WIP: Reaper Brass Bull

Brass Bull
Reaper
#77256
Bob Olley
2015

A cool Khalkotaur for my undead Classical Greek army. The Khalkotauroi were two large bulls created for King Aeetes of Colchis (modern day Georgia) by the god Hephaestus. Originally, the Khalkotauroi were described as living bulls with bronze hooves and bronze mouths, out of which they breathed fire. Over the years, they've been depicted as fully bronze animated constructs or even clockwork-like machines.

When the hero Jason travelled to Colchis in search of the golden fleece, King Aeetes told him that if he could yoke the Khalkotauroi and plow a field, he could have the golden fleece - thinking the task impossible. But Aeetes' daughter Medea, who had fallen in love with the hero, gave him a magic ointment that would make him immune to the fiery breath of the Khalkotauroi. Jason successfully yoked the bulls and plowed the fields with dragon's teeth, creating a harvest of spartoi - who have now joined the ranks of the undead army!

Dead simple to paint. Black primer over the Reaper bonesium, then a coat of Scale Color Decayed Metal (bronze) and then a wash of GW's Nihilakh Oxide.

WIP: Bear's Head Zombie Minotaur

Zombie Minotaur

Bear's Head Miniatures

Phillip Hynes

2017

Beautiful zombie minotaur from Bear's Head Miniatures for inclusion in my undead Classical Greek Army. The right eye was originally sculpted as completely exposed, but I accidentally dalloped a bit of paint on the upper half of the eye, unintentionally producing an eyelid. When shaded with Agrax Earthshade, I think it came out pretty good.

WIP Conversion - Herakles

As I have noted before, I have several undead armies based around various themes, including an undead Classical Greek army.

One thing that I have always wanted for that army is an undead Herakles (Roman: Hercules). I've kind of been waiting for some company to cast one, but it hasn't happened yet. So I've always thought of creating one myself.

It shouldn't be too difficult, I'd hardly have to make one from scratch. All you need to do to make a regular skeleton (well a larger skeleton) into Herakles is to give him a lion-skin cloak and a club. Both representative symbols of Herakles.

Of course, I have zero sculpting skills. For all the time I have been collecting and painting, I have had little experience with conversions. I've done simple head and weapon swaps, and my use of green stuff has been limited to gap filling.

But eventually, you have to dive in if you want to get what you want. So I watched a lot of videos, read a lot of blogs, bought a few tools to augment my normal hobby tools and figured to try and make myself an undead Herakles.

So this is what I am working with. The three skeletons are from the sadly departed Spartan Games' Heroes of Myth and Legend line (Skeletons Pack B). They are 40mm figures, which make them weird for 28mm war-gaming but perfect for an ogre sized hero. The plastic bits are part of Games Workshop's High Elf White Lions Chariot set. I got the set just for these bits. I wasn't sure about the sizing but I figured I could make either the heads from the lions pulling the chariot, or the lion head shoulder pads work. The actual lion heads are way too big. But the lion head shoulder pads actually are just about the right size for a 40mm skull. I also thought maybe I could use the cloaks as well, but not really. Besides they look more like bear cloaks.

Here are the lion head shoulder pads:

And here's the model I'll be using as a base. Axe (soon to be club) upraised, shield away from the body.

Now I laid him out on some parchment paper and drew some lines with a pen that I could use as a rough guide for sizing the cloak and shaping it.

Now I liked the way the green stuff cloak came out, and personally was rather gratified by how well I did on what is essentially my first ever sculpting project. However, I had some problems. First, the nature of green stuff worked a bit against me. It has more "stretch" than I had anticipated, so with the work I was doing, it always seemed to stretch the cloak more until it ended up being more of a cape. Also, it's not very stiff. I wanted to have the cloak flying out behind him, but the "cape" kept falling flat against the body due to gravity. 

Therefore, I pulled up the initial green stuff "cape" and sculpted a cloak out of brown stuff. I also repositioned the lion head "cap" and began to craft the mane out of green stuff to blend the cap and cloak together. Also I snipped off the axe head and bulked up the shaft with green stuff to form a club.

Here he is primed with Krylon almond spray primer.

Here he is with the first basecoat.

More advancement with an Agrax Earthshade wash.

And here is the more or less final Herakles, painted, washed, highlighted and ready for inclusion in the undead Classical Greek army!

Night Haunts

Yeesh. What do I need ethereals for???

More bone! More bone!

Seems Legit

Recent Haul - TMS 9th Legion Archers

9th Legion Archers
Tabletop Miniature Solutions


Continuing the review of my recent haul we have a blister of three Imperial Roman auxiliary archers from TMS. The bodies are the same as the other 9th Legion infantry, with bow arm, quiver, shooting arm as well as standard, musician and centurion head options.


These resin casts are nicely detailed with little in the way of flash or other things I'll need to clean up. I like the sculpts in general, although I can see why some people think they are a little too chunkily proportioned for skeletons.


These guys will serve in my Undead Imperial Roman Legion in one of the auxiliary units. During the Republican period and the early Empire, the actual legionaries were rarely, if ever armed with missile weapons. The Roman legion evolved as an almost pure infantry melee force. Cavalry and missile troops were supplied by allies who had more historical skill in those areas. In the early Empire they were organized as auxiliary units to the legions.


Auxilia were formed from non-citizen allies or provincials and could gain citizenship after 25 years of service in the military. Many fought alongside the legions and were armed and armoured in a similar fashion, the exception being that they carried large oval shields instead of the square scutum of the legions. Almost all imperial archers and cavalry were auxilia. Archers were originally recruited from Crete in the Republican era, with recruitment expanding to the eastern provinces such as Syria where the native skill with a bow was valued.


