Category Archives: AoS Undead

Rising from the grave…

30 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by in AoS Undead, OldHammer

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…of a hobby slump!

Hello folks, it has been some time, hasn’t it? I’ve been in a real hobby slump of late – no particular reason, but I just haven’t really felt like doing much lately :-/  Also I need to apologies to those followers who are not on WordPress – for some bizarre reason I have been unable to post comments outside of WordPress for a couple of weeks, but fear not – I have been looking on with interest!

The fallow period hasn’t been a complete write-off though, I have slowly worked my way through a selection of Skellies over the last several weeks, and I also went through my leadpile in search of inspiration. First up, let’s take a look at my recent painting achievements.

Here we have a bunch of Nightmare Legion skellies, including a couple of musicians, a complete standard bearer, Renzo the champion, and Mordini the hero:

This is kinda cool because a) I now have the complete range of figured from this Regiment of Renown, and b) I can now add this lot to my existing Legion to put together a unit of 40. This is significant in AoS points because that last 10 comes at half price, and as a bonus, this frees up the C17 command section that used to lead them. Here is my updated Legion – note that Renzo is in charge now, but Mordini is not included in the unit:

 

I’ll get around to accurately reproducing the banner at some point in the future to really put the final gloss on this unit, but next up we have a couple of real randoms. The guy with the crossbow is an unnamed 1984 pre-slotter – he did come with another horned skeleton of the same vintage, but sadly I lost him to lead rot :-(  The two with scythes are not quite as old – the anatomically unlikely one is from the MD8 undead chariot, while the heavily armoured guy is in the ’91 Red catalogue (thanks Hivemind!!):

These guys fit in perfectly with my Cursed Company, taking this unit up to 33ish models:

 

Next up, I have this lonesome pikeman to show – nothing hugely exciting here, and no idea of his age or range:

He slots in nicely with my Grave Guard unit, as does Mordini and the C17 command section that got released from the Nightmare Legion. Graveguard are pretty damn good in AoS, so I am pleased to see their numbers increasing slowly:

 

Finally, I painted up a Middlehammer Necromancer – this guy appears in the Black catalogue of 1993:

He’s a bit boss-eyed, but he’ll do ;-)  He’ll support my existing ‘mancer in AoS, and is also destined to act as his apprentice in a future Frostgrave campaign:

 

So, that’s it for now folks – my apologies for being so crap lately, but hopefully I’m over the slump. One of the good things about sorting out the leadpile is that I’ve gotten excited about some of the many projects I have shelved over the years… I am about to start one such project – a whole new army for Rogue Trader! Thanks for bearing with me & stay tuned for more :-)

Fleshwalkers of Karr-Keel

12 Saturday Aug 2017

Posted by in AoS, AoS Undead

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Hi guys, more zombies for you today – I powered through this lot over the week, ready for a game tonight. This time it is the gorgeous Karr-Keel set from Upstream Games House. There is a great backstory on the website for these guys, with the whole set being very narrative driven and a self-confessed ‘vanity project’ for Brian Kirkell’s birthday – an inspirational example to anyone with an idea or two up their sleeves! Furthermore, I believe that there is a second wave in the works for Karr-Keel (Kirkell – geddit?) as well, so hopefully we will see the range expanded. It is well worth checking this set out if you like your zombies quirky – the quality is superb and they are packed full of gorgeous little details, with these being sculpted by none other than Kev ‘not just Goblins’ Adams. Here are my versions – as usual, these are mostly painted with wash directly on to the undercoat:

 

Check this out – the ‘reflection’ is freehand… I’m quite proud of it :-)

 

I also picked up the lovely Teamsters Cart from the Karr-Keel as well, with the intention of using it as a corpse cart. I changed the bell-ringer’s right hand for a lash and planted a sword in there just to make it tie in with AoS a little better, and I added some extra skullage to the cart itself. Again, this is a really nice mini, great fun to build and paint, and it adds some nice hitting power and zombie-buffs in game:

 

Now, you can’t very well have a shambling plague of zombies without a mind to direct them, so I also finally got around to doing a proper Necromancer for my army. He’s from Diehard miniatures, with the addition of the hourglass in the left hand. With a nod to the late & great George Romero, (father of the modern concept of what a zombie is), may I introduce Gorgo Romero – master of unlife, and high-noctifer of the broken wheel cabal:

