Having recently finished an entire Abyssal Dwarf Army, I felt like I was on a good roll and moved on immediately to the next pile of unpainted dudes on my shelves which is an Undead Archer Troop. Initially I was thinking “skeletons are easy to paint” and “this will go fast” and I was kind of right. It certainly is going faster, but it still lots of different options and decisions to make to actually “finish” and entire unit. I spent most of my time undecided how to finish the bases, which is silly, but that’s where most of my time. Either way, I’m going to be posting each unit as I finish it with the rough process of what I did to paint the unit. It’s not really a tutorial, but whenever I find other people posting about how they painted something, not just “here’s a nice picture”, I dig in with greater interest, so I figured I’d kick back and actually write down what I used to build, paint, and base a unit.
This unit of 10 Skeleton Archers is the first completed unit for my Undead Army for Kings of War, or whatever fantasy gaming that might come up. The models are from Wargames Factory and from a large multi-part plastic set they offer. The unit is magnetized with 1/8″ x 1/32″ under the bases, these are hollowed out underneath so I don’t have to drill anything out like I normally do with Mantic bases. The movement tray is basswood with a piece of tin cut and glued to the top. The models fit what I needed here so I didn’t have to do any sort of conversions to any of these models.
For the basing I painted the bases with Vallejo Model Color Burnt Umber as the base color. Then I applied some Mininatur Short Weed Tufts – Autumn (727-24 S) to the bases with super glue. Once that dried I applied 2.5mm Summer Meadow Green Grass, from Noch, to the remaining uncovered portions of the base. Finally I added a little bit of Super Leaf Scale Leaves (Fall Leaves) from Scenic Express.
Paint Used (In Order)
- Vallejo Model Game Air – Skeleton Bone
- Primed entire unit with this color
- Vallejo Model Color – Basalt Grey
- Used on the bows
- Vallejo Model Color – Leather Brown
- Used this on the Quiver
- Army Painter Ink – Dark Tone
- Used on the handle of the bows
- Vallejo Model Color – Desert Yellow
- Used on the shaft of the arrows
- Vallejo Model Color – Dark Blue Grey
- Used on arrow fletching
- Vallejo Model Color – Off White
- Highlight on arrow fletching
- Army Painter Ink – Strong Tone
- Washed the entire model with this
- Vallejo Model Color – Beige Brown
- Drybrushed the Quivers
Gallery
