On Tattered Wings - Valtteri's Undead Legion - June Leader month 2

Last month of the challenge and I chose my second leader month.
This time I painted the true leader of my army - a mighty Liche atop a Zombie Dragon!
And some extras of course, can't have a month without the minimum 10 models.

I decided early on that I would save the Dragon for the last month because I was worried that painting him would be such an effort that I would run out of steam for the next month. And I wasn't wrong, it took me two straight weeks to get the bloody beast done. Not only was there a lot to highlight but some places were quite hard to reach. I really should have painted in sub-assemblies.
Fun fact: the base colour the skin is the same green I use for my bases!
This gorgeous model is again by Red Bard Games.

After a day or two I had regained some of my strength and decided to paint some more models. These two Banshees aren't present in the 4th edition so these will proxy as Ghosts.

These were nice and simple to paint after the Dragon:
White base, Apothecary White Contrast paint. Some blue glazing on the skin and a really light teal on the robes. Drybrush with an off-white and white, followed by some layering with white to get a nice contrast.

After painting the Chariot in April I knew I wanted another one. I got a second one printed (this time with resin so I didn't have to smooth out any print lines). The pointing Skeleton Champion is by Celtic Miniatures, the one with the flag is an OG plastic skelly. 

Painting-wise this was identical to my first chariot. Near the end of June I realised I hadn't painted a flag at all! And what good is a 4th ed army without glorious banners? I had gained enough confidence with the previous flags that I decided to design my own. I took inspiration from an old Undead shield I saw somewhere, drew the design with pencil and painted it just like the previous banners. The catch was that I had to draw the design twice, only the second one being a mirrored version. In hindsight I probably could've used a photocopier for that.. 

Sadly, I totally forgot to take any WIP pics of the banner. But I did do a step-by-step of the freehanded shield which you can find a little below.

Lastly, I whipped up a bunch of Bat Swarms. These too are are 3d prints (link). Even though the old metal bats have their charm, I'm not a huge fan of them and didn't feel like spending that much on my bats.
They didn't photograph that well but they do look kinda nice in real life. I'll probably take some better pics for my Instagram account later if you're interested.

But why would I need 600 points worth of bats? Well, were planning on playing through the old Circle of Blood campaign pack this fall with my friend and the Undead side can field these at a 50% discount. *Evil cackle*

Painting

I know I've showed some step-by-steps on my freehand before but I thought it'd be nice to do a bit more detailed tutorial.

I find it easier to block out rough shapes first, then add some shading and do the edges and details last. It helps a lot if  you have a reference picture. Thin paints and multiple layers help to achieve a smooth finish.

1. Rough shape with a darker beige (Scale 75 Grau SW-29 ). This step isn't necessary but this particular paint has great coverage and it's easier to layer the next colours on top of it.
2. First highlight with  beige (AP Skeleton Bone). 
3. I filled in the shadows with a medium brown (AP Leather Brown)
4. Smoothing out the transitions with a mix of the previous two colours.
   
   
   
5. Another highlight with a light beige/off-white (AP Brainmatter Beige).
6. Details with black (AP Matt Black)
7. More details with black. I also strengthened the shadows with more brown. Forgot to take a pic before this :(
8. The finished shield with a better lighting. Some minor highlight corrections also applied.

Even though it seems a lot happens between steps 6 and 7 it's not much more than blacklining. And it makes all the difference!

Photography

In case you're interested, below is a pic of my photo setup for the scenic shots. I take over our kitchen table when the kids aren't home and roll out my game mat (Muddy Field by Deep Cut Studios, it's a great and really versatile mat btw!). A black cloth draped over some empty cardboard boxes and some of my terrain arranged in front of it. I try to position the woods and hills so that they create an immersion of depth. Natural light through the window and a cheap ring light for some extra illumination. I take the photos with my smartphone, with the ISO and shutter speed turned down so the pictures aren't too bright. Minimal colour correction with GIMP on my computer. I'd probably get better pics with a tripod but I'm usually too lazy to get it out...

Battle!

We finally managed to schedule a game with my friend. This time it was 1500 points of my Undead against his Bretonnians. This was sort of a practice match for the CoB campaign we have planned ahead.

The game started horribly. I was so excited about my new fast moving troops that I charged my Skeleton Horsemen against his Halberdiers in the first turn. The whole unit was instantly wiped out. No, not the Halberdiers... On his turn his Longbowmen opened fire on my Chariot and promptly destroyed one of the steeds, reducing it's movement to a measly 4 inches. On the the next turn the other steed was turned into a pile of bones as well. Bye bye impact hits!

