystery staircase went up to the hitherto unknown location: The Balcony of Domestic Distraction!  Cue the requested significant sanding, repainting etc With that now out of the way, I'm back to more entertaining scales of re-modelling :-)

Back in the day, hearty Beastmen Gor warriors could be given different marks of Chaos. Many know the erstwhile Pestigor (who also make fair Blood Bowl players on Nurgle teams) but those who follow the Blood God are known as Khorngors.

The Khorngor models were removed from production back in 4th or 5th edition so it took me a few years to collect enough of these metal figures to complete a full unit of 20 (including Command characters) but finally here they are in all their Oldhammer glory.

These will be one of the 3 elite troop units in my army, being screened into contact by the supporting hordes where they will (I hope) hit like a truck. Lets see how that goes.

In addition to the 101 points these should earn me (20 x 28mm figs plus 1 for the standard), they boast an impressive number of skullz - as you would expect for followers of Khorne. In fact there are 127 of them amongst them, taking me to a total of 132 for this Challenge.

Blood for the Blood God!

By Paul O'G: I smell bacon! (40 points)

This submission comprises a large pack of savage forest boars that the Beastmen goad into attacking their enemies in battle. This pack of angry yet succulent and delicious with a nice apple sauce beasties is comprised of 6 tuskgors and one larger, angrier Razorgor.

I have no idea what they will be like on the tabletop but as long as they keep Reilly's Dwarf army distracted even for a little while they will be useful. The smaller beasts are plastic models while the big one is resin. The level of detail suited them to be painted with GW contrast paints and then highlighted in the traditional way.

These should net me 6 x 5 points + 1 x 10 points for a total 40 points. 

From Paul O'G: Taurox the Brass Bull (10 points)

One of my AHPC XI goals is to add Minotaurs to my Beastman army, starting with this character. His backstory is that he has some behavioural issues which incline him to the "spill blood and harvest skulls" end of the naughty spectrum.  As a result he has been blessed by Chaos with a brass hide to protect him while he indulges in said behaviour.*  He also goes by the nom de guerres of Slaughterhorn and Bloodbeast, which is probably why he doesn't get invited to many parties.

There is no official fig for this character so I used an old school metal GW Minotaur which I think is rather cool and is a whopping 60mm tall (not including his raised axe).  I worked the brass up through 3 different layers and washes, and then detailed his equipment to break it up, deliberately avoiding contrasts other than red - which I used in a few spots to bring it all together. Pretty happy with how it all came together in the end.

While he waits for some buddies to join him, I'll claim 10 points for my tally. He sports 2 skullz, and as I also think he is rather terrifying so I shall also claim him for the Pit of the Pendulum!

* If you want the long version of his backstory you can find it here:

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Taurox

From PaulO'G: Centigors! (50 points)

I've posted a few Warhammer Beastmen in previous challenges and this one will be no different!  Presenting five Centigors, twisted versions of the Centaur that are prone to drunkenness and fits of rage. Thus, they can be a bit fickle as the light cavalry component of the army. Then again, one doesn't play Beastmen to be super competitive... 

These are older, metal GW sculpts so provide some gratifying heft when picking them up

But 5 isn't enough to make one's enemies quail in fear! They join 5 I did mid-year as a second hand stall rescue, as well as the Centigor hero Ghorrus Warhoof. 

Ghorrus wields his mighty Mansplitter club and his head is adorned with the skull of a Unicorn Lord of which it is said that: 

Atop his scalp Ghorros wears the broken skull of Arsil, the Prince of Unicorns, who had an unfortunate encounter with Ghorros in a moonlit glade centuries ago. It still harbours some of the protective magic of its former owner

which goes to show that silly headwear is everywhere really!

these boys should make a dent when they hit!

Overall thats 5 mounted figs at 10 points each, adding 50 to my tally, plus a modest 3 skullz.  

More Beastie goodness to follow..

Paul O'G Ascends the Snowlord's Peak! (475 Points!)

