Oldhammer Skeleton Warriors

This weeks challenge entry was a unit of 26 skeleton warriors, these were produced by Citadel in the 1980's. 

I've posted more pictures and details on my Oldhammer blog along with a couple of pictures of the army so far.

This entry netted me 130 points and takes my total to 460 points so far.  I now have three more weeks to get this over the 1000 point mark.  It will be a struggle but I should get there or at least come close.  I will be submitting another unit of 26 skeleton's next week along with an entry into the Theme round which should take my points to around 650.

I've put the 6mm Cossacks on hold for the moment whilst I get my theme round entry completed.  The last theme is anti-hero, I thought this meant villain but the actual definition is "a main character in a story who lacks conventional heroic qualities such as idealism, courage, and morality."  A bit of thinking and research and I knew who I wanted to paint for my entry.  I then searched suppliers for the right figures and found that I already had them from a Kickstarter I funded a couple of years ago.  These figures will also be my Curtgeld (entry fee for the challenge) and so I want to take my time and do the best job I can.

I'll get these and the remaining skeletons completed and submitted next week. I should then be able to complete the Cossacks the following week along with some Skeleton cavalry leaving me with a target of approximately 160 points for the final week.  Just about do-able.

Man-Flu and Oldhammer

Looks like I brought a case of man-flu back from London with me this week.  Nothing too major but enough to ensure I missed my posting deadline last night.  Quite frustrating as I had some 28mm figures finished and ready for photographing.  I'll have to submit them next week now.

I always planned to paint a number of 28mm figures as part of the competition, I brought forward the start of these as I'm spending so much time away from home during the week and need something light to transport and relatively simple to paint.

I have a load of old Citadel figures and paints from the 1980's that I'd like to get painted over the next few years.  This started during the revival of Warhammer Fantasy 3rd edition or 'Oldhammer' as it's now been called.  I have hundreds of the plastic skeletons and had always wanted to paint up an undead army. I planned to start this a couple of years ago but never got much beyond designing an army and undercoating a few skeleton cavalry figures.

Given that the undead are light and do not need too many paints, I've decided to try and paint as many rank and file skeletons as I can before the competition ends.  I'm restricting myself to the original citadel paints for the figures as I still have all of these and they are still useable after nearly thirty years.  I will be using modern day tufts for the bases though as these are so nice compared to old static grass.

I started painting the skeletons a couple of weeks and submitted a couple of units to the Analogue Challenge last week.

I painted up 10 archers initially as I wanted a small number of figures to practice painting bone.  I like how these turned out.

Next up was 20 Grim Reapers, skeletons armed with two handed scythes.  I'm really pleased with the way the wooden handles turned out.

The bases consist of three different colored tufts highlighted with Miniature Paints Cream.  I chose these colours as I want the vegetation to look like it has had the life sucked out of it by the Undead forces as they advance.  I think this has worked out quite nicely.

I've really enjoyed painting these figures, it took me back to when I first started painting and had to experiment with paint mixes to get the colours I wanted as there weren't too many shades around initially.

I should be able to complete another skeleton before next Thursday, I have 14 figures already complete so only need another 12.  I'm at home every night next week as well so should be able to get complete the 90 Cossacks as well.  This combined with the skeletons will take me over the 500 point mark.

Russian Dragoons

I missed my posting deadlines for the challenge over the past couple of weeks so I really pushed to get a number of figures finished and photographed in time for submission last Thursday. 

After maxing out on artillery I thought it was time to move on to the cavalry.  Here we have 40 Napoleonic Russian Dragoons, these are all 6mm Baccus figures and represent the four Dragoon regiments that made up the 3rd Dragoon Division at Montmirail

The four Regiments are Smolensk (Yellow facings), Kurland (Turquoise), Tver (Ultramarine) and Kinburn (Yellow).  I was really nervous about painting these as I've never painted horses in this scale.  In the end I used the same paints I use for 28mm but went slightly lighter, I think they turned out alright.

The biggest pain was painting the standards as they're all cast on.  I tried lots of different designs and in the end the one that worked the best consisted of 4 carefully placed green spots in each corner followed by random splots of light gold paint.

I also managed to complete a couple of units of skeletons for my Oldhammer project, I'll post these up in the next day or so.

Next up for the Ruskies will be 90 Cossacks.

The Guard arrives

In a box from Baccus.......

A box arrived on Saturday morning containing the the French Guard infantry, artillery and some of the cavalry.  I'll get these onto lollipop sticks and based so that they are ready to be painted once the Russian cavalry is completed.  That evil man, Peter Berry, also included a free pack of Great War mini's - I will resist, I will resist, they do look very good though.

I missed my deadline again last week, however, the Dragoons and Skeletons are finished and photographed so I'll be submitting them this week.  I'm also going to try and complete a second oldhammer undead unit this week as I'm in a hotel for the next few nights.  I managed to complete 8 figures last week and added some sand/gravel to the bases over the weekend. The plan is to paint 20 of these using the original citadel paints:

Now that the Russian Dragoons are out of the way, I can start on the Cossacks.  I need 90 figures for 5x60mm square bases and I plan to have these completed next week.  Photo below shows them primed and 'black washed' ready for painting:

WIP Pictures Dragoons and Skeleton Archers

Just a quick update tonight as I missed the posting deadline for the challenge last Thursday.  Work and family life meant I didn't get much painting done.  I've been busy over the past few nights and have the Russian Dragoons almost completed

These figures have the standards molded on so I need to paint these up, varnish the figures and get them based up.  I should manage this before my posting deadline this week.

I've also been working to find a way to paint whilst I'm away from home as this is slowing me down at the moment.  I planned to re-start a Warhammer 3rd edition or "Oldhammer" Undead project a few years ago but only managed to paint a couple of cavalry figures before I packed it all away for a second time.  Given that the skeletons are plastic and fairly straightforward to paint I decided to give this project another go.  The picture below shows the results

These are the original undead plastics which I've painted with the old citadel paints (from the eighties) and I'm quite pleased with the results. I'll get these based up over the next couple of nights and they should also be ready for submission on Thursday.  I'm confident that I can paint 10-12 infantry each week whilst I'm away from home so this should help to keep my points total ticking over whilst completing a project that I planned nearly thirty years ago.

I'll post a more detailed history and plan for the undead army over the weekend.

So the plan for February is to complete the Russian 6mm figures, start on the French infantry and paint up a skeleton infantry unit or two.