Khemric Titan Progress and Corpse Cart

This is a corpse cart I modified using the VC model and a Reaper Mini's metal model. The Reaper model comes with a staff that I had already used on my Hierotitan so I took the tail of a Tomb King's stalker and used it as the front of the cart handle thingie. I put a bunch of Tomb King bits on there for the corpses and kitbashed a necromancer using a Warsphinx crew guy and a wizard head from the Empire wizard kit.

The pictures below show how my Khemric Titan progressed. I built it for the Screw City 2014 GT.

 

It started off with the Starship trooper big bug model. I used this for the body and the head. I then put half of a big centrum pill bottle on top of the head/abdomen. The next step was to put plasticard over the bug's butt to give it a more Egyptian/scaraby look. The legs are from the Triach Stalker kit for Necrons in 40k. The rest are bits from the Tomb King Stalker kit and the weapons from the Necrosphinx kit. I believe I put it on a 150 by 225 base.

 

At this stage I had put wings on it using a cheap plastic bowl that I cut up. Each wing was about a quarter of a bowl. I started to paint it with GW copper paint but the brush strokes where pretty evident. 

  

 Here I had spray painted it with a metallic gold, added some wear and tear to the wings and then used a dirty gold color on the other bits.  

In the last step I tried to add a corrosion effect that you see on old weathered bronze stuff. I don't like the end color that comes out when you use the GW paint that is intended for this. Also, some of the joints ended up looking pretty bad. In the end I still think it turned out pretty awesome.

2500 points of Tomb Kings at Pack Rat Open

I went to Pack Rat Open last weekend and took the Tomb Kings I was working on. The list looked like this:

Lords

• Liche High Priest
  Lore of Death, Wizard Level 4
  •   Dispel Scroll, Ironcurse Icon, Talisman of Preservation
     
• Liche High Priest
  Hierophant, Lore of Nehekhara, Wizard Level 4
  •  Earthing Rod, Talisman of Endurance

Heroes

• Necrotect
  • -Obsidian Amulet 
• Tomb Prince
  Great Weapon
  • Armour of Destiny

Core

• 19 Skeleton Archers 
  Champion, Musician
• 12 Skeleton Archers 
  Musician
• 5 Skeleton Horse Archers 
• 5 Skeleton Horse Archers
• 48 Skeleton Warriors 
  Champion, Musician, Standard Beare
  • Light Armour 

Special

• Khemrian Warsphinx 
  Fiery Roar
• 5 Necropolis Knights 
  Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer

Rare (490pts)

• Casket of Souls 
• Hierotitan 
• Screaming Skull Catapult 
• Screaming Skull Catapult 

I used a bone giant and a scratch built bone giant as the catapults, both have skulls in their hands that they are throwing. I used Titan-Forge crocodiles for the Necroknight mounts. I also converted up an old metal giant for the Hierotitan. 

It was also the first display board I had made. It was simply a cork wall board/bulletin board that  I glued a bunch of sand too and used cork pieces to create the hills or rocks in the back. One thing I learned from making the display board is that it is much easier to spray paint the sand on a display board than to try and use a brush to paint it. 

In the picture below you can see the Necroknights. 

In the next pictures you can see the converted catapults and the Hierotitans. 

All in all, I am pretty happy with the army. I ended up getting best painted at the event (out of 24 people). I don't think I am a great painted but there are some things that I think helped me take home that prize. 

1. There is a clear color theme throughout the army. 
2. Everything is painted and based. 
3. The board and bases have paint, flock, and on the board and bigger/important models either extra bits or more than one type of basing. 
4. I used a color that stands out. Some armies are really well painted but look really dark and dull from fair away. This one doesn't.

Current State of the Army

Here is a group shot of everything that is completely painted and based.

All together it is:

1 Liche Priest

1 Tomb King/Prince

1 Necrotect

1 character that can serve as a Tomb Prince or Liche Priest

40 skeleton warriors with hand weapons and shields

58 skeleton archers, two sets of full command

10 skeleton horse archers

6 chariots with full command

2 Warsphinxs

1 Tomb Scorpion

1 Casket of Souls

1 bit made Bone Giant/Screaming Skull Catapult

Here is a closer picture of the characters

Here is a closer one of one of the Warsphinxes

Here is a closer picture of the other side

And here is what is currently on the paint bench. The crocodiles will end up as proxies for Necropolis knights. I have a Khaldia model I am working on getting painted. The Bone Giant will also serve as a Screaming Skull Catapult (I dislike the model that GW makes).

There is a one day event I am going to at the end of April that I need to have the Bone Giant, about 8 more skeletons, a Hierotitan, and 5 Necroknight proxies painted for. After that, the goal is to get the scorpion and remaining characters painted in May, Tomb Guard painted in June, and Ushabti painted in July. At that point I should be pretty satisfied with the army.

