From Ross M: 28mm Skeleton Archers (60 points)

 These figures were not meant to be a part of this challenge or anything at present however, plans are made to be changed and changed they were. 

There is a mixture of old and new in this so starting with the new, well nearly all of the new at eleven Oathmark skeleton based as a regiment for Kings of War. There is a twelfth figure on another base that will be here shortly. 

When I say new, I should say newly painted as the figures have been in the pile of shame for several years now. The colour scheme was painted to match the previously painted figures as best as possible and there is one of the rear right hand group that does just that. 

Here are both groups together, with the newly painted to the right of screen as viewed and the previously painted to the left. Same figures, paints, painting methods and varnishing; the difference between left and right has been a different primer. The newly painted were primed with grey car primer the previously painted skeletons had been primed with Army Painter Skeleton Bone....just goes to show how a little change can make a difference.

Basing these has been interesting and very similar to basing Impetus armies about a decade or so ago. The multi-figure base allows more use of flocks, tufts and foliage to create a theme on the basing and as a result across the army. 

Hope that you like these and that I'll be able to sneak a post in before the end of the week. In terms of points I make this to be:

12 x 28mm infantry at 5 each = 60 points

12 skulls at 1 each = 12 points

Total for this entry being 72 points

Thanks for looking and if I am unable to post for the 20th, its been great being part of this in 2024/25. 

Cheers for now.

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The best plans are those that incorporate agility to shift with our ever changing whims Ross! And I'm thrilled that these bony lads made the cut. They really come together well en mass and the purple wildflowers on the basing give a great splash of colour to bring them together. Good stuff!

60 points for the figs (skulls don't get extra points that I'm tracking, sorry)

- Paul

From SteveM: Tireless, remoreless warriors (50 points)

I picked up the this box of Deathrattle Skeleton Warriors a couple years ago as I had not painted a skeleton unit before and these looked pretty cool to try out. In looking at the army they go with, the Soulblight Gravelords army, there are some other miniatures that I might want to paint.

The box art shows the standard with a skull iconography painted on, but I decided to not go that route. Maybe I will paint on something like the crescent and sword from the later version AOS codex example in the future.

 Something to keep in mind if assembling these. make sure to weight down the base as a few of them are top heavy.

 

 

 

 

Genre: Fantasy, Warhammer Age of Sigmar

Mfg: Games Workshop

Material: plastic

Scale: 28mm 

Points:

10 miniatures * 5 pts = 50 pts

Total: 50 pts

 Sylvain: A skeleton always seem like an easy figure to paint, but your brushwork on these miniatures really makes them shine (figuratively). The worn out leather, the rotten pieces of wood, the rusty metal parts, the torn clothes, all these little details you added makes me think: "Yep, I want my soldiers ripped apart by these nicely painted skellies!" Great job!

From TeemuL: A Fistful of Skeletons [Heresy] (121 points)

One of the many sideprojects I have (I guess I don't really have any main projects:)) is this Warmaster army. I have painted couple of bases before for the previous Challenges, here's one example: Heavy Metal. In December I heard there might be other players in my area, so I decided I need to paint couple of more units to my army. I need some character at least to lead an army, but with these I have enough units for a very small army for a small battle to learn the rules. I guess. There are six bases of basic skeletons with handweapons and shields including two command bases and one base of cavalry. I have now six cavalry bases in total and some archer units from earlier painting sessions.

These are all painted with Contrast paints excluding the metal areas and freehand skulls on the shields. Basing is simple and traditional, goblin green everywhere, then some PVA glue and green sawdust and they are ready to battle on the legendary green grass graveyards of Khemri... I understand the gravestones kind of underline the fact, that these are undead from the graves, some skeletons are still emerging from underground. But why there would be battle in the graveyard? Happily this seems to be a human graveyard and all the warriors were buried with their green shields (with skull motifs) and red shafted weapons! I mean how ragtag they'd look like if they were just random unarmed people from every race in different coloured rags? No Necromancer would never accept a chaos like that!

