Another Vampire Lord joins the Legion!

I love painting Vampires and can't seem to have enough of them! :D This time I've painted Konrad Von Carstein mini which I always liked and had him stashed in a drawer for a long time. Traditionally his armor is always painted in red but I decided to go for a darker look. I think he looks more sinister in dark armor and the blood dripping from the blades pops out more. Talking about blood, I decided to remove the modeled blood from the mini because I wanted it to look more realistic and did the UHU glue blood effect instead. First I put a small dab of the UHU Adhesive on the plastic and mixed a few drops of Blood For The Blood Good into it. Then I used a toothpick to stir the mixture together and applied it to the mini. It does have a pretty quick curing time so I had to move fast.

And here are the three legendary Von Carsteins in one picture:

Melkhior On Winged Nightmare pt.2

...and he is done! First I painted the Winged Nightmare in purplish colors, same that I used on Vengorian Lord but somehow it didn't feel right. In the end I decided to paint the beast in black which I think was a good choice.

After finishing the Winged Nightmare, only thing left to do was painting Melkhior's staff and mounting him on the beast. And here is the final result:

Melkhior On Winged Nightmare pt.1

I started working on one of the iconic Vampire Counts models from the 90's era: Melkhior the ancient on his Winged Nightmare! I really enjoy painting this model. Since Melkhior is truly an ancient vampire, the first vampire of the Necrarch bloodline I wanted to make his skin look very old, almost corpse-like. I like the final result. I also wanted to give him a magical blade, so I painted it in my signature green tones. :) I just realized while posting this that I missed to paint the stone on his necklace. Apart from that, he is done! Now it's time to paint his bellowed beast, the Winged Nightamre that he rides. 

Vampire Lady

I have finished the first countess for my Vampire Counts army! This model was sent to me by Axia Painting Studio and it hasn't been released yet, but it will be soon in their next kickstarter. I really dig the mini and think it's superior to recent female vampires released by Games Workshop. It is a bit absurd and over the top but in a good way. :) I used this opportunity to introduce a new color to my existing color scheme (black/red/bright green): Stormy Blue by Vallejo which I will be using sparingly on some of my characters, mostly females.

Vengorian Lord Showcase

I finally found some time to finish my Vengorian Lord! Painting this model was not a joyful experience for me. I struggled with skin color and repainted it twice. First I painted the skin in my standard pale skintone that I use on all my vampires. I wasn't satisfied with this choice because the beast blended with the base, there was no contrast between the ruin and the vampire, the colors were to similar. Then I went for more greenish tones and wasn't happy with that either. That evening when I repainted the model in green I was really frustrated and decided to put the model away and went browsing the YouTube to cool off. And then the Skeletor pops out in one of the videos and it hit me...I will paint the model in Skeletor skintones! :D Next day I repainted the model for the second time and I was finally really happy with the result.

Vengorian Lord WIP 2

Here is an update on my Vengorian Lord. Until now, I've painted all my vampires in kind of pale/yellowish/dead flesh color. This time I wanted to try something different and after some experimenting this is the final result. I'm quite pleased how it looks. I might use this color scheme for skin on some of my future vampire models. This is also the first time that I've painted the eyes in blood red color. I think it goes very well with blueish/purplish skin tones.

I also wanted to achieve the look of ancient weathered armor so I added traces of corrosion on the steel plates and some verdigris on bronze decorative elements.

All in all I like the way he is turning out so far. :)

Vengorian Lord WIP

After a quite some time I'm working on a more recent release from Games Workshop, the Vengorian Lord, which I am going to be adding to my main Vampire Counts force. It will represent vampire Kruger Wärgner when he takes the monster form. I think it's a really cool model and will look epic on the battlefield towering over rest of the troops.

It took me three evenings just to clean the model, fill the gaps and make the base. I decided to leave the wings unassembled to make it easier to paint the model.

I'm calling the base done. I added some bits from Tabletop World, like broken bell, candle holder and some decorative elements to make it look as tough the vampire is standing on a ruined church. I was thinking about adding some moss and small bushes to the base as well but decided that I spent enough time working on the base and want to move to paint the monster itself.

