heinzdwarf's Vampire Counts, SpooOOOooky!

Hey all,

Last month I found myself out of models to paint for my Beasts of Chaos army, and at a loss for motivation to re-paint my Dwarf army. So, I did what any true Warhammer nut would do and started a new army.

I was drawn to Vampire Counts for several reasons. First off, the new models (and quite a few of the old models) are really awesome. Second, the play style of the Vampire Counts is quite different than that of my other armies, and it would give me a chance to take a magic heavy build for the first time. Lastly, I realized that I could theme a Vampire Counts army around one of my favorite bands, which I will explain later.

I knew that if I was going to start a new army that I would have to do things right. I am an avid painter and gamer and as such my models tend to chip/break a lot. In an effort to minimize the casualties I decided that the entire army would have magnetic bases. This makes transportation and gaming a lot easier. In order to accomplish this I decided to get my hands on some Gale Force 9 magnetic bases, as they are a lot more convenient than buying magnets and sheet metal and making a mess with super glue.

A few of the problems posed by basing an army with GF9 bases are that they are expensive and only super glue will stick to them. The way I have justified the cost is that the majority of my army so far has been free as a result of winning awards at tournaments (or by generous gift from my girlfriend). If I don't have to pay for the models then I don't mind shelling out the cash for some fancy bases. In terms of the glue issue, super glue works fine for models but would be a nightmare for gravel. Luckily, I found a really nice gravel substitute a while back called Black Lava which is a paste made with real stone that is easy to apply and dries hard in a few hours. This substance is also optimal for texturing movement trays, as the traditional white glue and gravel tends to rub off.

Speaking of movement trays, the "modular" trays that GW produces are very nice to work with and surprisingly fair priced. As much of my magic phase will be dedicated to summoning new models, my movement trays be left open in the back. I will also make small, five man movement trays that are open in the front and back so that I can add new models to the rear of my infantry units. Because they will be magnetized they will more or less stick together.

One goal I hope to achieve with this army is consistent appearance. My other armies were painted over the span of several years, during which time my painting skills drastically improved. That means that some of the units/models in each army looks much better than others. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, I hope to have all of the units/models in my Vampire Counts army painted to a similar high standard. I hope that my painting skills will continue to improve along the way, but they seem to improve slower and slower the better I get... make sense?

As mentioned before, the Vampire Counts army lends itself to being themed around one of my favorite bands: Tiger Army. The band sings about topics such as death, wandering spirits, vampires and the like. I thought their symbol would look good on my standards:

This symbol can vary, for example it is not always shown with wings and it can have a variety of different colours/backgrounds, although this one with the yellow moon is pretty sweet. I also plan on naming my units/characters after lyrics/song titles.

For those of you who have read all of this post so far I admire your ability to trudge through my tiresome dialogue. Don't worry, however, for it is time to get to some pictures.

This is my first unit so far: the Zombies! Half of the fun of these guys is yelling out their name with different pronunciations, as well as acting like a zombie (walking stiffly, moaning, and calling out for brains). I know, I'm a loser.

After painting the first test model I managed to streamline the process of painting these guys. As I plan on painting 60-80 of these models I limited my colour palate in order to make my life easier.

Pictured here is what will end up being a unit of 25 Zombies with Standard Bearer, but only 20 models come in a box so that is all I have for now. The static grass has been placed along the sides of the unit and sparingly on the bases in order to make it look like they are walking down a dirt road. This has been done with the eventual army display board in mind, as I plan to have my army marching on an Empire village.











Comments and criticisms greatly appreciated. More to come soon!

-heinzdwarf

i like the idea of basing your army around a band could lead to some cool conversions (Tour bus corpse cart perhaps? ) And a top notch job on the zombies. they look truly terrifying.

I remember a picture in an old white dwarf on a guy who themed his 40k Chaos marines on metal bands (monsters of rock i think iot was called) Can't wait to see what you do next

Great looking unit - look forward to more updates on the theme!

Quite well painted zombies love the skin tone (I had VC as my 1st army painted them o so not realistic green) They are gone but hey I lvoe your way of doing them an themed on a band not bad? mabye a guitariest or drummer as musicans? Would look cool.....espically mabye done as the band members (sort of) would need to GS a zombie or what ever unit you put them in and a Vampire as the lead singer? Just some helpful ideas cant wait to see what you got planned next.

Looks like a great start, though I've never heard of the band in question.

Ditto. I think the stars on the baner are kinda cheesy, but otherwise the banner came out awesome. The band icon will fit well with the new blood knight, gg, and old black knight helms.
I follow you on the consistency of painting level too. My space orks were my first real go at painting and they went for god awful to pretty good over a few years but were every which colour.

Do the magnetic bases fit on slotted bases or does the slot get in the way?

Keep up the good work

Zommmbuhhh!

This sounds like a great idea for an army. I can't wait to see what you post next!

Thanks to all for the feedback so far.