What's interesting, and quite frankly frustrating for me as a war gamer, is that we basically have no idea how the Roman military actually used their archers. We know they had them from surviving personnel records and archers appear in artwork from the period like Trajan's column. But the histories we have do not talk about archers in accounts of Roman battles and we have no surviving military manuals.


There are several ways you can use archers. You can use them as light skirmishing troops that screen your main infantry and harass the enemy. You can mass them in units on your flanks and use direct fire to keep the enemy from trying to wrap around, or you can mass them in units behind you and have them use indirect fire to volley arrows over your infantry.


But just what path the Romans took is unknown. Lost to history like just exactly how they were able to constantly retire and refresh their front line infantry.

Recent Haul - Lesser Demon

Death
Black Sun Miniatures
by David Ayral


Continuing the review of my recent haul.


This is "Death" from Black Sun Miniatures. A pretty standard winged grim reaper, he'll be rounding out the 2nd band of lesser demons in my undead Chaos Horde. He's got the book. He's got the hourglass. I really like his wings. The skeletal structure is nicely appointed with shreds of hanging flesh. I really do like resin as a medium over metal. You can get finer detail and it's way easier to work with.

Recent Haul - Kentauroi

Malifaux Kentauroi
Wyrd Games


Continuing the survey of my recent haul we have these "Kentauroi" from Wyrd Miniatures for their game Malifaux.


In terms of the Malifaux lore, these are technically constructs, as they have been created by the Resurrectionist Guild from the corpses of both humans and horses, instead of being a reanimated true centaur.


But, I don't play Malifaux so - they can go suck it! These guys will take their place in my undead Classical Greek army as part of my growing undead centaur herd. I remember back in the early 90's, when I would have given my left arm for some of the few undead centaur models out there. This was 1990-1993. There was no internet. We had to find out what miniatures were out there by looking through paper catalogues! And there was no ebay either. If you missed something, it was gone. I so desperately wanted those Grenadier skeleton centaurs that I saw in the catalogues, but they went out of print in the early 90's and I couldn't get them. The horror!


You kids don't know how good you have it. Now, I'm up to my ears in undead centaurs. Grenadier, Ral Partha, Rackham, Dark Horse, Die Hard, Dead Bard...


In any case, I may not play Malifaux, but Wyrd does a good job of scratching my various itches. These centaurs are sculpted in dynamic poses and are well detailed for a set of plastics. And they've got a very "wild" feel to them that makes them look like they've galloped down from the Thracian hills!

 

Recent Haul - Death Tyrant (Undead Beholder)

Death Tyrant
by Jax Miniatures


Continuing the survey of my recent haul we have this "Death Tyrant", which is an undead beholder.


This model is somewhat unique in that it isn't actually cast in metal or resin, but rather is my first example of a 3D printed mini. I ordered it off of the Jax Miniatures on Shapeways.


I'm very excited about 3D printing and think it's definitely that way of the future in table top war gaming. Instead of having to spend hundreds of dollars on figures, you'll pay $20 for a set of .stl files and have them printed out. At the moment, 3D printing is good for larger figures like this. The sculpt is interesting and is fairly detailed. You may notice the surface is a bit rough. That's the nature of the material the model is printed in. It's the "strong and flexible" type of material. Other materials are smoother and pick up more detail such as "Ultra-detail Frosted", but they are consequently more expensive. In the coming years expect prices to drop.


One good thing about 3D printed figures is changing the scale is a snap! This figure is the "medium" size as opposed to "large".

The Death Tyrant is essentially a skeletal beholder - one of the most iconic D&D creatures. Powerful and terrifying, he's going to fit right into my Undead Chaos Horde with my two other examples of undead beholder-kind.

 Wizards of the Coast D&D Unhallowed #31: Beholder Lich

Magnificent Egos: Oculus, The Rotten Eye

Recent Haul - Undead Minotaur

More miniatures from my recent haul

Undead Minotaur
Bear's Head Miniatures

I funded Phillip's "March of the Dead" Kickstarter last year and now the fruits of that investment have paid off!

This is an undead minotaur to add to my undead 5th century BCE classical Greek army. Suitably ogre-ish in size (about 45mm), he's got the classic two handed axe. A little bit of flash on the loincloth, horns and axe-head - but very well cast overall. An outstanding sculpt overall. Again, I prefer more bone, but Phillip does the taut. pulled flesh so well it's difficult to want something else.

Recent Haul - Zombie Ogre

Due to the nature of my work, I am overseas most of the time. This seriously cuts into my painting, modelling time - not to mention actually playing any games.

Another issue is that I continue to collect miniatures for my undead armies, but I can't have them sent to Ukraine because a) it is impossible because I am behind the line of contact in the non-government controlled areas, b) it would be outrageously expensive and c) I have always to keep in mind that the amount of stuff I can collect is limited to what I can carry in two suitcases and a backpack.

Back in the day, when I was working in Iraq and could use the army post office (APO) - I could ship stuff back and forth relatively easily. No more.

So I order things online and when I get back home on leave - I have a big pile of miniatures to open and catalog.

So I've been on leave and am now posting my recent haul. It's like Christmas!

Zombie Ogre

Bear's Head Miniatures

This is a zombie ogre from Bear's Head Miniatures, a small, independent company run by the fabulous Phillip Hynes. His sculpting work is excellent, especially when it comes to horses and drapery. This model fills a gap in the undead world. As I've noted before, undead ogres are oddly under-represented in the miniature market.

This is a solid model. Very zombie-ish (I prefer more skeletal), but I love the ball and chain. There's a little bit of flash that needs to be cut away from between his legs, but otherwise, he's ready for priming and painting. Will go nice with my other undead ogres for use in my medieval European or Chaos armies.