Now let's paint the Vampire! :)

Kehler's Skeleton Warriors

Skeleton warriors are horrid servants of mighty necromancers and vampires of the New Night Order and represent the backbone of vast undead army lead by Kruger. This unit of skeleton warriors risen by infamous necromancer Kehler Arhnoth is especially terrifying. Their standard bearer is carrying the magical Banner Of The Rising Dead. Imbued with dark necro magic by the necromancer himself, the banner is allowing the ghastly warriors to instantly rise again after being cut down by their enemies in battle. For this they are known to spread terror and desperation in the ranks of men.

I am finally done with another big skeleton unit! These 90's Warhammer skeletons are definitely my all time favorite. You can pose them to your liking and be creative. I also love their face (scull) expressions. Skeletons that followed were cool but to small. The newest ones with their Arabic swords and helmets don't fit the aesthetics of my army and have veird poses IMO. I couldn't decide which photos to post, so I'm posting them all. Hope you don't mind. :)

 

First Necrarch Vampire for my Undead Legion

Over the weekend I have painted my first Necrarch Vampire. Quite happy how he turned out. I own all Necrarch miniatures including Melkhior the Ancient and Zacharias the Everliving, so this is just the beginning of this awesome bloodline! These miniatures are from golden era of Warhammer IMO. Still need to name him and write his background story. :)

 

Standard Bearer for Skeleton Sperman Unit

Quick update on my skeleton spearmen unit. Just finished painting this awesome mini from 1993. Always loved the model! Originally the mini had the banner pole only, so I had to do some cutting and adjusting the banner which I found in my stash of bits. Don't know where is it from but it fits the mini nicely. I also did some free-hand on the cloth. I'm happy with the final result.

Marik Varma

Being a gypsy from a long line of fortune tellers, Marik can easily read people's minds and manipulate them. This helped him win the favor of blood-thirsty Valdemar whom he now serves. Marik was born in the Kingdom of Ind where he was raised in the circle of nomadic, gypsy sorceress. He was very gifted and learned fast. In his early adulthood he already realized he surpassed the knowledge and skills of his masters and he wanted more! Simple magic, charms and fortune telling were simply not enough for young Marik. There was another thing that separated him from the bright nomadic society and made him a black sheep - his perverted fascination with all things dead, which he fetishized. 

It is believed that at some point in his early life his path crossed with Al-elib Iblis, a mad necromancer traveling in a chariot filled with putrid corpses. The madman was fascinated by the boy whom he caught sniffing the carcasses of small animals behind the graveyard gates. Al-elib saw in a boy a kindred spirit who shared his obsession for everything dead, rotten and putrid and who reminded him of himself as a little boy. The boy enjoyed his little bag filled with corpses of small animals just as much as he did his corpse cart loaded with rotting bodies. By all accounts he took young Marik under his wing and introduced him to arcane necro magic. Like his elders before, Al-elib was impressed by the speed at which Marik was learning, but this time the dark arts. After traveling together for many years and spreading terror all across the Old World, they finally arrived as peers in Sylvania and went separate ways. Marik was a grown man at this point but looked way older then his age. Hunched, with cold grey eyes and rotten teeth he truly was personification of death. Today he serves Valdemar Von Todtstein, a vicious vampire whom he helped win many battles by raising endless waves of animated corpses. Impressed by his loyalty and service, Valdemar presented him with an unique gift, an ancient artifact – Soul Furnice. This magical crown belonged to the legendary necromancer Melkhior. It sucks the souls of recently deceased into its core, where they are being devoured and channeled as potent arcane energy into the body of its wielder, making the caster of necro magic far more potent and dangerous. When the vast undead army lead by Kruger Wargner himself faced the army of Averland at Kleiberstorf, Marik Varma and Al-elib Iblis got reunited on the battlefield and wreak havoc on long lines of enemy archers and artillery by casting the Akar'aran spell, making the ground open to reveal a portal through which long-dead knights rode to do battle. This was the first time, but will not be the last that these two powerful necromancers, a father and son almost, meet on the battlefield.

For Marik Varma I have used Heresy Lab Necromancer miniature. As I said in earlier post, I am not a big fan of those crazy, over the top flaming crowns, which you can also find on some of the Age Of Sigmar miniatures, like Flagellants or Hexwraiths, but it kind of fits this mini. I wanted to make a blood dripping effect from the skull so I experimented with a small piece of plastic nylon which I glued to the necro's hand and reinforced with super attack so that it doesn't bend. Then I painted it with Blood For The Blood God color.