Undead wave 2

I love Mantic stuff for the most part, and the Undead are great funx. This is all from a single sprue of Skellys.  More characterful faces for sure; very Sam Raimi.

This batch is fronted by Isabella Von Carstein. A great sculpt.  Sadly, she is finecast.  I wouldn't have purchased it for myself, but I won't look this xmas vampire horse in the mouth whilst flogging it.  Hey, can I get some more mixed metaphors over here please?

All together now!

It's gonna be interesting to see if the paint job ties them all together like The Dude's rug.

It's nice getting back into the hobby.  I don't quite have all the tools and lighting I need to do it properly but I am muddling through.

Skeleton Hordes boxed set

If you had told me when I first sat down to assemble my Skeleton Hordes boxed set back in 1987 that it would be thirty years until I finished a squad, I would look at you like... "who the fuck are you and what are you doing in my house?".

Oh, and you are an asshole for time travelling back that far and not actually doing anything productive with it.  

But, sadly, you would not be wrong.  I did paint a few back then, following Phil Lewis's chestnut ink advice at the time.  Bad Little me never finished the box off.

So yeah, I picked up a box of broken skeletons about five years ago of ebay and finally dragged them out today.  I haven't been able to hobby in a while and my doctor suggested I do something  to try and cheer myself up.  Naturally, I did what all sane people would do and the set about sticking together walking cadavers from my childhood.  Doctor's orders.

*sigh*

The kit was half assembled, well battered and a few poor lost souls where dunked in enamel paint. Apparently noone told the previous owner that black gloss isn't a great undercoat.  The eight shown where straightforward, three more needed repairs and are currently undergoing some greenstuff loving.

The last batch of around 8 are, annnoyingly, missing skulls- no doubt adorning some bases and banners out there somewhere.  I didn't want to waste all the remaining bodies, so I hacked off their neck stubs and drilled a socket in each ready to accept a wire.  I am sure I can find enough interesting helmets in my kitbox over the coming months and maybe even sculpt some faceless wraith hoods for them.

To wrap up this warband, I made up the Warhammer Necromancer from my xmas haul box.  I actually liked the model as-is, so the only change I made was to shave off the edges of the square base and mount him on a Rendra base.  I was also thinking I may swap his head for something a little more feminine.

His little igor sidekick is a Gnoblar from the Ogres kit, with a head from a Flagellant.  I just shaved off the neck stubs and used a ball of Greenstuff sandwhiched between some superglue to pose the head- then when dry filled in the remaining gaps with putty.

I will top off the skellys with some Marauder Minis shields I set aside for them.

I am going to prime these white for a change.  My friend Steven has donated me a big box of cote d'arms paints so I can return to painting.  All mine are in storage either in Melbourne or Sydney.  Which is fucking annoying.  I keep getting stranded away from my stuff.  I am gonna be leaving limbs behind at this rate.

Armoured Ghoul Warband in the style of Austen

When a lady of my social rank and persuasion finds herself in great need of some leisurely persuits and yet found herself lacking the foresight to prepare for its rare occurance, what is she to do?  Surely the noble persuit of a husband of means and status should suffice to fill the feeble mind of a lady- and yet, dear reader, I do not hasten to call the carriage to whisk me to London for such a persuit, for I must confess the lowly rumours you have no doubt heard spoken of in hushed tones as you go about the village are, for once, quite accurate in regards to my sapphic tendencies.  Thus a quest to find a husband most undoubtedly will come to no good, for either involved parties and I must alas turn my mind to other trivial trifles to tinker with to keep myself from my very wit's end.

Thus, dear reader, your humble journalist found herself today engaged in the persuit of a relaxation via the base craft of miniature decoration.  A form of minor idolatry that I can only imagine the clergy would overlook for such is its spiritual benefits that one can easily cast aside any thought of eternal damnation.  But forgive me, I digress.

Without expectation of leisure time, I had sought the safety of my office to store my miniatures collection, and so I had no access to toys to tinker with.  Yet, in a blinding flash, I recalled a box of figurines most kindly and thoughtfully donated to my cause by a friend, and set about finding it with great haste.

Reader, I quickly laid hands upon the long forgotten gift, and, turning it out upon the desk found a collection of ten mostly intact models that I could easily salvage.  

Notwithstanding my previous missives bemoaning the great works of Tolkien (and my dissatisfaction furthermore of the dreary series of plays based upon his works by Mister Jackson et al), I find myself thusly in posession of many models from that tired oeuvre.  What to do?

