Symrivven's Dark Elves and Vampire Counts

[Finn]

Still have not got over how good a Lahmian looks on a broomstick...

She looks even better off of it.

You've inspired me to do some modeling work on my own (massive) VC army. The models are old and hideous, decrepit even - except for the rather nice ones I purchased last summer and haven't even put together yet. Perfect conversion fodder though, right? I've been telling myself I'm waiting for the 8th edition rules to come out to see if I'll even play, but maybe I'll jump the gun a little bit.

[Symrivven]

@ Vaari and Lord of Skulls: These are the Gamezone Harpies I really like these models in general. There is one downside they aren't as smooth/polished as the GW models so a few areas are rougher more uneven then I'd like and this makes painting them, especially the details harder. And I had one model with really bad mould lines. But still the beautiful poses and looks more than make up for this even more so if you consider GW's the alternative.

@ BeatTheBeat: Its natural you recognize (both consciously and unconsciously) the characteristic of a beautiful body, this should help you selecting a healthy mating partner and increase the chance of your DNA being passed on to next generations. Whether you recognize these features in a human like model or an actual human is irrelevant as at the time this evolved the only things with human like features where humans. Aka its not your fault, as long as you can still see the difference in the end and will not start humping them your safe

@Finn: if they are old and hideous by all means convert them (if you enjoy that ofc). The great thing about those models is that you can't loose. Either you fail the conversion and the models are now unique and hideous, or you succeed and you have a great new model. I found starting on my old lamia models conversions a lot easier than putting the saw to a brand new hydra kit.
About the new edition, well new editions always have the effect that units you wouldn't leave home with before will now start collecting dust as they are no longer useful. I had two fully painted units of witches and corsairs just before the new DE book arrived, at that time I was proud I had some painted units in my army* . then the new book arrive and I didn't use them and my army was unpainted again.

*this is quite a lot at my local group

And of course thanks all for the kind replies, now the harpies.

First two group pics:




And the reaching harpy:


Continued in the next post->

[Symrivven]

One of the two flying ones:


The harpies embrace:

[Symrivven]

And finally my favourite harpy:

[Finn]

Ah, it's more that I haven't been terribly fond of the WHFB rules since I started playing. They just seem infuriatingly clunky, and there are the obvious balance issues. Really hoping 8th addresses this - if so, my regular opponent for 40k and I might actually play Fantasy again. I've always liked Undead hordes and the fall-from-grace-to-damnation aspect of some of the vampires and wights, it's a real shame I don't ever play the game/army.


On topic, those Harpies are ***** AMAZING. So far, they'd be my favorite unit in your army.

[Sadesuteku]

You have quite a nice army, I am especially fond of the Harpies.

[Meraklis]

I have to agree. Your army is looking very good and I have to commend on your painting skills! I really like how you blended the dark colour on the feet of the harpies with the rest of the body. Could you share your method/recipe?

[Spar666rawk]

holy crap man this stuff is good. what do u think of making ur vamps from those harpy, so they all have wings and some kickass weapons.

consider me subscribed

cheers

[Symrivven]

@Finn: You wont have to wait long for that as the new edition is just around the corner.

@ Meraklis: I used an airbrush, with 4 colours (white, fortress grey, dark grey and black) you get a nice transition. I haven't been able to do all the transitions with an airbrush like most of the arms. There I used the standard method of blending with watered down colours. An example of the airbrushed WIP model is back at page 3.

@Spar666rawk: While they might be beautiful, converting these models is a serious pain in the ass. The models are metal with only the wings as separate parts. Most of their hair and arms are stuck to their bodies it would be really tough to give them weapons or change their pose (even slightly). If you like these then check out Game zone's shop, they have many armies including VC's and there are some nice vampires (knights and Leonara)

[Spar666rawk]

ok, will du that, thx mate

cheers

[logan054]

really great job the harpies, you gave such lovely models a great paint job

[Witchblade]

Subscribed!

Awesomely original paint scheme for the DE, excellent harpies, splendidly evil VC.

[Scactha]

Lovely army. Very good to add some dynamic to the Hydra. I also have a problem with it´s "strut" but never came around to do anything about it.

[Lathrael]

What did you use for plastic ghoul bodies? I couldn't recall them from anywhere.

[thesheriff]

Those harpies are mint. the one clawing the elfs face off always reminds me of the story in the old drak elf book (one before current) with the corsair captain hoisting an elf onto the mast for the harpies to rip apart.
and, i know im not Symrivven Lathrael, but the ghouls are flaggelents

[Symrivven]

Thanks for all the praise

And yes the basis of the ghouls are empire flagellants. Its a great kit with many extra bits like books, skulls bones torches shackles etc. and a great choice of heads and weapons. Its a rather popular kit and it sees a lot of use outside its use a empire flagellants.

[thesheriff]

I've seen flaggelents used as skaven slaves for skaven armies, which was the most novel way i've seen them used

[Symrivven]

hmm, do you have a pic of that?As I'm curious how that turns out. In my perception the flagellants are at least 1.5 times the size of a skaven slave, and converting them to skaven would have been a lot of work. Or where they used as human slaves to the skaven (counting as skaven slaves)?

[thesheriff]

They were human slaves. He tried to take all the horrified heads, and gave them a single hand weapon each. I don't have a picture of them, but they were pretty basic. He had all sorts of slaves, Night goblins, more skaven, humans. They were pretty cool

[silverstu]

Love this log- the harpies are fantastic- really like the alabaster skintones and the blue on the wings. Did you just use greys and white for the skintone?