Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

So, I recently was at a game store and I picked up some GW miniatures (Vampire Counts Grave Guard) which looked perfect for the Temple of Sarku's undead troops. The armour and weaponry have a real Tekumel aesthetic to me. I also had some ancient GW Tomb Kings bits that I found in the shed and between the two I came up with a result that I am quite happy with.
Now, I know that the Temple of Sarku and its clergy tend to favour brown, black and copper colours, but would any of these undead be wearing Tsolyani blue armour? Actually, where do the temple get their undead from? Are they dawn exclusively from Sarku worshippers, or would any corpse be used? I am referring to lesser undead like Mr'ur, as I can't see Jajgi being anything but devotees of the Worm Lord.
Also, what colour was Engsvanyali armour? Was there a national colour, or did each legion have a unique scheme?

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Crom's hairy nutsack, I miss Humbrol enamels. They seemed to change their formula in the late 70s or early 80s, but the early 70s stuff I got from "La Belle Alliance," before there even WAS a "Little Tin Soldier Shop" -- man, that was some of the nicest paint I EVER used. Excellent coverage, even light over dark, smooth finish, went on like a dream, uniform color from tin to tin, excellent consistency... sigh.

My dear wife made me promise to stick to acrylics some years ago. They've gotten much better, though. Some of the Badger model railroad colors are astounding... you can airbrush them and then hand brush them and not tell where the spray stops and the brush starts.

Those old Humbrol enamels were the bees knees for sure. I think it was all the Toluene they used:thanx:I still get unexpected neural twitches from time to time. I remember there being a noxious atmosphere in the basement with the Humbrol, Testors (square bottle all the way), and the MEK (lacquer thinner) I used to clean the brushes and thin the paint. I know my dad regretted giving me that stuff. I recently bought a bottle of Testors enamel, they still make the square bottles, and it was shit. Crappy coverage, and streaking. I remember their flat colours were some of the best covering paints when I was a kid.
It's amazing how much paint technology has advanced. The acrylics are absolutely amazing. I started using the the Vallejo Colour and Model Air paints about 18 years ago (at the behest of She who must not be named) and never looked back. I remember the wags at my local hobby store giving me a hard time about switching from Tamiya and Model Master for some reason. To be honest there is no smell at all with the Vallejo and sucking in fumes when I airbrush is no longer my idea of fun. Besides, a bit of Windex is all I need to clean it between colours! I can't say that about the Tamiya, MM, or Gunze paints and their alcohol base.
I've heard a lot of good things about the new Badger paints. I seem to remember that they first launched them back in the 1990's and they were junk. The new ones are obviously much better.

Shemek

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

So, I recently was at a game store and I picked up some GW miniatures (Vampire Counts Grave Guard) which looked perfect for the Temple of Sarku's undead troops. The armour and weaponry have a real Tekumel aesthetic to me. I also had some ancient GW Tomb Kings bits that I found in the shed and between the two I came up with a result that I am quite happy with.
Now, I know that the Temple of Sarku and its clergy tend to favour brown, black and copper colours, but would any of these undead be wearing Tsolyani blue armour? Actually, where do the temple get their undead from? Are they dawn exclusively from Sarku worshippers, or would any corpse be used? I am referring to lesser undead like Mr'ur, as I can't see Jajgi being anything but devotees of the Worm Lord.
Also, what colour was Engsvanyali armour? Was there a national colour, or did each legion have a unique scheme?

Those Vampire Count's Grave Guard look like a good proxy for The Legion of Despairing Dead...Srukarum would be proud!!!

Welcome by the way!!! Keep those questions coming, it's Uncle's lifeblood!!! I myself will be traveling the planes. I will be away till late Trantor(a hero's work is never done). So please keep this thread alive. I shall return...

H:0)

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

True. When I was planning this game - the Dave Arneson Memorial one in 2010 - I wanted to re-stage this particular fight. I re-read Phil's description of the hive-ships, and they sounded like a domed base with a lot of nautical frou-frou stuck on. I instantly thought of Ken Fletcher, and his wonderful drawings, and I was off looking at pre-dreadnoughts for inspiration. Here's what they looked like in the pink foam...

(And the Lighting Bringer did work, by the way; I was very proud of that.)

This post was from a little while ago, but I always thought they looked like some kind of angular ziggurat, not so rounded. Who knew?:idunno:

Shemek

Originally Posted by Hrugga

Those Vampire Count's Grave Guard look like a good proxy for The Legion of Despairing Dead...Srukarum would be proud!!!

Welcome by the way!!! Keep those questions coming, it's Uncle's lifeblood!!! I myself will be traveling the planes. I will be away till late Trantor(a hero's work is never done). So please keep this thread alive. I shall return...

H:0)

Thank you for the welcome. That's what I was thinking of using them as, or as casualties from some forgotten legion or other.

Shemek

Originally Posted by David Johansen

I used Testors back in the eighties. I've got a friend who swears by them. I managed to find some old bottles for him in a small town hardware store about five years ago. Being enamels they were still good.

Personally I miss Ral Partha's acrylic paints. Other people felt they were too thick and gloppy but they were highly pigmented and thinned out beautifully. The Iron Wind Metals stuff was never as good but at least I could still match my color palette. Nowadays I mostly use Army Painter. It's a bit crappy but it's fairly cheap and I can get it for my store. The distribution issues you have to face these days I tell you!

Anyhow, I miss Ral Partha in general. In a couple weeks I'm going to Calgary for Easter and I'm hoping The Sentry Box still has some packs of the late nineties Fantasy Armies orcs I'm looking for. Otherwise I'll have to get them at modern prices and pay shipping.

I spend entirely too much time wishing for old products that I can't get anymore.

Believe it or not I have a couple of bottles of Testors from the 70's, copper and gold. Still good. In fact, I'll probably use the copper on my Sarku troops. You can still get them at many hobby stores, at least the ones here. I know they used to make them in Ontario, but since they moved production down to the States the formulation changed and I find that they are not as good as they were before. They just don't want to mix with other colours. As an aside, the Testors OD Green, Olive Green, and Flat Black is an exact match to the CF camo on the old Leos, Cougars, Grizzlies, Deuces/Deuce and a Halfs, (ML's), HL's, Iltis', etc... In fact, I'm pretty sure that the newer kit uses the same camo colours.
I remember the Ral Partha paints. I had a few of them. They were my first attempt at using acrylics. Unfortunately, they all dried up rather quickly, and I found them too chalky. Probably because I was so used to the Testors and didn't know how to properly use the acrylics. I went back to enamels until at least the mid 90's or so when started using Vallejo and Citadel. My two favourite colour names from RP were Bullywug Belly Green, and Mindflayer Mauve. Don't think I have used Army Painters, but I may have an Ink from them. Wow, if the Sentry has them in stock surely they must be ancient? Were they purchased by the Lords of the Latter Times and forgotten about? Are you sure you're not going to Gidj and Sons? When did Ral Partha stop making paints?

Shemek

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

What Undead are made from also depends on if it's one of the big temples in a big city or someplace out in the boonies.

Makes sense. Just out of curiosity, would they use the remains of another temple's followers? Would the Worm Lord's priest reanimate a dead warrior of Lord Karakan? I'm sure that would cheese off some folks if it got out that they were doing this.