Well, dear reader, I struck upon the idea of redressing my models in the guise of Armoured Ghouls, for that is what, to my eye, they mostly resemble.

I also took it upon myself to create a themed warband, and to allow myself some frivolity in my selection of palette bringing some gaity to my work.

I am certain you wish to see my progress, so I have included in this letter for your edification, an image of the incomplete work.

There is still much to do before I am satisfied, however I think you would agree they are of sufficient quality to enter the field of battle upon the dining table.

I am thusly greatly pleased with my efforts, and attained the desired relaxation of which I so greatly craved after many stressful weeks without reprieve.

The shields are quite barren, and I fancy the addition of a banner to the solitary pikeman to make him a standard bearer- however I am greatly distracted by hunger and must dedicate the morrow to commissions that still await my labour.  I am afraid it may be some time before I complete these scurrilous savages.

I imagine the addition of a few elements of whimsey, sculpted by yours truely to augment the most fantastical nature of the ghouls. I am tempted to strip them of their weapons and manufacture a more fantastic arsenal for them. I shall set my mind to the challenge in due time.

I hope my letter finds you in good health, do pass my warmest regards to your sisters- especially the prettiest of them.  I must away and prepare myself a humble supper to appease my beastly belly.

Yours, most prideful but far from prejudiced, Ms Delaney King

Kev Adam's Zombies

My brother in law visited and we had a bit of a hobby session.  Speed painting his Spess Mareenz got me nicely warmed up to painting again, and I decided to have a  bit of a retro paint session last night to use that positive energy.  I decided to paint to completion something from right back at the start of my collection, and the first thing that leapt out where zombies... Lots of zombies!  Well, ten of them.

The first three finished where two of Kev Adam's brilliantly characterful zombies, and one of the highly sought after oriental undead, 'li-chee' which is a classic example of eighties pun names and racially insensitive humour.  His pose reminds me of Tommy Cooper.

Compared to my old batch of these zombie figures from when I started this blog, these figs really highlighted to me how much brighter, crisper and richer my painting style is these days.  It feels more retro to me, and much more aligned to the reason I started this blog... the enjoyment of eighties miniatures.

The bases where an experiment with cheap Jo Sonja's Hooker's green and moss green craft paint.  I diluted them with windex in pots, which gave me really nice dark mossy results that reminded me of Fraser Grey's base work.  Instant love!

Fraser used enamels, and formed his bases from found objects inserted into plastecene clay, covered with a shell of two part epoxy resin and grit.  I tried it once, and found it cracked too easily, stank and you could get better results with cork and superglue.

I do like how the deeper mossy green makes for a background for the minis own colors to pop out.  The cooler, less yellow moss highlight also will work well set against my goblin skin... One of the reasons I started to venture away from my forrest green basing colors.

Kev made the best citadel zombies.  After his tenure, the zombies where replaced by dull, stiff, flat posed, weightless shat knocked out under the 'paid per mini' system that wreaked havoc on the nineties, culminating in the worst miniature of all time, metal Nagash.

Comments appreciated!  I love comments.  Comments make me happy.

King's minis: a new era. Rise of Morbius.

And so it begins!

 Rising from the ashes of 2013, these undead are the dread harbingers of what is to come in 2014. New bases, new style, new direction.  Huz-fukkin-zah!

Morbius, Longhorn and Skelly.  (Citadel '80s)

So I chose to kick off the year with Morbius, the necromancer behind Citadel's skeletal war machines boxed set.  Joining him is his chariot riding champion from the same set, the bestial headed Long Horn.  This figure, and the Skelly appeared at the start of this blog many moons ago.  He is all sparkly and new again with his paint job refreshed and crispened (with glazes and edging) and sporting a sexy new 30mm base.

Morbius

Morbius is a classic undead figure from the last of the golden age undead. After this came the disaster that was Morley's undead- ushering in an era of poorly posed, vague weapon waving, stiff undead that culminated in the worst figure of all time... Nagash. Why they replaced Kev Adams and the Perry Brothers undead with the poopy shit that followed is a mystery to me.  Mind you, that was the era of bright, clashing primary colors.  Who knows what they where smoking.

Morbius is a fantastic model to paint. After years of languishing in a plastic bag in storage, it feels great to have him finally pointing my skeletal warband around and poking enemies in the eye.

