WIP Undead Classical Greek Army - Mage, Peltasts, Cavalry and Creatures

Some more work on the undead 5th century BCE greeks. The first set of pictures is of my main magic user for the army, Hekate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft and necromancy (and crossroads...). Hekate is traditionally portrayed as possessing a single body, with three faces, or as a triple-bodied figure. She also is usually depicted carrying two torches and is accompanied by one or more dogs. The figure itself is a simple conversion. It was originally a prepainted D&D miniature; the "Skull Lord" (Demonweb #27). I'd been looking for a magic user for my Greek army and when I saw this triple faced figure I immediately thought "Hekate"! The prepaint is ok, good enough that I won't redo it for the moment. One of the hands was already in an open position so that was easy. The other held a staff made of bone, but it was easy to snip off. I just glued into place two torches from Ristul's Extraordinary Market. I then just plopped down two extra skeletal dogs that I had hanging around from the old Grenadier Fantasy Lords #157 "Undead Scouting Party".

The second set of photos is of a unit of peltasts. Peltasts were lightly armed and armored missile infantry that would skirmish in front of the phalanx. Troops are based for the game Piquet: Scramasax. Light infantry/skirmishers are usually based with four stands, two figures to a stand for a total of eight models to a unit. Here we have two groups, one is a set of skeleton satyrs with bows (taxotai) from Mythic Articulations. Mythic Articulations has produced (at my behest!) a few of their larger models in 32mm format which can be found at their Etsy shop. The other group is a set of regular human psiloi (javelineers) with pelta (the small crescent shield that gives peltast their name). I built them from the Games Workshop Vampire Counts Skeleton Regiment boxed set. I snipped off the spears from the plastic skeletons and replaced them with some javelins from Magister Millitum. Additionally, the pelta were from Magister Millitum as well. I still have to do a bunch of painting for these figs.

The next set of photos are of my unit of light Thessalian cavalry. Greek armies from this period did not emphasize cavalry, with the exception of the Thebans, but frequently Greek city states would hire mercenaries for this purpose. The figures are Eureka's Skeletal Horse and Rider w/Ancient Greek Weapons (100SKL06a). They're primed with a bleached bone primer and then dipped in Armory's Strong Tone Quickshade. Unfortunately, although Greek cavalry did use spears, they did *not* use hoplons, so I'll eventually have to replace the shields with pelta or something similar.

The next set of photos depict some of the mythical creatures I field in this army; two undead cerberuses and two undead chimera. The first cerberus is the fantastic sculpt from the now sadly defunct Rackham miniatures; Cerberus of Acheron. I've had it for years and it's one of my favorite pieces. The paint job consists of a primer coat of black that also acts as the base coat. From there, bone color is applied directly to the bones with the rest of the flesh and muscle being dry brushed over the black base. The second cerberus is the Reaper Cerberus, Hound of Hell (03423) by Julie Guthrie. It's a "meh" figure. Again, it's primed in black with a dry brush for the flesh and fur.


Lastly, there are the two chimera. Both are from Wyrd miniatures, the first being the old Rogue Necromancy metal sculpt and the second being the newer plastic resculpt. Like the other creatures, there is a layer of black primer, with base colors painted directly over. There is some dry brushing for the feathers on the wings, and a light sepia wash. I like how they turned out generally, but I am going to have to go over the eagle parts again because the purplish look doesn't inspire.

WIP Undead Empire Army - Undead Emperor/General on Skeletal Griffin

When last we left off, I had assembled the skeleton griffin and primed it with Krylon Almond primer. Additionally, I had primed the Empire general rider black.

I next washed the entire griffon with GW's Agrax Earthshade. However, I forgot that the material that Mythic Articulations uses to print its models is very absorbent and I ended up making the bone color too dark a brown. You have to water down the washes to an extent. I tried to lighten it up using a dry brush of bone, but it's not really working. I'll have to reprime the entire thing.

I've pretty much finished the mounted Emperor though. Everything was primed black except the laurel-wreathed skull, snatched from an Empire banner pole and primed Almond. I went with a red and gold color scheme, although it looks maybe more Castilian than Germanic Empire? All the metal parts were painted with GW's Leadbelcher, and then lightly coated in GW's Typhus Corrosion technical paint. I then did a dry brush of Ryza Rust over the metal to make it look dirty and rusty.

I've loved that banner for years. I've always thought it should be a true undead banner - not Empire! I still need to do the feathers.

