Vlad Von Carstein

I am currently painting Vlad for a friend. The sword was in pretty bad shape so needed some work; in the end I did what I could and was ready to paint.

I have tried to keep genuine to the GW colour scheme which maximizes the distinction between the black and gold armour. The gold was an attempt at NMM, but it has come out quite dark. I was hoping it might pop a little more, but wanted to keep a natural look. I had some trouble deciding on a hair colour and this is the third attempt. In the end I went for quite a dark colour to draw attention to the pallid colour on the face.

Hope you enjoy.

straightening the vampires sword

I have a longstanding arrangement with my friends in the local gaming community. This is that I will agree to paint any figure they want, so long as it is only once per lifetime...


Well, a good friend from my local gaming club decided to take advantage of this offer and passed me a Vlad von Carstein model from GWs Vampire counts range to paint

The only problem with this is that it is a fine cast model and the sword was in pretty bad condition.

The sword was not only bent out of shape but had a pretty strange split near the end. The owner had already assembled it, so I could not swap it at the GW store ( I understand that they will swap with no hassle), so I had to try some repair work....

I have heard that you can reshape finecast by first placing in boiling water, putting into the shape you want and then putting into cold water. I tried this and found that once the sword was put into the hot water it became very floppy and I could put into any shape I wanted. The problem was trying to make a straight sword and holding it straight long enough to put it into the bowl of cold water. Eventually I got it as straight as I thought I could get away with.

I then filled the sword with green stuff, let it dry and filed it flat. Not great, but better than I started with. Next up I will get to throw some paint at it.

(Otherworld) zombies return!

Zombies, what is not to love; and recently I managed to lay my hands on some pretty cute ones. These are zombies from the otherworld miniatures collection. They produce figures for the role-player mainly and some of the best skeletons out there. The zombies I could not resist.

 These first three are nicely conventional human zombies. I have retained my standard zombie colour collection of brown, green and dirty white. I have used this colour combination on all my zombies because this helps create a unified feel to the unit. I like the contorted faces, but I especially like the trousers of the guy on the right which are at half mast.

and again from the back... 

 This second three are from their demi-human collection. From left to right they represent elf, dwarf and halfling zombies. Pretty cool yes! fun to paint, once I worked out what each part of the mold represented. I found the dwarf zombie most difficult to work out.


Hope you enjoy!

Ghoul King leaping. What is not to love?.

I have spent the last few weeks playing with a Terrorgheist model.  I played with his wings and gave him a new base. The Terrorgheist box set also includes two rider options. Not wanting to put them onto the Terrorgheist I now have the option of adding them to their own bases. The first of these that I have played with is the Ghoul King.

The model has a natural running or leaping pose and I wanted to accentuate this. The slight problem was that he will not fit on a 20mm base and still rank up, the back (right) leg just gets in the way of figures behind him. This can be overcome of I could move his left leg to the very front of the base. I solved both of these problems by adding a gravestone to the base. This not only gives a point to fix to off the front of the base but gives a reason to leap and helps raise him up a little to make him look a little more impressive.

The gravestone is taken from the Renedra gravestone kit. I think it looks great and works perfectly on this situation.

I kept with the same colour scheme that I have used with all of my ghoul figures. However I was very keen to made the figure look life-like so I have added multiple washes of red and purple to his cheeks, ears, elbows and knees to show up these more vulnerable areas.

Hope you enjoy..

Otherworld Zombies

I have managed to lay my hands on a collection of interesting zombies from Otherworld Miniatures. These guys appear to gear themselves to the roleplay market, but that does not mean you cannot use their figures for other games.

The first three that I have based are a selection of multi racial zombies. By this I mean I have a Halfling zombie, a dwarf zombie and and elf zombie.

The remaining three are more conventional human villager zombies. They are quite nicely done, the flash is pronounced in places and it is a tad difficult to work out what is flesh and what is clothing, especially on the dwarf.

Having said all that, they are a nice mix and I LOVE zombies. Expect to see them painted and posted in a week!

Terrorgheist conversion completed

I have spent the last few weeks playing with a slight conversion on a Vampire counts Terrorgheist. I wanted to spread his wings out a little to try and emphasize  his flying beast nature. At last I have him completed...

The main problem I have with him now is that he is just so very wide.. With a wing span of a eye watering 14 1/2 inches (37cm) he only just fits into the cabinet in which I store my figures. Even then I have to put him in at a slant to get him through the door! I decided to build his colour scheme off a purple/black base colour. I did this because I didn't want him looking too grey because it can look a bit drab. This has caused quite a lilac colour scheme to come through, but I am getting used to it!

Hopefully it does not look too unnatural close up. To complement this colour I have gone for quite a dark bone colour. This is built off a base of bestial brown (Mournthang Brown) through Snakebite leather (Ballor brown) to Bleached bone (Ushabti brown). I may yet add a gloss varnish to the red areas to make them glisten and appear more alive(?)

The width of the figure can make him difficult to interact with other figures on the tabletop. For this reason I chose to lift him as high as possible so that infantry and cavalry figures can fit underneath his wings. I placed him on top of walls from the excellent gardens of Morr set.

His left foot rests on a gravestone. Both of these connections are glued and pinned and are quite robust. I fully expect them to be able to withstand the rough and tumble of gaming.

Hope you enjoy!. Remember that you can make each picture larger by clicking on it.

A little bretonnian zombie gathering

I have a little zombie collection for my Vampire Counts army, but I thought that they could do with a little addition from the Bretonnian army...

I took some Bretonnian peasant bowmen and added some basic zombie bits. The conversion was very very simple, but keeps the same zombie look as the remainder of my zombie horde.

