Show & Tell: Tomb Kings Update

Following on from my recent Show & Tell posting about my re-vitalised 'OldHammer' Tomb Kings army, here is a quick update on some additional models that I have been able to put in place in the couple of weeks since that original posting.

At the time I was rambling on about what I'd like to do to further enhance the collection and after a couple of visits to eBay, here are some of the results.

Firstly a unit of eight Mounted Archers, these came to me undercoated and so it was a relatively simple task to add the Skeleton Horde Contrast paint and then to dry brush with a suitably boney colour to add further definition before adding the light blue and gold details on bows, quivers and headwear.

First rank of Horse Archers, with unit champion in headgear

Second Rank of Horse Archers

So looking at the Tomb Kings Codex, it appears that Horse Archers are quite a strong choice for Tomb King Armies, hence my acquisition of these little guys. They get to move, then fire and move again! I'll likely look to swell their ranks if the opportunity arises.

Three Carrion Vultures

The unit of three Carrion vultures are resin models from the Tabletop Games Fantasy Heroes range (Ref: FJ0124, if you are interested!), again soourced from eBay. These are mummified vultures that have a good move range and can  hopefully give an enemy a surprise!

Bird One 

The models were a little fiddly to construct - the wings fitted well but I had to drill out the legs on each bird to allow a wire support to firmy fix each vulture to the base. Without these it would just be a matter of time before the birds would break off from their bases.

Bird Two

I undercoated these guys with a cream paint, then applied Ratling Grime contrast paint to all wing / feather areas, before applying Skeleton Horde contrast paint to all bandaged areas. I highlighted the bandages in white before giving them a Dark Tone wash and then further highlighted cream again.

Legs, necks and heads were painted with Darkoak flesh before I again highlighting bandages in white. Blue and gold details were added to the neck colars before adding sand to the base. After a varnish the hyrogliphs on the oblix stones were marked in, using various colours

Bird Three

Finally, for this update, I eventually get around to building and painting one of my spare Tomb Kings Charriots. I'm pleased with the results, although the chariot's blue colour does not quite match the original model I had, where I used Enchanted Blue (I believe) but that pot had long since run out!

This time round I used a GW colour called 'The Fang', which is reasonably close, although i did add some white to lighten it a bit. Painting was much the same as described above for the Skeleton Horse Archers, so I won't repeat that description again.

My new Tomb Kings Chariot

Another view

And again!

So now there is one remaining original 1990s chariot model waiting to be built but currently I have no crew, so I'll have to find these, where ever I have put them!

What next? Well I already have on order some Ubashi, to add to the single figure I already have, these are resin / 3d prints so I will use my existing model as the unit champion. The other item I have coming is a model of Queen Cleopatra, who will act as my 'Tomb King', I'll share further developments as they get completed....

Another Tomb Kings army Update

 Following on from my Tomb Kings Show & Tell update a couple weeks ago, I have been busy adding more units and characters to the army and upgrading one of the existing Skeleton units.

New regiment of Skeleton Spearmen for the Tomb Kings Army

First up is a new unit of 3D printed skeletons, all spear and shield armed and I think that these were Highland Miniature figures. I'm not 100% certain as I got, these as a used but unpainted lot on eBay. All I had to do was clean them up and add bases, luckily, I had a supply of old 20mm bases, which suits me fine - this aligns with the rest of the army.

Another view of these 3D printed figures

These figures seem pretty robust and come with the shields seperate which can be added prior to painting. As ever a cream undercoat and then a wash of Skeleton Horde before a further dry brush of boney goodness. Shields and weapons were opainted light blue and then washed with blue ink to give an aging effect.

Final view of the regiment

I have gone over to using Army Painter 'Hoplite Gold' for metal work and this is a fantastic paint to use. I then drybrush thus with a bright metalic brass and then use a silver marker pen to give final highlights.

Six new Ubashi figures, these will be lead by a GW original metal Ubashi figure

Next up are six Ubashi figures, these are resin / 3D printed figures from Tabletop Figures, again sourced frmo eBay and good value for money. The figures come with 40x40mm MDF bases and the figures were superglued to these before poainting.

Close-up of one of the Ubashi, mummified animal dieties

I like the pose on this figure!

First of two figures in thi spose, thta came with the set.

I used much the same process as I used on the Carrion Birds in the last tomb Kings post, as these are also mumified figures I used Ratling Grime as a base colour to give that aged, dirty brown look.

Another nice pose!

