The Rage of Achilles

Still some work needed but my undead Classical Greek (5th c. BCE) army is pretty much ready for play. Here's an overhead view of the army lined for battle. 

A line of psiloi light troops advancing in front of the phalanx. A mixture of skeletal human and cynocephale javlineers and skeletal satyr toxotai (archers).

In back of the psiloi marches the phalanx. Six units of skeletal hoplites. Mostly from the Australian company Eureka, but on the right flank are figures from Foundry, Bronze Age and plastics from the Wargames Factory Skeleton boxed set. Behind the phalanx are two giant hoplites, one a repainted skeleton warrior from Vitruvian Hacks, and the other from Ral Partha.

Attached to the phalanx is the hero Herakles, and behind him (with spear and hoplon) the warrior Achilles.

A unit of Hellas' ancient foes, Persian sparabara assembled from the Wargames Factory skeleton boxed set with Perisan wicker shields. Now fighting in service of their enemies!

A group of mythical beasts. From left to right: a Cerberus (Rackham), a chimera (Wyrd), a khalkotaur (Reaper), another Cerberus (Reaper) and another chimera (Wyrd). Behind them (between the Persian sparabara and the Khalkotaur) is a group of Thracian ogres! (Spartan Games)

In the foreground is the hero Jason, with a group of undead minotauroi behind.

A pair of skeletal Pegasi with riders (Mythic Articulations). Behind them are a Skeleton Hydra (Ral Partha) and the legendary first king of Athens, Cecrops I (converted from a Die Hard Miniatures skeleton snake man).

Cavalry on the right wing. There's a bit more cavalry here than you'd see in a hoplite army of the era (although the Thebans did maintain cavalry forces). But I can't resist using all these undead centaurs! In front, centaur missile troops. A mixture of Rackham undead centaurs and old Dark Horse skeleton centaurs. On the main line from left to right: Wyrd Miniatures Kentauroi, Dark Horse skeleton centaurs, Eureka skelton greek cavalry, Rackham undead centaurs and two undead centaurs from Cadwallon.

Cavalry can be a bit fragile so in support we have a group of undead cyclopes! Grenadier, Ral Partha, Wizkids, Grim Reaper Casting.

Magic user: Akhlys, the personification of death, or more specifically, the death mist that overtakes the dying. Converted from a banshee from GW's Mortis Engine.

Magic user: Hecate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft and necromancy (and crossroads!)

Hero: Echidna. I've been thinking of converting her into Medusa however. (Conversion from a Die Hard Miniatures snake man)

The Skeletal Samurai Host Gets a Big Addition

Asian Dragon
Company: Mythic Articulations
Part #:
Sculptor: Brian Richardson
Released: 2014

Check it out! I've been collecting a medieval skeleton samurai force for years now. The backbone of the host is those old Clan War skeletal samurai and bowmen. I've also supplemented with old Grenadier and Ral Partha skeletal samurai and ninja as well as filling ranks in from newer companies like Wyrd, GCT and Zenit.

And while Wyrd, GCT and Zenit are doing a good job of giving me some undead creatures; Oni, Gaikotsu and such - I have always wanted to put a dragon in there. Obviously, dragons are integral to eastern society myths, symbolizing power and royalty. Having an undead samurai force that incorporated eastern mythological creatures but lacked a dragon would look completely out of place.

The problem is, despite the fact that I have a TON of skeletal/undead dragons, they are all western style dragons. You can't just plop a western style dragon in a a far eastern army. Eastern dragons are typically portrayed very differently from western ones (You know... you've been to Chinese New Year!). Instead of a large, hulking dinosaur-like reptile, eastern dragons look more like lithe, sinuous snakes with four legs. Unfortunately, no company I know of has ever made a skeletal or undead eastern style dragon.

Enter Mythic Articulations. Sculptor Brian Richardson produces a wide range of models portraying skeletons of "cryptids", weird mythological (or supposedly real) hybrid animals combining features of various species. And he creates them as basically "anatomically correct", coming up with creative ways to fuse the anatomies of say, a bird and a horse (Pegasus). I just recently bought the Asian Dragon to happily fill the void in my skeletal samurai army. At last!

Mythic Articulations isn't actually a producer of wargame miniatures however. Richardson has created these figures as anatomical models of various cryptids that are meant to be display pieces. He sculpts them virtually using Zbrush and then has them printed on a 3D printer to sell on Shapeways or Etsy.

Because they are display pieces, they are printed at a size that is much larger than the 28-32mm standard. The Asian Dragon, clocking in at 9 inches long, is a perfect fit for the skeletal samurai host, however. Also I plan to incorporate some of his other models into my armies, at least the ones that are rightly "giant" creatures - wyvern, minotaur, this lovely depiction of the Jersey Devil (which will make one awesome Major Demon).

But there are other sculpts which I'd love to incorporate that would simply be too big to use in my armies, such as the unicorn, the Pegasus, the harpy and the faun/satyr. Man, It'd be killer to mount a Bellerophon/hero on the back of that Pegasus if it was the right size! Or an Empire style hero on the back of that hippogriff (although - as a giant creature, I might get away with using the hippogriff as an independent monster).

But hello! We are entering the age of 3D printing and custom miniature making. Richardson designs the models on a computer, so he can easily change the scale of the sculpts and create an infinite number of poses. The problem is, the 3D printing technology is not quite at the level where you can effectively print his designs in 28mm. They're too fragile at that scale and the printers cannot print that thinly.

However, Richardson is open to doing some modification of his original design work in order to make the sculpts more robust (but a less realistic) so they can be printed in 28mm scale. Who knows? I might be able to field those skeleton satyr psiloi I've been yearning for faster than I expected!