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.

Another addition to the Titan Warband

My Titan Warband is slowly growing (the last Titan Slave was painted in 2022?!?!). But this latest addition is finally here.

I could not find the head that was supposed to go with this guy. I thought I had a couple of spare heads, alas there were none. So I looked at alternates. I finally settled on a GW plastic Tyranid Termagant head. I think it looks pretty good.

The painting was a little fast but not at the comfort of my painting table (still not set up because of reasons). That said, I like the way this one turned out.

Here's the newest Titan Slave with a Reaper Bones "Titan" and my first metal Crocodile Games Titan.

And here we have the Titan Slave with some Olympus folks (above) and Ægyptus folks (below).

Satsebek Giant Crocodile

This Reaper Bones mini has been based ( it's a 40x100mm base) and primed for over a year now. It's big and in my way, so I finally just hunkered down and painted it. She turned out okay.

My thoughts were to use this gigantic girl for some specific scenario (heck, she would have been great in the Big Trouble in Crocodiliopolis games at Adepticon 2023 Instagram link and another Instagram link) or something. 

I went with a pretty basic color scheme and it was pretty quick and dirty. Luckily, I avoided doing water effects on the base, that would have taken too much time that I would rather spend on other figures. 

Above, Satsebek with the Queen of the Crocodiles and a Sebeki warrior. And below, she's impressive even next to a Beloved of Sobek, also appearing is one of the Crocodiliopolis Spearmen who is apparently very brave. 

Ankhara Necropolis Scatter Terrain

I've long pined for those glorious days of the WarGods Ankhara campaign and the aftermath of that epic finale at GenCon. A year or so ago, when I learned of the Necropolis28 game, I started musing on something similar with an Egyptian theme. When it clicked I lost my mind for a bit- Ankhara after the Rise of Khepri would be a  great setting for Mummy vs Mummy games. 

I planned a fancy Necropolis board that has since been put on hold, but it would be cool to have a purpose built Ankhara board. Instead, I decided more scatter pieces needed to be made. I've got several pieces that will fit in nicely with the theme, but more is better. 

This first smaller piece is on a 60mm base. It's got some skulls, a canopic jar from Crocodile Games,  and a sarcophagus top also from the Croc. 

Next comes a couple of sphinxes from an old Kickstarter Egyptian-themed dungeon tile set. They were not as detailed as I had hoped, so the whole set has been in the original boxes for a decade or more. But these sphinxes were good enough to be damaged a little and block movement and line of sight. This piece is on a 100x80mm base.

There's a random mummy with its head in the sand to help spice up this piece, I actually snipped off the head and used it on the first base with the two skulls. A couple shields add a bit of color. 

Finally, we have another 100x80mm base. This one has a single Sphinx on it, it could nicely serve as the objective for the "Riddle of the Sphinx" scenario. This base also got a pile of rubble with a sarcophagus lid. There's a fancy sword sticking out of the rubble and a rogue canopic jar.

These three pieces are hopefully just a beginning to a series of Ankhara-themed terrain. I want to use a few of those dungeon tiles that came with the sphinxes. I also have plans for a few raised areas to add a height component to the skirmish area.