'He went that way!'

'No... that way!'

To get the skin tones I used thin glazes built up over a light, cool grey.  If you use a warm tone in your glaze it suggests light passing through the skin and making it glow from within.  The deeper shadows should be cool.  I decided to do a similar

'Or maybe...'

The original boxed set promotional art in White Dwarf.  Courtesy of Stuff of Legends.

As you can see, I decided to go with a similar scheme to his origibal promotional paint job back in the 1980s.  I did, however, tweak the colors in my version to lean towards aqua and purple with dead, ghostly flesh.  I also glued mine at an angle to give him a more dynamic, forward stabbing feel.

Skeleton Infantry

This skelly (Skeleton Infantry 132211) also appeared in the early days of my blog- painted with simple tints over grey scale.  I decided it was time for him and his brethren to come alive again with a refresher paint job.  After a thorough dusting with a soft house paint brush, I gave him a glaze of Lahmian medium to flatten any shine and give the newer glazes better purchase.  I then picked out the edges of his clothes in aqua, and blended them in with successive glazes of midtone.  Black ink and flow aid was used to pick out his details.  The new base gives him a more epic, important feel, and the subdued colors let even his pale bone stand out.  To give a shot of color, I added greenstuff mushrooms ala Meistro Blanche.

'Urry up and make up yer mind guv'nor... this pole is well 'eavy when you ain't got any muscles.'

Added to the Lead Pile

A nice little score this Xmas!  Some sexy Miaow miniatures courtesy of my brother in law (cheers ears!).  Some Tom Meier Lizardmen and a couple of FF figs.  Thanks all my lovely ebay sellers for those!  I love the lizardmen- I may have to get some of the troglodytes to go with them!

 

On the slab

Well thats the first batch done in the new style!  On the slab now is a handful more armored skellys and a couple of night horrors to fill out the warband.  I won't get through all my undead though- because next up is a Broo warband that I am just toooooo excited about.  I love Broo- that should be delightful.  After that is an small orc warband in the new style!

Comments

So I hope you like my new look and style- comments, questions and suggestions always welcome!   Oh and free stuff. I like free stuff.

Goodnight leadfreaks.

A legion of eight!

A legion is, last time I checked, slightly more than eight... but as these are Greater Skeletons, maybe their like Chuck Norris, who is a delta force of one, after all.

This is a brilliant boxed set- very characterful, realistic take on skeletons that predated the Perry cackling whacky teeth skeletons that dominated my early years.  I really dislike citadels current plastic skeletons... I dunno, they look like chunky halloween decorations.  These Skeletal figures are beautifully sculpted and much more realistic in their proportions, but if I can put on my critical hood for a moment, come from the era in Guthries early work which was very stiff in its posing.  That said, all of Ral Partha releases at the time where stiff as hell, holding weapons in a weighless way like you see a king holding a sceptre in a medieval painting.

   By the way, I think Julie's modern minis are breathtakingly fluid in their posing- the summoning miniature with writhing nymphs is a masterpeice of figure work... so hey, hard to fault the lass!  My first sculpts make me cringe and I have only been doing it for a few years.  I am just saying that I realise these figures may look a bit flat and stiff to modern gamers.

  But, what they lack in depth and dynamics, they make up in old school charm, are a pleasure to paint and I do have a soft spot for them.  The Undead Balrog, hound handler are really strong designs and classics of their type.  Plus the assembly of the Balrog is genius... one of the easiest multipart models to assemble ever.  I gave his neck a gentle bend to give him more depth.  If you havent done this before, its actually quite easy.  Wrap the part in tissue to distribute the pressure of your pliers and make small, slow gentle bends.  A quick bend will shear the model at its weak spot.  I suspect heating the model would help, but rarely find a problem reposing.

WIP:  Julie Guthrie's Undead rising from the grave

It was a hot, dry day today, so I rushed through some 'nearly there' minis to get them to varnish stage... but ran out of time.  So, I guess I am about fifty percent of the way through this lot...  The further back, and more unfocused, the more unfinished.  I think they need 'shrooms on their bases.

Another reason I am hurrying these ahead of my Undead Assault Project is that the boxed set I received was sealed, but on opening I found them just starting to tarnish.  So the faster I get them well and truely sealed, the more likely they are to survive the next decade.  My priming didnt get into all the cracks, so I was eager to varnish them.  Fingers crossed for next week.

