Undead - Spearhead 3 - Riccar's Spears

Today sees the final members added to the first of the Spearhead units to be finished, a unit of ten skeleton warriors; Riccar's Spears. Let's look at the looooore of the unit:

Former men-at-arms of the house of Dreux, this unit has survived relatively intact down the years, thanks in no small part to the actions of Riccar de Purcell, the master at arms of the house of Dreux. So many of the warriors spirits still inhabit their original bodies that the burden of bearing the pain of undeath weighs heavily on them. It is only the protection of the Lady and Riccar's fastidious attentions that prevents them from becoming true undead, pliable and silent.

Riccar de Purcell was once responsible for the martial training of all the noble sons of the house of Dreux. It was he who trained Stephane in the use of arms when he was a youth. Riccar, now a mail-clad skeleton, leads his dead-at-arms in battle after battle. These once-men, by their very success, have begun to slip into true undeath as their spirits grow weary from such a long period of wandering the world of the living. They invest more and more of their will in Riccar, who bears this responsibility with no small sense of unease.

I wrote that many moons ago. So many. 

The last two undead to be added were another two lovely Roy Eastland skeletons.

I've painted five of the six of this small set now. The last left unpainted is a fellow with a two-handed axe and googly eyeballs. He'll have to wait until I paint up a unit of skeletons with double-handed weapons. 

All the details on these are just a delight to paint. Nice chunky bones and hefty scale mail. I've taken to glazing the bone with a very thin (4:1) mix of Medium and GW Skeleton Horde Contrast paint a couple of times between highlights. It smooths the layers nicely and generates that aged bone effect I'm after. 

I've also changed out my background. I've retired the blue gradient for something a bit more neutral. I took a while deciding on a light or dark grey textured backdrop, but the vote went for the light background, so here we are. The next thing is upgrading my lighting setup options.

My skeleton swordsmen also approach completion, just awaiting the standard bearer and musician. A violinist, no less. 

Fancy. 

More on that soon!