 

Here is Gorgo, driving my entire Fleshwalker horde to glory:

I’ve lost count of the sculptors & manufacturers represented in this group, and of the races/species represented. I’m rather pleased with this wonderfully eclectic mix :-)

 

In other news, I had my first experience of RPG on Thursday night, and had a ton of fun with it. I joined with a local group & ended up playing in a trial run of Star Wars: Force and Destiny. A few of the more experienced RPers on the table were quite scathing about it, and it wasn’t really what I expected to be honest – it was less ‘in your head’ and more map driven. It was also far easier than I expected, (though to be fair, it was the first act in the sequence). That said, I still enjoyed it, and had a good laugh with some very interesting group of people. I think it is fair to say that this is something that I would like to explore further, and I’m hoping to get a more authentic experience next week.

Anyway, that’s it for now folks! I’m going to be knuckling down to my Chapel commitments from here on so this may result in fewer posts overall, but hopefully it all comes together nicely and in time :-)

Fleshwalkers of Foundry

09 Wednesday Aug 2017

Posted by in AoS Undead

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Hi guys, I’m happy to have some painted undead goodness to share with you all today. I picked up quite a lot of undead while I was at Foundry for the BOYL weekender – mostly skeletons, but I also grabbed a couple of packs of zombies while I was there… I felt that I need to focus a bit on the fleshier side of my growing undead horde, so with brush in hand, and Romero’s Living Dead trilogy on in the background, I got stuck in! First up we have a pack of ‘Victorian Zombies’:

These guys took a bit of tidying up, (and I still missed a few casting lines here & there), but were good fun and pretty quick to do with washes applied straight over a white undercoat – this is becoming my go-to method of painting undead it seems. I’m quite pleased with the OSL on the candle guy in his night gown, though I’m curious as to who lit the candle for him!! Surely he’s way too rotten for it to have been lit when he ‘turned’? I think these guys are generic enough to fit in with the general fantasy trope, but could be an interesting starting point for a pulp themed collection as well. Hmmm…. ;-)

Next up, a pack of Zombie Dogs:

I initially thought of running these as Dire Wolves, but they aren’t really dire enough imo… I quite like the thought that any corpse with teeth would be useful the enterprising necromancer, so I’m happy to chuck these rotten mutts in with the bulk of my shambling flesh walkers for now. Again, these were pretty easy to do, and are lovely little minis. Just look at this disgusting bit of protruding arse-pipe detail!

Gross!!! :-P

Anyway, here’s a few shots of all the new additions all together:

So that’s it for now peeps – I have more zombies based, primed, and ready to add to the mix, along with a necromancer and a little surprise unit to bolster their fleshy fighting capability even further. I’m hoping to have them all done in time for a game of AoS on the weekend, and then I really need to crack on with my Chapel warband… the deadline is rapidly approaching, and I still have a lot of painting to do! Also, inspired by a conversation at BOYL, I’m going to try RPG for the very first time tomorrow evening… I’m quite nervous, but looking forward to it!! I’ll let you know how it goes in my next post :-)

Last minute BOYL prep

26 Wednesday Jul 2017

Posted by in AoS Undead, OldHammer

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Hi guys, I have a quick bonus post for you today, just a couple of last minute ‘quick wins’ to share before I head off to BOYL. In my last post I mentioned that I would be having a crack at WFB for the very first time – I’m hoping to be up against an Empire army run by Tytus from Gameoftravel. Now, I might be a total WFB noob, but there is one thing I do know about Fantasy, and that is DRAGONS ROCK!!! I have never painted a Dragon before, but recently acquired a Tom Meier Zombie Dragon from way back in the misty mists of 1986… I got her busted neck repaired, and got her sorted over the weekend ready for painting this week. She was an absolute joy to paint – in fact, she practically painted herself to be honest! This is all done with various washes and a bit of technical paint, but no ‘solid’ base colours at all:

 

She’s quite tricky to photograph, but isn’t she a beauty? I think I may enter her into the BOYL painting competition :-)

 

But… that’s not all guys – I also quickly turned out a second kill-team for Necromunda/Shadow War, ready to take on the trials of Helsreach! I got these from a recent Kickstarter by Blind Beggar miniatures – loosely modelled on Marvin from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy movie, their goofy charm was irresistible :-)

 

I’m running them as alternative Necrons, with the Gold Tops being Immortals (with the Appointed squad leader in the middle):

 

The Black Tops being stealthy Deathmarks:

 

The Silver Top as a Warrior:

 

And this lovely lady being a Praetorian (with her mighty Handbag of Covenant!!)

