Skeleton Command and Armies on Parade

Well, it turns out that the shop is holding its Armies on Parade event on September 28, not in mid-to-late October as I had thought. So, I've got some choices to make...

 

 

My plan was to paint 65 models in 30 days, which set the pace at just over two models per day, or ~15 per week. Perfectly doable. I started off the first week by priming the shields and Horse Archers.

 

 

I spent an evening painting the red clothing on one strip of Skeleton Archers. These took much longer than I expected, but not so long that I couldn't finish three strips of five in a week.

 

 

To change things up, I worked on the shields, and finished the batch. That's when I discovered that Armies on Parade was in September (not October), which threw all of my plans out the window...

 

 

Even if I could finish painting everything three days ahead of schedule, I would not have time to put together any kind of display board, or even movement trays for my models. I'd either have to enter the "Individual" category with just an army and no display board, or enter my Age of Sigmar Soulblight Gravelords:

 

 

They haven't really seen the light of day outside of this blog, and I could whip up a display board with my existing terrain. So. I think that's the new plan.

Skeleton Command

I'm still going to try to get as much of my Tomb Kings painted as possible this month, but I can slow the pace a bit. For the rest of this week, I worked on the command models for my Skeleton Warriors regiment.

To make the unit's champion stand out more, I re-positioned his legs with one foot up on a bit of ruins. I separated the leg and pinned the parts back together. I used one of the plastic ties from a Skeleton Horseman spear to hide the join a little, and then used putty to fill in the gaps and add a kneecap.

 

 

I stood him on a piece of Skull Forge Scenics small ruined obelisk, and gave him a head from a Khemrian Warsphinx crewman.

 

 

I gave the musician a horn from the Tomb Guard regiment, and added the bit of parchment from the Tomb Guard banner. That kit is great, by the way– It's a 20-man unit and it includes parts for four musicians, four banners, and a few spare heads and weapons that can be used for other conversions throughout the army.

 

 

The command group is shaping up nicely:

 

 

For the banner, I played around with the various icons in my parts box to find something that evoked the banners from my Warmaster army.

 

 

I settled on the cow skull from the 6th Edition Orc warrior regiment, and added a Tomb Guard banner on top so it would look more "Tomb-King-y." (Although, I wish I had checked that Warmaster image before I cut the horns off. Whoops!)

 

 

In the end, I wasn't entirely satisfied with it, and I found the large skull icon in the Necrolith Bone Dragon kit. It was perfect for the "Skull Brigade" banner top, and it even echoed the shields with the brass arch over the skull. I love it when the perfect bit just falls into your lap!

 

 

The Tomb Kings will have to wait for next year's Armies on Parade, by which time I can have a full 2000 points.

'Til next time!