Deadites - Painted Ghouls [I live. Again...]

[Daeothar]

And they'd have captured the Necronomicon too, if wasn't for that pesky guy with his boomstick...

So; after several evenings of geeking out with a group of friends, discussing various topics, relevant to our interests, such as scifi movies, RPG shenanigans and miniature gaming, both The Voivod, and myself came to the conclusion that everyone needs a bunch of generic zombies, skeletons and cultists sooner or later, because after all; you never know when you'll end up with a non-Evil Dead scenario!  

So both of us started on our respective projects independently, if not exactly immediately... Voivod got his first couple of units finished some time ago, and is now hard on his way towards a rudimentary Vampire Counts army for WHFB. I could not lag behind of course, so last evening, I sat down at my desk after digging out a bunch of Mantic Skeleton sprues I bought last year here on LAF in the Bazaar, and started a furious session of cutting, (re)posing, glueing and converting.

I had 5 sprues of 10 at my disposal, and my initial idea was to build 50 skeletons in one big unit, all carrying spears and shields.

Little did I know, but quickly (if not quickly enough) found out, that in the 8th edition of WHFB, even though large horde units are promoted, A) units of 5x5 Skeletons are best, due to the restrictive movement of very wide units (I was going for 10 wide) and B) there is no option for Skeletons with both spears and shields. There are sword and shield and there is the spear, but it's either the one or the other...

But since I had at the time of that little insight already built about a dozen of them, I decided to go with two units of 25 instead (one with spears, the other with swords and shields). They'll still look pretty massive when arrayed next to eachother I reckon...







One thing I love about the Mantic Skeletons, is that they are very obviously a tribute to Evil Dead's Army of Darkness. So I wanted to model them as such. Sadly, the musician only has the option of a rather demonic looking horn (with a skeleton face peeking out), I decided to convert the musician accordingly. And since The Voivod had already done up a musician for his Zombie unit, and had opted for the bagpipes (the Deadites on the march in AoD have 3 instruments to warm them up before attacking; bagpipes, drums and a flute), I picked the drums for my first unit.



Now, I know that in the movie the drummer is hammering away on skulls, but since this unit is only inspired by AoD instead of being a straight representation, I think I can get away with regular drums. Those have the added advantage of being able to be tuned, which is nice...

The banner is made from the metal of a tin can I cut open and flattened for use as material for banners. I have done a bunch of them, and I think this material is perfect for it; it's as thin as paper, so no thick plastic or metal blobs on poles, but it's very tough and can be bent into  a nice and pleasing billowing shape, which it will retain indefinitly. Next to the Army of Darkness inspiration, I also had a certain John Blanche painting in mind; the one which was on the very first GW plastic skeleton unit box, and then especially the banner carried by the undead, which read 'We are Legion' on a scroll under a skull with a rose between its teeth. Again, I had modeled before sourcing the picture, and found that instead of a flag, they carried a hanging banner. But I like the flags to be large, as that looks good on the table, so I'm leaving this as it is. I will feature the mentioned skull with rose though...

And, again just like The Voivod, I also have paid homage to my very first miniatures game; Hero Quest (I had a bunch of figures before that, but no rules at all; they just stood around looking cool in their glossy enamel paintblobs). He did the zombie, so I have done the skeleton.



Here he is, next to one of my original HQ Skeletons. I still painted them with enamels at the time, and the skeletons got a special treatment of Revell Glow in the Dark paint. Hey; I was young, it was the late eighties / early nineties and neon colours were the hottest thing, so was with it... You'll be glad to know by the way, that the paint still works, as it was glowing  bright green when I turned off all the lights to check after I took the pictures.

Of course I've already seen where this is leading to, so I accepted the inevitable, and retrieved this guy from the 'Stalled WIP' shelf; a CMON limited edition Lich Lord, which I bought at the time simply because I really liked how it looks. Now, it can be a perfect army general, just rebasing required.



At least until I find a more suitable solution. Game-wise that is; I think he looks like a real BAMF and fully capable of commanding an entire army. I suspect he unlives for that sh*t. But realistically speaking, for an eventual army to be viable on the tabletop, Vampires need to be added, even though Twilight has firmly superglued shut every suspension of disbelief when it comes to vampires being army leading BAs...

The skellies will be receiving their basing material tomorrow, and probably their primer/undercoat as well. I plan on blocking and 'dipping' them, so I'm hoping things will keep moving fast...

[Damien]

These guys look great!! I really like the conversions, especially the standard bearer and the musician. I can't wait to see them painted up.


Post some more pics soon even if they are only WIP,

 Damien

[FramFramson]

Oh man, I have that lich lord too. I really need to do something with him.

