Vaiuri's Various Armies - Vampires, Lizardmen, Empire, High Elves and Ogres.

[Vaiuri]

First up, thanks for reading! I hope you have patience as this is my first attempt at a plog and I go through long phases of inactivity followed by brief frenzies. This is one of the frenzy times, and my current focus is Vampire Counts. Conversions is the name of the game for most of my armies, I can rarely leave anything as it comes from the box and I think my Vampires are a good example of this!

I present you with my Crypt Horror stand-ins:



Just got the parts for another 3 of these beasties, I plan to be a bit more inventive with the heads this time, now I have a better idea of how everything will work. Perhaps one howling for the champion?

Next up is my Winged Nightmare. This one is a bit of a whim, bashed it together as an excuse to use the spare wings I had from the Crypt Horror kit and now I'm wondering what to do for a rider. The Z.Drag guy is way too big, I have an old metal Lahmian knocking around and she looks a bit lost on him with the huge wings!




So in my quest to find a suitable rider I got to thinking about the Coven Throne and the Handmaidens that come with it. Given the position of the wings (originally done to fit the metal figure on sitting side-saddle) would one of the maidens fit on there? I don't have the kit myself, so I'm looking for a bit of help before I go out and spend the money just for ONE part of it! Arm positions aren't a problem, I'm more interested in how the skirt and bum will fit on the horse. I've already carved away the rear of the saddle to make fitting a model on there a bit easier, and there is plenty of room for the long skirt to flow given how high the Hellsteed is off the ground.

Hopefully someone out there can help me!

Updates with the rest of the army (some of it even painted!) to follow tomorrow, hope you like what you see so far!

[Grain Weevil]

I like your crypt horrors, nice idea

[Vaiuri]

Thanks Grain Weevil, I'm glad you like them!

Some more pictures here, as I promised, starting with the lady who started it all. My original VC army was going to be Undead Brets, under the command of a deluded Vampire Knight and his corrupted Damsel. This Banshee was a Damsel that wouldn't turn, so was murdered by her sister and now haunts the army wherever is goes, howling dire warnings into the night...


The Bret themed army didn't really get off the ground, my next foray into the realms of the Undead started with a unit of Skelly Spearmen converted from Empire State troops. This is a small unit, only 20 strong, built back in the days of 5th Ed so it hasn't really seen much action this edition. One day I might bulk it up a bit, but for now Happy (the unit champion, THE most chuffed looking Skeleton I've ever seen) and his cohorts are in storage.


I next added a Nechrach and a standard unit of Skellies, which have recently been bulked up from 30 to 50 strong by combining 2 units of 30. This does leave me with another 10 Skellies sitting about, the plan will be to include another large unit in bigger armies, but I cant face painting that many skeletons for a while yet!


I attended a WH Doubles event way back in 2008 winning Best Painted for what has now turned into a sizeable VC army, here is one of the Dire Wolves that came with us to that event and the heavily converted Corpse Cart. I had a LOT of fun building that Cart, but is weighs a ton and is a typical example of when I get an idea and insist on seeing it through to its conclusion whatever the cost (in money AND my sanity!).

[Vaiuri]

Hmmm, those pictures aren't the best, I shall have to work on a better place to take them.

These are my Fell Bats and their Vargulf babysitter. The bats I made a LONG time ago with no particualr idea what they were going to be or why I was making them. They are made from the body of a Flesh Hound (last edition metal), the head from the sabretusk gut plate from the Ogre Hunter and Dark Pegasus wings. You can see I clearly ran out of the right kind of wings at some points and just used whatever I had handy, possibly Demon Prince wings?? the bats have had an upgrade to vargeists with this latest book, but they dont seem to be getting it and are still performing like Fell Bats - old habits I guess! Still, they look too cool to be bats, so I'm hoping they get used to their new statline in time for their next outing!



I use a lot of purples, greens and pinks for the 'fleshy' parts of my army, I wanted anything 'alive' to look bruised and necrotic, but have clearly forgotten which colours I used based on my latest addition, the Terrorgeist...



This paintjob was a disaster. I started off wanting to make it look like Sindragosa, a huge undead dragon from World of Warcraft, and swiftly realised that was going to be difficult. I switched tactic about half way through and fell back on the purples and greens I thought I'd used in painting the Fell Bats and Vargulf. Turns out they are totally different colours. By that point I was a) Sick of the model, and b) Afraid I had too much paint on it to dare try another undercoat. You can still see where I attempted some OSL, not a great attempt, so I blended the blue back into the bone and tried to warm the bone back up further away from the body of the dragon. It turns out that I'm not too unhappy with it, but its certainly not how I planned it to be. After being ambitious enough to do the head swop I over-reached myself on the paint job and would aim for a darker more purple/pink similar to the Vargulf next time.

[Vaiuri]

Further conversions include a unit of Black Knights, I'd started sculpting rags and armour plates on the riders legs, I'm unsure if I should finish this project or just paint them as they are.


