We Hunger - Valtteri's Undead - February Rank & File 2

Intro

My goal for February was to paint a large unit of Zombies with a Zombie Ogre as an unit filler. If I had enough time I also wanted to paint another Wight to lead the unit and Screaming Skull Catapult, one of my favorite old Undead models!

Goals.

And I'm happy to say I succeeded! I even painted two Wraiths as an extra. Behold what my Necromancer dug up:

Painting

I painted the Zombies the same way I did my Skeletons, using enamel washes (see my previous post). This time I did varnish the models before the wash and I think it actually made the process a bit cleaner. Since the Zombies are a bit more involved I did give them some pre-highlights ans shading, as seen on the pics below. Most of the highlights on the clothes are simply done by an overall drybrush of an off-white color. The skin tones are layered. I mostly went with a single layer of highlights but some models like the Ogre have a bit more.

Pre-shaded Zombies before their wash.

Ogre before his wash.

Juicy.

The Zombies and the Ogre are 3D prints from Red Bard Games and they are really cool. They have a perfect old school vibe, details are amazing and the price isn't too bad either. My only complaint is that they're a bit big, closer to a modern 32mm than the old 25mm scale.
I used a few different skin tones but they all ended up pretty similar, thanks to the same enamel wash on them all.

The deadites in all their g(l)ory.

With the Screaming Skull Catapult I wanted to introduce a bit more colour variety than with the rest of my skeletons. This was done by giving them a coat of a bone coloured speedpaint (Pallid Bone by Armypainter) and then drybrushing them with bone/beige colours all the way up to white. This was then given an enamel wash like the rest of my models.

Speedpaint/After drybushing

The Wight's colour scheme was once again inspired by the 4th edition Armybook.

The two Wratihs are from later editions (6th ed I think?). I sort of painted them as tests for the proper old 4th ed Wraiths I've got waiting. No enamels on these! But this time the secret ingredient is a final coat of ultra-matte varnish to give them a really smooth finish.

Smooth operator.

Banner & Shield

This month gave me another banner to paint and a freehand challenge for one of the Zombie's shield.
This time I remembered to take some step-by-step pictures. Below you can see how I painted the banner.
The paints are thinned enough so they don't completely obscure the printed picture. This requires several layers for good coverage.

The shield design is taken from the Army Book photos. With freehand I start with the general shape which I then fill and shade. After that I paint the lines and details carefully with black and add some more shading where needed.

Forgot to take pics after steps 3 and 4...

Battle Report

Arguably the best part of this month's challenge was that I got to play my first game of 4th/5th edition Warhammer! We used the 5th ed rules with 4th ed Army Books.

My opponent wielded a 1000p Dwarf Army against my Undead. We decided not to use any magic items to keep the first game relatively simple. Neither of us wants to play "Herohammer" either, we'd rather play games where the troops carry the day, not hyper-equipped heroes.

The background music was spot on!

The game started of pretty well for me. My Skeleton Archers scored some lucky shots and my horde marched forwards aided by Vanhel's Danse Macabre. Those Dwarfs wouldn't stand a chance!
Their Flame Cannon was a bit worrisome though. Luckily their aim was off and my shields held the flames at bay.

The lines advance.

It's getting hot in here.

My Skeletons charged into the Dwarf Warriors and even managed to score a few wounds. The Dwarfs easily passed their Break test though with the aid of their General. 

The Slayers charged my spear wielding regiment which was just as well, I could fight back with 2 ranks. The Skeletons held firm and felled a few Slayers. Too bad the berserkers turned out to be unbreakable and immune to fear. Oh dear.

Battle is joined!

Then the tide started to turn. Both of my Wights were slain when the Dwarf heroes issued challenges and my Skeleton regiments were slowly starting to dwindle, losing each turn of combat by a few points. All of my attempts to raise some more skellies were dispelled.

Things went from bad to worse when the Dwarf general challenged my Necromancer to a duel. I glanced at his stats and was surprised to see that he was a better fighter than my Wights. So naturally I accepted! I should've looked at the Dwarf's profile before I started to swing that pink sword around. MY Necromancer was cut in half by a single blow and my whole army crumbled to dust, with no Undead heores to keep them together. My army was completely wiped off the board by the end of turn 3.

Duel!

That pink sword was just for show.

Since the first game was over so quickly we decided to have another battle with the same armies. This one went much better for me. I positioned my Necromancer at the back with my archers and gave him some offensive spells. But again I just couldn't break those Dwarfs and they passed every single Fear test. This time I wasn't wiped out but still lost decisively by victory points.

No matter! The games were great and I had a lot of fun! And for the next battle I'll have some reinforcements and new tactics. Victory shall be mine!

Stats

After February, my statistics look like this. 

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	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	4 models
Total	904 points	61 models

Next month I plan to paint some cavalry so I can charge those pesky Dwarfs in their flanks! But first I need to chuck some flaming skulls on their heads...

Goals for March.

Filippo's Undead - Rank and File III

 

ZOMBIES! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!

Far from the massive amount of models painted during the first months, I managed to squeeze ten zombies with command group in May (between a large amount of other stuff not related to OWAC, May is always a busy month)

While not part of my original list, any Undead general always keeps some zombies around, waiting to raise them at the right moment 

I'm still missing Vlad and Isabella, the chariot, two carrions and another ghost... lucky me, we have just announced a Mordheim tournament in July, set during the Vampire Wars!

Back to the painting station, a real horde is coming next month..

Byron's Quest #5 Melar's Maze - February Rank and File (578 points)

 "Long Ago, a powerful wizard by the name of Melar created a Talisman of Lore which would enhance the wearer's understanding of magic. It is rumored that Melar hid the Talisman in an Underground laboratory at the heart of his maze, fearing it might be stolen by the evil minions of Zargon. As you search for the Talisman, beware of many traps and deadly monsters." Come along, as we travel deeper into the world of HeroQuest and tackle some rank and file minis.

