Count Olaf gets a paint job

[FatOlaf]

So I have started a TOP type thread on carpe but thought I would go solo on warseer.
I am going to finish my Vc army "The horde of Count Olaf" this year to at least a 2K level.
Some of you might have read the BR's of Count Olaf but now it's time for them to get a paint job.
I have been painting on and off for about 20 years and have been up till recently a kinda old fashioned type of painter in the basecoat, ink, drybrush style.
Since I started playing again I have seen how painting has moved on and I am determined to experiment and get better. So any advice is more tha welcome.
I love to try and make things look different, so I will be trying to experiment.
The first thing I did was buy some Coffin lid shields from GW direct and then I chopped up 40 skeletons or so to make 75, using the look from the army book of them coming out of their graves in the ground. Plus it doubles the size of your army for free!

So here are the pics of my army so far, not painted much in a year.

[FatOlaf]

This is my army painted so far



My skeletons coming out of the ground, complete with coffins. there will be 2 more units of these.



My ghouls, I have another 10 to do.

[FatOlaf]

My Bat swarms (retired)



Spirit host, must re-do these, use classic figures.
And after seeing other jobs, I must paint them better as well, this was a really rushed job first time round.



And my wolves, again another 10 to do



So here is what I have to do this month
First another unit of 25 skeletons, lead by my Skaven skele.

[FatOlaf]

And also I will finish Boris the Giant, who is on his base coat stage




And so I started by ignoring the skeletons and the Giant and taking apart the host models. I had a bag of old minis from the 80's and picked a few out to mix in with the host models. I wanted the bases to show how the minis might have met their maker, from the Dwarf with illusions of grandeur to the Slayer who met his match, to the villager who fled his village, to the sneaky goblin who did not look behind.
The Zoat model I just decided to put with a nice Flaggellant model and a rat to make a moody trio, make your own story up for these guys.

[FatOlaf]

And then I took out my empire knights and killed them! I was inspired by seeing EvC's BK and decided to take a stab at making my own.
I really dont like the current BK mounts and the riders wont fit on any other steed, so on Ebay they go! I had ten to do and it was a simple job of filing away some Sigmar insignias and chopping off their heads. To fill in the gap where the neck should be, I made some GS ruffles to give them that medieval look. The guy with his helmet under his arm was an opportunity not to be missed so I tried to model a skull inside the helmet to make a headless horseman.



And a back shot of my unit champion so you can see the ruffles I have put on them to cover the neck and add some character...




And here is the rest of the unit so far

[FatOlaf]

So a while later, I finished the remaining BK and then based them.



Then I undercoated, during which time my spray can ran out, I have 4 cans of white spray paint for some reason but no more black, which is a worry when painting BLACK knights... So have to finish these off by hand and then on to the base coats...



These guys will be Count Olaf's Crimson Guard, The black armour will have a hint of red to it and the ruffles will be red. The steeds will have a very nightmare look to them, with red eyes and tales.
The hosts will be drybrushed up from grey to white, giving them a good ghost look without making them look like statues, at least that's the idea. If anyone has any good ideas how to paint the hosts, let me know.
I also found a guy on Ebay who sells some very good dead leaves of which I bought a few boxes, these leaves will be added to the Hosts bases to give them a more somber mood....

[Arhalien]

Impressive looking work; I like the use of the Empire plastics on the black knights; look far better than the standard metal models.

Looking forward to seeing more

[ReaperOfSouls]

Looking nice so far. Nice conversion for the knights and i must say I really like your take on the spirit hosts

[mrtn]

Looking nice, I'm especially looking forward to the spirit hosts.

[ampao]

Looking nice! Can't wait for updates.

[Melchiah]

Hey thats pretty cool. its a nice mix and match of undead / empire with out over doing it nicey done.

[FatOlaf]

thanks for your comments so far, The hosts will be getting their make over this wknd, so stay tuned.
BK's will have to wait till next week for theirs, need more black paint.......

*grumbles about amount of 'white' spray cans'*

[Richter Kless]

Please tell me that by count olaf, you mean the villain of 'a series of unfortunate events.'

[FatOlaf]

Please tell me that by count olaf, you mean the villain of 'a series of unfortunate events.'

Um no, Count Olaf is my Von Carstein vampire general. (Olaf comes from Advance wars)..

[Anardakil]

Wonderful black knights ^^

[FatOlaf]

Wonderful black knights ^^

Tack sa mycket! ( my best swedish there withou swedish keyboard...

[Witchfire]

niiiiiiice

[FatOlaf]

So with a mix of five colours, I dry brushed my hosts upto ghostly like status. The use of Hawk Turquoise added the extra bit to make them stand out a bit, sadly the light on the pics makes this hard to see.



And after work on the rest of the base



All I need to do today (hopefully) is finish the tree and then the base, complete with autumn leaves..



More soon...

[Arhalien]

The Spirit Hosts are looking very nice

I'm interested to see the Chaos Dwarves when you start them.

[the eater of pie]

i did a simular convertion for my black knights, only i used bretonian knights.

rest of the army looks good, a nice idea to use the other undead races (orcs, skaven ect..) as champions.

cheers,
the eater of pie