I must say they look rather nice, grouped thightly together like this and seen from above. Quite pleasing, I'd say. And still enough details and size to actually paint them. And they can be painted in reasonable amount of time, too. Hmm... What would be an ideal "scale" for a wargamer, I guess that is a question I must ask myself (and everyone else on the internet forums). It would be much simpler, if all the miniatures would be the same size, don't you agree? :)

Here they are from the side. As you can see, they are not nicely glued to the bases... They were painted by previous owner and I stripped the paint. I tried to be clever and not remove all the basing material, believing it would make it easier to hide metal bases. Yeah, you can see. The sawdust is so light, it doesn't really cover any gaps, I need to be more careful with the next batch and add some filler to the edges. Additionally some of the strips are not in 90 degree angle, but leaning a bit forward, something I noticed too late. Or was too lazy. But I believe they look quite ok on the battlefield.

Finally a closeup of the hand painted skulls and some bony butts. Geoff has made an observation that necromancy is heresy and I will follow that idea and claim 20 bonus points for Heresy circle (which is next to the Violence circle where I were).

There are 4 cavalry models, 3 points each. And then 89 skeletons in total (I have counted two half skeletons as one full) for 1 point each. 101 points from the skeletons and 20 bonus points, 121 points!

Additionally 90 skulls on skeletons (some are too hooded to count) and 3 on banners plus 83 hand painted skulls on shields and banners.176 skulls in total.

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Oooh, Barks will be very pleased with this entry, Teemu. Wonderful work here. Tomb Kings were my first Warmaster army way back in the day and I think you've done a great job on these boney fellas. I agree, 10mm is a wonderful scale to work in and it just works so nicely for close-ranked units, giving a terrific sense of mass. Also, nice work on hand painting all those skulls on the front ranks' shields - this will please Skully McSkullface to no end. 

Well done Teemu!

- Curt & Huck

From TeemuL: New Wave of British (and American) Heavy Metal [Rare and Antique Books] (142 points)

Snowlord being the avid fan of heavy metal music (including Anvil from Canada) he asked me to dig up some old metal minis from my collection and paint them as the Rare and Antique Books entry. And here we go, starting with the rather fresh British metal minis. Warmaster was released in 2000 and these minis are from that time, they are not necessarily antique for some, but they are quite rare as the whole game and the miniatures have been long gone without new prints or reprints or relaunches. Which is kind of strange, because I have heard that the ruleset is generally quite well liked, being in the top 3 ruleset by GW with Blood Bowl and LotR.

Two Challenges ago I painted some archers and cavalry, this time I decided to paint the rest of the bowskeletons. I had minis for three command bases and for one regular base (I painted three regular previously), but that's what you get when painting second hand minis. I followed my recipe from the first batch, painting mainly with Citadel Contrasts. The red bows were of course a must and as green goes well with red, it has been used in banners and shields (and bases, naturally). What clothes they have are purple/pink.

There are quite a lot of skulls, both sculpted and painted. There are 32 skeletons in total and 29 have their head visible enough to claim it as a skull. There are six more sculpted skulls in the banner poles and shields, that's 35. And then 14 hand painted in shields and banners. I decided to paint 1, 2 and 3 skulls in the banners to differentiate them. What other symbol would the skeletons use other than skull? 49 skulls in total.

Some skulls

Let's get to the real era of NWOBHM, the 1980s! Here we have a Roque Trader era Space Marine Dreadnought Deredeo class from 1987, when they were modestly priced at £3,50. I paid a bit more when I bought this one in January, but I still consider it as a bargain.

I decided to paint this one as Howling Griffon to join my small force of 2nd Space Marines (I know some like to paint them as Blood Angels, but I decided to paint something more colourful). It was rather easy to paint (to this level), just blocking the base colours and then Reikland Flesh Shade wash before one or two highlights. Yes, it is basically just red, yellow and black. I could have gone wild and paint every detail in different colour, but I wanted him to be recognized as a Howling Griffon so decided not to.

