Completed - Games Workshop Moving Skeletons Diorama

Finally, something has been finished! My moving skeletons project.

When I first started building these skeletons I had an idea that they'd be facing off again an opponent (or opponents) who would be in a similarly dynamic pose. Unfortunately searching through my spares box yielded little in the way of suitable figures. The one candidate was an Empire halberdier but he was holding his weapon aloft rather than in a combat pose. So this meant rather than a fight, a pursuit would be the theme of the diorama.

And so on to the final hurdle, finding a suitable base. The first time I had the idea of a pursuit an image of a dungeon corridor came to mind but I felt the skeletons didn't complement each other well on a rectangular base. I felt a circular base would work better allow the chase to develop from several side (especially with the figures I had).

It was then that I found some perfect circular resin bases from Fenris Games. After picking one and waiting for it to arrive, (which was not long, they provide a very good service), I could finally complete this project.

So here it is:

And as the whole point of this project was "movement," here's an animated version:

All in all this has been a thoroughly enjoyable project. I've had a chance to paint skeletons for the first time and was surprised how satisfying they are to paint. From that one moment of thinking, "those skeletons need to look like they're moving" to finishing this project I've really enjoyed trying to bring some life into static figures. I certainly hope to try something along the same lines in the future.

WIP: Moving Skeletons

Following my last post I've made some progress on a few moving skeletons. But first things first, I have new found respect for anyone making an army of these things. They have a habit of breaking very easily. Even more so when you been chopping them into pieces, repositioning, and then glueing them back together (and when you throw my aggressive dry-brushing into the mix)!

So here's a few WIP shots. All the parts are from the Games Workshop, I just need to finish up the armour and weapons and attach the arms that are currently in the way of painting. Once that's done I'll mounted them on a base (yet to ordered) as I've decided on a small dungeon themed diorama.

Standard skeleton warrior, chaos marauder shield.

Standard skeleton warrior, right leg from a mounted skeleton.

Standard skeleton warrior, legs from a tomb king skeleton

Standard skeleton warrior, shield from a chaos warrior, with original hand removed. Left leg from a mounted skeleton.

I have a few more ideas, but until I've worked out how many I can fit on a base these four will be all for now.

So anyway, thinking back a few posts I was rather critical of Games Workshop and their new painting guides. Time to put my money where my mouth is and give you all a quick, but helpful, skeleton painting overview (no pictures I'm afraid as I was painting in bad light for photographs). To paint these I've used Citadel paints, but not the most recent releases so you may need to check out the conversion chart if you're using newer paints.

Step 1
Primer layer, straight onto the plastic with a coat of Scorched Brown, make sure you cover all areas as you don't want any grey showing through.
Step 2
A heavy dry-brush of Bestial Brown. This is effectively your base coat but in some of the deeper recesses (such as eye sockets) you may leave the primer layer showing.
Step 3
Dry-brush Bleached bone over the whole model. Before the paint is dry clean you brush and use it to give a hard polish to areas of bone such as, legs, arms, the tops of skulls.
Step 4
Wash a slightly watered down mix of Badab Black into joints and the gaps in the ribs, leave to dry.
Step 5
Highlight bones with Skull White You can miss this stage out for a really dirty looking skeleton if you want. The skeletons above are meant to be dungeon dead so I figured they'd be a bit cleaner than buried dead.
Step 6
A final wash with either Gryphone Sepia or Ogryn Flesh, leave to dry. When this wash dries it gives an aged look to the bones, so vary the amount of water mixed with the paint for each skeleton to get a varied look across a group of them.
Step 7
Finally highlight with Skull White, teeth, around the eyes, finger bones and you're done!

Overall they're fairly easy to paint and seven steps isn't as much work as it seems. It's worth varying the various stages and using different strength washes if painting lots of them because that helps add variation. Any more advice? Feel free to comment or contact me!

It's All About The Moves

The other day I was reminded of film that seemed to feature in the Christmas schedule most years during my childhood, Jason and the Argonauts.

The film will be memorable to most model fans for the work of the late Ray Harryhausen and in particular one scene stand out above all other. The fight between the heroes of the story and Harryhausen's stop-motion skeletons. I remember it having such an effect on me back then. The stop motion effect only seemed to add a realism to the skeletons. With their awkward movements they seem to have such a sinister malevolence about them as a result of it. And then when they get going, their speed makes them such a determined and fierce enemy.

Watching it again after so many years and I was surprised how good this scene still is. I think it's more alive than the majority of CGI scenes in the films of today. A remarkable testament to Ray Harryhausen's craft given that this film is now 50 years old.

And it was this that got me thinking about models. Fantasy models tend to be a bit static, especially ones that are meant to be standing in rank and file. Was it possible to capture that speed and ferocity in model form? Of course unlike the film skeletons, these ones will not be viewed as moving, so the challenge is in capturing a still moment of movement.

After a search through my spares box I've got together a selection of Games Workshop skeleton parts and I'm going to give it a go. As you can see from the image below they're mostly standing still and so they'll need a bit of repositioning and a few weapon swaps to add a some variation.

This is one thing I really enjoy, converting models. It's been a while since I've done this and so I'm really looking forward it as a mini project. While I'm at it I might also go through my spares to find some opponents for them to face off against as well.

Finally, the clip above is only a part clip. It's hard to believe that youtube doesn't have the whole scene (without some awful soundtrack added). The full scene can be found here mostly likely after a long advert...