We Few. We Infernal Few. We Band of Demons.

As has been noted before, 30 plus years of collecting has left me with more skeleton models than I could ever hope to field in any one game. Unfortunately, games are rare these days with me traveling the world over. But in the ever renewed hope that I may actually have to field a bunch of these figures on the tabletop at some point, I've started an organization scheme that divides my Legion into smaller specific armies. For example, I have my 5th century BCE Classical Greeks - which I've just about put the finishing touches on. I also have my 1st century CE Imperial Romans, my 15th century CE Sengokku period Japanese (samurai) army. I have a New Kingdom Egyptian army (Tomb Kings...duh). I have probably about three Medieval European fantasy armies. I also have my 17th century CE pirate army (probably the least useful to me). With those wonderful Mierce Miniatures Jutes now coming online I think I have enough for a small Dark Age Anglo-Saxon army - well at least a brigade. Plus I have a brigade's worth of demi-humans (orcs, dwarves, halflings, skaven, lizardmen, elves) - although not enough of each. I probably have almost a brigade worth of undead orcs. Elves I can't even field a unit without some conversions.

The latest army I have been putting together is my undead Chaos Army. Granted the line between regular Chaos and undead is sometimes a little iffy to begin with. A lot of chaos models can do double duty. But I have been able to put together, without "counts as" models from Chaos and just a few conversions, a large Chaos army that is specifically undead.

Chaos armies are interesting because they are comprised of a lot of different elements - each of which could have an army based around them on their own; beastmen, chaos warriors, and the element we will be looking at today...demons.

Demons are a staple of Chaos forces, and in at least my experience, generally classified into two types; Greater Demons and Minor Demons. Greater Demons are the large, super powerful, super dangerous creatures who represent the actual fallen angels and lead the armies of chaos across the battlefield. Then there are the Minor Demons who, while still very dangerous to know are less powerful than their masters and usually fight in recognizable units.

Minor Demons

Right now I count 23 Minor Demons in my Chaos Army, just short of the 24 needed for two bands of 12. Mounted on skirmish trays and fighting in a war band formation, these "minor" divinities are the rock solid elite troops of Chaos. Expensive points-wise in Piquet, they are six slot creatures that have extraordinary abilities like "flight", "toughness", and "cause terror" balanced by "formed troops" (so they can fight as a unit) and "weapons skill" (so they can use weapons).

First up is the beautiful, if somewhat diminutive "Judgement" from CMON sculpted by Pedro Fernandez. This is a really detailed and well proportioned sculpt, although it can look a little dainty next to more robust figures.

 Judgement

Dark Sword Miniatures "Death Knight with Scythe" sculpted by Dave Summers.

 DSM7527 Death Knight with Scythe

The following are not produced as demons, but rather conversions. I don't like to field conversions much, as I like to play figures as they're advertised. But I saw these figures which had been converted to act as winged reapers for the 9th Age project and thought that I had rarely seen a simple head swap work so well. They're Mantic Elohi (angels) with the heads swapped with GW Vampire Count Armored Skeleton skulls. They look pretty sweet.

Greater Demons

Citadel - Minotaur Lord

Minotaur Lord

Company: Citadel

Part #: 074640/4, 074640/5, 074640/6B

Sculptor: ??

Released: 1980’s

This is an old, OOP Citadel Minotaur Lord from GW.  Some of the old Minotaur Lords, including this one, came with variable legs, torsos and heads.  In true Chaos fashion one of the heads was skeletal.

For a while I had been looking for some monsters to fill out my Ancient Greek brigade.  Yes, when you play against me, the question is not, “what figures will he field?” but rather “which brigades is he going to field?” 

I have a bunch of generic/medieval fantasy type of brigades, but I also have some that run to various themes; a 1^st A.D. Imperial Roman skeleton brigade (a quincunx of infantry and supporting cavalry/artillery), a medieval samurai skeleton brigade, a New Kingdom Egyptian skeleton brigade (natch), a chaos skeleton brigade (chaos warriors, beastmen, demons), etc. etc.

One thing I’ve been putting together is an Ancient Greek skeleton brigade.  But instead of sticking to 5^th century B.C. types, I’ve also wanted to flesh it out fantasy-wise using figures from Greek mythology (cyclopi, Cerberus, centaurs, etc.) 

