Recent KS acquisitions

I've been steadily accumulating figures that I've funded through Kickstarter. I don't have all of them in hand, much less assembled and painted but I figure I'll list some here for reference:


Halfling Skeleton Cavalry by John McMannis
Sculptor: Bob Olley


John strikes again, adding yet another set of Halfling undead to the market. This time they are Halfling skeletons mounted on skeletal war pigs! I backed at the Calvary Horde level, so I shall be getting one ten figure set of cavalry with hand weapons and one set of cavalry with bows.



Halfling Skeleton Army Halberds and War Machine Crew by John McMannis
Sculptor: Bob Olley


The latest in John's series of Halfling skeleton Kickstarters, this got me one 12 man unit of halberdiers and ten individual crew for war machines (tailored for one catapult, one ballista and one cannon).

So with John's previous Kickstarters, I've got four units of undead Halfling melee troops (one hand weapon, one spear, one halberd and one assorted from other companies), one unit of missile troops, two units of cavalry (one melee weapons, one bows), three war machines and a variety of characters. Quite a nice little force of undead Halflings! And add to that...

Dead Gnomes Rising by Old School Miniatures

Wow. Just...wow. Skeleton gnomes. Will they be useful in combat? Who knows? But I'll throw them in there with the Halflings.

Ancient Grudges: Bonefields by Macrocosm Miniatures

Now these will be a nice addition to my growing undead Dwarf and Orc/Goblin armies. This KS funded a whole set of game rules and new line of miniatures. Don't need the game, but I backed this at the "Undead Horde" level, giving me 15 separate units of undead Dwarves or Goblins. In addition, I purchased a number of add ons.

Undead Orc Skeleton Warriors and Cavalry by John McMannis

Sculptor: Bob Olley

John took a day off from imagining skeletal Halflings in order to have these produced. More troops for my undead Orc/Goblin army!



Titan-Forge - Cryptstalk Boyz

Cryptstalk Boyz
Company: Titan-Forge
Part #:
Sculptor: Slawek
Released: 2013

I've put up some of Titan-Forge's stuff before.  What is there to say?  Skeleton orcs!  Armored and bad-ass.  I can't relate how grateful I am to Titan-Forge for doing a line of undead orcs and goblins.  I am now at the point where I might be able to field an entire brigade of undead green skins (green bones?)

Very nice sculpts.  The armor is suitably primitive and "orc-like".  Big chopping weapons.  They generally fit the GW orcish conception, which I generally deride as "cartoony" versus some of the hulking brutes like, say, Nick Lund orcs (the holotype orc as far as I'm concerned) or Rackham's versions.  But in a skeletal form, they are definitely cool, and very distinctive.

The set of five allows you to make five warriors, or three warriors, one standard bearer and one musician.  I have to buy another set so I can field all the variations.  Kudos all around!

Titan-Forge - Zomblins

Zomblins
Company: Titan-Forge
Part #:
Sculptor: Slawek
Released: 2012

If there is one thing I wish we'd see more of, it's miniature companies making more demi-humans. I have thousands upon thousands of skeletal humans, but only a handful of skeeton orcs, goblins, dwarves, skaven, lizardmen or elves.  Especially elves! Jesus, can't we get some more undead elves other than the standard bearer from the Cursed Company and that one in the Otherworld Demi-Human pack???

Well here to fill the void is Polish company Titan-Forge, who ran a startlingly successful indiegogo campaign last year to fund their Drakskull's Menace line. When you look at the miniatures from Titan-Forge and Scibor, there is some seriously outstanding work coming out of Poland these days.

Now normally I don't do zombies (Nothing but bone! NOTHING BUT BONE!!!) but in this case, I'm making an exception. Not only do these miniatures fill a glaring gap in my Legion (undead goblins) but they are darn cool looking as well.  Not to mention fun to paint. So now I have a solid unit of undead gobbos to compliment my hodgepodge undead orc units. I'm taking the fight to my orcish rival! Beware Ork-boy!

Two Recent Acquisitions

I just recently snagged two old out of print figures from ebay.  I’m pretty sure I actually have these two figures.  My problem is I don’t have a database of what I have and my memory is fallible.  In some sense, I’m hoping to use this blog as a visual reference for myself.  In the case of these two models, I figure you can never have enough anyway.

First up is a zombie gnoll, from the now defunct Chainmail Miniatures line.

When they had the license for D&D, Chainmail put out a nice series of undead figures that were especially useful to fill out non-human races.  You don’t see many examples of non-human undead, which is a shame, since I believe that the best part about playing the Skeleton Legion is that you get to kill your foe and then make him rise up and fight for you against his former comrades!  Therefore, I’m of the opinion that every model released should have an undead equivalent. If I ever get adept at sculpting, high on my priority list would be a set of skeletal High Elf eagle riders.  One can dream.

In any case Chainmail made some nice undead meta-races like dwarves, orcs, and troglodytes (lizard men.)  I believe this is the only example of an undead gnoll ever produced.  So I can either collect enough to create a full unit (12 figs) or slip them into my Skeletal Chaos Legion as beastmen or weres.

Due to its unique nature, it gets past my “nothing but bone” rule.  As do a number of particular monsters such as dragons or trolls.  But that’s pretty much it. Strictly speaking, this is not actually a zombie gnoll.  It's a construct, specifically, a flesh golem.  Ergo, the four arms and two heads stitched together onto the model.  Of course, it could also be interpreted as an undead creature of chaos.

Chainmail miniatures were multi-part and unfortunately very fiddly.  But I think that can be overcome now that I use green stuff as bonding agent rather than just super-glue.

Next up is a figure from way, WAY back.  A Citadel miniature from before they had slottabases!  And before GW was the marketing steamroller it is today.

This is a skeletal samurai that I will incorporate into my Skeletal Medieval Samurai brigade.  Mostly made up of Clan War/Legend of the Five Rings samurai figs, but also a sprinkling from other companies; Grenadier, Ral Partha, Citadel.  I’m always on the lookout on ebay for that old Grenadier skeletal samurai command blister from the early 80’s (Fantasy Lords #173.)  It is one of the few blisters (maybe even the last) I do not own from Grenadier.  Also, I’m always on the lookout for the “Lost Moto” blister of samurai cavalry for L5R (#13-121.)   I have one blister, but that’s only 2 figs and not enough for a full unit of cav (8.)  Therefore, I am relegated to using them as brigade commanders.  Valiant has begun re-releasing the Clan War figs, but sadly, no Lost Moto yet.