Skeleton warriors (Highland Miniatures)

Painting skellies is kinda like knitting:

you get pissed - you paint some bones - you get better.

Too bad I didn't realize it bit earlier, but apparently better late then never.

Anyway last week I excavated another part of spoils of war looted during Oldhammer Weekend 2022: skeleton warriors unit from highland Miniatures range. Models look pretty cool: poses are different, proportions are correct - these guys definitely fit Warhammer range. There's one flaw though: since these are printed, they are also really fragile (those thin limbs and spears especially!). So fragile, several models arrived broken and it's even despite the fact they were pretty well packed. So yeah, if I could choose - purely of gaming purposes I'd pick plastic models instead of printed. Luckly I still had some spare limbs left by the previous boneheads unit, which added bit more vatiety to the freshly dug out death squad.

I have only 15 models from this line so I think these will be just support squad for the main unit or screaming skull catapult / second class character bodyguards. Of course - that is only in my head, because don't think there's even slighiest shade of chance these will move an inch after I put them in the display case hibernation chamber 😵

So here they are - corpses in the park. I think I've managed to adjust lighting a bit so photos turned out really decent:

And some scale shot: restless skeletons are defending city park against Dusk Realm Demon:

And here - skeletons supported by Mr Carstein himself and converted battle standard bearer are trying to convince chaos lord of Slaanesh city park and fresh grass is no place for heavy barded ponies:

Arkhan the Black - finished! 💀

Another painting nightmare was just saved from Pile ov Shame oblivion.

It took long time to get this model so really cannot wait to see it display base leading undead chartiot platoon. Sadly both cases are full so looks like I need another Ikea Detolf. 

Painting this thing was pain in the ass. As mentioned earlier the model had to be painted before assembling to reach everything and shit. Sure it makes painting easier, but it takes much more time which I really don't like. I wanted to paint original banner first, but whole thing is colorful enough already. 

Must say I like what the final result, maybe except for that Lollipop of Damnation carried by mr. Black. The idea was to keep original colors, but it turned out as some stupid plastic toy.

See? 😁

The model got slightly larger base then original (5" x 5") so taking photos took some limitations because of small backdrop. Definitely not enough space for 3 or 4 more chariots...

Arkhan the Black - work in progress

Here I am again. Still alive.

Just as I promised to myself I took a break from painting weird sh!t and decided to paint bag full of ancient bones and magic stuff rotting on the very bottom of washing jar: Mighty Nagash's first lieutenant: Arkhan the Black. Back days it was one of those dream models I could never afford of even get where I live. Always considedred it badass sculpt: undead pope pillaging South of Men Empire. Ohhh... How nec-romantic... 🥰

I got the model ages ago but long after I quit playing Undead and Warhammer Fantasy at all. Those days I used to paint pretty lots of stuff for Ebay auctions and for commissions so there were funds for whims like Arkhan and other useless miniatures.

When I got it (it was second hand, badly painted piece) I was pretty sure it was complete. Kinda was: when it was stripped and examined it turned out although where were all parts, some of them were broken so it took some extra time to pin and assemble whole thing properly. Horses which came with the set were broken so I had to replace them. Looking at the model now I think it was good idea to add some variety to the ponies (thanks, Radek!). Just exactly like with other undead chariots I have the base was made of PVC sheet. This time it's 5" x 5" square to provide enough space for the horses and yoke. It's not much according to the rulebook (I guess) but I really don't give a f#ck about them. And besides - it's my toy so I guess I can place it on whatever I want, right? 🤔

One thing that bugs me now is the banner. Should I paint original, super-striking banner from Undead army book or rather stick to black and white banners used for all units in the Undead Army. The stripes look kinda more sinister and make nice contrast to rather colorful model, but think decision shall be made after the Black Pope is panited.

So here it is: the current stage. The black pope himself arrives when (or rather if) I can re-attatch it's broken Staff of Damnation:

There's one more tech-thing: apparently either blogger got screwed or I've been spamming those posts for too long but "Spam of the year" list is messed. There started to appear post much older then a year. Tried to reset it but with no effect. Any idea what could be the reason of it would be appreciated 🙄

Slaanesh Warriors army project (update)

Since the previous summary Slaanesh got some new toys, so before whole project is finished I decided to post one more recap. Hope this will provide any motivation for painting fantasy stuff, because painting last 2 chariots took me much too long. I think the main reason is the fact I don't play Warhammer Fantasy Battle anymore, so there's not much preassure to paint - contrary to Bolt Action stuff. 

