Initially I wasn’t going to get involved with A Tale Of Gamers, I’m a procrastinator, I have too many Grey Knights to paint as it is and I hate having unpainted models lying around, it just deflates my interest and I’ll never get anything finished.  But then one evening at the end of April I decided to have a look on the GW website to see how the armies I used to see and read about in White Dwarf during the early/mid 90’s have evolved and if I were to field 500 points, what would I choose purely for aesthetic reasons?

I bought a unit of Dryads when I was 14, the ones that looked like mini treemen, those were dry brushed various earthy colours over black and then traded with school friends for Imperial Guard, Rough Riders Of Attilla if I remember correctly, those Dryads were easy to rank up together because they were lead (just before the white metal changeover of the mid/late 90’s) and didn’t come as part of a multipart kit as they do now.  That was the only time I ever owned anything Fantasy related, I was always more of a fan of the grim darkness of the far future over hunched up units and spears.  Anyway, Nate was talking about fielding Wood Elves and so was Pauly so I had to change tack.  My first White Dwarf was the ’93 Skaven army book release issue and those dudes look sneaky as fuck, the Rat Ogres had an imposing look for the battlefield but then again 500 points wouldn’t get me anything cool so I’d have to rely on mice, forget that.

Then I remember the good old Undead, back when I was coming up they were just plain old Undead, Nagash was still a model who while he looked the epitome of the last 4 letters of his name, was still the lord of the Undead.  Fielding an army of zombies, skeletons and ghouls is as close as I’ll get to playing the last third of Army Of Darkness out on a tabletop.  I’m not the biggest fan of the whole vampire element of the army, but I compared them to Tomb Kings and decided it would be easier to paint an army using purple as a main colour for the regal aspect than gold, too warm for my tastes.

The first purchase was a box of ghouls, now these things are my first foray into Fantasy models and I’m not too great with putting them together so they rank up next to each other, I’m used to 2 inch spaced skirmish squads.  Colour wise I was trying for a purplish skin tone so I put a slightly thinned Druchii Violet wash over a Halfords grey primer spray base coat.  Once dry I dry brushed the skin Dawnstone, then Ash Waste Grey (late 80’s GW, Coat D’Arms still has many of these colours still available) and finally detailed with Administratum Grey.  The hair/pubes are Abaddon Black and highlighted with Eshin Grey.  I didn’t go to fancy with these guys as they’re only infantry but I did get a chance to try out my Tamiya clear red X-27 mixed with Nuln Oil mix on a couple of the blood drools and the ghoul dragging the corpse.  I was planning on having the whole squad covered in gore but ended up just putting it on two or three.  Less is more.

I know what you’re thinking, I haven’t left the poison claws unpainted for a reason, I’m still deciding what colour to paint them, I’m going to put it to a vote, or just paint them a bleached bone colour.  This does reveal how lazy I am and that I can never fully finish a miniature, even to post it on the internet.

This post and indeed tale of gamers is and will be brought to you by The Mighty Integrity.