I may neeed to do some more work on these figure's blue loin cloths, close-up photos on some of these show additional detail is required

Final Ubashi figure, again a nice pose.

Next is a new character figure, a mumified Queen Cleopatra, this is another resin figure, this time 35mm in scale and part of the 'Rumbleslam' range. Once again the painting approach was the same as for other figures.

The Mummy Queen - Cleopatra

Another view - Cleo is being raised by ethral hands to the sky!

Final view of Queen Cleo

Lastly this week there's an upgrade for a skeleton unit featured on my orginal Tomb Kings posting, this unit was originally armed with spears but had no shields. I found an old box containing some Tomb king Shields and painted these up, before adding the additional protection to my existing unit.

Selection of shields painted-up to upgrade an existing Spear only armed regiment!

Said regiment without shields, before upgrade

Upgraded unit now with shields!

Show & Tell: Tomb Kings Army

So having just completed a batch of Skeletons for my Tomb Kings Army, I thought I'd get them out in the table to review what needs to be added to 'flesh out' (pun intended) the army.

With the new paints available these days, painting such an army is a joy to complete and so below are my ramblings on the subject....

The Army as it stands now, the eagle eyed viewers will see gaps
 and obvious opportunities to enhance it further.

A unit of 20 sword and shield armed skeletons, with Musician (drummer) and Standard Bearer

So you will see some units armed with black spears, whist others have blue ones. I like to think of the black weapons to be resurrected 'run of the mill' troops, in reality these are my original Warhammer Skeleton Army, dating back to the early 1990s!

These are supplemented by newer figures but over time I'll re-organise more and put all the newer figures into the more 'elite' blue speared units.

You'll also notice many of these older guys have scratch made shields, made out of cardboard, the original figures had a myriad of various shaped shields and I worked to standardise these a couple years back.

A unit of 18 sword armed figures, with Standard Bearer,
the unit is crying out for a champion and a musician to be added

A unit of 35, axe and shield armed skeletons, with Musician and Standard Bearer,
a Champion would be desirable to complete the unit.

Five, Reaper Miniatures, Tomb Guards. I like these figures
but they are pretty hard to get hold of in the UK.

So I'm quite happy to use non Games Workshop figures in my Warhammer Armies, availability and expense of some of these little guys, often make them less attractive than the alternatives on sale. Given the scarcity of the Reaper figures in the UK, I may need to rethink how I build the Tomb Guard unit.

Two fabulous Reaper High Priests, the woman on the right has a Baboon familiar.

Four Mummies, currently no place in the OldWorld Warhammer Fantasy setting,
these guys are old plastic GW Heroquest figures.

I might use these Mummies as Unit champions, maybe looking to source some more and add weapons and shields to the figures.

A venerable, GW metal Tomb King / Tomb Prince. Currently the Army commander

An equally old Tomb King Liche Priest

If I modernise this army further it would n make sense to mount my Army Commander and Liche  Priest on a suitable beast or Chariot. I'm not a great fan of all the monstrous constructs available to a Tomb Kings army, I'd prefer to field masses of skeletons instead.

Two units of Archers,as can be seen, I'm missing a musician for one of these units

5 axe and shield armed skeletons, the basis of a Skirmisher unit in the future.

Another unit of black speared skeletons, 30 figures strong,
with standard bearer and musician

Another 30 strong Spear an shield skeleton unit.

Blue spear unit of skeletons, 18 strong,
clearly awaiting additional figures to make up their numbers!

So a number of these units still need additional work on them - many of my armies are works in progrees.

19 Spear armed skeletons, with Standard Bearer and musician,
these guys need shields to be added. 

My single Ushabi figure, I need to source two more,
GW ones are ludicrously expensive so I'll look for alternatives

Then my single Chariot, I need to find the other two I have been threatening to
build over the past few years, this kit dates back to the early 2000s.

I have quite a few cavalry figures, again dating back to the 1990s, I converted these to be Tomb Kings a while back. The spear armed troopers below all have Bedouin head scarves (From Gripping Beast Arab figures) - to replace missing heads and inappropriate original headgear but it gives the unit a distinctive look.

10 Thrusting Spear / Lance Armed Horse, with champion and standard bearer

First of two units of 5 strong horsemen, armed with javelins

Second unit of javelin armed horsemen

Two horsemen with standards, clearly scope for additional cavalry
to be added or possible to be used as Army Standards

A few spare odds and ends figures 

AHPC XV: From MikeW - 21 x 28mm Tomb King Guards, 3 x Savage Orcs & 9 x More Arthurian Foot

 By way of a change  I have just completed a unit of Tomb King , Tomb Guards - these little guys are in 28mm and are by Highland Minatures and printed by Mini Print Factory.