To finish up here are a couple of characters, one I'm particularly fond of. I call him the Alchemist, a converted Empire Wizard with some NASTY looking scissors hanging from his belt. They were made from very thin plasticard, and the belt buckles carefully carved off a couple of chaos warrior bodies I had lying around.


And here is what happened to the Blood Dragon from the Terrorgeist kit:

The Chaos steed is a great size for this guy and I picked one which didn't have too many Chaos icons to remove. I added a selection of bones and a nice big spike to the skull on the horses head and I think he's ready for business! When removing the sword from the sprue I was more than a little miffed to discover it was broken. I didnt really want to give him a lance so I've just about managed to rescue the sword and glue it back together. hopefully the undercoat wont make it look too obvious.

[Vaiuri]

And just to prove that I DO collect the other armies in the title of this thread, here is a quick selection of my WIP for High Elves and Empire:


Outriders, pretty much finished now, plus a WIP plastic Knight made from the Empire General and a Great Sword. One of my Mortars plus the crew. I'm going for an Ostermark army and REALLY regretting it, purple is fine, yellow is a nightmare to get right and consistent!


Quick look at my Inner Circle Knights. These guys are the Fellowship of the Shroud, unofficial Knights of Morr that sweep across the Empire on crusades against the undead and their ilk. This regiment was a LOT of fun to make, but I really need another 6 to make it useful in game, my wallet isn't yet up to that task!


My bling High Elves. Before this army I'd had little success painting gold, I'm happy to say I'm now MUCH better! The Griffon is WIP, I'm going to use him riderless as a Great Eagle and maybe in SoM games later on as a proper Griffon. I have 3 of these on the go at present, one I've tried to make rearing up rather than swooping in for the kill, at the moment he's kinda in pieces, one I get him looking like a Griffon again I shall post an update.

[Vaiuri]

While I'm at the PC, I'm after a bit of advice. I'm going to be working on my Hellsteed over the next few days and plan to add some armour and skulls of course!

I've done a rough sketch on paint to try give you an idea of some of the armour plates on the horses head:


Which do you think looks better, the red outline, or the blue?

[Vaiuri]

Work continues on my next 3 Werewolves and I'm starting to think about colour schemes. Should I go for the 'un-natural' purples/greens and browns of the bruise palette (like the Vargulf), or go for something a bit more real like black and brown (think a horse with brown body and black mane and tail)?

I'm finding the howling pose difficult to do, especially given the Crypt Horrors have set legs and arms to go with each body, it makes converting a bit of a chore and its putting me off a bit

A further puzzle is whether I should give them tails. I like the idea and think it might help balance the models, but I'm not sure if it would make them a bit too 'busy'. Any thoughts?

[Confessor_Atol]

Creative conversions, and really great painting. What more could you ask for from a WH army! Once I get my VC up and running again, I might nick your idea for the crypt horrors. I've always lamented the absence of warewolfs from the WH universe.

For the record, I like the red armor on the horse head.

[Vaiuri]

Thanks for the reply Confessor_Atol, glad you like what you see!

Further to your comment on the armor for the Hellsteed, I gave that a go this evening and it didnt work out the way I had hoped. Here is another Paint related treat for you with other ideas about what to do with the bridle/head area. I've added a mean looking blade-like horn and plan to add some little bone spurs on the knees if the legs at the front. I dont want to go all out skullz and spines, but just do enough to make this look like more than just a pistollier horse with spikes on.

Apologies for the shoddy Paint sketches, hope its enough to get my ideas across! At the moment I think I'm leaning towards either carving the mane off all together and adding a row of thin spines, like quills down the neck AND/OR the tiny skulls on the bridle where I carved off a bit trying the armor plates earlier.

[Vaiuri]

So I picked up a Coven Throne today to see if the Vampires would work on the Hellsteed.

Good news!



There is bit of bad news however, the Vampire I've chosen to ride on the Hellsteed has a bit of a funny shaped left hand where she would normally be resting on the stairs of the Coven Throne. I'd decided to play with the Throne kit anyway and see of I can make a Black Coach out of it but wanted to keep all 3 vampires on it - the plan it the magnetise the one on the Hellsteed so I can move her about - we'll see how well that works out for me this week!

[Vaiuri]

After a LOOOOOOOOONG time away I've got a lot of updates for you!

Turns out I'm good at army projects, but very very bad at updating a plog

I've done a lot of building and converting since last you saw me but a very disappointing amount of painting, I need to remedy this!

A bit of Lizardman news: I recently reclaimed an old Carnosaur I'd painted about 8 years ago to turn into a dragon. After remembering I have about half a dozen dragons already crying out to be painted I turned it into... a Carnosaur! This guy has a very different rider though. I'm quite keen on the Kroot minis and have a few of them taking place of Skinks in my LM army already. The Grand Plan will be to have a whole Kroot based army one day, probably based of the Dark Elf list; but I digress...