The base is a "modern" size 60mm MDF base from Warbases, so I could actually use him in the modern games. I just need to find out what his guns are before devastating the enemy units. :)

The early design shows, the model is very round in every way and there are not really any places to add chapter heraldy. I found a small plate on his left shoulder and painted a logo there and another Roman 1 on the front to give him some details. I'm quite happy with the eyes, too. And no skulls...

Then we move over the pond. Grenadier miniatures was an American company, producing a wide range of minis. Here I present two oldies from their collection. First Grenadier Julie Guthrie's Personalities II 8120 Berserker in Wolf Skin, which I investigated, tracked and recognized after painting him, so he is wearing a brown spotted yellow wolf skin, typical for the fantasy land he is from...

Berserker and prince

Next one is a prince, who was available at least with two different codes, Grenadier A301 King and Princes Prince or Fantasy Lords Second Series 010 King & Princes Prince. A Prince nevertheless. I went with quite colourful outfit for him, a stylish prince.

Fighter, Thied and Third One

Ral Partha was another American miniature company, they made a huge range of RPG minis for AD&D and others. Here is a modest selection of them. The first two are Ral Partha AD&D Player Characters and I suspect the third one is as well, but I haven't found her anywhere from the online catalogues. The ones I did recognize are 11-001 Fighter with 2-handed Sword in Banded Mail (female) and 11-005 Thief with Shortsword & Sling in Leather (female). The third one is very similar in style, has similar base etc, but I haven't found her true identity yet.

Knight

And the last one for this entry is a Ral Partha knight, there's 1984 on his base, but unfortunately I have not recognized him either, although I'm quite sure he is a knight of some sort. I guess swords are quite popular weapons of knights in entertainment industry, but he has a mace. Probably quite handy bashing other knights in full armour. I chose a simple yellow cloak for him.

Six adventurers, very inexperienced - no skulls!

The problem with this entry is that I'm currently in the Sci-Fi section, so one of the three ladies needs to guide me by Lady Sarah's Library Cart from unfinished section to Rare and Antique Books.

32 10mm skeletons 32 points

1 28mm vehicle 20 points

6 28mm humnas 30 points

Sarah's Cart 20 points

Rare and Antique Books location 40 points

Total 142 points

49 skulls

The second to last map

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Haha! Brilliant work for your Rare and Antique challenge, Teemu. 

What's not to love about this post? Old school Warmaster, vintage metal 40K Deredeo dreadnought,  Grenadier stuff from Julie Guthrie and Ral Partha no less. Wow. It's like a walk down memory lane. So awesome. I have to say that of all of them I have to go with the Warmaster skellies - their riotous colours are just terrific (and I love the hand painted banner).

Well done, Teemu. 

- Curt

PS: BTW, I quite dislike Anvil... ;)

From SylvainR: D&D - 28mm Skeletons (70 points)

Another bunch of figurines for my D&D campaigns, this time, a detachment of skeletons, a classic addition to any fantasy collection. These vinyl miniatures are from Reaper and originate from the generous JeremyM donation.

First, here are 6 skeleton spearmen. I simply followed the classic "Egyptian" style, inspired by Games Workshop's Tomb Kings.

Then 4 skeleton warriors. I used 3 different colors for basecoat, hoping to get some variety in bone colors, but the wash and the dry brush just made them all uniform. I also profusely added rust on the weapons and the shields and made the wooden parts of the weapons gray instead of brown, to simulate old desiccated wood.

The last 4 skeletons include 3 archers and an officer. I made the whole bunch look as rusty and dry as possible.

Points claimed:

14 x 28mm foot figurines at 5 points each = 70 points

Total = 70 points 

Thanks for reading!

"Dem bones" indeed Sylvain! These guys look great and skeletons of course are a requisite part of any lower-level D&D campaign. I like the Egyptian look of these models, the more dessicated the better!.

70 points for you!

Dallas

From Mike W - 15mm, 28mm Historical, Fantasy and more! Squirrel (520 Points)

 I'm back from my travels and back to this year's challenge! I have a fairly wide range of items to show and tell this week, some of this is left over from my shorter than usual week at home, last week and the rest is this week's output.

