From Beneath the Sands

I'm closing in on 2000 points of Tomb Kings– Here's a look at my newest unit, skirmishing skeleton archers, and some of the other projects in the queue.

Tomb Kings Horse Archers

As my initial 1000 points of Tomb Kings nears completion, I've finished off the skeleton horse archers:

Tomb Kings Skeleton Archers

Here's a look at the handful of skeleton archers I recently finished and added to my slowly growing Tomb kings army...

 

My First Tomb Kings Regiment is Finished!

It's been a long road, but I finally put the finishing touches on my 30-man skeleton regiment:

 

Painting Tutorial: Tomb Kings Skeletons

In this tutorial, I share my process for batch-painting skeletons:

Upgrading the Skeleton Horse Archers

In this post, I'll show you how I finished converting my Tomb Kings Skeleton Horse Archers.

Skeleton Archer Command

Switching gears back to my Tomb Kings for a minute– I've finished assembling and priming the archer units for my Tomb Kings army, including come converted command models:

Converting Tomb King Skeletons

In this post, I'll show you how I converted some more thematic Khemri armored skeletons:

Put Some Clothes On!

Converting skeleton archers with robes and cowls:

Olivia Von Koss and the Barrow Watch

If you've been following my #HobbyStreak on Twitter and Instagram, you'll have seen some of the progress I've been making on my Soulblight Gravelords army led by Olivia. Here's a look at everything I've finished, and a continuation of Olivia's narrative following her resurrection: 

 

New Skeletons and New Plans

 Taking a look at my budding Skeleton unit and the plan for the rest of the year:

Mustering the Troops

I'm finally getting around to painting the Cursed City skeletons and zombies.

A New Breed of Skeleton

Assembling the Cursed City skeletons and seeing how they size up against the previous iterations.

All the Skeletons You Can Eat

My Red Guard skeleton regiments are finally complete, each maxed out at 40. That's a lot of models to move around. Movement trays are clunky, especially once you need to start shimmying models around in combat. I think I have a solution...

Selketta and the Red Rain Host

I've finally finished up my archery dream team and knocked a project off of my Undead to-do list. You've seen the Tomb Prince Selketta in a previous post, but the unit champions and banners for the skeleton archer units are painted and ready for battle.

 

Skeleton Archers

All the bows are strung and the Red Rain Host is finished:

 

These guys were a lot of fun to put together and paint. If I can find any more of those classic skeletons, I'll definitely add to the unit. If it gets large enough maybe I'll even add some command models.

 

If you missed the assembly article, you can check it out here:

Modeling: Skeleton Archers

And the tutorial for stringing the bows is here:
Modeling Tutorial: Bow Strings

'Til next time!

Modeling Tutorial: Bow Strings

As you can see from the pictures, my skeleton archers are almost finished. The only thing remaining is to add bowstrings. (Without which, they can't fire their arrows!) If you've ever wanted to add that extra bit of realism to your archers, here's how:

Note: I find that it is easiest to add the string after the model painted. Otherwise, the string can get in the way of painting detail. Vigorous drybrushing could break the string, as well.

Step 1: Coloring the String

Start with some plain thread. If you can find thread in the color you want the string to be, great, otherwise, use white.

 

 

Color the thread with thinned paint. (I'm using Formula P3 Rucksack Tan.) Just place a section of thread on a paper towel and paint along the length of the thread. Be sure to turn it so you get color on all sides.

 

Allow the paint to dry, and you'll have the perfect color bow string.

 

Step 2: Drilling the Bow

This next part is tricky, and you should definitely practice on some spare bow parts before damaging your nicely painted model (or poking yourself!). Before drilling through the tips of the bow with a pin vice, place the tip of a sharp hobby knife on the spot to drill, and twist it to create a starting hole. Then, place the drill bit on that spot and turn gently to drill through. Most bows have a little ring at the tip; try to drill level so the bit enters and exits the bow on the ring. Use a 0.55mm drill bit, and don't apply much pressure. Let the bit do the work so you don't snap the plastic or slip off.

 

 

The result should be two clean holes through the tips of the bow. Use your knife to carefully slice off any flash where the drill bit poked through, and try your best not to mar the paint.

 

Step 3: Attaching the String

 

Push the end of the thread through the hole about 1/4 inch.

