Snakes on a plain...

I have finished adding some colour to my converted Necropolis Knights units.

I liked the way the conversions turned out on these knights. The models themselves are fairly static out of the box and I always had the thought of trying to make them more animated. Judge the results for yourselves...

The unit as a whole ranks up well, with no model knocking against any other in the unit. They look like (to me) they are slithering across the desert as a cohesive whole. The models are slithering over broken desert terrain, with the champion's snake wrapping around a pillar and looming over the enemy to strike.

I really like this champion model and is it one of the most ambitious conversion projects I have undertaken. It actually would have probably been easier to sculpt the body of the snake around the pillar, rather then try to use the actual model parts. But it turned out well, in my opinion.

The rest are a little more vanilla, but the snakes bodies have been chopped up to allow them to slither over broken desert terrain (used resin Egyptian-inspired pieces and wedding cake pillars). The snakes often ended up in slightly off-centre poses and the riders had to be repositioned to make it look like they are still in control and not falling off.

Overall, I am very happy with the unit and (as they are sold) I hope they do well for their new commander.

See you in the next update (which should be a Super Dungeon Explore one, if I finish the boss...).

The clatter of chariots

I have painted up some tomb kings chariots - well, they are the original plastic undead chariots, just that they can only really fit into Tomb Kings in the current game.

  

 

As with the rest of my Tomb Kings, I went for a simple paint scheme (not much you can do with bone, to be fair). In my army, these were part of the 'desert raider' contingent (hence the head wraps). I also went with a bronze effect metallic instead of a bright gold. 

I tried to be dynamic with the positioning of the crew in the chariots and the old plastic skeletons lend themselves to that perfectly (they are superior to the newer ones, in every way). 

The first chariot has a swordsman crew member chopping his blade down.

The second chariot has an axeman.

 The third chariot has a curved swordsman.

Finally, the fourth chariot has a barbarian king riding in it; he has armour (as befitting his status) and a spear.

 These chariots are up for sale on eBay, as are more of my Tomb Kings (as I am not playing Warhammer much at the moment).

I posted pictures of the following models elsewhere on my Blog. However, I have decided to offer them up for private sale before putting them on eBay. I will be open to offers on these models and I can also offer to paint them if you would like (your choice of colour scheme and quality - you can see the quality of my models elsewhere, in many ways my Tomb Kings are on the lower end of my quality).

You can contact me through my eBay profile (probably how you found this blog) or you can contact me by eMail at: alakazam(at)ntlworld(dot)com

Anyway, the models themselves:

Skeleton Archer unit: 21 individual models (including a standard and a musician) plus a unit filler that take up 8 spaces, meaning a footprint of 29 archers (space for a character to make 30). The models have all been converted to have egyptian style kilts (made from green stuff). The unit filler is 3 skeletons clambering over a half buried egyptian-style statue head.

 3 Tomb Kings chariots (standard, musician and champion).

Separatly, a Tomb King/Prince in a stylish chariot as befitting his station. The Character model is the plastic one from the Warsphinx sprue and the chariot is an out of production High Elf chariot (which fits the style of the Tomb Kings well).

6 Necropolis Knights (including standard, musician and champion). All of these models have been converted to a greater or lesser degree, mostly to make them look better on scenic bases. The champion model has been heavily converted to wrap around a pillar.

I would be willing to split these models up and sell them in 3s if someone did not want the whole 6.

So, there you have it, the rest of my Tomb Kings for sale (excepting the characters, not sure what I am doing with them yet). If you are interested, I can post up more pictures of the models from different angles on request.

See you in the next update.

Praise the Sun[titan]!

A quick update regarding my scratch-built Heirotitan - he is painted.

I did him mostly stone and goldleaf with some lapis lazuli (turquoise) stones inserted into the statue.

As for the building of the model itself: the top half is the Necrosphinx and he has a scratch built staff (made from brass rod and plastic card) and scratch built scales (made from a bow, some modelling chain and shoulder pads). And the legs? A Thor action figure. I am not joking. He has Thor's legs. Thor wears some sort of chainmail and I filled most of it in using liquid green stuff. However, I wish I had now used milliput (watered into a paste) as the liquid green stuff still left 'rippling' on the legs.

Anyway, some pictures:

 So, there he is; a scratch-built Heirotitan.

See you in the next update.

Skulls of the Foe!

I have painted some more of my Tomb kings army; the Catapults and some Horsemen.

First up, here are the Catapults:

These are the older Catapults, which I think look better than the new Tomb Kings one (personal preference, of course). I have also made Skulls of the Foes tokens for each catapult, so that upgrade can be represented on the board.

The paint job is deliberately simple; I don't see catapults as grand colourful contraptions. More likely, they are crewed by reanimated slaves with an overseer.