I'll start with a quick nod to Lady Sarah's Trolley with another female Tau Gue'Vesa fighter who will help me to travel to the DIY section.

Female Tau Ge'Vesa, carrying a Combo Weapon and dashing to next objective.

The figure is based upon a Wargames Atlantic Sci-Fi figure with a head from their biker gang kit and GW Weapons and shoulder armour.

Another view, the figure is depicted wearing sun glasses but I'm not sure that my painting
skills have not resulted in her looking like she's having a bad make-up day....

And the rear view, showing backpack and the dark grey under-armour

Under the DIY banner I present a group of Medjai, or Pharoah's Guard, think as per the film 'The Mummy' or other archaeological adventure films. As with posts on this subject in older challenges, I must again apologise for the Hollywood style misrepresentation of culture and dresses etc. That said these guys are to be used in a number of scenarios ranging from the 19th - 20th Century, thus the mix and match of weapons etc.

The completed group of 14 Medjai Warriors.

Another view of the Medjai group.

These fourteen figures are based upon Warlord Atlantic's Afghan warriors with various heads, weapon and equipment from Gripping Beast Arabs or other suitable figure kits. The paint job is black robes with blue accessories and pretty much as described in my older posts. This group is to be used to re-enforce the figures I completed previously.

Close-up of 5 or the Medjai, including a Standard Bearer carrying
the 'Eye of Horus' banner, plus an archer.

In actual fact the original set I did a couple years ago were based upon the Perry Miniatures Afghan boxed set - now comparing the two sets of figures, I must say that I prefer the Perry versions

Five more Medjai, including swordsmen, archer and clubman.

Last four Medjai, a musician, spearman, swordsman and a guy with a Jezail.

Next up are 90 new 10mm Flodden Scots figures. That is 30 x Archers on three bases as per my previously posted Hand Gunners, plus 60 x Pikemen on six bases that will form one of the Scots Pike Blocks. Front ranks (bases) are fully armoured with the rear ranks either unarmoured or only partially armoured. I envisage the block to be deployed in a 2 x 3 rectangle, much as shown in the photos below.

30 x Scots Archers, 10 to each base!

Painting of these tiny figures is as per previous posts. I've added a lot of flags - just because I can and these make the bases look better in my opinion. I've done a bunch of generic St Andrew's crossess then some varied other banners to make up the numbers...

Archers in column, from their right flank.

Archers in the same column, from their left flank.

The pike blocks are based in the same manner as the Archers and hand gunners, however in line with my view that 'its the bling' that catches the eye, I have given the pike blocks a lot of flags. At this scale the flags are what is noticed, not much else!

Completed 60 figre Pike Block

A view form the left, I have added a lot of flags, two Crosses of St Andrew on each rear flanking base and a family banner, Roayl Scots banner and Cross of St Andrew on the centre rear base. Not sure how historically accurate this  but it will help to identify units on the tabletop!

A view form the right, this block is under the command of the Stewarts,
you might just make out their family banner in the centre rear of the block

I have tried to have standing figures at the back and those with pikes ready to the front

Another view

And finally a close up of the centre bases of the block, the Stewart banner is obscured by the Royal Scots banner.

Next, off on a flight of fantasy I have completed a small group of 10 x Skeletons, these you will quickly see are in the ancient Roman style. I recently saw a video on YouTube where a guy was doing an Ancient Greek themed Warhammer Old World army, based upon the Tomb Kings army lists. 

Ten armoured Roman Skeleton Infantry, all armed with Gladus and Scutum 

These guys are all on the old style 20mm square bases, ultimately if I go down the route of getting the Old World Rules, I'll have to get some base converters to meet their new frontage rules

I thought that was cool and then thought why not do something based on Romans, as ever my thoughts appear to not have been that original and I found some suitable 3D modles on eBay and invested in thes eto see what they looked like.

Another view, with the rear rank brought forwards

In general I'm really pleased, the shields - having moulded designs - are tickly to paint, but the overall effect is fun. I'm definitely going to invest in a Command Goup and another 20-30 rank & file to complete the unit.

Last photo showing the fiddly shield details

If I go down the route of  raising a whole ancient Roman themed skeleton army I might go to Wargames Atlantic skeletons (who are ironically Greek themed) and then add in Warlord Games Roman shields and weapons etc. Benefit here is that I can then use shield transfers and save my eyesight!

Next back to the Tau factory and a group of 16 x Tau warriors and/or drones. These are all painted using the same recipe as I have described elsewhere. Sadly, I'm pretty much at the end of my Tau journey, I have a couple of odds and ends to do, figure wise, and at some point I need to look at getting some vehicles.

The completed batch of 16 Tau Warriors and Drones.

A slightly different view

Again I have created a number of unarmoured Tau Jueveniles, just to stretch out the figures in my army and indulge in some kit bashing! I decided to make one of these a Medic, as I found a nice little piece which appeared to be a bunch of medical instruments - waste not want not....

5 x scratch built unarmoured Tau, In the right an unarmed Tau Medic, others with a variety of weapons

I had a few arms left over which were in the act of throwing a grenade - thus you will see these in this week's group. Also a couple of arms that had drone control devices!

Close up of 4 x Tau, all with a range of weapons

Three more close-ups of the Tau figures,
painted with the same scheme as others in this army,
On the right is a human Gue'Vesa

A Tau warrior with a device to control the armed drone to the right.

So just as a hint as to what I may look to do next is a paint job on a very old lead Necron figure that I had kicking around, it is now nicely completed and based on a terrain that is similar to the Tau figures!

A hint of things to come?
An old lead Necron painted up to face off my new Tau army!

Slightly different view

And the rear view!

Another divergent route I have explored is toying with the Italian Wars of Independence using Warlord Games Epic ACW & Napoleonic figures. This has been inspired by KenR's submissions in previous challenges and realising that I probably shouldn't do these in 28mm - not least for space considerations!.  Here is a test regiment of Garibaldi Volunteers, 100 figures on 5 bases.

5 x Bases each of 20 figures, unit in line of battle. Generic Italian flags on command base.

I undercoated these little guys in a 'Linen' colour and then drybrushed the trousers white, before applying an Army Painter Grey wash. Jackets and Kepis were done with AP Speed Paint and then when dry any figures that I had mistakenly overpainted their trousers with red, had grey/blue trousers added to cover the mistakes!

Straps were a nightmare - done with GW Contrast Paint but really hurt my eyes doint this. Blanket rolls and accoutrements were added before doing muskets in their natural colours. Green cuffs were added as best as possible, as were a variety of slouch hat colours

Unit with the bases at front and two behind

Three ranks deep, with command base to the front

And in column of march going => way

and going <- way!

So that's all that time allowed for this week. I have very nearly finished my mounted Lizardmen, but they are not quite ready yet! And I hope to dig out some old Necron plastic figures, if I can only remember where I last saw them. I also have another Epic 15mm unit to test paint - this time an Irish-American  Fenian Regiment from the invasion of Canada.

Rooms visited & Bonuses claimed to date!

POINTS

Lady Sarah's Trolley Bonus                                              20 Points

Female Tau Gue'Vesa                                                      5 Points

90 x 10mm Flodden Scots @ 1 Point ea                                    90 Points

14 x Medjai Infantry @ 5 Points ea                                      70 Points

10 x 28mm Roman Skeletons @ 5 Points ea                                 50 Points

16 x Tau Warriors @ 5 Points ea                                         80 Points

Necron Warrior                                                           5 Points

100 x 15mm Warlord Epic Garibaldi Infantry @ 2 Points ea               200 Points

TOTALS                                                                 520 Points

+3 Squirrel (Undead Romans, 15mm Italian Garibaldi Infantry, 28mm Medjai)

 

Sylvain: Every week, you impress me with your productivity and your squirrelness. You seem to be so at each with different genres from historical to science-fiction. All these are very well painted and it makes me which I could one day peek at your gaming table with all the goodies in battle order. I have a soft spot for samller scales and I really like your tiny Garibaldi infantry. Expertly done!