But there is in Armies on Parade.
This year for the first time, a new category was added to the Armies on Parade competition; Team. As the name might entail, this required two or more people to work on a submission for it be counted as such. This could mean, as one of the entries was, a whole school class' worth of members working on one board. However, in my mind, it is bringing two separate boards together to show an epic scene of battle between miniatures.
Clearly this sentiment was shared between Celestin (@cel_miniature) and Oscar (@guerra_miniatures), as they prepared both of their individual entires for Armies on Parade, and embarked on their dual board project together.
Oscar Guerra - @guerra_miniatures
This project was quite the journey, and I’m really glad with how it all came together – both in the individual details and the overall display.
It’s funny how it all started. My friendship with Cel actually has a pretty random backstory. I’d been following him on Instagram since 2022, and after moving to Switzerland in January 2023, I spotted one of his conversions at my local game store. It was such a coincidence that I almost didn’t believe it! That's when I reached out and we met for the first time.
I was only in Switzerland for a year to finish my MSc, so we wanted to create something together before I left. The only catch was that I hadn’t been that into Age of Sigmar lately, which was Cel’s main focus. That changed when the Cities of Sigmar models were released though and Tahlia Vedra immediately caught my eye. I knew I had to paint her.
Despite my departure looming, the timing ended up being perfect. Around this time, Cel had just won a trophy at the Armies on Parade competition and was focused on his Goretonia army. We found inspiration in the Old World, tying it with the lake themes of Lethis’s lore. We came up with the idea of the FEC trying to “rescue” the Lady of the Lake, while the Lethians defended her. That’s where the idea of a clear printed Lady of the Lake figure came in.
I had done an Armies on Parade board in 2022 for my Necron army, which taught me a lot, and I wanted to push beyond what I’d done before. I found a great ruined fort model online and started mapping out the layout and model placements in Blender. Then, I dove into MDF foam – and there was a lot of it! Cel even shared some of his own supplies to get me started.
I officially started on December 22, 2023. I’d taken notes from amazing terrain makers like Nerdforge and Boylei Hobby Time, and I 3D-printed a texture roller for the brick walls. Without many tools, all the foam was hand-cut using a basic wire cutter which promptly broke. I even shed blood during the construction, as accidentally stabbed myself in the leg with a brand-new hobby knife. Not my proudest moment! However by January 22, the castle was done, and I started layering on Mod Podge and wall filler. Once primed and painted with oils, I added a resin pour for the “sea” – which took three pours to fill.
Meanwhile, I painted my miniatures, 40 in total, making test models for the colour scheme. Originally, I thought I’d go with green for the OSL, but thankfully, Cel gave me feedback that helped improve the overall look. The models had their own challenges: the knights, with endless details, took the longest, and I had to keep in mind how each model’s highlights would match the lighting on the diorama.
For the Lady of the Lake, I incorporated her into the resin pour, creating waves from polymer adhesive mixed with white spirit. I also took a leap and freehanded three banners, which was a big step outside my comfort zone, but I was thrilled with how they turned out.
Between December 22 and February 21, I built the board from scratch, added the resin pour, and painted over 40 miniatures – all while juggling a 20-day trip to Asia in January, prepping for my new life in Korea, and finally moving to Seoul at the end of February. It was a huge project, but I really enjoyed it.
Célestin Morier-Genoud - @cel_miniature
Oscar and I followed each others on IG and ended up meeting up in the local game store and became friends. Oscar suggested last winter that we take on a 40k joint project, where we’d each paint a huge miniature for a duel. I was too deep onto a Flesh eater project to start anything else at the time, but we started envisioning two full armies squaring off. Eventually, we decided to build a dual board, planning it even before Armies on Parade 2024 was announced (though, unfortunately, our board turned out way too large for the competition).
Looking back, we didn't really planned anything specific. I had my flesh eater army on the go and Oscar wanted to acquire some Cities of Sigmar minis. We only agreed on the thickness of our boards so they could match together and exchanged a few ideas on color scheme. If I remember correctly, we didn't meet again until our armies were actually done, going into a painting frenzy during winter. We managed to take photos before Oscar left for Korea, though a few pieces were still unfinished on my side and missing on our pictures together. Oscar’s army followed a darker theme inspired by Lethis and I had a very bright and colorful theme, which gave a unique look—flipping the usual roles, where the "good guys" are bright and the villains shadowed. Instead, our board featured the shadowy Cities of Sigmar against a colorful and luminous undead force charging into the fray. Perhaps the delusion of the flesh eater courts seeing themselves as mighty heroes charging towards evil enemies? The Flesh Eater Court of Goretonnia.
Last year, when Games Workshop announced the re-released Bretonnia, I felt an incredible surge of nostalgia. As a kid, I had always loved this army, but I never had the chance to collect even a single miniature—so I had to get some. At the same time, they were also releasing new Flesh-Eater Courts models, and with my two-decade-long undead collection, I had to get them all.