Doubles Tournament and Tomb Scorpion

Last weekend was Slanneshfest 2014, the first round of the Circle City Circuit 2014. It was a 2000 point (1k each) team tournament. My team mate and I decided to both bring Tomb Kings. His list was: 

Lvl 2 Liche Priest

18 Skeleton Archers with Standard and Musican

18 Skeleton Archers with Standard and Musican

Warsphinx with Fiery Roar

Warsphinx with Fiery Roar

Hierotitan

My list was:

Lvl 2 Liche Priest with Earthing Rod

18 Skeleton Archers with Standard and Musician

5 Skeleton Horse Archers

5 Skeleton Horse Arches

Warsphinx with Fiery Roar

Warsphinx with Fiery Roar  

Casket of Souls  

 

 

We played three games, going 2-1. There were 10 teams in the tournament and despite winning two games we ended up in sixth place. We both learned a lot about positioning the Warssphinxes so that they could charge on turn one (the free wheel isn't all the best idea). Warsphinxes also struggle against cavalry and high armour saves. People are deathly afraid of a Casket and throw as much at it as they can to kill it. Finally, we both thought that we should have taken a dispel scroll instead of the earthing rod (it was never used).

I think the main reason we scored so low was because we forgot to get bonus objectives a lot of the time. I think we were separated from 3rd place by less than 5 points (which we could have easily gotten if we had played for the objectives a bit better.  All in all, it was a lot of fun

In painting news, I finished up the Tomb Scorpion below and have one more to do. I tried to give it similar highlights to my Warsphinxes but because of the edges and lack of "muscles" it was a bit different when painting.

 

With the next one I am going to be less heavy with the highlights on the tail, I think those look too prominent. 

Two Warshpinxes Complete!

Got the two Warsphines done. Second one doesn't quite look as good as the first. Mostly because I didn't have a good system for remembering the color ratio on the highlight. So that I remember, the jade is a base of orkhide shade from GW (old color) then Army Painter Greenskin, then close to 50/50 of the Greenskin and any white you have. The bronze was painted over an old gold with Army Painter Weapon Bronze, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade and then liberally dry brushed with Citadel Hashut Copper (current color). 

 

 

I was feeling rushed with the second one (there is no way I'm going to get stuff ready for CincyCon and used to much of the GW Hashut Copper on my drybrush layer and also was too heavy with my jade highlight on the howdah. The riders are also super hard to paint because of all their bandage lines that kind of blend into the bones.....

Warsphinx #1 finished

First one done. One more to repaint. Took the pictures with my tablet and got rid of the white background. I think the white backing may have been the issue with the darkness. I will try a different color background next time. I feel like I did well with the cat but the crew was a bit sloppy. I learned a little about using washes with the howdah and with the crew. Some parts of the crew models run together and you are not sure where the wrappings end and bronze mail begins. Hopefully, the next one I will do better with them.

Screaming Skull Catapult / Bone Giant

Started building this guy in February, got him finished a few days ago. I need to start putting lightening around my pictures so the flash doesn't wash things out like it did in this (and all the other ones).

It is on a 50 by 50 base that was made by cobbling together two cavalry bases. Most of the bones come from skeleton horses. Most of the bronze is from Tomb Guard bits (mostly shields). The weapon is a modified Tomb Guard banner turned upside down and modified a bit.

The wrappings are green stuff that was used to cover up joints and to hold the model together. If you want to see WIP pictures, here is the album. http://imgur.com/a/l4Y8y

Skeleton Chariots

Finally got the 6 chariots finished. Once again I couldn't get great lightening. Even with an added lamp the no flash seems to dark and the flash washes everything out. Maybe if I can take pictures with the sun up, it will help. 

There is enough for a full command and another rank. A couple of spots still need touch ups but based off of how poorly they currently play, they probably will sit on a shelf most of time.

 

Here is what it looks like with the flash.

Let us make the shade we wish to fight in

Got 42 skeleton archers done this weekend. Now they just need a movement tray.

   

It seems that no matter where I take the picture in my place they come out too dark or the flash kills the detail and everything gets washed out. The top picture is no flash, the bottom picture is flash. 

 

I have also started making a scratch built bone giant, just 'cuz. There isn't one in the current book but it can proxy as some other things or act as a unit filler. It is going to be made mostly out of skeleton horse parts and then Tomb Guard and standard bits. You can see the current state of it below.

 

Next up I need to finish a converted Liche Priest and repaint 7 chariots

First Soliders of the Jade Host Arise

The first 11 archers and 1 test spear men are now done. Well, except for some grass tuffs I still need to purchase. I am not sure how I like the Agrellan Earth texture paint for the base but I was out of ideas for how to base them.