Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The Black Prince's Chariot of Fear


In between units of Late Romans, I decided to blow the dust off an old 1980s Ral Partha 25mm fantasy model of a dark lord on a chariot which is not only pulled by Balrogs, but even has a Balrog as the chariot chassis. I acquired this at one of our club auctions, and I think it has changed hands a few times- perhaps because the box art looked kind of lame. But the model is actually kind of cool, and it was sculpted by Tom Meier. I intend to use it in my next HOTT army which has an undead theme. It also matches yesterdays bats.


The chassis Balrog sits under the plaform and holds the axle in his hands and feet- his yellow claws seen here from the rear:


The chassis Balrog also holds the chains which tether the pulling Balrogs in his mouth:


The giant goat skull hood-ornament is my favourite feature of the model:



The crew are a bit lame, the Black Prince is a bit on the wee side, even though he holds an elf head by the hair in his left hand, his two squires are gobbos- they are not bad actually.


But I would have preferred something more striking on the platform, such one of my favourite GW models, the Lahmian Vampire


Now, the big questions is what should the Black Prince be in HOTT terms?


Paladin (of the dark persuasion)? He has that petulant bully-loner look about him. Not sure I want one.
Hero or Hero General. Not a big fan of hero-generals since mine get killed or ensorcelled too easily
Behemoth (3 Balrogs after all, and the model is big) or Behemoth General - my current favourite plan.
Knight or Knight General? Ho hum. And they pursue and get themselves killed all too often.

Thoughts?

6 comments:

  1. I like some of the old models from Ral Partha and others. They are rare to find, thus they stand out on the table more. I like the kneeling gobbo with the lance. Good job.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love all the old model. I also like the current 28mm heroics, but these old models have a certain elan you don't get anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yep, I agree, it certainly stands out and has a different quality about it. That's another reason why it really has to be a 4AP HOTT element.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hmm, hadn't thought of that given the aerodynamics of chariots, but there are a lot of wings!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Those wheels are totally just the landing gear!

    ReplyDelete