Followed by his goatlike sherpas, a sweating Paul reaches the plateau and calls out in a loud and mildly intoxicated voice:

"OI! Hear me oh Mighty Snowlord! I approach your mighty kingdom bearing gifts to honour your Majesty"

A mighty voice bellows back from the distance

"Oh Yeah? Go on..."

Paul empties the last dregs from his ale horn before continuing:

"Yes oh Mighty One, thrice you challenged me and thrice I answer the call!

First - your challenge to build a unit for my Mortal Gods collection. May I present a Musician with taste far gentler than my own - with his double barrelled Aulos he can inspire those who fight in your name!

Presenting a Musician who as a seperate unit in Mortal Gods provides buffing bonuses to Phalanx and Light troops alike. More importantly, last year Reilly and I had an amazing tour of ancient Greece together - we had daily competitions to be the first one to find an "Aulos dude" amongst the various friezes and artwork. So this guy is fun for me because of those memories.

-------
A voice from atop the mountain yells down:
"Well thats OK I guess, but not very inspiring and not a skull to be seen - what else have you got?"

Paul opens the next bag:
"Next I bring as thee Commanded - heavily armed beastmen - they do smell a bit gamey mind, but they will fight fiercely for you my Lord!"

Presenting an elite unit of Bestigors - heavily armoured and wielding powerful double-handed weapons.  They promise to chop their opponents to bits before lashing the bloody remnants to the herdstone.  10 Warriors and a Champion to lead them.

The Snowlord declares: "Thats more like it! And a few skulls too I see - how many?"

Paul: "A mere 20 my Lord, but there is more"

Snowlord: "More? This is indeed a bountiful offering - bring forward the last"

Paul: "I have saved the best til last your magnificence. I have slaved hard at the painting bench with these, crafting them to the best of my ability. May I present:

Kharn and the Kharnivores!

This is my new World Eaters Kill Team - long range firepower is not their speciality!

I did a lot of conversions on these boys, to give me all sorts of weapon options - from double chainswords, double chain axes, combos of both and lighting claws

And to lead them the anti-hero: infamous Kharn the Betrayer!

Snowlord: Very nice - and 64 skulls between them too! Whats that they are standing on?

Paul: That is part of my offering of Lord, the Throne of Skulls!

It boasts an impressive 226 skulls. (amusingly, I had just bought this when I ran into Barks at CanCon - it was hard to keep the inner smile from my face knowing I had this secret weapon for our side duel)

To summarise my offerings Lord, it is 23 x 28mm infantry models, one standard terrain cube, points for the map location and I do believe, My Lord, you said something about a skull bonus?

Skull-o-meter Overload: 310 Skulls!!!
(This brings my total skull count to 543 metric noggins!)

I hope that these offerings please and amuse you oh mighty Snowlord, and I await your judgement.

______________________________________________

Haha! This is just brilliant Paul - truly in the spirit of the Snow Lord's Peak Challenge!

My pocketbook had a bit of a twinge when seeing the Greek musician as I think I'm about to fall hard for this Mortal Gods malarkey, and this small chap may just be enough to finally push me over the precipice. 

Those Bestigors (as opposed to the much maligned 'Crappigors') look magnificent in all their choppy, horny, smelly glory. I anticipate many skulls will be harvested from this lot.

Finally, your oh-so-nuanced World Eaters kill team look to be the absolute bomb, erm, absolute axe? absolute Chainsword? Well, you know what I mean. And that Throne of Skulls is completely ridiculous, in a wonderful, gory sort of way. I have a sneaking suspicion that you may have humbugged poor Barks and myself with this whole Skulley McSkullface Challenge. I can only hope he'll be producing something like a Ziggurat of Skulls as a suitable response. :)

Nonetheless, I am a man of my word, so the grand total for this excellent submission, with the noggin-shattering skull bonus, will be a stonking 475 points. Geez! That's one of our larger points bomb on record and blasts you past your personal goal for this year. Methinks that with me at the helm, tossing out points like a drunken sailor, Tamsin can rest a little easier about our overall target...

As to your treasure, Paul, I'm delighted to present you with this plucky pulp adventuress painted by your good mate, the talented AlanD. 

Well done Paul you've done the Peak proud!

-Curt Actual Out