Them Bones.. painted Undead army

In the last Blog post, my newly painted undead forces took to the field. 

I thought I'd have a go at taking some slightly better pictures and a note on how I painted the Oathmark skeletons which make up the bulk of this host..

The 'heroes' are a mix of Reaper Bones and a mounted D&D figure, and the giant Wurms are 3D prints, figure sourced on Thingiverse.

The Oathmark skeletons are really nice figures, and I was quite keen to get the 'ancient bronze' look right. I ended up using a bit of a mix of ideas from various blogs and videos and really like the result.

They were primed with Army Painter 'Skeleton Bone' , then given a wash of the GW contrast 'Skeleton Horde'.. Some of the skeletons also had an additional dark wash and drybrush with Iraqi Sand. The spear shafts were done with Vallejo German Camo green with a light deck tan drybrush, and the bows Vallejo Deck Tan. The few straps and rags of clothing were all Vallejo 'English Uniform'. 

The crucial antique bronze effect was a done by applying GW Warploque bronze, a wash of GW 'Mechanical Nihalac Oxide' and some green ink splotches. The whole lot was washed in AP Strong Tone, along with the leather and cloth bits.

The background in these pictures is a poor print of a really nice free picture from Jon Hodgson

Everything is based up on rounds, the skeletons are all on pennies, which allow me to use them to play Dragon Rampant, Midgard, or any other game really (except perhaps Oathmark!) and although I'm telling myself that the army is 'done' at 24 archers and 50 warriors.. I suspect their numbers will swell!

Some of the army 'at play' recently

Going underground.. Greeks, skeletons and giant wurms!

This Sunday saw the 'chums' gather at the Sherwood soldier shack for another game of Midgard, the upcoming heroic battle rules that James has been writing and we've been playtesting this last year or so. See James blog for far more detail on the battle and the rules.

James and I lead the undead forces of Hades against Paul and Tom, who commanded Basil and his Greek forces.. their mission was to escort the captured Cerberus out of the underworld. It was a nip and tuck affair, the undead almost losing the day, but being sneakk sneaksters, managed to recapture the pooch just in time. 

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day, and great to get my old hoplites and newly painted skeletons out on the table for a bash in the underworld. I was a bit brain fogged so handy to have the rules author on your team!

Next blog post I think I'll post some better pictures of the skeleton army (which I thought I'd 'finished' but now want to expand further!)

Tom and James setting up

skeleton archers (Oathmark minis) with some Celtic undead

all very noir

One of the skeleton champions (Reaper Bones mini)

Orpheus with Cerberus on a leash!

Hades arrives and looks decidedly unimpressed

Fiery horsey skeleton champion

The Greeks

Parthenios dropping in to slay Hades. Cheeky blighter.

Deianeira, casting mist about the place

Undead champions 'inspiring' the legions of bones

the forces clash and many bones are crunched

Parthenios eventually finds his end, swallowed by the Wurms

On the Greek right, the undead make some headway

And finally recapture Cerberus, who turns on the Greeks