Creepy Crawlies

I just realized that I never got a chance to take some pictures of the second unit of swarms which I did for that tournament last month.  I desperately wanted something that could vanguard! 

The Husk and these Swarms were the only things which could do that, so I tried to squeeze in as many as I could.  I thought that if I had these three, I could get a little help in two of the normal scenarios.

While the swarms were very squishy, they were also height zero, which could also make them much easier to hide!

The husk was a converted figure, made from Scorpion bits and even skeletal horses!  I modified the legs of the horses to become the smaller legs of the Husk.

The swarms were Reaper BONES minis.  They were absolutely perfect.

This post shows what they looked like before I got the chance for a few hours of painting:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/02/swarms-and-scavengers.html

One final note:  For those going to Adepticon, I will have a number of the new Mantic figures in the Hobby Lounge with me, and I hope to paint some of them while I'm there!!  Come and join us...

Swarms and Scavengers

With the first tournament just a few hours away for the reborn Empire of Dust, we see some last minute adjustments.  That is in the form of Swarms, which have an all important trait of Vanguard. 

Not only have I witnessed the importance of such a trait in a number of battle reports, but I have felt the sting of massed amounts of vanguard units standing on the center line of the table before I have even had a turn!

I had already added two such units... a Scorpion husk and a Swarm regiment.  Some carrion bases were left over from a bygone age, so they were repurposed with some Reaper BONES figures.

This one is mostly painted.  I think it had been 2-3 years since I had last painted these kinds of bases for the original army.

The Eye of the Chaos God still watches over the lands of the Ahmuntites.  Just as with all the other movement trays, the glyphs warn that "All those who enter the Tomb Cities of Pseusennes shall suffer a fate worse than death".

The original broken columns were carved from baked sculpey, and then cast so that I would not have to spend many more hours doing the same thing over and over!

These swarms will take the place of the Screaming Skull catapult on the old army board, which will finally be used again!!  Very excited about that.

The old Carrion Birds didn't sit on a tray in the original configuration, but I will leave them that way now.

This is one of my favorite scenes on the army board.  I will take some new images later in the week and fashion a new post for you.

We shall see if this third vanguard unit offers any help.  It was exchanged (and a Bone Giant as well) for a pricey Guardian warrior unit which did nothing but get in the way until it died.  This will give me one additional drop, and a monster that can actually charge into the terrain and do some damage.

The nerve value and defense are higher, so I am also hoping the combination of these two new units makes it possible for me to stay in the same area code as the nastier tourney armies that will be at Draxtar this Sunday for the Adepticon Primer.

Wish me luck!  Gonna need it.

The Skulls shall scream

As part of the overall design of my display board for the old Tomb Kings army, I created this Screaming Skull Catapult.  The sphinxes which serve as a mount for the mechanism reflect the statues that were made for the above ground level of that board.

I used some balsa wood to create the uprights and the catapult arm itself.  All that remained was to add LOTS of skulls :-)

Here's a better view of what was added to the ground to fill out that space.

I couldn't resist adding the carrion bird, and painting it like the carrion in my full sized units!

It's unlikely that I will ever use this warmachine in anything but huge games, but who knows... it might appear in the new campaigns by the Ahmuntites in their quest to take bake what was theirs!!

Stay tuned...

Archers of Dust

Tonight we have some images of the completed Skeleton Archer unit.

I have already used this in a few games with the extended range magic item.  It's made them a much more dangerous unit!

Even though my unit filler/altar is not quite complete, it still provides the kind of backdrop which I was hoping for.

This is the area where I will add some more design elements.

I had intended to make a few more archer figures to fill out the four spots in the back rows, but the extra individual figures such as Apophas, the Necrotect and the Priests gave it a little more character.

I think you can see how much of a challenge it was to get all of these guys to rank up!  Obviously the unit was made for WFB, pre multi-basing era.

Some ground level action here...

The view from above gives you a peek at the overall demon marble designs.  With all the small bases, it was a massive challenge to get those bases to look like one continuous sheet!

A closer look...

If you look at each skeleton, you will see that not only is the armor painted differently on each figure, but the bones themselves are painted in various shades as well.  This was all done to carry thought the story of the Chaos God's influence.

More fun with movement trays

As you know, I have been trying to adapt my previous movement trays for the Empire of Dust Kings of War army.  Since unit sizes and footprints are defined in very clear terms, I had to rework the trays for almost all of my old units.

This one is for the Skeleton archer horde.  I added some pink foam unit filler/pedestal decoration.

Just as I did with the filler for the Guardian Archers, I mixed black primer with dark green and blue paint.

The back panel was covered in the hieroglyphs using the same method as I showed in the earlier step by step.

I did a little more painting on the skulls.  Eventually there will be some braziers on here as well.

Here's another round of Demon marble!  There was a previous tutorial on this technique.

In addition to the Demon Marble, I wanted to do some designs on the altar which reflected the kind of images I had painted onto the army board.

These designs were also painted on my chariots, the monsters, and the cloaks of my Priests.

The ultimate goal here is to focus the viewer on the Eye of the Chaos God.

The Eye is now mostly complete.  I will be doing some more designs around the altar, but my hope was simply to get this ready for some games to see if the unit and its configuration will work. 

A glow effect on the eyes is applied at this stage.  

The altar has a strong magnet on top to hold the decorative character figure.

Ready to go!!  I will take some images of the finished unit for you, so stay tuned!

Keen Eyes, Great Bows

It seems that I forgot to show you the finished Enslaved Guardian Archer unit with its new tray and unit filler.

It was all very simple, but it definitely gave it all a nicer look!

In fact, this "stepped" look makes it seem even more like a temple than one entirely flat surface.

It was very nice to have these open spaces to show the demon marble effect.  I can recall how disappointed I was after I put the big chariot unit's figures on their bases.  The large, complicated figures covered up well over 60% of the excruciatingly elaborate freehand work I had done on all six massive bases!

This unit proved itself to be quite valuable in tonight's game.  I may just have to do a second unit!

As with nearly everything else in the Mantic Empire of Dust army, things that had little value in another system are at least playable, if not seriously deadly.  That has proven itself in each of the three games, as I try to experiment with various units, and combinations thereof.

In an army where many things were my favorite, these guys are very sentimental.  It was in painting these that I got the inspiration to sculpt my own massive beasts for the army, and go with this sort of iridescent blue color for the skin.

Another view from above to show you the floor pattern and the hieroglyphs.

Another battle report is coming soon, and these boys will certainly be featured!!  Stay tuned...