More Undead

Three more undead completed yesterday. These are all Citadel metal figures – Wraith, Ghost and Zombie.

Wraith, 1985 C18 (66) from ‘Night Horrors’; “Spirit 3” of the 1999/2000 Spirit Host (Vampire Counts) and  Zombie, 1988/89 130608 “Kand-Meet”.

The wraith is a typical “death” figure but would (I feel) have benefited from either holding a sword or scythe rather than the over-size sickle. I do like the absence of hands, feet and head. Painting was very straight forward being a mid-grey with black shading and then lighter gray highlight. This goes in a slotta-base very nicely, so that only a bit of robes actually seems to be in contact with the ground. I should have glued it to its final base much earlier – painting while it was held in its old base with ‘tack wasn’t balanced or steady.

The “Spirit”, which I’ve always termed a ghost was a gift from a friend who’d bought the full 3 figure spirit host. My web-search to identify the figure brought up Azazel’s painting of these and I used his painting as inspiration – just a bit more green! Also fairly simple to paint. I went for some lighting on the base (as if the spirit glows) which didn’t come out quite like I wanted but it’ll do!

The zombie took the most work since he’s fairly detailed. The plastic shield may or may not be the one I originally bought him with, but it had a depression for the nub on his arm and fitted perfectly. The armor is marked and has holes and rents, so I did the same for the shield. I thought some battered heraldry would also suit.

I dug up three metal and four plastic Daemonettes of Slaanesh for my painting tray earlier in the month. The metal ones probably got a bit of use for Warhammer Quest a decade ago. I had 8-10 plastic given to me back then that I assembled, and then sold most of on eBay. I rather doubt I’ll ever use them… ended up selling the three metal ones on Gumtree, and I’m down to the last four plastics. I may try eBay for these, or end up painting them. It’s time to dig through my figure boxes and see what isn’t painted… I know there’s still a few adventurers, and a bunch of Citadel Beastmen.

Back from the Dead…

The title reflects both the state of my computer and the undead I painted during October, while mostly not online.

It was a remarkable month for many reasons: my PC died, I had a Covid test & a day of working from home when one of the guys at work might have been exposed to Covid, the last of our three chickens got sick and died, and we had a windstorm that left lots of people in Melbourne without electricity, including us for 30 hours. Since we don’t have a gas connection, this meant no lights, hot water or cooking. Thankfully, the end of lock-down the week before meant we could go over to my Mum’s for dinner and a hot shower.

Being able to travel and visit people again is great, and with the fantastic assistance of a mate I now have my computer working (upgraded MB, CPU and RAM!) and everything on it working normally.

While I had no PC, I did a lot of reading and got back into some painting. Now I’ve got blogs to catch up on, and pictures to take and post myself. I was lucky enough to be able to bring a work laptop home to keep up on some of the forums I read. I’m determined to make more regular backups of stuff on my system, and not just to a secondary hard drive, but to a USB. An up-to-date printed page with logins, passwords and site references, etc is also a must.

The three undead today all came from the UK in a miniatures swap with Subedai of the Lost and the Damned. One had been painted before and needed a clean up first. All are metal.

The first is a Prince August figure (1984, SK6, Skeleton) This one is history revisited for me: There are seven figures in this range (SK1-7) and I bought a blister pack of three (SK5-7) in the late 80’s. I dug them out to make sure this guy was painted in the same style. I first thought I had a slightly different figure, then realized that he’s actually missing his right arm. After painting, he looks like he has an arm there. (Only a humerus, not a radius & ulna.) The last picture shows him on the far right with my original three.

The next two figures are Citadel (I think) – I did look at the slotta base before filing it down to fit a plastic base and all I recall about them now is that each said “Skeleton”. The internet suggests these two are both from GW Citadel: UN2 (20) Agog Deathblow (Skeleton Infantry) and C17 (CJ-07) Skeleton Gunner, both 1987.

These three figures were all fun to paint. I particularly enjoyed the “gunner”. I’m saving him for my Gamma World game, though he might fit into a fantasy game in the right circumstances. He has hints of fluoro green that the phone camera hasn’t really picked up. I’m particularly pleased with his left eye – I got a dot of fluoro green in that eye socket with one attempt that I couldn’t replicate in the other. (The right eye has some green, but its not a fine point, nor as bright.)

 

Painting Skaven #6: Warlock (Final)

Finally, the last skaven – unless there’s a figure or two in the wrong storage box! That’s a group of 24 all done.

This is a metal slotta-based Citadel (Games Workshop) figure from 1995 – #74472/2 “Skaven Warlock with skull”.

I’d considered doing his robes in purple, and when I got started on Friday night realised that there’s a separate jacket over the robes. The jacket was done in fushia with the lower robes in the same but lightened with white. Then I red inked the jacket, and purple inked the robes. Everything went smoothly from there, with colours suggesting themselves as I went along. A final bit of black ink over everything make the holes and folds were distinct, then highlighting. When taking the photographs this morning I noticed I hadn’t coloured the chaos symbol on the belt buckle. That’s now been fixed.

