For my first complete project of 2026, I've added a new contingent to my Cities of Sigmar army. The rest of the army is from Misthavn, but this new group is from an invented city of Chatturanga, and they bear a chess motif. Pics and background below the jump...
I've had a slow hobby start to 2026. Unfortunately that can be blamed it on chronic illness (what a pain!). If you follow me on Instagram, I've posted a few WIPs (and I have even more WIPs that I haven't shown off), but no completed projects in a while. Recently the mood took me, and I pursued an idea I had ages ago for some chess-themed Steelhelms. So glad to have finished these quickly!
The goal for the Steelhelms of Chatturanga was for them to evoke chess pawns in their appearance. So they all got blunt weapons like maces and hammers, and additionally the decorative tips on their helmets all got replaced with round pommels.
The squad's captain got a head and helmet from the Freeguild Cannon kit, which is a nice pot-shaped helmet with a double comet on top; and a big mace converted from the Cavaliers kit.
I converted the standard bearer to hold a hanging banner with a cross bar (the kit's default is a waving flag on a staff). Initially I looked for spare banner pieces online, but in the end I settled for chopping something together from multiple small bits and scraps from my bits box. The crossbar of the banner is left over from the Soulblight Barrow Guard kit. The ends of the crossbar are from a Freeguild Cavaliers standard topper. The banner itself is cut from the Steelhelms' original flag, which needed squashing into shape to look like it's hanging instead of waving (due to the way the flag is molded to be waving, it's a little off-square). The tassels on the bottom are cut from what were originally rows of oars on the micro-scale Tomb Kings ship from Dreadfleet (effectively a couple of leftover bits of textured flat card). The pawn on top is made from some odds and ends from the Luminark/Hurricanum kit (which also provided most of the helmet pommels - a good kit for geometric odds and ends). That painted chessboard pattern is freehand.
The priest's reliquary is a tiny chess board that I made from scratch. It's a plasticard square, with tiny chess pieces cut from various weapon pommels. The blowpipes from the Hunters of Huanchi set are great for representing lathed wooden bits. Some of the chesspieces are topped with microbeads. I was even meaner to myself than with the freehand banner - I freehanded the chessboard pattern after the chesspieces had been glued on. The priest's helmet is the end of one of the cannons in the Mega-Gargant kit - I think it fits with the unit's pawn-styled helmets while looking like some sort of ceremonial bell.
I used a restrained colour palette, tending towards ivory yellow-whites and ebony black-browns. The wood is all light yellow-browns, and the metal is all dark iron. Given the slight Indian influence of the name of Chatturanga, I tended towards brown skin colours.
I am not masochistic enough to freehand the shields - instead I cut squares from the Space Marines transfer sheet that includes a long checker-patterned block of "Honour Markings". This is only six squares wide, so the shields have 6x6 chessboards (same as the priest's 6x6 reliquary board). This is perhaps a Chatturangan chessboard variant.
In addition, I added a Freeguild Marshall and his Envoy. This is the second of this kit I've built - I love it. The most notable modification is his sword, which takes the blade and handle from Korsarro Khan's kit. The sole reason for this is the excellent horse-headed hilt which looks exactly like a Knight chess piece. Although this Marshall is leading the pawn-themed Steelhelms, I think he must have served in the Chatturangan Knights in his past.
The Marshall's thigh armour plates are also replaced with 6x6 chessboards, a conversion I'm really pleased with. Unfortunately one is hidden behind the shield, which I was decided on putting in front in his left hand, so as to mirror the Misthavn Marshall I'd built prior. Above is a WIP so you can see him before his shield covered the plates.
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| Marshall, Envoy, two steelhelms |
Like the Steelhelm priest, the Envoy also gets a chessboard on a staff. I think these are some way of encoding tactical information to communicate between Chatturangan regiments (who know the language of chess). This board is also 6x6, again I painted it after gluing the pieces (😰), this one gets both black and white pieces to encode deeper strategies. How do the pieces stay on during a battle? I think it's some Age of Sigmar magic, by which I mean magnets. They've invented travel chess.
Above is a view of the freehanded chessboards and banner together. Difficult to photograph such tiny elements with my camera!
Here's the Chatturanga Marshall together with the Misthavn Marshall. I love the variations you can get from this kit.
Finally, here's the Chatturanga Steelhelms and Marshall together with a unit of Misthavn Steelhelms and their Marshall. I'm so happy with the contrast in the Chatturanga warm-only palette with the cool-dominant Misthavn scheme. I think the two units demonstrate a clear difference in cultures between two Cities despite using the same kit.
The Chatturangan units are based identically to the Misthavn ones, since they're in the same army. I've got something more on the way for this project. Also a couple of the newly announced Cities of Sigmar kits have caught my attention, perhaps some of them might show up in this project at some point bearing the livery of either of these two cities. But there's also still a ton of WIPs on my desk that need seeing to!
Thanks for reading
Hek
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