GALLERY: The Cult of Slaanesh by Elfhead

Today I have a special guest post by Elfhead of the TGA Community as he shows off his fantastically converted and painted Cult of Slaanesh warband. This army bridges the gap from The End Times to AoS spectacularly, and every single model is a unique character in their own right. Check it out, you won't be disappointed!

Elfhead: A couple of years ago I decided to get back in the hobby by stripping my old models and re-painting them. I used to play High elves, but also had some models lying around I got back in the day using the Cult of Pleasure list during the Storm of Chaos campaign. What started of as just re-painting the models I already owned, soon turned into a hobby project including writing fluff and getting lots of new kits and bits to add to the army. Sharing my work and receiving feedback on forums and social media has become an important part of the hobby for me and I am very thankful I get to share my work on this excellent blog

Thalion, as Daemon prince and elven prince

The background story for this army was the driving force behind the creation of many of the units and character in the army. When the End Times hit, I came up with the story of Thalion, a high elf prince who strives to reach daemonhood in order to survive the End Times. Instead of having a typical chaos warrior bent on destruction and debauchery, I wondered what would be in it for Slaanesh. What would it take for an elven prince to be granted daemonhood by the god of pleasure? Thalion uses deception, corruption, and treachery to save the greatest works of art in order to please his lord Slaanesh. In a way Thalion is really a hero, trying to save the greatest achievements of elven civilization while the elves are consumed by civil war once more. In the end Thalion succeeds, sacrificing almost all of his followers to save his vast collection of art. Fast forward to the Age of Sigmar and Thalion is a daemon prince worshipped by artisans, artists and poets, a demi-god of art and creation.

I have a few simple rules in mind when working on the army. Every unit has to consist of six warriors (or a plural of six); six being the sacred number of Slaanesh. I find this way I can finish the unit before getting distracted by something else and often leaves me with lots of bits for the bitsbox. I also want to have lots of banners, to reflect the proud nature of Slaanesh's warrior. For the color scheme I try to stick to white robes and either black or gold armor, with only a few subtle hint of purple. To me painting slaaneshi units is not about painting everything purple. I rather have the warriors appear as proud warriors clad in intricate ornamental armor.

Thalions bodyguard, consisting of princes from the elven realms of Avelorn, Chrace, Caledor, Eataine, Elyrion and Cothique

Thalions army consists of daemonic, elven and human followers. working on this army has been a creative challenge on many levels. almost every models has been converted to fit in with the army. When I started I had only painted NMM armor once and my green stuff skills were a lot worse then they are now. One of the biggest challenges was creating Thalion and his bodyguard. The bodyguard of Thalion is formed by elven princes from several realms of Ulthuan. I had a blast creating these warriors, using numerous bits to representing the heraldry from the different kingdoms. In a way, these warriors literally represent a piece of the old world saved by Thalion, which nicely represents the background story.

Devoted of Slaanesh

The daemonic followers of Thalion are made up of the old Juan Diaz daemonettes, both on foot and mounted. These are some of my all time favorite models. The keeper of secrets is based on the old bull-headed model. I've always liked the model, but found is was very much out of proportion. I've re-sculpted his head and sculpted armor on his legs so they wouldn't look so skinny. Working on this guy has really challenged me to improve my sculpting.

Daemons of Slaanesh

I've only just finished creating Thalion in his Daemonic form. In a way this completes the army and Thalion's story (for now). This leaves me with some room to start other projects, like an AoS28 warband. But I feel I'll keep adding to Thalion's force whenever I feel inspired. You can follow my progress in my plog on TGA Community and on Instagram (elfhead_warhammer).

Tyler: I would like to thank Elfhead again for taking the time to put this together, his models really are stunning. I highly recommend following his work.

Until next time,

Tyler M.