Undead Spearhead 6 - The Choir of Ashes

 

Another small unit of skeleton warriors across the finish line. This time it's the Choir of Ashes, led by the bellicose Sergeant Wollf. 

This unit is the second ten-corpse group I need for the Spearhead project. It's a mix of ranges, from Citadel, Skull & Crown, Diehard, Bonefields and others. I do like to shop about. I have plans to boost these guys to a twenty strong unit in time. 

It took a while to settle on a banner design. I kept the colour scheme I used on Raoul de Tosny's Banner of the Horned Sun, I may use a variant of it on ghostly fellows too. The banner design really was the thing that needed some thought. Eventually, I settled on a portrait of Samael the fallen angel, though as Morr, (or Morrda in Age of Sigmar) God of Death in this setting. The Ashen standard is held aloft by Malach Veyr.

I'm very happy with the result. The banner itself is a chopped up ogre standard with some green stuff work and added grisly trophies. These old 90s Citadel standard bearer minis, more often than not, didn't come with a banner, just the banner pole. You had to add the flag yourself. With this being a particularly fancy banner pole, I felt it needed a nice flag. 

The Choir of Ashes is so named for the dirge that rises from it's members as they shamble across the land. A genial song of praise to Morr it is, that they may be released to his peace. Morr is not a vengeful God, but holds the choir fast to their oaths. Only when they are fulfilled will he let them rest, but, for the moment, the song eases their burden, as songs do. Wollf hushes them with a bark all the same, when focus is required. 'Enough whickering my morose fellows, there's sword-work to do. Step lively now!'

Undead Spearhead 5 - Melchior Dregomir

This project I’m working on needs a leader. A wight king, to be exact. There were many candidates, but in the end I picked this tall gent, a Heartbreaker undead lord from the 90s, sculpted by Chaz Elliot. As you can see, compared to his bony minion, he’s a fairly big mini, and a fine Oldhammer era commander for the host. His sword was missing its grip and pommel, so I picked out a new one. (I since found the original, irritatingly.)

Paint-wise, Melchior got the same treatment as my other wights, bar the white fur ruff and the glowing orb. The orb was my first time using fluorescent paint, and it was a bit of a learning curve. I think I’m getting the hang of it.

Melchior is a creature driven by sinister purpose. A towering wight lord of terrible aspect, made more awful still by the enormous sword he carries, the wight blade known as Absolution. This weapon passes harmlessly through the innocent, but wrenches the souls from the guilty. These shades are then bound to Melchior's magical phylactery, the Cweartern. There they dwell until such time as Melchior calls on them to perform some service, or until he deems their penance concluded.

Melchior is no cruel warden, but is unrelenting in his righteous castigation of the wicked. If one could get close enough to listen, one might hear him quietly admonishing his ghostly charges on the errors of their ways. 

So that's our champion of justice ready to lead this bony minions. More rattlebones soon.

Undead Spearhead 4 - Silas Harrow

A minor, but slightly oddball addition to the Spearhead today; Silas Harrow, skeletal fiddler for the second unit of skeleton warriors. 

Silas is a mini I have had for a very long time, and I can't recall what manufacturer he is from. He's been awaiting his turn at the painting desk for many a year, so it's nice to get him done. A simple enough fellow to paint, the only real head-scratchers were getting his fiddle bow to look something like what it's intended to be, and painting in the fiddle-strings.

The second unit is just about done, but still needs it's standard bearer. He's going to be a bit of a job, so, I'm going to put him off and paint the wight king leading the force next instead. Another old fellow come to his final reward.

Until next time, my dears.

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 - 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.

Khorne Warband - Bloodletter

It's been about thirty years since I last painted a bloodletter. In fact, THIS bloodletter. He was sent back to the realm of chaos when the shelf he was on collapsed decades ago. Eventually the sad remnants were stripped and sent back to storage. Now though, he rises once more to garner skulls anew. Gorewhelp joins the warband.

I wanted to add a little variation to the red skin on this guy. After using the effect on a couple of models previously, I blended his hands and feet to purple. I used the same effect on the slaughterpriest's claw, and I think I'll use it on any mutations or wiggly bits for the rest of the models in the force. I blackened the horns to draw the eye back from the purple hand and feet to the face. After messing about with the verdigris on the sword I eventually settled on the bronzey green to set it off against the red skin. The claws got a coat of gloss as I'd used this on my Yaoguai and liked it.

With this daemon done I have another four models left to finish the starting warband. (The statue at the back is a possessed statue of Khorne, a walking shrine if you will and will act as a Bloodsecrator) Getting there!

Khorne Warband - More Chaos Thugs

Two more chaos thugs, the musician and champion, join the warband today, bringing the compliment of thugs for the warband to five. That's all I need for now, but I very much doubt I'm done painting Khorne flavoured thugs.

Are here is the champion for the group of thugs. I've had this mini for a while, and I'm glad I found a project for him. I love this model, he's super cool with that massive spear and skull helmet, and incredibly dynamic. His spear is perfect for Age of Sigmar, it's bleedin' huge. It is Ares' dream to run that spear clear through one of those stuck up stormcast, hence his nickname. I look forward to realising Ares' dream on the gaming table.

I painted Ares' cloak similarly to the undercity werewolf I did a couple of years ago. I know the skull isn't a wolf skull, but who cares. Not I sir!

