On Tattered Wings - Valtteri's Undead Legion - June Leader month 2

Last month of the challenge and I chose my second leader month.
This time I painted the true leader of my army - a mighty Liche atop a Zombie Dragon!
And some extras of course, can't have a month without the minimum 10 models.

I decided early on that I would save the Dragon for the last month because I was worried that painting him would be such an effort that I would run out of steam for the next month. And I wasn't wrong, it took me two straight weeks to get the bloody beast done. Not only was there a lot to highlight but some places were quite hard to reach. I really should have painted in sub-assemblies.
Fun fact: the base colour the skin is the same green I use for my bases!
This gorgeous model is again by Red Bard Games.

After a day or two I had regained some of my strength and decided to paint some more models. These two Banshees aren't present in the 4th edition so these will proxy as Ghosts.

These were nice and simple to paint after the Dragon:
White base, Apothecary White Contrast paint. Some blue glazing on the skin and a really light teal on the robes. Drybrush with an off-white and white, followed by some layering with white to get a nice contrast.

After painting the Chariot in April I knew I wanted another one. I got a second one printed (this time with resin so I didn't have to smooth out any print lines). The pointing Skeleton Champion is by Celtic Miniatures, the one with the flag is an OG plastic skelly. 

Painting-wise this was identical to my first chariot. Near the end of June I realised I hadn't painted a flag at all! And what good is a 4th ed army without glorious banners? I had gained enough confidence with the previous flags that I decided to design my own. I took inspiration from an old Undead shield I saw somewhere, drew the design with pencil and painted it just like the previous banners. The catch was that I had to draw the design twice, only the second one being a mirrored version. In hindsight I probably could've used a photocopier for that.. 

Sadly, I totally forgot to take any WIP pics of the banner. But I did do a step-by-step of the freehanded shield which you can find a little below.

Lastly, I whipped up a bunch of Bat Swarms. These too are are 3d prints (link). Even though the old metal bats have their charm, I'm not a huge fan of them and didn't feel like spending that much on my bats.
They didn't photograph that well but they do look kinda nice in real life. I'll probably take some better pics for my Instagram account later if you're interested.

But why would I need 600 points worth of bats? Well, were planning on playing through the old Circle of Blood campaign pack this fall with my friend and the Undead side can field these at a 50% discount. *Evil cackle*

Painting

I know I've showed some step-by-steps on my freehand before but I thought it'd be nice to do a bit more detailed tutorial.

I find it easier to block out rough shapes first, then add some shading and do the edges and details last. It helps a lot if  you have a reference picture. Thin paints and multiple layers help to achieve a smooth finish.

1. Rough shape with a darker beige (Scale 75 Grau SW-29 ). This step isn't necessary but this particular paint has great coverage and it's easier to layer the next colours on top of it.
2. First highlight with  beige (AP Skeleton Bone). 
3. I filled in the shadows with a medium brown (AP Leather Brown)
4. Smoothing out the transitions with a mix of the previous two colours.
   
   
   
5. Another highlight with a light beige/off-white (AP Brainmatter Beige).
6. Details with black (AP Matt Black)
7. More details with black. I also strengthened the shadows with more brown. Forgot to take a pic before this :(
8. The finished shield with a better lighting. Some minor highlight corrections also applied.

Even though it seems a lot happens between steps 6 and 7 it's not much more than blacklining. And it makes all the difference!

Photography

In case you're interested, below is a pic of my photo setup for the scenic shots. I take over our kitchen table when the kids aren't home and roll out my game mat (Muddy Field by Deep Cut Studios, it's a great and really versatile mat btw!). A black cloth draped over some empty cardboard boxes and some of my terrain arranged in front of it. I try to position the woods and hills so that they create an immersion of depth. Natural light through the window and a cheap ring light for some extra illumination. I take the photos with my smartphone, with the ISO and shutter speed turned down so the pictures aren't too bright. Minimal colour correction with GIMP on my computer. I'd probably get better pics with a tripod but I'm usually too lazy to get it out...

Battle!

We finally managed to schedule a game with my friend. This time it was 1500 points of my Undead against his Bretonnians. This was sort of a practice match for the CoB campaign we have planned ahead.