As you can see below there're only 2 units left to paint: dragon ogres and chaos warriors. While I don't mind painting dragon ogres, I suppose I might get bored in the middle of painting the warriors, so painting army gets prolonged - it's 14-men strong horde after all...

Luckly I've managed to collect different sculpts of infantry, so whole unit should look pretty fine after done and placed on the battlefield.

So here they are:

*Heroes:

- Exalted Daemon [365pts, 4 Casting Dice, 3 Dispel Dice]: General, Level 2

. Hero of Slaanesh: Master of Mortals, Sporofic Musk

- Exalted Champion of Chaos [212pts]: Gaze of the Gods, Hero of Slaanesh, Shield, Steed of Slaanesh, Sword of Might

- Sorcerer of Chaos [310pts, 3 Casting Dice, 2 Dispel Dice]: Chaos Chariot, Hero of Slaanesh, Level 2, Power Familiar

*Core units:

- Knights of Chaos [318pts]: Champion, 6x Knights of Chaos, Musician, Regiment of Slaanesh

. Standard Bearer: Rapturous Standard

- Warriors of Chaos [260pts]: Champion, Musician, Regiment of Slaanesh, Shield, Standard Bearer, 14x Warriors of Chaos

- Chariot of Chaos [130pts]: Chariot of Slaanesh

*Special units:

- Warhounds of Chaos [36pts]: 6x Warhound

*Rare units:

- Dragon Ogres [219pts]: 3x Dragon Ogre, Light Armour

- Spawn of Chaos [75pts]: Fiend of Slaanesh

- Spawn of Chaos [75pts]: Fiend of Slaanesh

Total: 2,000pts, 7 Casting Dice, 5 Dispel Dice

And some aerial shots from enemy spy-wyvern:

I really need to get better light for such group shots. Not mentioning bigger backdrop 🙄

Doomriders (undead cavalry)

Apparently bunch of skeletons left the closet!

And not only skellies but their meaty mounts as well! That means Army of the dead just got some fast unit (if we can really call anything fast in Undead army). Models you see below are deaders from Black Tree Design line. I got them long time ago so it was high time to see if there's anything going oin in their graves - and there was: boys sure wanted to take a ride...

Painting skeletons is always fun. Too bad these riders have only one version of mount. Sure it's oldchool and has lots of Oldhammer vibe, but painting another version of the very same sculpt is just boring. That's why I gave them different tones - just to make the team bit more interesting looking from over tabletop. Not mentioning the fact in old army books there were colorful zombies (green, yellow or even blue) - not total "grimdark" like nowdays... 🙄

I am big fan of metal models but after dealing with these guys I am pretty sure plastic or resin would be better material. Since everything is metal I didn't manage to pin bits together so there was only superglue used to bring them back to life. And that's the problem - I am pretty sure those heavy shields would be the first to fall off in case of any accident. 

Oh well - at least I don't play WFB anyore so it shouldn't be an issue... 😕

To lead them to battle there's mighty wight lord (painted also this year) and Leopold the Exhumed - which I got no idea how and when (most probably by accident during miniature swap ages ago). On the very bottom of "undead jar" there are some broken parts of skeleton horsemen staggering - I should check if I can assemble any complete models using those bones, 'cuz right now they become part of bases - just like Great Unclean One's...

Hope you like them anyway. Time to decide which models should be next saved from the depths of oblivion.

Ogre mercs - finished!

It's been a while but recently I simply have no steam for painting. I suppose it's because of that damn sun - it's so hot you can almost see steam over wet palette. Because of this I am even more happy I've managed to cross off another model from ye liste of shame. 

This one is special - ogre champion from Knightmare Games range, which was part of Oldhammer Weekend 2022 prize box. Not only the model is just super cool, with strong Middlehammer vibe, but it's also the last model my ogres were looking for to form full unit (you can see other guys here #1, here #2, here #3, here #4 and here #5).

I tried to keep color choice similar to rest of the squad so they all look coherent and keep Middlehammer spirit and must say I like the final result. My only regret is I paint so slow and there were other supercool models in the prize box still waiting for some attention (like hobgoblins or even more skeletons...).

As for the lil' undead-familiar it's ordinary skeleton from Rackham's Confrontation range. I found it together with recently painted wulfen zombie, and simply couldn't just put it back to the bucket. These minis are just way too cute! 🤗

That's it for now - hope Army of the Dead will use the mercs properly to spead death and destruction in the Old World!

