Undead Catapult and Giant (updated 2022)

This is an old Undead catapult produced by Grenadier and re-released by Mirliton that I have been working on for some time and finally got the base ready in time for a game in Halloween 2019.   This catapult and the skeleton giant I was working on at the same time will be used in an upcoming SAGA Age of Magic game at my local club. These figures will work well for a variety of rule systems: 

Old Hammer (WFB 3rd or 6th Edition)
Fantastic Battles
SAGA Age of Magic
HOTT

Front - Side view

I have based it on an 80mm wide by 103mm deep base and I flocked it so it will work for a desert climate (to work with my Egyptian themed Undead army) and added  little more vegetation as compared to the pictures below. I have updated this report in June 2022, see notes at the end.

Work in progress: Catapult, Giant, rat swarm, archers, spearmen

Just after assembly and priming

 

 As can bee seen above it is larger than the original Warhammer Fantasy Undead skull chucker  catapult (2"x2") but about the same size as the Tomb Kings catapult.

 

Before flock and resin was added

 

I applied  resin (acrylic medium)  mixed with acrylic beige craft paint to help hide the crew bases then added flock.  Modge Podge (matte) was the best type of glue to attach the Woodland Scenics beige ballast,  as it gave me more working time. I also glued on some Army Painter dead grass tufts. 

 

Right side view 

Front view

Left side view

Rear view

I  flocked my old Ral Partha Skeleton Giant with the same technique.

Skeleton Giant

I have a second similar catapult I bought from Mirliton with slightly different crew with a more zombie look to it that I will also have painted and based soon, hopefully!

Mirliton Bone Catapult

 

 

 

 

Update June 14, 2022

Now that Fantastic Battles is my main mass fantasy battle rule set I am finding the 80mm x 103mm catapult base is just too wide as the base frontage in Fantastic Battles is 60mm, as is the depth but the latter is less important in the game.  I was going to live with the larger base frontage as I feared cutting it down or re-basing risked damaging the figures or paint job.  However I then recalled the base was not MDF but plastic so I heated  it with a hair dryer to make it a little more flexible and bend the plastic cracking the epoxy glue and Modge Podge bond making the figures easy to remove without any damage to them. The only time consuming part in removing the figures was filing the epoxy glue off the bottom of the bases of the crew figures so they would sit flat.

Removing Catapult from the old base

I was thinking the process of removing the figures from the old base would destroy that plastic base, and it was badly bent, but by applying heat and putting it in a vice I was able to flatten it.   So I cut the old base down to 6cm wide x 10cm deep and re-mounted the figures.  I changed the positioning of the crew  a little to accommodate the smaller base and glued the tufts that were cut off back on, plus applied brown coloured resin topped with beige coloured ballast to areas where it had been removed.  The finished result of the catapult mounted on the cut-down base is below and I am pleased with the result.

Undead Catapult on cut down 6cm base

I also have a second Grenadier Catapult obtained from Mirliton and painted at a later date, that I will call the "blue" catapult, as the individually mounted crew have blue clothing as opposed to the dark red of the above catapult.  Here are some pictures of the finished Red and Blue crewed Undead catapults.

 Update June 16-30, 2022:

 

I decided I wanted to integrate the blue crew on the base of their catapult as on the red catapult.  The blue catapult is on an MDF base that is 5cm wide, which means adding 1cm x 10cm side extension to the main base and removing the crew from the individual 20mm square bases.  I was able to remove the crew from their bases with an Exacto blade knife without any damage. You can see the 20mm square bases I removed below being used to prop up the crew until the extension is created and the crew are glued to the main base.

 

 

 

Next was getting a 1cm x 10cm base extension cut using a laser cutter (thanks Jeff), then gluing it on and painting to match. 

 

Catapult with 1cm x 10cm extension

Painting the MDF extension to match

 

 

Below is the finished "blue" catapult after flocking and the crew being glued on and integrated to the base with some resin.

 

Finished "blue" Catapult front view

 

Top view "blue" Catapult

 

 

Right side of the "blue" catapult

 

 

Left side of  the "blue" catapult

 

Some pictures below of the "blue" and "red" catapults together, I am well on my way to an "artillery Park" for my Undead or Tomb Kings Fantastic Battles armies!