Zywus's log of all things Undead

[Zywus]

Greetings people of Warseer.

A long time undead collector, i have recently once again been bitten by the proverbial hobby-vampire and decided to uppdate, restore, as well as expand and improve the state of said collection.

I suspect that the log will creep forward at a rather zombie-like pace in the beginning, since much of my stuff is tucked away at places other than my current residence and my assortment of paints are non-existent, so most of the painting have to be done at the mercy of my wargaming-friend(s) with their stuff.

Anyway, better to have a slow start than to not start at all, right?

The fact that i have nothing to paint with, have actually given me no excuse not to get to modelling and assembling some larger pieces, which i have put of for quite some time. Unfortunately i have no pictures from before the work began, as the inspiration for a log only came to me recently.

Behold, two terrifying monstrosities:

Yes, it's Dieter Helsnicht on his trusted Manticore. And the old metal Zombie Dragon (nicknamed Flying Cabbage back in the days).

Pic from the Front:


I have tried to hide the seems from assembly with greenstuff, which have been rather successful, but not perfect. The top will be obscured by Dieter himself though so it matters less then the seams by the legs.




The wings originally had scales on the part meeting the body. As there are no scales otherwise on the manticore, i thought it to be better if i modelled fur into them. The scales have been cut away and a thin layer of GS is applied.


Next... a closer examination of the Dragon.

[Zywus]

Ahh... The Zombie Dragon.

I have loved this model ever since i saw a picture of it painted in a different colorsceme than GW's green cabbage-sceme. It took several years for me to get my hands on one though, as i never really had any use of one for gaming-purpouses.

The Dragon was bought second hand on E-bay and were missing one of the legs (front right one). Hovever, there also were no head or neck! Something i had missed during my cascual glance of the picture included. (no wonder it was so cheep)

Some wailing and gnashing of teeth later, i realized that the new plastic Giant had a sweet dragon scull on his club and so through the magic of the internet and bitz-shops i had the head in my hands.

The throat is very much WIP with the bones coming of old undead bone-chariot, and a layer of GS under it. I intend to bulk up the throat a bit, leaving the spine bones exposed. I have been told that the neck maybe looks a bit to strait. Anyone egree, and if so, any suggestions on how to fix it?

Dragon coming right at you!



Dragon from the side:


Close up of the Neck in progress. Too strait?

[Grain Weevil]

Nice
Neck...hmm maybe some tendons from back of the head?

[Zywus]

Yes, The neck still needs some work. Especially where the spine meets the head. I'm a bit wary of proceeding with that though, until i feel i have the angle right on the neck as a whole.

I have also considered adding one or two horns. I quite like the look of the skull as it is now, but i haven't tried fitting any suitable horns to it so it might look better.

[Zywus]

The big boys is put on hold for a while. I recently bought a second hand tomb king army which I'm stripping and repainting. There were unfortunately some fuss when i tried to remove heads and arms, since the previous modeller had used quite a lot of plastic glue. I hope they will still look ok when painted.

Anyway, here are some skeleton archers ready to be undercoated. 40 of them in all. No point in fiddling around with lesser numbers than that when it comes to skeletons.

The Bodies:


Most of the Arms, Quivers and some heads.

[Zywus]

So, onwards to some Cavalry. 25 skeletal horses ready for undercoating. 10 of them will be archers and the remaining 15 gets to be 'heavy'-cavalry in a later project. I know they suck ruleswise but i think they will look nice if i only get hold of some good shields and helmets, plus sculpt some armour to differentiete them from the archers, plus i already have made and painted 10 horse archers already (those pictures will be available in a few weeks)

Anyways: All the horses together.


I try to give my skeletons some life (or should that be unlife) by posing them in as dynamic poses as possible. Making the head follow the trajectory of the bow etc. goes a long way. I'm unfortunally a bit limited with these models as many of the left-arms made for the bows have been used on other models by the pervious owner, and cannot be removed without destroying them.

The bowmen:


Looking to the side at stuff passing by. (he looks a bit wierd in the photo. The pose looks better from the front)


Spying ahead for enemies


Shooting Pose

[Zywus]

Other shooting pose.


Drawing an arrow from his quiver.


Regular dudes. Have to use the boring left arms for something.

[Zywus]

Gonna put a cap in yo ass!

And from the side.

I still have some cleaning to do on the riders, but the glue have to dry a bit before I dare to start scraping moldlines of them.

Over and out
/Zywus

[Kronos]

This looks very interesting, I like the the wip of the zombie dragon, and I've always very much liked Dieter Helsnicht miniature. I'm also liking this new wave of people reviving some old school miniatures, surely vamps had to urn up at some point

[Zywus]

This looks very interesting, I like the the wip of the zombie dragon, and I've always very much liked Dieter Helsnicht miniature. I'm also liking this new wave of people reviving some old school miniatures, surely vamps had to urn up at some point

Yup, there will be a bunch of old shool models popping up in the future. I have models enough of the old 80/90's skeletons and ghouls to make at least a complete unit of each. The old skeletons really had a cuteness factor to them that the new ones can't match.

