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The Forgotten Dead
Well, the General's Handbook hath awoken in me a desire to play Age of Sigmar, and after perusing the various factions I settled on a good, honest Death force of the rotting, soulless, vengeful dead. I'm aiming to avoid any living character of any kind, or any particularly fancy stuff.
Across the many Mortal Realms, armies of brave soldiers fought and died for noble causes, which are now scattered like the ashes of their once-proud citadels and homesteads. Entire fields of corpses bear the banners of long-dead Kings or would-be tyrants, and none mark their graves now that all they fought for has passed beyond living memory. In the places where the bodies are thickest, where soldiers fought in their thousands to the last, some now stir from centuries of buried sleep. Rotting, skeletal hands drag them out of the snow once more. Emaciated, blue with cold, the Forgotten Dead rise again. History shall repeat itself, and the dead shall not lie forgotten again. Generals lead them to glory against the living, to reap a harvest and bolster their ranks. Behind them march armies of those embittered by the futility of their sacrifice. In their eyes, all life is meaningless, but death is perhaps not so. What few are struck down by the terrified defenders of beleaguered homesteads soon rise again, and the torn remains of many villages all join the ranks of the Forgotten Dead.
Thematically my hands are kinda tied by the dead people only thing. There will be no Vampires, Necromancers, or Ghouls. I've got Skeleton Warriors and Wight Kings with Zombies, and I'm aiming to grab some Grave Guard at some point. I've also got a Terrorgheist, reborn to fight alongside the heroes who died slaying it. I'm thinking I might get a Mortis Engine at some time, as it's a cool model with some utility. The Necromancer on it will be replaced by a Wight King, mind.
No Nagash either, (IMO he's like Sigmar or Khorne, a God who really shouldn't be stooping to participate personally in any particular battle.) His Mortarchs are also out. This will be no army of great endeavours, it merely exists as a cold mirror to the humans struggling to live across the Mortal Realms. I'm hoping Death get more good, honest Undead whenever they next update. Otherwise I'm gunna be a bit constrained by the theme, which is a shame because after a year of searching it's one I actually like.
Anyway, here are the first mob of zombies I got painted. Please forgive the awful, awful camera on my "new" replacement phone as it seems to like softening and darkening everything after taking the picture to eradicate any detail I'm pointing it at. (It'll actually look pretty great until it saves the picture as well. Windows Phones, *spit.*)
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s..._45_15_Pro.jpg
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s..._47_24_Pro.jpg
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s..._47_31_Pro.jpg
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s..._47_48_Pro.jpg
I gave them blue skin for a kind of Skyrim Draugr look, though I might tweak it as it's pretty far from flesh tone, (hard to make flesh look blue though.) Using the Mantic Zombies as IMO they're way better than the GW ones, and cheaper to boot. If only the rest of their range was as good...
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looking great, going to be a really nice model selection.
what about Morghasts as non-character hard hitters?
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Thanks, they're quite fun to paint, a departure from my usual stuff. I might get Morghasts, though I'm hoping for something more Vampire Counts-y as I prefer that aesthetic. I'm also not a massive fan of the 'belly full of skulls' thing the Morghasts have going on. :P
Also looking at repainting the zombies as the blue isn't working out like I hoped it would. Aiming for something more like this:
http://i.imgur.com/T2x3fBc.jpg
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Convert them to look more golem or zombie-ish then theyy fit in.
Maybe give the blue zombies a heavy grey drybrush?
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Might try a grey drybrush actually, see how that goes. I got some Spirit Hosts painted up in the meantime, who are so easy to paint, yet so rewarding once they're done:
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s..._21_41_Pro.jpg
Here's the painted force so far. 30 Skeletons on the queue will take it up to a full 1000pt force, then I'll likely tweak the zombies a little. Got Black Knights, a Wight King, a Necromancer and a bunch more zombies and skeletons to add to it:
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s..._50_20_Pro.jpg
Thinking of getting [URL="http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/skeleton/sku-down/03357#detail/03357_w_1"]this guy[/URL] to escort my Black Knights as well. The GW mounted Wight King model is pretty derpy.
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All looking good. How did the non GW models turn out?
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So far it's just the zombies above, but I'm looking at other non-GW models too. :)
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Finished a Phalanx of 30 Skeletons, went for a really muted scheme on them to make them look dirty and ancient, (plus a bit grisly and fresh.) Mostly happy with them, might highlight some details so they stand out more. These guys are MVPs in most of my games for that lovely blend of durability and damage for dirt cheap. One of them's missing a head which I couldn't find, so I painted the stump after this pic and made it a feature. :P
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s..._44_22_Pro.jpghttp://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s..._47_44_Pro.jpghttp://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s..._48_02_Pro.jpg
That brings me up to a fine cohort of 1000pts already! (Not including the Mortis Engine below.) It's come on surprisingly-fast, and I've already got a Wight King nearing completion.
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s..._59_17_Pro.jpg
Thinking after the Wight King I'll paint the Black Knights and Spirit Hosts I have on the queue, then 10 more each of Skeletons and Zombies to get me to 1500pts. Might revisit the zombies and skeletons, drybrush a grey over the zombies as Kirsten suggested to make them like Golems, and maybe highlight the skeletons a bit to make the detail pop more.
Also wanna change the title of this thread. Do I have to contact a Mod for that?
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I like the scheme, although agree that it could do with some brighter spot colours somewhere, just to make the contrast stand out more. Perhaps you could use the snow stuff on the base for that? Skellies should have no body heat, so a bit of snow dusting shoulders and helmets could look pretty good.
Contacting a mod would be my best guess, although the thread title seems fine to me :)
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I've gotta paint another 10 Skellies and 10 Zombies to bring the numbers up to 1500pts, so I'll probably revisit them as I'm doing those. Either way, managed to get the Wight King finished, wanted him a bit cleaner and more regal looking:
http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s..._49_32_Pro.jpg
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