BNL-032 – Blunt-Claw, Vras-Lord

BaneLords
written by Rob Lane - 1 comment
May 7, 2012

The final BaneLord of four to be released in June, Blunt-Claw is Stefan Kopinski at his finest: taking an idea and creating a supremely characterful concept, a concept that sculptor Benoît Cosse leapt upon as soon as he saw it!

BLUNT-CLAW, VRAS-LORD
Blunt-Claw, called Vras-Lord and Kin-Killer, is tolerated by the Ysians despite his reputation for he brings hordes of man-rats to their armies that would otherwise be nibbling at the underbelly of Ker-Ys – just as they nip and tear at Par-Ys, amongst the other cities of the Merovingians. For himself, Blunt-Claw cares little for Euryalia’s goals and has no desires but those for slaughter and an appetite for human flesh, yet he knows that allying with her ensures he can sate both without creating a powerful enemy. Thus, he is cunning enough to drive his innumerable Vras forward against her foes, joining battle against the above-men himself as his desire takes it, whereupon he can choose his victims and roast them slowly just as he prefers; for such is the internecine warfare in the vast underworld of the Vras – an underworld it has taken him many Vras-years to become a lord of – it is prudent to procure your own food, and what better food than rich, fat, human meat?

Blunt-Claw can be pre-ordered from the Maelstrom Games webstore right now, with his official release date – i.e., the day he’ll be physically available – being the 2nd of June.

That’s all four done – we’re going to have a lie down now…

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BNL-031 – Aanchuth the Cursed, Warlock of the Gabrax

BaneLords
written by Rob Lane - no comments
May 7, 2012

The third of four BaneLords to be released in June, Aanchuth is something we’ve been working on for a while – a Warlock of the Gabrax, infused with the icy powers of the Fomorians. The concept has been drawn up by the simply superb Stefan Kopinski and the miniature has been sculpted by the prolific Benoît Cosse. Watch out for more Gabrax soon…

AANCHUTH THE CURSED, WARLOCK OF THE GABRAX
The Fomorians use all of the powers available to them in their desire to end the humans and their bizarre civilisations. Much of this power is given to the Fíorfomor, the true-Fomorians created through base conjugation with humans, but occasionally lesser subjects are given morsels to use as they require, and even then it is recognised as a curse for the individual that wields it, especially the power that Baalor gives. Amongst his Gabrax the curse of the ice is revered for the power and strength it gives the warbands, and even though Aanchuth the Cursed receives little sympathy for the changes the ice brings and the cost of wielding the energies of the ice grows daily in his blood he knows that while he wields that power his warband is strong. For strength is all that matters to the Gabrax, and whilst it is true that the weakling humans are merely prey the Untains and Tains know that there are far worse things to face in Baalor’s vast undertaking than the armies of man.

Aanchuth can be pre-ordered from the Maelstrom Games webstore right now, with his official release date – i.e., the day he’ll be physically available – being the 2nd of June.

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BNL-030 – Svrill, Wielder of Khthon

BaneLords
written by Rob Lane - no comments
May 7, 2012

The second of four BaneLords to be released in June, Svrill is an awesome addition to the Gorgonars and a cracking complement to Vilthiss. Drawn up by the amazing Christophe Madura and sculpted by the immensely talented Stéphane Simon, Svrill is a wielder of the magicks of Khthon, a sorcerer of incredible power with the ability to crack stone and raise lava.

SVRILL, WIELDER OF KHTHON
Svrill has wielded the power of Khthon through all of his long life for, once transformed, his inchoate mind could do little else; his masters, sometimes callous, sometimes malevolent, mostly indifferent, cared little for such talent, for their attentions were upon the very future of Atalantia and by extension their race. Yet Svrill, forced into a life of slaughter and pain like all of his kin, still developed the skills to use the incredible power within the earth regardless, for once awoken, it could not be forsaken, and if the Gorgonars were ever to free themselves from the shackles of slavery he knew he would have a part to play. Svrill’s strength matured to incredible proportions during his slavery and when it became apparent to the Atalantes – who, more than any other humans, understand the power of the earth – they realised their mistake and hated him for it, for many believe that he has accelerated the decline of their lands. Whether he can indeed wield such power remains to be seen, but all know that with Svrill by his side Ophius will destroy accursed Atalantia, one way or another.

