Violins and Vampires

 Back to the charming land of Blognia this week, for a few more miniatures. First of all is a violin player, made by West Wind Productions for their Victorian gothic range. I've had this chap on my desk for months now, and I've never thought he was a very good model. Eventually, I compelled myself to get on with it and paint the guy. I'm actually really pleased by how he came out!

Music plays an important part in distracting the citizens of Blognia from their drab, miserable lives, and it is considered a poor wedding that doesn't last for several days and fails to include either a good band or a knife-fight. Here we seem a travelling player, ready to serenade his employer of the day, and keeping careful watch in case a blood feud breaks out.

I also painted a minor vampire and a couple more minions, to make a small squad. The vampire (he might be a fancy Captain of Guards instead) is a Privateer Press model called Valachev. Privateer Press models vary hugely in quality, but this is one of the newer, better ones, and I really like all the detail on him.

For some reason, it was almost impossible to get a decent picture of this guy. Strange (and really irritating) how some models just won't show up. I added a bird to his base from a GW model, and put him on a slightly raised bit of plasticard stone to show his higher rank.

I also made a few more minions for this chap. these were based on the Perry Miniatures Afghan models, using the guys with boots instead of sandals and the non-turban-wearing heads. The kneeling guy has a head from a Frostgrave soldier.

The many vampires of Blognia are powerful, but they have weaknesses. Almost any revenant of note will employ minions to guard his property, track down his enemies and carry out business that he cannot deal with in the daylight hours. While many of these men are little more than hired bandits, some clans and families have a tradition of helping the undead. The vampire acquires useful assistants who can freely travel in the world of the living, and its helpers get to loot, plunder and look glamorous compared to the other peasants.

More Fun With Zombies and Scavvies

 Now that normal service has been restored, I have more pictures for both of you who read this blog. This week, I've been working on some of Necromunda's less flamboyant inhabitants: the rancid, low-living scavvies and their plague zombie friends.

The second batch of plague zombies included some damaged models. It seems that, many years ago, I converted them to introduce some variety, with mixed results. I took the opportunity to do some repairs before painting them.

I ordered a sprue of Frostgrave female cultists (sold under the name Frostgrave Cultists 2). These are really good models, with a ragged, crazy look. The cultists wear masks and bandages, and carry nasty-looking weapons. Some of the arms have a groping pose that works well for zombies.

And here is the second bunch, painted up. As with the first lot, I used a limited range of colours for the clothing, all of them drab and grubby. I kept with three shades of skin: bloodless blue, rotting green and recently-dead yellow. They work as individuals but there's enough overlap to make them seem like a unified mob.

Not too shabby! Actually, very shabby. But still.

I also started work on a batch of scavvies. Scavvies are filthy and inbred, but they are still live humans, so these guys would be looking more lively. There are official GW scavvy models from the 90s, but I'm not too keen on them: they've got that unexciting, slightly cartoony quality that was common in GW at the time, and they're nowhere near as well-sculpted as the Escher ganger. 

I wanted them to look crazed and feral, and the Frostgrave cultists worked perfectly for this. Some of them were given left-over Stargrave arms, using the most basic-looking rifles. It's easy to make nice, dynamic poses with the plastics.

In painting them, I used fairly drab, earthy colours to suggest dirt, rust and worn-out gear. I also gave them bits of red clothing, to suggest danger. They're at least partly inspired by the Reavers from the film Serenity.

They look charming. I do enjoy making these weird models out of bits and bobs: there will be more scavvy soldiers to follow. After the neatness and bright colours of the Eschers, it's interesting to paint these filthy maniacs.

From 40k Inquisitor to Fantasy Vampire

 

A while ago, the local gaming shop was getting rid of some back-issues of that Warhammer magazine where you slowly built an army. On the front was the Inquisitor Kyria Draxus model, for "only" £10. I bought it, not really knowing what I'd do with the miniature. 

