Some 5 or 6 years ago I embarked upon an ambitious project to build the undead army I dreamt of back in 1994. You can see how far I got by following the tag LICHEMASTER to get the relevant posts. After pulling together enough finished figures to play through the 2nd Edition Terror of the Lichemaster campaign the project stalled and the incomplete retinue have sat staring at me with their empty eye sockets from various shelves ever since.
I wanted to make it my Deadcember project this year to finally get it done. When Dave announced that the month's Odds & Sods Challenge was 'Machineries of Destruction' my gaze fell on the unpainted skeleton chariots and I knew this was the motivation I needed. I actually finished the army on the 3rd January so just missed fitting it into Deadcember... but as you will see it was quite a large project and I am pleased to have it done!
Allow me to present, then, the first instalment of Heinrich Kemler's skeleton horde...
The 'Krellingtons' (as I like to call them) were already pretty much finished as I used them in my campaign. A few additions and alterations have been made though. I have painted Krell's banner and added a couple of Grenadier and a Denizen skeleton to the ranks. I have also done a bit more basing on them. Originally I wanted my bases for use on my snow terrain, but since I rarely get this out I decided to add some of the tea/coffee mix and sponge scatter I use on the other bases and terrain to make them more flexible. I like the idea that snow and ice follow where the dead walk so am totally fine with white beneath their feet.
New for the Krellingtons this month is a rather fine Fenryll Command War Chariot (with the oxen swapped out, you'll see where they ended up later...) containing Ranlac the Black, Krell's lieutenant.
I had to use the preslotta chaos warrior for Ranlac because of my childhood associations. The Undead 4th Edition army book was the first one I owned (in fact the only one I owned until my decision to collect all of them for the Encyclopedia Warhammica) and whilst it mentioned Krell it had no pictures of the miniature, I am not sure if it was even released by then? I did, however, have the 3rd Edition rulebook with the spectacular undead diorama by John Blanche in it (pictured at the top of this blog post). Stood on a hill above his troops was surely the leader of this horde, a skeleton in yellow armour with a big, black axe. Must be Krell, I thought. Therefore this model is ensconced as Krell in my mind and so I wanted him in the army, in a fine chariot. The colour scheme for Krell ad his unit is taken from the diorama, along with the iconography.
The BBB's are formerly the children of noble families who turned to adventuring and banditry to relieve the monotony of their comfortable lives. I have therefore chosen skeletons with rather more armour and fancier weapons for this unit. They're mostly Ral Partha figures from RPE.
The Bandits have also received a chariot, this time the Citadel Machineries of Destruction undead chariot, totally suitable for the month's Odds & Sods challenge. The champion in the chariot is Didier Cousteau, one of Zwemmer's champions according to the WFRP supplement. His banner, a common-enough undead motif, is a reference to the Damned Crew, a gang of noblemen who terrorised London in the 17th century. A band of too-rich yahoos with no sense of responsibility or civility much the same as the Bullingdon Club.
The reign of the Lichemaster continues next week with the monks of La Maisontaal...
