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Here is my rendition of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I painted them to serve as the climactic opponents in a friend's role-playing game -- a session that occurred this afternoon. I'm not a regular member of the group, but I got to sit in today, with a recurring friendly NPC for my character. Quick description of the campaign: Spycraft d20 system with some elements of D&D v3.5, and the twist is that the "good guy" secret agents are all liches! They are powerful undead beings from various times of the past millennium and from around the world. The head of their agency assembled them as a special squad. This gaming group has been meeting every other Sunday for several years, rotating through systems and GMs every few months; this was the fourth chapter of their "LichCraft" campaign, and the GM had woven in hints and clues about today's apocalyptic battle. My friend wanted to make today's final session special by having appropriate painted miniatures for the Four Horsemen. A few months ago, he and I discussed what he had in mind, he chose these figures from Reaper (though the original "Reapers of the Apocalypse" #2001-2004 didn't fit what he imagined), and I converted and painted them. I thought about documenting the conversions, but then forgot to take photos, and I was halfway through priming them when I thought about it again. These are relatively quick paint-jobs, taking about four to six hours each. War (the red one), the biggest and most complicated, took the longest of the four. Here is the group-shot: 1) Famine. Its color is black (which I steered toward purple) and its symbol is the scales. The rider and horse are a simple Skeletal Cavalry (02361), with some conversions: - shield-boss removed, to get a smooth surface for the symbol - spear-tip resculpted (putty) - cloak and hood (putty) added to the rider - big and ragged new saddle-blanket (putty) added over the original small rectangular one - shinguards (putty) added to the horse, just to set it apart from Pestilence's otherwise identical horse. The original model: The finished model: 2) Death. Its color is green and its symbol is a scythe. The rider and horse are a Deathrider (14149). I added the rider's ragged cowl (putty) so I would have another surface to paint green. The finished model: 3) War. Its color is red and its shield bears a twisted symbol of insanity. This is the stock model Golgoth (03357). I puttied over some of the joins between parts -- and sculptor Kevin Williams did a great job figuring out how to divide this model into its components -- but I didn't change anything. The finished model: 4) Pestilence ... or maybe Conquest ... or maybe ConQuestilence. Its color is white (which I steered toward pale blue), it wields a bow, and it wears an iron crown. The horse is the same as Famine's (02361), but with some minor re-posing, and the rider is a Skeletal Archer (14382). These are my conversions: - tab-base removed from archer, and stirrups added (putty) - lower jaw and crown added to archer (putty) - archery bracer and shoulder-guard added (putty) to stabilize the weak left arm and bow, which tended to bend or twist - big and ragged new saddle-blanket (putty) added over the original small rectangular one. The original archer model: The finished model: In today's session, the Four Horsemen and an illusion-veiled clay golem (made to look like a devil) destroyed three of our five liches, and the other two plus my character (a high-level druid) were on the ropes, but finally we won out. The GM was also the DJ during the session, providing a solid soundtrack of metal and hardcore (Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Three Inches of Blood, Black Flag, et al.). Our "dead" liches' phylacteries were safely on board an airplane, though, so they'll reform their bodies and get back together in a few days. The Four Horsemen themselves may actually have been aspects of a single powerful lich -- the PCs' nemesis -- whose phylactery is unaccounted for.... Enjoy! Derek

Inspired by this version, I decided to paint my own rusty Golgoth. Enjoy! As always, c & c welcome!