's barbarian army.
I wanted a "quick and easy" project the other night, and it occurred to me: why not Undead?
Now I've never actually painted the Undead, but I've heard it's easy, and I have several 15mm examples waiting (with the patience of the dead!) to be painted someday...
The figures I chose to paint were the Spectres, formerly from Mongoose and now produced by Rebel Minis. From two of the Undead boxed sets for Mighty Armies, I could muster 16 of the spooky fellows (plus skeletons, wights, etc. - but that's another day...).
The figures needed the usual amount of clean up, mostly on the ends of their corroded swords. Then I mounted the figures individually on ½" by ½" steel bases - individually, because I like the freedom to rearrange my units depending on the rules I'm using; and metal bases, because I'll put these on magnetic movement trays when gaming.
To smooth in the transition between figure and base, I applied Renaissance Ink's Medium Flocking Gel - a goo which dries with a sandy texture.
I primed the figures with black spray paint. I've been using Krylon Ultra Flat Black, which works fine except for the distinctive stench for the first 24 hours after painting.
Painting was simplicity itself. I drybrushed the entire figure - including the base - with three shades of grey paint, using inexpensive craft store acrylics that I normally use for painting stonework. The final highlight was applied only to the top surfaces of the figure. A black-ink wash darkened the base to give more contrast with the figure.
Since these are "bad" ghosts, I didn't want to make them too white - I left them greyish.
The swords were then drybrushed with FolkArt Metallic Gunmetal Gray.
I went for a subdued look to the sword, rather than a gleaming silvery blade.
A spray of matte sealer, and the figures were done!
