Grenadier Miniatures Undead Army.

 At the start of my collecting it wasn't always Citadel Miniatures I opted for. 

When I started in 1986 Grenadier Miniatures were always an option. I still clearly recall visiting Beaties and Gamleys in Brighton and Hove as a young goblin and seeing all these other interesting miniatures with their different sculpting style and vibe. On my 13th birthday in 1987 I was given money to 'go buy something you want', and with that I purchased several blister packs of Grenadier 'Fantasy Lords' undead, to add to the few random Grenadier miniatures I had already (as an aside, I started a part time job just after my 13th birthday, and so my purchasing power increased just in time for Citadel's 'Golden Age').

As time wore on my focus shifted more to Citadel Miniatures (Brighton GW opened a little later in the 1980's) and the availability of Grenadier Miniatures wasn't always as strong. However, I never lost that magical feeling I first got from the Grenadier Undead. Over the years I returned to them, but without any clear idea what to do with them. E-bay helped with buying odds and ends, but it was only recently that I thought of an idea of painting them less conventionally Undead, and more with an ethereal feel. And winter. I wanted a cold, muddy, winter feel to them as well. 

So here were are. I based them on regimental bases because beautiful as Grenadier Miniatures are, the pre Fantasy Warriors Grenadier ranges they can be quite fragile, especially the undead. Some of them have been repaired or converted because of this. I painted them over a white undercoat with a wash of Citadel Tesseract Glow, then Citadel Nighthaunt Glow, dry brush white, them a light wash with Tesseract Glow again. Then snow effects on the bases. I like how they have turned out and pleased that after all these years, they have finally received the attention they deserved.

Enjoy :)

The whole army.

Left side of the army.

Centre.

Right side.

The Liche King.
I placed him on a large command base with a spare standard bearer just to show him off.

Closer view.

'Fantasy Lords' 061 Mummy Lord.

'Fantasy Lords' 014 Mounted Skeleton.

'Fantasy Lords' 167 Skeleton Flyer.

'Fantasy Lords' 011 Undead Cyclops.

'Fantasy Lords' 130 Dart Thrower.

'Fantasy Lords' 032 Undead Boatman.
In a Warhammer Fantasy Battle Army I would consider using this as a Plague Cart proxy.

Axemen.

Men at Arms.
I added a mounted 'Fantasy Lords' 137 Skeleton Command kettle drummer as I had one spare and I thought I might add to the look of the regiment.

More Men at Arms.

Spearmen.

Some more men at Arms.

The Bear Clan.
These are miniatures which predominately have bears sculpted on their shield, so I grouped them together. The standard bearer is a conversion of a broken miniatures, and has a sculpted green stuff bear pelt as a standard.

Archers.
These are actually based on two separate bases representing 10 models on each, so that they can be deployed as one regiment of 20, one regiment of 20 in line, or two regiments of 10.              

One half of the archers.

The other half of the archers.

A mix of Skeleton Cavalry.

More Skeleton Cavalry.

Masterpiece Editions 5506 War Rhino Captive Carrier.
This model comes with a banner which kept snapping off, so I left it off.
I was going to paint the captives inside in a normal paint scheme, but I though it would be nice to just have them as eternally captive screaming souls trapped inside.

Right hand view.

Masterpiece Editions 'The Undead Legion' 5505 Imperial Guard War Mammoth.
This is a lovely model, but I bought it in a sorry condition from e-bay. It was missing the lower part of it's trunk armour, all of it's crew, banner, armour, and shields. Anyway, I added a couple of spare crew and made the best of it.

Right side view.

The army marches!

Close up.

In addition to the ethereal miniatures I painted a few other undead to add to the army if I was to use them for gaming.
On the left is a Grenadier Lord of the Rings range 7504 Hillmen of Trollshaws 'Miffli'. I would use him as a Necromancer or Liche.
On the right is a Grenadier Lord of the Rings range 7502 Sauron's Dark Ones mountain Vampire.

Two Grenadier Lord of the Rings range 7502 Sauron's Dark Ones Wraiths.

My next update could be on a lot of different things. I have been painted a lot of different things, but not had the time to blog about them. I have been painting Goblins, more, but different, undead, modelling and basing trees, basing Slann, re-basing Dark Elves, painting infantry for Prince Wilhelm's army, painting Elementals, and painting Orcs!

(Extra) Spiky Chaos Dwarfs.

 Over the summer I have been concerned with several different projects, dipping into one or another as time went by. One of these has been my 2nd/3rd edition Warhammer Chaos Dwarfs.

Here is a link to the range:
http://www.collecting-citadel-miniatures.com/wiki/index.php/Chaos_Dwarfs

Whilst making steady progress with others things, I decided to tackle a range of miniatures which I have always liked, Citadel's C16/D3 Chaos Dwarfs from the 1980s. Now I have painted some of these in differing styles of the years, but I have never found the look I really wanted. Anyway, I sat down an thought about them and considered what I wanted from them. I came up with the idea that I wanted them to look dark armoured, spiky, and with some sort of red colour involved, but not to have them too overly detailed.

What I have settled on was to paint them black, with light gun metal/chain mail metallic paint, and any details a deep red moving into a blood red, but it was with the bases which I really wanted to make a statement. First of all I abandoned the 20mm square bases. I have always considered them far too small for the miniatures. So, with the current move to base a lot of miniatures on 25mm bases after the release of the new Warhammer Fantasy Battle, I chose 25mm square bases. These also link nicely to other Chaos ranges of the time. To give them that extra spiky feel, I added cut down cocktail sticks of various sizes poking up from the bases. My idea is that rather than natural defensive stakes/spikes (such as archer stakes) they are some sort of magical mutation of the ground of the Chaos Wastes. To add to that Chaotic feel, and to add that red look, I painted them and the earth red.

I am very pleased with how they look. They were fun to paint, and I have spent the last few evenings after work basing more, and cutting up more cocktail sticks. Also, to add to that Chaotic feel, I am adding some of Citadel's Chaos Familiars miniatures to the regiments.

Enjoy :)

Chaos Dwarf test models.

Kirgund Widowmaker.

Spikes Harveywotan.

Kaaos Armahand.

Scarsol Smashskull.

Rainhard Stump.

'Iron Clad Imp', for Citadel's Chaos Familiars range.

Chaos Dwarf Bazooka.
I tend to base war machines and artillery on round bases, rather than square, as I think they look better, and it differentiates them from infantry, etc.

The other side of the Bazooka.

Next update will probably be on some more of the infantry from Prince Wilhelm's army, although I have been painting a lot of Undead, some it might be some of those!