Things looked really bleak for me when his Knights sandwiched my big unit of Skeletons, gaining all their charge bonuses and negating my ranks. It was at this point I remembered the main strength of my army - Fear! The Bretonnians had forgotten to take their Fear tests. So my opponent rolled some dice and what do you know, neither of the Knights had the courage to charge. After some backtracking we continued on with the game and I actually managed to charge the other Knight unit and the Halberdies, which promptly fled in fear. Things were looking good all of a sudden!

I kept winning the combats with my Vampire Lord and the Skeletons unit's rank bonuses causing automatic break tests with my big units. Sadly the Bretonnian's big unit of Knights finally found their nerve and annihilated one of my Skeleton regiments. It was at this point that I found out that a Vampire isn't immune to psychology unlike the thralls he commands. The Vampire failed his break test, turned tail and fled resulting in a narrow victory for the Bretonnians.

Once again the game was an absolute blast. We included some low-level magic items as well, but they didn't have much of an impact.
We also tried out a variant magic rule which lets both sides cast spells on each magic phase, their own and their opponents turn as well. This was pretty fun! Except for the fact that nearly all of my spells were dispelled. Where's that Total Power card when you need it?

Stats

And that's a wrap for my first OWAC. I was fairly sure I could make it till the end but I never dreamed I'd paint this many models! I just learned that I can paint even more models for July's wrap-up post but I really don't know if I will. I might just take a rest!

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
April
Liche Priest on Zombie Dragon	850 points	2 models
6 Bat Swarms	600 points	12 models
Chariot w. Scythed Wheels, Crew w. Shield	77 points	5 models
2 Ghosts	70 points	2 models
Total	4472 points	137 models

Previous posts:
January - Rank&File

February - Rank&File

March - Rank&File

April - Leader

May - Wild Card

Adrian March Wild card month - Building the Orc's Drift

Wild card month

The small settlement of Linden Way is comprised of several small houses around the trading post and several crop fields nearby. It is built in the intersection of the paths that come from the mountain passes. The real town is Meledir at the East, and many of the innhabitants of Linden Way have families there. Unlucky for them, they're the only defence between Meledir and the hordes coming from the North. 

For this month I have built some of the terrain needed for the campaign that will come handy for other battles too. I've painted some miniatures too! but the protagonist here will be the terrain tutorial. I had in mind this before the council reunited and our beloved overlord suggested to do something really wild. It is a shame, because that post give me the idea of formatting this post as a white dwarf article but I do not have time for that in this moment!

As you can see, there are small things in the corners of the houses from the Townscape terrain, the same pieces that came in the campaign box back in the days of the Blood Bath at Orc's Drift. That's because I was experimenting with an idea of a modular Citadel Townscape terrain using the amazing system of Battle System hard cardboard terrain. Those small clips can be purchased separately ad the small lips around the insertion make the connections stable, the cardboard is also not damaged by the use so easily. They are also resistant to bending by the weight if you distribute them properly with the available system of insertions cut in the cardboard. So I got inspired by the system and started to glue two pieces of cardboard, one of the typical grey dense recycled cardboard that comes with magazines, another from cereal boxes. That gives us the appropiate width for the pins. 

I suggest cutting the pieces first, the same way as you want to cut if you were going to glue them together, and then when it is dry and hard, do the cutouts for the pin. I didn't got the pictures but I also ensure that the cardboard doesn't dry bent in the entire process. When I glue the two pieces or glue the Townscape terrain piece to the cardboard, I let it dry between baker paper sheets over a flat surface and with a lot of weight over them, like a book and several packages.

Tadaaa, the walls are mounted with the system and it is strong enough for an afternoon of play. You can also paint the sides of the cardboard with colour markers to hide the cardboard further.

As you may see in the picture, some houses have small sheds or porches that will be a bit overengineering if I made them compatible with the modular pin system.

Instead, we glue them the old way and do not make them modular but a small building addons that will be placed during the play. If you are not confident that the stress of battle and you ravening hordes will not make it fall turn after turn, I've an untested solution. Make the missing wall of thin cardboard and put a strong magnet in the inner part of the house wall and in the interior of the shed or small house extension. The width of the combined house and shed cardboard is good enough for both magnet to stay in place.

Next you have the complex overhanging houses that I made modular and only glued as a single piece the overhang (pictured). Lastly, there is no way to make the roof modulars without CAD design my own pins in the precise angles of each roof and then 3D printing. That's a tempting overengineering there but the project is too complex to add further steps and I want that you can replicate the method. So I make a normal roof over cardboard and cut some foam pieces with the appropiate shape and glue them in the interior.