Heinrich Kemmler, the Lichemaster

It's good to be dead.

I mean: it's good to be BACK... ekhem, ekhem... Right...

Recent months were some sort of tornado in every aspect of my life: the fact it took me 2 months to paint anything speaks for itself. But there's still everlasting plan to paint models I have during the lifetime so every little counts I guess.

There're many miniatures I'd love to see rescued from the pile of shame, but the one chosen this time is kinda special. With no doubts it's one of my most favotite models ever made: 

Heinrich Kemmler, the Lichemaster.

Not mentioning it's background, the fact there's RPG campaign based on Kemmler's malicious plotting, the sculpt is just Middlehammer's classic. In fact it's the 3rd or maybe even 4th Kemmler sculpt I've painted so far. 

Like many models from the Middlehammer range it doesn't fit models in the unit. No fu#king way. To deal with this problem at first I wanted to put it on slightly larger base (25 mm) but this would also ruin unit's composition. The solution was using even larger base - 40 mm: model fits the unit and also I could add 3 skeletons rising from the ground, so no one can say it's just a filler 😋

It's unique model so decision was made to give it unorthodox paintjob. Most versions of this piece it rather dark, so I painted mine in fashion of ordinary (evil) wizard. It still has rather healthy flesh tone and rather clean hair and beard which makes him rather regular guy (among evil wizards). The staff's top has been taken from zombie dragon - original part broke off a while back and while I am pretty sure I still have it, I thought every way to make model look different is worthy trying. Ok, here's the guy:

Take care 💀

Zombie dragon #2

A while back zombie dragon left the painting station but until now it had no master. Real life duties combined with some expected work to do and other crap prevented me from painting. But last week I've finally found some spare time to finish necromancer rider for rhe beast so I can start planning the next project.

As for the necromancer it's old, horse mounted model, which got it's legs swapped with wight lord. It also got banner pole top from old chaos marauder set so it could carry black-and-white banner (stolen theme thing of the Undead army).

As for color choice I tried to keep is as candy-color as possible so it fits Middlehammer era. Besides it contrasts really nicely with pale dragon and the banner behind. 

And here's the model accompanied by other units from Undead army project. Those banners looks just badass and I really don't mind it's not my idea! 😋 I am pretty sure I had some Black Tree Designs zombie horses staggering around - there should be enough models for small cavalry unit - which means another black-and-white banner coming!

Zombie dragon #1

After heavy battle another model just got crossed off the everlasting list of shame. Half-crossed off, because at this moment there's only unridden beast and I'm still looking for the proper rider. Painting this one took me much more then I expected especially given the fact it's the second version of this sculpt I've been working on. The previous piece was painted 10 years ago ( 😳😳😳 ) as contest model, but this time I wanted a center piece for Undead Army project - which I might even bring to an end yet during this lifetime.

There were some ideas about color scheme. At first I was thinking about "classic" green dead flesh but then I decided to use pale tone. Such color should contrast nicely againg base and hopefully - dark rider. Working on this one kinda drained me out so the rider has to wait and in the meantime I can finally start working on Hetzer from Propylene Foliescu.

So here it is: half-finished zombie dragon from golden age of Warhammer. Some more pics and some more babbling when it's done... 

Mounted wight lord

While cleaning painting desk  once again I've stumbled upon some conversion bits I wanted to assemble and paint for a long time: mounted wight lord based on zombie dragon's rider. The model is based on  wight torso and 4th ed necromancer's legs and pony - painting necromancer was also on my shameful list but all in all decision was made to swap parts to make both models unique.

Initially the idea was to paint it grimdark way - which seems to be kinda popular nowdays. But while undercoating the model I changed my mind: it's oldschool model after all so it deserves properly oldschool paintjob - which fits Undead Army Project. Keeping strong contrast on painted miniatures is always good idea so I decided for black armour combined with bright blade and barding (or whatever the hell is the name of horse's clothing).

Painting something colorful is a really nice change after working on Bolt Action (mostly monotone) stuff. Besides after over solid 20 years I've finally found proper use of those ridiculous decals from oldie skeleton warriors boxes 💀

Anyway my display case Undead got another wight commander (the previous one was mounted on wyvern). Looks like now I have check if there are any jobless mounted undead models in the pile of shame to provide a company for the new undead character. 

So here's the necro-candy:

And the scale shot: wight lord commanding unit of skellies: