We Are the Damned - Valtteri's Undead Legion - Introductory post

Introduction

Since I'm new to OWAC I'd best introduce myself. I'm Valtteri, a 40-year old hobbyist from Finland. I got drafted into this challenge by Jaakko, who I met last year in a Necropolis gaming event I organised. (Side note - Necropolis is an excellent game, I put a link in the bottom if you're interested.)

Rolling dice with style since 1985.

I got into little toy soldiers and Warhammer when I was around ten years old. Hero Quest and Space Crusade were my gateway drugs, but I was really hooked when I saw an unit of skeleton warriors at my friend's. I had to get some of my own.

I actually managed to build and paint a pretty decent sized army, though I never actually played the game. I just couldn't get my friends that interested in miniatures.

Oh how I miss these.

Unfortunately I sold all my models when I moved out of my parent's house and mostly forgot about minis.

It took me some 10 years for the hobby flame to be rekindled and I've been hooked again ever since! And I've been playing too - lots of different games. I've gradually moved out of the GW sphere into more accessible (and fun) indie games but I've never lost my love for the classic Fantasy Battle aesthetic.
I've wanted to rebuild my Undead army for a while now and OWAC seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Full disclosure: I was so excited about this project that I accidentally painted two units beforehand. I told myself I'd just paint a few models to test out a color scheme and all of a sudden I had two full units complete with command groups, hand painted banners and Wights to lead them! Oops. 
Naturally these won't count towards the challenge, though I'd like to include them in the final army pics.

I'm quite proud of them.

The Vision

The look I want for my Undead army is sort of a 90s grimdark vibe. I still remember how different the models looked in the 5th edition Vampire Counts Army Book compared to the previous Undead book. They were dark and broody and menacing! The colors were more muted and down to earth and the bases had more tones than just Goblin Green.

These blew my mind as a kid.

I remember pouring over this one particular page over and over again. For some reason I never did try different recipes for bone, I just tried to emulate the bright box art skeletons.

They don't make army books like they used to.

An army of just dirty undead is pretty boring though, so I want to give the characters more vibrant old-school colors and paint the classic 4th ed banners. I rather like the combined effect in my test units.

I have devised a fairly quick painting method for my skeletons which gives pretty decent results, as you can see in the previous test models. I'll save the actual recipe for my first proper post in January though!

One other thing I'd like to do in the future is to build this army so that I could use it in 5th or 6th edition games as well. This means adding some extra models for it to be a Vampire Counts army. I won't do those for OWAC9 though.

The Models

So, I've chosen my army and it's color scheme, now I just need some minis to paint. Unfortunately I only have a single Wraith left from my childhood army, so off to the shops I go.

My precious.

I realized fairly quickly that there doesn't seem to be that many old Undead minis for sale. I did manage to score a decent amount of heroes and special models: Wights, Wraiths, Mummies, Necromancer and my favorite the Vampire Lord. But not nearly as many as I would have liked.

Isn't he dashing?

A proper Undead army needs masses of the walking dead though and there was no way I was going to hunt down dozens of old metal models for them. I mean I only have the one kidney. (I actually do.)
First I discovered the Oathmark skeletons which are just great. I used them for my test units, pictured earlier. They are more akin to the newer edition skeletons though and don't quite satisfy my itch for nostalgia.

Luckily we live in the future age and I found some excellent 3D printed models for my horde.
The Skeleton Warriors are by Celtic Miniatures and the Horsemen, Zombies and the Zombie Dragon are by Red Bard Games (again, links at the bottom for those interested).

Celtic Miniatures

Red Bard Games

I want all my regiments to have a proper command group with painted old school banners and an old school champion to lead them. The Horsemen are lacking a mounted Wight but maybe I'll find one during the challenge.

I also found some great Skeleton Ogres from Ral Partha Europe (Das Schwarze Auge minis) which I plan to use as unit fillers, since there's no profile for them in WHFB.

Love these big guys.

Finally some OG metal.

The assembled army is looking pretty good. Combined with the units I finished earlier I'll have an army ready to crush anyone on the battlefield. Can't wait to get started!

Primed and ready!

Artwork

This year's OWAC's theme was artwork and for me the 4th ed Army Book cover is the ultimate piece of Undead art (the black and white pic of Nagash inside comes as a close second).
So my plan is to create the models in the cover: Wight Banner Bearer, Necromancer (well I guess he might be a Vampire but whatever) and the Horseman.

Best.

I already have the models for the first two but I'm still looking for a suitable knight. I don't plan to actually convert them to match the poses, I'm just going to match the colour schemes and paint the banner. Cutting up old minis just feels wrong after going through the trouble of finding them.

They're close enough.

I'd also love to do some old school terrain such as the Burial Mounds in the classic How to Make Wargames Terrain book.

Also best.

The Plan

So here's what my OWAC9 plan looks like:

• January - Rank and File
•  25 Skeleton Warriors including a command group and a banner - 241 points
• Wight - 37 points
• Necromancer Champion- 163 points
• February - Rank and File
• 10 Skeleton Horsemen with a a command group and a banner - 236 points
• Maybe a Mounted Wight if I can find one (39 points)
• March - Rank and File
• 20 Zombies with a a command group and a banner - 88 points
• Zombie Ogre (unit filler) - 16 points
• Wight - 37 points
• April  - Rank and File
• 5 Mummies - 225 points
• 5 Wraiths - 375 points
• 2 Skeleton Ogres (unit filler) - 76 points
• May  - Wild Card
• The 3 army book cover models (around 200 points)
• Terrain
• June  - Leader
• Vampire Lord - 410 points
• Liche on Zombie Dragon - 850 points (!)

I'm fairly confident I can tackle most of these. The Zombies might take more time than I think and the Zombie Dragon as well. If that turns out to be the case I'm sure I can still finish at least 10 Zombies and the Vampire Lord to satisfy the monthly requirements. If I can paint everything fairly quickly I have some extra models in mind as well...

If I do manage to paint them all, the army is going to be worth almost a whopping 3000 points! (Even more with the two test units). We'll just have to see how far I will get!

Links:
Necropolis - A diorama Skirmish Game

Skeletons by Celtic Miniatures, Etsy

Undead by Red Bard games