I’ve really enjoyed these last two skaven, and I like the warlock more than the plague monk. I’m very pleased to have got through the whole group, and they make a very nice force.

Last of all, a group shot. I had a lot of fun setting this up, which is a sure sign that it’s been way too long since I’ve done any table-top gaming. I already had planned to write these guys into my mega-dungeon. Now I want to set up something like this seen to play out a really big battle. You should be able to click on the pictures for a bigger image.

Painting Skaven #5: Plague Monk

I was determined to get another skaven painted this weekend and I’m very happy to have succeeded!

This is a metal slotta-based Citadel (Games Workshop) figure from 1993 – Clan Pestilens 74451/5 “Plague Monk”. I’d been planning red-brown robes, but saw some newer plague monks with yellow robes and black hoods. The yellow got my attention, but being plaguey, I wanted a dirty yellow. Once I got going other things fell into place.

Painting took longer than it should have, but I’ve interspersed that with some computer gaming, reading, housework and preparing another batch of figures.If the weather report is correct he can go out for a varnish spray tomorrow.

A number of years back I got some Mantic Dwarfs from Azazel, and last year (I think last year) I got some figures from Subadai (Lost & the Damned) and decided it’s a good time to get some of these done too. There are nine dwarfs, three skeletons and my last skaven ready to work on. (Only two skellies in the picture, the third didn’t need cleaning and undercoat like all these did.)

Yes, that’s a skeleton with a blunderbuss!

Painting Skaven #4: Grey Seer

I finished painting this guy yesterday, making this about four months since I started preparing all my skaven for painting. (Maybe two months since I did any figure painting… not encouraging.) He’s been sitting on my desk for way too long, but he’s not the last. There’s still two more to go!

This figure is a metal Games Workshop (Citadel) figure from 1993, 74464 “Grey Seer Thanquol”. I could have been a little fussier with some of the detail, but I reached the point where I’m happy and just wanted to say “done”.

My main problem with these last three skaven has been colors. I’ve learned that I do really well when I’m copying a card/comic/movie or whatever – an established color scheme – but struggle with individual figures where I have to choose everything myself. It doesn’t always happen, but it’s certainly why I haven’t gotten anywhere with these last few skaven.

It’s too cold for spray varnish this weekend. He can go back on the tray until probably Tuesday, when we are meant to reach 17 degrees and sunny! The next figure I’m hoping to start today is a plague monk, and I’ve decided on red/browns for his robe. The last, a skaven warlock (engineer) might get some type of purple.

Painting Skaven #3: Assassins and Warlord

Three more skaven. These are all metal single-piece figures produced in 1995 by Citadel (Games Workshop) for Warhammer: #74471/1 Skaven Assassin 1, #74471/3 Skaven Assassin 3 and #74465 “Warlord Queek”.

Assassin #1 (L), Assassin #3 (R)

The poses and detail are good. Assassin #3 has poison or something along the end of his blade which I’m not a fan of simply because its over-the-top. I trimmed it a little. I probably could have removed it entirely, but didn’t want to chance taking a chunk out of his leg or tail. In the end I’ve painted it up and had fun with it. Assassin #1 with his two blades makes for a nice rogue or warrior depending on what my game calls for.

Warlord Queek came with a large skull-topped “banner” that was to be attached to his back, which I found rather cumbersome. I filled down the stud it fitted on. It could be easily made into a hand-held banner, or a marker, so I might yet find a use for it. (I have a second, smaller banner too. I don’t know what figure it was associated with originally)

“Queek” is also quite detailed and took some time making sure I was getting everything done without mucking up something else. There’s all the chainmail, the plate/banded armour and assorted decorations! He has a belt with a satchel, 4 pouches, and horned rat belt buckle, a second rope belt with pouch and skull, gloves, necklace, and decorated weapons! I’d almost finished painting when I wondered about what supported all these pouches, and found that what I thought was part of his armour is a wide belt.

This is another submission to Anne’s April Painting Challenge.

 

Painting Skaven #2: Clanrats

A dozen plastic skaven. I believe I bought these as a box of 12 in the early 1990’s, but a mate who was also collecting citadel figures at the time thought these came as 6’s, They are single-piece slotta-base figures, all identical. These should be Warhammer 4th edition clanrats, and I have seen some of these with shields. I certainly have a bunch of “skaven” shields that could have been part of this set, but I have neither used them in the past, nor feel like painting them up and gluing them on now. I like them the way they are.

The pose is good, and there is quite a bit of detail with armour, fur, armbands, cap, earring, etc. The clothing detail tends to soften a bit under the cloak/hood, with what I presume to be a belt only being defined along its lower edge. It’s nothing you’d notice unless holding the figure up, and now that its painted, its even less obvious.

