Skellies Part 1

 So, as I slowly work towards getting enough together for Five Leagues I needed more adversaries than just goblins. With the number of plastic ranges nowadays, skeletons/undead seemed like a plan. 

I picked up a sprue of Wargames Atlantic skeletons and a sprue of Oathmark skeletons to plan. I knew GW would be too large as I have some Nightgaunt sprues from one of those part work jobs, so no dice. I did however have a sprue of armoured skellies I bought years ago (2005 on the sprue anc now on eBay if anyone wants it) and inexplicably have a single sprue from the original GW Skeleton Horde (from 1986!). Looking at these arrayed some were obviously not useful - as my collection is tending toward 28mm and matches historicals rather than the current vogue for 32mm heroics. The WA skeletons were very chunky boys, with oddly smaller arms. The GW2005 were too big by far. But the Oathmark and the GW1986 were spot on and of course compared perfectly to the rest of my stuff. So I picked up a couple more sprues and kept a casual eye on eBay for the GW1986.

Now I didn’t fancy depuddling the Oathmark lot, so basing meant them all being on slight hillocks. But enough of the standard boys. This post is about the GW1986 and kitbashing them with the Oathmark, because Oathmark leaves you with lots of options…

The horn (a long standing gag for skeletons) and arm were from the WA set and matches closely enough to the Oathmark arms. I’m not a huge fan of the Oathmark helmets, they are perfect for the theme of Bronze Age undead, but I just think one of the first things someone will lose upon death is the headgear (yes my French Napoleonic undead still have their shakos, don’t judge). Luckily, Oathmark have plenty of options… but not quite enough bare heads to go around. Then I realised (for some reason) the GW skulls sprue are more or less identical to the Oathmark heads. I’m sure Northstar could probably spot the difference but the only ones I can tell apart are the ones with the separate jaws that I used, so works for me…

You have to remove the ball shoulder joints and I drilled in very minor divots to take the spare Oathmark arms, so the shoulders might not be 100% anatomically correct but work. The GW1986 arms were good enough for their time, but big and clunky so not really useful. Similarly the old heads were a little oversized as well. But the bodies mixed well enough with the Oathmark bits. 

(I had to use the GW1986 scythe though)

A bit of greenstuff adds some (very) rough approximations of the armour. I ran out of shields, ArmchairGeneral over on LAF kindly donated some metal Sea Peoples shields that would more match the Oathmark shields, but testing them I got concerned about the weight on that small weld joint at the shoulder, rooting around I found the buckler shields from the WA Conquistador set, a bit different stylistically but work for the sword unit.

So, with some fun kitbashing (and stripping of some bargain eBay GW1986’s) I have more than enough for Five Leagues and even extra for a Dragon Rampant force: 6x bowmen, 12x spearmen, 6x swordsmen and 3x character types. 

I’m happy.

Chaos Death Parrot

Another dive into the leadpile, a cockatrice from Bifrost Minis (via Warbases). Lovely little mini. 

 

Oldhammer Imperial Dwarf

An original Citadel Dwarf from 1986, dug up from my childhood collection, dipped for an excessive amount of time (I forgot) and repainted - ironically exactly as he was but hopefully a bit better than 13 year old me. I have a few others in progress, just waiting in some shields - the Arab teardrop shields from Gripping Beast work nicely to replace the long gone plastic shields, the dimple fits the peg with minimal trimming back and the shape makes a decent dwarven kite shield for that medieval aesthetic that was possible back then.

But, damn do they look weird alongside more realistic historicals. Big nostalgia though, so will plod on with the others as and when, will probably end up going elsewhere for dwarves for Five Leagues.

 

More Renaissance types

 Three more Renaissance types. The first two are from Antediluvian Miniatures and the last one from The Assault Group. I tried to follow the painted examples by Antediluvian and the learned chaps wear black vibe just extended to Machiavelli (if memory serves)…

An Egyptian gentleman honestly…

Another pseudo Renaissance adventurer, in the form of Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, an Egyptian despite the accent… a 3D print from Etsy, I had to add the feather myself, it would have been too brittle in the printed resin, so after a few attempts ended up just cutting a feather shape from plasticard. Attempted to paint it as a peacock feather, got fed up and painted it green.

A Cunning Pair…

Next up from the pile… Some familiar Elizabethan types, again hopefully for Dragon Rampant, Five Leagues, Mordheim etc… minis are from The Assault Group, they come with a Percy but I don’t have much use for him.

Leonardo Acropolis

Going through the lead pile with a smattering of stuff I’d gathered for a vague Dragon Rampant force, kind of Tilea/Empire adjacent. The whole lot will be useable for Five Leagues From The Borderlands and Mordheim/Frostgrave as well.

First up, the “wizard”, an older Da Vinci from Antediluvian Miniatures. Others from the same pack are pending.