[Zywus]

All right, time for an update.

I have been able to get some painting time in and have almost finished both the 40 archers on foot and the 10 horsemen. I have also been able to photograph some models that I painted before the log was started.

Unfortunally i forgot my camera and had to use the mobile phone so the picture quality does not match the previous photos. To make matters worse, i ran out of batterytime on the phone and could not photograph the horsemen. They will have to wait some time for their 15 minutes of fame.

So onto the pictures:

Some archers i had painted earlier. (The banners still need some work though)



A gang of skeleton crossbowmen, not supported in current rules unfortunately, but can be used as archers:


Picture from the top:




The new guys, previously shown unpainted. Most of the arms still need to be attached obviously:

[Zywus]

The whole archerhorde together. A bit blurry photo i'm afraid:


I also managed to photograph some war machines before the battery ran out. I give you a old favourite:



And another (rather similar). The armour will recive a bit more work, otherwise they are rather completed I think:


Both together:


That's all for now.

[Zywus]

The horsemen will make an appearance rather soon.

[Kronos]

Those skellies look very good, simple paintjob but effective. I don't know what bits you used to make the crossbow armed skeletons but they look so much better than bow wielding ones.

I don't know what is about your minis but there's something unsettling about them (and your avatar) and I strangely like it

[Zywus]

Those skellies look very good, simple paintjob but effective. I don't know what bits you used to make the crossbow armed skeletons but they look so much better than bow wielding ones.

Thank you. I have chosen a rather simple paintjob so that i get around to finish stuff in a realistic amount of time. I have never really been a natural artist when it comes to paining so i usually stick to the stuff i know i can do well, mostly drybrushing and inking/washing.

The crossbowskellies is just regular skeletons with crossbows from the latest Empire line and some lesser greenstuff work to make some non-closed fists. On the crossbows that had hands already attached to them i just left the hands on and painted them bone. It's quite unnoticeable unless you look real close.

I don't know what is about your minis but there's something unsettling about them (and your avatar) and I strangely like it

Unsettling ey? That's quite fitting for a bunch of evil skeletons i guess.
On the subject of unsettling avatars i must say your's are making me a bit uneasy whenever i look at it.

My avatar is actually someone's (no idea whom) rendition of Gollum.
He is a bit on the heavy side compared to the scrawny Gollums of todays movies and art.

Here's the full image. (notice Bilbo in the bottom right corner)


On a unrelated subject. You'll soon recieve a PM about the metal graveguards you are trading.

[Zywus]

My Heavy Horsemen has recieved some work. I plan to make 15 of them. As of now though, I have only the horses to paint so that's what i've done.

The two extra horses just got along for the ride, since i might as well paint them as well.

The Horses:


To spice things up i'll also showcase some familliars.

Guy with scrolls:

-This guy is actually not painted by me but by a friend of mine to match my army. Hence the better then normal quality of the scrolls.

Book with legs:
- This one is a bit WIP still. I have a hard time getting the paper on the pages right. Once i'm satisfied with that, i can finish the bindings and the ribbon/page marker. The legs turned out ok i guess, although the highlight might be a bit sharp, so i suppose they classifies as finished my my standards.

[Zywus]

Alright, some progress made again.

Firstly, i've decided to repaint my Wight Cavalry to match my new painting style.

Their Horses: (still a bit WIP, needs another layer of bone and their bases are barely started on)


And the Wights themselves:

I really love these models. It may just be my absolute favourites in the entire undead range. It's just a shame they just got the regular skeletal horses instead of something more fancy.


Additionally, after an ungodly amount of time spent on drilling and pinning, i have finished assembling two Tomb Scorpions. They should be rather quick to get painted, since they consist mostly of bone.

Two scorps: (horrible picture quality i'm afraid. I really need it to be sunny if i'm to get good pictures it seems)

[Zywus]

So, finally the horse archers can be shown in their full glory. (actually they can't really since there are still some touchups left to do, such as a lot of metalbits and perhaps a highlight or two on their green cloth)

The first 10 guys:


And another angle:


The other 10 guys:


And everyone in one picture (ethereal style):

[Zywus]

Another picture of them all. Perhaps even worse quality. I once again forgot to bring a proper camera to my models. It seems to be a recent curse cast upon me.

[Zywus]

The second unit of 40 bowmen is now glued together and almost completely finished:


A firing-line of the entire missile contingent of 80 bowmen. Ready to darken the sky with arrows.


A sad thought is that all those archers firing together would only fell about six dwarves in Heavy armour, even if they're not equipped with shields.