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@ Squall, never fear to be bold and make suggestions. Especially as I am being quite lazy with this army and probably need a swift slap to get me focused again. The Spear Tips are actually a very dark bronze. Looking at them, I think they are perhaps too dark, so will definitely add some sort of highlight to lift them up a bit, need to figure out what I do as all the swords in the army are going to be the same bronze too.

Fair enough on the bases, mate. Mine are pretty much the same with desert bases as the only exception

As always, I'm in awe of your speed. The archers are looking good, and the worn yellow on all of them works nicely. I like it even more on the bows!

The more skelies look good, keep it up!

Well it has been a whirlwind trip for my wife. It only seems like she left yesterday and she is due back on Thursday morning my time. As may be evident I am in no way going to achieve this army in the time she is away. I drastically misjudged the amount of free time that I was going to have. But I am more than ready to have my Wife back around. It may sound sappy, but it is amazing how much of a hole there is when someone you spend so much time living in each others pockets is not around.

Plus I have some interesting news (which may or may not interfere with my painting), as some of you may be aware I was made redundant from the position of General Manager from my previous employer just before Christmas last year. Since then I have done what I needed to do to pay the bills and have in fact been working back in my Trade on a casual basis since March this year. Love the work, but it just wasn't scratching the itch. It seems my abilities have left an impact on the industry though and I was approached by two separate companies in the last couple of weeks wanting to somehow get my expertise for a couple of projects. One thing has led to another and I am now about to launch my own Design company that initially I will be burning the midnight candle and running the business after hours where possible and continuing keeping my eye in with my trade to keep the cash flowing until hopefully (big hopeful) I can step up and my business can support itself. So if anyone out there is in need of some Design work with major specialties in the manufacturing industry (plastics, metals, resins etc.) drop me a line.

But enough about my risks into future endeavors. I have had a little progress on the Tomb Kings. But first I will digress, I have had a VERY brief look at Age of Sigmar and I am happy to see that at least initially there are very few units that have been left out (or at least can't be figured out by mix and matching existing units). Therefore, I will be continuing with the Warhammer side of my crazy army plan (yay and boo for different reasons). But since there seem to be no "army selection" rules I will depend on my current lists based on 8th edition as the framework to collect from. Will need to figure out something to do if I look at the new factions that have come out to support the release.

This is turning into a wall of text, so I will stop most of the typing now and onto the small progress I have managed with the Tomb Kings......


So here we have 3 units of Skeletal Archers. In 8th edition I was intending them to wander about among my melee blocks as with their arrows of asaph rule they suffer no penalties for shooting. But in AoS? I have no idea. Then again I don't even know if I can use the movement trays anymore.


As is my style (if you can call it that) the strong yellow has been continued again throughout all these units to help unify the army as well as provide some sort of contrast to all that bone. Oh how I am beginning to hate painting bone already. Probably because I feel I haven't done all that good a job. Its a little too messy, but I am not in any mind to try and fix it.


I have taken the advice from readers about lightening both the faces and bronze on these guys, but I am not entirely sure it comes through particularly well. But please don't think I am ignoring you all.


I may be complaining but I do think I am getting better at the bone compared to my attempts with the cavalry. So that's a good sign as I still have the stand out untis (Chariots and Tomb Guard) not to mention all the characters to go. So here is to hoping I can pull my opinion of the army back with them.


They may be small units but together they certainly add a mass of bodies. As a whole I think the army will look good together, especially arrayed around a large Chariot unit.


I am a lot happier with the bases with the addition of a few tufts of grass. I have continued with the "ripple" affect for the sand which yet again refuses to show up in photos, but I am very happy with the appearance in person, but the little bits of grass help to lift it a little more.

So there you have what ended up being a fairly long post. Lots going onm but still managing a little hobby process which is nice. Next time I post I hope to have either the large block of Skeleton Warriors done, or the non-character Chariots. I haven't decided yet which way I will go.

As always, thanks for reading.

Good work on the skellies.

