The Champion of Xiatapek - Diehard Miniatures Eru-kin (2017)

Yet another Eru-kin off the painting list. After attending BOYL 2019 and seeing so many colourful Slann I was inspired to veer away from the usual green and experiment with something else.

This particular figure has been painted as a Champion of Xiatapek, the Slann god of violence, brutality and rage. Represented as a monkey, Xiatapek shares many traits with Khaine and Khorne: it is a warrior god that revels in bloodletting and the ritual killing of opponents.

Xiatapek's colours are black and vermilion. His temples are often built of black stone and his ritual weapons are the mace and the macahuitl, often equipped with obsidian blades, but many sacrifices are also carried on without weapons: victims are beaten to death with fists, kicks and headbutts, and their throats are then ripped open with a bite.

Followers of Xiatapek are rightly feared by anyone with common sense, as they are often violent adrenaline junkies just looking for trouble. Many among them are protagonists or mercenaries. In battle, they spurn complicated tactics in favour of sudden charges that are as likely to take the enemy by surprise as they are to end in a bloodbath on both sides.

In spite of the bad reputation of its devotees, Xiatapek is a surprisingly popular god and almost every Slann settlement has a temple or shrine devoted to him. He is, in fact, a slayer of monsters and daemons and images of him are often carved on doors to protect a household from dangers and ill-fortune. Before going to war, it is customary to offer a sacrifice to him among Imperial and Savage Slann alike.

A secondary aspect of Xiatapek is the dominion of fear. He is said to be able to instil fear in enemies and remove it from the heart of its followers. Priests of Xiatapek are often completely immune to any fear and they are known to celebrate festivals with competitions of courage that involve walking on this poles over gaping pits or being covered in poisonous snakes or scorpions.

Bull Slann with Scimitar - Diehard Miniatures Eru-kin (2017)

I'm starting to like these. This is the second Eru-kin I paint and I enjoy it. It's a nice miniature with the right proportions and fun to paint.

I went for a black and yellow pattern, on a green skin. The shield came out particularly well, and I especially like it since it's a homage to this picture by Paul Bonner - in my opinion, one of the best Slann images ever.

Citadel Slann and their successors

 

When you reach the venerable age of 38 and you're still into miniatures, most people will tend to consider you a child who never grew up, but that's not entirely true. Children are children, all right, they are in love with the hobby, but something inside of you is different, and that's the part that proves that you are not child, but in fact an old man. A grumbly old man.

All of us, even those who have the bravery to admit that AoS is actually cool, have succumbed at least once (or more) to the urge to grumble. Italians have a nice word for it: brontolone. Bronto- come from the Greek and means "thunder" (as in brontosaurus, yes) and fittingly calls to mind the image of a distant storm on the horizon, lightning flashing, thunder quietly rolling - all of the evening. There might be even some raindrops on your car, just to make it dirty, but no big actual storm. Just this constant and useless rolling thunder. The French have another word: grognard. That's the word I'm gonna use to tag all posts whose content could be summarized into "back in my time, things were different". Young people rant, we do not: we grumble. Face it, it's in our nature.

This was a very long preamble to introduce the subject of Slann miniatures. We all know who the Slann are (or were, back in my time before the retcon). But where do their concept come from, originally?

I believe the first sketch ever of the Slann might be this piece by John Blanche, titled "Troglodytes", which I found on Ratspike. In spite of the name, these are clearly Slann: the shape of the head, the armour, even the pyramid in the background.

A more mature sketch is the following, also by Blanche. Here the Slann have already developed their name and are drawn in more confident strokes.

After this, GW's staff set themselves to work. Tony Ackland drew Slann for the 2nd Edition of WFB (1983), and also in the later articles Kremlo the Slann (1983) and the Magnificent Sven (1984):

Moreover at the same time, in 1983-1984 - difficult to tell if illustrators influenced sculptors, or it was the other way around - the Perry twins sculpted the first, glorious C32 figures.

These were quite succesful and, in 1986, Citadel issued a new series of Slann, sculpted by Trish Morrison. And these were beautiful, too: it was difficult to spot the difference with the Perry pieces.

Then, for no apparent reason, something terrible happened. The 1987 new Slann relase, designed together by Trish and Aly Morrison, came out, and they looked nothing like the originals:

The new Slann looked more like clumsy toads trying to stand on two feet (with little success). Heads became wide and flat, eyes bulged out and torsos almost disappeared. This was the end of classic Slann: the whole "amphibian master-race from Space" concept was forgotten and, in 1997 they were retconned in favour of the Old Ones and the Lizardmen.

What was left to us, with the name Slann, was this. A bloated, big-headed toad:

And that's the end, as far as GW is concerned. But a lot of people still loved the Slann and independent manufacturers tried to support them with new figures. For some reason, though, most of them were more frogmen than actual Slann as we knew them.

I believe Mirliton's Kermitians were the first. I have a lot of respect for Mirliton, and that's why I will not comment on these figures.

Then it was probably Ral Partha who issued their Bullfrogs. They had way more character than Mirliton's Kermitians, but still looked like anthropomorphic frogs.

Reaper Frogmen are suspiciously similar to the previous, with a bit detail, but with the same inherent flaws.

Otherworld Boglings are less frogs, and more TMNT from the movie (the ugly ones).

Mantic's Frogmen are just more of the same. Good figures, mind me, but nowhere close to the original Slann. These are frogmen, period.

Katsina were the first to give up the "frog on two legs" idea and get closer to the original, with exotic weapons and feathered helms. These are nice, but still only a first step towards the original Perry. To put it clearly: put them on a table next to each other, and you will spot the difference from three metres distance.

And just when everything seemed lost, lo! Tim Prow comes out with the Eru-Kin. And let me say: these are the nicest Slann-like miniatures made after 1986.

Diehard brings out all the old colour (light armour of plates + leather strips, round shields, feathered helms, weird weapons and a meso-American feel) and adds some more in the same tune: this is how you do good Oldhammer in the 2010s. Sure, you say, there is significant difference in the heads:

On one side, a big, tall, bloated head. On the other a more lizard-like, long and flat one. Sure, copyright is still a thing and GW isn't kind to those challenging them. You can't call them Slann. You can't do them exactly the same as John Blanche first drew them. Still, these to me look more "right" than the 1987 Citadel toad-people.

In a perfect world, we would have a second set of heads to replace the lizard-like ones, but in the meantime I must say I am very happy about these. Will probably try to fix them with some greenstuff: I'll let you know how it goes. But even without any fix, this is a huge step in bringing Oldhammer back. Well done, Tim Prow!