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I got four of these guys in that same undead sampler pack I mentioned in my post about the Damned Company. It contained a few different parts, so there was room for a decent amount of customization (there's a ton more parts I didn't even use...into the bits box they go!). For the sake of variety, I ended up using some zombie heads (from the same sampler pack) on two of these guys. So...they can read as zombies or ghouls on the table. I go back and forth on whether or not I like the various spikes they have shoved through their bodies. Overall, I guess it looks okay. I do wish they were made of a *slightly* softer plastic...I'm super-worried about those fingers snapping off at some point. Anyway, I kept the paint jobs fairly basic on the clothing for easy identification during play ("blue guy," "brown guy," and so forth). Blue guy: I think the blue guy is my favorite. They knocked it out of the park when sculpting that particular head. Brown guy: I didn't realize until I'd started basecoating that this guy had half of his face ripped off right down to the bone. Another very cool head sculpt. Green guy: I struggled to get decent pictures of this guy. The camera doesn't seem to like that hunched over pose. Dark Gray guy: Nothing much to say about this guy. He's a guy...he's wearing dark gray...he really needs to see to that exposed brain in the back of his head. Comments and criticism welcomed.

If there's one thing I love painting, it's skeletons! I think these designs by Mantic Games are probably my favorite: they have a great deal of character, (for skeletons), the sculpted details are pretty crisp for the most part, and they offer a fair amount of customizability. These all came off of one sprue that I got in a sort of "undead sampler" pack. I know there's at least one other skeleton sprue out there...I may have to track it down at some point. I went for a very dark, desaturated look throughout the squad. I wanted them to look like they've just emerged from the muddy earth onto a rain-soaked battlefield (this also informed my decision to go heavy with the rust effects). Anyway, these guys really came to life as characters while I was painting them. I couldn't resist making up some little bios (to be honest, I got a little carried away). Enjoy! A formidable squad of mercenaries in life, the Damned Company's relentless love of carnage and war led them to develop many powerful enemies. One such enemy was a fiendish wizard skilled in the dark arts. This wizard placed a powerful curse on the Company...a curse which has condemned them to continue fighting other people's wars even centuries after the members of the Damned Company shuffled off this mortal coil. Now, the Company's skills can be purchased by any necromancer brave enough to call them forth. Anyone looking to "hire" the Damned Company should be aware that they still require payment for their services. But they no longer crave gold. The form of payment that the Damned Company now demands is truly enough to chill a man to his very soul... Captain Roderick: Commander Captain Roderick is the proud commander of the Damned Company. He possesses the three most important qualities of leadership: 1) a mind for military strategy, 2) the ability to inspire his troops, and 3) a helmet with a really fancy feather sticking out of it. Contessa: Contessa is the lone female member of the Damned Company. In life, she would often use her beauty to lure opponents into a false sense of security before she butchered them with her sickle. As a skeleton, she tends to skip right to the sickle violence. Marcus: Once a proud soldier serving a noble king, a series of misfortunes and bad decisions led Marcus to the less-illustrious life of fighting in a mercenary band. He resented his role in the Damned Company in life...being stuck with them for an eternity in death hasn't done much to improve his outlook. Louis: Easily the most blood-thirsty member of the Damned Company, Louis is always ready to enthusiastically skewer opponents with his spear. It's usually best to just point him toward the enemy and let him do what he does best. Christoph: Nicknamed "The Screaming Star" in life, Christoph is certainly a fearsome fighter who has earned his role as the Company's second-in-command. However, his fighting prowess is equalled by his ambition and tendency toward treachery. Christoph is always on the lookout for an opportunity to wrestle away command of the Damned Company for himself. Howard: Howard is the jokester of the group...always pushing the boundaries of humor. Unfortunately for him, his "axe in the head" routine was never as much of a hit with his fellow mercenaries as he thought it would be. George: George's preference for solitude led to many nights of guard duty in life. His alleged preference for sleeping while on guard duty probably led to many of the Damned Company becoming skeletons earlier than planned. Change is often slow to come, however. Even in death, George still pulls more than his fair share of guard duty. Stanley: Stanley is a capable soldier with the annoying habit of shouting "hammer time" after each vanquished opponent. In life, he also had an odd preference for wearing extremely oversized pants. No one understood it then, and no one understands it now. Karl: Karl is the lumbering powerhouse of the group - always willing to confidently wade head-first into battle. He was also the first member of the Company to actually be killed in battle. There's probably some sort of lesson to be learned from that... Horace: Despite being well-liked by the rest of the group, Horace is often regarded as the forgotten member of the Damned Company (on the rare occasions when anyone bothers to regard him at all). Sandoval: Sandoval is an accomplished soldier. However, he is also chronically late. Whenever the Damned Company is called forth from the depths of hell, it's not uncommon for Sandoval to be absent at first. No worries, though...he always shows up eventually (usually at the most opportune time). Lobo: In life, Lobo served as the team's scout and mascot. He has much the same role in death. But, for obvious reasons, he's now less-enthusiastic about chewing on bones.

