It has been something I have been badgering several people for over the last couple of years, but at last someone has delivered! A full scale Greater Daemon of Malal based on the original concept drawings discovered in Tony Ackland's collection. Pantheon of Chaos have come up trumps again, with Diego Serrate sending me a wealth of material late last night for fans of the project to gawp over.
The Greater Daemon was sculpted by a relatively new addition to the Pantheon, Boris Szuster, and you can see that he has done a great job. The model certainly looks imposing!
Diego went on to stress that the green you see here is a mix between the two drawings we have seen before; the original '80s Ackland original, and the second digital concept Tony produced for the aborted Antiquis Malleum project. Both images have been attached here for your reference. Diego told me that he hopes to produce this model with a choice of heads, and include the a design based on the '80s version too.
No doubt many of you will be contemplating scale. So here is a handy photograph of the new Greater Daemon alongside a plastic Chaos Warrior. By the looks of things, the 'Malal' Greater Daemon is slightly larger than the old '80s metal Daemons and would most likely struggle to fit on a monster base. Not that that matters, of course, unless you are a total scale purist!
Looking at the green from a different angle highlights the beautiful reptilian detail that Szuster has achieved. The hands really strike me as particularly well executed, even unpainted I get a sense of impossibly ancient skin and wrinkled flesh. The face is appropriately baleful too, and the detail on the horns help drawing attention to those blank, soulless eyes.
Finally, I am sure there are those of you out there wondering about casting. Well, here is a handy shot of the all of the model's pieces broken down. If this is cast in metal (which is the Pantheon's plan) the Greater Daemon will be a weighty beast indeed and will feel very, very satisfying in the hand.
If you couldn't guess, I am extremely excited by this model and cannot wait to get to work on my own copy! I have several other exciting pieces to share too, and I will be revealing more of Diego's secrets in another post soon.
If you are new to the Pantheon of Chaos, just follow the link below to find out more. It is a closed Facebook group so you will need to apply to join to uncover the wild and wonderful creations within!
Orlygg