Ankhara City of the Dead part 7- Ankheftu the Skull Collector

This excellent mini was originally painted sometime in the late '90s or early '00s. She's a RAFM miniature from their line of angels. She saw a little use in WarGods games for the 'Lair of the Monster' subplot (using the rules I wrote for the issue of Croc Tales with different monsters to use- she inspired the Harpy rules before there were Harpy rules for Olympus). I wanted to repaint her and use her as a powerful beast in the Ankhara skirmishing setting.

The original paintjob was not so good. For the time, it was passable. So into the jar of LAs Totally Awesome and she came out nicely clean. There was a tiny bit of cleanup that was missed back when she was originally painted.

But first, a pile of skulls based on the sketchy lore I created as Ankheftu was getting painted. This is a weird 25x40 MDF base picked up from the bins at the Gale Force Nine booth at one convention or other. The skull are a mix of my preferred (but dwindling supply) of resin skulls from a couple different Kickstarters, some GW plastic skulls, and one or two plastic skulls from some other source. 

The painting was some simple drybrushing of various lighter colors followed by a wash, then some touchups. I haven't decided if Ankheftu will perhaps use these as a cache to throw at people or just as an objective marker.

Painting Ankheftu using better primer and modern dropper bottle paints was a joy. I used cork chunks and some resin skulls on the 40mm base to help her fit into the necropolis setting of Ankhara. 

Drybrushing and washes help Ankheftu turn out closer to how I think I originally wanted her to look. Ive had trouble with pale skin in the past, but I think her skin turned out pretty good thanks to all the practice I've had painting skin over the years.

Ankheftu's sketchy lore took shape during the painting process. There was a moment where I thought maybe she would be the protectrix of Ankhara, that didn't last long. Then I remembered the art from the WarGods rulebook showing an Asar Harbinger of Horus with the Aspect of the Avenger power. Then it clicked, she was a fallen Harbinger of Hors. Killed in some way that when she was raised as a Dark Harbinger it didn't quite take. She's very powerful, but not a Dark harbinger. She's got her wings and a couple of other powers that I haven't decided on yet. And she likes to collect skulls.

I think she may be a rogue element in Ankhara, guarding her precious skulls. Maybe she can be 'hired' by a party for a game or two, they just need to promise her a certain number of skulls. But it's all just in progress right now. I won't mention the possibility of her having an undead version of the Falcon Servant until I can find a good miniature for it.

with a couple of Ankhara-specific mummy conversions

with the Scorpion Sorceress and a Heru Hero conversion

with a Heru speraman conversion and a Crocodiliopolis City Dweller spearman

Corinthian Hero - Mandokus

Continuing Ægyptus April, we've got an Olympus mini. Oh well.

I have at least 1 phalanx of Corinthians and this hero/ He's a fine figure, but I wasn't terribly excited to paint him. Once I realized his helmet is similar to a Mandalorian-style helmet, I was a little more enthusiastic about painting him.

My Corinthian hoplites are all clad in darker metallic armor, so Mandokus needed to be fancier. I used a couple of different gold and bronze colors for the armor. I think it's a good mix for a hero.

His shield is sort of the opposite to his armor, with the dark body of the shield and a lighter fancy symbol on it. Then there was the yellow for his cape and shield cloth. It took a lot of restraint o avoid doing a checkerboard pattern on the shield cloth, but I persevered.

with the Spartan Kryptes and the Priestess of Eris

with an Amazon Spearwoman and an Asar Spearman

Aegyptus April 2026- Dark Fable Physician and Whisper of Nepthys

 It's Ægyptus April and I actually managed to get a couple Ægyptians painted up! These are both from one of the many Dark Fable crowd funding campaigns I bought into far too heavily, but I think they were worth it.

First up is the Physician, or perhaps he's an Alchemist. I love the little spoon he's got. I tried to make his medicines look bright and exciting. 

For his wig, I wanted to do something strikingly different from the norm, so a couple layers of different oranges were used. I'm pretty pleased with how he turned out. I'm glad I forced myself to focus on him.

Next is a Priestess of some sort. While I was finishing her, I came up with a specific use for her in Ankhara, City of the Dead Skirmishes. It's still a work in progress, but she will be a type of undead- a "Whisper of Nepthys" or maybe a "Shadow of Nepthys," something to do with Nepthys. I'm not sure if she should just be a single entity, or a class of wandering undead in the necropolis.

I'm really happy with the green of her dress, it stalled out for quite some time, but when I started working on the Phsician again it all came together for her. She's sculpted by a different sculptor than most of the rest of the range, but I think she fits in well to the civilians of Ægyptus.

with a Crocodiliopolis Asar Spearman and a Dark Fable maiden who might be Doc's assistant

with a heru Spearman conversion and the Scorpion Sorceress conversion

Alien Pharaoh Statue

I think this piece was picked up at the Armorcast booth at the Origins convention in Columbus, OH sometime in the early 2000s. It has languished, partially painted, for almost 20 years until this weekend.

I finally decided I needed to finish this interesting Pharaoh statue. Is it an alien? Maybe it's just an ancient sculptor's idea of a joke? Or, is it just a cool resin chunk that will look cool on the tabletop.

I was bogged down with the panels on the back and sides. To get past that years-long hurdle, I finally decided to just paint parts of it and let a dark wash help give the illusion of detail on the parts that seemed too much to deal with. I think they came out okay, nothing fancy.

So how big is this statue? well, here we have a size comparison with some of the scatter terrain made for Ankhara skirmish.

And here we have some size comparisons with various minis, I didn't realize I didn't grab more WarGods minis for these comparisons.