The Undead Legions
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| The completed army: (L-R) Titan, Scourge, Warriors and Hearthguard and Warlord |
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| And more of them: (L-R) Black knight (mounted and foot options), Scourge #2, Warriors |
My long-waited fifth faction completed for Saga: Age of Magic is at last completed. This faction has gone through various iterations in preparation since my original concepts, in particular the mounted Hearthguard.
I'd originally thought this would be a nice and easy faction to get on the table, as I already had the Revenant army. One play test sorted that out though - no way was an army largely made of the Mindless (despite being possible) likely to work at all well. The list I came up with was:
Necromancer (warlord)
Black knight (mounted)
1 x 4 Hearthguard (mounted)
2 x 11 Warriors (skeletons)
2 x 11 Warriors (skeletons, bow)
1 x 20 Mindless
To make this, and to allow for variations on a theme, and to add in some optional extras that looked nice, what I ended up putting together was:
Necromancer
Black Knight (foot and mounted)
2 x 4 Hearthguard (mounted)
24 x Warriors (skeletons with spear and shield)
24 x Warriors (skeletons with bow)
Titan (giant mummy)
Scourge (wyvern)
Scourge (skeletal dragon)
The mindless are Revenants which I already posted about a while ago. I'm not repeating that here.
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| The necromancer |
The necromancer warlord is an old Reaper figure previously used for roleplaying that I repainted and rebased.
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| The black knight (on and off his horse) |
The foot version of this is what I believe to be an old Asgard miniatures (remember them?) figure which I altered the helmet of long ago. I changed his weapon for a double-headed chain mace duplicating the one used by the mounted chap, made him a cloak from green stuff and added a big sword.
The mounted model is a Kings of War revenant figure and horse, with head, weapon, cloak and shield from a Fireforge plastic knight, made good with green stuff. The horse pose was slightly changed and I added some Black Cat miniatures skulls to the base. The shield design was made to mimic the one of the foot version using green stuff.
Both figures painted black and highlighted with lighter stages and metallics using Foundry paints.
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| Mounted skeletal Hearthguard |
I originally bought the Kings of War mounted revenants with the intent of making them my hearthguard, but the figures didn't sit well alongside the others and even with some head swaps and other conversions I wasn't happy with them. It's interesting how my opinion has changed with time - when I first discussed these I seemed quite happy with the old plan! At Hammerhead earlier this year I came across a chap who was selling some painted mounted skeletons which I suspect are Games Workshop figures - though I have no idea. These looked right and were well priced so I bought them (sadly there were only seven). The eighth one of these is a Eureka figure. He's slightly different but not enough to worry.
All figures were completely rebased and repainted. Their weapons were removed and replaced with spears made from brass rod to which I attached some nice spear heads from the Warlord Erehwon skeletons (see below). Some careful drilling was required. Their shields are ones I bought loose from 1st Corps.
Skeleton bone colour was made by painting the figure white and washing with sepia. Once that was dry I highlighted carefully with Vallejo Iraquian Sand.
The shield designs are transfers, see below.
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| Skeleton warriors with spear and shield |
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| Skeleton warriors with bows |
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| A closer shot of two of the warriors |
The bulk of the army comprises skeleton warriors, with spear and shield or archers. After looking around at different manufacturers I opted finally for Warlord Games' Erehwon skeletons, and bought two boxes of them. Now these are lovely figures. But whoever decided that they should be made up of so many different component parts that are so difficult to be assembled together should be put up against the wall. Why are the feet not part of the legs? These are an absolute pain to put together and difficult to repair when they break as well, and despite the fact that they do loo lovely, I would not recommend them to anyone and would never put myself through the pain of assembling them again.
Because the feet are a separate component that attaches to the legs, and I intended to base them normally, I alo had to add small pieces of sprue between the bottom of the feet and the base - so one extra part. I based them all on 25mm repair washers to give them a bit more weight and used milliput on each to ensure they were firmly held in place.
Spears are made from 1mm brass rod in my usual way (hammer the end flat, trim with clippers, file to shape, cut spear to length). The shields are from 1st Corps. I do not like the shields that come with the Warlord figures. They're probably historically accurate proportions for Greek hoplite shields but they obscure the details of the figures because of their size. I suspect Harryhausen realised this as his skeleton warriors from Jason and the Argonauts and other classic films also have smaller shields - and this is the look I was going for. I realised after I'd bought them that these shields come in two types - one in a hoplon shape and one circular but with a central indent. If I'd known this when I bought them I would have bought two packets so as not to use this second design, although in the end it worked out fine.
The smaller shields meant that I had a bit of an issue finding sheild transfers that would fit, but after some trial and error I found that LBMS 1/72 hoplite designs fitted the hoplon shaped shield perfectly, and Xyston 15mm hoplite designs fitted into the indent of the other shield type. The transfers went on easily with the aid of some decal softener.
The shields were given the effect of age and verdigris using - very sparingly - Citadel technical paint Nihilakh Oxide. A brilliant paint with a name that is really difficult to remember, say and spell. I'll call it Verdigris. Despite their daft names, I'm incredibly impressed with Citadel technical paints. Highly recommended if you can remember what to ask for when you're in the shop.
Giant mummy - Titan
This figure was an old and very badly cast figure in my spares box that was looking very sorry for itself. Originally its fist was its raised right hand and in its left it wielded what appeared to be the forearm and claw of some kind of reptile which I suspect it was using as a sort of mace. I made him right handed, adding a more Egyptian style mace made from kebab stick and green stuff to his raised hand (so as to look more like he was taking the archetypal smiting pose of many a pharaoh) and removed the strange mace from his other hand, which I repaired with green stuff. To give the figure a sense of motion I added frayed bandages using strips of paper which I blended as best I could with the ones cast onto the figure. Painting hides many a sin here, but he turned out rather well in the end I think.
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| A pile of skulls, and a claw |
The claw was repurposed as some sort of objective token or marker. I've no idea when I'll use it but it was a shame to throw it away. The pile of skulls was bought on impulse from Eureka miniatures. You never know when you will need a pile of skulls.
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| Scourge: wyvern |
Another repurposed old role playing figure, repainted and rebased. I suspect this is a Reaper miniature. Very nice casting.
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| Scourge #2: Skeletal dragon |
I saw this chap online and had to buy him. A beautiful figure from Reaper miniatures.
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| The crypt |
The crypt (model originally from Debris of War) has actually been complete for some time but looking back at previous posts on this theme it seems I never posted a picture of it, so here it is.
Looking forward to playing some games now!