 

Add a dab of thin super glue (I use Zap-A-Gap Thin CA in the pink bottle) to the end of the string.

Then, pull the string back through the hole so the glue comes in contact with the bow and sticks. Leave a little bit of the thread sticking out. You can add another tiny amount of glue if you think the bond isn't secure enough, but in this case, less is definitely more. The last thing you want is a glob of glue around the top of the bow.

 

Once the first end of the string has dried, push the opposite end through the other hole. This time, add glue to the side of the string on the inside of the bow. Then, pull the string so it tightens and the glue contacts the bow.

Make sure the string is tight and secure. The bow string shouldn't be slack at all.

Finally, trim the excess thread. Use a new, sharp blade so you can precisely and cleanly slice off the thread.

Step 4: Final Touch-Up

Paint the small ring around the end of the bow with the color you used on the bow string, so it looks like the string is tied off. The paint should also fill in any small gaps in the holes and cover up the exposed plastic. Add more brown to the wood if necessary, to cover up any mars in the paint or shiny glue.

And that's all there is to it!

Now, these ballistically-challenged skeletons are ready to rain missed shots all over the battlefield!

 

 

 'Til next time!

Modeling: Skeleton Archers

Last week I mentioned how I've been planning some gothic-themed Tomb Kings units to accompany my Legion of the Infernal Skull in a unified Undead Legions army. Years back, I had converted a Skeleton archer from an old Bretonnian (remember them?) bowman and some even older skeleton parts. I forget why I made this guy and never finished him. It couldn't have been for the Storm of Chaos because those skeletons would have been equipped with crossbows. Maybe this guy was just going to be a random zombie...?

 

Anyway, it served as a nice proof of concept for the skeleton archers I'm building now.

For this unit, I'm using the classic metal skeletons with halberds. All the archery equipment is from the Tomb Kings skeleton archers regiment, and the left arms are from the plastic Grave Guard kit.

 

 

To begin, I cleaned up the parts and removed the strap from the quiver. I also cut off the skeleton's arms and smoothed over his breast plate. I wouldn't have bothered removing the left arm, but it had a molded "shield peg" that had to go.

 

All the halberds go in the parts bin for use on another project further down the line. (And by "further down the line" I mean 10 years from now.)

 

To better attach thin plastic skeleton arms to the metal torso, I drilled a hole with a 1.90mm drill bit into the bottom of the sleeve.

 

The arm was shortened and shaved down a little so it could plug into the hole. This provides a much more secure bond than just gluing the two flat parts together.

 

The top left arm is also trimmed, and it's glued in place. (No drilling on this one since it's glued at the sleeve and where the hand contacts the chest.

 

The quiver simply gets glued on the back, and that's one skeleton finished!

 

All ten get the same treatment. The 12-man regiment is arranged in two ranks, with a 4-man regimental strip, two 2-man strips, and four loose models.

 

The regiment ranks up nicely and is ready for painting.

'Til next time!

Modeling and Painting: Skeletons

The Red Guard Skeletons

Before falling into ruin centuries ago, Von Koss Keep was once a functioning fortress of the Empire. Many of the soldiers that once loyally served the Imperial garrison were entombed in the catacombs beneath the keep's foundation, while others rest in the now overgrown battlefields surrounding it. When the Legion of the Infernal Skull rose to power and the vampires von Koss claimed the fortress for their own, these soldiers were resurrected and now form the The Red Guard. Though bound by necromantic magic, these undead warriors fight vigilantly to protect the keep as though they still remember their oaths sworn long ago. 

Dimirti von Koss uses these skeletons as his personal retinue. Awakened by his dark invocations, fallen soldiers crawl out of the earth to join the Red Guard's ever growing ranks.

Converting the Red Guard

The Red Guard skeletons are constructed using the plastic Skeleton Warriors and Soldiers of the Empire kits from the previous edition. (You'll find that many of my tutorials feature older models, as I've been collecting for years. While you may not have access to the older kits, the conversion and painting techniques can still be applied to the newer models.)

I had built two 20-man units a few years ago, with the intention of adding more models to cap off each unit at 30. The 20-man skeleton units have served me well on the tabletop, becoming a staple in most army lists, and it's about time I followed through on my plan. In this tutorial, I'll take you through the process I use to assemble and paint these skeletons.