 

And here is the game-legal 1000 point starting team:

Bloody terrifying, right?! I know they are low on detail and are just a bit of fun really, but I do find them quite sinister… I’ve seen enough Dr. Who to know that cute & helpful robots always turn on you… I reckon my kids are going to love these, and I can see them turning up in all kinds of pulp/sci-fi scenarios, as well as in games of Shadow War.

Anyway, that’s it dudes and dudettes, I’m heading up to Newark tomorrow so I’ll catch you on the flip side with a full run-down of the weekend – I hope I remember to take lots of photos for you!! Peace out :-)

A return to the Albino Forest

27 Saturday May 2017

Posted by in AoS Undead, The Chapel

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Greetings fellows! Well… it is done. My final dissertation got submitted on Tuesday, and for the first time in 5 years, I am completely free of any study obligations. Woohoo! Ok, so there is the 2 month wait to see how I did, but, (as I keep reminding myself), that is out of my hands, so I’m just enjoying the peace that comes with wrapping up something that has been a big chunk of my life for so long :-)

Of course, like any good hobbyist I had to celebrate my new-found liberty with a spot of painting, and given that I will be out of circulation for the next three weeks, I thought it best to tie up a few loose ends rather than start anything new, (I hate loose ends anyway, so this makes me happy). Some of this you have seen before, but other items are things that have been languishing in their undercoats, and that you won’t have seen.

Firstly, I went back and tidied up some of the undead I had speed painted for last weekend, and added in some detail where needed. This batch got some highlighting on the bone & I added a spot of OSL:

I also finally got around to adding some detail to this guy’s banner:

 

The Cursed Company got some highlighted to the bone, I did the banner, and painted in some gems on Krueger and the standard bearer:

The bottom scrolls are supposed to say ‘Mors Omnia Aequalia’ (roughly ‘all equal in death’ – seemed appropriate for this unit in particular!):

 

Next up I revisited The Chapel project and finished a few pieces for the Albino Forest, starting with a big tree stump kindly donated by Mark at Heresyofus (than you Mark!!!):

 

Next a Malifaux ‘hanging tree’:

 

You have probably noticed that all of my hollow trees have a collection of heads in the top – sacrifices to appease the forest spirits of the old world, but I really pushed the concept with this next piece. A monster of my own devising – the Charnel Oak was a sacrificial tree like many others, but over the years, the life force of the many victims imbued the oak with a malignant sentience. It became a creeping horror that slowly roams the forest, looking for victims that have fallen into a spoor-induced dream state, are too injured to run escape, or those that have been staked out as a sacrifice. The Charnel Oak drags these unfortunates into its bloated body, slowly digesting the poor victims until naught but their bones remain:

 

Pity those who remain conscious of their fate:

 

Finally, I thought it would be worth posting a high shot of everything I have completed for the Albino Forest to date:

It still looks a bit sparse but I have much more to add in the coming months, which works out very nicely for The Chapel project, and also for a spot of AoS as well:

 

So that’s it for now dudes – I’ll be off the hobby for the next 3 weeks with various travel and work commitments, but I am really looking forward to getting right back into it later in June, when The Chapel project will be my main focus – no doubt with a small side salad of Undead.  Yum! :-)

Speed painting challenge… OF DEATH!!!!!

21 Sunday May 2017

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Hello boys and girls, welcome to a pleasantly unscheduled post from yours truly. I have been quiet of late, being deeply immersed in writing the final dissertation in a 5 year mission to explore strange new academic worlds; to seek out new knowledge and new qualifications; to boldly, (after 42 years of consuming oxygen on this good Earth), finally get a bloody degree! This workload has meant that I haven’t really been in the right frame of mind for in-depth hobby stuff like the Chapel project lately – in fact, I hadn’t painted much of anything up until Friday night…

Now, by Friday, I had the vast majority of my dissertation written, and with time in hand, I decided to treat myself to a pleasant Saturday evening of AoS with my Brother-in-Lead Ross, who has one of the most awesome collection of OldHammer Daemons you are likely to see anywhere. He ‘let slip’ that he was going to run a Great Unclean One in a 1000 pt. list, and that caused a bit of panic, because I didn’t have anything like enough painted lead to match that… thus ensued a speed painting session of legendary proportions!