Good luck with your business endeavor, or ganbatte if you prefer hard work to luck

I can see more of the bronze coming through. It probably comes through even better in person, as photos can do some wierd things to models.

From what I can tell in the whopping two games I played Saturday, shooting is pretty powerful, so you can probably get use out of the skeleton archers.

The latest batch of skellies are looking good! Only a few days and you turn out another 30 models!

Remember, the Skeletons can still be used in WHF 3-8th as well as KoW and AoS - so it just depends on what your friends/group want to play. Hopefully it's not the kind of group that will only play the very latest thing and throw everything previous in the bin, so you can keep on using 8th as much as you need to (as well as the fluff, compositon, etc.

@Archer It's good to come back after a few months and see how much progress you've made. Finishing an entire army and making large progress with another while at the same time sorting out real life stuff. It's pretty inspiring. And maybe a little disheartening when I look at my own meager progress.

Maybe that's why I tend to only check in every month or so. Subconsciously I don't want to know how far behind I am from you.

As for feedback, I think the Eldar look great. I was never a huge fan of the purple and green color combo, but you've done justice to it. Everything is painted quite well. I especially like the effect you've done on the vehicles. That subtle color change really draws the eye. Great job adding one more to the completed list.

The Tomb Kings are off to a great start. Though I say start when you've got practically half the army finished already. Honestly, I am not a fan of the tomb king models in general. The horses look awkward and the weapons/ quivers look pretty chunky. But part of that comes from the age of the models. I hope GW updates them at some point. But AOS, who knows... The yellow is great for a spot color. It does a good job at adding interest. I like your idea for the glowing eyes. It may be too late to suggest, but I don't think red is the right color. It doesn't really match the rest of the army. I think something like teal or a light green would draw the eye better and fit the desert theme a bit more. Just my 2 cents

Speaking of Age of Sigmar, I can understand why you felt discouraged hearing the rumors. I pretty much put my bret army on hold once the more supported rumors started coming in May. It really just killed the drive for the army. However, I personally have decided to just continue playing 8th and maybe playing one of the 8.5 or hybrid 7th/8th editions that dakka people are working on this summer. While I don't think AOS is necessarily awful, the lack of army building and individual customization just killed it for me. One of the reasons I loved WHF so much was the ability to spend hours building lists and making awesome characters with individuality. To step off my box , I hope that you continue to pursue building these WHF armies. You can always break them out with friends and play 8th or 7th or whatever edition you want. And on the plus side you will have every army, so you've have plenty of options.

I think I've taken up enough space on this thread. To summarize simply, great work mate. I love what you've done so far, and I hope you continue your work for 40k and WHF. Keep it up

Hi Freytag93, long time no hear. Thanks for the comments. I appreciate your insight always a good motivator to hear the thoughts and ideas of your peers.

In regards to the eyes I like the idea. Unlikely to change the models I have done. But how about the elites (tomb guard, characters and maybe the charioteers) getting different coloured eyes? Perhaps indicating they have a little more awareness than the rank and file? I think I quite like that idea.

I have no plans to stop the Warhammer side of things. I do plan to keep the themes and lists I already have and collect to them. Especially as there are no "lists" with AoS. I have my first AoS game in a week so see what comes of that.

Will probably be doing another fantasy army next (even up the 40k fantasy armies). Any thoughts? I was thinking dwarves.

oooh dwarves get my vote for next.

Tomb Kings are looking good. I like the idea of the elites and such having different colored eyes.

If you wanted to use an Aqua/Teal-type colour for glowing eyes, it'd be a relatively simple (and painless) process.

1) Purchase Nihilakh oxide.
2) Dab a drop into each eye socket.
3) Done.

That's how I do it with the undead I give glowy eyes to. Sometimes I put a spot of white in there as well as a highlight, but it's not mandatory.




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And Dwarves are good. They're on my list as well, and I've been collecting them over the past few months.

@ Azazelx Where does one get this oxide? I am interested being as how I am fairly sheltered when it comes to different paint brands and products.