I really like these catapult models.

Next up, I have completed a unit of Skeleton Horsemen.

These Horsemen match the colour scheme of the Regulars in the rest of the Tomb Kings army, namely the white cloth with the turquoise as opposed to the black headclothes of the horse archers. This is because these are part of the regular army, acting as battlefield messengers and scouts.
In game, they have some use chasing off missile cavalry or redirecting charges onto the warmachines.

Well, that is it for this quick update. The next one is a scratch built Hierotitan I am working on at the moment.

See you in the next update.

More Dry Bones... and some Spawn.

As Promised, a mini update (pun intended?) with the finished Tomb kings Archer unit.

As I said in the last update, the regular soldiers are wearing white cloth (as opposed to the black of the raiders). Notice the archers have all been converted to have kilts.
The unit filler (equivalent to 4 models footprint) has a broken obelisk with scarabs crawling on it.

I will post more Tomb Kings as I paint them up.

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I had these Chaos Spawn models lying around that I found. I liked these Spawn so decided to post them for your viewing pleasure.

This one I nicknamed 'The Beast' in our games because he has pulled off a ton of impressive kills and plays and my regular opponents knew to fear him. He has had no conversions on him, I just like the way he is painted; particularly the way his red eye contrasts with the white and blue of the rest of him.

 This one was nicknamed 'Prawn Man' and it is easy to see why. This spawn has been converted; his legs were chopped away and he has been given crab-like legs, with his abdomen built up with modelling putty.
He was useless in our games, doing little of note. But I love him anyway...

 Again, I will see you in the next update.

Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones!

Greetings and welcome to a WFB update to my painting efforts.

I have been adding to my painted Tomb Kings, probably going to sell them. I already have quite a bit painted and decided to paint the rest and sell them on. I liked the army and spent some time converting them all (as you will see), but I am not really playing Warhammer at the moment. Focusing on SAGA instead (need to finish painting my Welsh and then finish building my Shiney Rus, which I am really looking forward to playing with).

Anyway, on with the miniatures!

First up, we have some Horse Archers. I have added a sort of tattered headscarf to these guys. Basically, in my army I have the regular standing professional soldiers and a contingent of auxiliary desert raiders. Obviously, these are desert raiders.

There are 10 in total. This is the first 5.

And the second lot of 5.

I posed them in (what I believe to be) animated desert raider poses. Both units have a leader type that is signalling his men and urging them forward while others whoop and jeer or hold their bows side-on.

I don't really see the Tomb kings as slow and ponderous like the Vampire Counts, where the skeletons and zombies are just animated bodies driven by the will of the Vampire/Necromancer. The lore for Tomb Kings says that they retain some of their personality in undeath and they are semi-autonomous.

Next, we have a Tomb Scorpion.
I converted this model to be bursting up from the sand (as it has that special rule). I had to chop half the model away, but the massacre is covered by sand.

I quite like the way this model turned out. Its a fairly static model and there is not a lot you can really do with it (without making it something totally different, but I wanted to really avoid massive radical changes - just opting to make each model more dynamic and life-like instead).

Next up is the Casket of Souls.

Whereas the desert raiders wear black cloth, all the regular army undead wear white as here. White, gold and bone are the main colours, which turquoise as a contrasting colour.
Incidentely, the guards' weapons are not original. I only got 1 sword in the box and I could not be bothered dealing with GW mail order to get another so I just used standard TK swords. I think they look fine.
Oh, this is the 'failcast' version of the casket - I prefer the weight and ease of the 'failcast' over the metal, if not for the holes and bubbles I had to fill... But it turned out just fine.

Finally, here is the Warsphinx.

I converted this model to be conducting its special stomp attack, and crushing the ground while it is at it. Again, its another fairly static model and this seemed a good way to bring it to life.
I really like this model and I am pleased how it turned out (its my favourite of the 'howdah-hammer' models, until the release the Wood Elf Tree-man House...).

I have lots more Tomb Kings to paint. I have a large unit of archers done (nearly at the photo-able stage, just finishing off a unit filler) and loads more converted and undercoated. And here they are...

 (A Hierotitan conversion)

 (Necropolis Knights - check out the champion's snake around the pillar!)

 (some Horsemen)

 (Classic chariots - these are desert raiders with headscarfs)

 (Chariots, including a Tomb King/Prince on chariot conversion)

 (Classic Skull Catapults - I actually prefer these models to the 'proper' one)

 (Priests - 1 normal, 1 from another range and 2 imperial wizard conversions)

(another large unit of archers with a unit filler - all my archers have kilts on. No, not Scottish ones...)

Once my other unit of archers is ready to be photographed (probably by tomorrow), I will do that and post it here.

See you in the next update.