I think it's one of those models that has lots of cool details and doesn't really come together as a whole very well. The little dragon, the cloak, the smooth armour and the skull on her shoulder all look nice, but it's a bit "bitty" and the position is a tad odd. So, I chopped it up. The head, skull and arms were replaced.

The new arms are very old plastic Mordheim bits. The new head came from a Sister of Battle that I used as the leader of my Sisters of Sigmar warband a while ago. It's got a strange, old-fashioned look. I filed down and covered some of the sci-fi bits of her armour. I felt that it needed a bit to balance out the big halberd, so I added a screaming head from some kind of chaos warrior. Having long hair in Warhammerland is a really bad idea, because people will inevitably use it to hold up your severed head.

And then I added paint. A dark red and purple scheme felt suitably vampiric, but that can look a bit bland, so I tried to incorporate a few bits of lighter colour.

Most of the undead are not very picky about who or what they drain of blood. However, the smarter ones tend to know not to get high on their own supply of peasants. In fact, some vampire nobles are quite protective of their flocks. Here we see Katerina von Augen, displaying the severed head of the chaos warlord Gruffwulf Ruffguff at the third battle of the River Plog.

I also painted a Supernatural Veteran for the good people of Silver Bayonet. This guy started off as an explorer from their Egyptian supplement, which is why he had an odd head-dress under his top hat - presumably to keep the sun off. That looked a bit weird in a rainy hellhole like Blognia, so I sculpted long hair over the top of it. And then the hair looked like dreadlocks, so I gave him darker skin. 

While fighting the living dead is not a very appealing prospect for most people, fighting the living dead for money is very appealing to a few. As a result, men of learning - some of it pretty arcane - have flocked to Blognia in search of revenants and cash. One such traveller is Jean le Beaucourt, swordsman, occultist and millinery connoisseur. 

Back to Blognia - Peasants and Vampires

 Right then, more Blognians!

The great majority of Blognians are part of the rural peasantry. Despite the modernising efforts of the Duchess, most of the population remains in the countryside. The peasantry remain friendly and welcoming - provided you are also a peasant, and preferably a blood relation of marriable age.

Many peasants are the retainers and bondsmen of their liege lords and, even if not literally owned by them anymore, remain touchingly and stupidly loyal to their feudal masters. As well as the traditional crafts of moustache-growing and vendetta, the peasants also help the undead with tasks that cannot be carried out by creatures who avoid the sun and have no reflection. That said, in these tumultuous times, some peasants have banded together to overthrow their vampiric masters. Vampire-hunting is big business in modern Blognia, and the peasants want a stake in it.

Here are three peasant fighters. They're made from Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago crewmen. I cut the hand of the bearded man and turned it a little, to open the model out a bit, but otherwise they're unconverted.

And this is an old metal GW Strigoi vampire model. It's got weirdly little feet and is in a slightly strange position, but the face is cool and I like this rather feral style of vampire.

And here is a whole unit of peasants, or possibly brigands, equipped for some kind of uprising. I'm surprised how colourful they are: that wasn't my original plan, but what the heck. I rather like it.

Vampire Ship

 Here's another project that I've been working on gradually. Since I've made some docks for my fantasy town, I thought it would be cool to have a ship docked at them. It would look nice, and would provide a bit more space for characters to fight. I bought a "Strigoi Schooner" from TT Combat: a kit made from laser-cut MDF.

I always think that the TT Combat terrain kits are good for basic shapes, but aren't very detailed. The pieces of detailing that are provided in the kits tend not to be all that good. As a result, I decided to leave off or replace some of the fancy bits. I also decided not to use the coffins that the ship is meant to be pulling, which looked a bit crude.

Once I'd assembled the basic model, I felt that the hull wasn't very smooth. It was made out of progressively narrower pieces of MDF, and looked too basic. Therefore, I got out the DAS clay and smoothed it over the hull. I filed the hull down with a piece of sandpaper, then gave it a coat of watered-down PVA glue. I find that this helps seal the clay and provides a smooth surface to paint. At this point, it looked like this:

Because the meeting of the clay and the MDF was a bit rough, I added a strip of thin plasticard to mark them apart.

