Sean's Undead - The Army Pose

Well that was tough but rewarding.

First I tried to give you a panoramic view of the Army. You can see I included the extras in the shot. I made up for it by forgetting to put one of the skeleton archers in the shot. I was gluing the giant arrow back in his hand. Also panoramas are hard. I should have just taken a normal picture and cropped it.

I had wanted to recreate Kev Adams's pose from Warhammer Armies, but it wasn't working for me.  As is the case with these things there were challenges to get this done. I'm glad to have completed it, but I don't really have time to reminisce, it's on to the next deadline.

Cheers.

Sean's Undead - Grim Reapers, Plague Cart and extras (244 points)

Hi All,

Honestly I didn't think I was going to make it. Blah, blah life, mojo, etc.

So here we go:

So here is my submission in all its glory.

The Grim Reapers (120 points) feature the Reaper 25th(?) Anniversary Grim Reaper, some Wights and some Grave Guard. The unit doesn't have shields, but I will be adding some because shield nubbins without shields look stupid. They also don't really rank up. Oops.

The Upstream Games House Zombie cart standing in as a Plague Cart (100 points)

I thought I'd give you another angle because Kev Adams sculpted a lot of great detail on this thing. I'm pretty sure I put it together wrong, but it is what it is. I broke this thing about three times after I painted it trying to put it all together.

This guy (24 points) came with the Grave Guard so I thought I'd paint him up. Maybe I'll use him as an Army standard bearer. I'll work on the standard later as he is extra and I'm out of time.

Last, but not least, I decided to paint up another Death and send it off to Iannick. I hope he likes it. I went with a reddish horse as an homage to Peter Bruegel the Elder's Triumph of Death painting that I got a chance to see at the Prado this Summer.

That's it from me. Peace!

SeanS' Zazad the Eternal and Meat on a Stick - (174 points)

Hi All,

Well, if I didn't have the focus of  a Golden Labrador I might have been done sooner.

I was initially intending to bring you all the Grim Reapers and Plague cart, but quickly realized I didn't have the stamina for that. I then also started working on stuff I need for BOYL, so I was lucky to get two figures done. Finally there were the usual hiccups as I waffled about a few touches on these models, some planned, some not.

Here we go.

Zazad, a level 10 Liche Doombinder, is the excellent "Death" model from Skull and Crown Miniatures Triumph of Death line. I believe they're going to have another Kickstarter coming up soon. This guy comes in at 150 points by himself, the horse doesn't cost anything.

He came with two arm options and I've always wanted to try magnetizing, so...

You'll also notice that the head position is slightly different. I managed to break his head off with clumsy handling before I ever even prepped him.

Originally I was going to put a coffin lid shield on him, but then I saw the box art. How could he not have a rusty sword? Skeletons cost 12, so a Standard Bearer costs 24.

As you can see I went with a zombie flesh color for our skinned effigy. I thought about putting some tattoos on the skin but decided not to. You can also see that I didn't clear out the flash in some of the holes and chose to give it the purple "zombie meat" treatment.

Lastly you'll notice that there are some posing issues. I could have made the sword fit better if I had planned it from the outset. The lead banner also severely unbalances the model, I should have put it straighter.

Anyway, thanks for looking. Hopefully I won't crash and burn in the final month.

Sean's Undead - Zombies and Skeleton Archers (208 points)

Hi All,

Well those figures I just couldn't seem to finish in March are seeing the light of day in April. I hope they were worth the wait.

A total of 30 figures. 10 Skeletons and 20 Zombies.

The Skeleton archers (120 points) are from Skull and Crown Miniatures Triumph of Death. I had a hell of a time getting the giant arrows to stay solidly glued into their hands. I painted them separately and then glued them in, that may have been my mistake.

Next are the multipart plastic zombies everybody loves to hate or hates to love. There may be more than one way to rank them up correctly, this is not one of them. Zombies come in at a whopping 4 points per model, so these 20 with the Standard Bearer and Musician come in at only 88 points. Although these models were also a pain I am glad to have this instantly recognizable GW unit in my army.

To finish of the post I'd like to give a closeup of the banner bearer and his banner. I didn't pull it off 100%, but I am fairly pleased with the end result. I have a cheat, which of course actually involves a lot of extra work, to make banners like this. I'll probably do a tutorial on my blog.

