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!

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.