The Grateful Undead

I've been posting over on Carpe Noctem, however as a long time Ogre player (as much as any of us are that is) I thought I'd share them here as well.

You can check out my web pate http://puggimer.net/gratefulundead.htm for more pics.

These are all WIP shots so far.  I've only painted one figure yet - I'm in the process of just doing the modelling and converting right now.

I'm basing the army around the idea of a Grateful Dead concert - so of course I have a unit of dancing skeletons in top hats and tails (skeletons)



Roadies, to set up the equipment (ghouls) (see pics further down)

A sourvenir stand (corpse cart)



Groupies (wraiths + banshee)



And of course the fans - Dead Heads (zombies)



I plan on doing 2 units of Dancing Teddy Bears (dire wolves), a unit of spirit hosts (several zombies in a cloud of smoke, enjoying 'refreshments'), a second unit of skeletons with rose wreathes on their heads and roses on their shields.  All the characters will be based on the band themselves, with Jerry Garcia being the general, of course.

I'll also make a display stand that is a stage, and plan to get some small, cheap iPod speakers to put in scaffolding on the stage, and actually play Grateful Dead music through them.  One project I'm still working on would be to get tiny lights and have the zombies all holding up lighters.  This may be painted due to the expense, but the idea of working lights is still really appealing.

Feedback welcome and appreciated!

I love the skeletons!!

Stop posting this kind of armies...

You make us all look bad when we post a theme for any army, making it look kinda simple compared to yours....

And of course the fans - Dead Heads (zombies)

This is hilarious.


Great job on the skellies, and the army will look astonishing.
I'm keeping a close watch to this project.

cheers

Hehe, lovely
Awaiting the updates (hopefully with some painted skellys?(A))

//oNe

I probably won't do any more painting until everything is assembled (I've only got about 60 more skeletons and 80 zombies to assemble - just a pile of sprues on my work table).  That and waiting for the weather to warm up to prime things

The army as a whole looks great, it's an odd theme but you pull it off really really well.  I love the overall look of the army and the conversion work, definitely great work!

Wow. Again, awesome theme and you pulled it off without it looking too funny. Great stuff!

At least we know now who to approach for some unorthodox themes.

Ok, a few more pictures

First - adding a tube top to a wraith


Then as I was doing the sleeves for the rest of the top hat unit, I had a little green stuff left over, so I took some heads and tried the rose wreathes.  These came out pretty good, so I had enough to do 7 of the next unit.





And finally, a big group shot of what the size of this army will be.  These are all the trays/bases I plan on having - about half of which will be available to raise.  There are no characters yet - but those will just be 4 more infantry bases.  (and those are only about half the sprues sitting on my workbench!)

This must be the best undead army ever, LOVE those skeletons....why havent anyone ever done anything like this before

Ok, finally new pictures.  First, all the ghouls.  I did one rank at a time to show all the crap they are carrying - it is hard to see in the group shot.

















and a group shot


And lastly, the 'dollies' for the dancing teddy bears.  I took these with a background shot of the bears image that I was going for - these will be on cavalry bases.  I have a second set of five as well.  Next step is to fill them out with green stuff.

Awesome idea wuth great execution, I look forward to seeing your get built.

great builds.
I really love the Gouls.

The teddy's look great too.

Yes, very cool stuff. Gigantic units though, do you plan of fielding them that large?

This has to be one of my favourite armies of all time!!! By far, my favourite undead army of all time!

JJ

Amazing army!.. One of the coolest VC armies I have seen.

Yes, very cool stuff. Gigantic units though, do you plan of fielding them that large?

No, this is a heavy magic army - so I've made double the amount of ghouls and skeletons, and 4x for zombies.  So I plan on fielding 2 units of 20 skeletons, 1 unit of 20 ghouls and be able to double each of them.  1 unit of 20 zombies, with 60 more available to raise.  I'll also make an extra 3 bases of spirt hosts incase I ever get "Wind of Undeath" spell off.

awesome idea and they are looking great. Can't wait to see the band and see them painted.

Great conversions, but what makes it so awesome is that all units are immediately recognizable for what they really are (except the teddy bears, maybe ).

Your hero could be a skeleton with broken guitar in other hand and microphone in other. Then he screams:"Are you ready to die". Enemy could have -1 to leadership. Enyway, just great models. Leve 'em. I keep eye on this blog...

Great conversions, but what makes it so awesome is that all units are immediately recognizable for what they really are (except the teddy bears, maybe ).

I started 'fleshing' out the teddy bears this weekend - will be a slow process but I hope it turns out well.  At least they don't require huge amounts of sculpted detail on them!

I really like it! The teddy bears (though they look to be awesome !) are probably the only thing an opponent might get a tad confused about...but hey who cares! It all looks great :0 I love the lightin scaffold that the ghouls are carrying!!!!

Back from the dead - so to speak.

I have been very slowly working on the teddy bears, but got a burst of something and did a lot on them this weekend. 



The problem is that the scale is a bit off - I knew they were big but didn't think they would end up this big.  So - the question I have for anyone who would like to venture an opinion - are they too big to use as dire wolves?  Here is one with a skeleton for comparison.  Feeback is welcome and encouraged.

They are a touch too big. As giants, no problem (but you can't really field them in a VC army...). They are just blocking a huge amount of LoS, and are very misleading. As a player I wouldn't enjoy fielding them (they aren't very representative of what they are either). Unfortunately I can't think of any way to incorporate them into your army.
And remember, I'm not a huge fan of gimmick models, it's just personal taste.

Fantastic to see this project still on the go!

I personally wouldn't have a problem with these guys as Dire Wolves - they are so characterful and so much work does gone into them that I think most players would be quite impressed to play against them even if they are a bit big.

Another possible option would be to put them on 40x40 bases and use them as Spirit Hosts (my sword just goes straight through the fluff ) or DOW Ogres.

Good job on bears whatever they end up as.

Spirit hosts, that's a good idea.

My spirit hosts are actually going to be zombie models in a cloud of white smoke, enjoying the 'refreshments'.  Maybe put a bunch of my old night goblin mushrooms on the base as well.

Ok, trying to see if I can do some smaller bears.  How is this for size?



Not sure if I can go much smaller though.

Ok, so it has been a long time since I posted anything.  The army is nearing completion (as much as any ever does).  I took the first version to Origins this past weekend - where it won Best Army.

For the links to the full size images, go to my site at http://puggimer.net/gratefulundead

So without further ado:

A shot of the entire army (well, the army that won Best Army - I still have 40 zombies to paint and the Hells Angels to finish as well)


Jerry Garcia - Lead Guitar - Vampire Lord - General (w/skeletons)


Phil Lesh - Bass Guitar - Vampire (w/ghouls)


Ron "Pigpen" McKernan - Keyboards - Vampire (w/skeletons)


Bill Kreutzmann - Drums - Necromancer (Corpse Cart)


Souvenir Stand (Corpse cart)



Skulls & Roses (skeletons)



Dancing Skeletons (skeletons)



Roadies (ghouls)



Deadheads (zombies)



Dancing Teddy Bears (Dire Wolves)



Stoners (Spirit Hosts)



Groupies (Cairn Wraiths w/ Banshee)



Lastly - the new Hells Angels running Security (Blood Knights)

Link doesn't work for me, but from what I can see, they look awesome.

Edit: You need the .htm on the end of the link in your thread. The link in your sig works though.

Edit: Ok, looking through, your army is awesome. But, you need to fix the left ghoul photo, as it is really badly out of focus

Oh, priceless!!  Totally awesome army.  Very very cool!