Diggin' Up Bones Mining for Lead-Undead Part 1

"I'm diggin' up bones, I'm diggin' up bones, exhuming things that's better left alone." While I'm not a country music fan I thought these lines from Randy Travis were an appropriate intro to this post.  After the green fellows my next love is the shambling horrors of the Old World, the Undead.  They are probably my second most complete force with paint.  I'm sure my fascination with skulls, skeletons, and undead probably began with the great Ray Harryhausen’s 1963 stop motion classic Jason and the Argonauts.  This pre-dates me by a couple of years but still holds up as a great movie to this day.

Harryhausen considered it his best stop motion work and I would have to agree!  I must have watched the fight scene where Jason takes on the skeletons dozens of times on Dr. Creep's Saturday morning movie re-run show Shock Theater.
 

For those uninitiated, Shock Theater was a Dayton Ohio area TV show that played horror, monster, and sci fi movie reruns on Saturday mornings/early afternoons from 1972-1985.

It exposed me to the greats like Jason and the Argonauts, all the Godzilla movies, Boris Karloff's Frankenstein and Mummy, Lon Chaney Jr's Wolf-Man, Bela Lugosi's Dracula and probably my preferred version Christopher Lee's Dracula.

Harryhausen and Lee started it and then D&D came along with incredible illustrations such as Russ Nicholson's great undead illustrations in books like the Fiend Folio which further pushing me to these wonderful animated un-living creations.

Then the supporting miniatures followed and I stumbled upon Citadel’s great Fantasy Tribe series.  Some of my first purchases were the incredible pre-slotta base miniatures of the fantastic Fantasy Tribe Skeletons (FTS) series by Citadel.

Not my best painting, if memory serves me correctly I did these as a wee lad in my pre-teens in the late 70's!  I was without inks so the results are less than stunning.

One very interesting thing after getting this old FTS figures out was the noticeable size/scale difference.  This is one of the plastic skeletons from the Oldhammer era for comparison.

The FTS skeletons are probably more true to a 25 mm scale than the plastics.  They now appear very undersized to me when you get them out with current figures.  One of the restrictive factors of the undead was the sheer numbers of figures that the army required.  This was resolved with the release of the now historic Skeleton Horde boxed set and the Skeleton Army boxed set.  More on that in the next post along with some painted forces.

WIP Quick Paint Update

Quick WIP photos of some recent painting.  First up is the Skragg c23 ogre miniature. Orlygg had a post about plate mail where he lamented about its rather boring qualities.  It inspired me to try something different.  I’ve been bitten by a battleship grey bug as of late.  Not sure why, maybe it was that grey Hellcat Dodge Challenger I drooled over the last time I got an oil change on my Jeep.  Whatever the reason I saw this as an opportunity to use the color and try a different approach to the plate mail on this guy.  The easy path would have been to just drybrush some metallic paints on him when he was primed up in black.  Here is where I’m at so far.

Not too bad as I avoid breaking my arm while patting myself on the back!  Still have some metal work to do and a few odd detail items.

Next up is an old Rogue Trader era Inquisitor in power armor.  I have no idea why I bought this figure, maybe I was sleep shopping on eBay.  I figured I had him might as well put paint to it and here are the results.

Nothing fancy just a clean paint scheme.

Mining for Lead-Orc and Goblin Support

Well I am embarrassed to say that I totally forgot to post a few of my wonderful Orc and Goblin horde units.  First up are the acid barfing, regenerating trolls!

These are Marauder trolls from the MM 40 Line.

Two of them still need basing which could be a challenge since I'm not sure that I still have the product I used on the other 4.

Next up some of the greatest figures that Citadel has ever produced in my most humble opinion, the C23 series of Ogres by Jes Goodwin.

These 3 stragglers are recent acquisitions and still need a little work.

This is the complete set of C23 minitures, slowly but surley I'll get them all!

Lastly the excellent Marauder Miniatures Giant with some minor modifications, I wasn't a fan of the frilly shoulder ruffles.

I removed them, added some greenstuff for sleeves and raised the tree swinging arm up a bit to look like he is ready to deliver a blow.  Sorry for the poor picture quality, I'm working on a light box for the future.