Here are some Kroot Spearmen that I will be using as Salamander handlers (and one day the first rank of a Spearman regiment!), plus my Kroot Carnivore Lord on his trusty steed. This model reminded me why I hate huge metal models, especially ones with gaps everywhere! I expect he'll find a place amongst my Lizardmen, but he was really just a fun project to get me away from the Vampires for a while!

Next up we have my favourite Ogre mini, Avaline the Thundertusk! This girl is heavily magnetised so I can use her as a Stonehorn too (head, tail and backplate are kept separate), but the Ogres on the back are still horribly unstable! I really wanted to get this up here to remind myself that I CAN still paint well. The spectre of the failed Terrorgeist still haunts me and I still look at that model and wonder if I should just start again... I've not had much better luck with the werewolves, my experimental colour schemes are falling very flat at present, I should just stick to what I know I can do!


I really like the contrast between the blue/grey skin and the orange fur and am particularly pleased at how the tusks have turned out!

Just for fun, here is am Empire soldier! I painted this guy one afternoon for my boyfriend who is going to start his own Empire army.


And finally, a Vampire update. Not a lot of painting to report, at least, none that I'd happily show you! My werewolves are all painted, but the combination of a crap paint scheme and a terrible photo has sent me back to the drawing board with them! My Vampiress on Hellsteed finally has a nasty looking weapon thanks to some friendly Dark Eldar and I'm currently working on painting her dress. Any ideas on the colour of the Hellsteed? I've given it a quick purple-ish base coat to see how I feel about it. Given how poorly my other purple schemes have some out though I'm thinking of just keeping it simple and black! Suggestions appreciated!


Here is what happened to the rest of the Coven Throne...


The Banshees fit on bases really well, I'm happy with the way they turned out! The Throne itself will be used as a Mortis Engine with the Necro on board, or a Black Coach with the reclining Vamp - I just love that Vampire model so much I had to find some way to use her!

[Vaiuri]

I also sawed off a good portion of the 'chaff' at the sides of the Throne. This was a lot harder than I'd thought and getting the two sides to be totally even was really tough! Its also made the whole thing a LOT longer, but I prefer it that way and if it gets into combat I'll just have to reverse it into other peoples units!


And as a random extra, some Vampire themed Harpies! I wanted these girls to look like the horrible flying Vamps from Van Helsing and the Demonettes do the job perfectly! I added spare ghoul hands to try get away from their more demonic looking claws, although the girl on the end does look like she's doing 'jazz hands'! Its too funny to change now, 'jazz hands' is always going to be last of the table when I finally get to field them!


Hope the update was worth the wait! I'm going to start on a sister for the Hellsteed Vampire and work on my painting - wish me luck!

[MaxSigmund]

Very nice work, you've made the crypt horrors look a damn sight better than the basic kit. It's also amazing that *someone* has managed to take something good from the film Van Helsing

[Deaf Paradox]

A lot of nice stuff here, especially like the kroots being used for Lizards. The gold on your Elves is really well painted, so well done. Keep it up .

[Vaiuri]

Thank you both for your comments, hopefully I can get some more painting done this week and show you something thats actually finished!

@MaxSigmund Lol, i know what you mean about the film, its horribly trashy, but I really loved the 'grim-ness' of the vampires in it! Really glad you like the Crypt Horrors, looking at your plog has really given me an inspirational boost today so cheers!

[Confessor_Atol]

Hey Vaiuri, great looking stuff, as usual. Thanks for taking the time to post....Your vamp on the nightmare is going to turn out great.

Also, I love the orange on your thundertusk, care to share you you achieved that?

[azhagmorglum]

Quite a lot of very nice stuff in this plog ! I think I like everything you showed here. From the conversions ideas to the painting, I admire your kit bashing skills and your goldy elves ^^.
The biggest surprise was the kroot-skinks. It's the first time I see kroot models used for fantasy, and I must say that your idea is definitely great. A good thing they are in plastic.

Otherwise, with all those different projects and armies, I missing some army shots to see the extent of each of your forces (even if unpainted), that would be great.

Finally, I sympathize with your problem for big models, I have a hard time too painting them. For your zombie dragon, when you dare to come back to it, you may add another colour to break from the bone/purple couple which is a bit boring on such a big model. Why not adding some blood/bleeding on the skin parts? When I see how you paint blood (cf. the vampress's robes), I think you are definitely able to achieve something superb.

Keep it up !!

[Symrivven]

Interesting plog, there's a lot going on in here, lots of armies, original conversions and clean painting. I'm looking forward to see the finished nightmare, and crypthorrors. That nightmare looks promising GW should really produce more mounted models with sidesaddle riding woman. And the direwolf heads while to big for the wolves themselves work great on the horrrors bodies.

The terrorgeheist still looks good, but its always difficult to translate and idea in your head to something that really works on a model. But don't let it dissuade you to try new and more ambitious projects. I my self have dozens of models with one or more fully painted layers under the final result, and if you paint with well deluded paint it won't affect your model to much. For example my blood knights took a while to get right so now two of them have a fully painted colour scheme below their final paint job.

[warpsucker]

Looks good so far. really digging the elves