We Hunger - Valtteri's Undead - February Rank & File 2

Intro

My goal for February was to paint a large unit of Zombies with a Zombie Ogre as an unit filler. If I had enough time I also wanted to paint another Wight to lead the unit and Screaming Skull Catapult, one of my favorite old Undead models!

Goals.

And I'm happy to say I succeeded! I even painted two Wraiths as an extra. Behold what my Necromancer dug up:

Painting

I painted the Zombies the same way I did my Skeletons, using enamel washes (see my previous post). This time I did varnish the models before the wash and I think it actually made the process a bit cleaner. Since the Zombies are a bit more involved I did give them some pre-highlights ans shading, as seen on the pics below. Most of the highlights on the clothes are simply done by an overall drybrush of an off-white color. The skin tones are layered. I mostly went with a single layer of highlights but some models like the Ogre have a bit more.

Pre-shaded Zombies before their wash.

Ogre before his wash.

Juicy.

The Zombies and the Ogre are 3D prints from Red Bard Games and they are really cool. They have a perfect old school vibe, details are amazing and the price isn't too bad either. My only complaint is that they're a bit big, closer to a modern 32mm than the old 25mm scale.
I used a few different skin tones but they all ended up pretty similar, thanks to the same enamel wash on them all.

The deadites in all their g(l)ory.

With the Screaming Skull Catapult I wanted to introduce a bit more colour variety than with the rest of my skeletons. This was done by giving them a coat of a bone coloured speedpaint (Pallid Bone by Armypainter) and then drybrushing them with bone/beige colours all the way up to white. This was then given an enamel wash like the rest of my models.

Speedpaint/After drybushing

The Wight's colour scheme was once again inspired by the 4th edition Armybook.

The two Wratihs are from later editions (6th ed I think?). I sort of painted them as tests for the proper old 4th ed Wraiths I've got waiting. No enamels on these! But this time the secret ingredient is a final coat of ultra-matte varnish to give them a really smooth finish.

Smooth operator.

Banner & Shield

This month gave me another banner to paint and a freehand challenge for one of the Zombie's shield.
This time I remembered to take some step-by-step pictures. Below you can see how I painted the banner.
The paints are thinned enough so they don't completely obscure the printed picture. This requires several layers for good coverage.

The shield design is taken from the Army Book photos. With freehand I start with the general shape which I then fill and shade. After that I paint the lines and details carefully with black and add some more shading where needed.

Forgot to take pics after steps 3 and 4...

Battle Report

Arguably the best part of this month's challenge was that I got to play my first game of 4th/5th edition Warhammer! We used the 5th ed rules with 4th ed Army Books.

My opponent wielded a 1000p Dwarf Army against my Undead. We decided not to use any magic items to keep the first game relatively simple. Neither of us wants to play "Herohammer" either, we'd rather play games where the troops carry the day, not hyper-equipped heroes.

The background music was spot on!

The game started of pretty well for me. My Skeleton Archers scored some lucky shots and my horde marched forwards aided by Vanhel's Danse Macabre. Those Dwarfs wouldn't stand a chance!
Their Flame Cannon was a bit worrisome though. Luckily their aim was off and my shields held the flames at bay.

The lines advance.

It's getting hot in here.

My Skeletons charged into the Dwarf Warriors and even managed to score a few wounds. The Dwarfs easily passed their Break test though with the aid of their General. 

The Slayers charged my spear wielding regiment which was just as well, I could fight back with 2 ranks. The Skeletons held firm and felled a few Slayers. Too bad the berserkers turned out to be unbreakable and immune to fear. Oh dear.

Battle is joined!

Then the tide started to turn. Both of my Wights were slain when the Dwarf heroes issued challenges and my Skeleton regiments were slowly starting to dwindle, losing each turn of combat by a few points. All of my attempts to raise some more skellies were dispelled.

Things went from bad to worse when the Dwarf general challenged my Necromancer to a duel. I glanced at his stats and was surprised to see that he was a better fighter than my Wights. So naturally I accepted! I should've looked at the Dwarf's profile before I started to swing that pink sword around. MY Necromancer was cut in half by a single blow and my whole army crumbled to dust, with no Undead heores to keep them together. My army was completely wiped off the board by the end of turn 3.

Duel!

That pink sword was just for show.

Since the first game was over so quickly we decided to have another battle with the same armies. This one went much better for me. I positioned my Necromancer at the back with my archers and gave him some offensive spells. But again I just couldn't break those Dwarfs and they passed every single Fear test. This time I wasn't wiped out but still lost decisively by victory points.

No matter! The games were great and I had a lot of fun! And for the next battle I'll have some reinforcements and new tactics. Victory shall be mine!

Stats

After February, my statistics look like this. 

January
25 Skeletons w. Swords&Shields, including Command Group	214 points	25 models
Wight	37 points	1 model
Necromancer Champion	163 points	1 model
2 Skeleton Ogres	72 points	4 models
2 Mummies	90 points	2 models
February
2 Wraiths	150 points	2 models
20 Zombies including Command Group	88 points	3 models
Zombie Ogre	16 points	2 models
Screaming Skull Catapult	74 points	5 models
Total	904 points	45 models

Next month I plan to paint some cavalry so I can charge those pesky Dwarfs in their flanks! But first I need to chuck some flaming skulls on their heads...

Goals for March.