Then it was time to add some details. The rear of the raised deck of the ship was a flat bit of wood, so I added some plasticard details.

The lower deck got some details from the bits box. I replaced the basic MDF door with a resin one that I got at an event and stuck a head from a Frostgrave demon over it, to look sinister. An old lamp was mounted it on a bit of plasticard and stuck onto the wall. I found an old resin ladder and trimmed it down to make some stairs up.

I thought it would be cool to make a sinister figurehead for this ship. This came from a plastic ghost model that I'd had for ages. I think it's from the Coven Throne Warhammer kit. It reminds me of the spirit/angel type creatures from Raiders of the Lost Ark. A bit of sprue stuck to her back helped to attach her to the prow of the boat. I added some "wings" that I think were originally bits of tattered cloth. I'm not sure where they came from.

I thought it would be cool to have a lookout on top of the mast. I found a "Vykros blood-born" model from the Warhammer Quest game, which would work perfectly. It was clinging to a ruined pillar. With a bit of trimming, the pillar looked like the top of a mast. 

Time to paint the rest of it. I went for a gothic purple, red and black colour scheme. It looks like the sort of ship that might carry a vampire, or at least somewhere you might buy an Alchemy T-shirt. I named the ship "Demeter" in homage to the ship that carries Dracula to England in the old novel.

And here it is, sliding into port on a sinister mission!

A Vampire and some Vampire Hunters

 So, after last week's grand announcement that I was starting an ork warband, I decided to make some more gothic horror guys for my small force of Borovians. That's not to say that I've given up on the orks: they're continuing, just as the tyranids and random Mordheim people and Eldar are continuing. I really must get around to painting those howling banshees...

Anyhow, here are some more desperate fighters for the wretched land of Borovia. On the left is a model I bought from the Bad Squiddo stall at UK Games Expo. It's called Vampire Hunter Margaret - if that's a reference, I don't recognise it. For no good reason, this model took a long time to paint and was strangely awkward. Still, it's a decent sculpt.

This is a model called The River Widow from Reaper. She's got a pirate/gypsy sort of look that suggests some kind of adventurer in the wilds of Borovia, perhaps a wizard. I really like this miniature: all the layers of cloth are very cool and fun to paint. That said, I found it really hard to work out what some of the items on her belt were. There's an object near her hand that I decided to paint as a telescope or metal container. Her face is really well-sculpted and has a devious smile.

And this bloke is a West Wind priest from their Vampire Wars line. He's got a vaguely Orthodox feel, so would be good for some real-world Transylvanian vampire hunting. His face has a look of wild fury, as he's banishing some evil. A useful man to know.

This jolly chap is also from West Wind. He looks as if he should be running an inn and eating a lot of sausages, or perhaps the head of a crime syndicate. There's a blunderbuss strapped to his back. He's pretty grotesque, but I quite like the cartoony feel of the model.

Then we've got a vampire from North Star Games. He's very Georgian, and reminds me very much of the Gentleman with the Thistledown Hair, the villain from the BBC's adaptation of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I decided to paint him in the same colours as the TV version. His pose is slightly weird, but he does look quite creepy.

I started this bunch of weirdos because I'd been playing The Curse of Strahd, a Dungeons and Dragons adventure, and also because I liked the look of The Silver Bayonet. I really like the models and their gloomy feel. I might do a few more.

Meanwhile, in Barovia...

I'm getting close to painting up all of the old metal Eldar harlequins. I've got all the miniatures now: I just need to finish them off. At last I have a project that combines the artistic aspect of painting and the middle-aged man aspect of collecting all of something pointless.

In the meantime, I've been working on a sort of side-project. For a while, I've been playing the most recent version of "The Curse of Strahd", a classic Dungeons and Dragons adventure set in a sort of gothic horror fantasy world called Barovia. I happened to find a bunch of models that reminded me of Strahd on ebay, going for a very low price. 

