Sand Chicken Flock (Terror Birds)

The dreaded 'Sand Chicken' is a horror from the untamed depths of the desert. Some Beastmasters have been able to capture and train these fearsome flightless birds to follow simple commands and act as weapons in some Harbinger warbands of Ægyptus.

These old Ral Parta/Iron Wind Metals terror birds have been floundering in a storage box for decades. I would rummage through the Iron Wind Metals minis by the pound bins each GenCon and grab a couple more for years. A few were even painted in the past, but those specimens have been lost or traded away. Now I've finally finished up a group of 3 to proxy for lions if I ever run a Khemru Beastmaster. 

I decided that this sculpt without the head feathers should be a female. Like most birds, the females are not the fanciest individuals. So I gave her a muted blue for the tail feathers and a little orange for her head.

For one of the male sculpts, I modified him by simply repositioning the head and closed the beak a little. The boys got red and white for the tail feathers and head feathers. 

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Here they are with a Khemru shepherd, because I couldn't find the recently painted Beastmaster. I like how they look as a group. Their bases are bigger (30x40mm) than a normal lion base because the figures looked better to me on the bigger bases. Since they're birds with long necks, I think maybe they should have a special rule that negates any attack bonuses to their sides, their heads can easily turn to meet those attacks

Above we have a Sand Chicken with one f the Forge of Ice Azorian Lions (because I don't thik I've got any painted Crocodile Games lions). And below we have a Sand Chicken with a Heru Hero and a Nekharu Torturer.