By the way, the great news is that Iron Wind Metals still produce all the figures in this range.

Yay!

The bad news is that (at the time of writing this blog entry) they are individually listed and scattered throughout the fantasy sections of their webstore.  Most are in fantasy armies/skeletons, but some are in roleplaying and supernaturals if I remember rightly.  Its no biggie, I suppose... whilst hunting through you will encounter lots of cool old school classics, so it is time well spent.

I must confess I am starting to burn out painting bone and zombie flesh.  Even the Splintered light stuff for Skulldred is undead.  I may hoff break and do something really out there next.  Maybe some Realm Of Chaos or Malifaux for a change... oh... no my Malifaux figures are all undead too.  Hmmm.

 

Good bye Megaminis, Hello skeletal legions

Yep, they are closing up shop and selling off the moulds.  Sad, but understandable.  The income you get from minis does nor justify the time put in moment.  At least we have kickstarter now to protect us from risky mould cost decisions and handle preorders- so its not a bad time entirely to be in the biz.

Do your hobby a favor.  Dont buy that next overpriced (but gorgous) GW box you where looking at getting... take that money, even if its just this month- go find some obscure little mini business and spend it there (horrible postage prices be damned- after all your getting screwed by the man either way).  Lets stop some more doors closing!
My money is aimed at Hasslefree- thems some fine assed barbarians Kev is making.

I am crestfallen it comes at a time where (thanks to the wonders of IVF financing) I wont be able to risk the moolah to pick up the Metal Magic dwarf rights for Darkling games.

I console myself that I got me a nice big order of megaminis recently, and I am sure some great companies will carry the torch.

On the hobby front I have only had time to restore, prime and base a box of Julie Guthrie Ral Partha undead that was dangerously close to decay on its arrival.  From the depth of grey spotting, I think I rescued them in the nick of time.  A good clean with a wire brush and a prime and I think they'll live.  Er.. unlive.
Its a great box set- mine was complete with instructions and dnd stats.  A couple of the figures appear in Undead Assault, most notably the double handed swordsman appears twice- he is knocking at the castle door.  Back then GW distributed RP, so John Blanche included many in the diorama- including the Yellow Wraith shooting the door.

I cast resurrect!

I spent this evenings hobby time blocking in colors on the undead I currently have for the assault project- and have spotted a few of the missing figures on ebay that I will land with any luck (you can help by not bidding on fantasy tribes undead or skull faced preslotta chaos warriors for a month or so ;).
I found VMC german uniform dark brown perfect for the cool browns of the cloth, and adding citadel dark flesh got the warm highlights.  The greener zombie flesh is parchment liquitex and catachan green.  For the guts, john goes for the complamentary orangey red- a pairing he uses even today on his space marines.
These figures are really quick to paint- and it strikes me that John would have taken far less time to complete the diorama than I first thought.
I decided to base the hordes on a mix of 40mm round bases (poker chips) in batches of three, and some singles on 25mm x3m rounds.  Champions and necromancers are getting 30mm bases to differentiate them from the rotten rabble.
So far I have twenty of the horde moving along nicely!

Whilst I had the putrid skin colors mixed, I blocked in another wave of figures not for the project- some kev adams zombies, Malifauxs bette noir, a few chaos thugs and my female nurgle gun conversion of the nurgle lord- which is exciting because she has been loitering on my desk since xmas.

I also managed to get the bases painted up on twenty or so minis... a bizarre mix of repainted Dreamblade figures, heroclix and DND plastics that I have been itching to game with.  I rebased them all on mdf rounds yo match the rest of my hordes.

Its nice to feel some progress happening.

New year, new phone, new app test

Happy new year Leadsbians.
Yeah... thats not going to catch on...

Testing this new blogspot app... and the camera on my phone.

Here is a picture of some work in progress.  Splintered light 15mm undead.

Links. Warmallet 60,000 and the Missing Links.

Skarsnik just made me realise that I missed off a links section to all the blogs I follow- you can now find them on my sidebar.  Happy browsing, and send me a message if you want linkage loving!

I also found a widget for page counts, and look at that... I am rocking up to 60,000 views.  How about that?   I was going to post up a whole heap of Rogue Trader pics ready for 40,000... you know, but it slipped me by.

Rogue Trader minis, with a Paranoia Troubleshooter (purple hair)
Citadel 80'

So here is my Warmallet 60,000 (hits).

