Practicing Necromancy (Continued)

I've just about completed a 20 skeleton unit.  One of the skeletons needs an instrument added to become a musician.  I refuse to use a drum made out of skulls, so I need to wait until I find something suitable.  I also do not know what I want to do with the banner, so the standard bearer is not yet complete.  And finally, none of the bases are done, I don't currently have the proper supplies to do them.

Livery Continued

A very small update here.  I have been playing around with more shield designs.  They still feature white and blue, but they will hopefully give a little bit more variety and flavor to the army.  I'm still not sure how to translate these designs to the shields though.  I defiantly won't be doing these free hand, my hands have a bad shake to them making painting small detail difficult and frustrating.

Practicing Necromancy (Test Run of Skeletons)

My first 10 skeleton warriors are complete, or near complete.  They still need to be based, which I don't have the supplies for.  And I need to finish the shields for the unit, but they are done enough to get an idea what they will look like massed together. 

I'm not pleased with the actual results but I am very pleased with the potential results of future runs.  This test run was my first time using the dipping method.  It turns out I will need to thin out the dip because it pools really thick in places, and brushing off the excess is a problem, it just pushes it around.  The first 5 skeletons turned out decent, but the second 5 I did not have time to clean up so there's a few messed up spots.  Like the black blob at the bottom of a shield and an eye socket that is still white.

Like I said earlier I do like the potential of this method once I can perfect it.  I love the dirty look it gives to the skeletons.  Their not bright white and shiny like their commander poured bleach on their bones to whiten them.  They actually look like they came out of the ground all dirty and stained.

The Fleur de lis on the shields are resin castings of a small Bretonnian knight shield.  The detail was so small that I didn't cut off all the flash around the bottom.  I figured it it was white like the rest of the shield it would blend in.  But the dip made it really pop out and become noticeable.  For future shields I will need to cut closer to the symbol.

I believe I touched on it in one of the older posts, but this test run includes a skeleton that I sculpted a uniform onto.  And another that I sculpted a hood onto.  The one with a hood was my first attempt at sculpting at this small of a scale.  I've done a little work at 1:18 scale, but this small is so difficult and frustrating.  The skeleton with the padded coat and hood, however, I am pleased with.  The coat is a little bulky, but I can live with that.  I will be attempting a few more with different army types and see if I can obtain exceptable results.  If I can I will cast them so I can make copies, without having to continue sculpting to fill the ranks.

Up next on the paint table is a unit of 4 Cairn Wraiths.  They will be painted in brown to look like dead monks.  I also modified their weapons, monks don't carry scythes!

Raising the Flags (Designing Livery)

This is just a quick and short update.  I've been mostly just putting together models and coming up with ways to give medieval armor to skeleton warriors.  The most common thing I am doing is simply giving skeletons Bretonnian men-at-arms helmets.

I have also been playing with different designs for an army color scheme.  At first I wanted to use a mix of Templar Knights livery and plain white with crosses.  But I am currently leaning more towards using the Fleur de lis as opposed to a cross, because it feels more Bretonnian.  The infantry would have a mic of plain white shields quartered by a blue cross.  It wouldn't be a cross but would still have the visuals of it.  And also have shields with a blue Fleur de lis, though I don't know what type of background to give it.

The Araby troops with have a mix of colors and no specific symbol.  The most common colors will be green and red.  These color schemes will be used on both infantry and Saracens (black knights).

Learning Necromancy (Planning an Army)

Howdy, this blogspot will be for the making of a Warhammer Fantasy army.  The theme will be Undead Bretonnians from the crusades against Araby.  There will be some Araby undead mixed in for some extra flavor.  There is no specific playlist for this army.  The units will made up as I come up with ideas for them.  Background fluff for the Vampire Lord will be written in time as well.

Because of the nature of this army, many models will need heavy modifiactions with extra "bitz" or the use of Greenstuff.  I'm new to some of this, so this will be a learning experience as much as anything else.  Apart from brainstorming and planning ideas, I currently have two units on the workbench.  No sneak peeks of them, but more will be posted as more is available to post.  Stay tuned.