The Undeadening. [Part 10: Walk Among Us (Done!)]

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seejaypee

Zombie
Oct 3, 2013
47
Zombies
37
Greetings from a lurker who has poked around in here for a while, but never signed up before. As I'm nearing completion of my Undeadening project, I thought I should log in and contribute- if for no other reason than posterity. Maybe something I post will spurn someone else on to finish something, as so many others have inspired me.

Undead were the first real army I collected and played for WHFB, starting around 4th ED.

They were mostly done, to the standard I used to accept (nonuniform bases, no finished bases on most of them, etc etc) but there were a few things I wanted to flesh out, a few figures I picked up here and there after other armies caught my painting and gaming attention, etc. Since I started this whole collection around. . . 1992ish... it seems like I should have it wrapped up by now. So a few months ago, I decided to cast aside my normal 'paint whatever strikes my fancy' tendancies, and focus and finishing this thing.

Now that I'm nearly there, I figure I ought to post things on the biggest undead hang out I know of. :)

Onward to unlife!


Step one was getting rid of half of my mounted skeletons. The good half were of course from the great Skeleton Army box. The other half were single pose, bendy plastic... I don't even remember the brand, but they came like 10 to a bag for ~$10.00, back in the 90s.

So those got getting the heave-ho, and I started watching ebay for plastic skellies to back-fill them. I got a pile of the old horsemen, but the riders turned out to be in shit condition. I found cheap riders from a newer set through Hoard-o-bits (recommended seller- decent price, quick delivery and all that).

I dug up all the OOP lance arms I could find, and gave the remaining few spears and sword.

1.webp


I know the grateful dead motif is probably not that unique, but this batch is designed to fit in with the existing stuff from 20 years ago, and that's what I did back then, so I'm sticking with it.

3.webp


Another legacy of the undead being my first serious army collection, was that I never based them. So, part of finishing the army with a few new units is going to be finishing bases for nearly the whole army.

I figured I might as well make that inevitable project a fraction smaller, and so went to the basement and dug up the old horsemen, and flocked them as well, so I could do the whole batch at once.

Its a pretty rough old lot from back then.... some centaurs with fucked up weapons (these were some of the first conversions I ever did), the GD shields are sculpey, the bike is a Matchbox I think, and I have no recollection what the liche leadery type is from. Partha or Grenadier maybe.

5.webp

6.webp


Anyway, It feels good to finally have them all done, even if they are mishmash of styles, skill levels, and figure styles, spanning a couple decades.

7.webp


Stay tuned for more.
 
RE: The Undeadening. [part 2, Vampire Counts]

Some other recent additions were figures to be vampire count leaders.

The first was a freebie done by Artizan, in the style of Vlad in the FF Coppola dracula film, that I think was given away with the first copies of the WAB Vlad the Impaler supplement.

I decided to try a quick and dirty version of the way his armor looks in the film, and painted everything but the armor normally, then burnished the raw metal of the figure, and glazed it with TCR for a gooey, shiny, impalertastic effect. Kind of silly in one regard maybe, but I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. And I don't take the undead too seriously to begin with. ;)

vlad.webp


The 2nd is an old chaos champion in bone armor. I thought I'd give him the same treatment as vlad, and he'd be another great addition to the team. The shield design is from the Necronomicon.


bonecount.b.webp
 
RE: The Undeadening. [part 4, carrion]

The one unit I had to completely re-do for this project was the bat swarms. I had those terrible old bats from the 4th/5th days, that looked like a muppet had sex with a popsicle. At the time, thats what there was, so thats what I used.

Luckily, sculptors have gotten more creative and talented, and there are now better options out there. The best for my money was the swarms from Masquerade miniatures, so thats what I went with.

batgroup.webp


batsingles.webp


The packs that come as singles are a lot of work to put together, but the results can be pretty rewarding. The newer packs where several of the bats area already one piece are a lot easier to deal with for sure. I did two bases of each, for variety.
 
