The Company Of The Black Sun - Age of Sigmar Undead - Painted Models!

I've been busy painting undead up since I wrote their background!

First, I wanted to just spend a minute explaining how I choose an army, and then the units within it, to collect and paint.

I'm not a hugely competitive gamer, so I don't specifically buy armies to win, or even to place high in tournaments.  What interests me more is the narrative of the army - the background of the faction itself, the reason this particular army is going to war.

Alongside that is the main question that needs to be answered by the army; will I enjoy painting it?  I've seen many armies over the years which I thought would be fun to paint, but once I've built a unit or two I just have no drive to paint them (most recently these were World Eaters for Horus Heresy, Space Wolves for 40k and Hedonites of Slaanesh for AOS).  These armies quickly fell by the wayside and either sit languishing in a box in the Den O' Doom, or have been sold / traded on.

With this in mind, Undead have always been an attractive option to me. The idea of hordes of skeletons and ghostly apparitions unceasingly attacking their living enemies appealed to me!

Combine this with an idea that they're from a wintery region and I had an idea for both collecting and painting - cool colours with rusted metals, snow across the units and LOTS of bones...

First on the table to paint was a unit of skeletons - and the banner which ended up giving the whole army its name:

Quick and fun to paint, they've set the standard for the army!

Next up was a unit of 20 Chainwrasps - using Contrast paints and traditional styles made quick work of these:

To break the inevitable monotony of painting large units, I then painted a few characters, first of which was the commander of the Army - Sir Reikor himself, a Knight of Shrouds on his undead steed:

Alongside Sir Reikor, I painted his personal Headsman, Cornac:

It was then back to the units - Black Knights, cavalry of the undead;

And a unit of Glaivewraith Stalkers:

The final unit to be painted for this stage was a nice addition I'd forgotten I had - the Undead warband from Warhammer: Underworlds - I really like these models, they're full of character:

A thing to notice here with all of these models is a use of a very restricted colour palette, the same blue, metals and bone are used across the various units, with little change from that.  This helps pull the army together in a cohesive manner.

The Company Of The Black Sun -An Age of Sigmar Undead Narrative Army - Part One

'The Siege of Morlaix had lasted for weeks. Food was becoming scarce, not that it mattered to the golden defenders of the city, the Stormcast Eternals. It mattered to him though, he and his men, who had made Morlaix their home.

Sir Reikor had tried pleading with the Lord Celestant, but had not listened, insisting that the siege would be broken soon, and the legions of the undead turned back.  Sir Reikor was not so confident...

At the start of the 7th week, Sir Reikor made a decision that would damn him and his men, the Company of the Black Sun, forever.

Riding out across the frozen, snow covered plain with his personal guard at his side, Sir Reikor called out to the commander of the legion he saw before him, one that chilled his soul to the core, to meet him in parlay, to negotiate an end to the siege.

Rising out of the snow, he saw what he could only call a woman, dressed in bridal gowns, slowly moving toward him. He stiffened his pose in his saddle, trying to hold on to his composure in the face of sheer terror.

'I wish to speak to the Lord who commands this army, to negotiate the City's freedom' he called out, the words leaving his mouth in a stammering jumble.

'There is no Lord, Sir Knight, only myself.' The words appearing in his head, as if spoken but somehow not said

'There will be no surrender, no survival for this city, yet there may be for you and your men if you choose to serve' the voice whispered.

The mists had begun to rise, spirits forming out of the wisps, like shapes forming in clouds.  His men, uneasy from the start now visibly alarmed

'Lord, we should turn back, back to the city! There is still time!' screamed the Captain of the Guard, his words unheard by Sir Reikor.

'You offer safe passage for me and my Company, Lady? You wish to employ us? Tell me your terms'.

'All you need do Sir Reikor is embrace me and you and your Company will be safe, my Army will not touch you...'

