Friday 16 June 2017

Age of Sigmar 'Death' Army, landscapes, baboons, a naughty Dwarf, and some goodly Knights.

Whilst I am still painting the pre-slotta Dark Elves, I did take a break from them the end of last week to paint some of my Age Of Sigmar 'Death' Army, and a couple of odds and ends.

I always liked the Tomb Kings, and so when Age of Sigmar appeared, and they disappeared, I was less than happy. But I don't mind Age of Sigmar as a game, what little I have played of it, and it gave me opportunity to pursue an idea I wanted to do. I wanted to build a Vampire Counts army, with Vampire Counts miniatures, with a Tomb Kings twist. So I have been collecting, on and off, a miniatures from the 'Death' faction, which were largley the old Vampire Counts miniatures, and adding some Tomb Kings item, such as heads/shields/etc, and painting them up in a variation of a Tomb King paint scheme.

In addition, I have also been shopping and sorting things out. I popped over to a fairly local Model Railway shop in Lancing (West Sussex) and bought some background settings for my blog photography. I also, on the same day, went to Worthing, and managed to bag a few Tomb Kings bargins too.

In relation to sorting things out, I did a little mail order a while ago to Ral Partha (Europe) for some of their fantasy Baboons. I bought one of the old Runequest Baboons from e-bay on a whim a month or so ago, and then had the idea of making an army of Baboons, some with weapons as per Runequest. I would use the Chaos army list for them, using them as a subsitute for Chaos Beastmen. In addition to the the Baboons, I have been sorting out the miniatures for my 1980's Empire and Brettonian armies, with an idea of organsing them ready for painting. I also painted the Dwarf flasher for no real reason.

Enjoy :)
Railway shop backgrounds.
I plan to mount these on pieces of wood, but for now I'm using good old blu-tack.
They are made by a company named 'The Pitchard Patent Product Ltd', and called 'Peco scene backgrounds'. They cost me £1.55 each, which is very cheap.
The top one is called Mountain Lake, the bottom one Country with river.
Top: Sky with clouds.
Bottom: Conutry Landscape.
Goblins!!!!
I need to paint more Goblins, but for now these are for scale/scenic purposes.
This is the Country Landscape. I think they provide a really good backdrop.
Another shot of the Country Landscape.
Country River.
I love the idea of Goblins wandering about the English Countryside, in this case it looks like Yorkshire or the Cotswolds.
The other end of the Country River.
Mountain Lake, looking like the Lake District or Scotland.
The other end of the Mountain Lake.
 
