Move over Penn & Teller, move over Siegfried & Roy – a new magical double act is in town.  Coming all the way from the pyramids of the Old World are twin brothers Lapis & Lazuli  – fantastical Wizards of Light.

Masters of the mysterious and occasional caberet performers.

This magical duo are going to be the Kairic Adepts in my vintage Silver Tower project – where I replace all the 2016 boardgame pieces with Citadel Miniatures from about 20 years previous.  Like the Brimstone Horrors I painted previously, 1990s era Warhammer didn’t have Kairic Adepts, but did have Egyptian-flavoured magic users in the form of Light Wizards. And the 1990s Light Wizards also had Acolytes, which are perfect for Silver Tower Kairic Acolytes.

These Light Wizards turned traitor from the College of Light alongside their Patriarch – Egrimm van Horstmann.  They have found sanctuary from the Empire in a Silver Tower of Tzeentch in my personal Warhammer canon.  Egrimm himself will be big boss of the Silver Tower, as he was Tzeentch’s favoured servant in the 20 years before Gaunt Summoners were invented.

Lapis & Lazuli supported by Blue Horrors in their Silver Tower.

Games Workshop originally released the plastic Light Wizard (on the right in the photos) as the High Priest in the 1994 Talisman expansion Dungeon of Doom.  He later appeared as one of the eight free wizard miniatures on 1995’s White Dwarf 186.  Getting a Warhammer character miniature in plastic was an insane novelty in the 1990s, as plastic was normally reserved only for the massed ranks of mono-posed regiments.

Here’s Lazuli with the other classic 3rd edition Talisman miniatures I’ve painted to date.

Lazuli and Pazyryk Banefire in the ruins of a non-metallic tower.

Coming soon on Ninjabread: more vintage lead miniatures to populate my time-warped Silver Tower.

Chaos Thugs are a Warhammer range released in several batches between 1986 and 1991.  Games Workshop stamped them out of existence in 1994, omitting them from Warhammer Armies: Chaos.  Thugs are firmly anchored solely in Warhammer’s past, quintessential incarnations of Oldhammer, meaning they command decent prices on the collector’s market.

I regret going with the red hair on these figures – it worked on the rightmost guy, who was the first I painted, but looks a a bit clownlike on the other two.  Don’t paint people with bright red eyebrows.  Even Ronald McDonald doesn’t have red eyebrows.

Chaos Thugs are great fun to paint as they’re all individuals that the sculptors packed with weird and unique details.

This Thug has hair that’s long one side and short the other – and one eyebrow bushy and the other shaven off.  He also comes with a severed head at his belt – there’s some back story to how he decapitated someone with just a bludgeoning weapon.

This Thug has both his weapons, the business-end of his “horseman’s pick” and the pommel of his sheathed dagger, shaped like bird heads.  Perhaps it was a subtle Tzeentch reference?  I also like how his one scavenged kneepad has a leering face sculpted on it.

Pazyryk  Banefire and the Thugs in the Matityahu Temple.

The Thugs will get on well with the Talisman Warrior and Barbarian as they’re all half-naked men who enjoy shaving their chests.  The Talisman Chaos Warrior is the unit champion, as that’s how it worked in the Warhammer 3rd edition army lists.  Next off I’m on the hunt for more Thugs to make a modestly sized raiding party, with a full command group.

One day at Games Workshop HQ, Aly Morrison came up to me with a big bag of Talisman figures.  “I found this bag of scrabby old models in my basement, and I was gonna bin ’em.  Then I remembered you like scrabby old stuff.”  I was over the moon.  Here’s the first three painted.

The Chaos Brothers defending portal dolmens in the Mourning Wood.

All three figures are from 3rd edition Talisman, which I originally owned as my Dad bought it for me and my brother in the mid-1990s .  Until that point I’d been exclusively into Warhammer 40,000, and this was my first real experience of the Warhammer Fantasy world.  My painting has improved since then.

THIN YOUR PAINTS.

I’ve been quite annoyed at my initial choice of colour for my Chaos Warriors.  Red and metal is very vanilla.  To start stamping greater identity on them I’ve taken the flames from Clyro Burns’ robes and run them onto the armour panels.  It does help break up the plain surfaces and make them less generi-chaos.

With the rising market value of the old metal Chaos Thug ranges, these muscly barbarians are welcome reinforcements to my Chaos Thug unit.  I have played with them as Blood Warriors in Age of Sigmar, and Bellicose Foot in Dragon Rampant.  The variety of designs and themes in the range means they can slip in, though they are noticeably beefier and taller.  But hey, it’s Chaos.

3rd edition Talisman Barbarian and Warrior.  Interestingly, one of these is a resculpt of the other.

I’m looking through the rest of the Talisman range now to see what other figures will fit in my Chaos warband.  The Minotaur, Skaven, Black Orc and Chaos Sorcerer are all potentials.

Thanks for the minis Aly!