The Eternal Court of the Carmine Rose

[Tawg]

Not gonna lie, I have a thing for roses!

Those look quite well, did your friend do that for you, or did you strike into your own to make up the little emblems?

I saw a tutorial on making roses once over on the Empire dedicated forums, I believe the guy was doing it for some Knights of the Black Rose? Seems like it shouldn't be too hard in theory, although my biggest problem always seems to be the critical nature of how I view work I finish, vs something anyone else has done.

I imagine that'll be quite striking though on the arms of skeletons.

 

[Shareya]

Pretty shields. How long does it make one?

 

[Shadespyre]

@Tawg - I've seen that tutorial, it is one of the many things which inspired this army, though I don't think I'll be doing such great sculpting just yet.

The shields are all my own work, or at least, I copied them from someone else's work on my own! I bought some cheap rose earrings and made a silicone mold from them, and then these are copies made from green stuff.

@ Shareya - Each shield takes about 5 minutes to make (not counting the hours it takes the green stuff to set!). I take the hardened rose, sand off the back to make them flatter and thinner, then glue them to the shields taking care to glue down the edges (the shields are curved). Then a simple paint job.

 

[Theerteen]

I tried to model a rose for a banner once, after about 3 hours I was hatefilled biting in some salad-like looking green stuff pieces...to imagine building 12 or more of them, my fingers turn inside and hide in my wrists...

 

[Shadespyre]

That's why I try to make everything ONCE and then copy it with a mold.

A quick progress report... I have a unit of Black Knights done except for base decoration (easy) and banner (less easy); the start of my skeleton warriors is well underway; and my first character model is converted and part painted.

Not much in the way of pictures to show you, but here's my WIP Necromancer before and after conversion:

Hopefully some pretty painted pictures soon...

 

[Shadespyre]

Picture update!

This dude counts as my first 15 skeleton warriors! :lol: For those who don't know, he's a Grenadier Miniatures Masterpiece Edition Death Giant, from the late 1980s. I've had him a while, and he had to appear in this army somehow!

More pictures and latest updates - follow the link below...

 

[robtion]

Nice The 15 skeleton warriors look great. Lovely painting and basing, though some vines and or roses growing up the legs or something might look cool.

Look forward to seeing your Necro painted up

 

[Shadespyre]

Yeah, I wondered about some roses growing actually on the giant, but I don't want to overdo that aspect of it. Apart from anything the extra modelling work would hold things up even more! I might come back and revisit the idea when the overall aesthetic of the army is settled down though.

 

[Shadespyre]

Update time...

The (currently nameless) necromancer, and her servant...

The models are by Reaper, and come as a pair called "Sorceress and Servant". This is one of the models that has inspired my army concept - as soon as I saw this, it was getting into my army! I like the image that she has raised this monster - a Black Orc Warboss, perhaps - not just as a bodyguard but as a butler! Holding a cloak for his mistress seems like a very human act for an animated skeleton to be performing.

And also, my Black Knights...

Thanks for looking

 

[robtion]

She looks great with the servant holding her cloak. How will you run that though in terms of bases etc for a game? Will you just remove her or will you use himas a unit filler?

I think the vines and leaves on the staff look a little flat. Maybe some highlighting or dry brushing with a lighter colour would look good?

Rose knights also look nice with their fancy shields and banner. Keep up the good work

 

[Shadespyre]

Thanks for the comments!

I painted the roses and vines exactly as I have on the rose maidens. Perhaps they look darker here because of the different colours they are alongside? I agree a little green highlight might help them stand out a little.

My plan for the basing is either to run her solo on her own base, or, if placed in a unit, with the servant where they will count as 3 skeletons in addition to the Necro. Or 3 grave guard, or whatever.

Without her, he doesn't make much sense as a model - if anyone can suggest an alternative to stand in front of him I'd be interested

I'm quite pleased with the Knights, thank you. Though it isn't perfect, the banner is one of the best free hand efforts I have done in my armies to date. I think the combo of black, bone, dark red and green works nicely and will be the main colour theme of the army from now on.

 

[con-fusion]

Very nice. The theme and GS work are superb. Love the skeleton giant.

 

[Hansarius]

I love your theme and it's execution.
The shields, the ghouls, the Giant, and particularly the Necromancer and her servant are amazing.

I envy anyone who gets to face your army.

 

[Yorga]

VERY cool! Love the dude holding her cloak.

 

[Shadespyre]

Thanks everyone, you are all very kind. It's nice to get some encouragement along the way.

The next major chunk of painting is on my desk: 40 skeleton warriors. I am going to put them all in a row and batch paint them. It will not be fun, but experience tells me this is the way I will get them done.... to stave off madness, I have also prepped some more bases for painting, and some gravestone unit fillers, and my first vampiress, so I can do bits on those as breaks in the skellies.

I'm setting the goal of getting them done by the end of July...

 

[Shadespyre]

Progress on those skeletons...

95% done, I need to do some extra work on the champion and standard bearer (who has no standard yet!) and a bit of tidying up.

I've used the same dull grey metal as on the Black Knights and gone for a dark and dirty look to these guys. They have the army rose shield motif, but I decided against red uniforms - I will keep that for my elite units and characters - these guys are in Knarloc Green, I might do the other two boxes in a different colour and then mix and match them.

It took a little application and discipline, but I'm way ahead of my target of finishing these before the end of July.

 

[robtion]

Wow :O They look really fantastic! Nice work

 

[Shadespyre]

Thanks mate.

Here's a picture of the command group with a bit of extra work on them - a banner, and I've added highlights to brighten up the metal (and the unit) a bit.

The bright patch of autumn leaves on the standard bearer's base is a new product I'm trying out on this unit, what do you think?

 

[Ustrello]

It is interesting I like them. Is that from a gw basing kit?

 

[Ustrello]

Fall type bases


fantascape has some really awesome resin bases you should check out, I linked them above

 

[Shadespyre]

It is interesting I like them. Is that from a gw basing kit?

I got them from War Painter on ebay:

War Painter Ebay

Fantascape look like an interesting company to keep an eye on, thanks for the link.

 

[jediguru]

Nice concept for your army. I really like the roses on everything and the Dryads look great!

 

[Shadespyre]

Nice concept for your army. I really like the roses on everything and the Dryads look great!

Thanks very much! Always nice to get a positive response

Here is the finished unit with the rose standard. I was looking to be lazy on this one (I'm a little bored of roses!) but I got told off by my Beastman buddies so here we are...





EDIT - just popped back to record a note from a discussion on Warhammer Empire:
I think these guys are either a single regiment slaughtered in battle, or possibly soldiers from many generations of the same regiment / town / nation. After all, if you animated all the skeletons on a battlefield in Middenland you would not be surprised if all the skeletons wore blue, no matter how old they were.

What is next? Bat swarms, more Rose Maidens, my Wight Queen and maybe some VAMPIRES!

 

[Shadespyre]

I've been working mainly on painting bases, but here are some Renedra gravestones / unit fillers:



I like how these came out, so I shall make more. They will break up the massed ranks of skeletons a bit, and should be handy for helping the Rose Maidens rank up better too.

 

[Ustrello]

Very nice I haven't done fillers so I have to slog through every model