Gorn here is a later release, the only Khorne thug musician I know of. He has a haunted drumstick. What, you thought only axes, swords and armour get possessed by daemons? Gorn used his big skull drum to work up his buddies into a frenzy in a manner similar to a guy hammering out a brutal guitar solo at a death metal concert. That's what daemon drumsticks do for you.

With these lads done the warband is half way there. Next up, a geriatric bloodletter.

Khorne Warband - Chaos Thugs

I've been perusing Age of Sigmar again lately, especially the skirmish variant. My early reticence gave way to curiousity about how it holds up as a skirmish ruleset, and as supplements like the General's Handbook and Skirmish were released this built up into an idea it might be something worth trying. I still have fond memories of the Realms of Chaos warbands, and the Paths to Glory rules looked good for assembling some cool warbands once again. Added to that others such as Cheetor were going to give it a go, so what the hell, I was in.

Up until last week I hadn't actually played it though.We were somewhat spoiled, playing on Cheetor's wonderful new AoS terrain (more on his blog). We tried a skirmish scenario and then a Triumph and Treachery one. Both offered plenty of action and laughs, which ticks my boxes for a game. After popping my AoS skirmish cherry I've decided it's just the kind of ruleset that I can get behind for these kinds of casual games. Added to this there's a pretty big toolbox for gaming you can draw on.

So, thus committed, I've decided to give my Gorechosen slaughterpriest some mates, and build me a warband for the blood God. I started with some chaos thugs.

Chaos Thugs. I can't tell you how much I love chaos thugs. I collect as many as I can. I rummaged through my tubs and found some semi-naked/insane nutters that might compliment the huge haemo-erotic (not my invention, good though eh?) Khorne boys from the Age of Sigmar range.

This guy above, well. You know how you only REALLY look at the detail on a miniature as you begin painting it? You notice things, especially on chaos models. I shant forget spying the assless plate mail on that Slaanesh warrior in a hurry. Anyway, this guy, he looked, well, old. An old thug. Like a snowflake in death valley. He has a corset and what looks like an adult nappy on. I imagined him at the thug reunion. All his mates are: A:Dead B:Warlords or C:Daemon princes. Awkward. Good enough to stay alive, but not good enough to get granted the extended lifespan the chaos Gods seem to dole out like candy. He also, as was spotted by a mate, looks like the guy from UP. So he got painted as an old bloke. He'll provide much hilarity in games I imagine.

This lad is more straightforward. I picked him for the axe and the gurning madness in his face. He probably pees in that armour. While looking you right in the eyes.

So, I am having fun with these. Models I've had sequestered away for decades are suddenly primed and ready for paint. Bloodletters, flesh hounds, Khornegor (proper dog-faced Khornegor, none of that goat stuff) as well as the fat bloke with the whip from the AoS range. If it pleases Mr Blood, I may expand the warband to a Paths to Glory force. Or I may see what Tzeentch offers. Such is the fun of the tiered rules for Age of Sigmar. Who knew?

Now, hold on. I know what you're thinking. 'Look at that HUGE bastard! Scale creeporama!' Well, (pushes glasses up nose) ACTUALLY the slaughterpriests are meant to be larger than other mortals. So there. The plastic reavers are only about a head taller than the old thugs, which means balls to me. Once they are propped up on a bit of cork there's nothing in it. So I wouldn't be overly worried about scale. Humans come in all sizes etc.

Slaughterpriest - Markus Scissorfist

Another Khorne follower has snuck onto my painting table. This time the Slaughterpriest given away with White Dwarf some time back. I'm quite a fan of Gorechosen and Silver Tower, so I thought this lad would kill two birds with one stone. He needed more Khorne though, so I replaced his head with a Khorne head from the chaos spawn kit. I like my chaos pretty mutated too, so I gave him a big old claw from the Forsaken kit. (I LOVE the Forsaken kit. It was panned pretty badly, but I think it's full of super bits and pieces) With a giant KHORNE symbol on his head and a hand made out of knives, all subtlety was now banished and painting could begin.

I decided to avoid brass, as I'm a contrarian. I still went full red on some armour though, I'm not a total douche. I painted him in three sections with the left leg and big old belt buckle seperate. It was the only way to get at the back of his left leg and underpants and such. What? I'd know, and that's what matters. I gotta say though, gluing painted sections together never fails to make me super nervous. One false move...

I took some painting cues from a Khorne thug I painted a while back, and they served me well enough. The pale cloth lifts the model's palette out of brown town a bit. I decided to paint his flail as if it was some manner of brazier, even though I was almost too scared to paint it it's so delicate. New technology makes super fine models a reality, but they can be fragile. I have 80s plastic orcs you could drive over and they'd be fine, but this guy's flail, yikes.

Markus here will be my champion in both Silver Tower and Gorechosen, as well as possibly heading up a delegation of nutters for Paths to Glory in Age of Sigmar. Utility, that's the ticket.

Anyhow, just for laughs, look at the size of this guy next to a Realm of Chaos thug:

He's HUAGE. That's a 40mm base. Okay, slaughterpriests are meant to be bigger than most dudes anyway, but bloody hell. I'm still going to use them in the same warband though. 'AW, HE'S SO CUTE, LOOKIT HIS ICKLE FLAIL.' Markus will say.