0 Modeling: Skeleton Archers

Last week I mentioned how I've been planning some gothic-themed Tomb Kings units to accompany my Legion of the Infernal Skull in a unified Undead Legions army. Years back, I had converted a Skeleton archer from an old Bretonnian (remember them?) bowman and some even older skeleton parts. I forget why I made this guy and never finished him. It couldn't have been for the Storm of Chaos because those skeletons would have been equipped with crossbows. Maybe this guy was just going to be a random zombie...?

 

Anyway, it served as a nice proof of concept for the skeleton archers I'm building now.

For this unit, I'm using the classic metal skeletons with halberds. All the archery equipment is from the Tomb Kings skeleton archers regiment, and the left arms are from the plastic Grave Guard kit.

 

 

To begin, I cleaned up the parts and removed the strap from the quiver. I also cut off the skeleton's arms and smoothed over his breast plate. I wouldn't have bothered removing the left arm, but it had a molded "shield peg" that had to go.

 

All the halberds go in the parts bin for use on another project further down the line. (And by "further down the line" I mean 10 years from now.)

 

To better attach thin plastic skeleton arms to the metal torso, I drilled a hole with a 1.90mm drill bit into the bottom of the sleeve.

 

The arm was shortened and shaved down a little so it could plug into the hole. This provides a much more secure bond than just gluing the two flat parts together.

 

The top left arm is also trimmed, and it's glued in place. (No drilling on this one since it's glued at the sleeve and where the hand contacts the chest.

 

The quiver simply gets glued on the back, and that's one skeleton finished!

 

All ten get the same treatment. The 12-man regiment is arranged in two ranks, with a 4-man regimental strip, two 2-man strips, and four loose models.

 

The regiment ranks up nicely and is ready for painting.

'Til next time!

Detail: Modeling: Skeleton Archers

0 Warmaster: The Army of the Baltizzar Necropolis

I picked up the Tomb Kings book today. I've had a few ideas kicking around in my head for how to incorporate some of their units into my Vampire Counts army. This got me thinking back to my early days in Warhammer, when the Undead had only just split into Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings. This was around the same time Warmaster was released and, of course, I went with the Undead army.

While my Warhammer Vampire Counts army was slowly evolving into the Legion of the Infernal Skull, and there wasn't yet a Tomb Kings army book, my Warmaster force was filling that roll. I enjoyed Warmaster so much (and still think it's one of the best table top games out there) it became my main focus in the hobby.

 

I finally got around to taking some photos of the miniatures, so here is the Army of the Baltizzar Necropolis in all it's glory!

 

 

Tomb King Ptahkhan-Hur leads the army. The general can be upgraded with a chariot, so I converted a four-horse chariot to carry him into battle. The totem behind him marks his ability to bolster his troops with extra attacks once per game.

 

 

Settisis is the liche priest leads the Serpent Brigade. The smaller banners for the archer units and and Settisis' staff were converted with icons to match the skeleton infantry units.

 

 

At the head of Skull Brigade is the liche priest Axiris. Axiris is infamous for failing his command checks when issuing orders to the units under his charge.

 

 

Selketta commands Scorpion Brigade, which is mainly comprised of archers. and cavalry that operate on the flanks of the main army.

 

 

The zombie dragon is ridden by the liche priest Imnutp. I use him to command the carrion birds and add a little extra punch at the front lines.

 

Painting monsters like the Sphinx and Bone Giant are a nice change from drybrushing tiny skeletons. Their abilities in combat shouldn't be underestimated, either.

 

My war machines are on oversized bases, with extra details like the bone-thrower bolts, cut from Warhammer-scale arrows. When cutting the bases, I made sure the amount of stands that could contact base-to-base would not be affected.

 

Warmaster is a great game that doesn't get played nearly enough, and I'm always up for a game.

'Til next time!

Detail: Warmaster: The Army of the Baltizzar Necropolis