The Talons of the Witchlord - A Nekharu Warband

 

The Nekharu warband I have inadvertently been building up since WarGods of Aegyptus was originally released is  up to a good playable size. There are 3 full units of warriors, a Torturer with Flesh Hulk, 2 Witch Masters with a total of 11 Coven Witches, a Hero (maybe more accurately villain), and the recently completed Witchlord. There's also a chariot and an unused (and shunned because don't like how the conversions came out) Standard and Musician. 

The 14-strong archer unit ('the Cutting Wind') includes a Captain, Standard, and Musician. These guys got their start as reinforcements during the epic Ankharha campaign. I got some of the first castings of these figures because I'm sneaky that way. I had converted one of the Witch sculpts to have a bow and quiver and was very happy that it would not be necessary to convert any more like that. 

Another early unit is the 14-strong Mancleavers. They also have a Captain, Standard, and Musician. These are mostly all standard builds with the only real customization being the heads (they come in a variety of styles) and paint color choices. A couple have had the Mancleaver blade changed to another weapon for variety. 

The recently bulked up Paladins of Despair are 14-strong, again, including the Captain, Standard, and Musician. These are mostly converted Mancleaver sculpts given a hand weapon and shield. These are probably my favorite unit and I've been brainstorming new conversion options for more. 

The official Witch Master with a coven of mostly converted Witches (plus a couple of little GW minis that fit in with the Nekharu) includes some of my first WarGods minis. A coven is only allowed 10 witches so the extra conversions are the start of a second coven. A Nekharu warband should be able to have two Witch Masters because it just seems right.

TheNekharu Hero with battlescythe is a favorite of mine. At times he has led the Mancleavers into battle but now I think he works better as a soloist (or maybe in the "Savage Chariot" that I didn't dig out of it's box for these pictures). 

Early on in my WarGods journey I thought I could convert a Torturer and Flesh Hulk. So I did. I'm not as happy with the Torturer (another Witch as the base figure) as I am the Flesh Hulk (based on a Reaper mini with a GW zombie sticking out of his back). In the background is the Witchlord, the Nekharu answer to a Harbinger, can be seen in all his converted glory here.

There is at least one more conversion partially painted that will join the Talons soon enough. I've also got a lot of Mancleavers ready for assembly and/or conversion to form up another unit. It would be really great to try out this warband in a battle against someone named Jordan and his Heru or whatever he's using now...

Nekharu Witchlord Conversion

 

For countless years I've wanted to make a Witchlord conversion to lead a large Nekharu warband (this is not strictly "legal" in the WarGods of Aegyptus rules but would be reallycool). A couple years ago I came across the Silver Tower box from GW for a really good price. It had several miniatures I wanted for various conversions and the Gaunt Summoner seemed perfect as a base for this conversion. 

I used the Witch Master head and arms from the original Nekharu witch sculpts. Some additional plastic bits from various GW kits also went into the conversion. The picture below is from page 159 of the Aegyptus rulebook and served as the main inspiration for the conversion. 

The book with magic and the dagger was really a fun bit to paint. I was going to do a glowing affect on the skull eyes but it just did not match up with what I wanted. 

Since the Witchlord is on a 25mm base he can easily as a Harbinger stand-in if I really want to. He looks great at the head of an evil warband...

Even More Paladins of Despair Conversions

Continuing the growth of the Nekharu unit known as the 'Paladins of Despair' with three new conversions of various mancleaver sculpts. 

This guy got a plastic GW lizardman shield and the mancleaver was replaced with a damaged Crocodile Games swordblade. I twisted his legs and body a bit to give him a bit of an action pose- it looks a little weird from some angles.

This guy also got a Croc swordblade. His shield comes from a Dark Fable skeleton.

Finally comes this fancy guy with his wings. It was suggested that I should add some wings to one of the Nekharu and I came across this bit that looked vaguely Egyptian, so I slapped it onto his back. He got a plastic GW axe and his shield was some metal piece from an unknown source (I hacked it up a bit). His head is from one of the coven witch sculpts left over from an earlier conversion. I think this one is my favorite of this batch of conversions. 

And now, with a musician and standard, the Paladins of Despair are at the minimum level I wanted them to be to field. They're fourteen strong and ready to hack and slash in an underhanded way. More will be coming eventually if only for the fun of these conversions.

ToTanem Caravaneers

 

The Caravan needed some non-Asar members. I decided a couple of ToTanem artisans would be good additions. 

This was the first conversion. I took his sword blade off and gave him a small hammer, the better to use on his anvil (I didn't make an anvil for him). I'm not sure what he's mad about, but he's giving someone the business.

This guy needed a chisel so I used some plastic rod and greenstuff to fashion a nice little chisel. I also filed off the peg and strap for his shield. 

And here are the new guys with the caravan. 

Cheap Pyramid Terrain Piece

 

I'm always on the lookout for cheap terrain that looks pretty good. I occasionally check the toy aisle at a Dollar Tree just in case some random thing might work as a thing for gaming. I think it was last summer that I found these pyramid shaped sand molds that lit up a lightbulb over my head. So I got two of them and finally got around to painting one up.

It's a pretty thick plastic that should hold up well to normal play and transport (the base sides are about 6" and the height is 6"). I was concerned that the inside might be too see-through under bright lights so I gave it a couple of coats of a dark purple and black to help with that. It might not have needed it.

So multiple drybrush layers froma dark brown up to a light yellowish tan gave a pleasant finish to the pyramid. It's not meant to win any awards. It just needs to present a nice obstacle on the tabletop and look okay sitting there with minis around it.

Above we have some Nekharu loitering around the pyramid. Below we have a couple of pulpy folk doing pulpy poses.

Seven Slinger Storm

Three Asar and four ToTanem slingers completed to do some unit building. 

In preparation for the upcoming Kickstarter that will include some new ToTanem I decided to finish up some of the ToTanem miniatures I have in the backlog. Since the slinger figures (that are currently only available at conventions) are the bulk of my unpainted ToTanem they got to feel the caress of my paintbrush.

And then there are these Asar slingers joining the three I've already painted. I want this unit to be as generic as possible because they're slingers who are meant to be a background unit for almost any Aegyptus warband.

And here's the total unit of Asar slingers as it stands now. Only four more needed to make them the minimum size (and then secret Isis with Nekharu warband will be basically ready to take to the tabletop).