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

[ZeroTwentythree]

Thanks!


As I’ve been painting Undeadish and building a table, I’ve been thinking about a lot of the other aspects of my current project, and that has been evolving a lot.

I had started writing up a list of pros & cons for an alternative road to take with the “good guys” and had planned on posting that publicly. But the act of writing it out convinced me to just go ahead with the alternative.

The “good guys” or the “definitely living according to common definitions of life” are going to take on a slightly different character. Initially, I was simply going to use my WFB Marienburgers, and cling to a lot of the background. Previously I decided to transpose most of the general concepts of the city to my own setting. My thoughts on this have continued to evolve, and I have decided that although Marienburg and the existing army will most likely be a part of the narrative, I am going to start with some new ideas, background, and figures from the ground up.

I think it boils down to a few  main reasons. One is that I am really getting into the world building and fictional history creation. (Maybe I will try my hand at writing some actual fiction?) The other is that I would like to construct, paint and base a new army from scratch. I think I can also benefit from narrowing the focus of the setting, background, armies, and map(s).

So I have decided to start my campaign in the rural hinterland, and will be using slightly earlier period figures. As much as I enjoy the landsknecht period & style, I’m also (more?) fond of the late 15th century. I also happen to have some unpainted Perry and Front Rank miniatures to form the basis of the army, left over from my abandoned historical Burgundian army. The new focus will also be far more human-centric.

Behind the scenes I have been writing down some outlines & information regarding the setting, and have plotted out some initial battle scenarios. I will be doing these in “chapters,” and don’t want to get too far ahead of actual games, as I’d like the results of the games to determine the narrative and nature of subsequent battles (and further development of the armies.)

I will share some of these details once they are fleshed out some more. At some point, my long term goal is (ideally) to put together an oldschool “campaign pack” with writing, maps, battles. If I can manage -- and this may be a bit of daydreaming -- I wouldn’t mind creating some illustrations and sculpting a few miniatures to go with the campaign.

For now, I have more undeadish to paint, and now some revised planning to do for their opponents’ figures as well. Since I hate to update without a photo of something, here's what my desk currently looks like.

[Vermis]

Lookin' good.  Can't wait to see close-ups of the stuff on the desk. (Except that thing in the upper right. It looks terrifying.)

Initially, I was simply going to use my WFB Marienburgers, and cling to a lot of the background. Previously I decided to transpose most of the general concepts of the city to my own setting. My thoughts on this have continued to evolve, and I have decided that although Marienburg and the existing army will most likely be a part of the narrative, I am going to start with some new ideas, background, and figures from the ground up.

I think it boils down to a few  main reasons. One is that I am really getting into the world building and fictional history creation. (Maybe I will try my hand at writing some actual fiction?) The other is that I would like to construct, paint and base a new army from scratch. I think I can also benefit from narrowing the focus of the setting, background, armies, and map(s).

Even better!

[DeafNala]

EXCELLENT! Creating your own background sounds like a WONDERFULLY creative approach...YET ANOTHER reason to follow your project!

[LordOdo]

Really looking forward to where this will lead! If you'd ever decide to write some actual fiction, I'd like to read

[Lowtardog]

Hi whats your recipe for the undeadish fleash? I have a celtoos gael army I fancy giving a try on as it looks fantastic

[ZeroTwentythree]

Thanks again, everyone!

The undeadish flesh is just cheap craft store paints (Americana) and Citadel black wash. Three craft paints, white, slate grey, and a light grey that's somewhere in-between the two. Base coat of the light grey, then a wash. The wash brings that color down pretty dark, so then I start highlighting in layers. Slate, slate + light, light, light + white, and maybe a few pure white highlights.

Or something generally like that. I mix on a palette as I go, and sometimes directly on the figure a bit (sort of like half-assed blending?) and a lot of the time there's no consistency to the way I paint.




I finished up five more bases of Mantic skeletons, and finally based the undeadish ogres (Golgfag v.2.)








I'm thinking about starting a gaming club. I'm chewing on some names like Lonely Attic Wargaming, or Lonely Attic Wargaming Group. The former has the advantage of a great acronym ("I am the LAW!") but the latter has an amusing irony, since I will most likely be the only member.

[Lowtardog]

That's smashing info 0203  lovely painting too. I will give this a bash with my gaels and see if I can work it up somewhere near to yours (though doubt anywhere near as good)

[Arundel]

More lovely work. I particularly like the ogres. Your "group" name and logo are also inspired--and look at it this way, the club will always focus on periods you most like (as they should, the swine!), you can cheat to your heart's content and get away with it, your pet manoeuvres will always catch the other fellow napping, and chances are you will win nearly every tournament. You can also drink all the beer. This sounds like a winning combination to me!

Keep up the smashing work!

[DeafNala]

The Guys in various stages of Undeath look WONDERFUL...VERY WELL DONE!
AND GOOD LUCK with the club!

[ZeroTwentythree]

I just sold some other gaming stuff, so I'm going to take a small portion of the proceeds and treat myself to one last small addition to the Undead. Still undecided what to do, but here's what's under consideration.

• Two skeletal ogres and the old Tom Meier undead dragon, from Ral Partha Europe.
• Another batch of the Bane Thralls to convert.
• Get started on rounding out the "good guys" with a box of Perry WotR minis.
• A few Reaper giants I'd like to get.

That's roughly in order of my current preference.

 

My plan is to wrap up the "first wave" of Unead/ish as soon as possible. I think I'm pretty close to having a decent selection to use for small games. (Should I ever get to the point of actual gaming.) My plan is to use them in "units" of 4 bases. In the future that could get scaled up to 6 bases per unit. I may also add in new troops to the mix, depending on how things evolve.


The next stage of painting will be the Marienburg faction. I'm really anxious to start, but still haven't decided on colors, etc. I did make up my mind to follow through with using the 15th century figures for the militia/rural troops and add the existing (and new!) landsknecht "puff & slash" guys later. I've already got most of the figures I will need, but would like to pick up a few boxes of Perry WotR plastics to round things out a bit. The new light cavalry and a box of dismounted knights are at the top of my list.

[beefcake]

I just bought the Tom Meier dragon and (a long time ago) the UNdead OGres from Ral Partha. They are absolutely awesome. I recommend them.

[ZeroTwentythree]

All three look so well sculpted. I've got a couple of the other Meier dragons, and really like them.

I don't suppose you have any photos of the ogres with something giving a hint as to their size? Such as bases of a particular size, next to other figures, or anything else that would give an indication of scale. (Edit: or even if you could tell me the height in mm, I would be so grateful!) I have no idea how big they are, the only photos I've seen show them on their own.

[Thew1]

Loving this thread!

Excellent and creative painting!

 The undeadish are looking brilliant.
Hope you go for the ogres and dragon as it would look superb painted up in your style.

Also looking forward to how the definitely alive develop.

More pics soon please!

[Little Odo]

Those undead ogres are fantastic 

[beefcake]

All three look so well sculpted. I've got a couple of the other Meier dragons, and really like them.

I don't suppose you have any photos of the ogres with something giving a hint as to their size? Such as bases of a particular size, next to other figures, or anything else that would give an indication of scale. (Edit: or even if you could tell me the height in mm, I would be so grateful!) I have no idea how big they are, the only photos I've seen show them on their own.

I'll take some pics next to something tonight. I think they are fairly handy. I'll probably forget though so I'll send myself an email . I'll put the zombie dragon in the pic too, not painted but put together already.