Things have been quite busy around the house and as usual lots of projects and things happening. Getting tons done but “posting” is way down on the list! Having put a few chores out of the way along with quite a few commission “build and paint” job’s I finally have a few moments to pound out an update.
The SAGA Age of Magic Undead army has been my main focus as far as figures for myself and the subject of the previous post The Secret is out, an UnDead Warband where I promised to post up the waband as I completed various units.
There are several more boxes and “sprues” that didn’t make it into the original picture. They are just so cool!
After purchasing nearly “all the skeletons in the world” the first units were built from the Warlord Games skeletons produced for their fantasy game “Warlords of Erehwon”. Starting with these was a deliberate choice based on their look and style. These were the skeletons that I remembered from my youth and the movie “Jason and the Argonauts”. They were also fairly simple allowing me to develop a painting and basing style for my army before tackling more intricate and complicated figures. Those readers who are paying attention might notice that in the picture there are not only a box of 30 of these figures but directly below it another of 90 more figures! WTF? Bill you said a SAGA warband? That’s way more figures than you need! Yep well I just don’t know when to stop in fact there are about 200+ figures in the collection but I plan to have lots of force options as well as use this army for other games where a larger figure count is needed. (Thanks for the commission work gents, see what it bought me!)
I’ve painted all 30 from the first box as well as completed my warlord and started on my “Sacred Ground” terrain piece that will appear in future post. I may use them as warriors or perhaps “mindless” in SAGA will see. For now, here’s the 30 “skeletons”
I have about 100 more of these to build and paint! It goes fairly quickly and you can see with some simple cutting, bending, and swapping bits and pieces around no two are alike!
They are a bit fiddly during assembly and a bit delicate in handling but in my opinion some of the nicest and most fun to build “skeletons” out there! Add that to the fairly inexpensive cost of around $25 for 30 of them makes it even better.
As I said before “posing” them was just a hoot and allowed me to capture those cool shots I remember from the movies. Rey Harryhausen was a master at this posing or positioning in his stop animation work and I tried to recreate some of those looks! These two and the ones in the “gallery” below are a few of my favorites so far.
I remember as a lad seeing the skeletons clawing their way out of the ground and thinking that was the coolest! This pose I created is a tribute to that memory!
Building the dirt up around the “hole” helps the impression. This was originally a standing figure.
Painting was done by starting with a white primer base using ACLAD II primer in my air brush and then going with GW/Citadel paints which is a change for me as I mostly go with Vallejo paints. After the primer comes a wash of Citadel AGRAX Earthshade (its a brown wash) straight out of the bottle, then a heavy dry brush (not too dry) of Citadel USHANTI BONE, and a finial highlighting of Vallejo OFF WHITE. I did not age these guys weapons/shields down much as I liked the brighter look off setting the bones and figured “hey they were magically restored” Most of the “coming out of the ground” poses where custom made just using parts with a little cutting and bending. Enjoy, I did!
In “Jason and the Argonauts” the Skeletons fought and moved in a way that truly made them look like they were undead and not as coordinated as the living. This was partially due to the stop-motion process but also deliberate by Harryhausen to give them a character unlike the living.
Ends of the arms and legs are ball socket-ed to allow easy posing and the other joints can be easily bent with a slight cut. Heads are the same way.
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- I just love the dynamic poses possible with these figures!
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- Small changes in a figures pose like the bent knee on the rocks adds tremendous variety to the group.
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- This is one of the Greek style shields that comes with the set and I painted as such. For variety and to show possibly that the undead were from different time periods I also used other shields from the “bit” box.
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- Evident here are the “burn marks” where the life force has been sucked away to be used by the skeleton. Much like a Vampire sucks the blood or life force of his victims to live.
NEXT Post UP, a Warrior unit using Mantic Games Figures!
The Secret Warband is coming along nicely. I saw some interesting figs in the unpainted pile. Is that a Skeletal Giant? They look great Bill. Thanks for sharing.
Ahh, well maybe? Ok yep I could not resist! He’s not as big as I thought but I’ll fit him in somewhere!
Beautiful work as always Bill! That is and will be a beautiful force on the table. Loved your reasoning for the clean vibrant shields designs and overall look! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Kevin, I’m really enjoying doing this army, funny since when SAGA “Age of Magic” came out I said I would never build for it! Not that I’m really any type of an artist but the “reasoning” part of the process is very helpful in the building, painting, and giving continuity to a project, and used by many great artist. Whether its painting, music, or designing buildings many artist first imagine or work it out in their head first and then the rest is just the mechanics and techniques to bring it to life. Doing it this way allows mistakes to be in ones head or on paper so to speak, not on the actual project, improvements, changes, and modifications happen a head of time. I have many projects in various stages of completion in cabinets waiting for me to figure out some little detail I’m stuck on, not happy with, or need to work out. My career in the film biz taught me that, look at the job, count to ten, then pick the best course and then take on the job. I had many folks tell me one of the things they liked about working for me on a set was I never panicked, I took some time thought out a solution and then we did it once and usually faster than if we would have run out half cocked! that works well with nearly everything in life.
These look great and I enjoyed hearing the back story in your prior post! Like you Bill, I’m a lifetime historical gamer. Saga AoM sparked quite a lot of interest with our WH Fantasy guys. They are less keen on historical Saga so it was an opportunity to add players who otherwise wouldn’t play. I took the plunge and it turns out me and some of my historical buddies like it a lot! Looking forward to more of these skeletons.