Children of the Hydra’s Teeth

That’s the first 40 done. All with sword and shield and all looking pretty great on their movement tray if I do say so myself.

There are 50 still to paint and as they aren’t for a game, equipping them is going to come down to what I think looks best. Current plan is three stands of ten archers and a block of twenty spear and shield.

I have put this project to the side for the next few weeks as I work on some more Nightstalkers. End of January though feels like a good timeline for these though. A little later than I think I mentioned a few weeks ago but there has been a little project popped up on the horizon that will be distracting.

Turns out you can get through six skeletons in an evening. Takes more time to build them than to paint them. I’ve got another 18 built to chip away at for a bit. The weather here has turned so spray priming is more sporadic. I tend to batch build through the autumn and winter months and prime when I can.

This is meant to be an army that involves mindless painting. I want the stages to be few and the paints basic. At heart, I’m a base-wash-layer kind of painter and I need something that I can ”get out of my head and into my hands” with right now.

1. Prime in Wraithbone
2. Skeleton – 
   1. All over wash of Agrax Earthshade
   2. Layer of Ushabti Bone over all the bones, avoiding the recesses
   3. Extra highlight on the skulls with Screaming Skull
3. Weapons
   1. Balthazar Gold over the blades, cast shields and shield rims
   2. Wash with Agrax Earthshade
   3. Highlight with Sycorax Bronze
   4. Nihilakh Oxide for the patina
   5. Decals were in the kit, once on I gave them a light weathering 
4. Base
   1. Paint with US Olive Drab (or Steel Legion Drab if you’ve got it)
   2. Base Ready Mediterranean Soil mix from Geek Gaming Scenic

Very easy to paint and very methodical to work through. The only thing I’m not sold on is my patinas. The only time I’ve used this paint before was on some living statues for Frostgrave and it was great. This is a little more focused and I think I need to look up some photos to really get a handle on where it should be. 

Like most things, I can’t be arsed with that right now so this is the standard the army will get painted to for now because it is what I’m capable of doing right now.  

These are older models from Wargames Factory, released by Warlord. They are not your chunky Mantic gaming pieces. They are… delicate.

The feet being separate from the legs actually wasn’t too bad. They kind of clip together and the bar between them makes it easier to glue them onto bases. Working with skelliebobs in the past, I’ve learned you start at the feet and work your way up using the base to give you stability. Each set of legs is numbered with matching feet so it was quite quick to get them done.

The torsos go on easily but when I got to the arms, the problems arise. These are very thin things with small contact points. To get the best poses it is better to put the weapons in their hands before attaching them to the body but the extra weight means I had to sit holding each arm while the glue set enough. In the past, I’ve not attached shields before painting minis but this is an army to paint as easily as possible so I stuck them on at this stage. The heads went on last with a nice contact point.

Once the glue had totally cured, I’m happy enough with them. I don’t know how much they’d hold up to being used as gaming pieces but, if they were on a movement tray, they might be okay. I don’t have any plans for them to hit the table though so I’m content that they look good.

To be clear, none of this was as painful as a Legion B1 battle droid. It was just a bit fiddly and my patience isn’t great right now. I was getting disproportionately frustrated but that really is more me than the kit. I have decided to just build them one sprue at a time though – partly because I have six painting handles so everyone can have their own and partly because I don’t want to ram a plastic skeleton into my wall.

I like skeletons. Always have done. I have several different brands represented in my collection of random models. I even have a box of the Wargames Atlantic skelliebobs in the stash. For this project though, I knew I wanted to pick up the box from Warlords of Erehwon. It is called Children of the Hydra’s Teeth and features a necromancer who looks exactly like the the one in the film. 

The box itself retails for just under £50 from third party shops and I have a bunch of point for Goblin Gaming that I’ve been building up to go towards a treat. They were going to be for something in the new year but sod it, now will do. 

So without needing to cast any summoning spells or, disappointingly, without needing to don a funny hat, I managed to summon 90 skeletons and a necromancer to raise them for £32 including postage. 

It is a packed little box and comes with water slide decals. The sprues are identical and each has six skelliebobs on it with options to arm them with swords, spears , shields and bows. A quick glance at the sprue and my first thought was “huh, the feet are separate”… oh sweet summer child, you have no idea what you’ve got yourself into.

Like a lot of people, I grew up loving the Ray Harryhausen effects in movies. My favourite has always been the skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts – there is just something so simple and yet so threatening about them. I re-watched the movie a few months ago and this project has been niggling the back of my brain since. As it is spooky season and I need something low effort to hobby on right now, it seemed like the perfect time to start a new army (!?!)

Fighting Off The Children Of The Hydra’s Teeth | Jason and the Argonauts | Creature Features