Skeletons part 1

The core of an undead army for a long time has been skeletons. I've collected a reasonable selection of different models from GW over the years to represent the units I field in a game and wanted to look at what I still have in my army and the stories behind each.

I will dwell a little on the rules that brought the units about and also the painting.

Unit 1 - the flesh method!?

Oddly my only plastic unit of skeletons so far. This unit was put together when the first modern scale skeleton plastics were released, about the time of the first Vampire Count army I think.

At the time in the rules a unit champion was a wight (hence the somewhat over the top model) and spears were definitely all the rage. The unit consists of 19 skeletons plus the wight and includes a standard and musician - I have no idea where no. 20 from the box set went :)



These chaps originally were bought as seen, spears and shields, however under current rules they get light armour for free (a few torsos have it on, its not too bad). They've also come down in price under the new rules which makes me debate the usefulness of spears. I like the idea of a 4+ armour save in combat for 7 points, however I seem to fail these saves without exception and with undead a second rank that can attack can often be the only rank that does!

Painting wise these skeletons are somewhat different in colour to all the other bone I've done. I tried undercoating in white, the applying a thick coat of the old flesh wash and finally dry brushed bleached bones (quite poorly on reflection). For rank and file they will do, but hopefully when I get onto my other units in future you'll see why this unit isn't my favorite.

The wight is in colours to match the over arching theme of my army, more on this too in the future. Although no longer a wight, he gets to stay in this unit as its a handy reminder about the champion when in combat for various reasons.

On a completely separate note I've invited a couple of my wargaming friends as co-contributors to this blog. We currently have no overlapping armies and a lot of variety between us so once they get some time to add posts on here expect to see an interesting selection of stuff.

Varghulf

Well, here's my first proper miniature based post, but first a little context for this model.

I've been collecting and playing Warhammer for something like 18 years, since 3rd Edition. the first army I ever collected was undead, the wonderful skeleton army box set setting me up wonderfully.

My current undead are vampire counts, the catapults, chariots and mummys long consigned to live at my parents (and sometimes used by my brother). My army has seen several evolutions since the first 'warhammer armies' book and with the latest incarnation inventing entirely new troop types I have been looking for new models.

I've been faithful to Games Workshop for a very long time, but just recently some of the miniatures haven't been what I was hoping for. With the internet as a search tool its often possible to find alternative figures - not always better but worth looking.

For the Varghulf I really don't like GW's bat thing. I let my mind wander a bit and considered what I would want from a scary feral vampire and decided to go the were wolf route. There's a lot of bad werewolf figures out there as well as some unexpected ones. You'll find the excellent miniature I chose here, you may have to look around to find one of your own, but worth it I think.

This is my Varghulf painted (fresh!). My pictures are getting better, but my lighting and backgrounds need work :)

I did base the paint scheme largely on the model on the site where I found this beauty. Given it was sculpted and painted by Tim Prow, ex-GW heavy metal, it was a tall order to match his work, especially (with hindsight) starting on a black undercoat.

I worked outside in, starting with the fur and flesh, then the muscle and finally the bone.

The fur and flesh started out in Adeptus Battlegrey - I am really fond of the new foundation paints. The fur I wetbrushed to leave lots of black in the recesses. The skin was almost a complete base coat. Both were highlighted with progressive mixes of Fortress Grey. The fur has in places a final 'highlight' of brown, I used Horseflesh from the Coat'd Arms range, but Scorched Brown or Dark Flesh from GW would do as well I suspect. This final browning made a huge difference to how effective the model looked, it was closely looking at Tim's paint job and some real wolf images that convinced me to try it.

The muscle, innards and tongue were base coated with Mechrite red, highlighted with blood red, washed with a lovely new Baal red wash and then highlighted once more with blood red.

The bone is an old method first taught to me when I worked in GW by a customer called Tom (in case you see this, thanks!). Starting with Vermin Brown and leaving black in the deepest recesses. In retrospect I might have gone over the black at this stage without losing much impact, something to try on my next boney character. Next a fairly complete coat of Bubonic Brown. After that good old Bleached Bone finishing with Skull White here and there.

The eyes are Snot Green blended to white.

The base was a bit of an after thought, bit naughty but better than most of mine. I added a small stone from the garden as the Varg is standing on one too.

First post!

Greetings and Welcome!

Well, assuming this all works out, will I regret the name of the blog? Who knows, I think its funny for several reasons anyway.

So what's all this about? Reading my brother's wargaming club site and several army themed sites that had 'blog' type threads made me think of trying a blog out for real. I can post miniatures old and new from my collection to share with anyone who cares to look. I found looking at other progressive blogs really interesting and gave me lots of ideas for my own armies, perhaps some of the pictures and words here can do the same for others.

So then, first post. It's my namesake, Neil of Orange! An old conversion and paint job to make a representation of me for a jousting game briefly run across Games Workshop when Brettonian knights were new.

Its a 5th edition plastic Brettonian knight with his shield replaced with a generic Warhammer shield. I also cut the detail off the helm and replaced it with a polystyrene ball which I then covered in PVA to hold in place! This is actually the second head I've done as the first got vacuumed away when moving out from my Uni digs many years ago! The colours are fairly basic base coat and one or two highlights, over a black spray undercoat. I've never really used Blazing Orange before or since.