Tuesday, May 30, 2017

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.

Monday, May 29, 2017

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.