Our heroes find themselves undaunted (and still unpainted) entering Quest 5, Melar's Maze, only to find 3 Orcs baring the door. 

The nasty orcs are no match for our four brave heroes!

Following the brief scuffle with the Orcs,
the party bravely walks by an eerily still gargoyle.
I mean, yes he's made of stone but still,
they were expecting some Zargon shenanigans.
The wizard's not packing a healing spell for nothing.

   

Moving on, the heroes find skeletons
and a devious floor trap of Zargon', nothing they can't handle.
 They also spy a treasure chest guarded by two of the skellies.
Our heroes rush in, hoping to find some paint hidden away inside.  

Finding no paint in the chest,
the heroes continue their journey through the maze of Melar.
A lone zombie shuffles down the hall while bravely the wizard looks on,
probably wondering how he became the front of the party. 

A lone zombie hides in the closet,
has Zargon hidden the paint in here? 

A skeleton hides just around the corner, the barbarian
 is ready to meet scythe with steel

A slow shuffler in a long hall. The elf readies himself 
to ensure that another mummy will bite the dust.  

"Hey," shouts the barbarian, "I'm gonna get you too"
And another mummy bites the dust.

Finally, the heroes have worked their way to the laboratory
 of Melar and must fight the undead to win the Talisman of Lore.
It's just another day in the life of a hero of Mentor. 
   

To full the needs of this quest, I painted:

3 orcs
6 Skeletons
1 Gargoyle
4 Zombies
3 Mummies

But, since there's only 6 months in OWAC and 14 HeroQuest adventures, I need to paint more minis than the quest required. This month I've also painted:

2 Chaos Warriors
6 Fimir
1 Skeleton

This brings my total to 578 points for the month.

And, finally, photos of the entire project thus far

The army so far featured on their custom-backed bookshelf. Maybe the only
time you'll see heroes looking like something other than red plastic. 

Mummies, Chaos Warriors, and Fimir

                                                     

Not just one, but TWO, Gargoyles

                                               

Zombies and skellies

                                              . 

That's all for this month, next month I'm thinking of doing Quest 9, the Race Against Time, with the kids and writing the blog post up like a battle report. 

Byron's Quest #1 The Trial - January Rank and File (384 points)

 

This month the Quest begins! We open the quest book to Quest #1, The Trial.

This is the introductory quest to Heroquest. It introduces each monster type and throws the players into a modestly difficult dungeon in which players who do not take the game seriously will most assuredly lose at least one party member. 

Since it is my object to paint the miniatures from 3 copies of Heroquest (I also got a copy of the Return of the Witch Lord too...) rather than merely those of a single game, I have decided to paint up all of the miniatures needed for a given Quest as my monthly entries. The tricky element is that each quest uses a different assortment of miniatures, and it was difficult to make the final numbers add up to 3 whole boxes over 4 rank and file months, but I found a combination of quests that gets reasonably close. 

The Trial contains the following monsters:

6 Orcs

4 Goblins (5, accidentally miscounted at the start of the month)

1 Fimir

4 Skeletons

2 Zombies

2 Mummies

3 Chaos Warriors

1 Gargoyle.

This is for a total of 384 points. 

Now, the astute among you will quickly realize "Wait a minute! Heroquest doesn't have points!" And you would be correct. However, the ultimate goal of this project is the creation of a Warhammer/Heroquest Army and I won't be daunted by such inconsequentialities. Instead I have written (still WiP at this point) my own Armylist compatible with 4th and 5th edition. This army list borrows the appropriate points calculations described in Warhammer 2nd ed (and carried forward until Tuomas Pirinen got his hands on Warhammer in 6th ed.) and should, therefore, be fair and balanced. In future posts I will share my progress toward a full Army of Zargon bestiary including characterful rules for the army, the various types of minions, as well as all of the named baddies in the questbook. 

Onto the miniatures! Undoubtedly what we all immediately scroll down to see and pass all of the pointless text that we all include as a formality. 

The wizard enters the first room and encounters 2 orcs!

A Fimir and Goblin guard the weapons wrack

Two chaos warriors guard an empty chest. Terribly let down to a deadly fight. 

Two greenskins up to no good. 

Goblins minding their own business, still need to be ruthlessly murdered by our "Heroes"

this is the goblin I forgot to count. :(

Skeletons!

The guardian of Fellmarg's Tomb denies passage

Fellmarg's tomb about to be ransacked by righteous heroes. 

The final battle against Verag, the foul Gargoyle. 

Additional notes on the project
The bases are done old school, they are just sand and cereal box cardboard. However, to get the right layered effect on the stones the carboard was repeatedly folded one direction so all the creases were parallel. I then opted to paint the rims a light grey. I made this decision because I wanted to match the lighter stone color of the game board and late 80s/90s game boards. (Compare the brightness of the original Space Hulk to the later 3rd and 4th ed Space Hulk tiles.) Sadly, I think this ended up making the bases look a tad wintery rather than stoney.

I painted every model with the same "primer" of Incubi Darkness. All shades were a combination of the midtone and incubi darkness, and all highlights were a combination of the midtone and lighter rotting flesh color (Foundry's Cadaverous Flesh Light C). The hope was to give everything a unified hue despite the variety of monster types and that some lacked the central Burgundy/Khaki color scheme.

Finally, I aimed to give each model a strong shadow effect so they look like they are coming out of the grimy dark into a sickly light. This is the first time I have tried object source lighting. I don't think I will do this again for another army, though I will continue it for the duration of this OWAC.