Adding to the excitement, I’d won a silver award at last year Armies on Parade with my Soulblight Gravelords, and I was hyped about bringing another undead army to life.
Then everything clicked. I remembered a widely known fan theory suggesting that the new Flesh-Eater Courts of Age of Sigmar were once the proud Bretonnians of Warhammer Fantasy, lost to the new AOS edition in 2016. That’s when I knew what I had to do: combine my love for both factions and bring to life the Flesh-Eater Courts of Bretonnia—or rather, Goretonnia.
Initially, I considered a grimdark approach, but I still wanted to go for Bretonnia’s vibrant colors, yet with an undead twist. I wanted all the iconic units to be recognisable: The Fay Enchantress, the Green Knight, King Louen Leoncoeur, Grail Knights, Men-at-Arms, and so on. So, I began hunting down old Bretonnian bits on eBay before their spring release, as we still didn't know which kit would come back or not —admittedly, paying a very high price for some rare pieces that turned out to be re-released just two months later! Not my smartest move, but the excitement was too strong and I had to surf on the wave of creativity and finish the projects before Oscar would depart for Korea.
I probably spent more time planning each unit than actually building and painting them. I had to ask myself: Which kits would I use to create the Fay Enchantress, the Green Knight, the King, and which unit will they actually be into the game?
Goregiana, the Fay Enchantress
AOS lore is pretty clear about Neferata and her Lahmian vampire spreading the corrupted blood of Ushoran to Cities of Sigmar, transforming people into ghouls, for their eternal schemes and manipulations and I knew I was going to build the army around this idea which could very well match The Old World as well. For the Fay Enchantress, I first considered a female vampire to count as "Abhorrant Archregent" for its in-game abilities, being the best caster of the army. I was considering converting a ghoulish lahmian vampire flying, to portray an illustration I really like of the fay enchantress from the V6 book of Bretonnia. But it felt like the iconic unicorn was missing. I opted to create something I liked first and worry about rules later, building an undead unicorn with a Lahmian looking "less beautiful" than usual to better match the ghouls of the army. In term of game, I can play her as a ghoul king on dragon or varghulf courtier with prayer abilities, with a simple switch of base or as a vampire on abyssal terror for The Old World which fits perfectly.
King Louen Leoncoeur
Originally, I envisioned a more tragic concept for King Leoncoeur, using the new Ushoran kit to portray him as fallen hero especially twisted and corrupted, cloaked with his own Hippogryph (using an entire Gryphon mini torn in pieces on his back, with wings, etc). But in the end, I wanted him to be more recognisable as the classic Bretonnian King riding his Hippogryph, so I chose a Ghoul King on a Terrorgheist. The cloaked Hippogryph idea remained, just at a smaller scale, using a Gryphon head as shoulder pad for the Ghoul King. I wanted the terrorgheist to look less "dead" than the GW version. Therefore I used the verminlord body which is covered with hairs, and painted the terrorgheist head like if it was skin and not bones, and it did the trick!
Green Knight
The Green Knight was the last mini I built in the entire project. I initially leaned toward an Abhorrant Gorewarden, for his ability to teleport in game and I was pretty damn sure about this choice since the very beginning... But at the last minute, I changed course. Seing each unit of my entire army really recognisable —I wanted to stick to the "mounted Green Knight" concept. So, I went with the new Varghulf with a rider atop. Building these 3 central characters took me months, while the rest of the army came together more naturally and with more basic conversion: Crypt Horrors drinking vampire blood to gain power, much like Grail Knights drinking to the holy grail; Morbheg Knights deluding themselves as Pegasus Knights, and so on.
When building the army I knew I wanted to create a pdf file inspired by the V6 book of Bretonnia to describe all my unit. The first paragraph in each unit description actually comes from the official V6 book of Bretonnia from 2004, but the rest of the description switches and is twisted to match the flesh eaters.
Oscar and I both submitted our armies to this year armies on parade but it wasn't out year to be displayed, unfortunately. Thought I love my flesh eater army nonetheless and playing them is my next goal! I hope to be able to do it by the end of this year !
Well there you have it! Probably one of the coolest and most ambitious project I have seen, made all the more interesting by having two separate creative minds working together to create something incredibly grand and beautiful.
Even though the project sadly became too grand, and exceeded the size requirement for Armies on Parade, this one is up there with one of my favourite boards. From the incredible attention to detail, to the mind blowing conversions, to even the contrast in colour of the two armies; this is something to be immensely proud of, and serve to inspire future would-be diorama builders for years to come.
I cant wait to see what both Oscar and Celestin come up with next! Make sure you go and check out their work in much greater detail, by heading over to their respective pages and letting them know how they've inspired you! You can find Oscar over at @guerra_miniatures and Celestin at @cel_miniature.
Big thanks to both of them for their time and effort in writing up the process behind this project for us all to enjoy and learn from!
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