Our small band of Adventurers had gone in search of the Tomb of the Lich King in order to save the princess and find the lost Crown of Kings, the only artefact that could restore peace to the Seven Kingdoms.

Deep in the heart of the vast underground necropolis the heroes entered a cavernous hall, it's length and breadth lined with mighty pillars of carved stone. Their footsteps echoed eerily in the silence as they crossed room.

All of a sudden all the lights went out and the mighty band was plunged into darkness, almost immediately the clerics mace, imbued with a permanent Detect Undead spell, flared to life, the light it emitted so bright that it blinded the heroes. But why had it failed to give it's warning in time?

As their eyes slowly adjusted the valiant few who had made it this far could now make out faces in the brilliant white light from the mace, dead faces, all around them. There was nothing for it, they were going to have to fight!

But what will they be fighting, this is where you guys come in. It's time to break out your dead. To successfully complete this challenge you must paint at least one model from the UD-Series, you are welcome (and encouraged) to paint more than one mini. Models included in the challenge can come from manufacturers other than Otherworld, but you must paint at least 1 model from Otherworld and 50% of all models painted must be from OW.

And lets not forget to say well done to everyone who participated and completed last months Challenge.

For every successfully completed challenge the participants are awarded 1 Challenge Point, these are entirely symbolic but are intended to incentive the challenges :)

The Scoreboard as it stands

Jake B (4)
AndyM (2)
Clam (4)*
Bruenorodinson (2)
Anakeron (3)*
KiltedYaksMan (3)*
Finch (2)*
Michka (1)*
And... Me! (4)*

The * marks those who completed the April challenge.

Ok, so that's about it, I'm hoping for a good turn out on this one, after all the bigger the horde attacking the party the better!

April got past me but I'm in for May. I drilled, pinned, and glued a wraith's head today, and prepped a bunch of other undead. I'll try to make some stone textures for the base tops tomorrow then get them fully assembled before priming.

Looking forward to it Jake.

I've only got Skelebobs (6 of them, but I may repaint my old Otherworld ones too.) But luckily Cthulhu sent me Wraiths and Demi-Human zombies so, although they don't count towards the challenge, I hope to still paint up loads of undead this month!

Challenge completed!

I'm getting mine done early this month because with work and prepping for the Expo I'm not going to have a lot of time. Plus I have that commission that needs finishing too!!!

Just under two years ago I joined the Otherworld forum and began posting pics of my work. I believe the second set of pics I posted were my skeletons, so it was nice to revisit these and paint up some new ones. I decided I'm going to use arms 2 with set 1 and visa-versa, to really help differentiate the models from the first group I did.

Obviously my aim was to see how much I had improved in the last two years (and to see if I should repaint my old skellies!)

What do you think?



I'm particularly happy with my rust effect and it's really quick to do too!



You might be able to see in these pics that there was an unusual amount of flashing (for an OW model 'cause there's usually none!) on the right hand side of the model which I couldn't really remove entirely, although it's not really noticeable to the naked eye.



And here he is alongside the same sculpt that I painted nearly two years ago (has it really been that long!!!!). I know what I think but how about you guys?



So that's it, I'm going to try and get some more Skellies done but I have so much going on I make no promises.

Hope you guys like...

The Duke

Well that was fast! I like him with the rusty gear. Skeletons may be tireless sentries and relentless warriors but I don't imagine they would stop to polish their weapons.

Nice work - the gauntlet has been laid down early! I think the skeleton is excellent and you can see an improvement on the earlier one (which is also v.good). I would not re-paint though as it's still a great mini and you could then just paint a new model for us to see!

I'm not sure the rust works though. I think the contrast between the silver and the rust is too much. It doesn't quite look right - IMHO. It's not bad, but it just doesn't quite work either. It could just be me of course :(

I agree that it doesn't look great in the pics, but on the table top it looks right. The dark edge on the rust and the light edge on the silver from a distance gives a 3-D effect that makes eye see the corrosion of the shield by the rust.

To be truthful I've never been that happy with the old skellies so I always knew they needed a repaint, I may not do them this month but I will eventually get them done. Honestly, if it hadn't been for the challenges I don't think I would have ever gotten round to painting up the new batch of skellies, so yay for the challenges!

Don't beat yourself up about the old skellies, they are still really good. I also agree the challenges have been great for reducing the lead pile and adding enthusiasm for new models to be painted :D

Just a single picture from the new guy.

Nice work! Looks like that Mummy's about to get decapitated!

Great work Accalon. I also did my mummies with blackened flesh, so I like this guy. Nice base as well. I also like the charging warrior. I wonder if he knows how tough those mummies really are!

out for this month challenge :( (still no ow undead).
will use this month to advance the trog tribes.

Love the fighter and mummy.

Very well done.

I'm contemplating white or bleached bone colour for my mummy wraps, and I like both schemes.

This gives me more to think about!

Accalon, I love the mummy as well. Your bases look spectacular. I used to believe that miniatures looked better without lots of base detail. Now I'm considering re-doing all the bases for my entire OW collection after seeing how great these look. Consider me converted.

For my part, dungeon stone is the minimum I'd do for a base. It finds the happy medium between setting the miniature in context, but not taking away from it either.

Great work, Accalon. Really like the grey look on the mummy and the dark skin. And the adventure is certainly a great painted miniature, too. Rather dynamic sculpt. What is he? ... Reaper?