Svrill can be pre-ordered from the Maelstrom Games webstore right now, with his official release date – i.e., the day he’ll be physically available – being the 2nd of June.

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BNL-029 – Ygerna, Sword-Melusine

BaneLords
written by Rob Lane - no comments
May 7, 2012

The first of four BaneLords to be released in June (due to popular request!), Ygerna is the second Sword-Melusine drawn up by Christophe Madura and sculpted by James van Schaik. Without further ado…

YGERNA, SWORD-MELUSINE
The secrets of the Melusines are Euryalia’s alone, for their loyalty to their Queen and Goddess is total. Their legends, however, are many and varied, confused with the Sairens and the Merewives and the Nix, and they have become objects of lust for many foolish men and women despite their thirst and their actions; and thus their origins and true nature remain lost to all but a few, as Euryalia designed. Ygerna’s desires, however, are rapidly bringing the truth of the Melusines to Euryalia’s black city, for her rapacious nature is overcoming her disciplines, and whilst Euryalia knows that her black city is but an arena of depravity to be used as she sees fit there are still ways for her many enemies to negate the power within it, including knowledge and understanding of its citizens through spies and sell-swords. Thus, they say, Ygerna treads a fine line between usefulness and inconvenience, for the attentions of the foolish Eastern Emperor and the coastal raiders are ever upon her and Ker-Ys, and whilst Ygerna’s skills are prodigious she must sate her desires upon the battlefield rather than patricians.

Ygerna can be pre-ordered from the Maelstrom Games webstore right now, with her official release date – i.e., the day she’ll be physically available – being the 2nd of June.

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BNB-026 – Kadámastar, Ancient Devourer

BaneBeasts
written by Rob Lane - 1 comment
May 4, 2012

As you should all know by now, the first Friday of each month is BaneBeasts day, and as you should all know by now we have a superb one for you. When do we not?!

Conceptualiserised by the sublime talents of Christophe Madura and sculpted up real good by the amazing Benoît Cosse – who, it seems, can turn his hand to just about anything we give him – Kadámastar is quite fantastic, we think, imbued with a sense of movement perhaps unequalled in our miniatures so far. You can almost feel those jaws biting you in half!

KADÁMASTAR, ANCIENT DEVOURER
Kadámastar has brutalised the Atalantes for centuries, just as they had brutalised his kin for millennia, but now he brutalises all that stand before him. The legend of the ancient devourer that lurks in the morass has grown from the first attempts of the Atalantes to claw territory back from the wetlands of Atalantia as the sea took it from them to his terrifying, lumbering presence upon the battlefields of Europa, where he breaks shieldwalls apart without thought and devours his enemies whole. The pitted, crusted skin-armour upon his body is impervious to all but the most brutal weapons and the strongest arms, and the crushing force of his jaws and the lash of his spiked tail is feared even by the most terrible of beasts and other foul creatures employed by the enemies of the Khthones. For with Ophius he stands: his desire, like the Gorgon Lord and the Krokodars – his kin, warped by the Atalantes into slaves – is to destroy the Atalantes for their sins and to find lands of their own to survive, lands they must take by force from the humans, for Atalantia is surely finished.

Kadámastar is available to pre-order right now from the Maelstrom Games webstore and his official release date is the 2nd of June.

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What a Salute That Was

BaneBeasts | BaneLords
written by Rob Lane - no comments
April 30, 2012

Phew! It’s taken us all quite a few days to recover from the whirlwind of a weekend that was Salute 2012, not least because we are still extremely busy with orders, but thankfully I’ve got a few spare moments to jot down my thoughts and thanks for the weekend.

Firstly, many thanks to everybody who came to our stand at Salute (whether you bought anything or not!) because everybody we met and spoke to had only good things to say about our miniatures – and to ourselves, thankfully. It seems people like finely-cast resin of superbly sculpted fantasy miniatures with very few flaws, if any! Who’d have thought it? Obviously you all absolutely adored the beautifully painted models in our cabinets, but something that proved equally popular was our unique stand of assembled miniatures that you could pick up and inspect minutely.