21 x Tomb King Guardsmen

These guys have been painted to follow the colour scheme I have used on the rest of my Tomb Kings Army

Figures are Highland Miniatures 3D Prints

The figures came in grey resin and are great value for money, the Highland Miniatures team really do some outstandingly good designs in my opinion and Mini Print Factory supplied these quickly and perfectly formed!

Three Guardsmen

Three more Guardsmen

All I had to do was glue figures to bases and then undercoating in a suitable 'Ivory' paint. (Shields got the same treatment but were glued to figures after paiting, before varnishing).

Weapons and armour painted with Hoplite Gold Speed Paint, then highlighted with Vallejo Brass and the weapon edges lined with a Metalic Silver Sharpie pen! 

More Guardsmen

GW Skeleton Horde is my 'go to' for skeletons, so this was applied and then when dry the figures were dry brushed with Ivory paint again to pull out highlights. See rest of my collection <here>

Shields and weapon staffs washed with a watered down mix of blue andblack ink to give definition and aging effect

Next I added Army Painter Speed Paint Hoplite Gold to all halberds, armour and helmets before applying GW blue to loin cloths, jewels an shoulder armour panels.

The command group

Sky Blue was used for halberd shafts & shields, in keeping with other figures in my army, whilst shield reverses were painted with GW Gore Grunta Fur.

All bandages were picked out in Vallejo Light Sand before highlighting the gold with Vallejo Brass.

I'm claiming Skullz Points for these guys as well - 21 x Skeletons plus a drummer and standard bear with an addition 3 skulls between them (See Photos!)

Next up are some more 28m Arthurian foot...

Nine Arthurian Foot figures

In this post I have 9 new foot figures to 'show & tell!', 4 x Artizan Metal figures, a Warlord Games Metal figure and 4 x Victrix plastic Medium (Unarmoured) infantry.

Four Victrix, unarmoured Medium Infantry. Again, shields and heads have been swapped to give unit variation

.

Another view, showing the interesting cloak provided with the Victrix figures

The Warlords Games figure came free when I pre-ordered their 'Once and Future King', Hail Caesar supplement - which spurred me on to do these Arthurian figures. This figure depicts Agravain, Arthur's nephew, he is holding his sword and helmet aloft in a dramatic pose.

Agravain, by Warlord Games. A lovely little figure. Described as tall, dark & handsome but a unargumentative so and so!

The four Victrix figures have been painted in my usual manner with light grey tunics and a red & white shield theme. They are designed to be representing Loose Order Medium Infantry and are thus on 22mm bases.

Artizan mage, painted up as Merlin

Artizan mage, painted up as Merlin

Artizan Standard Bearer, note the full face mask,

early Christian icons added by hand to the shield

The Artizan Minatures metal figures are a Noble, a musician and a Standard Bearer as well as a figure that I take to be representing Merlin.

Artizan Musician

Finally on this post, I have three Savage Orcs and a related terrain piece that were originally going to be my entry for Dante's Limbo, until I stumbled upon those long lost Elves.

Three Savage Orc Blood Bowl figures to be pressed into Warhammer Fantasy service!

These guys were the last three of  set of Savage Blood Bowl figures that I was working on earlier in the year - but somehow they got left behind unpainted. That's all resolved now! Two of the three figures are actually pretty big, suitable for Bosses, the third is to be used as a Shaman - just because he has a funny looking mask.

Shaman, from the rear, note skull on his belt

Same figure from the front, with Shaman mask and a ring of seven small bird skulls around his left knee.

Again there are Skullz points to be had on these guys - by my count 12 in total - see photos for details!

This guy has a fighting fist, incorporating a blade plus the had of a Reptilian foe on his left shoulder!

Another view, showing two skulls hanging form his loincloth.

The terrain piece is actually some kind of game marker for Blood Bowl that came wit the Savage Orc set, but it also will work well as a Tomb Kings piece and is a great big SKULLZ point!

The Skull Terrain piece, with two small skulls tucked in by the right hand tusk

The terrain skull, next to the Shaman to show scale.

That's it for now, coming soon are more Arthurians, Necrons and some Elves.... 

