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.