The middle of the Mountain Lake scene, and what better to see there than a Giant Hill Troll?
Sky with Clouds.
Not very exciting, but this will be useful when I add jungle or desert items to the foreground.
Age of Sigmar Death force.
Sorry for the terrible photograph, I had difficultly in getting a good photograph, but I took better closer up photographs. These are only the start of the army, I have a lot more to paint.
I have combined Tomb King parts with the Death kits to create a Tomb King-esque army. I do miss the Tomb Kings, and might re-base them up for Age of Sigmar.
Black Knights.
I love these miniatures and they paint up nicely. I added Tomb Kings heads, shields, and spear arms.
I painted these, and the others as follows:
Black undercoat; dry brush with white; add gold, red, turquoise in a heavy dry brush; then give the whole thing a wash with Citadels 'Nihilakh Oxide'.
The bases are Citadel's 'Steel Legion Earth' base/edge, with 'Agrellan Earth' texture.
I did'nt want to do the copy of my Tomb King army, but wanted a slightly Ghostly/Ethereal feel to the army. They are really quick to paint, this unit (not including basing) took about two hours.
Unit leader, with Tomb King Kopesh, and Princely crowned head.
Right hand side.
Standard Bearer, with an old Tomb King standard.
Musician with Tomb Kings horn.
Spear armed Knights.
Charging Knight.
Wight King with Black Axe.
The miniature is an old Tomb Kings King, with an axe arm from the Necropolis Knights set.
Old 1990's metal Banshee.
I painted her in the same manner as the rest of the army, but added some extra white highlights after the  'Nihilakh Oxide' wash had dried, to add to that spooky ethereal spirit look.
Cairn Wraith.
I added a a Tomb King Mask from one of the Tomb King kits (I cannot recall which one).
Grave Guard test models.
I painted up a pair of these to see how they look. I decided not to add the should armour to give them a more ancient era look. I like these miniatures, they remind me of the old pre-slotta C17 Skeletons with the unusual looking helmets.
Basic Skeleton Warrior test modol.
Quick and easy to paint, which is handy as I have 60 of them to paint!
Front view.
Spirit hosts!
Like the Banshee I added some extra white drybrushing.
Spooky!
I love the nature of these kits as you can see through the open mouths and eyes, and they have a great sense of movement.
Tomb Kings bargins.
In a second hand shop in Worthing, where I have picked up miniatures bargins before, they had had a re-stock. I bought the Banshee above for £3, the Tomb King MIB for £3, the High Queen Khalida £3, and the Tomb Guards for £5.
I am not sure what to do with them, although I am working on another Tomb Guard unit.
'Flasher Dwarf'!
I am not sure why Citadel would make a flashing Dwarf, he's a odd little miniature. I bought him years ago as part of a batch of miniatures, and recently saw another one painted on someones blog and thought, I'll paint mine.
He'll probably end up in a regiment of Dwarves, perhaps as an even more deranged Troll Slayer.
Rear view (so to speak!) of the flasher, showing his dirty raincoat.
Runequest Baboon Aventurer.
I never played Runequest but I like this miniature and liked the idea of Baboons with weapons and armour.
Rear view.
The Runequest baboon gave me the idea of a baboon army, as stand-in alternative Beastmen. I bought a few test models from Ral Partha (Europe). Their baboons are called Swamp Ranzas and come in packs of two variants (above). I like these miniatures, and the idea of a baboon army is something I plan to undertake, but at a much later date.
The Ranzas can be found here:
http://www.ralparthaeurope.co.uk/shop/dsa-the-dark-eye-28mm-fantasy-c-30/creatures-17000-c-30_34/17015-swamp-ranzas-2-p-1012.html
A couple of converted Ranzas.
I re-positioned the arms and gave them a couple of old shields and weapons. I wanted to avoid going for an African theme for them. It would have been easy to just give them assagai's and 'Zulu' shields, and African fantasy armies are an under-explored concept. However, I did'nt want them to be a pastiche of Africans, but I wanted them to be more akin to a C.S Lewis/Runequest approach of European/Middle Eastern weapons and equipment. I am reminded of Prince Kassim as a Baboon, in the film 'Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger' in their demeanor. But it's all very much a WIP with both the concept and miniatures.
Reiksguard.
I have been sorting out my Empire and Bretonnian miniatures too, with an idea of painting my Empire army, and re-organising the Bretonnians.
For the Empire army is have Pikemen, crossbows, and Halberdiers, but the plan is to have all of these around a core regiment of Reiksguard. Rather than Reiksguard miniatures I wanted my Empire army to have a core unit that is more 1980's fantasy human, and so will have the regiment built around the 1980's Citadel boxset BC7- Heroic Fighter of the Known World, with a mix of Fighters and Lords of Battle to make up the numbers. I like the idea of the army being form around a virtues and goodly group of questing/crusading Knight and heroes (and one heroine). For some reason I forgot to add the hero 'Gladius' to the unit, but he will be present too!


The next update will be the Dark Elves. If I focus on them I can finish the army in a few days.

4 comments:

  1. Really nice take on an undead force, those backdrops are very useful, and the baboon looks great

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    1. Thank you, I wanted to give the Undead army a slightly different look, more spooky than boney!
      The backdrops are a great find. I'm looking forward to doing some more photography with miniatures to try them out more. The Baboon was a great thing for paint for the fun of it.

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  2. The Tomb King/Vampire Counts hybrid miniatures look absolutely fantastic! Love 'em, nice and dark...

    I contemplated using those same backgrounds a while back, I've got a model railway shop nearby that keeps them stocked.

    But I'm looking for something a little more dark and fantastic, I'm going to attempt to paint my own. If that fails me, at least I know now they actually look quite decent as a miniature backdrop ;)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, glad you think they look dark, I was going for a spoooky and other-worldy look to them.

      I am very happy with the backbrounds and loooking forward to doing some more photographs with them. I have found that some of the model railway shops have some really interesting and useful stuff.

      I am afraid I would'nt have the artistic flare to paint my own, but it will be good to see yours as that will allow you to customise them more.

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