Zombie Dragon

Hey all, so a while back, my favourite FLGS was about to close and they had sales amongst which "plastic by the weight" deals. Amongst the many bits I collected, I found almost all the bits for a vampire count Terrorgheist and I thought it was a hell of a deal !
But one doesn't simply build ALMOST a terrorghesit so obviously I had to build the missing parts. I could have looked for scanned part and have them printed I guess but part of me likes to salvage models in a DIY approach.


So I started adding armatures and bits of putty step by step to rebuild the whole thing...

I was missing some key strucural bits so assembling what I had into something coherent wasn't easy but I was able to build a strong enough structure inside the belly area, hiding it with gory effects and organs and organic parts.

After that it was only a matter of adding a layer of texture, missing hair and skin, fixing the broken wing finger and blending everything into a whole.

Painting wise, it all went very easily, using a zenithal of white over zendri dust, some drybrushes to really enhance the prehilighting and then washes and glazes to gives every area its sickly texture.

A model of this size is a nightmare to photograph since it's much bigger than my usual photo booth and it doesn't really take light well so a lot of the subtleties in the skin are kinda lost in the process but they're here and I'm really happy with them and the sort of "realistic" (or maybe believable) look I wanted to achieve

I really encourage anyone to try that sort of exercise, the model was super cheap and it wasn't part of a big plan so the stakes were really low and the return on effort was sensational. It's always a way to learn something painting wise because you can try new techniques, cut corners or approach things a new way. The result is practically always a net positive in my experience.
 

BOYL exclusive Necromancer by Bob Olley

Hey all ! I'm in the middle of a stupid number of projects at the moment but I wanted to clear a few items rapidly lately. One of which is going through my BOYL exclusives and getting them all painted to show some gratitude ! Amongst the ones I hadn't painted, there was this Necromancer by the incredible Bob Olley from BOYL 2022 (iirc).

Night Horror Vampyre

So with my fellow creepers, we've been talking about painting some Halloween related thing because Halloween. And my lazy self wondered what I could possibly paint until I realised one guy was waving his arms at me amongst the mess on the desk.

Necromancers - Legions of Nagash

 

Hey everyone, so little side step here as I took the opportunity to join a group challenge and clear the desk a little !

When Warcry was released, I didn't feel like starting a fresh new band and the ones that I fancied weren't released yet so I thought the smart thing to do was to build on top of my sepulchral guard, I just needed a necromancer (quickly bought and built) and a few more skeletons (quickly built from kits I had around) and that was the promise of great things. Fast forward a few months, world pandemic and all the stuff you know and I hadn't touched any of my additions when Sho3box offered a joint challenge for us to each paint a couple of wizard/apprentice in anticipation of Frostgrave Season 2.

Zombie slayer or... zombie slayer ?

Alright now, little time ago, Jamie from Oldschool Miniatures kindly sent me an orc  and added this unreleased zombified slayer to paint.
Well dwarves are cool, slayers doubly so and zombies on top ? Say no more, this guy (sort of) quickly moved to the top of the queue.
It's a really cool sculpt from Juan Montano, full of oldschool charm, that paints really well.

Warhammer underwolds Shadespire - The Sepulchral guard

I'm back on Shadespire just as Nightvault is announced ! That's a good timing, especially since I still have one band left to paint for it ! (more about that later)

Now this month, I had a painting challenge for which I had decided I'd paint a band themed on a season, my pick obviously went straight to undead and autumn, because that's a theme I love and my favourite season and both are an obvious match. 

That meant I wanted faded colours but obviously I couldn't help getting some vibrant reds in (I really must try to get rid of that habit before it becomes a cheap gimmick though).

Of wrinkled bones - Story of a Skolleyton

Hi all !

A few days ago, I saw a very nice proposition on the Oldhammer FB page, the kind you can hardly say no to...

Stuart K. offered a handful of Olley miniatures to the people who'd claim them first at the only condition that those models were painted within a month.

Now I do like to be challenged and I love Olley models even more ! This is how I ended up bagging this magnificent skeleton !

Shadows under Bogenhaced - Mordheim campaign

Last week end, I had the chance to be invited to play a mordheim campaign with the very same folks as last year.

I was very eager to see them again and play a new campaign with my freshly painted undead band.

