Skeletons.......

February was a busy month at work, however, I have managed to finish the first unit of infantry for my son's Tomb King army. This is twenty figures at the moment but will probably need to be increased to thirty or even forty in the future.

The figures took a long time to get right as I've never painted skeletons before. Lots of research on the net accompanied by numerous test pieces resulted in a method that I'm reasonably pleased with.

The figures were glued and then undercoated with GW Dheneb Stone. Once this is dry the figures were completely covered in a 50:50 mix of Badab Black and Devlan Mud wash and left to dry. They were then drybrushed with Dheneb stone followed by GW Bleached Bone followed by a lighter drybrush of Vallejo Ivory (70918) and then Vallejo Offwhite (70820). Finally pure white was used to pick out raised surface detail.

The gold was done with GW Shining Gold followed by a Devlan Mud wash and then highlighted with Shining Gold followed by GW Burnished Gold and a final highlight of Burnished Gold mixed with Silver. This turned out ok but I think I prefer my old method which I'll cover in a future post.

The blue on the shields and standard was done with Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue (899) over a black undercoat, followed by Prussian Blue (965) and finally Vallejo Medium Blue (057).

I used turquoise as a 'spot' colour on some of the shields, headwear and command. This was done with GW Hawk Turquoise followed by a wash of GW Asurman Blue and then highlighted with Hawk Turquoise with a final spot highlight of Turquoise plus white.

Overall I'm pleased with the results and have made good progress on the second unit of twenty infantry over the past week.

So far this year I've completed 38 figures and bought none so a good start to 2012. I'm hoping to increase the monthly output now that I have the colours worked out for the Tomb Kings and the plan is to have forty infantry, 10 archers, 10 cavalry and three chariots completed before the Easter weekend.

Reading wise I've now read the first five Uhtred novels by Bernard Cornwell and have enjoyed them all. They are full of ideas for SAGA skirmishes which I'll come back to later in the year. I've now started re-reading the Arthur books to find ideas for further units to add to this army.

As ever all comments welcome - particularly any tips you may have on painting skeletons quickly.