ZeroTwentythree's Post-OWAC5 Undead Wrap-up Post (2,089 pts)

Post-Challenge Wrap Up

"Season of the Liche"

Mighty, Bright Winged, Slightly-Off, Lord of Undead, ZeroTwentythree, with his Mighty, Slightly-Off Undead Army

Based on this year's Intro Post, one would have thought I was planning to paint a pretty straight forward undead force. A fast-attack "wing" for my always growing undead army. But here we are. Things don't always end where they were planned at the start. I'm not going to say that's necessarily a bad thing. I had a lot of fun with this army challenge.

All of these photos are larger than I usually post, click/tap to enlarge.

Full army glamour shot

Full army glamour shot

 

The Liche, dismounted, treating Candyman, Phil the Spectre, Sexy Wraith, and other friends to some soup & salad at his henge cafe, The Slab & Ditch.

Step 1: Soup & salad. Step 2: skeletons.

This wasn't even supposed to be part of my challenge army, and it's not exactly old, but it fits the fast attack & death from above themes well!

Cavalry. This is probably where things first went awry.

We come with PEACE

My own version of the Plague Cart emerging from the Field of Bones, re-animated OWAC-ers in tow.

CAW!

The Liche sets out from his swank and freshly redecorated tumulus accompanied by The Overlord, Assistant Overlord, The 'Nurp, and Rainbow Death

Aside from the substitutions, a lot of the "extras" were... well, extra. I didn't plan on painting a large portion of this, or any of the terrain. So this was a very ad-lib army. The core remains the same: liche, infantry regiment, two small cavalry regiments, a plageue cart, and carrion. And much of that was on the table from the start. It just took a weird twist. Of those, only the cavalry figures were swapped out. So here's the grand total, re-calculated from scratch because somewhere along the way I screwed up the book-keeping.

Army Totals

 

The Liche (lv.15) w/undead horse, pistol.................................... 247 pts 

Candyman - Undead Hero (lv. 10) w/Army Standard, lt. armour........... 150 pts

Overlord (lv. 5 necromancer)........ 60 pts 

Assistant Overlord (lv. 5 necromancer).....   60 pts

25 Skeletons with light armour, shield, spear, musician, standard....... 378 pts
6 Death Riders w/Lances, Shields....... 138 pts
6 Death Riders w/Lances, Shields....... 138 pts
3 Carrion........................................................ 135 pts

1 Plague Cart....... 100 pts
1 Nightmare Legion with light armour, shield, spear....... 14 pts

Phil the Spectre.....................................................200 pts.

Purple Nurple Lv. 5 Hero w/ Undead Horse w/H. Arm., Shield, Barding............ 48 pts

Rainbow Death - Lv. 5 Hero w/ Undead Horse w/:. Arm, Shield, Lance (shhhh... they think they're a unicorn & noble rider).. 45 pts

Sexy Wraith.............. 150 pts

Dragon.............     0 pts
Undead Hero (lv. 10) w/ lt. armour, shield.......................... 58 pts

Undead Hero (lv. 10) w/undead horse, lt. armour, shield... 68 pts

Wight.................................................................................    100 pts

Henge w/stone circle, soup, salad....................................    unlimited skeletons

Total........................ 2,089 pts

A fun project! It's really going to be hard to switch gears (and mindsets) to something different. I could probably stretch this out into a "part two" next year. Or I could switch back to a more serious undead contingent. I still have all the original cavalry I had planned to paint, after all. Maybe a return to sci-fi/40k? I suppose there are any number of options...

...skrtch..skrtch...skrtch...

...hiding in the shadows.

ZeroTwentythree's April Undead (250 pts)

 April Entry

Wild Card Month!

I've been after a Citadel Plague cart for ages. I gave up trying to get one for a reasonable price and decided to make my own. I used some Citadel wheels, various skeletal bits & skulls, plasticard & rod, and I sculpted the yoke. I had started sculpting a driver but before I got very far a package from Shadespyre arrived, containing (among other things) a driver from the Citadel model!

 

 

The face was a bit of a joke and I hadn't intended on keeping it. But it's grown on my so I haven't painted over it. Yet? Maybe it will stay there forever.

I bought some new flower tufts for the cart, hoping to mimic the use of marigolds (flor de muerto) in Dia de Muertos celebrations, offrenda, etc. As I understand it, one reason for their use is for the scent of the flowers to guide the spirits of the dead back home. So here we have a more sinister version -- the cart driver, summoning the poor spirits back to their skeletal remains to be re-animated.

