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Shadespyre

Vampire Count
Aug 11, 2012
1,023
Lovely, lovely painting. The skeleton with the windblown leaf is just brilliant, too. I like the unusual idea for ethereals, that could look amazing on a whole model.
 

Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
This etheral skulls kicks ass totally! And makes me remember how much I hated the inverted highlights thing when I painted Hexwraiths :frown: I wish to you that you will find a little better when trying it on larger units! xD I definitely want to see what will you do out of this.
 

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
I’ve been pretty busy visiting some friends and whatnot these days. I haven’t had much time for hobbying but I’ve got a bunch of stuff in the works & ready for some paint.

Here's the first, some more skeletons with their command group:





I wanted to convert the champion beyond what he is now to a standing pose pointing his sword towards the enemy. I didn't have any suitable legs so I just settled for putting him on a rock in the end.

I'm usually a bit lazy when it comes to banners and don't bother doing freehand, but am thinking about it for these guys... any ideas?

Here's another unit filler:



I wanted to do a fallen tree for this one so delved into my giant kit and made use of one of the weapons in there.

A Wight King:



This one's a Christmas present from my big brother & his family last year. He looks cool as he is but I'm debating on whether or not I should replace that rod-looking think on his right hip with a small axe from the grave guard kit...

I also ended up chopping off that grave stone base and replaced it with a fallen log just to add to the autumn theme.

And last (and probably least), some single base tree fillers:



Nothing special here, I just made these to have a go at adding to the theme of the army. I might add some vines to the trunks later on.


@Leithel Cheers mate, I can’t take credit for the idea of doing ethereals this way as it was Bloody Beast’s Rafal Maj that has given me the inspiration for this.

I can totally see how your suggestion about the longer gradient into the crevices would make it better. After looking at it for a bit it does seem a little bright.

@Eyeless Cheers! I’m glad you like the filler. I'm enjoying painting these skeletons but I'm looking forward to doing some zombie fillers. I've got a few sick ideas for those!

Regarding the ethereal scheme, it’s just a few very thin coats of Nihilakh Oxide over white, then a few coats of very thinned down Incubi Darkness. I’m going to play around with this scheme more in the near future and will do a tutorial with images once it’s satisfactory.

@Draykorinee @Shadespyre Thanks for the comments, more in the works!

@Borgnine This skull was actually pretty fun to paint, but I can see how it’s gonna be a bit of a drag to paint up a unit up like this. Once these sword-n-board skellies are down I’m up for doing something with a different palette, so hopefully it shouldn’t be too long before I get something up here to check out.

Cheers for your comments & feedback everyone!
 
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Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
Next solid update, as usual. Good thing that body parts of grave guards and skeletons are so easily interchangeable ;)
This banner in particular just begs to be freehanded somehow. As much as I am not a fan of paintings being used as banners, some classic night scene with a moon would fit your color scheme. Maybe something more like a tapestry? Or a heraldric symbol, an animal or other kind of creature. I am thinking about a silver/white charge on a blue and black field, that could work well.
 

Sessioni

Black Knight
Dec 29, 2014
300
@Farmer7574 Your skeleton unit will be astonishing when finished. Seeing that you use helmets and armor on the skeletons makes me want to go back in time and also use them :D But at the time I thought it would look cool if only the command group is allowed to have any kind of fancy hats and whatnot :D
 

Adam_Barrow

Sleepless Knight
True Blood
Dec 25, 2010
3,068
Nashville, TN
Farmer, my lad, I've a question for you. Are you doing anything special to the bits of wood before priming them? Do they need to be sealed with anything? I may have been talked into a LotR Lothlorien + Mirkwood army recently, and logs and brambles will suit the bases nicely.
 

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
@Adam_Barrow Does that make your 5th potential army now? There's no stopping you xD

Regarding the tree parts, I'm only priming them with Vallejo Black Surface Primer. The paint sticks well enough for me but not as well as on plastic minis. If your minis are going to handled alot then you might want to seal them somehow beforehand.