What other Greek fantasy monsters do I need?  Why, minotaurs of course!

The problem is, there are not that many good examples of skeletal or otherwise undead minotaurs.  I have one AD&D skeleton minotaur from Wizards of the Coast that is pretty lame.  Another pre-painted AD&D plastic which is even worse.  And a smallish Chainmail zombie minotaur not much better.  I have a Ral Partha one that has an, of all things, Egyptian theme.  But really big, ogre size minotaurs, not so much.  And I figure a minotaur, even if not a giant, has to be at least ogre size.

I found this on ebay.  It’s a pretty big size mounted on a 40mm base.  Even though I had collected all the Citadel skeletons from this era, I had skipped this piece because, well, the skeleton part is kind of an afterthought.  It’s more a creature of chaos.  But, given I’m looking for such a minotaur to field with the Ancient Greeks, he’ll do.  He can definitely pass as an undead in any case.

He came already painted, rather badly at that.  The flesh was painted a horrendous orange and the bone was splashed on.  I immediately rebased all the relevant parts with black primer.  I decided to leave the clothing the way it was, but may in the future come back to it.

After I primed the flesh and bone black, I dry brushed the flesh bits with Ghoul Skin to give him that rotting zombie look.  This sculpt is not one of Citadel’s best, but there is some neat detail in the flesh around the eyes that the dry brushing picked up.  I then painted the bone directly onto the skull.  It’s naked with no wash.  I like how it looks, but I might revisit it later on.

Unfortunately the axe that he originally wielded is missing so I'll have to replace that later.  But for now, he is ready to roll with my skeleton hoplite phalanx.

Morghasts!

Morghast Archai & Morghast Harbingers
Company: Games Workshop
Part #:
Sculptor:
Released: 2014

Images leaking of some sweet, new (incredibly expensive) models from GW's new "End Times" expansion...

GW calls them "Morghasts" - heralds of the dread Nagash.

I, however, call them GIANT FUCKING DEMONS! Finally, I have some major skeletal demons to field in my undead army of chaos.

Giant Fucking Demons

It may sound odd, but there has been dearth of suitably large scale undead demon models. I have a variety of what I would call "lesser demons" - "angels of death" and such like these:

Yeah bitches!

I have a whole bunch of these, enough probably to make two units worth. But while most of them are suitably kick-ass (especially those Rackham figs), they're all normal sized. I've always been envious of those impressive looking giant demon sculpts. They look devastatingly frightening in those chaos hordes and I've always wanted one or two for mine. But unfortunately, like the long desired skeletal hydra, no company has ever really made any such models.

Now... an embarrassment of riches! The Morghast boxed set allows you to make 2 figures each of either the Archai (the ones with the halberds) or the Harbingers (dual swords, less armor). Combined with the undead demon just recently achieved as a stretch goal on Mantic Games' new kickstarter, I have up to five major demons to field alongside my lesser demons, skeletal chaos warriors and skeletal beastmen in my undead chaos horde!

WIP: Legion of Hell Flamegeists

Been doing some work on my undead chaos "Legion of Hell". As I have noted before, Chaos armies are interesting because they have at least three different flavors; Chaos Warriors, Beastmen and Demonic. Players can specialize in one type or have a composite army. As for me, I'm building out one army of each type but currently concentrating on a demonic "Legion of Hell" for an anticipated game when I am back in the States in a few months.

As part of that army, I'm putting together several blocks of flamegeists as line infantry.

The story behind these models really gets to the heart of my mental dysfunction. When GW started releasing their Nighthaunt figures last year, I was really torn. I actually think these models are very cool. I like how they're designed. GW has really come a long way in the time since I first started wargaming nearly 30 years ago. I loved a lot of those models from the 1980s and 1990s, and I am just as much a sucker for Oldhammer as the next 50-year-old nerd. But I just have to admit, the prowess of GW's sculptors has insanely improved over the years. Even in plastic, they are creating beautiful, dynamic and above all, interesting designs for their games. So I greatly look forward to any new line of undead that they produce.

But the Nighthaunt line left me in somewhat of a pickle. If you read the sidebar, you'll know that my OCD extends only to skeletal models. I field skeletons. Not zombies. Not mummies. Not vampires. Not ghouls. And certainly, not ethereals. No ghosts or specters or wraiths. As the tag line says: "Nothing but bone!"

