The Tomb Kings arise once again!

 One of my favourite armies over the years has always been the Tomb Kings. I've always had a love of the Undead, and Ancient Civilisations, especially Ancient Egyptian. Add to that the magic and the backstory, and of course some lovely miniatures, and I was sold (twice over, once each at both releases!). The Mummy (1999) also being one of my favourite films helped immensely.

At both Tomb King releases I (2002 and 2011) I collected and gamed with them, but I was never satisfied with my painting of them. My painting style has changed over the last few years, taking more account of highlighting, and being less fussy. I have also decided to paint things in a way I want to rather than how I felt I should. The old painting of my tomb Kings army was fine, quite serviceable, but I never felt the soul (or soullessness?) of the army. So, I never really enjoyed gaming with them felt the painted had been a chore, and I didn't really appreciate the miniatures. The same is true of my 40k Praetorian Imperial Guard army, which I am also looking to re-visit, but that will be a later project.

Anyway, I spent some time looking again at the Tomb Kings artwork, re-reading the background, looking at how other people people painted their Tomb Kings (often now the articles are some years old given the time frame of the demise of Warhammer and rise of Age of Sigmar), and generally getting the feel and vibe of the Tomb Kings once more. Whilst doing this I found an interesting article, with the link below.
https://echoesfromthewarp.wordpress.com/2015/04/18/painting-awesome-tomb-kings-in-5-easy-steps/

Here the painter has opted for a darker tone, but with form of directional light painting style reflecting the glow of the desert sun. Now I'm not a fan of directional light painting, but the dark, dusty, non fussy style is similar to how I originally envisioned the Tomb Kings via watching the Mummy (1999) film, and the general feel of ancient Egyptian artefacts and tombs. So I slightly modified the paint scheme, focusing less on the directional light glow (although not totally abandoning it) and more on the dusty feel. I'm very happy with the results, and they are very quick to paint (helped by me being on holiday last week). I haven't yet finalised the basing technique I am going to use, but a darker desertlook using a darkened down Citadel Agrellan Earth texture paint is at the forefront of my approach. The following miniatures are a mix of test models, and items I just wanted to paint in the new colour scheme to try it out.

Enjoy :)

Swordsmen.
I have opted to keep the turquoise blue as the colour theme for the army as it just feels very Tomb Kings. 

Close up.

Spearman test model.

Converted mounted Liche Priest.
I swapped the staff and right arm for the right arm and halberd from the metal Tomb King model.

Left hand side.

Sepulchral Stalker.

Ushabti.
This is one of the few Finecast models I own. I have experimented with a mix of Citadel Agrellan Earth and dark brown, and then slightly highlighted, as a possible basing technique.

Chariot test model.
I like how the horses look, and the faded, dusty look of the chariot body.

Bone Giant.
I love the Bone Giant miniature, and in the first army book it was the formidable monster for the Tomb Kings. However when the second army book was released I always thought they were eclipsed by the new Warsphinx and Necrosphinx models, although I still always tried to include one in an army.

My other Bone Giant.

Plastic Tomb Guard.
I love these miniatures, and they were a great plastic kit.

Close up of a pair of Halberdiers, and the Standard Bearer.

High Queen Khalida.
Unlike the rest fo the Tomb Kings army I have opted to for green as her theme colour. She will is the leader of a large unit of Skeleton Archers (see below) who I have also themed green to differentiate them from the rest of the army and to suggest they are a slightly separate contingent from the city of Lybaras.

High Queen Khalida leading her archer regiment.

The next update will be more of the Tomb Kings army. I want to keep working my way through this army until I finish it. i will update more in detail about some the the models above, and hopefully I will have based them.