 

 

I also painted a wraith and some more home decor for the Liche's tumulus/party pad. Trophy heads on spikes, I think they came with some Foundry Gauls.

 

The wraith is translucent Reaper Bones figure. After reading how others had used clear acrylic medium or varnish and ink washes & such to shade the translucent figures I gave that a shot, but it didn't work AT ALL. So I ended up painting her with solid colors, as I would any other figure. Sort of an odd figure, more flesh and less robes than most other wraiths. Supposed to be some sort of "sexy" wraith, I guess? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

I also painted an ancient carved stone monument. Its origins are a bit of a mystery. Although hobbits have only settled the Little Country and expanded into the Wasteland in relatively recent times, some say this stone monument is an indication that their ancient ancestors may also have had settlements in the region.

Speaking of Reaper Bones figures, I have had a zombie dragon sitting around prepped but unpainted for a couple of years. I had planned on painting it for a Deadcember painting challenge, but never got to it. I was hit by a sudden inspiration and painted it this month, as part of my April entry for no reason other than it needed painting. I had originally thought the figure was just OK, but after painting it I really like it! Not strictly "oldhammer" but I think it still fits the vibe of the rest of my largely oldhammer undead.

Interesting discovery: 3rd. ed. undead didn't have dragons. (In spite of the awesome Tom Meier zombie dragon figure that was available at the time.) I didn't have a full undead army back then. When we moved from playing RPG games to experimenting with various fantasy wargames to finally settling on doing big armies with WFB 3rd, I traded off my undead (and elves, goblins, etc.) to focus on bulking up just a couple of core armies. I think most of us avoided the big monsters most of the time anyway, I'm not sure why. At any rate, I get a big 0 points for the dragon this month, but I'm not really concerned with my points count anyway.

Lastly, I have we have unfortunately lost two more OWAC participants to the Field of Bones. But all is not lost. They shall fight, and paint, on in the eternal army of The Liche! Samuel will dual-wield hand weapon and paintbrush, same as those previously raised from the Field of Bones.  Bill, on the other hand, brings the heavy two-handed paint brush for those large and brutal painting needs. These two seriously look like undead versions of heroes from a fantasy novel cover. But with paint brushes. "Swords Against Unpainted Lead" or something like that. ;)

We had a brief but comfortable weekend of nice weather, so I managed to get some yard work done. Naturally, there were priorities...

 

 

Undead flamingos! The bunny ears fell off the skeleton in the background, who is pretty much a permanent fixture in front of our house since Halloween. The ears and the Easter basket were put away. Looking for a wreath of flowers or something else suitable for the next change in season.

FYI, the little fella to the right is Godzilla eating garden gnomes. A gift from my sister-in-law a couple years ago. The first of the flowers are starting to bloom, but the deer have unfortunately been trampling through the garden and eating them. I would love it if the undead flamingos scare them off, but unfortunately I think they may have the "immune to psychology" trait.

I'm trying to prep figures for the remaining two months. Expect to see more cavalry, some carrion, The Liche himselves (yes, plural) and a few more of his entourage!

April Wild Card Month
 

1 Plague Cart....... 100 pts
1 Wraith.............. 150 pts

1 Dragon.............     0 pts

Terrain...........          0 pts

April Total: 250 pts

Grand Total: 1133 pts

 

Bulldoglopez's May Bonepile (332 points)

ALMOST THERE!!!

Yeah buddy!! HERE. WE. GO!!! Almost at the end!!

This month I finished up even more boneheads to the horde of the undead. I completed 7 Grim Reapers and 5 more Skeleton Archers... nothing special about the paint scheme, just a bunch of airbrushing and drybrushing.

This month was special because I got my proxy Plague Cart done. The model is The Skeleton King on War Throne from Warmonger miniatures (the archers and grim reapers are also Warmonger) It is such a cool model that I couldn't resist finding a reason to include it in my Undead Army. It's also a quick and dirty paint scheme, but I did apply a few extra highlights because it is more of a centerpiece model (but not THE centerpiece... that is on the way)

I also put together a skeleton chariot with a slightly modified driver. I took a plastic flame from some modern GW kit to create the flaming skull and made a whip out of the wires from an old power cable I had laying around. I only stuck the driver to the chariot because I haven't decided who else will be riding in the chariot but it will most likely be a Liche or some other such scary guy.