RE: The Undeadening. [part 3, Bat Swarms]

Next up was some carrion. I had two in the old army, and after the most recent time I played them I realized that in addition to being neat figs, they were a pretty handy troop type, and more than two would be a good idea. Off to ebay, I picked up a handful over the last year as I found them.

Finally finished them earlier this summer:

Carrion1.webp


The 6 regular carrion are all standard old Citadel figs. They only made two riders for them so I tried to mix it up a little with a couple swaps. The monkey is from a Reaper familiar pack, and the neat little skaven dude is a bit from one of the more recent sets. I /think/ he comes with the plastic rat ogre box perhaps, but not entirely sure.

Carrion2.webp

CarRiders.webp


The leader is a heresy vampire that I chopped up and puttied into a flying position. He came out fairly well, and I'm glad I put the effort in and ended up with something unique:

CarVamp.b.webp


The orignal fig:

undead004_mika3.webp
 
RE: The Undeadening. [part 5, wraiths & banshee]

The latest in this project is my wratih unit.

I had about 1/2 as many un-finished as I had finished, so rather than paint the new ones and put up with mixed styles, I decided to repaint all of them. The one nod I made to my original work of ~15 years ago, is the one citadel figure with the red-orange robe. I wouldn't have chosen to do it that way now, but I did it that way then, and since the vast majority of this army is not getting repainted, I told myself I had to keep that one sort of old school choice, no matter how I'd do it now.

Quite happy with this batch. 9 wraiths, and then the reaper figure with no weapons is a banshee to lead them, which I guess is the way things work now.

wraithgroup.b.webp

wraith1.b.webp

wraith2.b.webp



Figures are citadel, otherworld, reaper, and harlequin.
 
RE: The Undeadening. [part 5, wraiths & banshee]

You put a great amount of creativity in your army, and this pays off very well! Love your stuff, and this motorcycle thing is something I'm playing with for a good time now...assembled all the parts I need, but never got the initial spark to start working -_-
The carrion champ (or vargheist? ;) ) is very cool :D

Looking forward for more stuff now, a great army so far!
 
RE: The Undeadening. [part 6, dragon & giant]

Thanks Theerteen! What are you using for a bike?

Next up are some old big beasts. I painted these in about 1992, but I just got them out to update the bases to match with this effort to finish the whole army. The dragon was already coverd in sand and rocks, I just added some grass tufts to match what I'm doing elsewhere. The giant never had anything but the integral base he came with, so he got a nice 50 or 60mm base and some sand, flock, bushes, and a random horse skull I've had sitting around in a bits box for almost as long as I've been collecting undead.


The dragon is from the old Grenadier series, Julie Guthrie's Dragons. I added the rider years ago when I was first learning to convert. The arm and whatever crappy sword I gave him fell apart a lot, so last week I replaced his arm with one from the plastic cavalry I recently finished, and swapped the spear head for a giant axe head. Added the GD shield as well, to complete the look with the rest of the army.

The giant was from Ral Partha. It had a club or stave or something, but I cut that off and gave it this silly giant flail. I made the ball out of sculpey and the points are straight pins, cut off at the end. I was pretty convinced that was the cat's pajamas at some point.

dragon.b.webp

giant.b.webp
 
RE: The Undeadening. [part 6, dragon & giant]

Theerteen said:
Nice models (: Is the chain fix or just glued at the ends (staff and hand)? When it's fix, how the hell did you do it so clean??

Nope, its only glued at the ends, and otherwise swings free. :)
 
RE: The Undeadening. [part 7, spirit host]

I finally finished my spirit host, yay!