WIP Undead Classical Greek Army - Skeletal Phalanx

I've pretty much finished doing the verdigris effect on my skeletal phalanx, the core of my classical Greek army. The phalanx consists of six units of skeletal hoplites (one has yet to be assembled though as I am waiting on my pack of skeleton hoplites from Bronze Age miniatures).

All miniatures are based for the war-game Piquet following the typical infantry pattern of four stands to a unit, with three figures to a stand. In Piquet, the number of figures is the number of "hits" it takes to eliminate that stand, usually three for infantry (although heavy infantry might be four and light or skirmish infantry, two).

In the game, combat is resolved by competitive dice rolls between players modified by circumstances. So, for example, when all modifications are done to our base die values (BDV), I may be rolling a d8 against my opponent's d10. If he beats my roll by 3, I lose one stand. If he beats my roll by 6, I lose two stands, etc. If he beats my roll by 2 or less (or I beat his roll by 2 or less) - nothing happens. You don't keep track of "hits" on stands. That way, combat is more decisive, with either some sort of major effect - or no effect. It's not about attrition.

In Piquet: Archon (the ancients supplement for Piquet), Greek hoplite infantry is rated as "heavy" and therefore could take four hits per stand. But I've based them here three to a stand as a) for heavy infantry, I'd need 24 more figures and b) my Greeks are armed and armoured in bronze. If they were facing similarly equipped forces I would probably rate them as heavy. But most of the forces they will come up against (dwarves, elves, orcs) have medieval level technology and will be using steel. So I'm sort of downgrading their ability somewhat.

Four of the units are comprised completely of Skeletal Hoplites from the Australian miniatures company Eureka (100SKL02), shown all together on one movement stand along with some individual stands. The figures come with different variants of legs, torsos, arms and skulls, which allows them to be assembled with great variation. They are rather fiddly though, and I have to keep repairing them with green stuff and glue. In a weird way, their fiddly-ness is actually an asset because they keep bending different ways under their own weight, giving them an unnatural posture and gait.

The first unit of these that I bought many years ago I painted with a color more coppery than bronze. Since I added the verdigris, though, it's hard to tell the difference. So...win for Nihilakh Oxide (N.O.)! In my original paint scheme I painted all the armor metal. Only later did I realize that the boxy armor is not bronze, but rather linothorax. So I am in the process of repainting these properly, with a light grey prime and then a pure white base which I will then wash and shade. The first unit is painted using a black primer coat that also acts as the base coat. The bone was then painted individually over the base, along with that coppery coat for the armor and now finished with N.O. The other three units I spray primed with Bone White from Army Painter and then dipped the figures in strong tone Quickshade, also from Army Painter. I then painted the metal with bronze from GW and then finished off with N.O.

The other unit of hoplites shown is comprised of ten figures from the two "Children of the Hydra" packs from Foundry Miniatures (WG421 & WG422). The two skeletons in the front rank on either end are from the plastic Skeleton Warriors set from Wargames Factory (WGF ML-002). All these figures were primed with Krylon Almond primer/paint, which also acts as the base coat. I then washed the models with Agrax Earthshade from GW. The metal was painted with a basecoat of bronze from GW and then finished with N.O.

As I noted above, I am waiting to get my hands on the Skeleton Hoplite pack from Bronze Age Miniatures (32SKLS1) which is comprised of five models. I'll then finish out the unit with seven more of the plastic skeletons from the Wargames Factory set. Sadly, the Wargames Factory plastic skeletons are out of production. They were a great resource, with 30 to a box and could be used for many different things. However, since they were obviously going for the "Jason and the Argonauts" feel, the arms and armour were definitely Greek; with hoplons, dorys and xiphos.

I'll then be ready to field the full phalanx against those hated dwarves, along with the rest of my classical Greek force.

WIP Undead Empire Army - Undead Emperor on Skeleton Griffin.

A little diversion project from adding the finishing touches to my undead classical Greek army. A mounted general with an army standard for my undead Empire army. Not really an "army", but a detachment or vexallation (as the Romans would call it). I have a few units of renaissance themed undead, including some wonderful models from Greebo Miniatures latest "Un-Renaissance" Kickstarter.