The BaneLegions resin miniatures at Salute 2012

The BaneLegions resin miniatures at Salute 2012


Salute 2012 - part of one of the two BaneLegions painted miniatures cabinets

Part of one of the two BaneLegions painted miniatures cabinets at Salute 2012

We heard many people talk about how fantastic our miniatures are “in the flesh” and we completely agree: two-dimensional photographs can never show you everything about three-dimensional miniatures. We’ll be doing exactly the same thing next year at Salute, too, although we are intending to drag ourselves off to other shows in the United Kingdom this year, which we’ll keep you all informed about.

Over the course of the day we met many other traders and luminaries, not the least of which was Jody Barton at Frontline Gamer (who has written a very nice piece about us at Salute here), and those nice fellas at Beasts of War invited us to arm-wrestle Warren on the day so that one of you can win a Krull. I dunno, we seem to give him away at every opportunity! Tim obliged and you can see a video of his handiwork on the Beasts of War website – if you comment on that thread and guess who won correctly, that Krull could be yours! Well worth a punt. Another personal highlight was having a good chat with Rick Priestley – author of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, of course – about all things wargaming although our musings over Orcs growing out of armpits and mummy and daddy Orcs meeting in the woods seems to have stuck in our minds the most. Sorry, Rick.


Salute 2012 - we were surrounded by attendees pretty much all day!

We were surrounded by attendees pretty much all day at Salute 2012!

Regardless, Salute 2012 as a show was excellent; we had a good trawl round to see what was on offer and was suitably impressed by some of the frankly superb wargames going on – particularly the huge L-shaped piratey table which was amazing – as well as the amount of female attendees, which seemed quite unusual to us.

After Salute 2012 ended – and you’re right, Jody, it needs to be a two-day event – we hopped on down to Portsmouth on the Sunday to the country’s biggest Warhammer tournament, the South Coast GT (run by our friends at Heelanhammer and the Pompey fellas), and made many people happy with some superb BaneLegions figures. Kudos to all of you and thanks to Dan and Wayne for letting us display our wares.

All in all, we had a ridiculously fantastic time over the weekend, made some money and – more importantly – secured some friendships. We’ll see you all next year at Salute 2013, at which there will be some surprises from ourselves!

Oh, and look out for a new BaneBeast and four – yes, four – BaneLords unveiled over the next couple of weeks!

Postscript:
Many thanks to Jody Barton at Frontline Gamer for the images; we were simply too busy to take any. More accurately, too lazy…

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20% off at Salute 2012

BaneBeasts | BaneLords
written by Rob Lane - no comments
April 19, 2012

Salute 2012 is only a couple of days away and we’re feverishly preparing everything, but there is just time to update you all on some salient points.

Firstly, you read that title right – we’ll be offering all of our miniatures at 20% off RRP at Salute 2012, so you can get your hands on Krull, for example, for £79.99 and not £99.99. That means it’s well worth the trip!

Secondly, we will only accept cash at Salute 2012. The reasons for this are lost in the mists of forgetfulness, but there are plenty of cash points around the Excel Centre and thus you should not be disappointed should you really want to take advantage of our prices.

Thirdly, you will be able to get your hands on everything within the BaneLegions range, apart from those that are now no longer available (Fulroch-an-Roch, Angalaak, N’nhaak’chshir, Three-Face and Tygandr), while stocks last of course. If stocks run out at the event you can always order online from the Maelstrom Games webstore, of course!

Fourthly, we will be offering the following future releases – May’s, June’s and a couple of July’s – for sale over the weekend… at least, while stocks last, so you’d better head on over to us early if you want one of them. Get your eyes around this lot!

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A Twelvety of BaneBeasts

BaneBeasts | BaneLords
written by Rob Lane - no comments
April 17, 2012

My word. In the run-up to Salute 2012, we’re ensuring we have each and every BaneBeast and BaneLord to hand – assembled and undercoated – ready for people to pick up and scrutinise as if they were their own; and we have to say, the collection of BaneBeasts looks very impressive indeed. So impressive, we thought we’d share that collection with you before Salute. Just look at what you can get your hands on!

