Deadcember

[Mister Rab]

Mostly cut'n'pasted from my blog, so if there are non-sequitors, that's why!

Advent. A time of reflection, preparation, and impending joy. For me and millions of others around the globe it leads up to the second most significant time of the year, the first being Easter.

However, thanks to a poor pun on the name of the month, and having just bought a bunch of skeleton figures that I want to paint by New Year so that I hit an average of one figure a week for 2015, it's also going to be the month of the (un)living dead! Why don't you join in with any dry bones or squelchy zombies that didn't quite get the attention they might have done at the end of October?

So, here's my unholy horde to disturb any Silent Night or lay siege to a Good King's castle, twenty-four skeletons (including musician, banner and champion) from the old Harlequin range now with Black Tree Design, undercoated with cheap grey spray and after a wash with diluted AP Strong Tone ink:

and how they look after a heavy wetbrush with Foundry 09A Boneyard shade:

You're all welcome - nay, encouraged - to join in with some unfestive undead painting yourself. Also left unsaid, I realise, was that a unit of twenty-four was not random but the equivalent of the Deadcember calendar doors. I won't say "Advent" calendar because most of them are as utterly unrelated to Advent/Christmas as these skeletal chaps.

I shall be updating my blog with each stage of the progress, but I'll only put a couple of the more interesting ones here! Anyone want to join in?

 

[daddyorchips]

i've never painted any skellies before so i'll have a got at this one.

 

[Mister Rab]

There's a good chap

 

[Mister Rab]

Anyone else interested? I dread to think how many hours I spent desperately lusting after the skeleton horde box and discussing with a friend how we were going to get a set, and some beakie marines, kitbash the two together and have them led by a Nazgul as an army of necromantically raised marines... Happy days

 

[Gerner]

I can't follow up with all these projects!
Interested? Sure. Having a handful of projects already started? Indeed.

 

[Jeff McC]

I'll try to join in on this one. I think I've a few skeletal cavalry that could stand some paint.

 

[Mister Rab]

I can't follow up with all these projects!

Yeah, but this is the coolest one

I'll try to join in on this one. I think I've a few skeletal cavalry that could stand some paint.

Great! I'd like to see these, particularly if they're still-in-production metal cavalry. I can't decide which range to go for...

 

[Lord Chaotl Oml]

Mkay, if its the coolest one, i´ll have to join too. I´ll start diggin out something immediately.

 

[Jeff McC]

Sorry, but they're old plastics, nothing dramatic, but they'll fill a spot on the battle line.

 

[Mister Rab]

Great - I look forward to seeing your contributions

I'll post an update of my own here when I've got the first stage of metals done (a slow process on a whole unit - who'd've thought ), but my latest contribution is an attempt to produce a reasonable set of stats/points value for undead ogres. I picked up the two that Ral Partha Europe have in their DSA range. I think they were old Armalion sculpts for the long-gone roleplaying game Das Schwarze Auge. They're of a good oldhammery vintage anyway!

The justification and pictures are on my blog, but the end result was:

	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Int	Cl	WP	PV
Undead ogre	6	3	1	4	5	3	2	2	5	4	5	5	44

That was 36pts for his stats and a further 8pts for the various undead rules as they apply to ordinary skeletons. What do you think?

 

[Jeff McC]

44 points seems like a reasonable value.

 

[Half-asian]

Even though they are not oldhammer, I got these reaper bones minis painted up. They are the first time I have painted skeletons before. I might see if I can find a few old zombies in the dettol vat downstairs for later!

 

[Mister Rab]

Some great dungeon fillers there, Half-asian I'll look forward to your zombies.

 

[Jeff McC]

Some Deadcember progress made - 2 skeletal horsemen completed. (3 to go)
My youngest felt that his scorpion needed to get in on the act too, so here's it is.

 

[Mister Rab]

Classic plastic skeleton cavalry! I like the pattern on their shields. Cool scorpion, too

 

[daddyorchips]

so i've managed to build a unit of skellies out of spare parts and a couple of minis from the lead pile. next moveis to paint the buggers...

 

[Mister Rab]

next moveis to paint the buggers...

That's usually where my projects stall!

 

[Jeff McC]

Thanks!
I've finished the other 3 horsemen. Added a bit of tattered pennant to one, potential to claim it as a unit standard, but small enough that I don't have to.

 

[Mister Rab]

How do you add that slightly tarnished look to your metals?

 

[Jeff McC]

It's pretty straight forward.
I start with the metal base tone with a black (or dark brown) wash. Here I've used, Army painter Gun Metal with Dark Tone Wash.

Then I do a slightly thinned sloppy partial wet blend of a Burnt sienna, dark brown, yellow ochre and orange. (this step can be a touch scary) Here I've used Game Color Parasite Brown, Charred Brown, Desert Yellow, and Orange Fire.

Finish off with a very dry drybrush of the original metal. AP Gun Metal again.

Hope that helps, and apologies for the slightly out of focus photos.