Thanks for looking, and points to you if you recognize the face in the banner. I thought it was fairly obvious, but I'm a dork.

Sean's Undead - Skeleton Warriors (204 points)

Hi All,

Well, nothing went to plan. I did a lot of work on the zombies, but not enough to finish them. I thought about doing some archers, but went back to working on the skeleton warriors.

In the end I went with 15 skeleton warriors with shield and spear at 12 points each plus a musician at 24 points for a total of 204 points.

So here they are.

I stuck with the Yellow and Brown ink mix over a white base coat and then Reaper bone triad dry brushed over that. Finished the figure with grunge wash. Same rusty weapons and coffin lid shields. You'll notice that I finished the flock and static grass this time around.

I still need to varnish the shields, but other than a few touch ups here and there, these are actually done.

Thanks for looking.

From SeanS - Undead Army of Zazad the Eternal (201pts)

Hi All,

As usual I somehow managed to not manage my time very well and come in way too close to the deadline. A few things came up at the end of the month that I didn't anticipate and it threw me off.

Any way we have a unit of 5 Death Riders - shield, hand weapon - 105 points

Skull Chucker  with 3 man crew - 60 points

3 of the 20 skeleton warriors - shield, hand weapon, spear - 36 points. As you can see the one figure is the champion guy. I put him in because I had the parts to make him from the command pack.

I think overall they look ok. The riders and artillery were black under coat and brushed up with a bone triad. The skeleton spearmen were done with a white undercoat, a mix of yellow and brown ink and then brushed up with a bone triad. I think I like them better. As always I covered everything in my grunge wash to help tone things down.

I'll have to leave the semi shiny "matte" varnish for now and finish the base flocking later.

I'll try to be ahead of the game for February.

Sean's Undead - Army on Parade

After Rakarth Couer D'Glace and Vasken Noir had defeated the forces of Monfel, they rushed to the gates of Chateau du Crane de la Tombe. First touching the tips of the swords of power together, they then rammed the ensorcelled  blades into the gaping keyhole. The mountain upon which the edifice stood began to shake and groan as the gates slowly lifted. A voice, like a thousand bones breaking, came out of the depths. “Iiiii haaaave thhhe pppowweerrrr!” A sickly green glow burst forth and strange apparitions of the long dead streamed past the stunned champions. In shock from the wonderous display, Rakarth and Vasken stood there as powerful Necromantic magics spread across the lands, raising the dead.

One such person was an ancient tyrant, the wizard king Zazad the Eternal. Buried and forgotten for more than 1000 years, he has been reawakened in Liche form to once again put the people of the lands under is boney foot.

So here is the force for the challenge arrayed. Sorry in advance for the bad pictures. I was in a rush with low light and a lot of contrast.

Perhaps first we should start with the list.

As usual I used Army Builder to do the heavy lifting for me. I think this may be my 3rd iteration of the list. I had really wanted a Vampire General, but at 330 points for a Level 5 Vampire, the cost was prohibitive for a 1000 point army.

I felt like I had to have a unit of classic Skeleton Regiment Spearmen in my force. I bought these guys with the metal command conversion bits and metal coffin lid shields.  The metal bits make the plastic figures a little unsteady. I was disappointed to learn that I can have only one  spear armed unit in the army. Seems dumb.

Then I saw I needed a unit of Grim Reapers. I already had the Reaper Grim Reaper and lucked into a unit of Grave Guard that I will proxy as Grim Reapers. As you can see here, they came partially painted. So I'll have to strip and re-prime them.

Sorry, this photo is really bad. 3 "man" Skull chucker. I snapped up a complete one for the challenge. I have another that is missing the leader and the skull pile. I will be basing the catapult on a 50mm square after I paint it.

Out of order from the list here. I have the 5 death riders and the Liche, mounted on an undead horse. He is from the Triumph of Death range made by Skull & Crown. I intend to try my hand at magnetizing him so i can swap out the Scythe and Hourglass arms. I also need to repair his head, I somehow snapped it off.

These Zombies are the whole reason I'mm doing an undead army. I won them from Steve O a few years ago, built and primed them, and then there they have sat. They're kind of cooky, but them zombies have always had a comical element to them.

