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. 

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! :)

Oldhammer Undead Queue

Since I've been way to busy lately to attend my beloved Undead, I thought it would be a cool idea to share with you part of my Warhammer Undead collection from the 80s. This selection of minis contains both slotta and pre-slotta miniatures of various skeleton warriors, undead samurais, night horrors, zombies, etc. dating between 1984-1987. I spent a small fortune to collect these miniatures and still miss some in my collection and plan to acquire them in the future. :)

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. :)

 

Valdemar Von Todtstein

Son of Kain. Extremely violent and sadistic creature even by Vampire standards. Known to rip and eat the faces of his victims leaving them in horrifying state. Clad in Blood Dragon armor and draped in red cape, he is a real nightmare for people across the Empire. Eaten faces are his signature. Loyal to his father above all, he often spreads terror by his side, leaving Kain astound at times by the cruelty of his son. The slaughter of townsfolk and local man-at-arms in the village of Brashovice is where he left his biggest mark. 

In life he was an infamous, expert duelist, very hot headed. No man wanted to offend him or cross his path - it didn't take much for Valdemar to throw down the gauntlet. Every noble who did, payed with his head. In un-life his choice of weapons remained the same, a pair of dueling swords.

This is one of the Games Workshop "midhammer" Blood Dragon minis. Released in 6th edition, this line of Vampire minis is my all time favorite! Plan is to collect and paint them all, both on foot and mounted. Although traditionally Blood Dragon armor is in red color, I kind of like my armor to be in metallic colors. I gave him the red cape instead.

Vampire Counts Update

Summer is in full swing and things slow down for me when it comes to the hobby. However I do manage to do some work. Recently I added one of the classic Blood Dragon Vampire miniatures to my collection. I love the Blood Dragons from the 90s so much! With time, I want to collect the whole range. He still needs a name and a background story. :)I also started to work on a big Cavalry unit based on the 90s OOP Black Knights miniatures. The unit will compose of 24-27 knights and will represent Mortreich's Black Knights. I started by doing the skeletal steeds for the first rank.

I bent and twisted some of their heads to make the unit more interesting and add variety.

Now I am going to paint the riders for the same rank and then move on to the second and third rank.

Mortreich Von Todtstein

Mortreich Von Todtstein is a brother of Kain Von Todtstein. He is as cruel and merciless as Kain, and equally vicious and capable commander. The two brothers always competed for dominance. Even in life, from the time they were little kids fighting with wooden swords, these two were constantly battling each other, be it in a direct way or by plotting schemes behind the curtain. Now in undeath, they are again confronted in the eternal battle for the favor of the supreme commander and their lord Kruger "Der Nacht König". Mortreich was absent for several centuries while at the same time his brother supposedly banded with the Night King in his expedition to the Black Pyramid. It is said that he was roaming the lands of the old world on his own, in a search of a magical blade, an ancient dark relic of great power - the “Nightfang". Eventually, his search was successful. Some say that the sword was hidden within dimensions of the dark gods and demons, beyond this universe. Equipped with this ancient blade, it is widely believed that he can open various portals to netherworld and summon a vast horde of spectral minions in an instant. Therefore do not be fooled by his appearance of a lone vampire count warrior. The shadows that follow him reluctantly are always there, waiting to be unleashed upon his single commanding word from a death spell. There are even stories that the blood that ends up on this ancient blade never coagulates, keeping it in liquid form indefinitely. Words about Mortreich wielding the mighty Nightfang reached Kain fast. Thus his hatred towards his brother grew even greater, for every vampire’s dream is to hold this potent weapon. What will the future bring, and will this bad blood ever come to an end, only time will tell.

I remember, some 20 years ago, when me and my friends were playing Warhammer Fantasy Battles 6th edition, this was one of my favorite Games Workshop models. I was playing Empire at the time and was so envious of my friend who played Vampire Counts. I wanted this Red Duke model so bad. :) Today, 20 years later, I still find this mini to be bloody awesome! The Duke is so full of character. Something that today's minis lack, in my opinion. And I finally own it! :D 

Kruger "Der Nacht-König" Wärgner

The king of the eternal night and supreme leader of "The New Night Order"

It is believed that he presently abides in one of the ancient Sylvanian castles/ruins of the northern regions. The castle itself has its own forbidden legends and dark stories to tell. Apparently built by the first Von Carstein nobles, "The eldars", who performed horrible rituals and sacrifices during their reign within the castle walls. In order to achieve immortality in what they called "the pure blood rite", they slew thousands of innocents in the darkest era known to mankind – in pre-Sigmar times. The castle was burnt down and abandoned after the first fall of the Von Carsteins. Since the appearance of the Nameless one, the castle walls can be seen again in all their previous might and glory, but only during nighttime. What happens during daylight hours remains a mystery. Is the castle just an illusion? Does it exist for real? Is it trapped within parallel dimensions? This is a conundrum for sages to solve. Glowing green light can be seen frequently from inside the castle during long Sylvanian nights, suggesting powerful necro-magic within its fortified towers.
 

It remains unknown whether he was just another great fallen hero to become a Vampire count Blood Dragon by some foul play of destiny or it was something much greater, darker and far more terrifying - beyond the grasp of mortal comprehension - that spawned him. Is it a myth brought to life? A rumor? A story to scare children? Something else entirely? Nobody knows for sure. There were stories, legends and rumors back in the old days, many tall tales indeed, but most have fallen out of memory since. One of them still survived, though, and it speaks of the following:

Back in the old times lived a great hero. Whether of Bretonnian or Empire stock, it remains unclear. He possessed great strength and charisma and was considered a war-master. He honed his skills and tactics through countless battles against evil. However, it is said that one day he came in contact with Chaos so powerful that it was too much even for him to bare. He was last seen entering the great black pyramid of Nehekhara with the remnants of his once great army and was lost in the labyrinths below for untold centuries to come. Was it he that came to Chaos or the other way around, or was it some other foul and dark force that summoned him back to life wearing his body and armor remains a mystery. Some say he opened the portal to other worlds within the pyramid itself. From there he traveled to the distant future where the Chaos reigned supreme and "tapped" into it, returning with all its forbidden secrets far back into the past of the Old World in order to change the history and conquer all...only this time in the name of the Dead, rather than Chaos.

Throughout history, Kruger was known under various names and different titles. The common folk, mostly terrified out of thier minds and fearing for their souls, wouldn't dare to speak his real name out loud. So when they mentioned him in conversation, he was referred to as "The Namless One". One thing is certain, though. He is a horrible creature of darkness and undeath bent to a single purpose in the Old World - to create the "New Night Order". A world without life, forever.

For the Kruger character I decided to go with Mannfred Von Carstein miniature from Games Workshop. I really like the model, the character looks both as brutal warrior and a mage. However, this model is form the Games Workshop Finecast range. When ordering models from this range it's like playing the lottery. You never know what will you get in terms of quality of the cast. These models are cast in resin and often have small air bubless in the parts. This particular model was worse than usual and I had to fill many holes with modelling putty prior painting. There are still plenty of small air holes in the fur which I left as is, because it would take me ages to fill them all and it can pass as a fur.
My biggest challenge when painting this model was the OSL effect. I had to get out of my comfort zone, since I don't have much experience with this technique. I wanted to make the green glow from the staff reflect on the armored horse and Kruger. I'm quite pleased how the effect turned out.