They're from a line called Vampire Wars, made by West Wind Miniatures. They look vaguely Napoleonic/Eastern European in style, the sort of people who crop up in Hammer films working for or against Dracula, perhaps in a gypsy caravan. Here are four of them.

They're not very detailed models and feel quite cartoony and "old school". When they first arrived, I felt a bit disappointed, but they've grown on me since.

The chap in the green coat had a very flimsy knife in his right hand, which I replaced with a sword from a Frostgrave soldier. It looked better and was much more robust. I considered painting some object source lighting coming from the torch he's holding up, but it was too difficult, and I just added a small effect. I suspect that he's outdoors, and there wouldn't be much light on his clothing.

I also painted two dogs from a Celt model from Warlord Games. They look a bit like Irish Wolfhounds and would be useful for chasing peasants, vampires and/or witches.

Last of all, I painted up a vampire model from North Star Miniatures, from their Napoleonic game The Silver Bayonet. I liked the model, but I wasn't that keen on her hands, which were raised in an odd, limp-wristed sort of way. I replaced them with hands holding a sword and a fancy knife, from plastic Frostgrave soldiers. I reckon she's broken into the family armoury in order to deal with some irritating vampire hunters.

I painted her up to have cold-looking, undead skin. It's grey shaded up with pink, with very thinned down purple glazes. I really like this miniature. North Star have some really cool models. 

A few Mordheim loonies

Here are some more random people for Mordheim. 

Our first weirdo was made from part of a plastic skaven, which I got in a job lot of models. It was missing some bits, so I added some of my own.

He got a head from an Empire wizard and a right arm from an Empire pistolier. His bag was made from a kroot part, as were the grenades on his belt. I painted them to look like glass bombs, full of some noxious potion. I extended the strap on the belt and finished off the model's armour with green stuff.

I considered painting the model with a sooty face, as if his guns had backfired, but I didn't think that I could do this convincingly. He was painted to fit in with the Middenheimer unit that I've been making. 

This is Gustav, a former clockmaker who survives in the ruins of Mordheim with his customised guns.

 

*

 I like beastmen: they look like something from a medieval picture of Hell, rather than the Doom-meets-Buffy feel of some of Warhammer's demons. They used to have their own army book, which contained a lot of different sorts of goat-people and even a reference to a centaur trying to roger a unicorn.

These models have taken a break from unicorn-bothering and are looking for someone to smash. They're converted from plastic Blackstone Fortress models, which largely involved removing their guns and chainswords and giving them swords and shields instead. The shields are old skeleton shields, and have a nice decrepit look. I also removed some grenades and holsters from their belts and covered them with armour and pouches.

I reckon these guys would be called something like Grutt Manbasher or Krub Meatbeater, and would spend a lot of time grunting and bellowing.

*

I also painted a ghoul, who is an old metal model. He's much more cartoony than the other ghouls that I've made for Mordheim, but I like his nosferatu-type look. He's got purple pants, to fit in with the rest of the undead.

A Vampire and his Minion

 I've been busy with more Mordgrave (or possibly Frostheim) stuff. I fished out an old vampire model that I got very cheaply off ebay, probably because his cloak was missing. He's from Games Workshop's "red period" of the 1990s, when every fantasy army was painted in bright primary colours, even including skaven and the living dead. He's got the slightly goofy look that was common to fantasy models back then, but I think that actually works in his favour. After all, vampires are inherently melodramatic, and if he's trudging round Mordheim, he's probably not very high in the pecking order (or food chain).

I happened to have a cloak left over that I could use. It came from a Reaper Bones model that came in a Kickstarter. As with so many of the old Bones models, the miniature was pretty ropey, but the cloak was servicable. I cut it off, bent it a bit and used green stuff to hide the joins. I really like the way that the vampire looks as if he's flourishing the cape, probably just prior to pulling it across his face and turning into a bat, laughing madly.

