Old bones (even more 23.5.)

[Verderer]

Hi, painted a couple of sets of skeletons, Reaper ones with swords & GW ones with halberds. Shields on the latter are old GW Imperial ones, never understood why the obsession with skullz for Imperium, so I thought they'd work better with these?

[Cherno]

Great stuff. I like the ones with swords and shield the best

I also love how they all seem to have an evil grin on their boney faces!

[Elbows]

I love the fellas with pole-arms, they're some of the best undead GW put out.  Well done.

[DeafNala]

The Deadites are LOOKIN' GOOD...BEAUTIFULLY painted Old Minis. VERY NICELY DONE!

[Verderer]

Thanks people, I think I figured out how to paint rusty iron the easy way: using Vallejo Model Air colors. They're meant to be airbrushed really I guess, but they brush on pretty good. And they're good quality (and thin) and have loads of tones. I think I used Burned Iron for the base color. It gives a nice dark metal tone on which to build rust effects (in this case Panzer Color Old Rust and New Rust). Final highlight with gunmetal type color. Can look up the specific color numbers & names, if anyone's interested?

[Verderer]

Managed to complete some revenants (except for a couple of belt buckles!) by Mantic. I like the ornamental style and options, but dislike the open hands and the dull pose of the regular troopers.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Nice.

It might inspire me to paint some of the Mantic undead I bought with the Frostgrave book all those years ago....

[Verderer]

Some bossy types to lead the skellies. These are Red Box wraith knights with simple head swaps from Mantic skeletons. I didnt like the original heads which looked tiny and were really hunched between the shoulders. I think these work better.





Group shot:


I noticed curious thing about the metal colors I use (Vallejo), they look odd photographed. Metallics usually do, but these have really strong contrast in photos, like the one with the spiky helmet. It looks like I dabbed some silver straight on black base, whereas in real life the effects are more subtle.

[boneio]

These are all ace. The undead will always be my first love (err....).

The head swaps on the wraith knights also keep them more consistent with your other troops I think.

I love those GW armoured skellies and one day I'll get my hands on some...!

[Hobby Services]

Shields on the latter are old GW Imperial ones, never understood why the obsession with skullz for Imperium, so I thought they'd work better with these?

I'll be the first to concede GW tends to overdo it with the skulls, but the one place where it does make some sense is on the human WFB models.  "Memento mori" was a very real and widespread thing for centuries, and while it would obviously evolve differently in a polytheistic fantasy setting it's not hard to see how or why it would still crop up.  The Old World is a place where the dead can literally rise from their grave and try to murder you, and there is demonstrable proof that life after death and the human soul both exist and can be manipulated by magic.  If that isn't enough to produce culture aesthetic oddities akin to the real-world obsession with constant reminders of mortality I don't know what would.

[Verderer]

True, that is one way to think about it I guess. Although I thought memento mori was more tied with spirituality and Christianity, and with the concept of life being brief and over soon, so you'd better repent now? I am not sure that is the ideal message to give, if you're in the business of soldiering? And the skull image is not very common in the military field, if you think about medieval heraldry etc.? Or is it, I am not a specialist?

But anyhows, they way GW has been oversuing the skull over the years both in WFB and especially in 40K is pretty tedious I think.

[boneio]

Although I agree GW overuses skulls, they do make sense to me as an intimidation tactic. Putting skulls on your shields is saying to the enemy that you're intimately acquainted with death and that you'll be sending your foes to the grave soon!