Category Archives: Kings of War

Oldhammer MD8 Undead Skull Chucker/Screaming Skull Catapult

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MD8 Undead Skull Chucker/Screaming Skull Catapult Oldhammer

Back in my teens, I used to finance many of my Warhammer purchases by commission painting for other people. I got to paint some cool stuff, and bought a hell of a lot of Space Marines (most of which are still unpainted to this day(!) One of the kits I painted for other people was the stuff from the MD8 Skeleton War Machines box set, which was the eighth in the Machineries of Destruction range. As with my old Dwarves, I only ever had a couple dozen of the old Undead models, and sold off most of them back in the day, excepting a few (exactly as with the Dwarves). Since Marouda’s “building” an Undead Army for KoW (as fast as I can paint it for her) and I’ve been following Subedai’s blog for a couple of years, I’ve gotten inspiration for various bits and pieces. Recently, he showed off his Plague Cart, which triggered something in my pea brain and sent me to eBay looking for some of the cool old Undead kits I painted back in the day. While I haven’t been completely successful so far, I’ve managed to get a few pieces at least. Here’s the first of them: The Skull Chucker (also alternately known as the Screaming Skull Catapult before that new Tomb Kings kit took the name).

MD8 Undead Skull Chucker/Screaming Skull Catapult Oldhammer

MD8 Skull Chucker as it arrived.

Yep, there are some “mistakes” and missing bits there. First and most obviously, the crew are “wrong”, and it’s missing the Skull Ammo Pile. It was sold on eBay with two loaders and a spotter, but not the bonehead who fires the catapult. Still, the price was ok, and shipping from the UK was decent rather than exploitative (both real concerns when you’re here in Australia) so I figured “good enough” and got it anyway. There was a ton of old superglue encrusted on the launcher arm and frame, and the arm was glued slightly up at an odd angle. Also a fair bit of old, old flash and extruded bits of lead to clean up. No big deal though. I used a bit of greenstuff to get a good bond when reassembling, and then noticed that both braces were missing from the kit. D’oh!

MD8 Undead Skull Chucker/Screaming Skull Catapult Oldhammer

MD8 Skull Chucker under repairs.

Now luckily I’d just bought some undead Tomb Kings stuff off a guy locally, and I’d literally just received the bag of bits that he’d “forgotten” (cough) to send out with the other stuff a week earlier. I thought it would be worth checking through to see if there was something appropriate in it that I could use to fix up the Skull Chucker. Now the bits bag was actually filled with cool bits (it was a big reason why I bought his stuff). and it included several of these …banner poles(?) After cutting them down, they turned out to be a great fit, and the socket cutouts with little embossed skulls on the joins worked perfectly as replacement pieces. I should make up a replacement Skull Ammo Pile. It was one of the first things I thought of, but I completely forgot about it until now. Shouldn’t be too difficult, at least.

MD8 Undead Skull Chucker/Screaming Skull Catapult Oldhammer

MD8 Skull Chucker – Repaired!

MD8 Undead Skull Chucker/Screaming Skull Catapult Oldhammer

They look like they’re supposed to be there, so as fas as I’m concerned, Job’s a Good’un.

For the paint, I stuck to Marouda’s chosen Undead palette. Bone/Black/Brass/Iron with deep Red and some Aqua (verdigris) as the spot colours. My style of painting bone might be a bit bright to be properly realistic but it pops nicely on the table.

MD8 Undead Skull Chucker/Screaming Skull Catapult Oldhammer

The crew provided me with some stuff to work on at work last week. I’ll have to prepare some new models to work on for this week’s lunch breaks now. It’s like an extra deadline each weekend. Eurgh.

MD8 Undead Skull Chucker/Screaming Skull Catapult, C22 Orc Bolt Thrower Oldhammer

Uneasy Allies…

Undead and Orcs. Back together for the first time in a long time. Back in 3rd Edition WHFB, I used to regularly summon Skeletons as allies for my Orc and Goblin army. They often just stood in lines breaking up the line of sight between my Orc units so they wouldn’t kick the crap out of each other via failed animosity rolls. Now that’s something I don’t miss in KoW!

Wargames Foundry Skeletons – The Hydra’s Teeth, Unit 2: Spear

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Wargames Foundry Mythical Greek Skeletons with Spears

The second unit for the Mythical Greek army is the one shown below – made up of Reaper Bones Skeletal Spearmen and the starts of the show – the other half of the Wargames Foundry Greek Mythology Skeletons range. “Children of the Hydra.” Unfortunately, the whole range is made up of only 10 models across two blisters – 4 with spears and 6 with swords. Within that only a few of them look distinctly Greek, so with 6 models needed to fill out the regiment, I decided to look elsewhere rather than order another pack from Foundry (I prefer fewer doubled-up figures, anyway). Their sister unit, armed with swords was finished some time ago, as was most of this unit, but some recruiting issues drew finishing this lot out for longer than I’d hoped.

The metals from Foundry worked out well. I just wish more of them had more explicitly Greek gear. I replaced their metal spears in the end with plastic ones from the Wargames Factory skeleton set. The shield on this guy comes from Little Big Men, and was a real bear to apply. Apparently it may have come from a faulty batch, since the plastic film would just not come off, and destroyed two other transfers in the process/attempts…

Wargames Foundry Mythical Greek Skeletons with Spears, Wargames Factory Skeletons, Warlord Games Skeletons

Wargames Factory (now Warlord Games) Plastic Skeletons join the Wargames Foundry Metal Skeleton.

In the end to fill out the missing two in the ranks, I again turned to the Wargames Factory plastic skeletons. They’re already Greek-themed to an extent, which is great. My only concern was how fine they are, and as such are very susceptible to breakage as wargaming figures – especially with spears sticking up everywhere. Still, with these guys towards the middle it should be fine. Again WGF comes to the rescue of the WGF-dominated unit. In the end, I decided against adding shields to the skeletons bracing their spears – mostly because there was no easy and effective way to attach them that would still look good. A bit of a shame, but c’est la vie.

Wargames Foundry Mythical Greek Skeletons with Spears, Wargames Factory Skeletons, Warlord Games Skeletons

Wargames Factory and Foundry Skeletons fight side-by-side

I went with the one skeleton coming out of the ground to help invoke the whole Jason and the Argonauts thing. A classic from our youth, (even if it was made before many of us were born, it was often shown late on Saturday Mornings here, as well as when VHS arrived.

And now, The obligatory Finished Unit shots:

Wargames Foundry Mythical Greek Skeletons with Spears, Wargames Factory Skeletons, Warlord Games Skeletons, Reaper Bones Skeletons

Wargames Foundry Mythical Greek Skeletons with Spears, Wargames Factory Skeletons, Warlord Games Skeletons, Reaper Bones Skeletons

Wargames Foundry Mythical Greek Skeletons with Spears, Wargames Factory Skeletons, Warlord Games Skeletons, Reaper Bones Skeletons

The Hydra’s Teeth – Spear: Finished!

Wargames Foundry Mythical Greek Skeletons with Spears, Wargames Factory Skeletons, Warlord Games Skeletons, Reaper Bones Skeletons, Reaper Bones Bronze Bull

The Mythical Greek Army begins to take shape.

And finally, an army shot of the Mythological Greeks so far. Not a whole lot yet, but it shows the two units of Skeletons along with the Bronze Bull painted earlier this year.