The BaneBeasts collection!

As well as that, have a look at the painted versions of the BaneBeasts Creoda and Shaaroc as well as the BaneLords Megálávra and Uggurd, all of which you can have a very close look at – along with all of our other painted miniatures – at Salute, too!




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Salute 2012 Is Upon Us!

BaneBeasts | BaneLords
written by Rob Lane - no comments
April 9, 2012

Wowser! It doesn’t seem five minutes since the last event, if we’re honest, but here we all are again for the United Kingdom’s finest independent wargaming show, a show that seems to get better each year and of course goes by the name of… Salute! Run by the South London Warlords wargaming club and promising to be a full day of wargaming goodness and shenanigans, Salute 2012 should prove to be even better than the last one – at least for us, anyway, because our range has grown immensely in the twelve months since said last event and this year we’ll also have some superb sneak peeks of upcoming miniatures, some of which you’ll even be able to purloin ahead of schedule. How amazing is that!

So, as well as all of our existing range that is currently available – that’s nineteen BaneBeasts and twenty-six BaneLords, forty-five miniatures in all – you’ll also be able to buy May’s releases, Mjagnir, Muldo and Alianne, as well as be lured by the prospect of checking out some pre-production casts of Kadámastar, Ancient Devourer, Ygerna, Sword-Melusine and Svrill, Wielder of Khthon… in other words, June’s releases! We’re not promising anything, but you may also be able to get your hands on them before anybody else – as long as we’ve got all of our ducks in a row beforehand.

Now then. As we did last year at Salute, we’ll be bringing all of our painted miniatures – some of which really do need to be seen to be believed – to show off in our display cases, as well as fully-assembled resin versions of each that you can physically pick up and have a look at. There really is no subsitute for seeing these miniatures “in the flesh”, so now you can have a real good look before you buy, of course – why else would you visit our stand?!?!

You can find our stand – TD20 – under the Maelstrom Games name on this South London Warlords’ Salute 2012 map, handily circled for you. Check it out below!



There’ll probably be a couple of updates over the next week or so and there may well be further announcements about Salute, too – so keep checking back!

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BNB-025 – Mjagnir, Jötunn

BaneBeasts
written by Rob Lane - 1 comment
April 6, 2012

It’s the first Friday of the month, which means… it’s BaneBeasts day! What a BaneBeast we have for you, too: the simply mahoosive Mjagnir, a Jötunn of titanic proportions to grace your battlefield and hit things with his bloody big hammer. He’s the first miniature sculpted for us by the very talented Latvian sculptor Ernst Veingart – based on a concept by the prolific Stefan Kopinski, of course, which you may have seen last year – and it will be painted by the supremely talented Ben Komets, now he’s recovered from the ordeal of painting Krull.

That’s it for the May releases, but watch out for some announcements about Salute 2012 next week, because we’ll be there in force!

MJAGNIR, JÖTUNN
The Jötnar of Jötunheimr are rarely seen in Midgard, for the mountains and the forests of that bleak land of giants and trolls provide all that they want to live their long lives, or so they claim. Yet some Jötnar eyes are drawn to the inhabitants of Manheimr, that strange land to the west where menn swarm like bees and live such short lives despite being so full of their own importance; as was Mjagnir drawn, drawn to a land where blood-thirst can be slaked and the animus can be inflated, for despite his notoriety as perhaps the most brutish Jötunn ever to descend upon Midgard there are many who revere him as a living god, a personification of the furious will that lives in all of them, and beg him to join them upon their raids to the west, raids where plunder and booty are matched only by the battle-joy that engulfs them all. In truth Mjagnir cares little for the squeaking insects beneath him and their pathetic baubles, but allows them to believe he is with them for the joys they offer are unmatched in Jötunheimr, where only other Jötnar roam – joys of battle against beasts tall and strong, huge and ferocious, creatures that he can unleash all of his fury upon and test the strength and the anger he was born with without fear: for even the Jötnar, Mjagnir among them, fear the gods.

Mjagnir is available to pre-order right now from the Maelstrom Games webstore and his official release date is the 5th of May – although you will be able to pick him up at Salute 2012, of course!

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