I have always had a soft spot for the dwarfs. Would do an engineering guild OR an underground defence force (all iron breakers and miners). Would do both eventually. But not sure which one I would do first.

 Archer wrote:
@ Azazelx Where does one get this oxide? I am interested being as how I am fairly sheltered when it comes to different paint brands and products.

Its a GW technical paint.

Tomb Kings looking good so far, I saw an AoS batrep with them in and they did really well.

Dwarfs sound good mate. As long as it isn't brets so I don't have to compete with you

 Archer wrote:
@ Azazelx Where does one get this oxide? I am interested being as how I am fairly sheltered when it comes to different paint brands and products.

I have always had a soft spot for the dwarfs. Would do an engineering guild OR an underground defence force (all iron breakers and miners). Would do both eventually. But not sure which one I would do first.

Yeah, it's a GW Technical paint, and it's bloody good stuff. It's nominally for copper sulphate-type oxidisation effects (and it's good for that) but it's also good for glowing eyes and the like. There are lots of good reviews and tutorials on using it on YouTube as well.

Dwarfs sounds like a plan. I need to put a few of mine together too.

May have to try that stuff for eyes.

Hi All, I have been neglecting my own work in favor of making a nuisance of myself on other peoples blogs. But I have been slowly working on my skeletons in the background. But between a frustratingly stubborn flu that just wouldn't go away. But I am back and keen to knuckle down and finish off the Tomb Kings. So without too much preamble here are the latest photos of my growing Tomb King army.......

AoS I may choose to use them on foot instead.

[img]https://mycrazyarmyplan.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/img_0509_zpsms8guxjf.jpg" border="0" />
If you look carefully you will see that the 2 empty chariots are also almost completely bronze in the body where the others have the same yellow I have used across the rest of the army. I figured it was an easy way of adding a little variation to the unit without looking too out of place.


The 4 normal chariots. I plan to only run a Standard Bearer as the only command model. Skeletal Champions are just cannon fodder for other heroes and I couldn't squeeze a musician into an 8th edition list.


The crew of the Chariots are almost exactly the same as the previous skeletons. Same techniques and colors except they have a whole lot more bling on them and I have done some light blue eyes to show they are a little more important than the regular foot sloggers.


I am really happy with how they have come up. They are a pretty intimidating group as they have an enormous footprint and will probably be pretty hard to actually position on the battlefield. But with the Battle Standard and General in the one unit I expect them to draw a lot of attention as well as the fact they are so big.


And here we have my unit of skeletons armed with hand weapons and shields. They are pretty basic (as are most of my skeletons) but as a big block of 30 they work quite well. I am really taken by how the faded yellow has come together.


I actually have 2 unit fillers in these units as well, they are tucked into the back to bulk up the unit as I did with the Ogre Kingdoms Gnoblars. But I will show some close ups of them next.


Unit Filler #1, I went down the line of a pile of bones pulling themselves together at the bidding of the Liche Priests. So here we see a guy sticking his head on and another trying to get to his feet.


Another angle of the same filler. I am really happy with how they turned out. The plastic skeletons were actually really easy to shape and get some nice poses.


Similar to the first filler, but this one shows a poor skeleton that has been turned into a pin cushion, but between you and I, he doesn't seem to mind.


Whilst the front guy removes arrows the guy in the back is bending down for something......


Yup, thats right, he is trying to pick up his leg. Skeletons got to have two legs to fight right?


It took a little more work to get these two to not fall to pieces with all the small details. But I think they are so far the best in the entire army.

So there you have my progress after a fairly quiet few weeks. Let me know your thoughts and I hope to be a little more productive over the next month or so. I don't have much left to do now. To finish this army off I have a 30 skeleton unit of Tomb Guard, two Liche Priests, the Tomb King and a mounted Tomb Herald and BSB Herald. So 35 models in total. The finish line is in sight for these guys and I need to start thinking of the next army in line.

Thanks for reading and its good to be back posting my progress.

Getting close to done then! Models look great, I like how much character you managed to inject into your unit filler.

