Archive 3.2 - Eater of the Dead Part 2 - Warrior Mummies

While Horde Mummies are great speedbumps for opposing warbands, the real meat of an Eater of the Dead warband comes from the Warrior Mummies. I've got about as many of these revived warriors as I do the common rabble of the Horde Mummies...

The first Warrior Mummy unit I completed for that gateway Ankhara World Campaign was from Fortress Figures. They were plastic single pose mummies with axes. I had painted up a few before I got into the campaign, so again it was an easy task to get the rest of the unit painted up. There were 12 of the same pose I had originally painted up but over the years some of them wandered away.

Above, the Standard Bearer for the unit is the only different model I remember from the original unit composition. Below are some of the regular 2-handed axe-mummies. This unit was later dubbed "the Dread Axes" after their Crypt Lord leader, but we'll get into that lore later.

Above, you can see that they stand a bit raised on their 20mm bases because (like many several minis companies) these had integral bases. The last few of them were cut from those integral bases (it was pretty easy and I should really go back to do the others- nah) so they weren't as super tall.

Some additional Dread Axes slots were filled with these cool metal Egyptian-style Dwarf Mummies from some long-forgotten source. Like the Fortress Figures minis, these guys all had integral bases, so they're raised a bit off the 20mm bases too but they're short.

The Dwarf Mummy below is probably my favorite meber of this unit. I still think he came out pretty good.

The next Warrior Mummy unit is the (mostly) official Crocodile Games Spear Mummies. There were lots of variations among the official models but even then I had to do some conversions because that's one of my favorite parts of the hobby.

Above we have the two Asar sculpts from the unit- the main differences being color choices. My philosophy of the undead in most settings is to avoid matching uniforms because unless the Necromancer has raised the units from a recent battle they're going to be from a variety of backgrounds with different weapons and outfits. The second guy above was converted to be a Chariot Passenger as well as fit into the Spear Unit.

Above we have the two Anubi mummy sculpts with color choice again making them less matchy. The same with the Heru sculpt below.

Headswaps above and below on the Anubi and Asar bodies to give us some Tethru (my great Dark Harbinger for the Ankhara campaign, Shefdu Sootootma, was a Tethru so I needed to give him some Tethru guys in the warband. a Uraei (the cobra-headed guy below), and a Khemru. As with soem of the other Tehru mummy conversions, I liked to crinkle up the beak because it's a little disturbing and mummies are supposed to be scary, right?

Finally, the Standard Bearer for the Spear Mummies. The standard was converted with a bit from a Reaper mummy figure because I didn't like the original standard bit. I also gave him a plastic GW Tomb Kings shield.

partway through the Ankhara campaign I became obsessed with getting some archer mummies to shoot back at those annoying archers in other warbands (usually with flaming arrows which were very effective against dried corpses wrapped in cloth. Thus was born the Warrior Mummy Archer unit. Below are the first three conversions I did based on Horde Mummy bodies with bows from various sources.

Then I got a handful of the pre-production Crocodile Games Mummy Archer bodies (they didn't have heads yet because Chris was going to sculpt some different heads) and went to town! The three above have plastic GW heads. Below we have an olde Dark Eldar plastic head alongside a metal Tethru head from Corcodile Games. I know most of them don't have a quiver, but I'm not going to worry about that at this point, the bow is the most important part.

Finally, the last member of the Archer unit is a Spear-mummy with a pretty effective bow conversion (and I put a quiver on his back).

To help diversify the Warrior Mummy units I decided to convert some with hand weapon and shield to give even more flexibility on the battlefield. Most of these are spear-mummies with weapon and shield swaps. I like to think these are some of my best mummy conversions yet.

The conversion above is based on a Reaper miniature with a Crocodile Games Nekharu head and shield.

Above we've got a GW Tomb Kings mini with a Crocodile Gaes shield (probably my least favorite member of the whole Eater warband). Below are three mummies from Reaper that were useful to help fill out the hand weapon and shield unit.

Above is the Standard Bearer for the hand weapon and shield unit. A pretty simple conversion of an Anubi spear-mummy (the shield is a rare Crocodile Games piece from one of the early Asar miniatures). Below we have conversion of the generic Dark Harbinger miniature from Crocodile Games. I've used himas a Crypt Lord and a member of either the double handed weapon unit or the hand weapon and shield unit. He originally had a crook and flail but those bits were stolen to use in other conversions.

Above we've got a Crypt Lord who's been converted from holding a kopesh to having a spear so he can easily fit into the Spear Mummy unit. His shield was is froma Reaper mummy (they have a lot of cool shields and bits). Below is a heavily converted spear-mummy to be an archer Crypt Lord. I'm not sure where the cobra head came from (maybe an old Ral Partha snake?) but I know the mace is from a GW Tomb Kings figure and the bow and quiver were from the Crocodile Games weapons packs. It all came together to make a pretty dynamic miniature...

Coming up next are the special units and monsters for the massive Eater of the Dead warband(s).

Archive 3 - Eater of the Dead Part 1 - Horde Mummies

I've painted a lot of undead for WarGods- I mean A LOT. When I assembled them for the archive I realized there were way too many to fit into one post. Here's the first of four parts showcasing all the Eater of the Dead minis I've painted for warbands over the years.

