Sprue(sing) up with the Skeleton Horde and is necromancy even possible?

Isn't thread necromancy seen as a faux pas in online communities? I've certainly seen my fair share of protestations over the years when some poor sap inadvertently comments on a long dead discussion and it would be true to say that I felt like such a fraud when I typed the first new sentences on this ancient blog. Would there even be anyone out there, save a few obscure grognards, even interested? To say I've been surprised by people's reaction is an understatement and I thank you all for the positive words you have made. 

It encourages someone to set out on the wonderful journey of '80s retrogaming once more. 

My other half's surprise is also worth noting and it is with her encouragement that I sit down to write today. She had a inkling that I was involved in something unfathomable (at least to her) from conversations I'd had with people in retro shops (don't kids love them?) and a chance meeting with a fellow wearing a Slaves to Darkness T-Shirt in an Essex town a few years back. "I love that Oldhammer stuff," I recall saying to this fellow leadhead before mentioning I used to write a little blog on the subject. We chatted for a minute or two and he went on his way. My little slice of heaven and I talked a little afterwards about what I used to get up and she said at the time that I should get back into it. I should have listened to her then really as the trail would have been fresher in regards to the whereabouts of my once mighty collection. 

With her being my most prized miniature, only 5 foot 1 she says, I feel I have a good bedrock upon which to start. But how to begin again? In 2011 I'd been painting 40k models for some years already, though steadily put off by White Dwarf's slow demise. The infamous 'Giant Issue' finally killed it for me and I started collecting the older stuff around 2004. Still, I had brushes, paints, a lamp, access to models etc etc that I don't have today. I had a fully functioning home as well... with the little we could put together when we bought this place it is ironic that our new home is trapped in the 1980s too, and not in a good way. The stairs must have been lashed together by goblins, the bathroom would put off a Nurgle Worshipper and the kitchen looks like an insane artist went schizo with Smelly Primer across the walls.

But we have hope, and happiness and a chance to start again. Something I am wholly grateful to her for and to you, dear readers... but where to start exactly?

Getting hold of issue 108 of White Dwarf may be a symbolic beginning as that issue began my love for the subject and introduced me the worlds about which I have spent so many hours writing about, let alone painting about. It's cover adorned with the enormous shape of John Blanche's titan from Adeptus Titanicus and the tiny, scurrying struggles of the Ultra Marines (when they were spelled as two separate words). 

But having thought about this over Christmas my mind keeps going back to Bob Naismith's classic Skeleton Horde and the link to my newly necromantic desires. Why this particular release you might ask? Well, it was certainly one of the first I ever had and I'm pretty sure my dad found it in some shop shortly after I read the above magazine. He showed me how to undercoat, drybrush and highlight using Humbrol paints, white spirit and an old rag. I think he painted most of them and did the shields too with wonderful leering faces just like those on the box. My attempts were beyond abysmal. My old collection contained a single early skeleton figure from this set which I repainted and added to my horde, sadly now lost. 

So I guess I'm saying that the Skeleton Horse represents new beginnings. 

It was a tribute to those early times and thankfully was photographed and uploaded to this blog. Its been wonderful rediscovering all the stuff I did back then and it is a shame I didn't have the foresight to photograph everything I completed. I'd love a record of what I achieved.

      

A while later Skeleton Army appeared and sent my friends and I insane with creativity. I loved the chariot and the archers but I was let loose with no skills and a lot of poly-cement (the stuff that used to melt the plastic and send up little whiffs of smoke as you glued it together) and a lot of white paint. My brush applied undercoat was so thick that most of the detail was obscured and I followed it up with a pigmentless wash over the top. In my impatience much of the undercoat wasn't even dry and the finished results were an abomination though probably, on reflection, good enough for listing on eBay and being pro-painted. 

I knew I could do better and I came back to these models time and time again and once owned several sets of untouched plastic Skeleton Hordes. If memory serves I painted at least 10 (figures, not boxes) of them up for a game in which they were promptly wiped out early on by Warlord Paul. 

The first step on any journey is sometimes the most challenging. Having glanced around eBay for a sniff of a Skeleton Horde sprue I found myself laughing at the wasteland that the site has become. Endless Buy-It-Nows for re-mortgage prices and sets of models that looked worse than my first, pathetic attempts. 

Is this the world you created for yourselves gamers?

Nevertheless, I will endeavour on getting my hands on a few plastic skellies in the near future, either an original sprue or some old unwanted things to restore. I can then get a few simple paints to get myself started and a couple of brushes. A lamp can be borrowed from work too. 

Googling the old Coat d'Arms paints (which were very similar to the old school GW ones) I can see they are still sold by Essex Miniatures?Black Hat etc so it should be possible to get a black, white, bone and a brown colour to get started. Old citadel shields will be more difficult but I might be lucky enough to find some unwanted models with them still attached. 

If you can think of any other websites or resources that would be of help then you have my appreciation and thanks.

See you soon, 

Orlygg