Undead - Spearhead 3

Lars Vallhund, Raoul de Tosny and Tormund Stahl

Some new recruits for the Horde of Dreux today. Three minis I have had awaiting the attention of the brush for a long, long time. It’s a little surreal finally getting to them after all these years, but very satisfying indeed, my lovelies.

This delight in metal form is a 1986 sculpt by my man, Aly Morrison. I love the undead from this era with a deep and inappropriate intensity. You often hear from old Grognards like myself; 'They just got more character they do, my lad, ah, them were they days.' Well, in this case, they do. Look at this guy, with his punky mohawk, mysterious robes and head collection (lifted from the Dead Men of Dunharrow Lord of the Rings range, I hasten to add.) He's the business. 

His paintjob followed my usual recipes, but this time I added a couple of glazes over the bone. A 1:1 mix of Skeleton Horde contrast paint and medium. Then a mix with less medium for recesses. Works a treat to add a little richness to the bone.

The banner was a new direction. White Dwarf 512 had an article on painting the new Soulblight Gravelord minis, and part of that was the banners. The faded look to these banners struck me as just super cool, and contrasted nicely with the rust, robes, bone and armour of the undead. I changed it a little, but it's pretty much the same recipe. I really like how it turned out.

Next we have Lars Vallhund, who hails from the same range as Raoul. Like the standard bearers, there are three variant musicians. This one is by far the most metal. I got great amusement from painting his goaty accoutrements. He looks a bit wild for a skeleton warrior, and is certainly a memorable sculpt. I hadn't seen a version of him painted that I can recall. I thought his drums would be nice as aged bronze, so that's what I went with.

This rather non-descript skeleton warrior is one of the many little beauties they produced in the 80s. I don't know the sculptor I'm afraid. He's a nice hunched fella, and has a lot of visual interest from the back. See for yourself:

Cool huh? The skulls on the base are from old square base resin base toppers. I've taken to clipping them up lately for adding little points of interest to bases.

So, that's the latest. Lots more undead on the way. I still have quite a few Morley grave guard to paint up, as well as the wight king. Then we get onto some cavalry. I'm having trouble selecting my horsemen, there are many wondrous candidates. More soon, and happy Deadcember!

Undead - Spearhead 2

Another undead minion rises from the painting table! This time it's Riccar de Purcell, skeleton champion. He's going to be leading one of my skeleton units for the Spearhead force, Riccar's Spears.

Riccar is one of my favourite skeleton miniatures of all time. One of Aly Morrison's sculpts for Citadel, if I'm not mistaken. Look at those janky swords. That collar! He most likely calls his enemies 'YOU FOOLS!' a lot. It's well past time he returned to the gaming table after some paint love. 

He'd been languishing in a tub for some time now. I had to break him out of his old square base and clean him up a little before getting some Wraithbone primer on him. His paint scheme wasn't anything magical, but Contrast paint washed and glazes do jazz up these old boys something lovely, in conjunction with drybrushing and layering.

I'm really, really enjoying this batch of undead. I've had some of them for decades, so it's very satisfying to finally get some paint on them. More fodder for the skeleton units to come!

Undead - Spearhead 1

Today we get into some Oldhammer, and as it’s getting onto the spooky season, what better than two old honest-to-goodness skeleton warriors. You can’t get more wholesome than that.

This pair of rusty rattlers were sculpted by Roy Eastland back in 1990, and appeared in White Dwarf 133. He only did a few of these undead, and they were easily the best skeleton Citadel had produced for many years, though I recall them being hard enough to get. They are still very highly regarded by Oldhammer folk, and rightly so.

I’m lucky enough to have the full set of these lads, so I think 35 years later is about time to get them painted. I’m currently building a Spearhead force for Age of Sigmar, and it requires a few skelly troops. It’s really just a nice concise list to hang a painting project from.

There’s a lot of fun to be had painting old minis with more modern paints and methods. I used a lot of contrast on these two for glazes and recess washes.Typhus Corrosion technical paint from GW is a wondrous help for weathering and general grime. 

I’m pretty content with my rust technique too, which is mostly red and orange washes over dark silver that has had a brown wash. Then a couple of layers of drybrushing and maybe some edge highlights.

I have quite a few more undead on the paint table, and I’m loving the everyday joy of raising the diminutive dead to do my bidding. 

It’s the simple things, eh? 

Undead - Jarl the Gatekeeper

Leaving the gleaming spires of the neon future, it's now time for something more... autumnal. Heading back to my first love, the undead, I give you Jarl the Gatekeeper, Seneschal of the Order of Dust, formerly the Knights Hellion.

Jarl was a wight champion in my old Warhammer Fantasy Battle army, and fought over several editions. Having recently painted a new version of his master, Stephane Dreux, I decided to add a new take on Jarl to lead the wights of the Order of Dust in my little Soulblight Gravelord Spearhead force.

