From TeemuL: Undead Cavalry (40 points)

No Library topics this week, but I managed to empty one miniature box again, hurah!

These are Death Knights for the RuneWars miniature game. The game itself is (close to) dead now, born in the aftermath of Old World collapsing, but minis are still available here and there, often in discount. I bought the starter box some years ago with my friend to see how it works. We played two games and decided, that the game is ok, we ordered more minis, split the starter and started painting minis. I think it was 2021 and the third game is still in the future... Anyway, with these I have managed to paint all of my Undead minis for the game, so the excuses are few now.

The colour choices are the same as the other units, bright blue rags and purple/violet/pink shields and protective plates. And these being knight, lots of metal and some bone colour here and there. I painted the horses yellow, because why not? These are skeleton warriors from a fantasy world, so I don't have to worry about how the horses look in the real world. And I think yellow horse is not that far away from the reality anyway. Naturally blue and yellow work well together, so no issue with that, either.

I used Citadel Contrasts for the most part except Citadel metallic paint for the metal parts. Quite quick and easy, especially when I'm not aiming for the perfect neatness with this army - originally I opted to go with Contrasts, because I wanted quick results so I could game more and not worry about every mistake. The base is Agrellan Badlands, drybrushed with bone colour.

I should have fixed the base edges, but I do that next... The minis are soft boardgame plastic and I have often had difficulties to paint them, because the paint doesn't stick to them, but I had no issues with these.

The fourth emptied box, this one quite large, so good progress. I guess I should be painting the Space Marine Heroes boxes if I really want a good finished miniature vs box size ratio.

These are 28mm cavalry models, so four of them should give me 40 points. There are 5 skulls per model, their head, weapons and breast plate of the horse, so 20 skulls in total.

Rather small entry, but I'm writing this on Friday, because I'll be travelling the next seven days. Thus the entry of next Monday will be quite small, too...

These are very nice indeed, Teemu! I agree that the colours work very well together, and the yellow horses are a nice if somewhat unusual touch. But, hey, they are undead, who knows what happened, right? Good to hear that you have emptied yet another box! I don't know the game, but it sounds you are ready for your next one. Well done! Have a safe journey, and that's 40 more points in the bag.

Martijn

From TeemuL: Undead Warriors [Xanth] (45 points)

Here we are on Xanth, escaped the Androgynstealers with Janey and Sarah's Star Yacht. Looks like a peaceful place, nice and calm, a bit dry. The peace is suddenly broken, when an undead army in blue begins an attack. This again is not what we were looking for, so we quickly dispatch and continue our exploration on the Inner Ring, astronomical west and clockwise to always mysterious Lune - we hope to arrive next week!

Xanth calls for something Never Ending, and warriors fighting and dying, rotting to skeletons, and called back from death to fight again, dying again, raised from death and so on. The Circle of Death goes on and on. So, these Runewars Miniature Game skeletons are my offer for Xanth, something Never Ending.

In the world of Runewars there is a faction Waiqar, which is made of undeads. Runewars Miniatures Game was on huge discount last year on the FLGS (out of production of FFG nowadays), so myself and my friend bought the starter box to share. We quickly assembled the starter armies and played two quick games to see, if this is something we want more. We then decided to buy a second starter box and couple of boxes of expansions (basically at the price of one third of original price). Since that we have been painting the armies, but not played - it has been very quiet in the playing front, so that's normal. After these I have only three stands to paint, two infantry stands and mounted Ankaur Maro.

Ankaur Maro (not skeleton, his skin is a bit browner than bone)

The stand with four persons is called Waiqar Infantry Command Unit and it is used to add to an existing Infantry unit or fight alone. It seems that they are not all skeletons, the Necromancer in the backrow seems to be Emperor Palpatine (or look-a-like), but I'm not sure about the six-pack... I'm not sure, but it might be possible to spread this command unit to different stands, but since I decided that these trays look better when they don't look like trays, I have glued the minis to the tray and covered with basing materials. I have done several stands already, but this was the first one where I glued the minis to the stand BEFORE painting them. What I was thinking during that Zoom session...

Ankaur Maro needs to replace one regular infantry in a tray, so he can't fight alone (except when mounted, when he fills the whole tray), but since I have not painted the remaining infantry units, he is alone now. I did the initial basing on him, so I just need to glue him on and cover the edges in the end. Maro is a wizard, uses dark magic and is clearly a bad guy.

I'm very happy, that the Quartermaster Skeleton find enough of those blue rags, so that the whole unit can wear uniform colours and even carry a flag. Their armor and weapons might be worn and torn, they are wearing rags, but the rags are shining bright and same color - the Quartermaster must be happy. Sometimes I have thought about the logistics of Undead armies, how and where they get their rusty weapons, broken shields and rags, but afraid to lose my sanity, I have not followed that path for long.

Emperor Palpatine on the right?

That is 5 minis, all in 28mm for total of 25 points. And then Xanth gives 20 bonus points for total of 45!

And 11 skulls for the greater good (my first for this Challenge), including the ones used as drumsticks, accessories, staff heads, drum motifs or as heads - not all are human skulls, but One does not care. And if you are counting, Ankaur Maro and "Palpatine" have flesh over their skulls, so they don't count. My son noted, that they were indeed skeletons using bones and skulls as drumsticks and carrying skulls here and there - certain Space Marines from this same Challenge come to my mind, when I think all this. :)

My personal Squirrel count: 9

- 20mm Napoleonic

- 28mm Sludge

- 28mm Pulp

- 28mm Warhammer 40000 Xenos

- 28mm General (including Gloranthan) Fantasy

- 1:300 Cruel Seas

- 6mm Epic Imperial Fists

- 28mm ADD Boardgame

- 28mm Runewars Waiqar

From Millsy:

Lovely work on these undead warriors Teemu! The vibrant, saturated blue you've chosen goes really well against the bones and the arid basing. The way you have the arranged on the base is really dynamic too and shows the minis off very well. Composition is something I try very hard to get right myself and it's a big contributor to making the most of our painting efforts I feel.

Well done on these mate. Hopefully we get to see more given you sound like you have plenty more to paint.