Zombie Legion - Kislev Infantry Levy

Part of the Zombie Legion

Converted Empire Archers turned into zombie infantrymen - painted in May 2017. I based them on the polish infantry from the 16th/17th century, which you can see HERE. After they were painted they were still way too clean in my opinion - so it was a perfect excuse to try out some pigments I bought shortly before that. It was my first time using them and I think it turned out pretty good. The box had 11 sets of legs, so I managed to get an extra zombie out of those archers.

Von Greifens may have carved a pretty big domain for themselves in Varsavia, but they were still small time compared to big players in the Old World politics - from which Kislev is their immediate neighbor. And while the Tsardom may be one of the weaker human realms, they are still a major local power with many thousands of soldiers available to them - which makes von Greifens and their hundreds of troops look rather meager. Because of that, Brothers try to stay away from Boyars to avoid provoking them, but small skirmishes still happen from time to time. Reminders of those clashes remain in the zombie hordes that vampires drag along for their battles - they are immediately recognizable by their blue clothes, typical fur-hats and Kislev sabers.

Zombie Legion - WIP #5

And finally some milestone for all that zombie building - I built enough of them to cover 90 20x20mm bases - which together with 10 spares I had from another unit, gave me full 100 of them. It was quite a long season of building and converting - I managed to stab myself in the fingers three times.

First, both of the units assembled and ready for basing and spraying:

And then some highlights from that part of the work. First, the cannon, next multibase piece. A nice and big one, takes a lot of space, making my job much easier.

Then, a dwarven minecart from Battle for the Skull Pass - I didn't know such a nice piece existed in that starter set. Thankfully it was very easy to find one on eBay. With Milliput, I prepared a hole in the ground of sorts - to use some water effects there and have it partially submerged.

And some random creations.

Zombie Legion - WIP #4

Even more zombies!

First one here is a two filler set of an undead Dark Elf mistress whipping her undead slave. I bought the Black Dragon kit long ago to turn it into a Zombie Dragon - and while I didn't get to it yet, I used the surplus of riders that box provided. The elf has half of her head sculpted and the zombie has new back on him - together with whipping scars.

Here is the rest of the Kislev Infantry Levy I made converting Empire Archers. You can see the painted version HERE.

Here are some Skaven I bought to be incorporated into the Legion. Not seeing their models since 2002 made me very surprised at how small they actually are.

And some bretonnian-styled zombies below. The ghoul with a bretonnian helmet is almost a complete copy of something I have seen on /tg/ - and I can't even give credit to that genius who mixed ghouls with bretonnian bits to emphasize their belief in being 'courtiers' in new AoS lore, as I couldn't find any info about them. Much better approach than just applying new fluff to old models - in my opinion at least. Here's also one of the first models I ever had - an old bretonnian archer that was given as a 'practice piece' to starter set of paints, back in the day.

Zombie Legion - WIP #3

Some more conversion work on the zombie legion. I had plans for some of them for a long time - and for other, it was a quick inspiration coming while looking through the bitz box. Because of that, the projected number of miniatures involved was increasing steadily. At that point (April 2017) I expected to have 6x50 zombies.

First one of this set - some zombies playing with a Terrorgheist head. I had that spare head lying around and I always wanted to use it somehow on my zombies - and this was the idea that I came up with. Adds a bit of humor to my otherwise serious collection - zombies are perfect for that.

I also had some Dark Elf bodies laying around - elves are quite difficult to 'zombiefy' without excessive work, but I managed to get at least a few of them in the legion. On the second picture, you can see two musicians and the first one of creepy cultists I converted.

Here you can see first three of the Kislev Footmen - converted from the Empire Archers kit. You can see the whole unit of them HERE. On the second picture, there are some old pikemen that I made more historically appropriate with some brass rods - they will be surely difficult to transport, but those pikes protruding from the zombie crowd make for a very good image.

And some more monster bits. Ghorgon hand made to crawl alongside the rest of the walking dead with a Giant head hopping along too. Below those you can see some old Cursed Company miniatures which I managed to hunt on eBay through all the years - they fit my mix-and-match horde very well, even if they are skeletons.

And lastly, more random creations.

Zombie Legion - The Lost One

Part of the Zombie Legion

An idea came to me one day - to convert one of the controversial Stormcasts into a small, lousy zombie filler. I bumped him a bit, scratched, crippled his hand, stuck a stick in his neck, covered with mud and added some patina - and here he is! The one that got lost in the WFB universe. Painted in November 2016.

This giant, armored knight stumbled into the forest one day, looking somehow lost. Without a word, he got into a battle with the undead forces as soon as he saw them. While he proved to be a tough opponent, zombies just kept coming and after all the cuts and jabs, he was felled down just like any other and was quickly incorporated into the same horde he so valiantly fought. Constantin considers him an interesting curiosity in his horde.

Zombie Legion - WIP #2

Two fillers for zombies I did by converting Age of Sigmar miniatures. First one is a sigmarine / Stormcast Eternal - I really liked the idea of turning one of those into a lousy zombie filler.

The second one is the so-called 'Bloodstoker' - that guy looks pretty gruesome on his own and isn't yet another steroid monster like other new khornates - actually a pretty cool mini! He was way too fancy for my army, so I started simplifying him - by making his 'fake arm' much more proletarian. After that, I thought, why not go for something more - so I turned him into a fat cossack. A fun mini that was fun to convert.

Eshnuu

A necrarch vampire from GW painted in April 2017. First minis I did which were a single character in two options - which I think it's a cool thing. He's rather simple and I guess it works for a guy I think as an 'acolyte' of sorts. I wanted to add Babylonian script all over his black robe, but when I was trying it out in photoshop, rather than mystical, it looked like some cheesy pajamas. So I left him simple. Besides that, painting all those little details on him was really fun, I like those 6thEd. style minis when they each had vials, pouches and spare daggers all over them.

As a curiosity - his dagger was polished instead of painted. The possibility to do that is one sure advantage for metal miniatures.

At some point in his life, Lucan wanted to learn the secrets of magic beyond his innate vampiric ability. He ventured into far southeast in search of undead sages that study magic during eons of their life. Lack of patience and studious dedication prevented him from learning anything useful, but he met other learners. One of them was Eshnuu, a relatively young scholar in the whole assemblage - he knew a wide variety of magic arts but was more interested in testing his knowledge in the field, not to sit around, read dusty tomes and perform bizarre experiments. He remembered the stories about Varsavia he heard from Lucan and some years later joined him in this strange land to let the real world experience what he has learned. While he’s certainly not a master in what he does, he is helpful when flaming missiles or other traditionally non-vampiric magic arts are needed. Other than that, he helped immensely with the study of the language, customs and rituals of ancient Varsavians - all relying on preserved evidence, not stories told by unreliable wights.