@Borgnine My thoughts exactly in terms of colours. I think a mix of greys and white could sit really nicely on a blue & black background. I’ve poked around the net for some inspiration as to what I’d like to do & have found this:



Undecided yet but it makes a decent undead standard considering a lot of the VC stuff has wings and stuff on. I'll do a bit more looking around in between painting breaks.

@Sessioni I like the idea of having a unit of skeletons without armour; it would give a bit of a slave appearance to them. I think your skeletons are cool regardless, but if you want to add armour you could always do another unit :)

I went for an armoured unit because I like the variety the parts add & they’re too cool to leave in my spares box, so I wanted to make the most out of the kit without converting much. I also wanted a nice amount of aged steel in there to contrast with the blue. And it makes for less bone to paint.
 
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Adam_Barrow

Sleepless Knight
True Blood
Dec 25, 2010
3,068
Nashville, TN
@Farmer7574 This'll be a small force, a few warbands and a couple eagles. Maybe an ent if I can find one that won't bankrupt me. So maybe ~35 models for the whole thing. I'm on that small game kick, thankfully.

They'll get some use, though. I wonder if watering down pva glue and coating them first will keep them ship shape.
 

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
Here's a small update.

WIP Wight King:



There are just a few more details left to do on this one. The cloak is going to be a very dark blue and the bronze is going to be similar to the silver - still shiny but touched by some verdigris. I'm still working on this and have yet to find an effect I'm completely happy with. (That's actually why this is just a WIP shot o_o)

Tree Fillers:



I did these to add more of a forest appearance to the unit. I think they've turned out quite well and will fit into units nicely. The plan is to use them sparingly - just enough to add a tall tree here and there and not diminish the volume of troops too much. I'll get a picture of this when the current batch of skeletons are done.


Other than doing these, I've been slogging through the third bunch of skeletons and blu-tac'ing zombies together to get a rough idea of the appearance I want to achieve. I'm actually really looking forward to butchering the Mantic zombies and going on a conversion spree with them!

There won't be much progress until the new year as I'm taking my missus back to England with me for the Christmas holiday.

Feel free to let me know what you think and cheers for taking a look!
 
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Eyeless

Wight King
May 17, 2013
443
Malta
The king is coming along nicely =] can't wait to see him finished. And well done on those trees. It's going to be a killer unit when complete =D
 
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Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
I got a full set of Skull Pass Night Gobbos for dirt cheap earlier in the year and am pretty keen to do another unit of them, but thought I’d keep course with the VC and put some of my Titan Forge Zomblins together instead.



They're all one-piece models, so I wanted to convert some to avoid having duplicates:



I plan on integrating them into standard zombie units (coming soon) but might just make them a seperate block if they look out of place.

@Eyeless Cheers mate, just getting back to the normal work/play routine after the holiday, so I'll get him finished soon!
 
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Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
Oh, the Wight King post is almost a month old! How is it going with him? Also, when we're with him - are you painting the thing on this forehead as a gem? I think it could look cool as a blue gem, would fit well with your scheme :) But that's rather optional, I tried to do that and it's really not visible too much xD

Trees look cool, I wonder how they'll fit into the bigger unit.

And those zomblins are models made right for you! I really look forward to seeing them finished!
 

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
Fresh off the painting table, here's the Wight King:



I took a bit of time doing this one as he’s the first one in the army that has bronze on him. I went for a reddish bronze colour instead of gold as it suits the autumn theme more. Just like with the steel, I wanted something that looks aged & worn but still retained a metallic colour.

I think he has turned out alright, although I may revisit the cloak at some point as I don’t think I’ve done it justice. It could use a bit of weathering around the edges too...

@Eyeless Cheers! These are Zomblins from Titan Forge. I think they’re a Polish company that produce some pretty cool minis. The sculpts aren’t as good as GW, but they’re a lot cheaper.

@Borgnine Yeah, it’s been a while. I went back to England for over two weeks over the Christmas period, so it has been a very unproductive month for painting. As you can see I painted that thing as a gem. This guy is clad in armour so painting it like this was a good chance to break up the metals.

I haven’t started painting the zomblins yet but it’ll be fun working on dead goblin flesh. I added Rakarth Flesh to normal skin tones to make them look rotten when painting my Black Orc Boss’ trophies, so perhaps that will work out here too.

