One of the projects I've been working towards is wanting to get enough undead units painted to run the Heinrich Kemmler army of the cairns campaign, which appeared in white dwarf sometime during 2005 (There is some discrepancies between US & UK issue numbers, so I'm not sure which issue it was actually published, I have a digital copy of the the army list, as I'm missing a big chunk of issues from around that time)
I didn't want to pay GW prices for their skeletons though. One unit of 50 skeletons would cost around €112 and the grave guard is even more obscene at €33 per box of ten!
So I've been hunting around for a decent alternative. With the release of warlords of Erehwon, warlord games have rebranded the old wargames factory skeleton kit. I had always been put off buying the kit in the past, with the amount of complaints online about how annoying the kit is to build. Which is a real shame, as I picked up a box to test them out and they are fantastic!
The small box comes with 24 skeletons, bases are included on the sprue and they came with a sheet of decals for the shields. The set allows you to build skeletons with all pikes or hand weapons. Sadly, the sprue only comes with enough bows to equip half of them as archers. The only irritating part of the kit is that the feet come separate from the legs, which if you are used to GW kits only might be a bit of an irritation, but once you get the first couple out the way, it becomes easy enough to clip the legs in the feet with no hassle. (Though, one small point that I failed to notice with the first one I built. The feet and legs are numbered, the only parts to be so. I had the sprue upside down so I missed the numbers when I started on the first one!)
The plastic is slightly softer than the plastic GW uses and with the parts being more delicate due to the size of the bones, a little more care needs to be taken when cleaning up the parts. But again, I got used to them very quickly.
I've built the first unit of ten and have quite a good system when working with this kit now. Trick is to be working on three models at once, as you do have to allow time for the chest to dry when gluing it to the legs, as the connection point is quite small and you will have to reposition it as it dries, or you can end up with a wonky skeleton. Same as with the head.Whilst this is drying, you can be adding the rest of the parts to the first one, as the chest should be set by then, or working on starting a third model.
Overall, the kit is superb value. I know some people don't like that warlord games are stocking them, due to the rise in price and that the set now contains less models than when it was sold from wargames factory directly, but as someone that has mostly brought GW products for 30 years, these have been a breath of fresh air. The price was pretty good on the 24 man (or skeleton rather) set and it's even better on the 90 model set (91 models really, as it also includes a metal necromancer!)
Only downside is the lack of bows on the sprue, if you want a huge unit of archers then you will need to either cast some up with a 2 part mould or take some spares from other kits. For me, I don't think I will have an issue as I like the 24 model kit so much, I ordered the 90 model set the day after! I'm building enough skeletons with spears that I will have a whole bunch of bows left over when it comes to building my archers!
Though the arms are a little bit smaller than the GW skeletons, though the skulls are about the same size, meaning that all, or at least most of. the skulls from the citadel skull kit should be usable with these with a little bit of clever crafting, which would give even more variety. There is enough spare heads in the set that you get enough parts for a champion though, but sadly there is no musician in this kit, which is a shame. A banner bearer is easy enough to create out of a spare spear, so that is less of an issue.
One of the best parts of the kit is that they are very plain looking skeletons, unlike the GW offerings, which are all in various states of dress. This is a bonus for me, as I do have some of the GW skeletons which are included in one of their start collecting kits. As these start collecting kits are pretty good value (even after the earlier price rise) I will be buying at least one more to go with the one I already have, as to get some more of the knights, as well as a second mortarch kit (I have plans for a lot of the spare parts in that kit as well!) This means that I could potentially use their regular skeleton warriors as replacements for the grave guard. I'm not keen on the official grave guard kit, as I find them to be a little be over designed, as well as being horridly overpriced. I may just be able to justify to myself to purchase just one of the grave guard kits then, for the 2 handed weapons and with a mix of both their skeletons kits, make one large unit of grave guard for a lot cheaper.
You do have to be a little more conscious of poses when building the warlord skeletons. Being multi part kits, you have a lot of freedom to create them as you see fit. But you can get some awkward poses if you don't pay attention, like with this banded legged chap:
I've not been too bothered with this though. I like that they have an unnatural stance to them. It's as if they have no memory of muscles or how to move on their own! It reminds me of the Ray Harryhausen skeletons I fell in love with as a child (Which both the kit and the necromancer have clearly been modeled from!)
The kit also included two parts which are meant to be a a bit of ground for a skeleton to be bursting out the ground! This will add a of variety to a big unit. For me, it was a an exercise in how to get some more value out the kit. I had already planned to make some unit fillers and this would be a good bit to work one or two of them around. You sadly don't get enough spare chests to make use of the ground plate without leaving some legs with nothing to do with. But you do get a couple of spare arms, so instead of adding a whole chest and head (and thus wasting a set of legs) I thought I'd get away with just using a spare arm along with the gravestones, trees & crows that I had already put aside for unit fillers. Having put a mock up together, I do need to cut the tree down into two or three parts as its far too large on its own, but otherwise I think its a good use of the spare skeleton parts, which takes the place of four skeletons, so even better value!
I also have a fairly sizable collection of nighthaunt models, some of which were sent to me free for doing a huge online order with a FLGS. I love these models and have been thinking of working them in to my WFB collection, over painting them up for AoS. I intend to try out the one page rules Age of Fantasy rules at some point soon and they have an undead list that even has profiles for the nighthaunt, so it shouldn't be a problem seeing them mixed in with the rest of my undead. Only problem with them is some of them are clearly designed with round bases in mind, which means it's difficult to get them on square bases and still be able to move them in to combat. My way round this is to use the larger, 25x50mm bases for them and making sure that the model is position so the backside of the base is level, meaning I can flip the unit around backwards if I need to have it pushed up flat against something. Shouldn't cause any issues with any of the rules we do use. At worst I Might need a little arrow marker to show the true direction of the unit.
