RR6 - Mad Mullah Acklan'd's Death Commandos

  Time for another rare (for me!) jaunt into preslotta-land, this time it's one of the early Regiments of Renown, Mad Mullah Acklan'd's Death Commandos:

As one of the very few Arabyan units ever released by Citadel, I thought I had to have a regiment of them in my Araby army, and luckily 19 of them turned up on eBay recently that I got for a very reasonable price. 

Anyway, more photos and background after the cut...

Originally launched in July 1984, they were catalogued as RR6, making them the 6th Regiment of Renown released. They came with the usual pun-filled RoR back story, as follows: 

The Story of Mullah Aklan'd
It was the talented and fanatical Wizard Mullah Aklan'd who first led the Men of the East against the Elven lands. Within his lifetime the Mullah had reduced the Elven nations to a few pockets of isolated resistance, and taken control of all of their old trade routes. It was at this time that the Sea Elves undertook many of their great journeys across the western seas. 

Aklan'd may have been insane, many claimed as much, most of them died horribly. His brand of religio-magic was based upon the old religions of the desert tribes, modified to accord more closely with his own distorted view of the world.

His most dedicated followers were the Aklan'd Death Commandos. This elite Regiment was formed from the most devoted of the young desert warriors, men willing to die, and in dying gloriously pass into the highest of the 7 Heavens, known as St'oec. 

The successors of the Mullah maintained the glorious tradition of the Death Commandos, always choosing the finest equipment for them and always placing them at the forefront of battle. 

The most honoured post in the Death Commandos is that of Champion Eunuch. Hasim - the current Champion is an enormously fat Eunoch renowned as the slayer of over 100 infidels. 

As a Eunoch Hasim has +1 Cl and Ld. All of the Death Commandos are subject to Frenzy.

Armament - Scimitar and dagger. Armour - Mail Coat and Shield
Dress - Mail armour and helmet. The long coat is made up of thick padded material and can be worn either underneath or over the armour. It is blue.
Shield - The Death Commandos wear the badge of the Mullah.
Battlecry - "Purity through death"
Leader - Originally the Mullah himself, but afterwards a Captain of the Guard with the same profile as a Hero. Leadership 4.
Note - (1st edition) The Death Commandos are subject to Frenzy, but do not have to discard armour whilst Frenzied. They HATE men of the west. Death Commandos add 1 to all Morale, Fear and Terror dice.

Profile - 1st edition

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Points
4	3	3	2	B	1	3	1	10

Profiles - 2nd edition

	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Int	Cl	WP	Points
Mad Mullah Aklan'd (Major Hero)	4	6	6	4	4	3	6	3	9	9	9	9	97.5
Hasim Eunoch Champion	4	4	4	4	3	1	4	1	8	7	8	7	7
Standard Bearer	4	3	3	3	3	1	3	1	7	7	7	7	32.5
Musician	4	3	3	3	3	1	3	1	7	7	7	7	13
Trooper	4	3	3	3	3	1	3	1	7	7	7	7	6.5

Unfortunately the auction lot was missing Hasim, the Eunoch Champion. However, I've found a substitute model that will work until I can find a genuine Hasim, the C03 Cleric "Mad Wung Ho":

He looks suitably Arabyan in my eyes, all I did was replace the club with a scimitar, as you can see here: 

Incidentally, if anyone has a spare Hasim model, I'd be very willing to buy him from you!

Anyway, on to the painted models! 

Here's a slightly better view, with the rear rank stood on a convenient step: 

A close up of the left half of the unit: 

...and the right hand side: 

And the Standard Bearer, 'Hasim', the Mad Mullah himself and the unit's musician:

The standard is just a simple black affair with the Mullah's star? sun? symbol on it. As you may or may not have have noticed, the Standard Bearer is sporting a non-standard eyepatch. Like many of these old Regiments, the production moulds were used until they fell apart, so there are a lot of imperfections in the models. While most of it on the troopers can be hidden, the mould split line on the standard bearer was straight down his face, and there was a chunk of damage over it that I just couldn't repair, so a greenstuff eyepatch was the easiest option. 

Unusually, I've actually done a step-by-step guide to how I did them, if you're interested. With regiments and non-character models, my painting method is a bit free and easy, almost slapdash, i guess, but it seems to just about work for me.  

 - First up was a contrast grey undercoat. The metallic bits were done in Black Templar contrast and then drybrushed metallic. I've found that using Black Templar is great for metallics, especially on chainmail as it's so much easier to get it into the recesses without destroying a brush. As the only guide to colour in the description was that their padded surcoats were blue, I decided to paint the cloaks, surcoat and turban in a mid-light blue basecoat.

- Next up was a coat of Talassar Blue Contrast over the blue basecoat, and Black Templar on the shield. I've found that using Contrasts as heavy washes works really well. 

- Brass goes on next, along with Guilliman Flesh contrast on the face and hands, and Wyldwood Contrast on the boots:

- A thin layer of Nuln oil all over is next to darken everything down a little and add a bit more tonal shading:

- Using white to basecoat the areas where i want the clothing edging to be in yellow:

- And yellow contrast over the white: 

All that's left to do then is to colour the beards in, do the eyes and finish the bases:

 The beards were just a thinned Rhinox brown that allows some of the skin colour to come through, giving it highlights. 

As you can see, they're a bit haphazard, almost speed painted tbh, but then they're a regiment, not a character model that gets a lot of attention. To be honest, painting 16 identical models is so thoroughly tedious I just thrashed through them!

So, that's another unit done for the Araby army! It also marks 5 of the old Regiments of Renown I've now painted. there's these guys, The Flying Gargoyles of Barda, Mengil Manhide's Manflayers, the Disciples of the Red Redemption and of course, the Nightmare Legion. I've got another 2 waiting in the leadpile; Golfag's Mercenary Ogres and Prince Uthers Imperial Dwarves. 

Knowing I have nearly a third of the Regiments of Renown (not including resculpts and preslotta/slotta variants of the same unit), and 20% of them painted already makes me almost fancy the idea of collecting and painting them all! Hopefully I'll sober up and decide it's a bad idea in the morning...