Assembly

It may appear that you would only be getting one unit out of two boxes, but with different combinations, you can stretch the parts further and still get two regiments-worth of models. Skeleton legs with an Empire torso, and Empire legs with a skeleton torso, for example. The arms and heads are the tricky part, because you want skeletal hands holding the weapons and a skull head to reinforce the unit's appearance as skeletons. Fortunately, most of us have plenty of spare weapon arms in our parts boxes, and skulls are not difficult to come by.

Below, you can see all the parts laid out to build two models. By using a combination of skeleton and Empire parts, you can create a unit that looks suitably armored, and has a definite Imperial flare. A similar technique could be used to make High Elf or Bretonnian-themed undead regiments.

The shields are from the classic Fighter Shield Sprue. The two horns are used to create a neck for the skull, since skeleton heads and Empire torsos would otherwise be joining socket-to-socket (and wouldn't work). 

Before assembling anything, go through and clean all of the mold lines and distress the clothing and armor with cuts and divots. A dull hobby knife blade and pin vise are useful for creating all manner of pitting, tears, and scratches.

For the model on the right, it's a simple matter of gluing the torso and legs together. The legs of the model on the left prove a little more complicated, and uses the following technique for combining clothing with skeleton parts.

You are going to use the upper portion of the sleeve, and the lower portion of the skeleton arm. Clip away the red parts, as shown in the image. To easily create a secure and realistic-looking join, use a large (1.90mm is fine) pin vise bit to drill out the bottom of the sleeve. The skeleton arm can now sink into this hole, creating a more secure bond when glued together.

For the weapon arm, use the same technique. If you prefer to use the existing, weapons that the skeletons are armed with, that's fine. For my skeletons, I cut away the weapon and attached a sword from an Empire soldier. By scoring the parts and making sure the parts joined level and flush, I was able to attach them with super glue and no pinning.

Why go through all the trouble with the swords? I'm glad you asked! The new skeleton kits have nicely uniformed swords, but the old kit had a mix of flails, axes and swords. Skeletons with mixed weapons look like rabble. That's fine for for zombies, but skeletons in a Blood Dragon army should have a martial, disciplined appearance. The skeletons still wear their former uniforms and armor, and bear the same equipment.

To further complicate matters, I had already built my Grave Guard and equipped them all with swords from the skeleton kit. I didn't think it would be appropriate for skeletons to have weapons the same size as the Grave Guard, so the smaller swords from the Empire kits were the obvious choice. 

You can see the difference in this side-by-side shot:

Attach the finished arms to the skeleton. To create the neck, glue the horn into the neck socket, and then clip off the pointed part. In lieu of the horns, thick plastic or brass rod will suffice, although you'll need to drill a hole for it to sink into. The fact that it doesn't have any visible vertibrae texture doesn't matter; In the end it should be mostly obscured by the head and collar.

Using the same technique from the sleeves, combine the pants and skeleton feet to resemble the skeleton on the left. If you are attaching a skeleton ribcage to the flat top of the pants, you'll need to add a little bit of "spine" so the torso doesn't appear unnaturally stunted. This is easily done by slicing the top of the pelvis and spine off of the skeleton legs with a very sharp hobby knife. (You only need about a 3mm thickness, here.  If you have ever worked in a deli, you should have all the skill required to do this!) Glue this part onto the pants, and then attach the ribcage.

To complete the assembly, just attach their heads and shields!

Here is a shot of four skeletons on a regimental base before I attached their shields. The metal heads were left over from my Execution Guard Grave Guard unit, and the helmet in the middle was made by combining a skull with a classic Bretonnian knight's helmet. The dragon icon on top was cut from the metal Grave Guard champion's head.

The breastplates were sculpted with brown stuff putty using a press mold to transfer the armor detail onto a plain Empire torso. The straps were then sculpted around the back.

Here they are: Twenty skeleton warriors, ready to join their comrades in death and glory! I attached all the shields prior to painting (even on the regimental strips) to speed up the process and avoid spending time on parts of the miniature that would just end up being covered.

I super glued sand and a few tombstones to the bases before spraying them with black primer.

Painting

A note on the painting: Because I jump back and forth between P3, and old and new Cidatel colors, I've identified each color with its manufacturer or replacement color the first time it appears. (If you're using the GW comparison chart, note that Ushabti Bone, is not the same as the old Bleached Bone. Screaming Skull is a closer match. Thanks to Scott at GW Echelon Village for pointing that out.)