Now, this is a rule often honored in the breach. I do make exceptions in certain cases. Specifically, I'll collect zombified versions of various creatures (dragons, wyverns, trolls, etc.). I'll allow zombified versions of certain things that are poorly represented or just not available in a skeletal form (mostly demihumans; elves, dwarves, orcs, Skaven, lizardmen, etc.). And, of course, the "rule of cool" does apply. I'll accept a zombified version of something where the sculpt is, as a friend of mine from Boston used to say, "wicked awesome". Maybe as a character or leader.

But the Nighthaunt models are problematic. A well-adjusted person would just be like, "OK. I collect ghosts now". But building regular line troops from ethereals? That was just a bridge too far. I can't go there.

Now, almost all the Nighthaunt miniatures are partially skeletal. They are actually, in the classification scheme of early Warhammer Fantasy editions, and the old Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying game, "wights". Technically, the term "wight" is just the Anglo-Saxon word for undead ("wiht"). Meaning a reanimated corpse, either zombieish or skeletal, depending on age. Think of the wights in GoT.

But in the old classification scheme, wights were half skeleton, half wraith - with a solid skeletal upper body and ethereal lower half.

Now, I still don't play wights so I began thinking of how I could actually use these figures. I thought maybe I could do some conversion work and give them legs, but the way the models are designed, this would be really difficult to do even with extensive conversion skills.

But then I hit upon an idea that has been rolling around in my head since I first got my (still unassembled) Mortis Engine. I thought maybe I could paint the wisps of ethereal energy as fire and make it look like it was a skeletal chariot emerging from hellfire.

Now that would be a cool way to do up these Nighthaunt figs! And I could then make them into the backbone of my demonic "Legion of Hell" chaos army along with a few units of infernals (flaming skeletons) and undead demons.

So I bought a bunch of Nighthaunt models off of eBay (Glaivewraith Stalkers, Dreadscythe Harridans, Chainrasp Horde) and started planning.

Now painting the flame produces its own set of challenges, since the ethereal wisps were not sculpted originally as fire. The sculpt lends itself well to flame actually, and would be even better were I to do some putty work. The big challenge is figuring out where the flame is the hottest on these models and where it is coolest.

Now a lot of people paint fire with a deep red at its base, moving up to red, orange and yellow at the tip. This can look cool, but it's technically incorrect. Fire is lightest where it is hottest. The red parts of fire actually are the coolest part. So fire will be hottest and lightest at its source. But where is the source of the flame on these models?

You could make the area right under the cloaks the source of the fire, painting it white-hot and then proceeding to yellow, orange, red and then red-brown to charcoal at the very tips. But I really want to try and promote the idea that the skeletons are solidifying out of the fire. Therefore, the area beneath the cloak has to be the coolest. The other option is what I went with. The source of the fire is from the ground, where the flame is emerging.

This creates its own specific challenges though. One jet of flame (coming from the ground) has to contain the hottest elements, but both the surrounding wisps of flame, as well as the area towards the cloak have to be cooler. Remember, the tips of flame are the coolest.

So what I ended up doing was trying to imagine an axis where the fire would be at its hottest, with the flame getting cooler in both directions from that axis.

So with that in mind, I started the job. First, resisting the urge to assemble the pieces, I primed each half with white primer from Vallejo. At that point, I bathed the lower half of the models on each side with GW's Lamenter's Yellow glaze.

After that, I began glazing the models using the orange-ish Bloodletter glaze. working from both directions toward the imaginary axis, trying to feather the glaze into the yellow as I got closer. Also, I tried to lighten the glaze and keep the yellow in the deeper recesses of the flame.

After which I mixed the dark Clotted Red from Reaper with glaze medium and started to glaze the area under the cloaks and the tips of the flame, working the glaze down into the orange.

Next, I painted up the cloaks mostly using a mixture of some glaze medium and GW's Incubi Darkness. The skeletal parts are Scale Color's Thar Brown with an Agrax Earthshade wash.

So, as you can see below, I have more detail work to do, but the basics are done. By the time I go back, I should have several units of flamegeists done to support the Legion of Hell. I'm also thinking this particular unit of Glaivewraith Stalkers could do double duty in my Undead Chaos Beastmen army.