The Sultans of the night - Direwolves

Hi all, just a quickie today. Yesterday night I've managed to knock 4 models at once !

Well OK, they're probably the most easy models to do...

I've got my hands on this bunch of oldschool wolves (some of which are from Kev Adams I believe) and got them done in a night.
Both Frostgrave and MOrdheim can use wolves so once again I'm ticking a few boxes with these.

Bean and Scones, the skeleton thieves

What does any self respecting undead force need ? Come on... Skeletons yes ! So for Valentine's day, I had to paint a couple...

As you might have noticed, the force was pretty meaty and was somehow lacking "dry" elements... Well the only way to do things is to do them right isn't it ? I had to get a few skeletons in the troup and I had the perfect models for it !

Riff Raff and Evil Ash - Undead servants

Although I thoroughly enjoyed the charms of Hungary and Budapest, getting back behind the brushes did feel great. I had started 2 models bafore leaving and I was eager to get back on them.

These 2 models, despite being of very different statures and status, bear one thing in common.

Come on, I'm sur you know who they're inspired from...

Zombie eaters...

Never was much into zombies to begin with but I've actually painted quite a few since last year. And I have to admit loving the process. They're very rewarding and quite forgiving and often have plenty of silly details that make most of their charm (how else could we love dead but walking rotting meat ?).

Ghoulish servants

Still working on a project that require a lot of stamina, I'm treating myself with pauses like these guys that are just fun to paint.

Following my last post about the vampires, I actually lied. Bad I know.

It was for a good cause though, honest.

The vampires from the Baronies

OK, so new year, new projects, some dating from way back and some brand new. Well, this one is actually a bit of both.

I've been toying with the idea of an undead force for a long time now but with my "armies" days behind me, I just didn't have the will nor stamina to do a big project like this anymore.

Good thing is, Frostgrave and Mordheim followed by Dragon Rampant with the Champions of Law have tought me small forces can easily made and augmented if you want to scratch a special itch.

With that in mind, since I had painted a zombie for deadcember, I just had to paint a model now and then to slowly but steadily grow my group into a playable force.

Frostgrave being centered around the wizard and his(her) apprentice, I opted for a pair of vampires. Vampires are cool. Well they can be.

Some are. OK ?

The outsider - Zombie for Deadcember !

Well, with the end of the year in sight, winter spreading its wings all over the place (at least in the northern hemisphere), it seems apt to celebrate the dead, or even better, their living kind.

That must have been the thinking behind this all (or probably something better) when our esteemed Rab came up with his Deadcember idea following the success of orctober.

Illustration by Zhu

Undead astronauts

OK, I have to say last Saturday was a VERY exceptionnal day for me. I took full advantages of a shitty weather and a sore feet from too much sport the day before and I engaged myself in a painting marathon. This marathon was made more than enjoyable by skyping with Paul and Colin, and I have to say being able to talk non-sense (even though I'm the silent one due to language) and seeing other people lick their brushes was a real pleasure and help as we managed to sit for 6 hours straight (almost).

This means I managed to finish 10 models in a day. The first 5 being the INTERNAL OGRANS BROFIST from last time.

Now here's something a little different, it's a little more in line with my zombies from earlier.

The Journey of a necromancer...

Let's start with a fitting soundtrack

Times are hard for a poor old necromancer... 

The battle of the maisontaal abbey... what a waste... what a shame...

Heinrich Kemler has recently heard about the return of Nagash and the coming end of times. Maybe he can still find a little place in this world, maybe he can regain some of his past glory...

It's time to move on if you want to take your piece of the pie...

 

Demon of the fall - Battle chaos part 29

If you need some music with this post, may I suggest either :

 or Vivaldi's Autumn but it feels far more wood elvish to me...

Anyway, here's my entry for October's painting challenge at the oldhammer forum. It was built with no true purpose at first but just to use some bits I had here and there and as I was building it, I realised it could fit in many slots. 

In can be a vargulf in my undead army if I play it in 8th ed but it can also be a minotaur lord in any chaos army. What interests me the most with this guy though is the opportunity to play it as a Malal Demon Prince.