Step 1. Over black primer, begin by drybrushing up the base and the bone areas. Start with P3 Battlefield Brown, then P3 Gun Corps Brown, GW Snakebite Leather/ Balor Brown, and GW Bleached Bone/ Screaming Skull. Give the bones a layer of Bleached Bone/ Screaming Skull, and then wash the entire thing with a mix of Brown Ink and Snakebite Leather/ Balor Brown.

Carefully drybrush the bones with Bleached Bone/ Screaming Skull and then with a mix of P3 Menoth White Base and P3 Menoth White Highlight on the highest areas. Try your best to keep the drybrushing out of the recesses. If necessary, paint more of the brown wash into the recess, over the teeth, etc.  Don't forget the skulls on the ground!

For a more detailed step by step description of the ground and bone painting, check out the Graveyard Bases tutorial.

Step 2. Painting the bone takes the most time, so the rest should go fairly quickly. Start by basecoating the clothing with a mix of P3 Thamar Black and GW Scab/ Khorne Red. This should be fairly dark to start with, but not quite black. Then, overbrush the clothes with successively light layers of the same mix until it's straight Scab/ Khorne Red on the highest areas (we're only talking about 3 levels, here). Finally, mix in a little P3 Skorne Red to add some highlights. 

As when you were painting the bone, try to keep paint out of the recesses when drybrushing or overbrushing. If any recesses fill in, you can always apply a controlled, dark wash to recapture the shadow.

Step 3. For the shields, simply paint the undersides black (they should already be mostly black from the primer layer). Then paint the front of the shields the same color as the clothes. Using a large drybrush, stipple a little dirt on the bottom of the shields using a mix of Gun Corps Brown and Snakebite Leather/ Balor Brown. Drybrush this dirt mix on the bottoms of some of the pants legs, as well.

Step 4. Paint all the brown bits (leather straps, belts, and any visible sword hilts. Base coat them with Battlefield Brown, and then apply a highlight with Snakebite Leather/ Balor Brown.

Basecoat the tombstones with a dark mix of Thamar Black and P3 Ironhull Grey. Then, drybrush up with Ironhull Grey, and finish off the edges by adding a little GW Shadow Grey/ Fang Grey and P3 Morrow White into the drybrushing mix. Wash a little Brown Ink around the stones' bases.

During this step you should paint any black areas of the clothing, like patches, socks or sashes. Use Thamar Black and Shadow/ Fang Grey to apply a two-step basecoat and highlight similar to that used on the leather straps.

Step 5. Paint Catachan / Castellan Green around the base edge, and spray the miniature with Testors Dull Cote matte sealer.

I use Dull Cote on the models to eliminate the shine that ink washes create, and to help the colors "pop." Dull Cote kills the metallic sheen, though, so I spray it prior to painting the metals. Since summer is here, it's worth noting that if you spray Dull Cote outside and bring it inside into an air conditioned house, there is a good chance that it will frost up. So, leave the figures outside, in the garage, or on an open windowsill until they completely dry. Take care leaving plastic models (or even the plastic bases) in the sun, though!

Step 6. The final painting step is to finish off the metal. Basecoat the weapon hilts and helmet embellishments with P3 Molten Bronze and highlight with P3 Rhulic Gold. Basecoat the swords, armor, buckles, and helmets, and paint the cuts on the shields with P3 Pig Iron.

On the helmets, paint straight Scab/ Khorne Red between the banding. Then, shade all of the metal areas (including the cuts on the shields, bronze parts, and the red on the helmets) with a wash of Brown Ink.

Paint a line of GW Mithril Silver/ Runefang Steel along the edges of the blades.

Step 7. Finish off the figures by adding static grass to the bases, and send them forth to crush their foes!

When painting blocks of horde infantry like this, remember to keep it simple and quick. The overall appearance of the unit is more important than any individual model, so don't sweat any small mistakes or missed details. This is the reason that I paint the figures with their shields attached– I'm not tempted to spend too much time on the areas I can't reach with my brush. If the brush can't reach them, chances are they can't be seen on the table, either.

I hope you've found this guide useful and entertaining! Here are the completed Red Guard skeletons in all their glory:

Coming up, I'll show you how I make those banners.

'Til next time!