Hobby Update: Skeleton Regiments

Alright! I’ve actually made a ton of progress on my Undead! As mentioned before, this little side project had two main goals:

1. Figuring out how to do some basing for minis with stands (to help finish my Militia)
2. Get a nice little side army (which could be loaned out, or used for introductory or huge games)

One of my purchases for this project was a regimental box of Mantic Skeletons. The models have stands, and I could experiment with the basing, and then glue some already painted Games Workshop skeletons down to fill up the unit. I figured that would be a good way to ease into working with stands.

Step 2, and Step 1. You can see some of the hand-weapon sculpts here.

Step 1: Glue the assembled model to the base.

My bases are MDF bases from Ironheart Artisans. I've placed two orders with them now, and have been really happy with, well... everything. Speedy shipping, good prices and great quality. Haven't had a single one warp yet, and I've tried sloshing paint, paste and putty on them. If you are in need of bases... definitely check them out.

Step 2: Add some Milliput around the stand itself, and smooth it out. The aim is to create a slightly elevated area around it that works with and incorporates the existing stand, so that it looks like the model is just on a little tiny slope or hill or something.

Step 3: Add some Vallejo paste for some texture to the base. For this project, I decided to use the paste but paint it gray to create a rocky effect, and have the flat parts of the base be more dirt or mud.

Step 4: Prime! I went with a white primer for these, since that’s what I primed my GW Skeletons with.

...and we're up to Step 5 in this pic.

Step 5: Paint the base! Since everything needed to be painted up, I used some big brushes, and started with the base. Slopping around paint and not caring too much if anything got onto the model itself, as eventually, it would be painted over.

Step 6: Paint the mini! With the imprecise painting of the base done, I moved on to the model. I started with haphaardly applying the bone base color to the unit, and then working my way to the metals, leather straps, cloth, etc, finishing with the most precise parts last.

Step 7: Shading and washing the mini. I applied a hefty coat of brown wash to the minis, which got the bones to stand out a lot, and everything else looking pretty dirty.

This might be the end if every model had a stand. Since my models are all mixed up, Step 8 was gluing the other stand-less models onto the base. I used a plain, thin super glue picked up from the grocery store. After some futzing and a few fingers glued together accidentally, the units look like this:

The Regiment is pretty solid. I may add a shield for the standard bearer, and some varied browns to the skeleton feet to try and sell the muddy effect, but the unit is ready for the table.

The Troops are pretty good too. For better or for worse, the Games Workshop Skeletons are really hard to rank up (they are all leaning in weird directions), and I ended up with a few spares when I couldn't fit them in.

So there you have it. Some skeletons! Working with the stands was pretty easy actually, and this was a nice trial run.

Next up are four troops of Skeleton Archers, where I try to explore basing with stands in closer quarters, as most of those models have stands. Stay tuned!