When Malal got in the way, I reconsidered the whole model and made a few changes : 

•  I added the chaos star stone at his feet to show he's sort of desecrating some sort of chaos altar or temple.
• I changed its head for a bestial head with as many teeth as I could to fit the description of Malal's greater demons.
• I chose the head of a chaos hound with half his face ripped to make a reflection on Malal's device being a black and white skull. (the background behind this guy is that he has ripped his own flesh in a self destructive manner befitting Malla very well I think).

Bring out your dead ! Battle Undead part 2

Trying to paint 2 armies at the same time can get tricky. Trying to paint 4 is just a proof you're going insane. Anyway, since painting takes time, i sometimes enjoy converting stuff from another army when I'm in the middle of a big rank-and-file unit, just let my brushes and brains rest a little.

During the painting of my ongoing Chaos army, I had the idea of converting vampire knights, I mean CHEAP VAMPIRE KNIGHTS.
At the time being, the undead seemed very attractive but the latest black riders had'nt been released yet. My idea wad to use skeletton horses with empire army armour with Dark elves cold one riders to have a vampire touch.

The result is quite good enough and sufficiently close to what I was aiming for, the only thing I think is needed is rotten cloak coming from underneath the armour parts of the horses but I guess that would have been easier to do before finising the rest...

I have to say this conversion proved to be reasonably easy for a simple reason :  the old undead horses end the old empire horses are built on the very same design, they have the same poses et their size correspond almost perfectly ! Finding scratch parts on other models is a usual thing but I wouldn't have expected these two batches to match so well...

Oh and I also think sculpting flames coming out form the nose and eyes of the steeds could be quite appropriate, what do you think?

As I had almost finished building up these lads (and ladies), I found a lead creature waiting fo some love : a plague cart.

I converted it just a little to give the rider a face from the new plague cart to link both in my armies. The old version will most likely be inserted in a skeletton unit to add 8 bases at once....(I've seen the trick used and it can either be splendid or stupid)

The other thing I added was a Yoke I sculpted in 2mm plastic card and scrapped with a blade to give it a wooden aspect. All of those who have this miniature know what a pain it is to assemble it and that was my answer to the problem.

By the way, you can see a brilliantly painted version of it here with the use of a lepper mini (I used mine to make a brettonian bowman).

At the dawn of an army - Battle Undead part1

Ok, now

Here's the last army I started for WFB (mimics creepy voice), an UNDEAD army. How cool can it get?, you don't care about your soldiers dying, THEY'RE (un)DEAD !

I'll stick to my rule and start with giving these lads some leaders to go ta battle.
Since the army general is of great importance for such an army, I had to give him everything I could to help him on the field.
Vlad von Karstein is an absolute hit for me, I really love the dark nobility in him and your really feel through the mini this guy isn't here for fun.
I also love the rules for Mannfred von Karstein and the fact he can mount nearly everything attracted me. I chose the Varghulf with an alternative head :

And because everybody needs somebody, I felt like givin't Mr Longteeth here a nice lady. The female vampire GW sells was one of the only options when I started (the new Isabella wasn't released) but her head was just not what I wanted. Though her head kinda sucked, I remembered how great and noble the one from Lucrezia Belladone is and I tried some surgery to mix both minis :

I know what some of you will say and you'll be right, the upper part is nothing more than a copy of the actual mini. I'm not planning on copying minis or anything but I wanted to try to copy parts to be able to reproduce in large numbers some of the conversions I made for large units. It also saved my life for 2 chaos dragon-ogres of mine missing the tail part that I was able to copy this way from a mini I got on Ebay.
Anyways, this is done with an excellent mix called Silligum which consists of two gums which solidify but remain flexible in just 5 minutes, you just pour resin in the mould and 10 minutes later you have an excellent copy of the part you wanted. This method cannot allow to copy whole minis but only parts and it's just fine the way it is...

So now...
We have a fine couple missing something..., undead are not known for being great parents but maybe they can take good care of a pet like a giant werewolf?
Since th Varghulf cannot fly, its mini doesn't need wings, and since I already used its mini as a mount I needed something else. The idea of a giant undead werewolf poped into my mind and turned into this.

Bits from a chaos spawn, legs from archaon's mount and the head from a chaos hound (plus minor green stuff addings).

Since the photos uploaded here aren't the best to show clearly what it's all about, I'll undercoat them or take new ones.

For now...