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

Ankhara City of the Dead part 6 - Carrion Beast

While looking for something else, I came across the bits for this "carrion beast" (that's the working title, it may change) and decided it was time something be done with the headless undead body that I've had since last century.

The body is an ancient Grenadier miniature (a demon dog? maybe a blood dog? some kind of dog, I think). I needed to find a head and eventually settled on this Nurgle hero head from an Underworlds figure who got turned into a Hapi-folk Crypt Lord. It was that simple.

I pinned the head and there were really no glaring gaps to fill, so then I could focus on removing the accursed thick intergral base. I decided I would only remove part of it, leaving the rocks the back legs are standing on to help show this beast is in the ruins of Ankhara.

The final touch was to chop off part of a metal ankh bit from some unknown source to act as some more rubble to reinforce that this is Ankhara.

This beastie is the first of some number of things created by the Carrion Queen. I've been slowly working on various Eater of the Dead sub-factions controlling parts of Ankhara. The Carrion Queen is either going to be an Undead Beast Mistress who has unlocked some serious power in death (including control of most of the Ghouls throughout the City of the Dead); or, she's a Khemru Dark Harbinger who has begun experimenting with what abominable things she can create (plus the Ghoul thing). The Carrion Beast is the first of these to actually be built and painted. I have no concrete ideas about what sort of powers it has, but it will be something simple and weird. 

...witha Heru champion and the converted Scorpion Sorceress.

Here we have the Carrion Beast with various WarGods miniatures to show how well he fits in with them.

...with a couple of fancy Crypt Lord conversions.

...with the mummy lion from the undead beastmaster.

Tomb Guardians

These two are from one of the Conan boardgames by Monolith Games. I decided they needed to be based on 20mm squares so they could be some special Mummy Warriors. I like having a wide variety of mummies, so they fit right in with the existing mish-mash of Eater of the Dead minis.

They're both painted to match. I usually don't like mummies to match, but I made an exception with these guys because I see them as guards for either a tomb raider scenario or as guards for a Dark harbinger or Necromancer.

Below we have the Tomb Guardians with some Crocodile Games Aegyptus minis (

And here we have the Tomb Guardians with the venerable Shefdu Sootootma, self-proclaimed Nomarch of Ankhara.

Urethekau the Sorcerer and a New Black Quill

"...the occupant was indeed the renowned Uraei Harbinger Urethekau the Sorcerer. His expertise with the words of power was said to rival even the greatest of Tethru Masters of Words at the time. Urethekau is said to have gone into battle wielding the Behdjet, a curious orb that amplified his words of power that was also, somehow, a cutting weapon..."

Shefdu Sootootma, Scribe of Khepri

Self-proclaimed Nomarch of Ankhara

Tethru Dark Harbinger

A Diehard Miniatures figure from one of their early Kickstarters, I had put this one off for so long because of the second pair of arms with huge swords. I liked the look, but I wasn't sure how to make them fit in with my plan to use the figure as a mummy for something to do with WarGods of Aegyptus. The Uraei don't have four arms, so I finally realized I could just skip them and remove the connection stumps from the figure. 

That simple removal of the stumps where the sword arms were to attach made me see the figure in a whole new light. I attached the little spellbook and primed him up.

But first, it was time to create another Kekooee Seshket (Black Quill) because it just was. A couple of 

 

Urethekau was a pretty straightforward paintjob. The Bedjhet was the fanciest part. I based it with a darker green and did a couple lighter green blends up to the Ral Partha florescent green. This gave a nice swirling magic effect. 

Here's a size comparison of Urethekau with Hemati and Shefdu. He's significantly larger, so he got a 25mm base. He'll likely see some action in some Ankhara skirmishes.