Hi Everyone, I'm new here, been an off and on lurker over the years, and wanted to share some pictures most recently finished models. Before I began, I was looking for ideas on how to decorate the models and a lot of the pictures that I found of these models I didn't think did them justice. So I looked at other treemen models. What I liked the most was using foliage and turf material to create "real" foliage instead of going with just painted metal. I really enjoyed working on the models, it was a lot of firsts for me. The biggest one being water, I have seen a lot of videos about making water scenes and what not. Seeing the model with cattails on it I had to have it coming out of the water. I tried going for a wet dripping algae look. For a first attempt I think it did turned out pretty good. As far as the models go, I wasn't really thrilled with the appearance of the metal vines. So I created my own vines as well, which is another first. Quite fun but tedious and pleased with the look. Cattails were made from parts of floral wheat and tacky glue. Adding foliage to miniatures in general is a first for me as well, all the foliage was self made with colored sawdust and furniture foam. The only thing not made was static grass. The water is Woodland Scenics Realistic Water and their Water Effects. I liked how easy it was and relatively mess free compared to the typical 2 part epoxy that I've seen. After doing these minis I thought of something I am going to attempt on my other 6. I'm going to ditch the metal arms entirely and use floral wire as a support so I can then pose the vines however I want. Lastly, these are going to be a part of my Elven Army and perhaps a start of a Forces of Nature Army for Kings Of War. So these aren't my first models. Just the ones I'm most satisfied with. If you have any suggestions, critiques, or questions let me know.

I've had this cthulhish model from Fenryll Miniatures for ages. I used to call it Kentucky Fried Cthulhu and tried to paint it 3 or 5 times and somehow never liked the effect. Paints on it probably weigh more than the miniature itself. It also lost one foot somewhere along the way. I decided to recycle it for my new project, Swampstalkers, which is my army for the Kings of War game. One evening for painting, one for the base and here it is.

So, with the fact that the kickstarter thread will eventually get closed, I'm starting this thread to bring the discussion over here. Current topics of discussion: 1. How awesome is this freaking giant?! 2. Holy crap these resins are NIIIIICE! 3. What the heck is up with the different stats on the Empire of Dust and regular Undead skeletons even though they have the same point cost?

Here is another Mantic mini. This one a Necromancer. I’ll use him someday probably as a villain, but would love to use him as a PC if I get the chance. BTW, my 7-year old came up with the color scheme. Here is my color sketch I made while she was describing the colors.

Here is High Priest Borosos from Mantic’s Kings of War game. He will serve as my cleric in our current 1st ed. D&D game.

Hey fellow nerds! So I've got a few of the new Nightstalker minis from Mantic games, and I love 'em, for the most part, but would also love to add some diversity and fun to the mix. They're all pretty weird, distinctive minis, so I'm not sure what Reaper Minis might have to mix in (and how I'd even begin to search for something...), so I thought I'd turn to the collective knowledge base for help! Here's what the Mantic Nightstalker starter warband looks like: I love the shadow-hounds (along the bottom of the pic), but they're the same pose. Does Reaper have anything like 'em? I'm not a huge fan of the scarecrow guys (called, wouldn't ya know it, "scarecrows") with the goofy hats. They're approximately humanoid sized. Does Reaper have any creepy "slender men" who look very spooky and otherworldly, and might fit in as scarecrows without goofy hats? I love the Reapers (the eyeless humanoid sized alien things with spike-arms growing out of their backs - not to be confused with Reaper Minis!), and there's a "boss" version called a Reaper Souldrinker. Mantic has thus far just painted up a Reaper differently to use as a Souldrinker. Does Reaper have anything creepy to serve as a boss-man Reaper? I have a few Tyranid bits (claws and such from Games Workshop) that I could use to make him all fancy. What might you recommend? The Butchers are pretty rad (The two big, three-armed guys at the top there). Not sure I need another. Does Reaper Minis have anything similar? And I'm not super in love with the horrors (there are two in the picture, big mouths with purple smoke/energy surrounding them, directly above the Shadow-Hounds). What sort of ghost/ horror/ weirdness might Reaper Minis have? And I'm also not a huge fan of the Phantom (the eyeless purple ghost-y thing; one is next to a horror, one is at the top of the photo, between the two butchers). Any good, creepy ghosts? Games Workshop has a lot of new, neat ghost type figures, but I thought I'd try here first. Any recommendations? Not shown are spectres (fire-bolt spitting ghosts - the Mantic figure is pretty meh), needlefangs (40mm based swarms of unsubtantial teeth, eyes, and nastiness. I don't have this figure, I don't think it's out yet, but it looks rad!). I like the mindscreetch (a big, weird looking floating brain), a Shade (creepy looking mouth-eyes nasty. Looks cool!), a banshee (odd female-ish model with a mouth where the head should be. Not sure I like it...) Anyway, anyone else playing around with these figures? What do you think? What are you swapping in for which figures? Thanks!