I'll comment a bit more on the theme. I plan on using the Winged Vampire model as my General. The lead singer of Tiger Army has a lot of tattoos, particularly one big one on his chest which extends to his neck. The Winged Vampire model has most of his upper body exposed, so I will try to replicate these tattoos and perhaps use greenstuff to re-create the singer's hair style.

Exeter: I am no entirely happy with the stars on the banner either. They were a spur of the moment decision after painting the tiger as I felt the banner was too empty. Do you have any suggestions as to what else could be added?

Also, I did not add magnets to the bottom of the GW bases. These are bases produced by GF9 which are made of "rubber steel" and are magnetized. You can check them out on the link I provided in my initial post. They come in any size you could want, including slotted.

Next up on my list of things to paint is 20 Ghouls. I have 8 of them completed, and another 4 that solely need some finishing touches. I will take some pictures of them later tonight, but the poor lighting in my apartment may prevent me from posting them. At the very least, I'll have pictures up this weekend after going to GW (where they have much brighter, less yellow lighting).

-heinzdwarf

Here are the steps I used in painting the Zombies. This is as much for my own reference as it is for your enjoyment, as I am liable to forget how I painted certain things if I don't keep records!

Skin: Tallern Flesh basecoat -> 1:1 Tallern Flesh/Rotting Flesh highlight -> Rotting Flesh highlight -> 1:1 Thraka Green/Devlan Mud wash

Bone: Dheneb Stone basecoat -> 1:1 Badab Black/Devlan Mud wash -> Bleached Bone highlight

Hair: Calthan Brown basecoat -> Devlan Mud wash -> Snakebite Leather highlight

Khaki Clothes: Khemri Brown basecoat -> Kommando Khaki highlight -> Devlan Mud wash -> Kommando Khaki highlight

Green Clothes: Catachan Green basecoat -> Devlan Mud wash -> 2:1 Rotting Flesh/Catachan Green highlight

Blue(ish) Clothes:Fenris Grey basecoat -> 1:1 Codex Grey/Fenris Grey highlight -> Badab Black wash -> 2:1 Codex Grey/Fenris Grey highlight

Brown Clothes: Scorched Brown basecoat -> Bestial Brown highlight -> 1:1 Badab Black/Devlan Mud wash -> Bestial Brown highlight

Wood: Chaos Black basecoat -> Codex Grey line highlight -> Fortress Grey line highlight

Metal: Boltgun Metal basecoat -> Badab Black wash -> Boltgun Metal highlight

This was my first extensive use of the washes and as you can see from my methods I found them to work differently with different colours. In some cases, highlighting first and then applying the wash helps with shading and smoothing transitions and no additional highlights are needed. This is usually with light colours. In other cases, it works very well to repeat the same highlight before and after applying the wash. This is usually with darker colours.

As promised, here are pictures of the first 8 Crypt Ghouls. I just finished up another group of 4 earlier today. I know the pictures are not the best quality. I will definitely get some better pictures when I finish the whole unit, which will hopefully be soon!





As always, comments and criticism are welcome! Thanks for looking.

-heinzdwarf

I'm unsure what to recommend in place of them. How did it look without them?

the ghouls look good from what I can make out in the pics. Are they a pinkish purpley or is that the light playing tricks?

I've become a big fan of the new washes myself. They work really well in layers over colour transitions and tints. And the matte finish drying is just great.

1. It looked similar, but a bit too plain. In retrospect, perhaps I should have made the tiger larger.

2. They are definitely purple, but not so much pink.

3. The washes, along with the foundation paints, have become my best friends since I started this army. They make my life so much easier.

****

I finally finished up all 20 Ghouls this weekend, along with their movement tray.

The first picture is blurry, but the rest came out really well.









I am planning on participating in a 500 point Warbands tournament at the end of October, and your entire army has to be painted. I've created a painting schedule for myself which hopefully I will be able to stick to. Next order of business is 5 more Zombies to fill out that first unit. I should have these done by Friday.

-heinzdwarf

This post has been edited by heinzdwarf on Oct 5 2008, 07:05 PM

They're looking good, though I'd wish that you could set your camera to take bigger/better pictures, they're very compressed which means that you get jpeg-children all over.

They look good. This is the closest I've seen the ghoul models. What is it with the ghouls sticking bones through their skin as piercings? The faces on these have a lot of character too. They could be made into a really funny converted unit.

Hmmm, would you mind zooming out a bit with your camera?
Seems to m you have some mighty fine buildings and stuff there too.

Unfortunately, the buildings in the pictures are not mine. The pictures were taken at Games Workshop and I threw some terrain in the background to make the scene a bit more interesting.

So, I've continued my mad painting streak and finished up the 5 remaining Zombies for the first unit. Didn't get a chance to take a picture of them. I also have been working on Fell Bats, a Tomb Banshee and a Cairn Wraith. The Banshee is complete and the Cairn Wraith should be done real soon. I have pictures of the Banshee. I have been contemplating for a while how I would paint ethereals. I decided to go with a "Sin City" approach. If you've seen the movie then you'll know what I'm talking about.





-heinzdwarf