Bolibar the Toad-Slann - Pintamilkada from Citadel C32 Pintamilkada Slann (1986)

This glorious Slann from the C32 range, sculpted by the Perry Twins, is obviously depicting the so-called Toad-Slann, the Emperor's favourite warleaders, blessed with a higher ascendancy compared to common Slann.

His head seems bulkier than other Slann figures in the same range, and he sports a heavy armour and fancy decorations that mark him as a leader. Specifically, he will be the leader of my Slann warband: Bolibar the Great, famous general and fearsome warrior among the Imperial Slann.

I painted his skin a darker shade of green compared to other Slann, to make him more fearsome, and I gave him colourful feathers and plumes to help him stand out. I am not so happy with the yellow of the eyes, armour and the feathers, that looks way too similar to each other. Perhaps one day I'll change them. Notice the obsidian head of his polearm and the jade decorations on his halberd and his lips: the only metal element is his golden armband.

The figure is nice but the paintjob is a bit dull: I need to experiment more, but I learn a couple of useful lessons here, about what not to do :)

Syssghar the Blademaster - Citadel C32 Slann "Cupacocoa" (1986)

I've looked a long time for this miniature, and when I finally got it on eBay I had to pay a dear price for it, but it was worth it. Perry Brothers's "Cupacocoa" from the Citadel C32 Slann range, first seen on the March 1986 Flyer.

This was the miniature that inspired an unforgettable NPCs in our WFRP game, Syssghar, one of the minions of the mad Slann Wizard Anguissh: he was the honourable nemesis to my Sea Elf PC for a long time, before becoming his friend and ally against the Wizard, who had gone just too far in his research on Gods and Chaos. The best part is that the double knife wielding martial artist is still around in the campaign, a renegade to his own people, hiding somewhere in the slums of Luccini where he probably makes a living as an assassin for the local mobsters.

This miniature is sensational because it is one of the most dynamic from the Golden Age. The combat pose is wide (it actually requires a larger base) and gives the idea of a character ready to leap and strike at any moment. It sums the agility and deadliness of Slann warriors, often underestimated as wild barbarians, but actually possessed of remarkable quickness and combat technique.

The sculpt is full of little details, from the jewellery to the stripes hanging from the headset and the collar. Feathers crown the headset and the belt. Metal rings decorate arms and legs, and more rings are hung at the ears (?) and the neck. The blades are one curved and one straight, suggesting a complementary use within a complex attack and defence system.

I just love it, period. Soon I'll post more Slann - with my Lustria Sourcebook project ongoing, I just can't stop the good vibe about them :)

Slann with Blowpipe - Citadel C32 Slann: Akabylk (1986)

On we go painting Slann, with the second addition to what should, in perspective, become a Savage Slann warband. Here you can see its first member.

To keep the two matching, I kept the same pattern on the skin: the basic complexion is obtained through mixes of Vallejo Olive Green and Lime Green, while the streaks are Citadel Caledor Blue. Everything got a wash of Biel-Tan Green and then a highlighting with the original colours. I'm quite happy with the final result, which achieves a successful mimetism with the grass of the base and the water tank accessories I use as battlefield elements for Lustria.

This miniature, along with the Slann Shaman I did a couple of months ago, is also part of the slotta C32 range, sculpted by Trish Morrison, and was presented in the 1986 Citadel May flyer. It is name "Akabylk" - the pun here was unrecognizable to me and I only learned it from another fellow Oldhammerer's blog - which is a corruption of the name Acker Bilk, a British Jazz musician. Why? He played the clarinet, of course!

The figure looks relatively plain, but there are some nice details here and there. The Slann wears a loincloth made of alligator or crocodile hide, with some fur on the inside which I painted fox reddish. The detail on my miniature was dulled, possibly because of stripping (I got it from ebay). Strings hold the loincloth in place and allow the blowpipe to be hung from the shoulder: I painted both as red leather.

Between the legs is something of which I'm not sure. It could be a wickerwork decoration for the loincloth, or a wicker basket full of something. I just painted it the colour of dried grass. For the base I used a base of Vallejo German C. Black Brown, one of the colours I use most, which I covered with Citadel Stirland Battlemire, washed in black and drybrushed in lighter brown (Vallejo Flat Brown, which has a nice reddish finish). Using vinylic glue I put a couple of reeds from a Noch pack bought years ago at a fair, and I must say they do their job. It looks better than the other base I did for the Shaman - I think it really brings out the character of the crouched figure ready to strike its target with a poisoned dart. What do you think? Let me know if you have the same miniature and found different solutions for painting a basing, I'm quite interested!

Slann Shaman - Citadel C32 Slann: Ribbet Ribbet (1986)

My second Slann miniature is this: Ribbet Ribbet, first seen in the 1986 Citadel May flyer, part of the C32 range.

It's a pretty good piece, designed by Trish Morrison. It represents a Slann, shorter than others, in a seemingly dancing or jumping pose. He holds a staff in his left hand, topped with what could be a wooden image of a bird's head, decorated with feathers. His right fist is raised. His body is covered by a crocodile/alligator skin, with fur on the inside, held together by strips of rope or leather. From the neck hangs a small animal skull.

There is no background for this miniature but I am pretty sure it was meant to represent some kind of shaman or witch doctor, a follower of the animal-shaped new gods of the Slann.

