A Cemetery Photoshoot - Valtteri's Undead Legion - May Wild Card Month

 

As some of you may remember, my inspirational art for OWAC 9 was the superb 4th edition Army Book cover. And I had plans to try and recreate the models from that painting.
Well, I did just that and then decided to take it a step further.

So here's my version of the cover art:

It's not an exact replica but I think the vibe is pretty spot on!

I decided to only use minis that were available in 4th ed for the characters. I also didn't want to cut up any metal minis for reposing or converting, it just feels wrong to me.

The Evil Threesome.

The necromancer is pretty much the same model as the vampire in the cover and I didn't convert him at all.

The standard bearer got some horns and a hairdo but the skeleton knight involved the most conversion work.

The rider itself is untouched but the steed is almost completely redone. The base is a plastic skeleton horse with barding from a modern Perry medieval knight set. I then did some greenstuff sculpting to fill in the gaps. The head is from the same Perry kit with the lower part cut off and replaced with a skeleton horse's lower jaw. The original knight has a lot of bat decorations so I painted a similar symbol on his shield. 
I'm not an experienced sculptor by any means and I always find it pretty intimidating, but I really like how the knight turned out!

Golbat, is that you?

The thing I was most worried about was replicating the banner. All my previous banners in this challenge have been painted on top of a black&white print, but now I'd actually have to draw!

Luckily this turned out to be easier than I feared and I really like the end result. It's a different style than the rest of my banners but I'm going to use him as Battle Standard Bearer, which I hope explains the extra flourish. 

Sketching.

Painting.

A few weeks before the end of May I stumbled upon a set of Skeleton Summons by GSW when I was buying some paints and brushes and they looked perfect as unit fillers. After buying them I remembered  the newly risen dead from the Army Book cover art and decided to use them for that instead. (There's one extra skellie in the second picture that I did a few months ago so I could get nice neat ranks).

Since these are only half of a model I decided to count them as such - so only 0,5 models per skeleton rounded down.

I did a cemetery themed board for Necropolis two years ago which was the perfect scenery for the photoshoot. I still needed to a moonlit sky with a bat swarm to complete the vibe so I did some A4-scale freehand. My kid did some of the bats :)

Blending is way easier in 28mm scale.

The photoshoot setup.

Extra models

Since this was a Wild Card month I didn't feel much pressure. Even if I did only a few models it would be enough. Armed with this Zen-mindset I decided to try and paint the rest of my Wraiths and the wonderful Wights from Warhammer Quest. In my mind the pair are the General's personal body guards.

The whole gang.

What a Dashing Duo!

Originally I hoped to do some special terrain as well but I really didn't have time for that. (I painted a bunch of non-OWAC minis too...). Maybe I'll try to do it for the final month? We'll see!

Statistics

I've painted a lot of models so far and to be honest, it's starting to feel that way. The challenge has been a lot of fun but I'm also glad it's over soon. For my final month my plan is simple: paint my army's general - a Liche on a Zombie Dragon. Stay tuned!

January
25 Skeletons w. Swords&Shields, including Command Group	214 points	25 models
Wight	40 points	1 model
Necromancer Champion	163 points	1 model
2 Skeleton Ogres	72 points	4 models
2 Mummies w. 2-handed weapons	90 points	2 models
February
2 Wraiths	150 points	2 models
Wight	40 points	1 model
20 Zombies including Command Group	88 points	20 models
Zombie Ogre	16 points	2 models
Screaming Skull Catapult	74 points	5 models
March	904	61
Chariot w. Scythed Wheels, Crew w. Shield & Bow	79 points	5 models
Skeleton Horsemen w. Shields& Light Armor & Command Group	276 points	10 models
1 Wraith	75 points	1 model
April
8 Mummies w. 2-handed weapons	360 points	8 models
6 Skeletons w. Swords&Shields	54 points	6 models
6 Skeletons w. Spears&Shields	60 points	6 models
3 Wraiths	225 points	3 models
Vampire Count	200 points	1 model
May
Necromancer	68 points	1 model
Battle Standard	90 points	1 model
Mounted Wight	46 points	2 models
2 Wights	82 points	2 models
3 Wraiths	225 points	3 models
11 Skeletons	88 points	5 models
Total	2875 points	116 models

Previous posts:

January
February

March
April