Now for the rivers and crossroads.

We start with a white foam shape with the appropiate distance. It is a little bigger than the bridge in Townscape but fits perfectly with the width of the river I am planning. The stones are cardboard cuts placed in the sides.

The other, more unstable crossing is made with foam, lots of recycled woodsticks and recycled sprues. Never throw the stick that they give you with a take away coffee, they're perfect for this kind of things. Also, ice creams are good for this type of project. Hope that I didn't mess with your regime with that particular advice.

The pebbles of the path are done in EVA foam, pebble by pebble drawn with a pen. Now that we have a bridge, there must be a path leading to them.

I wanted that the paths were flexible to put over a mat with the hills underneath instead of all of them as separated pieces over the mat. Also, whether the hills are terrain pieces over or under the mat, flexible paths allows us to put them coming from the hills naturally.

I made them using a brown felt fabric tightly stretched over a surface and applying a coat of caulk mixed with brown acrylic paint and fine sand. I've lots of fine volcanic beach sand but anything extra fine will make the trick. You can mix a small batch of bigger grains and pebbles or add them when the caulk mix is applied and rolling a painting roll over them just to press a little bit. Let it settle for 48 hours before cutting and painting a little bit with additional tones.

The fences are made with the same sticks cut in half over larger sticks. You'll need additional batch of larger ice creams for this. The smaller coffe sticks are cut with a fairly secure, you'll definetly won't cut your fingers or have a knife nailed to your arm, cutting method.

Also, I'll leave here a picture of the primed bridges and fences that will be painted with oil paint/xpress/contrast for speed. Just apply a coat of cheap black acrylic paint mixed with diluted pva glue and it will be a hardcoat appropiate for terrain and sealing the foam if, for some reason, you want to apply a spray paint instead.

As everything start coming together, if we have bridges and paths, we will want a river to cross. My first run was a flexible river similar to the pathways. I used a mat instead of a cloth and make a little bump on the sides of the river before applying the caulk. 

The water was made with a transparent caulk mixed with a little bit of blue ink applied over the previous layer after painting a little bit of greenish blue over the brown caulk.

This is looking good.

HOWEVER...

As some of you may have guessed, I've the luck of not having to repair a lot of things in the house so I didn't know that some caulks will not stick together pretty well and the foldable rivers started to come apart. So I'll leave it in the tutorial as a DO NOT ATTEMPT. Or if you have a solution with another product or preparing the first caulk layer, I will want to hear it.

Second attempt, cutting and carving some wood. Here is the woodcraftmanship part of the tutorial.

The good part of this method is that the carving makes a good looking water after painting and sealing with several layers of gloos varnish or transparent UV resin. This makes the river solid, but hey, theyre finished and at least will make the table stable putting some weight over the mat.

Now, finish painting the other pieces.

As I said, they were painted with oil paint diluted in mineral spirit. You can do some more preshading work painting the stonework, some strips of the wood veins ad some details in pure white. Always coat them before applying oil paint. If you're tinting the stone or wood with contrast/xpress you're good to go without coating with varnish. I used oil paint because it is fairly cheap, a little mix will cover all the wood planks, stone, etc. for the entire batch.

I noticed that the second bridge has few wight and may be a little unstable during a battle, so I glued some weight in the part that is not visible under the planks.

I did not forgot to paint some more miniatures. Fortunately, the package that I was waiting with the other villagers and the Overlord offering is finally here.

It is a lovely mix of Midlam and Citadel villagers. I think that my favourites are the Citadel elder and rat catcher and the Midlam potion seller.

For our beloved Overlord, a Citadel thug encounter for any roleplaying session. This guy is the kinda appearing in the middle of the path at night and asking you if you painted all your monthly miniatues or else he will dispatch you to the Field of Bones.

And now, some pictures of Linden Way and Ashak Rise.

A small town patrol looking for any troublemaker.

(I noticed that it is some problem with the tavern cutout from Townscape and the walls do not line properly as you can see in the back. D'oh)

A troop of orcs cross the river while the inhabitants are unsuspectful.

The dwarfs of Ashak Rise are starting they're daily work in the mineral deposits.

This month adds 10 miniatures and a lot of terrain. Almost everything done for Ashak Rise, the Orc's Drift and Linden Way except for the ruins and tower for Linden Way and the stone walls for Orc's Drift.

Next month I think that I may add the troop of elves.

Until then,
Adrian’s out