Firstly, I spent Friday night finishing up 18 venerable Nightmare Legion figs I got for cheeps on ebay a while back – the two standard bearers were missing their standards, there were no shields, and one of the troops was missing a head, so the job lot was dirt cheap at £2.30ish per mini. I had previously fixed up the broken bits and added some cool shields from Knightmare Miniatures, and they were already mostly base-coated so it was just a case of doing the metallics, weathering, finishing the bases and highlighting up the bone… but still, 18 finished minis in an evening was pretty frantic! Here they all are:

And here they are forming a nice 20-strong unit with my lovely C17 command squad to lead them:

 

Saturday day was a full on speed painting slog – I had 17 assorted undead based and undercoated… could I do them all in a day?? Well, I was certainly going to give it a bloody good go! First up we have some randoms from the recent Nightmare Creatures Kickstarter from Dark Art Studios:

Spirit hosts or banshees perhaps?

A couple of zombies

Some skellies

Some more (slightly weirder) skellies

 

As if that wasn’t enough, I also had nine of GW’s ‘Cursed Company’ Dogs of War minis undercoated and ready to paint! I picked these up a few weeks ago because I thought that they would go very nicely with the racially diverse skellies I got from the Dungeon Monsters Kickstarter last year. Here they are in groups:

No, I don’t know why the orcs are naked either…. Ahem. Anyway, I decided that I would use the champion ‘Richter Kreugar’ as a second Wight King, so I separated him from his unit but the rest got rolled into a 30-strong mob with the Dungeon Monsters KS skellies, the four skellies from the Dark Art Studios KS and a couple of randoms:

 

Ok, so they are a bit rough and ready – I need to go back and highlight the bone on Saturday’s output and finish the Cursed Company banner, but they are certainly good enough for table-top I reckon, and hell – 35 completed minis in 21 hours is pretty incredible, right? So why the mad rush? Well, partly it was two weeks of pent-up painting frustration, but mostly it was the result of the arms race mechanic of AoS… Allow me to explain.

In AoS, 10 Skellies gives you 10 attacks per turn, hitting on 4+ and wounding on 4+… Pretty naff, right? But wait – add another 10 skellies to the unit and you get a bonus +1 attack per model for a total of 40 attacks, (base 20 + bonus 20), while 30 figures gives you an additional +1 bonus per model for a total of 90 attacks (base 30 + bonus 60)… trebling the model count makes the unit 9 times hittier! Add in a command squad, (for no cost), and the champion gets you an extra attack, the musician gives a guaranteed minimum 6” charge, and the banner/icon bearer allows you regenerate D6 models each hero phase… Suddenly these chumps are looking a bit more serious!

But that’s not all folks – if you have a Wight King within 18”, he can use his ‘Lord of Bones’ command ability to grant the unit an additional attack per turn, so that puts our 30-strong unit of humble skellies up to a whopping 120 attacks (or 121 with the champion). But that still isn’t all! Add in a Necromancer with ‘Vanhels’s Danse Macabre’, and you get to do it all again in the same combat round! Phew! A maximum 242 attacks, which due to the power of mathematics should equate to 60.5 wounds… Enough to deal with a Great Unclean One? You betcha… last night saw a very rare victory for team Leadballoony and the forces of (un)death!

I think I’m getting a feel for AoS – it kind of feels like a computer game, where buffs and debuffs are king, and getting the army balance right is really important. Big heroes and monsters have their place, but massed ranks with stacking bonuses are pretty powerful, and your big beasties need to pick their battles carefully. I’m starting to enjoy it as a system, and I am quite looking forward to the skirmish version that is due out soon.

Anyhow, that’s enough waffle for this post, I need to crack on with my dissertation! It is due in on Thursday, and then I have a crazy few weeks of weddings and work travel to get through. Normal service will be resumed mid-June, when I am very much looking forward to cracking on with my warband for The Chapel project. Thanks for bearing with me during this time :-)