The game started horribly. I was so excited about my new fast moving troops that I charged my Skeleton Horsemen against his Halberdiers in the first turn. The whole unit was instantly wiped out. No, not the Halberdiers... On his turn his Longbowmen opened fire on my Chariot and promptly destroyed one of the steeds, reducing it's movement to a measly 4 inches. On the the next turn the other steed was turned into a pile of bones as well. Bye bye impact hits!

Things looked really bleak for me when his Knights sandwiched my big unit of Skeletons, gaining all their charge bonuses and negating my ranks. It was at this point I remembered the main strength of my army - Fear! The Bretonnians had forgotten to take their Fear tests. So my opponent rolled some dice and what do you know, neither of the Knights had the courage to charge. After some backtracking we continued on with the game and I actually managed to charge the other Knight unit and the Halberdies, which promptly fled in fear. Things were looking good all of a sudden!

I kept winning the combats with my Vampire Lord and the Skeletons unit's rank bonuses causing automatic break tests with my big units. Sadly the Bretonnian's big unit of Knights finally found their nerve and annihilated one of my Skeleton regiments. It was at this point that I found out that a Vampire isn't immune to psychology unlike the thralls he commands. The Vampire failed his break test, turned tail and fled resulting in a narrow victory for the Bretonnians.

Once again the game was an absolute blast. We included some low-level magic items as well, but they didn't have much of an impact.
We also tried out a variant magic rule which lets both sides cast spells on each magic phase, their own and their opponents turn as well. This was pretty fun! Except for the fact that nearly all of my spells were dispelled. Where's that Total Power card when you need it?

Stats

And that's a wrap for my first OWAC. I was fairly sure I could make it till the end but I never dreamed I'd paint this many models! I just learned that I can paint even more models for July's wrap-up post but I really don't know if I will. I might just take a rest!

January
25 Skeletons w. Swords&Shields, including Command Group	214 points	25 models
Wight	40 points	1 model
Necromancer Champion	163 points	1 model
2 Skeleton Ogres	72 points	4 models
2 Mummies w. 2-handed weapons	90 points	2 models
February
2 Wraiths	150 points	2 models
Wight	40 points	1 model
20 Zombies including Command Group	88 points	20 models
Zombie Ogre	16 points	2 models
Screaming Skull Catapult	74 points	5 models
March	904	61
Chariot w. Scythed Wheels, Crew w. Shield & Bow	79 points	5 models
Skeleton Horsemen w. Shields& Light Armor & Command Group	276 points	10 models
1 Wraith	75 points	1 model
April
8 Mummies w. 2-handed weapons	360 points	8 models
6 Skeletons w. Swords&Shields	54 points	6 models
6 Skeletons w. Spears&Shields	60 points	6 models
3 Wraiths	225 points	3 models
Vampire Count	200 points	1 model
May
Necromancer	68 points	1 model
Battle Standard	90 points	1 model
Mounted Wight	46 points	2 models
2 Wights	82 points	2 models
3 Wraiths	225 points	3 models
11 Skeletons	88 points	5 models
April
Liche Priest on Zombie Dragon	850 points	2 models
6 Bat Swarms	600 points	12 models
Chariot w. Scythed Wheels, Crew w. Shield	77 points	5 models
2 Ghosts	70 points	2 models
Total	4472 points	137 models

Previous posts:
January - Rank&File

February - Rank&File

March - Rank&File

April - Leader

May - Wild Card

Ben D's Skelibobs - May-be Haunted

Weather - dark and stormy

Music - darkest of the hillside thickets

Mood - harried

+++

Hello all! Tonight we're sneaking our post in right under Satan's nose, in the eleventh hour and with great haste. Since there's no time for dawdling, here are the fiends, fresh off the paint tray.

10 Wights on Skeleton Steeds with heavy armor, shield, and full command. That's what these are, uh huh. Not a bunch of noodly skeletons riding behemoth pill bugs.

Okay, they're both, but I have a very good reason for it: I already had three pill bugs. All I had to do was sculpt a pair of variants, blue stuff cast them, and then I had a horde of heavily armored bugs that were in dire need of riders. The decision was made for me, by destiny some might say. Really tiny destiny.

Their lances were probably the hardest part, since by that point all of my patience had been used up. I actually find the result of my slipshod solution here really charming, where all of my lances are curled and flaccid because I couldn't be assed to sculpt them the right way. This accidental choice lends greater comedy and wickedness to the force, as it reflects the necromancers impotence, and yet he's still a moderately sized issue with all those death head bugs and pointy sticks.