Host.webp


I originally planned to do a 5th base, with the king surrounded by these swirly bits from the mortis engine. I got most of the way through it before I finally decided that I don't think the swirly bits really work for the look I was after. Too regular and plain or something. Anyway, I still think my idea of the king in the middle with stuff around him was a good idea, just not the best execution. I went ahead and finished the base to match anyway, as long as I was so close. Seeing it like this confirms that my idea was good. Not sure how I could have done it better, but I might end up just putting the king base on ebay or something and using the other 4 in my collection. We'll see.

allPlusKing.webp


Either way I'm really happy with the way it came out. It was a good challenge, and I'm glad I decided to try and paint some 100% ethereal figs, which I'd never done before. It's good to try new stuff. :)

King.webp


Host4Up.webp


hostBack.webp
 
RE: The Undeadening. [part 8, wight king / liche]

I love your work! It's great to see all this old stuff coming together so nicely. Good for you, finally setting a goal and getting it DONE! It's a rare thing in this hobby.

I think the Grateful Dead motif is GREAT! Your awesome hand-painting really makes the banners and shields stand out. And if it makes you feel more original, I've never seen it done before that I can remember.

Your ethereal stuff is AMAZING! :O
 
RE: The Undeadening. [part 9, catapults]

While I work on finishing new parts of this army I'm trying to grab some of the old stuff and make a little progress here and there in getting it based. I know I'm still going to have a huge pile of bases to do when I'm done, since most all of things I did years back I never based at all. But, at least these tiny little additions as I go give me the delusion that I'm making it easier on myself later. :)

Anyway, here is my old Screaming Skull catapult from Citadel, and some random other one from I don't even remember which company. Probably painted these around 1994.

catapult1.webp



catapult2.webp
 
The army is done!

Well, that right there is a lie. I have 10 bowmen that I just found that still need to get their bases flocked and painted. THEN it will be done. But, I was entering the army in a painting contest with a Nov30 deadline, so I had to take pictures without the bowmen. And I can't help but share the pictures since this is the first time I've set all this up together.

Over the next few days I'll be adding better shots of individual figures under my proper lighting set up, but I thought you all would appreciate these on the table. :)


Army.webp

right.webp

left.webp


Hand weapons:
swords.webp


Scythes:
scythe.webp


Spears:
spear.webp


Mummies:
mummy.webp


Carrion:
carrion.webp


Cavalry:
cav.webp


Chariots:
chariot.webp


Chariot, Dragon, Catapults:
arty.webp


Ghosts, vaghulf, spider swarms, bat swarms
swarm.webp


Wraiths, Giant
wraith.webp


Liche, Vampire, Necromancer, Vampire, standard bearer, liche
chars.webp
 
I love these guys! What's really nice is to see a whole bunch of old minis. They have a certain charm and I think that every army should have some antiques. I'm really digging the 'Pepsi' shields too. All too often hobbyists go too serious and strive 'realism', and it's something I would say about myself, but it's refreshingly cool to see a little bit of humour come across once in a while.

Kudos! :thumbsup:

Look forward to seeing some more!

Cheers,

u_m
 
Glad you like them. It was pretty great to finally get some of these old guys out, dusted off, and give them a fresh base and a moment in front of the camera.

untitled_musketeer said:
I'm really digging the 'Pepsi' shields too.


Definitely not Pepsi, but it is taken from elsewhere in popular culture. I'm surprised more people aren't at least tangentially aware of the GD, but it must not have the worldwide reach since these are constantly getting mistaken for Pepsi when I post pics on the net. ;) Oh well, some marketing person somewhere is dancing with glee at the market saturation they've achieved where even other logos in the same color are assumed to be theirs.
 
I'll say it again for emphasis...

MAN, YOU HAVE A GREAT ARMY!

Love the heroquest skellies carrying scythes. So characterful!

All your lords and characters are really diverse, but they all still fit together pretty well. Is that a 5th ed. chaos warrior head on the liche priest? Neato!

That chariot with the coffin for a coach is freakin' amazing.

I think part of the "Pepsi" confusion is the fact that you've got "Taste Eternity" on your (great looking!) banner. Sounds like a marketing slogan for a soft drink, admittedly of the Calvin Klein-style genre.
 
Thats a bad ass army right there! Some great stuff. The motorbike skeleton was awesome and the bone Armour, ethereals are brilliant. Thumbs up for the Misfits banner!:thumbsup:
 

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