Mantic - Skeleton Regiment

Skeleton Regiment

Company: Mantic

Part #: --

Sculptor: Bob Naismith??

Released: 2010

Here is my crack at this skeleton regiment from a new company on the scene, Mantic.  Mantic produces a number of sets of plastic undead, including zombies and ghouls.  But of course, that need not concern us.  For my purposes, Mantic produces boxed sets of “revenants” (armored skeleton infantry), archers, skeletal cavalry (epic), skeleton war machines and this set of ordinary infantry.

Mantic is taking a shot at eating into GW’s market share by producing high-quality plastic regimental boxed sets for a fraction of the price. 

You get several plastic sprues with enough body parts and weapons to make 20 infantry models.  The bodies are split into several different leg and torso designs.  Some of the torsos have arms with (hand) weapons already mounted, but most of them have open hands to mount any of the available weaponry.  Several different skull designs are also available.  Given the amount of variety, it is easy to customize figures so that no two look the same.

The figures come with an innovative basing system.  The models have a textured, round base that looks like a normal (non-slottabase) miniature that is uniform in size.  Also included in the box are 20 individual 20mm square bases with divots in them to hold the miniature base.  This system I’ve only seen in miniatures by Metal Magic, but it’s extremely useful as it allows you to simply use the miniatures as sculpted or mount them for war-gaming.  It also allows you to position the figure so you can better arrange your forces.

I painted these figs using the brown wash method that I've been experimenting with.  I based all the bone parts using Aged Bone while basing all the clothes and armor with black primer (as my usual standard).  When the bone was dry I covered it in a wash made from Shield Brown which turned out pretty good.  I was originally intending to dry brush the clothing, but it's fine detail made that difficult.  I ended up applying the dark reds and greys directly, and applying the brown wash.  I also painted the armor pieces directly with Aged Pewter and, again, used the brown wash. 

The problem was, although I liked the brown wash on the bone and metal (it gave the metal a sort of rusted feel), I didn't like how it looked on the clothes.  It made them look dusty more than anything and rather washed out.  So I later applied a wash of black ink to the clothing.  That had the effect of diluting the brown and providing for more contrast in the folds of the clothes.  It came out OK.  I still have some touch up work to do on these like painting the bird and the gore on the standard bearer's head - but it's pretty much a done set now.

General command rank

I love this guy!  I figure we can presume to know how he met his end.

Standard bearer.  Although there is a musician in the ranks, I gave him a bell to wield rather than a sword.  Note the raven picking out some of his brains.  The standard is also customizable.  You can put anything you want at the top.

I still have to do the feathers on his helmet.  And the eyes.  These skeletons uncharacteristically have eyes, instead of empty sockets. I have to go in there with some glowing red.

Musician with a big-ass horn.  Note the skull spirit flowing out of it.

More ranks.

Even more ranks.

More ranks.  With a new recruit, just for fun...

Competing Painting Philosophies

There are basically two different ways you can paint skeletons.  One is what I term the “black base” method and the other the “brown wash” or “brown dip” method.

Back when my friends and I started war-gaming, way back when Communists walked the earth, it was difficult to get information on how to paint, and we learned by a lot of trial and error.  You must remember, not only was the Soviet Union still in existence and Milli Vanilli were respected Grammy-winning artists, there was also no internet.  (Ok, there was internet, but no World Wide Web, and if you wanted to get a picture from USENET you had to download 5 files – which took 4 to 6 months.) 

So for a very long time, I really had no concept about inks or washes, much less how to use them.  I hit upon the “black base” method very early on.  Basically, you paint a basecoat of black onto the skeleton.  (Soon I graduated to black spray primer.)  After the base coat dries, you paint the ivory/bone color directly onto the bone sections of the figure.  If you wanted to save time, or certain parts were teeny-tiny, you could dry brush the ivory/bone onto the figure.  (Oh happy day when I found out about “dry brushing”).

The second method, which I started trying after I learned about washes, was the “brown wash” method.  Essentially, you do the reverse.  You undercoat the skeleton with an ivory/bone color, then apply a thin brown wash.  If the wash is the perfect consistency (not too thick to make the bones brown, but not too thin so enough brown remains in the cracks) you have a nice, natural looking decaying skeleton.

Although I learned how to use both, I have kept with the black base method for the most part through my painting career.  The reason is this; the direct bone to black contrast makes for a more “cartoony” looking figure.  It’s like the effect of a Halloween costume where you have a black shirt with white bones printed on it.  The brown wash gives a much more natural appearance that looks better overall, but here’s the catch; it only looks better up close.  Yes, skeletons painted with the brown wash look more real when you hold them up to your eyes.  But most of the time, when your figures are on the table top, they are not close.  They are 6 or 7 feet away.  It’s here that the black base method shines.  The high contrast that makes the model look cartoony up close allows for a better look (to my eyes) when they are on the table-top.  The naturalistic look of the brown wash method gets lost and just doesn’t look as good.

It’s a taste thing.  In any case, as I will show, I’ve recently been experimenting again with the brown wash method – both for reasons of speed (it’s faster) and maybe because I’m not actively playing anymore.  It’s fun to try everything!