Saturday, December 21, 2013

From Millsy: 28mm Warhammer / Oldhammer Undead Fantasy Army (147 points)


Millsy starts his Challenge in scope, scale and style by finishing the better part of an entire undead army for OldHammer!  Woo!

From Millsy:
As some of you may know I've decided to try and paint an entire "Oldhammer" Fantasy army over the course of the challenge. It's a very fluffy undead army that appeared in White Dwarf issues 309-311 under the guise of Heinrich Kemmler's Undead Army of the Cairns. I've been collecting the models for about a year now and when Curt opened the challenge to fantasy and sci-fi I jumped at the chance to get the army painted quick smart. I'm pleased to say week one of my challenge has seen some solid progress...
First up we have a couple of core units. These are Simulacra, essentially animated statues from barrows and mausoleums. They're the original wight models and some of my favourites from the fantasy range. In total there are 12 figs split into two units of 3 bases each, or I could play them as one big unit if required. They were undercoated black and then dry brushed and inked a number of times to get the desired stony finish.



Next up is another animated statue but this one much larger. This is a Tomb Stalker (one per unit) and is one of the early Chaos Centaur models. He's a special choice in the list. He was painted the same way as the Simulacra but given his size I've spent a bit more time on the basing.


The third set is a pair of Ghosts, one each per unit. The female is a pretty recent banshee sculpt and the other is an old skool ghost miniature. These count as core choices in the list. They were painted the same way as the Simulacra and Tomb Stalker.

Second last is a unit of eight Mummies from the old Khermi range. These are classed as special choices under the list. They were undercoated brown and the dry brushed, inked and then over painted to get the desired result. I've painted these figs three times now over the years and this is the first time I've been properly satisfied with the outcome.

Lastly is the piece of resistance (and didn't he resist!), a Winged Nightmare. This is also a unit of one and counts as a rare choice. When I purchased the model it was in a horrible state. Past owners had attempted to pin the joints numerous times and had damaged him quite badly in the process poor chap. It took 2.5 hours just to pull him apart without further injury. Another 4 hours was spent pinning and rebuilding him, including filing away the saddle behind the head, followed by carving and inserting two more spines to give the right look. He's the 6-million gold piece monster! "My Spikey" was undercoated black and then painted in layers with a bit of dry brushing on the leathery part of his wings. He's very dark (obviously) and has more depth in real life but no amount of Photoshop Foo could bring him up better unfortunately. He's my entry for the monster category BTW Curt. 



And to finish off here's a "family photo" with everyone together. The gang are wishing Curt and the other challengers a very safe and prosperous holiday period, whether you're up to your neck in snow or sweltering in 41 degree heat like me.

Whoa!! Now that is another cracking debut entry! Fabulous work Millsy. I really like how you created moss for some of the statue figures and your rehabilitation of the Winged Nightmare seemed appropriately nightmarish, but you did a beautiful job on him. 

The only thing your missing for this force is a beard. ;) 

Most of the rank-and-file are fairly straightforward to score. For the Winged Nightmare I'm giving 25 points as it's better than the equivalent of a 40mm 'vehicle' especially when you take into account the repairs and modifications. So, Millsy's grand total for this entry is a well deserved 147 points. Well done!

42 comments:

  1. Lovely stuff! Really like the animated statues!

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  2. Hi,
    they are Fantastic!!!!!!!
    great scenery and great basing !
    they are perfect!

    All the best

    GillesW

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    1. Cheers Paul. A good start for the Aussie contingent...

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  4. I've been waiting on this entry! That Tomb Stalker is way cool and the way you based him really sets him off. Also those two Ghosts are fantastic. The white strands of hair in the female are very interesting. I'd like to know what colours you used to work up from black, to grey and then to white.

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    1. Thanks Anne. They were undercoated black, then base coated in Vallejo Brown Violet, followed by a black ink wash. From there it was dry brush in Vallejo London Grey, then further layers of the same adding more white each time.

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  5. Very nice entry. I really love this Oldhammer stuff.

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  6. Very nice! " digging" this army and the statuary effect! ;)

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  7. Excellent looking collection. Try using them in Kings of War. An excellent game.
    Cheers

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    1. Their rules are free right? I'll have to try that.

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  8. These are so cool great job, really nice entry

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  9. I really like the statue thingies ;-)

    Ian

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  10. Quite a first entry! Is the whole army as quick to paint? ;-)

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    1. Thanks. From here it will slow down a bit. The skeleton warriors and cavalry will be fairly quick but the characters I want to take some time over. I'm also working on a vignette as a centrepiece.

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  11. You are kidding me, thats just amazing Millsy! Fabulous first post Sir!

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    1. Thanks mate. There was a lot of pent up pre-challenge energy expended on these ;-)

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  12. I wanted to get a good start in case I get bogged down later on.

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  13. Looking good! Love the Old GW minis. You are still missing the old school basing style though with bright green flock and pretty much nothing else :D though that isn't necessarily a bad thing...

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    1. Haha Samuli. You should know I was very tempted by the bright green sawdust. Thankfully I resisted :-)

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  14. Wow, Mills can certainly combine speed with skill

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  15. Really great themed Oldhammer Army. I think the advances in basing technology are a good thing.

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  16. So this is why Mr Mills has been so quiet! AND he's been painting under an alias to throw us off the scent!
    ; )
    Nice one Michael! Or is that 'Cory'?

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    1. That'll teach Cory not to leave himself logged in on my PC! Goodness know what else I did before I realised what was going on... ;-)

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  17. Very, very impressive work, Michael! Great photography and terrain too! Could be used in a book! Best, Dean

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    1. Thanks Dean. The walls are home made. There's a post on my blog about them if you're interested.

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  18. I thought "Oldhammer" only referred to 1st,2nd and third editions?
    Im working on a Kemmler army too but much larger.

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  21. I love the graveyard/mausolem theme, it's someyhing I have never seen rendered so well like this one.
    Great work

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Thanks for your comment! As long as you're not a spam droid I'll have it up on the blog soon. :)