The legs were also a bit of a chore, but with the same sort of result. None of these Skelibobs know how to ride pill bugs, and thus their legs are all over the place.

+528 pts

+++++

To round things off for May, I've also finished my gift model (also under the wire,) a skeleton musician that is the right size for a lucky recipient to use it in a normal sized skeleton unit (that is also, presumably, normal sized )

Spooky tin for atmosphere and freshened breath. Onward and upwards! See you at the finish line!

A Cemetery Photoshoot - Valtteri's Undead Legion - May Wild Card Month

 

As some of you may remember, my inspirational art for OWAC 9 was the superb 4th edition Army Book cover. And I had plans to try and recreate the models from that painting.
Well, I did just that and then decided to take it a step further.

So here's my version of the cover art:

It's not an exact replica but I think the vibe is pretty spot on!

I decided to only use minis that were available in 4th ed for the characters. I also didn't want to cut up any metal minis for reposing or converting, it just feels wrong to me.

The Evil Threesome.

The necromancer is pretty much the same model as the vampire in the cover and I didn't convert him at all.

The standard bearer got some horns and a hairdo but the skeleton knight involved the most conversion work.

The rider itself is untouched but the steed is almost completely redone. The base is a plastic skeleton horse with barding from a modern Perry medieval knight set. I then did some greenstuff sculpting to fill in the gaps. The head is from the same Perry kit with the lower part cut off and replaced with a skeleton horse's lower jaw. The original knight has a lot of bat decorations so I painted a similar symbol on his shield. 
I'm not an experienced sculptor by any means and I always find it pretty intimidating, but I really like how the knight turned out!

Golbat, is that you?

The thing I was most worried about was replicating the banner. All my previous banners in this challenge have been painted on top of a black&white print, but now I'd actually have to draw!

Luckily this turned out to be easier than I feared and I really like the end result. It's a different style than the rest of my banners but I'm going to use him as Battle Standard Bearer, which I hope explains the extra flourish. 

Sketching.

Painting.

A few weeks before the end of May I stumbled upon a set of Skeleton Summons by GSW when I was buying some paints and brushes and they looked perfect as unit fillers. After buying them I remembered  the newly risen dead from the Army Book cover art and decided to use them for that instead. (There's one extra skellie in the second picture that I did a few months ago so I could get nice neat ranks).

Since these are only half of a model I decided to count them as such - so only 0,5 models per skeleton rounded down.

I did a cemetery themed board for Necropolis two years ago which was the perfect scenery for the photoshoot. I still needed to a moonlit sky with a bat swarm to complete the vibe so I did some A4-scale freehand. My kid did some of the bats :)

Blending is way easier in 28mm scale.

The photoshoot setup.

Extra models

Since this was a Wild Card month I didn't feel much pressure. Even if I did only a few models it would be enough. Armed with this Zen-mindset I decided to try and paint the rest of my Wraiths and the wonderful Wights from Warhammer Quest. In my mind the pair are the General's personal body guards.

The whole gang.

What a dashing duo!

Originally I hoped to do some special terrain as well but I really didn't have time for that. (I painted a bunch of non-OWAC minis too...). Maybe I'll try to do it for the final month? We'll see!

Statistics

I've painted a lot of models so far and to be honest, it's starting to feel that way. The challenge has been a lot of fun but I'm also glad it's over soon.
For my final month my plan is simple: paint my army's general - a Liche on a Zombie Dragon. Stay tuned!

January
25 Skeletons w. Swords&Shields, including Command Group	214 points	25 models
Wight	40 points	1 model
Necromancer Champion	163 points	1 model
2 Skeleton Ogres	72 points	4 models
2 Mummies w. 2-handed weapons	90 points	2 models
February
2 Wraiths	150 points	2 models
Wight	40 points	1 model
20 Zombies including Command Group	88 points	20 models
Zombie Ogre	16 points	2 models
Screaming Skull Catapult	74 points	5 models
March	904	61
Chariot w. Scythed Wheels, Crew w. Shield & Bow	79 points	5 models
Skeleton Horsemen w. Shields& Light Armor & Command Group	276 points	10 models
1 Wraith	75 points	1 model
April
8 Mummies w. 2-handed weapons	360 points	8 models
6 Skeletons w. Swords&Shields	54 points	6 models
6 Skeletons w. Spears&Shields	60 points	6 models
3 Wraiths	225 points	3 models
Vampire Count	200 points	1 model
May
Necromancer	68 points	1 model
Battle Standard	90 points	1 model
Mounted Wight	46 points	2 models
2 Wights	82 points	2 models
3 Wraiths	225 points	3 models
11 Skeletons	88 points	5 models
Total	2875 points	116 models

Previous posts:

January
February

March
April

Prince of the Night - Valtteri's Undead Legion - April Leader Month

All right, my first Leader Month!