It is a grotesque history, that of the Slann - from all powerful world shapers to a people of savages living in jungles and worshipping gods born from the cataclysm that doomed their own race. A feeling of grotesque, incidentally, is one of the main foundations of Old School Warhammer. Chaos at that time was grotesque and everything it touched was tainted by such feel.

There isn't much background on Slann in the original material, so during my WFRP years our group created a great deal of it for our campaigns. According to our own house fluff, the core cities of the Slann maintain old culture better than peripheric areas. But as one travels to the swamps and hills of the north and east, Slann become more and more primitive. Their skin is often marked by other colours and this shaman displays blue streaks and spots on the back.

Dancing to the rythm of ancient rituals developed thousands of years ago, this Shaman is able to call to the animals of the jungle, speak to them and command them to do his bidding, all thanks to the blessings of the New Gods.

Right, I'll have to build two Slann warbands now: one for the imperial cities, and one for the remote jungles. They will be good factions for Mordheim/Shadespire games set in Lustria. Lots of fun coming!

Citadel C32 Slann Spearman (1983)

This is pure vintage, the stuff of legends... the Slann miniatures from the earliest versions of Warhammer! Oh, the feels...

It is a little known fact that the original view of Lustria, Slann and Lizardmen in Warhammer was quite different from the later one.

The current vulgate has the undefined Old Ones creating all races of the Warhammer World, including the Slann. These are a limited edition of super-beings charged with the responsibility to oversee the Great Plan. Unique creatures, virtually immortal, exceedingly powerful in magic, most of the Slann were destroyed in the Great Catastrophe, and the surviving ones keep ruling the Lizardmen of Lustria, also created by the Old Ones as executive minions, and try to keep the Plan of their Masters reaching its completion.

Now, the older version of the legend went like this: in the beginning there were the Old Slann, a spacefaring race who visited the Warhammer Planet and created most races, excluding the Lizardmen who were the original inhabitants of the planet. At the time of the Great Catastrophe, some Slann managed to escape the planet, while others were consumed by the war with the Ruinous Powers: though able to stall them, they entered an unstoppable decline so that, millennia later, they have become a decadent civilization which has forgotten most of the ancient wisdom, and rules over a local empire covering most of Lustria. They are somewhere a mix of Aztecs, Maya and Melniboneans, lost in memories of glory, oblivious of the rise of the other races, living a dreamlike existence of luxury, surrounded by slaves and treasures and ancient secrets of lore and magic. 

God, how I loved the Slann! Everybody did, so much that they figured prominently in the campaigns I played with my group of WFRP in the years 1996-2001. There were Old Slann ghosts, underground crashed spaceships, ancient swords made of mithril-steel alloy, old tomes of power and science, modern Slann wizards trying to recover the old knowledge and secret brotherhoods of Slann scholars trying to defend it from the younger peoples and from the control of a rising priesthood of the snake-god Quesshan. It was, basically, awesome.

So awesome that, when GW decided to retcon the Slann everybody was so bewildered and filled with disbelief that it was even difficult to get angry and address curses at the staff of Nottingham. This, mind me, is usually the reaction of old fans to anything that rapes their old happy memories in order to make it easier to sell products to younger fans.

Few Slann miniatures were ever produced, but they still can be found occasionally on eBay or other platforms for purchasing used vintage stuff. That's how I got my Slann miniature - at an outrageous price, if you compare it to the original one, but still totally worth it, if you ask me.

The first impression of this miniatures was: "It can't be citadel, surely it's a copy". It's not lead, just to begin - it's a darker, harder metal. The base - we are talking of pre-slotta miniatures - is unmarked. And the spear is attached to the helmet, slightly bent and impossible to straighten, a clear glitch.

Turns out it is actually a copy, but an authorized one. The original miniature was issued by Citadel in 1983, as part of the scenario Kremlo the Slann published with the Compendium One. It was the first batch of Slann miniatures, sculpted by the legendary Perry Brothers.
Soon after that time, though, Citadel made an agreement with RAFM, a Canadian company, to cast their miniatures for the North American market. Their production, aside from the lower quality, can be recognized by the unmarked bases.

But you can't be picky if in 2016 you buy on eBay a 1983 Citadel Slann Perry Brothers miniatures, so... let's paint it!

There was actually little canon on the Slann, so I followed my gut feelings. At first I toyed with the idea of painting the upper body green and the lower white, just like a real frog, that until I realized it would look like an actual frog - then I went for pure green. Similarly, unable to decide whether to give the Slann horizontal frog pupils, or vertical reptilian ones, I just left the eyes yellow: I don't like painting eyes anyway. The weapons are a golden/bronze colour, with leather straps and colourful feathers of green turning yellow. Finally, the tail of the helm is a warm feathery white, the same bonewhite I used for the fangs.

I choose a vintage square base, to which I added little decoration as I intend to use this miniature in games.

I had no idea how to paint the shield, so I created my own Imperial device, a yellow disc with a black triangle, representing a pyramid on the sun or, fittingly, a Slann eye (vertical pupil or yellow), a symbol of the all-knowing and all-seeing ruler of the Empire. This is surrounded by a snake biting its own tail, the snake god Quesshan, protector of Lustria, beginning and ending of time. The whole is set on a white field.

I must say this miniature is fantastic - beautiful, detailed, fun to paint. I'll be looking for more of this - woe is my wallet, but long live the Slann!