[ It took 20 thousand years after someone accidentally pulled the plug on the Emperors throne, and mankind freed from his psyonic opression cheered the hell up, allowed women equal rights and stopped pissing around with Catholic Church Iconography... the Eldar then started to respect humans as intellectual equals instead of a dirty, pipe ridden mob of skull worshipping cultists and a new age was formed where everyone, you know... mostly get along.    Turns out the Astonomicon was like a dog whistle to the orcs and what has making the more or less peaceful orcs go a bit loopy.  The Necrons turned out where just escaped animatronic Terminators from James Cameron Theme Park World that got a virus and went a bit squiffy in a freak video programming without instructions incident.  Easily turned off once you had new battereis in the remote.  Zoats showed back up (still eating Zoatybix) - they had been off on this great party planet with some insanely good pineapple and cheese on sticks.  They appologised for being late, but did bring along some pretty awesome Kryomek... sorry...  Zerg... sorry... Tyranid repellant (same formula as Bat shark Repellent funnily enough)  - turns out the Tryanid where attracted to cabling plastics used in power armor all along- just like how cockroaches are drawn to the wiring in my bloody microwave.  Humans suddently realised they could take the Eldar and Necron antigrav technology thats been laying around for decades actually was better than tank tracks, and switched over.
Anyhoo- everyone gets back to some space pirate shooty explory space adventure action!
 No one ever did find out what the little venty, jetpacky nozzles where for on the Marines backpacks.
 In the future there is only war whatever you like! ]

I am basing all my paranoia, 2000ad and Dredd figures on 30mm resin Sulaco bases and giving them all a 'lit by neon' in the dark blue future cities look.  Vibrant feature colors on drab base tones, so every single scifi figure I own is compatible in style for gaming.  I am daydreaming of building a cool game table to play it on in the distant future once I have space.  Oh, for a garage.

Jumping in my blue box we hurtle back in time to the early 1980's and after defeating a nasty outbreak of Sontarans using a jellybaby we arrive in time to photograph some of Citadel's first releases- Fiend Factory and Fantasy Adventurers (aka FA and FF to us collector types).

Fiend Factory Gnome Theif, Wraith, Medusa and Fantasy Adventurer Dwarf

 I have been slowly collecting these since I discovered the joy of ressurecting old school lead using modern painting and finishing techniques.
I have decided to base them all on 30mm modern with moody, torchlit dungeon lighting.  The monsters are all lit brighter and warmer at the front, as if caught in the adventurers torchlight, and lit by the eerie blue glow all dark places appear on TV.

I think these need a bit more work, but I am just so excited by my new photographic lightbox (and the fact I now have photoshop again) that I wanted to take some pics of SOMETHING.  Something Like this...

Lord Aquila from Citadels Heroic Fighters Boxed Set

 This is actually one of the first miniatures I finished painting at the time I started this blog.  I recently rebased him onto a 30mm lipped base from his original hex base.  I find the base makes him feel really proud and draws focus to the model.  I guess psychologically it suggests a little display plinth.
  It was a practical move, since the main reason I switched was it gives extra support and protection to my Skulldred skirmish games.  All this box set brethren, some Paladins, 'Battle Lords' and 'Big Fighters' all recently got the base switch, and its amazing how much more character they seem to have.  They have been on my shelves for ages and I barely look at them... but pop them on chunky decorative bases and whoomp- they get some presence.
Though not entirely happy with the paint job, I feel I should preserve him so I can see how far my work has progressed over the last two years.  At some point I may decorate his base with some 80s mushrooms, but for now I think he is good to go.


For those of you who are eagerly waiting some new Bederken releases, you may be happy to know this little blog photo session was squeezed on the back end of photographing the new models.  Yep.  Pics soon.
Well I have to go back to the land of work-work-work.  Webstores and miniatures do not build themselves.

Zombies!

Zombies from the 1980s citadel range.

1980s Zombies are recognised by their toppling, ragged stances.  A rank of these looked wonderfully erratic and decayed- you could almost smell them coming across the battlefield

Although anyone dead for a while would be bloodless, I decided to go for a fresh killed look- these guys are slaughtered and half eaten villagers raised by the Lichmasters spell only moments before.

You can get great blood by using Tamiya Clear Acrylic.  It gives such a wonderful bloody effect!  Matte varnish deadens it a bit, so spray gloss and brush on matte medium to deaden the shine on dry bits.