Pip's Undead Legion

[Pip]

Hi all,

So as many of you know, GW pushed the buttons they installed in my head when I was 12 and got me to buy their shiny new Nagash figure, even though I don't have an undead army. He's nearly done - I'm hoping to finish him off tomorrow, and hopefully you can all see some cruddy pictures then.

While I don't have an undead army, I do have some undead figs mouldering in the attic, and this seems like a perfect new project now that the Lizardmen are oh-so-nearly done (just the Chameleon Skinks left to repaint). As always, my opportunities to paint are few and far between, so this'll be a slow burner, but hey why the hell not. Plus Nagash costs 1,000 points so that's half the army already done!

Of course I need to actually have a list to build towards, so here's my first draft:

LORDS
Nagash

HEROES
Tomb Prince, chariot, great weapon

CORE
7 Skeleton Chariots, full command
40 Zombies, standard bearer
6 Dire Wolves
6 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves

SPECIAL
3 Carrion

RARE
Casket
Heirotitan
Screaming Skull Catapult
Screaming Skull Catapult

TOTAL: 2,398

My general idea for the army is to have Khemrian stuff for Nagash's "personal guard", and make the rest of them look like they've been summoned fresh from the grave in the Old World. The zombies and Black Knights in the attic are already bashed together with Bretonnian bits, so that's my starting point.

In terms of play, the list is designed with a few key points in mind:

• Nagash is a big old target, so take things that either distract the opponent from shooting at him or can physically block cannonballs (chariot bus, heirotitan)
• Nagash summons units of minimum size 150pts, and can boost to 300 or 450 quite easily. It's wasteful to use that to summon chaff, so the army should start well-supplied with chaff units (wolves, carrion).
• Nagash only summons monsters or war machines on a 24+, and you don't want Nagash to go down a hole - bring your monsters and war machines at the start (casket, heirotitan, catapults).
• Nagash's summoning is what wins or loses you the game, so the list needs to provide Nagash with all possible assistance in the magic phase (casket, heirotitan)

You'll notice that all the bulletpoints begin with the word "Nagash".

This is a back-of-the-envelope first draft, and doesn't include some things I think it needs - vampires for march moves, more cheap rank and file (as again you don't want to be summoning zombies when you could use the same spell to summon hefty blocks of grave guard). Suggestions are welcome, just so long as they bear in mind that if I want to finish these guys before I'm 30 I probably need to keep the model count down!

Pictures of Nagash soon,
- Pip.

[cunningmatt]

Hey Pip,

Army looks fun and like the fluff idea of Khemri and the recently raised combined.

Looking forward to see the Nagash pics!

[Pip]

And he's done!






Apologies for the lousy phone pictures - he's not quite as yellow and blurry as that in real life. I'll see if I can get the chance to take some better ones in daylight.

[Angelus Mortifer]

Looks an impressive kit and very well done. Was he easy to put together?

[Pip]

Relatively easy when you followed the instruction pamphlet, but I'd have been lost wihout it. Never used to need to look at a manual to put these things together!

He's also a million miles away from the old poseable/customiseable philosophy... every joint locks together in a specific position, often with quite complicated contours on the join. Slightly changing the angle of his head, leaving off the backplate with the spare spinal columns and moving his sword into his right hand was about the sum total of conversion I could do without taking a saw to the model.

[underscore]

Yeah, I've found that, these days, if I want to do a bigger conversion I have to build the model 'as is', then start carving it out into chunks. It's a bit annoying, but I guess this is the flip-side of having these more elaborate plastics.

[Pip]

I don't particularly mind it on special characters like Nagash (there's only supposed to be one of him, after all). I did have a similar experience with the Bastiladon and Troglodon kits, though, which would get frustrating if I had multiple units.

One thing I'm thinking about is using an unridden Dread Abyssal (with magnets for when I want to use a Mortarch) as the Heirotitan, but I am a bit concerned that I'll have to mutilate the model to make it work.

[Pip]

Did an inventory today of the skeletons in the attic, and the police are on their way this is what I've got:

41 Skellies (spears)
78(!) Zombies, bashed together with Bretonnian men at arms.
2 Bret damsels, used as vampires (need a bath in Dettol... back from the days before I thinned my paints properly)
6 old monopose Dire Wolves (wolf rider bodies, metal heads)
6 Wraiths (mixture of 4th ed. and 5th/6th ed. metals)
2 banshees
7 of the skinny metal ghouls

So it looks like I'm set for summoning fodder on the skellies/zombies front. Going to need some interesting models to break up the monotony of repainting them, though.

[underscore]

That's when unit filler/mini-dioramas are your friend. That got me through many a Skaven Slave.

Not that I don't still have a ton of them to paint, of course...

[Pip]

Yep, already got some plans for fillers!

Am thinking:

• Hexwraiths riding through a wall/out of a tree (Headless Horseman style)
• Grave Guard coming out of a barrow
• Skeletons coming out of a mausoleum (Garden of Morr bits?)
• Zombies climbing out of a plague pit (use Corpse Cart parts, maybe have them clawing down some surprised Nurgle fellows)

More ideas welcome!

[underscore]

If you ever want to paint something different, having a bunch of skeletons crawling over and dragging down a larger foe could be fun - maybe a Demigryph or somesuch.

[Pip]

Hmm, yes, that could be fun. Maybe a witch hunter holed up on top of a mausoleum, shooting down at a sea of reaching skellies.

Some grave robbers being disturbed mid-robbery could also be fun. I wonder if anyone at the club has the running man from the Giant kit.

[Pip]

Placed a big order today - boxes on their way for carrion, some of the basic summoning fodder and unit fillers. Will show pics when they're ready.

[Pip]

So I spent a productive weekend fiddling with little bits of plastic, and I now have 11 Crypt Horrors Zombie Ogres and 15 Black Knights fully assembled.

Still to go on the assembly side:
1. Garden of Morr
2. Plastic Necromancer
3. 20 Zombies
4. 3 Vargheists
5. 15 Hexwraiths

I'm thinking I may be able to bash the necro, some bits from the Garden and some leftovers from Nagash together into a counts-as Casket. I'll see how good it looks before I decide.