Marienburg vs. the Undeadish (update: undead & spooky stuff)

[kidterminal]

The light horses, the blacks are nice but the light horses have the not dead feel.

[ZeroTwentythree]

While I make up my mind about the horse colors, I decided to finally base & varnish some of what I've recently painted. I decided to stick with the same style base as almost everything else I've got. At some point I will paint something on the banner.

I have been contemplating whether I want to rebase my individual Marienburg figures onto 40mmx40mm bases like these. I've never been a fan of individual based figures for mass combat games. But I'm also not a fan of extra basing work.

[DeafNala]

The mass effect is striking; the Pale Warriors may actually look spookier than the Skeletal Ones. OUTSTANDING WORK!

[OSHIROmodels]

Cracking paint work all round, I particulary like the undead celts 

A small suggestion though would be to weather the bronze work a bit more, at the moment they look a bit clean 

cheers

James

[kidterminal]

The 40x40mm bases look very good they give that evil masses feel. Your Marienburgers have inspired me to finish off some of my old Mordheim figures.

[ZeroTwentythree]

Thanks!

The reason the Undeadish humans look a bit clean is that my concept has them still being alive enough and possessing enough independent will to take care of themselves, unlike the skeletons & other decaying animated dead.


Setting

I am starting to lean towards a medium-low fantasy concept, or at least something less than the Warhammer world. I've actually been thinking about a setting quite a bit and finally did decide to completely part ways with Warhammer. I think the major fantasy elements will be:

Non-human but "humanoid" races. At this point, in the part of the world in which my campaign will be set, it will be mostly humans, with ogres, and small numbers of giants, great orcs, and swamp goblins. There used to be elves, but as far as anyone knows, they're all dead. Rumors of other races in far flung places. Some may be introduced as part of the narrative.

Undead. Obviously. But this is a new & foreign thing, as far as my Marienburgers are concerned.

Magic. Mostly rare and powerful, and manifesting itself through items and creatures rather than mages flinging fireballs at each other on a battlefield.

Fantastic beasts. See previous item.

The divine. Divine intervention will be about as common as in the real world.

Technology will be mixed. I'm still attached to the Empire & renaissance, so gunpowder, pikes, etc. will be around, but I will probably be leaving out any steam tanks or robo-horses. Navigation & ship-building will be slightly less advanced.

I've quickly sketched out a first, (very rough) draft of a map-like thing. The highlighted area is where the action will happen, centering on the city of Marienburg  and the surrounding hinterland.

[kidterminal]

Sounds like a great background its time to break away from the Warhammer world anyway.

[Alxbates]

I love everything about this project.

Ogres, undead-ish, grayscale paintjobs, it's all so great!

Awesome work!   

[ZeroTwentythree]

Thanks!



I have started putting together a box of the current plastic GW undead black knights. As I’ve been working on them, a few thoughts have crossed my mind. I haven’t put together any of their kits in a long time, so nothing they've done in the past few years or more.

They are really nice models. If the rumors of GW focusing on being a company that produces nice models for hobbyists and collectors first, and a game company second (or fifty-second….) are true, then I think that’s probably not a bad plan. While I have enjoyed a number of their games, I don’t think it’s their strong point. Especially recently, and especially at the insane prices to get the rules.

They take forever to clean & assemble. At least more time than someone like me wants to put into it. By that I mean, someone who wants a table full of nice painted models to play some big battle games, but can’t devote their life to it. I suppose you get out of it what you put into it. As I said, they do look great so far. But I am starting to grow weary of assembling plastic figures.

WTF is with GW and putting flaming braziers on everything, especially HEADS? Are “brazierz” the new “skullz”?

Pics when they're done. That might be a while...

[ZeroTwentythree]

While digging around through old boxes, I came across this. I had intended to use it for my old Skaven army, but it will work just as well (better?) with the undead!

[beefcake]

Very nice. Can't wait to see it painted up!

[ZeroTwentythree]

I stole a series of 5 & 10 minute breaks throughout the last few days to put some paint and a series of washes/glazes on the Caller's beast. This is a bit of a new technique to me -- I've been using it to an extent on all of the undead, but for decades I've been more of layering & blending style painter, and have stayed away from doing many washes. But I'm learning to love it!

However, I've got mixed feelings on how this particular figure turned out. It's not really a subject that should be too colorful, but also felt like it needed a bit more color than the washed out look of most of the rest of what I've done. Hopefully it doesn't look too out of place once the army is filled out.

While I was basing it up, I also finished the base on a previously painted Undeadish giant.

For reference, the giant is on a 50x50 base, the Caller's beast (I need a new name for it) is on a 50x100.

[von Lucky]

Grim Squeaker's (the Death of Rats) mother? Love it.

[kidterminal]

I love washes too. Th beast does look rather colorful next to the undeadish it might need more grey. The giant still looks awesome.

[Little Odo]

No need to change a thing - they both look absolutely fantastic