Confessions of a Leadly Sinner

Orlygg’s recent post of the  Leadly Sins of figure collecting sent me down the path of reflection.  Thanks Orlygg!  It was a brilliant post as well as unsettling since I was guilty of many.  As a good Catholic boy, I feel compelled to confess, forgive me Father Orlygg for I have sinned!  Let the beatings begin!

1. Sharing “Look what I have got” bragging posts

Yes, guilty as charged!  But I confess to only a misdemeanor not pre-mediated bragging.  I’ve had several posts, mainly my “Used Bookstore Goodness” where I have stumbled upon some hidden gem or lost treasure from my youth.  I haven’t intended to brag so much but more to say “hey look what I have found and oh by the way you can do it too!”  I have also posted the eBay win or two that were reasonable in price to point out that there are actually reasonable people who aren’t totally deluded when it comes to pricing mins.  What’s reasonable penance, a couple of “Hail Jes Goodwin’s?”

2. Photographing masses of unpainted lead

Yes he says shamefully lowering his head, refusing to make eye contact.  So I have done this a couple of times, mainly with the arrival of a new Kickstarter pledge or eBay win.  Why you ask, simple.  I just haven’t built up a rhythm to my painting so I don’t have any painted results. I go a couple of days mad at it then weeks pass before I pick up the brush again.  Further complicating matters is that my paint inventory is woefully old and out of date.  To be honest I need to invest in a large quantity of paints and inks.  It is all too convenient an excuse to say “oh I’d like to paint that Titillating Pink, oops that pots all dried up guess I’ll have to wait until I get a new one...” and set the figure aside and it languishes for months before I get around to buying new paint.  This sin is totally on me and with this confession hopefully I can get back into a steady paint schedule.

 

3. Being too absorbed in my own collecting

I think I can plead innocent to this one.  Now I don’t know that this is a conscious effort or a result of my totally ADD approach to collecting.  To many times I have been in the middle of a project, saw something shinny and new to me and jumped into it.  This is another contributor to sin #2 since I jump from project to project without completing one.  Often times just looking at someone else’s collection inspires me to either copy it or attempt something similar.  Great, dodged a few acts of contrition there!

4. Buying up hordes of figures and then storing them away

Damn, must admit to another one!  Yes, again due to my lack of painting I have a few boxes of lead that have been shoved away for that magical time of someday as in “Oh I’ll get to that project someday in the future.”  I mentioned to Orlygg earlier that I visited England in 89 and purchased a load of lead, and I admit without pride that some of it is still unpainted to this day!  I hit 50 this year and have decided to get serious about take one of two approaches; either paint it or be rid of it since someday may never arrive!

5. Obsessing over the acquisition of certain models

Another misdemeanor confession on this one.  I’m very much the tight ass when it comes to money which counter acts the obsessing over too many figures. I may obsess over wanting a figure but I won’t part with the cash to acquire it!  I do however snap them up when they are a reasonable deal.  My only real obsession has been trying to collect all the ROC Champions of Khorne from the 89 catalogue page and the C23 Ogres by Jes Goodwin.  I only need two miniatures to complete the ROC Khorne Champions, one of which is readily available at reasonable prices and the other at outrageous prices that I simply won’t pay.  Does that make me guilty of the obsessing sin?

6. Not organizing enough meet ups or games with fellow Oldhammerers

Yep, don’t have the population base in my small town to have enough people to get together and it’s a college town so what base I would be able to organize probably presents too much of a generational gap to bridge.  Not sure I have the energy to deal with it anyways.  So I guess that is another one for the Please Forgive Me list.  I do hope to someday make it to BOYL over in England.  We shall see.

7. Not encouraging others

Nope, not taking the hit on this one!  Joking aside, I hope that I have been encouraging to others.  I try to take the opportunity, even if it is just a +1 on Google+ or quick comment when I’m impressed with someone’s work.  Orlygg is an orator extraordinaire, Matthew and Whisky Priest are paint slinging artists, Steve Casey is the historian par none, and Chico exemplifies seeing projects through to completion.  Pillars of the Oldhammer community that if I haven’t mentioned before, I truly appreciate their contributions.

So not too guilty but enough that I do feel the burden of contrition.  With that said I will try for the next month to only post painted or WIP photos of mins, no piles of unpainted lead.