Skeleton Archer Command

Switching gears back to my Tomb Kings for a minute– I've finished assembling and priming the archer units for my Tomb Kings army, including come converted command models:

 

In a previous post, I had discussed the assembly of the standard bearers, and I left off without finishing the icons at the top. The solution I came up with was to use the scorpion decoration from the Necrophinx kit. I did a bif sculpting to flesh out the claws, and hollowed out the center area enough to fit a skull. Then, after trimming away the legs, I mounted it on the banner top and sculpted new legs on the back.

 

I'm really happy with how these turned out.

 

 

For the musicians, I wanted to continue the scorpion motif. I was never a huge fan of the horns that come in the Tomb Kings skeleton regiments, but it struck me that the way the horn curved up over the model's shoulder was reminiscent of a scorpion's tail.

So, I decided to turn the horn into a stinger. The skeleton steed necks were an appropriate size and had a similar curve to the horn segments. I clipped them apart and replace the sections of horn with the vertebrae– I used three sections of neck for the back, one for the top, and a bit of the horse's tail for the mouthpiece.

 

 

The "bulge" of the stinger was made from the back of a horse skull, glued under the horn. The stinger itself was one of the spikes (or rather horns) left over from the Chaos Warrior banners that I used for the standard bearers. (The guy on the right is the unit champion; I used a metal collar from the old Khemri Blood Bowl team to give him a little more detail.)

 

 

Here is one of the finished champions. To have him pointing his sword, I used a sword arm from the Tomb Kings skeletons, cut up and drilled out with metal pins to create a new pose. He's got the hilt from one of my Skull Forge Scenics scorpion swords, and a blade that was cut from a piece of styrene.

 

 

I also sculpted a cowl over his head, similar to the ones I made for the regular archers.

 

 

The second champion is drawing his bow (which required way too much work to reposition the arms).

 

 

Both 15-man units have been mounted on painting sticks and sprayed, ready to paint. These are Skeleton Archers, and I have an idea for how I can use them as Skeleton Skirmishers– The archers are 5-points per model, and upgrading three models for command costs 15 points. Skirmishers are also 5 points each (once equipped with bows), and have no option for command models, so I plan to replace the three command models with regular skeletons emerging from the sand, and that will represent the Ambushers rule, which costs 15-points to add the the whole unit.

So, I will be able to field either 15-man unit as regular archers with command, or as ambushing skirmishing archers for the same point cost.

 

 

Before I start painting all these skeletons, however, I'm going to knock out the Necromantic Witch that I've been sitting on since last year. Her painting is already under way, and hopefully I will be able to finish her this week.

 

 

'Til next time!