Tomb Kings Necropolis Knights.

Another regiment to join the ranks of Settra's army, this a Special Unit choice, Necropolis Knights.

When I first saw the Necropolis Knights in the 2011 releases I didn't like them I thought that they were silly, with skeletons seeming to surf on big snakes. My focus from the kit was the Sepulchral Stalkers which in my eyes looked a lot sinister. It took me a long time to like the Necropolis Knights, in no small part to looking at how other people had painted theirs.

Anyway, I picked up three without riders a little while ago, and then last year received a second three, still unmade, for my birthday just over a year ago. Having the unmade kit allowed me to revisit the kit and appreciate how to assemble them, and so I set to work.

Assembling wasn't as troublesome as I thought it would be. I found that the snakes looked a little flat on the base, and they didn't lay well on there, so to counteract this I added some Milliput to the bases to suggest undulating ground (with the occasion skull added for that Warhammer effect!). As I didn't have three spare Necropolis Knight bodies left over from my Sepulchral Stalkers kit from years ago, (I had two, having used one in a Tomb King Regiment), I converted an armoured skeleton warrior.

Painting was the standard dusty scheme. They were fun to paint. I found I had to paint a little more turquoise on the details of the snakes, and to be careful not to do too strong a gold on them. I think they turned out quite nicely, and it has changed my mind on the concept and the kit. It will be interesting to see if they re-appear in the new incarnation of the Tomb Kings when they are released for 'Warhammer: The Old World.

Enjoy :)

Necropolis Knights.

Regiment Leader.
I stuck with the suggest combination of parts for the leader as I liked the look of the death mask, especially when combined with the face head for the snake. I like the axe as well.

Side view showing some of the Milliput on the base, as well as how I painted the snakes body.

Close-up the leader.

Standard Bearer.

Musician.

The first of the ordinary Necropolis Knights.
I do love the detailing and design of the shield. I decided to use a different one of each of the Knights to amplify their individuality in the regiment. This was further helped by the different poses and spears.

The second Necropolis Knight.

The third of the Necropolis Knights.
This Knight is the one where I used the armoured skeleton warrior body, which I think works surprisingly nicely.

More Tomb Kings next update. I have been making very good progress with them, with an eye to having the whole project finished by the end of April at the latest. Indeed, I do have a queue of photographs of completed Tomb Kings ready for uploading.At this rate I might just have them completed in time for them to become totally obsolete by the new Tomb Kings!

Tomb Kings Bone Giant with Bow of the Desert.

 In the second of the Tomb Kings army books, the Bone Giant, recategorised under the umbrella term 'Necrolith Colossus', is able to be equipped with a 'Bow of the Desert'. What this was was essentially a large bow with the same effect as a bolt thrower in the game, although terrifyingly the Bone Giant could move and shoot with it in the same turn if desired, and no armour saves were permitted against any wounds cause by the bow. . In addition to this, the Bone Giant benefited from the Tomb Kings rule of 'Arrows of Asaph' (as all Tomb Kings archers do) meaning that:

"Units with arrows of Asaph special rule never count any bonuses or penalties to hit when shooting, regardless of the source of the modifier' (p28, Tomb Kings army book, 2011).

Games Workshop never released a miniature for a bow wielding Bone Giant. The Bone Giant itself was the same miniature which was released in 2002, and as far as I recall was never converted over to Finecast before the range, and Warhammer, were retired (but not for much longer it seems!). So I, as others have done, decided to convert an existing Bone Giant.

There are several good examples on the internet of bow wielding Bone Giants, and the computer game Total War:Warhammer II has one with a very fancy looking bow, akin to the Ushabti bows and the High Elf Repeater Bolt Thrower. Rather than buy either of those just for parts I decided to convert a much simpler version of my own.

I first removed the Bone Giant's khopesh swords, and drilling a hole through his right hand. I chose to make the Bone Giant left-handed, as all the other archers in the Tomb Kings army are! Through the hole in the hand I inserted a brass rod, which I then bent into shape, and glued in place. Next, I glued a much smaller piece of brass rod parallel to the back to act as a bow string. Finally I added some green stuff around the hand to look like a hand grip, and more green stuff at the top of the bow to suggest bindings, as well as give extra strength to, and hide, the join between the two pieces of brass rod.

For the quiver I simply used a javelin case from the Tomb Kings chariot set. I removed the javelin tips and replaced them with green stuff sculpted to look like arrow fletchings. The quiver was glued onto a green stuff sculpted strap across the body, also adding a skull scarab to the front to look like clasp.

Painting the Bone Giant was straight forward, and fun as I love painting the Bone Giants. I just followed the same dusty paint scheme for the rest of the army. As a footnote, I decided to pose the Bone Giant in a manner which suggests he was stalking the desert looking for a target. I did this, rather than have him shooting the bow as I liked the look of movement which the Bone Giant model has, and also it seemed a lot of hassle trying to repose the model for a look I wasn't really keen on or I thought suited the model. Finally, I selected the big skull hat as I hadn't used it on the other two Bone Giants, and it gives the model more height and importance.

Enjoy :)

Bone Giant with Bow of the Desert.
As mentioned above, I do like that it looks like he is searching for another target, and I think it suits the advancing pose of the legs and body from the original miniature.

Side view showing the bow.

Rear view of the quiver.

Head with hat.

The three Bone Giants!

More Tomb Kings for the next update. I am rattling through the painting, with several units awaiting photographing, some more awaiting varnishing and basing, and yet more on the painting table!