Just had a cogitate on Skellies...

[FreakyFenton]

You need material for a chariot, you've got bones, sod it - sentient bone chariot.

That's the whole idea behind the age of sigmar bonereapers - they take a bone tax from their territories and then use necromancy to fuse the bones into new constructs.

  "Honey, don't forget to put the bins out! It's bone collection day tomorrow." 

[Belligerentparrot]

I know someone who struggles with that concept 

Ha, yes I also struggled with the undead trumpeter concept for a long time! It was the Grenadier undead war mammoth, one of the riders was blowing a horn and it just ruined the whole mini for me.

Then someone (might have been on this forum, actually) politely asked why my suspension of disbelief was being shattered by that, as opposed to all the silly metaphysics involved in the very idea of necromancy, and I got over it. Now I quite like skeleton trumpeters. I like the idea of them mindlessly trying to do what they did when they were alive.

[Mammoth miniatures]

"Honey, don't forget to put the bins out! It's bone collection day tomorrow."

There's a great diorama in warhammer world of a bonereaper fortress at tax time, with a line of mortals of all varieties queuing up to pay their tithe, all of them with sacks and bags of bones. The fluff gets a bit grizzly as to what happens when a town can't afford the ever increasing tax, But the visuals of some poor bloke in a world of magic having to fish through the compost for last nights chicken leg before making a joyless slog down to the tax office o submit this years returns is great.

[FramFramson]

[beefcake]

Most of mine play drums. However, the drumsticks are invariably bones, which seems a bit on the nose

On the nose, ooo, that's a bit on the nose considering they don't have a nose. Offense might be taken at that,

[beefcake]

I think I've seen somewhere skeleton figures on war chariots and the wheels of the chariots were made from bones.
...which is weird (and what did the wheels look like when they were alive?)

A flesh version is nightmare fuel.

[ithoriel]

I've always assumed that skeletons with horns and trumpets would produce sounds that were thin and reedy to mortal ears, like distant music heard on a blustery breeze - the ghostly echo of the sounds they once made.

[Patrice]

If they can be magically animated, surely a magical wind can be created to pass through them to blow their instruments.

like distant music heard on a blustery breeze - the ghostly echo of the sounds they once made.

Inspiring idea to mention in a scary scenario! 

[FramFramson]

[Freddy]

There's a great diorama in warhammer world of a bonereaper fortress at tax time, with a line of mortals of all varieties queuing up to pay their tithe, all of them with sacks and bags of bones. The fluff gets a bit grizzly as to what happens when a town can't afford the ever increasing tax, But the visuals of some poor bloke in a world of magic having to fish through the compost for last nights chicken leg before making a joyless slog down to the tax office o submit this years returns is great.

They should collect milk for the calcium and go for bone quality instead of quantity.

[Easy E]

Bone tax..... <insert Beavis and Butthead meme here>

[Daeothar]

I found a free STL of one of these and printed it for use during Halloween.

Print finished at around 2330h. I cleaned it, let it dry and was so curious I wanted to try it. First very softly, but there was hardly any sound. So then I went full tilt. This woke up my wife and daughter in a state of panic and the cat ran off for a week.

Suffice to say it worked...

It's a truly harrowing sound and its origins are even nastier.

I don't know why I never made the connection with the undead wind section; for some reason I've always had the classic image a la Evil Dead in my head, but this would make perfect sense for a 'serious' undead army...

[dwbullock]

I've wondered about skeleton pipers, but then thought ... there's nothing that says they actually produce noise, right?  They played the trumpet in the army when they died, so they go through the motions of playing when they undied.

I mean, if you can accept a skeleton warrior can talk ...

I just want to know at what point does a zombie slowly rot and turn into a skeleton?

[Daeothar]

I just want to know at what point does a zombie slowly rot and turn into a skeleton?

Now there's an interesting distinction I actually thought about before...

In my mind, skeletons are those who have died, were buried and decomposed down to the bone. So they would have been in the ground for a very long time before some necromancer came along and raised them, making them dig themselves up out of the ground. Whereas zombies (the classical fantasy magical ones that is) died and were resurrected way before they decomposed, right where they fell.

Magical zombies were therefore never buried, but were raised on the spot, often very shortly after they died. The rotting occurs only after they were raised.

At what point a long serving zombie is elevated to skeleton and tranfered to another regiment (with death themed armour and weapons)  is also unclear to me though. I'd say that most zombies never make it to that stage, simply because they've been destroyed before that time.

But there must be cases where they did serve for that long...

[Freddy]

In the design commentaries for GW skeletons (around the 2008 VC arny book, when the 80s goofy skeletons were replaced) they said that their skeletons supposed to be the long-buried bodies of warriors from a bygone age in WHFs past, their armour is just the armour style from their era (apparently back then people designed armour to look cool in case of a possible later reanimation  ). They can be raised anywhere not because they are fallen in the current battle but because the Old World has such a violent history that wherever you are you are never far from an old battlefield or mass grave.

In my mind, skeletons are those who have died, were buried and decomposed down to the bone. So they would have been in the ground for a very long time before some necromancer came along and raised them, making them dig themselves up out of the ground. Whereas zombies (the classical fantasy magical ones that is) died and were resurrected way before they decomposed, right where they fell.

Magical zombies were therefore never buried, but were raised on the spot, often very shortly after they died. The rotting occurs only after they were raised.

I also look at them this way, but the natural progress of a zombie is towards a desiccated mummy form rather than a bare skeleton.

Another important difference is that while zombies are mindless creatures driven by very basic instintcs, skeleton warriors keep most of their military skills. So in case of a zombie -> skeleton carreer path they do not receive only the cool armour, but also a military training.
-Listen here, maggots- you came here as dumb zombies but I will make proper skeleton warriors out of you! Even your grave digger wont recognize you!
-Sir yes sir!