Sculpted by Alessio Cisbani as part of his undead Mordheim range, I was very taken with this mini as soon as I saw the green. It's a lovely sculpt. Painting-wise, I updated my black iron armour recipe a little, adding more reds and brown, and another layer or so of highlights. On the advice of a friend I used Cadian Fleshtone to highlight Barak-Nar Burgundy on his surcoat, and I'm glad I did, it sits nicely into my colour scheme for the army.

I'm feeling the undead mojo right now, so I think a few more members of the Spearhead might be in the offing. As nights draw in and Halloween approaches, it's only right, don't you think? Here's Jarl with the nascent but revitalised Order of Dust. More Gary Morley wights on the way I reckon.

Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone - Lawmen 5 - 'And hey! Let's be careful out there.'

After finally graduating from the academy, officer Neo Reeves is ready to dispense justice, one electrified daystick bludgeoning at a time.

Officer Reeves is my second rookie, this time equipped with riot gear and a love of shouting 'DISPERSE!' while laying about him with that electro-baton.

Reeves was painted unassembled so I could get at that shield and helmet properly. The trick is to cover the contact points (Blutack is my buddy here) so no paint gets on them. Even primer can make a part not fit snug, and of course, you're just sticking paint to paint.

For Cyberpunk, these guys are pretty weathered. I like to think of them a bit like the put-upon cops of old Detroit in Robocop, hard-pressed and somewhat under-resourced.

That finishes my squad for now. I've enjoyed these guys, with some colours out of my comfort zone. There are eight members now, and as always, I'd love to add a few more. There are a couple more expansion boxes out there. But that's always the way, isn't it? No project is ever really finished. They'll be getting a run out in a couple of weeks with a group of good buddies.

After the brave souls of precinct 260, I'll be moving on to something a little more in line with the darkening days and the onset of Autumn. The knights are drawing in...

Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone - Lawmen 4

Another copper! Officer Smith joins the Lawmen today. Smith is a rookie, and is a Gonk class character. That is to say, something of a bullet sponge. I have some more Cyberpunk Red Combat Zone gaming coming up in September, so I want a pair of these newbs to add some extra entertainment value to the group. Cue lots of Robocop 'Does it huuuurt?' comments when my fresh-out-of-the-academy guys get riddled with gunfire.

Smith is a pretty detailed sculpt. I am NOT in love with the material he's cast in, Siocast, despite it's ability to hold detail. There were actually some quite badly miscast bits on this boy, and with Siocast being unfileable, there's only so much you can do with a razor-sharp scalpel. 

That said, I do like the sculpt itself. Smith looks like he's bitten off way more than he can chew here. That's not a scream of authority, that's terror.

As you can see, I'm playing with some new backgrounds colours, which I may or may not stick with. (Edit: Which I didn't. The black background messed with my lighting setup and poor Smith was hideously overexposed.)

So, one more cop to go, another Gonk, this time in the riot shield and baton variety. Until them, keep out of trouble citizens.

Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone - Lawmen 3

So! Lawmen for Cyberpunk Combat Zone ready to lay down the law. I've finished the final three members of the faction box, and they are ready to take to the table. Which they'll be doing in about a week.

I will be adding a couple of rookies, but for now, this is the crew. Overall, prepping these minis was a bit of a trial. Siocast responds only to super sharp scalpels. Files are no good, it just shreds the material. That said, once prepped, they were a lot of fun to paint. Especially Maximum Mike.

Maximum Mike is the faction leader. The sculpt is based on Mike Pondsmith, the man behind Cyberpunk. He makes a great looking veteran detective. 

I tried to give his jacket a vintage look, old, but comfy. I think it goes well with the dark jeans. His t-shirt echoes the colour of the officer's armour. (The armoured officer colour schemes are based on various police cars.)

In stark contrast to the casually dressed Mike, the sniper, officer J, is tooled up with all the toys. He is more lightly armoured than the others cops, but boy, does he have a lot of straps.

So many... straps...

Anyhow! Officer J had a mangled hand when I popped him out of the box, so I had to rustle up another. An Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii, I think. I really like his featureless helmet (there are 3 options) and all them grenades. A lovely sculpt. Not too shabby in the game either.

Next up, my MVP, Sebastian the police dog. A total berserker when I tried him in the game, I gave him the German Shepherd treatment. I love dogs in gaming. I've painted guard dogs, skeleton dogs, zombie dogs, and now cyborg dogs. They are always fun. There's no prize for guessing what Cyberpunk character Sebastian gets his name from.

Sebastian and the K9 officer come as kind of a pair. They work well in the game, and I'm half thinking of adding another dog. 

Next up are a couple of rookies, gonks in the game. The are weak, but the mechanic for using them is really interesting, and something I want to try. Essentially they get a turn when everyone else is resetting their activations. After the rookies, it's a drastic change of theme to something a lot more... necrotic.