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 🙄

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!

Undead army - current state

Oldhammer Weekend Poland 2022 project is nearly done - just a few characters left to be painted and replaced. Among them there is a wraith champion. 
I really like those floating housecoats, but I have dilemma about choosing color scheme:
should it be 90's color combo or maybe ghostly-white - for strong contrast with the army.

I posted short poll on Middlehammer FB group to help me make that crucial decision and I was asked to show the rest of the army to make voting easier. So here it is.

I have no idea how to take decent pics of such size - I think large backdrop sure would be helpful. But photos give overall impression what is under command of my Lords of the Dead. There's still a lot to be painted to finish WHOLE army: 

cavalry, another screaming skull catapult, metal skellies, more zombies, wights, wraiths, wight lord on wyvern, Dieter Helsnicht on manticore and more characters... 😨

Lots of fun for long winter evenings 🧛‍♂️

Undead chariot #3

Looks like iron... eeee... bone fist of my army is finished. It's pretty funny something causing only Strength 5 damage is called "heavy hitter" but it's Undead force after all.

After getting the previous chariot painted I decided to give a try to different color scheme to my skellies. Back days, actually damn long time ago, there was supercool Vampire Counts army presented in White Dwarf. Models were painted like just left their graves - lots of green tones, lots of modelling flock, static grass and dirt everywhere. Very inspiring stuff.

Obviously my latest war machine ain't that dirty. Instead it's more like corpse slowly decomposing nice and slowly in a forest - that's the reason of olive / green coating, moss etc. Such painting also gives nice contrast to the dusty base - the chariot surely has been summoned somewhere else and now it's crossing dusty plains to meet it's master. Something 🙄

Once again I used Wargames Factory skeletons for the crew - these are pain in the ass to assemble, but they can be posed many ways so it's worthy spending some extra time building models. That's it for now. Time to excavate the mummies or wash off the hipogriff...

Necro-family ready for road trip through the Old World:

Conclusions:
-    this time the banner turned out too big,

-    this time the banner turned out not enough wavy,

-    I definitely need Undead dedicated backdrop, display "wall" or something. I am quite sure that grey thing messes the colors somehow 🤔

Undead chariot #2

It took a little while since I painted the previous chariot, but now my deaders got another wheeler. As most of miniatures from this range, this one brought me back and I'm really glad I got opportunity to work on it. The chariot is really old piece and I got it recently in exchange for goblin wold riders set - never had any use for greenskins so I consider it great deal. 

The model I got was painted and was mostly complete - scythes were missing and there was only one crew member so I added 2 more skellies from Wargames Factory to make the platform more crowdy. Speaking of which - I really like WF sculpts but assembling those bony models is just pain in the ass. Bony ass that is! 💀

I really like black and white stripes banners idea so the chariot also got one. Shambling horde of undead marching under banners like this should look supercool. Haven't decided yet should army standard should be the similar or maybe I should make up something else.

And all undead "heavy hitters" together. Looks lije there's one more chariot and Arkhan the Black himself yet to be done...

War wyvern #2

Hey again,

Few weeks back I've finished bare war wyvern, and now it finally got the saddle but most important - greenskin rider. Although I am really glad I got whole piece done, painting the orc turned out pretty exhausting. 

Mean, while working on the wyvern was just ton of fun, painting it's master was a tar pit.

My guess is, the reason was the sculpt. Without any doubt it's supercool piece of middlehammer history, but all those details made the model kinda "messy". I think it would look much better without all those skulls for example - it's not Khorne's servant after all 😉

The beast was supposed to be painted oldschool style - which means vivid, candy colors. Similar tones were used on orc's flesh and details, but to give it some contrast saddle, armour and banners were painted bit darker. At first I wanted to use original banner but it was just way too much cuteness for my taste.

Besides black and white banners fit skeleton chariot and mercenary ogres - they are all mercenaries serving mighty von Carstein vampire lord or even maybe Nagash himself...

(Pics are oddly cut because I don't have photo background larhe enough - sorry).

Next stop:
turning Valhallan-o-killa-kan-o-mortar into something more neo-soviet and post-apo... 👽

Ogre standard bearer

Looks like it's the last model painted in 2020 so I'm glad it's kinda special:

ogre standard bearer from the best (imo) Warhammer period.