Next up will be the third batch of skeletons with the command group, which are progressing slowly but surely.
 
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Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Very nice wight king, there. I like the metals, and the highlighting on the cape.
 

Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
He turned out boss! I think I like the helmet the most, looks frightfully realistic and very cool! Also, seeing a tidy version of painting this model I see some details that I missed during my rather messy approach ;) I think the fur on his cape could use some more highlighting, it looks the same along the whole length. I'd add bit stronger highlights on the top, it's getting more of the light. That's the only think I would change - cape looks terrific right now, I'd be adraid to get it dirty myself. Gives of a little bit of Batman feeling xD You are very good with black.
 

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
The latest batch is done:



These now boost the sword & board unit to 30.

Their command group:



I'm in the process of sketching up some ideas for the banner design. I'm unsure whether I want to go for a symbol I can repeat throughout the army or individual moonlit images...

Here's another unit filler:



Similar to the last one, two skeletons on a 40mm base with some decorative stuff to add to the theme.

And here's a shot of the Wight King & skeleton unit together:



Now that the skeletons are done for now, I plan on working on something a little more fleshy.


@Borgnine Cheers! Regarding the Wight King, the fur was painted the same way as my Dire Wolves but with the final drybrush colour being used as a highlight after the wash. I’ll hit this guy with another highlight when I mix the colour again and might even go down the road of highlighting my wolves’ fur to make them pop a little.

@Malisteen @Adam_Barrow @Count Raffael Thank you guys. I’ve taken a much bigger liking to the cloak after getting some positive feedback about it and will use this colour elsewhere in the army!

Let me know what you think and cheers for taking a look!
 
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Sception

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Sep 23, 2009
2,714
Love the skeletons, they look fantastic! Color choice is spot on, and I love the autumn bases. Really top notch stuff.
 
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Leithel

Grave Guard
Jun 3, 2015
286
Sydney
Very sexy skeletons @Farmer7574 . Love your work and I always get excited when your PLOG has an update. Have you considered putting up a backdrop on your photos, I think it will really enhance them.
 
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Borgnine

Master Necromancer
True Blood
Jun 15, 2013
2,036
Pruszkow, Poland
So cool! Great work on them, as always. They must look very food from above, with this basing ;) I have great anticipation for your next project :thumbsup:

EDIT: Oh, and banners - I always thought that some differentiation between them makes more sense - to be recognizable from distance for the commander - maybe one design, but with some alteration to show whether those skeletons use swords or spears?
 

Farmer7574

Vampire Count
True Blood
Dec 10, 2013
1,587
England
I've spent the day messing around with zombies and this is what I've come up with so far:



I’ve gone for Mantic’s zombies because I think the scale is more suited to the skeletons. I’m also not much of a fan of zombies holding weapons, however I’ve decided to give a few of mine swords to get more use out of that Mantic right arm that usually holds a severed hand. Also, I think it would look odd that the command group is carrying things but others are empty-handed.

These concept minis are to get a feel for what I want to do with the kit and see if the overall appearance I’m after will work out or not. They need a fair bit of green stuff in their current state and will also get a few other details such as arrows & weapons lodged in their bodies.

I’m looking for some feedback on how they look and some suggestions on how I can improve them, so comments & criticism are welcome.


@Malisteen Thanks mate. Seeing the finished unit together makes me want to start work on the spears but the thought of layering more bones is a bit of a hard one to grasp right now.

@Leithel Thanks a lot man! Unfortunately updates are quite few & far between as I’m a fairly slow painter, but I’m glad you like what I’m working on. Regarding the back drop, that’s a good idea! I’ll have to get a picture sorted out to get rid of that hobby area background going on in all my pictures!

@Sharkbelly @Adam_Barrow Cheers chaps.

@Borgnine Cheers :thumbsup: I’ll get a bats-eye view pic the next time I get the skellies out. I like the idea of doing the same insignia but with variations for each unit. I’ll draw up a bunch of designs and post them here when I have a decent amount to choose from.
 
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