I love the unit fillers. Those are always some of the most fun projects to work on, as you can just do whatever you feel like. The skelly trying to pull the arrows out of himself is pretty great.

The skeletons look great, really like those unit fillers they made me smile.

I really dig the unit fillers. I like the yellow on these guys so much!

Thanks guys, appreciate the feedback. Yeah I think I am going to plan future units around some unit fillers. They are a lot of fun to build. I think I like my unit fillers for the tomb guard are my favourites so far. Hopefully get them up soon.

 Archer wrote:

So there you have my progress after a fairly quiet few weeks. Let me know your thoughts and I hope to be a little more productive over the next month or so. I don't have much left to do now. To finish this army off I have a 30 skeleton unit of Tomb Guard, two Liche Priests, the Tomb King and a mounted Tomb Herald and BSB Herald. So 35 models in total. The finish line is in sight for these guys and I need to start thinking of the next army in line.

Thanks for reading and its good to be back posting my progress.

I was wondering where your army posts were, but then its the middle of horrible cold winter, so I thought that might have had something to do with it.

I love the new stuff. That unit of 6 chariots looks mean as all feth. Really impressive and it'll be a real intimidating unit on the table. I love the unit fillers as well. I've always admired people's unit fillers, but something about the ones you just showed made something click, and now I'm thinking about doing some of my own - probably for Marouda's Undead to start with.

Your next army should be Chaos Dwarves or Beastmen. I looked at your Crazy Army Plan and they're both in there!

I would love to do Chaos Dwarves. But I think they may unfortunately be out of my budget for the near future (unless people know of more affordable but still "Chaos Dwarfy looking" models from another supplier?).

The cold may have something to do with my lack of progress. But that would just be a poor excuse for lazy.

I would love to do Beastmen, but the first army I would want to do is a Chariot-centric Beastman force and I am not sure I want to visit chariots again so soon.

I'm not sure exactly how the prices compare, but Mantic makes abyssal dwarves:
http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/kings-of-war/abyssal-dwarfs.html
They do suffer from being a lot of metal, and restic. A lot of people don't like restic at all. So they're one of the more expensive Mantic armies to collect, and involve extra prep time on the restic parts... but probably still cheaper than GW? Past that, it'll be up to you as to if the aesthetic hits enough points to mach for you.

There's a really good Russian site that sells Chaos Dwarves (their own sculpts) called The Russian Alternative.

I plan on using them when I start my Chaos Dwarf army.

They also sell via ebay as well.

I've got a couple of the Russian Alternative units. They're very nice, and not too expensive.


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And Mantic has these, available locally for a bit of bulk troopage.

http://www.gamesempire.com.au/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=15678

http://www.gamesempire.com.au/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=14265

The second one seems to retail for 100 pounds, so AU$146 is a pretty sweet deal comparatively.

Gee thanks for all the links guys. I think the Russian alternative definitely is more in line with what I see as chaos dwarfs aesthetics. Although the prices on the Mantic stuff is so low.

Ah the decisions are horrendous. Although I may be working on a deal with a guy for some cheap High Elves and Tyranids....so may be diverging entirely from where I thought I was going.

Cheap is good. I don't love GW elves, but if you're doing them, they'll probably be pretty solid. And Tyranids... would not mind seeing where you went with that.

My old favorite gamestore (can no longer justify the hour drive what with two kids) used to have some KoW starter boxes on the shelves. I got the two half-price Mhorgoth Rising sets, but I skipped over the half-price Abyssal Dwarf starter armies because they were restic/metal/hybrids and they just really didn't go as far as the Dwarf/Undead starter. I have a feeling I'd buy them both if I ever walk back in there but ehh.

Looking forward to more from Archer, whichever army it is

Really like the unit fillers mate. I think some fillers can be very hit or miss sometimes; I don't really like fillers where it seems like a forest or walls are moving around the battlefield with the unit. But these are superb. They are definitely giving me a few idea for my own fillers. Nice work