The Dead Rise
Ahhh, painting up an entirely new army.... why not?
Sooooo..... my wife and I got a little tipsy and I talked her into a game of Warhammer after she enjoyed Heroquest with a couple of friends.
She decided that undead would be fun to play, and I have painted a good amount of undead before, but sadly only had one box of unassembled zombies ofter my sale of everything else (even the Heroquest undead) including the garden of Morr. Can't take everything with me when moving.... ah well. Let's see what I do have.
1 Box of 20 Zombies unassembled- check
3 badly painted Skeleton Cavalry - check
8 badly painted skeletons with a mix of weapons - check
1 box of birthday present skeletons unassembled - check
2 well painted Necromancers and one poorly painted - check
1 Bones Ghoul Queen unpainted - check
1 metal unpainted Bones Ghoul Queen look-alike - check
1 and 1 incomplete Chaos Furies that could be used as Fell Bats - need a wing
1 mostly painted old plague cart - check
Lots of plastic Battlequest wolves and the ones left over from Grom's chariot - check
Not a bad start. I got stuck into painting and then was lucky enough to aquire a unit of spear skellies and some more cavalry from a local seller. I liked the look of the new Chainrasps which are going to be used as wraiths and spirit hosts.
Here we go!
Zombies
I started with the zombie box which I have had for years, just waiting for me to put them all together. I started on a few for Heroquest and the Legacy 2021 challnge, and then finished off the rest, adding the 20th zombie coming out of the ground.
These were actually a little bit of a challenge to get together so they didn't all push into eachother, especially as I decided not to give them any weapons. It simply felt right. The painting of dead flesh was a choice to not go so green as a lot of people paint them, put more of a fresher, leathery tone with hints of light bone, green and purple.
The selection of the first Necromancer was in part to our cat, Mr Bitey, who chose my old
Bright Wizard conversion. Back to the playing table with you!
The second Necromancer was one I had painted up years before and with a few touch ups and a rejuvinating flesh wash he was ready to join in.
The third Necromancer I had was Gunther Laranscheld from Warhammer Quest, with a simple and awful paint, so he was redone in the style of the others, a result which gave them all a Death Cult consistency.
The Vampires
Settling for Lamian Vampires I decided I finally had a place to use the old Morathi modified miniature and time to paint up one of the Bones Ghoul Queens and the metal sculpt as well.
The Ghoul Queen
This was a model from Bones and is silicone, highly detailed and an excellent sculpt. I removed the large ribs sword from her back as it looked way over-the-top but otherwise left the model as is.
The detail proved quite challenging, but the end result makes for a good Lamian Vampire.
Vampire Queen
A fantastic sculpt, I had totally forgotten I bought this model and can't even remember where.
As highly detailed as the Bones Queen, this model was a challenge and a joy to paint, with no modifications necessary.
Wight Cavalry
Starting out with only three cavalry - and with an average paint, I looked for more and found them online from a local seller, as well as a unit of skeleton spears. I decided to use my old skeleton shields from way back when I assembled the first skeleton units in the past.
I enjoyed puting these together and rusting up the metal. Skeletons can be quite easy and fast to paint and the cavalry was no exception.
Skeleton Archers
A mix of old and new, these models were fast and easy to assemble and give the army a small amount of ranged fire to deploy.
Skeleton Swords
Relatively easy to assemble, I only swapped out a few skulls and added the standard bearer for a good hand to hand unit with full command. Fast to paint and rusted metal.
Skeleton Spears
A little more challenging to assmble than the rest, as some had to have the legs separately attached, but on the whole another quick and easy unit to paint. The screaming banner was chosen for this unit, so I used a bit of green stuff to model the face onto the banner.
The Plague Cart
Given to me as a gift, this model was mostly painted already, but that didn't stop me taking a fair while on touch ups and repainting the rider three times. The ox was missing his skull, so I made one out of a plastic horse skull and horns, but it just didn't look right. I then found what I thought was the original skull, but in hindsight I think it is the skull trophy from Gorthor's chariot.
The rider presented some challenges as well, as I had already begun painting the wraiths, and wanted to tie in a bit of the same colour whtout unbalancing the models' own colour scheme. Being only semi-real, I decided to sheer a metal skull and glue it into the hood of the rider, giving him more depth and a way to get that ghostly blue onto the face and hands.
Although I love this old school model, there was something just a little underwhelming when all mounted up, so I decided to take a risk and mount a bell on a pole. This gave the model some height and fitted the spookiness of the cart. Bring out your dead.
Wraiths and Spirit Hosts
The army still needed a bit of spice and I was well back into model painting and searching during lockdown, and spied the new chainrasps. I very much liked the new ethereals, which I can't say for many of the new Warhammer models and decided to pick up box.
These wraiths were a lot of fun to paint and not too difficult. I loved doing the gradients on their gostly forms and rusting the metal on the weapons and the chains.
Overall these give the army a dash of colour and separate them as ethereals, either to be used as Spirit Hosts in groups of three or as Wraiths as a hero choice.
Vampire Bat
I scavanged two old Chaos Furies to repurpose as Vampire Bats, but one was missing a wing, so at present only one made it into the army. I'll be on the lookout for more. I never liked the propotions of these models and kinda wrote them off as bad sculpts, but as I painted him up, he took on a bizzare grotesqueness that really suited the state of being a Vampiric denizen of the night. My mind is changed.
Dire Wolves
A little bit last minute, I put together the wolves from Groms Chariot MK I with some Battlemaseters goblin wolves for a Dire Wolf unit. I may add one of the Fenris Wolves back in as a Doom Wolf.
To finish, let's include a few army shots. It only took me 5 weeks to put it together and is certainly the fastest that has ever taken me to complete such a project.
More join the Legion!
A few months down the track and the opportunity came up to add another load to the army. Six more skeletal knights, another few ranks to the spears and the swords and a unit of great weapon scythes.
More Vampire Bats
Well, I had a lot of trouble finding the wings, but after a while I managed to get a set that fit and a third fury, so the trio of Vampire Bats is now complete.
Banshee
I couldn't resist adding a banshee to top off the ethereals, and purchased the new Tomb Banshee from a split. The undercoat on this one was a bit textured, but I still enjoyed the sculpt and opted for a lighter colour scheme that sets her apart from the wraiths. I then got tired of it and repainted her with red hair and a dark corset.
The Screaming Skull Catapult
This one deserves a blog of it's own. :)
I completed the army in October 2022.
