Monday, September 18, 2023

Ankhara City of the Dead part 2

This time is focused more on some accessories/objective markers and beasts/monsters. 

This giant scorpion is plastic from the Conan miniatures boardgame. I wanted it to be red because it's a giant friggin' scorpion and they should be red.

From Crocodile Games come these canopic jars. These will probably be used as objective markers. 


Also from Crocodile Games is this Anubis chest.



 And then there's this bigger canopic jar from Iron Wind Metals. I think I've got some others like this painted in a box somewhere. 


The first of four sarcophagi, this one has a normal mummy inside ready to be plundered or desecrated for some unholy rites. I wanted the sarcophagi to be raised up from the floor level so I tried a couple of different options. This one has some 20mm bases stacked together and smeared with texture paste. 




Finally we've got a big statue (or is it?) From Reaper. This is the metal one which I assembled and started painting several years ago. I'm glad it's finally done and ready to spread destruction and chaos stand motionless on the battlefield.





Next time there will be more mummies...

Saturday, September 16, 2023

The Shepherd and Rams Join the Caravan

 

I recently decided to clean and base the three rams I've got even though I don't really have a unit of Khemru or plan to run a Beastmaster any time soon. I just wanted them painted and out in the wild if needed. When they were almost finished a random comment from some painting nerd on an online paint jam sparked the idea to convert a Khemru Slinger into a Shepherd to join the caravan. 




These rams are not very special paintjobs, I just did some quick and dirty stuff to finish them up. Now they can graze or frolic around the caravan and maybe offer some protection from bandits. 




For the Shepherd I used a Khemru Slinger figure I had leftover from when I converted some of them into Tethru Slingers. I repositioned both arms and snipped off the sling parts. The staff is from one of the Beastmaster miniatures. At first I thought I could get away with just snipping off the Beastmaster's hand and putting it on the slinger, but the size difference was way too noticeable. So I snipped off the two ends of the staff and pinned them to the sling hand. I think the join looks okay. A little greenstuff furry to cover the rocks in his pouch and he was ready for some painting. 




Here we have the Shepherd and his small flock alongside the caravan. There are more parts of the caravan ready to paint and I've got a couple more ideas for additional members but it just has not been at the top of the list of things to do. 

Sunday, September 10, 2023

Ankhara City of the Dead part 1

 

Ever since the wrap up of the truly epic Ankhara world campaign at GenCon thousands of years ago (tales are still told amongst those brave souls who survived- like that Harbinger who got swallowed whole by a Sphinx Abomination), I have dreamt about smaller scale games set in the ruins of the resurfaced necropolis. This would involve conflicts between Crypt Lords and their followers attempting to gain power in the new Eater of the Dead order.  There could also be bands of would-be tomb robbers looking for treasure and even more noble Aegyptian warbands seeking ways to undermine the rising undead tide (perhaps a formidable Anubi and Tethru team-up warband). Heck, maybe even multiple warbands against some kind of mindless undead monster. 

Yet I haven't really moved forward with anything more than daydreams, until now. I came across the Necropolis28 rules a few months ago and have pondered creating a warband for it. It recently hit me that mummies would be cool for the setting and I rummaged through my undead containers for parts. Several mummies have been put together and then I turned to some conversions. 

First up was this cat on a chest that I needed to give a cobra head to (above is an unmolested version of the mini with the converted one). The cat is a great mini from Crocodile Games while the head is from a source I don't recall (possibly Dark Fable). I like how this vicious beast has turned out. 




Next is another Crocodile Games figure, this Anubi horde mummy was given a different right hand and a big mummy warrior shield. It's a simple conversion that changes the original lowly horde mummy into something a little more dangerous. 



Then comes the undead lion from the Nightmare Lords Beastmaster. I held this mini in limbo for a very long time before basing him up and adding the wrappings. I think one of the beasts we used from time to time during the Ankhara campaign for the 'Lair of the Beast" subplot was a mummified lion. And now I've got one.



The final miniature for this entry is an undead Blade Dancer converted from the Tomb Queen and both of the Blade Dancer miniatures (all from Crocodile Games). 



It was a daunting task that turned out to be pretty simple. The toughest part was sculpting her hair. I think she came out pretty good and might be my favorite of this batch.


Hopefully this is just the start of a wider project to make the Ankhara game a reality. Below are the other miniatures that are in the painting queue so far. I hope to get them all painted up soon and get a few games in using them.