The “Lu Shang” Project

This article details the process I went through in creating a unique character for my Chaos army and an entry for the Inaugural Chicago Golden Demon competition. It will be written in several parts with new parts released over the next few weeks.  I hope to share my design process and some of the modeling and painting techniques I regularly use.  Technique and style are only part of the equation when entering into a tough competition like the Golden Demon.  The other element is just plain old luck!  You never know what your competitors will enter or what the judges will be looking for.  I feel very fortunate to have brought home an award when competing against past Golden Demon winners and some of the top miniatures painters in the U.S.

 Part 1: Concept

When the "Hordes of Chaos" book was released, I immediately began thinking about how I wanted my army to look.  I have been collecting Chaos for many years and have amassed a fairly good sized army during that time.  After looking at the new book however,  I decided that I wanted to completely redo my army in a very distinctive style.  The map of the Chaos Wastes was a boon to my imagination as it finally showed some of the other areas that could be influenced by Chaos.  There is also a brief description of the Kurgan and Hung tribes which seemed very exotic when compared to the more traditional "Norse" Chaos.

The Kurgan as described seem to be done in the idea of the Turks while the Hung evoke the image of the Mongols.  Looking closely at the map,  I noticed that there were several tribes situated very close to Weijin, which I believed to be the capitol city of Cathy.  I figured because of their proximity to Mainland Cathay, these Chaos tribes would have a very strong "Chinese" image and with a name like Dreaded Wo they would be suitably Chaotic as well!  My Golden Demon entry and first model for the army would be a Chaos Warlord in the style of Cathay!

Before I even had an idea of which parts I would be using, I had to decide what style of Chinese armor and weapons I wanted my warlord to have.  I had a basic idea but nothing specific as I wasn't sure about the different time periods of the elements I wanted to use.  I knew I didn't really want something historically accurate (he IS a Chaos Lord after all) but I wanted the elements to be recognizable in some way as specifically "Chinese" and not "Samurai" which of course is Japanese.

Initially my search on the internet and at the bookstores was very unsatisfying.  I could find bits and pieces of information here and there but not really a look or style that I wanted to use.  I tried watching a few Kung Fu movies but these all seemed to take place in the latter half of the 19th century so again, not much help there.  Finally, I remembered seeing an excellent book in the Osprey Men-at-Arms series (illustrated by none other than Games Workshop's own Michael Perry) called Imperial Chinese Armies (2) 590-1260AD.  Once I located this book, I was able to find several others in the same series that enabled me to get a better idea of what my warrior would look like.  After pouring over these books for a few days, I chose what I thought were the most evocotive elements of the armor and weapons and set about finding some bitz that would work.

Building "Lu Shang"

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