Wargames Atlantic Grand Scale Boneblades

 When I first wrote my “About Me” blurb for this blog, 15 years ago, I waxed lyrically about my love of all things Warmaster. They are my all-time favourite wargaming rules with what I consider to be the most elegant  mechanisms which have spawned many clones (Black Powder, Hail Caesar, Blitzkrieg Commander etc…)

My Original Warmaster armies from 2000 are some of my most treasured wargaming figures and when I became aware of Wargames Atlantic’s (WA) move into 10mm fantasy figures I felt the need to investigate further.

I purchased the pack of Boneblades to test the water, from Firestorm Games for the princely sum of £16.20. For this you get three sprues of figures in grey polystyrene and a sprue of bases. Each sprue contains 39 x 10mm figures giving you a total of 117 figures in the box along with 9 x 40mm x 20mm bases.

In total there are-

• 108 Skeletons with Sword and Shield (9 bases)
• 3 x 2-Skeleton Command
• 3 Casualties
• and 48 skulls!

I had very quickly decided to base these up for Warmaster. In fact, there’s sufficient figures to create three infantry units (each of 3 stands) with a few figures left over. There were sufficient correctly sized bases to do this as well as a  number of 1 & 2 figure bases.

The bases are well designed. They can be used either way up, 1 side plain the other recessed with the lip aiding the application of texture. Each contains holes ready for 3x1mm magnets if you wish.

The bases will take two ranks of 6 (with a little base clipping) so will look just like the original GW items when they are finished. The figures themselves come in 5’s, 3’s 2’s and individually based.

They need very little cleaning up once clipped from the sprue and to start with I glued the front rank of 6 onto each base. I then textured the area around the figure’s bases with Vallejo grey pumice. The rear ranks were, for painting, attached to coffee stirrers with PVA.

I opted to use the command figures (with a banner and trumpet) in the centre of the front rank of one of the bases, rather than separately on a smaller base as I think WA had intended. This was to match the GW originals.

All these figures were then sprayed in matt white primer.

There is nothing as simple as painting a skeleton!! They all received a coat of Skeleton Horde Contrast Paint and were left to dry.

Next the shields were painted with Army Painter Satchel Brown.

The weapons were picked out using an AK Silver Playmarker (Great piece of kit!!), and the flag in Red Contrast paint.

The Ram’s Head on the flag was painted with Army Painter Golden Armour and the Helmets in Talos Bronze.

And that was them finished!

The front part of the bases was painted using another AK Playmarker in Wood before attaching the second rank of figures.

Then the remaining gaps in the texture were finished off with some more Vallejo Grey Pumice before finishing off the painting with the Playmarker.

When everything was dry the bases and shields were lightly dry brushed with Vallejo Iraqi Sand.

The casualty figures and skulls were a neat addition and were put to good use creating a hit counter for each unit. These were 3D printed to take a 7mm die and textured with more Vallejo Grey Pumice.

They were then finished in the same way as the other figures, and finally everything received a coat of ultra matt varnish.

These have been great fun to paint and base. All that was required was the paints in the photograph below.

The sculpting and quality is very good, I would happily buy the Orcs & Dwarves that WA manufacture without hesitation. These will be a nice little booster to my Undead Warmaster army and will encourage me to get them on the table once again!