Awakening from his eternal slumber and returning from an earlier more civilised period is the Necrolith Colossus, or as it was know back then, the Bone Giant. In this post, I’ll talk about posture, share a pic of my 20+ year old bone giant and there is an up to date painting guide as well at the end of this article.
Back in 2003, scuplting on a computer at Games Workshop was in its infancy so everything, including this Bone Giant, was sculpted by hand. This model was originally released in metal and was incredibly difficult to assemble. You had to drill into every piece and use paperclips to reinforce the joints (called pinning).
Having recently bought the Made to Order Liche Priest and Mounted Liche Priest which arrived in traditional metal, I was taken aback when the Necrolith Colossus turned up in Forgeworld Resin. This was a huge benefit to my plans on fixing his weird squatting pose. Being the hobby purist* that I am, I still pinned all the parts together.
*A hobby purist is someone who paints the inside of their rhinos and drills all their gun barrels.
As you can see from my pictures, my new Necrolith Colossus stands up pretty straight and tall, if you check out the image below from 2003, you can see my original one is squatting and his skull is hunched low into his chest. Honestly, he looks like me after a long paint session. So, how did I fix the posture? Well, being resin it’s easy to manipulate the parts using heat. My heat of choice is boiling water although some people prefer a hairdryer. Just dip into a cup of boiling water for a few seconds, then remove, manipulate the part into a new position and then dip it into cold water to set it in place. I did this to the legs and the neck and I think the giant is worthy of his name now.
Another thing you should know about resin models, they need cleaning. Before they’re cast the moulds are covered in a liquid to help release the parts from the mould. This residue can be left on the parts and it’s notoriously difficult to get paint to adhere to the release agent, so you have to clean them thoroughly with soapy hot water. Dish washing liquid is a great degreaser and works well. If you find the paint is still rubbing off easily as you paint and handle your model then varnishing the model is a must too.
How to paint Tomb Kings of Khemri Necrolith Colossus
My original Tomb Kings recipe card is all about painting lots of models fast, but for larger centre-piece models like the Necrolith Colossus I wanted a few more steps so the colours blend together nicer. I’ve also introduced a new Jade colour to the scheme. My idea is to only use the jade colour on large models and characters. I think it fits the ancient Egyptian theme better than the usual blue and red I see.
One final thing, this old model is not cheap. It’s £52.50 and I bought this myself. I find myself putting in way more effort when it comes to expensive price tag models. Having bought plenty of Forgeworld models in the past, the price isn’t a shock to me. Overall, I’ve had a wonderful experience building, painting and photographing this classic I remember fondly from my early 20s.
What do you think about the return of old models? Are you a fan?
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