Hello adventurers. For round 6 of the LPL I painted up some Grave Guard and I chose to lead them into battle with the illustrious Mikael Jacsen. Now, some of you may not know who Mikael Jacsen is (apart from where the name obviously comes from) but he was a skeleton champion in the Terror of the Lichemaster scenario pack (the Lichemaster being the better known Heinrich Kemmler). This scenario pack was basically a pack with card stock buildings and rules for playing a series of linked games (I believe three in total) for Warhammer 2nd edition (around 1986 I believe), much like the later scenario packs for Warhammer 5th edition (Grudge of Drong, Perilous Quest, Circle Of Blood and so on). Together with the scenario pack special models were released that were mail-order only (I think) among which the original Heinrich Kemmler and also Mikael Jacsen. The figures for Terror of the Lichemaster looked like this:
You can see Kemmler and Jacsen on the right. The original Krell is top left (back then with an obsidian sword rather than an axe) as is Ranlac, a champion that I'm not sure was ever used again.
These special models are hard to find, the original Kemmler usually goes for about 100 quid on eBay and I've seen Jacsen go for anything between 40 and 80 quid. While it's a decent looking old school skeleton that's way too much money for my wallet so I decided to make my own. I took a skeleton that looked pretty suitable: it had the right skull (there are only roughly four different skull variations in most of the skeletons around 1987), some armour and a somewhat decent weapon. Also, I had this model three times so I wouldn't feel guilty by cutting one of them up.
I first cut off the skull and bent the arm down. I also flattened the axe haft with a pair of pliers so I could remodel it into a sword.
Then I cut off the axe head and filed the sword in the right shape. I decided my Mikale Jacsen would be right-handed rather than left-handed (which the original model was). Changing it would not be worth the effort in my opinion. I pinned on the skull but only glued it on at the very last moment so I could easily reach the rest of the model with green stuff.
I puttied on the extra bits in several stages. At first I did the shoes, knee armour, sword and the beginning of the shoulder pads. I left this to harden under a hot lamp for about a quarter of an hour.
Then I added a sword sheath from plasticard, added some more armour and a glove. I also finished the shoulder pads. After this had hardened I glued on the head and made a start with the hair and gave him eyes.
When the base of the hair had hardened I finished the hair and left my model to harden again, then he was ready for painting.
I painted him in my usual fashion: three drybrushes for the bone (VGC Charred Brown, VGC Earth and VGC Bone White), orange ink for the armour followed by Badab black and boltgun metal. The hair and eyes were painted white before painting them with various yellows and oranges. I painted a signature hand signal on his shield and he was done!
I painted 8 grave guard with great weapons to accompany him. All the models are classic skeletons with two-handed weapons.
An old skeleton with a great big axe and heavy armour
Another one of those, this (or one like him) is one of the first models I ever bought, I love these models!
Another old skeleton with greatsword and a shield. The equipment doesn't look as uniform as the current grave guard but then again these were originally intended as lowly skeletons.
Scyther, a nude skeleton with a scythe. Easier to paint but of course less interesting to look at.
Reaper holding a severed head. He's one of the skeleton champions from the "Skeleton War Machines" boxed set (containing a metal chariot, the old Screaming Skull catapult, a liche and four skeleton champions). I cut off the top of the scythe and turned it around, originally it pointed away from him.
A skeleton with lots of armour, a scythe and a cow's head. This was (and still is) one of my most favourite models ever, ultimate cool!
Another skeleton with a scythe. In Warhammer 3rd edition skeletons with scythes (great weapons) were called "Grim Reapers" and were an obligatory army choice, you had to have at least ten of those models. Though you could also equip the old plastics with scythes it does explain why so many of these models came with them. I've seen this model occasionally listed on eBay as a wraith but of course originally it's just a lowly skeleton.
We've seen this model before (it's hard not to use duplicates if you want to build units for 8th edition) so I spent a little more time on this skeleton and gave him a tartan cloak and red hair to go with it
There you go, I hope you like the models and to top it all off here's the final group shot:
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April 29, 2024, 04:32:12 AM
September 01, 2008, 06:02:04 PM