Though I did paint enough models to qualify for a Rank and File month as well...

And this time most of the models are proper old METAL, not some fancy printed resin or what have you.

The models

I've been looking forward to painting the Mummies since the start of the challenge. I never had these models as a kid, partly because they disappeared from the Undead range with the first Vampire Counts army book. But now I finally got to paint and play with them!

These were a given a pre-shading with a bone coloured speedpaint, then drybrushed up to white and finally given the good 'ol enamel wash.
I noticed that the enamel had dried glossy on same parts like the weapons handles and corrected that with some matt varnish after the photo shoot. I still don't know why the enamels some time dry matte and some time glossy!

No banner for them because they don't have one in the Army Book and there's no command group models for them. They might get one later though once these arrive.

These Wraiths on the other hand are very familiar to me. I think I had most if not all of these sculpts back in the day. Like I said before, nothing was cooler than a Grim Reaper back then.
I painted them like the ones in the army book, though with a bit more muted color palette.

These guys were painted with straight acrylics with drybrushing doing most of the heavy lifting.

I also painted some more skeletons I had laying around. Gotta get some more bones for those Raise the Dead spells! These were painted exactly like the ones on my January post.

And then we get to the main course itself -  the Vampire Count. And what a model it is! One of my favorites from the 4th edition Undead.

He was painted with carefully layering and glazing acrylics and finally given a coat of ultra matte varnish for that smooth finish. He initially had normal white eyes with pupils but I decided on evil red eyes in the end.

I repainted that sword multiple times and I'm still not quite satisfied with it, but at least it looks like it belongs in the bold colours of 4th edition Warhammer.

Behold the ugly phase - the stage all minis must pass through.
But after a week or the mini comes alive. Well okay, undead but you get it.

Gotta say, I'm pretty proud of the Vampire!

But wait a minute, doesn't an Undead army need a Vampire Lord to be their general, not a measly Count? Well, there might something more powerful still lurking in the shadows...

Terrain

The Mummies and the skeletons were so fast to paint I had time to do a few more hills. To be fair, I can't remember If I started these on March but if I did, the majority of the work was done in April in any case.

Nice big gently sloping hills that don't make old precious metal models fall on their butts. The hills were shaped from a big block of cheap basic styrofoam, coated with a DIY sculptamold and then homemade texture paint. The cliffsides are pieces of dried bark. Everything was painted with browns and greys and then given a liberal coat of flock which was then sealed with diluted PVA. The flock itself is a mix of 5 different premade products (mostly Army Painter's) to give it a more natural look.

                                                                    Wraith for scale.

I didn't find the time to get a game in this month but hopefully I'll get to try some of my new units in May. Can't wait to field some cavalry and move more that 4 inches a turn!

Stats

What do you know, I've painted over 100 hundred models already. I honestly didn't think I had this in me! Phew!

January
25 Skeletons w. Swords&Shields, including Command Group	214 points	25 models
Wight	37 points	1 model
Necromancer Champion	163 points	1 model
2 Skeleton Ogres	72 points	4 models
2 Mummies w. 2-handed weapons	90 points	2 models
February
2 Wraiths	150 points	2 models
20 Zombies including Command Group	88 points	20 models
Zombie Ogre	16 points	2 models
Screaming Skull Catapult	74 points	5 models
March	904	61
Chariot w. Scythed Wheels, Crew w. Shield & Bow	79 points	5 models
Skeleton Horsemen w. Shields& Light Armor & Command Group	276 points	10 models
1 Wraith	75 points	1 model
April
8 Mummies w. 2-handed weapons	360 points	8 models
6 Skeletons w. Swords&Shields	54 points	6 models
6 Skeletons w. Spears&Shields	60 points	6 models
3 Wraiths	225 points	3 models
Vampire Count	200 points	1 model
Total	2233 points	101 models

For May my goal is to try and replicate the classic Army Book cover art. I've also got a special terrain project in mind...

Previous posts:

January

February
March