A Valentine Vampire (ish)

To mark valentines day I give you a vampire with a couple of hearts on his cloak. Ok, its a half hearted effort, but it was the best I couple think up and it fits in with the remainder of the VC army. His flesh was built up from Graveyard Earth to Bleached bone in an attempt to make it look more undead, but I added a bit of red to his cheeks and I think I have lost the effect.
He was floating above the gravestone in an attempt to make him rabk up and to simulate his move 9 thanks to his Talisman of the lynci. I have since found that I am not the first to come up with this approach. I am also not happy with the fabric around his head it makes him look like a victorian child in a sailor suit. I think a bit of dull coat on the back of his cape would also help.
Oh well, maybe I'll return to this chap and rework him.

WIP: Vampire Count character

Its time to start some work on characters, so I have choosen a relatively simple one to get me started. I have opted to go for the vampire hero from The first Vampire counts list.
The first question was simple, what kind of vampire did I want. I love the imagery within the old fashioned hammer house of horror kind of horror movies, so a humanoid with fangs and a flowing cloak are the first needs.
Then to decide on which model to start with, I had to consider what the chap is carrying. This chap comes complete with Infinite hatred, walking death, sword of battle, armour of night and the talisman of lynci. So to take each in turn;
Infinite hatred: The guy hates everything. Not a lot I can do with this in modeling terms, but worth remembering when painting the face.
walking death: He must look powerful. Difficult to model. Not sure what to do with this.
sword of battle: must be armed with a sword.
Armour of night. "This black enamelled armour swathes the wearer in an impenetrable cloud of darkness." Whilst initially drawn to the umbrella carrying beast in order of the stick. I guess I am going to have to be a bit more sensible than that! The vampire must be seen wearing armour, or at least a breast plate, which must be painted black, look shiney and may well require gloss varnish! yummy!
Talisman of the lynci; Apart from the fact that he needs an amulet, he needs to look capable of moving 18" on the charge! That is almost flying speed!
After a bit of searching I have rounded on the Mordheim: Vampire with Sword. This had the significant advantage that I still had one in blister from when I had a small Morheim undead force. I noticed from the pack I paid only £3 for it and its now £8. Wow, it didn't feel that long ago when I brought it.
During cleaning up, I noticed that his feet don't touch the ground and that his cloak is so wide that I have no chance of ranking him up. I have opted to take both of these aspects as an opportunity to play with him a little.
After asking around on my local forum I have managed to gain a headstone from a friends spare box and have mounted him on that. This has the advantage that he looks more like he can leap (or fly-ish) with some grace and may well be capable of moving 9". It also gives me a chance at ranking. I drilled a vertical hole through the tombstone and passed a brass rod through this. I missed a little so you can see the rod at the front, but I think I can cover this.

I have had to add four extra strong magnets in his base to give him a chance at not toppling over with the movement tray is tipped. Otherwise I am quite happy with him so far.