Two other guys were also painted this year (ogre #1, ogre #2) so in order to keep unit look coherent I tried using similar color choice: vivid flesh tone, metallics, similar style of bases.

It's middlehmmer / herohammer period model so banner must be paper - no doubts about it! At first I was trying to adopt one of orcs & goblins army book standards but then decided to make something less complicated but much more striking. 

These ogres are supposed to be corrupted servants of vampire lord so they should carry his colors, the same as undead chariot painted almost 2 years ago. I'm going to prepare similar army standard for main skeleton unit, so whole project should look pretty eyecatching. 

One day...

See you in 2021 I guess 😏

Undead chariot

Easter time kinda seems perfect for bringing some dead back to the world, so I'm more than happy I've finally managed to get onother Undead chariot done.

So I got this placcy set recently: 

back in the old days always wanted to see it on the table (all the automatic impact hits and shit) but for many reasons it's been unavailable for me. 

It's nice feeling having another "alwayswantedtopaint" model crossed off the wishlist.

The chariot is used piece. It came unpainted but assembled, with skeleton crew already attached (armed with classic set of weapons: lance and bow). 

Never liked this combo - undead are shit snipers, and imo carrying lance while riding chariot looks just fucking stupid. So quick surgery and both skellies were ready for arm swapping.

Basic idea was adding another crewman (wight or standard bearer) and skellies were supposed to be the (dead)bodyguards - so they got basic hand to hand weapons.

I couldn't find proper wight for the leader while assembling skellies but luckly there were 'nuff body parts to raise a zombie, which after painful orthopedics and necromancy treatment was turned into standard bearer.

I must say those placcy GW zombies were poor models, stupid parts, big Mickey Mouse hands. Couln't find any nice (acceptable...) looking head so I borrowed one from Mantic Games range - it's smaller than GW's but looks just way better.

After varnish and superglue dried I must admit I like this necro wheeler, wouldn't mind painting another one, but this time just bones - no rotting flesh aboard:

The model got 3x4" base - I can imagine it's not game wise but large base look just better on the table. Painting itself wasn't much complicated:

base tone, washing, drybrushing, glazing to get whole thing smoother, varnish.

More less.

Standard bearer was assembled using what I've managed to salvage from the bits box. 

It took a while to cut, pin and reposition arms and banner to get reliable bond, but it was worthy effort: the guy has fallen several times off my desk and nothing broken off (yet).

Instead of using banner from the armybook I decided to paint simple black and white stripes:

such thing looks really striking on the table so same pattern was used for skeleton crew and zombie horseman shields.

Since there are no metal parts (construction is very light) some superglue and greenstuff were enough to attach the deaders onto the board, but I think if there'll be next one I'll rather use long pins so crew members are nailed to the very base.
Hope you like the result:

Anything else mini-related?

Yup!

I've finally decided to wash some junk which has been sinking in the paint stripper for quite a long time now. So long that I've actually forgotten what was inside...
It's great to know there are at least 5 more oldie zombies for my main Undead unit.
Not mentioning ork shaman riding wyvern which I've always wanted to see painted.
Decisions, decisions...

Ok, take care for now!

Lich Lord (not Lichemaster though) - review and walkthrough, part 5

It is finished! The paintjob is done!
Finally! That was traumatic experience and it's SO good to have it behind me.

As I wrote it the previous posts working on this thing was huge pain in the ass. I think the worst thing was assembly - that is model had to be painted assembled so manipulating was just very uncomfortable. Best example - banners. Painting them separated would be much easier and would bring better results than what you can see. I also didn't like sculpted sandglass and death - I'd prefer these banners plain or sculpted a'la Henrich Kemmler's apron - assembled bits of face skin. Really grim and totally badass!

As for the good things: all in all I like it, it's pretty striking sculpt which will surely pop out of infantry regiments. It's messy but I wouldn't expect anything cleaner from long dead evildoer.

What next?
Well in the meantime I managed to get some oldie Undead (heh, history made a full circle - I got rid of of core of my Undead army like 10 years ago?) and I'd like to build small, oldschool army, based on ~4-5 WFB edition models, or at least 90s' stuff.
Don't think that will be gaming but should look just cool in the display case.

Ok, that's it for now. Time to plan the overall shape of Undead army. And play Dark Omen!

And just to keep things more less tidy - here are links  to prior Lich lord posts if anyone's interested: part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4. See you soon!