7x Grim Reapers ... 84 pts

5x Skeleton Archers ... 60 pts

Skeleton Chariot ... 88 pts

Plague Cart ... 100 pts  

Lissanne's Undead- Riders on the Storm (336 pts)

First, let's get the mandatory points unit out of the way.  Here is the last of my 3 units of 20 skeletons.  These fine fellows have helmets, unlike their compatriots and also bat shields, and a last bit of scenery gravestones in back.

And onward to my month of distractions.  Useful distractions, but distractions none the less. ..
Did I do my Catacombs of Terror goal this month?  No.  But I only have 2 figs to go on that, and 2 months left, so I am in good shape.

 Once again, I got distracted by those Death Riders I found in my stash.  I painted 2 because I found 2 riders and here they are.  Looking through the figs for those missing undead dragon parts, I found a rider figure with a misplaced head, and thought a headless rider was perfect!  The other rider had been in the stash.

I intended to do one more death rider, the Zombie of Karr-Keel bandito rider.  But when I finished and cut the tab off, it turned out that the bandito had to go on the OTHER type of horse.  Didn't fit, no way.  The other zombies do fit, I checked all 3 remaining and matched them to horses.  So, he and presumably a friend will be good to go next month.  I love the burnt effect I got on the zombie horse! Points for next month, not this month.

And I got totally distracted by the OSM marginalia beastmen, of which I did six figures.  I chose the two jousters to represent my month of distractions.  I will likely finish the rest next month,   Here they are with a couple of the original marginalia.  But a unit of beastmen allies!  And what beastmen!

The snail and the fighter

And the nun-crow and snail deer

And lastly, my big zero pt contribution-  the Zombie of Karr-Keel plague cart,   I finished the cart I started 2 years ago.   I did do 2 Karr-Keel zombies this month (a goal) plus the horse.   Zero pts, as I already have a plague cart.  But I did  a goal for the month, just not in a useful place.  BTW, don't do lovely freehand on the sides of the cart when the wheels cover it! LOL!

So, as Dirge summons another unit of skeletons out of the ocean depths, she continues to convert the townfolk of Merchant's Reach to her cause.  The forces of Chaos have noticed her and are impressed, and send their aid by altering some of the townsfolk to join her mission-- to destroy her former temple.

So-
20 Skeleton Unit (20 shields, 10 spears) 230 pts
2 Death Riders  23 pts each  46 pts
6 Beastmen allies  60 pts
1 plague cart      0 pts
336 pts  total

Next month a wraith host, and definitely the two zombie riders, and hopefully the other 2 Catacombs of Terror figs and the rest of the marginalia beastmen.  Plus more Karr-Keel zombies. Fingers crossed!

Lissanne's Undead - Bring out your Dead! Bring out your Dead! (410 pts)

In force, the vanguard of the army of Dirge rises from out the ocean waves to attack the unsuspecting town of Merchant's Reach...

The song of the Plague Cart seems an appropriate title for this month.  After doing my obligatory squad of skeletons, I wanted to do some more extras.

Each month I should try to do 2 or 3 zombies and a death rider if I want to finish all the Karr-Kell figures.  Did I cherry pick the easier zombies?  Yes.  But I finished 3 and a Death Rider

Death Rider

Pretty Lady zombie

Orc Zombie

And Dirge's undead Golden rottweiler

And I also finished the carrion I wanted to repaint to match the Tolkien fluff and my other carrion

AND...the undead war rhino as Plague cart, which turned out to be way easier than I thought.  I even dug out the 3 original skeleton riders and painted them up.  Still haven't found the catapult, but it's a plague cart so that is OK.  I can't believe I got this done after all these decades.

So, points are:
20 Skeleton Unit (20 shields, 10 spears) 230 pts
Carrion 45 pts
Undead Rhino Plague cart 100 pts
3 Zombies 12pts
1 Death Rider  light armor 23 pts
Total: 410 pts

That's a lot of rank and file done 
(I am spreading the spears pts 10 each to the 3 units because math bites.)

Dirge's skeleton army starts its rise from the ocean floor to attack the town of Merchant's Reach.  The plague cart has already claimed its first victims who march with it now as zombies, and there are still many more to come.  Her faithful rottweiler marches in the fore, her eyes and ears before she appears.  The carrion flies overhead, scouting out the path.

Don't expect this much every month! I do have my main units planned, I just got a lot of extras done this month too!

Next month, I plan to do Dirge the lich on her throne (and palanquin) if things go well.  If things go poorly, another unit of skeletons!