To help them all appear as a single horde I have kept with the same three basic colours as the other zombies. These are green, brown and cream. I hope they look OK.

Terrorgheist base finished.

I have been putting together a base for a Terrorgheist I have converted. I have played with the base Terrorgheist model to put his wings out sideways. This means he heavily overhangs both sides of the base. If he is going to be usable on a tabletop then I will need to raise the model above the tops of other models. This needs me to lift him high up. To achieve this I have added some walls to sit him on top of. The arrangement was put together with just the body part of the beast asseembled to ensure that he would sit right.

 

 

I have now added a little paint to the base. I have tried to keep the base colours fairly restricted so that the base will not distract too much from the beast. Having said all that I had a bit of fun shading each of the blocks in the wall to try and make it quite natural looking.

I have tried to keep the metal work as painted black with areas of rust coming through.

Now all I need to do is add a little colour to the terrorgheist!

Hope you enjoy.

Spread your wings and fly little Terrorgheist!

Did you know that even with his wings held fairly tight to his body, as above, the Terrorgheist has a wingspan of 14 1/2 inches (almost 37cm). I know this because I have been playing with a Terrorgheist conversion to show off his lovely wings. I believe that with the wings stretched out they could reach a whopping 26 inches (66cm), but even I am not daft enough to try that conversion - just yet!.

I first played with flying beast conversions with an Imperial dragon for Karl Franz. I have recent looked again at this model (following a chat on the excellent Warhammer forum) and felt inspired to have a play with the biggest Vampire counts beast.

The majority of the animal is built as normal, but the wing to shoulder joint had to be repositioned. I put a solid pin in there and set about hiding the joint by building up layers of muscle around the gap.

 I did this in a number of stages for two main reasons.

First I wanted to make sure the muscle  looked OK. With my limited sculpting ability I wanted to pace myself so I didn't get too frustrated with my lack of ability and I wanted to review each step.

Secondly, this starts off as a big model,when you have made it so wide it becomes very awkward to handle. I need the figure to be robust to play with, so I need to make sure I don't snap it in half in one go, so I fixed each wing individually and then let them set before having a go at the second one.

Pictured below is the finished model ready for its undercoat and resting on its back. It was a difficult birth and I guess it needed its rest. I certainly did!

Building a base for a Terrorgheist

A Terrorgheist scream is a truly awesome thing and having been on the receiving end of it with my Empire army was all the encouragement I needed to add one to my Vampire Counts army.

I thought that I would start with the base. Now I have two significant problems with the GW base build;

1. It is just too barren. The base is very large and the small amount of jagged rocks not only look a little lost, but don't look gothic enough for my visual image of a VC setting. After all where are the skulls? I thought the GW approach was at least 20 skulls per square inch of base!
2. For reasons that will become apparent when I go on to assemble the Terrorgheist, I need more height!

This is the base that evolved, and I will talk through how this came about.... 

The base itself was a bit of a disappointment. It was warped at the corner. I tried setting it again by placing in alternating boiling then cold water, but that did not work. In the end I just learnt to accept it and hope that the weight of the scenery on it would hold it down (it has not).

 

I then assembled the trunk of the Terrorgheist. I knew I wanted him to stand on the garden of Morr wall, but needed to learn how high the support for the other leg needed to be. So I made a little mock up. I tried different sized pieces of plastic until I got the assembly to look about right. Thank you blue-tac.

The gravestones were put together using scenery pieces from a company called Renedra. They fit great and were very easy to place. I selected one just the right height to support the beasts left leg. The only slight problem with these is that they have quite a few crosses and Christian iconography, which just does not fit into the warhammer world. Never mind, I was able to find sufficient to suit my needs.

I made a path out of flagstones from a spare GW movement tray kit. I did this mainly because I wanted to use a gate, so needed a reason to have a gate. I had to remove then rotate the gate so that the skulls etc were facing forward on the model.

I then added to old spare tree trunk bases from microart studio to break up the space at the front of the base. Next comes the beast itself!

Vampire Counts

I started the Vampire Counts at the start of 2010 in the 7th Edition of the game. The original list was  very heavily built around ghouls which were all powerful back in the day. The second list was a bit more all round...

Where I have photos of models I have included a link.

Lords and heroes:

Cairn Wraith
Count Mannfred

Heinrich Kemmler

Isabella von Carstein

Konrad von Carstein

Krell
Mannfred the Acolyte
Necromancer and Master Necromancer
Strigoi ghoul king
Tomb Banshee

Vampire Lord and Vampire

Vlad Von Carstein

Wight king

Core:

Crypt ghouls
Dire Wolf

Skeletons

Zombies

Special:

Bats swarm

Black Knights

Coprse cart
Crypt Horror
Fell Bat

Grave Guard
Hexwraiths

Spirit Hosts
Vargheist

Rare:
Black Coach

Blood Knights
Cairn Wraith
Mortis Engine
Terrorgheist

Varghulf

Week 21: Skeletons and the World cup

OK; lets face facts. i'm not going to get a lot of painting completed between now and the end of Englands participation in the 2010 World Cup. At the moment it looks as if that might come to pass sooner than later...

Over the last weekend I have managed to watch 12 solid hours of football and another two hours of motor racing Ouch.

In between I have managed to finish my final skeleton figures. This makes a total of 52 Skeletons, which allows for 30 starting figures and 22 allowance for increase by casting. I recon that should do.

As is normal (for me anyway) I have grouped some of the figures onto combined bases to make setting up easier. I have opted with ten figures to have 1 three wide base, 2 two wide and three single figures.

I have stuck with the same colour scheme as the remainder of the army. Hopefully this will pay dividends in time.