[beefcake]

You could sell him to me fram 
That's awesome looking. I really like the conversion to make it look like a hq skellie.

[smokezombie]

Top work! I really like the AHQ scythe fella.
There's so much dynamism going on here. They already look great.

[The Voivod]

Looking nice so far, but 2 small corrections:
the spear option replaces the hand weapon, not the shield, so shield and spear is completely legal.

And if you'll look at the middle model, front rank, you'll notice I've beaten you to a heroquest skeleton tribute as well.



Though your pose is closer to the original I must say.

I'm almost sorry I didn't go for this range, since they are very characterful.

[Daeothar]

Thanks guys; your appreciation is, well, much appreciated...

I really like the conversion to make it look like a hq skellie.

Actually, this is him stock. The only thing I did was base and undercoat him at the time. I painted and stripped his sword twice (and stripped it again this afternoon), as the glowing effect I was going for just didn't work out the way I wanted. And he stalled there basically...

But no more, as I rebased him just now, to match the rest of the budding army. One of the great things on the Mantic sprues is all the little extra bits, which immediately add character to a base. I used a small topled tombstone (from a small vignette of a skelly bursting out of the ground; great as some sort of undead marker) and a cut up piece of basing extra to blend into his moulded on slanted slate base and presto. Some more sand etc for the blank areas and he's ready for painting:



As you can see, I attached his arms as well. And also, thanks to the brutal honesty of the picture, I just spotted the really blatant mouldline right across the front of his robe and tabbard, so that will have to be addressed first...  

And then, as I was going through piles of bits, I came across the body of a plastic High Elf Mage, and saw a potential to brutally repurpose it into a foul necromancer. There are (as far as I could tell in the flurry of flashing scalpels, sharp files and glue bottles) parts in there from High Elf Archers, Empire Militia, Dark Elf Corsairs, Space Marines and even a bauble from a Space Hulk Terminator which was a previous conversion victim.

I really like him, as with minimal effort and completely form the bits box, I now have a crazed Necromancer in the process of casting, or summoning, or whatever it is those misguided fools do on a quiet Sunday afternoon. I understand there's much magic required to make an undead army work, so he'll be the first flunky for whoever gets to lead this shambling mass of bones and rotting flesh. Scrollcarrier I believe that's called...

Looking nice so far, but 2 small corrections:
the spear option replaces the hand weapon, not the shield, so shield and spear is completely legal.

Cheers; that's good news then. I should probably dish out for an armybook now eh...  

I'm almost sorry I didn't go for this range, since they are very characterful.

And almost buddy, I think, but not quite...  

+++EDIT+++Beefcake, I only now realised you were not referring to the Wight, but to the scythe toting skellie. HQ as in Hero Quest instead of HQ as in Head Quarters... Doh!!

[Pil]

Cool conversions, it's always good to see more undead! I like the Lich King model from CMON as well, I'm looking forward to seeing it painted

[Suber]

Freakingly amazing!

[Damien]

That Necromancer conversion is outstanding!


Damien

[Daeothar]

Thanks all, I'm having a real blast with these guys.

They may be bad, but I feel good...  
As an aside, I just discovered, that when standing over my desk, the summoning nature of the necromancer's pose takes on a whole different aspect, due to the viewing angle.

Where he appears to be cursing the gods or summoning his foul magics to do unspeakable horrors when he's standing at eye level, when observed from above, he all of a sudden looks like some frustrated evil mastermind who sees his cunning plans for world domination stopped by some little-goodie-two-shoes:



Curses!! Thwarted yet again! Damn you Hero, damn yououou!!!.....



But I suppose that will be appropriate, as I'm not the best tabletop general around. I'll just retrieve him from the foam after the battle (as he will undoubtedly have been killed off during the game), and let him do his frustrated end-of-episode raging, looking up at my victorious opponent.

Next time, Gadget, next time...

[FramFramson]

Oh man, that necromancer is amazing! Best conversion I've seen in a long while!

[krieghund]

Top work Sir.

[Daeothar]

Started painting on the necromancer, after basing and undercoating them all first.



I went a nice burgundy for his robes. basically Mechrite Red, with shadows done with a dark blue. Then highlighted up through Red Gore to a Hot Pink. Final highlights with the same pink and a little white. Sadly, the colour does not show up well in the picture.

Not so satisfied with the leather though, and I might redo it, if this job is not salvageable; too much contrast between the colours used. In my defence; I was distracted by the missus who enthousiastically wanted to share her day with me. I don't paint well when distracted; no multitasking for me. It's why I usually close the door...

As a last little update, here is the block of skellies, also based and undercoated. Not much to see yet, although the details do show up better this way...

[Vermis]

 

Sadly, the colour does not show up well in the picture.

I understand, but it still looks good at this end!