He could see the lines of her skull through her veil, he was sure.  But, if it meant his escape from this thrice damned city surely it was a price worth paying? Surely his men would appreciate him all the more for saving their lives?

Dismounting his horse, Sir Reikor slowly walked over to where the Lady in White stood, each step as if his boots were filled with lead, until he stood in front of her, her gown billowing as if caught in a breeze.

'One embrace, that's all it will take to seal our compact, one embrace to assure you will never be harmed by any of Nagash's legions again...' she cooed, words that chilled the blood as much as they attempted to calm him...

He embraced the Lady, pulling her toward him...


He woke up. The cold hurt so much, hurt to his very core. The screams he could hear assaulted his senses, deafening him. He realised the screams were his....

He looked down, and screamed once more. Where once were the finest armour the Free People could make, now tarnished metal and ruined cloth.

Bursting from the ground around him, his men came to life, dragged from their lives by the darkest of magics, the living now dead, the dead now undead. Men who had fought together in the light, now bound in darkness forever more...

It was then he realised, the cruelest trick of all had been played. The undead would never touch he or his men for they were now part of the very army they sought to defend the City from... they were now one with the Nighthaunt, under the command of the Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief...

Now, the City would fall, now, that damnable Lord Celestant would pay for what he had done to Reikor, Knight of Shrouds, Commander of the Company of the Black Sun...

Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire Undead Warband

‘The dead clawed their way out of the frozen ground, animated by hatred of the living, their souls screaming as they stood for the first time in decades... theirs would not be rest until the last enemy lay slain at their feet’...

With the current Covid-19 lockdown keeping me at home, I've been digging through my backlog!

In future posts I'll come back to the other bits I've been painting, but this time I want to concentrate on a warband I've painted that comes from the Warhammer: Underworlds Shadespire game.

Undead, and in particular Skeletons have fascinated me ever since seeing Ray Harryhausen's Jason and the Argonauts as a child - when the teeth of the Hydra are sown into an instant army of skeletons, set against Jason and his crew! 


These models are a joy to paint, each one tells a story on its own - from one clawing its way out of it's grave, to one with half a skull, the victim of a previous battle perhaps?  

Painting was relatively easy - from a black undercoat, I built up the bone colour to be quite aged and worn, rather than a bright bone colour, using the following recipe:

Basecoat: Stormvermin Fur
1st highlight: 50/50 Stormvermin Fur / Ushabti Bone
2nd highlight: Ushabti Bone
3rd highlight: Terminatus Stone

The blue robes were:
Basecoat: Kantor Blue
Shade: Coelia Nightshade (this adds a deeper blue/green shade that I like)
1st highlight: 50/50 Kantor Blue / Alaitoc Blue
2nd highlight: Alaitoc Blue
3rd highlight: Hoeth Blue
4th highlight: Russ Grey

I wanted the metals to look weathered, old and rusty, as if they'd been buried for decades.  To achieve this I used:
Copper;
Basecoat: Screaming Bell
Wash: Nuln Oil
1st highlight: Sycorax Bronze
2nd highlight: Stormhost Silver

Steel / Iron;
Basecoat: Leadbelcher
Wash: Nuln Oil
1st highlight: Ironbreaker

All of the metals then had 'spot washes' - picking out dents, creases, nicks in the blades etc. of Nilakh Oxide to give it a corroded look, and then a final thin wash of Dry Rust from Army Painter.

The robes were then given a light dry brush on the edges of Tallard sand, to 'dirty' them up slightly.

The final touch is the snow - I use Valhallan Blizzard - dabbing little amounts in places where snow would collect on the miniature itself as well as the base ties the whole group together, to make them really look and feel like they've just scraped their way out of the ground and are now shambling to war!

the next thing to paint up is an army box I won from Alchemist's Workshops in a draw back in 2017 - The Blade Of The Blood Queen - more skeletons!

Im going to use the same palette of colours again, so hopefully they'll come out nice!