The gold armor tone is a bit flat on this guy. I should have used a slightly yellower shade for the midtone I think. Oh well. He’lol do for my purposes. Also, I thought the shield would tilt tilt the other way when attached to his arm, so the shading is opposite what i think it should be.

This mini is by Mantic for the Kings of War game, which I think is defunct, and so I got some of them cheap. I like him him a lot. Can’t wait to inflict my D&D players with an undead guy...who summons undead guys. (Wash, rinse, repeat)

Recently, I had a mad idea to make a travel set for the mass fantasy battle game Kings of War. I could take it to my brother's so I can play it with my nephews and nieces, bring it to cons without needing to rent a U-haul, even take it to the beach. The general idea is to use 10mm figures instead of 28mm and scale everything accordingly. Since Kings of War uses unit bases with no figure removal I can fix these guys onto their bases and add some scenery, etc. After looking into what was available in 10mm I decided to start with two Lord of the Rings inspired armies, dwarves and orcs, based on the 10mm figures from Copplestone Castings with some figures from other companies to fill in any gaps. Anyway, I ordered a bunch of stuff (it's hard to say no when people are selling packs of 28 minis for just few dollars) and since they have a branch or at least distribution here in the US, the first to arrive were some dwarves from Eureka. They came before I was expecting them and I got all excited and gave them a quick bath, forgetting to clean up flash, etc. first. Yep, these guys are pretty small. The white bit of polystyrene is a 80mm wide horde base that should nominally hold 40 dwarves but my plan is to have the non-orcs with quite a bit less than that and if possible have more than 40 orcs on such a base. That's to give more of the feel of Tolkien's battles where the good guy are normally vastly outnumbered. More later.

I normally wouldn't buy from Privateer Press as the minis are just too pricey, but i found these second hand at Half Price Books for under $8. Anyway, they make a fine troop of Wraiths for my Undead Kings of War army, and painted up really quickly. Tried out some fog effect too (shredded cotton ball). Took pictures with a two different light setups as I'm trying to figure out my wife's camera phone (mine is junk), I liked 'em both so you get to see 'em both.

A kickstarter exclusive from the Kings of War 2 KS. I painted this mini for the Reaper forums bimonthly resolutionary painting challenge first bonus challenge, which is simply to paint a mini in a jumping/springing pose. This is a rendition of Ronnie Renton the owner/ leader/ director of Mantic Games as Ronaldo the Bard. And something of an in-joke at Mantic it would seem. I need to complain a bit about Mantic's metal alloy. It is too soft. This mini snapped in two different places. One was the feather in the cap, which I had to glue back slightly differently than it originally was; and the other was the right foot, which snapped clean off the first time I tried to dry fit the mini in a slotted base. Which explains why the ankle is a bit lumpy now. Add to this that the miniscule truscale Mantic uses makes most details really small...argh. It does look much better IRL when not massively magnified. And I used Blackadder the First's "Earl of Doncaster" outfit as an inspiration. I did paint the britches in colour and not in black, to give the mini more of a festive air. Ronaldo the Bard Kings of War 2 kickstarter exclusive mini Mantic Games Metal 30mm base

A couple of multibases for Kings of War (one horde and one troop), including a more practical use for big K (he's just too big for wargaming with). Lots of shots. I had originally only intended to paint up the horde, but found I was running out of room on the base for the original number of minis I wanted to paint, so I added a few more and made the troop to go with it. Thanks for looking!

