As the wyrm turns

I've been very busy the past few weeks getting ready for this tiny, local gaming convention.  You may have heard of it - it is called Gencon.  Not really local, as it is about a two hour drive.  While badges are sold out, all of my events are not quite.

Before each of the major conventions I go through all my demo armies, making repairs as needed and making sure all the unit cards and army lists are there.

So you can imagine my surprise Monday night when I opened my undead box to find that it was missing the two balefire catapults.  I have no idea where they might be - I looked in all the logical places (i.e. other army bins, my big bin of no longer used Mantic models, my big bin of no longer used non-Mantic models.  I even checked with my son.  No joy.

I'm leaving for Indianapolis about 11:30 am on Wednesday, and it is now 7 pm on Monday night, and I'm 200 points short of models for my 1000 pt undead demo army.

Several ideas go through my head.  First is that I have a spare balefire (from my Empire of Dust mega army).  I could maybe paint that up but I'd still be 100 pts short.  I have another troop of ghouls and a regiment of skeleton warriors in my unused bin.  But that would be boring.

I then remember writing about the Runewars starter box I got at Adepticon, and specifically the Carrion Lancer model:

My absolute favorite miniature in the box is the Carrion Lancer.  When I first opened the box in the hotel room at Adepticon, I already liked this model before I even put it together.  Now it may be my prejudices showing, but if I were an Undead player in Kings of War, this feels like a PERFECT model for a Revenat Kin on Undead Wyrm.  Yes, I know a wyrm is a dragon, but this still fits, and fits on a 50mm base easily. 

Well time to pay the piper.   I need 200 more points, and a Revenant King on Undead Wyrm is 190. Add an undead dog/rat to the skeleton horde (using the nice undead dog handler that I've had painted up since the first Kings of War kickstarter) and it will be done.

Need dog handler picture here

So first - a bit of super glue remover and prying with a hobby knife removes the model from the original base, then glue it to a Shogun Miniatures 50mm magnetic base.

rebased

Since this is a single model, I went ahead and put sand on the base for texture.  I like doing this after the model is glued to the base, which, when multibasing, is best AFTER it is painted.  The other benefit here is that the primer will help to lock the sand to the base and make it easier to paint later. Then about an hour dry time for the glue.

Would this be a sand wyrm?

One of the nice things about this time of year is you can almost always head outside to spray prime your models.  The weather here in Ohio has been particularly beautiful lately, not getting the normal heat and humidity.  So black spray primer - again about an hour or so to dry.

Shiny because it is wet, as I just sprayed it

Then start the painting.  Since this will be a model in a demo army, it is only tabletop standard.  So base coats.  Lately I seem to really like the dead flesh (valejo game color 72.035) as the underbelly color to go with green scales (see my recent hydra and wyrm riders).  With the clock ticking, now was NOT the time to try anything new.  Bone white (vgc 72.034) for the horns / claws / bones.  Leather brown (vgc 72.040) for the reigns.  Beastly Brown (vgc 72.043) for the shield and the wood pieces sticking out of the saddle, as well as the spear haft.

I deliberately over painted the body, as I knew I would be doing the scales later and wanted to try to have a little of this peaking through between them.

First few colors.

Then gunmetal (vgc 72.054) for the armor, saddle and spear tip.  Red for the ribbon and cloak (Citadel base Khorne Red - I'd honestly like to be able to go 100% Valejo, but the extra opaque  heavy red (72.141) just doesn't cover well.  I really like all their other extraopaque colors, but the red just doesn't do it for me.).  Heavy green (Valejo Game Extraopaque 72.146) for the scales, scorpy green (vgc 72.032) for the pustules and mouth.

I let this sit for a while (went out and enjoyed our brand new deck and fire pit with the wife for a bit - have to keep the family happy!).  Then before I went to bed I applied a wash (Valejo model wash Dark Grey 76.517 - their black is WAY too dark) to the whole thing (but didn't take a picture then, so here is one of my view a few minutes before)

enjoying a pleasant summer evening while paint is drying

Before I headed to work the next morning, I hit the base with fasdark brown (Faskolor - this comes big (2 oz) bottles, which is great for when you use a lot (like for basing)).

Hmmm - may change some details still.

So now it could be called finished, but even tabletop it doesn't quite have what I want.  I think I have an idea.  Repaint the mouth and sores with khorne red to make them look more infected

Then add a scorpy green highlight on the sores, and pick out the teeth in the mouth with bone white.

 

The last two steps are to add some static grass to the base (using the same watered down white glue that I use to glue the sand to the base before I painted it), and then paint the edges of the base black (vgc 72.051).  This helps to 'frame' the model making it look better.

So some final pictures in the light box

So with just a few hours work over two days I've swapped out two missing Balefire Catapults for the Revenant King on Undead Wyrm.  This does mean my demo undead have no shooting other than the surge spells, but I can work with that.  This guy is just as strong as the catapults (CS(3)), gives some speed (SP 7 and NOT shambling), 9 attacks w/ ME 4+, doubles and triples on flanks and rears, and has surge to go with the necromancer (as well as providing a source of inspiring for the army).

And it looks cool.  I do like the red/green on the sores - makes them look sicker and more painful. This is probably another model that would really benefit from a better paint job, or at least some highlighting - but as I've stated before I want to have these armies all at a normally achievable level.

Because it is all fun and games . . .