Wednesday 9 October 2013

A few Undead Army WIP photographs.

As mentioned in my last blog update, after finishing off the 3,000 point Dark Elves I have decided the next army to do is the Undead.

I have done a draft army list, but have not finalised the details, and so will add that on the Sunday update.

Since starting painting them on Sunday,  I have made quite good progress I have found that there are very quick and easy to paint, especally things such as Mummies, Wraiths, and the Carrion.
 I have purposely kept the look of the army simple by using darker basecoating with two or three very light highlights to suggest faded rotting cloth. The armour is painted Mounfang Brown then highlighted with Silver (Runfang Steel) to give the impression of rusty armour. Then everything was given a heavy wash of Agrax Eathhsade to bring it all together and give it that gunky feel.

I'll do a proper update, maybe with the army most or all completed, this coming Sunday. I still need to varnish and base what I have done, as well as add flags and check any details. I have approximately another 40 Skeletons to do, as well as odds and ends.

Enjoy :)

 Mounted Spectre made using a 1980's Citadel Cavalry. There was slight indent in the underneath of the horse that allowed the use of the flying base. 
 I used that particular rider as I thought he looked more Spectral.
 Spectres, especally mounted as always good to have in an army.
 Two Skeletal Stone Throwers. When I went to paint these I realised that I had lost one of the crew :( . So I have replaced him with the Skeleton holding his head in his hands, perhaps in this case acting as a spotter!
 The Army General. 
He is another 1980's Citadel Undead Cavalry miniature. As he looks like a King, I will use him as a  Necromancer-King. 
 Right hand side view. I wanted to keep him looking very dark and evil looking, but with a faded regal glory about him. He's a very nice old miniature and could'nt do the army without including him.
 Two Carrion with Imp riders.
 Two Wraiths, made by Grenadier for a Lord of the Rings box set. Might only include one in the Ethereal host as I also have an ADD Range Shadow, photographed at the end of the last blog update, which I intend to use as a Wight.
 Mummies! 
The two on the left are old Citadel ones, the two on the right old Harlequin/Black Tree Design. 
I want to use Mummies in the army as they are quite dangerous and also not subject to instablity. And they look cool too!
 20 Skeletons with spears, light armour, and sheilds.
 A mix of 1980's Citadel and Grenadier miniatures.
 Two Grenadier Skeletons, and a Citadel one on the right. 
I like the Roman style of the unit leader, he's holding a baton and not missing a weapon.
 20 Skeletons with hand weapon, light armour, and sheilds.
 Standard bearer and unit leader. I like the undead Prince as unit leader.
 Three swordsmen, the centre one being an old Grenadier one, the other two 1980's Citadel.
 Three more Skeletons, this time all 1980's Citadel. 
I found as I was re/painting that they naturally looked best with a colour combination of blue, red, or brown cloth, with the rusty old looking shields mostly in red.
Imp of death! 
One of the Imps riding a Carrion.

Next blog update should be on Sunday, and will hopefully have most if not all of the army finished, or if not, at least the army list should be finished.  :) 

13 comments:

  1. Both flying spectre and general are really nice and characterful. I really think such characters inflence a lot the rest of an army.
    The pain in this army list are the grim reapers. i can't find enough of them to have a proper army list... I'm prettu sure you won't have this problem though ;)

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    1. Yes you're right, once you have a few characterful miniatures, especially if it's the army general, then the whole army starts to develop a personality of it's own .

      I was never happy having to take Grim Reapers in the army despite the obvious 'symbol of death' background. I have collected several of the old metal scythe wielding Skeletons.

      However, I also have picked up several old broken metal skeletons over the years, and so replaced their right arms wih the scythe arm from the 1980's Skeleton Horde box set.

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  2. Wargames Foundry do serviceable alternative Grim Reapers, but you can always just ignore the army list restrictions.