So I'm getting ready to do some Sisters of Averlorn from GW, they're also known as the maiden guard. I've got about 20 to do and need to get completed by 25 AUG 16. They're going to go with some other 10 guys I've got done into a multi-base unit for Kings of War. They're supposed to be scouts coming from the forest. I thought since I was in a time crunch, it might be fun to document the process for others if they ever decide to do something like this. So my first step was to remove all the parts from the sprues and get rid of all the mold lines and burrs. Each mini consists of Head, Chest, Cloak, Bow, Feet and one accessory - so 120 desprued and cleaned up pieces (about three hours). Since I wasn't putting the models together at this point (easier to paint each piece separately) I needed to find some way to prime them. My Mother in law likes to send fresh fruit baskets where the fruit is already cut and diced. Each piece is skewered on a plastic kebob (for lack of a better word). So with a small piece of blu-tack, a kebob and some spare pieces of foam I was able to produce this (another hour); I primed all the pieces and was able to put the base color on 80 pieces (minus heads and accessories). It took about six hours to get that portion done. But here's where the base colors are at; Hopefully I'll be able to do the base colors on the faces tonight/tomorrow and I'll take some closer shots so the colors are visible. Any comments or questions appreciated. Loth

Hi, While digging through my pile of Bones, I got inspired by the Warg model (by Jason Wiebe) and decided to integrate this as part of my "in-progress" Forces of Nature Army for Kings of War. I chose to make the Warg as a "wild companion" for my druid. The Warg was almost entirely painted using washes and dry-brush (letting the wonderful sculpt do all the hard work). The druid is a metal mini from Mantic. While still being technically a 28mm mini, it is still a lot smaller than Reaper's heroic scale. I went a bit crazy on on the OSL, but this was a poor attempt at hiding/distracting the very sloppy paint job on her face... But it turns out that the OSL kinda fit with my Earth Elemental in this army too. The druid and its wild companion: With the elemental:

So I'm trying to finally get my undead army built and hopefully primed. I've got in the realm of 200 miniatures to assemble, and it's my first time really dealing with multi-part minis since up until now 99.5% of my collection has been Bones. Some of them I've already assembled over the last week, some of them I partially assembled about a month or so ago, but most of them are still on their sprues. It's going to be a real experience for me. I'm already running into issues with storage for the assembled ones. The plastic doesn't seem to take well to being thrown in a box. Some of the minis have suffered damage that way. Anyone have any advice on how to store and transport them in a relately cheap manner? *sigh* My phone camera didn't auto-orient the pictures, so they're all upside down...

Another batch of Undead, this time from Mantic's "Kings of War" line, though intended to hit the mean streets of Frostgrave (heck, they even market them as such in cross-promotions) The horde: The elites (Mummy Warriors, though great Barrow Dweller/Armored Skeleton types) The schlubs:

A quickie batch of Mantic "Kings of War" Salamanders, done up as cave-dwelling Troglodyte types. Had an issue with some fuzzy primer with these games...curse you, southern Virginia. Thought I fixed it, but the photos betray it...

Hi, Reaper! Haven't contributed in a long while, which I apologise for. Last year, I purchased a box of Mantic skellies and never really did anything with them after assembling them. Recently, I decided to start playing Kings of War, and found these beautiful models languishing in one of my bits boxes. I've also acquired a box of Mantic's werewolves, which seemed like they could be fun to paint up. I also have the GW Start Collecting! Skeleton Horde coming later this May, which should be fun. So, here are some pictures! I added a bit from the Empire State Troops kit for the leader's crown. I also attempted some very basic freehand on the shields, which I will add some detail to when I finish the unit. This unit was painted mainly with washes, which was fun. One of the werewolves. This is the first shade layer, which was a mix of Panzer Aces Shadows Flesh and Flesh Base.

