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Making an undead army is one of my longtime childhood ambitions, and the Microworld Games 6mm line is just superb!
This is the start of an army for the Fallen Empire – an undead Byzantine force formed when Emperor Constantine XI turns to vile necromancy to save Constantinople from the Turk, an action which causes tens of thousands of dead Byzantine soldiers from a thousand years of war to rise from the grave all across the Mediterranean, leading to the rise of the Fallen Empire – the greatest threat ever faced by Christendom and the rising Renaissance states.
Over and over I have had to talk myself out of 6mm fantasy armies, and you’re over there helping the opposition!
"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."
Cool! As I remember from my Warmaster days, the small scales lend themselves particularly well for classic, skeletal undead armies. I started collecting a Microworld undead army too, when the range was fairly new. Some minor nitpicks with the sculpting and casting of the figures made me lose enthusiasm, but I’m over them now.
I know what you mean – the Undead are one of the earliest and most tentative efforts in the MicroWorld line – the bases in particular I found to be too large, and needed to be clipped. The Soldiers are also a little wide in their stance. But the effect in based up regiments is great – it feels like a seething mass of the undead surging forward. And they’re super easy to paint up to a very good tabletop standard, with nice relief and definition in the casts.
The Fantasy Renaissance Line is super sophisticated though – I’m doing a Florentine army using the Landsknechts as stand ins, and it’s quite a satisfying challenge!
Over and over I have had to talk myself out of 6mm fantasy armies, and you’re over there helping the opposition!
We do our best, like.
Everytime I have started painting a new fantasy line, I have started with undead. Can’t beat it for painting speed! Unfortunately, I am heavily invested in 15mm fantasy, so I won’t be doing the pico scales for this “period”.:(
You remind me of me, before the advent of 3mm scale sci fi.
You’ll be back. They always come back. 😉
I know what you mean – the Undead are one of the earliest and most tentative efforts in the MicroWorld line – the bases in particular I found to be too large, and needed to be clipped. The Soldiers are also a little wide in their stance. But the effect in based up regiments is great – it feels like a seething mass of the undead surging forward. And they’re super easy to paint up to a very good tabletop standard, with nice relief and definition in the casts.
My foremost nitpick was that the skeleton infantry (at least the ones I received) had a bit of a “flatness” to them, in the dimension perpendicular to the plane along which they were moulded (if that makes any sense). I had the impression they had originally been sculpted thicker/”deeper”, but that a fraction of a millimeter of thickness/depth was lost in the mouldmaking process, as I’ve been given to understand often happens when two-part moulds are made. For figures in this small a scale, a fraction of a millimeter matters. It doesn’t bother me greatly, but out of curiosity, did Microworld get better at avoiding this mistake with later releases? I can see how the undead could have been a bit of a “learning army” for the manufacturer. In any case, I agree that the effect of massed skeletons is great, and I hope to see more of this army, as well as the Florentines you mention. Which reminds me: Cool background, too.
They do definitely have a flatness to them. You can see that I angled them very slightly on the base to overlap their swords and maces. Individually it’s a bit of an issue, but on a unit base like this it works out pretty well, as the overlap lends a sense of density to the unit as a whole. The Renaissance figures are definitely much fuller-bodied, in particular the infantry. I’m working on a regiment of Florentine Arquebusiers right now and will post soon so you can see how they match up. In particular the choice of base size helps a LOT. Originally I was doing nearly 1″ x 2″ with the same number of soldiers on the base, and it was just way too sparse. More troops on smaller bases definitely has a better visual aspect at this scale. Mine are 1 1/4″ x 5/8″, which is the correct proportion (2:1) but smaller than “traditional” 20x40mm. The relative look is way better than I could have expected.
Thanks man! These are oddly relaxing to paint. I don’t get much time to do it but still.
Here are some Skellington Archers:
Also word to the wise: I hear more Undead are coming, and the previews I’ve seen look like they have a little more “body” to them. Although as you can see the originals look pretty nice in massed formations.
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