For this project I am doing a simple conversion using two different models: The plastic Empire General from Games Workshop and a Skeletal Griffin from Mythic Articulations. Mythic Articulations don't really produce gaming miniatures per se, but rather produce "anatomically accurate" skeletons of cryptids (mythical beasts). Brian Richardson is a gifted digital sculptor and puts some thought into how these animals would have really looked. Note the clavicle and the huge breast bone on the griffin. All their models are then 3D printed.

Mythic Articulations produces two griffins, one fully articulated and printed as one piece, and the other one in various pieces that you can articulate however you want. As you can see, I splurged for the "Griffin in a Can", because I wanted to be able to pose the figure to my liking. I was worried about the design because I imagined it would be fiddly and difficult to put together, but surprisingly, the ball and socket design allows you to fit the parts together very easily. The design is also fairly strong, and although I will probably have to glue it into its final configuration, it does allow you to try multiple poses without loss of strength. The only draw back is that the ball joints will be noticeable, even after painting and maybe some touch up work with some green stuff.

I was also worried about the scale as well. Mythic Articulations does not produce models according to a particular scale, say 28mm. As a result, for normal sized creatures such as a unicorn, the modes are far too big. But they can easily represent giant creatures and I have some in my armies such as an Asian Dragon, a Kirin, a European Dragon, a European Wyvern and a Cockatrice. Even though these models have given me a concept of the scale, I was still worried the griffin would still be too large for the GW figure and I'd have to build a howdah or something. But actually, as you can see, the size and shape of the shoulders/torso fits the General figure almost perfectly!

The General model is pretty much unconverted except for the head, I am using a skull ringed with a laurel leaf that is from a GW Empire battle standard. I primed the General figure black and the griffin almond using krylon spray primer. Then I assembled the Griffin in the configuration you see.

WIP - Undead Classical Greek Army

One of the problems with my job is that I am usually off in some far lung part of the world without access to my miniatures. Most of the time they languish in one of my storage spaces or at my dad's house where I send most of the stuff that I buy.

I can't get mail in Afghanistan. Man I miss the APO!

But one of the benefits of being, how shall we say, "between jobs" for the past half year or so is the time it has given me to work on some of my armies.

This work has involved cataloging my extensive collection with the iOS app Sortly. It's a godsend, because I have no good list or database of everything I have, and I just can't remember whether or not I still need that old Lost Tribes figure from Citadel or not.

But also I've been whipping some of my armies into shape, assembling, converting and painting them as I can.

My undead Classical Greek army that I detailed in a previous post was the closest to completion, so I've been concentrating on that. It's almost ready for the tabletop. I just need to purchase those Bronze Age skeletal hoplites to finish my phalanx. The rest is pretty much just detailing.

Here's some of the work so far. Comments appreciated, especially with photography because I got the lighting all wrong despite having a light box and two lights.

All units are based for Piquet: Scramasax. Normally four stands of three figures per stand for infantry, four stands of two figures per stand for cavalry. Exceptions are for heavy infantry, skirmishers, x-heavy cavalry, etc. Large creatures and characters are individually based. I tend to use round bases for characters, square for creatures - but it's not a hard and fast rule.

Main hoplite phalanx

Five units of heavily armored hoplites armed with hoplon and dory/xiphos. I've yet to purchase the Bronze Age skeletal hoplites to complete the sixth unit.

76th, 77th, 78th & 79th Infantry (Hoplites)
Manufacturer: Eureaka Miniatures
Line: Skeletons
Part #: 100SKL02

The bulk of my phalanx is made up of miniatures from this Australian company. The sculpts are only so-so, and the assembly process can only be described as fiddly, as there are lots of different parts. However, that variance is also a strength because you can assemble the models in a variety of different configurations, making for a very heterogeneous phalanx. The 76th is my oldest unit, as evidenced by their differing paint job. The 78th was primed with black and then the bone parts were painted on directly or dry brushed. I also used a copper paint, when I should have used a darker bronze. The 77th, 78th and 79th I purchased back in 2013. I primed them using Skeleton Bone spray primer from Army Painter. I tend to use this also as the base coat to save time when painting bone. I'll then do some highlighting with a lighter bone color. The armor was painted with Citadel Warplock Bronze.  I then used the Army Painter strong tone Quickshade dip to finish the bone parts and make the metal look old and weathered.

80th Infantry (Hoplites)

Manufacturer: 

1. Foundry
2. Wargames Factory

Lines: 

1. Greek Mythology
2. Myths & Legends

Part #s:

1. WG421 Children of the Hydra
2. WG422 Children of the Hydra
3. ### Skeleton Warriors