Over the past 6 months I've been enjoying Kings of War so much that I've started to put together multi-based units for it. I have parts of lots of different armies in various states, but the main one I've concentrated on has been Undead. Though many of my minis are still based singly for versatility, I wanted to drop my all multi-based undead into a single thread. First up was a Mantic Balefire Catapult. I really should rebase to avoid arc of sight arguments, but I like the fact that the crew can sit on the same base as the machine and it has no in game effect one way or the other. Next, I took advantage of KoW's loose rules about number of minis in a base to field a troop of skeleton archers (normally 10 minis) with just 7 minis (helps field bigger armies faster). Looks like two Reaper Bones skellies made it in. I like my Undead to have a somewhat varied look across units, as I imagine that the troops are often pulled from a mixture of armies, so unit cohesion isn't always a concern. Next up is a troop of zombies. A troop of zombies isn't actually a thing in KoW, the smallest unit available is a regiment. The reason I made a troop is for versatility later, as I intend to not only have regiments (20, 5x4) and hordes (40, 10x4), but also Legions (60, 6x10), so I'll need smaller bases to match with my regiment bases to make into legions (two regiment bases and two troops to a Legion). Big Fred in the back is a Bones II mini. I had a hard time getting good pics of my ghouls, probably should've changed out the backdrop. These were one of the first groups that got a lot of airbrush love, using two blue variations for some base-coat directional lighting quickly (Zenithal airbrushing I think is the technique)? It sped things up quite a bit, and I'd try variations on the technique again for sure. A Reaper Bones Ghast makes an appearance, as well as a bat swarm to help fill some space. What Undead rabble would be complete without a metric butt-ton of skeletons? These guys double as skeletons or revenants. I like the base a lot, and though I wish it was more versatile (it counts as a horde of 40), I definitely intend to make more bases this size soon of various units. Older Reaper metals are in there, as well as a big bad from Bones II (the Skeletor-looking guy). Mummies were a more recent addition to my army, I like them and they definitely performed better than I thought, so I might be making another base of these soon. Mostly Bones I guys here, but a few Mantic as well. This next unit was fun, but I wish I had planned the base a bit better, putting at least a second flight stand in, but by the time I did the first the back rank was already filled in, and I didn't want a flight stand in front. Oh well, that just means I have to make another base of these guys! An older Reaper metal anchors the Wraith team in the rear. Thanks for looking!

Continuing my dump of recent photos related to Kings of War, here's stuff that didn't really go into yesterdays thread (undead multi-bases). Let's start with some undead that aren't multibased. I used the B2 Barrow Wardens as Wights: A bit plain, but they are getting the job done until the new official larger models come out. No good KoW Undead army is complete without a Cursed Pharoah with Wings of Honeymaze, so here's mine: As for non-Undead, I occasionally paint some orcs as my usual opponents don't paint, and I like to have forces with paint on them opposing me sometimes: Dead elf laying near the leader: I'm now working in Ratkin jobs occasionally, too. I intend to run them as a second army. The Skaven were my first love in WHFBv4. Vermintide: Multibasing regiments of 2 large infantry is weird. So I included some filler for my Brutes: "Death Engine". Pretty happy with this compared to the memory of my original one, which turned out very grey and dusty looking: And, apparently a "must-take" unit for Ratkin players, the Daemonspawn/Verminlord. Again, this turned out a lot better than the slightly orange one I remember having painted 20 some odd years ago: Thanks for looking!

Hi, After a bit of a painting break, I resumed my effort in getting my Forces of Natures army for Kings of War painted. I present here the Naiads Heartpiercers. This is a small unit of armour-clad, harpoon-gun-toting, water creatures. The paint job is a typical table-top army quality, but I did spend a bit more time on making the base more interesting to fit with the rest of my Forces of Nature Army. Also, I found that the name "Heartpiercer" fits pretty well with the whole Valentines things going on today. So it is a good day to post those: C&C always appreciated

Hi, I'm continuing to paint my "Forces of Nature" army for Kings of War. Here is the Greater Earth Elemental. The sculpt was OK, but I found it to be too "Rock-ish". (I want an Earth Elemental, not a Stone Golem). So I sprinkled a bit of "dirt flock" to make it look more natural and earthy. I let you judge if you think it worked. For the color scheme, I kept it pretty light as i want it to look more good than evil... (though the rule books states "Forces of Nature" are Neutral...) I also spent some time modeling the base (which I don't usually do for my armies), to keep with the theme of my army (and hopefully please Ub3r). ... And of course, it is only when taking the picture that you realize there is a massive mould line across the face... C&C appreciated.

Hi all, I started building up a new army for Kings of War: "The Forces of Nature" (new race introduced in 2nd edition). The first unit I painted is the "Forest Shamblers". Those are ogre-sized, magically bounded constructs of tree/wood, stone, mud and vegetation (...according to Mantic's description... which I guess is a way to explain that they look treeman-ish, but also a bit like natural golems). I decided to use the advantage of KoW rules that don't consider individual models, but units as a whole, and put them up on a scenic base. I also added a few animals here and there to make it more interesting (you may recognize a Reaper bird familiar, otter, frog and seagull). I'm happy with the result overall. The drawback is that it was slower than my regular "painted army quality" speed, mainly due to the base ; and I'm not sure how resilient this will be on the tabletop (but I can't say that I play too much anyways... so that shouldn't matter). C&C welcome.