SKULLZ                                                               39 Skulls

SQUIRRELS           Arthurians & Tomb Kings      2 Squirrels                                       

POINTS

21 x 28mm Skeletons @ 5 Pts ea                        105 Points

3 x 28mm Savage Orcs @ 5Pts ea                        15 Points

1 x Skull Terrain Piece                                            1 Point

10 x 28mm Arthurians @ 5 Pts ea                        50 Points

TOTAL                                                                171  172 Points 

Wow, you have been quite productive! The Highlands Miniatures are great; although I have a lot of their STL's, I have not yet printed any of them and it's great to see them in the flesh. You have done a fine job on them! I always have a soft spot for Arthurian figures, and yours presented here look great too! Love the hand-painted details on the shields. And the orcs are... well, very orky I guess .  Good job!

Now it is just one of those days, and I have again to be strict: no terrain in this Challenge, except for Limbo. So I'll deduce your skull terrain piece point from the total, but then throw in 2 extra points for the shields. So 172 is the final count!

Martijn

Sunday, 29 December 2024

From Mike W: More 28mm Arthurians (65 Points)

Following on from my first post if this challenge is a group of 4 x Mounted and 5 x Infantry figures, all to be used to build up my new Arthurian collection.

Arthurian Heavy Cavalry man, armed with spear

And the other side's view! More to come for this unit!

The mounted figures represent 3 x Heavy Knights and 1 x Heavy Cavalryman whilst the foot figures are all Medium Infantry. 

So a word of explanation - the Heavy Knights (Cataphracts) are to be the mounted versions of the Close Order Heavy Infantry units as shown in my first post, in my head the rules for use will require commander to opt for mounted of foot deployment at beginning of each game.

Arthurian Knights, these guys will have individual shield patterns to reflect the uniqueness and privilege of their positions.

Anther view of the knights

Infantry can be Heavy, Medium or Light and the Heavy and Mediums can be classed as Close or Loose order, all Light Infantry are Loose Order. Anyway the two Archer figures are Light Infantry (unarmoured) whilst the remaining three infantry figures will be classed as Medium (Loose Order, Partially Armoured) Infantry.

Archers - with a Victrix head swap on the right

Another view of the Archers

The mounted figures are all Gripping Beast Cataphracts, the three Heavy Knights have all had head swaps from Gripping Beast or Victrix Late Roman sets plus a couple of shield swaps. The Heavy Cavalryman is pretty much straight form the box.

Three Medium infantrymen, the final unit will be 16 figures,
including Standard Bearer and possibly a musician

Close-up of the Medium Infantry

For the infantry one of the archers has had a Victrix head swap, otherwise both are straight from the box. The spearmen are also straight from the box, as is the Lesser Knight leader, except that he has had a Wargames Atlantic helmet crest added.

Painting wise, I followed the steps described in my first post, the infantry having a light grey tunic with blue trim for this unit and red / white shield iconography. The mounted figures were done along similar lines but with a lot of metalics on the horse armour!

POINTS

5 x 28mm Infantry   @ 5 Pts each        25 Points

4 x 28mm Cavalry @ 10 Pts each        40 Points

TOTAL                                                  65 Points

_________________________________________

Another great Arthurian post Mike. The noble cavalry would be the Tiger tanks of the period with their cataphract barding - wow. They along with the infantry and archers will give a cold welcome to the invading Saxons. Great work.

- Curt

Thursday, 26 December 2024

From Mike W - 28mm High Elves (30 Points)

A quickie post to kick off my quest on Dante's Devine Comedy.

These two GW High Elves were in my bits box for nearly 33 years - what kind of horrendous limbo could that be!

GW High Elf Spearman and Archer, from an early 1990s Boxed Set 

I saw them there the other day and I thought I'd liberate them and give them a new lease of life...

They were so much fun to paint that I'm  now seriously thinking about collecting a small High Elf Amy to go with them.

I liked doing these guys so much I'm looking for more to do - but even on eBay they are now quite expensive!

As ever these guys were undercoated white and then 'dressed' with paint! GW Leadbelcher for chainmail and spear points.

Light Yellow for spear shafts  a bright blue speed paint for robes on the archer and a lighter sky blue on the Spearman's robes, with an old gold trim on each and a dash of brass to add much needed bling!

And a final view, I went for red jewels to offset the silver and blue overall look.

I spent some time on the shields and adding a the red jewels to their bow / costumes.

All finished with a fine sand and electrostatic grass vase with a black edge.

POINTS

2 × 28mm Infantry Figures  @ 5 Pts each          10 Points

Dante's Divine Comedy - Limbo                        20 Points 

TOTAL                                                                30 Points

LInk to original APHC XV post <here>