Saturday 30 June 2018

The summonings of the Crimson King.

Despite the lack of blogging I have been busy painting. Last week I spent idly glueing skeletons, but this week I decided to get some serious painting done. Having several days off this week I managed to really get stuck into some serious painting, completing 60 Skeleton Warriors, 20 Grave Guard, a Necromancer, and the Crimson King himself.

As I detailed in my last blog update I am basing the army on the theme of the story and background of the Crimson King. I have painted the army with that in mind, using the shield designs from the White Dwarf #377 article, and also painting the spear staffs red to give the army a Crimson King feel. To give the army a more Age of Sigmar/spooky feel, I have painted the bone on the Skeletons with Nihilakh Oxide. I kept the painting style quite fluid rather than very precise to give a feel of the ebb and flow of animating magic running through the Undead.

In addition I managed to paint the King himself, using the plastic Tomb King miniature used in the article, which was orginally including in the Warshpinx kit. I mounted him on a Mortarch mount conversion, which is to be an alternative, more supernatural, reincarnation of the Crimson Kings Warsphinx mount. I will use the Crimson King model as an alternative model for Arkhan the Black, to lead the army. I like the idea the Crimson King coming back from distruction, and with greater powers, like Arkhan.

I still have several elements of the army to finish off. I am repainting blades and armour on one unit of Black Knights to match the rest of the army, and I have another unit of them to paint. I would like to paint some more Skeletons, and convert up more Tomb Kings/Grave Guard. I am currently working on the Mortis Engine.

Enjoy :)
 The weeks painting!
Sorry about the terrible photograph.
 Side view.
 Other side view, showing the shields.
 The Crimson King riding his flying dread abyssal mount.
Like the original Tomb King Warsphinx I have painted it a Crimson red. 
 The right side, showing the Warshpinx/beast in full leap.
 The Crimson King giving orders to his army.
 Left side closer up, showing the scrreaming trapped skulls!
 More Skulls!
 I swapped the Abyssal beast head for a spare Warsphinx one, and then added an Orc jaw bone to the end to fill the gap and add length.
 Here kitty, kitty, kitty... :)
 I am painting and converting a Mortis Engine, and so I had the Necromancer spare. So I stuck him on a 32mm base, swapped his head for a Tomb Kings one, and now have a Necromancer who looks like he is floating in a spooky way.
 Close up.
 20 Grave Guard.
I added a Tomb Kings standard, and kept the same paint scheme as Skeletons to tie-in with the rest of the army. I did'nt add the shoulder armour to keep them looking lighter and more suited to hot climates. I love these miniatures, they were fun to paint paint, look great, and the helmets remind me of the old Citadel C17 Skeletons from the 1980's.
 Command group.
 Grave Guard.
 Skeleton warriors with spears.
I have copied and based the shields on the original article miniatures. I did however want to keep at least one element of red on each shield.
 More Skeleton warriors with spears.
 Skeleton warriors with swords.
 Regimental leaders.
On a couple of them I have swapped the sword arms for Tomb King Khopesh arms.
 Skeleton standard bearers with old Tomb Kings standard heads.
WIP
Sneek peek of the Mortis Engine.

Next week more Undead!

10 comments:

  1. Nice to see we’ve both been working on the undead! Although mine are ‘proper’ because they have square bases! ;)

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    1. Yes, I love your Undead, I still have lots of Oldhammer ones to paint.
      I am getting a functioning AoS army together just in case I end up doing some current gaming, and also because I have been wanting to a Crimson King themed army for a while.

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  2. These look great Lee, they fit really well in the tomb kings feel while still working in the current undead list, keep up the great work

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    1. Thank you. I was not happy when GW scrapped the Tomb Kings and I wanted to keep the Tomb Kings theme alive (or Undead?!). So I thought that this would be a good way to do it. It will be good to see your Undead.

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  3. Really cool and distinctive. I love them all!

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    1. I'm pleased with how they turned out. I am glad I decided on the Crimson King approach as it makes them stand out, gives them coherent theme, and I think the paint scheme suits the newer Skeletons better than the old plastic Skeletons. Glad you like them :)

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  4. Excellent work as always, although the newer GW figures are a bit too gribbly for me. Is the Crimson King a GW invention? My own CK army is based on the prog rock album "At the Court of the Crimson King".

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    1. Thank you. I love the character of the old 1980's Skeletons, and how they fit into the Oldhammer era, but I do quite like GW's current Undead. I am not entirely convinced on the design approach for the Skeletons which is one of the reasons I decided to add the Tomb Kings aspect to them. The brand new spooky looking Soul Wars releases look great, and they are doing some great work making the plastic kits look dynamic.

      I have based my army on an article written in 2011 in White Dwaf #377. In it Duncan Rhodes, who is/was a contributor to the magazine showcased his army, which was based on a stroy from the second Tomb King army book. I have copied and modified some of his ideas for this army. I referenced parts of the article in the previous blog update here:
      http://goblinlee.blogspot.com/2018/06/aos-tomb-kingsdeath-army-conversions.html

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  5. You've done a cracking job on those conversions! I can't wait to see the Necrosphinx painted

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    1. Thank you. I will be painting the Necrosphinx later in the week. My idea is to paint it in a similar way to the Abyssal Beast/Warsphinx, which is in line with the original Crimson King article in the White Dwarf. :)

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