Still trying to recover from last weeks surgeries. Had to go through 2 operations in 48 hours, and came home Saturday, with a partly numb leg :( Will take weeks recover from that, but hopefully I can soon start painting again :) And will do my utmost to complete this challenge. Have a reputation to think abort ;)

Helldorado is the make of the fighter. Doppelsoldner, or "Double Mercenary".

And as long as you are getting better thats the important bit, health first, reputation second.

I just looked up those miniatures, they look too 4E for my taste.

Having said that, it's a great pose and pj on that fighter.

It took some time before I noticed the benefits of surgery, and the last lingering hint of pain is still fading away but usually not noticeable now.

So today I made some crude suggestions of spine parts, ribs and a scapula out of the extra green stuff left over after making some more dungeon stone base textures for my undead. I'll try to hide their flaws with paint and add them to the niches of my catacomb walls, partly covered with other broken bone bits made from tiny twigs and model railroad ballast.

Good to have you back Clam, but dont go painting too soon, get better first!

Health or painting-wise? :P

Haven't even decided what to paint yet, so don't expect seeing my entry until the end of the month.

Oh, definitely painting-wise, we're all fed up of those eyesores you keep pumping out! :P

Oh, btw, great basing work Jake, looking forward to your entry, we missed you last month!

OK, here are my Mummies, I painted these for use in the UK module 'All that Glitters...' where there are 4 of these guys for the party to over come. It was a tough fight for a 4th / 5th level party!


They were really easy to paint, and I did all 4 pretty quickly. So they may not be my best work, but they came out OK in a short time! I definitely need more practice with the camera though. I was trying to get them all in focus I promise :(

Looking pretty good Andy. Personally I prefer the ones that stands up straight, but I think you've done a great job on all of them!

Nicely done.

Depth of field is my undoing as well. :angry:

Those Mummies look terrific. I wasn't planning on picking those miniatures up before. Looks like I'm changing my mind. I think this happens with every entry in this challenge.

I like 'em. The dark leathery flesh looks spot on.

That would be a tough fight for those PCs.

Holy ...., AndyM - they are brilliant. Skin tone is perfect - IMO - and contrast the bandage very well. Great, great job.

I'm struggling with my entry - but ain't pleased with the take on the age metal armoury, so guess that they are wrap in crystal soap by the end of the day <_< And give it a second try next week.

Now I really regret I don't have some OW Ghouls I could paint instead.

AndyM - those mummies look great.

At first, I was thinking a beached bone for the wraps (what I saw here on Frothers). Since seeing a few of the white wraps I'm leaning that way now.

Well done!

Here's my May painting challenge contribution.

This marks the beginning of what I'm calling the "Summer of the Undead" relative to a lead pile zombies, ghouls, mummies, vampires, etc that I need to work through in the coming months.



As a special bonus, here are some citadel shadows I did at the same time.

Excellent work, kiltedyaksman - they look scary - all of them. The old Citadels are great miniatures - but have to say the Paul's version really shows what sculptors have learned in 25 years :D The OWs are so crisp and detailed, that they are such a pleasure painting.

And just to make it official, I'm out. Still haven't been able to sit down painting yet. But will try and force it this weekend and do something for the bonus challenge.

Great work Kitty. I've not seen shadows done with such contrast, but they look really good. Kind of like they've been lit up by a light spell, bringing them out of the darkness.

BTW I'll send you a mail back later answering your question about the mummies. I'm glad you liked them.

Appreciate it.

After the first go-round, I just didin't feel my pj would allow the shadows to standout on the table - so I went back and did some additional highlighting.

I think subtlety would be great if you want showcase miniatures, but I felt the table required something different.

Nice. Good example of how painting the Citadels to match makes them all fit together as a group despite the differences in the sculpts.

I'm trying to decide whether my shadows are done, debating the same questions of how far to go with the contrast. Right now they are still pretty dark with low contrast. I think I'll try to lighten them up just a little bit more around the hood and sleeves, and paint the base a light stone color for contrast. and see if that does it for me.

I do think the shadows and wraiths both would look good in almost any shade of black, grey or white, or ethereal blue or green, or as more solid looking shapes with more natural color. Someone needs to try some glow in the dark green paint.

Here's my entry for this month.





Just some happy go lucky Undead guys looking for a good time. I tried to get a nice digital camera this weekend, but they were all sold out. If I'm lucky I'll have one for the next challenge.

Nice work Michka. I love the eyes on these guys - really creepy and effective. The mouths on the wights are also really good and all these guys have certainly been dining out! Maybe you could add some blood drips on the bases and cloaks as well.

Awesome Michka. I bet they really stand out on the table top. Great work everyone btw. Sorry I've been a little absent of late, lots and lots of real work. Dont forget to vote on the next challenge and the bonus challenge thread will go up on Thursday, don't miss out on those two bonus points!

Dangerously close to midnight the party discovers 2 shadows haunting the catacombs. . .



(No time left to get a better picture. In person these are actually black with layers of dark blue highlights. I'll try to get a better pic in better light.)

Hirst Arts catacomb terrain has urns made from gothic accessory spiky bits turned upside down, an old plastic skeleton, tiny twigs, and other bits.

Your Shadows look amazing. I look forward to seeing them in better light. Your terrain, however, is jaw-dropping. I'm many shades of jealous here.

Very cool