Some of the first WarGods minis I painted were mummies because they were quick and easy to paint and I liked the undead. So even before I got involved with that fateful Ankahra campaign. To get a warband together quickly I realized the easiest warband to build would be for the Eater because I already had a bunch of mummies painted. 

A quick head turn and maybe a headswap here and there (the two below with a plastic bug head and a plastic crocodile head) made converting up more Horde Mummies quick and easy.

More quick conversions of the same model simply by moving the head (or adding a shield above) and moving the arms a little (below). I still like the guy with the hat in the middle below- it was a such an easy little conversion using a thick plastic straw and some putty.

Above and below we have the simplest and most gruesome conversion for the standard Horde Mummy- the missing arm. It was something I should have thought of much earlier and it adds a whole new look to the minis.

Now we get into the one-off mummies. Above are from the Vor the Maelstrom line of miniatures but they're plain enough that I thought they'd add some nice variety to the horde. Below a tainted mummy with tentacles and a Nekharu headswap to represent more of the races in the WarGods setting.

A couple of dynamic mummies from Ral Partha above. Below we have a later Crocodile Games Horde Mummy, some random mummy from a company I don't remember, and another later Crocodile Games mummy meant to be placed in a coffin ( thought it would look cool as a floating mummy).

Above we've got a couple of undead from Dark Fable with a Crocodile Games figure in the center (I think he came with one of the Crypt Lord sculpts).

Above and below we have some musicians. Above are from Crocodile Games (the center one is a simple headswap to increase the diversity of the mummies. Below on the left is a Reaper mummy that I gave soem sort of evil bagpipes to and on the right is a Dwarf Mummy drummer.

Above we've got two Mummy Standard Bearers. The left is a Reaper miniature and the right is the official Crocodile Games Horde Mummy Standard Bearer. I need to do a few more standards and musicians for the Horde Mummy units and Mummy Warriors to 'complete' all the options for potential Eater of the Dead Warbands.

Finally, below is one of the Crocodile Games zombie miniatures- this one was tossed in with the Horde Mummies to help make the units look more interesting.

Next up we'll take a look at the Warrior Mummies miniatures....

Archive 2 - The Sebeki Rampage

Welcome to the second of my attempts to get new and better pictures of some minis that were painted long ago. This time it's the children of Sobek known as the Sebeki! The group shot above is actually missing two of the Sebeki Conventioneers, but I'll give them their own archive post later on. Also missing is a Beloved of Sobek because I sold off my original painted version years ago- I have anotehr copy that I need to get around to painting because it is such an impressive figure.

Above is the only unit of Sebeki I've got, since they're so big and ready to rumble the minimum unit size is 6. 

Above we have the unit's Musician and below the unit's Standard.

These two guys are, obviously, the same pose but with different heads and different color choices they've got their own personalities.

Above we have another of the Sebeki Hammerers and below is a conversion of the hammer to an axe (I think it was a metal bit) to give the unit a little bit of a mix of weapons.

Below is the Champion or Captain for the unit. I'm pretty sure the axe head is a plastic bit from somewhere (probably GW). 

One of my favorite Master of Words minis from the Wargods range. I swapped the gharial head for a normal croc head (I actually used it on one of the Sebeki Conventioneers because it seemed more geeky).

A converted Sebeki Hero, this is the famous adventurer Crocodiliopolois Hotep. He was an entry in one of the painting contests at a GenCon years ago and won a prize (third out of 3?).

A bonus figure that goes with the Sebeki as an Asar City Dweller Hero of Crocodiliopolis dubbed the Guardian of the Nile. This is a Chronopia Sons of Kronos mini that looked like he'd fit in with the Sebeki pretty well.

The 5th Anniversary Crocodile Games Mascot who has seen action on the tabletop as a Priest of Sobek and a Chariot Driver.

One of my favorite Crocodile Games miniatures saved for last, the Sebeki Hero. This is the second of this guy I've painted up (the first went off to eBay because I thought I wouldn't have any need for Sebeki). This time I swapped out his big mace for the impressive kopesh.

There are more unpainted Sebeki minis languishing in a box somewhere that will eventually get painted. I even have a female Asar that would be awesome as a Harbinger of Sobek who will definitely fit in with these guys.

Basti Painter and Basti Gamer

These two special event miniatures from Crocodile Games have been partially painted for far too long (I've been saying that a lot lately). Well now they're done and I can get back to the partially painted lead and plastic pile...

I've painted the Basti Gamer before, but I think I sent it to someone else. I tried to make some subtle details here and there- like the color of his WarGods book is sorta like the 2nd Edition orange, a little. He's got 2 different colored metal dice in his right hand and there's rough 'stars' on his dicebag hanging from his belt. No special significance to the white line on his pron, I just anted to add something simple to make it more interesting (I think the first time I painted it as tie-dye).

The Basti Painter is one of my top 10 favorite WarGods sculpts (at least this week) so I was somewhat intimidated by it. I got his kin and most of the base of his clothes done but that's where he was stuck for a looong time (a couple years). Finally I started putting the paint blobs on his palette and then went for the finishing touches. There's a little tattoo on his left shoulder because of some paint screwup that I was trying to cover up. It's really abstract, though, and I didn't get a clear picture of it.