I’ve stuck to three colours for clothing, varied to break the set up into three smaller groups. I used antique copper & gold for armbands, silver & bright bronze for ear-rings, mostly just grabbing a figure at random each time. I haven’t really done any highlighting except for some silver on the edge of the blades. (Which I wanted dark – gunmetal, then a good coat of green ink; which isn’t that noticeable in the second image.) My initial ‘wash’ of brown over skin and fur has left the raised portions lighter in colour, and I gave most of them a light dry-brush of flesh over the face and tail. Cloaks and kilts were done with very fluid paint, leaving places (that I would normally highlight) a bit lighter, and then brown/black used to shade depressions and creases in the clothing.

These are also a submission to Anne’s April Painting Challenge, and won’t be the last I’ll have.

My next six skaven are all individual figures. I’ve decided fur colours, but I’m still thinking about cloaks and robes, etc. Since these are all leaders (heroes doesn’t seem the right word, but neither does anti-heroes) I’ll take a bit more time with each.

Painting Skaven #1: Stormvermin

Here’s my first set of skaven finished. Six stormvermin from Citadel 1993 and 1995. I started with these rather than the clanrats. There were less of them, they aren’t all the same and I had a good idea of how I wanted to paint them.

These are all metal figures. While there are two main “poses” here, each of the six is unique. They all have a slightly different weapon, variations in armour, equipment, and heads. Some have chainmail, others small armour plates hanging from their belt. One has a ‘stud’ on his left arm (front far-right) where he should have a shield. I would think that having a shield would make wielding your 8 1/2 foot-long fauchard somewhat awkward, unless it was merely a buckler. (In my game scale, these guys are 5′ high.) I do have some skaven shields, but they look too large. Given some more time I may paint a smaller shield I have to add to the figure.

For D&D/Pathfinder purposes I’m planning to consider all of these to be wielding glaives or glaive-guisarmes. Nomenclature of polearms is a crazy thing, and I’ve spent more than enough time this week trying to get an idea of what each is wielding, but for gaming purposes I need to be able to lump them all together.

If you want a fun look at polearms, watch this video by Lindybeige. Here’s a game from the end of that video: Try to get someone to express an opinion on a historical pole-arm that you made up. Extra points if it has a very silly name.

It’s Snotlings, but not as you know it…

I’ve completed this group of 14 snotlings from Warhammer Quest (GW) in pretty much two days, which could be a record (for me) for painting that many figures in a short time. While the weather has been a cold mess recently, I got enough sunshine Friday morning to spray them white and let them dry outside, and again this morning to give them two coats of clear acrylic.

 

I chose these for two reasons. Firstly, I’ve been writing a section of my mega-dungeon that has a group of gremlins – rather small humanoids. I have a good batch of painted GW goblins, but no small humanoids (apart from my distinctive kobolds) for general purpose use. These are just the right size for generic small humanoids, and there’s a lot of them. Second, while they have some nice detail, each is simply holding a club and wearing a loincloth. I expected them to be pretty easy and quick to paint, and they were!

 

These have only been used as Snotlings when I was playing Warhammer Quest regularly. Now, with a standard (not-green) flesh colour, they will stand in for any small humanoid, be it gremlin, mite, or darkfolk. They are 3 feet high by D&D’s scale. I picked three colours to paint the loin cloths, so I can always use a specific colour to represent a particular group, or just throw them all in together. I also clipped off a few club spikes for a tiny bit of variety.

I’m very happy having some more painting done, especially something that will see use. Now I can go back to trying to ignore at the 12 undercoated figures on the side of my painting desk like I have for past months.

 

Orctober – A squad of Citadel Orcs

Today I finished my squad of orc warriors for Azazel’s Orktober Unit/Squad Challenge.

These figures are all Citadel/Warhammer from a couple of decades ago. 6 typical orc warriors with swords and 4 orc “bigguns” with sword and shield. Plus a single goblin spearman as a mascot. The goblin got missed when I did my earlier group of goblins because he’s a different sculpt and the only one of his type I have.

 

Following my research on orcs in RPG’s I started these guys off differently to my previous orcs. I mixed a mid grey with flesh to paint their skin and was very happy with the way they looked. I’m inclined to do the same in future, with perhaps a little more grey.

 

I used the same fushia for pants, brown for boots and red belts to match up with the previous group of orcs. The standard warriors have a similar (but not the same) brown shirt to the previous warriors. All have a green tint (Army painter ink, green tone) over gunmetal for their metal shoulder plates, to tie them in with the two orc champions that I’ve previously painted.

 

 

I spent a bit more time and effort on these compared to the previous orcs and goblins – mostly because they are slightly more detailed sculpts. I’ll also be away for two weeks near the end of the month and don’t expect to get anything else painted before I leave. I don’t really feel like starting anything else, but there’s 14 kobolds on my desk (mostly reaper bones) that I’m thinking of at least giving a base colour to.