Get Him to the [Village] Green: the Road to An Atrous Myre pt1

In early 2024, Necropolis28 stole my heart with its ominous aesthetic, beautiful art by Martin McCoy, and rewarding "every action succeeds, to varying degrees" play style. I heard incredible things from Gage over at Hive Scum about the Argent Host event he attended earlier this year in January at a historic church in the English countryside, and later had the privilege of meeting fellow attendees and grimdark legends John (@brothers_of_rotburg_st), Sam (@cupboard_of_shame) and Harry (@oldworldpaintedblood) at Under the Dice 2025. They were all incredible chaps and fostered a desire in me to experience the grimdark Necropolis scene firsthand in the UK if the chance should arise.

About a month after Under the Dice 2025, tickets for Peter's next Necropolis28 event, the Atrous Myre, went up on discord. I was still riding high on grimdark gathering mania, looking to get more games in where I could. Although the event was held in the UK (about one ocean away from my residence in the US Northeast) the event was scheduled for the weekend before my 30th birthday, something deserving of as big an affair as some international travel. No hesitation, I bought the event ticket then and worried about how I'd make it across the pond (and explain my scheme to my supportive partner) later.

After a quick Google of what to expect from the words "Atrous" (black and murky) and Myre (miasmic and swampy), I started planning what I thought (foreshadowing) would become my gathering. On a trip to one of my FLGS, I picked up a few nautical themed D&D minis from the Wizkids line that could be good fodder for kitbashing some aquatic undead. Out of all these models, the one I ended up using for this project was a Wastrilith: basically a fish-headed snake demon with hook hands that hit a lot of notes for Necropolis28 with its slithering gait, weird fleshy skin molding into scales, and crudely mounted weapon appendages. To really cement the game it would be for, I removed the fish head and added a setting appropriate skull in its place, using some thin greenstuff strips to add a sort of head wrap to hide the join. Nolzur's flexible material doesn't always have the crispest detail so I preferred this over trying to hand sculpt delicate fish scales and blend them into the skull.

Readable miniature photography is my passion.

At this point I anticipated bringing a blood gathering to the event - zombies, mummies, ghouls and other such undead - as I already had some cracking models for it and a lot of experience playing it (read: exclusively playing it). Namely, a big flesh-golem (also with a flayed skull for a head) made using a dirt-cheap Magic the Gathering board game model and a big crawling hand coffin snail dude I sculpted by hand. I still didn't fully have a gathering roster prepared at this time, so I was banking on having models to inspire my list with WYSIWYG.

A lovely hand-sculpted...no that's the whole thing (ba dum tis), but not what made the final cut...

Anyone familiar with me and my neurodivergences knows that given about 3 months to prepare for a deadline, I'll spend as many as 2.5 months doing shit-all up until then. So it was with Myre. As well as less important things like airfare, lodging, etc. I put off the most important trip element - my gathering of undead - til the eleventh hour. Despite bashing up the skull-snake-fish (SSF) and wanting to carry that momentum forward, a number of other projects starting chewing away at my time like maggots on an aging corpse; a birthday gift for my girlfriend to tide over the "I spontaneously booked a trip to the UK" situation, a Trench Crusade warband to join a local campaign, etc. etc. So we come to the beginning of September, having spent July and August lurking in an undisturbed stasis of my own creation. This was about the time the post-procrastination anxiety started to motivate me, and I had to look long and hard at what models I could and should bring to the event. While I liked my existing Blood gathering, I knew I could up the ante for myself given Necropolis28 places emphasis on making the coolest boards and models possible. If I was paying an exorbitant sum to play in the UK circuit with the creator and co., by God I was gonna do so in style...

I dug through my collection and found a conveniently half-painted model that matched the aesthetic of SSF with, its flesh-and-blood body with a skull head: this delightful little Reaper minis figure I snagged at Under the Dice fest for a couple bucks. I bought him also with the intent of using him for Necropolis, thinking the cheeky gravedigger would make an excellent familiar to gather the mana tokens necessary for spellcasting. I had painted him surprisingly fast in my frenzy immediately after UtD and really liked the look I achieved on both the skull and the cloth; this would become the basis of the rest of my gathering in turn. If it ain't broke... 

By this point in the process of my gathering I just had to add was some highlights and pick out details, like the clasp strings on his robe and his feet.

Here is where decision paralysis set in. I had some absolutely incredible sculpts of models already partway painted in my collection. Unfortunately, they were pretty visible all bone and no blood, which put a dent in my previous plans of an a Blood warband. While it's possible to run a "mixed bag" gathering in the form of the Wretched Undead, I wanted to have as much overlapping visual language as possible to sell the models of different makes and eras as part of the same dread lich or revenant's demesne. I grabbed the coolest models I knew I could paint to a reasonable standard before the deadline, hoping whatever I finished would inform my list-building later on. Better to prep and paint too much than too little, at this point. Throwing severed body parts at the wall to see what sticks, in a sense.

One undead mini I was chomping at the bit to paint was the skeleton warrior from Jeremy of Black Magic Craft. I've been a huge fan of Jeremy's for years so when I met him at Adepticon 2025, I made sure to buy one of his physical bespoke models without eating the Canadian shipping costs. Also, I see a skeleton, I think of Necropolis28, I buy. The model was really nicely rendered and without having to get too weird with the color theory, a dark cloak over pale bone seemed a good choice. I threw Army Painter Grim Black speed paint over the cloak, highlighting up some, using a progression from AK Burnt Umber to Vampiric Flesh to Ivory on his bone and skulls, glazing some darker tones back in, then filling in details like pants, shoes, belts. It was fun spending a ton of time on the bone and breezing through everything else, only taking a couple hours to get this really cool model above tabletop standard.

Another one of my favorite, most unique miniature purchases from the year was a very cool barrow knight looking skeleton, from a Cool Mini or Not Kickstarter called Trudvang. I didn't support or even know about this Kickstarter; while in Los Angeles last Christmas and checking out hobby shops recommended by Tyler from billiondollarclownfarm, I found a bunch of these soft plastic models in a clearance bin. I snagged goblins, boars, and a troll shaman for Cauldron which I was playing practically every week at that point, but also saw this mounted menace and knew the perfect game for him. I had gotten some moody shaded bone on this guy and started blocking in his armor, but ultimately dropped the project when non-necropolis games grabbed my eye later that year. Seeing the groundwork already there and having some color ideas taken from the familiar in progress, I picked up the model again, put in the reps, and got him looking to a pretty classy standard I must say. Compared to most of the "white primer, bone contrast" skeletons and horses I've painted previously, this was a pretty proud moment for me.

The soft plastic on this guy made mold line cleanup unpleasant, but still a pretty great sculpt for the $5 it cost me. I trimmed off the derpy looking axe it came with and delicately pinned on a spare blade from a Cursed City skeleton for that ancient decay vibe. It also frames the silhouette much better imo.

Chronologically, I was still struggling about which models to bring and how to paint them, but I've split this post up into two chunks for length and coherency. Stay tuned for part 2!