Look on my plastic toys, ye Mighty, and despair!

Watch out Rick O'Connell, the sands are shifting.

Despite having several fantasy armies, I did like the idea of starting a new one for The Old World (just in case proper sized bases every became an issue)

Having previously painted elves, dwarfs, men and greenskins, that left one big fantasy staple to go: the undead.

I started with the colossal Tomb Kings starter box - which is the biggest warhammer box I've seen (which is a testament to the goodies inside and the hopelessly inefficient sprues of bygone days).

Never one to pace myself, rather than attempt one regiment at a time, I basically attempted to assemble and paint the whole lot in one go. That was January. They've only just been finished now. 

The idea to make this army stand out (or not stand out) was to basically banish the use of colour. I was inspired by the sepia illustrations of the Tomb Kings army book and wanted to see how far I could go painting these skeletons in many shades of brown. A bit of grey crept in with the bandages and banner rags, but otherwise it was just dull metallics and beige.

(Sounds riveting, doesn't it? Can't imagine why it took me four months to get motivated)

At least it made the actual painting reasonably painless, and I was working in contrast paints, so that really did speed things up.

• Basecoat: white primer
• Bones: Skeleton Horde contrast, Ushabti Bone drybrush
• Weapons & Armour: Runelord Brass, Skeleton Horde contrast
• Weapon hafts/bows: Wyldwood contrast
• Straps and belts: Snakebite Leather contrast
• Headcloths: Gore Grunta Fur contrast
• Quivers, shield faces: Cygor Brown
• Shield boards: Agrax Earthshade
• Standards; Retributor Armour, Skeleton Horde contrast
• Bases: Steel Legion Drab

I reckoned I could get more value from the suggested unit arrangements (and they're all interchangeable skeletons). So I beefed up the Skeleton Warriors to 25 each, leaving me with two 10 x Skeleton Archers/Skirmishers (as much as I like the simplicity of the Arrows of Asaph, I don't think this army is a shooting one).

I stuck with the minimum size for the Skeleton Horsemen, since I don't see them doing much work that isn't babysitting a Liche Priest or bulking out a Tomb Prince.

I wonder if I should have co-opted more of them into Skeleton Horse Archers, since fast, manoeuvrable screens are a bit of a novelty in Tomb Kings armies. As it was, I pinched three of their horses for other purposes.

The Skeleton Chariots are my favourite unit, and I'd love some more of them - although they're quite fragile on the battlefield, and pretty expensive (real world and points-wise), so I'll see how these work out first.

Not included in the box, but I couldn't resist getting: a unit of Sepulchral Stalkers. I understand the alternate build of Necropolis Knights is the superior build, but giant-snake men with death-stares was always going to win me over.

I made a slight adjustment to my sepia-only rule with these guys: primed with Retributor Armour, filled in Black Armour, Sigvald Burgundy and Talassar Blue (which just shows enough of the metal beneath to give a decent effect).

Every Tomb Kings army rests on its sorcerers, and since I still haven't attempted the one on the Bone Dragon yet, I kitbashed a cheaper option using a spare skeleton steed, bits from the Necropolis Knights and Bone Dragon Tomb King.

And finally, the boss of the desert realm (until Settra turns up): Osvaldo Mandias XVII. This is the Tomb King from the Bone Dragon (it's probably more optimal to put him on a monster, but it seems beneath his dignity), with my last two skeleton steeds, a few additional banners, and a High Elf chariot that was somehow resting in my spares box.

It's a pretty good fit (the elves have a certain classical swagger to their aesthetic), and it means my king has a war platform that is distinct from the hoi polloi. Even more distinct, the characters have flesh (desiccated as it is), so I went with a highlighted Thunderhawk Blue for that Mumm-Ra look.

So it took a while, but I'm glad it's all done now. Best of all, it's mostly core choices, which means the hard yards of this army is already behind me - monsters and war machines from here on!