The blue clothing and purple belt match the rest of the Mordheim undead that I've done. The choice of red for the cloak and collar was pretty much inevitable, and it makes him stand out nicely. His skin was mixed with grey to get a dead effect. He was a real pleasure to paint.

This next model used to be a chaos cultist, but I thought he looked sufficiently wretched to work as a servant of the vampire, and I stripped and repainted him. He's probably the cheapest model that I have ever bought. I'm not sure what he's supposed to be, but his mask makes me think of a plague doctor. Getting a half-decent picture of him was surprisingly difficult and, ultimately, I failed at that.

I wonder what to make next. I've been working on an MDF bridge for my table, but it's not there yet. It occurs to me that I've now got at least five workable Mordheim warbands: human mercenaries (probably Reikland, the bog-standard option); undead; dwarves; chaos cultists and skaven. I've also got a set of armoured nun-type people that I picked up cheaply ages ago, who would make great Sisters of Sigmar. One warband that's never appealed that much is the witch hunters, but I've got a few models that would work for them. And they do have some entertaining loonies... 

Hmm. We'll see. I've got a heap of Eldar to work through, too!

A Few More Lowlifes For Mordheim

 Here are a few more citizens of Mordheim. First up, here are two skaven, going about their short and scummy lives. They've got plague monk bodies and heads and arms from the gutter runner set, because that's what I had left over. The extra metal balls were rolled out of green stuff.

And here is a minion for the undead. The undead of Mordheim can take "dregs", wretched living humans who help them by digging (up) graves, trading with citizens and nailing the zombies back together. The chap's body came from an old metal ork doctor model, which I think was from Gorkamorka. His arms are from the Frostgrave soldiers box, and his head is a very old GW plastic zombie head, with green stuff hair.

All the stuff on his front was sculpted into the model: there's a lot of detail here. I added a rucksack, scroll, coil of rope and a knife, to emphasise his worn-down look. I really like the face: I've actually painted over his droopy eyelids, but his worn out and staring expression works nicely. I expect he's had a hard life.

"Brains, master! I bring you fresh brains!"

The Black Banner of Doom!

 

To be honest, I think he's more a terrain piece than a character - for one thing, Mordheim guys don't really have banners. I was tempted to paint him as if he was stone, but that felt like a waste somehow. I expect he just appears where necessary, to unsettle the characters and provide a bit of cover. 

A few weeks back, I saw an old chaos sorcerer for sale on ebay. He was broken, as the top of his staff was missing, and was only a few pounds. I liked the crouching pose and the Grim Reaper feel of the model, so I bought him. I think he is called The Plague Priest in the old red catalogue.

As luck would have it, many years ago I bought a vampire on horseback from Gamezone miniatures. Gamezone did loads of really nice models: I don't know if they're still going. This guy was a standard bearer, but I replaced his banner with a sword... and I still had his banner lying around. 

The banner was a cool-looking representation of the Reaper holding up an hourglass. Being largely cloth, it would fit well with the guy holding it. With some drilling and pinning, I managed to attach them together and covered the joints with green stuff.

I felt that he was a bit low to the ground, so I put him on a rock made of dried-out DAS clay. This was pure fluke: the clay had got old, and dried into a large slab of stone.

I added a skull in a helmet (the skull is GW, the helmet from Warlord Games) and a Mantic skeleton's sword to the base for extra variety. And then the formatting went weird.

Painting the model was a problem, as I find black very hard to shade, especially with grey. I wondered if I could use blue instead, like in this picture, called Death and the Gravedigger, which looks quite Mordheimish anyhow. Death even seems to be holding some glowing weirdstone, although she looks rather less grim than I'd expect from the Grim Reaper.

So, I used blue on the standard bearer and his standard. The rocks were unsurprisingly grey, with some brown and green washes to suggest dirt and moss, and to make it look less monochrome. Hopefully the small pieces of colour stop the model from being too drab, and suggest what it actually is. The very small pink bit is the banner-waver's arm, which has come up in the photo much lighter than it actually is.