Nagash: Supreme Lord of the Undead

Further to my post last week about my Tomb Kings army, I thought that this guy deserved a post of his very own. That's right, it's Nagash, the Supreme Lord of the Undead! I was very lucky to be given this classic metal model by a friend and wasted no time (well okay, a few months) stripping off the old paint and getting him ready for the battlefield once more.

Menacing or goofy, you decide

I grew up with this model leering at me from the pages of White Dwarf and the old Fantasy rulebook. Over the years he's been much maligned by the online community and topped the "worst model ever" list several times. Despite all of that, I find him rather charming.

He would have made an imposing figure back in the day

Rather than mimic the classic colour scheme I decided to paint him in a similar way to the rest of my tomb kings. I always enjoyed seeing him ranked up inside a unit of skeletons, so it was important to me that I could pull this off. I was a bit worried that he might end up looking drab with all the bone, khaki, and brass, so I added a few spots of green to give him a bit of colour.

I've yet to try him out on the battlefield as we don't generally use special characters in our games. However in this case I'm sure we'll make an exception. He's a monstrous prospect in 5th edition, with all sorts of special rules and a wizard level of 5. He also costs nearly 800 points by himself - that's a lot of power packed into a 40mm square base!

The scourge of the Old World

 

Warhammer Fantasy - Classic High Elves

Something different today with a few classic plastic miniatures. I grew up playing fantasy battles in Warhammer 5th edition, so these high elves are highly nostalgic for me. I have painted a few High elf models previously from the Island of Blood set, and although the models are nice, I found them very time consuming to paint.

With that in mind I decided to try batch painting the old monopose plastic archers, to see if I could get a good, efficient result.

Classic colours, blue and white

With the use of a few contrast paints, I was able to turn these around in a reasonable time frame. I was surprised how well the old plastics have held up. Some of the features are a little large, but overall they're still good models. It's great to have a finished unit which looks as though it might have graced the battlefield back in the day.

I then turned my attention to some of the plastic spearmen. If anything I'd say these are even better than the archers in terms of model quality. The features seem a little finer and they have quite a lot of sculpted detail.

The static pose is quite nice for High Elves too.

I was lucky enough to be given a collection of metal High Elf models which contained enough for a full command group for this unit. I later learned that the champion pictured above is actually an old High Elf Lord model, so he could lead the army if needed. However I'm determined to add a mounted general at some point.

The unit reached 15 models in all with a full command. However I don't seem to have taken a photo of them, so you'll just have to make do with these 8.

Just imagine there's 7 more of them

 

Warhammer Fantasy Battles: Tomb Kings

Continuing with some of the projects I've been working on. I discovered that an army list for Tomb Kings was written for 5th edition fantasy in a copy of White Dwarf. After hunting it down I decided to start an army.

I've used a mix of models throughout, but I think they've turned out quite cohesive and the army looks nice as a whole. To start with, here's some classic GW skeletons from the old vampire counts range which were supplied with some decidedly Khemri looking metal parts for the banner and musician.

Retro, but still good models

I was very lucky to be given these by a friend who was getting rid of their old fantasy models. Some of the skeletons had suffered a bit over the years, but generally they weren't too difficult to rebuild.

The banner actually looks a bit 40k

I went for a turquoise colour on the shields in an effort to make them look more like Khemri skeletons and less like Vampire counts.

Next up is a classic screaming skull catapult. This is original metal, although the crew were sourced from separate sources. It's a wonderfully goofy model and I'm very pleased to have it in the army.

Nothing better than classic undead

Then we've got some tomb kings horsemen. I think these were originally released for 6th edition fantasy. They're basically the original skeleton steeds with some newer riders added and the iconic Tomb Kings shields. To me these seem very authentic and go a long way to making the army look correct.

Even got the command group

After painting these I noticed I had done the base rims in the wrong colour, so had to go back and redo them.

I didn't bother to take another photo though

Next up is the Tomb King himself. In the 5th edition list the Tomb King always comes with a chariot and the whole thing has a single stat line. I guess this was an attempt to simplify an army that would field a large amount of chariots. At first I didn't like this, but it actually seems to work well on the tabletop, so I've changed my mind since.

Behold the glory of Khemri

I sourced this model from TT Combat as part of their Maxmini range. It's a great little kit that required some clean up, but I'm happy with the end result.

The core of the army is made from skeletons which I bought from Warlord Games. They're very cheap and easy to paint which was very appealing when large units are the order of the day. The construction method on this kit is a little unusual, but once you get it down they're fairly straightforward.

Skeletons with spears

The boxed set also came with a Liche model who I've painted up to add some much needed magical support to the army. I've found that the Khemri list struggles to fit as many magic users as the Vampire Counts because of the general. So adding additional wizards is a must.

Leading from the front.

The Warlord games kit comes with no options for command models, so these were made from a variety of spares I had leftover from other kits.

Skeletons with swords

Then I added another chariot because the army desperately needs them. This was a rebuild of another of the original Tomb Kings kits. The crewman was replaced with one of the Warlord models as were the javelins.

Ride!

I'm quite pleased with the pose I managed on this chap. I think it adds some dynamism to the model.

Replaced the bow as well.

Finally, here's another shot of some of the skeletons led by a classic mummy sourced from Maxmini. I really like these guys and I think they are very similar to the old metal mummies from the classic undead range.

The banner was stolen from a space marine.