I didn't want to pay GW prices for their skeletons though. One unit of 50 skeletons would cost around €112 and the grave guard is even more obscene at €33 per box of ten!
So I've been hunting around for a decent alternative. With the release of warlords of Erehwon, warlord games have rebranded the old wargames factory skeleton kit. I had always been put off buying the kit in the past, with the amount of complaints online about how annoying the kit is to build. Which is a real shame, as I picked up a box to test them out and they are fantastic!
The small box comes with 24 skeletons, bases are included on the sprue and they came with a sheet of decals for the shields. The set allows you to build skeletons with all pikes or hand weapons. Sadly, the sprue only comes with enough bows to equip half of them as archers. The only irritating part of the kit is that the feet come separate from the legs, which if you are used to GW kits only might be a bit of an irritation, but once you get the first couple out the way, it becomes easy enough to clip the legs in the feet with no hassle. (Though, one small point that I failed to notice with the first one I built. The feet and legs are numbered, the only parts to be so. I had the sprue upside down so I missed the numbers when I started on the first one!)
The plastic is slightly softer than the plastic GW uses and with the parts being more delicate due to the size of the bones, a little more care needs to be taken when cleaning up the parts. But again, I got used to them very quickly.
I've built the first unit of ten and have quite a good system when working with this kit now. Trick is to be working on three models at once, as you do have to allow time for the chest to dry when gluing it to the legs, as the connection point is quite small and you will have to reposition it as it dries, or you can end up with a wonky skeleton. Same as with the head.Whilst this is drying, you can be adding the rest of the parts to the first one, as the chest should be set by then, or working on starting a third model.
Overall, the kit is superb value. I know some people don't like that warlord games are stocking them, due to the rise in price and that the set now contains less models than when it was sold from wargames factory directly, but as someone that has mostly brought GW products for 30 years, these have been a breath of fresh air. The price was pretty good on the 24 man (or skeleton rather) set and it's even better on the 90 model set (91 models really, as it also includes a metal necromancer!)
Only downside is the lack of bows on the sprue, if you want a huge unit of archers then you will need to either cast some up with a 2 part mould or take some spares from other kits. For me, I don't think I will have an issue as I like the 24 model kit so much, I ordered the 90 model set the day after! I'm building enough skeletons with spears that I will have a whole bunch of bows left over when it comes to building my archers!
Though the arms are a little bit smaller than the GW skeletons, though the skulls are about the same size, meaning that all, or at least most of. the skulls from the citadel skull kit should be usable with these with a little bit of clever crafting, which would give even more variety. There is enough spare heads in the set that you get enough parts for a champion though, but sadly there is no musician in this kit, which is a shame. A banner bearer is easy enough to create out of a spare spear, so that is less of an issue.
One of the best parts of the kit is that they are very plain looking skeletons, unlike the GW offerings, which are all in various states of dress. This is a bonus for me, as I do have some of the GW skeletons which are included in one of their start collecting kits. As these start collecting kits are pretty good value (even after the earlier price rise) I will be buying at least one more to go with the one I already have, as to get some more of the knights, as well as a second mortarch kit (I have plans for a lot of the spare parts in that kit as well!) This means that I could potentially use their regular skeleton warriors as replacements for the grave guard. I'm not keen on the official grave guard kit, as I find them to be a little be over designed, as well as being horridly overpriced. I may just be able to justify to myself to purchase just one of the grave guard kits then, for the 2 handed weapons and with a mix of both their skeletons kits, make one large unit of grave guard for a lot cheaper.
You do have to be a little more conscious of poses when building the warlord skeletons. Being multi part kits, you have a lot of freedom to create them as you see fit. But you can get some awkward poses if you don't pay attention, like with this banded legged chap:
I've not been too bothered with this though. I like that they have an unnatural stance to them. It's as if they have no memory of muscles or how to move on their own! It reminds me of the Ray Harryhausen skeletons I fell in love with as a child (Which both the kit and the necromancer have clearly been modeled from!)
The kit also included two parts which are meant to be a a bit of ground for a skeleton to be bursting out the ground! This will add a of variety to a big unit. For me, it was a an exercise in how to get some more value out the kit. I had already planned to make some unit fillers and this would be a good bit to work one or two of them around. You sadly don't get enough spare chests to make use of the ground plate without leaving some legs with nothing to do with. But you do get a couple of spare arms, so instead of adding a whole chest and head (and thus wasting a set of legs) I thought I'd get away with just using a spare arm along with the gravestones, trees & crows that I had already put aside for unit fillers. Having put a mock up together, I do need to cut the tree down into two or three parts as its far too large on its own, but otherwise I think its a good use of the spare skeleton parts, which takes the place of four skeletons, so even better value!
I also have a fairly sizable collection of nighthaunt models, some of which were sent to me free for doing a huge online order with a FLGS. I love these models and have been thinking of working them in to my WFB collection, over painting them up for AoS. I intend to try out the one page rules Age of Fantasy rules at some point soon and they have an undead list that even has profiles for the nighthaunt, so it shouldn't be a problem seeing them mixed in with the rest of my undead. Only problem with them is some of them are clearly designed with round bases in mind, which means it's difficult to get them on square bases and still be able to move them in to combat. My way round this is to use the larger, 25x50mm bases for them and making sure that the model is position so the backside of the base is level, meaning I can flip the unit around backwards if I need to have it pushed up flat against something. Shouldn't cause any issues with any of the rules we do use. At worst I Might need a little arrow marker to show the true direction of the unit.
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