(As seen in Tilea Campaign Part 9)
Hexwraiths
I didn’t realise how close to the Vampire Count 8th ed Warhammer Army book photos I had made these in terms of colours until I was done. I was wanting something ‘ethereal’ for with their flames, robes and barding, but wanted a contrast with my usual ‘cartoon style’ with the rest of the figures (bones and weapons). So, I did not do a complete black undercoat with cell shading over it as usual, instead I used a white undercoat and ‘washed’ paint on (enamel thinned with white spirit – a potent concoction indeed), using a mix of blue, metallic blue (which was 20+ years old, last used for 15mm ‘Traveller’ sci fi RP figures) and for the blue cloth, adding more yellow for the green flames. Then I black undercoated all the non-cloth and flame bits and did my usual, time consuming, cartoon technique.
The result (still unbased) …
Skeleton Spears
40 new skeletons. Well, I say 40, two are part of a 2×2 unit filler, and 12 were originally painted sometime in the late 80s I think, though it could have been the early 90s.
I messed about with cheap brush bristles as spear-shafts for a good half or so of them, as I am now convinced they are great for spears. If they bend, they don’t snap, and if all you’ve done is wash a bit of black over them to age them, there’s no paint to chip off. Well, not noticeably.
They’re all painted in enamel, because that’s what I’ve (nearly) always done, and that’s what the dozen old figures were painted in. I painted the original 12 with a black undercoat then just painted the bones on individually. The new ones I did a white undercoat, then risked a wash (that’s enamel thinned with thinners – a dodgy concoction I can tell you!) of brown, then picked out the bones as I had done decades before, hoping that the wash would make be more forgiving of mistakes.
The unit ranked 8 x 5.
The front rank. I got a bit arty (unlike my normal cartoon style) with the banner, going for a ‘faded old glory’ look, and I am pleased with the result. The idea for the design came from a brief search of real world Italian devices from the region that seemed the equivalent to the Tilean region these guys were summoned in.
The unit filler is a skeleton who has already dug most of one skeleton out of his grave and is now busy tugging at the revealed hand of a second new recruit!
BigSmallWorlds 