Well, strictly speaking 54 days since my last blog post but they didn't make a zombie film called 54 days later and I'm being topical. Having come within a whisker of finishing my Necron army I ditched the whole thing and haven't played 40k this year. Both the Deathmarks and the Ghost Ark only need green bits and washes and its done. Necrons complete. Mission accomplished. Sadly the 40k muse has departed. Now I can only view the models as a normal person would i.e. small plastic toys which are incredibly time consuming and fiddly to paint so why would you bother?
I'm sure the desire will resurface in time and the plastic obsession hasn't gone away, it has been taken in a different direction. Like when you smoke dope all the time and its fine and dandy, but sometimes you've got to try a bong or a bud bomb, you know, for variety's sake and just hope it doesn't snowball into something unreasonable and ruin your life.
Which is what may have happened here. I am now the proud (and somewhat bemused) owner of more than 3000 points worth of Kings of War Undead Army. It was bought as new, mostly from Mantic at Mighty Ape but with a dash of GW thrown in for good measure. It all started when my kids gave me some Mantic zombies for Christmas (I had a vague idea for a D&D game with an undead theme) and I was really impressed with them.
Then I discovered that they cost $1.11 a pop (Undead Starter Army) and had a minor seizure. The brain fugue continued throughout the Christmas period. To make matters worse, the Kings of War rulebook came free with the box. An extremely clever piece of marketing. After thumbing through it a few times and coming to the realisation that I actually understood and could memorise most of the rules, I was hooked. I just kept ordering more and more models.
Then I bought the Uncharted Empires supplement which contains rules for nine more armies (more cleverness, cheekily catering for the Warhammer Fantasy Battle refugees). One of these armies is the "Night-Stalkers", a host of unreal, nightmarish creatures from another dimension. Mantic dont make any models for it (yet?) so many people are using Tyranids to represent the fiends. Ye Gods! Its like karma. I might actually finish all my Hormagaunts (which I've been painting for six years) and use them as Reapers!
First, however is the prospect of painting 270 Undead models which fills me with mild unease. Not the stark terror of, say 270 Termagants (you can paint them different colours! Gasp!) but I do wonder if I've inhaled more plastic crack than my body can tolerate. The first batch of zombies was very enjoyable and I'm pleased with the results but I haven't even finished assembling the army yet.
Currently busy making movement trays out of sprues and plasticard. I fashioned 2 Zombie Trolls from old GW Ogres (The Mantic ones are awesome btw and I own 3). My favourite necromancer is a converted witch elf and my Vampire Lord on undead dragon is a work in progress. I chopped up a whole Mortis Engine as part of GW's "Start Collecting! : Malignants" set which is being used for all sorts of supernatural goodness. In short, I'm as happy as pigs in shit.
These are awesome and such variety too. Do they take long to paint? I've had a hankering for this sort of deal from Mantic, who doesn't want a bucketload of minis for buttons. Unfortunatley I've a shedload of minis that cost me an arm and a leg preventing me from investing in any more.
ReplyDeleteBack when I first started the hobby and I used to have the Prince August miniature range poster on my wall as projected shopping list I was able to get a load of lead orcs from one company, about 50 for probably less than a tenner, they weren't that great but there was 50 of 'em!
Aah, Peter Beardsley always one of the best pictures for your sticker album. Thank goodness he could kick a ball cos he was never going to win any beauty contests ;)
Three layers and when in doubt throw a wash on! They took a while actually because I was deciding on a colour scheme and trying different methods out. The speed at which I paint the remaining 40 will tell. I very nearly got into 30k instead of this which would have no doubt broken the bank. At least you can do that with all the new stuff you've painted. Although, weren't pre heresy Dark Angels a different colour? I seem to remember painting mine black
DeletePut a ball in there and you've got the whole current Liverpool squad during set piece practice.
DeleteGood luck with the KoW. How do you find assembly of their models? I've heard they are a lot of work to clean up.
Carson T
The Zombies and Ghouls are high quality and I had no problems. I had to clean mold lines but I've never bought a model yet where that wasn't necessary. The Mummies are a bit ropey and made of a sort of hard plastic which makes clean up harder. Nevertheless, the starter set is fantastic value for money and directly responsible for my tentative steps into the fantasy wargaming genre.
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