Afterlife Guardian

The Protector of Souls

28mm

"YOU HAVE ARRIVED, SOUL. THERE IS NO GOING BACK...
FOLLOW ME. AND I BEG YOU, DO NOT STRAY FROM THE PATH."

This is a great Reaper figure that is, unfortunately, out of production.  I started painting it a long time ago, but after base coating I never finished it.  I'm glad I dug it out of the vault, because now I remember why I really liked it in the first place.  Sinister but not openly aggressive, and that cloak is amazing!  (It was a lot of work to paint, admittedly)

Undead Master of Knowledge

Count Orlok, Scholarly Vampire
28mm

Immortality... a gift, and yet also a burden.  A vampire can only enjoy rampant carnage for so long before even the hunt becomes a chore.  The weight of centuries can lead to apathy, immobility, descent into near-stasis... or a realization that all that time opens up new potential.  Some like St. Vigeus embark on martial conquest, amassing a vampire army and putting humans to the sword as well as the fang.  But for others, their intellect guides them.  An infinite quest for knowledge, discovery of lore and arcane secrets, and possibly immense power! With nothing but time, they scour the world for obscure tomes, magical artifacts and substances, hideous rare beasts, and other arcana.

A CP miniatures figure, with a scratchbuilt desk and accessories from WizKids Deep Cuts.  I also added a few details to his base, implying some tentacled horror imprisoned beneath his floor.

"Ah... nothing like a bottle and a new book.  It's a pity there's nobody
here to share them with... oh right, I hate company."

Undead Bosses

Lich and Mummy Lord
28mm

Carving your way through the horde of inept, shambling skeletons and zombies, you sense a greater malevolence at work.  Not a human necromancer, but a supremely evil intelligence, itself risen from beyond the grave...

These two sinister figures are actually a set from WizKids Deep Cuts.  Although rather an odd figure, the mummy was fun and easy to paint.. and I like the translucent cloud that attaches to its base to give it a bit of a dramatic appearance.

The Lich's pose and the rising figure at the base appealed to me, but I felt that the sculpt's tidy robes didn't suit the character. So I draped it with PVA-soaked tissues and scraps of cheesecloth to produce a grungy and decayed appearance suggesting a long interment in the earth..

FYI I'm still playing catch-up with blog posts, but in the next few weeks I hope to have presented everything I painted this year...

Deaf forever to the battle's din

Scrap Thrall and Necro Captain
28mm

Win or lose, naught to choose
All men are equal when their memory fades
No one knows, friend or foes
if Valhalla lies beyond the grave

The undead come in many forms... whether reanimated by sheer will and hatred, arcane necromancy, or the unnatural sciences, they lurch malevolently through the world, formidable foes for the living...

 

These two figures have been stuck in my lead pile for many years, because I just don't paint many skeletons!  But I wanted something spooky to paint for October, so here they are.  An odd couple, to be sure; I went with thematically matching paint jobs while giving each one a distinctive look.  I'm glad I'd learned the foam smoke technique I used here, I can't imagine the Thrall looking right without it.

The creaking, smoking minion wasn't much help searching the
swamp, but the Necro Captain did rely on it to mindlessly savage
any enemies they might encounter

Slave to the Power of Death

Tomb of the Screaming Pharaoh
15mm scale

Tell me why I had to be a Powerslave
I don't wanna die, I'm a god
Why can't I live on?

 

 

It was said that the pharaoh Ser-Akh-Aten, seeking to escape not only bodily putrefaction but mortal death itself, entered a pact with forces far older and darker than the gods of his people.  He expired, shrieking in an incomprehensible tongue, his body grotesque and contorted, and was hastily mummified and interred under the Elder Sign by his priests, in the hopes his madness would be buried and forgotten.

It was not forgotten, and did not long stay buried...

 

He knew the Black Pharaoh
Servant to the Faceless Sphinx God
He gave me the book of the dead

 

These figures were a kind gift from CP Models.  I made the tomb from Fimo (the face) and insulation foam (the wall).

(A bit of a "Zardoz" vibe now that I think of it)