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    1. Very true, but I have the Grim Reapers converted up and ready to paint now.
      I will be doing a mail order to Foundry soon for a few Norse and the re-released Citadel Mercenaries though. I would like to do a 'Citadel' Norman army at some point too.

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    2. Would you where to find them in the site?, I always kind of get lost when roaming amongst their ranges...

      Cheers guys

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    3. Here's the link to the old F4 Normans and Vikings:

      http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/vikings-normans-and-saxons

      and the link to the Bretonians:

      http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/medieval/wars-roses

      heres' the link to the Mercenaires, however the link seems to be broken:

      http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/ex-citadel

      a few of the old Feudals:

      http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/medieval/barons-wars/early-medieval-knight-collection-bcmed001/

      The Perry's War of Religon range:

      http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/elizabethan

      and finally the Samurai:

      http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/samurai/samurai-samurai-heroes-collection-bcsam001/

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    4. Thanks a lot, I had been looking for the bretonnian for quite some time (with the peasants they'll provide very good rascals)
      Paul, do you know were are the grim reapers you're talking about?

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  3. Great stuff...again!

    Great to see the chaos cavalry. Big fan of these minis. Havn't noticed before the possibility to use the one you used for Spectre on a flying base. Really cool. Great choise of General as well. I have been thinking of using mine for the very same purpose (if I ever paint an undead army).

    Good to see a mix of both solid base and slotta minis

    /Hans

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    1. Cool, thank you,
      I thought the Spectre looked better if he looked like he was flying, more Ethereal. The General was too nice a miniature not to paint up. The Undead Cavalry range were a lovely range, but I only ever got a few of them.

      On an aesthetic note, the solid based miniautres add that bygone era feel and quirkyness to the units that works well with Undead.
      On a practical level, the solid bases are'nt too thick, and so do not make the miniatures stand out at all. The solid bases are easily covered when basing with the flock .

      I only have the Grim Reapers and Morbuis the Liche to paint now, and then onto varnishing and basing.

      You should do a few undead, the run up to Hallow'een is the best time to do it :)

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    2. Totally agree about the solid base minis. Have actually done a few recently such as the C38 beastmen and basing on a slotta base is quite straight forward.

      I have actually painted a few undead cavalry recently but used them for chaos cavalry. You can find them here if you want to check them out: http://realmofcitadel.blogspot.se/2013/09/nurgle-warband-update-cavalry-nr-6.html

      /Hans

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    3. What an excellent site, thank you for the link.

      I really like the imagination and skill that has gone into converting the Undead Cavalry.
      I really do love the shields they are excellent. I have always liked Ian Miller's artwork, and am impressed with how you have translated that to the shields. If you don't mind I might try a variation on that idea myself on my own Chaos Warrior army, as I was looking for a theme for them, but I won't be doing them for a while (well, I had'nt planned too LOL).

      The selection of colours for the armour complments the shields well and gives a vibrance to the Nurgle army. The combination of different models, Elves, Chaos, Undead, etc, is great idea too. I might combine a few different things together more for my Chaos Warriors.

      I also like the idea of using seashells and then painting them to get a weird chaos base. For most miniatures, solid bases are no problem, although some of the later Grenadier range (Barbarians and the Goblins) were a little thick.
      BTW, I like the Marsh Troll, and the Stripey Minotaur too, as well as the Reneagdes, and the glowing Warpstone effect for the Skaven.

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    4. Thanks! Happy you like the stuff and great to have you as a follower :)

      Glad you noticed the Ian Miller inspiration on the shields. Together with John Blanche he is my favorite fantasy illustrator. Don't mid at all, quite the opposite, great too see another interpretation on the same theme on the shields.

      /Hans

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  4. Trim down the bases of heroquest skeletons and you have a great grim reaper unit, as long as you are ok with having the same models. For me, it just makes the unit feel more oldhammer - like an unreleased Fantasy Regiment. I personally like the HQ model, they have a slightly larger scale but this just makes them more imposing. And they are easy to get on Ebay. Also, they are the right era ('88/'89)

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