I will use these Triumph of Death guys with giant arrows as my Skeleton Archers. I had intended to use more of this line in my army last year, but then I stumbled upon a few proper GW bits and couldn't resist having them in this Challenge. I hope to work more of the ToD figures into this army in the future.

And last, but not least, Brian Kirkell's Upstream Games House Zombie Cart to proxy as a Plague Cart. I have all the Zombies of Karkeel, but haven't gotten around to painting them yet. I was trying to let the memory of Andrew Dyer's fantastic paint jobs fade in my memory. I also have a terribly short attention span and moved on to other things. Again, I will  expand the force with those.

So there you have it 1007 points. I probably won't add to this as my "extra" painting will go to other non challenge related  projects.

Thanks for looking.

Sean's Bretonnian Army Wrap-up

Hi All,

Behold the mighty war host of Monfel!

My best Dave Andrews impression.

Well, it wouldn't be my army without untold trials and tribulations. I got it stuck in my head that I had to complete a baggage element and Tom's Chaos War Altar got me wanting to make one of my own, so I did that too. There was a lot of winging it and cursing, but it's done now. I tried to take all the pictures by myself, but wouldn't you know it, my shutter remote control had a dead battery. So I had to enlist my daughter to take the above army pose photo. She asked me if the muslin back drop was for scenery or to hide how messy my hobby room was. What cheek! My answer, of course, both.

Sean's Bretonnians - Knights and L'Ordonnance (201pts)

Hi All,

Well the army is done! There were definitely many points along the way where I didn't think I was going to make it, but now I have a 1000 point Bretonnian army I didn't have before.

Here is the output for April.

From SeanS - March is for Mulligan

Well,

Best laid plans and all. I could give you some sob story, or tell you that the one figure I painted is worth 200 points, but instead I'll just take a mulligan and try to get these knights and artillery painted up.

I thought I could wrap things up with the day off yesterday and a quick track meet this morning, but I had to stay all day to cover for someone and frankly I'm tired after 9 hours out in the sun.

So should be smooth sailing to finish the lot for April and hopefully have some more terrain to take a bitchin army shot.

Thanks if you read more than the title.

From SeanS - Bretonnian Retainers and Wizards (194 points)

HI All,

OMFG! What a day. This was one of those where I thought I was so close to being finished, only to find glaring errors or omissions hold me back. But now they're done.

I added these two C02 Wizards, Mazda and Holbon Toddlebrew to add a fun diversion to batch painting. I have no idea how much a wizard costs right now, and I don't care. LOOK AT THEM!

Sean's Bretonnians - Chevaliers D'Honneur (215pts)

Hi All,

Once again I've somehow managed to take this down to the wire. I should have been able to finish these pretty easily, but I haven't

These are five plastic Knights of the Realm circa 1996, so 5th edition? I used Perfect Plastic Putty to try and fill all the seam gaps in the horses. I need to work out a better way to apply and sand in tight spaces. They are a 15th Level Hero (Viscomte) (91points) an four Knights (124points) for a total of 215 points. In game terms they only have Heavy Armor and Lances.

SeanS - 10 Foot Knights, 15 Peasants, 1 Mounted Knight - 208 points

Hi All,

I'll spare you all the angst. Let us never mention the debacle of Shieldgate  2017 ever again.

I am pleased to present to you, with a day and a half to spare even,  9 foot knights including standard bearer (90) + Baron (33), 15 Feudal Levy with Bows (60), and one Noblesse D'Epee (25) for a grand total of 208 points.

Sean S - 20 Bretonnian Brigands - 198 points

Hi All,

Well this is my first entry.

They are done except for varnish and then the flock and static grass on the base.

Sean's Bretonnians

Hi All,

 Before I tell you about my army let me bore tell you about my gaming history.

I first saw the D&D boxed set, I forget red or blue, back in 1978. My friend's older sister had it and we had no idea what to do with it. By 1980 I had played one game of D&D with some kids in a club at school. That was pretty much a disaster.

An older kid in my apartment building started introducing some of us to AD&D, he used a mixture of Judges Guild stuff in our games and we tended to use Airfix army men and wooden blocks to map out the dungeons and play it like a table top skirmish. He also introduced me to wargames like Blitzkrieg, Squad Leader and Caesar at Alesia. We would go down to the Compleat Strategist on 33rd Street to buy Airfix, AD&D books and the various games Avalon Hill and SPI, to name a few.